Make a This Year's Resolution

I'm as guilty as any of the tendency to write off December as much of a high achievement month, instead focusing on my goals starting the new year.

But I'm trying something different this year. Right now, instead of making New Year's Resolutions, I'm making "This Year's Resolutions."

Since I'm from Denver, I am, of course, a Broncos football fan. Watching the game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday reminded me that even if you've had a lackluster performance and been behind until the last two minutes of the 4th quarter, you can still come back and win the game. You just need to be clear that the game's not over and play that way.

It's mid-December. We're all in the last two minutes of the 4th quarter but the game's not over yet.

I was reminded of this again recently in my business life. We had been working on a new real estate investing venture for several months seeking only to close a couple of deals. After a number of false starts, we didn't seem close to achieving our goal. I was already beginning to think, "Maybe next year. . . " Now, not one, but two deals are closing in the third week of December. It all came together over the past few weeks.

Instead of putting off the big challenges I have until after January 1, I'm taking action to tackle them now. And I'm doing this because, ironically, I'll have a less stressful Holiday season. If I go headlong into my goals now, I won't have "The Things I want to Accomplish in 2012" hanging over my head while I'm on "vacation."

I don't know about you, but I rarely enjoy vacations when I have major work goals hanging over my head. I may relax for a few days, but by the last one or two days I'm already back at the office, even if I'm on a beach. So, if I start knocking out my goals now, I can truly take time off from the office over the Holidays -- especially in my head. The only true time off we have is when we can be present in the moment.

So, what are your "This Year's Resolutions" for 2011?

Ode to The Salespeople Customers Can’t Wait To Meet…

Salespeople – Help me think differently, help me be better at what I do. Do that and you will be adding value to my role – anything else and you are like everyone else.

Salespeople- Be generous! Go where your competition fear to tread and give me the extras. The extras, the overs, the information, the ideas, the shortcuts, help me help my clients, because it won’t be long and your competition will be! We now expect the extras.

Salespeople – Thank you for challenging my thinking and not backing down and being a ‘yes’ person. I need to know you won’t change your stance when I cross question you. I need to know I can trust your character and your judgement no matter what!

Salespeople – I love it when you can hear what I say simply by listening to what I don’t say. Not many of you have that gift – the gift of sensory acuity, just like not many of you have the gift of acknowledging a mistake, recognising and remedying it immediately. And while we are talking gifts, the gift of taking feedback is paramount.

Salespeople – I am just like you. I don’t like being ‘sold to’, I am wary of salespeople using all those ‘ity’ words with me like productivity, reliability and versatility. I like to hear new words that are flavoured with growth and contribution, certainty and consideration, persuasive not prescriptive.

Salespeople – We will follow you on your journey, we will treat you as trusted advisors because you converse with us, you humanise the process, you speak WITH us not broadcast TO us. We really do need you and are willing to reciprocate by paying well those who serve us well.

Bernadette McClelland mentors and teaches salespeople within B2B markets in Australia, NZ and India to sell more effectively, step up their sales leadership skills and become trusted advisors. Email her or visit her blog at http://www.bernadettemcclelland.com/Blog/.

Cold Calling Lives

If you are anything like me, you are sick and tired of hearing reports that cold calling is dead, especially when as part of your role you are required to cold call. I know, I know, management provides you with these snazzy Web leads and purchased lists and calls it "warm calling"—whatever that means. "But these prospects raised their hands," they tell you. Just because someone downloads a white paper or attends a Webinar doesn't mean they are even remotely interested in doing a sales call. In the description of the job you applied for, they specifically said there would be no cold calling. Anything to make us feel better about our job—as if cold calling is somehow evil or a virus to be spread. And then you sit down and get to work for the first day and—guess what—it sure feels a whole lot like cold calling, doesn't it? You are calling a bunch of people who don't know you. You can call it cold calling, warm calling, or quasi-cold calling, but in the end, it is up to you to have the skill, ability, and savvy to take the first conversation and use it to advance the sales cycle—while your VP stands on his soapbox and or on a Webinar proclaiming cold calling is dead.

Let me ask you this…how do you feel about making an introduction face to face with a person you are meeting for the first time at a trade show? Some 95 percent of salespeople I work with inevitably say it doesn't bother them in the least. In fact, they kind of like it. After all, they got into sales because they like working with people. Why is it then that people have this phobia of making introductions by phone? If anything, the phone gives you the comfort of anonymity and space that potentially could ease a first interaction. The phone gives you the ability to be anywhere, anytime. There is so much training and support for people who conduct sales face to face, but what about the phone? Most salespeople dread calling simply because they were never taught how.

Case Study

We do phone sales training with a Fortune 50 wireless telecom client that has a large SMB field sales team in the Midwest. Let's call them Anycom. Anycom's reps are required to hunt and farm out of predetermined geographic regions. When we started working with them, they avoided the phone in favor of pounding the pavement. Much of the territory is sparsely populated with businesses far apart from each other. The reps spent a ton of time driving from location to location dropping off materials (brochures, discount vouchers, etc.) at the reception desks. Once in a while, the strategy paid off, and they got a call back with an invite to meet and offer a proposal. However, the vast majority of the time nothing happened except a finger point to the "No Solicitors" sign. Rather than gaining access to the head of the IT department or telecom, they instead might be greeted by a random assistant from inside. They had a problem. They needed access to the decision-makers at these mid-sized local businesses.

Tips and Tactics

1. Flip the gatekeeper paradigm on its head.

When first cold calling into a switchboard, most sales pros simply ask for the name of the person they want to speak to or the head of the department. Try switching it up and instead saying, "I'm calling to verify the spelling of a name for Ann Durant." What we're trying to do here is get the switchboard operator to pull up the directory record. Most companies will have an electronic directory. Once the record is in front of them, pepper them with questions to gather the contact info, reporting structure, etc.

2. Lead into the conversation like a pro. When you get a prospect on the phone, always ask, "Do you have a quick sec?"This differentiates you from the telemarketers who launch right into the spiel because it shows you respect that they may be in the middle of something. When they say yes, then ask, "I was pointed in your direction as the head of marketing, is that right?" Using the person's title shows you have done your homework and are not simply smiling and dialing through the Yellow Pages.

3. Get the direct line. There is a perfect correlation between the proportion of direct lines you have on your calling list and the number of meetings you are able to land. Invest the time to get the direct 10-digit phone number. Why? Think about caller ID. If you are an executive sitting at your desk and you see a call come in through reception, are you going to answer it? What about the same call to your direct line?

4. E-mail and voicemail can do a lot more for you than meets the eye. Use your social media tools such as LinkedIn to learn a little bit about your prospect and tailor a message to that person. A little bit of customization goes a long way. The purpose for e-mail and voicemail is not simply to get a call back. Have you ever spent time customizing an e-mail with no write back? Try going into your sent items folder and forwarding the same message with the original date and time and this line on top, Just a brief note to ensure you had a chance to see my note. Please let me know if I may work with your assistant to find some time.This works incredibly well.

5. Plan your week for the greatest returns. Statistically, you are more likely to have a conversation with an executive during certain key call windows—early, late, lunch, five minutes before the top and bottom of the hour, etc. Plan your days by phone stalking the executives during these key call windows and reserving other times for different sales-related activities. Remember that travel time is the enemy of the salesperson. If you meet with prospects in person, set up appointments in the middle of the week during the middle of the day when airports and roads are less crowded.

Anycom adopted these tips and tactics and increased the number of new lines by 10 percent across 60 reps. It filled the top of its sales funnels with a ton of potential opportunities. Michigan, previously the lowest-performing Anycom state, jumped to the middle of the pack of the 50 U.S. states. This happened while Michigan's unemployment soared to 15 percent, the highest in the nation. If these ideas worked in the rust belt during the downturn of 2008-2009, they will work for you.

Steve Richard is head of training at Vorsight (http://www.vorsight.com/). Contact him at srichard@vorsight.com

Are You Prepared to Undo Doubt?

Question: Lately, new potential customers have requested references from me early in the sales process. When and how is the best way to approach this?

It’s important to understand why your customers are asking for references. Simply providing references may or may not address the issue. Additionally, if receiving this request is out of the norm for you, you may want to examine any changes you have made to your sales interactions. In other words, are you doing something to cause concern or prompt the request?

Generally, when a customer asks for references, there is uncertainty or doubt about what you or your company can do for them. Do they doubt that you can do what you say? Or do they want reassurance that you will service what you are providing? Anytime you experience doubt in a sales situation, you need to prove that there is no reason to be concerned. Before you do, make sure that you understand what the true concern is. You may simply ask your potential client, “What do you expect to learn from the references that I provide?” How they answer may reveal a concern that you can answer on the spot, and may give you an opportunity to resell your product.

Your proof sources should be someone other than yourself. Think through all of the possible situations where you may experience doubt on sales calls, and collect proof sources to handle these. Make sure you carry your proof sources with you on all of your calls so you can eliminate concern as they occur.

Here are some examples:

No matter how prepared you are for the skepticism and doubt that you will encounter, some customers will still need references. Here are guidelines for utilizing them:

Be Respectful of Your Reference Sources - It’s perfectly acceptable to share an established reference list with serious potential customers. However, be careful not exhaust your current references by responding to every request with a complete list of phone numbers and contact names. Give potential customers a list of current successes and a list of client companies. Explain that once you get closer to an agreement, you will supply phone numbers and contact names. Don’t be afraid to tell them that you respect your references and don’t want to overwhelm them.

Call Your References – If you are placing names on a reference list, make sure you call each and ask their permission to do so. When a potential customer asks for references, determine who would be the best resource for the concern that the customer has. Try to give no more than two or three names and phone numbers at a time. Then, make contact with the reference to let them know that they will be called. Briefly review the purpose of the call and what you would like them to stress. And, be sure to thank your references! A handwritten thank you note is a nice touch.

Ask for Written Testimonials – It will be important for some potential customers to make direct contact with your reference sources. However, most will be satisfied with written testimonial letters. There are several advantages. First, written testimonials eliminate the amount of calls that your references are exposed to. Secondly, using written testimonials will enable you to control the quality and content. Collect written testimonials whenever a customer raves about you! You may simply say something like, “Thank you so much. Would you mind if I shared your experience with our company with others whom are considering using our services?” Then, offer to draft a letter recapping what the customer stated and send it to them for approval.

Define it or Deny It – What’s the Problem With the Word “Sales”?

How you feel about the word “sales” largely depends on the culture of your organization. Companies that are driven by sales vision and leadership tend to embrace and reward the sales role. More operational focused companies, or those that don’t traditionally see themselves as sales focused, do not embrace the semantics as well.

Many recent LinkedIn discussions have focused on the word “sales”. “Does the word “sales” have negative connotations?” “Should you call yourself something other than “sales”? “What is the difference between “sales” and “business development?”

While working with a client to define sales and service outcomes, one of the project team members said, “This is exactly what we need. One thing though, let’s not call this sales. Let’s think of a different title, one that is not so intimidating.” We had agreed to the expected outcomes of the program, which was for representatives to recognize customer needs and position solutions to help them reach their personal and business financial goals. Sounds like sales to me!

Titles are not that significant. What really matters is that you define what “sales” means to your organization and to your customers. My advice to the client was simple – “Call it what it is. Don’t deny it – define it!”

As the sales profession has evolved, so have the methods, beliefs and descriptions thereof. We define the primary approaches to sales and service as transactional, emotional and consultative. Most sales-oriented companies have embraced some form of consultative selling. With that said – that does not guarantee that everyone in the organization understands what that means to the company or what it means to customers, or that they are skilled in related competencies. Communicating your company beliefs and expectations regarding sales and customer service is critical. If your people are uneasy about the word “sales”, consider clarification such as:

• You are not going to “convince” anyone to buy anything if they do not have a need or want, realized or not.
• Great service is foundational to customer relationships and is foundational to the sales process, but it is not selling. Just providing good service will not gain you more sales.
• Selling is a two way street – the solutions should be good for you and for your customer.
• Consultative selling is a matter of understanding the customer’s core business, their goals and needs and positioning solutions that are valued for each individual stakeholder.
• You should feel good about what you recommend to customers, that taking your recommendation is positive for them.

Three Ways to Define Sales

Traditional/Transactional Selling – Those who subscribe to traditional selling tend to take a product-oriented approach to sales. They respond to customer inquiries with little regard or understanding of the customer’s situation or latent needs. They may seek to understand customer needs, but with the focus on making a sale. Traditional salespeople tend to stress features and benefits over value for the customer. Presentations tend to be more of a monologue.

Emotional Selling - This is very seller-centric. Those who subscribe to emotional selling take the stance that if the customer likes them and they provide good service, that is most important and they will get whatever opportunities are available. This is a very non-assertive approach to selling, one which is not a good use of time for the customer or the salesperson.

Consultative Selling – Salespeople who use a consultative approach are collaborative and agile, adjusting to the needs of the customer and their specific circumstances. They are advisors, seeking to understand their customer’s core business, their goals and vision and the motivation for each influencer. They position solutions according to the impact on the business and address value for each influencer.

If you embrace consultative selling, or a similar approach, then defining what that means should encourage your people to embrace the word “sales” as well. Make sure that you are specific. Enlist your employees to help set the corresponding expectations and standards in order to promote ownership.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Just Making More Calls Doesn’t Guarantee Sales Success

by Susan A. Enns

Do you find that there are just not enough hours in a day? Are you working long hours, making call after call, but you still don’t sell enough to even come close to reaching quota? If you answered yes to these questions, you may be one of the many sales representatives who mistakenly believe that being busy is the same as being effective.

You can be successful in sales and not have to work 24 hours a day. It may be an old cliché, but you just need to learn to work smarter, not harder.

For example, I was coaching a sales representative who was a cold calling buzz saw. From morning until night, he would bang on doors, rarely stopping to even eat. Was he busy? You bet! Effective? Not even close! In fact, this sales rep was on the verge of dismissal for lack of sales production.

It wasn’t that he was new to sales either; he had been selling for over 10 years. The problem was he didn’t have 10 years sales experience, he had 1 year’s bad experience repeated 10 times!
This sales rep knew he had to make prospecting calls to be successful. The problem was that he really didn’t know how! On every call, instead of qualifying the prospect, he was just dropping off his business card at each door he called on. When you think about it, a postal letter carrier could have done that for him!

The purpose of any prospecting call is to for you and the prospect to agree to move to the next step in the sales process, normally the fact find. Not only must it be the right solution, it also must be at the right time.

In other words, a prospecting call is considered successful if you can answer the following questions:

1.Is this company actually a prospect?
2.If yes, are they a prospect today?
3.If not today, then when?


Whether you are knocking on a door, telemarketing, or about to send an email to another social network contact, if you do not plan to answer these questions, you are only wasting your and the prospect’s time.

Before you make your next prospecting call, rehearse a headline that generates interest. Then create 3 to 5 qualifying questions to help you determine if you are working with the right prospect at the right time. For those that are not prospects today, create a follow up file system to make sure you contact them when they will be. Lastly, script a question that obtains agreement from your prospect to move to the next step in the sales process.

Would the sales rep I told you about agree this works? I think so, however, we’ll have to wait until he gets back from attending another one of his company’s monthly quota buster’s lunch before we can ask him.

Susan A. Enns is Managing Partner at B2B Sales Connections, which provides Coaching, Training, Recruiting & Resources for Business to Business Sales. www.b2bsalesconnections.com, http://www.b2bscblog.com www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns, email or call 613-825-9139.

Why Telemarketing Remains the Unsung Hero of Lead Generation

By Kathy Tito

Denise Clancey is a true luminary in the field of telesales and telemarketing. She is the former Vice President of Telesales & Customer Service at Lotus Development, a subsidiary of IBM. In this position, her organization delivered $151 million in sales from corporate customers in addition to managing one million plus Customer Service inquiries. She also established a successful Small Business Sales organization that was responsible for bringing in $32 million in new business its first full year of operation, 100% via telephone.

Today Denise runs her own firm to help organizations launch, re-engineer, or re-claim the management of their telesales and telemarketing organizations. Unlike many sales professionals that represent their own consultancy, you won’t find Denise tweeting, liking, posting, or promoting her latest adventures online (gasp!). So let’s start with that curious point.

The Bootstrap: Denise – how do you live without a constant stream of social media pouring from your keyboard? Surely your client roster must be down to zero at this point (I’m being facetious of course!). Or are you making a statement, intentional or otherwise, about the tele-industry?

Denise: Okay, I admit that I am a telephone zealot. I would rather make a call than write a paragraph (surprising statement from English major). That said, though, I do live with a healthy dose of social media. I have my favorite sites, I follow my favorite experts, and, occasionally, when I feel like I have something to add, I will.

More often than not, I respond to requests for referrals, candidates, and suggestions…any way I can link requests from business associates with the talent that I know and information that would be useful. I like to make connections and social media, in its many forms, allows me to do that quickly and easily. As for the lack of abundance of posting and blogging from my computer, no statement, intentional or unintentional. I just would rather pick up a phone than spend time editing my writing.

The Bootstrap: You’ve got some weighty bullet points on your list of achievements as a corporate executive with Lotus/IBM. Frankly, this is why you were approached for this interview. Do you think that companies can achieve the same efficiencies you brought to your telesales organization today, with the variety of marketing channels that have entered the scene? How does a sales organization reconcile all of the options?

Denise: One of my first jobs at MCI had me running a B2B telemarketing team, reporting to the head of Direct Marketing who reported to the VP of Marketing. I cut my teeth on marketing clusters and verticals. From the beginning, I saw the value of leveraging and integrating many marketing and sales channels in support of the customer relationship and the sale. And, although most of my corporate titles said ‘Telesales’, ‘Inside Sales’, and ‘Customer Service’, a key success factor was my departments’ ability to coordinate with the marketing programs that made the initial contact and with the Field Sales team that may be involved in the larger deals long term.

The key to coordinating and leveraging these channels is to test, determine the best ones to use (cost vs. results vs. effort) and to be sure to connect them tightly. Just as it is a waste of time and money to launch a direct mail campaign without determining the follow-up, it is also a waste of time to invest in cold calling if you are not in a position to capture the information on every call, assign them to a communication path, and stay in touch, consistently.

Just as it is a waste of time and money to launch a direct mail campaign without determining the follow-up, it is also a waste of time to invest in cold calling if you are not in a position to capture the information on every call, assign them to a communication path, and stay in touch, consistently.

I often encourage prospective clients to test and leverage inbound and direct mail before they invest in telemarketing. These can be lower cost providers of leads and inquiries. Once these are in place, telemarketing is the obvious channel for ongoing correspondence.

The Bootstrap: How is tele-management (on every level) at your client firms dealing with the online media phenomenon?

Denise: Online media means different things to different clients. My larger clients tend to have a plan in place (or being formulated) with the right focus and resources to match. These larger companies tend to organize online under Marketing or Customer Operations. In larger clients, the work is to coordinate the calling with online Marketing just as Telemanagement would coordinate with other Marketing channels.

For smaller clients, it is a whole different ballgame. Many of my smaller clients are just dipping their toe in the online world and, often, Telemarketing plays a frontline role. In these cases, the prospect and customer will likely be using online information to form an opinion about the client.

A cold call results in the savvy prospect pulling up the client’s website in the moment or ‘Googling’ the client to see what appears. It is important for the Telemarketers to see what the prospect sees…and to see it before the prospect does. I encourage these clients to brief their Telemarketers early and often and to build company searches (for their prospects as well as searching their own company name) into the Telemarketers’ prep time. Just as a good Telemarketer will search for information about their prospects before picking up the phone, a good Telemarketer will also search for information about their own company and how it is represented online. Management is well served by keeping up on the news and allowing their Telemarketers to do the same.


The Bootstrap: When you are working with a telemarketing team, are they being supported by systems that facilitate information distribution via email? What are some popular solutions you are seeing?

Denise: Everyone is using email, more often than not, the standard bearers (Constant Contact, Exact Target, Vertical Response). Smaller companies look to Emma for their solution. Some are taking a more comprehensive approach using tools like Marketo and Eloqua. For those want to combine sales efforts with prospect responses, Amacus delivers a solution that delivers a ‘digital sales assistant’.


The Bootstrap: Are there any recent case studies that you’d like to mention where you’ve seen organizations really hit the ground running with their telemarketing, and surprise everyone with the results. What were some of the driving forces?

Denise: A recent client had great success with opening up a new market using teleselling. They decided to launch their effort using an outsourced telemarketing partner and bring the team in house when they decided that they had the right formula in place.

The key to their success was their willingness to jump in head first and be willing to make changes quickly and often. The project was intense to start. It meant my client had to be available to respond frequent inquiries from the Telesales Reps and to participate in daily reviews. From these reviews, we were able to develop a plan and methodology for selling their services by phone.

It took about 60 days to get things to the point where we felt we had a workable go-to-market strategy but it was well worth it. Within six months, the team was hitting its number. By the end of the year, my client decided to staff it in-house and continue to use the outsourced partner to develop leads.

The most significant aspect of this client’s success was their willingness to get started, to test assumptions and make changes as needed. Don’t wait to get it perfect before you start.

The most significant aspect in a client’s telemarketing success is their willingness to get started, to test assumptions and make changes as needed. Don’t wait to get it perfect before you start.

The Bootstrap: Do you feel that overall, a telemarketing investment is the most reliable method to fill a sales pipeline with qualified leads, in the shortest term possible?

Denise: Telemarketing is the quickest way to fill your pipeline and to understand what the market is saying about your products and services and about your competitors. It can stand alone as a lead generator but is more effective if combined with inbound marketing and direct marketing.


The Bootstrap: As you know, some firms are not able to make sales or marketing investments in equivalent proportions across all platforms. Which “new media” practices present an opportunity to fortify the lead generation process when used in conjunction with telemarketing? For example, email, blogging, twitter, websites/landing pages, twitter, or video.

Denise: I agree, there are so many options out there. Some would argue too many.

The single best piece of advice that I was given and that I, in turn, give clients is to identify a few platforms that work well for your company and to execute them consistently and unfailingly.

Direct Marketing and Telemarketing are ripe for testing to determine what works. One of the keys to this is to clearly understand not only what it takes to launch a communication channel but also to identify what it takes to manage and maintain that channel over time. It is the managing and maintaining where many of my clients make the brilliant choice to engage outside services.

One of the keys to this is to clearly understand not only what it takes to launch a communication channel but also to identify what it takes to manage and maintain that channel over time. It is the managing and maintaining where many of my clients make the brilliant choice to engage outside services.


The Bootstrap: Telemarketing – primary pipeline driver for the foreseeable future?

Denise: Telemarketing can be a primary pipeline driver. Or it can complement a full cycle marketing communication plan. If you don’t know where to start and don’t have a reliable list, purchase a list, create a prospecting script, and start cold calling. The right telephone approach can identify prospects, isolate target companies and industries, and create a prospect database that can support inbound & outbound marketing and sales.


The Bootstrap: Why is telemarketing often misunderstood as “too expensive” or questioned – “do people really respond to that?”

Telemarketing gets a bad rap because people often conjure up images of having been interrupted at home. These experiences overshadow their experience with B2B telephone sales calls, which can be welcomed, if they are well-timed and well-run.

Denise: People do respond to telemarketing and teleselling. Telemarketing gets a bad rap because people often conjure up images of having been interrupted at home. These experiences overshadow their experience with B2B telephone sales calls. Business people are appreciative of well timed and well managed telesales calls. A knowledgeable Telesales person calling with a solution for the customer is a welcome call.

Just as Telemarketing can be the low cost provider for selling, it can also be an expensive investment. It all goes back to testing and coordinating the communication plan.

The results speak for themselves. The industry is thriving and, for the savvy business leader, it is an integral part of their company’s overall marketing and sales mix.

Kathy Tito, President and Founder of New England Sales & Marketing, conducted this interview. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to either post them here, contact her directly at (978)387-0999, or email her. Her blog is: http://www.bootstrapb2bmarketing.com/

Help! I Need To Develop New Business – Now What?

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

Over the years, I have been fortunate to have enough new business development in my current customer base. However, I am to the point that I have reached my potential within that base and need to develop brand new business relationships. I feel like I’m starting over. Quite frankly, I don’t know where to begin. Any suggestions?

Answer:

If you’re like most salespeople, you find yourself busy nurturing your current customer base with little time for new relationships. There are two issues. First, how do you maintain and maximize current relationships while developing new business? Second, how do you specifically go about generating new business?

The answer to the first part of the equation is to evaluate and prioritize potential new business as you do your current customers. For instance, if you call “A” type customers every week, you should also call “A” type potential customers with the same frequency. If you call “B” type customers once a quarter and send written communication monthly, you should do the same with “B” potential customers. This method draws no distinction between current customers and potential new customers.

Am I suggesting that you place some potential customers ahead of current customers? Yes! Rest assured, all customers are valuable. However, all customers don’t warrant the same amount of time. You have to look at this in terms of prioritizing sales activity rather than whether or not someone has purchased from you yet.

The second part of your sales development issue is a little more complex, only because there are so many different ways to attract new business, depending on your industry and market. The first thing you should do is identify new potential business. Qualify and prioritize them based on how they fit your current customer profile. If they look like a current “A” customer, they probably are a potential “A” customer. Then, you need to make contact.

Here Are Some Prospecting Tips and Truisms:

• You can close a referred lead in half the time that it takes to close a non-referred lead. You need to develop referrals, they don’t just happen!


• Persistence pays. Even though national averages say that it takes more than five calls on a potential customer to close a sale, more than 50% of salespeople only make one call and then give up if they hear “no”.


• Being a salesperson can be discouraging at times, especially if you have put significant time into preparing a proposal or bid and then lost the sale. It’s easy to start thinking of what you could have been doing with the time that you just “wasted” working on a sale that you didn’t get, like fishing or golfing. But just as with fishing, you need to throw the line in before you can catch fish. If you wait to throw the line in only when you think there will be a big catch, it will never happen. Top sales people realize this and often “pay themselves” for each sales call, knowing that they need to have sales activity in order to get sales at all.


• When prospecting over the telephone, you have 30 seconds to answer three questions that the potential customer is thinking, “Who’s calling?” “What do they want?” and “Why should I listen?”


• Schedule time everyday for prospecting, or it won’t happen! Learn the best times based on when you have been most successful.


• Analyze your activities. Are they really all urgent? Should some be transferred to another area? Can you get another person involved?


• Focus on your overall sales objectives and then break them into small consumable chunks.

Here Are Some of the Most Common Sources for Developing New Business:

Cold Calls

• These are just what they say, potential opportunities that are cold, or ones that you make direct contact with, without a direct connection.


• Even though cold calling generally produces fewer results than referred leads, you can increase your results by prospecting intelligently. Tap into online sources like LinkedIn to see who you know that can provide information about companies that you are interested in. Research companies and join groups that your potential customers join.


• Look for creative ways to find new leads. For instance, because we offer instructional design services, we contact companies that have want ads for instructional designers.


• Read the local papers, blogs, etc. with a keen eye. Are there companies that are introducing processes, which would require your products/services?

Referrals

• Referrals are simply a recommendation from a source.


• Most salespeople think that referrals just happen if you do a good job. This is not true.


• You need to nurture referral sources.


• Referrals may come from inside the companies that you serve and may be opportunities to serve other departments as well as other companies.


• You should actively pursue referrals.


• A significant opportunity to develop referral sources is simply to network with other salespeople who serve the same types of accounts that you do but are not competitors.

Internal Referrals/Cross Selling

• How much do you communicate with other sales reps within your company?


• Are there opportunities to cross-reference accounts?


• Consider starting a wiki or LinkedIn private group to share best practices and internal leads.

Associations/Networking

• Find out what associations your key contacts belong to.


• There is an association of association executives for every state.


• Get their directory and attend meetings of the ones that have members served by the companies that you represent.


• Attending meetings can be a big waste of time, or very productive. If you attend these meetings, know why you are attending.


• Prepare a thirty-second commercial about who you are and what you do for your customers. For instance don’t say, “Hi, I’m Nancy from Nancy’s Designs.” Instead, “Hi, I’m Nancy from Nancy’s designs. We help companies make more money by increasing the effectiveness of their marketing pieces.”

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Pull Out The Stops – To Gain Commitments!

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

I finished presenting a proposal & pricing for a fairly large project that I am about to undertake. I have a verbal commitment from my customer, now what should I do in terms of the next step? Should I put together another proposal outlining the specific pricing that we looked at?

Answer:

Assume the sale! You said you have a commitment from your customer, so proceed as if you do. If you put together another proposal, you may give your customer reason to second-guess the decision. The bottom line is, make it easy for your customer to move forward. For instance, if after reviewing your proposal the customer and you agree on certain aspects but not others, you may simply put together a letter of confirmation stating the work to be accomplished and a timeline. You may even say something like, “I’ll get started on the first phase of the project and in the meantime I’ll put together an outline of our agreement for our records.” Don’t say, “Now that we’ve had a chance to meet, let me revise the proposal and get it back to you for your approval.”

Salespeople have to be very careful not to become their own obstacles to gaining commitments. Even though I don’t like losing control of my billing, I appreciate that my satellite radio service automatically bills my credit card at time of renewal. They assume that you want to renew and I don’t think twice. Can you imagine how many sales they would lose if they asked for the commitment again at renewal time? On the other hand, every time I receive a renewal notice for products and services, I re-sell myself on whether or not I actually want or need the service. In some cases, I could be swayed either way. The same is true with your customers.

I recently received a call from a company selling network solutions. It just so happens that I am in the market for those services so I scheduled an appointment for a technician to diagnose my problem. However, instead of sending a technician, they sent a salesperson to tell me about their company and “gain a commitment before work would start.” They added an unnecessary step to the process causing me to question them. If they had sent a technician to take care of my immediate issue, they could have clarified bill rate and possibly secured a long-term customer. Instead of engaging me as a customer, it was just another sales call.

If you are nervous about starting work on a project, ask yourself if you really have a commitment? If you are unsure, review your letter of agreement with the customer and check the pulse by asking, “Does this meet your expectations?”

Convenience is often a major factor in gaining commitments in business. Our partner company, Synergyworks, recently asked a group of salespeople to share examples of how they “pull out the stops” by making it easy for the customer to do business. Here’s some of them:

After having difficulty getting customers to come in for spring service, a lawn & garden equipment dealership decided to set a schedule each spring where they pick up customers’ lawnmowers for service. They bring the mower back to the dealership, conduct the required maintenance and deliver the lawnmower to the customer in ship shape and ready to go. The feedback they receive has been so positive that most customers don’t think twice about buying a second piece of equipment from the dealership.

An online clothing retailer offers real time on-line customer service help with a guarantee that if they don’t like the product when they receive it, they can return it with the pre-paid return label. It’s absolutely no risk. Because of the immediate personalized service, the company has very few returns.

A local farmer of organic produce, meats and eggs was experiencing less customer traffic. While customer feedback was always good, he was at the mercy of whatever foot traffic happened to stop by or read his road sign. He decided to offer online pre-orders. Now, customers can go online and order what they need for the upcoming week with the option of home delivery or pick up at the farmer’s market. The program has been so successful that the farm has nearly doubled its sales volume.

Realizing the mayhem that back to school shopping can cause for parents and the need to capture market share, a savvy retailer created pre-packaged school supply kits hand packed according to individual teacher specifications and delivered to children on the first day of school.

What can you do to “pull out the stops” in your business? A little brainstorming may make a huge difference in customer commitment.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Sell the “Product of Your Product” to Differentiate Yourself From a Commodity

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

I hear talk about stressing value to differentiate products and services, but how does that apply to commodities? From the customer’s perspective, the products we sell are absolutely no different than anyone else who distributes this product. All we have to compete on is price.

Answer:

Don’t get hung up on the product itself. You need to think about what you do for the customer. For instance, when we purchased a new copy machine for the office, we could have purchased the exact same brand and model for less than what we paid from a number of distribution sources. However, the company that we chose added value by offering advice that we needed regarding networking the machine to our computers and other online materail distribution issues that we were facing. Even though we paid thousands of dollars for the machine, the company we employed is in the business of selling service, not machines.

Make a list of everything you do that adds value for your customers – This is the first step in differentiating yourself. If you can’t list anything, you might want to consider another line of work! Consider the value that you bring to your accounts from a customer’s perspective. For instance:

• Do you offer better delivery schedules than the competition?
• Can you reduce the amount of product waste the customer is experiencing by offering suggestions on usage?
• Do you offer training that would increase plant safety as it relates to your product or service?
• Can you offer special packaging that would reduce handling of the product?
• By utilizing a method that you suggest, will the customer increase production or some other quantifiable benefit?
• Can you eliminate their need for other suppliers by serving more of the customer’s needs?

Sell the product of your product – For instance, if you were seeking the assistance of a lawyer to compose a will and trust for you, you would be buying the product of a product. A will is a fairly standard document – a commodity. However, you are not buying the product itself, or you would do it yourself on the Internet. You are buying the service and advice that you receive from an expert. Stress what the product does for the customer, not what the product is. The better advice you give, the more value you will add in the customer’s eyes.

Next, quantify the value for your customer – For example, if you can indeed show better response times than the customer is accustomed to, quantify what this means to the customer. Use the customer’s figures. If you are able to provide just in time delivery, how much does that mean for that particular customer in terms of saved inventory costs?

Define value for each individual customer – The problem with the word “value” is that it means different things to each customer. Stressing what you think may be important to one may not be to another. Some customers are strictly price shoppers and won’t give you the time of day. Others value expertise and welcome your advice. Somewhere between these two groups are customers that don’t know what else to ask about except price. And, given the opportunity, will share their aches and pains. Find out what’s important to each and stress value accordingly. For instance, the last time we bought computers for the office, one of my business partners tried to convince me to invest in the largest monitors available. While this particular feature just seemed like added cost to me, it was a significant value for my partner who was having trouble seeing the screen. Value is almost always measured in terms of increased time, decreased time, increased profits or some other personal pain or goal.

Don’t dwell on the competition – It is valuable to know how the customer feels about the competition. But, your focus should be on what you can do for the customer, not how you can outdo the competition.

Reduced price is not value – Anyone can cut his or her price. If you are relying on price cuts to gain business, be prepared for high turnover in your accounts. A request for quote is the customer’s way of saying, “I see no difference in what you offer from anyone else”. This is the starting point for you to discover opportunities to help the customer and provide value. You may simply say, “I would be delighted to provide a quote. Let’s get together so I can provide an accurate quote by better understanding your needs.”

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Quick Ideas For Sales Meetings

by Marcia Gauger

Conducting concise skill-building activities at sales meetings (whether online or face-to-face) is a terrific way to enhance abilities and share best practices. Consider assigning responsibility to a different salesperson for each meeting. Concentrated segments are key! Focusing on one skill set at a time gives salespeople the opportunity to reflect on and integrate skills into the upcoming week. Then, make sure that you review and coach their experiences at the next meeting.

Here are some ideas for quick and concentrated activities:

Objections Drills – Distribute two index cards to each sales person. Ask them to write a recent objection on the card. Collect the cards and redistribute them. Now, ask the salespersons to write responses to the objections on the back of the cards that they received. Collect the cards again and redistribute. The drill begins with a salesperson stating the objection on one of their cards and calling on a person to answer.

To conduct this in an online meeting, ask each salesperson to submit an objection and potential answer. Post the objections one at a time and ask for responses or call on individuals. Online formats are terrific for playing games. Put the objections that salespeople submit in a jeopardy or other familiar online game format.

I’ll Add to That! – This exercise encourages salespeople to share knowledge and best practices while helping develop sales and account strategy. Ask each person to prepare an account analysis or customer profile. If you use a CRM, perhaps you have this information stored. Ask each person to outline a current sales objective, the key players, history and any other pertinent information about the current status of the account. Then, pass the account around the room by asking each salesperson for one idea, suggestion or question to add value for the customer and move the sale forward. Keep going until all ideas are exhausted.

To conduct this in an online meeting, display the profile forms so all can see and use the same process. Tip – Make sure that you truncate the form so it is visible to all or send the completed forms to participants in advance to study and make recommendations.

Technology or Competition Study – Assign a competitor to each salesperson. Ask each to research the competition and prepare a comparison of your advantages and disadvantages to the group. Be sure to provide specific guidelines about what they should report. Ask the group to draw conclusions about how they measure up. The same exercise can be used for technology education. Ask each salesperson to research a new technology and report or demonstrate how they have used the technology to advance sales objectives. You could focus on a specific technology such as LinkedIn, or even cell phones. Or, assign a specific technology to each person.

To conduct this in an online meeting - Pass controls to each person and ask them to demonstrate what they have learned.

Market Penetration – Ask each salesperson anonymously submit what they would do to increase sales and market penetration if they were given unlimited resources. Compile the master list, distribute and discuss. Prioritize and vote on recommendations as a group. Then, act on the recommendations!

To conduct this in an online meeting – Consider using polling features to vote on responses.

Invite an Expert – This could be someone from another department, or someone from outside of your company. It is highly motivating for salespeople to hear what others are doing to be successful. Be certain that you give clear guidelines to your guest. Consider inviting a top performing salesperson from a sister company or unrelated industry to share successes.

To conduct this in an online meeting – Invite a guest to be present via video conferencing. Or, find one of your favorite experts on YouTube and play an excerpt.

Invite a Customer - Make sure you give the customer a clear understanding of why they have been selected to attend. Ask the customer to explain their business needs, what they like about your services and what they like about the competitive solutions they may opt for. Allow the salespeople to interact and ask questions much as if they were on a sales call. They will learn from the customer and from observing each other.

To conduct this in an online meeting – This is best conducted face-to-face. To conduct this in a live meeting, video conferencing is best.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Industry Trade Shows: Pot of Gold or Money Pit?

by Michael F. Bourke

Are you stuck in the tradeshow rut, spending most of your time chatting to your neighboring exhibitor, catching up on your voicemails and wondering if there are potential leads wandering past your booth? Do you find yourself doubting if all of the time and expense you put in to exhibiting at trade shows is worth it? Is the only reason you are there because you want to support your local sales rep or because you fear your ‘noticed absence’ will hurt your reputation? I want to let you in on something – trade shows are an extremely valuable opportunity to strengthen existing customer relationships and to bring in quality new leads – but you only get out of a tradeshow what you put in!

Fishin’ without bait…

If you think all you need to do is turn up to the show with your booth and literature and the leads will flow in, you’re dreamin’…. This is like fishing without bait. You may be extremely lucky and hook an unsuspecting fish passing by but… more than likely you will have plenty of time to get to know your neighboring booth buddies and keep on top of your emails. And you are not the only one in the boat. At most regional water industry shows that I go to, I hear the same complaint from my fellow exhibitors …the show was dead… the organizers didn’t do enough to get people into the hall…there were too many competing events….we had a horrible spot in the hall...” So you think all you have to do is pay for your booth space and you should be guaranteed a flood of quality visitors to your booth?” If that is the case, save your money and don’t bother exhibiting!

In contrast, my booth neighbors will say to me “Wow you sure had a lot of traffic at your booth…you’ve hardly had time to blink!” These neighbors have also made the aforementioned complaints when I have been located in the same dead spot in the hall! So how did I get that much traffic when all the booths around me were dead? There are a number of reasons, including having an eye-catching display and planning activities during the show to direct people to your booth, but by far the biggest factor in generating traffic to you booth is pre-show marketing! I cannot emphasize enough the importance of putting in some effort before the show to draw people to your booth. If you don’t have time to do this don’t go! Here are a few suggestions for pre-show marketing that can really help you get a return on your tradeshow investment:

Pre-Conference Mailer

A pre-conference mailer can be a relatively inexpensive marketing tool for regional trade shows. Prior to the national trade shows you can be bombarded with incentives to visit booths but very rarely do attendees receive this type of marketing leading up to the regional shows – so here is an opportunity to get noticed. Most conferences offer pre-show registration lists to exhibitors at no cost. Take advantage of this list and mail a booth invitation directly to attendees. Personalize the letter as much as possible and it helps if you add an incentive to visit the booth such as a business card drawing for a prize if you are doing a mass mailing or a direct exchange of the letter for a gift for a very targeted mailing. One of my most successful pre-show marketing efforts was for a show in South Carolina several years ago. At the time I was selling a water treatment process that removed a particular contaminant. I went through the EPA register and compiled a list of every city in the state in violation of the relevant regulation and sent them an invitation to the booth to find out about our process. Almost 50% of the invited cities visited the booth!

Pre-Arranged Meetings

Don’t expect to turn up at the conference and be able track down attendees to arrange meetings. The consultant you want to see is probably being pursued by other manufacturers while she is also trying to meet with water utilities who are her customers. Let’s face it, in the water industry we manufacturers are at the bottom of the importance food chain, even though we provide the technology. So we need to be very organized in planning our meetings. Make appointments prior to the show before your target customer has a full dance card! If you have the pre-show registration list, use it to help set up some meetings in advance, or at the very least, get people to meet you for a short while at your booth.

Pre-Show Advertising

Pre-Show advertising is not cheap (you can do a lot of direct mail for the price or one ad) but if you have the budget, many trade journals have pre-show issues where if you advertise you can get a free product spotlight. On your ad you will also have your booth number advertised. At a previous company, prior to our first national trade show as part of our launch into the U.S. market, I developed a preshow marketing campaign using an eye catching jumping goldfish in direct mail and in preshow trade journal advertising. Even though we had a small booth at the back of the hall, we almost always had a queue of people in front of the booth wanting to find out about ‘that company with the cute goldfish’.

Got the Message?

Don’t waste your time and just show up to the next trade show. American Water Works Association (AWWA) surveys show that over 80% of people visiting their annual water industry show participate in purchasing decisions and over 30% intend to purchase equipment from exhibitors in the next 12 months. Pre-show marketing can help you find those people who are looking for your product and let you get a step ahead of your competitors. Try it once and your time invested will be repaid many times over!

Michael Bourke is Vice President Business Development at Wigen Water Technologies and
has worked in the water treatment/environmental industry for over 23 years. Visit his blog at http://michaelswatercooler.blogspot.com/ Contact him at (303) 350-3086 or email him.

I'm Calling Because. . .

by Paul Donehue

Most people agree that when making outbound prospecting calls we only have a few seconds to make an impression on our prospects... and hopefully it will be a good one!

Consider the fact that, when receiving such a call, prospects quickly wonder, "Why are you calling me?"

It follows, therefore, that to maximize the effectiveness of outbound prospecting calls we should be prepared with a strong introductory statement that quickly and concisely addresses this oh-so-common question.

Common Pitfall

And along those lines, there is one oh-so-common pitfall to avoid, which is beginning these conversations with an introduction that is all about us!

Here's a simple exercise that can help us avoid this mistake. When preparing to make a prospecting call, craft an opening statement that begins with the following ten words: "Hello, my name is __________, and I'm calling because..."

Now, here's the challenge... the next word we say -- that is, the word following "because" -- can NOT be one of the following: "I," "we," or "our."

While this might sound simple, in practice it is not easy. If after the ten-word opening the next word we use is "you" or "your," we stand a much better chance of gaining our prospect's attention or consideration.

A Few Examples

Put yourself in the position of receiving such a phone call. Now, which approach is more appealing:

1. "Hello, my name is John Doe, and I'm calling because we're the largest supplier of widgets in North America. Might you have a few minutes to speak with me?"



2. "Hello, my name is John Doe, and I'm calling because you are a frequent user of widgets; many of our customers prefer our approach to streamlining widget management. Might you have a few minutes to speak with me?"

Starting each outbound prospecting call with a statement about our prospect is one sure way of getting up to bat more often.

Of course, after that, we must have a value-added message and, hopefully, a suggestion for logical next steps.

But it's a lot easier to deliver that message if the prospect is listening!

Paul Donehue is President, Paul Charles & Associates, a sales management consulting firm. He can be contacted at pdonehue@paulcharles.com or call (603) 537-1190. His blog: www.salescallsblog.com and website: www.paulcharles.com

Is Consultative Selling Relevant?

by Marcia Gauger

Question: Over the years, I have adopted what I consider to be a consultative approach to selling. Lately, I’ve left meetings feeling a little “unfinished.” I spend so much time asking questions that I feel there is inadequate time for presenting solutions. Is it time to adopt a new model of selling?

Answer: If you’re asking if consultative selling is obsolete, the answer is no. Some experts feel that transactional selling has prevailed over the last couple of years, however all agree that consultative selling is more important now than ever. We agree. Perhaps the definition of consultative selling needs to be visited. Some salespeople define consultative selling by what it’s not; not using a standard approach, not overdoing features and benefits, not talking too much, etc. While these are all probable pieces of a consultative sales model, they are not the complete picture. It sounds like you have fallen into a trap that many salespeople have.

Over the years, consultative selling has been promoted as the way to sell, and I agree. However, the key word is "sell." There are those that believe that consultative selling means that you only ask questions and solutions will develop on their own. While asking questions is a key to uncovering needs, if that’s all you do on your sales calls you will disappoint yourself and your customer.

If a customer takes time out of their presumably busy schedule to meet with you, they must be interested in what you can offer them. They just don’t want to know everything about what you offer! Asking questions alone without making recommendations causes the customer to feel empty, like they wasted their time.

Consultative selling is somewhat of a well-timed dance. Dancers that are in-tune to each other seem to glide, anticipating every turn and movement. Ideally, customer interactions should feel the same way. In a recent class on consultative selling, I asked the group to define what consultative selling was. I like the definition they came up with, “Consultative selling is to identify needs and suggest solutions that help a customer solve problems or more adequately reach their goals.” This is more of a collaboration between salesperson and customer rather than the more self-serving sales models.

If you’re feeling “unfinished," it may be that you are spending too much time asking empty questions. You should never feel like you are firing off questions. The questions you ask should be the result of pre-call analysis that reveals what you know and what you need to find out. Questions should be strategically woven into the conversation to produce the desired result. The most fulfilling consultative sales situation is when you help the customer uncover a better means of accomplishing their goals. Asking the right questions is key to getting to that point. However, questions are like the tools of a mechanic. You don’t pull out a wrench when you need a hammer. Each question you ask should be purposeful. For instance:

Help customers reveal needs by asking questions about their goals – These should not be general questions, but questions that relate to how you might help them. For instance, if you were selling office machinery, you might ask them how productive their office staff is. Listen for gaps that you can fill. Ask open-ended questions to provoke thought and uncover needs. You should think these through in advance of your sales calls. Start by asking what you know about the customer and what you need to know.

Ask questions that reveal value for the customer – “What would a 10% increase in productivity mean to your bottom line?”

Check the pulse of the customer by asking involvement questions – These tell you how close a customer is to a commitment. As customers reach a decision, they begin to think about how your suggestion will fit into their situation. So, you ask specific questions about how they will use your product of service in advance of the sale. How they answer tells you where they are mentally. For example, “If you decide to go ahead with this, what plant will you want to have trained first?” If the customer’s response, “I haven’t thought about it," you have a bit more selling to do. If the customer’s response is, “I was hoping to start with the Waukesha plant,” close the sale!

Ask questions to position a solution – “Keeping up with technology is difficult these days, isn’t it?” If the customer agrees that this is a challenge for them, you would present the applicable solution to solve their issue.

Here are some additional tips to ensure that you have adequate time to position solutions during your sales calls:

Position a single solution after each discovery instead of waiting until the end – Doing so will enable you to keep the customer involved in the conversation and build interest throughout the sales call. The customer will see the “What’s In It For Me?” throughout your interaction.

Set expectations up front – Position why you are there and what you expect to accomplish. This will ensure that you and the customer are on the same page right from the start. You could simply state something like, “Here’s what I’d like to do today. I’d like to review your need for just-in-time inventory and your current practices to see if we can help you meet your requirements. Is that what you expect?”

Schedule a follow-up meeting to present solutions – Don’t assume that you have to accomplish the entire sales process in one meeting.

Only provide solutions that are of value to that specific customer – You may indeed offer many valuable features and benefits. The only ones that matter are those that apply specifically to that customer’s concerns.

Don’t think of consultative selling as a single event – Take regular tours of your customer’s production areas to help you understand their challenges.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

BANT is Bunk!

by Bill Barr

I keep hearing that some sales organizations expect their marketing department to “qualify” their leads with Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe (BANT). So Marketing sets up a call center, or uses other ways to “qualify” the lead so that sales can close it. Or sales organizations set up inside sales to move the opportunity to BANT qualified before handing it over to field sales to close.

If all sales managers want to do is get that kind of lead, then more power to them. I think that is Bunk! That’s not what professional sales people do. Professional sales people are the ones that need to do the BANT job. How else will they develop thought leadership, relationships and be able to establish the benchmark for the buying decision?

If all a sales leader wants is for the sales people to negotiate and close, all s/he needs to do is hire fast food workers for the job – “There you go, out the door, next guest please.”
If you are in commodity sales, then go there. If not, read on.

Real sales people should be living in the proactive qualifying stages of a buying process, not just in the reactive “get three bids” stage.

So then, what is a real “lead?” They come in all stages of the buying process. But research says that most don’t get worked because they are not “ready to buy.”

I like ones that are investigating, inquisitive, or not even looking. In other words, early in the buy cycle. Sure, I’ll take the active buyer leads as well, but that is not where the real eagles fly. Eagles want to know the basics of how to reach/contact them and what their job title is, but they also want to know what they found interesting when they looked at us. What was the topic of the trade show speech they followed up on? What was the gist of the ad campaign that got a name? Was it product push, needs focused, centered on new ways of working, or the payoffs of our offerings?

If you know what to do with it, any name is a good lead.

Bill Barr is owner of Sales Candy, a company that offers games providing experiential training in B2B selling. His blog is http://www.salescandy.com/wp/. You can reach him by email or call 336-937 0972. Visit www.salescandy.com.

6 Small Town Sensibilities to Boost B2B Social Media Impact

by Kathy Tito

What are the methods behind the followers?

As more of our B2B colleagues jump into the social media pool, we quickly begin to see who is making a splash, while others tread water or stay on dry land. Some participants develop a supportive online community with apparent ease. They converse with their growing online network as easily as if they were bumping into friends at the local diner. Let’s explore how they do it, and what exactly those followers and re-tweets mean to the bottom line.

The world of social media is now a big one, however many successful participants from the B2B sector treat their participation as they would treat their residency in a small town. Why? Because a community is a community, whether it is online or off.

The following are six characteristics that “successful social media participants” and “popular small town residents” have in common:

They are interested in establishing or maintaining a reputation
There was time when people more consciously cultivated their reputation, especially in small towns, where market size was extremely limited. They wanted to be seen as the professionals that they were, at all times. In past decades nobody was ever “off-duty”. Interestingly, the online world seems to be bringing us full circle to that place. The real social media success stories start with an awareness of how others perceive them.

Successful B2B users are aware that social media provides a platform for portraying themselves and extending an image of their work. You will find their profiles are descriptive, and thought has been put into the quality of their photos and graphics. They give readers every opportunity to get to know their background and their company. Their content indirectly tells readers, “Here is what I think and why you should trust me.”

According to one of the top salespeople at Eloqua, Jill Rowley, the line between “personal” and “business” social media is very transparent. Her prospects and clients would like to know who they are doing business with. That means she is as open to friending business associates on Facebook as she is connecting with them on LinkedIn. Perhaps for some B2B professionals, Facebook is becoming the new golf course.

The folks seeking B2B followers on Facebook are keeping all posts “family friendly”. If it’s family friendly, it’s also business-friendly, and professional reputation is not a concern. I would also like to suggest that being “on Facebook” need not externalize your personal life to any great extent. I have had executives explain to me that they are “private people”, and don’t want to “put themselves out there for everyone to see”. I am the first to admit that I too am a private person, and simply do not post my most private, meaningful photos or anecdotes on Facebook. If you can find a balance with which you are happy, your clients and prospects will appreciate getting to know you, and engaging with you, in this casual format.

Bottom line impact: The more “connected” professionals are online, it becomes easier to “see” what they are working on, to know where they are going to be and when (for ease of arranging live meetings), and drum roll please….to know what they need as they need it. Social media allows you to fine-tune the timing of your communications.

They want to be known as a “go-to” person in their field
This is the modern-day equivalent of being “the local” doctor, lawyer, plumber, etc. When you have a need, you have that one “go-to” person or place. Interestingly, my own hometown pediatrician just wrote a book called, “Black Bag to Blackberry, A Maine Pediatrician’s 40 Year Journey”. His title reminds us that communication methods change, and it’s up to us to keep up, for the sake of our livelihoods.

Successful B2B professionals want to be your “go to” person in the field. They understand that social media is simply a vehicle for promoting thought-leading expertise, either from their company or from themselves directly. They understand that social media is an exercise in content delivery. It is about getting relevant information to a wide collection of the people who want it.

Whether of not you are the person creating the content, you can always “assimilate” it and get the “right” stuff out there. This is a practice I’ve seen from many B2B sales professionals. They don’t necessarily have their own blog, but they certainly have access to all of the great content their marketing organization comes up with, which usually includes one or more company blogs, white papers, e-books, powerpoints, etc. Sometimes they just get their client and prospects excited to attend an upcoming event, learn about a product release, stay current on industry news, etc. This starts to make a company representative a resource worth following.

Bottom line impact: Increasingly, companies are taking responsibility for creating their own thought-leading content, and for promoting it. Being a “distributor” of this content helps establish you as an expert in the field. You don’t have to be a writer to be active in social media, but it does help to have corporate marketing behind you in your efforts. Some corporate social media programs are taking shape because the need has bubbled up through sales.

They know that community participation means supporting others
As a former high-school yearbook editor, I remember my first experience “cold calling” local businesses for sponsorships. Do you know how many refusals I got? Virtually none. Almost every single business purchased an ad. They understood the importance of funding the yearbook for the kids of the families that supported their business.

There are no one-way streets in social media either. One place that’s clear is on Twitter. Start to notice the ratio of “followers” to “following” that most of the people you know have. I’m not talking about Steve Jobs or Kim Kardashian. I’m talking about people you know in real life.You’ll see that many have a one to one ratio. Or they may follow more people than they have following them. It’s basic courtesy that if someone follows you (and you deem them relevant), that you’ll follow them back. Have you started to wonder why some folks you know have so many followers? The short answer is usually “useful content, published regularly”, but read on for more detail.

You’ll notice that successful social media participants liberally do the following:

• "Re-tweet" or promote other people's tweets
• Leave thoughtful comments on their colleague’s blogs,
• Ask people to guest blog,
• Publish a blog roll or connect to other people’s content,
• Make recommendations on LinkedIn, and
• “Like” posts or “follow” companies on Facebook or LinkedIn, etc.

All of this is very helpful to both you and your contacts, when done genuinely. It builds out your network of “like-minded” people (again, no pun) while it develops your content. You’ll also notice that when folks get a little “famous” (meaning, they get a disproportionate number of followers), they may get a wee bit stingy with all of the above. Such are the trappings of fame. Sometimes you forget your “fans”.

Bottom line impact: Gracious acknowledgement of other people’s content will ensure that you do “meet new people”, especially on twitter and LinkedIn. These new people may be your next prospect, partner, or customer. Think of this practice as “waving to people as you go down the street.”

They maintain an attractive storefront to attract and convert visitors
Can’t you picture a small town store owner out there sweeping the sidewalk and dressing up the windows? Similarly, I would suggest that you think of sending your followers only to clean, orderly, and useful destinations online, especially when linking to other people’s content. I would never dream of re-tweeting or promoting a link if I hadn’t visited the destination first. Test to make sure you are not posting a broken link, or sending people to a destination with an embedded virus.

Everyone has their standards when it comes to promoting content. Sometimes they’ll suggest only the best-written, most visually compelling, unique, breakthrough articles or videos. Other times they’ll send folks to a lackluster blog out of desperation or some political inclination (yes, sometimes lackluster bloggers are influential in their spaces because of “who they are” or “who they know”.)

For example, has anyone noticed some of the “eggs” in the Twitterverse? These are folks who are usually seemingly high-level employees at well-known tech companies who are apparently above best practices. They can simply put out their name, title, company, use the Twitter egg avatar, follow nobody and (are you ready?) not even tweet! But they will have thousands of followers. It’s true. Do you suddenly have a newfound respect for the tweeting celebs who are at least trying to entertain and engage their millions of fans?

Bottom line impact: Successful social media users make it a habit to find what they consider “quality” sources of content to recommend. They may keep lists or subscribe to RSS feeds – anything to organize their selection, so it’s easy to float a regular stream of useful material. Not only does this attract and retain followers, it also ingratiates them with the content producers. They form little content partnerships that are two way streets. One minute they are re-tweeting blog posts, they next they are sending each other referral business.

They are politically savvy
If you were raised in a small town, think back to that popular person, who you either liked, or who got under your skin a bit. Usually that person, or their family, has an innate sense of political savvy. They “know who to know” in order to further their agenda. And for one reason or another, they are no stranger to acknowledgement from others, or “fans”.

Successful social media participants are often part of a network of ….you guessed it…other successful social media participants. As you see who the influential folks in your space are, you need to think about if and how you’d like to cultivate a relationship with them. Depending on your style and your agenda, you may want to add them to a blog roll, or pick up the phone and get to know them. If they lead a LinkedIn group, start to participate in their discussions, or comment on their blog. You’ll get to know one another’s style and content, and nature will take its’ course. Not sure where to start finding these folks? Start with keyword searches, LinkedIn groups (note the leaders), and pay particular attention to folks who have written books on your subject matter.

Bottom line impact: Cultivating relationships with industry influencers can get your content on the map literally overnight. Get to know these folks by reading up on their content, and determine if and how you can have a complimentary relationship. Don’t be put off by “competitors”. Social media has sparked a revival of “co-opetition”, or cooperating with your alleged competition.

They plan to stay a while
If you plan on being a long-term resident of a community, you realize that you may not want to come on too aggressively. Give folks a chance to get to know you, based on your merits. When you see how large someone’s fan/follower base is on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, realize that those connections didn’t jump on-board overnight, it takes time – think in terms of months and years, not days and weeks.

It’s a little-known fact that Twitter actually has “safeguards” in place that will not allow you to aggressively pick up or drop followers, all in the name of a more meaningful user experience. It tracks your activity and measures it up against an algorithm of its own that looks at your ratio of following to followers, and how quickly you add or subtract other accounts. This discourages any automated process of adding followers, which is tantamount to Twitter’s version of spamming. If the system flags you, you will be warned to follow best practices and disallowed from following anyone else until you mend your ways.

Bottom line impact: Do not expect results overnight. But if you are selective about who you follow, and if you give them reason to follow you (see “supporting others”), you will start to nurture business leads, and find those tweets and “likes” converting to email, phone calls, and in-person meetings.

Kathy Tito, President of New England Sales & Marketing, has been making Social Media a lead generation priority since 2008. She implements social media practices for B2B companies directly as well as through marketing agencies. You may contact her at (978)387-0999, or email her. visit http://www.bootstrapb2bmarketing.com/

5 Secrets for Asking for a Referral - Do What Bill Did

By Julie Hansen

I bought a new phone last week. I had no intention of buying a new phone. I simply wanted Verizon to please, PLEASE fix my Blackberry so that it would ring every time I received a call. Not every third or fourth time, like it was currently doing.

The salesperson who waited on me, lets call him Bill, listened carefully to my needlessly lengthy explanation of the problem and exhibited great patience when his test calls came through perfectly (of course). He gave me two options: replace the phone OR upgrade to a new one. I quickly shot down the upgrade. I was in a hurry and the thought of hanging out at the Verizon store for more than a few minutes gave me a headache. Besides, I liked my phone just fine, thank you. Except for that pesky habit of not ringing. Bill nodded, asking me how I used my phone, what features I liked, what features I didn’t need, etc. Despite my grudgingly supplied answers, Bill gently and persistently led me to the conclusion that I needed a new phone.

The interesting part of this story is not that I got a new phone. It’s what happened after that. Bill took exceptional care of me throughout the entire process, updating me on the data transfer, preparing my rebate so all it needed from me was a stamp and setting up my email. When I thanked him (and this is where it gets interesting) Bill did something very unusual. Something I’ve never seen any other phone salesperson do. He asked me for a referral. Bill takes great pride in taking excellent care of his customers so that they will send referrals his way. “Just like in your business,” Bill said, slipping a few business cards into my bag after pointing out his cell number in case I had any questions about my new phone. I walked away racking my brain for the names of people that I could refer to Bill.

Secret Referrals
Even though sales is our business, we don’t always think to give referrals to other salespeople for certain types of products or services. Some businesses obviously thrive on referrals, like hair stylists, financial advisers, accountants, real estate brokers. But there are a lot of business people that benefit from referrals that we don’t readily think of, like car washes, insurance providers, utilities and of course, retail stores. If we as sellers don’t recognize that these businesses operate on referrals, what are the odds that the average customer does? How many of you are mistakenly assuming that people know you want referrals? Like Verizon, is it the best kept secret in the mall?

When to ask for a referral:

After you’ve provided excellent service (as Bill did) most people will be delighted to help you out. Something in our nature triggers the desire to reciprocate: “Thank you.” “Oh no, thank you.” “No really, thank YOU.” By not allowing someone to return a favor, you are denying them one of life’s great pleasures. Here are some tips to increasing your odds of getting a good referral.

How to ask for a referral:

1. Be specific. The more specific you are about the type of referrals you want, the easier you make your client’s job. Asking him to recommend your services as a broker is very different from asking him to recommend your services to anyone who might be getting married, having a child or moving within the next year.
   
2. Do your research. If possible, find out which associations or groups that your client is a member of. Let him know which of his associates is a good fit for you and why.
   
3. Promote your work. If a client sees that you are working hard and earning more business, she will feel more confident recommending you to others. Don’t fly under the radar. Keep your clients up to date on your activities and successes.
   
4. Do amazing work. Not occasionally. Not most of the time. Do amazing work every time.
   
5. Show appreciation. Don’t forget to thank your client for the referral even if nothing comes from it. Especially if nothing comes from it. You don’t want your client to feel like you’re disappointed if his lead doesn’t pan out. Clearly express your gratitude for each and every referral—no matter what the outcome.

As for me? I always appreciate a good referral. And I’m still looking for a few names to send to Bill. Anybody need a new phone?

Julie Hansen is a Sales Consultant, Speaker and Professional Actor who shows salespeople how to use proven acting techniques to get in front of key decision makers, communicate more persuasively and dramatically increase sales. Look for her new book “ACT Like a Sales Pro” in August. For more sales tips or information on having Julie speak or work with your group go to: www.actingforsales.com or email her.

Insatiably Curious

by Jeff Goldberg

Insatiable curiosity is a characteristic that the best salespeople have in common. The most important part of the sales process is the questioning phase, so you either have to be curious or act like you are.

The more you know about your client’s world, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to help them. If you don’t find out who they are and what they need, it’s unlikely you’ll sell them anything.

Great salespeople are genuinely and insatiably curious about everything having to do with their prospects. They ask lots of questions, over time, about their personal lives (to establish rapport), their business, how they do what they do, what they want to accomplish, and more to help them to develop a relationship and uncover what makes sense to the prospect.

If the key to selling is asking the right questions, and plenty of them, then the key to being a better question-asker is to make it more conversational.

Nobody likes to be interrogated. It brings pictures to mind of movies where detectives have hot, blinding lights shining directly in the face of their prisoner as they hammer the prisoner with question after question. The prisoner has a sweat-covered face and a wild look in their eyes. Not a pretty picture and certainly not the way to gather useful information from your prospects.

A very simple method for turning what could easily be seen as an interrogation into a conversation is using what I call "softeners." A softener is a word or phrase that comes before your question, and softens it. I'm just curious, would you like an example? Hey, I just used a softener! In the preceding sentence, "I'm just curious," softens the question, "Would you like an example?"

You'll also want to be sure you're prepared to ask questions when you go on a sales call. Once you're sitting across from your prospect, it's too late to prepare. You're already "on stage" and need to be completely focused on your interaction. Before you go on a sales call, you should stop and ask yourself, "What information do I need to gather today in order to consider this a successful meeting? What questions will I need to ask in order to get that information?" Amateurs "wing it" but professionals plan in advance.

The fact is, if you ask the right questions, then SHUT UP AND LISTEN, your prospects will tell you everything you need to know in order to help them get involved with your product or service (Sell them).

Practice being more curious. Ask friends and associates lots of “why” questions. Try to get enough information to figure out what “makes them tick.” If you can do it with friends and associates, you can do it with prospects and customers.

Jeff Goldberg & Associates
http://www.jgsalespro.com/
blog: http://jgsalespro.blogspot.com/