Monday, February 28, 2011

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.

Friday, February 25, 2011

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/

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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.

Monday, February 21, 2011

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/

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Your Post Here

We're pleased to announce The Sales Association has launched this blog. We're even more pleased to announce that we're not the experts – you are. So, rather than re-invent the wheel, we're offering the opportunity for sales bloggers, aspiring or already fabulously successful authors to submit new articles or re-post their existing articles to our blog.

Why blog for the Sales Association? Because we will Reward You.

Our blog automatically feeds into The Sales Association main LinkedIn Group of 20,000 members, as well as all our subgroups and country groups numbering thousands more. It also feeds into our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Plus, there are rewards for participating, which are based on unique site visits. The top 10 most read blog posts per quarter will be listed in a dedicated email sent to nearly 200,000 followers. At the end of the year, we'll issue an award and make an email announcement to all of our members naming the Top Sales Blogger of the year, and will also send a press release to the major sales-related publications.

There will only be one post on our site per week day. For those that have a specialty area in sales, here is the weekly content schedule:

- Monday: Cold-calling or Prospecting/Qualifying
- Tuesday: Customer Relationships or Consultative Selling or Generating Referrals
- Wednesday: Negotiating or Closing or "Wildcard" (any sales topic)
- Thursday: C-Level Selling or Effective Presentations or "Wildcard"
- Friday: Social Media/Sales 2.0

Here are the rules, which are in your best interest as well as ours:

  1. Absolutely no marketing. Any mention of “my book, my podcast, my webinar, my, my, my. . .” is strictly prohibited. No links asking people to leave the blog to buy stuff will be permitted. Violations of this rule will result in a permanent ban from ever posting again. We're serious.
  2. The bone we're throwing in exchange for Rule #1: we'll include links to your blog, website, bio, etc. as well as Twitter, FB, LinkedIn “follow me” links at the end of your blog post.
  3. In line with Rule #1: please provide value, no “teasers” that force readers leave the site “for more information.” Blog posts must be whole and complete and satisfying in and of themselves. If you provide quality and value, our members will flock to follow you. And, The Sales Association will be happy to promote the heck out of you, too.

If you would like to post to our blog, please submit your post or a link to it to Sales Blog Post Submissions. Please let me know the topic category above that it falls into. The Sales Association reserves the right to publish, not publish and edit any posts submitted.

Thanks, and I look forward to sharing with our followers your ideas, research and experience on best practices in sales and sales management!

Sincerely,
Jeff

Jeffrey W. Arnold, MAM, CAE
Executive Director
The Sales Association
2460 W. 26th Ave., Suite 245C
Denver, CO 80211
www.salesassociation.org

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Welcome to The Sales Association

Our members see an intrinsic value in "association" with professional colleagues.

Membership Demographics

Our members are experienced:

53% - 11+ years in the sales profession
47% - Director, Vice President or CEO
42% - Sr. Sales Representatives or Sales Managers

Our Indusry Representation is Broad:

B-to-B and B-to-C Sales, including:
- Banking/Financial Services
- Health Care
- Hospitality
- Internet
- Insurance
- Manufacturing
- Media
- Office supplies and equipment
- Recruiting
- Real Estate
- Retail
- Sports and Entertainment
- Technology - software and equipment
- Telecom
- Training
- Transportation

Membership Has Value:

•97.4% of members would recommend The Sales Association to their friends and nearly 70% already have!
•92% of members say membership is a good or great value for the price
•89% of members state that the Sales Association has met or exceeded their expectations as a great organization

Why our members say they belong:

"Meet professionals outside of my industry."
"The caliber of people that participate."
"People I've met seem willing to help."
"The vast reach of the organization - it's not a single vertical market."
"The depth of information you provide."
"The opportunity to meet strategic thinkers and leaders in the sales industry."
"Friendly, hellpful and high quality..."