One of my favorite sites is SalesTeamTools because it’s one of the few sites I’ve found that is focused on productivity tools for salespeople. Hence their name! I have worked at small companies for years and while that means I don’t always get full support from corporate, it does mean that I can pick and choose the sales tools best suited for me.
I attended a networking group meeting hosted by the Pawtucket Networking Meetup group. It was well attended by almost 20 people, some selling B2B and others selling B2C. The guest presenter was Marty Eerhart presenting his mini workshop, “New Business Development for Professionals.”
He spent time talking to us about creating our own Informercial about ourselves - something that Joanne Black calls her, “10 seconds to get a smile” when telling someone what you do. The people you are speaking to want to hear
What you do
What’s in it for them
Then Marty asked the room, “What’s the most important word in sales?” He received many answers including ones you’d probably think of
sale
now
please
final
offer
benefit
discount
value
and many others. He said, “Nope” to all of them. Marty says that the most important word in sales is BECAUSE.
What you do because what’s in it for them.
His reasoning? When you were a child and were begging for something from your parents, they turned to you and said, “No.” And as most children do, you asked, “Why?” and their answer, “Because!”
Why should I buy from you? BECAUSE…..what’s in it for me.
Anyone think there’s a more important word in sales?
We’ve all had a “PITA client”-perhaps more than one. (PITA stands for “pain in the a**.) A PITA will drain you, consume valuable resources, upset your team, squeeze you on price, pay slowly, and will never be satisfied with the results-even when you’ve agreed on the deliverables.
You know the warning signs. A PITA client will:
Nickel and dime you on price
Tell you they’re the decision makers when they’re not
Threaten you with your competitors
Make unreasonable demands, and expect fast, complete, and reliable delivery of your service
Not return phone calls
Talk about loss of productivity! PITAs are our biggest time wasters and they erode our profits. When we accept a PITA, it’s an opportunity cost-an opportunity lost to do business with our ideal clients. Yet companies continue to accept this bad business, all the while thinking it’s better than no business. But is it?
Sometimes it’s because we have a quota to meet, or our company insists we do a deal, or we think we can turn a bad situation into a good one. We’re dreaming. Bad business is bad business. Period.
Salespeople frequently say that they will sell to “anyone who fogs a mirror.” Avoid this kind of thinking. We shouldn’t target just “anyone.” “Anyone” all too frequently turns out to be the PITA customer.
Fire the PITA! Most of the time we can identify the PITA client before we even begin to work with them. Say no. It’s OK to walk away. In walking away from the PITA, you’ll have time to attract the kind of clients you really want, to do the work you love, and your productivity will soar!
For many of us, the end of the calendar year coincides with the end of the sales year. Have you made it yet? Will you (and your customers) enjoy the time between Christmas and New Year’s because you’ve already delivered your revenue committment to senior management?
When you need a quick break from all the holiday cheer and want to recharge those sales batteries with some quiet time then consider catching up on your sales reading and learning. But don’t have time to read all the new books on selling? Would you like the Cliff Notes versions instead? The Top Sales Experts website has just the booklet for you - and it’s co-authored by many of the top sales experts.
I like “Leaving PowerPoint Behind and Make the Person-to-Person Sale” by Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling” and guest blogger on this site.
Another good article is “A Glimpse at Sales 2.0 - the Potential and the Pitfall” by Keith Rosen. As salespeople, many of us started selling in the days laminated presentations and always making sure there was change in our pockets for the pay phone. Today we’re using web-based conferencing and wouldn’t be caught dead without our cell/PDA. So what’s next?
Read the article. Read them all - in the the order they interest you.
Everyone agrees that getting referrals to new prospects is so much better than cold calling down that long list that your company provided you. But how do you get started? John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame has put together a brief video primer on just this very topic. He focuses on
- defining your value proposition
- who you tell this to
- why you are asking for the referral
In principle I agree with how John suggests you get started even if it seems a bit pushy and low-tech. A vital part of any networking program is to ensure the people you want referrals from understand exactly what you do - ie your value proposition. Sure, your customers probably know that already but what about your friends, family and colleagues? Don’t bore them with a feature/benefit pitch - think of your elevator pitch that gets makes them chuckle and excited about telling other people about you. What do I tell people we do at Inquisix? “We’re matchmakers [pause] for salespeople!” Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling” announces, “I’m the Referral Queen!”What do you tell people so they’re remember you?
Frank Rumbauskas, of Never Cold Call fame, recently sent me a 5 minute video on why cold calling is ineffective. His premise is that cold calling equals 0 results. So cold calling 50 times still means 50 times 0 equals 0. His punch line made me laugh, “…I heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
I recently attended a luncheon meeting with Mike Ford of TownConnect and about 150 other sales and corporate executives hosted by Dave Kurlan of Baseline Selling fame. Dave spent two hours with us discussing his philosophies on sales management best practices and sales rep hiring & success factors. The audience had the opportunity to choose the agenda based on our biggest concerns - sales management, forecasting, hiring & planned turnover were the most requested topics.
In reviewing my notes from the meeting, the things that I underlined as most interesting and thought provoking were:
- Hire sales managers for accountability, coaching, motivating, growing and recruiting. NOT for closing deals.
- Sales managers should motivate reps to get deals into the funnel and the coach them on moving deals through the funnel.
If you attended the event, what did you find as most interesting? (other than the tour of Gillette Stadium!)
Rick Roberge, a Sales Consultant with Dave Kurlan & Associates, spoke at this week’s New England Expo and invited me to join the audience. His topic was about “…how effective networking can begin the sales process with a warm prospect and avoid cold sales calls.” A very engaging speaker, Rick spoke for about an hour about networking, how to do it and why to do it. He provided numerous examples on the power of networking by encouraging the audience to network amongst themselves.
The most important idea that I brought away from his talk is the theory of the Giver’s Gain - you network to introduce new services to your customer so that your customer will remember and value you. You don’t network to help the person you just met!
By providing new and valuable services to your customer, you move from a transaction-based sales rep to consultant to trusted advisor and finally to the go-to resource. As Rick joked, you network to become the second speed-dial on your customer’s phone after their spouse.
Rick then walked-the-talk as he and I strolled the exhibit floor together for an hour while he introduced me to his customers and colleagues. And when I left, I had 20 business cards in my pocket of people he introduced me to that wanted follow up.
And so I’ll close with the second most important idea from Rick’s talk – follow up with those introductions you just made! So I’m getting on the phone….
On my office bulletin board I’ve saved an old note from the first days of my sales career that lists the reasons why people buy. I don’t know the source anymore (if you do, please tell me so I can properly give credit).
To Make
- Money
- Satisfied customers
- Good impressions
To Save
- Time
- Money
- Energy
- Save
I recently found the 50reasonswhy website that takes the reasons from Geoff Ayling’s “Rapid Response Advertising” and adds pictures to illustrate creative ways to sell.
