salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Here’s a frightening quote I picked up just now; “statistically, about 87% of sales reps give up after a single half-hearted attempt, about 95% give up after a second message.”

People that hide behind their voicemail are becoming ever more prevalent.  How do you get around it?  It’s pretty obvious that if you’re cold-calling, with no prior relationship, then the chances of your cold-call voicemail getting replied to is slim-to-zero, how ever well crafted it is!

Persistence is certainly a key, especially given the quote above, yet if you call every day for weeks on end, the call-back you get will probably be from the police, rather than intrigued prospect.

I worked briefly with a fairly switched on, yet shallow fella called Jamie once a couple of years back who ran a telesales team selling web-hosting type stuff in London, having previously sold dental cosmetics in America.  He reckoned if you put in half-a-dozen or so messages and got no reply, the prospect was not interested, so you simply had to do something different.

It is the creativity around that something different that separates the winners from losers….

Waiting in reception of a potential supplier (those guys trying to persuade me to go with raw grads for new sales positions that I thought were a touch too pricey) I flicked through a mag called Director and an article about small firms avoiding the shoeing of larger ones.

Although it was fairly standard fair (y’know the kind of thing, lots of anacdotal lessons to stand your ground and examples of where people had turned business on unfavourable terms down) there was one element that made it stand out from other such advice.  Six managers from small(-ish) firms that’d encountered bigger fish trying to exert greater buying power are summarised with nifty soundbites of what they’d learned.

Take all six quotes and there’s bound to be a trigger for a current campaign you’re running with a client larger than you.  As these summaries are absent from the full article on the web (I link to above), here’s one-worders to help out:

• Defend on USP
• Know Rate Flexibility
• Relate Quality to Price
• Give Client Choices
• Leverage All Relationships
• Talk Numbers Upfront

When trying to recruit newbie sales people this week, I visited a firm that purports to offer something different in the way of graduate sellers.  I feel their prices are at least 30% too high (especially considering you can recruit such resource at zero cost via milkround type initiatives and a touch of psychometric testing).  Anyhow, I did pick up one lovely insight from them. 

They believe they succeed because they find people with exactly the right attitude.  They find what they call “strivers”.  And they use their own spin on the classic Boston Box to illustrate (the famous grid plotting market share of products with sales growth to give you categories like ‘problem child or question mark’, ‘dogs’, ‘cash cows’ and ’stars’).  What’s interesting, is that it helps any person heading up sales teams to see their charges in a new light…. Where are you on this scale?

I’ve just had to let one of my boiler-roomers go.  No need to feel too sympathetic, the hit-rate for young bucks isn’t great I know, although no-one likes a mercy-killing.  It’s always surprised me how initial enthusiasm can wane when another idea enters someone’s head.  And annoyed me when the work-ethic promised at interview never materialises in reality.  Still, this presents me with an opportunity.  A final task I got finished before the guillotine dropped was all about identifying prospects for a new service we’re just about to launch. 

I now have 100 businesses, fully qualified, to approach with this service.  Clearly, the thing to do is send something through before getting them called, by way of intro.  Of course, the impact on first communication is traditionally close to zero, but it remains a good idea especially if you replicate and evolve regularly.

So I got to thinking about what I should be sending.  I’d written the blurb for the website sometime ago.  It’s typically vague and enticing (I hope!) so isn’t really apt for this kind of comms.  Google gave me very little else to go on.  Although I did find this page, americanly-entitled on ‘potential customer communication areas’.

What I liked about it was the middle bullet - “What issues do our customers wrestle with that cause them to investigate or buy our products? What are their three key issues?”

As I’m partly selling here the benefits of improved communications around sales teams, it prompts me to go back to basics and run with a concept like:

“what would better communication ’round your sales force bring you”

I’ll refine and evolve this thought tomorrow…..

I often come across a nasty objection, which is basically “I’m new in the role, call me in six months”.  Talking with a pal of mine last night over a cheeky pint, he’d encountered something similar.

He works for HP, who have a £30m a year customer in bankers Lloyds TSB.  They’ve just got a new senior IT bod; an Aussie who’s boss is ‘Darryl’.  The newbie didn’t want to talk to HP, and during a 30-minute meeting, convened at his boss’ behest for half-eight on a Monday morning (!) basically said ’sod you’ to HP.

HP’s team stood their ground and went down the ‘we can really help you get your new plans in so much easier and quicker angle’.  With a few harsh words either side, there now seems consensus, so the result for reps in general is maybe don’t be afraid to say it how it is……

By fluke I came across a site called Presentation Helper, which has a fella talking about his 10, 20, 30 message on Powerpoint presentations.  It’s got cracking insight, as he’s a bloke that’s clearly suffered several useless pitches for venture capital.

What got me thinking, is firstly, that I’ve not delivered a powerpoint for literally years, and even then it was at the behest of a client as part of their own sales conference.  So, what has a site called Presentation Helper really got to offer?

Well, surprisingly, it is precisely because it isn’t solely focused on sales people’s needs that it’s got something to offer, and I’d certainly recommend a 10-minute delve over a coffee.

On the subject of Powerpoint prezzies, I would actually say ‘avoid’ wherever possible.  Think of all your favourite orators.  Like him or loath him, Blair’s pretty good.  Before him, the man Blair evolved from, Heseltine, was a belter.  Away from politics, several other examples exist.  Think Michael O’Leary or Dickie Branson press conferences, what about Stephen Fry’s Bafta-awards hostings.  And none of them ever use visual aids.  So why should you?

If you know your stuff, are passionate about it, and genuine about your audience, simply create the right structure, and get up and speak.  No slides necessary.

I’ve done a couple of meetings with a 3-rep business recently that’ll never buy from us, eventhough they’d really benefit from my services.  They were the first entrant into the English search engine optimisation arena a decade ago.

Last time out I met the MD, fresh from his boozy late lunch (yes, they obviously still take place in this day and age!), who was clearly an authority on his subject matter.  I found him engaging and credible.

This time ’round, two lieutenants met me and were intially more interested in (futile) tie-up discussions.  When we moved onto how I could help them then and there, one of them came out with a stunner; their few salespeople appear accomplished, yet are in their 30s so feel that cold-calling is beneath them.

I found this amazing.  How can something that could make you set for life be ‘beneath’ anybody?  If you wanna make serious money at anything, you gotta put the hard yards in, and that includes picking up the phone and reaching people that don’t necessarily want to talk to you that moment.

Quality reps must surely know this?  And whenever you look at your funnel, just ask yourself, ‘how much better would this be with a couple more prospects on it…?’

In addition, if you have a kind of role model, typically a successful business person, then ask yourself ‘would they not bother picking up the phone?’, ‘cos the answer is they would, so why don’t you and stop being a loser?!

I spoke earlier today with a fella that seems courted by the likes of Microsoft and salesforce.com as an SaaS guru (that’s software-as-a-service, or web-accessed gear if you prefer).  He made an interesting comment that people running sales teams are possibly the most put-upon, miserable people on the planet.  He reckoned if you ask any Head of Sales if they’re happy with their sales team, they’d universally say ‘no’!

This is actually a good thing if you supply stuff to sales teams he thought - software, training, whatever, as it means there’s always someone looking for something.

He likened it to the health & fitness industry, saying “there’s always room for another diet”, meaning there’s always room for another vendor peddling sales improvement offerings.  Hearty news for the crm crowd I guess, even though the price per seat appears to be plummeting of late.  Salesforce’s $65 per person can now be bought from as little as $45 in bundles.  The price points seem to be lowering with all the signs of an emerging market land-grab taking shape, and the pressures of companies with larger-perceived offerings, such as erp software, trying to expose the web-sales-software guys as profiteering.

Got stuck for a while in a reception this morning.  Among the drivel of z-list celeb mags was a publication called Psychologies.  When viewing the contents the horror of my perception was confirmed, as it looked like a long list of self-help rubbish for losers.

My thumb-through uncovered one gem though, apparently from Sam Houston State Uni in America by some Prof Randell Garner.

He reckoned perceptions of similarity win you the day in life.  In my terms, I often find myself in situations where my expertise in one topic is tapped into.  Yet this research reminds me to, in fact, step back from that approach and empathise that I’m really in the same boat as the prospect.

He cited feelings of association and increased liking that go hand in hand with familiarity, even down to the point that you gravitate sub-consciously towards people with similar sounding names or even just ones with the same letters as you.

All I need to do now is find someone called Dale Spordes, and I’ll make a million. Any more anagrams, please pass them on, they’ll be gratefully received

Simon Jordan is a familiar name to those that follow footie in England.  Now Chairman of Crystal Palace, he made his money upon leaving mobile phone retail innovator The Carphone Warehouse to set up his own mobile phone shop chain, and being so early into the market, eventually sold out to a network provider with his business partner for squillions.

I personally find it hard to agree with all his views (in keeping with most Football Club Chairman naturally!) on both football or life, yet I heard him mention something in an interview today that intrigued me.

To paraphrase, he said ‘when you face adversity is when your true character comes through and you realise whether someone can stand in the trenches with you’.  To my mind, this is something sales managers often forget.

Is the person under the microscope doing the right things?  What extra would you do in the same situation?  Can the person concerned come through?  How can a ‘break’ be created, and could they maximise it?  What would the impact of more support from management be (both on them and others)?

If answers to these lead you down negative paths, only then make the mercy killing.