salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Searching for a pair of old Ray-Ban shades, I came across some slides from a training course I once attended on a terrific sales process.  The mnemonic ‘meddic’ comes from:

Metric
Economic buyer
Decision making process
Decision making criteria
Identify pain
Champion

You will only sell a solution if you fully cover each of these bases.  The middle four probably need no further explanation. 

Metric means being able to have both relevant success of a similar nature from completed existing client projects that match the campaign in question, and knowing what benefits you’ll bring to the prospect’s specific table, all presented - and this is the crucial point – in hard-hitting, stark, financial terms.

I often hear people talk about ‘Champions’ in a misleading manner.  These aren’t any old Joe’s.  They must exhibit a firm professional and personal win from what you provide, and also be willing and able to use their clout, sometimes even going out on a limb, to push it through for you.

Interestingly, what I’ve personally sold this decade (despite sometimes involving six-figure sums) has always been to a single person, rarely requiring authority or acquiescence from elsewhere.  Makes qualification easier for one thing.  Yet the odd latest addition to my product set may not necessarily share such simplicity.  I will definitely be using the Meddic process as one of my key tools throughout these imminent campaigns.

Here’s insight gained from a lovely fella called “Lachie”, selling engineering supplies into a brand new patch for his company.  The last time he embarked on such a task, within two years he went from zero to full quota, all from a standing start.  His secret is focusing on how to “break their habit”.

He’s learnt that it takes a while to earn an order first-time ’round.  The prospect will pick up the phone and do what they’re used to doing.  They’ll not even remember you offer an alternative.

So you must remember to keep yourself in their mind.  Repeat calling (”wear out the shoe leather”) can seem repetitive, but a call prep plan for each month that looks similar is what it takes when the average number of visits to penetrate an account could be as high as 10.

Each month he tries to create some activity.   Whether his tool is a sample left behind, a quote (no matter how small) or a technical catalogue, he keeps plugging away by saying “is there anything we can do this month, can I at least quote for the next order?”

I get frustrated by salesreps that seem set in their ways.  I’ve been trying to show one particular team recently that a little tweak can make a huge difference to their performance.  But they all prefer to stay doing what they’ve always done.

They have a core product set.  They’re all comfortable with this, many having been involved technically in that field since they left school.  There is now a new product set.  One they perceive they are inferior in to the competition.  Yet the couple of guys who are not shackled by their history with the major set, are flying with it.

They key is to always be talking about it.  It’s obvious.  Travel documentary maker and ex-Python Micheal Palin went to Poland recently and met a Cockney who arrived there 15yrs+ ago, and when asked how he learned the language, his reply was that the best way was to walk into a bar and by a bloke a beer.  And then simply talk.

Will the prospect really care if you don’t know everything about the new product?  Why can’t you leave with a list of questions to get back to them with answers?

Haymarket publishing founder Micheal Hestletine was interviewed in yesterday’s Sunday Times.  When asked about the ‘threats’ of new media he succinctly replied, “A period of dramtic change implies threat, because someone saw an opportunity before you did.  Why not get in first?”

I’ve been helping a 10-strong sales team sell a new product lately.  Each one had to nominate 5 accounts where they thought they could sell it.  I then helped by recording for them what happened when they pitched it.

A few months in, there is now a problem.  Very few have got sold.  My role is to show why this has been the case and propose a remedy.

My first conclusion derives from the lack of enthusiasm I sense from each rep about the promotion.  The unit price of each is between £5-10.  Most of the people they see take them in volumes meaning the commission they can reap is low.  And as one guy put it to me, unless he can make an extra 200 quid out of it at least, he wouldn’t put any extra time into it.

In this wholesale distribution environment, there is a lot of money to be made by adding an extra line to your regular order.  For a project of this nature, it looks like the best way to achieve this is through telesales, rather than door-knocking account managers.

In addition, it seems that knowledge of potential volumes has emerged as a critical piece of info.

A playful “discussion” between two programmers recently (in a sweet way, as they’re so precious about how their code looks!) reminded me of a trap that sellers should be conscious they don’t fall prey to.  I heard it once referred to as the ‘hairdresser syndrome’.

Ever gone into a Salon, especially when seeking a new ‘look’, only for the ’stylist’ to run their fingers through your hair, whince, and say something akin to ‘who butchered you the last time’?

What on earth do they think they’re trying to achieve?  Make you feel you’re better off now you’ve come to them?  It’s not good.  You really should avoid any reference to potential mess-ups by previous suppliers.  Better to keep talking about tomorrow, rather than yesterday. 

My Germanic pal Tim seems to teach me a proverb from his Fatherland each time we meet.  One such pearl of wisdom that fits nicely here is “no one ever lends money because of what’s past”, the inference being, they do so because of some alluring future promise.

How many ‘corporate overview’ presentations have you delivered?  There comes a point in most sales campaigns when the prospect wants to know more about your firm.  My early selling days allowed me to select any from around 100 of the old 35mil projection slides.  My elders and betters reckoned 45 minutes was a decent time to devote to any such presentation.  Oh, the luxury, and on today’s scale, at least ten-times too long The structure was pretty simple, and as I discovered fairly standard, incorporating; historical facts ‘n figures, product summary, customer examples/stories.

My next place had a much more structured approach, which could be delivered in 5 minutes:

1. impress with growth figures and date milestones
2. show financial growth
3. product map
4. customer metrics

And then when I moved onwards and upwards, I developed a corporate overview for my next team along similar lines.  Nowadays, a decade on, I never deliver a corporate pitch.  When in any formal forum, I simply talk for a couple of minutes.  Quickly saying 2 or 3 bullets around figures demonstrating growth to date at the outset across all product offerings, then majoring on where I’ve made my clients money, and going into detail on such stories.  The precise tales chosen are designed to match the prospect’s scenario.

Whilst sales trainers may shudder at this lightness of touch, it works well for me.  One barometer of this, is how often someone senior asks me ‘corporate’ questions at the end or outside the meeting and our discussion meanders across various general business topics.  I love that.

So it was with a keen professional interest I sat in on a meeting in Cape Town where a local reseller was pitching a piece of software from Sweden; HansaWorld.

Before kicking off, we were to be treated to 3 slides describing them.  It lasted half-an-hour.  This felt at least 29 minutes too long.  The trio of slides covered:

1. company history
2. product pyramid
3. what makes us different

The first two could have been condensed into a mere handful of words, rather than waffling about having 68,000 installations in 27 languages with any of 45 modules in a manner that was all ‘me’ rather than ‘you’.  But the one I thought had promise, although poorly executed (due to over-emphasis on technological reasons), was the finale.

In their incredibly crowded field of ERP-cum-workflow, the daddies SAP are moving downwards, Sage upwards and a plethora of eager beavers in between like Microsoft with Axapta are creating carnage second only to the sales software arena.

So in such context, getting the client to consider what makes you unique is a belter of an approach I thought.

When I make business-related purchases, I secretly hope to pick up a selling tip from the hopeful vendor.  One such case occured in Cape Town, not a place exactly brimming with dynamic business vibes.  It’d had been a touch too long between discussions between me and vendor Peter.  When I re-ignited the process, the potential supplier was keen to see what I thought of his initial quote.

I sensed he was thinking maybe I wasn’t the whale of his needs.  As I was saying how the spec remained 95% the same as when discussions began, he then stopped me with what I instantly thought was a terrific qualification routine.  This was basically:

“Go over the quote with a fine tooth comb, and write down all the variations, send them me and we can go ahead after”

I was reeled in.  I had to admit that such detail and I had not yet got acquainted re: his quote, and I promised to get my “tooth comb” out and report back asap.

I blogged recently on “latch-lifters” after one of many conversations I’ve enjoyed with the wonderful to speak to Steve Anderson.  The other day he told me about a success he’d created after three years ago one of his senior contacts at a customer moved job.  His new employer was equally suited to Steve’s wares, so an invitation to pitch soon followed.  Yet an issue quuickly surfaced.  Their incumbent supply, although only “adequate”, was just about acceptable enough to carry on doing its job.  So the bid died a death.

Steve decided not to be put out by this, and developed a plan that meant every quarter, he could go back in and talk to them about something new.  True to his word, he’s been back several times since, and at Easter this year demo’d his latest product which was in effect, a vastly superior instant replacement for what they had.  And then that wonderful place luck cropped up, y’know the one, where planning and opportunity meet.  The incumbent’s stuff blew up.

Without entering into any real buying campaign, £13k of margin instantly added itself to his sales figures, with huge opportunity to start selling all the add-ons straight after.

It was a terrific story, and one I recounted to another region’s team at the same company a few days later.  I might as well have been talking Martian.  If activity wasn’t going to lead to anything this quarter, they simply weren’t interested.  The difference?  Steve is about to retire, the other region’s reps are all between 25-35.

I think Steve’s approach is a winner.  The problem for us reps, is how to adopt that mindset ourselves.  If you know you’re likely to be in the same role, on the same patch, at the same firm for even as long as three years into the future, then that puts you in a tiny group, wouldn’t you think?

Yet the problem for business in general is, you really should have someone performing this role to warm up long-term business.  But who the blazes can you get to do it…..?

A customer of mine sell big ticket printing kit and software.  It’s the highest price tag in the market, and customers luckily get what they pay for, as it’s considered ‘the best’.  They’re addressing an issue at the moment with RoI business case presentations.

It appears that buyers have become deaf to them.  What seems to have happened is that the industry moved to pitching with such ready-reckoner tools about a decade ago.  Since then every buyer has bought at least one, typically two, cycles of such kit.  And whaddaya know…. the purchase never delivered the magical fiscal benefits promised.  Not even close.  So now, when they see more spreadsheets, their eyes glaze over.

I came across a fellow blogger talking about an element of this related to Michael Moore’s new film. This angle reminds us to validate the figures properly.  The guys I know go to great lengths to do this, even making sure that when they glean the raw data, they emphasise being ‘conservative’ to their prospect.  And yet brick-walls still appear.  Here’s two approaches that I’ve seen lately erode the scepticism:

Sensitivity Analysis - A favourite of break-even case creation, this is where you present your upward growth ‘line’ of returns, yet also take the time to add in alternative scenarios.  This will at the very least make you look different.  These could be based on certain things happening, or simply incorporate a pessimistic or optimistic alternative, say at a percentage of the original line. 

Halve It - I’m indebted to the great Ken Welsh for telling me that whenever he delivers a business case, he expects the prospect to go away and for internal consumption (taking into account their previous history with vendor RoI statements) drop your claims by half.  So, why not mention this as a tactic too - so long as your benefits lowered by 50% still make a resounding case…

When I first started out reppin’, my (much older) sales colleagues used to talk of landing their “whale of a deal”.  Breaking into ‘corporate’ acccounts took up a lot of our idle conversation time.  There was often frustration that the highest paid reps would be given named accounts to hunt down, but then spend all bleedin’ year to get one tiny product in worth just a few quid.  Surely we’d have been able to sell more into them given the chance.  Frustration was further compounded by the fact that the HQ in question often sat slap bang in the middle of my patch too.

Recently I’ve got to enjoy talking with a chap called John.  He sells to number crunchers.  He was aghast when I spoke to him the other day, that when his guys are up against their main rival, typically when trying to oust their opponent, the prospect often finds it easier to stick with what they know.

He avoids this trap by saying at the end, that’s fair enough, “How about the things you liked from me that you can’t get elsewhere?  It’d be a shame to lose out on them, so why not take them, after all it’s only a few quid?”  He gave me one example of a small deal that was worth about three grand a year.  He missed out on it two years ago, only to use this tactic to rescue about £400.  And this year, would you believe, having that toehold in the account has led him to now win it all.

It struck me this was a classic long-term approach of the latest evolution in key account planning.  The theory goes that rather than waste interminable hours, days, weeks, months, trying to persuade a central procurement resource to swap from an ‘okay’ incumbent (someone they may not be particularly emotionally attached too, yet their supply is considered “adequate”), better to reach an independent thinking outpost, happy to take on board a part of your product/service, and grow from there.  This thinking is also the entertaining them of Jill Konrath’s blog on selling to big companies.