salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Following on a touch from yesterday’s blog, we talked internally some more about the issue of overcoming the “no info” wall you can ridiculously encounter when trying to pre-qualify with hypocritical switchboard gatekeepers.

Shock, horror, it seems my guys have even done it themselves to cold-callers.  Notably with those calling them up and trying to grab their mobile phone contract upgrades.  The initial line is akin to “…your regular courtesy call about your now eligible free upgrade” and comes not from the network provider, but some sharking firm that have come across your details at a car boot sale.  The response that ends the call effectively is, I understand, “I’ve just upgraded with [Orange/T-Mobile/O2/Vodafone/3] direct, thanks.”

The tactic that circumvents such barriers in a B2B solution selling environment, is to get put through to sales.  It’s amazing how much you can glean from a “salesrep to salesrep” conversation.  Saying “we must do similar jobs”, ”I wonder if you could be a prospect…” and “let’s see if it’s worth me dropping the big cheese a line…” informally can nail the true opportunity.

The British Disease strikes again.  When I maintain during conversations with anyone born beyond the shores of my homeland that if they can sell in the UK, then they can sell anywhere, this is one of those kinds of stories I recount to prove it.

My cold call resource explained to me how long finding suspects can take.  What we sell is unfortunately not suited to traditional ‘list-buying’ in the hunt for names, so we build our own database.  I happened to mention how long I consider the task should take, given my personal experience when setting up that particular business eight years ago.

Apparently, when they try and qualify on the phone, they have delivered a statement that encapsulates the qualities of our target market.  A simple example would be “our customers have between 3 and 103 reps…” Yet they often get the interruption, “we’ve only got 2, bye!”

For a while they thought ‘oh, well’ and moved to the next name.  Yet the revelation is that they’ve been fibbed to.  When the name’s cropped up through a different route and been unknowingly re-phoned, someone else has picked up the phone and stated that the requisite number of reps are indeed in place.  The original contact was merely lying to get us off the phone.

Incredible.  How can such people expect their own salesforce to succeed in such a scenario?  I used to suffer all sorts of painful attitudes when I cleaned my own lists.  In the UK the real outrage is when people (typically on switchboards) state “it’s the policy not to give out information”.  This is a disgrace.

I often tell the story how when faced with a purchase decision, my management team came to me asking for a deciding vote when two shortlisted vendors were considered evens.  I called both up myself and asked their receptionist our database-clean questions.  The one that I wrote the cheque for happily gave me the info, the others didn’t.  I wonder if the loser ever got to know what swung it away?

It’s a bug-bear of mine sure, yet I cannot abide both sales managers and prospects that fail to comprehend the true evolution (and thus value) of innovation.  I read something recently that has given me two new toys.  The first is to help explain to impatient sales managers why selling process innovation should not be viewed with instant expectations, the second, to help tell a distinguishing story to my prospects of how I came to arrive at my latest service innovation.

Accretion is a new word I’ve just learned.  It means pretty much the way in which something grows, or gets created, by way of tiny, almost imperceptible steps.  The classic example given in the thought-provoking New York Times’ article being:

“Just as an oyster wraps layer upon layer of nacre atop an offending piece of sand, ultimately yielding a pearl, innovation percolates within hard work over time.“ 

Innovation is best seen rather than as inspirational, blinding light quasi-ESP, instead as the culmination of a multitude of ideas that converge and collide to create a new direction.  My theory is that by explaining this ‘99% persperation, 1% inspiration’ evolution, people will both engage more readily with and also be less dismissive of your new innovation, making our success more likely.

The top rep at a client of mine has been on his patch for several years.  I’m not sure exactly how long, but he talks of knowing customers for 17 years.  As a reward for successful service, he’s just been given a new role.  It’s what the Yanks might call ‘Sales Ops’.  This is where a top performing seller takes a year or so’s sabbatical, can earn the same money (incentivised in different ways) and is charged with doing all those tasks and initiatives that neither the reps, sales management nor sales support get time to do, yet which all agree are vital for sustained results.

His responsibilities for the next Quarter are threefold; providing dedicated sales input into the product development process, genuine coaching call accompaniment with the reps and fostering a telesales process that works.

It is in this latter area he’s most fired up.  It seems he’s spent a lot of time with the ‘team’ and found their life expectancy shockingly short.  Even when they are superstars.

He’s now trying to change their calling mindset.  And it’s this I found really interesting.  His perspective is that you only get 3 pops at achieving what you want, whether it be earning an appointment or selling a low-value product straight off.

1. After the first ‘pop’ it’s a given that’ll you get a ‘no’ straight away.  This is where you pitch, give a benefit and ask for the action you want.  “We’re alright for that”, “We’re covered by so-and-so already thanks”.
2. The “I tell you what…” second ‘pop’ tries to deliver another benefit, hopefully bouncing off their initial pats fob off.
3. Another ‘no’ and it’s your last chance.  You’ve got to say something stunning to get the prospect to move their eyes away from the spreadsheet or whatever is in front of them when you called.  My guy likes the ‘this is why you’d love it’ approach.

The key he reckons, is that if you draw a blank after these 3 pops, then simply state that you’ll email some further info, say goodbye, and make sure you phone again for your next 3 pops.  And persistence pays.

The last time he put this into practice himself, he ran his own calling day.  He began with a list of 120 names to sell a product for £211.  He sold to 24 of them, gaining him commissionable revenue of over Five Grand.  his argument was that none of the other reps did this.  They thought it beneath them as they were road warriors.  Yet if he did only one such campaign a quarter, the extra 20k sold make could make a huge difference to his year-end figures.

One of my clients is currently undergoing big change.  Now, change is nothing new for any sales team, at least each year there’s always some kind of re-shuffle of things, but this one seems to be using a particularly large machete.

The malaise was apparent in things like allowing a rep hitting only 18% of target to stay on and having a team managerless for over three months.

A fella party to all the changes explained the biggest change in the offing as, “we’ll have no more Trumpton management from now on”.  What he meant by this, was no more ‘oh never mind it’ll all be alright’ attitude.  And the phrase he used comes from a (very) old British children’s TV show called Trumpton, where mundanity of life and it’s little problems were always gently overcome.

Here’s an email I received this morning that held my attention.  Adapting it could prove a useful and unobtrusive way of garnering interest from those suspects that you either know little about yet have their details, or those where contact has gone a touch quiet.

The fella started off by saying he’d just taken over my area, knew our firms had spoken in the past, and so wanted to share a current offer.  Keeping to these 3 themes allow for easy alteration to suit your case.  Here’s what followed:

To make this easy, please respond to this email by placing a number in the Subject
line (i.e. “2″) Thank you
“1″ I am interested to talk, please call me as soon as you can
“2″ I am interested, suggest a time for the future and we can have a brief phone
call about it
“3″ I am somewhat interested, but prefer some more info in email first
“4″ I am not interested at all

Both the structure and the instruction listed above I thought were excellent.  A neat way of throwing out a line and seeing who bites.  It was even sent at the end of yesterday which, if deliberate, was a good way of promoting prominent airtime when suspects open their inbox drinking their morning cuppa.  I would expect the odd response yet it’s how he chooses to follow this up that may start to earn him the real opportunities….

I’m indebted to a friend of mine who passed me on a pdf.  It’s a couple of pages with a blatant underlying message; anyone can quosh cold-calling phobia.  It apparently comes from a self-help book aimed at turning shy geeks that crumble in front of a woman into confident seducers of even the hottest of the species.  Anyway…

I’ll summarise this as it’s probably doing the email rounds as we blog.  A chap that was yet to fully indulge in pleasures of the flesh got fired from his code monkey type job.  Calling himself Adonis (who said Americans don’t do irony?) he decided the way to overcome his uselessness with the ladies was to force himself to approach 100 women in the street on a given Saturday in Los Angeles.  10 would be approached each hour.  And the lovely quote as he planned this? “Even if I crash and burn every time, at least I will conquer my fear of rejection”!

His opening line of choice was “who lies more, men or women?”  Unfortunately for him, several fellas were already out on the town as part of their collective ‘in-field training’.  And they were using the exact same line.  No matter, he left the bars and hit the pavements.  He approached 125 ladies and was ecstatic with himself.  He got an email address from one.  He describes her as an 8 out of 10.

Adonis resolved to make 1,000 such approaches during the month.  His reasoning, “I will no longer be resentful … and fear their power to make me feel inadequate.”

When I got to here, I could see why this’d got emailed around reps

With 4 days left in the month, Adonis hit the 1,000 mark.  He’d clearly learned a lot, the two main dawnings being:

1 - “There are only so many ways to get rejected or ignored.  It doesn’t hurt at all anymore because why should someone who’s a complete stranger have any control over your sense of self-worth?”

2 - “challenge or intrigue … right away instead of trying to be logical or factual”

Here’s a nifty little line a fella called Tom passed on to me from one of my customers.  He reckons that 7 to 8 out of 10 people he leaves voicemail messages for when prospecting call him back afterwards.

To work for you, I think it’s best if you operate in a readily indentifiable vertical.

“I was talking with [so-and-so] and they suggested I give you a call, could you ring me back on ……”

Where the ’so-and-so’ is the name of a leading light at a competitor, who the prospect may have either heard of directly or at least recognises the company name.

When these 70-80% percent of people ring back, he then says, “Oh yeah, I remember talking to somebody the other day yes.  Well, I’m calling ‘cos I just put a package together for [insert number, best be several] people in your area/line. We’re benefitting them with [rattle off two quick three-word benefits], can I come and see if I can do the same things for you?”

He tells me that 4 of the 7/8 calling back agree to a meeting.

Dom Littlewood could have been yet another loafer along the never ending yellow brick road of reality tv self-help gurus.  I fell across his current show when seeking visual chewing gum in ever-rarer downtime.  Yet glad of that I certainly was.

In this programme, he aimed to pass on skills of how to haggle on the high street.  I was particularly interested in this, given that my first ever sales trainer taught me how to do the very same thing 15 years or so ago.  As a result of that entertaining aside, I spent most of the 90s making sure that whenever I bought two items, like a shirt & tie, or jeans & t-shirt, I always got a deal on them.  The last time I tried his techniques, I either got a pair of knotted cuff links thrown in with a work shirt, giving me about a 10% saving in London, or got free delivery in Cape Town on kitchen brown goods.  Not vast amounts of money sure, but every little bit helps.  My favourite success was when shopping in Melbourne with a girlie pal of mine and I bet her I could get discount in a trendy clothes store.  I then kitted myself out with her fave bloke gear from Industrie at a ridiculous saving.  But of course, as I’ve grown older, my retail expenditure has declined so my skill has lain dormant for a fair old while.  Maybe it’s time to resurrect it!

I’ll recount Dom’s two tales from London I saw because it gives a cracking insight into what to do when professional buyers ask for discount.  So many reps just cave in immediately.  They rush to give the shop away.  Oftentimes you might be used as a Dutch auction preferred supplier kicker.  Other times, it may just be the buyer needs to look good to their colleagues.  Whichever apply, you should defend your price for as long as possible.

Bike Helmet

Upon finding the desired crash-hat, the first question was ‘”what’s the damage?” £300. A sharp intake of breath preceeds “we can have a deal on that can we?”.  The Aussie lad serving to his credit asked why.  “‘cos I’m paying readdies” and he rubbed in the fact he was a cash buyer.  This elicited 5% off.  Dom turned this into a cash amount, and joked that 15 quid wouldn’t even buy him a croissant ’round there.  A touch of banter was followed by “if your price is good buy I’ll from you today”.  Again the store assistant wisely asked how much Dom was seeking.  So he replied £250.  In the end, the offer rested at a 10% discount, or £270.  £30 a decent return on less than 2 minutes chat.

Dom thought he could do better, so checked out competition. His eyes lit up when they said the desired helmet wasn’t in stock.  He used this as his chief lever.  The ‘best price’ at first was the same 10% off he’d got beforehand.  “I’m looking for better to get juices flowing! Something to get excited about!”  The storekeeper tried to say enough was enough, so Dom reassured with lines like, “profits not a dirty word, I don’t expect something for nothing”  All of a sudden after a subtle pause, £254 appeared (now 15%).  Dom sniffed greater success.  “I was hoping for 20%!” And he got it, albeit with a 2-day lead time.  £300 to £240, a nifty 60 nicker saved.

Full Ice Hockey Kit

Continuing the sport theme, he then got a shy kid to haggle as Dom stayed outside talking through an ear-piece. Firstly, Harry the shop owner’s hopes were raised by building a long list of items.  Totting up revealed £630.  A lot of cash in anybody’s currency. “I like all that but don’t like…, well it’s too much, what can we do?”  The seller joked that we all want money off.  When pressed again (the buyer remained shy in his delivery), the price dropped to £550.  An instant result, yet (with Dom and calculator on hand), he pointed out “that’s only 12%”.  He was offered extra goods, but stuck to his ‘money off’ guns.  The next line was a killer cutie, “it must start with a 4, Harry”.  Harry seemed to choke. “Harry, you know it can start with a 4″.  Not a chance in hell, replied Harry.  “So what is the best you can do?”  Harry fell silent.  “Let’s have 30% and I’ll shake hands right now”.  The nipper kept quiet while Harry tried to do some sums.  Then the rush, “call it 400 and I’ll shake you hands now!”  Harry offered £425 and they both shook hands.  Afterwards, Harry smiled thinking it still a lovely deal and the lad got 36% off.  Brilliant.

The moral of these tales to us reps is twofold.  Firstly, we should be trying out the same thing regularly   Secondly, understand tactics to maintain the price.  If people don’t discount unless it’s conditional on getting something from the buyer, then what happens in the commoditised retail environment can be avoided in B2B solution sales.

Was a little saddened this morning to learn of a terrific rep and all-round good-guy leaving one of my customers.  After ten years in his present environment, the family man is moving elsewhere in the global group.

The reason for his move should help sales management check their incentive approaches.  Every year he has hit his budget.  It was a real scrape for him last time out, but he knuckled down and made it to 107% on the last day.  Yet the price he had to pay was, he felt, too high.  No proper family holiday, Sunday’s with work spread on the dining room table and no extra cash for success.

The issue for him was that each year you hit target, your basic goes up an extra 2½%.  All good, yet the following target rises.  Nothing unusual in that you might think, but no extra commission comes your way for hitting the higher number.

This got him to the stage where he was selling a full 50% more than other reps (400k margin vs 600k) yet was actually earning less bonus than them on individual sales, as everyone’s OTE was the same rate.  This meant that for the same say 20k deal, he’d earn 1.6k, whereas someone else could trouser 2k.  Why over the course of a year should he sell half as much again as others but only earn the same bonus?  Despite his massive loyalty, he eventually had enough when 2008’s commission plan came out and he got a 20% increase in his target.

With retention of stars a critical sales management issue at present this could be a timely reminder for some of us.