salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Bob Woolmer transformed cricket with his views on coaching.  The success they bought included making my own following of Warwickshire so much more enjoyable as we dominated the early 90s English scene, before he moved on to S Africa and then, tragically, Pakistan.  I myself came into contact with him when using the same golf course as the Proteas (deliciously called The Warwickshire) one day when they toured England, and was impressed at how he was clearly seen by the squad as their leader when banter flew about whilst some players found their lack of personal skill ‘frustrating’.

In Cape Town I chanced upon an obituary from his dear friend, a Professor at the local Uni called Tim Noakes.  Bob had introduced himself to him with a promise, “you teach me science and I’ll teach you cricket”.

The stance he promoted, was it seems not one of ‘how’, as in ‘how do we do this?’  Instead he altered that to ‘why’.  As in “why is this the way it is”.  And on this subtle yet vital slant alone, he changed coaching and cricket forever.  Another great angle to introduce when solution selling to those that come across as reticent to change.

Having founded and developed start-ups myself, I’m always interested in people that create commercial ventures that aim to make money outside of greasing corporate wheels.  As such one of my past-times involves understanding the current new media opportunities.  A blog I consider terrific in this sphere relates to ‘music 2.0′ business models.  It’s penned by Kiwi (but don’t hold that against him as he currently lives in Brummagem) Andrew Dubber.

A recent evolution in this space, involves one of the major record labels (there are 4) initiating a new style of ‘partnership’ with artists.  The idea is for said artist to earn a Dutch ‘investment’ of €20k.  The artist shares revenue 50/50 including on items previously beyond the collection of the label in return for the label not shafting them in the traditional manner whilst opening up their little black books upon request.  Hopefully such an ‘extended deal’ around this new partnership paradigm allows everyone to make a decent living. 

I was delighted to find Andrew Dubber’s tips on pitching for the cash on a ‘vodcast’.  I trust he won’t mind me passing on his thoughts, as they are hugely relevant to any of us B2B solution reps that are trying to get across something new:

Clarity - succintly explain who you are, where you’re at, think of what your audience wants from you, where you are trying to get to & the single steps you can take to make this journey happen

Think Big - don’t play down what you’re trying to do, nor think modestly, better to dream large and be ambitious

Surprise Them - be creative and get across something that is new, unique, different, unusual, what can you show that is original and desirable?

I was reminded today of the technique attributed to John Lennon.  He apparently thought some of the best inspiration for lines and songs came from random people on TV, so took to having a notepad permanently by his side as he watched the box.

Flicking through a S African mag I saw a double-page ad for a gym.  It featured two cartoon characters; one a doctor, the other a male, overweight patient in a state of semi-undress.  The strapline was:

“What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?”

What a belter!  This framing would work wonders for anyone bugging the hell out of me, resisting change for some petty, irrelevant, inconsequential reason.  I know I can adapt this to all sorts of sales situations, and must start to right away.

One of my cold-callers ran into an obstacle when the person reached claimed they’d already met with us in the past.  So, knowing all about us, they declined our kind offer of a meeting to became acquainted.

It must be almost ten years since I last witnessed this objection wallop one of my charges.  At the time, the remedy was simple.  You give the impression there’s been a whole load of changes since whenever they last knew us, and if necessary, rapidly rattle off a ton of ‘new’ things that now appear since they last engaged with us.

Even though it related to software, the message is relevant acros the board.  I recall the patter went something like, “we ensure a major product release each quarter, typically with not just one but several new ideas, so the odds are that there’ll be at least one of these that’s gone in since we last spoke that could make a difference to you and help your plans, which I’m sure will warrant a new look, so how about we meet up …..blah blah close close…..”

When I instantly recounted this to my winner, she said she’d gone through something akin to this, but got hit with another: “I’ll take a look at your website then and get back to you if I’m interested.”  Ouch.  I never got that ten years ago!

So, on the spot, I created the 2.0 routine.  “The website after all, is simply a pretty brochure with overview info.  It’s really only in the flesh you see the true impact of what we do.  The difference between what we do know and what’s on our website, which we’re updating as we speak, is like Web 2.0 over Web 1.0.  So don’t worry that our website may not show off all our new bells and whistles, in the time it would take you to read it anyway, we could have met over a cup of tea and helped make your plans happen.  Which days next week are you in the office?”  It seemed to work

We had an in-house session looking at this secondary objection recently.  It crops up after a suspect has requested info as part of their decision-making process on whether to see you or not.  The drill should be familiar; you follow up at the designated hour, only to be told your email’s gone unread.

The guys workshopped this around.  Their preferred approach was to use the lack of enthusiasm (& respect?) for the asked-for email as a starting to point to have a proper conversation.  Namely one that allows you to ask a couple of killer questions.  These should hopefully demonstrate desire-stipulation or problem-recognition by the suspect.

You can then say, ‘I can resolve that/make it happen…’ and Close for the meet.  Sounds simple!

The key is being able to get these questions out after a preface that puts everything at ease.  ‘I can easily outline in 30 seconds what the email/links would have got across…’ and then the angle is, ’so I can do this right now, just let me know please what’s….’

I’ve conducted a few interviews lately, looking to add another winner or two to the Cape Town team.  Seeing exclusively graduates, I am astounded at the lack of interest their universities appear to show in helping them gain employment.

One striking example of being left to their own devices, with zero interview coaching, also struck me as a useful reminder for sales people entering their first call.

Yes, it’s true that “people buy from people”, so in theory as long as you get along with the buyer you can bend the rules, yet how many people genuinely prepare for an initial meeting?

Two successive interviewees deployed wildly contrasting approaches.  The first brought along a folder.  In it I spied print-outs of the job ad along with some content from a webpage.  She’d highlighted with a pink pen certain text and written questions on the sheet.  She also had a few specific queries, all aimed at uncovering whether the role was aligned with her preferred career path.  Excellent.

Then the next candidate entered the room, pretty much hands-in-pockets.  He clearly had no prepared questions, and mentioned in passing reference to a website of ours.  The difference was illuminating.  I gave him a fair crack though, as I recalled an interview I once had (when I was also an unemployed graduate).  I think the outfit was Baker MacKenzie.  Anyway, the lady that assessed me started waffling on with pretty useless advice at the end of the session.  I had moved on mentally (how did I ever think PR was for me?!) when she started to give me a rollocking for not taking any notes on her sage words.  I gave her short shrift and left the building.  Amazingly I got a call that afternoon inviting me in for a second interview.

When I meet prospects (people running sales teams) I must admit to an ounce of complacency.  I’ve got used to them loving talking about their business that my own prep is occasionally limited.  I must resolve now to at least show my intent by printing off more than just the directions from their website.

An American fella now living in England called David, does something differently from the rest of his team that I just found out about.  Part of their responsibility requires an annual account management ‘re-visit’.

When this takes place, all the other guys ask what the client would like.  A kind of ‘what are your plans’ conversation.  When I was a cub-rep I loved this one.  Once you’d established a bit of rapport and gained some credibility, asking anyone what they hoped to make happen over the coming months meant you were invariably treated to hour-long monologues on the world as it should be which’d make your life so much easier.

David doesn’t do this.  His first real question is ‘what’s changed since last time?’.  Amazingly, he gathers all sorts of key intel from this that helps him propose (and gain acceptance for) all manner of ‘upgrades’.

Personally, it sounds a touch negative to me.  But then in England many people are permanently miserable given the weather and inept footie team :-0

His success though makes me re-assess this opinion, and I must resolve to go down this route too on any service where a previous quote or relationship can be referenced.

I took time out from my normal day-job for a meeting on a fresh endeavour yesterday.  It was a strange forum in the sense that depending on what transpired, I was potentially both selling and buying.

I hadn’t convened the meeting, so I didn’t “own” it, but I had made a point of circulating some preparatory notes and my preliminary expectations.  After the initial round of self-intros, the chairman dived in with a description of what he was about.  I understood what he wanted from the meeting.

Yet as I stayed deliberately quiet, I was surprised at how the forum was progressing.  I think we veered away from the original aim (determination of continuation worthiness) and began to excitedly plan for world domination.  In retrospect, I’m not sure this was wise.

I think such speculative discussions should plainly state from the off what each participant aims to achieve. Yes, I know politicking can come into play, but at least you then have the ability to pause for assessment.  In this case, I was glad I got across my framework for working out whether this project was for me and I reckon the old adage stands firm; you’re more likely to achieve a positive meeting outcome having set it out clearly at the start.

Rocked up for a meeting with a first-time prospect, only to be ridiculed for wearing a flasher-mac.  And I was sure it was trendy.  Thankfully, whilst our fashion sense differed, our sales-sense converged.  One key area we discussed featured objection handling.

The frustration with reps not self-analysing enough cropped up.  I remember a wonderful moment in a web-services sales meeting where 50 people in a room were asked if anyone knew their own sales stats, starting with average length of sales cycle.  Only one person put up his hand.  Then the question was whether he knew his close ratios.  Again, he alone did.  Amazing.  His name is Brendan Gillies, a winner.  I also recall once the peerless Alan Hansen commenting that in all his years winning trophies at Liverpool, he never saw a video of a win.  He only ever had to sit through matches they’d lost.  At least there was some analysis.

What, I wondered, were the kinds of things being missed by such disregard for personal skill improvement?  And parking objections was a major issue.

I know I’m guilty of this.  You get an objection, and steamroller it.  It no longer comes up as an issue.  But all you’ve done is to mute it.  The objection remains in play.  But you ignore this fact, in blissful denial of its importance.  And eventually you turn out to be #2 on the deal.  Loser, big time.  Understanding the difference between parking and handling an objection can make a real, huge difference.