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Archives: February 2012

Feb 29, 2012 0

Happiness Results In

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Well. GDP and all those other economic indicators are yesterday’s irrelevance, right? A year ago I blogged on how the UK sought to get to grips with this by surveying the nation’s contentment.

It struck me at the time how rarely we seek to truly measure our client happiness, if we’re account managing, or even prospect happiness with us as a new business tiger.

Twelve months on, and the results are in. Yet what do they say? Remarkably little, on first reading. And that’s because everyone in good old Blighty seems in fairly fine fettle. I reckon most people would take an average mark of 7 out of 10 on the self-assessed happy scale to be pretty smiley.

Here’s a reminder of the four main questions;

  1. How satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
  2. How happy did you feel yesterday?
  3. How anxious did you feel yesterday?
  4. To what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

I wondered not only once more about how would you adapt these for your target buyers, but also what would receiving a typical score of 7/10 from them really mean for me?

I’m more interested today in the extremes. Where is what I’ve done a ten out of ten for you? What is closer to a just lowly 2 or 3 about my proposal?

Another way of perhaps framing a cheeky bit of qualification over the next week or so with those people upon which our forecast is hinged.

Feb 28, 2012 0

Solar Panel Genius

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A story to make us oldies all feel unworthy. I came across it watching NY1. 13-year old Aidan Dwyer appeared to have improved solar panels.

His inspiration was sparked by looking at trees. Specifically their branches. If that’s how nature captures the sun’s energy, then why don’t we copy it? So, over six months of Sunday’s in his Grandfather’s garage, he built his own solar tree.

And would you believe, it performs, and looks, better than its flat panel counterparts.

He is now feted as a genius.

Does he share that view? Well, when asked ‘are you a genius?’, his instant, humble response was;

I get average grades in school.

I just had an idea and I did something about it.

I love these tales of invention. And this one gives heart to anyone in sales that wants to make something happen.

Feb 27, 2012 0

Unsocial Hours Calling

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Enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining lunchtime watching English sport in Brooklyn the other Saturday. I was in the company of a New York based technology seller. Over a brunch bagel, he let slip quite a revelation.

He had spoken to Warren Buffet. On a cold call. That lasted 45 minutes.

It was a couple of years ago. The Sage of Omaha confided how he made his billions;

Do you wanna know how I get my tips?

I read the paper every single morning.

And after a while wanted to close the pitcher himself;

Why am I doing this?

Yet my main take-away was simple. How do you get through to what most would describe as one of the toughest people on the planet to reach? Easy.

Ring him at ten o’clock at night.

He was still in his office, and picked up the phone himself.

There’s an old sales adage that the only way to connect with the awkward brigade is to call them out-of-hours. No gatekeeper and less stress. I’m not talking crazy times here. Before say half-eight first thing, and after six should do it.

If it worked on Warren, who could it work on in your world too?

Feb 26, 2012 0

The Money Tree

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I love hearing stories about sales management (suffered?) when people first started out in sales.

This one comes from a New Yorker. He began in telesales, a fair few years ago.

His boss used to pick up the telephone and wave it about.

This phone is your money tree.

And this is how we make money with it here.

Bang. He slammed the phone down.

We hang up.

Don’t waste time on the non-buyers.

Where are you getting clammed up in your funnel with those never likely to buy?

Feb 25, 2012 0

Prospect Response Times

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Here’s something I learned the other day from a former rep there. Apparently, Motorola used to measure ‘customer service ratings’, and their salespeople’s effectiveness, in part by the response times of their customers.

One outcome of this managerial method, was that whatever news you had for clients, you gave it. Good, bad or indifferent. It created a salesforce that sought constant contact with their buyers. They updated all the time. Providing over-information was considered better than under-informing.

I think there’s something in this.

Perhaps rather than absolute timings, the astute salesperson could assess the gap between when a prospect says they will do something, and when they actually do.

The flip side of that of course, is tracking how prompt/accurate you are, with your supply back to them too.

Just don’t blame me for yet another a new screen in your sales reporting system with two columns to fill in dates.

Feb 24, 2012 0

Cold Call Bullpen

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A one-time widget seller told me a fascinating piece of history the other day. Huge firm Arrow Electronics used to have what they termed a bullpen.

Their American HQ sales office was by all accounts a fairly intimidating place to work. Investment in fixtures and fittings was not high on their agenda. The mainly very young and aggressive salesforce worked in open plan. The managers had not offices, but ‘cubes’, walled in plexiglass without a ceiling.

When you made cold calls, you had to enter the bullpen.

It was a room with a single, long table. Closed off from the rest of the office. With over a dozen chairs around it, at each place was positioned just a phone. The room featured only one computer. And that was only allowed for an on the spot stock check. If you needed to look at inventory when someone else was sifting through ahead of you, then tough.

It was the early 90s. Glengarry Glen Ross quotes apparently repeated ad nauseam. Training slap bang of the door-to-door variety.

It doesn’t feel like a winning approach, does it. Yet at the time, the company were making money. A ton of it. Industry leading margins on components with rapidly squeezing margins.

How could that be? Was it simply an “enough mud at the wall” success?

Whilst we can scoff at such methods today, judge them neanderthal and unenlightened , the fact remains that cold calling still must be done. Each generation seems to trumpet its cold call killer. The telephone even replaced door-knocking way back when. The fax, email, social networks. None yet remove the need to try and speak to a possible buyer.

So two questions. How do you make sure people actually do it? How do provide the most enabling environment for it?

Well, upon such answers are fortunes made.

Swap the pressure for the end result to the strive for making progress. Work on the Cause before the Effect.

It’s not as cryptic as it sounds.

Feb 23, 2012 0

Is Price Pitching A 20% Loser?

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Working with a technology sales team recently, they were bemoaning that a contract won today would shrink by a quarter by the time of renewal next year.

Yet in a world seemingly fixated on cheapness, they felt the value they provided gave both a merited premium and an offer of fundamental importance to the market.

Then a long-time industry veteran said this.

People will only move for price if it is way lower.

Possibly somewhere like 20% less.

The room fell silent. The statement sunk in. Heads began to nod. How many incumbents are you trying to unseat right now? Please check whether you are pitching mainly on price. Wherever you are, isn’t it time to make another plan?

Feb 22, 2012 0

Wood For The Trees

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I witnessed a test the other day at the hands of a wiley old rep. “Look out the window and say what you can see”, he said.

So, you’re in New York, you see skyscrapers.

But then you look closely. There are all sorts of nooks and crannies scattered around rooftops. Chill out areas where people can pop outside, escape from Wall St, sit down and chat.

There’s even a wooden model biplane at the end of a load astroturf on top of 77 Water St. Runway 77 scored into the green.

When all these are revealed to you, the punchline goes something like,

you could look at this view for ages and not see any of that - it just shows how you have to be to see the wood for the trees

What could you be missing seeing on a familiar sales view of your own?

Feb 21, 2012 0

New York School

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Here’s two tips I picked up from a one-time New York commodities broker.

First, he’d developed a one-line approach to emails. The question would be in the subject line. Below, he’d simply type;

Yes, No, Maybe So?

And went on to tell me of a huge deal he’d done using this very trick.

Second, he used his own method of objection handling.

only respond to the objection if they say it twice!

If they don’t repeat it, they didn’t mean it. That seemed to be his message.

There’s some cheeky merit in both these. I might just resolve to give them a go myself for fun.

Feb 20, 2012 0

How Did You Get My Number?

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Two decades ago I was thrust into the word of cold-calling. One of the more experienced sellers sitting nearby was tasked with ‘helping’ me. I say that, but really, he couldn’t have cared less. We each had a printout, the old style dot matrix kind with the holes down the side and perforated pages ready to rip apart.

He reached one possible buyer during a particular day who said the strangest thing. It kind of ran like this;

It’s lovely that we speak today, as I am just right now looking at the very thing you sell, thanks for getting in touch, it’s lucky you reached me, how did you get my number by the way?

My compadre chuckled and replied by saying it was nothing special, he just had a list of names from the industry printed out and he was simply going through them, line by line.

I remember at the time thinking that his response wasn’t likely to engender huge appreciation buyer-side, yet was refreshingly honest, so maybe it was a good approach after all?

Then when running through some role plays with a technology sales team the other day, a specific buyer came up with this question.

How did you get my contact details?

Apparently, prospects in America regularly ask this early, and before you can continue you must provide a decent answer.

In role plays it can be a bit like improv. You can make all sorts of stuff up and the pretend buyer must go with it. Most people replied in this situation by saying another person had passed on their details.

I wondered what other response would go down well.

When I prospect I like to think that my targeted buyer gets to know not only my name, but that I am so absolutely after them, that I will definitely earn the right to connect. Would re-assuring them that I hand-picked them give a warm and fuzzy feeling, or would it raise the stalker alarm?

Perhaps you could let them know you have carefully selected them, without the trappings of potential boiling bunnies.

And if someone did refer you on, don’t be afraid to be upfront, but beware. How many times have you phoned the head honcho, got given an underlings number, and as soon as you mention this on the subsequent call, the shutters come crashing down?

I suspect a certain distance is best.

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