salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

+15% Credit Crunch Impact

October 8, 2008 at 1:14 pm · Filed under rant, anti-biscuit dunking

Listening to BBC Radio 4 most mornings recently, they’ve an innovative approach to consistent programming. Eight o’clock, Business Editor Robert Peston talks you through constructing your own gallows. Quarter-past eight, a pair of luminaries recommend their take on which rope makes the sturdiest knot and how to tie the most effective noose in it. 8:24, six minutes of adverts for ‘wonderful’ programmes to look forward to elsewhere around the network.

Normally a pretty positive person, this repetition is getting a bit much for me. A former Chief Investment Officer of Baring Asset Management (Michael Hughes) passed on sobering facts. There have been (a remarkable) 42 banking crises since 1970. That’s more than one a year around the globe. The average impact has been to reduce GDP by 13%. He intimates that this one is worse than ‘average’. At any rate, does this mean that if our selling numbers currently add up to 100, then pretty soon they’ll drop to 87? If we’re hitting “8″, then are they destined to fall to “7″?

Of those with the binoculars looking for golden skies, retail giant BHS’s boss, Philip Green, reminds us that (even though his latest profits have dropped) we need a little perspective. Business will not disappear, he reminds us.

So how will this effect the solution selling rep? The low-hanging fruit has clearly all been picked. One mindset is to overshoot last year’s results. If previously you could reach 100, and this year doing the same would lead to 87, then perhaps now, simple maths tells us we must focus on how to sell 115.

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Implementation Hand-Holding

September 15, 2008 at 12:20 pm · Filed under academy, grapevine

I was reminded recently of an all-too-often overlooked part of the sales cycle; implementation. How often do we cringe when hearing of ’salesrep-sold-and-ran’ tales? Ink barely dry, commission already spent, and the customer left in the lurch as a new set of faces takes over part-petrified, part-clueless?

The ’spin’ exponents, Huthwaite, advocate as part of their Major Account Selling Skills courses to think carefully about this. Clients are often nervous. They may have staked a lot on what you’ve sold them. Reputations and cash could be on the line. So understand this, and thoroughly hand-hold them through the immediate post-sale moments.

This doesn’t just mean be there at delivery time, or a few phone calls asking about the weather.

What might that mental agony be based on? What is it they’re apprehensive about? Where do they need to see promises delivered? Find out, and make a plan to document how you provide answers to all such areas. Better still, share this timeline with them beforehand and personally deliver it.

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3-Phase El-Pitch

July 22, 2008 at 11:43 am · Filed under academy

Occasionally I meander through the online broadsheet small business guides, and one such journey the other evening stumbled across an English perspective on the Elevator Pitch. First things first, it’s a Lift. Why use 4 syllables when just one alone is perfectly sufficient?

Credit to The Times for shedding light on this technique’s importance. When trained by Americans myself many years ago, the ability to deliver a killer 30-second pitch was both critical and highly regarded.

The article referenced here suggests a quartet of essential elements:

An overview of what the business does / sells (although don’t go into too much detail)
What your main market is (who you sell to, what industry you are in, what sort of market share you have)
What your clients / customers experience as the key benefits of your products / service
Your main competitive advantage / Unique Core Differentiators (what makes you different and better than the competition)

I still create to this day such a pitch for each new product/angle in case I bump into someone worthy. The key I’ve found is to be able to deliver it in sub-30-seconds in terms directly aimed at the listener, with a Close tagged on to the end of course.

It also goes without saying that the ‘benefit’ part should be specific, attainable and absolutely financial, as the example they list is weak given its reliance on pappy percentages.

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Remember The Business Case

July 9, 2008 at 12:14 pm · Filed under academy, grapevine

Here’s a great line I got in an email from a customer. We were talking about how to create a better style of Proposal generation for a breakthrough new product of theirs.

“…we can often win without a perfect [business] case. That said, a good case never lost a sale, and a weak case has often lost a strong opportunity.”

Something to bear in mind when you know you can save someone time or money, but never quite get around to precisely documenting where and by how much, or why only your USPs can make it happen.

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The ‘Any News Yet?’ Call

June 25, 2008 at 11:21 am · Filed under rant, academy

First time around you often hear reps say “as requested, I’m calling back today, any news yet?” and take it from there.

Although it must be said that this is a bit shoddy for a phone call premise, as the call should really be structured around some definitive next action.

Nevertheless, when you find yourself off-guard saying this, the odds are that you’ll end up in the loop of repeated calls once a week/month/millennium asking “any news yet?” with the once-certain customer-in-waiting moving slowly back to vague prospect and beyond, both your forecasting reputation and commission statement in tatters.

To try and break this rapidly downward spiral, three approaches can come into play (there can be some commonality between them too). This is because if the deal was indeed ‘done’, then there’d be no hesitation, so something must have happened to stop our train in its tracks. The aim must be to isolate what it might be, then create an action that overcomes it:

The Change - You were sure there was a great fit for their need and your product, if this has been dulled, then how come?

The Hurdle - With everything seemingly gung-ho to progress last time out, what obstacle has possibly appeared from nowhere to sidetrack the initiative?

The Omission - Thinking everything was considered in detail, has therefore something on reflection been missed from the proposal?

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F innelle

May 27, 2008 at 12:43 pm · Filed under sales jargon

FAB

Feature-Advantage-Benefit. An insight into how you should structure a pitch. Advantage is sometimes switched to Function. Lead with describing a product’s Feature, highlight what this enables it to achieve (the Advantage or Function), before ending with “which means that…”, where you state the glorious can’t-live-without Benefit of it. Also “English for Stupid” according to Jerzy Balowski.

Farmer

One of the many terms used to describe Account Management. Gamekeeper is also a commonplace term among older reps, as in a ‘poacher turned gamekeeper’. The idea is that Account Managers have to cultivate their crop of precious accounts. Traditionally viewed as less macho and intelligent compared to being a Hunter by new business Tigers. The truth is that a good Farmer has to approach business in a new business manner to make fantastic numbers, and, of course, both strains share a huge number of people who do not deserve to call themselves winning salesreps.

Feature

A specific single objective indisputable attribute of your offering.

Feel-Felt-Found

Maybe getting ever cornier, a technique of structuring story-telling, most often whilst Objection Handling. As in, ‘I know how you Feel’, ‘I remember when someone else Felt the same way’, ‘luckily, they actually Found that…’ type chat.

FFB

Feature-Function-Benefit. Similar to FAB, although I hardly hear it in these terms nowadays.

Field

Out there. Where all the action takes place. Salesreps are often referred to as those ‘in the field’.

Forecast

What you expect to bring in over the coming time period. A documented list of all your potential business opportunities that you are currently actively working on.

Front Talk

The social chit-chat that takes place before a meeting gets underway with a potential customer.

FUD

Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt. A technique of conversation that makes the potential customer aware of the pitfalls of doing something other than buy from you. Typically an anti-competition jibe, not usually recommended. Best used in a more general setting such as the risk of not doing anything at all.

Function

Synonym with Advantage for alternative to FAB routine called FFB.

Funnel

Involves the breakdowns of what you have got on the go. Called Funnel as a concept because you have to pour a lot in the top for a trickle to come out of the bottom. That means lots of names to go after will give a handful of orders. Used to show where deals are at in your particular sales process too, as typically deals will go through known, similar ’stages’.

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E zee

May 20, 2008 at 11:30 am · Filed under sales jargon

Earn The Right Call

Normally immediately prior to trying to get hold of The Man, it’s where you have to pass the entrance exam to get in.

Economic Buyer

An increasingly old-fashioned term, the most relevant explanation means the person who really makes the decision. It used to refer solely to the person releasing the funds, but that person increasingly may not be the one with the real power.

Elevator Pitch

A short concise and powerful mini-pitch, lasting no more than a few seconds, designed to wow a CEO-type person and get you moving even quicker towards the ultimate prize. Derives from taking advantage of those unexpected meetings where you ‘bump’ into someone important.

Elusives

People you are trying to contact by phone who are genuinely involved with what they see as more pressing priorities, so not necessarily trying to avoid you. Call out of hours. Grab their colleagues onto your side. Typically encountered at initial, cold, introduction time.

Empathy

Making the potential customer believe you have similar views, that you understand them on a personal level.

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D ‘lightful

May 15, 2008 at 1:01 pm · Filed under sales jargon

Death Valley

A period of no response in communication from a potential customer towards the end of a Campaign. Typically encountered after the final (maybe Board) presentations. Avoid like the plague.

Decision Making Criteria

The categories which the potential customer will use to decide what they will take.

Decision Making Process

How the potential customer goes about investigating their options and choosing the final one.

Diary-filling

Yet another name for Cold-Calling activity. However many euphemisms are used, nothing can provide success more than lots of this. And it’s tough.

Differentiator

Something that makes you or your offering different from the Competition. (For technology offerings, High Tech Strategies suggest “Differentiation is possible on the basis of five fundamental factors: function, time utility, place utility, price, and perception. These five elements can be mixed into an almost infinite variety of patterns.”)

DMU

A Decision Making Unit. Those fine bodies of boys and girls entrusted by their organisations to make specific decisions. Cover all the angles, particularly the ones that exist outside the DMUs meeting room.

Dripping Roast

With lots of juicy fat falling down into our hands, the baking tray! A term used to describe a great account that just keeps on giving us business. Normally used by Farmers to wind up Tigers who think they can sit and wait by the fax machine, email, carrier-pigeon loft for their orders to come in. Money For Old Rope, this account management….

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Never Accept Beyond The Horizon

May 9, 2008 at 5:45 pm · Filed under rant, academy

During February, one of my cold-callers ecstatically informed me of a new first meeting they’d nailed into the diary. When I enquired as to the date, it turned out to be for 2 June. My excitement and attention quickly diverted elsewhere. I then realised that I must explain myself to the now rather forlorn figure in front of me.

March-April-May. A full 3 months separated us from the meeting date. I pointed out that there was as much chance of walking on the moon as this meeting going ahead. In my (sometimes bitter!) experience, when you arrange a meeting with a prospect for the first time, there is a specific window open for such new forum.

Most people will have fullish diaries for the next ten days or so. Gaining a meeting date with a stranger for around a fortnight hence can be an acceptable norm. Anything beyond that though, and wierd things creep into the way. I had to assure them to trust me, but meetings booked in for way off in the future always get canned. Always.

I suggested a remedy. Simply call the guy back up, and be honest. Explain that the meeting was doomed and could we perhaps bring the date forward. I could tell this wasn’t a manoeuvre that appealled to my cold-caller. A week or so later, contact was re-made, the new conversation had. The response wowed my guy. After the initial explanation, the prospect agreed straight away and started to empathise. A new date, much closer to ‘now’, was dutifully confirmed.

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We’re Now On Two Point Zero

April 23, 2008 at 8:29 am · Filed under academy

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

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salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Archive for academy

+15% Credit Crunch Impact

Implementation Hand-Holding

3-Phase El-Pitch

Remember The Business Case

The ‘Any News Yet?’ Call

F innelle

E zee

D ‘lightful

Never Accept Beyond The Horizon

We’re Now On Two Point Zero

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