salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

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 objection handling workshop over brekkie this morning.  And would you credit it, a new objection has landed!  Well, of course that’s impossible, as there are never new objections.  In fact, every single product can only ever come across a handful.  And price is not an objection either, but that’s another matter…

The new-to-us barrier today was “I’ve seen your website and I’m not interested thanks”.  We sell stuff that thankfully no-one else has cottoned on to.  When you link this fact to the knowledge that buyers are liars, the inescapable truth is that they probably haven’t looked at the website at all.  So, the challenge is to get around this fact, without the prospect losing face, ie: not exposing them as fibbers just to fob us off quick quick.

After a touch of empathy about them having to sift through loads of info I’m sure and re-affirming our uniqueness, we smoothly present our key line, “…so what specifically was it you read that made you think it wasn’t for you?”

Wriggle out of that one as you douse the frantic flames from your trousers.  Whichever way it goes, you should earn the right to re-pitch and re-close.

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.

A truly fascinating concept I’ve just been introduced to is critical to a rep’s success.  Prospect Theory was uncovered in 1979 by two psychologists keen to explain economic decision making (Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky).  Their findings were simply that people are less likely to do something that allows for potential gain, yet more likely to get into gear if that something means stemming losses.

Plenty of examples abound.  The most common appear to revolve around gamblers and share traders.  Gamblers are inclined against cutting their losses and will continue to take ever greater risk to get back to even, and tend to cut and run when just into profit.  Share dealers sell quick when a stock goes into the black, yet seem to hold on to shares that have dived into the red.

Another neat insight concerns a study of New York taxi drivers as shown on the BBC science show Horizon (12 Feb 08).  They seem to have a target for what they must earn in a day.  On a ‘fast’ day, they make their target fares early, then go home.  But on a slow day, they stay out till all hours trying to reach their number.  When logically, they’d be better off staying out longer on the fast day.

Not only does Prospect Theory suggest we’re more focused on ameliorating losses, some studies apparently suggest that losses hurt more than gains satisfy, twice as much in fact.

The implications of this are seismic for the seller.  Notice my title for this blog.  I would have normally written something akin to ‘open up more doors with…’.  I chose instead to use a negative.  The theory goes that more readers will therefore tuck in.

My personal repping at present is focused on how I can help lead a sales team to a prosperous land of milk and honey.  I shall now be altering my pitches.  From today, I’ll start to talk about the impact of all the time they’re chucking away, needlessly wasting, and all the sales opportunities that are going begging, lost forever.

It kind of goes against all that I’ve ever learned.  I’m a very positive person, never resting on bad vibes.  Yet the facts are compelling, and suggest a new approach will keep me from losing sales.  (see what I did there…!)

Spent an enjoyable afternoon in the company of an old pal of mine watching the Rugby.  He’s scaled dizzying heights bean counting for one of the world’s largest retail luxury brands.  He got to telling me about a future cash flow pinch he’s luckily uncovered.  The forecast for stock was €10m.  Over the past 9 months, the actual figure per month was €20m.  How on earth can such a fundamental figure be out by such a huge factor?  He asked around.  The person responsible for final calculations said they’d simply taken the previous year’s stock figure, and added a sensitivity of 20%.  Not unreasonable, yet still way out.

So what insight does that give us sellers?  Well, the first thing to note is that even billion-dollar firms can’t forecast for toffee  

Secondly, how often do we truly use our forecasts as a qualification tool in front of prospects?  Early in my sales career I was encouraged to use the approach of ‘listen, mate, I’ve got you on my forecast, is that a good idea?’  But I never really felt comfortable with this, as why should the prospect care about something so me-centric?

Yet refining this with the message of my mucker’s experience introduces a cracking angle.  Forecasting (I’m sure your prospect will concur) after all, is a vital business function.  Imagine the consequences in your firm if a key budget number was out by double….  Add to the melting pot the fact that prospects love talking about things that would take place post-sale and you get the obvious conclusion you can talk professionally about your forecast with them.

What key resource needs to be marshalled after the ink’s dry for you?  How can you introduce the fact that there clearly, understandably is a scarcity of such resource.  So like all proper business planners, we need to know in advance what’s being shepherded where.  (Another obvious avenue concerns lead-time constraints of pretty much anything).

Chat like this will help uncover both the seriousness and urgency of your prospect.  I regularly used a similar approach in my software days, albeit in more of an ‘everything must go’ style.  As I successfully used to flush out antipathy or encourage enthusiasm by stating we only had a finite number of implementation engineers and as some could be booked up for weeks in advance, isn’t it best to book your delivery slot sooner rather than later, mister prospect?

Such a tactic can take you half-way there.  Adding in business savvy of forecast requirements so all paying clients get platinum treatment can complete the journey.

It’s funny sometimes how patently unconnected experiences can smash together to give you a selling idea.  Just before lunch I received a cold call.  Someone was trying to peddle some server cabinets.  Normally I wouldn’t have to field such overtures, but my main man in Cape Town is taking hols for paternity support – congrats Steph! – so the call fell to me.

“Do you need any server cabinets?” No thanks, I replied (although I don’t exactly know what a ‘server cabinet’ is, I’ve a pretty good idea we don’t need one!)
“Do you know anyone that wants some?”  No, have a good day.  Call over.

As I then drove to pick up some shoes being mended at the local cobblers, this conversation haunted me a touch.  Granted, S Africa and the vanguard of commerce rarely go hand-in-hand, but even still, who on earth is managing/training this guy to cold call?  I was still day-dreaming about how I would have approached the conversation (too long on detail to scribe on here!) when I had to escape the searing late November heat to grab a juice.  I found shelter in one of those cafes-in-a-bookstore set-ups.

The magazine shelves made it easy to distinguish local and international titles.  The golf ones were nearest me, with Ernie Big Easy Els peering ahead from one with the headline “40 great golf ideas”.  It was about trips.  Given my weekend trot ‘round Steenberg for a cheeky Nine (awesome course, despite my rustiness), I thought what a bugger, if only it was about 40 tips.  The kind that could save you a shot on every round to improve my game.

Then the thought smacked me, what if I could give my telesellers 40 tips on handling cold calls.  The kind of list that could, every single day, ensure one extra success than presently experienced.

I remember being at an office supplies company in the mid-90s where each telesales person had two yellow stickies, one either side of their screen.  The one had a list of the most popular 10 products, the other the most recent 6 special offers.  The idea was to make sure that when the buyer was about to wrap up, they always said “by the way…” before pitching whichever of these 16 seemed most appropriate to the call just had.  They made boat-loads more sales through this.

Maybe 40 is too much given this, so I thought of creating a Quickfire 5.  I can build upon training I’ve recently been party too, which means my set would be less about process, and more slanted towards winning lines.  So whilst not a definitive list you’ll get the idea from these, albeit with some confidential data removed:

1. This call’s about ______. If this appeals to you at the end we can agree to meet….
2. What are your current plans around _____?
3. How much time does it take to ______?
4. How about we work out your savings during 20 minutes sitting down together ….?
5. Which suits you best, next week or the week after?

Waiting in a reception I turned towards the back of the FT lying there for a quick business related morsel.  The book review greeted me of a fella with decades of industry-shaping experience on ’strategy and resource allocation’; Joseph Bower.  Strangely absent from my business school syllabus, I read on intrigued about this Harvard prof.

His thoughts here turn to ensuring effective leadership succession.  The killer quote for me has a wonderful tip for those running sales teams.  Leaders for him face “3 core tasks:

1. judging where the world is headed,
2. identifying the company’s talent, and
3. engaging that talent“

I was immediately struck by how applying such framework to your current sales management plans would be an absolute winner.  Especially when you present it to your boss in this way….

The future can be shaped by your own product developments, consumer behaviour changes, prospect touch policies and competitive forces.  I.D-ing talent could involve an audit of your charges and what you plan to do to keep them performing or improve.  And engaging that talent could look into elements like incentivisation and recognition ideas, career paths, sales support structures, training and their self-actualisation.  Brilliant.

Speaking with one of my client’s reps yesterday, he gave me insight into what worked for him when selling insurance in a previous life in his native America.  One of his favourite questions at the very start was

“if you were designing your own solution, what would you have in it?”

He reckoned this worked well as it made the prospect think.  All too often they’re used to reps coming and pitch pitch pitching away.  It’s a neat qualification tool in one sense, to see how much thought they may have applied to it.  It’s also a great way to uncover requirements and needs.  And of course it’s always better to have them talking more than you do.

I came across a cracking piece of best-practice yesterday talking to a customer of mine that helped the fella selling IT gain a jump over his rivals to win a 40k deal.

The prospect had used their kit in the past, but had little if any loyalty.  Suspecting he was second in a two-horse race, he said to the decision-maker:

“I don’t feel I know enough about your business to be able to add any benefits or value to what you’re hoping to achieve”. 

The response was simply surprise, as no-one had ever said that to the prospect before.  The seller continued along the lines of,

“if you’re going to put a report on the MD’s desk then I feel you’d need more than what you currently have”. 

This tack immediately enabled him uncover two major desires which ultimately made the difference between winning and losing.