How to make the PA your sales ally

Personal Assistant - friend or foe?

Anybody who is reaching out to prospects at C Level in large organisations knows that they are going to be talking to many more Personal Assistants and secretaries than senior executives. However, even very clever sales campaigns can fail to adequately take this into consideration.

I have spent hours and even days in campaign planning mode with clients, devising the message and the materials to make a C Level campaign effective, including carefully worded emails, Pdfs and conversation guides (or scripts as others call them).

The preparation means we are clear on the proposition to be communicated, the benefits to be highlighted and the objections we may encounter. The message has been tailored to the audience by vertical as well according to their job title, or functional area. The only problem is that in most cases that same message is going to be delivered by a third party, someone who very often does not get factored into the equation.

The key success factor in most sales campaigns is actually getting to talk to the people that we need to talk to. For those of us who need to sell to the top, as opposed to the middle, or the bottom of the organization, access to the right people depends on our success in communicating with an audience that our well chosen C Level message, or script was never written for – that is the PA.

Treat the PA as your friend and ally.

Here is the issue, we spend hours training a telemarketing person, or role playing a telesales script, all the time ensuring that the person making the calls has sufficient product knowledge and understanding to confidently engage the prospect in a conversation. However, our success so often depends on our message being communicated third hand by a PA and in a way that may be completely outside of our control.

Our sophisticated message may be reduced to a simple ‘Gavin called from ACME Ltd they sell software solutions, if he rings back will I put him through?’ That is unless we make it easy to communicate our message in the way that we want.

The PA is the gateway to C Level, the essential conduit for our message. That means its needs to be distilled so as to ensure that it can easily be passed on to the manager (whether by a full time PA or a temp) and still remain intact. By necessity it has to be a simpler and more pointed message, one that is not aimed at selling your proposition, but on selling the reason why the C Level manager should listen to you.

Tips on how to turn the PA into your sales ally :

1. Respect the PAs position, ask her, or him what is the best way of getting information to the boss, ask when is a good time to call, ask her if she wouldn’t mind passing it on, ask perhaps if she knows whether he, or is actually the best person to receive it?
   
   
2. Don’t pressurize and try not to sound like a sales person. Be friendly and polite. Get the person’s name, keep it and use it. Make a note of any conversations, together with how friendly the person was and comments they may have made (e.g. a reference to future holidays, etc.). When you call back refer to your previous conversation, so that you don’t seem as a stranger.
   
   
3. Remember you are not trying to sell to her, or even to her boss. Your objective is simply to exchange some useful information (which in turn can lead you closer to selling).
   
   
4. Provide a reason why she should pass on your message, or your email. Your objective is to communicate how what you have to say could be of benefit to the manager and to assure her that you are not going to be a nuisance (i.e. sales) call if you do get put through. So ask yourself how could the manager lose out if he, or she does not talk to you, or read your information.
   
   
5. Respect the position of her boss too, saying for example ‘John is probably very busy, but I thought this information might be of value to him because…’
   
   
6. Use your material as a crutch. If it has been crafted properly your material can communicate your proposition and why it is of relevance more effectively than the PAs third party interpretation of what you have said. The objective should be to ask the PA to put the item on the manager’s desk and see if he/she is interested. So, say you want to pass on some information and explain why it is useful. Of course, you are redistributing the weight of effort onto the email, or letter you are going to send, so it will take a lot of work and experimentation to get it right.
   
   
7. Gentle persistence. You don’t earn the right to get put through on the first call, or maybe even the second. However, keeping in touch with the PA over time means that your name becomes recognizable and your contact will build up a head of steam.
   
   
8. There are many other techniques, but in my opinion many of which are more trick than technique. Here is one that is legitimate however - if you are sending an email, or a letter, than it can be useful to put a note on its saying that you will call. That means you can legitimately say to the PA ‘I promised Mr X I would give him/her a call’ which may in turn distinguish it from a cold call. Others include calling early and late, as well as during standard holidays, times when the executive may be in but the PA is not.
   
   
9. Experiment and try different things. If your particular message of the present does not resonate and deliver the success you need, then next quarters’ could have a different effect. That again reinforces the importance of adopting a keep in touch mindset.
   
   
10. Engage in a little chit chat and be personable, this is the sure way to make sure that out of the many salespeople that the Personal Assistant talks to today, or this week, you will be the one remembered.
    
    
11. If you really want to talk to the manager, then try calling slighly outside the normal office hours when the PA is not at his/her desk, for example calling at 8.40am as opposed to 9am, or 5.35pm as opposed to 4.30pm.

I asked for a view from North America on how to make the executive assistant your ally. What are successfull marketers doing there to tackle this issue. Pretty much the same thing, here is the advice of Steve Lightstone the President of C Level leads generator to many big name vendors, Corner Office Leads:

''Earn her trust instantly by setting her at ease, letting her control the process. Right away, let her know that you won’t go around her, you won’t approach her executive directly and you will work through her. Her primary role is to protect her executive from unsolicited outreaches from outsiders like you, but she also lets some through. When she knows her executive is protected she’ll become your Guide, not your Gatekeeper. Differentiate yourself from all the others by your approach.''

Good advice Steve, it sounds like the same sophisticated approach is required on a global basis.

Getting Ready To Start Prospecting

The need to start prospecting

Things start happening when people pick up the phone and start talking to prospects and customers. It is as simple as that.

Indeed, when the market is tough, that calling becomes more important than ever. That explains why it is the focus of so many articles we have written. Most organisations are not calling enough potential customers, or doing it in as systematic manner as is necessary.

The bottom line is they find it tough, with most salespeople creatively avoiding it in many ways. The lack of prospecting is the number one complaint area for many sales managers. When outside telemarketing agencies are used the results too are often disappointing. The solution to both these problems is more preparation.

Preparation falls into two categories

I started my career making approximately 50 telemarketing calls a day. In a way I was well trained and quickly learned the importance of preparation for any campaign. That generally meant physical preparation, such as:

• Deciding who and how many will be called, what the objective of the campaign (metrics, etc.) is and how long it will last, number of days to allocate, setting review dates, etc.
  
• Building the list
• Writing out and re-writing what you are going to say, until you are happy with it
  
• Writing out questions you are likely to be asked and your answers to them
  
• Practicing what you are going to say and how you are going to say it
  
• Formulating a list of questions you are likely to be asked, or barriers that arise and answers to them
• Preparing your list of questions / information you want to gather on the call
• Deciding what you will say to the PA and what voicemail message if any you will leave (if any)
  
• Gathering product/industry knowledge
• Deciding what you will send if somebody wants more information, or what web page to point them to
  
• Preparing the list – agreeing the criteria, finding the names, numbers, ensuring that the company has not suscribed to any 'do not call' list (e.g. TPS in the UK), etc.
  
• Doing your homework on the persons and the companies to be called
  
• Using a database, or a spreadsheet to track your calls
• Allocating time, including uninterrupted slots in your diary for calling
• Determining what supporting marketing activity, such as direct mail, will be employed
• Undertaking a pilot (a couple of days of calling in order to test the approach and its effectiveness) before ramping up activity

Psychological Preparation

Less obvious and equally important is the mental preparation required for calling prospects. All too often that gets forgotten about. Yet it is the single most important factor that determines long term success and failure. In particular it is key to the ability to sustain sales prospecting activity, beyond the initial burst of enthusiasm.

I believe 80% of the success in sales prospecting is psychological, here are some of the factors:

• Focus on the goal. You can do anything if you believe it is important enough.
  
• Practice and prepare, it will make you feel more comfortable and confident. Write out what you are going to say – it is comforting to have the information beside you.
  
• Jump straight in – don’t put it off till tomorrow. Launch bravely – just get started. Allocate a slot of time each day or each week and when that is over you can feel good about it. Free yourself from interruptions (block incoming calls, close your email application, etc.). Reward yourself when you are done.
  
• Start small and then grow from there – set realistic expectations (both about the results, the number of calls and the time you can allocate to it) – remember It is a marathon not a sprint
  
• Remember it is an information call, not a sales call. So, have something useful to say, or some information to share (focus on what is in it for the buyer). Your objective is not to sell it is simply to call – to gather and share information. In that way every call is a result and every hour of calling is a success.
  
• Remember you cannot mess it up and you cannot fail (unless you give up). After all what is the worst thing that can happen? That somebody says they are not interested?
  
• If they are not interested then no worries, your job was just to provide them with information and tell them about your company (anyhow they may change their mind later you never know)
  
• Let the averages work for you - remember you don’t have to talk to a manager in every company you contact, and you don’t have to get a positive reaction from every manager you talk to, it may work out to be 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 or some other rate of interest, no worries that is fine. Once you know the average you know exactly what you need to do. The focus becomes the 20 not the one.
  
• Go home happy once you have done your calls, regardless of the outcome, then the next day ask if there is anything that you could have done any differently. But persist regardless.
• List the calls you make each day and count them. Feel good about it. Each call is a result.
  
• Eventually you will talk to somebody that is interested, you will gather useful information, you will build awareness of your company, you will add to your skills/resilience, so keep going. Make one more call, that could be the opportunity you have been waiting for. All the time remember that you are planting seeds today that will grow over time
  
• You don’t have to talk the buyer into buying (very few high value B2B products are sold over the phone), your job is to provide him/her with useful information and to arrange a future conversation (or other appropriate follow-up)
  
• Remember this is the beginning of a relationship; it is not just about one call. The next call will be easier as he/she will remember you.
  
• Don’t rush to judgment; don’t make a hasty assessment of success or failure based on the first few calls, or the first few days of calls. Give it time and switch off the internal conversations fortelling failure in the meantime. Too many campaigns are afflicted by premature and ongoing postmortems. Remember you only fail when you give up. Success lies in keeping the activity going. In that way results are inevitable. If the results dont come in time, then be stoic - perhaps the outcome is telling y0u to change your strategy, or approach.
  

More psychological preparation

• It sounds obvious but dont assume that the person you are calling will be interested. Don't be afraid to start of by saying 'i am not sure if this is something that might be of interest to you, but...'.
• See yourself on the same level as the person you are talking to and dont see yourself as interruption.
  
• Act confident and you will be confident. So before each call, sit up, take a deep breath, raise your shoulders and smile. The speak slowly, clearly and confidently. All this will make you feel more confident.
  
• Have a genuine interest in the other person. That is you genuinely want to pass on some information that will be off value, or encourage him/her to explore a solution to a problem.
  
• Speak more slowly than normal, in that way you won’t have to worry about your accent and being understood. It will also make you sound more confident and professional.
  
• Smile, it will come across to the person you are talking too (strange I know, but it has been proven to work).
  
• Don’t take any rejections personally. Remember occasionally you will talk to a grouch, or somebody who is just having a bad day.
  
• Remember the last time you got a call, how did you feel?
  
• Respect the persons time:
  - Don’t assume they will be interested – in fact tell that you are not sure if it is relevant to them
  - Don’t assume that they have time to talk to you, or that you have called at a good time
  
• Don’t put down the phone – make the next call. Keep calling - the call you did not make is the call that might have got you that result you wanted
• Set a time for call, preferably a slot earlier in the day, when you will make your calls, without interruption. When that time is up, you can move on to the next task feeling good about having completed what you had set to do. It is useful to set a pattern to your work, for example calling on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, thereby reinforcing the habit.

2 Tips to make your calls more effective

Today I was role playing for a telemarketing campaign to C level executives in major UK financial institutions. Last quarter’s message has run its course and it was time for a new message - one that is more in keeping with the present market environment.

We are now at version 4 of the new telemarketing script (actually, we prefer to use the term conversation guide) and with a bit of minor tweaking and changing should be ready to go.  

Just as the role play concluded with the Sales Director and Sales Manager listening in, two important points were raised that although simple can contribute in an important way to success:

1. Ask ‘do you have a minute, is now a good time?’

Before launching into the message don’t forget to ask the person on the other end ‘do you have a minute, is now a good time?’  Now in telemarketing school they say never ask this question, because it makes it easy for the customer to say no and as a consequence will multiply your workload in terms of call backs. 

However, in the world of executive to executive selling it is important to clearly differentiate yourself from the stereotypical ‘I got you’ seller who is pushy and interrupts.   What better way than to ask straight up ‘it will take two, or three minutes, is now a good time?’

The reality is that by asking the question you are likely to be asked to call another time in probably 33% of the cases.  However, this extra workload is more than justified because in addition to making your look more professional, calling back at a more convenient time will also make your call more effective.  Quite simply it means that the person on the other end of the line will be better able to listen and appreciate what you have to say. 

2. Make sure you have some good questions to ask.  

The objective of the call may be to get an appointment, but the effectiveness of that appointment often depends on what information you have been able to gather in advance regarding the needs and priorities of the prospect.

Now, there are two factors at play in terms of why most telemarketing calls are more of a monologue than a dialogue.  The first is that it is difficult to get the potential customer to open up or say much over the phone.  The second is that the person making the call needs to have sufficient knowledge, confidence and training to be able to ask questions and understand the answers.  However, at a very minimum the salesperson should know before calling on the customer a little about what areas the customer is particularly interested in, what he or she would like to get out of the meeting and whether anybody else in the organization should be there.

How to access 1000s of new trusted contacts using Linked-In

You have often heard it said that what matters ‘is not what you know, but who you know’. Yet, few people consider themselves to be good at networking. But, social networking once the reserve of teenagers, has reached the business world providing business networking with a real shot-in-the-arm.

Everybody has heard of the 6 degrees of separation – the notion that there are only 6 people between you and anybody that you could want to contact. Now Linked-In, the professional equivalent of Facebook and Beebo, shows business people that they are better connected than they think.

Linked-In is essential for every professional – whether they want to find new customers, build their professional profile, find out about a company, recruit staff, or look for a new job. Moreover it is by-in-large free. Today it has 38 million members and growing, in over 200 countries around the world.

It enables most people to effortlessly double, triple and quadruple the number of contacts to which they have access. In fact it will quickly provide access to 1000s of new trusted contacts. I use the word 'trusted' because unlike cold calling, these people are linked to you by somebody they have worked with, studied with, or done business with in the past.

Thereby it really accelerates business development, moreover because it involves leveraging established past and present; friends, colleagues, clients, etc. it is much easier and more effective than cold calling.

Getting Started with Linked-In

Here is how it works:

1. Sign-up for free and enter your career and educational history – it is a little like preparing your CV, only that you are guided step by step online.

2. As you build your profile you will be presented with other members who have worked in the same companies and studied in the same institutions (at the same time). You can choose to link yourself to them. When you do they will receive an email asking them to accept a link from their profile to yours.

3. You can import your contact list from Outlook (or another source) to Linked-In and that will result in an even longer list of people to whom you might also be linked. Again you can select any of the automatically generated contacts and they will then receive an email requesting the link to you.

4. There are two things that determine the strength of your profile on Linked-In; how many connections (or links) you have to others, as well as how many recommendations you have received. The latter is a direct result of how many others you give recommendations to, and how many your revive in return. This aspect is pretty well controlled, before a recommendation from another appears on your profile you will get to view and approve it.

5. As seen below you will very quickly have access to thousands of new contacts via your network. Here is an example of the statistics you will be able to view, including where people in your network are located and what sectors they belong to.

6. If you want to sell to a new company, for example Company XYZ, then you can search for the company and see if there is somebody in that company that either you know directly, or that you know through somebody else. You can then view their profile and contact them by email. You can also contact a certain number of people directly even if you don’t have any links (that is part of the paid service). When you contact the person they will receive an email notification to their email inbox and can also pick up the details next time they log into Linked-In.

7. You will have both a personal and a private profile on Linked-in – that way you get to decide who can see what. For example, if somebody searches for you in Google there is a good likelihood your public profile will appear. But, some aspects of your profile can be kept private to only those that are linked to you can see.

8. You can join groups on topics that are of interest (e.g. ERP software) whereby you can share thoughts and opinions with other members. You may be interested in groups in particular that your potential customers might be interested in.

9. Put Linked-In in your internet favorites (if you use Firefox you can download an extension that integrates it with your browser’s menu) and make visiting the site a habit. It is useful to know that you can set notifications of new contacts, emails and recommendations you have received to get them all just once a week (as opposed to receiving them by email as they arrive). You can add a link back to your Linked-In profile to your email signature, your personal bio anywhere it appears on the web.

Mining Your OUTLOOK Contact Book

All set to start panning for gold among your network of contacts? That means renewing old contacts and establishing new ones among your; past customers, existing customers, leads and enquiries, former colleagues, old colledge chums, etc.

The first step is to pull together a list of everybody you know. A great place to start is by exporting your outlook contact book. Thankfully, that is a lot easier than you think.

Many companies and managers have a vast untapped information resource - that is the various address books of contacts contained on every PC. This short piece describes how to get at them so that they can be systematically nurtured in respect of business development.

The Import and Export Wizard in Outlook makes it easy to export contact information from Outlook into an Excel worksheet. To guide you through the steps we have reproduced Microsoft's instructions here for:

- Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003

- Microsoft Outlook® 2002

- Microsoft Office Excel 2003

- Microsoft Excel 2002

While there may be a number of address lists available to you in outlook (eg. global or company-wide address book), only your contacts can be exported directly from Outlook to Excel.

1. In Outlook, on the File menu, click Import and Export.

2. Click Export to a file, and then click Next.

3. Click Microsoft Excel, and then click Next.

4. In the folder list, click the Contacts folder, and then click Next.

5. Browse to the folder where you want to save the contacts as an Excel file (.xls).

6. Type a name for the exported file, and then click OK.

7. Click Next.

8. Tailor the Excel file to your needs, for example you may add columns such as:

- how important each contact is (e.g. A, B or C)

- The priority associated with each contact / when each is to be contacted

- Date of last contact

- Next action (what is the next action with each contact) and a date for this action

- Status (e.g. left message, sent email, talked to, etc.)

- Rating (e.g. level of interest unknown, possible future interest, wants to meet, etc.)

- Notes (some record of any conversations, background information, etc.)

That is it! Your outlook contact book is now in a format that allows you to plan and track your business development activity against that list.

Bid Losses Offer Clue to Sales Effectiveness Opportunities

The loss of a number of recent bids had heightened competitiveness concerns among the sales team of a leading IT services company.  This was compounded by fears regarding a general economic slowdown.

However it is precisely in depressed markets and among down-spirited sales teams that a focus on sales effectiveness can produce the greatest results.  In particular two key opportunities to increase sales effectiveness were identified:

1.   1.  The sales team was over reliant on proposals to sell.   Most proposals were prepared after an initial short meeting with the customer, or following a phone call or email enquiry.   As a result proposal success rates were low, with limited information gathering / needs analysis, or prequalification before submission and no gauging reaction to price.

2.      2. Hampered by an insufficient flow of sales leads – reps were responsible for generating all their own leads, as a result less than 10% of their time was spend meeting new customers, with just one new customer being met each week by each rep.

In respect of proposals new criteria regarding when they are to be prepared and a policy of greater interaction with buyers before submission reduced the number of proposal generated, but dramatically increased win rates.  

Added to a telemarketing campaign to generate leads and increase the number of prospects being met, the result was a 22% increase in sales growth.  

Sales Avoidance Tactics

We have all got them – that is reasons to delay making that cold call, following up on that lead, or visiting that prospect.

Don't feel like making that call today? Well you are not alone! Jeff Thull in his book 'Selling Excellence' quotes research suggesting that 90% of sales people have some degree of sales call reluctance, with 40% having sever reluctance.

A nice term for them is Sales Avoidance Tactics – attending a management meeting, preparing a report, submitting an expenses claim, sending emails, etc.– all tasks that compete with sales activities for our attention.

No sales person is reluctant to collect the cheque, or co-sign the sales order – it is other parts of the sales process , in particular, lead generation that people run from. Specifically, the number one area of reluctance is cold calling (about which you find lots of information elsewhere in this blog).

So, you are not alone. But, knowing that won't get the job done. Sooner or later (and preferably sooner) a bit of 'just do it' is required. So launch yourself bravely, with your goal in mind, and get stuck in.

Remember, if you do the hard jobs first the easy jobs will take care of themselves.

Start small and start easy. Pick the people you feel most confortable approaching first and block some slots from your diary. Have all your preparation (including list, call guide, email, etc.) and practice (role playing) done and find out about the person and company before you call looking for a common link, connection, or topic of conversation. Then take the phone up and dont leave it down till you are done.

Remember as Dale Carengie said ‘Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it... that is the quickest and surest way every yet discovered to conquer fear.’