The Complex Sale: Is there a conscensus among your team about what it requires?

The complex sale is exactly that - complex. End of article, next please. Only kidding of course.

While the issue seems obvious, we meet salespeople everyday whose actions suggest it is not so.  They following all the hallmarks of the stereo typical salesperson approaching the complex sale as if it they were selling office stationery, or double glazing.

So, we thought we would remind ourselves and all those reading of what exactly a complex sale is and the implications for the way we as sales professionals approch our job.

1. It’s about helping, not selling. Nobody wants to be sold to, but people always welcome help in solving their problems, or identifying how best to meet their needs.

2. It’s about solving problems, or exploiting opportunities, not selling products, or services. The customer is not buying products or solutions, nor is he buying just because he/she likes the company or the salesperson. He/she is buying to solve a problem, or exploit an opportunity within his business. The more the salesperson can help him/her do this the better.

3. It’s about listening, not talking. Forgetting this is the most common mistake made by salespeople. They don’t shut up long enough for the customer to tell them how they can be helped and convinced to buy the salesperson’s product, or service.

4. It’s about confidence on the part of the customer, not the salesperson. The stereotypical salesperson is super-confident, however the super salesperson focuses on building the customer’s confidence that his/her company will best meet their needs.

5. It’s about expertise, not salesmanship. That means the customer regards you as an expert, advisor, or specialist, not just a salesperson. It means you can expertly advise potential customers, from a position of knowledge regarding your products and services, as well as their business and industry.

6. It’s about benefits, not features. Despite long lists of features, brochures, ads and sales presentations often lack a compelling sales proposition, that:

• appeals on a rational, emotional and political level

• is tailored to decision makers/influencers within the target segment,

• is distinct from competitors

• supported by evidence

• presents a clear cost justification.

7. It’s about a process, not just a person. There is too much emphasis on the sales person and not enough on the sales process to match the company’s solution to the buyer’s needs and buying processes. That is a clear, logical and repeatable set of steps that correspond to how customers buy and involve many people in the sales organisation.

8. It is about helping the buyer to solve a problem, not closing a sale. If you do the former well, the latter almost takes care of itself. Most closing techniques that are more likely to close the door on a sale, than to close the sale itself. Regardless of how pressing an organisation’s sales targets may be, most buyers shut down, or at least slow down, at the hint of pushiness, or manipulation on the part of an overly eager sales person.


10. It’s about preparation and planning. Time in front of the customer is precious, so great sales people maximise its effectiveness through extensive pre-call; research, planning and preparation. See ‘Pre-call Preparation to Maximise Sales Success’.

11. It’s about fewer slides. Great sales people don’t make their customers endure long presentations, or power point presentations. And if they are required to give a presentation, they use fewer slides than most and listen as much, if not more, than they talk.

12. It’s about opportunities not objections. Great sales people welcome purchase objections from buyers. They recognise them as opportunities to better understand customer requirements and demonstrate how their solutions can meet them. They deal with them up front and have prepared for and rehearsed how best to answer.

13. It’s about enthusiasm! Enthusiasm is a rare, but priceless quality among salespeople. It is infectious, but cannot be easily mimicked. A sales person has got to believe in the product/service and company he/she is selling.

14. It’s about keeping in touch. The one meeting sale is an illusion, indeed most people that you will call on may not yet realise they have a problem, or need your solution. By maintaining ongoing contact (sending a useful article you reas, a white paper, passing on an introduction, etc.)

15. It is about long sales cycles anything from 3 to 6 to 14 months and more. It involves complex buying processes and large buying groups (that is 4-6 people involved in one way or another in the buying decision. It requires building relationships, credibility and trust, not just demonstrating competitive advantage.

Selling Higher: How it will both challenge and reward you

The reality is that in today's tough marketplace, the power to buy has been wrestled away from many middle and lower level managers. In budget strapped organisations only the most senior executives have the authority to make big buying decisions.

Although previosuly content to sign-off on the decisions, or recommendations of their lower level colleagues, senior executives are now actively involved in reviewing all key aspects of buying decisions and most importantly in the business decisions that are more ruthlessly driving them.

Selling higher, and by higher we mean to director, or C level (that is CTO, CEO, etc.), has its rewards, principally the prospect that your sales prospition will be embraced by the person (or people) that business priorities and budgets can as a result be changed in response to make it happen. However, it will also fundametally challenge your sales skills, approach and confidence.

READY TO CLIMB HIGHER?

In today’s organisations senior manager sign-off is required for the majority of buying decisions. Yet, many salespeople continue to sell to lower level managers in their target customer organisations. That means they spend precious time educating low-level managers who, while interested, simply don’t have the authority, or influence. The result is lower conversion rates and longer sales cycles.

Finding senior contacts in most databases is like looking for needles in a haystack. Just check through the pile of business cards in your drawer, the attendance list at a recent conference, or your database. For every senior executive you’ll find there are likely to be ten of a lower rank. That is because senior executives are too busy to go to most conferences, are reluctant to circulate their business cards and are least likely to be found on purchased lists.

It makes sense that the higher up you go in an organisation the more decision-making authority and influence a manager will have. Moreover everybody knows that it is much easier to work your way from the top down in an organisation, than the other way around.

The reality is that if we start at the junior ranks, our contact won’t have the power to influence or make purchase decisions. Furthermore 80% of the time, he or she probably won’t have the confidence or the credibility to refer us onwards to the person who can decide. So, if you start at the bottom, you probably won’t get to the top!

Job titles can be very confusing, but impressive sounding titles don’t necessarily mean the person you are talking to ‘calls the shots’ in respect of what you are selling. The fact that most people talk up their responsibility and influence doesn’t help. So, make sure you can map your contacts in their organisation and according to their role in the buying group.

WHAT WILL YOU NEED AT THE TOP ?

Most sales people believe that they could sell more if they could simply get in the door at the right level in key target accounts. However they are handicapped by the belief that ‘getting to the CEO, CTO, COO, CFO, etc. is almost impossible!’

Today’s senior managers are well buffered from salespeople. They see only a handful of trusted salespeople every month, read very little unsolicited mail and return very few voice messages. While, they may be receptive to courting from industry giants IBM, Google or Oracle, it is true to say that they can be particularly slow to engage with smaller new suppliers.

Our research in the United Kingdom suggests it is 50% more difficult to access C level (CEO, CFO, or CTO) executives in major UK companies compared to just five years ago. But that doesn’t mean it cannot be done.

It is possible even for an upstart company to put its message in front of the CEO, CFO, or CTO of any Fortune 500 company in the UK, or the US. However it will require a more sophisticated and systematic approach.

CAN YOU SURVIVE AT THE TOP?

However, access is not the only issue. After years of selling to the lower ranks, many sales people struggle to successfully engage with a C level manager. On one level it is a confidence issue, while on another it goes to the very heart of the salesperson's message and sales approach.

The air is thinner the higher up an organisation one goes and that means that the salesperson's features and benefits message won't survive very long - nor will the salesperson indeed.

The number one challenge at C level is not to appear as a salesperson. The task is to help, not to sell (although they are they both have the same end in mind).

Most salesperson cannot breath the necessary air into C level conversations. They can quickly get out of their depth in conversations about strategy, industry direction and so on. So, the typical salesperson must either become, or move aside for a business people who can sell - a peer of the prospect's that has the potential to become a trusted advisor.

Key to success is the ability to get the prospect to share his business strategy and objectives, adding valuable insights in the process and relating all of this to the solution that is being sold.

HOW MUCH EFFORT WILL BE REQUIRED TO GET THERE?

Review all the target companies and sales opportunities in your database and in particular the decision maker level for each. Identify the CEO, CEO, CTO as appropriate, for your company, searching out all the names and details. Research all of the target companies. Then send a letter and pick up the phone - as in so many other matters, fortune favours the brave and determined.

Our UK research suggests that if you dedicated yourself (or somebody else) fully to the task of making contact with senior managers, you should expect to talk to a CEO, CTO, COO, etc. every 1.6 to 2.8 days. Why the variation? Well, it depends on such factors as:

• How compelling the proposition is

• How well the proposition is communicated (often in just a matter of seconds by phone)

• The effectiveness of supporting collateral (letters, brochures, etc.)

• The value of reference sites, as well as your own brand name / recognition

• Quality, or appropriateness of the target list

• And, of course, the; skill, enthusiasm and professionalism of the person making the contact.

So now you can do the maths - calculating the number of days required to contact the first 10, or 20 senior managers from your target list. From there you can make assumptions regarding the proportion of those talked that might be interested (say 20%). It is clear that establishing contact and building relationships at senior level will require a significant commitment of time and resources. But to make that commitment pay, it will also require a plan.

SELLING HIGHER – SOME TIPS

Put a relationship management plan, or programme in place. Don’t just

pick up the phone once, or send just one letter, or email. Dedicate your team to a programme of ongoing and systematic contact with your target list. Send interesting articles, email customer case studies, invite the manager to events, do some networking, get introductions from mutual contacts, clip your recent PR and put it in the post, etc.

The first secret of going straight to the top and selling at senior levels is to put yourself psychologically on the same level as the executive you want to sell to. If you are going to sell to a CEO then you’ve got to see yourself as a CEO, or at least as important as the CEO you are talking to.

Don’t make apologies for taking up the manager’s time, for calling, or emailing. That puts you at an immediate disadvantage. You have got to feel that your reason for contacting the CEO, CTO, or CSO is important, as opposed to an interruption to his/her work. After the solution you are encouraging the CEO to explore has the potential to significantly impact on how he/she does he work and the results he/she gets.

See the gatekeeper as your friend! Most salespeople complain about PA and secretaries getting in the way of talking to key decision makers. However these same people can be your ally in reaching the top if they are approached in the right way. Recognise their power to influence what their manager sees and hears and help them to understand the potential value of your message to their boss.

CEO proof your message! When it comes to communicating with senior level managers bear in mind that time is precious and spans of attention are limited. That means that not only have you got to get your message across in double quick time, but you’ve really got to maximise its appeal too.

‘Tune into WIIFM’ that is ‘what is in it for him/her’ by defining how your solution help the executive directly, or indirectly cut costs, or increase revenues, etc, while looking good in the process.

Each executive likes to think that his, or her challenges are special, or at least different. So, tailor your sales proposition, or message, to each vertical sector you are targeting, as well as to each functional area involved in the decision (e.g. Financial Director versus IT director). Your pitch should sound something like this ‘we have done X, Y and Z (these being benefits relevant to the prospect) for A, B and C (those being company names familiar to the prospect) and I thought that it was something that you might be interested in finding out about’.

Look beyond this quarter, or even this year’s commission cheque. While most sales cycles take six plus months, the relationships that shape them take even longer to build. The investment in these relationships includes ongoing contact, the exchange of useful information, invitations to events and so on.

Webinars: Using Them To Advance Leads & Prospects

Webinars are a cost effective means of showcasing your company’ expertise and solutions, or are they? It is clear that they can play a role to plan in generating demand for your solutions by educating the marketplace, as well in generating, nurturing and progressing sales leads. However, they take more time and preparation than might be expected and unless they attract a quourum of attendees that investment could be a waste of time.

With that in mind here is a checklist to help you plan and deliver successful webinars, broken down under 3 heading - BEFORE, DURING and AFTER.

A. BEFORE - Planning for the success of your webinar(s)

1. What is the objective of the webinar? In addition to showcasing your company’s expertise and its solutions, what role will it play in the sales/marketing process for your company? Is it aimed at nudging a select group of sales prospects closer to a decision, building your relationship with existing customers, or generating additional sales leads?

2. What are your ambitions regarding the reach or scope of the event? Do you want it to appeal industry wide, or do you just want to invite existing customers, or sales prospects? If it is the former a lot more marketing and other preparation will be required and it may make sense to run it in conjunction with another organisation.

3. What is the desired audience of the webinar? Who do you want to attend? Make a target list from customers, partners and target companies. What companies, sectors and job titles do you want represented?

4. How is the webinar going to be promoted? Will you email, or write to customers about the event(s)? Will you promote it on your company’s web site, in its newsletter, as well as via partner, supplier and other industry websites listings and blogs? Can the event be promoted jointly to the membership of various industry and other bodies? What publicity opportunities are available via industry magazines and other publications?

5. Who should the speaker(s) be? Is the planned presenter sufficiently well-known, respected, expert and/or credible?

6. When is the ideal timing for the webinar?

• Make a list of possible dates and make sure they do not clash with other events.

• Pick dates that have a particular significance (e.g. in the lead up to the introduction of new legislation impacting on the industry, the anniversary of a key event, the announcement of a new product release, etc.).

• Integrate the event with your marketing programme.

• Give participants a choice of 2 dates, or times.

• Lunchtime can be a good time, but keep in mind different time zones.

• To maximise success, offer participants a series of dates and times to choose from.

Preparing for the success of the webinar

7. Have a clear structure and topic – a topic of real interest and timely relevance to the target audience. Maybe it is a problem faced by your industry, or an issue that is getting considerable attention in blogs, forums, or the press at the time.

8. Make your webinar interesting and relevant, not just at commercial for your company and its products. Make it more of a technical/professional briefing/update than a marketing pitch. Don’t over-plug your product, don’t bad mouth competitors, or make exaggerated and unsubstantiated claims.

9. In preparing your webinar content ask yourself what 3 things you want participants to remember when they leave the webinar. Then structure the material to deliver these key messages with impact. Tie your webinar’s content in with your marketing message, brand, product strategy and the unique selling points of your product/service. Make it specific to the audience,

10. Have a good title for the webinar, one that gets interest and attention:

• Frame the title in a way that clearly communicates to participants how they can benefit from participating in the webinar (e.g. The Implications of Recent Legislation for Your Business, Cutting Back-end Integration Projects Costs – new tools and techniques).

• In framing the topic you might focus on some controversial truism regarding your customer’s industry (e.g. Despite the claims most XYZs don’t deliver).

• Think of your webinar title in terms of a newspaper headline – does it get attention?

11. Set the right level in terms of how technical your webinar is going to be.

• Make it clear who your webinar is aimed at.

• You may deliver more than one webinar with different levels of technical complexity.

• Be careful to explain any technical terms used, or maybe provide a glossary to participants.

12. Rehearse the webinar with colleagues/others and get feedback. Time the trial webinar to ensure that you can comfortably stay within the promised time. Keep the webinar to 40 or 45 minutes. If it takes longer, explore how you can more effectively communicate your message, what material you can cut out, or plan a follow-on webinar.

13. Decide on a webinar tool, or service, such as Go to Webinar, or Bright Talk. Consider what dial-up number will you use (if any), making sure that a foreign access number will not put off some participants.

14. How much advice notice are you going to give participants? Send a series of carefully worded reminders to potential participants, including on the day, or morning before

15. Make registration simple, while you will want to capture information on those participating balance this with the likelihood that the more information you request the more you are likely to put people off. Include a privacy statement where you request information and in particular email addresses.

16. Decide if you want attendees to be visible to each other online (i.e. participants can see who else is attending).

17. Record the webinar, so that those not able to attend can view it later from a link on your website, or in an email. This facility is available as a part of most webinar services.

B. DURING - Delivering the webinar

18. Offer participants the opportunity to interact, ask questions, etc. Let them know if you want questions at the end, or through-out. Most webinar services provide an instant message facility. This can be the best way to get feedback however beware messaging can break your concentration.

19. Make your webinar a multimedia presentation – include pictures as well as text and make full use of imagery to communicate your message. Video clips can be good too, they will allow the presenter to catch his or her breath and ensure they are on track.

20. Not too many slides, with not too much text. Ensure a consistent style or layout throughout your presentation (in line with your corporate branding).

21. Avoid the use of superlatives and overstretched adjectives regarding your product, or service. If you want to brag about your product, do so through customer stories, case studies and customer/expert testimonials.

22. Here are some general tips for presenting a successful webinar:

• Start by introducing yourself and giving an overview of the webinar.

• Steer a middle ground between being formal and informal.

• Vary your tone of voice, speak slowly and in a pronounced fashion, avoid slang, etc.

• Imagine the people were in the room with you.

• Smile while you are talking (it actually makes a difference).

• Have a second monitor so you are aware of any time delays, etc.

• Use as many real world examples as possible.

• Have a holding screen for those who log in before the webinar begins.

23. Include a survey at the end of the webinar, this will enable you to measure level of interest, any questions, future topics, etc. Polls during the webinar will allow you to tailor the content based on participant input.

24. Plan a series of webinars – a logical progression and notify participants before the close of the next event. Invite participants to recommend the webinar to colleagues and others.

C. AFTER - post the webinar

25. Follow-up after the webinar, so as to get reaction and establish the level of interest, or sales potential. Forward the presentation, or relevant white paper with a thank you email, or call (which ever is more appropriate).

26. Conduct a post webinar review.

27. Have a clear next step in mind for any participants who are sales prospects.

28. Integrate with ther rest of your sales and marketing activity. That may include writing a whitepaper on the topic covered, include it in your newsletter, or simply using the feedback, or polls from webinars in your sales presentations, customer discussions.

Tips on Using Conference Calls To Advance Leads and Prospects

It is early in what could be a promising sales cycle, but before the buyer commits to engage, a teleconference call is arranged so as to determine if the sellers proposition is worth exploring.

The Temptation is to Tell and Sell.

Now, you could consider this to be just like any other telephone call and because you know your product inside out you don't see the call as presenting an unique challenges.

However, conveying all the hope and promise of your solution in a 30-40 minute call, when you don't know the people on the other end, or their needs, does require considerable communication skills and prepration.

In many ways a teleconference can be more demanding than a face to face sales call – the level of interaction is limited, communication is more difficult and it’s not so easy to gauge reactions. The temptation is to do a tell and sell on your product, expounding its features and benefits. However, take care - is that really what will compel the prospect to the take the next step in engagement, or allow you to gauge their sales potential.

Some Tips To Guide You.

Here is a checklist to help you ensure the success of teleconferences with sales prospects. It includes items of preparation for; Before, During and After the call.

A. Before the call

1. Confirm the meeting/teleconference/webinar and who is attending, if it has not been done already. It is useful to send reminders in advance of the session.

2. Do your research in advance so that you can tailor your solution to the audience, or the company. In the case of the latter it makes sense to do some web research to avoid spending a lot of time asking basic questions about the company.

3. Discuss the call with your technical, or pre-sales colleagues. If necessary, rehearse the call in advance and prior to its commencement envision a successful outcome. Allow sufficient time before the call to prepare.

4. Decide what you want the participants to remember when the call is over. That is the key message(s) you want to communicate. Ensure it relates to the major benefits of your solution.

5. Set an objective for the call – to get a clearer understanding of the potential need (and pre-qualify the opportunity), to secure an opportunity to explore the potential opportunity (in a subsequent call, or meeting)

6. Prepare in advance for any objections, or barriers you may encounter. Also decide what, if anything, you plan to send to participants after the call.

7. Have a clear next step in mind, should the opportunity prove worth advancing.

8. Decide if you are going to incorporate a slide show, or online demo as part of the teleconference by using a tool, such as; Go To Meeting, or Bright Talk.

B. During the call

9. Thank the participants for the teleconference. Agree in advance the objectives of the teleconference call.

10. Do more listening than talking.Listen to find out if the customer has any needs/problems and how your solution can meet them.

11. Make it clear that you are not selling, but rather inviting the prospect to explore if/how your product/solution can be of benefit to his/her company.

12. Make sure you create the impression of a successful, professional, established, and confident company. You may need to overcompensate for issues, such as; size, track-record, etc.

13. Don’t sell on the call, instead exchange information, explore the prospects need and how your solution might fit it. Don’t pressurise the prospect – give him/her space to think.

14. Tell stories of how your other customers have benefited from your solutions. Demonstrate credibility by highlighting recent projects, client successes, etc. Tangibilise the benefits of your solution and offer examples, or proof.

15. Demonstrate a genuine interest in the prospect's business by asking questions and showing that you have taken the time to gather some information on their company.

16. Be polite, friendly and highly respectful. Establish a rapport. Be careful not to come across as a know it all. Inject some enthusiasm and personality into the call - most calls are dull.

17. Speak slowly and in a pronounced fashion – this is important because we all have an accent even if we are not aware of it.

18. Manage the level of detail you want to get into with the prospect, avoiding too much detail at the outset and taking care to save something for later. The objective is not to thoroughly educate the customer, rather it is to tease and tantalise.

19. Agree a next step (send something, do something, etc.) and make the next step easy (without too much commitment on the part of the prospect).

20. Use Go To Meeting, Bright Talk or another tool, so that the prospect can view information online, if needed. Remember a picture tells a thousand words.

21. Have your list of questions to both engage and prequalify those participating.

22. At the end of the call summarise/recap on the discussion so as to confirm your understanding and clarify the next steps.

C. After the call

23. Record the essentials of the call in your prospect database.

24. Create an opportunity (in the database), if relevant, detailing the potential value, level of potential, etc.

25. Create a follow-up task (to send something, make a follow-up call, etc.) and set a date for its completion.

26. Enthusiastically follow through on the next action (documentation, webinar, meeting, technical assessment, etc.).

27. Keep in touch with the prospect regardless of the potential (things change within companies so even if there is no opportunity today, they maybe in the future).

28. Pass it back to presales if the opportunity dwindles.

Buyer-Seller Relationships: We Ask Dr. Phil for Advice

The straight talking TV psychologist Dr Phil Mc Graw would probably have a lot of say about the typical buyer-seller relationship. He might even go as far as calling some of them dysfunctional. After all, many buyer seller interactions are missing the following key ingredients:

· Open communication

· High levels of trust

· High levels of respect

Dysfunctional Buyer-Seller Relationships:

Using this 3 point score, what is the health of your relationships with those buyers in your pipeline? That is how do they rate in terms of:

1. Openness: Do you really have the full picture, or are buyers sometimes reluctant to share information with you regarding their true needs, or motivations? Are you sometimes economical with information, even the truth, when you feel wrong answer would lose the sale?

2. Trust: Do your buyers ever use the words trust and salesperson in the one sentence? Does the buyer see you as a trusted advisor, rather than a salesperson? Would you genuinely recommend a competitor’s solution to a customer if it was in that customers best interest?

3. Respect: Do you call up and launch into a sales pitch without asking if it is a good time for the buyer to speak? Have you noticed that many buyers view attack as the best form of defense against unwanted sales calls?

So, how was your score? Let us look at the buyer side first.

Toxic Relationships - Bad Experiences.

Most buyers say they have had bad experienced or at least unfulfilled promises when it comes to their past dealings with salespeople. This unfortunate reality does a great disservice to the growing cadre of professional salespeople who stand head and shoulder above their pushy cold calling colleagues.

However, there are two sides to the buyer-seller relationship equation. The reality is that sellers don’t necessarily bring out the best in buyers, nor visa versa. The buyer who fobs off a salesperson with a request for a proposal, instead of an honest ‘no’ is as guilty as the seller who promises what cannot be delivered.

The Hand off Approach to Buying is on the Rise.

Buyers are risk adverse and sales skeptical. Increasingly, they want to buy, but not to be sold to. This is manifest in a more hand off approach, such as:

· More buyers are delaying seeing a salesperson until buying criteria has been set. With unparalleled access to information, buyers are no longer reliant on salespeople to educate and inform them. They can get the information they need when they need it from sources such as the web and analysts – sources which they see as more objective sources and less pressurizing sources.
· Sellers are asked to deliver a sales presentation, rather than a two way discussion, or worse still to deliver a proposal before interaction has taken place. More and more conversations are taking place when the salesperson has left the room.
· Formal processes, such as RFIs, key the salesperson at arms length with strict rules regarding access to decision makers, or even information. These processes successfully keep buyer – seller interaction to a minimum.

It is a lose-lose situation for buyers and sellers.

But are buyers any better off as a result? Are better buying decisions necessarily going to result? The answer is in many cases no. In fact, this approach, which I believe, underestimates the extent to which the B2B sales profession has evolved, only compounds the issue of trust, respect and communication.

Buyers who are withdrawing from their interactions with salespeople, require that sellers who have less information to hand make more guesses regarding buyer needs. It also means that the seller does not have the opportunity to share the learning of their other customers, or to uncover needs or implications of which the buyer may not have been aware. They are forced to describe their solution and its implementation in a standardized 30 page document, without being able to fully elaborate on all aspects of their solutions, or reflect the precise needs of the customers. The fact that most RFPs are a cut and paste exercise for sellers has to have implications for the extent to which buyers are getting the best solutions for their needs.

Dr. Phil’s Relationship Counseling Advice

Rather than treating all salespeople as lepers, buyers need to be able to between sales people who can impact positively on their buying process and the rest. For their part, sellers have to focus more on helping buyers to buy, as opposed to selling their solutions and must seek to earn the coveted position of trust advisers. And if you are in a toxic relationship then ‘get real’ either work on it, or get out fast. Dr. Phil could not have put it better.

‘Am I wasting my time with this account?’ Some techniques to help you find out.

The more time you have invested in a sales cycle the more determined you are to close the deal. The danger

however is that you can easily cross the point of no return, becoming blind to signals that perhaps the buyer is not really that keen, becoming increasingly reluctant to hear a ‘no’ answer and resistant to prequalifying the buyer in case the answer suggests you are wasting your time.

A ‘no’ is not a problem if it comes early, that is before the salesperson has had to invest too much time in meetings, follow-ups, proposals, etc. So it makes sense to make it easy for the customer to say no at any stage of the sales process.

That ‘no’ can take a number of forms, for example ‘no not quite’, ‘no not at all’, ‘no at this time’. It will either redirect your effort towards a yes, or point you in the direction of finding your next potential customer elsewhere. Either way – ‘yes’ or ‘now’ you will be better off with an answer.

Take away your solution.

So, here a good technique to use to ensure that you are selling to a buyer who is interested and able to buy, it is what is called ‘taking away the solution’. Here is how it works, you have been selling your solution to the customer and suddenly you realize that perhaps he, or she is not as ‘gun ho’ about what you are selling, as you thought. You want to put their commitment to the test so you say something like this:

‘You know I was thinking, and I am not sure if I am right, but…’’ and you continue with a sentence such as any of the following:

…there seems to be a lot happening your company at the moment perhaps there are more immediate priorities…

…maybe the problem is not as great, or as urgent as maybe I though…

…maybe this is not the right time for you to be making this decision…

…perhaps a different approach would suit your business…

Then you wrap up with a ‘…what do you think?’

Then you shut up. You have preempted a no by the customer, providing him with an easy out and even offering to open the door for him, or her on the way. The reaction will either be, ‘yes I think you are right’ and it is clear that it is time to move on, at least for now. Otherwise it may be ‘no we need your solution’, or some version of this.

Why getting an answer is important.

As buyers sometimes we don’t appreciate what we are getting until it is taken away. We can happily sit back and leave it to the salesperson to do all the running, taking their enthusiasm for granted. So being put on the spot by having our solution taken away can be effective in forcing us to make the call on what is important and what is not.

In an ideal sense buyers would tell you what they are really thinking, but as we all know that is not the case in reality. All too often buyers are reluctant to ‘burst your bubble’ and will likely let you continue chasing the bone until you finally give up and go away of your own accord.

Boxing clever like the above is also important in trying to uncover any unspoken concerns on the part of the buyer.

What reaction will presenting the legals have?

Another technique a former colleagues uses has the similar effect in terms of measuring the head of steam build up behind a sale. He presents the legals to his sponsor and waits to see what is said. The buyer will either say ‘I will pass them on to my colleague’, or will inform you that ‘it is too early for legals at this stage’. La voila you have an instant proxy for the likelihood and timing of a sale.

Pipeline Reviews - Time to Beat Up the Salesperson Again?

Its hard to believe we have half the year over. At this time of the year lots of sales people are being asked to prepare for a half year pipeline review and most are looking forward to it like a hole in the head!

Sales people, the good ones and the not so good ones will all agree that there should be processes and a system in place to review the pipeline. But what they don't want is all their hard work to be questioned and perhaps even discredited.

The easiest thing in the world is to tear somebody's pipeline apart, ask all the questions and second guess the answers. You may even feel good after doing it. But rest assured the salesperson will not. A pipeline review should be something positive and forward looking. It is not an opportunity to beat up the salesperson leaving him, or her motivated and disoriented.

So if you are about to embark on a pipeline review with your team over the next few weeks, I suggest you think about the review from the sales persons perspective. A pipeline review is the perfect forum for coaching your sales person, don't miss out on it.

With many organisations suffering from a defecit of sales opportunities as a result of the slowdown, proactively managing the opportunities that you have got is more important than ever before.

The pipeline review should:
1. Help, support and encourage them
2. Challenge the pipeline
3. Identify gaps so they can be filled
4. Share ownership for pipeline development
5. Review next actions against key opportunities
6. Focus on ensuring the sales person has the time to advance each opportunity

Yes the review should be metric driven, but to be effective you need to put yourself in the sales persons shoes. We have written a lot about team based selling and the pipeline review is an ideal opportunity to coordinate and orchestrate the efforts of your entire organisation in the advancement of the various opportunities in the pipeline.

Business Development Managers - Who cares about the title?

In a conversation last week a very experienced executive at one of our government agencies told me one of her clients uses the title business development manager on their cards because their customers don’t like to meet sales people. Essentially this person was saying a business development manager is perceived more professionally than a sales person/sales manager in the customer’s eyes. A sorry perception for us professional sales people I would suggest!

Anyway back to why I started this post, the business development manager versus sales manager role raised its head yesterday and again today. A senior executive in a major services firm called me this afternoon; he was wrestling with his role and responsibility for marketing, business development and sales. He asked me my view on the role of each, which I did give, but before I tell you what I said I wanted to jot down the things that went through my head before I opened my mouth.

1. Marketing’s role it is to build the brand, create awareness and generate leads
2. Business developments role is to generate opportunities
3. Sales role is to sell, develop relationship and gain commitment to action.
4. God this topic has come up three times in the past week, as my granny used say, “when something happens once you can afford to ignore it, if it happens twice pay attention and if it happens a third time you better sit up and pay attention a pattern is emerging”
5. Its simple sales management and business development management should be all the one in a small to mid size services firm selling globally

By the way I just Googled the term business development, the first search result back is a definition from Wikipedia. See what you think of the definition.

So getting back to what I said to this senior executive. “Based on experience working with people happy to call themselves sales managers and people who preferred to be referred to as business development managers if you own sales and business development, you own the responsibility for the sales numbers, agreed metrics, sales activity levels, sales reporting, mentoring sales people, developing markets, developing leads, securing sales, securing repeat sales, and managing the overall sale model”.

I told him this was an opinion based on my experiences working with organisations like Digital, IBM, Banctec and Bearing point. He seemed happy with the response.

I will be talking with this person again next week, if any of you have any insights or thought on the differences between a business development manager and a sales manager, I’d love to hear them.

Tesco Launches New Bid for Customer Loyalty

Tesco UK’s relaunch of its 15 million member Clubcard loyalty scheme is symptomatic of the rearguard battle to retain customers in an environment of increased competition and customer price sensitivity. It raises two questions for every business:

- How to respond to changing customer buying patterns in light of tighter budgets and increased price sensitivity.

- How to protect existing customers from poaching from increasingly hungry competitors.

Tesco Seeks to Claw Back Business Lost to Competitors.

At a cost of £150 million, the Tesco initiative is, according to the Guardian newspaper, aimed at encouraging shoppers to spend more in its stores and to claw back business lost to rivals. That is equivalent to an investment of £10 per clubcard scheme member, part of the cost of which will no doubt be shared with suppliers through the distribution of price coupons and other incentives.

Tesco has taken action to prevent customer poaching by competitors, but is it enough and will it work?

Just how important are loyalty cards?

Well, during the 1990s I worked with hundreds of smaller specialized retailers. With increased concentration in so many aspects of retailing, I regularly produced the Tesco ClubCard from my wallet, asking retailers if the technique was relevant to their business. Most answered ‘yes’, but I disagreed.

My argument was that Tesco relied on a card to engender my loyalty, but that the smaller retailer could do this in other more effective ways. Similarly, Tesco relied on a card to find out about its customers and their needs, while most small retailers already knew their customers, or could ask.

Your customers may not have a loyalty card with your logo on it, but how can you ensure that they are not poached by your competitors? My argument was that the smaller retailer’s weapon against the growing number of loyalty cards was individual attention, personalized service and good old fashioned customer service.

Issues of Strategy and Positioning.

Clubcard aside Tesco has also sought to deepen its relationship, or at least sell more to them, by means of offering an ever wider array of services, such as; insurance, finance, telecoms and so on. But has that blurred the lines in terms of how it is positioned by consumers?

It is interesting to compare TESCO’s strategy with that of other retailers, such as Aldi and Lidl for example. They don’t have loyalty cards for UK customers, but even without coupons are more clearly positioned in the mind of consumers on the basis of low prices. In the present economic climate this clear positioning is a strong advantage.

Over a decade of fast growing consumer spending, Tesco’s Value range of low priced items received less and less shelf space. The club card push could be seen as the marketing push is aimed at adapting to changed customer priorities and buying patterns of a recession.

Time for Loyalty Cards to Join Web 2.0.

Now loyalty cards are nothing new, they swept across the Atlantic in the 1990s leveraging new technologies that scientifically married couponing and other features to the specific purchasing patterns and demographics of customers. However, perhaps TESCO’s relaunch plans will represent the next generation of loyalty card.

The present card is pretty one dimensional and flat, the challenge is to build a community around its brand and that requires more than envelopes with coupons and discounts. On one level, I am thinking of the type of customized retailing provided by Amazon, but even that is not fully exploiting the potential of Web 2.0 methods in building a community around the TESCO brand.

For example think of the computers for schools programme ran by Tesco and imagine being able to use your clubcard ID to log on to the web and view an up to date account of how many vouchers have been presented and how many more are required for your child’s school computer programme, as well as a message from the school principal. Imagine, consumers with special food interests being able to form communities online, for example around the stores glutten free products, etc.