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.

Struggling to sell IT during a recession - So you cannot close deals without getting in front of the customer? Wrong!

If closing in the present market environment is an accomplishment, then closing without being able to meet face to face with the potential customer is a supreme art.

We have been lucky enough to work with some of the top sales professionals in the world - one of whom last week closed a $500,000 deal without any face to face time with the customer.

Interested in finding out how it was done we interviewed the lady in question, gathering many valuable insights in the process.

Question: So how did you do it, we were trained in solution selling and it requires lots of face time?

Answer: There is no doubt selling a software solution over the phone is challenging. It takes longer to build rapport selling over the phone. What you might achieve in one face to face meeting will take at least 6 phone calls.

Question: How long did you think it would take to build rapport?

Answer: Initially, I thought maybe 3-4 call but it takes six at least trust me and that is when the client has an explicit need.

Question: You couldn’t see the white of the buyer’s eyes. How did that affect the sales and buying process?

Answer: A number of points that were really important:

1. Questioning and checking was absolutely crucial. You have got to do a lot more checking by phone because you can’t see their eyes and can’t judge the body language.
2. We held lots of one hour conference calls. As we moved from one topic to another, we summarized actions and understanding of key points to ensure we were all on the same page. This is slightly different to a face to face scenario where you might summarise at the end of the meeting.
3. Every single phone call no matter how short was followed up by an email. We ensured the buying team felt they were the most important customer in the world to us. The immediate follow-ups were crucial to advancing the process. It made us seem closer to them.
4. Patience is a virtue they say, but even more so when testing tension for change/compelling reason when selling face to face. It’s a bit different over the phone you need to be more direct and explicit at times without being pushy. If you think you are going to come across as pushy you need to be willing to say “I recognise I might seem to be a bit pushy but”. Doing this makes sure there is no miscommunication.

Question: What about the time difference?

Answer: There was an 11 hour time difference at one stage. We worked to the customers schedule and time zone. We had a few calls at 12:00 at night and a few at 07:00 am. We never once mentioned the fact we were up late or early. The customer didn’t once mention the time difference. Why would they, or I?

Question: Were you asked to visit them?

Answer: Yes we were, but we made it quite clear form the first call that we could not travel. The customer understood our reason’s, and were happy with the process to engage via phone and webinar. We made sure people understood how we would work with them.

Question: What internal support did you have?

Answer: The sales team on this account included: our sales manager, pre-sales support person, our services director and my good self. The support provided to me was brilliant. This was a team sale. It could not have been done without the four of us.

Question: Selling in the current climate is tough; we all know that, are you doing anything radically different from same 24 months ago?

Answer: Understanding the financials behind any deal/potential project is more crucial than ever. In the past we worked hard at qualification, uncovering needs, building requirements and cost justifications. This took quite a long time, anywhere from 6-10 meetings with senior executives. Now I am putting indicative levels of investment for every potential project/deal on the table after the third meeting and maybe even after the second meeting.

Question: Does this not go against some of the principles of relationship selling and solution selling? I mean does this mot make you look pushy?

Answer: Business buyers realise they need to understand investment levels so an outline business case can be built early, they need to see if the numbers stack up as part of the early stage of their buying process. Experienced buyers and business executives will work with you to build the case for investment. They will work on the case with you. This is win:win, but assumes the buying team is working collaboratively with you.

Question: If there was one tip you would give someone starting out selling high value solutions what would it be?

Answer: Sit down with your financial controller and ask him to explain internal rate of return (IRR) and the cost of money to you. You need to understand these terms to be able to build a business case with your customer. Solving a customer’s point of pain is great but not enough in big organizations and in complex sales, every project needs to have a certain IRR now more than ever.

Question: Have you noticed any change in buyers?

Answer: Yes for sure, the serious buyers are more collaborative than they have ever been before. I have been selling software solutions for 20 years now and I have seen more business cases from customers in the past 12 months than I have in the whole of the previous 19 years of my career.

I hope you take something from this post.

John O’ Gorman – sales activity, sales effectiveness, sales process, sales skills

Insight from the Dragon's Den

At the end of recent event I attended, one of dragons from dragon's den said a few words. Here are some of the pointers he provided the audience that I felt were worth making you aware of:

• You need to take the time to get a clear view of the real challenges in your business. Taking the time out is crucial.  In our view most people don't do their best thinking in a crisis.  The once popular strategic planning get-aways, may seem like a bit of a luxury in today's climate, but taking time out to revisit where you are going and how you are going to get there is more imporant than ever.

• Read e-myth revisited, you have to become process driven to grow your business.  In too many cases the business depends on the owner, or a few others, rather than a repeatable process.   I would suggest you also need to adopt a well thought through sales process that is reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis. I have read e-myth twice it’s a great read.
  

• Entrepreneur’s only limitations are themselves. We all need mentors and coaches. This I would add is also true for sales managers and sales people.  We have to be prepared to look outside for a detached and objective view of our performance and objectives.

• Business owners and entrepreneur need to become more confident in selling the business and selling themselves.  We would add that it understated, as opposed to brash confidence is required.

• Fast growing businesses need to move off the island of Ireland quickly.  Well, nothing has changed there and in fact Adopting a growth plan using tools and techniques like Mastering the Rockefeller habits will help.

John O’Gorman - sales activity, sales growth, sales insights

The Growth Guy – Interesting insights for those of us in sales

I met the Growth Guy Verne Harnish on Wednesday at a Mastering the Rockefeller Habits event. That was a great opportunity to compare the sales priorities and strategies being employed on both sides of the Atlantic in this time of economic turmoil.

No surprise, the list is almost identical. Just to show how identical I made a list of some of the points Verne raised:

• Forget selling benefits, restructure your benefit statements into messages that focus on loss avoidance. Present the opportunity that could be lost. Verne referenced a book called High Stakes Negotiation that I plan to read over the coming weeks.
  

• Never email a proposal, always arrange a time to review the proposal either face to face or over the phone, ideally face to face. I know some sales people find this one hard to swallow, but I can tell you from experience of working with hundreds of sales people this is an important point. The sales people who make sure they review proposals face to face win more.
  
  
• The single most important thing you can know about the person you are selling to is how their bonus plan will be measured. You don’t need the numbers you just need to know the areas he/she needs to affect.
  
  
• Avoid discounting, use a good, better, best approach. When you are asked for a discount ignore it. If that doesn’t work, be absolutely clear on your differentiation and points of value, then present options along the lines of a good, better, best approach. Make sure you go back to the people you sold your solution or service to and review the value with them. More often than not they will acknowledge the value you deliver. Remember buyers are being asked to call everyone not just you.
  

• As sale professional we have the toughest job in the world, no doubt. We have to face rejection more than any other profession in the world. I would suggest that up-to 70% of sales people stop communicating with a hand picked prospect after 3 or 4 attempts. Verne referenced research that shows you need to maintain a keep in touch mindset, reaching out to prospects up-to 15 times with relevant/insightful material. The KIT approach delivers sales.

• As sales managers, we need to be leaders and coaches. We need to sit with our sales people regularly. We need to talk to them about what they are learning in the filed from customers and prospects. Then we have got to remove the barriers they feel are in their way. I use the word feel because successful sales people sometimes put barriers in their way that are based on their feelings. Sales people attitude is everything. In fact 80% of the characteristics of effective sales people are attitude based. Worth a thought.

• Sales people need to read more. What was the last sales book you read? How many sales books did you red last year? Most sales people read on average one to two books a year. The best sales people read upto 12. They are always looking for new tips and techniques that will help them sell more professionally and more effectively. So you might want to pick up one of the best selling sales book in the US right now - The Ultimate sales machine.

• Marketing should not report to sales and most great marketers have an engineering mindset. Where does marketing report to in your company.

• How often do we seek feedback from the people we have sold to and delivered to? In my experience sales people rarely revisit customers to get feedback unless they are looking to cross sell or up-sell. Verne suggested 4 key questions we should ask our customers:

1. How are you doing
2. What is happening in the industry right now?
3. What have you heard about our competition?
4. How are we doing?

Whether you agree with these questions or not is not the point I guess. The point is customer feedback is crucial; it will help you identify patterns and real market needs. It will also help you understand what marketing and sales tactics your competition are adopting. And remember your competition are calling on you customers.

• Intense listening, asking interesting and relevant questions will position us ahead of our competition. Have you the intense listening skills required to sell in this environment?

I could probably keep writing for another few hours on all the points Verne Harnish highlighted, and do recommend next time Verne is in town you should take the day out to hear what he has to say. Thanks to O’ Kelly Sutton and 4^th Option for hosting the Verne event.

John O’Gorman - sales activity, sales growth, sales insights

'Conventional wisdom is obsolete'

A new book has been published that puts into words a lot of what we have been thinking.  It turns the traditional view of economic turmoil and recession on its head pointing out that this present climate can be the beginning of something new and innovative for each of us and our businesses.

'The New World Disorder' by Joshua Cooper Camo points out that this is a time of great possibility.  Complexity and change are a given in the new market space, with old ways of doing things and old ideologies giving way to a new practicality.

The result is an ideal time for people to reinvent themselves and their companies  because all ties with the past have been cut.  It is no longer about last year’s sales result, your past history, etc.  That is less relevant now that before, the future is anybody's to create.

Camo points out that revolutions, like that of today, don’t just destroy, they also create – that is; new markets, fortunes and champions.    Those champions see their role as innovation and invention, or what he calls positive disruption.   

It is that disruptiveness that characterizes the most successful business, social and political organization, naming Google to Hizb’allah just to mention two.   And the present environment offers more power to disrupt through invention and reinvention than ever before.   A vital ingredient is a resilience and adaptability that enables disrupters to live with unpredictability and lack of equilibrium.

The present business environment is, for many, terrifying and worrying.  But there is also great opportunity and promise. As Camo emphasizes that this is an incredibly optimistic moment.  So remember 'if change is to slow make it your job to accelerate it'.

The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo 

 

Be a business development stone cutter

I have been looking for an analogy for ages that would help our clients who have committed to increasing sales activity levels, but are struggling to keep the momentum going. In particular, to provide a little encouragement on those days when there are lots of calls and call-backs made, but there are few results to be seen.

In the mind game that is selling, managing our expectations and staying the course can be a challenge, particularly on those frustrating days when nobody seems to be available, or even interested.

We are continually saying that activity gets results and that everything counts - every email, every telephone call, every conversation, etc. The objective is to make the calls, to send the emails and to dial the number. In most cases selling is inevitable, if these other things are happening. But that does not seem to be enough to get the message across.

Then it struck me that the perfect analogy is that of a business development stone cutter – you have to keep chipping away if you are going to crack a market, or an account. But it is difficult to persist, because maybe the next blow will do it, or perhaps another 20, or 30 are required. One thing for sure, it will require more perspiration than inspiration. In fact, no matter what finesse you bring to it, a while lot of effort will be required.

Each time you diall a number, talk to a prospect, send an email, or have a sales meeting is the equivalent of a hammer blow bring you one step closer to carving out the opportunity you want.

However, if you stop chiseling away the stone will never crack. If you stop now all you have done is made the job a little easier for the next salesperson that comes along. Maybe you need to replace, or improve your tools, but you absolutely need to keep hammering. If you do the result will inevitable come.

When you have cracked that account, or that opportunity, it may appear to the outside world to have been easy, but only you will know how much effort it took. Only you will have the satisfaction of knowing that, in spite of temptation, you did not give up.

It is not the number of hours you work…

I learned with sadness today of the passing of a friend and former colleague who taught me was that ‘it is not the number of hours you work but what you bring to those hours that matters’.

Audrey exhibited unbounded energy and commitment, evident in a tremendous professional drive, as well as a deep personal generosity.  She could rise to any challenge, always putting the ‘best foot forward’ and demonstrating a confident outward glow. 

We have written elsewhere about the importance of intensity, commitment and enthusiasm in sales and how it is often sadly lacking.  Most people pour themselves into their family and their hobbies.  Only a minority truly pour themselves into their jobs.   Audrey did both.

Even more finite than the number of hours in any one day is the amount of ourselves we can give.  That well of enthusiasm and energy at our core is a bounded resource, so it is very important to how we decide to allocate it. 

Even more important than the number of hours in the day is the energy and enthusiasm we can bring to them.   So, if you cannot begin your day with by exclaiming  ‘let me at it’ then either you need to change your attitude, or change your job.  If you cannot let that innate life force that is in you come through your work, then maybe you are doing the wrong thing. 

 

 

Please don’t ad lib on your prospecting calls

One of the things we struggle with is to convince salespeople of the need to write out what they plan to say before they pick up the phone to talk to a prospect.  That is not to suggest that the parroting of a script is going to make their calls any more successful.  However, it is clear that the act of planning and practicing in advance what they are going to say is vital to calming their nerves, as well as gaining their prospects interest.

In a world where poorly trained telemarketers have made life more difficult for us all, we much prefer to talk about using a conversation guide than a call script.   That simply means having what you believe to be the best way to communicate your proposition written out in front of you before you call, including how you will answer any questions, or objections you may encounter. No the objective is not to read it, just to have it to refer to as required.  Anyway once you have made a dozen calls what is on the paper will be so familiar that reading it won’t be necessary.

Please don’t ad lib, even though you feel you know your product back to front and can hold your own with any buyer.  It is not a conversation, although you might like to think it is.  The conversation will only come later, that is if you manage to rouse the prospect’s interest.  Your telephone call, on the other hand, is going to be short, shallow and quick – not the best environment for getting your traditional benefits and features rich message across.  In fact it could not be any further from the nature of a typical sales meeting. 

Your objective is to poke the prospect in the eye with the headline message of your proposition in a credible manner and see if he, or she is interested in finding out more.  Achieving that in a 2-3 minute phone call, where you have just over half the prospect's attention (the rest is on emails, tasks to be complete, etc.), is a major challenge and one that you won’t rise to unless you have a carefully crafted and rehearsed message at your side.

Another reason for having a conversation guide is that you can keep track of what works and what does not and enabling you to make constant revisions that reflect the changing interests of buyers and new angles in terms of your proposition.  It will also ensure a more scientific and systematic approach, allowing others to adopt a standard approach that has proven results.

3 creases in the pants - Could it be time to revamp your presentation?

It is terrible I know, but it is difficult to avoid judging a book by its cover. That applies to the salesperson with scruffy shoes who did not get past the first interview and the consultant that was eliminated because of the 3 creases in his suit pants.

You don’t get a chance to make a first impression - that is as true as ever. However, over the last decade we have noticed that the general effort put into business attire has slipped. Casual Fridays have become an everyday reality and the internet boom entrepreneur has set the new standard for business dress.

Presentation is everything. Your clothes and personal grooming say a lot about you. They shape how others see you, as well as how you feel about yourself. Yet, it is easy to let it slide and as a consequence something that we all need to reappraise from time to time.

With crèche runs, long commutes and a quickening pace of life generally, we can all fall victim to the scruffy sales kit, brief case or laptop, the worn shirt collar, the scruffy shoes, or shiny suit. But sales people have to dress to a higher standard than their colleagues, or their customers.

Set the standard higher than your colleagues and dress like a dragon in the dragon’s den, or the chairman of the board of a Fortune 1000 company. Get a new tie, a new shirt and a new suit twice or three times a year and put a full length mirror somewhere that you will see before you leave your home, or your office.

A client of ours took this issue so seriously that he put a giant mirror at the top of the stairs right before the entrance to the company canteen. In our view it worked, with the company’s sales force being notably well groomed.

Don’t forget to book your space on twitter, facebook, etc.

Business web sites have started to talk back, reaching out in the hope of building a community from among your customers and prospects. 

Well, that is the aspiration of the next generation of web marketing - web 2.0.  How quickly it will be achieved and how soon all this will have an impact on your revenue figures is open to debate. 

However, take care not to be left behind.  We were aghast today when a luddite like marketing consultant exclaimed ‘I don’t believe in all this blogging and stuff’. 

That is a mistake you don’t want to make which means you have to do some homework to get familiar with the new arsenal of online marketing tools.

Our advice is to do this sooner, rather than later, making sure that you stamp your mark Wordpress / Blogger, Linked-in, Wiki, Facebook and Twitter. 

Just as in the case of a .com domain, set up an account on each of these to make sure that your company’s name or ideal keywords are not lost to somebody else.  Once they are gone, you may not have a change to get them back.