Earlier this week I read an article by Jill Konrath, sales expert and author (see more on Jill at the end of this post), about the REAL decision making process of buyers.  I just hung up the phone and experienced this – as the buyer! 

The call was from someone referred to me. I didn’t have the time (vacation awaits), and yet before hanging up, I asked HIM a question that ‘connected’ us.  As I hung up, I thought “I bet he thinks he is ‘in’ – just like Jill wrote about in her article!”  So, I share the article with you so you can see what I am talking about and more importantly, so that you don’t go too far in your sales call. Finding the right distance will get you to the finish line faster! 

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Are You Going Too Far on Sales Calls?
By Jill Konrath

Call me a prude if you will, but I’ve had it with sellers who are totally clueless that they’re going too far, too fast in their initial meeting with me. The worst thing is, they have no idea how their actions are perceived.

Could you possibly be guilty of this promiscuous behavior? If so, do you have any idea what it’s doing to your reputation?

The Fantasy

Let’s say I’m your ideal prospect. You call me up, catch me on the phone, deliver a message that piques my curiosity and I agree to meet.

Sounds like the perfect scenario, right? If you’re like most sellers, you’re probably pretty excited about our upcoming meeting. After all, I’m one hot prospect who’s interested in what you’ve got.

So what happens when we finally get together? Initially you focus on building a relationship with me. You thank me for agreeing to meet. We chitchat for a few minutes about little things. Then you ask me about my company to get me talking about business.

After you’ve warmed me up, it’s time to get serious. Since I agreed to meet, clearly I want to learn about your company and offering, so an overview comes next. You want to make sure I understand all the salient details about your organization, its history and more.

Then it’s time for a few questions. Perhaps you start by assessing if I’m a qualified buyer with money in my budget. Or, you might focus on my very specific needs so you can determine the appropriate solution.

Following that, you present information on the products or services you think I’d be most interested in. When I start asking questions, you get more excited. We’re connecting, bonding, getting closer to consummating the business relationship.

The Reality

But the truth is, you are dead wrong! You’ve totally misjudged my interest level and thus, lost the opportunity to do business with me.

Why? You don’t understand how I (your prospect) think. You assumed that my interest meant one thing, when it fact it signifies something entirely different.

In SNAP Selling (coming in May), I’ve structured the whole book around the three primary decisions your prospects make:

First Decision: Allow Access
When you approach a prospect with an enticing message, they’ll agree to meet-perhaps by phone, web conference or in person. They’re willing to invest a small bit of time with you. You’ve moved them from being oblivious about your existence to curious.

Second Decision: Initiate Change
In the second decision, your prospect evaluates if it’s worth it to change from the status quo. They’d prefer not to because it takes a lot of extra time and effort. But, if they can see that all the hassle and pain leads to a better outcome, they’ll do it.

Third Decision: Select Resources
Once your prospect decides that change is worthwhile, then they want to learn about your product or service. Understanding your differentiators becomes important to them. Even the risk of doing business with you is considered. At the end of this decision, they pick the option they determine is best for them.

Understanding the difference between these three decisions is imperative to your sales success. At each stage of the process, your sales behaviors must change if you want to keep advancing your relationship. Failure to get it right means you get dumped.

So Here’s the Deal

Over 90% of the people you meet with are in the Second Decision phase. They’re trying to determine if they want to change.

But there you are, trying to seduce them with all the cool things about your product, service or solution. That’s Third Decision behavior. It’s way too much information about your offering much too quickly. And, it’s coming at a time when the focus should be on helping your prospect assess the ROI for moving off the status quo

When you prematurely elaborate, you set up a lose/lose situation. Prospects don’t want to have anything more to do with you, even if you could have made a difference to their business. From their perspective, you’re only concern is making a quick sale. While that wasn’t your intent, that is how you’re perceived.

Anytime you meet with new prospects, first find out if they’ve already decided to change. If not, don’t talk for more than a few minutes about your offering or company.

Instead say, “While many of our customers have realized significant value from changing, what we really need to do is determine if it makes sense for you.” Then, be prepared to ask questions that lead to that outcome.

Don’t sabotage your chances of sales success by trying to move too quickly. Slow down. Way down. Ensure your prospect has made the Second Decision, before you jump into Third Decision behaviors – or suffer the consequences. You can’t rush a relationship!

Thanks Jill for a very timely message – I personally CAN’T wait to get my hands on your SNAP Selling book!

More on Jill:  Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings and association events.

For more articles like this, visit http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a free Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter. 

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: prospecting, sales expert, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

These last few weeks have been great for prospecting.  People seem to feel ‘they’ve made it through 2009′ and are looking for ways to advance their business in 2010.  Our ongoing nurturing all year is now paying off with callbacks, appointments and commitments.  Yeah!

One of the sales calls I had a few weeks ago, I’d like to repeat over and over and over.  Why?  Because the prospect was looking for ONE specific service and by the end of our conversation we were discussing multiple.  In dissecting why the call went so well (a good practice so we can repeat those actions that worked), I found that I had: 

1. Listened to the intent of what he wanted to accomplish, not just WHAT he wanted to do now.
2. Waited.  Instead of offering him a recommendation immediately (which I could have on the ONE item), I expanded the discussion with further questions that uncovered some underlying information that was truly what needed to be addressed first.
3. Asked permission to ask questions that weren’t directly related to what he called about.
4. Summarized the broader picture and the frustration and costs associated with it.
5. Presented the solution directly tied into his situation and the value he would experience in the long run.
6. After he said “Yes, this is what we need to do first, isn’t it?”  I expressed confidence in his choice and what he would gain from it. 

It was a lot of effort to keep to task.  And it was one of those situations where I hadn’t time to prepare – he called me out of the blue.  But I had just been preparing for another meeting and quickly pulled my list of questions out.  I also have a list of questions that I can quickly adjust on the spot to a situation such as this. 

I’m sure you’ve had some of these ‘magical sales moments’ too.  What did you learn from them?  Making the time to dissect and extract WHAT and HOW happened, will help you repeat it again the next time.

Now to continue making calls today and follow the six actions above.

Hope your day is productive too! 

P.S.  Yes, he did accept the recommendation – which was a 75% higher sale than the original request  

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Tags: Listening, prospecting, sales tips

This past Wednesday I was a panelist for a Top Sales Expert Roundtable on Prospecting.  The panel was international and so were the participants!  Even though I was there to SHARE information, I learned a few things too!

My main learning points:

1. To be successful ongoing prospecting – or initiating contact with potential prospective buyers – needs to be built into your weekly plans.
2. Tim Wackel reported a study that found that most sales people “give up” after 2-3 contacts with prospects.  In todays’ world, 5 contacts are what it takes to get them to pay attention.
3. Making contact alone isn’t the whole story – Cheryl Clausen shared that we must prepare, have a value proposition for THIS prospect and be able to succinctly explain how we can help them.
4. Discipline is one thing top producers have that many others don’t.  It doesn’t matter what system they use, they follow through and are consistent.
5. And I believe Christian Maurer shared that “You only get in life what you ask for.” Be clear on what you WANT from this contact - be purposeful with your plan and you will have better outcomes.
6. Of course, Jonathan Farrington added his quick Brit wit and compared the need to put yourself out there for prospecting like trying to find a date in a “pub”.  What do you have to lose?  If you walked into the pub without a date, and then you were turned down from prospective dates, what did you lose if you go home without a date?  He also shared that “young” people are now the hunters within organziations (can’t say I totally agree with that one!)

Prospecting isn't just for kids

Want to prospect like a pro?  One of the items just listed might resonate with you.  Take the idea, adapt it for you, and then ACT!

You can access over 70 top sales experts every week with podcasts, webinars, articles, etc. for only $25 a year!  Check out Top Sales Experts. 

What do you think?  Are we on track with what it takes to grow your business? 

P.S. My new venture – and awesome resource for YOU – is nearly ready for launch.  More next week!

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Tags: prospecting, Sales Tips

Goal achievement…what successful business professional doesn’t want to achieve their goals?  None that I know of, yet things get in the way – barriers/obstacles that we call “life” sometimes do make it more difficult. 

The reality is, that sometimes the biggest barrier is us – our commitment falters and our follow through fails!  (In fact, I was going to title this post Commitment and Follow-through, but felt that most of you wouldn’t want to read it!)

A recent story:  Two months ago I re-affirmed my commitment to eating better and exercising regularly.  I have been dealing with a separated AC joint in my shoulder since a bad fall in 2007 and have easily found one excuse after another to do NOTHING instead of adjusting the type of exercise I could be doing.  Guess what?  Weight has crept on and my stamina was down.  With a trip to NYC this weekend, I am afraid I will be embarrassed by not finishing the climb to the top of the crown of the Statue of Liberty! 

So two month’s ago I took charge:  First, I made the commitment, then wrote it down as a realistic goal (I exercise 4 x a week for at least 30 minutes.) and next I moved to the follow-through by tracking my activity and progress.

In the first two weeks I focused on power walking…and within days felt the shin splints, so barrier one.  I figured that I could avoid that by using my pool – and that has worked VERY well.  I have been  diligent about making sure I was in that pool with my modified swim routine. My 13 year old daughter has taken it upon herself to check on my progress, and sometimes is at the edge of the pool keeping count for me!

I have found that I have built my stamina and increased my laps over the weeks.  Not bad!  Six weeks into it and I thought…”Okay, I’ve built the habit, mission accomplished.” 

Wrong!  It is really easy to be knocked off this path.  And this past weekend reminded me that new habits can become old habits quickly!  With lots of work and personal commitments, I hadn’t had time to get in my swim these last days.  Saturday night I was feeling the lack of my follow through and promised that I would get in for a last outdoor swim on Sunday (fall is on its’ way to Wisconsin). 

It looked like a beautiful day and my husband turned on the heater.  But after a very LONG Brewer’s game (we were invited to the Suites with a friend), I made excuses. When I got home and the temps had dropped into the 60s, the threat of rain was in the air, and my daughter backed out of a last-season swim, I walked away from the pool instead of getting in, it was so cold outside! 

Suddenly, I thought “What am I doing? I feel terrible that I haven’t done this and if I leave, I am another day behind”  I quickly turned and ran and jumped in…the water was 20 degrees warmer than the air and it felt wonderful! 

 But the obstacle wasn’t over yet…As I swam my laps, my mind was constantly “negotiating” with how many laps I should really do because the mosquitoes were out, it was rather dark and I could see lightning in the distance…but I just kept at it…and after a brief stop when my daughter yelled out the door to make sure I was really in the water and alive, I finished.  Then I did TWO more laps! 

I felt great!!!!  I slept great.  Follow through and commitment to our goals will do that.  The energy wasted on excuses, guilt, avoidance are usually more than the energy spent getting what needs to be done, done!

My tips for reaching your goals?

1. Set a realistic goal - include the what, when, where and NOW (write it as if you were already “there”.)
2. Commit to it – verbally and in writing. 
3. Identify your real reward for achieving the goal (climbing the stairs in NYC without passing out is mine.)
4. Share with a stakeholder - who knew my 13 year old would be so supportive?
5. Take action!
6. Don’t ignore the barriers that pop up, acknowledge them and work through them!
7. Celebrate your progress – don’t just wait for thee final end result. Many people need encouragement along the way.
8. Find yourself off track?  Review your goal. Renew your commitment. Revise the goal if necessary. 

My reward, climbing to the crown!

How’s that sound?  It’s Monday and the perfect day to look at what you have to do this week.  Not just the “To Dos’ – the REAL actions that are tied into your goals.  Pull out your goals, renew your commitment and identify at least ONE action you can take to progress toward achieving that goal.  Then follow through and DO it!

What do you think?  Does this work?  What ideas would you add to the list? 

——————————

If one of your To Dos, is becoming more proficient at prospecting, I have an easy action for you this week!  

Over at Top Sales Experts, the most significant sales related online community in the world, five of the world’s top sales gurus gather together every month to present timely, relevant, and specific advice, all in one 60-minute highly interactive online-show.

Each TSE Roundtable addresses issues being faced by sales professionals everywhere, as we come out of the severest economic downturn ever.  This month:

OR Why not consider becoming a TSE VIP Member? Via me, membership costs just $25 per year and you get to listen to this and every other Roundtable for FREE – plus so much more Take the VIP Tour Today

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Tags: goal setting, productivity, prospecting, sales seminar, sales tips

If you want to increase YOUR sales, the good news is, that it starts with you!  The bad news is, that it starts with YOU!

Many sales professionals are having a record breaking year.  They have figured out the adjustments they needed to make to capitalize on what is happening in today’s economy.  One of the most dreaded adjustments has been the need to prospect more than ever!

That is why the Top Sales Expert Roundtable – What Top Producers Know About Prospecting That You Don’t - is so timely!  I’ve been invited to join some very knowledgeable sales experts – Jonathan Farrington, Tim Wackel, Cheryl Clausen, and Christian Maurer to give YOU great ideas for your prospecting.  Your investment is LOW and the potential returns HIGH!

Tuesday, September 29th at Noon Central is the time.  The rest of the details can be found by clicking on the image below.

Please click on the image to find out more – you can join this webinar AND dozens more in the next year for only a $25 annual members to TSE!  How’s that for an economic stimulus package?

If you really have NO funds, let me know.  I’m so confident these ideas will help you succeed and that you will have more funds next year to join, that I’ll pay your admission!!  Send me an email at Nancy@salesproinsider.com.

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Tags: Economic Stimulus, maximize sales productivity, prospecting, sales seminar

The rise of email prospecting has created a great discussion among sales experts – does it work?  Previous posts here and here give the background and a “Pro email prospecting” (with the right type of message) viewpoint.  Today’s post gives three other viewpoints and some great tips on email prospecting. 

First, Ardath Albee, Marketing Interactions (a market strategist):

I’d be surprised if this ever works. There’s no compelling reason why the recipient should respond. Nothing to engage, no tie to any business priority. This is lazy email communication focused on getting what the sender wants without any consideration of providing value to the recipient. And that first sentence is designed to make the recipient feel bad – like they’ve failed to reply when they have been given no reason to do so. Shame on them!

 Ah, you just gotta laugh, you know? It’s so very sad.

 Here’s a link to some blog posts Ardath has written about this topic.

• Lazy emails
• First-Sentence

Next up:  Colleen Francis of Engage Selling (check out her phenomenal Powerhouse Event scheduled for April):

After receiving another cold email claiming they had been in touch before and “its been a long time”,

Sigh….I guess never having been in touch with me and “it’s been a while”are synonymous to this sales person.
That opening line is designed to make me feel like I might know this company and person thereby psychologically goading me into taking the
 survey. Ding so will confirm my address and get me on their list. Not honest and definitely not a top 10% best practice. Sure it might
work in the short term but my rule is that if the activity is something you would be embarrassed about be caught doing. Don’t do it.

You will only sacrifice the long term relationship and lifetime customer value.

Another note from Colleen:

Cold prospecting by email is too passive and not an effective way to build a relationship.
Email is a create relationship enhancer especially if the emails you are send are high content and of value to the receiver.
I have seen one exception….a client of mine had a very successful cold email prospecting campaign to a very targeted market and
routinely saw a 10-11% positive response rate.
They were able to replicate this success for over 3 years.

And finally, Tonya Signa of Signature Marketing Services:  

Has anyone been exposed to Ari Galper’s Unlock the Key program?  It’s all about building relationships with prospects based on trust, etc…he would call this an example of “hope-i-um”, meaning you lob the communication over the wall and hope it works!

We provide this type of prospecting service for our clients -and I can tell you, if there is a lack of personal engagement (especially in B2B sales) like this is a perfect example of, your results and ROI will be disappointing at best.

 Pick up the phone and show you care.

Thanks all for sharing your expertise.  To wrap up this discussion a few tips if you use email prospecting:

1. Use email as partof a larger nurture/touchpoint strategy, not THE strategy.
2. Make the message focused on THEM, not you and why you can’t call, haven’t been touch, etc.
3. Ensure the message is value focused, not feature focused.
4. Don’t expect your prospect to take actionor do YOUR work – give them good information and how you will follow-up with them.
5. Personalize the message.

What tips do you have to share with the rest of us?  Help us all learn!

Dedicated to your sales success,  Nancy Bleeke The SalesProInsider

You can reach me at 414.235.3064

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Tags: prospecting

Email prospecting seems to be on the rise.  The last post  on The SalesProInsider started the discussion on whether it really works.  I posed the question to sales expert colleagues and Kendra Lee of the KLA Group is PRO for the right type of email prospecting:

Nancy,

Yes, email prospecting does work. I write, speak, coach and train on how to do it all the time and get people who tell me what great success they’ve had. However, the approach this person used is inappropriate for a number of reasons. Here are just 3 strikes against her:

1. She probably never sent the first email she referenced and the recipient will know that
2. There’s nothing that would interest the recipient because it’s all about the seller – no value proposition, triggering event, ROI
3. It’s all about clicking to go their site, nothing about talking and learning about the recipient’s needs which a good seller knows is key to selling anything

And then a very entertaining response from another colleague, Molly Cox:

As a buyer my first thoughts would be …why isn’t she calling me?   Does she have a man voice?   Does she talk though a voice box?

 Okay, seriously tho’, if people can do this more power to them. There is an art to writing a compelling e-mail that would make someone want to go to the next level. I’ll be interested to know if soon we’ll be texting people for sales.

 Guess I’m an old “build the relationship” kinda gal.

 Molly Cox  Strongcoffeeink  (Molly has a special blend of coffee just for sales pros!)

Kendra (always the practical one) sent another note in response:

Great point, Molly!

 I think a combination of email & phone are always best when you have a key prospect you want to reach. When you have a group of prospects who are similar (like a target market) and are trying to identify interested prospects, using email can be a great tool, but it MUST sound like the email was written just to you, not some generic thing like Nancy’s friend received.

Now what to do?  Does email prospecting work?  Kendra says Yes, if done with the right OTHER proactive activities.  She has two articles on her site that give some good tips on how to use it effectively (and I understand her next book on prospecting will cover this thoroughly).  You can access the articles:

Is Email Hiding Your Personality? Read
Email is the New Phone Read

Thanks for the advice Kendra – we all look forward to your next book on prospecting. 

Stay tuned…the next post has a marketer’s opposing viewpoint on email prospecting. 

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Tags: prospecting

Prospecting is generally one of THE activities salespeople dislike the most (along with reports requested from management   They find all kinds of ways to avoid making a “live” contact.  And Technology (email for example) gives a way out.  We can just whip out messages, hit Send and cross prospecting off our To Do list.  Yet, does email prospecting work?

It must get some results as there are thousands of companies and people using this approach to gain your attention and asking YOU to call them or schedule an appointment.  And some are more effective than others. 

Following is a REAL email sent to Alice Kemper, a colleague of mine.

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Hi Alice,

I’m following-up on the email I sent you a couple of weeks ago. I’m checking to see if you’ve given consideration to Sales Training Consultants and XXXX working together on setting business appointments for your sales team. If you’d like to talk more about this, just let me know when I should give you a call.

For more about our work with the Business Services industry, click here.

You can also make a direct online inquiry about our services.

Sincerely,

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Guess what Alice’s response to me was?  “Are her fingers broken?  Do people really do this through email and have success?”  If you notice, the Sincerely is in a different font size so this was not a “custom” message.

What do you think? Can you just zip off a couple of “canned” emails, give instructions to a prospect and expect them to contact you for an appointment?  Alice and I don’t think this is an effective approach AND we don’t think it speaks well of how important we are to someone wanting to do business with us.  But maybe we are old fashioned. 

So, I decided to ask a couple of experts – authors such as Kendra Lee, Ardath Albee, Colleen Francis, Tonya Signa and more – to weigh in on this topic.  And I will share their responses over the next few days.

Let’s get the conversation started with your comments – Does email prospecting work for you as a sales pro OR as a consumer?  If it does, how and why?  If not, why not?  

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Tags: prospecting, Sales, Sales Tips

Cold Calling is not usually high on many sales pros’ To Do lists. There are so many reasons I hear for doing almost anything else before picking up the phone to call people you don’t know about your product or service.

In a workshop on The Golden Keys to the Gatekeeper, Top Sales Dog Leslie Buterin, shared some powerful ideas on getting appointments with high level decision makers and executives:

1. Have the mindset that it is your obligation to reach out to start a relationship so that this person/company can benefit from the wonderful solutions you offer. You are not interrupting them to kill time, you are contacting them to help them.

2. Prepare to get to the point.

3. Make sure you speak their language. Executives have three main concerns:

• Increase profits
• Decrease costs
• Mitigate risks

4. Be able to succinctly state what you can do for THIS person or company. Giving them a 3 minute, or longer, blah blah blah does NOT excite them to want to meet you. Instead, state a specific result that you could achieve for them.

“We can increase your profitability by ___%. I’d like to meet with you to discuss.”

“We can reduce the liability inherent in your hiring processes…”

“I’m calling to see if we can decrease the costs of recruitment process by 50%.”

5. There is some debate on this next one…skip the niceties when they pick up the phone! You should only be on the phone 90 seconds – they don’t want to waste more time being asked about their day, the weather, do you have time (how do they know they have time if they don’t know who you are or why you are calling?) Respect their time.

In reading this list I noticed an overlying concept – that even when cold calling, the subject and focus should be on What’s in it for THEM!

As you contact your prospects, what are some things you have discovered?

In a future blog I will lay out more on the emotional aspects of Cold Calling.

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Tags: prospecting, prospecting, WIIFT