Why not?

Our sales philosophy is that the optimal sales process is when the prospect is selling you on why he/she needs to spend their money to solve their problem.

So, why is it only our funnel that gets attention?

Here’s an interesting thought: Next time you’ve forecasted a sale closing within 30 days, call the prospect and tell them that’s what you have in mind. See what they say. If they say, “Whoooooaaaa. Hold on. We’re not going to make the decision in that time frame, then take them off your 30-day report.”

Just a thought.

So here it goes. (By the way, you ’seasoned vets’–listen up. If it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for you).

1. Take inventory of your sales strengths. You do things well. You do things not-so-well. Take an honest inventory of where your strengths are and leverage them. You will get managers who want you to do things that you’re not good at. Be ware of getting dropped into a steady of diet of ‘what you’re not good at.’ You’ll wake up at 55 doing what you hate, and forgetting what you’re good at.
2. Get good at problem-finding. Put everything you do in terms of problem-finding.  Take a class. Read a book. Stop reading books on selling and convincing. Start reading books on ‘problem solving.’
3. Start a blog. Yes, I know that your manager wants you to spend more time selling. But you know how the world works. No one can tell a 25-year old about social media. So instead of dropping it at the request of your manager, keep doing what you know works. A blog will help you get your mind right — and the words right about your value. Plus, you get to be a publisher now.
4. Learn Financial Analysis. Your customers care about money and economics. You should, too. Go talk to your CFO or company accountant and learn how the pros do financial analysis. Your customers are doing it on your solution–so it’s better for you to lead, not follow.
5. Learn Story Telling. Go back to past clients and get their stories of how your value helped them. Then, commit these stories to memory. Do like the comic does–he has a file of all the jokes he’s thought about or heard–and he draws from them. Open up the file.

There more than five–and there are many that are more obvious–dress appropriately–shake hands firmly, do impeccable followup etc.

Also, go to www.2009salescompetencies.com for a complete ebook on the competencies and trends that are facing US sales professionals.

The idea here is that you, as a sales professional, should never lead with a brochure. In fact, you should never lead with “all of the great things you can do for your prospect.” (There seems to be a tone of John Kennedy in there “Ask not what your country can do for you…” but I can’t make it work.)

You only tell them what you can do for them after the prospect tells you everything about his business, his issues, his pains, his dreams….

I’ve seen it happen where a salesperson is actually invited in to a prospect’s office, and the first thing the seller does is slide a brochure across the table to him. WRONG MOVE. You’re toast if that’s your approach. A high school kid can do that.

So withhold your desire to prove to her how valuable you are–and how hip your product is. Hold your ego in check long enough to find out about them. Then, and only then, can you talk intelligently about how you might be able to help.

And when it comes to “brochure sliding” don’t do it.

He also invites you to attend an Executive Seminar called “Building Your Sales Dream Team”on May 29 or May 30 in Indianapolis. Go to www.caskeyseminars.com for more info on that.

Enjoy the video!!

You may have a suspect masquerading like a prospect. You see, people can come into and out of your prospect funnel. If you expect people to be prospects all the way through the sales process, you’re naive. I know you better than that!

Like we say, “Don’t expect much and you’ll never be disappointed.” (The arrogant hate that saying, coz they think that means you’re giving up. Quite the contrary–but that for another post.) I never expect anything–not because I want to cushion the fall–but because when you begin expecting something to happen in a certain way–then you close yourself off from being flexible–or to having it happen in other ways.

So, when someone who you thought was (and I mean “was”) a prospect, now tells you they’re in “think-it-over-land,” you have to handle it correctly. Don’t beg. Just say, “Kind of thought that was the case since I didn’t hear from you. This is not unusual when considering a purchase like this. Sounds like you’re having second thoughts. Let me ask you this. Are you having second thoughts about solving the problem we discussed or second thoughts about who you want to help you?”

Now this assumes that you’ve been following my process–that you can’t sell someone something unless there is a compelling reason for them to change (problem they’re wanting fixed, or a solution they’re urgently dying for).

If you have neither of these, then you never did have a prospect. But that gives you something to work on.

Not because it’s the right path–but because it’s the easy path.

If you’re a sales person in any context–selling services, products, or selling ideas, tThere are 5 defining moments in the sales process. Check them out and see how you do in those moments. Here they are:

[1] The First Conversation

This is the time when ”orientation” gets set. What that means is the prospect begins to get a feel for how you’re oriented. Are you there to sell? Are you there to beg? Or, better, are you there to question and explore? Hopefully, the latter.

[2] Fnding The Problem

There is a moment in the sales process where the way is paved for you to ask questions to find customer problems. And yet few of us do. We’re too busy talking about our company–value–people–etc., Stuff that might be important to you, but isn’t for your prospect. This moment defines what you’re there to do (in the prospect’s eyes).

[3] Talking Money

Your  solution costs money. There are logical times in the sales process to talk money. Your comfort in doing so makes the sales proces sail. If you’re afraid of bringing it up, then you’re sunk.

[4] Involving Others

In business to business selling, there will be more than one person who makes/weighs in on the decision. There is a moment in the process where you must involve others. Maybe the first step is to ask the simple question: “Who else cares about solving this problem?”

[5] Getting A Decision

There is a moment that you should lay the ground work for a decision. You aren’t asking for a YES. But you should always be planning the moment where either you tell the prospect NO. Or they tell you NO. Either way is OK. But don’t miss the moment.

“To quote or not to quote” that is the question. Bill and Bryan deal with this at length in this podcast. There are a variety of circumstances that dictate your reaction—and they give you some guidelines during this cast.

It’s that way in business too. Everyone’s talking about how they have to call higher or get wider in organizations (call on the President.) But yet, when I ask what they’re going to talk about when they get there, I get mush.

Recently I did an exercise with a client called “Value Mapping.” We looked at the kinds of problems they could  solve for their clients, what kind of value those solutions would bring to their clients, and at what level that value was felt. 

We quickly arrived at the conclusion that much of the value was felt at the CEO level.  Yet, when I asked the account development people what kinds of conversations they had when they got in front of CEO’s, the answer was “We never talk to CEO’s.”

Again, could it be that they aren’t getting in front of CEO’s because they never thought about it? Probably not. I used to think our reluctance to call on CEO’s was caused only by our own self-image. However, I’m beginning to see that there is another issue. Our reluctance stems more from our ignorance of how they think and what they want to talk about than it does our self-image of deserving to be at that level.

Therein lies a nagging and continuous problem in the communication of your value to your client companies. That is – the person who gets the most benefit from your product seldom knows or is involved in the sales process upfront. That would be the CEO.

The first critical point in understanding the discussion you should have with a CEO is to understand how your value or your solutions impact the following areas. These areas I list are the five most relevant topics a CEO deals with daily.  So as you go through this list of five topics, scribble some notes at the end of each paragraph if you bring any value in helping them deal with these issues.

Profitability
Most CEO’s I know have a financial mind. They care about the net income of the company, either on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. They also care about the trends and the indicators that lead to the final numbers. Does your solution have any impact on profitability?  If so, your conversation with this CEO is quite relevant. If not, maybe you haven’t looked deep enough. The prospect is not going to connect these dots for you. You’ll have to do it yourself.

Employee Retention
With a tight labor market (unemployment less than 5%), especially in key positions, the CEO knows that she has to hang on to her best people. If you provide a solution that helps make employee retention more successful, you will have her ear.

Revenue Growth
Every CEO cares about new business capture, client expansion, new markets and general sales numbers.  They may not care about the process their managers go through to get those numbers, but they do care about the end results. Do your solutions touch that at all?  Before you say no, check it out. Do a mind map, where you start at the left of the page with the problem your company solves—then move to the right with the total impact of that solution. I’ll bet you’ll find some connection between what you do and their revenue.

Market Capitalization
If you are calling on publicly held companies, market cap is a big issue. If you’re calling on privately held companies, “creating stakeholder wealth” might replace “market cap” as the relevant topic. Peter Drucker says, “Businesses are in existence not to create profit but to serve customers.” While I agree, “creating profit” is a first cousin to customer acquisition and wealth for the stakeholders (not just the owners, but the employees, clients, vendors and the entire array of support people).

Vision and Strategy
Most CEO’s, if they are not visionary, should be. Most CEO’s, if they don’t have a strategy, should have one. Sometimes the very simple notion of you asking the questions about vision and strategy will cause the CEO to think about it at a different level. Just because the CEO talks about his vision and strategy doesn’t mean the other people in the organization understand what it is.  j

john Kotter in Leading Change says, “Less than .05% of the time in a leader’s day is spent dealing with company vision.”  So one must never assume that the CEO has done a good job of communicating that vision down the chain.

So as you go through these five relevant CEO topics, do you see any that you could help her with? If there is no link, then say that. But if there is a link, then you can look that CEO square in the eye and say “Ms. CEO, we help organizations who are looking to increase market capitalization and who are looking to expand their customer base.  We’ve got solutions to those problems. You have to tell me whether these topics are relevant to you.”

Read these and check out your language. The language of the 2000’s is empowering language that will keep you in control of the sales process.

The Old Language
 What do I need to do to get your business?
 Here is what this product does.
 Is there any way I could get a meeting with him?
 I really need to see you.
 Here’s what we do…
 How much do you want to pay?
 I’m so excited to be here and to tell you what we have.
 I think I can beat that price
 Features and Benefits (galore)

The New Language
 I’m not sure I can help
 Regardless of what the product does, what are your objectives?
 What kind of cash flow are you expecting?
 What are you hoping the Return on Investment to be?
 Have you done a financial impact study?
 How does this fit with your customers?
 Who else cares about getting the problem solved?
 Why wouldn’t you just keep using the same vendor?
 Let me share with you how our process works

Hope this helps you take stock of your language in your sales process. Check with your manager (or someone around you) to see what they hear.

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Your Value Is All You Have–How Competent Are You At Expressing It?

I was looking through some old training handouts …  and came across one called “How To Express Your Value.”

Although I don’t have space here to review the entire module, there was one part that I thought you’d like to hear about. It had to do with how you get hold of your true value to your clients. It seems that every sales organization has a tough time communicating their value. One exercise we do when we begin working with a company is to have each person “write out” their expression of the value they bring to clients.

We usually have as many different expressions as we have ‘people in the room.’ That’s no good. So, this exercise is designed to help you know ‘where to go to get clear about your value.’

PROSPECT TRENDS. What are the trends that your prospect faces in the running of their business (department)? Trends cause pain. And you fix pain. So it pays to know trends. These trends could be macro/industry trends or trends within their company.

PROSPECT PAINS. What kinds of pains/problems do you help people solve? Do you have a list of those? No? Shame on you. How can you be a problem solver if you don’t even have a menu of the kind of problems you fix? Start that list today.

PROSPECT POSSIBILITIES. Selling is emotional. What’s more emotional than dreams? How can you help–through your service/product–create future possibilities for your prospect? Don’t laugh so quickly. If you sell a solution, then you solve problems. And if you solve problems, you advance your client to a new future. Shouldn’t you know what that might be?

STORIES. Most sales teams overlook case studies and stories. You have a wealth of those stories inside your company. But they don’t get accessed. Make a point in the next week to talk to 10 people in your company about a project that went well, or a customer that became overjoyed at your solution. That becomes a story you can tell as you talk about your value. 

PICTOGRAPHS. Those who are in our training get tired of this story, but I’ll tell it anyway (in case you forgot). I read a book once called The McKinsey Way (about McKinsey Consulting). In it, they revealed that when you first get to McKinsey, you are responsible for creating a graph/ picture/ drawing every day on something you worked on. You might say that’s absurd, but they understood something you should understand. That we are all VISUAL people. And pictures do represent thousands of words.  So if you can reduce your stories, examples and value to pictures, you’ll be helping your prospect “GET” your value at a deeper level.

Hope that’s not too much for today.

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Other Resources:

Advanced Selling Podcast: Thanks to your referrals, we’re up to over 7800 world-wide podcast subscribers.

Caskey Blog: We post when we see fit (and have time). Usually the topics come from training we have just done.

Same Game New Rules–E-Video Course (Free). Sign up for our 5 part course on the book, Same Game New Rules.

Regards
Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale