BANT Lead Qualification, As Practiced by Ron The Mover

It’s Friday, so what better time to rant about a subject that is near and dear to my heart – Lead Qualification.  Whether you utilize the BANT Model (which we do here at Pardot), or some other methodology, you’d better make sure that the leads your sales professionals are calling on are qualified.  I saw a recent post by ETI Sales Support, which stated the following:

“Leads without qualification have little value to salespersons whose standard of living depends on the volume of their sales. In many instances the most experienced salespersons will not follow through on unqualified leads because it doesn’t pay them. In that event the total cost of the cheap leads would be wasted.  And your actual cost per qualified lead and sale will skyrocket.”

Let that statement wash over you.  Marketing and Sales both need to Stop the Cycle – Marketing – Stop sending over junk leads because your rainmakers know what a bad lead looks like, and Sales – Stop following up on junk leads because they will inevitably bury you under a mountain of wasted effort.
So let me tell you a quick story about a Gentleman, selling his moving services to only Qualified Prospects in Atlanta, Georgia.  His name is Ron The Mover, and here’s how I met this gentleman:

During December, I was moving into a new Condo in Buckhead, however I was relegated to a walking boot as I recovered from an October Achilles tear.   In order to get a head start on packing, I dropped by the U-Haul store to pick up a large quantity of boxes.  As I struggled to load them into my car, a gentleman took me by surprise.   He approached, and asked if I needed help putting the boxes into my car (rapport building).  He then asked a follow up question related to whether I was planning on moving soon (Establishing BANT’s Need and Timeline criteria). I guess he determined that I was the decision maker on this opportunity (Assumed BANT’s Authority criteria), so he handed me a piece of paper that was torn into a square after having been moistened by his tongue to make straight edges.  This was his business card, and it simply said “Ron the Mover” and included his number.
So let’s recap.  Ron Established 3 of the 4 BANT Criteria within 60 seconds:

• “Authority” by properly assuming that I was the decision Maker on this move
• “Need” by engaging people who were doing business with U-Haul (Buying Boxes, Renting Trucks)
• “Timeline” by asking if I was moving Soon.

Great work Ron…You could teach most business people a thing or two.

UConn v. Pitt and a 2-Tiered Sales Structure

So I’m sitting in front of the television, watching #1 UConn v. #4 Pitt, a game billed as “the Game of the Year.”  Although many of you may not know this, your humble author was a small college basketball player.  As a 6’5″ backup post player (I mean waaaaaayyyyy backup), I got the “joy” of practicing every day against our team’s 6’11”, 250 starting center – As the undersized player, I was basically thrown around like a rag doll all practice, every day.

So as I watched the game, I have to tell you that I LOVED the play of Pitt’s Center, Blair.  The undersized Center has  run circles around UConn’s freshman phenom Center, Thabeet.  Blair’s hustle has allowed him to record 22 points and 22 rebounds as of the time of this posting.  Amazing…and as the former smaller (and hustling) player – I love it.

As well as Blair has played against the 7’3″ 260 Thabeet – Imagine how dominating he would if he were being guarded by a 6′ UConn guard.  To Quote IceCube, I feel confident he’d “mess around and get a triple double,” due in large part to how well he utilizes his size and skill near the rim.

So how does this relate to Sales?  Aaron Ross, author of Build a Sales Machine, known as the architect of the Salesforce Sales machine suggests that Sales teams should specialize and Break into a 2-tiered sales structure .  Just like having a Pointguard defending a Center, or a Post Player dribbling the ball up the court, the success rate could be dramatically improved by letting your players (AKA “Your Sales Team”) play to their strengths and hone specialty skills.

You should read Aaron’s Post, but the Reader’s Digest version is this – Don’t weigh down your Rainmaker with prospecting – He is a Closer (and according to Glengarry Glenn Ross – He gets coffee) – So feed him great leads – which he will Close.

Simple Right?  To use a basketball analogy – Give him an Assist, which he will finish strong.

The person dishing the ball to the Rainmaker?  Lead Qualification / Prospecting staff (Aaron suggests splitting these into 2 positions, however we use the same person for both) – Think of this as your pointguard, who has amazing shooting prowess.  This person (or People) will find the good prospects (outbound) and qualify early stage prospects (inbound who do not show buying signals such as completing the “Contact Me”, “Test Drive” or accumulating 100 points in their first visit to Pardot’s Website) to ensure that they meet at least 2 of the 4 BANT criteria.  These good prospects are “Dished” to your  Rainmaker who will 2-Hand Windmill Jam the deal.

As I finish this post – Pitt knocks off #1 due in large part to Blair’s an amazingly specialized skill set.

LeapFish Teaches Sales Professionals About Email Do’s and Don’ts…and Click Fraud

Now, I don’t want to get off on a Friday Rant, here, but let’s talk a little bit about email, as it relates to your job – Selling.  It is a 2 edged sword that can be the great equalizer or a giant headache because it provides a record – a permanent journal of your exchanges with someone.  Let’s look at a couple of Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s

DO Use it As a Communication Supplement During the Sales Cycle – Email provides a mechanism for you to quickly coordinate with prospects during the early stages of the sales cycle:

• Email prior to your first interaction (“Before I call”) to make introductions
• After a first impression / voicemail (“I just tried to call”) to follow up
• during the middle of the sales cycle (“Is there a good time to reconnect?”) to continue building the relationship.

DO Use it as a permanent record of previous prospect communication – Did the prospect indicate that the contract would be signed by Monday?  Replying to her email on Tuesday may help reinforce why you are reaching out.

Don’ts

DON’T Assume the Recipient Is Sharing Your Mood – Although you may write it with the best of intentions, Email is generally read in the mood of the recipient…not the sender – Did the recipient get unexpected bad news prior to reading your note?  Did they kick the dog or learn of a mis-behaving child?  Regardless of the mood you intended, the recipient will read it in their current mood.

Here’s a tidbit for newbies – DON’T SEND BAD NEWS VIA EMAIL, WITHOUT A CORRESPONDING PHONE CALL (generally making the call before sending is best).  They will get the news, see red, and send an angry dart your way

DON’T Write It Down Unless You are Ready to Back It Up – When you put something in writing, always assume that it may be seen by unintended individuals, not the intended recipient – Quick Story – When my Uncle was an intern during his senior year of Auburn, he wrote a note about his intern supervisor (not email…a note…to Mail), calling the individual in question a “Sissy” (which was strong language for a college kid to use on an adult in the 60’s).  Long Story Short – The supervisor found his note, contacted his professor, and had my Uncle sent back to Auburn for punishment.  His professor’s advice – “I’m not saying that what you thought (him being a sissy) isn’t true.  You just should never have written it down.”

Combining DON’T #1 and DON’T #2 is the most important DON’T – DON’T Get Frustrated AND Write Something Stupid Down – If you’ve been following the blogs this week, you likely saw TechCrunch’s article on LeapFish.  If not – Let me give you the Reader’s Digest version:

The sales person from LeapFish (who is now unemployed) got frustrated that a company, who it appeared he had targeted as a prospect because of their lower ranking in Google (good qualification skills), called the prospect 2 times back-to-back and was rebuffed as not needing LeapFish’s service.

The salesperson was obviously growing agitated, allegedly ended the call with a veiled threat related to Google AdWords spend.  (AUTHOR’S NOTE – The sales person has now let mood get into the email, since both he and the recipient are now in an adversarial role)

What happens next is pure magic – The sales person breaks DON’T #2, by sending an email containing the following statement:

“I just clicked on your link 50 times. Pay per click hurts. Found you on page 2 of the sponsored links. Call me for an advertising solution “ (AUTHOR’S NOTE – I love the audacity to financially hurt the company and then ask for their business – ABC)

Instead of getting the business, the sales person got the ax.

So here’s the deal – Be careful with email – Much like fire was to the cavemen – It can hav positive aspects like cooking food and providing warmth, but it can also burn your village down if you aren’t careful.

Buying Leads and Sys-Con Media

So buying names for a Marketing blast is a bad idea.  “Why” you ask?  Because the recipients (AKA “Victims”) don’t know you, are unfamiliar with your services, and generally respond poorly to this tactic.  Buying a list of “Victims” normally results in 3 things:

1. High Bounce Rates – Because the names and addresses are often gotten unscrupulously (unless a double opt in is utilized, which is less shady)
2. High Opt Out Rates – Again…they have no idea who you are.
3. Feelings of Violation on the part of the Recipient- How would you like it if some purchased your credit card or social security number from some unscrupulous source and started using it without your permission?

I’ll quickly give the “Reader’s Digest” account of a case in point .  Sys-Con Media (AKA – The Culprit), apparently purchased the name of Jame Ervin (AKA – the Victim) as part of what their CEO noted was a 4,000 name blast (See Jame’s blog for the specifics).  The mission – simple – Blast out a spammy message, and see if any of the Victims respond.

Of course, when Jame received the email, she (a) knew she didn’t opt in for this correspondence and (b) replied to the email asking to be Removed from the list by placing the word “REMOVE” in the title (it likely didn’t have an unsubscribe link), and providing some frank, however earnest feedback as to why she did not currently plan on spending her marketing dollars with Sys-Con (AUTHOR’S NOTE – Jame actually did go out to the Culprit’s website and check out Sys-Con’s offering)

What happened next is hard to explain.  The company’s Founder & CEO responded with a Not-so-CEO Like tirade that was loaded with “F Bombs”.  Since this is a Family Blog, I am NOT going to quote some of the CEO’s gems, for example “Mind your own business and keep your ideas to yourself“…I’m just not going to lower myself to that level. 

Instead – I’ve included a link to Jame’s Blog  where you can read the whole, sad exchange yourself. 

So here’s the bottom line – When you hijack someone’s personal information (e.g., buying a list of “leads”) for less than honest goals (e.g., illegally opting her into a list of 4,000 other unsuspecting victims), you lose the opportunity to be touchy when one of the victims asks to be removed from the list, and provides direct reasons why she won’t do business with you.

Friday Rant – Truth in Sales

One of my colleagues recently got an email from a vendor who sent over a “report” of all the anonymous visitors to his corporate website.  Looks impressive – It includes some very big name companies who are searching for his company name, flagship product, and his product type.

So here’s the rant – It is IMPOSSIBLE to track the visitors to someone elses’ website because it requires some sort of tracking code to be placed on each page that is tracked.

So how can they justify sending over this nonsense to prospects?  2 reasons:

1.  Because it triggers the “Greed” gene in the sales people it targets. “IBM is looking at our website????”  Nevermind that it would be nearly impossible to determine which of IBM’s 40,000 US employees visited.

2.  Because people are generally optimists, in spite of the fact that the prospect generally knows that what they are being sold a bill of goods.

So what’s a good method to sell ethically, and restore prospects faith in the Sales process:

1.  Post your Pricing – although it cuts counter to your desire to keep your pricing a secret, it allows customers to go an look at the price at their leisure.

2.  Stand By Your Pricing- Once you’ve listed them, you need to stand by them.  Nothing screams “Used Car Salesman” like Making a Deal for your prospect.  If you’ll cut the prices to get the deal, why wouldn’t your eventual customer feel like they should haggle with you for a Better Deal?

At the end of the day, just be ethical in your dealings, because I hate dealing with customers that you’ve offended and are now jaded that I’m going to do them wrong…like some of you already have.

Don’t Trust Your Marketing Department? – Finally…Sherpa Says It

I just saw this statement from Marketing Sherpa regarding their B2B Summit, and I felt compelled to point it out.

…Jackie Kiley of Sybase advised everyone to *never* put suspects, inquiries, or unqualified leads into the salesforce.com system (or whatever salesforce.com wanna-be you’re using.)Fact is, the minute names hit SalesForce they hit the laps of your sales reps who then are judged on performance from then on. If you put anything in the system that a rep probably can’t close, then they look bad, they waste invaluable time, and soon they begin to distrust *all* the leads you give them.

Once sales doesn’t trust your leads, you’re completely sunk. Time to look for a new job.

 

Let that settle in for a second.

If Marketing floods Sales with a list of 100 Names, how can we be expected to find the estimated 20% of those names who are actual “Sales Ready” prospects.

Marketers – A couple of items in the above statement that I would point out and Translate:

1. *Never* put suspects, inquiries, or unqualified leads into the salesforce.com system – TRANSLATION– If they just filled out a registration form for a general whitepaper…they probably aren’t yet a lead. Lead Qual, anyone?

2. If you put anything in the system that a rep probably can’t close, then they look bad, they waste invaluable time – TRANSLATION – Nurture them in the Marketing Pipeline, and only pass those who show buying signals to your sales team. Sacrifice Quantity for Quality.

3. …Your sales reps who then are judged on performance – TRANSLATION – Quota carrying sales people have to close deals today….You should consider the following when determining what constitutes a “Lead” (Thanks to Jame Ervin for the definition):

• Is this person someone who wants to buy something? – If Yes, proceed
• Does this person have approval to buy something? – If Yes, Proceed
• Will they will buy your product, or one like yours soon (and let me note that “Soon” differs from industry to industry)? If Yes – Congratulations…You’re the proud owner of a “Lead” that you should pass over to your sales team.

Friday Rant – Anonymous Visitor Capture Alone is Worthless

Anonymous visitor capture software by itself is worthless….there…I said it.

Over the span of the last few days, Pardot’s website was visited by several members of a large software company on the West Coast.  The individuals who came to the site searched for a competitor, landed on our site anonymously, and did quite a bit of research (viewed over 50 pages and 10 pages respectively).

Each day I’ve opted into a digest of all anonymous visitors to our site, so the large number of page views immediately caught my eye.  “Time to do some of that Sales Stuff” I said to myself (author’s note – I actually DO say things like that out loud, which reminds me to use my inner monologue).

Step 1 – Research the Company – In my estimation, it’s a fit.  Proceed to Step 2

Step 2 – Find my target at that organization.  A quick review of their management team identified the person I generally work with at a company – their VP of Marketing.

Step 3- Call.  No answer.  Like an animal stalking my prey, I do not leave a message.  It gives away the element of surprise.

Step 4 – Set a Salesforce reminder to call their VP of Marketing again

Between Step 3 and Step 4, the actual visitor raised his hand.  A gentleman named Alex, who is the company’s Web Producer identifies himself on a form (e.g., “Raises His Hand”) and requests to be contacted.  (Author’s Note #2 – Alex is not in Jigsaw, nor was he identified on their site, so the likelihood that I would have located him is rather slim).  We chatted for a bit, and he’s a great fit, and will surely be a terrific ally as we investigate our solution to fill their needs.

So here’s the moral – Anonymous visitor capture caught the company, however standard sales methodologies (approach your target customer) would have led me to the completely wrong person.

PRACTICAL TAKE AWAYS:

1. Anonymous visitor capture needs to be coupled with some sort of call to action which is attached to a form, so the actual prospect can identify him or her self.  Otherwise it can cause your Sales Professional to spin their wheels trying to get to their target…who likely isn’t the person performing the research on your product or solution.
2. Anonymous visitor capture is terrific way to validate your existing sales efforts.  Did you just complete a demonstration for a key stakeholder at an organization, and 3 unsolicited, anonymous visitors perform research on your solution?  If so – you made your point and found your champion, who is now directing other people to your solution.

For any vendors who represent products that ONLY do Anonymous Visitor Capture – I’d love to hear where you see the value to be, because without some way for the prospect to raise their hand…I really don’t see how it does anything but create noise (e.g., a “lead”) for your sales team.

Friday Rant – Baby Steps in Phone Sales

I hate air travel.  There – I said it.  After 5 years selling in a remote territory, I enjoy commuting to work…not traveling to it.  So more of us are required to do more selling over the phone.

A blog post related to Successful Telemarketing found its way into my inbox, and after reading it (admittedly a little skeptically) – it actually has a little meat between the fluff.  What follows it the Readers Digest “Condensed Version”:

The Opening – Pretty basic – Who – What and Why…but TRY to make the Why pertinent:

• Good – Good Morning.  This is Derek Grant with Pardot, a Marketing Automation vendor that dramatically improves the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts by individually tracking anonymous visitors and prospects.
• Bad – Hi.  This is Derek with Pardot – Calling to see if your firm is interested in implementing marketing automation
• Ugly – What up?  This is Derek. Do you want marketing automation?

Author’s note – I know this isn’t great technique, however I like to get all the pertinent information in before pausing, so the person has enough information to work with and doesn’t have the opportunity to barge in during the introduction.

Engagement Stage – Match your product’s features to their needs in order to show Benefits to their organization.  This requires sales people to do something many are not good at – Listening to the customer.  It also requires thoughtful questioning, and probing once the conversation begins to lull.  If, after you’ve spoken, you haven’t learned what their pain is, then you have wasted your time and theirs.

The Close –This isn’t necessarily the deal closing, however you should always understand next steps.  Not Interested?  “Since needs change quite frequently, would it be appropriate for me to call at the start of next quarter”.  Want a Demo?  “Do you utilize MS Outlook?  If so, I’ll send you a meeting request for the time and date we discussed.” (NEWS FLASH – not everyone utilizes Outlook, so this should be something you confirm prior to getting off the phone and blindly sending a meeting request – Perhaps iCal is more appropriate)

At the end of the day, if you excel at the three steps above, you’ll be able to spend more time at home, and less time in the airport.

Friday Rant – Make a Difference and Make Them Comfortable

Several days ago, I had the opportunity to chat with one of Pardot’s junior sales professionals.  This individual expressed frustration that it was difficult to get the prospect from a live demonstration (Stage 3) of the application to the close (Stage 6).  Since I’ve got a couple of years in this game, I thought to give a little advice.  Even though we talked about several concepts, I found a blog post on Selling to Big Companies, entitled Top 5 Tips for New Sellers, that I’d like to add as part of the advice.

1.  Actively Listen to Ask the right questions

Don’t assume you know what matters to your clients.  After you’ve done your homework on the prospect, you’ll need to put all of your preconcieved notions to rest and…Ask Them…what causes them aggravation on a daily basis.  Most importantly, you’ll need to actively listen to ensure that you can find opportunities to match your benefits to small admissions by the client.  And – Don’t just launch headlong into benefits once the prospect gives you “the in,” rather ask more probing questions to ensure you understand the depths of their pain.

2.  (Per Selling to Big Companies) – Focus on making a difference.

“Nobody cares about your product, service or solution. That’s the hardest thing for sellers to realize. All they care about is the difference you can make for their organization.”

This is so key – Not Features…Benefits.  No one cares that your organization’s Salad Shooter “Slices, Dices and Makes Salads”.  You may have to explain that once you’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate the product, however you can’t focus on these, since they are features. What prospects care about is Benefits such as “after a hard day at the office, it will allow you to quickly and easily make a healthy dinner for your family”.  If you asked the right questions, and have a thorough understanding of the prospect, you’ll know their pain points, hot buttons, and what benefits will be most valuable to this particular client.

3.  Ease Their Mind by Removing Risk

At the end of the sales cycle, you’ll need to reassure the customer that they are making the right decision and that there is no risk to them.  Think about it – You’re probably a little jaded by having purchased something and then having buyers remorse a short time later.  Remember that feeling – That’s what prospect’s are trying to avoid.

If you’ll take the time to listen, understand their needs, match your benefits to their needs, and then assure them that you’re their partner in this initiative, you’ll see your close rate shoot up.

Free – You Can’t Get it Any Cheaper

Like the faithful salespeople at your organization, I was working a few evenings ago, when I integrated the Google Apps into Pardot’s Salesforce.com instance.  These free tools are pretty cool add ons to SFDC.  After I integrated Google Docs, and Gmail, I started thinking…what other cool things are available for my CRM?

For you CRM administrators, take the time to look at the native eco-systems available for your Salesforce Automation Tool. 

Salesforce.com  AppExchange-http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/

Tons of free tools, dashboards, and interesting widgets such as the Google Apps.  There are a couple of Dashboards that are awesome.  Most of the apps can be tested within your instance of Salesforce, enabling you to Try it before you Buy it.

NOTE – Salesforce enables AppExchange partners to integrate (for free) with their Professional Tier of service, which opens these solutions to many more customers (e.g., API Access is required to integrate third party applications – This is normally included only with their Enterprise tier of service)

NetSuite SuiteFlex-http://www.netsuite.com/portal/partners/applications.shtml

Not as many tools as Salesforce, however NetSuite does a great job of categorizing these applications to fit your organization’s needs / pain points.  Based upon the names I see out there, there are some very widely distributed packages (LivePerson, Epiphany and Five9) which are noted to be quite powerful. 

SugarCRM SugarExchange –http://www.sugarexchange.com/

Tools for the Open Source community.  If you haven’t heard of this powerful Open Source CRM system, check it out.  It’s powerful (full disclosure – I love SugarCRM), and has a growing eco-system of tools that extend the power of this terrific application.