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.

Ranting Again – Dancing with the Customers

Two months is a long time to go without fresh material. Don’t worry; the writer’s strike currently afflicting the American television audience with re-run after re-run wasn’t to blame for my sabbatical. Interaction with potential clients, core customers and working to close deals kept me from communicating with you, the readers of this blog.

That’s what brings me to restoration of the Friday rant and subject matter that is near and dear to a sales manager’s heart: his or her time.

In a given day, you have only eight – 10 hours of time that you can work and dedicate to your clients and potential clients. With meetings with your marketing team, support team, etc., you really have only between six – eight hours a day where you can perform one of the most graceful dances known to mankind: the art of the sell.

Building a relationship with your client and working to convince them of the profits they will reap if they use your product; the demonstrations of the product you give to them; and then the follow-up sales calls to see when their ready to pull the trigger and make the purchase, can be as graceful as watching Emmitt Smith and partner dance on “Dancing with the Stars.” (Note: For those unaware, the former NFL star won the ABC show a few seasons back)

When you find the perfect client who is immediately sold on your product and its viability, the art of the sell is a beautiful dance that is beneficial to both of you.

There is no wasted time or productivity in this sales interaction. However, not all clients can be such a gracious dance partner.

How many times have you had a potential client that could never commit to you, but wouldn’t necessarily say no – a la the old duck and dive strategy employed by Muhammad Ali.

After the initial call and perhaps demo, you receive no concrete communication on the next step forward, which sends toppling over and tripping up the sales process.

Subsequent calls or emails go unanswered, taking up precious time that could be devoted to another client or prospect. Conversely, the person you’re calling and sending emails to wasting their time deleting your message and trashing your email.

All it would take is a simple, “Get back to me in 30 days, when we have a better idea of our budget,” or a simple, “No, we just can’t allocate funds to your product right now.”

Selling really is a dance, but when one partner refuses to go along with the right moves, it throws the whole routine out of sync.

I’m sure you remember going to your first school dance, and the awkwardness of being asked by someone for a dance. You could either say yes or no. If you were shy at first and non-committed, the person asking you to dance would think you were leading them on.

The interaction being the professional salesperson and client should – ideally – be just as simple as this analogy.

Building a solid relationship with a client requires both the salesperson and client to engage in honest discourse. When this happens it makes the deal go that much smoother.

Selling is always beneficial to both parties involved, and working to ensure a smooth deal should be priority number one.

Being non-committal and refusing to give a timetable for when you might be interested in making the deal only throws off the dance.

A “yes I’m interested,” or “no, I’m not interested,” is the best thing a professional salesperson can hear.

Friday Rant – Doing Me a Courtesy, or Why Everyone Should Have 1 Sales Job

I had an eye opening experience yesterday that I wanted to lay out there and rant about. I had a customer do me “a courtesy”. Let me explain.

Following the lead of “Dragnet” the names in the following story have been changed to protect the innocent:

Courteous Person – I’ll call this guy “Clien Clodeberg“, so, in the off chance he does me “the courtesy” of reading my blog, he won’t be offended.

History – So I had called Clein several times over the past few weeks, because he was the logical point of entry at a business who fit my ideal customer profile (and yes…I’d done my research to ensure that we would be able to add value to a customer of this type). Clien didn’t return my calls, however he did shoot me an e-mail, asking for a meeting.

Sales 101 – Qualify the candidate – So I called several more times, trying to investigate his marketing pain, and try to identify ways in which a software solution could streamline his marketing to sales process. No return, however a few days before the meeting, I sent him a note with a brief list of Features and Benefits of our solution, and indicated that I would be equipped to perform a sales demonstration.

Yesterday – I drive across Atlanta in lunch hour traffic to meet withClien. When I get there, he indicates that (a) his organization has no need for this type of solution, (b) he does not care to see any sort of demonstration, and that (c) he was simply doing me the “courtesy” of meeting with me, since they are a vendor to our parent company.

Here’s my confusion – How was he doing me a courtesy? In making me miss lunch to go to his meeting? In the burning of $3 of petrol? In the 2 hours lost of what would have been productive phone time calling west coast customers, in an attempt to schedule meetings that mattered?

You’ve heard the adage – “Everyone should have to wait tables once in their life”. I’d propose that everyone should have to be in sales for a month. The world would be a kinder and gentler place for the sales professional.

A couple of things that customers would do if they had ever been on the sales side of the equation:

1. Take 5 – Just take 5 minutes to discuss challenges ways that my solution may be of benefit or review information to determine if you see the value in what I’m proposing. As the sales professional, I’ve already done my part – determining if your organization is a fit, and crafting a value proposition that would be of value to you.

2. Thanks but No Thanks – If, in 5 minutes, you didn’t see the value, simply thank me for my time, and agree to a call 6 months down the road. AUTHOR’S NOTE – not responding (call screening, not responding to e-mails), makes me think that maybe…just maybe you’re still a candidate, so being honest with me will allow us both to get on with our lives.

3. Don’t do me any courtesies – This is where you have to practice”tough love”. If it’s not a fit, or now isn’t a great time, identify a mutually agreeable time to reconnect. Please don’t:

• Drag me away from ACTUAL customers to meet when it’s obviously not a fit.
• Since I don’t subscribe to “interruption sales / marketing”, my initial call always asks for 5 minutes at a time when we can both focus on the matter at hand – discussing a solution that will make your life easier. Agree to a meeting time, and then call screening makes me feel like you may have had car trouble, and that you want me to call you again…and again…and again…yada, yada, yada, ad nauseam (See #2 above).

So there it is – a couple of rules of thumb that will help you be a better customer, and understand as a sales professional that everyone deals with bad customers.

Now quit reading this blog and let’s get to selling on a Friday!