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Three Very Important Words

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One of the most important three-word phrases in business is: sense of urgency. When I look over the various winners and losers I’ve seen in the business world, those three words tend to define the difference between winning and losing. In a nutshell, winners have the sense of urgency; losers do not. When you’re analyzing your own performance or that of your salespeople, ask yourself, “do they display a sense of urgency about their jobs – or not?”

One might think that tighter economic times would provoke greater sense of urgency on the part of those whose responsibility it is to make things happen (i.e. salespeople). Often, however, the result is the opposite, because urgency’s enemy – fear – sets in. Salespeople who would otherwise be highly motivated to make calls get nervous and apprehensive about “the economy,” and thus calls go unmade (“I’d rather call them when the news is better.” Of course, since “the economy” is simply the cumulative effect of individual decisions to do or not to do business, every such postponement actually makes the economy a little worse.

Let’s take a look at some of the roles within a (your?) company, and look at how a lack of urgency can negatively impact sales success.

The salesperson: This is fairly easy. In fact, we just discussed such an example above. However, I see a lack of urgency in many different parts of the sales process. As an example – recently, an out-of-town company prospected me to purchase a fairly innovative marketing program. Coincidentally, a local KC company contacted me the very next day, offering a similar service. I know and like the owner of the local company, and I am a buy-local guy when it makes sense. So, I met with them and discussed some possibilities. I then waited for a proposal. And waited. And waited. Meanwhile, the out of town company kept calling me to follow up. When I finally received a proposal from the local company (after not one but two calls asking if they wanted my business or not), it was less targeted to my needs than the one I’d received well before from the out of town company. Reasoning that if the local outfit didn’t have a sense of urgency about winning the business, they were unlikely to have one when it came to servicing the business, I went with the out of town company. I’m pleased with my decision – but if the local company had followed up aggressively, they’d have won the deal.

The sales manager: Sales managers can lose sense of urgency in many ways; the decision to make changes in personnel, for instance, becomes a lack of urgency. The most common way for urgency to get lost at the sales management level is when changes are desired by ownership, and the sales manager is lackadaisical about pushing that message to his reps, and making sure that the right things happen. The biggest way the sales manager can reflect a lack of urgency, however, is simply by not making certain that his reps are maximizing their 40 hours per week.

The business owner: Business owners can sometimes lose a sense of urgency because acting quickly is painful. For instance, I have seen numerous instances where long time managers needed to be replaced or reassigned within the company; their abilities weren’t a match for the company’s needs going forward. However, the business owner was reluctant to do so because of personal relationships or simple fear of change. The problem is that the one thing we can never recover is time lost – and when a decision needs to be made, every day lost in the action is time lost (and money lost).

People lose a sense of urgency because they believe that there are no consequences for slow action. In a restaurant, it’s the idea that the customer won’t walk out if their order isn’t taken promptly (I do walk out); in a salesperson, it’s the thought that the customer will be just as willing to buy tomorrow than they are today – or even more willing (not always true); in a business owner, it’s a lack of understanding that money lost today can’t be replaced tomorrow.

While there are other ways “sense of urgency” can hamper companies at every management level, hopefully, you’re getting the idea. Sense of urgency means maximizing every lead, every call, every proposal, and every hour. If you’re doing it, great! If not, remember those three little words.

Four Easy Steps to Great Customer Service

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When I talk to business owners about taking good care of their customers, and about maximizing their relationships, some of them seem to think that satisfying the customer’s requirements and providing great service requires Herculean efforts on the part of themselves and their staffs. The truth is that, most of the time, giving customers a service experience that will keep them coming back isn’t hard at all; in fact, I’m convinced that sometimes, it’s harder to provide bad service than good.

Case in point – I was recently at one of the popular “casual dining” restaurants for dinner. The name isn’t important; most of the things I’m about to talk about are interchangeable. Now, when I’m eating at one of these places, I don’t expect to be dazzled. Just bring me my burger/fajitas/salad/pasta/etc., keep the drink glasses full, and I’m a pretty happy guy. As, I’m guessing, are most of you when you eat at these restaurants. Unfortunately, that was too much to ask on this night.

The waiter managed our chips and salsa and drink orders OK. Then he took our food orders, and as is the custom in entirely too many of these places, he did so by memory, without writing anything down. Apparently, he was a mite too busy for his memory to be really effective, because 10 minutes later, he came back, verified my wife’s order, and asked, “uh, what did you have?” I restated my order, and he apologized profusely and explained that he was “very busy with all the people coming in.” Yep, that would be called the “dinner rush.”

Once upon a time, when waiters came to take your order, they used a little pad and pen, and WROTE THINGS DOWN. Amazingly, when waiters write things down, my orders come out correctly more often than not. When not, it appears to be something of a crapshoot. The problem isn’t limited to restaurants, though; in my career, when I’ve seen customer service screw-ups, they are more often than not caused by faulty memory (with a lack of data recording) rather than by too much data recording.

Think about your own business. How many people are involved in the fulfillment of each order? How much of your order fulfillment process is communicated on paper, and how much is verbal? We’ve all seen the exercise where one person whispers a phrase to someone, who repeats it to the next person, and by about the fifth person, the phrase is completely different. If you rely too much on memory and verbal communication, that’s your order process.

It’s worse in selling and relationship development. The average salesperson will interact with anywhere from 10 to 50 customers per week. If that salesperson is making face to face calls on a customer once per month, he will have had anywhere between 40 and 200 sales calls between calls on that one particular customer; if he relies strictly on memory for important details about the relationship, he’d better have a Guinness World Record level memory.

As a customer, I can tell you that few things are as frustrating as having to backtrack and cover old ground with salespeople who are forever one step behind in relationship development. Frankly, those salespeople usually find themselves on the outside looking in. So you won’t be one of those people, here are some quick techniques to help you excel in service and relationship development:

  1. Take good notes on every customer interaction. It all begins here. First of all, studies show that we are more likely to remember that which we write down, and secondly, once written down, it’s captured for posterity – details and all.
  2. Have a database and use it.       The most important details should be recorded in a database format – programs like ACT and Goldmine are cheap enough now that there’s no excuse for NOT using them.
  3. When details change, communicate – IN WRITING or data – to everyone who affects the customer.       Knowing that your customer will now only accept shipments on Tuesday is great; if the shipping clerk doesn’t know, it’s a problem. And as I noted, don’t just communicate verbally – take the time to send an e-mail, write a memo, etc.
  4. Archive your notes. I discovered a long time ago that if I attempted to retype every note from every sales call into my own database, I’d do little else (I’m a prodigious note-taker). However, I can scan those pages to a document, place that document in an archive folder, and link it to the customer’s record – with a note or two in the database about what is in the note pages.       That preserves them for all time, and it’s a lot handier than the “pile of old legal pads” filing system that a lot of us have used.

If this column seems a bit elementary, I’m fine with that; providing great customer service is often elementary. That doesn’t mean it happens often enough. If you resemble this remark, maybe it’s time to revise some things.

When the Customer Comes to You

The Navigator News

We used to think it was good news. “Hey, I got a call-in!,” we’d say excitedly to our boss/co-workers, and we’d eagerly schedule the appointment. And why not? After putting in hours of prospecting each week to set our appointments, a decent call-in felt like pennies from heaven. They didn’t all result in a sale, but they were a higher percentage than prospected opportunities.

Nowadays, however, call-ins sometimes produce more fear in salespeople than prospecting, and this is due to an oft-quoted statistic that “these days, 57% of the buyer’s process is done before they ever call you.” The stat comes from a survey of 1,400 B2B purchasing executives, and was conducted by a company who markets a ‘radical new sales approach’ – so it might be just a tad bit skewed. Still, I think we can agree that when a customer calls you, at least some of their buying process has been done without you – and in today’s internet driven environment, more of that process might have been completed than in yesteryear. So, as salespeople, what do we do to succeed in this environment?

Before we dive into this, let’s review the customer’s buying process for a moment:

Motivation: Something prompts the customer to realize that they have an unmet need that could be met by making a purchase.

Investigation: The needs are defined and product/service solutions are measured against the needs.

Evaluation: Price and terms are defined and measured for value, affordability, and timeliness.

Decision: The customer buys or doesn’t.

In most B2B environments, the call-in used to come after the Motivation step, which left us free to complete the biggest parts of the buying process. The bad news today is that, with product and service information so readily available via the Internet, your customer has probably completed all or part of the Investigation and perhaps the Evaluation steps. The good news is that you’re still part of the process.

This, however, is the moment that too many salespeople lose the sale. They do so by going to one of two extremes. Either they assume that the customer has done no research and treat the customers as unintelligent, or they expect tha the customer has done all their own research and attempt to move the process forward faster than the customer wants to. In both cases the customer is annoyed and likely buys elsewhere. Here’s what you must do when the customer approaches you:

Find out what parts of the process the customer has completed. This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. Simple questions like, “What research have you done so for,” or even “how did you find us,” can get you a long way toward a common understanding with your customer. They show that you respect the customer’s intelligence and are willing to move forward with the customer and not against the customer.

Find out what gaps exist in the customer’s knowledge. By “gaps,” I mean that in many cases, the customer thinks that they have completed knowledge in a particular topic area, but thye have not. This isn’t uncommon, especially when the research is Internet driven. Understanding what the customer knows and what the customer doesn’t know is improtant. It’s also important to be diplomatic when filling these gaps.

Find out what the customer knows that is wrong.   If it’s on the Internet, it has to be true, right? I’m laughing right now. As you probably know, there’s a site called “Snopes.com” that exists to debunk urban legends. Sometimes I think we need a “Sales Snopes” to debunk false claims in selling. This is where your diplomatic skills really come into play, because the customer may be married to a piece of knowledge that is incorrect.

Pick your battles carefully. If there are gaps, or if the customer has an incorrect piece of knowledge, you have to quickly assess for yourself how important these issues are. For instance, if the customer has discovered a ‘fact’ on the Internet that isn’t a fact, BUT is inconsequential to the customer getting the result that they want and is inconsequential to the sale you need to make, you may want to let it go. There’s no need to provoke a contest that doesn’t matter in the end result.

Be efficient with the customer’s time. Your customer has done their own research in an effort to be efficient and effective with their time. When you cover ground that your customer has already covered on their own, you become repetitive and the customer gets bored. Remember, Comfortable Customers Buy. Bored customers aren’t comfortable. Simply pick up from where your customer left off.

Never be afraid of your customer. Fear is the enemy of all good things in selling. Few things can be scarier to some salesperson than an educated customer. Your customer hasn’t educated themselves in an effort to be your opponent – they simply want a higher level of participation in the buying process. Allow them that, and you’re going to win.

By the way, while call-ins will happen, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be expending significant efforts on a good prospecting effort. The earlier you get your customer, the better. If the customer sees YOU as a reference instead of the Internet, you’re going to be in great shape.

What If the Customer Makes a “Wrong” Decision?

The Navigator News

Last week, I answered a “Hot Question” about customers who make ‘wrong’ decisions. After considerable thought – and the realization that I am one of those customers who frequently makes ‘wrong’ decisions – I decided that the question deserved a full article.

To refresh your memory, here’s the question, which I edited down a bit for space: “Troy, I have a situation that is a bit unique. I’m an optometrist. Many of my customers come to me with a fairly large amount of spending capability on their health plans, but instead of spending all of it on a quality pair of glasses, they’ll instead buy the cheapest Chinese stuff available to them.  How can I get them to make a good decision with their money?” The questioner further elaborated that the customers would come in with a spending capability of up to $400 – enough to buy a quality pair of glasses from him – but instead would buy the cheap “3 for $99” deals you see on TV, leaving both quality and free money on the table.

On the face of it, that would seem like a very bad decision. Even I would agree with that. However, there’s a lot that we don’t know. To solve this problem, however, you have to understand one key facet of selling in the 21st Century: Customers don’t make “bad” decisions. They make the decision that is right for them at the time. Let’s talk more about this.

Our optometrist is making one of the most common mistakes in sales: He’s viewing the customer’s decision through his own criteria for a successful purchase, not the customer’s. When you’re selling, the only criteria that matters is the customer’s. That means that we have to understand what the customer’s decision making criteria is, and then sell to that, not our own. Before I break down how to do this, let’s talk about another example of “bad” decision making.

A couple of days ago, I visited one of my favorite retail establishments: Barnes and Noble. I’m a book nerd (no, really, I am, I say to all of you, who are probably nodding right now). I love bookstores, both new and used, and I hit the magazine rack at B&N at least once a week. Barnes and Noble is really hardcore on their discount program. You buy a ‘membership’ for $25 annually and you get 10% off all products, and bigger discounts on best sellers. At least that’s how I understand it. As a loyal B&N customer, you’d think I’d have one of these, wouldn’t you?

I don’t.

I have two reasons for not having one. First is that in some things I stand on principle. I refuse to purchase a ‘discount.’ If B&N would like to reward me for being a frequent customer, they may do so (Borders used to without a fee), but I’m not going to pay for the privilege.

Second, I hate to carry discount cards. I’m a man. That means that I carry my wallet in my hip pocket, and the thinner it is, the more comfortable I am. Hence I don’t carry discount cards. Yes, they could look me up through my phone number, but then I’m back to paying. With what I spend at B&N, the card might save me $75-100 annually. It’s not worth it.

But I know that when I go to the cash register, I’m going to be asked if I have the card. I reply with a firm but polite “no.” Then I’m asked if I want to hear about it. I reply “no” again. At this point, if I’m lucky, the clerk will respect my wishes and ring me up. If not, the clerk might start by saying, “But, you would save $2 on this purchase…” or whatever. At that point, I get annoyed and ask if it’s OK for me to purchase magazines there. The clerk looks at me as if I’m stupid. Clearly I’m making the “wrong” decision. The trouble is that the clerk doesn’t know my criteria.

The optometrist is in the same situation. He’s looking at the value proposition through his own eyes and not the customer’s – but the customer is the one who will buy. The value proposition always makes sense to the salesperson. So, why in the world could a customer prefer cheap, badly made (he’s assuming) glasses in quantity over one high quality and more attractive pair of glasses, especially when there’s no cost to the customer?

There are reasons, much like my reasons for not getting a discount card. Perhaps the customer seldom wears glasses, but wants a pair in multiple locations (I have sunglass shades for my glasses, and I have multiple ones so I can have a sunglass in each car, for instance). Hence, quantity becomes more important than quality. Perhaps the customer doesn’t understand their own buying power. Or maybe they want multiple pairs of glasses with different “looks.”

The problem is that, usually, we don’t try to understand the customer’s criteria for the decision – instead we try to ‘educate’ the customer on the ‘right’ decision. That seldom works. It seldom works because WE say it, and it’s a transparent effort to ‘push’ things that the customer doesn’t want. There’s a better approach.

Ask, don’t tell. The customer’s words are always more powerful than yours; the key is to tease out of the customer what their criteria is, and ask questions that influence the conversation. Let’s take a look at our optometrist again, and how he might work questions into the conversation. Questions like:

“How often do you actually wear glasses?”

(If they don’t wear them all the time): “Do you carry them with you all the time?”

“What kind of impression do you want your appearance to make?”

“How important is it to you to be able to have different looks?”

At the very least, these questions would tell the optometrist if the customer is a good candidate to ‘upsell’ into better frames; at the most, there might be lead-ins to good selling.

So, if you want to succeed in this situation, you have to set up the criteria early, BEFORE you present. Here are the steps involved:

  • Respect your buyer’s intelligence. Your customers (usually) aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them like they are.
  • Be open to other viewpoints. This goes along with the previous step, but realizing that buyers have their own worldviews is vital.
  • Set up the criteria by asking, not telling. Your customer’s words are the most important ones; ask good questions early in the process before you work toward a presentation.
  • Ask “what if” questions to address or shift the customer’s criteria. The two most powerful questions in sales are “what if.” Use those words to your advantage by painting an advantageous situation.
  • Find a way to solve the customer’s problem, not yours. The key to winning the sale is to get the customer’s agreement that your solution can solve their problem within their own criteria.
  • Don’t argue. When you go down the road of believing that the customer’s criteria is ‘wrong,’ you’ve lost the sale. If you can’t get agreement on the criteria, it might be a better strategy to back off and preserve the relationship.
  • Respect the customer. Remember, the customer is buying SOMETHING from you (in the case of the optometrist, it’s an exam). You don’t want to make the process so unpleasant by trying to upsell that they avoid you entirely.

Like anything else in sales, this won’t work all the time. NOTHING works all the time. This, however, will give you the best shot at succeeding when you think the customer might be “wrong.”

Three Words That Can Change Your Selling World

The Navigator News

One of the things I’ve always prided myself in is that I am a student of those activities about which I am passionate. When I get involved in something and I get excited about it, I dedicate myself to learning as much as I can about that activity. It’s been the pattern of my life. When I was in the debate program in high school and college, I ate and slept debate (well, at least with the energy that didn’t go into chasing girls – I was a teenager, after all). I’ve been a student of cars and racing all my life (which has led to me being virtually invincible in games of NASCAR Trivial Pursuit).

More to the point, I’m a student of the three disciplines that make up my career (and are the reason you’re reading this): sales, professional speaking, and training. I’m amazed at how often there is crossover between the disciplines; when I learn something from one discipline, it often bleeds into another. Such is the case with this week’s article. A concept that I learned long ago in speaking has really crystallized a way that salespeople can become much more effective than they currently are, and it’s all summed up by three little words.

Those words are: “Do, Think, or Feel.”

When creating a speech, professional speakers always ask themselves, “After this speech, what do I want my audience to Do, Think, or Feel?”

That’s a pretty good question, isn’t it? What if part of your pre-call planning included those words? “On my next call, what do I want my customer to do, think, or feel?” The answer sounds obvious, of course. “I want them to buy!” But many times, and on many calls, that’s not realistic. Yes, some of you sell in an environment where it’s completely realistic to think that your customer can buy on the first, and every, call. Some of you, however, sell in environments where your sale is one of incremetal steps.

“Do, Think, Feel” can make a huge difference in these multi-step environment, and here’s why. It’s customer-focused; your attention is on what the customer does, not what you do. That’s vital. Too many sales processes get extended beyond the point of any viability because the salesperson continues to move things “forward” unilaterally when the buyer isn’t motivated to buy. I call that “pushing a rope uphill.” It’s a huge waste of time, and “Do, Think, Feel” can help you get away from that.

Try this as a way of definining your call objective (and keep in mind, every call should have an objective, or a reason for being – if not, it’s not a good use of your customer’s time or yours):

What do you want your customer or prospect to DO? “Do” always specifies an action, and the question asks what the customer will do, not you. Depending on where you are in the sales process, there could be many actions that the customer takes. They might:

  • Set a next appointment.
  • Gather data for your next conversation.
  • Entertain a proposal.
  • Give a referral.
  • Make an introduction.
  • Or, some other definitive action that advances the sales process or the relationship.

You might want your prospect to THINK something different after your meeting. This can be early or late in a relationship, and it usually involves a change in perception. For instance, your customer might:

  • Accept you as a brand leader.
  • Gain respect for you.
  • Qualify you as a vendor.
  • View you as a resource and not a salesperson.
  • Have an elevated perception of your quality.
  • Again, there are an infinite number of possibilities here. The key to remember is that “think” is an intellectual or logical acceptance of a fact or reality.

Finally, you might want your prospect to FEEL something after your sales call. In my own selling style (and frankly, my own speaking style), these moments are fairly rare; however, they do happen. My own style focuses more on “Do” and “Think.” However, there is room for “Feel” in the sales process. Some examples of what a customer might “Feel” after an effective sales call are:

  • Comfort with you as a contact.
  • An affinity for you or your company.
  • Fear for the consequences of not taking an action.
  • Again, there are numerous possibilities here.

It’s worth pointing out that “Do, Think, and Feel” are not mutually exclusive. You can have sales calls that target more than one of the three. For instance, you might want a prospect to qualify you as a vendor (“Think”) which results in beginning a sales process (“Do”). “Do, think, or feel” doesn’t have to be your approach to sales, but if you’re searching for a way to define your call objectives, this can be a great way to put reason to your rhyme.

Another Way to Screw Up a Cold Call

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Cold calls have been on my mind again this week. There are several reasons for that. First of all, I received one a couple of days ago that had the classic “first three ways to kill a cold call.” Then, soon after, I received an email from a regular reader of the Navigator, and one of the things she said was this:

“At some time in a future weekly newsletter….would you mind talking about a sales person who won’t shut up?  This guy wouldn’t allow me to get out one full sentence of response without cutting me off.   Wouldn’t stop the sales pitch, even after I told him that for the most part, the services he was offering we didn’t need, but was very interested in one service.  Told him to get me info on that particular service and would sit down and talk with the owner about scheduling a meeting.  At that point, he went right back in to the overall sales pitch of all the services he had to offer again, and wouldn’t shut up even when I told him this wasn’t the most convenient time to talk and for a fact am on a deadline today.  He simply wouldn’t SHUT UP!  I finally had to abruptly end the call, of which he may have thought rude, but don’t care.”

Well, your wish is my command. Let’s go into the call I received, and then let’s talk about the call she received. We’ll figure out how to solve all of these issues together.

The call I received was a classic. I answered the phone, “Troy Harrison speaking.” If you call me, and I am able to pick up, that’s what you’ll hear. No “Dial 1 for,” or a receptionist – you’ll hear my voice ready to talk about sales. Sadly, I didn’t hear someone ready to talk about sales. Instead, I got a few seconds of silence – long enough to know that I had just been auto-dialed, and someone was about to pick up on the other end. I hate auto-dialers. If you use them, stop it.

Then, the woman on the other end said, “May I speak to Troy, please?” Good grief. Of course, since it was an auto-dialer, she didn’t hear that she was already talking to me. Now I know it’s a salesperson, and a bad one, but she was about to lock that description in. I replied, “You already are.”

“Hi, Troy. How are you today?” If you’re looking for the all-time dumb, moronic, time wasting, defense building, way to kill a cold call, this is it. There is only one type of person who says, “How are you today?” to someone they don’t know, and that’s a pesky, not well trained salesperson who can’t think of anything good to say, but thinks they are building some cheap rapport.

I sighed and said, “What can I help you with?” And she started into a spiel about some investment opportunity. I didn’t hear the end of it.

When you call someone, attempting to gain their interest in seeing you, talking to you, or buying from you, you have to give them a reason to talk to you without giving them reasons to put up their defenses. When people answer the phone, their defenses are typically down because they don’t know what the call is about. It could be a customer, a friend, a relative, or a salesperson. Your job is to give them a reason to talk to you while their defenses are down, because if you give them time and reason to put up their defenses, it’s much harder for your value message to get through. Look at the 20 seconds of the call I just described. She gave me three reasons to put up my defensese before she ever began a value message: The obvious auto-dialer, asking for me when I already said it was me (showing me that she wasn’t listening to whoever answered the phone), and then the obnoxious “How are you today?” Her call was DOA.

Now, let’s look at the different type of call that my friend wrote me to discuss. This call was not DOA. In fact, it was very much alive until the salesperson killed the call. Here are some of the things that my friend said:

“This guy wouldn’t allow me to get out one full sentence of response without cutting me off.” That’s a hallmark of a pre-scripted sales pitch. Worse, it’s the hallmark of just plain bad manners. When your customer or prospect is talking, words are coming out of their mouth – and those words could be important. Shut up and listen, even if it’s not taking you down your pre-scripted path. Sometimes customers don’t know their lines because they haven’t seen your script – but if they’re talking to you on a cold call, that’s a good thing.

“Wouldn’t stop the sales pitch, even after I told him that for the most part, the services he was offering we didn’t need, but was very interested in one service.  Told him to get me info on that particular service and would sit down and talk with the owner about scheduling a meeting.” Are you banging your head on your desk right now? Me too. The salesperson was winning the call, and wasn’t capable of seeing it. She didn’t just say “interested.” She said, “Very interested.” Granted, he wasn’t talking to the decision maker – but he’s the one who called. I’m betting that this was the classic “person who” call, i.e., the salesperson asked the receptionist to speak to the “person who” handled his particular service (this is another call-killer, by the way). The salesperson had her interest. He had her commitment to attempt to set a meeting with the owner of the company. This was a WIN. And he still turned it into a loss.

“At that point, he went right back in to the overall sales pitch of all the services he had to offer again, and wouldn’t shut up even when I told him this wasn’t the most convenient time to talk and for a fact am on a deadline today.  He simply wouldn’t SHUT UP!  I finally had to abruptly end the call, of which he may have thought rude, but don’t care.” Amazing. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, and that’s what is frustrating to me as a salesperson. My friend might have genuinely benefited from the service he was offering, but we’ll never know because he burned the call.

What this salesperson didn’t realize is that a sales call is a dialogue, not a monologue. Worse, he failed to recognize an opportunity when he saw one – likely due to poor or nonexistent training.

Don’t be that guy. Instead, open the call right (avoid the call killers that I mentioned), and remember to make the cold call a dialogue. Cold calling is still a viable way to generate new business; I have a feeling that most salespeople who think otherwise aren’t doing it right.

When Is It Time to Close?

The Navigator News

There’s an awful lot of bad sales advice floating around out there right now. Sometimes I think that our profession is caught right between people advocating old-time sales tactics that just don’t work anymore, and other people trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘techno-savvy’ by focusing on social networking as the all-encompassing solution for everything – but that doesn’t work either.

A prime example of this is a recent column I read talking about the popular “when to close” topic. The author’s answer – fueled by his Xerox sales training and illustrated by a personal anecdote of his experience in 1976 – was that the salesperson should always be closing. This the old A/B/C (Always Be Closing) philosophy has done more to kill sales and irritate customers than anything else salespeople do. There’s a right way, though, and let’s find it, shall we?

It’s appropriate that the anecdote was from 1976; A/B/C is very much a 1970’s sales approach. For that matter, so is the Xerox approach. The old Xerox approach, heavy with tactics, pressure, and technique, worked back when Xerox dominated its market. Today? Not so much. Today’s customers are more savvy, more educated, have more information available to them, and ultimately have been trained by years of salespeople using heavy sales tactics, and are more capable than ever to resist. This means that today’s customer responds to an approach that is more customer-friendly and respectful.

First, let’s learn how to recognize when you have an actual opportunity to sell:

  • The customer must be motivated; e. the customer has a need that he/she wishes to solve through a purchase. If your customer is not motivated to act, you can be the best closer ever and it won’t help.
  • The customer must have investigated that need; the customer and the salesperson must both understand the need, and your product must fulfill it (and the customer must agree that your product fulfills it).
  • The customer must trust you.
  • The customer must believe what you say (i.e. you have credibility in the customer’s eyes).
  • The customer must respect you.
  • The customer must not dislike you (I know that conventional wisdom says the customer must like you, and certainly that’s a huge help – but I’ve found it’s better to seek respect and trust that is genuine than to seek a like and friendship that is phony).
  • You must have presented a proposal that is to the customer’s liking.

The trouble with the A/B/C approach is that it interferes with several of these things. Closing is the part of the sales process where customers are most likely to put up defenses; if you are always in some phase of a close, your customers will be defending themselves too much to be able to give you the candid answers you need to be able to match your products to their needs. Closing too early will interfere with trust and credibility, as well; the customer will perceive you as reaching for their wallet. (Answer to the old question: Why do customers perceive salespeople as pushy? Because too many are.)

Instead, today’s salesperson must have patience as part of the selling/closing process. To assess motivation, accurately assess needs, present your product, check customer agreement, build trust, etc. takes time. Sometimes it can all be done within a single sales call, but even those sales calls can get long. It’s very important that you are patient enough to allow the customer to move through their buying process properly (see my book, Sell Like You Mean It!, for more on this) and get to the closing arena at the same time you do.

You have earned the right to close when:

  • You have accurately assessed the customer’s needs, and gotten his/her agreement that they are the needs.
  • You have presented a solution(s) to the needs, and gotten his/her agreement that these will fulfill the needs.
  • You have presented a specific proposal, including price and terms.

Once you are at this point, the close becomes a natural part of the sales process, and how you ask for the business matters less than the actual asking. In fact, the simpler the closing question (“So, are you ready to buy?”) the better. Forget fancy closing techniques; what works today is clean, straightforward conversation. What’s better is that, by handling this in a customer-friendly manner, you are more likely to get invited back for repeat sales opportunities! Isn’t that better than a one-shot quick close?

Just because it worked for Xerox in 1976 doesn’t mean it will work for you today. Success in today’s selling arena requires a different approach.

HOW TO EVALUATE A SALESPERSON

The Navigator News

One of the things that surprises a lot of clients is my insistence on doing formal annual written evaluations of salespeople. “But, they know how they’re doing,” I’m told. Nonsense. Annual evaluations are a great tool for improvement; unfortunately, too many of the evaluations used don’t really cover the important areas that salespeople should be evaluated on. Today, let’s talk about the most important evaluation you will ever have – your own self evaluation.

At the end of the day, you are responsible to your customers, your co-workers, your employer, and your family. Most of all, you’re responsible to yourself, and the best salespeople are able to accurately evaluate how they have fulfilled that particular responsibility throughout the course of the year. For those of you who have never really evaluated your own performance, never fear: I have a four-point evaluation structure that will help you develop yourself now, and in the future. This comes with one warning, however – it only works if you’re completely honest. To take your own personal “check up from the neck up,” click below and read on.

Criteria one – the numbers: Obviously, the most important measure of achievement is results. So, how have your results been? Compare your performance to your goals, and give yourself a 1-5 rating by the following criteria: Give yourself a 1 if you’ve never gotten close enough to your quota to see it. Give yourself a 2 if you’re usually under quota, but every now and then, you’ve had a breakout month and made it. Give yourself a 3 if you’re usually at or close to quota. Give yourself a 4 if you’re usually well over quota, but still miss every now and then. If you can’t remember the last time you missed quota (more importantly, neither can your boss), and you’re usually 20% or more over, give yourself a 5. Now, multiply this result by 2.

Criteria two – the funnel: You should have targets for your sales funnel activities; i.e. appointments, proposals, etc. Rate yourself 1-5 again, with this criteria: If you’re consistently 20% or more below your targets, give yourself a 1. If you’re usually below target, but sometimes make it, give yourself a 2. Those of you who almost always hit target should give yourself a 3, while those of you who always meet and sometimes exceed targets should give yourself a 4. If you’re always over by 20% or more, give yourself a 5.

Criteria three – customer relationships: In this criteria, we will evaluate the quality of your customer interactions and relationships, as this is a predictor of your future ability to make your numbers. For the purpose of this exercise, focus on those customers that generate your top 80% of business. We’ll rate your relationships in terms of your ability to retain this business in the face of adversity as well as your customers’ willingness to evangelize for you, again on our 1-5 scale. If 50% or more of your top customers are one service failure away from leaving, give yourself a 1. If 20% to 49% of your customer base is one screw-up away from leaving, give yourself a 2. If 0-20% of your base is one mistake away, give yourself a 3. If you can withstand a screw-up with all of your customers, give yourself a 4. If you can withstand failure with all your customers, AND at least 25% of them are willing to refer you or serve as testimonials, give yourself a 5.

Criteria four – internal relationships: Some people don’t believe that it’s important for salespeople to be good internal citizens of their companies. To that, I say B.S. If you’re a negative influence inside your company, you’re costing that company money in lost productivity from those who are negatively affected by your poor attitude. On the other hand, being well liked and respected can pay career dividends in many different ways. Rate yourself 1-5 again on this criteria: If a conference room or office clears within 2 minutes of your entry (because no one can stand you), give yourself a 1. If you’re usually afraid to ask co-workers or support personnel for favors because they’re not willing to grant them, give yourself a 2. If you have at least three “go-to” people that you can get favors and help from, AND have people that you avoid because you can’t, give yourself a 3. If you are nearly universally respected, and have at least three “go-to” people, give yourself a 4. If everyone is your “go-to” person, give yourself a 5.

By now, you should have a feel for the criteria. 1 is awful, 2 is bad, 3 is average, 4 is good, 5 is superstar-level. We double-weighted sales results because, frankly, that’s the most important criteria. But it’s not the only criteria. In any criteria that you ranked yourself a 1 or 2, you have work to do. Seek help from co-workers, customers, and your boss to develop yourself. Overall, here is the scale:

25 to 30: You’re either a superstar or on the edge of superstardom (or at least you think so).

20 to 24: You’re good, a cut above average, and unlikely to have job worries anytime soon.

13 to 19: You’re average. Very, very average.

7 to 12: You’re below average to the point that you’re a constant worry for your boss.

1 to 6: Unless you’re brand new with no experience, in this category, you need overnight change of either behavior or career.

If you’re truly honest with yourself, this can be a very productive exercise. Don’t be afraid to solicit help from your boss, co-workers, and your customers. If you’re committed to self improvement, they’ll be happy to help.

Take the Second Shot!

The Navigator News,

I get a lot of inquiries and solicitations asking me what my “#1 tip” for increasing business is. This, of course, is a very complex subject that requires a lot of detail. But there is one quick tip I send along that can help people in any phase of business or even their lives. And that is:

Take the second shot.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Persistence pays off.” Most people interpret this to mean that “persistence” means aggravating and annoying people to death until they buy to get rid of you. Many things, including fear, keep people from going down this road. However, there’s a nice medium ground, and that is what I call the “second shot.” The second shot means just that – it means trying twice to make good things happen.

The reason that I focus on a second shot, rather than a third or fourth, is that most salespeople are easily put off. While the public image of salespeople is that of the bulldog that never lets go, the truth is far from it; most salespeople are perfectly willing to take the first “no” rather than battle a bit for the win. That’s a shame, because a lot of business and opportunity lies beyond the first “no.” Let’s look at this in context.

The context will be the teleprospecting phone call, which as you know, I still believe is the core skill of B2B new business generation. Let’s imagine a call from a salesperson selling copiers:

Salesperson: “Hi, Mr. Prospect, this is Salesperson from Pretty Darn Awesome Copier Company. Our manufacturer has just released some new technology that can drastically reduce your per-page cost while actually increasing the quality of your paper documents. Could we meet next week, and see if there is a fit between your company’s needs and this new technology?” (NOTE – this is an imperfect call – there’s a step missing – but it’s typical of a decent teleprospecting call.)

Prospect: “Sorry, I’m not interested.” Now, about half the time that a customer says this, they’ll hang up on you. No second-shot opportunity exists on those calls. But, half the time, they’ll hang on and wait for the salesperson to say something weak like, “Uh, thanks anyway.” If you say that, you’re done. Instead, let’s take the second shot.

Salesperson: “I don’t blame you for not being interested. I’ve sold a number of these machines already, and I’ve found that the customers didn’t really have any interest until they understood what these machines could do, how they could reduce expenses and at the same time build your customer image through better documents. Would it be worth, say, 20 minutes of your time to at least know what those customers now know? If there’s a fit, I’ll tell you, and if there isn’t a fit, I’ll even tell you that. Fair enough?” Second shot taken. You’ve now given the prospect a better window into why he/she should take the appointment, and perhaps even aroused a bit of curiosity. Here’s the thing – whatever your chance is of getting the appointment on the second shot, it’s better than the zero you’d have if you bailed out at the first ‘no.’ A good rule of thumb is that whatever your ratio of contacts-to-appointments (let’s say you get 1 appointment in every 5 contacts normally), you’ll increase that 20 to 30% with a good second shot effort.

Of course, even though this sounds good, it doesn’t come for free. You have to have a game plan. You need to anticipate common objections, have responses ready, and be very focused on the conversation. That requires a lot of thought and preplanning, and it also requires a focus on generating an appointment, not a sale.

This technique doesn’t limit itself to cold calls, either. Final objections, job hunting, getting a raise, getting a date – all of these can be improved by focusing on the second shot. Just keep in mind these steps:

  1. Be prepared. Know the objections and the common responses.
  2. Create a “win” for the other party by accepting your second shot.
  3. Take extra shots with great care. Two makes you persistent, more can make you a pest, depending on the situation (the farther into the sales process you are, the more persistent you should be).
  4. Finally, remember that there are some objections that cannot, and should not, be overcome. Use good judgment, and don’t sell bad business.

Most non-salespeople reading this article would think that it’s completely unnecessary; salespeople always do this, right? Nonsense – most salespeople are easily put off, because they fear pushing farther. Don’t be that guy or gal, and you’ll be more successful.

The Three Levels of Customer Relationships

The Navigator News

If I ask salespeople how they describe themselves, one of the most common ways would be as a “relationship salesperson.” Unfortunately, “relationship selling,” which should be one of the most meaningful phrases in selling, has become meaningless through overuse.

When I drill down on what these candidates mean by “relationship sales,” 90% of them give me an answer that is some variation on the Stuart Smalley Affirmation on Saturday Night Live: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, my customers like me!” Well, not to diminish the importance of being liked by your customers, but there’s a lot more to successful relationship selling that that.

Successful relationship selling has several different elements, which we will get to in a moment. But, for me, the key questions to the quality of a relationship are:

Can you monetize the quality of your relationship with your customer? This is selling, after all, not running for Homecoming King (or Queen). Being liked is great, but if you can’t turn that into money, you are not engaged in “relationship selling.”

Can you maximize your business relationship with your customer? By “maximizing,” I mean the ability to extract all, or nearly all, the potential opportunities with your customer. If they’re buying stuff they could be buying from you, but buying it from a competitor, you’re not “maximized” within that customer.

Essentially, there are three different levels of customer relationships, and most salespeople will have customers in all three:

The Loyal Customer: This is the Holy Grail of customer relationships. When they buy, they buy from you. When competitors call, they not only don’t buy from them; they don’t entertain proposals or appointments. You have contacts at all the appropriate levels within the company, you are able to maintain good profit margins. Moreover, Loyal Customers evangelize for you; when they hear of others that could make use of your services, they recommend you freely and willingly. Ideally, you should have a game plan for any customer who is NOT this level to move them in this direction.

The Habitual Buyer: The Habitual Buyer can be deceptive; Habitual Buyers sometimes look like Loyal Customers. When they buy, you are their default source. However – and this is an important distinction – you have very little leeway with a Habitual Buyer. Mess up a delivery (and, let’s be honest, we all sometimes make mistakes), and you lose their business. Raise a price, and you reopen the buying decision. Often, Habitual Buyers will also screen you from getting multiple contact levels within the company, and will be much more guarded in their dealings with you. The dangerous part about Habitual Buyers is that salespeople can be lulled into thinking that they are Loyal Customers – then a competitor picks their pocket, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Occasional Buyer – The Occasional Buyer is just that. They shop you every time, and typically have no real pattern to their purchases (although if you’re losing business on price, Occasional Buyers will be where you lose it). The Occasional Buyer has no real affinity toward you or your competitors; you’re just a place to get stuff, as are your competitors. Most of the time, if you’re dealing strictly with a purchasing agent, the customer is an Occasional Buyer – which is as good an argument as any against dealing strictly with purchasing agents.

The true “relationship salesperson” will have more customers at the Loyal Customer level than other salespeople; more importantly, they will have a game plan in place for advancing Habituals to Loyals, and Occasionals to Habituals. Getting there isn’t easy; it involves a lot of hard work and preparation, and focus in the selling process. It also involves a level of honesty that is uncomfortable. Ego-driven salespeople (which is most of us) want very badly to think that all of our customers are Loyal Customers; recognizing that many are not is tough. But if you want a good way to build your business in 2015, identify all your major customers by the three levels above, and then create a game plan to move them up. Your boss – and your wallet – will thank you.