Posts Tagged 'Sales'

Why Math is Like Sales (And Why it’s Not)

Published June 24, 2009 Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips 2 Comments
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Sales is a numbers game – how many times have you heard that?

Managing sales by numbers is part of it, but these metrics are more applicable to early sales process functions like business development activities.

X number of calls – Y number of appointments – Z number of meetings

It makes a lot of sense to track these ratios as they will indicate strengths, gaps and required efforts to keep a sales funnel on track. Later sales process management by numbers is focused on average sale value, closing ratio and funnel management.

Here is where I am going with this… Sellers have a direct impact on their numbers early in the sales process, and their ability to control and affect the sale decreases as it moves along… Sellers have direct control over their own production, but buyers have control over the dollars (by and large). Too many sellers try to take back that control far too late in the process – at the close.

equationsThe Math Analogy

Closing is simply like the “=” in sales. It is a function – a result. Mathematics does not happen at the point of “=”, it is a process that results in a value and the same goes for sales. In order to achieve the correct value in math, the process needs to be completed by following the rules and doing them in the right order. The calculations are similar to qualifying in sales – I have said many times that in order to be a better closer, you need to be a better qualifier – either way – if you rush through the calculations or the qualifications, you will get a result, but likely not the correct one. Sellers who focus too much attention on the “=” are missing the point of sales as  it has already happened; the “work” of sales is complete, closing is simply the result of a competent sales process.

This math process analogy can help sellers envision what closing is all about. Math is like sales in a vacuum – a repeatable process. In the real world, sellers are using psychology, presentation skills and benefiting from good timing.

Sales Training and Social Media

Published April 2, 2009 Business Development , Getting Started , Networking , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips , Social Media 2 Comments
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How has social media changed my approach to sales training?

I consider social networks an essential sales tool. Many sales people wish that social media will make cold calling go away – it won’t, but effective social networking skills are increasingly important. Here is why…

Reason #1: Voicemail

  • Sellers have made the telephone a tough way to accomplish business development efforts. Too many calls from too many sellers.
  • Buyers have turned their phones off (more or less) and allowed voicemail to act as their gatekeeper. Many sellers have not adapted to this yet – and continue to pound the phones looking for the needle in the haystack.
  • Sellers need to incorporate a voicemail marketing strategy. Embrace vm, it is not going away and will not be overcome by endless calling.

Reason #2: The Internet

The role of the seller has changed because buyers can leverage the Internet to find out much of what they need about a vendor, product or service without speaking to a rep. Therefore…

  • Sellers who focus on product will struggle vs. sellers who focus on business requirements.
  • Product knowlege is important, but consulting skills are what is needed to get the job done nowadays.
  • Sellers are valued by buyers when they help find better, unanticipated answers to challenges – better than buyers would have arrived at on their own.

Sellers Need Social Networks

The phones won’t get the job done like they used to and your market initiates buying cycles through information available via the internet – so sellers need to be online too. Sellers need to be available and able to respond when a buyer reaches out.

Your market is already there online – this is the point I reiterate with brands as well. Just like any brand, sellers need to be participating, observing and engaging in these communities. The role of the Seller has changed – from product focus to business analyst. Similarly, sellers need to change their business development activities – from prospecting to networking.

Here’s How:

3 Levels for Sales and Social Networking

Published March 23, 2009 Blogging , Branding , Entrepreneurs , Facebook , Networking , Personal Brand , Sales Tips , Social Media 10 Comments
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social_network_diagrams2bThere are 3 stages that sellers need to go through in order to use the tools of social networks to their fullest. It doesn’t matter if you are starting out, or are already on the path – social media networks are vital in sales today:

  1. Begin with a Profile
  2. Leverage your Presence
  3. Work as a Hub

Begin with a Profile

There are countless people who build a profile and then let it sit… this passive approach won’t work. Just like your phone doesn’t ring, you won’t get much out of building a profile and leaving it alone. A few thoughts on profile building:

  • Use a good picture - pics are standard now, and not having one reads as absence – especially in sales.
  • Be in the Right Networks - Consider your use of Linkedin (no brainer), Facebook, Twitter… you need to be where your market already is. Do some searching around to find your spot(s).
  • Be Active – Update, post, use, build and change your profile; make yourself visible and interesting (and professional).
  • Keep it 1st Person – Avoid the 3rd person narrative of “Carson is a dedicated…”, Use ‘I’ and ‘my’.

Leverage Your Presence

Now that you have a profile, you need to actively build out your network. As I have said before, with Sales2.0, there is no prospecting – it is simply networking:

  • Search for and connect with all your customers on social media platforms
  • Search for and connect with your top prospects
  • Business Development: Seek new contacts by profile searching for your ideal contact, reach out with a simple message – not a pitch
  • Join appropriate groups to expand your network and connect with target industry professionals
  • Use RSS feeds to share information with your network

Work as a Hub

5265503___networkOnce you have been actively operating on social media platforms, the next level is to operate as a hub or central node of your network. What it means to be a “hub” depends on your business and your role as a seller within it.

  • For a sales force rep- operating as a hub is more of a central network node – someone who is well connected, someone with information to share and is considered a source or a conduit.
  • For a business owner or solo entrepreneur – working as a hub means to build a core – like a blog, or a group or a specific network, a virtual place or destination for people when they are online to access what you know and share what they have.

These are the 3 main concepts behind sales and social networking – which level are you currently operating from?

Marketing = Applied Art, Selling = Fine Art

Published March 7, 2009 Branding , Business Tips , Entrepreneurs , Sales Tips 4 Comments
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It’s always different working with entrepreneurs vs. sales people.

Teaching at Microskills

Teaching at Microskills

I recently taught a class here in Toronto focused on social media at MicroSkills. For a lot of “new” entrepreneurs, selling is the last thing they want to do. Many of them see sales as a necessary evil – as if it is only a matter of time until the market finds out about them and the phone begins to ring. They have the vision, but are not prepared to put in the time to find customers/clients (and the skills to pull it off). They focus their skills gap on the brand… i.e. “if only the brand were stronger…” vs. “I’d like to be better at selling.”

On the other hand, sales people often miss/overlook the vision of the business – both their own and their prospect’s businesses. They have the skills and can pound out calls and presentations, but have trouble with the big picture.

Now – these are generalizations, and there are some great sellers with vision and some entrepreneurs who can work it on the streets. Ultimately, I think it is rare for individuals to be strong in both areas. Success doesn’t come easy.

Bottom line = $. The efforts of any business – your own or selling within someone’s business needs to result in sales. Sales continues to be stigmatized while functioning as the life blood of any organization. I see both entrepreneurs and sellers alike continue to wish that their brand could help them sell, or better yet, sell for them.

Selling is a fine art – marketing is an applied art.

The Dangers of Sales Success

Published February 26, 2009 Leadership , Sales Tips , Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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One of the dangers that many sellers come across is that when they get to a place of success, they start to slow down. They don’t have the drive to meet their quota, beat their competition or strive  among their peers to be the best.

And if you get to the top, someone is constantly trying to knock you off the pedestal – it’s tough being #1…

So how can you avoid this? Here’s a few ideas:

  1. Don’t let off the gas – the second you think you are safe is the second you are in trouble.
  2. When you close a sale, make a cold call (or 10) – Ride the wave of excitement/confidence and allow those feelings to resonate with some new business development.
  3. Ask your customers for referrals – keep the momentum moving by networking with your new customers – and be sure to give some referrals to these new contacts as well.
  4. Never look back - find some time to enjoy your success, but remember how you got there, I bet it wasn’t easy…

Just remember what’s like at the top of the pile, it can be a great place to be. But, now your colleagues and peers are looking to beat you – just as you were recently with the former top performer.

Keep at it and good luck.

Social Media and B2B Sales

Published January 26, 2009 Networking , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips , Social Media 2 Comments
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There is much discussion about ROI and social media.

Everyone loves marketing but no one loves sales (aww…). Marketing is sexy, but sales does the dirty work. Sales is the bottom line – what good is any marketing unless it is transitioned into real sales? (Answer: none)

The big “I” in ROI is the investment in time – not dollars – as far as social media is concerned.

If you are spending your resources’ time on social media – how can the results be measured? Just like any marketing initiative, there must be a path to sales. In B2B sales, social media can be leveraged as a networking tool by both the sales force as well as at the organizational level.

Social Media and the Sales Force

Social media can allow sellers to engage their market(s) in order to be involved and participate in conversations. For the purposes of this post – I am sticking with social media at the rep level – but there are exciting things happening at the organizational level through social media that allows the conversation to shift to brand (another time…).

A contact of mine recently brought up a great point – there are 2 types of technology that that no sales person ever has to be taught to use… the phone and the car. Why? Because the rep sees a direct correlation from using the technology to getting them closer to the conversation. But these 2 types of technology have something else in common – they were invented over 100 years ago!

That doesn’t mean old is bad – it means that new can be good too. Some where, right now, through social media… your industry is discussing goals and challenges. Maybe even your brand is being discussed – these are places where sellers need to be. Measuring the “I” – the investment of their time is the same as any other business development activity. How many hours did you or your sales team cold call last week and what were the results? Spend the same amount of time on a focused social media engagement strategy. Now you will have something to measure.

Coming up next post… how and where sellers can do this.

Final Thoughts on the Commodity Sale (for now…)

Published January 20, 2009 Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips Leave a Comment
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There’s been some great discussion and debate about selling on price vs. value.

You can see the Q&A from Linkedin here.

It’s interesting that my repositioning on Price was perceived as selling “cheap”, and that selling “value” was important than ever. One of the main take-aways here is that there are industry and product/service specific factors. Blanket statements cannot solve these issues, but can generate some ideas and discussion that can result in solid strategies.

While I would never suggest that value is no longer important – consider the following:

A rep for a professional sports organization selling luxury box suites can stand on the “value” of these seats on a vareity of  customer loyalty and engagement perspectives. But the client has it’s marketing budget cut in half – and right now, “valuable” seats will simply not get approval. An empty stadium of “value” will not drive revenue for the sports team and they will lose any concession or related merchandise sales as well.

A rep attempting to sell “value” through a total solution approach may miss the opportunity to grow future business from a potential client because they were unable/unwilling to fulfill the simple need quickly. Not filling the simple need now may cost even larger in the long run when times get better and the client’s growth plans come along.

Value isn’t going away, but price seemed to be a dirty word in sales for some time. Let’s embrace it, and recognize that it is a strategy that we can employ and layer value on over time. Right now, we need to keep moving, keep talking, keep rolling.


More Thoughts on the Commodity Sale

Published January 20, 2009 Business Tips , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips Leave a Comment
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Back in September, I wrote about the commodity sale.

When I originally positioned the commodity sale and shift away from the consultative process, I received a lot of feedback that I was way off base.

The consultative sales process brings some key elements that should not be abandoned, but have become less important when facing the current economic realities that we are today. At that time, we were on the brink of a recession. Now, selling on price has become a recessionary sales strategy – brands are positioning on price alone.

So much focus has previously placed on the concepts of value – I think many sellers have stopped listening, and their customers have stopped caring. The subjective concept of value is of course important, but let’s also be clear that the pure dollars that any solution costs has value as well. Some how, this became lost in the quest for value.

As I look to the current economy for some positives, or for some ideas on how to provide strategies for sellers to succeed – perhaps we should come to re-embrace the commodity sale in its simplicity. Good sales people will layer on elements of the consultative process, but back at the core – the hard realities of the current economy dictate a return to price driven sales.

How bad can that be?

How to Make Your Market Care About You

Published January 5, 2009 Blogging , Business Tips , Google , Marketing , Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips , Social Media Leave a Comment
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When considering your marketing and sales strategy, ask your yourself a question – why should your market care about you?

People buy when they have a need. Outside of those who buy quickly, Sellers always seem to be concerned with 2 things:

  1. Follow up until they do buy
  2. Drive them to your website

While these are actually good ideas, most times they are not done very well. Let’s break it down…

Turn Prospecting into Sharing

Most times that a seller follows up, they are basically saying, “Are you ready to buy yet?“. Endless calls and emails are sent with very little or no results. All this does is continue to flood your market with annoying and unwanted messages. The main goal in following up with any prospect is to offer them something they value – and the most sensible thing to offer them is information.

How? Use some simple tools like Google Alerts to search for articles and information that your market can benefit from. Send them links, but don’t don’t sell to them – just share information. This strategy can work very well for individual sales people to connect with their prospects. BTW – your prospects are part of your network too… so treat them like it. Give them referrals, helpful information and things they can use.

Your Website – Why Should They Care?

For a larger, organizational approach strategy – give your market a place to go for information. Consider again – unless someone had an immediate need to buy, why else would they ever visit your website?

Your website can be a place for people to learn and share information. By building this idea at the core of what your website is, you will be positioning yourself as a thought leader, a resource, an organization of value. By using blogs (like this one on WordPress), and creating opportunities for your market (with tools like Twitter, Delicious, Groups on Linkedin…) to learn more about your industry and current topics, you are giving them something they can really use and that is what will bring them back. What you are really doing here is positioning your brand into the conversation that is already going on – and that is a very valuable way to build engagement and awareness.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Published November 6, 2008 Sales Methodologies , Sales Tips Leave a Comment
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What are the first 3 things you say in your sales process when you first talk to a prospect?

Do yourself a favor and never say them again.

If those 3 things are consistent with what most sellers in your industry say – throw it away. It won’t do you any good, in fact – those 3 things are probably the worst thing you can say. Why? Because your target market is sick and tired of hearing the same questions every time. They are used to those questions, those statements and they shut down when they hear them.

While your top 3 might have valuable answers – you need to find a different way to get them. You need to be different and get your prospects to think- actually think by asking them higher level business questions – not by qualifying them.

So what are your top 3? Write them down, and throw them away – or better yet…

  1. Reduce: How much are you saying upfront? Too much? Evaluate how much info you try to spit out in the first 30 seconds… chances are you can cut back.
  2. Reuse: I’m willing to bet that a lot of what you say has some strong value – for your prospect, or for you… is there somewhere else in your sales process that you can use this? How do you decide what to talk about and when? Have a look at what you ask/talk about and when you do it.
  3. Recycle: Is there a better way to ask your top 3? Is there a better way to get the answers you are looking for? Can you turn what you say now into something better or more useful?

In the increasingly competitive world of sales – and an increasingly “challenging” economy – you need to be different from your competition (any and all sellers). You need to stand out by being smarter, by getting your prospects to think – not qualify, by demonstrating value in the very way you engage people. Be open to something new, see what happens when you change things up and take on the challenge to change.

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Carson McKee
Owner, Direct Contact
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