Sales and Sales Management Blog

April 7, 2010

Are You Hearing Without Listening?

Filed under: Communication,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:38 am
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Oh, our wicked ways! 

A reading of much of the Old Testament sounds like a modern day sales meeting—a great deal of hearing, very little listening of what is being said. 

When we read those passages where the Israelites hear the words being spoken but understand nothing because they don’t really listen, we self-righteously tend to think “oh, those evil Israelites, they deserve all the wrath that descends upon them.”   And in reality, they do.

But listen in on many of our sales calls and the only conclusion we can come to is “oh, that wicked salesperson, they deserve all the failure that descends upon them,” for we salespeople tend to be just as guilty of hearing without listening as the Israelites 2,500 years earlier.

Just as the wages of sin is death, the wages of not listening to our prospect is the equivalent of death in sales—no sale.

The problem is most of the time we aren’t even aware that we’re not listening because it is just plain human nature to hear what we want to hear and to be thinking about what we want to say instead of what our prospect is saying. 

No, I don’t think listening is the natural human state.  Talking is.  Probably more correctly is talking without thinking is the natural human state.

In terms of hearing, what is natural is to be thinking of our rebuttal while the other is takling and to be listening for the words we want to hear and to skip over the ones we don’t. 

Listening, really listening to what is being said rather than what we want to hear, is something we have to learn to do. 

We have to force ourselves to concentrate on the words being said by our prospect which means consciously NOT thinking about our next statement.

We have to force ourselves to listen to the meaning of our prospect instead of reading into their statement what we want to hear.

Let me give a couple of recent examples from a couple of my coaching clients.  Names have been changed but the words are real:

“Paul, I’ve got a great referral coming from one of my new clients,” said Richard.  “He said he’d talk to his business partner and see if he could set up a lunch meeting with the three of us.”

A few days later I got this email reply when I asked if he had spoken with his new client about the referral lunch: “He said he hadn’t spoken to him yet and probably wouldn’t anytime soon since his partner is in the process of getting a divorce and is in a surly mood and pre-occupied most of the time.”

That’s not what I was expecting.  I asked Richard what led him to believe his client would be setting up a lunch meeting.  He said he had recorded his session with the client as he often does and would play the referral meeting request section for me if I wanted. 

I wanted.

Here’s what his client actually said: “Well, I’ll see if I can set up a lunch with Don.  I’m not sure now is really the right time since he’s got some really serious personal issues he’s dealing with, but I’ll see if maybe there might be a good time to ask in the next few days.  If now isn’t good, can we wait until he has worked through the issues that are occupying him right now?”

My client heard “I can set up a lunch meeting with Don.”  The rest, to Richard, was just filler.  He heard the words he wanted to hear.

What I heard most loudly was “If now isn’t good, can we wait until he has worked through the issues that are occupying him right now?”  The client wanted to help Richard but was obviously uncomfortable asking Don for the meeting at this time and was asking permission from Richard to wait for a better time but Richard didn’t hear the request because it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, consequently he was disappointed and a bit upset when the referral lunch didn’t happen.

Another example happened last week when I was doing a web meeting “ride along” while one of my clients was doing a web based presentation to a prospect.  I was a silent attendee of the presentation, in the background as an observer only.

My client, Henri, was sailing along with the presentation when the prospect said “I really like this.  I need to get you set up to do this for Grace Turner; she’s the one I’m using to compare the various systems and will make the final recommendation.”

Henri, in a stunned voice, said “I’m sorry, Bill, I understood you to say that you were the decision maker on this.”

“I am,” he replied, “but Grace is the primary evaluator of the systems.  She is the one who is comparing each of the systems, so will be the one making the final recommendation and I seriously doubt I’ll not take her recommendation.  I thought you understood that last week when we set up this meeting and I said I’d see if Grace could sit in on the presentation also.”

“I’m sorry, Bill, I guess I should have asked what role Grace would be playing in the process.”

Henri heard what she wanted to hear—Bill was the decision maker and therefore she ignored anything and everything else.  In her mind she had THE MAN.  And she did in terms of who would authorize the purchase.  But she failed to listen when he indicated there was someone else involved in the decision process.  Henri believed that since he was authorizing the purchase, he was the only person she needed to influence.

Ouch.  Both of these situations were easily avoided with just a bit of careful listening.

So if not listening is our natural state and we have to force ourselves to listen, how do we do that?

Concentrate on the Prospect:  Hard to do, at least at first, but the single most effective thing you can do is to consciously concentrate on each word your prospect says. 

Focus on Context and Agreement:  While listening to your prospect, consciously focus on what your prospect is saying in the context of the overall discussion.  Are there hidden meanings?  Is the prospect giving a subtle message between the lines (i.e., “please give me permission to wait to ask Don for the lunch meeting”)?  Also, do the words your prospect is saying match their body language?  Concentrating on what they are saying in context and examining to make sure words and body language are in agreement force you to really concentrate on what is being said.

Pause Before Talking:  When we’re anxious to get our point across we tend to interrupt and break into our prospect’s discourse.  Not only is this rude, it is a solid indication we really aren’t listening.  Wait two seconds after your prospect finishes talking before putting your mouth in gear.  Not only will this keep you from stepping on your prospect’s tongue, that pause gives you a bit of time to think of your response and if you know you have time to construct your thoughts, you will feel less pressure to construct your rebuttal while not listening to your prospect.

Restate Your Prospects Statements:  Once your prospect has finished their statement, reword it back to your prospect to make sure you understand.  Say something like, “So, Ms. Prospect, I understand that your concern is . . .” or “I want to make sure I fully understand, you are suggesting that . . . . “

Although hardly natural for most of us, listening is a skill we can—and as sellers must—learn.

Now, go my children, listen well and sin no more—and if you catch me slipping up and interrupting you, obviously thinking about my next argument while you’re talking, or just plain ignoring what you’re saying, feel free to remind me that I deserve all of the sales failure I’ll experience.

Can I have an Amen?

April 1, 2010

Guest Article: “How to Deliver a Difficult Message,” by Marcus A Smith

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication — Paul McCord @ 8:34 am
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How to Deliver a Difficult Message
by Marcus A Smith

Delivering difficult messages is a part of life.  For simplicity’s sake difficult will be defined as anything that will create animosity within your audience.  Gut wrenching situations such as engineering a layoff, breaking up a relationship, or denying service to a customer come to mind.  These situations are uncomfortable for all parties involved.

When forced to prepare a difficult message focus on the following things:

  1. Remove Personal Feelings – This is a counter intuitive yet imperative step.  Bad news is best delivered in the absence of emotion.  Emotions always make a situation murky.  If you can not remove your emotions then pass the task to someone who can.
  2. Prepare for Backlash -  There is one certain thing about delivering bad news.  Everyone’s response is DIFFERENT.  That can not be emphasized enough.  Do not make the mistake of assuming that your listener will go on his/her merry way without causing a commotion, asking pointed questions, or otherwise making the situation uncomfortable for you.
  3. Be Very Specific – If you intend to chastise someone or deliver bad news then your ducks need to be in order.  Think about it for a second.  Have you ever received general negative feedback from a boss or relative with no specifics?  If you have then you know how frustrating of a circus this is.  You end up jockeying for position and leaving the situation annoyed and confused.
  4. Stand Firm – Last but not least.  You must stand firm in your message.  Most people’s response to negative feedback (yours truly included) is to defend themselves.  It is truly amazing what a person can remember and conceive when defense mode kicks in.  Be prepared for this and stand firm on the facts.

Hopefully, your use of this article will be scarce.  We all prefer to deliver well received, positive, happy messages.  The ebb and flow of life will often dictate otherwise.  When this occurs heed the advice in this article and come out of the situation relatively unscathed.

Marcus A Smith is a professional speaker and speaking coach.  Visit his website

February 28, 2010

What Are You Teaching Your Prospects and Clients About Your Value to Them?

Filed under: Communication,marketing,Personal Marketing,small business — Paul McCord @ 6:50 pm
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At least once a week I have a conversation with a sales leader or seller who complains about how much time and money they’re wasting on efforts to keep in touch with their prospects and clients since prospects and clients “never seem to read the damn stuff anyway.”  If it weren’t for the need to keep their name in front of their prospects and clients, there’s no way they’d waste the kind of money they’re throwing away.

I can sympathize—I’ve done the same.  In fact, I suspect a great many of us in sales—whether entrepreneurs, service professionals, or sales reps—who must construct our own communication program without the benefit of a marketing department struggle with the same issue (by the way, the marketing department struggles with it also).

Why do we spend so much time, money and effort in communicating with our prospects and clients and walk away with the feeling—the knowledge–that they haven’t read a word of what we wrote or heard a word we said?

The answer is quite simple—but one we really don’t want to hear–we haven’t delivered anything of value to them. 

We’ve committed the most common and most grievous sin in sales—we’ve focused on our needs and what the client or prospect can do for us, not on their needs and how we can be of service to them.  We’ve fallen into the easiest trap in the world to fall into—making the communication about us, not about the prospect or client.

Think about some of the most common communications we have with our prospects and clients:

  • “just checking to see if you need anything”
  • “wanted to make sure you got the flier about the special we’re having”
  • “look at the award we won”
  • “get a 15% discount on your next order when you refer someone”
  • “just reminding you it’s time to reorder”
  • “wanted to follow-up and see if you needed anything else or had any questions about our proposal”
  • “here’s a commercial, canned newsletter that has my name printed on it, maybe there’s something in here worth reading–and I hope you don’t get the same newsletter from one of my competitors because, boy, that’d be embarrassing”

Notice anything about these communications?  These and most of the other follow-up communications we have with our prospects and clients are about us, not them.  Whether we’re calling them, emailing them, sending a newsletter, a postcard, or snail mail letter, most of our communications are designed to benefit us more than our prospect or client.

The problem with the above communications is that for the most part, our prospects and clients don’t care about this information.  They aren’t communications that interest and help them.  In fact, most of the time, these communications do nothing but waste their time, and if we waste their time often enough, they’ll simply ignore our efforts to communicate with them.

Am I saying then that you can’t inform your prospects and clients about specials, remind them it is time to reorder, or ask if there is additional information they need in regards to your proposal? Of course not (I am saying, however, that you can never, ever, ever make the “just checking to see if you need anything” phone call).  But in order to have earned the right to make these “me” communications, you have to demonstrate that your focus isn’t you, but them.

You want to keep your name in front of your prospects and clients and you want to be able to communicate with them about things that are important to you, but to do that, ironically, you can’t focus on yourself.  How do you do that?

The easiest and most disciplined way to maintain contact, keep your name in front of your prospects and clients, earn the right to communicate about things that are important to you, and to teach your prospects and clients to pay attention to you is by creating a formal “touch” program, a campaign where you “touch” each of your prospects and clients on a regular basis with information that benefits them far more than it may immediately and obviously benefit you. 

Your touch campaign should focus not on who you are or what you do, it shouldn’t be focused on selling or overtly marketing your products or services, but rather it should focus on delivering information that your prospects and clients will find beneficial or useful.

What will your clients and prospects find to be useful?  That, of course, depends on who your prospects and clients are.  Sending recipes to business executives probably isn’t going to earn you a great deal of attention, just as sending an article on six sigma management theory isn’t going to do a lot for you if your prospects and clients are interested in discovering and cooking exotic dishes.

The first step in knowing what is of interest to your prospects and clients is to know your prospects and clients.  Sounds silly, but a great many sellers know little to nothing about the makeup of the group or groups they sell to.

Identifying and developing content that will capture the attention of and benefit business prospects and clients is often easier than identifying content for consumers because of the obvious commonality of interests. 

But even if your market is made up of groups of men and women with multiple, diverse interests, you can customize content with relatively little trouble by dividing your prospect and client list into two, three, four or more interest groups. Using an email contact product such as Aweber or Constant Contact can make communicating with multiple lists manageable

Since our prospects and clients are not automatons but are flesh and blood humans, we have to recognize that they not only respond to different content, they respond to different ways of being touched.  Consequently, we have to employ a variety of ways of reaching out to them.  For most of us that means some combination of:

  • Phone calls
  • Personal and/or general emails
  • Monthly or quarterly newsletter
  • Postcards
  • Thank You cards
  • Birthday/holiday greeting cards
  • Snail mail letters

Although we may not employ every format from the list above, our communication program needs to employ a combination of the personal (phone call, birthday card) with the general (newsletter, postcard).

How often should you connect with your list?  Studies indicate that an effective communication campaign will touch each prospect and client 12 to 18 times a year–basically, once every 3 to 4 weeks.

Obviously, if you have more than just a very few prospects and clients on your list you can’t make a personal phone call or send a personal letter or email every 3 to 4 weeks, so you will have to include some forms of mass communication in your program mix.

That takes us back to what to communicate?

If you’re selling to businesses some things you might communicate are:

  • Industry studies or forecasts
  • General economic studies or forecasts
  • Information about a specific competitor, new industry trend, new or proposed local, state, or federal government rules, regulations, or laws
  • Articles or news that might reveal new opportunities
  • A particularly interesting sales, management, hr, or marketing article that could apply to the industry
  • Success stories or unique and creative ways the industry’s products or services have been employed
  • Stories or articles about a particular company or individual

Virtually any of the above could be used in a personal phone call, email or letter to a prospect or client on your list, and most could be used in a general communication.  For a mass communication the more general the piece (general economic forecast from the Wall Street Journal as opposed to an industry forecast from an industry journal) the better as most of your readers will probably be familiar with material that comes from their industry publications.  The same holds true for a highly specialized publication—an article from a very specialized and limited circulation industry newsletter makes for a much better communication than an article from a general industry publication since it is far less likely your readers will have seen the piece from the specialized publication prior to your communication.

If your list is made up of consumers with a common interest—skiing–your content can be pretty easy to acquire since things such as product reviews, skiing venue reviews, and other skiing content is readily available and there are so many publications that it wouldn’t be difficult to find content that would be new to most readers.

But what if your list is more general?  Look for some content that will appeal to the vast majority such as general financial news, financial guidance, consumer reports, consumer trends, general interest news, or find ways to divide your list into more specialized lists where you can focus in on specialized topics. 

For both business and consumer content, the key is knowing your prospects and clients.  The better you know your list, the more you can focus your content to their needs and interests.

What about all of those great offers and discounts and new products you want to tell your prospects and clients about?  Are they off the table?  No, not at all.  You can weave those into your campaign; they just can’t be the focus, the center of attention.  You can even include those offers in every letter, email or newsletter your send–if they are only a secondary part of the content.  Once they become the main focus, you will once again be teaching your list that you’re concerned about you, not them, and that they no longer need to pay attention to you.

Why go to this much trouble?  Why not just buy a boilerplate newsletter and be done with it?  Why not just do what you’ve always done and not worry about all this non-sense about teaching prospects and clients to pay attention since they’re not going to read the stuff anyway?

Well, frankly, that’s what most of your competitors will do.  They’ll go along as they’ve always done, sending self-serving drivel, teaching their prospects and clients that they have nothing of interest to offer them.   They’ll choose to continue focusing on their needs instead of their prospects and client’s because it is easier. 

You too can take the easy route, the route everyone else takes and end up with the same results as everyone else—finding it difficult to get your calls taken or returned, not having your emails, letters, and newsletter read, wondering why you’re wasting your time and money sending stuff to your list.  Or you can choose to invest the time and effort to create a communication campaign that really impacts your prospects and clients and that teaches them to pay attention to you because you really have something to offer them.  It’s your choice.  Easy it isn’t—but then doing the hard work is what sets the successful sales professional apart from the also ran.  Which are you?                                                                     

NOTE:  On Tuesday, March 23 you can attend a free webinar where we’ll be discussing how to create a powerful touch campaign for your prospects and clients that will teach them to pay attention to you.  You can find more information about the webinar and register for it HERE

January 23, 2010

Keep Your Client in the Loop After You Get the Referral

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 10:55 am
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Congratulations, you’ve just received several referrals from one of your clients.  Great job!  But hold on, you’re work has just started.  No, I’m not talking about contacting and selling the referred prospect, I’m talking about keeping your client in the loop.

One of the primary reasons clients are hesitant to give referrals is that they are afraid of being embarrassed in front of a friend, relative, acquaintance or co-worker by you not performing as you should.  So, when they do give a referral, they have a vested interest in what’s going on between you and the prospect.  Not in the sense of whether or not the prospect purchases, but in how the prospect perceives you and the value being referred by the client.

When a client gives you a referral, you learn a number of things:

  1. The client will give referrals.  Obviously, you just received one or more.
  2. How well the client understands what you do.  The quality of the referral will let you know how well your client understands what you do and who is a good referral for you.  The better the referral, the more the client understands.  The poorer the referral, the more work you must do to educate them for future referrals (and future sales to them for that matter).
  3. How much they trust you.  Generally, the stronger the trust relationship between the client and the referred prospect, the more the client trusts you. 
  4. They have more referrals to give.  Seldom will a client give you all of the referrals they can make at one time.  If a client gives referrals, you can almost bet they have more to give—if you keep earning them.

How do you get those additional referrals?  Additional referrals are earned, just as the original referrals were earned.  You earn those additional referrals by:

  1. Giving your client the assurance that you’re trustworthy with referrals.  You must show through your actions that their trust in giving you a referral was well placed by making sure that the referred prospect has an exceptional experience with you.
  2. By keeping your client fully informed of everything that is occurring with the referred prospect.
  3. By continuing to deliver superior service to your client.

Does the above mean that you must perform perfectly with the referred prospect?  What if there was an honest mistake or miscommunication?  What if something out of your control happened during the course of the sale?  Will these incidents destroy any possibility of acquiring additional referrals?

No, not at all.

The keys to gaining additional referrals from a client are to treat the referred prospect exactly in the same manner you treated the client and to keep your client informed of what is transpiring between yourself and the referred prospect.

Your client gave you referrals because they understood that giving referrals was in their own best interests and because you earned them through the service, you gave them.  You must now demonstrate that same level of service for the referral they have given you.  They expect—actually demand—you perform at the same level—or higher—for those they refer to as you did for them.  That level of service you gave them was what demonstrated to them that they could trust with a referral.  Anything short of that and they will reevaluate whether you should be trusted with additional referrals.

That having been said, clients understand that mistakes, miscommunications, and problems arise in business.  A single issue during the course of the sale to a referred prospect, even a major issue, will not sever your ability to gain additional referrals from you client if you address and resolve the issue in an exceptional manner.

Clients don’t expect perfection, they expect exceptional service—both for themselves and for those they refer you to.  How well or poorly you handle the issues will be a major factor in determining your future refer-ability.

Keeping your client informed of the progress of the sale with the referred prospect reassures them that you’re doing your job—and that all is well.  It is also your source of informing them if there have been problems and how they were resolved. 

It is critical that you let your client know of issues involved with sales to prospects they have referred you to before the prospect has a chance to relate the incident.  You can relate the circumstances and the resolution in the most favorable light—the prospect may not.  This doesn’t mean that you can lie or gloss over it, just that you can give the background and the full resolution without the emotional involvement the prospect will have.  Of course, if you’ve done an exceptional job of resolving the issue, the tale told by the prospect should also be impressive.  However, you always want problems to be related to your client by you—you don’t want to get a phone call from the client asking what happened.

Keeping your client informed doesn’t mean bombarding them with emails, phone calls, and notes.  A simple “thank you for the referral” card immediately after receiving the referral and the occasional call or email will suffice.  The object is to keep them in the loop and to reassure them that their referral was well made for both you and the prospect.  Even better than the occasional call or email is to explicitly ask the client how and how often they would like to be informed of the progress.

Clients are interested in what’s going on with the referrals they make.  They want to know the prospect is being taken care of in the manner the client expected, and they enjoy knowing that they have provided you with a quality referral.  More importantly, they want to know that they haven’t embarrassed themselves in front of an acquaintance.

Simple actions will earn those additional referrals your clients have—you just have to earn them.

August 22, 2009

Client and Prospect Communication–Some Help in Staying in Touch While Maintaining the Right Image

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,Sales Resources — Paul McCord @ 1:29 pm
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a brief noteKeeping in touch with prospects and clients can be a daunting and time consuming task.  Phone calls, newsletters, direct mail pieces, and emails can cover most of our communications, but sometimes a well crafted  card is the appropriate stroke. 

But where can you find high quality cards designed for the business community?

No, don’t worry; this isn’t another solicitation suggesting you view a video about SendOutCards.  I’m not trying to get you to become a member of my downline.

SendOutCards has their advantages—they’re easy to create and easy to send.  Someone else does most of the legwork for you.  Just point, select a design, construct a message, pay for it, off it goes.  But SendOutCards has its downside also.  They’re relatively inexpensive but they look like they were machine created, which, of course, they were.  For many sellers the ease of use and low cost overcome the obvious machined look of the ‘personal’ message and signature.

However, for some sellers and professionals, a mass produced image just won’t work.  They need the highest quality paper stock, the finest printing, the most professional image possible.  The inscription and signature must be genuine.  The message implied on the front must communicate the proper image while capturing interest.

A small company I’ve discovered that specializes in business cards of the highest quality is Corporate Papers out of Williaa great caddiemstown, MA.  The company has somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 to 200 designs in various categories such as Business Essentials, Golf Links, Sympathy, Thoughtful Notes, and others; most blank inside although a few do have an inside message and you can order the cards with your own message.

If you’re looking for high quality greeting and thank you cards designed specifically for business that will communicate the high end image you are seeking, take a look at Corporate Papers.  They aren’t going to be all things to all people, but those seeking the right image and who understand the critical need to truly personalize, they just might be a great source.

July 15, 2009

Boost Your Sales: “Sales Presentations: Those Butterflies Can Fly In Formation,” by Jonathan Farrington

Filed under: Communication,marketing,Presentation Skills,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:02 am
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Sales Presentations: Those Butterflies Can Fly In Formation
by Jonathan Farrington

All professional salespeople have to be involved in a presentation at some time in their sales career, but when it comes to the enthusiasm that sales professionals have for making a presentation, they broadly fall into four categories:

The Avoider: An Avoider does everything possible to escape from having to stand in front of an audience.

The Register: A Register is also extremely hesitant of speaking in public. They may not be able to avoid speaking as part of their job, but they never encourage it.

The Acceptor: The Acceptor will give presentations as part of the job, but does not seek opportunities to do so.

The Seeker: A Seeker actively looks for opportunities to speak. They understand that anxiety can be a stimulant that fuels enthusiasm during a presentation.

Becoming a Seeker is a prerequisite for sales success! So, how do we get those butterflies flying in formation?

The first thing to remember is that anxiety and nerves mean you are alive — and without them, your resulting presentation would be like you: dead!

What you need to do is learn to control your anxiety and use it to fuel your enthusiasm.

Identifying Fears

To control your anxiety, you must identify what it is that you are afraid of. Is it forgetting your lines? Is it the audience size? Once you have established what exactly you are afraid of, and then establish whether or not you can control it.

Imagine you are the captain of an airliner. Do you fear flying? Of course not (although you may fear crashing), because you are in complete control of not only the aircraft, but also the crew and the passengers.

You have a flight plan, and before you take off, you know the payload, weather conditions for the flight, arrival time, departure time, etc. However, what is most significant is that you are familiar with flying, and you are comfortable with all of that responsibility, because you have flown so many times before and you know virtually everything there is to know about that aircraft.

Therein lies the secret: The more presentations we deliver, the more accomplished we become. However, we must know what we are talking about — we must know our subject matter inside out. Otherwise our audience will find us out.

Let’s consider the areas that you can control:

Your audience: After all, you invited them.

Your material: You designed it.

Your resources: You chose to utilize them.

Yourself: You’re no puppet.

If there are any areas you’ve identified that you can’t control, forget them — it’ll probably never happen.

Controlling Nerves and Reducing Anxiety

Organize: Give yourself plenty of time to prepare; know what is going to happen and when. Take the time to rehearse your presentation, preferably with someone you know well. Get them to offer you objective and constructive criticism.

Visualize: Get into the habit of visualizing how the presentation will go; that way, the environment will feel familiar even if it’s your first time. Imagine the end of your presentation and your audience smiling with appreciation.

Make notes: Make bullet-point notes on individual postcards to prompt you (not lengthy scripts). You may not need them, but they will give you that “comfort zone.” Do remember to number them, though, just in case you accidentally shuffle them.

Relaxation: Before your presentation, take some time for yourself to relax, breathe deeply, go out into the fresh air, and clear your head. Do not allow your mind to mentally rehearse the entire presentation, because you need simply to concentrate on your opening lines. Once you have successfully navigated your way through the first couple of minutes, you will begin to relax. A strong opening is crucial.

Warming up: Clear your throat, practice your smile and drink some water to ensure you are hydrated, etc.

Dress appropriately and check your posture: If you look the part, everyone will assume you know what you are talking about anyway!

Become mobile: It will keep your audience awake.

Use eye contact and smile: They can’t fail to pay attention.

And finally — practice, practice, practice! With time and experience, even the most timid presentation-avoider can become an avid seeker.

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognised business coach, mentor, author and consultant. He is the CEO of Top Sales Associates, Chairman of The Sales Corporation and Managing Partner of The JF Consultancy, all based in London & Paris. You can read his hugely popular daily blog here

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Jonathan has very graciously offered his Professional Presentations e-book as a gift to the Boost Your Sales readers.  Click on the link, download the ebook, learn, and start giving great presentations.

October 31, 2008

What Does Your Client Touch Program Say About You?

Filed under: business,Client Relationships,Communication,marketing,sales,selling,small business,trust — Paul McCord @ 8:26 am
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What are you doing with those prospects that are in your database that aren’t ready to purchase yet?  Are you in the process of establishing trust and good will-or are you demonstrating that you aren’t trustworthy or that you really don’t have anything of value to offer?

Whether you’ve considered it or not, everything you send to a prospect communicates your value-or non-value, and your trustworthiness.  Everything you send.  No matter how small.

Most salespeople, professionals, and companies will put their long-term prospects into a database and keep in touch with them on a semi-regular basis.  They’ll send a monthly or quarterly newsletter, a “how ya doin, ya ready to buy yet?” email or letter on occasion, and make a phone call once in a blue moon.  Some will inundate the prospect with so much junk mail and junk email that the prospect wonders how to get rid of them.

Either way, the prospect is learning about the salesperson or company.  The question is what are they learning?

Let’s look at the three most common negative messages prospects get from salesperson and company communications:

You Aren’t Reliable:

Reliability is a major trust factor and what you send and when you send materials to your prospects will communicate to some extent whether or not you are reliable.  If you promise to send information, do you send exactly what you promised, when you promised?  If not, why should a prospect trust you?

Do you send a monthly or quarterly newsletter?  Is it on time, every time?  If the date on your newsletter is May and it arrives in June because you were too busy to get it out, what message does that send?  Think people won’t notice?  I received the Jan/Feb newsletter from an interior decorator-in April.  Is that how she handles all of her commitments?

You Don’t Value My Time

Are the items you send of real value to the prospect?  If it isn’t of value, why do you send it?

What people will send is amazing.  I get newsletters with recipes, gardening tips, and other information that might be appropriate for some salespeople, but not from the people who are sending it.  Recipes, gardening tips, household tips, etc. might be appropriate in a REALTOR’S newsletter, but not an accountant’s, or financial planner’s, or insurance agent’s, or from an auto repair shop.  If I get something from an accountant, I expect it to have some relevance to my financial needs.  If I get something from an auto repair shop, I expect it have something to do with automobiles.  I don’t expect an attorney to send me an article on how to give a massage (yep, got one). 

What can you send of value?  There is a ton of stuff.  Articles relating to the area you address; special offers; new services and/or products; major company news; and other pertinent information.  All of these items are likely to be of interest to a majority of your prospects.

The key is not to waste your prospect’s time.  Of course, not everything you send is going to be of interest to every one of your prospects.  But if your information is good, all of your prospects will find value in your communications-just not every prospect for every communication.  I get a number of emails after each edition of my newsletter.  Many praise a particular issue; others are indifferent.  But some of those who were indifferent to one issue may email me an issue or two later raving about the latest issue, while the one who was enthused about the first issue emails me to let me know I missed the mark with them on the last issue.  I, like you, have to aim to bring lots of great material to the table, knowing that each reader is at a different place in their careers.  What appeals to one, may not appeal to another.  However, if I bring enough diversity to the newsletter, I can hit everyone’s needs, just not in every issue.  You must aim for the same goal-bring substance to the table, and overtime, you’ll feed the lot.

Every time you communicate with a prospect or client, even with your mass communications, you are teaching them to pay attention to you because you value their time and give them value-or you are teaching them to ignore you because you are nothing but a time waster.

You Don’t Know Your Business

Sending out-dated or erroneous information also will be noticed by many prospects.  If you fail to review and carefully examine your information to make sure that it is up-to-date and accurate, you run a serious risk of convincing your prospect that you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.

The articles and other materials you send, whether written by you or others, must contain current, accurate and trustworthy information.  Never assume that yours is the only information the prospect is receiving about your subject.  Your object is to inform, not confuse.  Your goal is to impress, not show your ignorance or laziness.  Errors are especially easy to miss when dealing with statistics and factual matters of record.

This isn’t to say that you can’t send items that may challenge conventional wisdom.  You certainly can-and if you can back your information up, these may be your most potent communications.  For instance, I work obviously in the areas of sales and sales management.  Most salespeople and managers know there are a great variety of training methods and theories.  Controversy and going against convention isn’t an issue in this industry.  As a matter of fact, many are well aware that many conventional ways of doing things simply don’t work that well.  Consequently, going against convention and finding better ways is welcomed. 

But in other industries, for example, many sectors of the financial services industry, bucking convention many not only raise many eyebrows, but your very competence may be questioned if your ideas are not well documented by independent sources.  Does this mean that you can’t present non-traditional ideas in these industries?  No.  It simply means that you must go out of your way to document their validity because you know upfront that you’re dealing with a subject where innovation is going to be questioned-not just by peers, but by many prospects also.

In addition to sloppy work, overstatements and exaggerations are another red flag for prospects.  It is perfectly permissible to make strong statements about your products and services as long as you are not the author of those statements and you can identify for your prospects exactly who made the claims about your product or service. 

If you use superlatives about yourself, your product/service, or your company, they cannot be from you and you must fully identify the person who made them-meaning they can be checked out.  If you make the claim yourself, you lose credibility.  If you attribute the superlative to someone who is not fully identified, you lose credibility.  If you use an authority in your particular field and give full identification, you gain credibility.  If you use an everyday customer with full disclosure, you gain credibility.

Examine your prospect communications in light of these three most common mistakes.  Don’t allow yourself to lose credibility while trying to build credibility.  Every communication you have with a prospect or client is just as important as your initial communication with them.  You’ve worked hard to gain their trust and respect.  Don’t blow it by teaching them that you’re nothing but a time waster.

August 19, 2008

It’s as Much How You Say It as What You Say

Filed under: Communication,Presentation Skills,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 6:50 am
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Over the past couple of days I’ve conducted a mini survey of about 60 business owners and senior managers of corporations on their impressions of Barack Obama and John McCain from their appearances at the Saddleback event last Saturday evening.

The purpose wasn’t to determine who won and who lost in terms of content.  My intent was to get their gut reactions to whom they felt was most honest and most importantly, who they would most likely buy from based only on that evening’s event.

Naturally, this is a highly subjective survey and one where the respondent’s reactions cannot be completely separated from their previous opinions of the men or from their political leanings.  Even though in no way am I claiming this to be a scientific study or anything more than just a small glimpse of how a few dozen business people reacted to these candidates, the brief survey does indicate that the way we communicate influences the perceptions of our prospects.  I did, however, speak to men and women from various parts of the country, some self-identified Republicans, some Democrats, and some Independents.

My questions were simple and dealt with how these men and women reacted to how each man delivered his message, not the message itself, and why they believed they reacted as they did.

The overwhelming majority felt that McCain did a better job than Obama.  They felt he was more honest, sincere, and trustworthy.  Almost every one of them thought that if these two men had been sitting in front of them in a selling situation they would have bought from McCain instead of Obama.

Why?

The root difference appears to be the communication styles of the two men–one created a sense of confidence and assurance in the listener, the other didn’t.  McCain’s short, quick, forceful responses came across not only as honest but as though he had a grasp of the issues and knew what needed to be done.

Their emotional reaction to Obama was very different.  His answers were not only considerably longer but his speech was halting and much slower.  There was less a sense of self assurance, less of an impression that he was in command of the situation.

Is it fair to base one’s decisions on the way we deliver our information-on our speech patterns?  Not really.  But how we say what we say does have an impact on how our content is received.  Is McCain more confident and in control than Obama?  Probably not, but his delivery style on this evening was, according to the majority of the men and women I spoke to, more likely to move them to purchase from him than Obama.

Some of us, me included, have a natural delivery style much closer to Obama’s than McCain’s.  We might find it helpful to work on speeding up our speech pattern while setting forth our ideas in a more forceful, self assured manner that creates a sense of confidence and sincerity in our listener because how we say what we say is just as important-maybe more so–as what we say.

June 24, 2008

Have You Had an “Uh, oh!” Moment Yet?

Filed under: business,Client Relationships,marketing,Negotiation,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:49 am
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My friend Dave Stein of ES Research wrote a very timely post on his blog a few days ago about the battle between salespeople and purchasing agents.  I found it timely because one of my coaching clients needed some emergency coaching yesterday because when he visited with a new prospect, a purchasing manager for a division of a major wood products company, he had an “uh, oh” experience.

My client realized within just a couple of minutes of beginning the discussion that the prospect knew far more about the salesperson’s business, sales process, and even the type of issues his company was having than the salesperson knew about the prospect’s company.  To his surprise and dismay, apparently the prospect was doing more research on the salesperson’s company than he had done on the prospect’s company.  He knew he was in a situation where he was at a distinct disadvantage because his prospect was better prepared than he was.

Over the years I’ve addressed the issue of how prospects—both business and individual consumer prospects—are changing.  No longer do they need salespeople to provide information and guidance because they have at their fingertips mountains of information—from data to case studies to price comparisons to recommendations and guidance by recognized experts about every product and service imaginable.

Salespeople must be better prepared than ever.  Not only are prospects becoming more difficult to connect with—they’ve learned to block out your marketing and advertising and avoid your cold calls–they are becoming far more knowledgeable about their issues and the possible solutions to those issues.  In addition, corporate purchasing personnel are actively engaged in researching you just as you are researching them—and they are being trained on how to counter your sales techniques, negotiate, read your body language, and other methods of out selling the seller.

The world of selling is changing and it is changing rapidly.  More than ever it is imperative that salespeople learn how to find and connect with prospects in ways prospects will respect and accept—and unfortunately, the traditional methods of prospecting just don’t do that.  But in addition, salespeople must learn how to sell in a world where the consumer is as well or even better informed than they are and where the prospect has access to the recommendations and guidance of recognized, ‘objective’ experts.

If you thought selling was a tough job in the past, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

March 3, 2008

Is Your Follow-up Communication Guilty of Prospecticide?

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,marketing,Personal Marketing,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 7:07 am
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Like Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote,” I run into cases of murder everywhere I go.  Unlike Lansbury who faced cunning villains who intentionally murdered, the cases I come across are unintentional, but with the same deadly results.  Lansbury’s villains used guns, knives, and other assorted weapons; the killers I come across use words.  She dealt with homicide; I deal with prospecticide, the killing of prospects.

Are you guilty?  Are you one of the millions of salespeople who have committed one of the worst of sales crimes?  Worse, are you a serial prospecticider? 

Most typically, prospecticide isn’t a one-time crime.  It becomes so ingrained in the perpetrator that they don’t even realize they are committing the crime.  And just as with Lansbury’s villains, the prospecticider faces stiff penalties in the form of lower income, more difficult sales, and, possibly even the sales equivalent of the death penalty–having to find another occupation.

How do you commit this heinous crime?  You commit prospecticide when you kill your prospects through communications with them that train them to avoid you because you’re focused on your needs not theirs.  Your phone calls, your e-mails, your voice mail messages, and other communications are designed to advance your cause, not theirs. 

Every communication you have with a prospect trains them either to pay attention to you because you bring value to them or to avoid you because all you do is waste their time.

Particularly in a long sales cycle, your communication with your prospect is crucial.  Each time you send something, call, or leave a voice message, you are telling your prospect what you think their time and attention is worth.  You’re telling them whether you’re concerned about them—or about yourself. 

In addition, you’re telling them a great deal about you and your business.  You’re telling them what your time is worth, what you think is important, and, most importantly, whether or not you have anything of value to say.  You’re telling your prospect how professional you are—or how shallow. 

Your communications, no matter what form they take, are you.  Your letter, your e-mail, your voice message, your thank you card are all you, just without you physically being in front of the prospect.  They are you and your business to the prospect.  The message they send is just as important as any message you would deliver in person.

Before sending anything, before picking up the phone, and before leaving the voice message, ask yourself a few questions: 
•  Would I want to hear from me?
•  Would I want to receive this? 
•  Does this represent me well?
•  Does this add value to our relationship?
•  Is this designed to benefit the prospect—or me?

If your answer doesn’t indicate that the communication is prospect centered and adds value for the prospect, why are you delivering it?

Most salespeople seldom think about the content of the communications they deliver to their prospects.  The object, they figure, is to keep their name in front of the prospect and to let the prospect know they are interested in acquiring the prospect’s business. 

The issue isn’t with the salesperson’s objective, but with the way they do it. 

Typical follow-up communications are
•  the “how ya doin’?” call
•  the “is there anything I can do for ya?” call
•  the “did ya get my package?” call
•  the “I couldn’t reach you, but I wanted to see if you need anything” e-mail
•  and the “here’s my information again just in case you misplaced it” package. 

As most often made, these communications are time wasters for the prospect.  If they had made a decision or if there were anything they needed, they would have called.  These communications teach the prospect to avoid the salesperson because they’ve learned the salesperson will do nothing but waste their time.  The next thing the salesperson knows, their calls are screened and their messages not returned.

Prospects don’t have their calls screened, ignore voice mail messages and e-mails, and throw written correspondence in the trash without reading it to be rude.  They do these things because they have been taught by salespeople that answering and returning calls and reading the material salespeople send have no value.  Salespeople have taught them to avoid salespeople at all costs.

Does that mean you can’t communicate with your prospects? 

Certainly, you can.  However, your first job is to teach your prospect that you, unlike other salespeople, value of their time; and that when you call, when you send an e-mail, when you request a return call, when you send a letter or package, it adds value for the prospect and that spending a few minutes speaking with you or reading your communications is worth the time spent. 

What can you communicate that will add value for your prospect?  There are a myriad of possibilities. 
•  Articles relating to aspects of the prospect’s company or industry that may impact the their business.  These articles
   must come from a source the prospect is not likely to have read.
•  Changes in your product or service that enhance your ability to meet your prospect’s needs
•  Articles or reports about micro or macro economic issues that may make it advantageous for the prospect to make a
   decision now instead of later.
•  Announcements of awards your company has won for its products or about new product enhancements or releases
•  Possibly the prospect or his/her company has recently received awards or press coverage or sponsored events you can
   congratulate them on
•  Articles relating to an interest outside of work you know the prospect has.  Again, these articles should come from
   sources the prospect isn’t likely to discover on their own.
•  Special discounts, upgrades, or arrangements you can offer the prospect that are outside your company’s normal
   procedures

These are just a small sampling of the items that can add value for your prospect.  The more timely and pertinent the message, the more value it adds.  The more value you add, the more valuable you become.  The more valuable you become, the more you ease competition out of the way and the less price is an issue.

On the other hand, the less value you bring, the less valuable you are.  The less valuable you are, the more difficult it is to reach your prospect.  The more difficult to reach your prospect, the less likely a sale and the more likely you just committed prospecticide.

If you’re a serial prospecticider, there is hope.  You can be rehabilitated.  Yes, there is a chance for recidivism, but once you become aware that every communication you have with a prospect is just as important as your first, and once you see the payoff of becoming a respected and valued source of information, the less likely it is you’ll go back to your old murderous ways.

Do you want to be able to reach your prospect anytime you want?  Do you want your calls returned?  Do you want to move your competition out of the way?  Do you want to eliminate price as a primary issue?  Then stop teaching your prospects to ignore you and begin teaching them that you are the one salesperson they need.  If they determine they need you and that you add value to them and their business, you’ll have no difficulty in gaining their attention anytime you want it.
Paul McCord may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com

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