Sales and Sales Management Blog

January 29, 2010

Want Referrals? Find Them, Then Have Your Client Give Them to You

Filed under: lead generation,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:27 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

Most of us who sell would love to get a number of quality referrals from each of our clients.  The reality for most of us is we seldom get referrals, and when we do, they’re usually no better than if we’d picked a name or company at random from the phonebook.

Asking For Referrals Will Get You Nowhere
Most of us have been taught to get referrals by simply doing a “good job” and then asking for referrals after the sale has been completed—often literally as we’re walking out the door or during a post-sale follow-up phone call.  We pop the referral question on our client and are then surprised and frustrated when they don’t have a quality referral to give.

We shouldn’t be. 

Instead we should be amazed when one does give us a quality referral because what we’re doing is inherently unfair to our client.  We’ve given the client no time to become comfortable giving referrals; we haven’t defined for the client who a good referral for us is; we’ve not given them a reason to give us referrals; and we’re asking them to do our job for us. 

I’ve questioned thousands of sellers over the years about their closing ratio of referred prospects vs. the closing ratio of their non-referred prospects.  Sad to say, in general the closing ratio of referred prospects is about the same—only slightly higher—as the closing ratio of the prospects they’ve contacted through other means such as cold calling.  What does that mean?  It means the quality of the prospects they receive from referrals is no better than the quality of prospects they generate through other means.  It means that when they get a name and phone number from their clients all they are getting is a name and phone number, not a quality referral.

Yet, we want quality referrals from them.

Your Clients Have Quality Referrals to Give
Almost all of us has gotten at least one great referral from a client.   We know our clients have referrals to give if we could just figure out how to get them.

The problem is that our clients really don’t know whom to refer, and even if we define for them who a great referral for us is, most of our clients simply don’t think of those prospects that we’d love to be referred to.

It isn’t their fault.  It isn’t their job to do our job for us.

But we really want those referrals they have.

Make It Easy to Give Referrals
How do we get those great referrals our clients have that they don’t think to give us?

We do it by making it so easy to give us quality referrals that we walk away from our client with three, four, five or more great referrals and all our clients had to do was say, “Yes, I know them.”

We get lots of great referrals by doing our homework, by discovering who our client knows—or probably knows—that we know we’d like to be referred to. 

We do the work for our client.

Become a Referral Detective
Doing the work for your client means you have to become a detective; you have to use your eyes and ears to ferret out who your client knows, or you have reason to believe may know, that you know you want to be referred to. 

For most sellers this is a tough assignment. How can you possibly discover who your client could refer you to?  Can you get into their head or sneak in and take a look at their Rolodex?

In a sense, that is exactly what you do.  You use your senses to figure out who you know you want to be referred to that you client may well know that at the proper time, instead of asking for referrals, getting none and walking out empty-handed, you ask your client if they know the people on your list.  If they do and you’ve earned the referrals, you’ll get them.  So instead of walking out with no referrals, you walk out with three or four or more referrals to people or companies you know you want to be referred to.

Sources of Referrals
Where do you find these potential referrals?  Everywhere.  You must be ever on the lookout for potential connections your client has.  Literally from the moment you meet a new prospect you’re looking for clues to who they may know. 

Here are some ways to discover who your client may know:

  1. Talk.  Asking casual questions about their background, their hobbies, their neighborhood, their workplace during small talk can turn up some great connections.  Former employers, the organizations they belong to, where they spend their time can reveal many potential connections you can explore.
  2. Observe. If you’re meeting them in their office or place of business make sure you look around.  What organization’s membership book is on their bookshelf?  What plaques and photos do they have on the wall?  Are there signs of who their vendors or customers are such as boxes, envelopes, or business cards?
  3. Internet.  Look them up on LinkedIn.  Who are their connections?  Who else from their company is on LinkedIn?  Do they have a blog?  Are they on Facebook or Twitter?  Who are their followers?  What do they blog about?  Examine their company’s website—are there potential prospects you can find there?  Are they likely known by your client?
  4. Think of their professional connections.  If your client is an architect, what other architects do you want to be referred to that they may know?  If your client owns a franchise, are there other franchises of the same company around that your client probably knows? 
  5. Think of their family and social connections.  Do they have family members you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people in their neighborhood or within the same business park you know you want to be referred to?  Are there people involved in the same charity they’re involved with?

For most of us, if we really put our mind to it we could come up with many potential referral prospects for each of our clients.  It isn’t easy, at least not at first.  You have to get your mind into the habit of thinking about whom your client may know that you know you want to be referred to.  You have to train yourself to think like a detective—always questioning what you see and what it means for who your client knows.

But the payoff can be tremendous.

Quit just asking for referrals.  Learn to be a detective and both the quality and quantity of the referrals you get from your clients will go outta sight.

December 17, 2009

Guest Article: “Can Your Business Survive a Drop in Google Ranking?” by Donald Farber

Filed under: business,lead generation,small business — Paul McCord @ 8:44 am
Tags: , , ,

Can your business survive a drop in Google ranking?
by Donald Farber

Have you heard the term Hilltop when someone is talking about Google? No, it’s not a big mountain of money that Google piles up at their corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.

What about Google Caffeine? Maybe it’s what happens when you drink too much coffee and spend an afternoon querying random things.

Not the case either – Google Caffeine and Hilltop are what are known as algorithms, or search architecture updates, that are used by the search engine giant to determine relevancy when you look for something on the internet.

That’s fine but what do these algorithms mean to your small business?
Many small businesses live and die by their Google rankings and it’s factors like these algorithms that decide where you rank.

Some small online businesses generate almost all of their revenue from ranking for only one or two keywords in Google. So when someone searches for those terms, their website will come up near the top of the listings.

Having to rely on ranking well in Google for a few keywords is a risky way to run a business. What if your ranking dropped tomorrow and didn’t come back for another 6 months? Could your business survive?

Typically you have to do something against Google guidelines or the algorithm’s formulas to see this kind of drop in rankings but it’s probably not worth the risk. Many sites have been knocked into obscurity for various reasons.

How do you protect yourself?
I know a lot of you aren’t going to like to hear this but the best way to protect your online business is to spend the time (or money) to build a great website:

  • Make it a vast resource and continually add pages of content
  • Have content that interests and engages your visitors
  • Make the website easy to navigate
  • Get an excellent design that makes your site stand out from the competition

Unless you’re multitalented this isn’t going to come cheap but there is a lot of software out there that makes this easier for small businesses on a budget.

These factors will make people want to talk about your site and link to it, which will bring better rankings and more visitors. You still need to get the word out about your website but having a site that is linkable will make life much easier.

The other thing about building a great website is that people wont forget about you. They’ll bookmark your site, write it down, send it to friends by email, tag it, and remember it later. They’ll do this because you’ve built a great resource on the subject, product, or service that they’re interested in.                                                                                                       

Build a brand
When most people think of online auctions they think of eBay. If someone is on the Internet looking for the new Coldplay album there is good chance they might go straight to iTunes without looking anywhere else.

Some companies are known for selling shoes, pipes, cat toys, pencils, or ornamental grasses. If you are an ornamental grass connoisseur than you might immediately think of Grassgardens.co.uk when you’re looking for grass for your garden.

Being known as “the website that sells ornamental grass” might not be as lucrative as the “company that sells laptops” but the competition isn’t as strong so you can own that niche more easily. Owning a niche is not easy but it’s not impossible either, especially with the amount of lazy webmasters out there.

Brands don’t need to be big but they need to be well known within that group of consumer. If you’re a small businesses offering anything then you need to own that product or service to be the best online. It’s starts with a great website.

Content content content
Without content most websites wouldn’t get any traffic from search engines. The more pages of quality content you have, the greater chance that someone will find your site from Google searches.

Google estimates that 20-25% of all searches are new so by creating more pages of content, you will increase the chances that your website has what they are searching for regarding that topic.

Creating quality content is important because it gives someone a reason to link to you and it also gives the visitor a reason to trust you when they get to your site.

Interaction
The problem with advertising on social media sites like Facebook is that the user is not looking for a product or service. They are on the site to interact with their network of friends and family. But when someone searches “buy new Coldplay album,” chances are they are looking to purchase the new Coldplay album.

What Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs, and other social platforms do is allow companies (and more specifically people at the companies) to interact with their customers directly. This allows the customer to build trust in your business and to show them that you see them as a real person rather than just money.

It doesn’t work for every online business but chances are, with a bit of ingenuity, almost every small business could find a way to interact successfully with their customer base in a way that your competition isn’t.

It’s no different than that local deli you keep going back to because a) they have good food and b) the couple that run the place are very friendly.

The competition on the internet is getting harder by the day and there is no easy answer for making money online. The key to getting on top and staying there is to build an outstanding site and then promote it.

Donald Farber is a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist. He currently works with the web team at LifeCover.ca: a Canadian life insurance website.

June 23, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “How to Find the Right Social Media Strategy for Your Business,” by Cindy King

Filed under: business,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales 2.0,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 6:26 am
Tags: , , , , ,

How To Find The Right Social Media Strategy For Your Business
by Cindy King

“How can social media improve my business?” 
“What will Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn bring to my bottom line?”
“What is the ROI of social media?”
And…
“Are businesses really making sales through social media?”

These are questions I heard often this week while attending the Social Media Success Summit 2009 . They are heavy questions.  And there is a problem: the real answers people want depend on their business and their markets. Social media is about connecting with people.  This means connecting you in your business with your clients.  This is why I believe that businesses need to jump in and participate to find the answer to these questions themselves. 

In this article, I hope to help you get a little closer to these answers by telling you my own story as a small business owner using social media to reach international clients.

Why It Takes Time To Find The Answer

Less than a year ago, I did not even realize that a blog was social media. My blog was 6 months old and it was time to look for ways to improve my online presence.  I blog for business and had no time to waste.  Luckily I met Chris Garrett  who gently got me to look more closely at the other social media platforms, even though they seemed unsuitable for a small business struggling with time commitments.

So I reluctantly tried Twitter, while I blogged daily on two blogs, had a dormant Facebook profile, a LinkedIn account and a small group of social media friends to coax me on.  It took me 3 months simply to understand what social media was about.  Don’t panic, it does not take everyone this long.  But I had a few prejudgments against social media to get rid of and was not quite as web savvy as I am today.  I also found that I needed to understand several of the social media tools individually before I could see what was happening in the big social media picture.

Once I understood the social media environment the fun started.  I began to play with it, to see what value social media had for my business.  It took another 6 months to understand how the people in my market use social media and how I could use social media as a prospecting tool.

That is my social media story in a nutshell. 

For many businesses it is not that simple.  Management wants answers to those big questions before jumping in. 

What Is The Buzz About?

First you need to understand why social media is important.

Although social media started out as personal communication platforms, these platforms are in the process of becoming useful tools businesses to reach clients.  For example:

  • Facebook is used successfully by many businesses in the B2C world as a sales platform.  Other businesses are using the Facebook Pages as a hub within a strategic social media presence. 
  • LinkedIn is not just a place to virtually exchange business cards.  For example, there are polls and applications to share slide presentations.
  • Twitter is now widely accepted as one of the easiest and fastest ways for businesses to poll their audiences and get immediate feedback.  Tweets are now indexed by Google, which improves overall search results.

Although each of these social media platforms will continue to evolve, it is this form of communication that is important.  Social media communication will continue to expand in today’s customer-centric world of inbound marketing. 

Social media is a place to connect with your clients.  You need to find out what part this plays in your sales cycle.

How Can Social Media Help Your Business?

Before you can answer this question there are three important things you need to establish:

Right attitude – You need to understand how social media communication works.  You can only pick up the right attitude through participating. People have different communication skills, so this can take more or less time to get right.

Context – Many businesses wonder if their clients are on social media.  The answer is often yes.  Your clients are like everyone and probably spend time online. The real question is one of context. 

  • What are our clients doing on social media?
  • Where are they?
  • Why are they there?
  • How are they using social media?

You need to understand the context your clients are in when they use each social media platform.  Only then will you be able to find the right approach to connect with them on social media. 

Clear Business Objectives – Social media platforms have a wide range of bells and whistles… and things that can seem absurd in a professional environment.  If you want business results out of social media you must stay business focused and learn to navigate in this environment.

Although a direct sales approach does not work on social media, you can use social media tactics within a well planned soft sales approach based on a strong value proposition and engaging with people.

Clear business objectives also help you to handle some of the challenging aspects most people struggle with on social media:

  • Get over any personal issues you have with networking.  People who are good networkers in traditional environments usually adapt well to social media networking.   Social media highlights personal preferences and styles in networking.  Clear business objectives helps you keep to business networking.
  • Avoid wasting time on the gadgets.  There are many social media tools to “help” you get the most out of social media.  It is very easy to add on extras that do not add any value to your business strategies and get you out of focus. Clear business objectives help you to come up with a social media system that works for you. 
  • Stay focused on targeting the people you want to meet. 

Why My Tweet Plan Boosted By Business?

My first Tweet Plan revolutionized by business.  It opened doors to people I would never have dreamed of meeting.  Yes, I have had a few clients come to me through Twitter.  But this is not where I have had the highest return on my time investment. 

What I appreciate most out of Twitter is the ease in making high quality contacts.  Instead of using social media to get individual clients I deliberately looked for people who could bring me many clients.  I wanted high quality sources of referrals to help me develop my new business. 

What I found was that I can make contacts very easily on social media, but not sell directly.  To make these contacts work for my business, I need to take them outside of the social media environment.  Social media is simply a part of the initial cycle to find clients.

This is why I started the New Year by deciding to connect directly with one new Twitter contact each day.  By phone, or by email.  This means that my sales success rate depends on my traditional sales and business skills. 

And this leads me to the most important thing to remember about using social media to develop your business:  Take the conversation outside of social media.

Conclusion

Social media does not provide miracle solutions for businesses.  You still need good common business sense.  It does have one distinct advantage though: it puts everyone on the same playing field.  Small businesses can have the same business success as the big ones.

Today I have learned how social media works for my business. 

  • It is not just one social media platform that brings in the results.  People are different and multifaceted.  They bounce between Twitter, my blog, my website, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed.  They check out what I have to say in several places before contacting me directly. 
  • It is not just the inbound effect of people contacting me either.  I also go looking for interesting people and reach out to make direct content.  This is how I meet 2 or 3 good contacts each week.
  • It is not just me sitting alone behind my computer.  Several networks of friends for different social bookmarking activities and networking help me learn more and keep up to date. 
  • It is not just about my business and what I offer.  It is also keeping a tab on what is happening in my industry online.  This increases my business intelligence and gives me interesting information to pass along through social media platforms.

My social media strategy does not work for everyone.  Different business models need to adapt their social media strategies to fit their needs.

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Strategist  based in France.  She uses her dual background in sales & marketing to help businesses improve their international sales conversion and develop country-specific international sales guides.  Connect with her on Twitter @CindyKing

———————————————————————————————————————————————

Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.

March 11, 2009

Guest Article: “Don’t Gamble on Low Probability Prospects,” by Jeb Blount

Filed under: Closing Sales,lead generation,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 11:27 am
Tags: , , ,

Don’t Gamble on Low Probability Prospects
by Jeb Blount

In the chorus of Kenny Roger’s famous song, “The Gambler,” the old gambler urges the young man to, “know when to walk away, know when to run.” I’ve given the same advice to thousands of Sales Professionals – advice that has rarely been heeded. Packing up and walking away from a deal that is going nowhere is one of the hardest things to do in sales. Even some of the best salespeople I know have continued to work on accounts that, from any observer’s point of view, were a complete waste of time, only to regret the energy, time, emotion, and resources they poured into it once the deal was lost.

Then there are the legions of salespeople who never seem to let go. They hold on until the final painful moments when prospects, who never had any intention of buying, finally break the truth to them. They make excuses to their sales managers and they angrily blame the buyer, market, or competitors.

I hear the same sad stories again and again. Deals lost and time wasted on prospects who were not the decision makers, were already under long-term contracts, were just shopping for price to keep their current vendor honest, or who were not in the buying window. Each working day salespeople across the globe are surprised to find out, after investing blood, sweat, and tears, and of course promises to the boss, the account they have been working on won’t close. And to make things worse, many of these salespeople were completely blind to all of the clues that were blinking like neon signs saying,”this prospect will not close, move on!”

On the other hand I know Sales Professionals who have a keen sense of the viability of a deal. Using solid questioning strategies, a simple mental checklist, and intuition they quickly extract themselves from the sales process once they believe working with their prospect or customer is unprofitable or a waste of time. This rare ability serves them well because it allows them to focus their most valuable resource – time – on accounts that have a high probability of closing. Even though sometimes they may be wrong and pull away from a prospect too quickly, it is better that they move on than take a chance and waste massive amounts of time on a prospect that could potentially never close. From years of observation, these are the Sales Pros who produce the most consistent results year in and year out.

So how do these Sales Professionals know when to walk away and sometimes run? What methodology do they use?

The good news is you can train yourself how to walk away from low probability deals. The first step is becoming familiar with the concept of probability. This is what the old gambler is trying to teach the young man on the train. Imagine if you walked into a casino and over every table there was neon sign that gave you the probability that you would win if you played that particular game. Some of the tables flashed 20%, some 50%, and still others 80%. Where would you place your bets? If you were smart you would walk away from the 20% tables and play the 80% tables.

This is how the best sales professionals look at their pipeline. Instead of viewing all of their prospects as equal, they look for neon signs that indicate the probability a deal will close. And they only spend their scarce resources only on high-probability deals. They gauge the probability of each prospect using a variety of indicators to act as that neon sign. They uncover these indicators through advanced and patient questioning of the buyer, influencers, and themselves with questions like:

Am I dealing with the economic decision maker (this is the person who has the power to say yes and write the check)?

If I’m not dealing with the decision maker can I get to that person?

Is this prospect under contract or outside of a budgetary buying window?

Can I add value to this prospect’s situation by solving problems?

Is the buyer exclusively focused on price?

Is the buyer willing to establish a personal relationship or are there walls up that I can’t break through?

Are there influencers and coaches in the account who are on my side?

Does my incumbent competitor have a solid position in the account that will be very difficult to dislodge?

Is there a level of dissatisfaction that I can exploit?

Am I being allowed access to the information, people, and material I need in order to develop a winning proposal?

Are there economic circumstances that may make this prospect a risky customer?

Are the buyer(s) engaged and doing their part to move the deal forward?

If sold, is there a strong chance that the account will not be approved by my management team?

Using the answers to these questions, and many more, top performing Sales Pros gauge the probability that a particular deal will close. And what sets these high-performers apart is their steadfast discipline to walk away from anything that falls below their probability comfort level.

Over my twenty year career in sales, one of the common attributes I have found in these top producers is when asked why they have such high closing rates they almost all say, “because I only call on prospects who are going to buy.” In other words, they only spend their time with high-probability prospects. You see, these top performers clearly understand the value of time for Sales Professionals. Time is the great equalizer. Every salesperson is given the exact same 24 hours each day – no more and no less. The difference between the top performers and everyone else is how they use that time. Top performers know that the real secret to improving their closing percentage is the self-discipline to ask hard questions of, and about, each prospect. In doing so they work less, earn more and close more deals.

Considered one of the leading experts in sales and sales leadership, Jeb Blount, author of PowerPrinciples, has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing. He has a passion for growing people and the unique ability to see potential in everyone. Over the span of his career he has coached, trained, and developed thousands of Sales Professionals, managers and leaders. As a leader, consultant and coach he holds a core philosophy that in every endeavor there are a handful of key principles, the basics, which, if focused on intently, will drive peak performance and achievement.  Visit his website

December 25, 2008

Top 12 Sales Articles of the Year–September: “Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls,” by Paul McCord

Filed under: cold calling,lead generation,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 8:01 am
Tags: , , , , ,

The September monthly winner at Top 10 Sales Articles was my article, ”Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls,” originally published at EyesonSales.  My article is one of 12 monthly winners vying for Sales Article of the Year.

Top 10 Sales Articles selected the 10 best out of the thousands of articles published each week.  The weekly winners then went to head to head competition with each other, the best being named the Article of the Month.  Now, out of the over 500 articles nominated, the 12 monthly winners are now competing for Article of the Year honors.

Each day I’ll be posting one of the monthly winners.  Read them and then head over to Top 10 Sales Articles and vote for your favorite.  Better yet-go there now, read all 12 and cast your vote (for my article, of course).

Why Decision Makers Hate Cold Calls
By Paul McCord

The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them.

Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time.  Period.

Now, you don’t see it the same way.  You believe you have something of value to offer the decision maker–actually, you want to see if you have something of value for them. You have to qualify them and that’s one of the things you’re hoping to begin to do while speaking with them.  All you want is a couple of minutes of their time to set an appointment and learn a little something about whether or not they’re a qualified prospect.

To you, all you’re asking is just three, four, maybe five minutes of their time and a short little 10 or 15 minute appointment.  No big deal–just a moment of their time.

But look at what you’re asking from their point of view:

1. You’re not the only call they’ll get that day. They’ll get 5, 10, 15, maybe more cold calls on any given workday.  You only want 5 minutes of their time?  Well, that 5 minutes can add up to a half an hour, an hour, two hours or more if they spoke to everyone who called.  Everyday.

2. You only want a short 10 or 15 minute meeting. Sure.  They understand that you’re asking for 10 and intend to stay 45.  They learned the BS about the 10 minute meeting their first week on the job.

3. You just want to ask a few questions to gather information to grab their interest to set an appointment. You sound like every other salesperson who calls.  That’s what they all want.  They want the decision to educate them about why they called, that is, to give them a reason to try to set a meeting with the decision maker.

4. When they politely say ‘no,’ you won’t accept it. Instead you try to probe, to flush out the objection, to give more reasons to meet with you.  Finally, they get mad enough to slam the phone down or tell you in no uncertain terms ‘NO.’

5. When you call, you have nothing of interest to them. They’re not thinking about your great new copier because they still have 2 years on the lease of their current copier.  They’re not thinking about replacing their phone system, they’re thinking about the server that just crashed.  They’re not thinking about a new accounting system because they’re thinking about the big deal they just lost that morning.

How would you like to go through that 5, 10, 15 times a day? Everyday?  Without fail? What would be your resolution to the problem?  Would you take those calls?  You would do the same thing they do-not take any calls.

And decision makers have made it as obvious as possible that they don’t want your call.  They’ve put gatekeepers in place to keep you out.  They’ve got voice mail to filter who they want to talk to and who they don’t.  They put signs on the door that say ‘no soliciting.’  As soon as they discover you’re a salesperson they say ‘no,’ and hang up.

Yet, you think-you hope-that you’re the exception. That they’ll take your call.  That they’ll want to speak with you despite the signals they’ve given.  That you’re different from other 5, 10, or 15 salespeople who will call that day.

Cold calling is viewed by many salespeople, managers, and companies as the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to find prospects. It isn’t. It is in many ways the most difficult and expensive because when you cold call you’re trying to connect with someone who has already indicated as plainly as they possibly can that they don’t want to speak with you.  In order to overcome that, you have to make massive numbers of calls in order to find someone, anyone you can corner.

If you choose to cold call, you’ve a hard road ahead of you.  Few top producers waste their time cold calling because it is so ineffective and costly.  However, if you do choose to cold call, invest in getting the best cold call training you can.  Your investment will pay off with greatly increased results-you’ll still waste a lot of time; you’ll still face a tremendous amount of rejection; you’ll still have to eventually find better ways to connect with prospects; but at least make your efforts as profitable as possible.

December 24, 2008

Top 12 Sales Articles of the Year–August: “Use the News: How to Create New Opportunities Fast,” by Jill Konrath

Filed under: lead generation,marketing,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:35 am
Tags: , , , ,

The August monthly winner at Top 10 Sales Articles was Jill Konrath’s ”Use the News: How to Create New Opportunities Fast,” originally published at Sales Gravy.  Jill’s article is one of 12 monthly winners vying for Sales Article of the Year.

Top 10 Sales Articles selected the 10 best out of the thousands of articles published each week.  The weekly winners then went to head to head competition with each other, the best being named the Article of the Month.  Now, out of the over 500 articles nominated, the 12 monthly winners are now competing for Article of the Year honors.

Each day I’ll be posting one of the monthly winners.  Read them and then head over to Top 10 Sales Articles and vote for your favorite.  Better yet-go there now, read all 12 and cast your vote (for my article, of course).

Use the News: How to Create New Opportunities Fast
by Jill Konrath

Email has changed everything, and people now hit the delete button on their voicemail messages the instant they hear something they don’t like — which is usually when it’s a message from an unknown sales rep.

I’m frequently asked what I’m looking for when I’m reading the newspaper, trade journal or websites. Basically, I’m looking for any event that might create opportunities. They could be inside the firm (new strategic alliance, rapid growth, expansion to Mexico) or outside the company (new legislation, acts of God, collapse of a competitor). These events have cascading effects throughout an organization, causing many decisions to be revisited, new priorities to emerge and new needs to come to the forefront.

Several years ago, while scouring the business section of my local newspaper, I came to a screeching halt when I noticed a small headline. It read, “Local Firm Acquires eBusiness”.

“Very interesting,” I thought. The company, an international manufacturer, was not in my targeted market segment – but this high tech acquisition certainly was.

I committed to staying abreast on what was happening at this firm. I sent for their annual report, periodically checked their website and kept up on any press releases. After 18 months, the manufacturer announced it was spinning off several divisions – the eBusiness was one of them.

Bingo! That was the day I knew I had a new client. As a product launch consultant specializing in the hand-off from Marketing to Sales, it was clear that my services were desperately needed.

The lackluster financial performance of the eBusiness could no longer be hidden in the profits of the manufacturing giant. Wall Street would demand results soon. Short-term results. Immediate results. And I knew I could make a difference.

After several unsuccessful attempts, I reached the president. This is basically what I said:

“I’ve been following your business. I know it’s imperative for your company to have strong financial results immediately. You’re counting on your new products to achieve your objectives … and I can help shorten time-to-profitability.”

Following a short 5-minute conversation, the president told me to call a key marketer on Monday, giving him a chance to talk to her first. Essentially, it was a done deal. The outcome – a highly profitable 6-month engagement with the firm.

Why am I telling you this? Because business opportunities for consultants are everywhere. In fact, they’re staring you right in the face every time you pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio or television.

But most consultants don’t use the news because they’ve never connected these events with the potential for business. Once you know what to look for, opportunities for consulting are readily apparent. They just need to be acted on.

Triggering Events

I’m frequently asked what I’m looking for when I’m reading the newspaper, trade journal or websites. Basically, I’m looking for any event that might create opportunities. They could be inside the firm (new strategic alliance, rapid growth, expansion to Mexico) or outside the company (new legislation, acts of God, collapse of a competitor).

These events have cascading effects throughout an organization, causing many decisions to be revisited, new priorities to emerge and new needs to come to the forefront.

For example, anytime two organizations collide due to a merger or acquisition, much opportunity is created. Here are just a few of the areas where your products or expertise could be required:

  • Sales: Sales training on new product lines, channel conflict, compensation discrepancies, SFA/CRM systems integration.
  • Marketing: Rebranding of products, new collateral required, revision of go-to-market strategies, new product launches, PR support, new advertising campaign.
  • Information Technology: Planning, prioritization of projects, massive system integration issues in just about every conceivable area, new technology acquisition.
  • Human Resources: Teambuilding, compensation issues, legal problems, downsizing/outplacement assistance, evaluating personnel, employee benefits coordination.
  • Leadership: Alignment around shared vision, strategic planning and teambuilding at executive, business unit and department level.

Sometimes poor financial performance creates opportunities for your product or service – especially if it’s the second quarter in a row. While some companies put an all-out ban on spending when their numbers are down, others search for solutions to get them out of their slump.

HR may need help with lay-offs. Marketing needs new ideas. Sales needs training. Any product or service that improves operational efficiency and drive costs out of the system will always be of interest to corporate decision makers.

Personally I’ve always found struggling companies to be excellent prospects. After failing to turn things around, leadership desperately needs new ideas. They’re extremely receptive to products or services that help them achieve critical business objectives.

Companies experiencing rapid growth need help too. Extra bodies are needed to handle a wide range of projects; they can’t hire fast enough to keep up with demands. Processes are haphazard, labor-intensive and costly. Systems are being outgrown virtually overnight.

Companies stuck at the status quo also need assistance. Wall Street demands growth. Leadership teams are under extensive pressure to deliver results or face replacement.

Finally when companies bring in new executives there are always opportunities. New leaders make changes – and they often need outside assistance and ideas to accomplish their goals.

Capitalizing on the News

Follow the news about companies in your targeted market segment closely. Watch for changes – because changes create business for you. Once a change hits your radar screen, extend your research immediately, collecting as much information as you can. Sometimes you might have to wait awhile before your products or services are needed. Other times it’s immediate.

Once you’ve identified a “triggering event”, the key to success is to make sure you align your offering with your understanding of their emerging business needs. And when you talk to customers, always speak in business terms. Customers could care less if you’re an OD consultant or sell software. They could give a rip about the processes you use and your state-of-the-art products.

But they care desperately about business results and outcomes. So that’s what you talk about when you contact them and meet with them.

Frame your initial call by stating that you’ve conducted research on their company. Share your understanding of their critical business issues. Tell them the results you deliver – as specifically as you can. Or state that you have some ideas to help them achieve their stated objectives. Finally, after a brief conversation, suggest a logical next step. That’s all it takes to get your foot-in-the-door.

So pay attention to the news. Right now there are some companies that desperately need your products or services because of what’s happening in their business. Use the news as a trigger to identify who they might be, research them and then make that phone call.

That’s the best way I know of to create opportunities and get business – FAST!

October 24, 2008

Why Clients Resist Giving Quality Referrals

Filed under: marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 8:43 am
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Virtually every advisor has been taught that generating referrals from clients and prospects are the way to success, but less than 15% of all advisors generate enough referrals to significantly impact their business.  Most of the time, the problems advisors have generating referrals is due to the training-or lack thereof–they have received, rather than with the their performance.  The traditional referral selling training has been to “do a good job and ask for referrals.”  Yet, it has been obvious for decades that it really does not work very well.  Using the traditional approach, the typical advisor will get an occasional name and phone number or two from their clients, but seldom do these names and phone numbers result in a sale.  Certainly, on occasion, these referrals become clients, but the close ratio tends to be quite poor.

The failure to generate a large number of high quality referrals actually lies in the traditional method’s approach to the client.  The traditional “do a good job and ask for referrals” approach creates several roadblocks to getting referrals.

First, by waiting until the sale is complete and then asking for referrals, your client has not had the opportunity to prepare for your request.  To the client, the request comes from out of the blue.  When you approach your client with your request without giving them an opportunity to think about it, you have put them on the spot.  You are only giving them a few seconds to go through their mental file cabinet.  More than likely in this situation, they will not be able to immediately produce the number or the quality of referrals you want.

Second, even if your client takes a few seconds to think about it, they really do not know what you want.  It may seem obvious to you, but your client really has not a clue what a good referral for you is.  This may seem a little difficult to accept, but it is true.  You assume that because you sell a whole array of financial products and services, your customer is immediately going to think, “Who do I know who needs or uses any type of financial advice, guidance or products?”  Wrong assumption.  What they actually think is “what does this person want from me?”  Or, more likely, “how can I get out of answering this?”  Without having defined for your client exactly what a quality referral for you is, you stand a very little chance of getting quality referrals.

Third, the traditional method of “do a good job and ask for referrals” does not give your client a reason to give you referrals.  We make the assumption that if we have done a good job, the client will like and respect us and be willing to give us referrals.  Again, this is far from the case.  Most clients will not give good, quality referrals just because they like you or because you have done a good job for them.  You must give them a reason to give you referrals.  They need to understand why it is in their best interest to give you referrals-and after the sale is complete, it is too late to try to explain how giving you referrals benefits them.  Clients assume that whomever they refer you to will be more demanding and critical they have been.  When a client gives a referral, they are putting their reputation and image on the line with the person to whom they are referring you.  They are concerned about what their friend or acquaintance is going to think of them, particularly if you mess up.  Consequently, you must give them a good reason why they should go out on the limb for you.

Fourth, the traditional referral generation method does not give the client an objective standard by which to measure the quality of your performance.  You and your client may “feel” you have done a good job, but when you ask for referrals, they begin to think back over the sales process more critically and question whether you have really performed up to standard.  If the two of you agree up-front on exactly what you need to do in order to “do a good job,” they will have an objective basis to decide if they trust you enough and if you have earned the right to be sent to the people they really know and respect.

And finally, although not a direct result of the traditional referral generation method, an equally serious issue is studies show that the majority of the times advisors do not really ask for referrals-rather they suggest referrals.  Instead of asking a direct question seeking referrals such as “John, which of your friends, family members or acquaintances do you know that I may be able help solve some crucial issues?” the typical advisor will make a weak request such as “John, if you happen to know someone I can help would you mind letting me know?”  Or, “John, if you run across someone who could use my services would mind giving them my card?”  Rather than a request for referrals, these are throwaway sentences, quickly forgotten by most clients.

Traditional referral training is inherently unfair to you, the advisor, and your client.  It does not give the you the tools needed to successfully work with your client to generate quality referrals, and it does not give your client a reason give referrals, nor a chance to become comfortable giving you referrals.

Yet, it is possible to generate a very large number of high quality referrals from your clients.  You need to make sure that your interaction with your client eliminates these shortcomings.  Preparing your client during the sales process to give referrals by informing them up-front that you are a referral-based advisor and expect referrals after the sale; defining for your client exactly what a quality referral for you is; educating your client on why it is in their best interest to give you referrals; and then coming to an agreement with your client on exactly what you must do during the course of the sale to earn their referrals will quickly give you a large pipeline of quality referrals. 

By recognizing and resolving the problems of the traditional referral generation method, you can turn these issues into your strengths, generating a large number of high quality referrals from almost every one of your clients and prospects.

October 17, 2008

Turn Your Client Database into Gold

Filed under: business,lead generation,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 4:14 am
Tags: , , , , , ,

Right this minute, you are probably sitting on tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of commissions. Most registered reps have a database of current and past clients whose potential referrals are worth several thousand additional commission dollars per month.  Yet, this resource goes virtually untapped for most advisors.

Why?  Simply because most reps have not learned how to successfully convert their client relationships into referral relationships. Acquiring referrals from clients is not as simple as “doing a good job” and then asking for referrals. Generating a large number of highly qualified referrals from a client is a process that starts from the moment the prospect is first met, not a one-time act after the sale has been completed.  It requires an understanding of what a successful referral is based on, and how to exploit the referral to insure a successful contact with the referee.

Every referral involves the interaction of three people and four relationships among those three individuals.  The strength or weakness of each of these interactions will influence the success or failure of the referral for the advisor:

  1. The Advisor/Client relationship:  In order for the client to be willing to give a quality referral, there must have been built a strong bond of trust between the rep and the client.  A client may give a “referral” to someone they do not trust, but they will not give a referral to someone they know well and respect if they do not trust the salesperson.  If there is only a weak bond of trust between the advisor and client, the “referral” the client is likely to give will be to someone the client either believes will not meet with the advisor or someone the client does not know well or respect.
  2. The client’s purchasing experience: Clients will not give high quality referrals if their purchasing experience did not meet or exceed both their expectations and their priorities.  All clients enter purchasing relationships with certain expectations and priorities.  Expectations and priorities are not the same.  A client may expect to be kept fully informed during the course of the sale and may have certain product or service functionality requirements as his top priority.  In order to receive a large number of high quality referrals, the rep must make sure that they meet or exceed both the client’s expectations and priorities.  Despite the current parroting of the buzz phrase, “exceeding the customer’s expectations,” meeting and exceeding client expectations is seldom accomplished.  Few people take the time and effort to discuss with their client what the client’s expectations and priorities are-rather most reps, and companies, assume they know.  At best, all they can knowingly accomplish is meeting or exceeding their expectations of what they think their client should expect.
  3. The Client/Prospect relationship: The trust and respect relationship between client and referee are of great importance.  The stronger the bond of trust and respect between the client and the prospect, the easier it will be for the advisor to set an appointment with and then sell the prospect.  In referral selling, a great deal of the rep’s credibility, or lack thereof, is built on the trust and respect the prospect has for the client who made the referral.  If the client/prospect bond is strong enough, the rep is virtually guaranteed a sale.  On the other hand, if the bond is particularly weak, the referral is little better than a cold call.  Consequently, it is of utmost importance for the advisor to know as much as possible about the client’s relationship, and likely bond of trust, with the prospect.
  4. The advisor’s initial contact with the referee: based on the client/prospect bond, the advisor must determine how best to contact the prospect to produce the greatest opportunity to acquire a meeting.   The weaker the relationship between the client and the prospect, the stronger the contact method the rep should seek to employ.  If the client/prospect relationship is extremely strong, virtually any contact method, including a phone call from the salesperson mentioning the client’s name will suffice, but for a weak relationship, the rep must strive to use the strongest contact method possible.  In descending order, from weakest to strongest, possible methods of contact include a phone call to the prospect from the advisor, an email from the client, a client letter, a client phone call, a client/prospect/advisor lunch meeting.

Fortunately, the advisor can control most of the above interactions.  Only the client/prospect relationship is completely out of the rep’s hands.  Even then, the rep can compensate for a less than ideal client/prospect relationship through using a stronger initial contact method.

If you understand the foundation of a referral, you can quickly increase your referral-based business and begin to mine that gold mine in your client database.

September 7, 2008

Great Tips and a Free Audio Copy of My Referral Selling Book

Filed under: Book Recommendations,business,lead generation,marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,Sales Resources,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:08 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Would you like a free unabridged audio copy of my bestselling book Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals? Well, you can have one courtesy of Jeb Blount, The Sales Guy. That’s every second of the 4 hours and 18 minutes of the book-and not only do you not pay the Audible cost of $17.95, you don’t pay a penny.

Jeb’s podcast series, The Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips, has arranged for you get a free download of my book in audio form from Audiable.com. Already have the book in hardback or audio form? Would you rather have another book? No problem. You can choose my book or a book by Nido Qubein, Tom Hopkins, Brain Tracey, Steven R. Covey, Harry Beckwith, Zig Zigler, Malcolm Gladwell, Jeffrey Giotmer, Seth Godin, or other top authors.

The best part is you also get great sales tips from Jeb. Hop on over to iTunes, Quick and Dirty Tips, or Sales Gravy, listen to Jeb give you some tips to help you sell and then listen to me tell you how to turn your business into a referral-based business, increase your income substantially, get off the ineffective, discouraging, and never-ending cold calling treadmill, and enjoy your job a whole lot more.

I want to thank Jeb for featuring my book on this offer-and encourage you, whether you get my book, another book, or no book, to head over to Quick and Dirty Tips and improve you sales business.

September 2, 2008

Do You Use Salesgenie? A Couple of Cheaper and Maybe Better Alternatives

Filed under: lead generation,prospecting,Sales Resources — Paul McCord @ 6:29 am
Tags: , , , ,

We all know that finding information about prospective prospects is difficult. Certainly we have access to their website, which information is helpful but not complete. Not only do we need more information than we’re likely to find on their site, but we have to have a way to identify the potential prospect before we can research them.

One of the leading lead identification sites is SalesGenie. The problem for many is that SalesGenie is down right expensive. Sure, they’ll give you a hundred free leads, but after that the service costs dearly. And of course there’s Hoovers and Dun and Bradstreet, but they’re expensive also. Not only are they too expensive for many individual salespeople, maybe those dollars could be better spent elsewhere-if there were just a cheaper alternative.

Depending on what you need, there are cheaper alternatives:

Manta.com: Manta is free for the basic service and the basic service gives a good deal of information. Manta has profiles of about 45 million companies worldwide. You can search by industry, by company name, by state or country, even by city and zip code.

A typical company profile will give you the basics such as address, phone number, and industry, of course. But you’ll also get the year established, approximate annual sales, and the primary contact person.

That’s a darn good start for free.

Salesconx.com: Salesconx is far different than Manta. Salesconx isn’t a free service. Instead of finding leads in the manner of Manta or Salesgenie, Salesconx allows you to purchase or sell introductions to decision makers to particular companies. I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of these introduction purchasing sites, but they have worked for some and are worth checking out.

Inquisix.com: Similar to Salesconx, Inquisix is a site to buy or sell ‘referrals,’ as though one could actually refer someone they know nothing about. In fact it is nothing more than buying or selling a contact, but it might work for you.

If you’re searching for leads or if you’re currently using Salesgenie, check out these alternatives. You might find a cheaper and better alternative. If not, at least you’ll know your current provider is the best for you.

Have other alternatives? I’d love to hear about them.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Theme: Rubric. Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 4,396 other followers