Sales and Sales Management Blog

November 28, 2011

How to Work the Room at a Networking Event

Filed under: marketing,Networking,prospecting,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 12:00 pm
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I hear complaints from sellers and business owners all the time about how much time and effort they’ve wasted attending networking events.  The conclusion for a huge number is that networking events are no longer part of their prospecting activity.

That’s unfortunate because networking events really can be great places to find and connect with prospects.  The problems most have encountered with networking events is they’ve never been taught a systematic, disciplined format for managing and working these events and without having a way to manage the event, they become frustrated as they realize all they’ve done to date is waste their time.

Typically, the frustrations and wasted time arise from three fundamental issues:

  • Investing time at the wrong networking events
  • overblown expectations
  • not having a plan of attack

Networking events, especially those of a general nature organized by the chamber or a general business organization, will not provide you with a plate full of potential prospects.  If you can walk out of a networking event with three or four good potential contacts, you have done well.

Unfortunately, many, especially those who are not networking junkies, attend these functions with the hope of leaving the event with a whole stack of business cards of great prospects.  When their expectations are not met, they conclude that networking isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and decide their time is better spent elsewhere.

Besides unrealistic expectations about the number of prospects they’ll meet, a great many attend networking events without thinking through what their real goal is.  Unless you are selling a relatively common consumer or business commodity, you’re not going to sell at these events.  And since you can’t sell, what should be your primary goal?  Mine, when I attend these events, is not to talk about myself and what I do but to listen and ask questions, to learn as much as I can about the other person in order to qualify them, to begin building a relationship with them, and to have them tell me what issues and problems of theirs I’m going to address when we do get around to discussing who I am and what I do (which, by the way, won’t be at the event).

In addition, most attendees waste the majority of their networking time.  Rather than an organized plan to maximize their benefit from the event, they simply attend hoping to “run into” prospects.

Yet, if you attend regularly and with realistic expectations, networking can eventually pay great dividends.  There are three “secrets” to making networking pay:

1.  Know Where You’re Going

Knowing who is likely to attend the event you are considering is as important as attending the event.  If you are considering going to an event you have never attended before, try to get a copy of the host organization’s member roster.  By examining the membership directory, you can get a fairly good idea of the type of people you can expect to meet.  If it appears there are a reasonable number of people and businesses of interest, plan on attending.  If you can’t get a copy of their member directory, call the organization and ask—most won’t mind the inquiry and will be happy to give you as much information as they can.

2.  Know Why You’re Going

Go with a definite number of contacts you want to make.  Determine how many good contacts you will need in order to make the investment of time worthwhile.  Depending on your particular product or service, that number may be only one or two—or may be much higher at five or six.  By establishing realistic, objective criteria, you can easily determine whether or not your time was well spent and whether or not you want to attend the event again in the future.

3.  Have a System for Working the Event

For most business owners and salespeople, the real networking event killer isn’t so much who is in attendance or even their own unrealistic expectations, but rather the time they waste during the event.

Working a networking room requires planning and a clear vision of how you will spend your time.  I and many of my clients that I’ve taught the following networking method have found it to be easy and very effective.  The goal of this process is to spend the time identifying quality prospects, learning as much about them as possible in a short amount of time, and once you believe you have a viable prospect, setting a phone or lunch meeting with them.

Arrive about 15 minutes before the official event start time.  Wear a large, easy to read, high quality, permanent nametag that features your first and last name, not just your first name (your company name is the least important part of the name tag as you want them to remember you, not your company),  Of course, have lots of business cards.  Business cards should be blank on the back.  Wear clothing with two easy to reach pockets.

Station yourself close to the entry door—close enough that people might mistake you for one of the hosts.  Greet each person as he or she enters.  Nothing more than a greeting—and, hopefully, noticing their company name.  All you want is to hear a name, put a name to a face and to make a quick judgment as to whether they might be a prospect.

When arrivals begin to slow, begin your progression around the room.  Move in one direction—left or right.  Greet the first person or group of people you meet.  This round of conversations should be short—two to three minutes at most.  Your goal is to introduce yourself and learn as much as you can in a very short span of time about the person or persons you’ve just met.  Don’t clutter the conversation with information about yourself—keep everything focused on the person or the persons you are speaking with.  Your goal at this event isn’t to sell, it’s to qualify prospects.  This will be your second meeting with many of these people, although you will not remember their names.  Two meetings=two opportunities to put a name with a face.

Since many, if not most, will offer you a business card, you will begin to segregate cards into an interest stack and a non-interest stack.  When you meet someone you believe you’d like to get to know better—i.e., a potential prospect put their business card in your right-hand pocket.  Those you don’t believe are prospects, put in your left-hand pocket.  This system allows you to immediately find the cards of those you want to reconnect with during the event without having to try to remember their name.  Simple: Right pocket card=reconnect; left pocket=don’t reconnect with today.

If you meet someone you believe might be a real prospect for you, before moving on to another group let them know of your interest in learning more about their business and ask their permission to contact them via a phone call at a later date.  Once they agree, take one of your business cards and on the blank reverse side, write the day and an hour span of time during which you will call:  “Thursday, March 12 between 10:30-11:30.”  This day and time will be the same for everyone you meet that you want to call.  It keeps you from having to remember when you will call, but because it is an hour span, you’ll have time to make several calls without concern that you won’t keep your appointment.

Now, move to the next group and continue in this manner for the majority of the event.  About 30 to 45 minutes prior to the end of the event, go into your last phase.  The last phase is taking the few cards in your right-hand pocket and seeking to reconnect with those people.  This will be your third chance to meet them and to put a name and face together.  In addition, since it will be your third meeting, they’ll begin to feel like they know you and they will probably greet you as a friend rather than as new acquaintance.  Just as you are implanting their name and face in your mind through multiple meetings with them during the event, you’re planting your name and face in their mind.

This conversation will be a little more in-depth, but, again, keep the focus on the other person.  During this conversation move the conversation to the point that instead of a phone call on Thursday, you can invite them to lunch or to a coffee meeting.  If you can’t set a meeting, prior to moving to the next person, again reiterate the phone call on Thursday and give them another business card with the same information written on the back.

On Thursday, make your phone calls and close for a get to know one another meeting.

This structure allows you to “meet” a prospect three times during the course of the event, set up a definite telephone conversation—and very possibly a lunch meeting–and help both you and the prospect move from the “just met” stage to acquaintance stage very quickly, and all without having to remember any details during the course of the event.

The goal of the conversations is to learn as much as you can about the person you are meeting, not to talk about yourself.  You’re there to learn and to qualify.  You can’t sell at a short networking event unless you’re selling a commodity, but you can sure learn a great deal and identify new prospects.  But to do that you have to listen a great deal more than talk.

Since people love to talk about themselves and if you get them talking about themselves and their company you can learn how to laser focus the conversation when it does get around to what you do, give them the freedom to open up as much as possible. In addition, never finish a conversation with a real prospect.  Intentionally leave the conversation hanging—and then invite a further phone or lunch conversation.  I never really talk about what I do until the lunch meeting.  By that time I’ve learned a great deal about the other person and I can tailor my discussion of what I do to the exact issues they’ve disclosed.  Instead of some weak, general elevator speech, I give a pointed response to their needs.

If you keep your expectations reasonable and focus you time during the event on the few true prospects you meet, you’ll find your time at networking events to be both more enjoyable and profitable.

October 7, 2011

A Simple Way to Distance Yourself From Your Competition

Filed under: Client Relationships,Customer Service,marketing,Personal Marketing,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 1:05 pm
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Every seller, no matter the product or service they sell, is looking for ways to demonstrate how they differ from their competition.  Most of us will go to great lengths to try to make our prospects and clients recognize how unique we are and how fortunate they are to be working with us.

In order to create that sought after difference we’ll talk up how great our customer service is, some will give out cute or useful freebies, others will bring in other vendors to help create the perfect comprehensive solution to their prospect’s or client’s issues.

Certainly we should be giving exceptional customer service.  The problem is every one of our competitors is claiming to have the best customer service also.

And by all means we should be doing everything in our power—including partnering with other vendors if necessary—to give the best and most comprehensive solution possible.  The problem is most of the time our prospects and clients don’t really grasp the true extent of our solution until after the product or service is delivered and has been in place for awhile.

But there is a much simpler way to not only demonstrate a real difference between yourself and your competition, but to give your client a very different experience than what your competition would give.  Furthermore, this strategy is so seldom used that it really stands out to the client.

What, pray tell, is the fabulous strategy that is simple yet can make such an impact on your client?

It is simply giving the client the purchasing experience they want rather than the one you think they want.

So simple, yet so few sellers do it because frankly they have no idea what their clients want to happen during the purchase because they simply don’t ask.

Yep, that’s it; couldn’t be simpler.

Most sellers mistakenly think they know what their clients want to happen during the course of the sale.  Ask a seller what their client wants and they’ll rattle off a number of things such as on time delivery, prompt service, a quality product at a fair price, a seller they can trust, and a number of other “expectations.”

These are so general that they are almost useless in defining what a client’s purchasing expectations are. 

What does “on time delivery” really mean?  Does it mean the same thing to each and every customer?

What does prompt service mean?  To one customer it may mean that a phone call is returned within 24 hours, to another it may mean the call should be returned within an hour.  To another client a phone call might be totally out of the question as they prefer to communicate only through email.

The fact is that no two of our clients have the same expectations but we treat them all the same because we assume we know what they want.

We never ask the most basic and simple customer service question—“What can we do to make this the exact purchasing experience you want?”

That question is asked so infrequently (some customers have never been asked that question) that many customers won’t know how to respond; they really won’t understand the question.

In that case you’ll have to ask some follow-up questions such as: “How do you prefer to be contacted, phone or email?”  “If something comes up and I really need to speak with you, is there an emergency number that I can reach you at?”  “Do you want me to keep you posted daily or weekly, or would you rather I only contact you if there is an issue or question that needs to be dealt with?”

Obviously the number and type of purchasing experience questions you need to ask will depend on the particular product or service being purchased. 

And a great side benefit is you can find out upfront if your client has an unrealistic expectation, and if they do, you can deal with it before it becomes an issue later in the sale.

If you want to really make a quick impact on a client and put yourself in a different category from your competition, quit forcing them to live through the purchasing experience you want to give them and begin giving them the purchasing experience they want.

It’s simple—just ask them, they’ll tell you—and then all you have to do is give them the exact experience they wan—and  that no one else can give them.  You’ll be a hero—and all you had to do was ask a few questions that you should have been asking every client anyway.

September 28, 2011

Seller, Do You Know Who You Are and What You Should Be Marketing?

Filed under: career development,marketing,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 11:55 am
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Although I’ve addressed this issue before I think it should be dealt with again as I continually see a great many sellers make the mistake of marketing the company they are selling for rather than marketing themselves.

There is a tendency for many salespeople, especially if they work for a well-known company, to place the emphasis of their marketing on the company they sell for rather than focusing on themselves.  They identify their sales efforts with Wells Fargo or Merrill Lynch or GE  more clearly than they identify themselves. 

However, despite what we tend to think, and certainly, what the company believes, the prospect usually isn’t buying GE, IBM, or UBS.  They’re buying the seller and the seller’s trustworthiness and integrity.  The relationship in most cases isn’t between the company and the customer; it is between two human beings—the client and the salesperson.   

Companies continually market their name, whatever that name may be.  Whether it’s Caterpillar, Ford, or HP, the company markets itself because it wants to establish its brand, its name recognition and its image in the mind of the prospect. 

Sellers should be no different.   

No matter whom you sell for, if part or all of your income is produced through commissions or bonuses based on your sales, you are self-employed.  You are your own sales company– you are simply currently leasing yourself to sell for a single client company.  The company you sell for today may not be the company you are selling for this time next year. 

In addition, your competition isn’t that major company in your industry.  You don’t compete against Citibank or NY Life.  Glaxo isn’t your competitor.  The individual salespeople who sell for Citibank, NY Life and Glaxo are your competition.   Selling in a relationship driven industry requires you to develop and nurture relationships.  Sales are made on a personal level, not by the magazine ads or the direct mail piece.  Sales are ultimately made by you, not the company or its name.   

This isn’t to say that your company’s name may not help create interest or give you some upfront credibility.  Nevertheless, that interest and credibility is insufficient to close a sale.  Furthermore, it typically isn’t even enough to secure an appointment.   

That Merrill Lynch salesperson is digging for prospects and sales just as you are.  That Glaxo rep is trying to get into the same offices and sell the same people you are. 

Furthermore, if you’re selling against Microsoft today, you just might be selling for Microsoft tomorrow. 

In reality, you only have one thing of value to market—yourself.  Prospects buy from the men and women they trust and who solve the prospect’s problems and issues, not the ones they like or the ones with the big name company behind them. 

Examine your marketing carefully.  Who are you marketing?  If it isn’t you, then change everything about your marketing to focus the primary identity on you, not the company you’re selling for (that’s the focus identity, not the marketing message).   

If you are already marketing yourself instead of the company you sell for, examine your materials for their effectiveness and image. 

If you’ve done your job well, every contact you make, every client you sell, and every dollar you spend on marketing will go with you if you ever decide to lease your selling services to another company.  However, if you’ve marketed the company you are selling for instead of yourself, you may find you’re leaving your hard-earned clients, contacts and reputation behind, loyal to the company, not to you, forcing you to build your sales company from scratch once again.

June 11, 2011

Understand the Four Pillars of a Referral and You’ll Get More and Better Referrals

Filed under: business,lead generation,marketing,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 12:56 pm
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At first glance, a referral is a pretty simple thing.  For most salespeople, managers, and trainers, a referral is just a name and phone number that a client has given the salesperson once the salesperson has completed the sale and has done a good job for the client.

Once a salesperson has received a referral, contacting the referred party is just as simple.  The salesperson either will call the referred party mentioning to him or her that the client, which they know, referred the salesperson to them, or will ask the client to write a referral letter to the prospect and then the salesperson will call the prospect after they have received the letter.  A very simple, straightforward process.

Unfortunately, this process is totally and completely wrong, and has been proven by millions of salespeople to not work worth a darn. Nevertheless, this is what is taught in almost every sales course in the world.  And not only is it a waste of time and effort, it deceives the salespeople who don’t succeed with it into believing that the fault lies with them, not with a “system” that doesn’t work.

Generating a large number of high quality referrals requires far more than “doing a good job and asking for referrals.”  It requires a systematic process of planting referral seeds, watering them at every chance, weeding out problems and issues, and then reaping the rewards. 

If you want to generate a large number of high quality referrals from your clients, you must understand what a referral is based on.

A Referral is Based on a Foundation with Four Pillars-and you can control 3 of them:

The relationship between you and your client:  you can control this pillar of the foundation.  By instituting the full client relationship building process in detailed in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), you can create a strong relationship with your client built on mutual trust.  Clients don’t give referrals because they like you or even because you did a good job.  Clients hate to give referrals and unless they have a deep trust that you will not embarrass them and that you’ll deal honestly with the prospect they refer, they won’t be willing to give quality referrals.

Your client’s purchasing experience: you can control this pillar of the foundation.  You must discover exactly what your client’s expectations and priorities are, then meet-, and hopefully exceed them.  You cannot afford to guess or “think” you know what these are-you must know exactly and you can only do that by discussing them with your client and then making sure you meet them or exceed them-nothing less will do.

The relationship between your client and the prospect: you have no control over this pillar.  Clients will refer you to people they have very strong, positive relationships with and people they have very negative relationships with.  If the prospect trusts and respects our client, some that trust and respect will be automatically imbued to you.  On the other hand, if the prospect distrusts or doesn’t respect your client, some of that distrust or disrespect will also be imbued to you.  Your job is to find out exactly what the relationship between client and prospect is and then plan you approach accordingly.

Your initial contact with the prospect: you control this pillar also.  If you have built your relationship with the client properly, your client will be happy to contact the prospect in whatever method you desire.  As outlined in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income, there are a number of methods of contacting clients, each with their own pros and cons, depending on the strength or weakness of the client/prospect relationship.

As seen above, you have control of the majority of the pillars upon which a referral is based.  If any of the above is weak, your likelihood of generating quality referrals will decline and the weakness must be made up elsewhere.  In actuality, if one of the first two segments is weak, you will not be getting quality referrals-period.  However, you can mitigate the affects of the last two.

If the relationship between client and prospect is weak, use a stronger contact method.  Moreover, if the contact method is weak, convert the method into a stronger one.  For example, if your contact method is a phone call to a prospect who has a weak relationship with your client, try to bring in one or two other clients the prospect may know by reputation to build additional credibility.  Better yet, try to arrange a conference call between the prospect and your client.

Generating a large number of quality sales isn’t done by chance or luck, and neither is generating a large number of high quality referrals. Just as you need a well thought out process to consistently sell, you need a well thought out process to generate quality referrals.   You can significantly increase the volume and the success of your referrals if you understand the dynamics that generate quality referrals and then control those dynamics.

January 28, 2011

Trust on Decline Unless You’re Recognized as an Expert Study Finds

Filed under: marketing,Personal Marketing,Persuasion,sales,selling,small business,trust — Paul McCord @ 9:50 am
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Leanne Hoagland-Smith suggested I take a look at a very interesting post by Steve Rubel that draws attention to some recent research his company, Edelman, the largest PR firm in the world, has done in the area of trust.  His findings are most interesting for sellers and small business owners even though his real target is larger corporations engaged in constructing advertising and public relations campaigns.

One of the major findings is that there has been a decline in the number of people who trust in a person “just like myself.”  Rubel goes on to give his analysis: ”I believe the reason for this is that, as more of us join social networks, there’s been devaluation in the entire concept of ‘friendship.’”

Another finding was that trust of credentialed experts increased to 70%.  According to Rubel, “This is a trend that began last year. In addition, for the first time we looked at the credibility of technical specialists inside a company. Trust in this group is off the charts (64%). This hits home the need to identify those with expertise inside a company who can engage across different channels, many of which today are digital – or will be soon.”

Very important for us in sales, the study also found that in developed countries such as the US and the UK people need to hear a message as many as NINE times—and from multiple channels to effect behavior change.  Now this study was looking at media communication, but human nature doesn’t change—if it takes multiple hearings in multiple channels for marketers to change recipient behavior, it’s logical to assume the same is true when dealing directly with prospects and clients (one of the reasons historically we’ve had to we talk to them, give them collateral material, and make formal presentations to them—multiple hearings from multiple channels).  The key here is how many times the recipient had to hear the message before behavior changed.  Nine.  That’s a lot—and most of us probably give up on a prospect long before they’ve heard our message nine times.

You can get a mini-whitepaper of the study here.

July 29, 2010

Book Review: The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales

Filed under: Book Reviews,business,career development,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales Failure,selling,small business,success — Paul McCord @ 11:11 am
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Seldom do I review a book that has been on the market for years, much less decades.  But I ran across my old beat up copy of  The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales
and decided since the book was in such poor condition I’d order the newest edition.  After reading it again, I thought I’d do my small part to encourage as many sellers and sales leaders as possible to pick up a copy and set aside some time for some serious—and potentially highly productive—reading.

Authors George W. Dudley and Shannon L. Goodson are psychologists who have spent decades researching one of the key barriers to sales success—call reluctance.  The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales (Behavioral Sciences Research Press, Inc: 5th Edition 2007) is designed to help sellers and sales leaders recognize the issues that are keeping them from prospecting effectively and to overcome them. 

Dudley and Goodson argue that sales call reluctance isn’t as simple as the fear of rejection it is so often claimed to be, but instead can be any one or any combination of twelve different issues that prevent sellers from fully engaging in prospecting. 

After first dealing with the difference between true call reluctance and call reluctance impostors (things that may look like call reluctance but aren’t, such as low motivation or low goals), the authors get down to business by laying out in detail the twelve root causes of call reluctance. 

These prospecting killers are:

  1. Doomsayers those who over prepare for the worst case scenario
  2. Over-Preparer  spends time preparing to prospect, little time prospecting
  3. Hyper-Pro   in Texas we’d call them all hat, no cattle—spends all their time on the show of success, no time on becoming successful
  4. Stage Fright  avoid group presentations
  5. Role Rejection  buried guilt or shame about being a salesperson or self-promoter
  6. Yielder  hesitant to be seen as intrusive or forward
  7. Social Self-Consciousness  afraid to market to upscale prospects
  8. Separationist  resistant to selling and marketing to friends
  9. Emotionally Unemancipated  resistant to selling and marketing to family

10.  Referral Aversion  uncomfortable asking for referrals

11.  Telephobia fear of using the phone to connect with prospects

12.  Oppositional Reflex  a need for a great deal of approval but having very low self-esteem

Like a great many other sellers, I can spot myself in this list—my self-diagnosis is Over-Preparer and Role-Rejection (one of the role rejection issues the authors discuss is a seller’s discomfort with self-promotion as many sellers have been brought up to believe that self-promotion is unseemly and socially unacceptable).

Along with the description of the call reluctance issue, Dudley and Goodson include some self-diagnosis questions and typical work behaviors associated with the issue that will help you determine if you—or one of your sellers-is a victim of the particular prospecting killer.

The authors don’t leave you hanging.

Of course the book would be useless if it only diagnosed the illness without giving an appropriate and effective prescription to cure it. 

Dudley and Goodson lay out in detail six procedures (and a couple of minor ones) to counteract and correct the dozen call reluctance issues.   

Each discussion of a call reluctance issue is accompanied by a list of the countermeasures effective for treating it so you know what your illness is as well as the correct prescription to deal with it. 

A countermeasure is designed to change your thoughts, your feelings or your actions. Every call reluctance issue has multiple countermeasures–at least one countermeasure to deal with your thoughts and at least one to deal with your feelings, and almost all have a countermeasure to help change your actions.

Countermeasures are too complex to go into any detail here, but an idea of where the authors go with countermeasures can be gathered through some of the countermeasure’s names: Thought Realignment, Threat Desensitization, Thought Zapping, and Fear Inversion.

The Pros:

The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance:

  • Presents a research based assessment of the causes of sales call reluctance
  • Provides detailed tested and proven prescriptions for dealing with the identified call reluctance issues
  • Helps distinguish between true call reluctance and those actions that appear to be call reluctance but aren’t

Unlike most sales trainers and consultants who claim to know the cause of call reluctance, Dudley and Goodson have moved well beyond the “fear of rejection” assumption and have provided sellers with a well researched discussion of its causes and cures.  That alone is worth every penny of the book’s cost.

More importantly, the proposed cures really seem to work, which is far more than can be said for the old “just do it” formula so often prescribed by motivational speakers.  A real, workable, effective solution makes the book priceless.

The Cons:

Unfortunately there are cons—both in style and execution.

Let’s take the less important style cons first:

1) The authors skewer sales trainers, psychologists, and motivational speakers for claiming they have ‘the answer.”  Dudley and Goodson are just as guilty if not more so since they make such an issue of beating their straw man sales trainers, psychologists and motivation speakers about the head and shoulders unmercifully. 

2) The authors try too hard to turn a semi-academic work into something more akin to literature.  They get far too carried away trying to make their similes and metaphors cute and unique that they are almost laughable.  Yes, a minor point, but one that after awhile becomes weary. 

Now to the far more important execution issue: the diagnosis and prescriptions are going to be very difficult for a great many sellers to handle on their own (not to mention that an even greater number of sellers will never make it through the tedious detail of the book).  Many, if not most, sellers will have to have someone to both guide them through the book and to hold them accountable for executing the prescriptions.  I think far more sellers will be successful using Dudley and Goodson’s research if they work in conjunction with their manger, a coach, or mentor. 

If you’re a seller, I encourage you to get a copy of the book, work through it, and then find someone—a manager or coach probably—to work with you to diagnose your call reluctance issues (if you have any) and then work through the countermeasures.

If you’re a sales leader, even more this book should not only be on your bookshelf, but should be in your hands—you just might find it solves many a vexing problem your sellers have had.

The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales

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

November 9, 2009

Got Referrals? Great, Now Earn Even More from Your Client

Filed under: Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:17 am
Tags: , , , ,

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.

Do 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 you to as you did for them.  That level of service you gave them was what demonstrated to them that they could trust you 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 your 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 a friend, family member, co-worker, or acquaintance.

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

Subscribe to Newsletter:

Are you a subscriber to my POWER SELLING newsletter?  If not, I encourage you to email me at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with the work “Subscribe” in the subject line and I’ll get you subscribed–free, of course. 

Twice each month on the 1st and 15th you’ll receive your copy of the newsletter delivered straight to your emailbox.  Each issue features two full lenght articles designed to help sellers and sales leaders increase their sales and income.  One article is written by me and the other by one of my guest authors such as Jill Konrath, Charles Green, Dave Brock, Dave Kahle, Dave Anderson, Randy Pennington, and many others.

And I hate spam just as you do so I’ll never sell, lease, give, or rent your information to anyone–EVER!

You can also follow me on Twitter a http://www.twitter.com/paul_mccord

August 14, 2009

Recession Buster Webinar

Filed under: business,cold calling,developing expert reputation,lead generation,marketing,Networking,Personal Marketing,prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,sales training,selling,small business — Paul McCord @ 9:08 am
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Recession Buster Webinar

4  Tremendously Powerful Strategies

4  One and half hour Sessions

1  Session Everyday for 4 Days

Monday, September 28 through Thursday, October 1

Each day from 3 PM to 4:30 PM Central Time (4PM to 5:30 PM Eastern; 2PM to 3:30 PM Mountain: 1PM to 2:30PM Pacific)

4 of the Most Powerful Strategies to Find and Connect with Quality Prospects:

Monday, September 28
The PWWR Referral Generation System

You’ll Learn:

^ Why what you’ve been taught about referrals doesn’t work
^ How to work with your client to generate a large number of great referrals
^ How to guarantee you get at least four great referrals from every client
^ How to continue to get great referrals from every client every year

 

Tuesday, September 29
The Best Damn Networking Process There Is, Period

You’ll Learn:

^ Why networking at the Chamber meeting or at the leads breakfast group never
seems to pay off
^ Where to spend you time that will really pay off
^ How to create and execute a realistic, profitable, business producing networking strategy
^ How to work a networking room to maximize your time and create relationships with prospects fast
^ How to set a telephone or in-person meeting with every person you want at a networking event

 

Wednesday, September 30
Never a Cold Call, Always an Introduction

You’ll Learn:

^ Why decision makers hate cold calls
^ Why calling and fishing for a reason to meet with a prospect will get you nowhere
^ How to discover REAL issues your prospect has that you KNOW you can help solve
^ How to guarantee you get past gatekeepers and get voice mails returned without being deceptive, evasive, or lying
^ How to make using the phone to prospect far more enjoyable and productive for both you and your prospects
^ How to make more money by spending less time on the phone

 

Thursday, October 1
Get the Phone to Ring: Become the Expert

You’ll Learn:

^ Why if you don’t have the reputation and image of an expert you’re losing and will continue to lose in the marketplace
^ What it means to be an expert
^ How to use the tools at your disposal to CREATE your image and reputation as an expert in your field targeted to your specific market
^ How to totally eliminate price as an issue
^ How to get your phone to ring with people who want to work with you and only you

 Who Should Attend?

The Recession Buster webinar is designed for anyone who sells in a relationship driven environment such as:

^ Business to Business sellers

^ Professionals: attorney, accountants, architects, financial planners, consultants

^ Business to consumer services such as financial services, personal services, realtors, travel agents, etc.

Whether you are struggling to establish your sales practice or you’re established and simply seek to add more business–or maybe the recession has really devastated your current client base, this webinar will help drive your business to new heights.

These aren’t the same old worn out “strategies” you expect to hear. You’re not going to hear some worthless drivel like “ask for referrals,” or “tell everyone you meet what you do,” or “set a goal to make 50 dials a day and you’ll succeed.”

You know and I know, that’s crap. That’s the same old junk you hear from every “trainer” who doesn’t have anything of value to say.

You don’t need some worn-out, worthless piece of advice, you need real, workable, proven strategies to find and connect with quality clients.

That’s what you get in the Recession Buster webinar.

Four real strategies that work. That produce results. That will get you business.

Why four strategies over four days? Wouldn’t it be easier to just lay out the one best strategy in one session?

It would certainly be easier on everybody involved. It takes commitment to take time out four days in a row.

True. But there isn’t one single “best way” to generate business. We have to have a business building matrix that gives us several avenues with which to connect with prospects. And in today’s marketplace where more and more prospects are rejecting the traditional methods sellers have used to connect with them, we need several ways to find and connect with them that they’ll accept, respect, and respond to.

That’s the power of the Recession Buster webinar
 

Early Registration Until September 10

1 to 4 attendees only $199.00 per person

5 or more attendees only $159.00 per person

Register HERE

Afraid you can’t make the session each day? 
Don’t worry.  Each session will be recorded and within 24 hours of the end of the session each attendee will receive a link to the recording.  Whether you missed the session or just want to hear it again, you’ve got it at your fingertips to listen to when you want.

June 17, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Call,” by Joanne Black

Filed under: prospecting,Referral Selling,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 5:58 am
Tags: , , , , ,

Big Day at the Sales and Sales Management Blog
as We Celebrate Our 500th Post

And that post is Joanne Black’s “There No Such Thing as a Warm Call” continuing our Referrals/Word of Mouth Marketing week

Tomorrow Dr. Martin Russell discusses “Marketing Is What You Do When Your Product Is No Good”
and finally, on Friday I up with “Your Connections are Your Key to Your Success”

Stay tuned in next week as a great list of experts—Jeb Blount, Nigel Edelshain, Cindy King and Ardath Albee give great guidance on “Prospecting and Social Media”
____________________________________________________________________

There’s No Such Thing as a Warm Sales Call
By Joanne S. Black

A sales call is either cold or HOT. Fortunately, there is a way to make nothing but hot calls, with a fantastic rate of return. The secret is referrals.

If you’re like most salespeople—when you receive a qualified referral, you convert a sales prospect to a paying client well more than 50 percent of the time. In fact, more like 70 or 90 percent of the time. In addition:

•           You’re pre-sold

•           You have credibility

•           You shorten your sales process, and

•           You ace out the competition

Not only are referred clients more profitable, but also they are the first to refer you to others. Make referral selling your sales prospecting strategy, and you will dramatically increase your sales, your revenue, and your profits.

The Definition of a Referral: An Introduction

The only way to make HOT calls is when you receive a personal introduction. The prospect knows who you are and is expecting your call. This is the definition of a qualified referral—and the only definition.

There are many things written about different types of referrals—it’s one kind of referral if you have a name, another if you have a reference, another if you’ve been introduced. No. There’s only one kind of referral—and it requires that you have a personal introduction.

Salespeople often delude themselves into thinking they are making “warm sales calls” when in fact, they’re actually making cold calls.

Consider the following situations:

•           You call someone because you got their name came from a colleague or friend. Cold!

•           You call someone and then follow up with a letter. Cold!

•           The person’s name came from a specific list. Still cold!

Cold Calling is Bad Math

These are all cold calls—the person doesn’t know you and is not expecting your call. Even though you think you’ve been able to avoid sounding like a telemarketer, this type of call is still cold. And cold calling is a numbers game. If we make 100 calls, we’ll talk to about 20 people, schedule 10 appointments, and if we’re lucky, close one new deal. That’s a 1 percent return on our time.

Whether it’s direct mail, making a phone call, or unsolicited email, this is spam. Why bother with a sales system that gets such dismal results? Your time is worth more.

Every salesperson and sales executive will agree that referrals are the best business—nothing else comes close. Yet, when I ask this same group if they have a targeted sales strategy to build their business through referrals—with a written referral plan, weekly referral goals, and a way to track and measure referral results… silence. On one hand, referral business is unsurpassed; and on the other, salespeople do not have a consistent referral-sales strategy. It’s common sense, but not common practice.

Five Tips to Make the Shift from Cold to HOT

1.         Make a list of everyone you know—current clients, past clients, peers, neighbors, service providers, friends, past co-workers, volunteer groups, etc. You should have at least 100 names. Prioritize the list so that the people that you know the best are at the top of your list.

2.         Set a goal and decide how many people you will contact each week. Arrange in-person meetings whenever possible (face time matters).

3.         Tell your referral sources that you are building your business through referrals and would like their help. Describe your ideal client and ask for one or two people who meet your description.

4.         When your referral source makes a suggestion, find out as much as you can about the prospect and his company.

5.         Then ask your referral source to make the introduction. The introduction could be by phone, in person, or by e-mail.

Start thinking about how you spend your time and the type of payoff you want. Get that treasured introduction. Get HOT! Get referrals!

Joanne Black is a leading authority on referral selling and the founder of No More Cold Calling. She is the author of No More Cold Calling™, The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust from Warner Business Books. For more information, visit www.NoMoreColdCalling.com. Phone: 415-461-8763 |  joanne@nomorecoldcalling.com

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

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