Getting Your Customers to Talk About Their Objectives

business people talking

People are best convinced by reasons they themselves discover, so getting your prospects to define their own objectives and challenges is critical to getting their buy in throughout the sales process. The following are three types of questions designed to get your prospects talking about their challenges, as it relates to achieving their objectives.

Open Questions.  Your prospect has discussed his or her primary business objective.  Now, how do you get them talking about why they aren’t accomplishing that objective?   These questions are designed to do just that. They uncover the tip of the iceberg, and are the first step in the discovery process.

  • “What are the main concerns you’re having with respect to…..?”
  • “Usually people come to us for help in one or more of the following areas (list 2-3 problems you solve for people).  Are any of these issues for you?”
  • “Tell me more…” or “Tell me why…”

When you ask questions like this, look for the prospect to make statements like:

  • “My sales are not where I want them to be.”
  • “We’re spending too much on…..”
  • “We’re not happy with…..”

Cause Questions.  Now that you have the problem defined, the next step is to look for the reasons for the challenge.  What’s causing the disparity?  Typically there are several causes.  Pay close attention as these are the issues you will ultimately try to resolve for the prospect. This information leads you to your presentation.

  • “What are the reasons this is going on?”
  • “Why do you suppose this is happening?”
  • “Do you know what’s causing these problems?”

It’s vital for you to understand, even better than the prospect, what’s causing their challenges.  You’ll hear things like:

  • “Our current supplier is having quality and delivery problems.”
  • “We don’t have the right software and our people need training.”

Keep Them Talking. Learn to direct the conversation and keep your prospects talking.  When they are talking, they are giving you valuable information. When you’re monopolizing the conversation, you’re losing an opportunity to discover what will motivate them to take action.  Add these types of questions to your repertoire and you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the issues.

  • “Tell me more about that.”
  • “What else is there?”
  • ”Is there anything else?”
  • “Could you be a little more specific?”           

With these three types of questions, you should be able to encourage prospects to fully define their key challenges, which is a critical first step in the qualifying process.

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Redefining the Elevator Pitch

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Formerly, an elevator pitch was a short summary designed to describe your company or product.  As the name implies, it should be short enough that it can be delivered during the span of an elevator ride.

Why the brevity? The truth is that when you are “cold calling” into a prospect, ten to fifteen seconds is all you have to make an initial connection and get permission to continue the conversation. In light of this, it is critical that you can quickly establish trust and pique interest.

Today’s prospects are receiving so many incoming sales calls, that they are particularly wary of being “sold.” The old way of delivering your company’s message is no longer good enough.

Let’s take a look at how elevator pitches have traditionally been made and how they should evolve to become more effective in today’s selling environment.

The Old Elevator Pitch

The call starts with, “I’m Bob with XYZ Printing. How are you today?” 

The “clever” segue into the sales pitch, assuming we still have the prospect on the line, goes something like this.  “We’re the premier printing company in the area.  We’ve been serving the local market for over 20 years and have the most advanced digital printing equipment in the area.  Our specialty is quick turnaround and competitive pricing.  I’d like to set an appointment to meet with you to show you how we can save you time and money on your next printing project. Would Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning be better for you?”

Does that sound familiar?  It probably does and there are many problems with this approach:

  • “How are you today?”  Every telemarketer in the world starts the call by asking about the prospect’s “well-being.”  While this is an honest attempt at politeness, prospects know you don’t really care, so it comes across as insincere and makes you sound like a telemarketer.
  • The “compelling” pitch by the printing salesperson sounds like the other printing company that called the prospect yesterday.  They said they were the best in town and could save him or her time and money too.  Whom should he or she believe
  • “Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning?”  How many times have we heard that over-used alternative choice close?  Nearly every salesperson uses it.
  • The salesperson wants an appointment but doesn’t want to take the time to find out if there’s any pain.  This is the typical product pusher’s strategy and the prospect knows it.
  • The easy blow off that the prospect can, and often does, use is to say, “Just send me some information about it.”  And you know how sincere that request is.

The New, Improved Elevator Pitch

Never fear, there is a better way. Take a look at this new, improved approach.

This call starts with, “I’m Bob Smith with XZY Printing.  Thanks for taking my call.  Can I take about 20 seconds to tell you why I called, then you can tell me if we need to talk further?”

When you get permission, you say, “I’ll be brief, right to the point.  We’re one of the leading commercial printing companies in the area.  Typically companies switch to us because they’re upset with long turnaround times, concerned about the inconsistent quality of the final product, or frustrated that their printer can’t offer any creative ideas to improve the job.  Are any of these issues for you?”

Or, you may want to give a specific example of how you’ve helped a competitor with a specific pain, something like “We recently helped [competitor’s name] save $2,000 per month on printing fees and reduce their turnaround time to 48 hours. Is this something that would be helpful to your business?”

If the answer is affirmative, you then go on to explore the pain further.

If the answer is negative, you could conclude the call quickly by saying, “Sorry to have bothered you.  Have a good day.”  And make another call.  Remember, you’re trying to find that gold nugget quickly and not waste time with people who are not good prospects.

There are many benefits to this approach:

  • It’s different.
  • You won’t have done anything to destroy rapport.
  • You won’t sound like every other salesperson that calls.

Your ability to differentiate yourself in your initial call with a prospect will dramatically improve your success at developing new business. Try our new and improved elevator pitch for yourself and see how it works for you.

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How Top Sellers Create Value

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When a client engages us to help their sales staff, we often ask to interview their top performers. Our purpose is to decode their selling DNA and identify the markers that make them so successful. One common thing we’ve found is that top sales performers consistently help their customers to meet their objectives by selling business value.

There are three tactics these top sellers employ to establish value:

  1. Get to the cost of the problem today.  Buyers will face any number of problems. Great sales people help buyers define in totality all the costs those problems bring. The cost may be non-monetary like low morale or frustration, but costs that strike the bottom line are numbers that are heard by every person involved in making the buying decision. When you are the high-priced product in the market, it seems that every buyer asks about prices first. Great sellers shape and frame conversations around the costs of the buyer’s problems, not on the price of their solution.  
  2. Tell stories. Stories help the buyers discover for themselves the problems they are facing or the solutions that are needed. Great sales people have several stories, personal experiences that they share depending on the situation or desired outcome. They share stories when the conversation lulls and the buyer is unable to articulate problems.  Stories have purpose and you begin them by framing who they are about, their problem, a turning point, and a resolution. Stories not only get to problems, they can be used to describe how others use and derive business value from your products. 
  3. Summarize the conversation in writing. All sellers tell me that they create meeting summaries, but few do it well. We sell our services to many companies in different industries.  I am constantly referring to the meeting summary emails I’ve written as follow up after our conversations. These emails summarize the problems they are facing, the costs these problems are causing, the solutions we discussed and value of those solutions, and, of course, the next steps as discussed. This helps the customer and I keep the focus on the problems we are trying to solve. Great sales people don’t rely on memory.  They summarize the meeting conversations by writing it down, sharing it with the customer, and allowing the customer to give feedback.

Have you used any of these techniques to establish value in your sales process? Do you have others you use? We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email to john@drive-revenue.com

 

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The Art of Referrals (part 1)

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Referrals are the best way to increase your sales.  When you begin to build your business through referrals, you lessen your dependence on having to make cold calls and other less productive (and frustrating) prospecting activities.  Yet getting qualified referrals is not automatic by any stretch of the imagination.  There is a prerequisite.

The most important concept to understand about referrals is that you must provide outstanding service, superior products and be professional in every way in order for anyone to consider providing you with referrals.  No one will want to refer friends and business associates to you if they are concerned that their referral might have a bad experience with you or your products.

The vast majority of professional salespeople who do provide outstanding service and quality products still do not get nearly the number or quality of referrals that they should, missing out on the easiest way to build their business.  As a result, they work too hard, have to resort to other, less productive, forms of prospecting and their business and income suffers. 

Why Don’t Salespeople Get Referrals?

If referrals are the easiest way to build business, why don’t salespeople get more referrals?  It’s not always due to the lack of quality or professional standards, but rather other factors, and this chapter will address them all.

  1. They don’t ask for them
  2. They don’t know how to ask for them
  3. They don’t tell the referring source what they’re looking for

Our experience is that most salespeople don’t know how to ask for referrals and as a result, when they do, they hear things from the potential referring source like, “I can’t think of anybody right now, but if I do, I’ll call you.” 

When someone asks you for a referral, what is your typical response?  If you normally say, “I can’t think of anybody right now, but if I do…,” then you are very susceptible to having what might be called “referral avoidance empathy” – a belief that your client feels the same way you do.  Then your subconscious thought process goes something like this:  I normally don’t give referrals myself and suspect that he doesn’t either, so why bother asking?  If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re done; it’s over.  No referrals for you.

There’s a lot we could say about referrals, but simply understanding the following will help you improve your referral business.

When to Ask

     The best time to ask for referrals certainly depends on a lot of factors. But here are a few ideas.

  • Set the stage early in the relationship.  (“At some point when you’re totally satisfied with us as a supplier, I’d like to ask you for referrals.  How do you feel about that?”)
  • After you’ve just completed delivery of your solution and your customer is satisfied.  (“Who do you know…?”)

Dos and Don’ts

  • Ask them about their willingness to give you referrals.  Don’t assume they will.
  • Begin the question with “Who do you know that…………….?”  Don’t ask, “Do you know anyone ….?”  It’s too easy for them to say, “I can’t think of anyone right now, but if I do……”
  • Ask to be introduced to their friends and associates.  Don’t ask to be recommended – it puts too much pressure on the prospect and is presumptive.
  • Focus your question on the end result to the client – a benefit or problem you can solve.
  • Phrase the question as though the referring source will be doing the friend a favor.
  • Tell your referring source exactly what you will be doing with the referral.  Don’t forget to keep the referring source informed of your progress.

Click here to read Part 2: including how to ask for a referral, what your ideal client profiles are, how to “upgrade” your referrals, and finally how to give more to get more.

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Meet Us in Rome, Italy

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John and the FSS team will be in Rome to work with a global commercial translation services company in the first week of February. Italy will be the 17th country that we have worked in, helping our customers to drive revenue in their approach to the global marketplace.

Rome has it all: history, art, architecture, food and finance, and a great place to gather perspective on the shifting landscape on business from the European continent to the rest of the world.

Would you like to meet with John in Rome? Join him for a cappuccino or plate of pasta to discuss your revenue generation plans, and how to get to the next level of productivity.

Until then, Ciao Bella!

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Does Your Sales Team Deliver? A Quantitative Look

As we approach the end of 2019, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead—starting with an assessment of your sales team’s performance over the past year. How did they do? Where do the need to improve?

More importantly, how do you measure their performance so you can answer those questions?

To remove the subjectivity and help you take a quantitative approach in evaluating your team, we’ve developed a list of questions that get at the answers. Use the questions to distinguish the producers from the laggards. And use these questions to determine which skills your salespeople need to improve on in order to meet and exceed goals.

Also see if you can match the question posed with the corresponding sales skill. (You’ll find the answers at the end of this article.)

Questions for quantitatively measuring sales performance:

  1. How many of the qualified opportunities in your current sales pipeline were initiated by the seller?
  2. What title(s) most commonly appears in the field for primary point of contact? Is that a decision maker’s title?
  3. How well matched are your company’s product or service capabilities with the prospect’s business objectives?
  4. What value (outside of product/price) will the prospect’s organization be able to identify while working with your company?
  5. How much research does a prospect do before engaging with a salesperson?
  6. Who on your sales team held the margin line in the negotiations, and who caved to the buyer’s pressure?

In addition to answering these questions, also evaluate your team individually. How well can the individuals on your teams execute each skill? By using the questions above, managers can identify who has which skills and where improvement is needed. This is how your qualitative analysis of skills can be analyzed in relation to the quantitative assessment.

Here’s an example of the kind of insight you can gain: We worked with a company that calculated the cost of every sales call to be $400.00. They discovered that many of the calls were to prospects who would never produce enough revenue to cover the cost of the calls made. The managers were then tasked to analyze how well the reps could execute each step, and then identify where coaching was needed. As a result, the reps’ overall skills improved, the amount of time spent on the wrong prospects was reduced, and revenue results increased with fewer overall calls being made. In essence, the focus is on the quality of the calls versus the quantity of calls conducted. All because they took a quantitative approach using these questions.

And as promised, here are the skills that match each question above: 1) New Business Development 2) Accessing Key Players 3) Qualification and Positioning 4) Establishing Value 5) Opportunity Management/Forecasting 6) Negotiation.

As we approach the end of 2019, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead—starting with an assessment of your sales team’s performance over the past year. How did they do? Where do the need to improve?

More importantly, how do you measure their performance so you can answer those questions?

To remove the subjectivity and help you take a quantitative approach in evaluating your team, we’ve developed a list of questions that get at the answers. Use the questions to distinguish the producers from the laggards. And use these questions to determine which skills your salespeople need to improve on in order to meet and exceed goals.

Also see if you can match the question posed with the corresponding sales skill. (You’ll find the answers at the end of this article.)

Questions for quantitatively measuring sales performance:

  1. How many of the qualified opportunities in your current sales pipeline were initiated by the seller?
  2. What title(s) most commonly appears in the field for primary point of contact? Is that a decision maker’s title?
  3. How well matched are your company’s product or service capabilities with the prospect’s business objectives?
  4. What value (outside of product/price) will the prospect’s organization be able to identify while working with your company?
  5. How much research does a prospect do before engaging with a salesperson?
  6. Who on your sales team held the margin line in the negotiations, and who caved to the buyer’s pressure?

In addition to answering these questions, also evaluate your team individually. How well can the individuals on your teams execute each skill? By using the questions above, managers can identify who has which skills and where improvement is needed. This is how your qualitative analysis of skills can be analyzed in relation to the quantitative assessment.

Here’s an example of the kind of insight you can gain: We worked with a company that calculated the cost of every sales call to be $400.00. They discovered that many of the calls were to prospects who would never produce enough revenue to cover the cost of the calls made. The managers were then tasked to analyze how well the reps could execute each step, and then identify where coaching was needed. As a result, the reps’ overall skills improved, the amount of time spent on the wrong prospects was reduced, and revenue results increased with fewer overall calls being made. In essence, the focus is on the quality of the calls versus the quantity of calls conducted. All because they took a quantitative approach using these questions.

And as promised, here are the skills that match each question above: 1) New Business Development 2) Accessing Key Players 3) Qualification and Positioning 4) Establishing Value 5) Opportunity Management/Forecasting 6) Negotiation.

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What Makes a Team Great? Torrey Pines High School Girls Nat’l Champions

great teaamAbout 45 minutes after the Torrey Pines High School (TPHS, San Diego, CA) Girls Volleyball team beat Marin Catholic for the California State Title (CIF), the squad walked back into the lobby of the college gym where the match was held. The families of the players, including my wife and me, were waiting there to greet the girls following their straight sets victory on November 23. Shortly after their entrance, the tears of joy began to flow from players, Coaches and parents, as the energy in that foyer was so positive, loving, fulfilling and FUN! 

The hugs, high fives, pictures with the CIF State Champs trophy went on for a while. And then, the dancing began:    LINK  

As a Sophomore on the Varsity team, our daughter Hannah was treated well by everyone (see #3 below), got court time in some matches and played against the best in the country during their team practices. She, as did the other underclasswomen, learned a lot about the sport, but most importantly about what it means to be on a TEAM. A life lesson for being a part of a school, family, community, sports team and while giving back. 

TPHS Girls Volleyball TEAM is, as the father of an opponent said who we beat a week earlier, a “well-oiled machine”. And there is no coincidence/luck around how the girls did it. They did what great TEAMS do, to include the following: 

  1. Worked Hard: yes, they do have 7 girls who will play Division One College volleyball, but that didn’t stop them from laying it all out in practice and in matches. Yes, we all have to practice.
  2. Skills Focused: Hannah said her Coach told them whoever serves, passes and plays the best defense will win. They did, and they did. Never mentioned hitting or setting? 
  3. Leader Led without Egos: 5 Seniors in the starting 6, and 2 others on roster set the tone. It is about TEAM, not individuals. 3 Ivy League bound players were treated the same as the Sophomores…. no hierarchy. 
  4. Mindset & Belief: they knew they were excellent, took nothing for granted (as written on the back of their practice jerseys) and believed in themselves 
  5. Stick Together: high or low, on a hot streak or fighting to come back, they never wavered in their unity 
  6. Have Fun: they danced before and after matches, went to lunches together without Coaches, and spent time off the court hanging out. They like and trust each other, and it shows. 

As the cherry on top to a great season, a few days after the State Championship, three (out of four) of the top volleyball ranking organizations named them the Number One team in the country. Wow, it just was so wonderful, and has been a source of pride in their school and our community. 

In the end, it’s not necessarily about volleyball, or any sport. It is how we behave in the organizations that are part of our life. And this shining example is one that Hannah and her teammates will carry for the rest of their lives, on and off the court. Congratulations girls, we love you! 

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10.5 Tips for a Successful Conference

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This article is written by Dennis Hoeft, an experienced Sales & Marketing Executive with 30+ years experience leading, selling, managing and merchandising in highly competitive product and sales environments.  

Attending an industry conference is a costly endeavor: various factors such as transportation, lodging & meals can add up quickly. Add to that your time and effort, and well, that’s quite an investment! If you are planning to attend a conference this year such as PITTCON, it’s important to get the most out of these events in order to maximize the return on your investment. Here are 10 ½ tips to help you do just that:  

1) Plan well in advance; most conferences provide an exhibitor list as well as a list of attendees, so prepare a list of key people you want to meet. 

2) Several weeks prior to the conference, set up meetings with the key people you identified on your list; if you try to approach someone during the conference without an appointment, you might be out of luck if their calendar is already full. 

3) A few days before the conference, confirm the meetings that you have previously scheduled. 

4) Plan to spend some time ‘walking the floor’; attendees should spend this time looking for new and innovative exhibitors. Exhibitors should use this time to stay on top of their industry and find out what the competition is doing. 

5) Network; this is a great opportunity to make new contacts and expand your professional circle. 

6) Sit in on different seminars; try to learn something new about your industry or profession. 

7) Attend the various social events: dinners, cocktail hours, etc . . . meet new people, network, now is not the time to sit back & relax! 

8) Bring plenty of business cards to hand out; and, when you receive someone’s card, write pertinent notes about that individual on the back of their card immediately after you meet them. 

9) At the end of each day, do a quick re-cap to see if you accomplished what you set out to accomplish; adjust the next day’s schedule if you missed something important. 

10) When the conference is over, review your action items to make sure that you have captured & summarized all of them. 

And finally….  

10.5) When you get back to your office, FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP! Address all of your actions items. Connect with new contacts on LinkedIn. Reach out by email and phone to build these relationships. Do what you said you were going to do.

You’ll be glad that you did!

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7 Core Concepts for Sales Success

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Sales is a profession where so many variables come into play. The emotion of buyers and sellers, competing loyalties as to which is the “best” direction to go, and how to close the “big opportunity”. In his thematic song “Many Rivers to Cross”, Jimmy Cliff cites the trials and tribulations in life. How do we help sellers manage through this maze, and be consistent in orchestrating the outcomes?

We stick to The Core Concepts. Over the past 15 years, our customers and prospects have helped to validate the themes that they use to win. And we have consolidated this into the curriculum provided at our sales training sessions.

Have a look at the list we compiled here, and let us know your thoughts. Do you have any to add? Or would you edit what we embrace? Reply here to share.  

  1. Differentiate yourself by the way that you sell
  2. Focus on the customer’s business objective, not on your product/service
  3. Diagnose before you prescribe
  4. You gain credibility from the insights you provide & the questions you ask, not from the information you present
  5. People are best convinced by reasons they themselves discover
  6. Only the customer can validate your progress in the sales cycle
  7. Never make a concession without asking for one in return
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How You Sell Is The Differentiator

If you ask just about anybody, “What makes a good salesperson?,” you’ll probably get similar answers across the board. People will usually tell you a good salesperson is energetic and driven with good communication skills. But they will rarely mention that how one sells matters too. And it does.

Here’s a story to illustrate our point…

A salesperson was in the lobby with other salespeople from competing companies, waiting for her first meeting with a buyer who represented a very large piece of revenue. This was the biggest “fish” our salesperson had ever tried to catch and her meeting was scheduled for only 30 minutes. Time was short. Nerves were high. You could feel the tension in the room among the salespeople.

Finally, it was our salesperson’s turn to meet with the buyer.

When she got into her 30-miute meeting, she began to ask questions. She didn’t start with a sales pitch. She didn’t start out by pointing out how her company differed from those represented by the other salespeople who were waiting. Instead, she started out by asking questions. She asked business questions and questions about how the buyer operated and ran his business. Her questions engaged the buyer, but they were also strategic: She knew the questions to ask to position her product properly.

However, the buyer was surprised by her approach. After answering the first few questions, he stopped her and said, “Why are you asking me these questions? No salesperson has ever asked me these questions.” Our salesperson was standing out. The way she was selling was differentiating her not just from the other salespeople in the lobby, but also from all the salespeople this buyer was used to.

When she explained why the answers to her questions were important for them to discuss, his whole demeanor towards her changed. He settled into his chair and started taking her questions seriously, giving them thoughtful answers. He spent an hour and 15 minutes with her, going well over the allotted 30 minutes.

When our salesperson walked out at the end of the meeting, some of her competitors who had been waiting were rescheduling their appointments because the buyer had spent so much time with her. And because she had the extra time with the buyer and therefore extra insight, she had a definite competitive edge over her competition.

When it comes to sales, it’s about how you sell too.

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