Sales Laundry

Archive for the ‘Sales Process’ Category

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q: What do you do when your client tells you that your proposal is twice the price of your nearest competitor?  My client just called me and told me that my quote was 2X more expensive than the highest bid received from other companies.  What do I do next?

A: First, don’t panic.

At least your client is talking to you.  They could have just as easily thrown your proposal in the trash and never contacted you.

This could just be a ploy by your client to get you to lower your price or it could be a legitimate question about why your price is so high.  Either way, your next move is to contact the client as soon as possible.

Your client is theoretically trying to make the best decision possible for their business and that is how you should approach this problem as well.  Be a resource to truly help them figure out the best course of action.

If your price is 2X your nearest competitor, either:

A.  You misunderstood the requirements.
B.  Everyone misunderstood the requirements except you.
C.  You are offering something of additional value that your competitors are not offering.
D.  You are priced too high for your market.

If you have a great relationship with your client, I would ask to meet with them and help them compare the competitors proposal to your own to make sure it is a fair comparison.

I would do the following:

1.  Review the specific issues that the client said was important to have addressed in the proposal.  If you can get the client to rank the issues in order of importance, that would be even better. (See point #8.)

Doing this exercise should tell you if you and your client are in agreement on what all of their issues are that should be addressed in the proposal and help you identify if the problem with your client is A, B or C above.

2.  If you have a unique service or offering that would be of value to your client that your competitor is not capable of matching, you can try to get that service included on the “important issues to address” list, though you should have done this the first time around.  I would just say make sure you keep your clients best interests in mind when making this decision.

3.  Once you are certain you and your client are in agreement on what issues need to be addressed in the proposal, ask to review the quotes.

4.  Compare your quote and the competitors quote to the ranked list of issues and point out the specific spots where the proposals differ from each other or the list.

5. If you have addressed issues in your proposal not on the list or that the client does not want it is up to you to offer to remove the item or convince the client that they need it and to pay the additional cost associated with it.

6. If your proposal has addressed everything on the list, but your competitors proposal has not, ask the client if the item the competitor left off is important.  If it is important, the competitor needs to add it, if it is not truly important, take that item off your proposal and adjust the price accordingly.

7.  If your competitor has offered a very low price to get the business that you do not think they can honor, explain your concern to the customer and offer a fixed price or a guarantee to meet the price you quoted to eliminate the advantage such a tactic might give your competitor.

8.  If the client did rank their issues in order of importance and price seems to be their ultimate concern, you might offer to remove the lowest ranking issues from the proposal and reduce your price accordingly.

9.  OPTION: Offer up a discount/rebate or refund if you are wrong.  You could offer to charge a lower rate if your actual costs are lower than what you are predicting in your proposal.

Good luck!

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  What is the interrelationship between a sales process and the sales person’s natural style?

A:  A “Sales Process” should simply be a sales tool designed to get the greatest number of potential prospects successfully converted from “leads” to “landed” in the most efficient manner possible.

A “Sales Process” becomes overbearing at the precise point that it stops being a roadmap defining the most likely path for sales success and becomes an overriding dogma that must be adhered to regardless of customer, personality, situation or circumstance. When adherence to the process becomes so important/rigid that the sales process itself becomes an impediment to the sales of the very product the process was built to serve, it is time for a change.

Conversely, a “Sales Process” becomes ineffective at the precise point that it stops being a roadmap defining the best path to sales success and becomes an exercise in “style independence” with so loosely a defined process that the process again becomes an impediment to product sales. The rigidity of the sales process needs to be tuned to the product being sold.

Very knowledgeable customers making repeat purchases of commodity items could benefit by a very clear and rigid (to the point of being automatic, even) process. The floor of the NYSE being one example. Products being sold to customers with varying depths of knowledge or with wide ranging customer specific variations and infrequent purchase patterns require a more broadly defined “guiding hand” type of sales process, where listening, asking situation specific questions and conversation become more important than blindly following a rote process.

A well defined sales process should be malleable enough to bend to the needs of the product being sold and potentially the personalities selling it, as the product moves through its life cycle, anything else adds unnecessary friction.

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of. If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  I work with a web design company that is not running at full capacity at the moment, so they are looking at getting a sales person. We have tried various methods to find salespeople, from outside sales professionals to inside tele-salesmen. Mainly it is lead generation, just getting the lead, not the actual closing that we need, but so far we have yet to find anyone who can actually do a decent job.

A:  You might look at this from a different angle.

If you would, ask a few questions of your firm first.  (Stay with me, there is method to my madness)

1. Why should a customer buy web services from us vs. every other web services provider?

2. Do we have a product, unique point of view, or skill set that really seperates us from the competition?

3. Have we identified who our primary customer base is?

4. Have we determined an effective way to consistently generate leads?

5. Have we developed any products to entice our existing customers to spend more with us?

6. Do we have any reference letters, videos, etc. compiled to help a sales rep land new accounts on the backs of our success stories vs his word as a sales man?

7. What sorts of marketing efforts do we have in place to help drive our sales message?

There are other good questions, but that should put you on the correct path.

It will always be difficult to find exceptional sales people because exceptional sales people are rarely out looking for a job too long.  Their existing employers either keep them happy or competitors tired of losing to them snap them up when given the chance.

If you have some clear and decisive answers to these questions, you can stop looking for a “sales genius” that can overcome other potential internal shortages and be successful with the more plentiful “young to pretty good” sales person that can execute given some direction.

In short, the more you refine and perfect your sales process, the wider and deeper the pool of candidates become that can execute your process successfully.

Spending more time searching for and refining the perfect sales process for your business may ultimately prove more rewarding than the search for the ultimate commission sales representative.

Hope that helps.

Networking.

Historically just saying that word out loud has made me think of smarmy business card exchange exercises with people that have a paper-thin layer of genuine friendliness masking unfathomable depths of desperation and a near unstoppable urge to smack you over the head with their latest product pitch just because you happened to be standing suspiciously out in the open, unprotected, and dared to make eye contact with them at a business after hours event.

Just typing that makes me want to go wash my hands.  Yuck.

Why then do we even entertain the idea of slapping a plastic grin on our faces and moving about uncomfortably stuffing our pockets with random business cards?

We do it because we have been told that “networking” is important to our careers.

Which it absolutely is.

Unfortunately, who ever tossed out that bit of sage advice failed to leave proper instructions on how to “network” properly.  Thus the “biological business card dispenser” model was born, and the mere thought of attending a networking event is met by most with the same level of disdain reserved for the drill at the dentists’ office.

We have been bamboozled, my friends.  That is  not “networking.”  That is just a more polite form of Rockum Sockum Robots I like to call “notworking.”

The right way to network

So how can anyone build a solid network of people to help their business without feeling like they have been collecting business cards while wading chest deep in a pool of snail slime?

Networking for me got a whole lot less “slimy” when I stopped thinking about “me” and about the important stuff I had to say and started listening to the person I was talking to, and thinking how I could help them solve their problem/be more successful.

With the simple change in mindset of looking to help someone else first, dozens of new opportunities to genuinely connect with people began to present themselves.

As you listen to someone talk you will discover some of the things that are really important in their lives and you will find some new paths to connect with them outside of tradeshows and seminars where you can form a relationship that can help you move right past the gate keeper when it is time to talk business.

Here are a few ideas to get the wheels turning:

Start with the small stuff

Everyone in the room has something in common.  They are people.  (Godzilla and Bigfoot do not typically attend these things.)  They are people that have, more or less, the same problems and daily challenges you face.  Start with the small stuff, share something personal, and let the conversation unfold.

Listen for all of the opportunities to help, not just the ones your company’s product or service can fix. Is their child having a hard time in school or looking for an entry level job?  Offer to connect them with someone in your network that can help.  Are they relocating?  Buying a car?  Need a new cell phone?  Need some contacts to get their business going?  Planning an anniversary?  Need help pulling off a customer appreciation event?  There are opportunities to connect at some level in all of the “stuff” we fill our lives with.

Figure out who you want to network with in advance. Do your best to figure out who you want to meet at an event and position yourself to make that acquaintance instead of randomly trolling about the room.  Research them online so you can pick up some of their specific interests and have something relevant to say.

Prepare a small secondary event. For the handful of people you meet at an event that you would really like to get to know better, invite them all to join you for dinner/drinks after the event to continue the conversation.

“Networking” does not have to be a negative experience that leaves you feeling like you just ate a four pound bag of French fries.  It can be a very rewarding experience to know that someone is better off in some small way because of your selfless actions.  I would sum it up this way:

“Listen and give and you will get more than you gave.”

There are some fantastic thought leaders on the topic of networking I urge you to explore.

Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone and current NY Times best seller Who’s Got Your Back is a great resource.  You can also tap into the Never Eat Alone LinkedIn group, of which I am a member, as well.

Andy Lopata, which someone in my network pointed out to me, also known as “Mr. Network” in the UK and author of two books on the subject of networking, Building a Business on Bacon and Eggs and …and Death Came Third! You can catch more good stuff from Andy’s blog Connecting is Not Enough.

Image courtesy of http://www.marriedtothesea.com

Today something remarkable happened, I got a piece of junk mail that I actually felt compelled to open, and once I read the contents I was even more compelled to give them a call.

This impressed me because 99.99% of the junk mail I get does not make it past my office door where the shredder sits consuming the daily unwanted unopened contents of my mailbox.

I have read that the average American adult receives 40+ pounds of junk mail every year, so what did this company do that was so remarkable to get their one ounce sales message past my shredder?

The small envelope was hand addressed to me with a first class stamp.  Inside was a single page handwritten note off of a mini legal pad with a name, pitch and a phone number.

They made it personal, made me curious, communicated their message quickly, and they got me.

In this world of demographic driven marketing-to-the-masses, could simply sending personal messages to targeted groups of individuals be a successful strategy to improve lead quality/quantity and help your company stand out?

I don’t know, but at 75 cents a lead, I can afford to find out.

How personal is your company’s message?

A good first step is to read your own marketing materials.  Does the text talk about you and how great your company is or does it talk about how your product benefits the person buying it?

It’s easy to write on our websites and press releases that we are “industry leaders,” or talk about our own accomplishments and how many years of combined experience we have, but that is not a very compelling read to a potential buyer trying to answer the age old question “What is this product/service going to do for me?”

No matter the method, make your message personal and a little bit different to get your prospective buyers attention.  Then make the most of that precious attention by delivering a message that does more for the person experiencing it than the marketing department that wrote it.

Image courtesy of zcache.com

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  At what point does process become so overbearing that the sales person comes across as unnatural, insincere or insensitive? Conversely, at what point does style independence create disorder, chaos and inconsistency?

A:  A “Sales Process” should simply be a sales tool designed to get the greatest number of potential prospects successfully converted from “leads” to “landed” in the most efficient manner possible.

A “Sales Process” becomes overbearing at the precise point that it stops being a roadmap defining the most likely path for sales success and becomes an overriding dogma that must be adhered to regardless of customer, personality, situation or circumstance.

When adherence to the process becomes so important/rigid that the sales process itself becomes an impediment to the sales of the very product the process was built to serve, it is time for a change.

Conversely, a “Sales Process” becomes ineffective at the precise point that it stops being a roadmap defining the best path to sales success and becomes an exercise in “style independence” with so loosely a defined process that the process again becomes an impediment to product sales.

The rigidity of the sales process needs to be tuned to the product being sold.  Very knowledgeable customers making repeat purchases of commodity items could benefit by a very clear and rigid (to the point of being automatic, even) process.  The floor of the NYSE being one example.

Products being sold to customers with varying depths of knowledge or with wide ranging customer specific variations and infrequent purchase patterns require a more broadly defined “guiding hand” type of sales process, where listening, asking situation specific questions and conversation become more important than blindly following a rote process.

A well defined sales process should be malleable enough to bend to the needs of the product being sold and potentially the personalities selling it, as the product moves through its life cycle, anything else adds unnecessary friction.

Today I was volunteered to help a relative move some stuff from storage and was otherwise minding my own business when I got smacked in the head by a sales lesson.

Mid morning, as I was driving over to the storage facility, I passed a guy on the side of the road holding a small sign that read Car Wash.  Glancing behind him, sure enough there was a small charity car wash in the parking lot well underway.

The people washing the cars were smiling and visibly having fun, but the guy that was chief in charge of advertising and converting prospects into car wash customers, otherwise know as the guy holding the car wash sign, looked unhappy and was clearly not making much of an effort.

I was surprised the car wash was making any money but did not think much about it as I was on my own mission.

When I got to the storage facility it quickly became obvious that this was not going to be a one trip job.  So much for “just having a few things to move.”

I loaded up and made my first run.  After unloading, I headed back for the next load.  Sure enough, the charity car wash was still underway, but by now the cranky guy had been replaced with a guy that was smiling, dancing and having fun with the cars trying to coax them into the car wash.

Clearly his efforts were having more of an impact because there were more cars being washed and a few lined up waiting their turn.

I was still on my mission, so once again I ignored the car wash guy and stopped by the storage facility to try to squeeze everything into one final load.

Nope.  That was not going to happen, there was so… much… stuff.

Fortunately I was able to get it all on the third run and headed home.  Once again, I saw a guy holding up a car wash sign.  This was a new guy.  He was holding the sign up high, smiling like he was thrilled to be spending his afternoon attracting customers and helping out this charity.

There was something wrong, though.  The sign he was holding up with a big smile, beaming with great pride was upside down.  People driving by were clearly disturbed by this and tried to wave at him or yell at him.  Some even stopped to let him know.

Sitting at a traffic light observing this up ahead, I was surprised by the quantity of cars jamming that parking lot, in all stages of getting clean.  I found myself really wanting to know what they were doing to quadruple their business from just a few hours before.

As I got closer to the car wash sign guy, he was trying to make contact with me, smiling bigger and waving his sign, still upside down.  Getting closer still, but strategically not too late for me to slow down and turn into the car wash, he flipped the sign over the right way, smiled even bigger and politely tried to gesture the cars into the car wash, and it was working.

I immediately got the message.

If you are just going through the motions like the first guy, you might get lucky enough to attract a few customers.  Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut, as the saying goes.

If you engage your prospects directly in a positive high energy way, you will attract more customers and be more successful, as the second guy demonstrated.

However, to experience maximum success, you need to figure out a way to get your prospects seeking to engage you.  One upside down car wash sign compelled prospects to want to engage with the car wash sign guy to help him correct his mistake.

My guess is that once the people driving went to the trouble to engage the car wash sign guy on their own, trying to be helpful, it was a short step to continue being helpful and getting their car washed for charity.  Maybe they felt better about participating in the charity car wash on their own terms instead of being coaxed into it.

What I find more remarkable is the upside down car wash sign guy expended 10% of the effort of the high energy second guy, but was 4x-10X more successful than those that were there before him.

10X the conversions, mind you, with the same cost of sales.

How expensive was it to flip a cardboard sign upside down?  Yet it was effective.  What can you do to compel your prospects to want to engage you?  How can you change your one way marketing message to a two way conversation with your prospects and clients?