Sales Laundry

Posts Tagged ‘Lesson in Sales’

I got this email today from one of the LinkedIn groups I am associated with trying to sell me outsourced services for my business.  I opened it up, read the first three lines and deleted it.

 Then I decided to pull it back out and see if I could improve on the efforts of the original sales person and make a sales lesson out of it.  I am ignoring the spelling/gramatical mistakes as I am not an English teacher, I am a VP of Business Development.  The names have been changed to protect the sales or marketing knucklehead that wrote it. 

 

The Original – feel free to skip ahead as I could not get past the first 3 lines of this email on my first pass.

 HEADLINE: For Possible Business Collaboration / Oppurtunities

 Dear Mr.Val, 

I represent ABC Company, an offshore based services outsourcing Organization. We help our world-wide clients with our outsourced services such as;

Global HR Services – All Technologies, All Business Domains, All Business skills, At all levels of expertise & Knowledge.
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO),
- Worldwide Contractor staffing – Offshore/Remotely working resources/Onsite resources
- Online/Remote/Onsite Training & Development -Technology & non Technology training, e-learning courses development & Administration, Monitoring & Managing Training needs etc.
- Payroll Processing
- Employee records maintenance, & verifications
- Travel &, Accommodation
- HR policies & strategies
- Market /Competitor research
- Employees Compensation & Benefits
- Performance Appraisals processing, Administration & Management.

In addition, ABC Company helps worldwide organizations in the following areas;
1. Information Technology services (IT solutions development, customization, integration, Migration, upgrading, Implementation, Maintenance, Support etc. – All Technologies & Business Domains

2. Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO services – (a) Engineering – Mechanical, Civil, Architectural, structural b) Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO – all skills) c) Technical Writing & Communications d) Remote infrastructure Management (RIM – Monitoring & Managing any IT resources remotely, Technical Help desk, Systems & Database Administration, support, e) Animation, 2D, 3D modeling etc.)

3. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO – Document processing, Data entry, help desk, Data analytics, Data/market/IP research, Billing, verifications, Transcriptions etc, Outbound/Inbound Calling services etc – All Business domains and skills)

4. Bioinformatics (Contract/Collaborative Research & Development, Consulting, Life Sciences Software Applications & Tools, Data Mining/Data Analysis, Data & Applications Integration. Clinical Trial I/Medical informatics, LIMS, Internet/Intranet Applications, Multimedia & Virtual Reality Applications, Education & Training)

We have seen the following benefits accruing to our clients from our services;

1. We have a large team of highly qualified, experienced, talented, efficient, young and enthusiastic resources to support your organization in any of the areas shown above.
2. Our teams work as an extended team of onsite teams of our customers, thereby adding more strength and bandwidth and increase your teams’ skills and servicing capabilities.
3. Our resources can work on a 24x7x365 basis; our turn-around time for our service is very short. In most cases, the output will be in your inbox when you reach office the next day morning
4. We help our customers in cost savings of as much as 30-60% on case to case basis
5. We can provide our resources in good numbers at a short notice, and quickly ramp-up to meet your business needs.
6. Our clients save the hassles of constantly searching around for resources, every time, a task needs to be accomplished.
7. Our teams bring to the table, a very strong technical & English Communication (verbal & written) skills, highly professional & helping attitude, business ethics, services delivery expertise & commitment

I would be very glad to know, if ABC Company can be of any help and support to your organization or any of your client organizations, in any of the areas shown above please. I appreciate your time.

My Version

HEADLINE:  Are You Running Your Business or is Your Business Burying You?

 ABC Company helped me save my business!  ABC helped me identify why my operations costs were increasing even as our sales were slowing down.  ABC handles the backend of my operation so I can focus on bringing in new sales.

 Jay Richards, JR Enterprises (VIDEO CLIP:  Jay talks about ABC Company)

 Val,

Imagine I gave you a magic wand that let you eliminate every aspect of your business that you don’t enjoy, or that just seems to take your focus away from the things you feel you need to be doing.

 How much better would your business be if you enjoyed everything you did and had the time to focus on growing your business?

 What could you do if all of that extra weight was lifted off your shoulders?

 My name is Val King and I specialize in helping guys like you offload all the excessive weight that keeps your business from soaring.

 It is not magic, though, it’s our business. 

 Here are the Top 5 things our customers typically ask us to offload for them.

 Human Resources.

Payroll.

Insurance & Benefits Programs.

IT Services & Help Desk.

Billing & Collections.

Call me at 800-xxx-xxxx and let’s identify the Top 5 things weighing down your business.

If it makes sense, I will offload your Top 5 list for Free for a few weeks so you can experience our brand of magic and experience the impact you can have on your business once that excess weight is gone.

Val 

 ABC Company manages all of the time consuming aspects of my business that I hated.  Our business is growing again and I spend my days doing what I love.  Thanks ABC.

 Dave Johnson, Johnson Medical (VIDEO CLIP:  Dave talks about ABC Company)

LESSONS LEARNED

The original email reads like a laundry list, these guys are into everything from 3d animation to Life Sciences and Bioinformatics.  They list a lot of capabilities but this sales guy has no idea what my problems are, so he just lists everything they do in this email to make sure they cover every sales base possible.

LESSON:  Research your customer and avoid firing a shotgun email like this one.  Narrow your focus to what you are absolutely best at. 

The intent of this extensive list of services is to show me that they can help me in many different areas of my business with a huge stack of sales offerings and services.  However, I read this feeling that they could not possibly do all of this well.  I have no way of knowing which sales offering is their strongest, nor do I want to take the necessary time it would take to figure it out, so my instinct is to hit the delete key.

LESSON:  Avoid the temptation to send out a laundry list disguised as a marketing email.  It weakens your message and erodes some of your credibility.

The original email establishes no credibility for this company.  I have never heard of them and the only person telling me how great they are is the sales guy.

LESSON:  If the only person saying your company is good is the sales person then no one is saying anything good about your company as far as I am concerned as a customer.  Use legitimate references I can call or for a bigger bang for the buck, use video references I can watch.

There is no tie to what any of these services do for me, the guy that is supposed to pay for this fabulous service.  The sales professional should paint some sort of picture of how my life as the business owner or how my company might be better if I just offload this stuff to them.

LESSON:  It is your job as the salesperson or as the organization sending the email to explain to me how I will benefit from your product.  If you don’t make that connection, don’t expect me to respond.

There is too much text in this flippin’ email (and probably this post.)  The text is small, there are acronyms all over the place (RPO, KPO, LPO, RIM, and LIMS.)

LESSON:  Be as short and concise as possible as you are imposing on my time with your email and use language that is plain and free from industry jargon.

They use the work “all” eight times in the email.  Example:  ”Global HR – ALL Technologies, ALL Business Skills, at ALL levels of experience and knowledge”

LESSON:  Horsefeathers.  I don’t believe it.  I will delete it.  

There are 7 stated benefits for me the customer.  Some are ridiculous adjective fests…

Benefit 1:  Large team that is highly qualified, experienced, talented, effiecient, enthusiastic and as if that was not enough they are also described as being young.  I don’t know about you, but I feel better already. 

Some are not benefits to me at all; they are minimum standards like…

Benefit 7:  Our teams bring very strong technical and English communication skills.  

LESSON:  It is only a benefit if it benefits me.  Write your email as if you are standing in my shoes, not trying to talk me out of them.

This was the closing line.  “I would be very glad to know if ABC Company can be of any help and support to your organization…in any of the areas shown above…  I appreciate your time.”

When I read this closing line what I get out of this email and what the salesman wants me to get out of this email are clearly two different things.  I am sure the salesman would like me to look at the list like some sort of ala carte menu, make a few selections and get back to him so he can work up a quote.

What I read is that the salesman at ABC Company is too lazy to figure out what my business is or what I do all day.  He has effectively hit me with a list of SIC codes and a Scan-Tron asking me to color in the little circle next to my selection with a #2 pencil and get back to him.

LESSON:  Figure out what I need to buy before you try to sell me something.  It seems to work better that way.  If you are going to be lazy and not do the research then don’t send the email at all.

 

Got a suggestion of your own to improve on my improvement?  See another lesson here worth covering?  Add a comment.

“Cleaverly disguided” photo – courtesy of  http://rlv.zcache.com

“English photo” courtesy of - http://www.flickr.com/photos/40741986@N00/399082864

“2 shoes” photo – courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/conqenator/2952567054/ 

I have talked, er, typed before about asking you to look for ways to add value to your product or brand by digging into the problems your clients are facing.  Dig deeper, that is, than the problems  solved by your present value statement.

Look for the the fundamental issues that might be preventing your customer from honestly even considering the problems your product solves, that may well be lower down the priority list.  Uncovering these problems, even if they are way beyond the traditional scope of benefits your product offers, and creatively solving them can lead to a competitive advantage, more business and a more loyal customer.

That is what the boys making Mini-Wheats are thinking, and I agree.

What problem does a Frosted Mini-Wheat solve?  Hunger.

What is the Frosted Mini-Wheat value statement?

“A fast, nutritious breakfast that you can feel good about that will keep your child full and focused on the day ahead.”

That is my take on their message, anyway.

So what bigger problems could a Frosted Mini-Wheat possibly solve to endear the product to its customers?

Frosted Mini-Wheats, with MSN.com has developed Moms Homeroom  

Moms Homeroom is a site featuring four mothers giving their thoughts on all aspect of educating children, similar to “The View” in that they are all piled up on a couch providing opinion and personal tips in a custom built community with polls, video clips, and most importantly, interaction with other real mothers and fathers (and the ones most likely to purchase the Frosted Mini-Wheats) out there asking questions, doing their best to raise smart, educated children.

The new Frosted Mini-Wheat value statement is “Frosted Mini-Wheats help your kid succeed in school.”

It is a unique move in the wake of smaller cereal boxes, reduced cereal quantities for the same price, or higher prices that Kellogg, the manufacturer of Frosted Mini-Wheats, and other cereal manufacturers are moving toward.

It is a bold, offensive move trying to partner Mini-Wheats with parents in their quest to seek a better education for their children.  Will it work?  It is already working on me, I have already forgotten about the other frosted shredded wheat products out there. 

If I buy Frosted Mini-Wheats I am helping support an organization that is providing a resource for parents to communicate, collaborate, and help their kids succeed in school. 

If I buy one of the other brands I am just buying, well…  cereal.

  Look at your own value statement.  Are you trying to sell me by solving a small problem of mine with milk covered cold wads of sugar coated wheat, or are you addressing a larger issue in my life of greater concern to me than which box I pick up at the supermarket?

Is your value statement solving what could be considered a “fluff issue” in these more challenging times, or are you refocused on solving some of my bigger problems that I might need to solve before I can even consider your original value statement or the thought of buying your product in the first place?

Help me solve my problems as a customer so I can be in position to help you solve yours.

Hyundai has a problem shared by every car manufacturer; we are not buying new cars. 

 Sales are down 30%+ across the industry and GM, once the pride of American manufacturing is on the verge of being delisted from the stock exchange as shares trade under $1.00.

 The difference is Hyundai gets it.  Instead of gutting their value and defensively dropping their shorts on price, rebates and financing, they are on the offensive, effectively saying “Mr. customer, I dare you to lose your job.”

 

 they are on the offensive, effectively saying 

“Mr. customer, I dare you to lose your job.”

 

Hyundai already has a sales strategy and marketing message that I would think would play well in this economic environment.

 That message being “We build stylish high quality, inexpensive cars, and we back it up with a strong warranty” which was designed to solve the problem of “I don’t have a lot of money, but I need a car that is better than what I am driving now.”

 That message has a lot of appeal, but apparently not enough to keep sales from falling off of a cliff. 

 Hyundai took a deeper look at why business was slumping and thought way outside of the box for ways to solve a problem weighing much heavier on the minds of their prospect than the problem their current value statement was solving.

 That deeper problem being “What happens if I lose my job and cannot pay my bills?”

 The answer until now has been “The car gets repossessed.  I lose my transportation.  It would be harder to find a new job.  My credit gets ruined, and I won’t be in a position to buy a car on credit when I do get back on my feet.”

 Final decision:  “A new car would be nice, but there is just too much downside right now to justify it.  I will keep my old car; at least it is paid for.”

 So what did Hyundai do?

 Hyundai Assurance Plus:  If you lose your income, we will make your payments for 3 months.  If that is not enough time to work things out, you can still bring the car back within a year.  By the way, you still get the 10yr warranty.

 I have no idea how this strategy is going to play out for them, though I assume it will be fantastic as long as legal did not pack the contract with too many outs.  I can, however, tell you how it makes me feel as a consumer.

 I feel like Hyundai is a company that gets it.  That they understand and they are offering up a legitimate “bail out” for the little guy if it becomes necessary.  More importantly, I feel like Hyundai cares.  Hyundai is willing to step in and help out if life’s challenges get a little too big for a while.

 Hyundai is going to earn some respect and get a look by a segment of the market that would not have looked at a Hyundai before and Hyundai is going to win a deep loyalty from the customers they end up helping out.

 More sales today, more happy customers and more market share tomorrow.

It is an aggressive move in a market that finds most of their competitors retreating to a defensive position of low price.

 Ask yourself, does your present value statement carry the same weight it once did?  Is there a bigger problem in your customers mind than the one you are presently solving?

Identify that problem, find the solution, and then figure out how your company can help deliver that solution alone or with strategic partnerships.

 If I were an independent car dealer right now I would be calling my financial partners to see if we could put a “Hyundai Solution” in place for my dealerships.

 What is the creative solution for your industry?  Get it right and you will be the one rewarded with customer loyalty and market share. 

I am looking forward to reading your thoughts.

 

My first official outside job as an account manager began with an immediate wake up call.  I was walked to my new cubicle and directed to have a seat. 

 “Here is your phone.”

 

My new boss looked at me, smiled, nodded his head and pointed to a standard beige 12 button hotel phone.

 “There are your leads.”

 

He said, pointing to a phone book.

 “Keep track of everything and write your proposals on that.  They should have it working later today.”

 He said, pointing to a PC on my desk.

 With that he was gone and my sales career as an account manager was launched.

 I had exactly no idea who I should call or for that matter what I should say if someone answered the phone, except that I was selling computer networking equipment and services.

 At that point I made the single smartest decision a young account manager can make. 

 I flipped the phone book open to a random page, found the first listing and started dialing.

 At that point, not realizing it, I made my first mistake as a young account manager as well.

 My random page selection had me cold calling bail bond companies to make my technology fortune.

 Several calls and an appointment or two later, I learned my first lesson, that bail bond companies were not part of our target market.

 The point is do not let the fear of failure or the fear of not having 100% of the details stop you from swinging for the fences.

 You ARE going to fail sometimes.  You ARE going to get asked a question you do not have an answer to.  If you are in this business any time at all, trust me on this, it is going to happen.

 Don’t fear failure, accept it.   Accept it not because I said it or because it is an old sales adage, accept it because it is as much a part of the business as the shoes on your feet.

 New guys call their mistakes failure and get all upset. 

 I call my mistakes experience.  I learn from them and leave the new guys asking “How did he know to do that?” the next time the scenario presents itself, as it almost always does, again. 

Are you swinging a sledge hammer to kill an ant in your sales organization or are you taking a fly swatter to a tank battle?

Better stated, perhaps, have you taken the time to calculate the costs of your various sales tools vs. the revenue potential of your product offerings to make sure you have a sales strategy that makes sense?

When I am evaluating sales management and their sales organizations this is one of the first key metrics I look at to determine if sales resources are allocated properly.

Let’s say you have sales representatives costing you $60,000 in base that have on target earnings at $120,000/yr.

In simple terms, assuming this sales representative is working 40 hours a week (stop laughing!), and has two weeks off a year, he is going to work an average of 2000 hours a year. Doing the simple math, $120,000/2000 hours, this sales representative costs $60 an hour before you factor in benefits, cell phone, car allowance, etc. Let’s estimate his cost at $85 an hour to execute his sales work properly.

Subject Matter Expert: (Could be an engineer, analyst, auditor, etc.) $80k/yr; $80,000/2000 = a cost of $40/hr. We will keep it simple and skip the benefits add on.

Inside sales representative: $40k/yr; $40,000/2000 = a cost of $20/hr skipping the benefits add on here as well.

So let’s look at our costs for these sales representatives and their potential sales tasks.

Site Visit: (Assuming 1 hour of prep, 30 minutes of travel, 1 hour meeting) $212.50 + plus the literature he left, lets call it a cost of $215 for that sales call.

Technical Sales Call (Assumes Subject Matter Expert and Sales Representative) $215 for the representative plus $100 for the SME or a total of $315.

Telephone Call: Inside Sales Representative: (est. 5 minute call) $1.68
Telephone Call: Outside Sales Representative: (est. 5 minute call) $7.10

Mail: Inside Sales Representative: (Lit cost, plus postage plus time) $3.00 for lit + $.40 for postage + $3.00 worth of time.

Etc. etc. etc. You get the picture.

Now take these costs and apply them to the products you are selling and the revenue they produce in general terms.

When I do this I am mentally asking myself what is the most cost effective method of sales for this offering (that is not going to negatively impact customer service.)

I have seen situations where entire outside sales organizations were in danger of being fired and replaced because they were not hitting their quotas. After analyzing what they were being asked to sell vs. revenues generated it became clear that the company was swinging a sledge hammer (or using their most powerful/expensive form of sales) to kill a fly (some of their least profitable more commoditized offerings.)

The obverse is true as well.  I have seen inside sales teams and telemarketers trying to sell solutions that were far too complex for the tools available to make the sale.

In many cases I have been able to lower the cost of sales by making these kinds of changes and making individual groups (inside sales, outside teams, etc.) more efficient and more profitable as a result.

On a nice evening out for dinner with my wife we were seated at a great table in an upscale Italian restaurant.  

 A manager stopped by our table and welcomed us to the restaurant and asked us if we would like to start off with a bottle of wine.  My wife was looking at the wine list and thought a bottle of her preferred wine was too expensive, so she ordered a glass.  

 The manager asked if I would like a glass, I had not thought about it, but said “Yes.”

 

“You might consider ordering a bottle, sir, if either of you would like a second glass the bottle would be a better value.”  The manager said.

 My wife smiled and very quickly nodded to the affirmative that ordering a bottle was a good idea.  I ordered it even though not three minutes before my wife had considered the bottle too expensive.

 

The price was a barrier until the value the bottle represented was elegantly explained.  With a value statement, the manager successfully bridged the gap between the perceived cost and actual cost of that bottle of wine, altering the perception and effectively closing the deal.

 The restaurant was beautiful.  The lights were dimmed a bit.  Fresh aromatic bread was on the table as was a special oil and garlic mixture for dipping.  We both ate the delicious bread, dipping it into the oil as we went over our respective menus.

 My wife decided before we had even arrived that she wanted some sort of lobster pasta dish.  Sure enough, she found what she wanted, but was put off by the price.  She decided to go with her second choice.  Seeing that we had put our menus away, our waitress stopped by asking if we were ready to order.

 I asked about a special couples promotion I had heard on the radio the restaurant was running but the waitress did not know what I was talking about.  The manager, however, just arriving with our bottle of wine overheard the conversation and verified the promotion and happened to toss in that the lobster pasta dish was part of the promotion, having no idea that was what my wife was really wanted.

 My wife, smiling ear to ear, ordered her pasta dish, I forget what I ordered.

 The restaurant was still beautiful and my wife was thrilled, which in turn made me happy.  She got a reasonable value on the wine she loved, she ordered her entre of choice, and the restaurant staff was on top of everything.

  Soon the bottle of wine was delivered and out waitress placed our empty crystal wine glasses on the table and set about opening the bottle.  She poured two glasses with a bottle roll at the end and confidently plopped the bottle on the table stating out entrées would be out in just a few moments.  A bite or two of the fantastic bread later, we picked up our wine glasses to toast the occasion.  The evening progressed with a good meal, great conversation, a nice desert, I paid and we left.  

The marketing dollars spent and the message delivered was a perfect compliment to the sales experience on the restaurant floor.  The marketing dollar found its target market in me, the message compelled me to action and the sales team at the restaurant was delivering on that implied promise, providing an experience for me and my wife I was willing to pay for.

Corporate direction, to raise average tickets by getting more couples in the restaurant, was perfectly in line with Marketing, having put together an attractive targeted promotion that got us in the restaurant, and Sales completed the trifecta by delivering quality service and tacking wine and desert on our final bill.  

This was a perfect case study in what can happen when Management, Marketing and Sales are all on the same page, out of their respective silos, and delivering a consistent message from the top down.

Look at your own company.  Does your stated corporate direction match what your Marketing department is doing?  Is the Sales department in line or are they marching to their own drum?  If not, then your company is probably paying too much for each sale.  From a numbers perspective it probably looks like there are too many sales people on the payroll for the amount of revenue being generated. 

The good news is it should be easy to find some sales improvement just by getting everyone on the same page and some additional improvement yet again,  from my experience, once you all get good at working together.