Selling to Big Companies Blog

Prospecting: How to Create Instant Rapport

Calling Don Diggerman was always painful. Much as I wanted to do business with his company, I dreaded talking to him. I'd sit at my desk, staring at the phone, trying to figure out how I could avoid dealing with that man.

But it was just wishful thinking. The decision rested on Don's shoulders and unless I won him over, one of my competitors would get the order.

When I couldn't delay any longer, I'd close my eyes, take a long deep breath, and then slowly exhale. Over and over, perhaps twenty times or more. To the casual observer, it might have looked like I was meditating in the middle of the office. In reality, I was calming myself down before I called him.

You're probably wondering what was so awful about this man that caused me to go through all those gyrations. Was he abusive, ornery, or downright mean? Was he sneaky, manipulative or slimy?

No, this man was not an ogre. He was the nicest man in the whole wide world. Kind. Gracious. Warm. Everyone loved him - even me.

It was just that talking to him required a tremendous effort on my part. You see, Don was the slowest talker I've ever met.

When I'd catch him on the phone, I'd say something like, "Don, Jill Konrath calling."

"Oooooh, Jiiiiiilll," he'd say ever so slowly. "Howwwww niiiiiiiiice of youuuuuuu to caaaaaall. Weeeeeee've beeeeeeeen taaaaalking abooooout commmmming in for a deeeemooonstraaation, buuuuuut caaaaan't deeeeeciiiiiiiide if Tuuuuuuuesdaaaaay or Thurrrrrsdaaaaay is beeeeeettttter."

It took him forever to say anything - and it drove me up a wall. But he never knew, because I'd respond, "Donnnn. Caaaaaaaan weeeeee doooooo it onnnnnnn Thurrrrrsdaaaaay? It's beeeetter for meeeeeee."

Our entire conversation went at that speed - on purpose. If I'd talked to him normally, I would have scared him away. My goal-oriented behavior was totally out of synch with his laid-back, slow-paced manner.

Because I recognized this, I made a conscious decision to relate to Don in a manner that made him feel comfortable. Maintaining this calm demeanor was certainly not one bit relaxing for me though.
But, it wasn't about me. It was about my customer. I was treating him the way he wanted to be treated. And that's a good thing.

One Sales Strategy that Really Works

How do you capture the attention of corporate decision makers today? If you're not using educational marketing, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. 

Michael Stelzner used it to get 60,234 leads over a five year period. He's a small business owner ... a regular guy who stumbled onto this strategy that:

• Brought him high quality prospects virtually overnight.
• Established him as a thought leader in his market space.
• Kept on generating leads for years.

Using educational marketing, his company landed accounts such as Microsoft, FedEx and Dow Jones. Not too shabby a client base!

Today Michael is launching a series of videos on how he used these educational techniques to transform his business. 

You can watch his first video, "How to Generate Mass Interest in Your Business During Tough Times" right now.

It's worth it!  I just finished watching the 2nd one. Also excellent. (Note: He references my blog post on Trash Talk & Delete Buttons in it!)

Again, check out video now.

Top Sales Resources, April 2008

Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?
by Jill Konrath, Selling to Big Companies

If you're wondering if social media is worth it or a waste of time, check out my newest ebook. Learn how others are leveraging LinkedIn to connect, create opportunities and more. Click here to get your copy.

Prospecting is Changing
By Nigel Edelshain, Sales 2.0

This excellent ebook focuses on ideas & strategies you can use to harness this change and to tilt the playing field your way.  Download ProspectingIsChanging.pdf

67 Tips for Presenting Like a Pro
By Anne Miller, Chiron Associates

Written by a top presentation expert, this ebook is filled with golden nuggets that will keep you on top of your game. Download PresentingLikeaPro.pdf

The Latest Scoop in Sales Development

What are the leaders in sales development thinking about these days? If you'd like to find out, check out Dave Stein's new podcast series.

Dave is the author of How Winners Sell, one of my favorite sales books, as well as a thought leader in the area of sales effectiveness and especially sales training. He's also the  founder of ES Research, the "go to" resource if you want independent advice about which training program best meets your company's needs.

Dave interviewed me recently for his podcast series. We talked about how to gain access to decision makers, trigger events, sales enablement tools and more. If you're interested, you can download it here.

But if I were you, I'd check out his other podcasts too. They're excellent. He talks to:

• Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group. They discuss sales process, challenges for first-line sales managers, Sales 2.0 and other areas of technology support for sales effectiveness

• Ken Allred, CEO of Primary Intelligence. They talk about competitive intelligence, win/loss analyses, and how companies can be more competitive.

• Julie Thomas, CEO ValueSelling Associates. They discuss the challenges of helping sales people become more effective.

And there are more. But I'm also looking forward to the upcoming sessions. I can't wait to hear Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index and Barry Trailer of CSO Insights.

Finally, I'd encourage you to check out Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders. You'll like his thought-provoking commentary on the what's happening in & out of the industry.

How to Schedule More Appointments in Less Time

What would happen to your business if you were able to double the number of qualified prospects you were able to reach?

For most sellers, it's really tough these days to set up meetings with corporate decision makers. If you're struggling,  I recommend you listen in to the Cold Calling College FREE Preview Call on April 24th. 

This session is being put on by Wendy Weiss, a real pro at cold calling, appointment setting and new business development. I'm really familiar with Wendy's work and find it to be a real complement to my strategies.

She's got some really good ideas & insights about what it takes to get in. If you need help with prospecting, check out her Cold Calling  College program. It's good. 

Cool Sales Tools You Can Use

NetProspex, a website where sellers can buy/exchange leads, just released the Sales Lead Toolkit with some cool tools you might find helpful:

Company Email Pattern Lookup: Use this tool to select a company and find the email pattern for that organization.

Email Checker: Use this tool to evaluate the validity of an email address without actually sending one to a recipient. It can also be used to verify a group of email addresses.

Leads by URL: This tool helps you quickly find contacts in your target companies just by inputting a target company URL. Use the search feature to select your leads by title, job function or geography.

Hopefully, they'll help you find the right person to contact in those big companies.

If you lead a sales team, this post is for you

Last week I wrote about my 5 Top Tips for New Sellers. Many of you added your own suggestions. Today I want to address sales managers & entrepreneurs.

If you want your new salespeople to be successful, you can't just fill them up with info about your product or service, then kick them out the door to make calls. Yes, miracles sometimes do happen, but it's not a real proactive way to grow your business.

More than anything else, your new salespeople need you to be a sales coach for them. Most likely, you haven't been trained in this critical skill.

From my own personal experience, it's not something that comes naturally or that we do intuitively. It's a learned skill and it's a discipline - and it will have a huge impact on your sales results.

If you'd like some insights to help you be better at it, download these chapters from Keith Rosen's new book on Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

• Nine Barriers to Coaching Your Team
• The Seduction of Potential
• Fatal Coaching Mistake Number 5

If you like what you read and want to learn more, Keith is offering a whole slew of bonuses if you buy the book before April 17th. There are goodies in there from me and a whole bunch of other sales experts.

Note: This is a time sensitive offer. Click here to learn more.

Teleseminar: The Voice of Experience

Developing Instant Credibility & Contagious Confidence on the Phone

When: Thursday, April 17th, 2 pm ET
Price: $79 for this session
Guest Experts: Marguerite McLeod-Fleming & Mark Bowden
Register now.

Most people hate the way they sound on the phone! And it's no wonder. Their voice is weak, boring, smarmy or even perky – not a tone that appeals to corporate decision makers or gets you past gatekeepers.

Once you know what you want to say, the key to success is how you say it. Improving your telephone voice makes a huge difference in your ability to set up meetings with decision makers.

In this teleseminar, you'll discover:

• How to use your voice to create immediate attention.
• What to say to gatekeepers/administrative assistants to get immediate access to decision makers.
• How your physical posture and hand movements translate into your voice and what that means to the person on the other end of the line.
• How to match your voice, tone, intonation and wording to your prospect in order to generate immediate relationship.
• What to say when you're stuck in a conversation that will get you back on track
• How to develop your “Sales Genius” to strengthen relationships, lead conversations and close more sales.

Sign up for the Voice of Experience teleseminar or sign up for the entire Foot-in-the-Door Series.

 

Interview with a Guru

When Dale King from GuruKnowledge contacted me about doing an interview, initially I was thrilled.  Who wouldn't want to be featured as a "guru!" Then I learned that his website was focused on "internet marketing's biggest stars."

"I'm not an internet marketer," I spit out, with great disdain. I couldn't believe he'd lumped me into that slimy group of online scam artists who sell their lame information products at obscene prices. (Do I have an attitude, or what!)

It took Dale a while to calm me down, but eventually he convinced me that internet marketers could be nice people too - like me! 

Afterwards, I realized that my own visceral & wildly negative reaction was exactly how lots of people feel when they go in to sales. They don't want to be one of those manipulative, product-pushing salespeople! And I don't blame them. I don't want to be one either.

But it was good for me to feel that feeling again. It reminded me how important it is help salespeople understand that good selling (whether online or in person) is based on creating value & making a difference.

So, after all that, if you're interested in reading my views on internet marketing, click here.

Top 5 Tips for New Sellers

I was recently asked, "If you were mentoring a new salesperson, what would be your top five sales tips and how did you learn those?" 

Good question! It really got me thinking. There are so many things I'd like to tell a new seller. But what are the most important? What things could I recommend that would have the highest impact on success?

After serious deliberation, here are my thoughts ...

1. Focus on making a difference.

Nobody cares about your product, service or solution. That's the hardest thing for sellers to realize. All they care about is the difference you can make for their organization.

For example, today I sell sales training. If I'd call a VP of Sales and mention that, they'll tell me their not interested. However, once I changed my focus to the tangible outcomes they'd get from using my sales training, the door opened wide. After all, they were extremely interested in shortening their sales cycle, reducing the ramp up time for new hire sales reps and driving revenue growth.

2. Slow down to speed up your sales.

This was one of the hardest things for me to learn. When I first started selling, I was so eager to be successful. I tried to wow my prospects with my great product knowledge. I closed often and early. But the more I tried to rush things, the more resistant to moving forward my prospects became. They'd throw out obstacles and objections that I couldn't overcome. When I learned to slow down, parcel information out over multiple meetings, and simply advance the sales process one step at a time, suddenly my sales increased.

When you're scared about not getting the business, your prospects can intuitively sense your fear. One of the major symptoms is rushing the sales process.

3. Pay the price of admission. Do precall research!

To get into big companies, you can't make a 100 cold calls saying the same thing to everyone. Several years ago corporate decision makers stopped answering their phones and rolled all calls to voicemail. They delete most message within seconds because they sound like salespeople making their pitch.

I discovered that the only way to capture the attention of these corporate decision makers was to create a very personalized message based on in-depth research in their firm. Once I started doing this, I started setting up meetings.

4. Create an account entry campaign.

It takes 7-10 contacts to crack into a corporate accounts these days. Most sellers give up after 3-5 attempts. If you want to set up a meeting with a corporate decision maker, plan multiple touches from the onset. It takes a while to break through their busy-ness and register on their Richter Scale, but it can be done.

You can use multiple formats in your campaign too: voicemail, email, direct mail, invitations to teleseminars, and more.

5. Analyze your sales approach from your customer's shoes.

It's not important what you say. The only thing that matters is what your customer's hear. For example, when I was trying to reach a decision maker a while back, I decided to leave the message on my own voicemail first to see how I sounded. When I listened to my message, I was appalled. I sounded pathetic! So I worked on scripting my message and kept calling myself over and over till I finally created something I would respond to if I were the prospect.

Your turn!  What would be your top suggestions to a new seller? And how did you learn them?