Jill Konrath | Selling to Big Companies

The Right Sales Questions Will Get the Right Answers

Today's blog post was written by Andrew Rudin, Managing Principal of Outside Technologies, Inc., specializing in sales strategy for technology companies.

What happens when we make assumptions? The movie, The Return of the Pink Panther, provides a great lesson. Peter Sellers, playing the immortal character, Inspector Clouseau, sees a hotel clerk holding a dog on a leash and asks, "Does your dog bite?"

The clerk responds "no," and Clouseau reaches to pet the dog, which immediately bites his hand.

"I thought you said your dog did not bite!" he exclaims. To which, the clerk replies, "That is not my dog."

In sales, how do we know if our prospective customers are answering the questions we think we're asking? How do we know if we're asking the best questions—or even the right questions? The Pink Panther vignette illustrates both humorously and poignantly what can happen if we take actions when there are incongruities between questions and perceived answers.

I can relate to Clouseau's not- entirely-self-induced folly, and I wondered whether sales questions I've used could be similarly entertaining fodder—or, at the very least, instructive.

So I reflected on my inventory of sales calls over 20 years and came up with two examples—one showing failure, the other success—that illustrate what can happen when you're asking questions in selling.

My conclusion: Getting to the right answers requires careful thought and constant practice. There aren't any shortcuts, but there are some best practices.

A FAILURE
I worked for several weeks to secure an appointment with the vice president of operations for a large national chain of dollar retail stores, which I'll call Stuff for a Buck. My company's product was a suite of bar code scanning hardware, software, label printers and services. To prepare, I studied the dollar chain's distribution, logistics and competitive challenges. I was ready for The Meeting at Stuff for a Buck.

Cold Calling Isn't the Only Way to Get Prospects

Today's post is by Kendra Lee, author of Selling Against the Goal and President of KLA group.

Not many sellers like cold calling. They may be forced into it but they go kicking and screaming, avoiding it with any excuse.

Unfortunately, they think it’s the only approach to prospecting, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

John was a managed services provider looking to grow his company. He created a cold calling plan to reach three different micro-segments that he’d identified as his hottest opportunities.

Together we put a strategy in place with a dynamite approach. He learned how to tailor his message to different companies, tips to get past gatekeepers and techniques for leaving gripping voicemails.

John was excited! He spent weeks perfecting everything, holding off on any calls until he felt he was fully prepared.

And then it was time to execute.

After two weeks of failed attempts, John fessed up. He didn’t want to pick up the phone.

He’d convinced himself that this was the right way to prospect. John assumed that all successful sales people did it, and if his business was going to be successful, he had to master it, too.

Not true.

Cold calling can be one of the most inefficient ways to find leads. Unless you have a list of specific contacts you want to reach, it simply isn’t your best technique to fill your funnel.

I’m a passionate believer in alternate ways of prospecting, especially when you’ve got a big region you’re attempting to cover and you’re strapped with a large number to sell. Instead, you need a plan that’ll bring leads in the door in a manner that’s comfortable for you.

It’s time to change your prospecting strategy. Here are some ideas for you.

• Start an email campaign. Afraid of the spam laws? Keep your list small and personalize your emails to participants’ needs so it feels as if you sat down to write them an individual message. Send a series of 3-4 emails three days apart to encourage a response.

• Know your target market. John knew where to look for his hottest opportunities. You want to do the same.  Keep your micro-segments small, 20-125 contacts at a time, so you can be more personal in your communications.

• Hold an on-line event. Sound time consuming and expensive? You can run one practically for free so don’t let the price stop you. If content or participation is your concern, remember that you’re the expert. Make your topic relevant to your target market’s top issues and they’ll want to hear what you have to say. Share recommendations based on work you’ve done with other clients. Offer something at the end that’ll separate hot prospects from warm leads.

• Use social media, press releases and / or articles to get noticed. They’ll keep you in front of your target market where they get to know you as an expert. You’ll begin to create a relationship even before they require your assistance.

• Create a mini-campaign by linking email, events, social media, and articles together to keep you in constant touch with your micro-segments. As a seller you don’t have time to run a complicated 6-month campaign, but you can run a simple one over 6 weeks that generates new leads all along the way.

Some people love cold calling. But if you aren’t one of those people, relax, breathe a deep sigh of relief and change your prospecting strategy.

Not only will you build your funnel, you’ll also create awareness for yourself and your company through consistent exposure. When your target prospects have a need, they’ll remember you and reach out. And isn’t that so much more inviting that interrupting their day with a cold call?

KENDRA LEE is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment.

She's a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. To find out more about the author, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.773.1285.

Where is it written that only sellers have to exhibit professionalism, not the client?

Please offer your two cents on this sales challenge.

Kevin Writes: I have a long-standing client. One particular group asked us for a meeting to discuss a project and we prepared a fairly complex Statement of Work in just two business days.

We sent it, followed up with an email a couple days later, followed up with one phone call each week the following two weeks, and with another email last week. Finally, having heard nothing from the folks we were working with, I elevated to higher ups.

As you can imagine, I got a response from my Director contact, and of course, anger and irritation from the unresponsive project folks. Was I wrong to elevate? The logic of the project folks (my prospect) is that if we weren’t hearing from them, we should keep contacting them.

Where is it written that only sellers have to exhibit professionalism, not the client?

 _________________

My Thoughts: The game has changed in the corporate world today. But honestly, it's not that they're bad people. They are literally expected to do too much in too little time.
 
They're running so lean and mean that it's impossible for them to keep their head above water. I have chosen to have compassion for them. Personally, I would hate to be in an environment like that.
 
But that does mean that we need to change what we do. With every project you do, ensure you have full communications going at all times with multiple people in the organization.

Let the project people know that you're communicating with the execs. Be totally transparent about it - it's how you work. That way, it won't seem like you're going around them. 

What would you suggest?

What You Can Learn about Life & Business from Lunsford Richardson

I love today's article by Live & Learn columnist Larry Crider.

Have you ever noticed that some people find success in life because they care for and about others? 

Today many successful people have discovered that money is the worst motivator but one of the best is to try and do something to help others. That was certainly the case for Lunsford Richardson.

In the 1890s patent medicines were everywhere. Lydia Pinkham tried to cure “female complaints” – and her financial distress – with her tonic of herbs and a heavy dose of alcohol. She succeeded. Later she made even more money marketing her pills and a “blood purifier.”

Asa Soule, a teetotaling entrepreneur, never let ethics get in the way of his “Doyle’s Hop Bitters”, one of the most popular of the patent medicines and almost exclusively alcohol. It made him a millionaire even though it never really cured anything.

Lunsford Richardson, however, was different. When his young son, Smith, suffered recurring bouts of croup, Richardson simply wanted to make his son better. A North Carolina pharmacist, he had some vague ideas of what might work.  He turned out to be right.

His brother-in-law was a doctor, so Richardson arranged to borrow the doctor’s laboratory to do some experimenting. At first none of his experiments paid off but then one day he came across a little-known Japanese extract and mixed it with some ingredients he had on hand to create a salve.  This he rubbed on his son the next time the boy had croup. It seemed to help.

Then he offered it to some of his neighbors for them to use on their own children.  Again it seemed to help.

That is when Lunsford Richardson began to market his “Croup and Pneumonia Cure."

His motivation wasn’t to make money – although he did amazingly well at that – but simply to help sick children.

He did so well, in fact, that by 1909 he sold his drugstore and invested his life savings into building a laboratory of his own to manufacture and market the medicine.

By this time his son, Smith, was grown and working with his dad. Smith Richardson convinced his father that the medicine would sell better if it had a catchier name. They decided to name the product after Richardson’s brother-in-law and to call it something different.

They even changed the packaging to distinguish their medicine from all the others on the market. The brother-in-law’s name? Dr. Joshua Vick. 

Yes, the product was “Vick’s VapoRub” which made use of the Japanese mint oil extract called “menthol” mixed with camphor and eucalyptus oil in a petroleum jelly base. It vaporized by body heat alone and was also safe on the skin. Today it is still doing pretty well.

The point in sharing this tale, however, is not to simply tell the history of a common product, but to point out that it is generally true that when a man or woman sets out just to make money, their story doesn’t often end well.

On the other hand, those motivated to make life better for others, even if they fail, find their lives have been successful in ways money cannot buy.

Many business leaders have studied what it takes to be successful.

Over and over again they have discovered that those people who are really successful are the ones who have altruistic motives. They want to make life better for everyone, not just to make themselves rich. There certainly is a lesson in that for all of us.

Think about it.

© 2009 Larry A. Crider Enterprises, 2809 Mohawk, Longview, Texas 75605

Reducing Risk: What Does It Take?

In my new book, I'm addressing the topic of RISK because it's such a huge factor in decisions these days. That's why I'm wondering:

How do you minimize the risk your prospects feel in doing business with you or even changing?

KEY POINT: You're working with prospects who have decided to switch from the status quo. All change involves some sort of risk.

• From your prospect's perspective, what risks are they facing?
• What do you do to lessen or eliminate their perception of these risk?

P.S. I'm hoping to include some of your responses in my upcoming sales book.