Jill Konrath | Selling to Big Companies

Are You Losing Them at Hello?

In the movie Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise is in the midst of his proposal to Dorothy, she stops him with, "You had me at hello." Every seller dreams of hearing those exact same words when they approach corporate decision makers.

Unfortunately, the opposite usually occurs. Instead of capturing their prospect's attention, most sellers create resistance with their opening remarks and blow the opportunity.

Why do bad things like that happen to good people?
In short, weak value propositions.

If you're running into trouble cracking into corporate accounts, most likely the root cause is your failure to clearly articulate the business outcomes that customers realize from using your products, services or solutions.

A couple weeks ago, I did a new exercise while training a group of sellers. In small groups, they rated common value propositions that sellers could use when prospecting for new customers.

Using a 1-10 (tops) scale, they evaluated value propositions such as these on their effectiveness in initiating change from the status quo:

__     We offer one-stop shopping for all your (fill in the blank) needs.
__     We're the industry leader in (fill in the blank) and have been
         recognized for our exceptional (fill in the blank).
__     We specialize in ( fill in the blank) and work with well-known
         clients such as Microsoft, Best Buy and Kraft.

After serious discussion amongst the sellers, these value propositions received scores between 4-6. Their rationale? They were nice benefit statements about the company, but not quite as punchy as they could have been.

Since my book, Selling to Big Companies, was required reading prior to the session, I assumed these sellers would ace this exercise. Not so! In fact, they were way off.

The truth is that all the above value propositions really deserve a score of one. Not four. Not six. Just a measly score of one.

"C'mon, Jill," you might be saying. "How can that be? They're not horrible statements. They're nice."

Yes, they are nice. I'll give you that. But they're grossly ineffective and that's why they rated so poorly.

Capturing the Decision Maker's Attention
While those commonly used value propositions listed above might be important at some point in the decision process, they're totally and utterly worthless when prospecting.

When it comes to capturing a decision maker's attention, here's what you need to think about:

Would you use these voicemail strategies?

Busy corporate decision makers rarely return phone calls these days. It's a real challenge for those of us who sell. When my own business tanked a few years ago, I experimented with many strategies before discovering what worked.

I should have just listened to sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling.

So what do you think?  Does the end justify the means? Is it appropriate to use these misleading approaches if they result in you getting a returned call?

Here are some of my ideas on the topic:

• 3 Strategies for Curing Connectile Dysfunction
• Use the News: How to Create New Opportunities Fast
• Why This Voicemail Failed
• Audio Program: Creating Enticing Voicemails

P.S. Many thanks to Ed McLean's Sales Itch blog for letting me know about this YouTube segment.

3 Strategies for Curing Connectile Dysfunction

It was only 11:30, but already I was far behind in what I'd hoped to accomplish for the day. Despite all my best intentions, my To Do List was only getting longer.

That's when the mail arrived. A whole stack of it was plopped on my desk. Without even thinking, I started sorting it into two piles: important info and junk – which goes directly into the wastebasket. I take great pleasure in tossing out this unsolicited correspondence without even opening it.

But when I got to the postcard from Sprint, I stopped. There it was, staring me in the face – a big headline declaring: The Power to Cure Connectile Dysfunction.

It was so unexpected and such a great twist on words, that it totally jolted me out of my routine. I couldn't throw the postcard away. I even read the whole thing - something I never do.

Suddenly I was thinking about the connectile dysfunction issues we sellers face every day as we valiantly attempt to reach inaccessible decision makers. Our hopes of cracking into corporate accounts go unrealized, dashed by unreturned phone calls or brusque prospects who bring up impossible-to-address objections.

For some sellers, connectile dysfunction is terminal. For others, it's a severe handicap they try to overcompensate for by making more phone calls.

Fortunately people can recover from this disastrous condition. If you're suffering from it, here are three tips you can use to get your sales health back on track.

Cold Calling Calamities

Everyone has an occasional off day when selling. But some people are totally oblivious to how their approach is perceived by prospective customers.

My friend Ardath Albee who writes the popular Marketing Interactions blog sent me the transcript of a voicemail she received recently. Imagine yourself listening to this message:

"Hello Ardath. This is Terry ... and I'm with the X and X, which is a division of our company. We do marketing services. We also have a call center where we do surveys, market reasearch and lead generation.

I was thinking of your company as a possible lead generation client for us.  Please give me a call at (phone number).

I saw the article on your company in Minnesota Technology and I just thought, and I mentioned to our president, who is xxxx, that you'd probably be a very, very good prospect for our company. So I'd love to hear from you. Please give me a call."

Yikes! Can you believe that? It makes me shudder to think that any rational person could possibly have left a message like that. Yet I have no doubt that this seller is a decent human being who is trying to do a good job. She just isn't thinking.

To be good at selling today, you must engage your brain fully. You can't go running off at the mouth and blurt out anything that comes to mind. It's imperative to filter your words through your prospect's brain before you speak - to see how they hear from a potential buyer's perspective.

So let's have some fun! I'll tell you my own foot-in-the-mouth story shortly. Do you dare to share your own cold calling calamities?

Why This Voicemail Failed

Salespeople who call me should know better. I can't listen to their messages without evaluating them. The other day, I saved this voicemail so I could dissect if for you. Here's what the guy said. (Please note: the names have been changed to protect the guilty).

"Hi Jill. This is Tom Smith. I'm a senior consultant with Intergalactic Services. We are the world's largest provider for audio, web and video conferencing. And I have a few ideas I wanted to run by you related to your current teleseminars.

And just basically, I wanted to introduce myself. So when you have an opportunity, please return my call. My number is .... Once again, this is Tom Smith with Intergalactic at www.intergalacticservices.com. and the number once again is .... Thanks. I hope to hear from you soon."

What do you think? Good, bad or ugly?

Compelling Voicemails

I was recently interviewed by SoftwareCEO.com about how to leave voicemail messages that don't get deleted within 5 seconds. If you're struggling with what to say when you get voicemail, take a look at this article called "How to Leave Compelling Voicemails."

Copyright (c) 2005, Computing Technology Industry Association, Inc.

Stop Being a Victim of Voicemail

Making phone calls to someone you don't know is tough. If you're like most people, you agonize over what to say for what seems like an eternity before you finally get on the phone.

Of course, you virtually never get through to the person you want to reach so you're forced to leave a voicemail. And then nobody ever calls you back. Never. Ever.

It can be downright discouraging at times - almost to the point that you might even wonder, "Why bother to make these calls?"