How long is your pitch? If it is more than a sentence it is too long. If it does not have a compelling slice that gets someone to say, “Tell me more,” it is not hot enough. If you do not have another sentence or two that tells them more, you are not ready. If that does not get your prospect to jump for joy, you should do more research.

What do you think? Should I tell you more?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Do you find yourself giving 40% discounts in the second week of March, in July? if the answer is yes, then it is time to succumb to the current economic state and surrender. If not, what are you doing to keep sales alive?

If it is too late and you are forced to drop price to adjust for a faulty sales process and sales plan, then it is time to retool. To succeed this year and the next, things are going to have to change. The problems many face financially will tempt us to enlist in price gouging as a means to maintaining sales, but it is the worst procedure in any process. The budgeting process most executives will instruct their employees to undertake this year will not involve getting finding products on the cheap. The buying process that wise executives will enlist their subordinates in during this year will not change. They will look for solutions to problems and ways to improve the bottom line.

This  is the time to look at how you present your value. If the company you are working for does not have a strong story board for you to follow, if they focus on features, functions, and price, then it is time to take matters into your own hands. Call some of those customers you sold to last year and get  some referencable quotes. Write some great copy that talks about results. If you are not a great writer, talk to the wordsmiths in your company and have them help.

The simple fact is that for the rest of 2009, more than ever in the history in sales, the most compelling story wins. You will have to back it up with facts and customer experiences, but if you cannot start the telling and get people drawn in, you will be part of the bad news.

Popularity: 9% [?]

#sales When we seek a seller of the new, a prerequisite must be passion. This individual should seem eager to get out of bed in the morning; even if they were in prison. The sales evangelist is self motivated. The statement alone is redundant. What need be done is not to inspire, but to make every effort not to derail a super charged bolt of accomplishment.

So, instead of discussing ways to motivate, instaed I wanted to deliver the top 10 ways to de-motivate a Sales Evangelist. Her we go:

1. Promise and do not deliver. You get two chances to do this, but after one, you have lost all credibility as a leader. The second time will shift motivation to a new job hunt. So do not say its in the next release; or you are working on it and will have it on Monday….unless it is true.

2. Lie. This is a one shot wonder. Get caught lying and your Sales Evangelist will no longer rally to the cause. Why? It is faith that binds them to the selling of the new. Faith that carries their word and that is bond. They will not support a liar.

3. Curry favor to the undeserving. If you plan to play favorites, make it on stack rank and effort alone.

4. Keep them in the dark when it matters. If it is going to help business, tell them everything. Transparency is the new black, and it is also the way to make some money.

5. Belittle or dismiss them in front of prospects and customers. That motivation to find a new job will soon follow.

6. Belitte or dismiss them in front of their peers or other employees. Same as #5

7. Interrupt them while they are working with prospects. Not direct belittling, and may not get them job hunting, but a serious demotivator.

8. Abruptly change their expectations. Territory, vertical, quota, etc… While you are dealing with an adaptive animal, these changes should be discussed in a consultative and preemptive manner. Change should be explained and placed on a timeline.

9. Show that you are not sure the direction you want to go in. The Sales Evangelist is far too busy tilting at windmills and falling on swords to have doubt in the leadership team.

10. And finally, do not pay them as promised. Never be late with a paycheck or change commissions mid stream. This is just plain rude and undeserving of the seller of the new.

Popularity: 9% [?]

When this topic popped up on the radar I was in the middle of free writing for the book. So I decided to share a bit of those efforts and give you a sneak peak into “The Sales Evangelist”. This excerpt relates to maintaining the ability to lead by setting the right example:

Commitment and integrity are your calling cards

The easiest way to lose your evangelists trust is to miss deadlines. The second fastest way is to not give them dates for things to get done. Make sure the entire operation including the marketing, the engineering, and the support teams know this. If you tell a Sales Evangelist you will have an answer on Monday, remember to talk to them on Monday. If support promises to reply to an email at week’s end, do not let the customer come calling the next week. And if something goes wrong and you cannot hold up to your commitments, tell them immediately. On top of everything, nothing distracts or disillusions a Sales Evangelist faster than learning that a deadline was not met from their prospect or customer.

One company I worked at long ago sold software as a service (SAAS) to very small businesses. My role was as Sales Director, but really my main focus was hiring and mentoring sales people to promote the products. They president of the company loved to share all of the new features that were coming for the software we offered and he shares with anyone and everyone that they were coming any day. He got people so excited initially that they started counting down to the promised date. Two problems always arose; the first was that the dates he proposed were never met, the second that he did not recall making the promises. The first time he did this with any of the real Sales Evangelists on my team he lost them forever. Nothing he said held credence with us from that point on.

We have already discussed how the burden of non selling activities increases our chances at failure. With less resources, fewer customers, no long lasting case studies, no peers, new ideas, the Sales Evangelist at times needs low level support. When trying to empower the Sales Evangelist, sometimes we need to examine the things that make sales and help them with those things that do not. Whether you are their manager or the CEO, pocket the ego and get your hands dirty. Yes, you can do some of their administrative tasks, yes you can help them with their pipeline, I mean you take out the garbage and clean up the kitchen….right? How much revenue does that bring in?

At my last company before becoming a consultant, one of our failings was not supporting our sales team enough. The person I took the sales team from, and then eventually and willingly gave it back to, had a superiority complex that inhibited him from really helping his team. He thought my willingness to do so was a weakness. I feel that it is strength to be willing to help your sales team succeed, no matter what it takes.

So, the next time your Sales Evangelist risks losing an hour doing some menial task that will not bear fruit, walk on over and get them back on the phone or out the door. Believe me, they will not only appreciate it in the moment, but when they get that extra sale, also on payday…and so will you.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Man I get a chuckle when I listen to the average sales person. No offense to those that are beyond this place in their career but I cannot get past this one annoying mindset. Sales people in general want to pigeon hole the entire landscape of leads into possible customers and exude frustration when the people they are talking to “do not get it”.

Guess what Mr. and Ms. Sales person, you are the ones without a clue. See the goal of a sales person is not to convince or cajole. It is not to smile and deliver a great pitch. The goal of any sales person looking to make sales consistently is to listen for the needs that create opportunity.

Qualification is not a tool of asking questions to decide that someone can somehow fit into your pipeline. It is not a check list of behaviours and issues that give you permission to spew solutions on someone. Qualification is the filtering of many leads into one opportunity.

What you are doing when you start discovery and begin qualifying someone is figuring out if they are worth your time. This is not meant to reflect poorly on the prospect, simply to elevate the value of your time. You only have so much of it and for every person you talk to that is not engaged and ready to act, that is time wasted.

Stop looking for opportunity and start weeding out leads that are not opportunity. Become more critical of the business requirements needed to be allowed to work with you. Start having expectations and if they are not met then rule people out. It is rare that a potential buyer that truly needs what you are selling will omit details. That is, if they are really the person making the decision.

Qualifying is a tool for maximizing your time. It is a process that many discuss but rarely seem to explain why. It is simple, if you find people that will truly benefit from what you are offering, and they have the time and money to make a decision, you will sell. If you do not find this out you are wasting time.

Popularity: 12% [?]

In the world of the bootstrapper there are little resources. No millions in marketing, strong SEM campaigns. The whitepapers and case studies are few are long to get developed. The number one marketing tool is word of mouth. Through networking and phone calls we use our voice to promote our offerings. This is our marketing engine, or lead generation tool, our cultivator.

What many do not do is take that verbal marketing and empower people to make it viral. See what makes a startup go big is the customer evangelist. How to get that person to make you money is simple. Get them in forums talking about your product. The prerequisite to all of this is them being truly in love with you and your offering. The customer evangelist will make you money but by definition an evangelist is a true believer. Here are three ways to get great referrals:

1. Leverage their relationships. Get them in front of their acquaintances. Have them bring you into a networking session that they frequent, or offer to take them and some of their colleagues at other companies out to eat. Make it about the people closest to your clients. The people that trust them through experience and will listen to them.
2. Leverage their reputation. Get them in front of those that will want to learn about the advantages of your offering. Put them in a webinar or in front of a relevant group of their peers. Have them share what working with you has done for them. Make it about the people that are most likely to believe in and respect your clients. The people that trust them through reputation and respect and will listen to them.
3. Leverage your prospects. Get them in front of the people you are working with. Have them on conference calls, at trade shows and industry events, or sponsoring open houses. Make it about the people that need that last push to move and become a client. The people that are starting to trust you and have to hear it from someone a little like them.

These are some basic ways to get your customers working for you. Please share other ways to get references and leverage customers.

Popularity: 10% [?]

This post will be brief as on Sales Training for Startups I am posting extensively this month on the Sales 2.0 conference and all of the amazing technology helping the Sales world on a real time Web connected planet. Be sure to read all of the live blogging from the event and the upcoming reviews on products and services. This will give you a sense of the asphalt being laid to help pave a new highway for sales.

This is the point to keep in mind. The tools, any tools only help make the ride more comfortable. It is still up to us as individuals to be great at sales. Sure you can have systems that tell you when a prospect is reacting to your email or website, but you still have to use that information wisely. CRM and SFA make data management extremely simple, but it is still up to a sales person to make sense of that information and develop objectives and action plans.

All too often management, executives, and even sales people think that the new system is going to help them sell more. This is only true if you continue to hone your selling skills right next to your advancements in technology. A Ferarri does not make a 5 year old Mario Andretti; Mario Andretti turns a Ferarri into a rocket ship.

Popularity: 11% [?]

We all have similar things to say about this topic thus far, and with the way things are going these days, sales people should listen. I have yet to go on a rant over here at the SBU. For those of you who know my personal blog, you know I have my moments of utter frustration with the mindset of the day to day salesperson. The rants can be sharp and since this is a different set of readers, I will do my best to keep this to a respectable tenor.

Follow up, as a mindset is critical to great salesmanship. It is the art of keeping tabs on the plan, managing objectives, and growing a partnership between buyer and seller. It is a meaningful excercise, but only if it has meaning.

Follow up, as an entry statement seems to be the whole reason MOST SALES PEOPLE MAKE SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, or WHO KNOWS HOW MANY CALLS!

“Hi, this is Karl and I was just following up on…blah blah blah.”

You know what I say to people that lead this way?

“Oh, you were just following up? Well, I am tied up right now, why don’t you just follow up in a few weeks.”

The interpretation; you do not even deserve my energy to tell you to go away. You have become part of my grand experiment into how long you will make futile attempts.

So now that I have cleared some steam from the vents, let me turn things around and explain what good follow up is:

1. It leads with action items from a previous call. Even if it was something as minor as the promise to call back, or finding the answer to a question. This is the beginning of a follow up call.
2. It continues by confirming again what you have learned and ensuring that plans have not been altered.
3. It moves to the next objective or agenda item and ends with either more to do and a plan of action.

This is so simple, yet most people do not take the ten minutes to review their account, recall the conversation, ensure they have answers, know the next objective, and drive this follow up towards another sale.

Get the phrase out of your vocabulary and the mindset into your process.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Sometimes people start talking to me about different visual concepts for the sales pipeline. Obviously the recurring theme is the funnel. A wide mouth with lead after lead at the top, slowly sloping inward through prospects to opportunities and finally to the small trickles of sales. On the newer, more Landslidian (man I love making up words) side of the pipeline planet, we are taught to look at the pipeline as a straight pipe. While the workstyle management company is on to something, the Sales Evangelist cannot afford this form of niavete.

The Sales Evangelist pipeline is like a tight waterfall from a high peak. While the pool of leads may be massive, once you have taken someone into the current, you do not have much time to decide if they deserve to make it into your waterfall. See once someone becomes a prospect in the Sales Evangelist world there must be somewhere in the range of 80-90% certainty they will become a customer.

The pipeline of the new is an exclusive club. It is not from egotism that we must be cautious in our indoctrination, but from a necessity to spend our time with only those who are going to buy. What this requires is three important pieces to the process.

1. A powerful lead cultivation system that weeds out far more leads than it allows to become prospects.

2. A clear understanding of the buying process and who is going to engage.

3. Defined roles for all parties involved in the offering; the buyer, the seller, and the decision makers.

When you look at the a pipeline process with this imagery and rule set it becomes clear where you must be most cautious. It is in the transfer of a leda to a prospect. Only people that can almost more from lead to opportunity should be taken into discovery. Everything should be clear, their need, the ability for the buyer to see what you are offering, transparency, and a budget.

Once you take a lead into discovery, there should be little stress in how you are going to work together. This makes the discovery process easy and really enables you to decide if you have the time to focus on making them an opportunity. See the Sales Evangelist has an entire company on the shoulders and there is no room for bad opportunity.

Popularity: 11% [?]

While many talk about buying requiring emotion, our subject today is passion. See, a Sales Evangelist cannot effectively share the greatness of the new if they have lost their desire to promote the product. As long as they believe, the fire is their to fuel the hard road ahead. Without this passion, this desire, this fire, the Sales Evangelist must move on for they will not be able to achieve their goals.

Many may feel that this is a cop out. Sales leaders coach sales people to find ways to get excited about selling; that you can rebuild your drive and with focus renew your passion. In the world of sales in general this is possible. The desire must come from a love of success or a new way of doing things; a new product enhancement or a new territory focus. When you aer selling the new, you do not have time for this and while you may think you can press on, you are now a detriment to your company and your own success.

See, selling the new is hard enough without losing this critical edge. Rule number one of evangelism is a passionate belief in the news you are sharing. A traditional evangelist would never be able to preach the good news without an unshakeable faith. Customer evangelists are those that believe in products so much they are driven to share their beliefs. You would not find either promoting something they did not believe in and the Sales Evangelist is not able to either. If something has taken you off your belief in your offering and it causes you to burnout, it is time to pull up the online job boards and find the next new thing to promote.

For those of you that employ Sales Evangelists, be prepared to help them move on. You cannot renew their love of your game, you cannot get them to become stars without combustions. If the fire is gone, help them move on, before they become a black hole.

Popularity: 11% [?]