WHAT? CLOSING IS NOT THE ANSWER! Karl, have you lost your mind?

Close deals, close deals, close deals! That is what you are always told to do. By your boss, your bosses boss, the CEO, your spouse.

“Are you a closer?”

“Coffee is for Closers!”

Guess what! Closing is a term of certain recognition, but honestly no one can consistently secure deals by merely asking for a sale at the end of the process. Clever sales closes, tricks of the trade, they all amount to companies passing on your newer options and sending you packing. That you can win a sale at the end stage is ridiculous. This is pure hypothesis thrown out there by a group of people who forgot or never knew how to sell.

SELLING IS ABOUT OPENING DOORS AND KEEPING THEM OPEN!

Early on:

Asking for clear understandings of what your client is trying to accomplish helps you start building a plan to convert them into a client. Rephrase what you are told and gain confirmation from the prospect.

“So, if I understand you correctly, you are trying to…”

Throughout the sales cycle:

Redefine and qualify the buying requirements and clearly knock off each with a viable solution. Constantly recheck is there is more to be done.

“Is there anything else you need to see?” “Is there anything else that might stop you from going with us?” “What else might stop you from going this way?”

If you fail to proactively request this information, get ready to start handling objections.

When you are in proposal and deal making stage:

Repeat back those conditions and requirements as you share how your solution is the right choice. One by one, knock them down by showing a path. When you go through a point that they made in previous engagements, confirm that you have addressed it thoroughly. Again;

“Is there anything else that you need to see?”

Finally, the time has come to reel in that PO. The quote was delivered with a clear understanding that the customer was getting what they need. Guess what, you need not chase this sale, and why? The deal was already done in the stages leading up to completion. If you get stalled at this point, you missed something and have to go back to the start. Your start that is, because for the customer the engagement really starts once the offering is bought. Although this is when most people drop their clients and move on to the next prospect, beware. If it is the beginning for them, and you continue to build their confidence, you will get everything from more business to referrals. There is no closing in the sales evangelist guide book, just opening after opening.

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This might seem like a digression from my constant tying of the topic to the Sales Evangelist. Well, some advice is universal no matter how you sell, who you sell to, and how old your company may be.

It is definite that the more you ostracize your co-workers, especially those in other vital departments, the steeper the climb to the pinnacle of greatness. Sales people who truly want to build an engine that motors them to the highest possible achievements look at the teams in their organization as essential parts of the organization.

“We are a sales driven company.” One of the CEO’s I worked for used to tell me. It was a great mantra to hear. As the sales director with 60 reports, I faced many challenges. Having the CEO believe everything revolved around me was refreshing. There were 3 problems with this foolhardy assessment:

1. He said this in director meetings; to marketing and IT, to support and service, and to anyone who was willing to hear. It did not help my interactions with other departments.

2. At the core of any company is the transactions that make money. You could analyze an organization and say that they are all sales driven. It is a silly statement. We were a company with no focus, no real message of unique offering, and we did not have the marketing to brand our quality of service. The mentality that we were sales driven was a cop out of sorts. It meant we did not have to find a better way to do things.

3. The subtle message from our CEO was that sales was the most important department. Sales people already feel high and mighty and the last thing they need is an excuse to mismanage other departments. I spent far too much time on managing the damage of this bravado.

What we should have become is a customer focused and service driven company. In this environment a group can thrive. Support feels just as valuable as sales, for they aid in the customer experience. IT can thrive on the simple victory of getting marketing the tools to launch an email campaign. We work together and it begins at the top.

A note to the sales person: Your role in this is paramount. You need your team to feel the sales you make. If you make a point to publicly and privately promote the efforts on non sales people that were influential in you winning business, you will build a support team that roots you to victory. Even the network support guy that comes up and fixes the printer deserves an occasional pat on the back. When he starts popping by your desk to see if you need any help to have a great month, well it feels good.

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With the topic of sales and the internet, we are diving into a realm I discuss extensively on my blog. Really, there are three areas where sales people can leverage the internet and gain a competitive advantage.

1.      Research

The internet has made it possible to learn about a company, their services, and the people that work there instantly. Everything you need to know about an organization can be uncovered, and these days most of this information is free.

Annual reports, latest press releases, corporate websites, and online news can all deliver information that help you understand the current state of an organization. You can also learn how a company represents it self through messaging and use this messaging in your own communication to the company. A few months back, I had to present an idea to Business Objects. In the development of my presentation I downloaded a half dozen of theirs. The format, language, and workflow of my presentation was quite similar to what they deliver every day. It was immediately accepted.

2.      Marketing

If by now you are not using the many aspects of the internet to promote yourself as a thought leader, you are missing out. I am not talking about promoting yourself as a salesperson, I am talking about writing articles on your area of expertise of the industry you work in and going to forums and sharing ideas. I am talking about networking on LinkedIn, Facebook, and the hundred other sites related to getting connected. There is so much more value in these quick and personal shouts across the webosphere and they help find business.

3.      Web 2.0 reputation development

This has to do with the sites mentioned above but in a different manner. Reputation development is beyond marketing. This is branding that will build referrals and new opportunities based on the quality of your visibility. How clear is your message? How often does it change? How active are you in the sharing and growth of this message? While this may seem like marketing, it is not. It is sales, it is the core of what makes us successful and the internet provides a great new manner in which to share our greatness.

While these are just quick explanations of the value of the internet to the Sales Evangelist, if you just started leveraging these ideas I promise you will see results. If not, come find me and we can figure out why.

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I was in a sales seminar a couple of years back, and right next to me was a corporate buyer. As is habit, I struck up a conversation with him during a break in the action and received this information. His company sent him to this event to learn more about the tools of the sales person in an effort to become a better negotiator. Think about this and learn from it. Great negotiators study their adversary and build plans that counter their latest methods.

Am I suggesting that you start going to procurement trainings? No. What I am suggesting is you use the people already on your side to help you. If you are like me, the people you actually sell to are almost never the people that finalize negotiations. The high level executive or appropriate decision maker will work with you on what services they get for what price, and this negotiation is the first stage. Then, when push comes to shove it is the budget holder or a procurement officer that begins the price haggling. In either instance you have resources at your fingertips.

1.      Yourself – You are a consumer, therefore you are a buyer.

How often are you in a situation where you need to buy something and negotiate? Most sales people are shrewd and get the most for their dollar. Think about the last car you bought, how did you relate to the sales person and what did you do effectively to get a better price? How would you have countered or reacted to your own efforts?

2.      Your Company’s executives – They buy things everyday.

What better way to learn about the negotiating tactics of a certain group than to find a friendly and ask them questions. Sell to CIO’s? Go to your CIO and ask her how she negotiates? Sell to Directors of Finance, something tells me your company has one.

3.      Your Company’s purchasing agents – This should be obvious by now.

They want you to sell, it is job security. Ask them how they negotiate. See if they would be willing to role play, as this will sharpen your skills.

4.      Your Customers – The greatest Sales Evangelists build bonds with their clients.

On a regular basis you should ask your clients why they bough from you. Ask them what they were concerned about, and if you have the guts (and you should), what their negotiating tactics and objectives were. Once they trust you, you might be surprised what people tell you.

Not many people expend the energy required to become the best. Few people do any of the things I have listed here. The Sales Evangelist is that rare individual that tries anything in an effort to get better. Perhaps today is the day you start on the path.

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When it comes to the subject of lead development, I prefer to use the term cultivation. It is not my invention the naming of lead cultivation. What is fantastic about the phrase is in many ways the process of getting someone from the lead category and into the pipeline parallels the process of agriculture.

The farmer starts early in the spring, takes their fertile soil that they have carefully prepared and plants thousands of seeds. Day after day, he carefully tends to the watering and cares for these seeds long before there are any visibly results. If the farmer is diligent in the tasks, from these seeds, sprouts break through and with them the opportunity of crops. In no way is the task complete, but without this process, you never reap a harvest.

Imagine if the farmer tried this approach instead. First, find some untilled dirt, break it apart with a shovel, drop some seeds around here and there, then water it a couple of times before expecting results. A sturdy plant or two may sprout from the earth, but in contrast to the effectiveness of the sound farming process, there will not be much to eat.

If this seems so clear, then tell me why most companies sales and marketing teams have processes and plans similar to the latter example? The process of cultivating a lead must mirror the patience and diligence of the successful farmer, and most of the hard work is done long before there are any hints of results.

Here is an example of a powerful lead cultivation campaign.

1.      Source a powerful list of qualified leads – Till your soil

a.       If you are going to plant seeds, you need fertile soil. If you are going to create opportunity, you must reach out to those with the greatest change of wanting what you offer.

b.      Make sure you are reaching out to the right company and the right contact.

c.       Study the leads by type and separate them for the appropriate type of messaging

2.      Send out an appropriate message – Plant your seeds

a.       Whether by phone, e-mail, or carrier pigeon, create an appropriate and compelling message that will resonate with the contact.

b.      Carefully list out 3-5 points of value. Keep it simple and vague. We are looking for ways to engage and details will get ignored.

3.      Continue messaging with a complete strategy – Water and tend to your seeds

a.       Initiate a call or email campaign that now shares the details of your points of value. Stay on point with each message and study the results and type of results from each point.

b.      Use other tools to build value. Web conferences, press releases, white papers. Invite people to read more and learn more through constant messaging. Remember, it takes a long time to sprout and you must be patient and diligent.

1.

If someone within your organization is managing a process to this effect, the prospects that come in are ready to learn and buy. If not, get going on it yourself; that is if you seek to reap.

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One day people will stop trying to apply standard rules to circumstances and educate sales people to be agile. Actually, who am I trying to kid; people want nice tidy packages and when you can generally say that a rule applies to every situation, it provides a sense of security. No matter how false, at least for a moment, there is this safety net.

Well, let me apologize in advance for debunking one of the oldest adages in modern day selling. While I am a firm believer in listening to your clients and building your plans based on what you hear, the 80/20 rule does not apply to selling the new. In fact the 80/20 rule of listening 80% of the time and speaking 20% of the time is simply ridiculous in corporate world in general. With our modern day workloads, most prospects possess a get to the point communication style. Once you develop a relationship based on mutual trust, conversations start to reveal myriads of information, however prospects today are too busy to enlist in a Q and A session without a clear understanding of why.

When you are positioned to offer something that changes the way things are done, it is human nature to question and doubt this change. The possibilities of negative impact are instinctive as we are trained to challenge anything that may interrupt the comfort of the current way. Fear of the unknown is another myth. Yes, the phrase I used in the article of this pot is a complete fallacy. You cannot fear something you are not aware of, it is impossible. Instead what people fear in these moments is the impact of change. Negative impact means more work, or unhappy bosses, or losses that cost time, money, or employment. These are the things people fear, whether they are aware of it in a concrete manner or it is just a feeling.

Except for in the rarest of occasions, the Sales Evangelist meets these objections in the very beginning of every new selling relationship. The company is unknown and your offering untested by the market. If you attempt to open doors by slicing of a quick and compelling entry statement then jump into asking questions, chances are you will lose more opportunity than you create. Instead, might I suggest thinking about how to assuage the instinctive doubts that are headed your way.

How? Well people love to know that they are becoming part of something. If you are proposing that they commit to your offering financially, help them see why others have made the same decisions. Handle the objections of fear by telling a story. As you move through the initial phases of discovery, share the path other clients made by relating who had the same questions and concerns. Reveal to them how much they have in common with other prudent buyers and see that fear convert to comfort. Uncover the similarities between what they want to accomplish and what others have done with your offering and suddenly you have a budding opportunity.

There is no way you can develop this trust by fending off questions and trying to get your prospect to do most of the talking. If you do not share openly with them, these fears blossom into well crafted objections. Objections in many ways are like a piece clay. It is much easier to change their form before you have someone else doing the shaping. If left alone, the other artist will fire it and then they are no longer malleable. Sure, you can shatter it, but now you have the issues of picking up all of the broken pieces. The challenges we face are easier met head on and if we get four hands in the shaping of the objection, it usually changes form and becomes a sale.

Sales Training for Startups

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You have started up and have something business and businesses need. So there you are, with a big pile of ideas, an offering that will take the world by storm…and um….and um…a phone book?

Why do we spend so much time on everything from products and services to marketing slicks, then arm our reps with a list and a prayer? Sure we give them SalesForce.com, some guidance in handling objections, and what questions to ask. We may even hand them some important stories from other users of our offerings and a greeat pitch or two.

What is rare, and we are talking plutonium rare, is actually helping them figure out who to sell to. If you are going to call somone cold, it is impportant to make sure you are adressing the following:

1. They are at the right pay grade. Pitching new ideas means talking to the right person. The CEO does not care about the kind of tape they use in the warehouse, and a purchasing agent does not have the authority to gut the companies computer system. If you pitch to the right person, then the message is heard, if not, well…

2. They work for a company that can use what you sell. Again, you cannot sell packing tape to a services company, well maybe a roll a year. The industry matters.

3.  The size matters. A small business is not going to buy a giant financial planning system, and a corporate giant is going to want to take less risk.

From this study, you can now create a prsopect profile. This profile affords you an opportunity to hone your entry messaging and qualifying questions and tailor them to the ideal prospect.

Once you have managed to figure out the person to talk to, then what to say to them, you are left with the most daunting of tasks. You have to find them.

The tools of our new age, systems like LinkedIn, JigSaw, and SalesConx give you leverage and an ability to find information on these types of prospects. Do this homework and build lists of contacts,  sudenly the room will seem less chilly. If you invest in this excercise, while on the outside things may still seem cool, the efforts will start to show some warm patches ahead.

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