Posted by Geoff Alexander on Tue, Jun 01, 2010 @ 10:44 AM
This past week I delivered an inside sales training course to a client that makes devices used to diagnose electrical problems. This company makes terrific equipment, has begun to take market share away from its biggest competitor (who owns 90% of the market), and has hired me to train their inside sales team to take over and own the market in one year. In a coaching session that occurred last week, we cooked up some bright ideas that the competition probably won't be using. I'm going to tell you what they are, but I'm not going to divulge the client or the industry to protect our program. I've been teaching the techniques we're using for years now, but there are a few new twists because of some tools we're using today that fall into the Sales 2.0 realm. So read on, and use them to take over your focus industry as well.
My client has sold many devices into the mining industry, but there are a whole lot of mining concerns that haven't yet bought its equipment. One non-client is pretty well known, but has gone through bankruptcy proceedings in recent years, and we suspected there might be new owners. We googled the company, and found a story about them on Wikipedia, giving the new name of the company. We then did a search in the "people" field of LinkedIn, searching for the name of the new company. And we found a TQM (Total Quality Management) director.
We cold-called the TQM director and told her that we specialized in troubleshooting devices for the mining industry, and she referred us to the right executive in charge of that function. We're now on a roll with that company. There are three very good lessons to learn from this story, and you can apply them all today. One is about turning a "horizontal" solution into a "vertical" one. Another is intelligently using internet tools that are still considered a bit non-traditional. And the third is that there's nothing as good as a great cold call.
1) The Vertical piece. My client specializes in a solution, not an industry. But because the company has sold successfully into the mining industry, it is a de facto expert in mining solutions that relate to its devices. My client's reps are going to call every mining concern in the country. And I predict they'll soon own that segment in the market, because they're experts, and they're telling new prospects about it.
2) The Research piece. To uncover data we had to know, we used Google, Wikipedia, and LinkedIn. Sure our target prospect had prior trouble. But like many companies, they've been bailed out. They changed the name of the company, and are geared up again and making money. LinkedIn enabled us to find an individual we couldn't have found otherwise.
3) The Cold Call piece. The rep I coached loves cold calling. He's completely fearless, doesn't give a fig about rejection, and has an attitude that in reflective of the fact that he won't let anybody kick him around.
We're using a number of superior techniques to take over an industry, step by step, vertical by vertical. I've just described three of them. Thinking out-of-the-box and being fearless are two of the supporting elements that need to be in place for it all to work, and my client's reps are already making huge strides in that direction. Add those three techniques to your Best Practices playbook, and go out and tackle an industry yourself, starting this week.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Apr 05, 2010 @ 10:01 AM
Many of the companies with whom we work in our inside sales training classes are making increasing use of online chat with sales prospects. Much of the time, they're not maximizing the full benefits of chat, either because they're not collecting all the data they might have, or not attempting to engage the prospect in a telephone conversation as soon as the chat session has finished. That second situation is what I'll discuss today.
Although chat has the real benefit of engaging a prospect through your website, nothing works as well to increase sales as having a real conversation. During the chat session, the prospect controls the communication, and the rep is essentially in response mode. In most cases, reps give far too much information, enough that the prospect doesn't feel a need to talk with anyone. This is akin to sending a prospect to your website, or sending sales literature through the mail.
The remedy for this is to break the chat by finding a clue in the discussion that will lead to an opening for you, and responding by writing "that's a question that I can probably faster answer on the phone, because there are several variables that are easier to explain if we talk for a moment. I'm free for a couple of minutes right now. If you'll give me your number, I'll call you within 30 seconds." By telling the prospect that it will only take "a moment," you'll appeal to the immediacy that is a characteristic of the chat experience, and it makes it easier for the prospect to agree and actually have a conversation with you. Then you can make the call right away, do some qualifying, and learn a lot more about the prospect's business. You also have more control over the conversation, and might be able to make a sale or move the prospect more fully into your sales pipeline.
This is a great way to accelerate the sales cycle when using Sales 2.0 technology. Add it to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jan 11, 2010 @ 01:01 PM
At this time of year, salespeople are typically focused on two things: closing prospects that are already in the pipeline, and managing new leads that are coming in through trade shows, downloads, you-name-it. But you've already got a better lead source than those new leads, and they're sitting in your CRM sales database. Let me explain, because if you ignore what's in your CRM, you're missing some hidden but active sales opportunities, and working hard, not smart.
Two weeks ago, I made a printout of every month of activity on last year's calendar, including all calls to my telesales training prospects. Loads of those calls I made last year never resulted in conversations. In just about every one of those cases, I finally left a voicemail as a last resort. Like most voicemails, they didn't get returned. So I decided to set up a call blitz after the first of the year, and call every one of those prospects from last year. I made loads of calls every day. And guess what? Lots of them were interested, and I loaded up my pipeline for the new year!
It turns out that they never returned my calls last year because they had no money and didn't think it had any value to tell me. Most of them remembered my name. Some of them didn't. But the fact was that if they were good enough to call last year, I had already determined that they were viable prospects. They still are, but they're "warmer" now, because they heard my name a few times last year. Many of them are from very large companies. And now my pipeline is jam-packed with these formerly "dead" prospects.
So what can you learn from this? You most probably will have a higher "hit" ratio from people who already know who you are or have heard of your company. Many prospects that had a need for your solution but didn't have budget last year, DO have budget this year. You've already put a bit of time in calling these prospects, and you don't want your competition to get the business now because all of a sudden budget arrived, and you didn't call! So here's a formula that will accelerate your sales cycle. It takes a little extra work, but will put more money in your pocket this year, and faster:
1) Get a prospect printout of last year's calls, by month. Sort by company name, and be sure to put the name and title of the prospect in the readout, too. If you can't set the print parameters on your own, ask your in-house CRM guru to do it for you. That's why you have the CRM in the first place.
2) Take the printout home and carve out a couple of weekend hours to highlight every company you'll want to call again. Focus on large companies as well as prospects that had a need, but no budget.
3) When you get back to work on Monday, begin by calling every prospect from last year that is working at a company that is a customer of your company's, anywhere in the world. There may be exceptional opportunities to cross sell, upsell, and reference sell with these people. Next, call companies that had a need, but no money. Finally, call all those really big companies that you want to have as customers.
4) Allocate at least three hours every day for outbound calling to this list, and "hard schedule" it so you'll really do it, without interruptions. It's better qualified than any new list you'll get, because it focuses on established needs, leveraging current customer relationships, and making something happen at big prospect companies.
Don't let your competition grab the business you spent so much time cultivating. This process I've described is working for me right now and it can work for you, too. Add it to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Dec 07, 2009 @ 12:09 PM
I'd imagine most readers of my blog have at least developed a profile on the business networking website LinkedIn. But if you're not using it as an important part of your daily sales process, you could be losing sales. If you work a territory, you'd be surprised at how many of your prospects will know customers of yours. In the past we all found this out by accident, guesswork, and careful questioning. Today, the LinkedIn tool does a lot of it for us.
In my telesales training classes, I cover several of the free online Sales 2.0 tools that are becoming increasingly more important, and I'm coming to think LinkedIn (LI) is the best. Let me give you one real world example of how it can be used "out of the box," then discuss what you can do to ensure that you're working at optimum with LI.
Case Study: A network solutions provider
One of my sales training customers had been trying for months to get into a large prospect, to no avail. In a coaching session, we determined that he'd call a CIO at the company, someone that wasn't in the lead database. We found that person's name on Hoover's. Before he called that exec, he checked out his LinkedIn profile. Guess what! He knew one of our company's regional managers while that manager was employed in a previous company, working another territory. My rep made a quick call to the out-of-territory Regional Manager, and found out that he'd had a great relationship with that CIO. My rep was then able to make the call, and had a conversation. Without LinkedIn, the CIO might never have taken the call.
So let's investigate how to get LinkedIn working at optimum for you. Here are 6 great ways to get going for you right now:
1) Make sure your profile is as good as you can get it, detailing your professional background and successful accomplishments. These is essentially your résumé, and believe me, your prospects will occasionally look at it to get an idea of who you are before they trust you enough to buy from you. Additionally, if you're ever looking for another inside sales position, your potential new company will look at your LI profile before they bother with your actual résumé. Don't gloss over this important step.
2) Send a LinkedIn invitation to professional people colleagues you know well, or with whom you've had a business relationship, so you can link together. These would include your fellow Inside and Field salespeople, and all sales management within your company.
3) Call your customers that you have a working relationship with, have a conversation, then tell them you'd like to LinkIn to them. The best time to do this is right after the conversation. Caution! If you don't call first, they may perceive you as being too pushy, and won't accept the invitation. Besides, by calling them, you may also find other opportunities within his or her company that you didn't know about. If so, you've increased your sales.
4) When your invitation has been accepted, take a look at your invitee's connections. They may include people working at a company that you're trying to work with. If so, consider whether it might be worth calling your contact and asking how well he or she knows that person. If that's the case, you may get a reference!
5) When making a first time call to a prospect, especially to an exec or manager, take 30 seconds up from to check out his or her LI profile. You may discover you have mutual business associates or interests. Those can prove to be the best ice-breakers you'll ever have (see Case Study above).
6) This one's just a quick cautionary tip. Invitations from unknowns don't often result in links, and can be perceived as LinkedIn spam. Only invite people you really know. I get invitations from people I've never talked to, and I won't LinkIn to them. Most others won't either. There are other social networking sites that are great for popularity contests, but LinkedIn isn't: it's a business tool. If there's someone you'd like to know and LinkIn to, please call and say hello first.
I always check out someone's LI profile now before I call him or her. It takes hardly any time at all, and it's a great ice-breaker to spend thirty seconds or so at the beginning the call to talk about mutual acquaintances or interests. So if you're not doing all of this right now, start today. It's a great way to communicate better with your prospects, and you'll increase sales, too. And add using LinkedIn effectively and efficiently to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Sep 28, 2009 @ 01:03 AM
One of the complaints I most often hear from inside sales reps that take my telesales courses is that they don't get enough leads. Whether you get your leads from lists, whitepaper downloads, your own lead qualification reps, or any other source, you're probably missing a significant amount of business in your territory if you're not subscribing (and reading!) at least one trade publication that addresses experts in your solution area. This is really an old-fashioned idea, and one that still works. Best of all, I'll bet your competitors aren't doing it. So today's post is about beating your competition. And I'll give you a real-world example of what I'm talking about, because it worked for me, and the publication still exists. If you sell into the market I sold into, you can use it too. And if you don't, you can take my story and plug it into your solution set and prospect base, too, and go out and subscribe to a magazine that fits your needs similarly.
Back when I was an inside rep, I sold software and application development tools like debuggers, in-circuit emulators, and regression testers. Our standard trade publications were the EE Times, Dr. Dobb's Journal, and a few others. But the one I loved was Crosstalk, the Journal of Defense Engineering. That publication, published at Hill Air Force Base, addressed issues and situations involving how the Department of Defense built and maintained software (still does). Every issue was packed with information on who was building what. I subscribed free (you still can), and every month I'd take a couple of hours out of my Saturday, skim it (still do, I'm hooked), and highlight names and projects. Monday I'd call those highlighted folks and made sure they knew about my solutions and what we did. And man, did I sell a lot of stuff to the DoD. Most of those folks were experts, and rarely showed up on lists. The only way I could find them was by reading about them. And they always enjoyed talking to me because I'd read about them.
So here's where I'm going with this. Whatever you sell, there are trade publications where experts in your industry talk about solutions. I want you to subscribe to a paper copy, so you can get away from your computer on the weekend, sit in an easy chair with a highlighter, and skim material that will be important to you. Seriously carve out a couple of weekend hours to do it. I don't recommend doing this online, because everything else in the world gets in the way, email, YouTube, and random thoughts turned to web searches. And when you do allocate time to digest the material, what will happen is this: you'll get names of high level people, and you'll finding out what's bugging them that your solution can help fix. Unbelievably, your voicemails will get returned, admins will put you through, and you'll have real productive conversations because you'll know an awful lot about the business your prospects are in, from the inside out. I train and coach hundreds of telesales reps each year, and I know most of them aren't doing this (they should be, after my classes, though). So if you're having a slow time getting to prospects in these tough economic times, ensure that you're reading and working those trade mags. As Gomez Addams used to say, "Ahh, the old ways are best." So add mining those trade publications to your Best Practices Playbook to find those important and lucrative prospects you'd otherwise never find.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jul 06, 2009 @ 01:26 AM
Last week, just as I was getting ready for the long weekend, I got a blog query from Dave, one of our subscribers. And it's a toughie. Read Dave's question:
"I'm in a new "sales" position, using [sigh] Salesforce.com . Bottom line... while I'm compensated on SALES, much of my work/time (particularly as I work through the "leads" in my region) is data entry. I've put a watch on it & takes upwards of 5-10 minutes to bring a skeletal lead (no address, phone, website or description) up to usability. From experience I know it's crucial to have these basic facts at hand... but it kills my prospecting/selling time. I'd just as soon not go to my boss with the typical lament: "these leads aren't any good." Suggestions?
P.S. With the popularity of Salesforce, I'd be willing to guess there are a lot of folks wrestling with this frustration. This also touches on the greater topic of ‘data quality'... this morning I happened to find: collection/mish/mash of Blue Cross Accounts. BlueCross, Blue Cross, Blue Cross of MA, Blue Cross of Massachusetts, Blue Cross/BlueShield & more."
Geoff here: So what Dave is dealing with here are raw company leads, where there is no contact, and he has to go to the web, use Hoover's, OneSource, or another source to get company, contact, and website data, in order to turn it into something he can call. OK, Dave, there are several areas to tackle here, and they all touch upon the challenge with which you're dealing. And there are solutions. Here goes:
1) As a general FYI, every one of my clients deals with similar Contact Management Relationship (CRM) issues, regardless of what CRM they're using, from Oracle, to Siebel, to SAP. To date, I've never spoken with a rep that's totally in love with his or her CRM database. Take heart in the fact that you're not alone, Dave, you're in a very big (and vocal) club.
2) I believe you when you said it takes 5-10 minutes to do enough data mining to bring a skeletal lead up to snuff. For what I'm going to suggest in #3 (below), I'd like you to actually log ten skeletal situations, with the time it takes to do each, and the name of the ultimate contact you enter into the contact field. Put these on a sheet of paper, because I'm going to take a scientific approach under item #3, and you'll need ten instances of quantifiable data to make your point.
3) Determine how many calls you need to make every day for your territory to reach its sales quota. It's easy to do, because I've got a blog post that tells you how to put together meaningful call metrics, and you should read it and cobble together yours. It's not that difficult, and it may differ from the call metrics you've been given. You'll end up creating a weekly sales quota sheet as well as a daily call quota sheet.
4) With the facts you uncovered under # 2 and #3 above, determine how many skeletal leads you can process in one day, and still make your sales numbers. If it's untenable, go to your manager with the irrefutable data. This is taking a scientific approach, and it's hard to argue with numbers. I've often said that managers like solutions, not problems, and taking this approach puts you squarely in solution mode. If your data checks out, your manager will have to come up with his or her own solution as well that works for the entire inside sales team.
5) I've saved a very good part for last. Trish Bertuzzi at The Bridge Group told me about a product called InsideView that acts as a front-end for Salesforce.com, and aggregates data from a number of different sources and compiles it right into Salesforce in a few moments. I saw their online demo, and I'm a believer. This product appears to be ideal for Dave's data discovery dilemma (give me an ‘A' for alliteration in my next English class), as it could dramatically cut the time he's taking to do manual data mining.
To sum up, I always teach a bit about research tools and techniques in my telesales training courses, and invariably, CRM issues come up. Every great telesales rep I know has figured out the number of calls he or she has to make to make the monthly number, so if any of you haven't taken a few minutes to compile yours (item #3 above has a link to show you how), then add that capability to your Best Practices Playbook. And Dave, thanks for bringing up a topic that undoubtedly frustrates many of your colleagues as well.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jun 08, 2009 @ 01:00 AM
I'm conducting one of my telesales training courses this week for a network solutions company that has a challenge common to many inside sales organizations, namely cold calling into companies where there has been no prior telephone contact, at any level. In some cases, there are individuals that have downloaded whitepapers, attended tradeshows and seminars, or signed up for webinars, but in most cases, there has been no previous "touch" at all. In calling these companies, it's absolutely critical to mine the prospect's website for clues that can be used to turn the cold call into a warm call.
There are several critical things you can find by visiting your prospect's homepage, and you can do it all in three minutes or fewer (if it takes longer, you'll never meet your call metrics, so you have to know what to look for, and how to find it). You'll want to focus on your solution, and find clues on the website indicating that the prospect company could have a need. If you sell application development tools, for example, you'll look for indicators that the prospect is building applications; if your prospect is selling its own applications on its website, you now have additional ammunition you need to make a more meaningful opening call.
Here are a few classic web elements that are indicators that the prospect could potentially use a solution like yours, if you provide development or networking solutions, as an example. If you don't sell these types of solutions, you can use this as a template to create a list of your own "hot" web indicators for your solution. Look for elements such as these that you can refer to when engaging your new "cold" prospect:
- Bill paying capability
- Online account management
- Order entry
- Reseller portal
- Taxes or auto registration
- Shipment tracking
In addition, scan the homepage for any corporate news that could be valuable, such as acquisitions or mergers, or press releases or whitepapers mentioning the thoughts and ideas of upper-level management. This data will be critical when calling high, and again, turns your cold call into a warm call.
Your prospect's website is invaluable in telling you how the company makes its money. As I've said many times, prospects will only buy solutions if they will help the company to make money, or stop losing money. To build rapport and begin strategizing an ROI-based sales formula with your prospects, learn these three things from your website research:
- what product or service your prospect company sells
- who buys its products and services
- how its customers buy those products and services
And last but not least, check the Management page to determine the name of the appropriate CXO. It's better than any other source on the internet, because it's always current.
If you take the steps I've outlined in this post, you'll find your cold calls go a lot better, because you've taken some important steps that prove to your prospect that you know his or her company well enough to make an intelligent value proposition based on intelligence instead of guesswork. Remember to take 3 minutes or fewer per prospect (the more you do it, the more efficient you'll get), and add this powerful technique to your Best Practices playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Apr 20, 2009 @ 02:03 AM
One of the things I preach --- and I really mean preach in my telesales training classes is you've only got one call to qualify your prospect. Just one. And when you get that person on the phone, that may be the only time you ever talk. Ever. We all know the frustration of calling back the same prospect that asked us to call back, and never being able to reach that person again. And all the voicemails and emails won't help, either, a vast majority of the time. So today I'm going to discuss a great sales tip to fix this, that works especially well if you're in the lead generation or lead qualification business.
Today's post is about prospects that try to get you off the phone as soon as you begin your opening. They're just going into a meeting. They were expecting another call. They're dealing with an emergency. They have dyspepsia or catarrh. Sometimes it's true, and sometimes it isn't. But you have to absolutely find out whether that prospect you're calling for the first time has a need for your offering. If he or she doesn't, that person is disqualified, and you don't have to call again. But he or she may, and that's what you absolutely have to discover before dropping this type of call.
So here's what you do. When the first-time prospect tell you he or she can't take your call, do the following:
1) Ask "Before I let you go, let me ask you this:"
2) Tell him or her in 5 seconds or fewer who you are and what you do.
3) Reference something that indicates that he or she might be interested. This could be that he or she attended a trade show, seminar, downloaded a whitepaper, or even something you saw on his or her company's website.
4) Ask if he or she will be looking into solutions like yours anytime within the "next few months."
This 4 step process works almost 100% of the time, because it's quick, gets you what you need, and often the prospect will actually have a conversation with you, provided there is an initiative to look into an offering like yours. Why does it work? Because you're honoring the "contract" that the prospect gave you at the beginning of the call. And that contract was "I'm busy, bug off." By responding with "Before I let you go, let me ask you this", you're telling the prospect that yes, you'll bug off, after one quick question. Even if the prospect is busy, that's a pretty good trade. So let me set this out in actual dialogue form, so you can see what it looks like. And let's say you sell in-circuit emulators, for example's sake:
Prospect: "Hi, this is Sandra Bannerjee"
You: "Hi Sandra, this is Geoff Alexander from Atron, and..."
Prospect: "I'm sorry, this is a really bad time to talk, can you call me next week?"
You: "I'd be happy to, Sandra, but before I go, let me ask you this. You attended our seminar on debugging the 680X0 series of processors, and I'm wondering if you'll be looking at buying emulators for those processors any time within the next several months?"
Prospect: "Yes we will."
You: "When do you have to have them on board?"
Prospect: "Real soon, but I can't talk right now."
You: "OK, Sandra, who can I talk with right now that can discuss some of the specs of the project?"
Prospect: "Lee Kiley is the Project Manager, go ahead and give Lee a call."
I could go on ad infinitum about where I'd take the conversation from here, but bottom line, you took a call that was going to be worthless, and turned it into something. You found an opportunity, and got a referral. And if you do this on every one of these types of calls, you'll be spinning your wheels less, generating more leads, selling faster, and be spending less time calling the same prospect over and over. But do remember "the contract." Add "Before I let you go, let me ask you this" to your sales vocabulary and highlight it in your Best Practices playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Apr 13, 2009 @ 12:38 AM
How's your lead generation situation going these days? Lots of companies are scratching their heads nowadays to figure out how to do it better, so Bob Lederman from AG SalesWorks and I are presenting a free webinar on how to avoid some all-too-common pitfalls this Tuesday April 14 at 11 am PDT/2 pm EDT. You can register at www.agsalesworks.com/webinar-avoid-biz-dev-pitfalls Here's a quick blurb on what we'll be discussing:
Business Development Teams are critically important to ensuring the health and growth of today's B2B companies.
Presenters Geoff Alexander, Founder of Geoff Alexander & Company, and Bob Lederman, VP of Sales at AG Salesworks will discuss the common pitfalls to successful training and execution of Business Development teams. Both Geoff and Bob have worked alongside dozens of Business Development teams, within companies of all sizes and product offerings.
What you will learn in this webinar:
- The importance of cold calling
- Common strategic pitfalls
- Common execution pitfalls
- Structuring your team for success
- Best practices you can implement TODAY
I hope you can attend. There will be a Q&A session afterward, and Bob and I are both pretty opinionated, so it should be fun. Our goal is to provide you with lead generation tips you can implement right away, with the ultimate goal to increase sales at your company. Please sign up today, and we'll see you on Thursday!
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Fri, Mar 20, 2009 @ 01:35 AM
Every salesperson seems to be talking about how to thrive in a tough economy, so I'd like to address a sales opportunity that you may be ignoring, but could provide you with a good long-term revenue stream. It's called selling through consultants. Who are consultants? They're people that are probably on the bottom of your call priority list, but have expressed an interest in your solution, generally by downloading a whitepaper, or attending a trade show or seminar. There are two kinds of consultants, those who are working for a client, and those who are trying to find a client. And typically, you know who those clients are, although you may not know it. Unfortunately, most telesales people ignore the latter type of consultant, but maybe they shouldn't. I'll share with you how I made a lot of money by working with them. First, let's differentiate between these two categories of consultants:
Consultants currently working with a client. These folks have been hired for their expertise, and could have a big impact on whether your solution gets sold into the company. Their titles vary, everywhere from CXO to software engineer. If the individual to whom you're talking identifies him or herself as a consultant, take notice! Ask about his or her expertise, and also ask about his or her business. Is he or she working with other companies as well? Has he or she worked with other companies in the past that might need your solution? If so, ask the consultant for a referral name and phone number at the previous company. Ask if the consultant works for a consulting firm that has a number of other consultants. If so, you'll want to get engaged with an exec at the consulting firm to ensure that all appropriate consultants know about your solution. It goes without saying that you should do your qualifying to your original consultant prospect as well, to sell your solution to that particular company. But you don't want to leave expanded opportunities unaddressed, and that's why you'll need to delve into the consultant's world a bit, too.
Consultants not currently working with a client. They're out of work, and actively looking for consulting opportunities. Begin your call by asking if they're working on a particular project right now. If not, they'll be honest with you, and tell you, that's how you'll find out that they're not working. As above, ask about their particular expertise, and about previous clients they've had that could use your solution. Get referral names and phone numbers. Chances are that you've been moving these folks to the disqualified list, but I have another approach. Why don't you ask them if you can help them find work? In the days when I sold software development tools, I kept a list of software consultants in my territory. And often, when talking with a prospect, he or she would tell me that the company was adding headcount to the engineering team (I'm using engineering as an example; insert your target audience instead). I'd ask if they were considering consultants, and if the answer was "yes", I'd put the prospect and consultant together through a fast intro. If the two sides reached an agreement, I'd be embedding consultants that already knew of my solution in a prospect company. Not only had I helped the consultant get work, but I helped my prospect find a candidate. This didn't take much time, either, just maybe a couple of extra questions, and a 30 second call back to the consultant. And I've got to tell you that I made a lot of money this way, because these folks remembered that I went beyond the call of duty to help. It gave me incredible presence in the account, enhanced our brand, and created a vibe, which contributed greatly to my sales numbers. It also made me a real territory expert. Essentially, I created opportunity with a consultant where none previously existed, and these consultants went from company to company promoting my solutions. And this constributed to my paycheck.
In this economy, you've got to think out of the box, and utilize nontraditional ways to sell. We teach this in our inside sales training course. Having other people doing your "selling" for you by helping them is good business and gives you your own personal "feet on the street." It gives you an opportunity to take a sales lead that you thought had little value and make something out of it. Become an expert in the consulting business germane to your solution in your territory, and you'll increase sales this year. Add this sales skill to your Best Practices playbook.