Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

How to shine when giving an in-house product presentation

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Particularly if you're selling a technically sophisticated solution, you may, as an inside salesperson, be called on to make a product/solution presentation to your own in-house sales or engineering team, as proof that you know your product. Such a presentation can be fraught with pitfalls, as more than occasionally you'll be expected to provide a product feature dump, particularly if your engineers are the intended audience. While we touch on presentation skills as part of our telesales training courses, it's worth reading this blog post if this presentation task is coming up for you.

The worst mistake you can make is trying to make sense out of a 400 page technical manual, then trying to craft the data into a presentation. This happened to me one time, and I made a really great presentation because I distilled three concepts before I started to craft my presentation to the brain trust. These three concepts are:

1) What customer problem does my solution solve?
2) What do I need to know about my solution in order to sell it?
3) What do I not need to know in order to sell it?

Presenting these three concepts will not only provide a "wow" factor for your in-house folks, but it provides a distillation that you can use effectively on the phone with prospects. It will also help you to avoid "feature dumping," or reading a list of features, a practice that bores colleagues and prospects alike.

Example: a software debugger

In an example from my own sales world, I sold a product called an Atron AT Probe, which was a hardware-based software debugger, a really techie product. Here's how I used the model.

1) The problem it solved was engineers spending long hours debugging software problems by manually debugging. Our solution saved dozens, occasionally hundreds of hours of engineering time. With the debugging time reduced, engineers could be put on new projects, reducing design and development schedules all over the company. The ROI could be put in engineering hours multiplied by the hourly engineering rate, or in getting the prospect's product to market faster.

2) What I needed to know: I needed to know that my debugger worked each time, every time. And I needed a pre-sales tech support person if there were technical specs I couldn't fathom. I needed to know what product my prospect was building, so I could talk about increased time-to-market, and how my solution could accelerate that, so my prospects could make money faster. I also wanted to know my prospect's anticipated release date of the finished product. This way I could use a "fear of loss" closing approach. I needed to know the decision process, because I might have to call others on the team (often, my engineer contacts would encourage me to "call high" to a director or VP to make a case). And I needed to know the meaning of commonly used technical acronyms and jargon.

3) I didn't need to know exactly how the solution worked, or go deep into the technology. Concepts like "sticky breakpoints" were commonly brought up. I knew we did that, but didn't know exactly how we did it. That's what pre-sales tech support was all about. We had a great pre-sales engineer that loved to talk tech. My technical expertise was limited to about ½ page of tech specs. The term I used to describe my approach was to be "intelligently ignorant."

Bottom line, my job was to make lots of good calls and move product. By having a clear understanding of how much I didn't need to know, I could flood my market with calls and make my company profitable.

So circling back to you, try using this technique next time you're asked to make an in-house presentation. You can even use something that, in the education biz, is called an "advance organizer," developed by an educator named David Ausubel. You begin your presentation by saying: "I'm going to tell you the major problem this product solves. Then I'm going to tell you what I need to know to sell it. Then I'm going to tell you what I don't need to know to sell it." Add this presentation skill to your Best Practices playbook, and I'll bet your presentations will be a lot more fun, effective and to the point.

6 “follow-up failure” mistakes that can cost you sales

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My colleague Art Sobczak asked me to participate in an audio seminar on the subject of "following up after initial sales contacts, and then continuing to follow up while in an active sales cycle, or to stay in contact if an immediate opportunity is not present." In other words, you've already had the initial conversation. Now what do you do to ensure you stay in touch in timely fashion?  I cover this material in my telesales training courses, but preparing it for the audio seminar caused me to narrow it down to the 6 most common "staying in touch" errors I've witnessed. And here they are... any of them sound familiar?

1) Failure to wrap up the initial conversation with action items for the next call, and gaining agreement from the prospect as to what they are, and when you'll call back. At the end of the initial conversation, you'll know whether your contact is a valid prospect or not, according to your qualification criteria. If you've got some action items, discuss them with the prospect, and gain agreement as to when and for what reason you'll call again.

2) Failure to call back in a timely fashion. A "timely fashion" depends on the urgency of the sales situation, but if you have a "live" opportunity, you should be calling at least once a week to discuss progress and action items.

3) Failure to have an exciting, compelling reason for your next call. Your call should make the prospect happy that you called. Have a valid new response to one of his or her concerns, a new solution offering that will improve your prospect's life, or discuss some good news about your prospect's company that might positively impact your sales situation. If you're involved in price negotiation and have a new angle on pricing, make it exciting!

4) Failure to log conversation results and scheduled callbacks in your Customer Relationship Management system (CRM). None of us can remember much about a conversation after it goes away, so important points have to be logged so that you can remember. If your pres-sales tech support people or sales engineers have access to your CRM, they'll need that info too, when they call to assist you in helping to qualify or sell to the prospect. And be sure to use your automated call scheduler to remind you when to make your next call.

5) Failure to use creative contact techniques when your prospect hasn't returned your call. Maybe your prospect is difficult to reach. Maybe he or she just doesn't want to talk to you right now, when your caller ID comes up on his or her phone. You really do have to get through, though, to find out what's going on. Three creative techniques you can use here are:

a) Use *67 to hide your caller ID before you place   the call.           
b) Listen to his or her voicemail all the way through to see if he or she lists an alternative contact. If so, call that person, and ask him or her to find your prospect.
c) Upon getting your prospect's outgoing voicemail message, hit 0#, then ask the receptionist to put you through to someone in the department who can track down your prospect.

The three techniques I mentioned under item #5 are especially important when you have a proposal in front of the prospect. If you do, using the above techniques will rarely result in the prospect being upset with you, and will enable you to manage the sales process more effectively.

6) Not checking in at least once a quarter with good-prospect, no current opportunity people. We talk to these people every day. They are ideal for our solutions, but have valid reasons for not moving forward. You've done your ROI questioning, you're at a high level, but there's no traction. I ask these folks when they'd like me to call them back. If it's beyond 90 days, I'll call them at the 90 day period, as anything can change, and I want them thinking about me. These are the prospects I don't want slipping by, and they're always on my radar screen.

So those are the six "staying in touch" mistakes I most frequently encounter, but I could add a whole lot more to the list. To keep things positive, there are great things you can do too, that your competitors may not do. One of my prospects is a big baseball fan of a particular team. I found a fascinating article written on the other coast about his team, so I emailed it to him. I don't do this kind of stuff to sell them anything, I do it because I genuinely like my prospects, and try to brighten their days when they hear from me. There's a little bit of that element in #3 above.

So try to avoid the poor contact skils "deal killers" I've listed above, and add the solutions to your Best Practices Playbook. Now how about you? What follow-on call errors have you heard or experienced yourself?

5 Rules to help your sales engineer to help you to close the sale

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As a telesales rep selling technical products and services, you're probably using presales tech support, a sales engineer, or a systems engineer, often popularly known as an SE. This provides high value to the prospect as a major part of the consultative sales process, but it also provides high value to you, the inside sales rep. Without the SE, sales wouldn't happen. In my experience, SEs love being part of the sale, they celebrate when sales are made based on their expertise, and frankly, aren't appreciated enough. I always bring this up in my telesales training courses, because it's so important. There are 5 important rules in working efficiently with your SEs, and if you follow them, you can increase sales pretty dramatically. Here they are:

Basic SE rule #1:  You don't have to (nor, in many cases, should you) be on the telephone with your SE during a tech call.  Because:    

1. Your time is better spent making sales calls to prospects and customers
2. Your SE is capable of handing the call in your absence, provided you've given him or her the data needed to represent you
3. SEs expect to be able to handle the call alone

Basic SE rule #2:  Provide a feedback loop to your SE, so he or she can assess team-prospect progress

1. After you've fully qualified the opportunity, try to get your SE engaged right away. SEs enjoy being part of the sales process.
2. SEs might be able to help you to propose a more effective solution. (And by the way, SEs are typically trained to suggest more effective solutions to you, not the prospect).
3. In pre and post-call debriefing, discuss ways your SE can help you in upselling (expanded feature sets) and cross-selling (complimentary products and services).
4. Post-demonstration: ask the SE to send all relevant issues to you, to use in your follow-up call to the prospect.
5. Ask your SE to copy you on all prospect-SE correspondence (you can then cut & paste it into your CRM, or drag & drop into a correspondence folder particular to each field rep
6. Tell the SE about any account-specific needs (e.g. a larger-than-usual opportunity, a "challenging" prospect, etc.)

Basic SE rule #3:  Respect (and work with) your SE's time constraints.  An example?  Short-time calls. SEs can field ad-hoc calls on an as-needed basis, but there are several things you can do to help them use the time efficiently (so they can help as many of your telesales colleagues as possible). Here they are:

1. Tell the prospect that you can get him or her five minutes or so with an SE right now, provided that one is available and off the phone. This will help set the expectation on the part of both parties that the call will not be a long one.
2. Recognize that "a quick sec" is never just that, from you to an SE, or a prospect to an SE.
3. As an alternative, you can set up a scheduled time for the prospect to talk with an SE, if longer is needed.
4. Best of all worlds: ask the prospect to forward an email to you, with the tech issues defined. The SE can then get back to the prospect efficiently, and effectively.
5. When using a calendar to schedule a prospect-SE discussion or demonstration, always tell the prospect that it's tentatively scheduled, based on confirmation that the time hasn't been booked simultaneously by the SE. Fill out the schedule in your calendar, then email the SE, requesting confirmation.
6. Use instant messaging for quick questions, when you're engaged in another task.
7. Ask your SE to let you know when the evaluation you've sent out has been "handed off" to someone else.
8. On scheduled demonstrations, make sure to invite all prospects well ahead of time, to ensure your SE's time allotment is well-used.

That leads to Basic SE rule #4:  Always provide the SE with the information he or she needs to make the call successful for you.  The information consists of:

1. The URL for the prospect's company (the SE can help you more if he or she knows what your prospect makes)
2. Your CRM data filled out properly, so the SE can see what you've been discussing with the prospect, and how far you've gone in the qualification process. Make sure you have the title of your contact, as well as his or her mobile number. Important qualification for the SE to know would include:

• the business reason that your solution makes sense for the prospect
• when the prospect needs to have a solution on board
• what the prospect needs to see or hear in order to say "yes"
• what your next step is with the prospect, after the tech call has taken place
• an explanation to your SE the logical reasoning behind any unusual/non- standard request regarding a prospect transaction.
• Information about any other competitors that may be involved

Basic SE rule #5:  Make sure your SEs know they are appreciated. Here are four ideas:

1. SEs need to hear about sales wins as much as you do. Let them know how much they've helped to make the sale go through, and thank them.
2. Don't burn their time on unqualified calls. Ensure that each call you refer to an SE has been qualified first.
3. If you have a number of SEs, ask your least-familiar SE to help you with a prospect, then take him or her out to lunch to discuss business, philosophy, and fun.
4. Make sure they always get credit on the OPF (order processing form).

So now you have some great thoughts on better ways to work closely with your sales engineers. They are an extremely critical piece in the technical sale, and far too often they're taken for granted. But believe me, every sales person cries when a great one leaves the company. And if you treat them right, they won't want to leave the company, and will continue facilitating your sales success. Why don't you do something nice today, and take your SE out to lunch. While you're at it, you can ask how you can make his or her job easier in trying to win you the sale. And add superior communication with your SEs to your Best Practices playbook.