Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jun 28, 2010 @ 10:02 AM
I got a call this week from a blog subscriber that desperately needed some tips for selling in a "down" economy. Now that summer's here, his prospects are ramping down in terms of their purchases. He's really feeling it at the end of the quarter, and wants to ensure he doesn't have the same situation at the end of the upcoming quarter as well.
The philosophy I teach in my inside sales training courses has always been that you sell all year ‘round just the same as you would when things are tough. Great sales practices should be in place all the time. So here are four tips that are critically important right now. And once you do them consistently, you shouldn't have too many under-quota months:
1) Upsell and cross-sell to your current customers. Your customers already know you. You've done a great job for them, your solutions are working, and they're happy. But if you're ignoring them, you're not only leaving the door open for the competition, but you're missing out on additional sales, I'll bet. Why don't you call to introduce a solution that your customer might not have acquired yet? Even if he or she said "no" in the past, it doesn't mean things haven't changed.
2) In terms of cross-selling, make sure that you are in contact with all corporate entities under your customers' umbrella. You've got a same-enterprise reference, so call all of those other companies. Call high into those companies, tell the exec what you've been doing for his or her colleagues, then get engaged in an initiative at a new same-enterprise company for which your offering is a solution.
3) Know why every company in your territory is not doing business with you. My old boss Perry Lynne had us keep a record of what he called "lost sales," which told him not only who wasn't buying, but why. And what was surprising was that when we asked, we found a lot of great data, and it opened the door for us at numerous companies. Parenthetically, it was also a great CYA tool if we ever got asked why a company wasn't our customer. If asked, I could simply go to the database, and prove that there was a valid reason. And if there hadn't been a valid reason in the first place, I often had a conversation about it, and that prospect then became my customer.
4) Ask your customers what project they're using your solution on. Customers want to talk about their business more than yours, and if they love your product, they'll tell you how they use it to make their area work more efficiently and effectively. If you do ask this question, I guarantee this: at least once every few conversations, you'll be lead down a path that will open the door to another of your solutions that the customer doesn't yet own. All you have to do is listen.
It's the nature of salespeople to forget about a customer once he or she has placed the order, because money is already "in the bank." If your company is like most, you have a product or engineering team coming up with new exciting stuff that appears once every quarter or so, but you might be so focused on new business that you forget about the people that have already given you their business.
Upselling, cross-selling, knowing why people aren't buying, and asking about your customers' business never go out of style, and using these techniques constantly will keep you out of the sales doldrums, especially in tough times. Add them to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, May 03, 2010 @ 10:02 AM
Marianne is an inside sales rep who's just landed a telesales job selling high-end graphics tools to developers. Many of these folks are already customers, and her job is to upsell and cross sell. And she's dealing with people that really need those upgrades, but can't find the budget. So they tell her to call back next quarter. Today's post is about how to deal effectively with that issue.
When I mentioned Marianne's dilemma to a friend, he told me that one of his sales colleagues from years past had countered the "I can't afford it" sales objection with "You know what, Bob? You can't afford NOT to have it." Then the sales rep would discuss the reasons why. My initial reaction was that this was just another cheesy closing line from the past, hackneyed enough that you wouldn't use it today. But then I thought, with a modification or two, it would work. Here's how:
Marianne's new company never lowers it prices. It's an engineering-intensive company with a huge R&D budget. They're always introducing new upgrades, too. Fact is, Marianne's pricing will never go down. Her products will always be increasingly more expensive. So she should use the following model:
1) Build value by understanding the customer's business. Determine if the upgrade she's selling can be used to help her customer to make more money, or prevent it from losing money. Don't even discuss pricing until your customer agrees that it makes business sense to acquire the upgrade.
2) If the customer then balks at the price and wants you to call back next quarter, let's say, then mention to the customer that a very good reason to acquire the product today is that the price might actually increase again before the next call. Here's how her response could be crafted:
"[First name], I'd be happy to call next quarter, but let me tell you why I'd recommend that you move forward today instead. You've already told me that this upgrade is going to save you a significant amount of time, so you know it has value. What our company tends to do is raise prices over time to reflect the additional engineering we put into the product, and when those price increases come, they tell me in a moment's notice, and I can't do a thing to roll back the prices. I can't tell you when our prices are increasing, but I'd hate to call you next quarter and have to tell you that the pricing is even higher than it is today." [Now just be quiet, and let the prospect/customer respond]
I've personally used this effectively over the years when I've sold high-end products. It not only increases the perceived value of your product, but gets the prospect thinking that the pricing that he or she initially perceived as being high, might actually, in fact, be low. You can use this rebuttal with any high-end product or service that does have an R& D design and development component that's significant. This is a technique that I teach in my inside sales training courses, and I've witnessed its effectiveness in numerous coaching calls. 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, May 18, 2009 @ 12:25 AM
As salespeople, sometimes we're so happy about getting an order that we forget to do an important bit of upselling, namely telling the prospect what he or she could get with a little more of an investment. When I go out shopping, I'm sometimes confused by the vast number of products and options available in virtually everything I buy. And frankly, many salespeople don't do a very good job helping me. A classic example is what happened recently when a friend bought a laptop computer, as I was along for the shopping trip. And yes, there's a sales tip here that is relevant for telesales people.
My friend was focused on getting a certain brand of computer, looked at all the models, read the specs, and decided which one he wanted. So he asked the sales rep to pull one out of stock and write up the order. "Just another question," I said, "what's the next step up?" The rep showed us a more pricey unit, but with a better screen. As it turns out, my friend often views multiple documents on the same screen, and that better screen was worth the money, so my friend bought it. But the salesperson never asked, so I had to!
In my inside sales courses, I preach a lot on the value of asking the prospects' needs, but even the best reps sometimes forget. So here's a sales tip want you to consider. The next time you're writing up an order, just stop for a moment and tell the prospect the following:
"From what we've discussed, I think this solution is going to fit your needs very well. Before we start on the paperwork, let me take a moment to tell you what just a little more of an investment will buy you." Then tell the prospect, and let him or her make the decision.
As a consumer, I can't tell you how many things I've bought that were upgrades from what I originally intended to buy, from cars, to electronics, to antiquities. In each case, I had to ask the salesperson about "the next best thing." About 50% of the time, I bought the higher-end item. Sometimes it was thousands of dollars more, but I was a lot happier with my purchase. You can get into this habit yourself while shopping for almost anything. Always ask about the next step up. Once you do, you'll probably finding yourself paying a bit more, but getting better stuff! An old sales adage says that "when you buy quality, you only cry once." And you can transfer this habit to your own sales prospects. Make this one of your call objectives. Always tell them about what they'll get if they pay a little more, and add this sales technique to your Best Practices Playbook, and I'll bet you'll increase sales numbers, too.