Capstone Sales Development Blog

Posted by Charles Ingram on Mon., June 22, 2009 @ 02:35 PM

Ever dealt with a prospect who, you discover, doesn’t make the final decision? If you manage sales people, this is likely something that fries your bacon on a regular basis. Part of what makes this difficult for a sales manager is that it is easy to answer a salesperson who finds himself in this situation glibly and say, “You should stop the sales call until the higher authority is available.”

That is optimum and salespeople should be careful not to artificially empower the contact who can only say no (not yes). With that said, successful sales are often about finding the best business case among several less than optimum choices.

If your contact is standing between you and the higher authority you have five options:

1. Politely withdraw

“Please don’t take this the wrong way. But nine out of ten times when I am not the one making the presentation, I don’t make the sale. I’m sure it’s my fault, but I don’t want to waste your time or mine. So it sounds as though it’s over…”

2. Artificial Decision Making

Treat your contact as if he is the decision maker and proceed. The goal is to get him to drink your Kool-Aid and become your inside sales person.

3. Technical Consultant

Ask permission to be available to your contact as a technical consultant. You promise not to go into sell mode, but you are available when the money person asks questions he can’t answer.

4. Rehearsal

Brief your contact on presenting your product/service. Have him feed back to you how he is going to answer a variety of questions. Hopefully he will realize it’s better to bring you. If not, then at least he is prepared.

5. Put it in his world

This is “salesperson empathy.” If he were in your shoes, how would he handle this? Keep it business, not personal.

As a manager you now have a teachable moment to explore which option(s) might be available to your salesperson and a cost-benefit analysis for any option which might apply.

As with nearly everything in sales, staying away from the highest swings of the pendulum—in this case, chasing business no matter the tenuous connection to the real authority, or walking away from anything which requires even the slightest outside-the-box thinking—is the advisable strategy.

Posted by Jim Lee 6/9/09 at 9:45 a.m.

-Did you know…

…the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004 (we are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist using technologies that don’t yet exist to solve problems we don’t yet know are problems)

…today’s student will have 10-14 jobs by age 38, 25% of workers have been in their current jobs one year or less, 50% less than five years

…1 in 8 couples who married the past 12 months met online

…there are 200 million users registered for MySpace, which would rank it the fifth largest country in the world (between Indonesia and Brazil)

…the number-one ranked country in broadband penetration is Bermuda (the US is 19, Japan is 22)

…there are 31 billion searches on Google every month (this number was 2.7 billion in 2006)

…the first commercial text message was sent in December 1992, today the number sent

exceeds the population of the planet every day

…years it took to reach market audience of 50 million: radio – 38 years, TV – 13 years,

internet – 4 years, ipod – 3 years, Facebook – 2 years

…the number of internet devices in 1992 was 1,000,000; in 2008 it was 1,000,000,000

…there are about 540,000 words in the English language, 5 times more than in Shakespeare’s time

…it is estimated that the amount of information in the New York Times in one week exceeds what the average person would be exposed to in a lifetime in the 18^th century

…it is estimated that 4 exebytes (a lot) of unique information will be generated this year, this is more than the previous 5,000 years

…the amount of technical information is doubling every two years, so for technical students beginning a four-year degree this year, half of what they learn will be outdated by their third year of study

…NTT Japan has successfully tested a fiber optic cable that pushes 14 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber – this is 2660 CDs or 210 million phone calls every second; it is currently tripling every six months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years

…it is estimated that by 2013, a super computer will be built that exceeds the computational capabilities of the human brain, and predictions are that by 2049 a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species

…during the past five minutes, 694,000 songs were downloaded illegally

We can’t control the pace of change, but we can control how we deal with change. Sales managers should ask their teams to create one list of things they CAN control and another list of things they CAN’T control. Mangers should then encourage their sales people to focus 100% of their time and energy on the things they CAN control. Nothing blows away the sense of helplessness like having an action plan and taking daily action against that plan.

Posted by Charles Ingram on Tuesday, May 26 @ 08:30 AM

A woman we’ll call “Debra” sells business services and had a recurring “sales pain” that an informal poll of other salespeople confirms is a widely experienced problem. Debra suffers from anxiety attacks every time she turns in a deal.

Why? Because about 25% of the time, the new “client” calls her the next day (but usually not during working hours) and leaves a voice mail backing out. Typically, he would say that he had had second thoughts and decided not to keep his commitment.

Her prospects were experiencing a psychological aftereffect in the buying process known as “remorse”. Debra is trained that when she gets the order, she is supposed to exit stage left. The theory being that if she stayed, the buyer might have second thoughts and she would lose the sale. Typically, the buyer felt that Debra’s quick exit sent the message that “I just made a mistake”. Combined with some unresolved concerns, prospects became uncomfortable enough to back out.

Prescription:


Give the prospective client his God-given right to say “No”. Although considered career suicide, this freedom will give you an opportunity to save the sale when a buyer is on the fence. Try saying something like this:

“I really appreciate your business and look forward to working with you. Before I leave, however, are you sure you’re comfortable with what we’ve discussed? If there’s anything that you’re not sure about, this would be a good time to discuss it.”

Most of the time the buyer will reinforce his decision to do business with you. If he does bring up an issue, you will be there to deal with it. Avoid buyer’s remorse and your anxiety attacks!

Posted by Jim Lee on Tuesday, May 12 @ 08:30 AM

Effective leaders always set clearly defined goals and equip people to achieve them. They have the courage to set a direction and then make changes as new information becomes available. They communicate with candor knowing that people perform at their best when they know what is expected and are held accountable. Every meeting tells something about the people who plan and attend it. Here’s what to watch for.

1) Is it efficiently planned?

A meeting is the culminating step in a larger process. It begins by setting goals and preparing an agenda. Thus, did the person who called the meeting prepare and distribute the agenda in advance? Was the agenda complete and actionable? For example, did it clearly advise all participants of their roles, how to prepare, and alert those who might be expected to accept responsibility for action items? This pre-work ensures the meeting will progress smoothly, efficiently, and effectively. So how is the meeting going? Is there evidence of this attention to detail?

2) Is it effectively conducted?

Pay attention to and evaluate what participants say and how they behave. If their ideas build upon what others just said, it shows they’re paying attention. Are they contributing to the safe environment essential for open and creative thinking? If their ideas demonstrate originality, creativity, and knowledge, this shows they’re striving to add value. Effective leaders possess strong analytical thinking skills. On the other hand, chronic unproductive behavior betrays fear, a lack of effective work skills, or misunderstood expectations. People who perform poorly in meetings may need constructive coaching.

3) Are the next steps clearly defined and understood?

Leadership involves more than watching people talk. Is the chairperson leading everybody through methodical steps that take them to a result consistent with the stated purpose of the meeting? Is the chairperson helping others understand exactly what will be expected of them as a result of the meeting? Will the work coming out of the meeting be consistent with existing goals and their individual roles? Is the chairperson helping others perform at their best so that the group can produce an outstanding result?

4) Have effective follow-ups been established?

Have reasonable timelines for all assigned work been agreed to? Participants should know they’ll be held accountable for what’s been assigned to them. If subsequent meetings are needed they should be scheduled with clear expectations established. A system should be established that allows the chairperson to collect and distribute regularly-scheduled progress updates.

Someone who excels in the above areas should be considered for leadership positions. This explains why most executives consider a person’s ability to lead meetings when selecting future leaders.

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