Archive for the ‘Executive Selling’ Category

Sales Proposals: Give Yourself the Best Shot

January 31, 2012 by Scott Olsen

A start-up software company we’re working with is trying to gain traction in the market. In a recent assessment of their sales process we noticed that every time the sales person delivered a product demonstration, she would follow up with a generic proposal by email. We identified two fatal flaws with this process. First the proposals were generic and second the proposals were emailed. By itself, the generic proposal diminished the sales person’s success rate. Combined with the fact that she didn’t walk through the proposal live via the web or at least the phone, really put her in a limited spot. With this approach, how could she put herself in the best possible position to get feedback and have the chance to clarify or make adjustments to win deals? If the sale is important, it’s worth taking the time to tailor and present the proposal live, especially for a start up  who needs that critical feedback to learn and adjust along the way.

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Categories: Closing Skills, Differentiating You, Engaging Your Customers, Executive Selling, Sales Proposals, Selling Process

The Hostile Business to Business Sales Person

January 11, 2012 by Scott Olsen

You may not want your friends to demonstrate hostile behavior, but professionals who are hostile by nature are more likely to succeed in business sales and high level leadership in the long run than those without it.

Why?

…because their hostile nature tends to fuel their fire day in and day out. So what does this mean to possess a hostile behavior trait? Here’s an example, if the hostile person were to leave their wallet at a restaurant, when they get home and realize this, their likely first thought would be, “I left my wallet at the restaurant. Someone has stole it and spent all of the money. I need to cancel my credit cards immediately.” The opposite of the hostile person in this sense is the tolerant person. If the tolerant person leaves their wallet at a restaurant, when they get home they might think something like, “I left my wallet at the restuarant. I’m sure someone turned it in for me. I’ll just call up the restaurant, ask them to hold it for me and when I swing by tomorrow to pick it up, I might make a best new friend in the process.” This may be an exaggeration, but the point is the tolerant person has a buoyant view of the world, “it’s all going to work out.” On the other hand the hostile person has a view that “the world is a nasty place. It’s a jungle out there. If I don’t get up and fight my way through it everyday, it will eat me up alive.” The hostile person is more likely to wake up each day with a fire in their belling thinking, “what do I have to do today to make something good happen.”

Harness the Hostility

Given the choice between the aggressive sales person and the passive sales person for their team of “hunters,” sales managers know they need the aggressive ones to really make things happen in opening up new territories. The sales manager knows there ’s a risk associated with the hostile sales person, but it’s well worth it if sales person can harness this trait. Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson’s new book, The Challenger Sale, describes the most effective sales people as assertive, not aggressive, but assertive. Dixon and Adamson go on to compare the assertive and aggressive sales person in the following ways:

Assertive

  • Directly pursues goals in a constructive way
  • Defends own personal boundaries
  • Uses direct language

Aggressive

  • Pursues goals at the expense of  professionalism
  • Attacks others’ personal boundaries
  • Uses antagonistic language

In summary, the hostile trait tends to fuel the fire of the business sales person and high level leader, but it’s only when they transmute this behavior from aggressiveness to assertiveness that they become most effective. For those who want to become more assertive and deal better with aggressive counterparts, I suggest participating in our Effective Negotiation Skills course.

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Categories: Differentiating You, Executive Selling, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Selling in Difficult Times, Uncategorized, professional development, selling

When Buyer’s Use Negotiation Tactics

January 10, 2012 by Scott Olsen

How many times have your heard a customer sing the sad song of an “erratic economy” or “unstable financial times” as a way to get deep discounts. This tactic, or negotiation trick, is known as “violins.” While some companies are experiencing very trying times, this isn’t true of all corporations. Borrowing from Charles Dickens, I’d say it’s been the best of times for some corporations and the worst of times for others. Even the companies who are experiencing the “best of times” are using “violins” to get amazing prices. These “well off” companies have told me, “just because we’re not suffering financially does’t mean we shouldn’t be able to get in on the great deals.” The best sales professionals have learned to approach the negotiation process as a game.

So, how does the effective sales person deal with buyer tactics and avoid becoming a victim? The first step is recognizing a tactic. A negotiation tactic can come in many forms and by definition is a gambit or probe used by the buyer to expose and/or weaken the sales person’s position. The important thing to remember is that negotiation tactics are not demands, they are bluffs made up by a buyer to get “unreasonable” deals from the seller.

Once you’ve recognized the tactic, the best way to deal with the tactic is to neutralize it by countering the buyer’s tactic with a seller tactic. It may seem counterintuitive to some, but it is essential that the buyer understands that the sales person is on to the buyer’s games and that the sales person can play this win/lose game too, and perhaps even better. Once the buyer believes he or she can’t beat you at this type of  ”game” you may have a chance to raise the negotiation from the win/lose level to the balanced level. The balanced level deals with real demands and is typified by “quid pro quo.”

Some of the most common tactics I see are “competition,” “hoops” and the “fritz.” And let’s not forgot the all time classic, “your price is too high.” As the name implies, “competition” is when a buyer says something like, “I may have to look and see if your competition is willing to meet my needs.”

Hoops

You might be experiencing “hoops” if a customer asks you to do a series of worthless tasks without a clear end in sight.

Although “hoops” may be one of the most frustrating tactics to get caught up in, it can also be one of the easiest tactics to counter, by asking the customer, “if I fulfill your request, do we have a deal?”

Fritz

The “fritz” tactic can be the most intimidating to experience and usually comes across as loud and abrasive language in response to something you’ve said, usually immediately after you’ve shared your price.

In summary, the first step in dealing with buyer tactics is awareness. The second step is to neutralize the buyer’s tactic by countering or exposing their tactics. For example, if a customer uses “fritz” on you, you may counter with your own “fritz” or any other tactic. Any tactic can counter a tactic.

Balanced Agreements

Warning! When you engage in win/lose negotiation, typified by either or both sides using tactics, there is always a chance your negotiation could end is lose/lose. If you are adept at countering or exposing tactics, you may be able to raise the level of negotiation to balanced or possibly win/win.

Buyer’s negotiation tactics are not demands, they are games. Tactics are designed to fool or trick you into caving and lowering your price. A customer demand, by definition, is a deal maker or deal breaker. The wise sales person can tell the difference. When a customer makes a demand, you are in prime position to make own your demand of equal or greater value. Recently, one of my clients experienced a negotiation that went like this… The seller requested 50% payment up front and 50% upon delivery of services, with payment terms of net 10 days. The buyer stated that their policy is to pay in net 30 days. In response, the seller said he could go along with the “net 30″ if the buyer allowed the seller to submit the invoice at 100% immediately. The buyer agreed. In the end, the seller was delayed the initial 1/2 payment up front, but received the full payment earlier than originally expected.

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Categories: Creating Ideal Customers, Executive Selling, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Selling in Difficult Times, Tactical Selling Skills, Uncategorized, negotiation skills, professional development

Know When to Walk Away from the Sale

January 6, 2012 by Scott Olsen

As a sales person, how hard is it to walk away from a deal?

You’ve worked hard to get as close as possible, but in your heart you know the customer is not a good fit, is unlikely to be a good referral and will probably take an inordinate amount of time along the way. The wise sales organization and sales person knows when to cut their losses and move on to better opportunities.

What steps can you take to improve you ability to better qualify and sell more efficiently? First, define your ideal customer. What do they look like? What are identifiable characteristics you can learn in advance or can quickly uncover through effective questioning. Your list may include topics like:

  • culture
  • current processes
  • other products they use today
  • geography
  • industry
  • competitors
  • employee count
  • revenue
  • profit
  • type of organization (i.e. public, private or government)
  • types of products they sell (ie. software, hardware, professional services, etc.)
  • other (i.e. they love what makes your solution unique)

After you’ve defined your ideal customer, begin to rank your customer’s on a scale of 1-10, “10″ being ideal. As a result, you’ll purposely spend more time with your ideal customers, help some customer’s become or behave more like ideal customers and minimize time with customers who drain your time, energy and resources. In the end you’ll win.

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Categories: Creating Ideal Customers, Executive Selling, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Tactical Selling Skills, Uncategorized, selling

Are You Selling Above the Line?

January 4, 2012 by Scott Olsen

Like playing above the rim in basketball, selling above the line is a world of difference. First, let’s explore what it means to sell below the line.

If you are selling below the line, some of things you are probably doing or experience include:

  • engaging in a pricing battle early and often
  • demonstrating and presenting each and every product feature without regard to what your customer really cares about
  • engaging valuable internal resources on “opportunities” that haven’t been qualified
  • hoping your deals close by the end of the quarter without any reason or logic behind your assumption
  • going it alone
  • giving into negotiating tactics

How do you know if you are selling above the line? Here’s a list of some of the things you are probably doing:

  • creating a valuable and tailored customer experience throughout the entire sales process
  • asking thoughtful questions that help your customer evaluate what they are doing verses what they could be doing and the potential impact
  • moving the sale forward each step of the way with skin in the game from the customer
  • establishing trust and credibility before diving into sensitive but essential topics
  • engaging all decision makers and influencers
  • uncovering all decision makers and influencer critical success factors
  • connecting the dots with and for your customers so they understand how you solution uniquely satisfies there most important needs
  • uncovering and leveraging your customer’s critical events to determine and guide the close date
  • leaving no resource (internal or external) untapped if it will help you close a deal
  • countering win/lose tactics
  • negotiating balanced or win/win agreements

What else do you do to ensure you’re selling above the line?

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Categories: Executive Selling, Major Account Selling, Sales Management, Uncategorized, negotiation skills, selling

Uncovering Critical Success Factors

January 27, 2011 by Scott Olsen

What are your favorite questions to ask prospects and customers? If you really want to help satisfy your customer’s critical success factors, what questions do you need to ask?

Tom O’Keefe, Chief Revenue Officer at ShopIgniter, and a good friend of mine likes to ask, “What does your business plan demand that you accomplish, that you didn’t accomplish last year?” Michael Gear, VP Sales for GoodData, loves to simply ask, “How our you being measured?”

I’d love to hear the questions that help you uncover your customer’s critical success factors!

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Categories: Differentiating You, Engaging Your Customers, Executive Selling, Questioning Skills, selling

Just the Right Amount of Customer Contact

May 13, 2010 by Scott Olsen

I’m often asked about the best ways to follow up with prospects and customers. I find most sales people are concerned about following up too much and coming across as aggressive, while sales managers have a fear that their sales people may be too passive and not following up quick enough or on a consistent basis.

Based on a McKinsey Quarterly article, The basics of business-to-business sales success, there is good reason to pay attention to how you do follow up. This article is based on a study that shows the “most destructive” sales activity in the eyes of the decision maker is “too much contact (in person, by phone, or via email)”.

I’ve found the best way to ensure the appropriate amount/timing of follow up is to take the guess work out by asking the prospect. At the end of each conversation, agree together how you can best track with and support the customer’s decision making process and when you should talk next. This simple idea saves sales people a tremendous amount of wondering, grief and head ache as to when to follow up. Some of my clients have tripled their weekly productivity by becoming better at closing each phone call with an agreed upon clear next action step with their customer.

“When” you follow up is important, but perhaps the bigger question is, “are you adding value every time you make contact with your prospect or customer?” Here are some simple common sense ways that may help ensure your conversations are relevant and meaningful to your prospect:

  1. be brief and to the point
  2. open with a quick summary of relevant info from your previous conversation
  3. confirm/establish the objectives, then the agenda of the meeting
  4. summarize the key take aways from the conversation
  5. confirm next action steps and who is responsible for what, including the date/time/objectives of the next conversation

Running effective meetings or facilitating effective conversations is more science than art. One of my clients, an SVP of a very large technology company, shared with me that the most valuable training he had ever participated in was a week long course on how to run effective meetings.

Please share your approach to ensuring the right timing and ways you facilitate relevant and meaningful conversations with your prospects and customers.

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Categories: Closing Skills, Engaging Your Customers, Executive Selling, Major Account Selling, Prospecting, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Tactical Selling Skills, Uncategorized, sell, selling

Don’t Give Up!

March 18, 2009 by gviggiano

You have a solid sales process that used to produce lots of money per sales rep, but now is producing next to nothing. What went wrong?
The answer is that the clients started answering your questions with vague answers.  When the person asked for clarification, the client would stall the sales rep with things like we have a few things to check, budget, time lines, etc. The truth: they just were too scared to be honest with us!
Salespeople are numb to the fact that people are not buying.  When you make your follow up calls, they tell you that it’s tied up in budget…but to check back again.  So you wait to follow up, with answers to their questions, but you get stalled again. It’s not until you dig further that you are made aware of the true problem: they aren’t buying and have no idea when that will change.  So as any good salesperson, you dive into your list and start the process again. But the changes are apparent at all companies…there just not telling you!

So we present our sales leaders with some difficult choices. What do we do? Do we just give up? Offer them free terms?

You just need to ask tougher questions. Instead of asking questions about budget, ask questions about their intent to buy. Do you intend to buy this? What will cause this situation to change? Why are they looking to make a change? Where else are they looking? If they have to decide today, will we win or lose? Why? Is anything going on in the company that we need to know about? If you get the answers to these questions, at least you’ll know the status of the deals and now your pipeline becomes real.

Just try it today and let me know if it works.

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Categories: Executive Selling, Major Account Selling, Questioning Skills, Sales Skills, Sales Stories, Tactical Selling Skills

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