Selling When the Shot Clock is Ticking

The good news is that you've finally been able to reach the decision maker at a key account after months of trying..

The bad news is he/she says, "Okay, you've got two minutes to show me what you've got!"

What do you do? Do you start talking a mile a minute and try to compress a half hour presentation into two minutes? Do you skip the entire presentation process and ask for an order?

It is unlikely that either of these strategies will work. You simply do not have enough time to position the value of your product in the customer's mind. In this scenario you have to read between the lines to hear what the prospect is really saying. The translation of, "you've got 2 minutes" is, "Don't waste my time." It is unlikely that the customer really has to be somewhere in 2 minutes, he is just saying that is the most time I'm willing to waste.

The key in these situations is not to get flustered, to stay calm and collected.  When you get the two minute warning, you're job is to engage the customer and make him think, "This guy/gal might have something to offer after all. It can't hurt to listen to what they have to say." If you can use a question, a testimonial or make a statement that gets the customer thinking, you will get the time you need to properly present your product.

As with most things in life, it pays to be prepared. Thinking about what you're going to say before the clock starts ticking greatly increases your chance of staying in the game long after the 2 minute buzzer has sounded.

Thanks for reading.

Jim Busch

What type of sales person are you?

Of all the trainings I've taken in my long sales career, one stands out above all the others. During my tenure at the Yellow Pages I participated in a seminar on applying Myers-Briggs personality typing to sales. Myers-Briggs was developed many years ago to help match service men to the military specialties that best suited their personalities. It breaks down people into 4 basic types. Few of us are purely one type or another and we are usually an amalgam of one or two of these classifications. Myers-Briggs is a powerful tool to use in building relationships with your prospects quickly. There are a number of good books on this subject (Type Talk at Work is a good choice) and some sales training companies offers courses on this. I have used this system for well over 25 years and it is one of the reasons for my success as a sales person. Customer typing is well worth the effort to learn. While this blog is not a good way to teach personality typing I will review the basic types in my next few posts.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

A customer's two favorite subjects

The hardest thing I do is to stand by and watch a rep screw up on a call. This is sometimes necessary, I need to see how their behave normally so I know how to help them. Today I was cold calling with a rep who did a good job opening a conversation with prospects. Unfortunately he was unable to keep them engaged and moving on to a sales presentation. I was able to observe him and how the customer reacted to what he was saying. He held the customer's attention as long as he was talking about their business and their customers but as soon as he starting talking about himself he lost them. When I am talking to a customer I like to picture an imaginary spotlight shining on us. When we are discussing the customer and his business, it is shining on him, when we are talking about me or my business, it is shining on me. Experience has taught me that I am much more likely to make a sale when I keep the "spotlight" on the customer. This is how we learn about the customer's needs and problem. I only talk about my products when describing how they relate to the customer's needs. Never forget, the customer is the star of the show, they deserve to be in the spotlight, I am happy to be the producer (of revenue!)

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks

Jim Busch

Variety is the spice of sales

Routines are a good thing. They are comfortable and help you to be effiecient. Breaking your routine is also a good thing. If you take a different route when driving through your territory you may see a business opportunity that you would otherwise overlook. If you start earlier or work later than usual you may meet some prospects that aren't around during your normal business hours. If you mix up the questions you ask on a call and use different approaches you may get different results. As they same the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Changing a few things in your regular routine may generate some new business. Variety is truly the spice of selling.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.

"Vivid" Description

I am currently reading Dan Arieley's "The Upside of Irrationality". I have read some of his other books and I always find his information interesting and useful. In his new book he touches on two things which make messages memorable. Number one is the message should be personal, it should discuss a recognizable individual. We remember people, The second point is that the more vivid the description, the more memorable the message. Specific detail makes the story believable and burns the story into the listeners brain. So the best way to get a point across is to tell a detailed story about an individual.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim B.

Positioning Research

One of my job responsibilities is to help reps pull research for their proposals and presentations. I serve as a liaison between the marketing department and sales. There is a lot of research available from Paper Chain, the CVC audits and just off the web. Most reps use data very poorly. They rattle off the numbers and expect the customer to "Get It". Numbers are meaningless to most people and many people distrust statistics. The key to using data is to position it properly and to put a face on the numbers. After relating the numbers to the customer use a story to illustrate your point. For example if you talk about the fact that a high percentage of your readers are two earner families you could back it up with a statement like: "Mr. Customer, you're a busy person, so you know what its like, your may not have time to read the newspaper every day but our publication is a quick weekly read with lots of way to save money. You can see why busy families, the kind of people who need your services, like our paper, don;t you." This puts a face on the circulation statistics and also tell him how it relates directly to his business. This is much more effective than the raw statistics.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Quote of the week

"We may convince others by our arguments, but we can only persuade them by their own." Joseph Joubert

What is the difference between "convincing" and "persuading" others? I believe if you convince them they see the strength of your argument but will not make changes. They are acknowledging that you may be right, but that this fact on little impact on their thinking. When you persuade someone you have changed their thinking and they will take action. The best way to accomplish this is by asking good questions that lead the customer to discover what you want them to know on their own.Your goal is to help them discover their own argument for advertising with you.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Don't commit the #1 sales sin

The leading complain that businesses have with the sales people is lack of follow-up. Reps make promises and fail to keep them. Most of the time this is due to poor organization. Establish a system to track your commitments. When you promise to a customer immediately record it in your day-timer. For longer term commitments set up a tickler file to remind you what needs done and when it needs to be done. When following up with a contact remind them of the previous meeting. Tell them something like "When we met on the 15th of last month you asked me to get back to you today. I've put together the information you requested." By reminding them that you lived up to your end of the bargain, makes them feel a commitment to you.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Secret of SUCCES

The title of this blog is not a typo, its an acronym for a powerful sales tool. It stands for: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories. This is taken from "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. This is a technique for making an impression on a customer. Simple (easy to understand) Unexpected (A twist forces people to pay attention) Concrete (Use examples or details to make the idea real) Credible (Make the idea believable, use testimonials) Emotional (Get the customer engaged with the story) Stories (Stories make ideas memorable). This is a good technique and "Made to Stick" is a great book.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Weekly Quote

This week's quote offers an important bit of wisdom for sales people. In fact, this is good advice for anyone.

"The more you say, the less people remember." Francois Fenelon

Salespeople have a reputation for being great talkers. The truth is that the best sales people actually let the prospect do most of the talking. Good sales people are good listeners. If you pay attention to the customer, only speaking to ask investigative questions and to offer a solution when you have uncovered a problem you will be successful. You should only talk about your product when you are offering it as a solution to a clearly defined problem. Blathering on and on about your product outside of this context will have no effect on the buyer other than boring them.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Too much information

I was in the field recently with a rep who had done his homework. he had put together a dozen or so ideas for the customer and had each of my company's publications. He shared all of this information with the client who very quickly glazed over. People can only absorb so much information, when you "verbally vomit" on a customer you lose them. The best plan is to talk to the customer and determine their perceived needs and then only share information that addresses that need. You only get so much of the customer's attention and time, so use it wisely. Listen carefully and then respond to the customer, don't dump everything on them and hopes something sticks. Too much information meands too few sales.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling

Thanks Jim Busch

Your most important question

A house is built brick by brick, a sale is made point by point. Before laying a brick the mason ensures that the previous brick was laid properly and that it is level. Before moving on a sales call you should make sure that you and the customer see things in the same way. When you make a point about the customer's business ask for confirmation by saying something like "Is that correct?" Once you get the customer's buy-in you can move on to the next point. I have been on sales calls with reps who have failed to confirm the customer's thinking who were surprised by the customer's response. By asking "Is that correct?" frequently during the call you will know when it is time to go back and cover something again or when it is time to move on. One of the surest ways to "blow" a sale is bad timing which comes from not knowing where the customer is in the sales process. Asking this simple question will prevent this from happening.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

A penny's worth of persuasion

I was working with a rep today who was having trouble getting a customer to see the value in the program he was presenting. The cost of the program was a $1,000 but would reach some 600,000 homes. Do the math and this works out to slightly less that 2/10 of a cent per home delivered. This is a great value but the customer just didn't grasp it. I took a penny and used white out to cover all of it except a pie shaped wedge representing about 20% of the surface. I taped the coin to a piece of paper with an arrow pointing to the exposed wedge connected to a note that stated "Cost per home delivered." This was a way to graphically depict the value of the program. Sometimes this is all that's needed to get a customer's buy in to your recommendation.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thank you. Jim Busch

The steps of a sale

My Dad was a machinist. When a machinist looks at a blueprint they plan their "order of operations." This is the sequence of procedures used to produce the finished product in the most efficient manner. There is also an order of operations for sales. Here are the steps I use when making a sales call

1. Opening--Approaching the customer and creating interest.
2. Probing--Talking to the customer about their needs and challenges
3. Paraphrase--Reiterating the customer's problems to make a solution more desirable
4. Solution--Talking to the about solving their problem
5. Close--Making a specific recommendation and asking for the order
6. Objection--Clear up any customer misunderstandings and counter their concerns*

*May occur at any point in the call

These steps form a logical progression that engage the customer, develops their need and proves the value of your recommendation. In the next few weeks I'll address each step individually.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Sometimes its no mistake to make a mistake

We all like to be right, to impress others with our cleverness, but sometimes it pays to play dumb. If I want to get a conversation started, I will sometimes ask a "dumb Question" or say something that is wrong about the customer's business. For example, during a call on a tanning salon I said "Well I imagine spring and early summer is a slow time for you." (This is one of their busiest seasons). I was instantly corrected by the owner. Like most people, correcting someone gave her a bit of an ego rush, we struck up a conversation about the business that lead to a sale. I sometimes will include an error in a spec ad. When the prospect points it out, I ask them "What else would you change in your ad." This gets them involved with the ad and causes them to take ownership of the ad. Often the smartest thing you can do is play dumb.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

The 3 "V's"

As sales people we have 3 tools to use when persuading a customer. I call these tools the "3 V's". These stand for Visual, Verbal & Vocal and all three contribute to your success or failure. Visual is the message you send by your appearance, how you dress, your posture and body language and especially your facial expressions. A great smile is a worth a lot of money in increased sales. Verbal is the "V" that most people think about. These are the words you use. Think about what you are saying, keep your language simple and customer focused. The 3rd V is important to all sales people, but is critical to telephone reps. Vocal is how you use your voice. Do you sound confident and knowledgeable? Are you coming across loud and clear? Do you modulate your voice to hold the customer's interest? These all have an effect on the outcome of a sale. I suggest videotaping yourself role playing with a friend or coworker and then honestly critiquing how you appear on a call. I have even studied theater to learn how actors control the 3 "V's". The more you think about how you behave in these three areas, the more you will be able to control them and the more you will be able to control the outcome of the call.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

Go back to the beginning

I like to ask what I call "origin" questions. These are questions that ask people how they got started doing something that will help you to sell them. For example asking them "What led you to get into the (Blank) business?" This question is a great conversation starter and will reveal a great deal about how the customer thinks about his business. If a prospect is advertising with a competitor, challenging that decision directly may put the client off. Asking "What led you to choose (Competitors Name)?" Their answer will tell you how they make advertising decisions. The obvious followup question is "Has the competitor accomplished this goal?" which can open up a discussion on advertising. An "origin" question seems safe to the customer and does not seem "salesy". By engaging a customer in conversation, you greatly increase the chance of closing a sale.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

The power of advertorials

I just finished writing 26 advertorial articles for various tabs my company is producing. This is a lot of work and ramped up my stress level a notch or two but i believe it is well worth the effort. When I owned a retail store I would run any ad that included a free advertorial (a paid article, essentially an ad masquerading as an article). These articles added credibility to my claims and always produced results. This is especially a good tool to use with professionals, Many professionals like to write the "Ask A Chiropractor" type of article. It strokes their rather large ego and conveys complex information in one shot. The easiest way to do this is set in as a regular ROP ad.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch

How important is price?

How important is price? Sales people and customers usually have a different answer to this question. Most sales people think price is the most important issue in making a sale. This is why sales people are so quick to cut their rates. Researchers have found that buyers actually put price as their #8 concern. What is their #1--will the product do what they want it to do, will it fill their need. In a word, customers are looking for value. Why do they bring up price so often? When people don't understand the value of what your are offering, they fall back on something they do understand, price. As sales people we need to change the focus from price to value. When a customer brings up price, remind them what they are getting for their investment.



Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!



Thanks Jim Busch

Customers on the move

A lot of customers feel they don't need to advertise because "Everyone knows them." According to the research firm Melissa Data the average business loses 20% of their customer base every year. (Some businesses lose even more--the average for dry cleaners is 40%) According to the US Census Bureau 46% of Americans moved between 1995 and 2000. Every time someone moves businesses loses a customer. The old customers may know them but they need to advertise to introduce their business to the "new neighbors." By the way these newcomers are "hyperspenders," A USPS survey found that new residents spend an average of $7100 in the first few weeks when they are establishing themselves in their new neighborhood. Since they are new to the area, they have to rely on advertising to locate sources for their needs.

Keep Smiling, Keep Selling!

Thanks Jim Busch