Day after the Buzz

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  Tim de Jardine 1:25 pm on July 28, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: strategy (2), value (2)   

  Demonstrating Value (Part 3 of many many planned posts) 

  The biggest myth in sales is your value as a sales person is derived from your knowledge product or services.  That statement is so powerful, read it again.

  The biggest myth in sales is that your value as a sales person is derived from your knowledge about product or services.

  Most sales training teaches salesmen to know everything about their product and services.  Quote a prospect on the spot or answer all questions about what you are selling (regardless of how minute).  Sales people must be very thorough, talk about their brand, about your product and its history.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

  Knowing your product is all about you.  All the prospect is thinking is me me me.  Add value by showing:

  • Insight into an area they may have previously overlooked
  • Listening to their concerns
  • Asking thought provoking questions.

  Sales is all about QUESTIONS.  Some examples of questions you might like to ask:

  • Who is responsible for XYZ growth in your company?
  • How are you currently increasing your customer base?
  • What future initiatives will you be pursuing to increase your XYZ levels?
  • What do you know about your XYZ user base?
  • What are you currently doing to address XYZ issue?
  • Does the business have a detailed view of XYZ?
  • How do you intend to increase XYZ for your business?
  • How are you going to compete with company XYZ in XYZ

  All of these are examples of thought provoking questions that tie into the core values of a product.  What are some questions applicable to your services?  Take your core values and incorporate them into these questions.

   

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  Tim de Jardine 4:36 pm on July 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Education, Sales (6), value proposition (2)   

  Day After Buzz – Value Proposition (Part 2 of many) 

  This post follow on from the previous post and continues the discussion around a value proposition and beginning the sales cycle.

  Value propositions; they are one of the most important aspects of your offering yet so many companies get things wrong. A Compelling value proposition can open doors.  A bad one will close them faster than you can open you mouth.

  The number one mistake companies make is having a value proposition that is only about them.  For example, a value proposition could be: “We deliver quality” or “We are Open and Honest”.  In your prospects mind these will generally pass as a Cliche.  Just what is wrong with these value propositions?  They do nothing for your potential customers, they do not demonstrate VALUE to your customers at all. They may do something for your current customers, but will your potential customers believe “you are the best” if they do not know you?

  A value proposition at its best is designed to create curiosity and demonstrate value immediately, thats value to your PROSPECT.  Here are some examples of value propositions:

  • Helpdesk Software “We Automate Service Management Processes”
  • Hiring Software “We Reduce the risk of a bad hire”
  • Web Development “We create compelling user experiences”
  • Social Media “We help you engage and connect with new users”

  The key concept here is to format your value proposition in such a way that it creates curiosity and generates a follow up question like for example in Helpdesk Software: “What do you mean automate processes?”  If that question is asked, you have successfully created curiosity and can follow up with more value.

  After creating curiosity the next step is to further demonstrate value.  A follow up answer for the helpdesk question may include: “We have helped companies very similar to yours reduce the frequency and cost of a helpdesk incident due to process automation”.  Again, this response will prompt more discussion.

  So to wrap up, the key concepts you need to master:

  1. A short statement that demonstrates value to your prospect and prompts a follow up question
  2. Answers to the follow-up question/s that demonstrate further value and create further curiosity and an ongoing conversation.

  Delivery of the message:

  Deliver of the value proposition is very important.  Many sales people are trained that “every word counts” and to be very clear when speaking.  While this sounds good, the problem is sales people tend to speak like robots when delivering a pitch.  They sound like robots because they are told there is only one chance to “get it right” and they only have a “limited amount of time”.  This is true if you are only talking about yourself, but if you are talking to a customer about a proposition that is extremely valuable to them, relax. Speak at a slow pace that is easy, relaxed and just like you are having a chat is extremely valuable.  Be authentic, not robotic.  And dont look like a showman as this breathes sales and screams infomercial; something people do not tolerate.

  In the next post we will be discussing follow-up questions and a killer strategy for demonstrating value.

   
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  Tim de Jardine 12:45 pm on July 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Sales (6), strategy (2), value proposition (2)   

  What happens the day after the buzz (part 1 of many) 

  What happens the day after the buzz? You’ve built your product, created your services now what?  For most people this is where things start to get chaotic.  If you thought building a product was hard, welcome to the hardest part of your business, selling your product.  Why do I say hardest?  I say hardest because most businesses fail due to lack of sales direction.  A lack of a plan and a lack of a sales strategy contribute to this.  I have seen countless companies fall into this trap.

  So; You just launched…What to do next? Who to see? How?

  The first step is to create an account entry plan.

  Hang on? Sales isnt about strategy is it? Its more about Pitching, Calling people and getting the word out there? Yes and No.  Yes you need to get out there.  No you dont want a scatter gun approach.  You need to know who you are going to sell to, who your customer  is and  how you are going to get to them.

  One of the biggest mis-conceptions about sales that most  salespeople have is that sales is NOT strategic.  The truth is that sales IS ONLY strategic.  Everything you do should be strategic.  Every time a potential customer rejects you, it is strategic.  Every communication you have with a customer is strategic. Sales is one huge game.  Make sales strategic.

  One of the first tasks you should complete before you pick up the phone is:

  An Account Entry Plan:

  Details how you are going to approach entering an market, how you are going to enter that market is a great place to start:

  Demographics

  • What Industry does your customer reside?
  • What is your customers Turn-Over in terms of revenue per year?
  • What is the size of the organisation who is most likely to buy your product?
  • How does your customer do business? What are their distribution channels?
  • At what development stage is your customer? Growing? Shrinking? Want to move into new mediums?

  Psychographics

  • What Vision and Values would your customer hold
  • What type of industry reputation would your customer have? are they respected?
  • What are the management priorities of your new customers? Do they want to grow?
  • What is the management style of these companies? are they flat? top/down?

  Enabing Conditions

  • What Goals and Objectives would your customers have that fit your product?
  • What Challenges Issues or Problems are your customers currently facing?

  You can read more about an account entry plan in a great book by Jill Konrath’s called Selling to Big Companies

  We will be discussing each area in depth over the next few weeks.  The Next article will focus on your value proposition from answering the above questions.  Please comment.

  Day After Buzz – Value Proposition (Part 2 of many) « Day after the Buzz is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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  Tim de Jardine 9:15 am on July 7, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: consultative, history, product pushing, provocative, Sales (6)   

  A New Type of Salesperson 

  There is a mis-conception in selling, particularly from those with traditional sales training.  Traditional sales training teaches you to “know your product” that your product knowledge is the most important tool in sales.  This may work very well if the product happens to be exactly what a potential customer is looking for, they have already made a decision and want to know the details about what they are about to buy.  However, this is less than 1% of all cases.  To illustrate this, here are the types of sales people we see today:

  Product Pushing

  This type of sales person knows everything about their product, everything about their company.  They can talk for hours about their product.  Their entire sales arsenal consists of Product information.  The bottom half of sales people operate in this area.

  Problem Solving

  A further evolution in the sales mindset, this type of sales person sought out “pain points” in the potential customer and targeted the “lowest hanging fruit”.  One of the limitations of this type of selling is they make too many assumptions and will be quick to product pitch.  The top half of sales people operate in this area.  Often this is a cover for product pushing.  The problems are engineered to fit the product.  The key difference in thinking is that its all about the product still.  These people assume their product can solve everything.

  Consultative Selling

  A sales person in disguise, pitched as a consultant, this type of salesperson listens to a customer, finds out their “problems” and suggests solutions.  This is a very effective way to sell and you will find the best sales people operating in this area.  These sales people do not assume their product can solve everything and do not engineer problems to fit their products.  They listen and adopt a consulting role with potential customers.

  Provocative Sales

  By far the most powerful means of selling, this salesperson identifies a problem that a potential customer has but didnt know they had.  This article from harvard business helps illustrate an example of provocative selling

  In Provocative sales the salesperson creates value up front, they identify a need previously unknown to the potential customer that is so painful and urgent, it cannot be ignored.  Less than 1% of sales people operate in this area, this is the creame of the crop.  You need to be in this area.

   
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  Tim de Jardine 4:19 pm on July 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: cold calling, Sales (6), technique   

  A better way to Cold Call (and how to do it) 

  I got cold called yet again today and I felt sorry for the salesperson. There is a big belief in the sales industry out there about cold-calling techniques that is completely wrong.  That believe is that you need to emphasise your product with your elevator pitch. The truth though is that cold calling is about demonstrating that you have great potential to bring value to the person on the other end, show your knowledge and have a real conversation. Forget scripted robotic phone conversations, think friend to friend chats. Chats that are informal, relaxed and open. Here is how the call went today:

  Salesman (robotic voice): “Hello Tim, my name is X I am calling from XYZ Company. We Specialise in A, B and C and I was wondering if you want to purchase XYZ services”

  My heart goes out to this guy, we have all been there. I am going to suggest an alternate to this approach, lets call it a value based approach

  The approach uses the structure: Establish Credibility, Pique Curiosity, Engage in Dialogue, Extend Discussion and Close Gently.

  1. Establish Credibility

  Cite the triggering event (why you called!) or Mention Research.  You could even demonstrate knowledge about their company or cite work you have done with a similar business. e.g:

  Hello Tim. John calling from from JobBoard Company. I have been researching your company for several months now and noticed that you have a job advertised for a Sales Person for some time.  I have some ideas on how you can significantly increase the rate in which you fill that position.  Would you be open to discussing these?

  2. Next, Pique Curiosity

  Never mention your product, service or solution as this just sounds like a sales pitch.  People have very sensitive sales alarms.  You could talk abou the business results your previous customers have realised or bring up a critical issues and challenges that similar customers have.

  “We have  helped companies similar to yours inprove their placement rates by up to 30%”

  3. Then Engage in dialogue

  This cannot be scripted, its an open chat.  Don’t ask setup questions! Any of these questions are good:

  • Is this of concern to your organisation?
  • Are you experiencing similar changes?
  • Is this something you are interested in learning more about?
  • What is your organisation doing to address these issues?
  • Have you analysed the impact on your organisation?

  4. Extend the Discussion

  Now you can explore the decision makers answers in more depth and learn about what they have tried to do to solve the problem.  You can determine the priority status of the issue and learn why they may think what they think.  Note: Don’t get into a product dump discussion, sales alarms will go off!

  5. Close Gently

  Gently advance the sales process by saying something like:

  “It sounds like what we do could potentially make a difference for your organisation. Lets set up a time to get together to explore this in more depth. Is their anyone else you think should be included in this meeting?”

  Remember: Executives buy ideas, not products.  As in (for the job board example): Executives buy how you can fill their position faster, not an advertising spot on a job board.

  Executives buy Value.

   
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  Tim de Jardine 10:02 am on July 1, 2009 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Marketing, Martin Lindstrom, Neuro Marketing, Sales (6)   

  Buyology – The neuro science behind why we buy 

  Marketing is coming of age. There is a hot new science that analyses the ways in which we buy, it is called Neuro Marketing. Neuro Marketing used fMRI machines to scan the brain and analyse what areas of the brain are active when we receive certain messages. Part of the new way sales is conducted today relies on knowning more about your target market so you can refine your message to every consumer and this is a great starting point for a background into sales in 2009. Buy the book here.

  James is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    James 3:47 pm on July 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply

    Interesting Article, I wonder if this is the next big area?