Sales Chump

This is my own personal success story.  This sale didn’t look like it was coming in at all even though I completed a full sales process and everything made sense.  I was getting a little flustered as it didn’t make sense to me why they weren’t signing the paperwork.  I had to take a new look on the prospect and think to myself “What am I missing? Why haven’t they signed yet?”

The answer wasn’t the standard reasoning.  They liked the product, they trusted me, it saved them money and made sense.  The reason was I hadn’t related to what was going on in their business.  I called on a Monday and my goal was to figure out what was going on with them, what was at the top of their priority list.

Come to find out they were back logged with year end reporting and had just received September reports in December.  I immediately changed my tone and my approach with this.  I showed sincere thoughts about what the person must be going through with this backed up paperwork they had to sift through.

I said “I can only imagine what your desk must look like right now.  I apologize that I’ve been trying to get you to look at something like this at a time where you have many more important things to get done first. I know you’re going to have to get this paperwork for your other reports done before the holidays before even taking a look at my paperwork so I’ll contact you after the holidays and give you a chance to get caught up”.

Low and behold, the next day I had my agreement delivered the next morning.  It was unexpected.  What caused this to happen?  The sincere approach about was important to them got my paperwork moved to the top of the list.  They realized I didn’t care just about myself that I had genuine interest in what goes on in there business and was willing to push my items to the back burner while they took care of things that were more high priority.  This in return resulted in getting attention.

Now this approach doesn’t always work and wouldnt’ be something that you should try out of the gate.  But when you’ve done everything else and they want to do business with you, sometimes taking a step back and letting them know that you aren’t desperate for their business can have the reverse effect and have them pushing you.  In this instance it worked.

There are certain consistencies that you can find amongst the majority of successful people. They plan, act, revise and repeat. There’s an old adage that says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…” With the recent happenings of the financial crisis and bankruptcy scares of just about every major industry, these words have never rung truer.

In order for a plan to work, it must be realistic and adaptable. If you don’t have these two attributes incorporated into you plan, you might as well not have a plan. The ability to adapt along the way gives you power. There is no doubt that changes will have to be made. There will also be times that you just can’t change something. In this case, focus your energies on what is possible and don’t get caught up and what you can’t change. It’s the end result that matters the most, not the turns and speed bumps along the way.

“The ends justify the means…” – Machiavelli, The Prince

Sales can be lowest paying easy work, but it is also the highest paying hard work. Planning to make a lot of money in sales? You better work hard, because there is always someone who is ready, willing and able to work a bit harder. Time management and planning is what will make you or break you. The bar is always raised a little bit the more successful you and others become. You must learn not only what is working, but the why, when, where and how.

Anyone can have a stellar month, quarter, year, etc. But, in order to survive in a sales environment and make a successful career out of it, you must plan, act, revise and repeat. Planning makes the hard work easier and acting teaches you what to change and what to keep doing for success. By acting on a solid plan, you can justify to yourself, peers and bosses why you are successful or not. By revising it along the way, you make your plan stronger and by repeating the new plan, you have strong recipe for success. Book It!!!

“What are you doing right this second to reach your goals?” – The Negotiator

We see it all along the internet but what does it mean?  B2B Sales (Business to Business) can be defined from Wikipedia as:

Business-to-business (B2B) is a term commonly used to describe commerce transactions between businesses, as opposed to those between businesses and other groups, such as business-to-consumers (B2C) or business-to-government (B2G). More specifically, B2B is often used to describe an activity, such as B2B marketing, or B2B sales, that occurs between businesses and other businesses.

Depending on your industry your primary contact may be with other businesses (B2B Sales).  There is nothing wrong with B2C (Business to Consumer) sales but we will focus on selling to other businesses for a moment.  The type of buyer is different.  There are different needs that motivate each and within each different business there are different motivators or needs that will cause a business to buy.

I will sound like a broken record but it is important to realize what is important to the business when selecting the service that you offer.  Do you make it about price?  Well you should stop making it about price.

A consulting firm I know surveyed 1000 Canadian CEO’s two years ago. They asked: “What are the criteria you look at when making a buying decision. The first criterion was “trust”. Number six on the list was “price”.

There you have it, price is not a deciding factor in most circumstances.  While there are ultimate times where price is a factor, there are several other things.  As above, trust is a big concern.  It looks to me that if the person you’re dealing with trusts you, the price is the least of their worries.

So how do we figure out what compels them to make their decision?  We ask!  Yes it really is that simple.  If you don’t ask, they won’t tell. 

B2B Sales is normally a longer sales cycle than B2C due to the fact that you’re working with businesses rather than individuals.  Now that’s not always going to be true depending on the industry, customer, etc.  There will be short sales cycles time to time but be prepared for longer sales cycles with businesses.

What has worked for me in the past is not even talking business the first couple times.  Get to know the business and the person you’re working with and gain their trust.  This is the first step to a successfull B2B Sales process.  As stated above, trust was the top concern of buyers and can normally wipe out the idea of price being a factor.  Price is only an issue when you make it one.

We’ll hit many other topics in this multi part postings of B2B Sales over the next several weeks.  Please reply with topics or areas that you would like covered in this multi part saga covering B2B Sales.

No, I’m not crazy.  Objections are good.  Very rarely will you find yourself in a sales presentation that the potential customer really has no objections.  Sometimes they just yes you to death to get through it with no real intention of buying.  So how do we bring these out the right way?

First, I find objections as a sign of a smart buyer.  A buyer who has no questions or objections means 1 of 2 things:

1. You talked way too much and didn’t ask the customer questions
2. Very naive buyer who can’t say no

Neither of which are really a solid sales approach.  From time to time you will have those customers that a piece of cheese could have sold.  Those aren’t the kind of sales you should focus on as the reality of this is that this situation will rarely come around.  A naive buyer will result in someone that will be calling you quite a bit after the sale is completed with questions and/or complaints.

Don’t fear objections, welcome them.  It is a lot easier to handle objections early in the sales process rather than later.  You can do this a variety of ways.  The best is open ended questions.  You can start with a direct question: Do you feel this would fit your needs?  Don’t move on to closing, there might be other things.

• What about this product do you feel suits your needs?

Then build the value about that particular point.  Ask them other questions: What else is important to you when selecting…?

The last thing you want is to find yourself near the end of the sales process fitting one need but missing 2 of the more important ones which will bring objections and they may arise at a time that is too late to save the sale.

Too many sales reps fear rejection and try to steer away from objections.  Bringing out objections the customer has shows the customer that you actually care about what is good for them.  Sometimes you will find that you saved a future sale or sales by not selling something the customer would not need by realizing their true objections.

Bringing out objections early in the sales process also will help keep false objections from coming up where the customer just makes up reasons not to buy.  They feel comfortable with you and know they can share the real reasons they don’t feel comfortable with something and won’t feel pushed into something they don’t want to do.

So don’t try to bury customer objections, welcome them with open arms and you will find your relationship much stronger with the customer and will have built trust up.  You may not have something that will fit what they need today, but you never know what the future will bring and you don’t want to miss future opportunities.

Negotiating may be the most important process in sales besides for closing because this generally determines how much money you will make on a deal.  No matter if you’re dealing with a purchasing manager, owner, controller or other, chances are in some part of the sales process they will try to get a lower rate or better terms on their deal.  If they do try to negotiate, this should be viewed as a positive because it means they are serious about buying. 

The main point in negotiating is to have a win win for both parties involved.  So, if you give something, take something as well.  This may sound impossible in some instances but here are some examples.  If a prospect wants to get a lower price with everything else constant, a good win win may be to honor the lower rate but only if they sign today or in a set amount of time (the shorter the better).  Make sure to have them agree to this time frame and stick to it.  If the prospect thinks you are weak, or you don’t stick to your agreed deadlines, they will continue to try to take advantage of you.

Another example if the prospect is trying to lower the price is a response of:  I will lower the price to X but you will have to buy X amount more or extend the term of the contract by X days/months/years.  With this agreement the prospect gets the lowered rate but you are able to sell them more or extend the time they are contracted to buy from you.  It’s a win win.

Most prospects or current customers will try to lower their prices and open up the conversation of a lower price.  Be prepared and stand firm.  Most of the time if you don’t budge they will still sign a deal.  They are just pre-dispositioned to try.  Don’t be so quick to adjust your numbers just to make a sale unless you get something in return.  Your customer or prospect will respect you more and you will make more money.