Btb Guest Author

Ian Brodie

A topic I’ve blogged about frequently is the importance of good follow-up and of nurturing relationships over time.

In The Importance of Good Follow-Up I highlighted the futility of the “Nice to meet you, if you ever need our services…” email follow-up to networking meetings and suggested a number of value-adding alternatives.

One trend I’ve noticed recently is the increasing use of email newsletters as a follow-up mechanism. The price-point and ease of use have reached a level nowadays that even the smallest of businesses can have their own regular newsletter delivered to clients and prospects.

But just because something is easy doesn’t mean you should do it.

On at least half a dozen occasions recently I’ve found myself subscribed to email newsletters from people and companies who I’ve met briefly at networking meetings. I’ve given them my business card and they’ve plugged it straight into their email distribution list.

This is a follow-up mechanism that has the potential to add value if the newsletter is of high quality and relevant to me. But how does it make me feel to have my details “harvested” in this way?

To be honest, not great.

It feels impersonal. I’ve not had an email or call from them. Nothing mentioning any connection we made at the event and no thought from them on tailoring the message to my specific needs. I’ve just been fed into their email marketing machine.

I wondered whether I was the only one who felt this way, so I posed the question on Twitter to see how others felt:

As you can see from this sample of responses, people’s feelings are almost universally negative. They range from “I want to *smack* them!” and “it sucks!” to at best, “my junk filtering can soon take care of them if they fail to send me anything interesting or useful”. And remember, these negative responses are to something as seemingly innocent as adding someone’s name to an email distribution list after meeting them. For me, Kneale Mann summed up the sentiment best best when he replied: “A handshake does not make you a customer”.

Obviously, Twitter followers are not a sample that’s representative of the public at large. But I do believe they represent an important and growing sensitivity to the appropriate use of information.

So what’s the alternative?

Well, since you are interacting face to face with them, there should be ample opportunity to offer to send the newsletter and get their permission.

If the time isn’t right when you meet them, then send them an email afterwards with a sample copy of the newsletter suggesting it might be of interest and giving a link to sign-up if they are. Personalise the emails – recalling topics you discussed or better still – add value by suggesting ideas for questions they posed or challenges they highlighted when you were talkign with them.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is my opinion as to what you should do rather than something that is proven to have better results. I haven’t done any testing to see what results in better long-term subscriptions, click throughs on the newsletter or eventually sales.

But for me that doesn’t matter. If you want to establish a reputation as someone who can be trusted then you mustn’t do anything early on in the relationship to suggest an abuse of trust. Auto-subscribing people to your newsletter without asking is hardly the crime of the century – but to many people it suggests that you will not treat them as individuals with their best interests at heart.

Personally, I’d rather lose potential newsletter subscribers than lose that reputation of trust.

Ian Brodie has been helping some of the world’s leading organisations with their marketing and sales challenges for over 16 years. He has been interviewed on industry and business issues by the BBC and Business Week magazine. Ian is the editor of Rainmaker Resources – the leading internet portal for partners, businesses developers and marketers in Professional Service Firms – featuring reviews, feeds and links to the leading Professional Services business development resources on the web. He also run the Rainmaker Network – the Linkedin Group for professional service business developers. You can contact Ian on ian@ianbrodie.com or through his website www.ianbrodie.com

In the News

The voting has nearly ended over at Top 10 Sales Articles - if you haven’t voted yet, you can still register your support for your favourite article here

Sales Leadership Ireland continues to go from strength to strength. We now have three further subgroups which are:

INTERNATIONAL SALES

SALES TEAM MANAGEMENT

OWNER MANAGER SALES

On the 3rd of March, I published this post “Need Sales Training, Let’s Sit Down and Talk About it”

It was a rough transcript of a phone call I took from an Irish Sales Director. He was inquiring about sales training for his sales team and insisting that I send him a proposal and price - he did not want to meet up. I refused as I didn’t feel that I was in a position to do so. He refused to accept my explanation - and the call ended somewhat badly.

In hindsight, I could have taken a differing approach, and perhaps drawn out the conversation more - but my instinct was telling me that I would be wasting my time.

This post has generated a lot of interest, critiques and debate; I am somewhat surprised - because it appears to have split some sales experts’ right down the middle. Some have strongly complimented me on my stance, where as others feel I lost potential business -because of my approach.

So what would you do in this same situation?

The prospect wants a proposal and price, before you have had a chance to investigate their needs. He/she is insisting that you do, and your competitors have willingly obliged. Remember, in not doing so – you probably lose any chance of making the sale.

Here are some of the comments that this post has generated.

Christian Maurer

“Good to read from a sales trainer that walks the talk”

Dave Stein

“Niall sets an example for sales trainers as well.  I commend him on his understanding of how sales performance improvement should be approached and his integrity for not folding, even with money on the table during these tough times”

David Stargel

“I’ve been through that conversation myself many times. I also will sometimes ask the potential client, “If this was your salesperson, would you want them to blindly respond to a price quote request without knowing anything about the customer at all?”

Tim Sullivan

“How would you like your own people to respond to a question like that from your potential customers? Just give a price, without really diagnosing their situation, goals and needs?” He got mad, and ended the call. Perhaps I was being too direct. I’m still struggling how best to answer these kinds of “price first” inquiries, before getting the necessary information. But we’d be doing the customer a disservice if we didn’t follow good business practices”

Anne Perret

“I take pretty much the same stance as you, stick to my guns and my proposition and am prepared to walk away. Strangely it’s a stance that is often successful”

Ian Brodie

“I’d agree with you generally - and certainly wouldn’t do a proposal without a clear, agreed understanding of what the customer needs (and I’d prefer not to do a proposal at all).However, I would consider giving the client a ballpark range for how much a 2-day course would cost if it turned out that that was what was needed. In this case I don’t think it would have made any difference. The guy seemed to view sales training as some sort of generic “magic sauce” you could sprinkle on your sales team to improve their performance without needing to tailor it to their needs”

Alecia Huck

“Again, given the different perspectives on what effective sales training is and how it should/can be delivered, it sounds like he wasn’t a good prospect anyway. In other situations however, DON’T DANCE AROUND PRICE. They have a right to ask and be answered and a good sales person can give them that answer. Use a range to weed out the wrong clients and help weed in the right ones”

Joanne Hernon

“This company may never be my clients but the good news is that I don’t want everyone to be my client. Seems weird to some to say that in this economy but I believe there is still enough business to go around. I want to work with the right clients for my business”

Steve Bent

“The proposition and sales close happen all at once, WAY too quick to get the customer’s buy-in to your process! As consultants my view is we sell in steps, gotta sell the meeting first! If I get in the door, I’m pretty confident it’s a done deal. BUT that means that the real selling part is getting in the door, so we gotta sell! That sales process is the same if you are selling a premium car, or the idea of a meeting - it’s all selling.

I aim to take control, and most importantly not deliver any idea of what I do (unless they ask “credential based” questions first, which occassionally happens. In which case I give background but don’t get drawn into how I work!) and then question, question question!

Obviously it gives call control, and I also find it’s hard for them to get away, maybe because at that stage they don’t want to: I haven’t said no, and actually demonstrating my interest in HIM”

Hank Trisler

“It’s far more important to help people behave as they don’t currently behave, than it is to teach them something they don’t currently know. If you’d like to chat about how we might accomplish that, I’d be happy to do so. If you’re afraid I’m going to “pitch” you and waste your time, I respect that, but I can’t really help you until we get to chat a bit”

Dave Kurlan

“Shouldn’t we be asking, “if I give you a proposal, without first meeting you and further exploring why your salespeople are struggling, then I am no better than the salespeople you have since that’s what they’re probably doing - generating quotes and proposals and wondering why they aren’t getting the business. Do you want to fix that problem or perpetuate it?”

Chris Howie

“Clearly he didn’t (at this stage!) want to spend a lot of time with each supplier, so why not have a conversation on the phone and then put together a ball-park figure? as I’m guessing he just wants to know if it is likely he will be able to afford you.

I think the key here is how the customer wants to do business and adapting your style to match theirs”

……………………………………….A BIG thank you to one and all for their input.

Over at TSE

Still time to register for tomorrow’s webinar over at Top Sales Experts:

How to Close More Sales by Shortening Your Sales Cycle with Dave Kurlan
Thursday May 21st 2009 1:00 PM EASTERN

It is just $59.50 to register here but of course, you have choices - you always have choices: You can become a TSE VIP Member here for just $25 per year and listen in for FREE - in fact, as a VIP Member you can listen in to the other 100 webinars we are presenting this year for FREE too - now that is a “No-brainer”