Btb Guest Author

Paul McCord

The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them.

Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time.  Period.

Now, you don’t see it the same way.  You believe you have something of value to offer the decision maker–actually, you want to see if you have something of value for them. You have to qualify them and that’s one of the things you’re hoping to begin to do while speaking with them.  All you want is a couple of minutes of their time to set an appointment and learn a little something about whether or not they’re a qualified prospect.

To you, all you’re asking is just three, four, maybe five minutes of their time and a short little 10 or 15 minute appointment.  No big deal–just a moment of their time.

But look at what you’re asking from their point of view:

1. You’re not the only call they’ll get that day. They’ll get 5, 10, 15, maybe more cold calls on any given workday.  You only want 5 minutes of their time?  Well, that 5 minutes can add up to a half an hour, an hour, two hours or more if they spoke to everyone who called.  Everyday.

2. You only want a short 10 or 15 minute meeting. Sure.  They understand that you’re asking for 10 and intend to stay 45.  They learned the BS about the 10 minute meeting their first week on the job.

3. You just want to ask a few questions to gather information to grab their interest to set an appointment. You sound like every other salesperson who calls.  That’s what they all want.  They want the decision to educate them about why they called, that is, to give them a reason to try to set a meeting with the decision maker.

4. When they politely say ‘no,’ you won’t accept it. Instead you try to probe, to flush out the objection, to give more reasons to meet with you.  Finally, they get mad enough to slam the phone down or tell you in no uncertain terms ‘NO.’

5. When you call, you have nothing of interest to them. They’re not thinking about your great new copier because they still have 2 years on the lease of their current copier.  They’re not thinking about replacing their phone system, they’re thinking about the server that just crashed.  They’re not thinking about a new accounting system because they’re thinking about the big deal they just lost that morning.

How would you like to go through that 5, 10, 15 times a day? Everyday?  Without fail? What would be your resolution to the problem?  Would you take those calls?  You would do the same thing they do—not take any calls.

And decision makers have made it as obvious as possible that they don’t want your call.  They’ve put gatekeepers in place to keep you out.  They’ve got voice mail to filter who they want to talk to and who they don’t.  They put signs on the door that say ‘no soliciting.’  As soon as they discover you’re a salesperson they say ‘no,’ and hang up.

Yet, you think—you hope—that you’re the exception. That they’ll take your call.  That they’ll want to speak with you despite the signals they’ve given.  That you’re different from other 5, 10, or 15 salespeople who will call that day.

Cold calling is viewed by many salespeople, managers, and companies as the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to find prospects. It isn’t. It is in many ways the most difficult and expensive because when you cold call you’re trying to connect with someone who has already indicated as plainly as they possibly can that they don’t want to speak with you.  In order to overcome that, you have to make massive numbers of calls in order to find someone, anyone you can corner.

If you choose to cold call, you’ve a hard road ahead of you.  Few top producers waste their time cold calling because it is so ineffective and costly.  However, if you do choose to cold call, invest in getting the best cold call training you can.  Your investment will pay off with greatly increased results—you’ll still waste a lot of time; you’ll still face a tremendous amount of rejection; you’ll still have to eventually find better ways to connect with prospects; but at least make your efforts as profitable as possible.

Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing.  He is president of McCord Training, a Midland, Texas based sales training, coaching, and consulting company.  His first book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His second book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar has just been released.  He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales training website at www.mccordtraining.com or his highly popular blog www.salesandmanagementblog.com

Over at TSE

After all the build-up, Top Sales Experts launched our new site. It was certainly worth the wait and the new VIP Zone is incredible value. Sign-up is only $49.50 for a whole year, but you can join for just $25 via me.

Here is a taster:

Life is about choices. So are sales.
So… here at TSE we thought you’d want to see your choices, clear and simple:

OPTION A Register for FREE and you get access to:

1.The Article Vault (2200 articles)
2.How to Guides
3.Podcasts
4.Best Sales Blogs in the World
5.Monthly Newsletter
6.Jobs Board

OPTION B The VIP Zone:

$49.50 per year OR $25.00 if you join us through a TSE team member

You will also receive:

FREE Webinar Registration (That’s FREE access to over 100 webinars - normally $59.50 each)
FREE Roundtable Registration (FREE access to 12 monthly events - normally $99.50 each)
FREE TSE Quarterly eBooks ($19.95 each for non-VIP members)
FREE TSE Assessment Tools (Priceless!)
FREE access to “Ask the Experts” (You put your own value on getting FREE advice from sixty Top Sales Experts)
FREE Invitation to join the TSE LinkedIn group

PLUS 10% Discount on all purchases from the new TSE Shop, which will debut June 15th.

And…We even give you a 30 day no quibble, money back guarantee.

BONUS:
With every monthly TSE Newsletter, you will receive a $100.00 gift.

Join here

This is a three-part post. Parts 2 and 3 are directly related.

Part 1 - Listen To

Last Thursday, after rushed home from a meeting and grabbing a quick cuppa, I settled down in front of my PC and signed into a TSE webinar called “The Sales Leadership Imperative”

I knew that this webinar was going to be good, because of the quality of the presenters.

Jonathan Farrington is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, based in London & Paris, and is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant.

Keith Rosen is the president of Profit Builders and is the Executive Sales Coach™ that top salespeople and managers call first to attract more prospects, close more sales and develop a team of top-performing sales champions.

Just over an hour later, I took off my head-set. My own knowledge bank had increased substantially. That wasn’t good, I thought – That was great.

Now, this is what self-directed learning is all about. As an established sales trainer, I consider myself to know a lot about selling, sales management and sales leadership. Yet, during this hour, I had learnt so much – there were simply some stunning insights.

The guys dealt with a range of sales leadership issues including:

• Identifying and leveraging the uniqueness of each member of the sales team.
• Connecting with and motivating your team during each interaction
• Recruit, retain and motivate top salespeople and turnaround under-performers inside 30 days

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend this webinar to you, in the strongest possible terms - it is simply TOP CLASS.

To join TSE, click here

To register for upcoming webinars, or to hear achieved webinars - simply click on the link below.

On Thursday April 30th 2009 at 6pm GMT, join TSE expert Christian Maurer for “Where is Your Revenue Growth to Come From?”

Part 2 – Join Up

Sales Leadership Ireland is a new LinkedIn group set up especially for Irish sales community. The focus of this new group is simple, to help sales professionals and sales leaders sell more.

We intend to network both off and on-line, we now have 124 members, and we want more; so if you are involved in sales and business development - please join us.

Part 3 – And Contribute

We have just put up our suggestions for our first SLI meet-up, The Changing World in Sales - “Buyers are not buying”

A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (1 hour)

Structure: 2 to 3 speakers on Key Topics providing practical information that can be applied quickly. 15 minutes each, generating interaction with the group with questions and discussion.

Some Suggested Key Topics:

- Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes

- Bigger Pipelines, More Prospects, Better Qualification, Meeting Customer Needs

- Building New Channels to the Customer

- Engaging with Customers through New Media

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Structure:

A chaired session to identify the key challenges in today’s markets, assigning selected challenges to groups and to respond with potential solutions.

Steps:

a) Whiteboard / FlipChart suggestions from the entire group

b) Select top 4 or 5– allocate to groups, depending on numbers in attendance

c) 4/5 Roundtables/Groups decide on chairs/spokesperson

d) Discuss and FlipChart the suggested actions to meet the challenges

e) Spokesperson shares with the whole group

A session report could then be issued to the Linked Group Discussion.

So again, please join us on Linkedin, we would love to have you. Get stuck in and come along to our first meet up

Now for something different…….Door-to-door selling is where I started my sales career - Fellow TSE Skip Anderson recently published this advice for all you door knockers……. Local election hopefuls should also pay attention

Btb Guest Author

Skip Anderson

Spring is finally upon us here in Minnesota (at least I think spring is here; sometimes it’s hard to know for sure in Minnesota). I saw one sign of spring earlier this week: I had a door-to-door canvasser ring our doorbell at our home.

I admire door-to-door canvassers; they experience massive amounts of rejection, and yet they still get out there, walking the streets and by-ways of the community, to identify prospects to whom they can sell. For most, it’s not an easy job, but it can pay big dividends, especially if you know what you’re doing.

So I admire the guy who came to our home the other night. He had a pleasant and sincere smile, and he was working hard. But he could have done a much more effective job.

Here’s what he said when I answered the door: “Hi, I’m with _____________ Painting, and I’m wondering if you have any painting projects planned in the next year.”

I said, “No.”

He then gave me a door-hanger and asked him to call him if I decided we needed any interior or exterior painting. The was the end of the interaction.

What follows are some suggestions that, if implemented, would improve this salesperson’s success rate.

1. Stand back from the door 6-8 feet after you ring the doorbell. Many people feel a twinge of uneasiness when somebody they don’t know is at their door. That feeling of uneasiness is magnified when the unknown person at the door has their mug mere inches from it. Give the homeowner some breathing room.

2. Wear a large ID badge attached to your clothing or hang it around your neck. It should show your company’s name and your name in large letters, and it should have a picture of you on it. When you introduce yourself to the prospect, left up the id badge to call attention to it. This helps the suspect feel at ease.

3. Rarely, if ever, should a door-to-door salesperson start with a closed question (one that can be answered with yes or no, or a multiple choice question. Start with an open-ended question. A perfect open-ended question for the gentleman who visited us the other night would have been, “I couldn’t help but noticing the patch of rotting siding on the side of your house. It made me curious; What happened?”

It’s a long story about why we have a patch of rotting wood siding on the side of our house, so I won’t go there, but we certainly need to have some siding replaced, and after it’s replaced, it will need to be repainted. So why did I tell the salesperson that I didn’t have any painting projects planned in the next year?

Like a lot of customers, I took the easy route. His closed question made it too easy for me to say “no.” But if he would have engaged me in a more effective manner, I probably would have shared this information with him. I’ve also been avoiding thinking about the rotting siding; so my psyche is in denial mode. He question let me continue in denial mode.

The key is customer engagement. Closed questions are notoriously poor engagement instruments. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, are fabulous for this purpose.

4. Ask for referrals after a suspect shuts you down.

“You know the people in your neighborhood much better than I do. Who would be the 2 or 3 people that you think it would be most important for me to talk to?” Some people will refuse to answer your question, but some people will give you some neighborhood intelligence that may be helpful in finding viable prospects to talk to.

Even if they shut you down again, follow up with another question: “I would love it if you would give me the names of two or three people you know who might possibly want to talk to me about painting…even if they don’t live in your neighborhood.”

Hand the prospect a referral sheet and a pen and see what happens. You’ll definitely get some referrals if you utilize this approach consistently.

Happy canvassing!

Skip Anderson is a recognized authority on consumer selling, and is Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a sales training and consulting company. Skip is a frequent speaker on sales topics to companies and individuals who are passionate about maximizing their sales effectiveness.

Great New E-Book

TSE captain Jonathan Farrington’s latest e-book ” How Sucessful Organisations Evolve” can be downloaded here 

Btb Guest Author

Dave Brock

This morning, I had an interesting discussion with a client. He was talking about a specific sales situation. Basically, he said that customers were saying there was no differentiation between the products and services his company offered, versus the competitors. He went on to say, they are seeing this response in more and more sales situations. He was at a loss to deal with it — or at least wanted to avoid the ultimate differentiator — at least in this situation — pricing.

I thought I’d throw this issue out there for your ideas and thoughts. I’ll provide a few of mine as a starting point (but by no means complete):

1. I fundamentally don’t believe, “everything is equal,” this is the ultimate point of commoditization. Even in commodity areas, there are differentiators, but they may not be based on product differentiators. I think the problem here is sales people tend to focus too much on the product, and not the total offering or capabilities of a company. When one considers the total offering, the product, the capabilities of the company, the services, etc, things are seldom equal.

2. Often, this view is the result of an inward-out orientation. That is, we present the product features, functions, feeds, speeds to the customer. The “sophisticated” sales person may add some company capabilities. But we dump these facts in the customer’s lap, and let them make the assessment. First, that’s not their job and if we force them into that, then we aren’t doing our job. We need to start with the customer, understanding their business needs, drivers, goals, priorities and challenges. We need to drill deeply into their business issues and prioritize each one — for each person involved in the decision making process. Only when we understand it is it possible to position our offerings in a context that has real meaning and impact to the customer. Done properly–customer by customer, in my experience, it is virtually impossible for everything to be equal.

3. The previous point addresses the customer business drivers. We cannot forget the personal drivers — things that concern each person involved in the decision process, but which we often overlook. People make don’t make rationale business decisions. Often they rationalize deeply personal decisions with a business argument. We need to understand their personal drivers. It may be getting a boss off their back, getting home on time, getting a promotion or bonus, keeping their job. Like the previous point, only when we have understood the personal drivers of each person involved in the decision process and position our offering in the context of “What’s in it for them — personally,” can we differentiate ourselves. Again, from this point of view, it is virtually impossible for everything to be equal.

4. Finally, at least for my comments, I think we under estimate the value we bring to customers in facilitating the customer’s buying process. A strong, consultative sales professional adds tremendous value to the customer as they execute their buying process. My personal experience is this is often the strongest differentiator. Many people have bought from me, simply because I cared about them and their companies. They wanted to invest in a partner who was committed to their success. Maybe it’s my ego, but I am never equal to anyone else!

Enough of my ramblings, what are your thoughts? Can everything else be equal — is our world becoming increasingly commoditized, where the only means of differentiation is price?

Dave Brock works with organizations to help them achieve the highest levels of performance excellence. He helps them identify and execute new business, sales, marketing and customer service strategies. His goal is to have a profound difference on the lives and results produced by his clients. Dave is the founder and CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a leading business consulting company. He has held executive roles in IBM, Tektronix, and other large technology companies. He is an investor, advisor, and director of several high technology start-up companies.

Over at TSE

Shush!!…….keep it quite, but because I am a member of Top Sales Experts - my readers can join for a special discounted rate

In case you missed it, last night was TSE Kick-Off Roundtable “The Future of Professional Selling . The panel of Jonathan Farrington, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and Nigel Edelshain answered questions on wide range of sales topics. It was an extremely rewarding and informative on-line experience, and I had a few people contact me directly to say thanks for making it available through our blog. A BIG well done to everyone involved.

TSE Webinar Series : FIFTY top sales gurus, who will be delivering top class presentations - simply click on the banner below to see the full schedule.

Our webinar series kicks off on the 16th of April with Wendy Weiss’s “Cold Calling in the 21st Century: The New Rules”

On April 21st, we launch “Sales Hardtalk” a daily dose of hard hitting advice, commentary and sales tips - easily downloadable and in bite size chunks, not to be missed.

Finally, at the end of April, the Top Sales Experts team will be launching their latest Ebook, packed with contributions from all of us - more details soon.

I have being tuning in and out to a lively and very interesting discussion about sales incentives on TSE’s new LinkedIn group.

Tibor Shanto who started the dialogue, points out that “In sales it is a given that revenue is the ultimate measure of success. In general no one takes issue to paying commissions for realised revenues.

At the same time most people we talk to agree that revenue is achieved as a result of specific actions and behaviours executed by the sales professional; making revenue a ‘result’ of these actions and therefore making revenue a lagging indicator.

Add to this the fact that most people adhere to the view that incentives and incentive programs should drive behaviour. Putting aside MBO rewords, and PM based on scorecards and KPI’s, does it make sense to only pay commissions on revenue or is it time to examine paying a portuin of incentive on specific behaviour?”

The resulting dialogue, raised a number of very interesting questions; not least of which is a more general question. How effective is plain old money in motivating salespeople?

I for one, have always questioned its effectiveness and have thought that more has to do with what money provides rather than the money itself.

Several psychological studies would seem to back this up, with a very interesting body of evidence now claiming that traditional rewards (and punishment) - are actually counter productive in promoting behaviours.

Jim Micklos weights in with “top performers do not reach and remain at that level solely for the money itself. They’re in it for what the money gives them – security, luxury, status – all of which are psychological and emotional rewards (applause), not monetary.”

He goes on to say “When exceptional performance is required, it is most effectively driven by exceptional reward. Several studies have shown conclusively that, dollar for dollar, non-cash incentive programs (praise, recognition, merchandise and travel awards) are far more effective than cash”

I know that something that employers often fail to grasp is that a badly designed compensation plan can as easily act to de-motivate salespeople. From my own interviews with salespeople, this is much more common than companies would like to think.

One area that unfortunately gets overlooked by employers when designing incentive schemes, is personal and career development programmes and training. Rewarding salespeople in this way, demonstrates that the company truly values the salesperson on a personal level. In my own experience, providing salespeople with additional skills and expertise is one of the very best and most effective ways of motivating them.

Putting together a successful incentive structure is a big challenge for businesses because of the complexities involved. Getting it right can drive sales and revenues where as getting it wrong can cause big problems.

The nature of the economic situation that we now find ourselves in makes getting it right even more important. What do you think? I would love to hear from others about sales incentives. In your experience, what works and what doesn’t?

The TSE roundtables kick off at 6pm GMT today, with our very first roundtable event “The Future of Professional Selling”

So what are the TSE Roundtables? Well every month, a new TSE roundtable will address the issues being faced by sales professionals everywhere. As we face up to the severest economic downturn ever, we plan to run one Roundtable every month. (Your colleagues may join us for a cost of $99.50 per roundtable, yet as a member, you will receive that 25% discount on every single session. Click here to become a member of TSE.

This is 90 minutes of live discussion, live debate and live Q&A with some of the foremost authorities on sales excellence in the world. It’s an opportunity to listen, learn and partake in an on-line interactive sales event and to have your critical questions about selling and sales leadership answered.

Simply put, each roundtable is an event not to be missed.

Here is a little more detail on a second TSE 2.0. feature.

Introducing Top Sales Experts 2.0 How-To Guides.

Our How-To Guides come in Video, Audio, and Article formats.

This “How to” section can be likened to a sales encyclopaedia that contains practical applications for every aspect of the sales role. As the demands placed on front-line sales professionals grow with their ever-increasing responsibilities to perform under high-pressured situations, finding quick solutions becomes vital.

You can select a technique from a huge range of topics that enable you to grasp a core understanding about how to implement each technique, easily and efficiently. Each of these techniques has been categorised into twelve core sections.

• Account Management
• Business Development
• Cold Calling
• Marketing
• Negotiation
• Objections
• Presentations
• Prospecting
• Qualification
• Recruitment
• Sales Leadership
• Self Improvement

To improve your user experience we have also added icons beside each title to let you know what format the How to Guide is in.

Imagine for a moment that you have just come off the phone with a key customer. She tells you that your competitor is very keen to win her business and has offered a fantastic price. What do you do? How best to handle the situation?

Now imagine that at the click of a mouse, you can get specific advice on how to handle this exact situation from internationally acclaimed experts, people like Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Christian Maurer and Steve Martinez.

That’s what the TSE How-To Guides are, practical advice from the best at your fingertips in real time.

Yesterday was Saint Patricks day and the TSE Daily Interview featured 2009 Stevie Award winner for Sales Education Leader of the year, TSE very own Keith Rosen.

Steve talks about why sales managers need to make a fundamental change, and coach process rather than result. Make no mistake, this is brilliant advice.