Getting Ready to Sell
From the Street Smart Series.
Well here you are ready to go. You have a business plan, you have registered your business and have completed most of the tasks that you feel are important to getting started. For many of you this has been the easy part and the challenge of earning your first buck has yet been untested.
Let’s look a three things you can focus on that will help you get going.. There are many skills you will have to master along your journey, but let’s start with these three.
Attitude, Tools, Plan
Attitude is everything: It will be the single most important attribute in the success of your business, it gets you up every morning, and it keeps you going when things seem bleak It’s something that rubs off on people around you , employees, associates and potential clients. So pull your shoulders back, get your head up put a smile on your face and a spring in your step. You can be a can do person.
Tools: depending on what type of business you are starting you will need a tool kit. Some of these tools will be customer facing and must be of high quality, professional and the best that you can afford. It would be wise to have these tools in place before you start promoting your products or services to potential clients.
Some of the common tools most businesses require
Web site
Business Cards
A standard look and feel for all of your client facing business documents
Potential client lists. You can purchase these from several sources and they are quite specific in the information they reveal. These lists can save you a great deal of time and yes money
Computer ,a desk top is fine however if using it in customer situations you will be better of with a lap top
This list can go on and on so for now just ensure that if it is client facing it must be the best you can do.
Plan: It is not the intent of this author to convince you to spend all of your time planning however without a path to follow, you will not know where you have been or where you are going.
Strategic Plan, Where do you want to take this company what are your dreams . This is fairly high level thinking but you need to understand this and place a stake in the ground
Tactical Plan, Once the strategy has been flushed out then you must develop the tactics to pill it off. The question is now that I understand where I want to take this company what do I need to do day by day to get it there.
The street smart series covers Strategic and Tactical planning in more detail and these articles will appear on Red Wire in the coming weeks.
For now make a list of all the things you should do in support of your strategic and tactical plan. Then ask yourself the following questions What value does this item contribute to my business and considering all, can I pull it off. Enter each of your ideas into one of the boxes and get on with all of the number 1 projects and forget the number 4 items. Good luck
The Power to Say NO
From the Street Smart Series.
Before you set out to engage with your target client list do some research and find out how each company makes decisions and who in that target company will make the decision on what you are offering. All to often we end up talking to people that only have the authority and the power to say NO, so if they don’t have the power to make the decision they automatically will be forced to say NO and you will go off to the next client on your list and repeat this process and get another NO and so on and so on and one day when you have exhausted the list you will find yourself very frustrated and disappointed with your efforts.
Depending on the size and type of company you are calling on you must do some digging before committing. After exhausting research we have found the following two things
Medium to small business.
The day to day commodities can be purchased without senior management approval, but changing vendors of those commodities my require the approval of senior management.
All other purchases are normally decided on by the president or CEO. The CEO may delegate the actual transaction however you can bet your boots that he or she has made the final decision.
If this is true then talking to anyone else may appear as a waste of time because the CEO has not allowed or given authority to anyone else, so they can only say no
So here is the lesson when talking to your contact that you believe can make the decision test them . Now most sales reps that I know will ask the question the following way. Are you the decision maker on this transaction or can you make the decision on this. Of course the response to any version of this question will be yes, by asking the question this way you have challenged their status in the company and as a business person. Of course I can make this decision , I am a decisive person I am trusted by my company when in reality they don’t have any authority and only can say NO.
So here is the trick ask the question this way, Who besides yourself will be involved in this decision. I am sure you see the difference you have given them an out their status and authority has not been challenged and when they answer the question you will probably learn who the real decision maker is.
Now you may be talking to other people in your targeted company and this is important to gather information, but be cautious and don’t get too far down the path with these people as they may start to assume that they are in charge. It is key to have strong relationships with these people, they can be your best source of information about the company. How they make decisions , who makes those decisions ,who is the current supplier and are they satisfied with their offering, so treat them well. If you can develop and inside salesman you will be far ahead of the game.
People like to show off their knowledge of their company and many want to be helpful so this is not as difficult a task as it seems. Many times a receptionist will try to help you ,the assistant of the decision maker is often a good source of information.
Start off by sounding a bit confused and tell them you are preparing to offer them a alternative that may save them some money, improve their service or a new and innovative idea that can really help their business but you need some advice, appeal to them. Sometimes the response you are looking for will not be there however sometimes the person will respond with a ton of information that will help you. So before you start dealing with someone that can only say NO do a little homework and prepare for the call to the real decision maker.
Suspect/Prospect
From the Street Smart Series.
Before a company goes off and spends a bundle on some form of sales training they should focus on some skills they require so that they can execute on what they are buying.
We will call these skills street smarts and they are important basic skills everyone should have before venturing out into the market. These skills help to hone your instincts and give you some basic skills so that in the sales process you can have stronger control over the outcome.
When trying to sell your product or service to a suspect or prospect you must ensure that you are indeed interacting with the correct person in that organization, one that has the power and authority to say yes.
In the above paragraph there is one very important lesson to learn that will pay you big dividends as the sale progresses.
The key issue here is, is this company a suspect or a prospect for your product or service. Let me explain. A suspect is where most sales pursuits start. If we can relate to some of the police stories we watch on TV we will all be able to put this into perspective. The police have targeted a suspect and go to the judge to obtain a arrest warrant and after reviewing the evidence the judge refuses to issue the warrant and tells the officers that they do not have enough evidence. The judge is saying that we don’t have enough on this suspect to get a conviction, go gather more evidence and once you have enough we will issue the warrant when we are sure we will win the case. In your case you must ensure that you have enough evidence (company information) to give you at least an even chance of a successful sale.
Hat in Hand
From the Street Smart Series.
We have been led to believe from the start to extend all common courtesy to our customers, the customer is always right, we must please the customer and comply with their requests. The customer is king and must be treated as such, he must like us or it may be off with our heads.
So here we are at the palace waiting for our audience with our hat in hand, we are anxious and nervous and fear we may not be worthy.
I spend a great deal of time with sales people and find that they are many times too eager to please and as a result place themselves in a subordinate position before the transaction actually takes place . They agree to anything and everything to try and please the decision maker. Hat in hand.
By agreeing to everything in a negioateion up front leaves you nothing to bargain with and dimishes your peer relationship. One of the most common occurances I see is when the client asks for a proposal the sales person readly agrees and commits to an unreasonable time frame when it would have been easy for the sales person to have negioated a due date that would allow him or her some leeway. Now he the rep is under the gun. First of all the request from the client for a proposal is one of the biggest brush off’s in the business so before you agree to provide one qualify the opportunity and if you still agree that a proposal is required do not proceed until you have an appointment to review the proposal with the client you must get a date and a time up front. If the client wont agree to this meeting then don’t agree to the proposal because guess what will happen to all of your work., yes you are correct it will be placed in his pile of other junk
Business men especially decision makers like to deal with equals, equal stature , equal power they want to build relationships with someone they respect. A submissive attitude won’t cut it with these guy’s. Many companies give their sales people inflated titles for just this reason so they can appear as a peer, someone of importance someone with power and authority. I like my sales people to have a little attitude not too much but enough that the client feels he is dealing with a successful person and that their product or service has high value. Don’t give away the farm until it is appropriate , you are a successful business person, probably better looking ,make more money, live in a better house ,have smarter kids and a better looking spouse sooooooo no need for the Hat in Hand approach.
On many occaisions my sales people have come to me for special considerations to try and close a transaction and once agreed to they go back to their clients and they ask for more or do nothing so in this case the consideration was not important to the client. And they respond to the first one by asking for a second or do nothing.
In these situations I coach my Reps to handle it this way.
Sales: I understand what your requirements are however this is not standard practice in my company so I will have to talk with my manager to see if we can do this. Here is what he will no doubt say to me. If we do this will it finalise this opportunity and I will have to answer him so before I go out on a limb here If I can get this done will you agree to proceed with an agreement. If the answer is yes then get it done if the answer is no then there still is some work to do. More than likely there is a hidden objection that you must root out. In any case you will at least know what to do next. ( see upcoming articals on objection handeling 101)
So a little attitude and the courage that your client will see the value and treat you as important.
The Elevator Pitch
From the Street Smart Series.
I’ll bet that you are asked over and over what is it that you do ? by clients, at family gatherings, cocktail parties and all other informal and formal gatherings. This is some times used as an ice breaker and they don’t really care what you do they just want some conversation. Maybe they won’t understand even if you explain it in detail. I know in a past life I was a Vice President with a Information Technology Research and Advisory company and trying to explain to someone not in that industry evoked the deer in the headlights look from many and at the end of my explanation I got the comment That’s nice. So here is what I did
I crafted a well thought out simple explanation that would make what I did easier to explain. It went something like this
I am a Vice President with an IT research and Advisory company. What we do is help companies just like yours Plan, Build, Run and Secure their Information Technology department. We help them validate their decisions, accelerate the process, mitigate the risk that comes with change and initate new thought processes.
Once you have done this for your business LIC learn it cold so that you can use it at the drop of a hat anytime anyplace and you won’t even think about what you are saying, you just open your mouth and out it comes.
If you are on an elevator and happen to meet someone you know and they ask you what you are doing now you can explain it before they get off on the fourth floor. Thus the Elevator Pitch.
In many of my articals I challenge you to take action, practice and rehearse your craft make it a reflex something you don’t even have to think about. A boxer in the ring doesent have the time to register that a left hook is coming his way and pull out his manual to see how to counter act this threat. He does it on reflex or he finds himself on the canvas. How would you feel if going into surgery and you saw the surgeon consulting his manuals or worst in the middle of the operation he was looking up what comes next, Actors practice and rehearse, Lawyers LIC learn it cold so they can appear confident and quick on their feet. You are a professional Act like one LIC.