Prep For Your Sales Call: Do 3 Things

You have an inbound lead!  There it is in your CRM tool, with your name on it.

What next?  

Do these three things before calling (yes calling, not emailing) your lead:  

- Who is this person?   

Looking up prospects on LinkedIn should be like brushing your teeth.  Why?

Some LinkedIn profiles tell you exactly what you want to know, like whether they are directly responsible for your kind of product/service, and whether they have decision-making authority.   

You may also discover that you have a lot in common with your prospect.  I don’t expect prospects to buy from me just because we went to the same school, or know the same people.  But those things can help establish trust, and ease the way to a business relationship.

- How well is their company doing?  Knowing the revenues and profits of your prospect will give you some context for your discussion about price and budget.   

- What else is on the company’s plate?   Are they downsizing? Consolidating their data centers? On an acquisition binge?  I had a prospect two years ago who was very interested in my company’s product, and was a great fit; but every three months there was a new acquisition they had to deal with, so they didn’t prioritize our solution.      

This kind of call preparation may be easiest for leads that are larger, public companies.  But even small, private companies and their employees are visible to some degree these days through social media (blog posts, twitter, facebook, industry associations and local chambers of commerce).  

Unless you have to contact, say, 100 prospects per day (ouch!), you can find the time to do this basic research that will greatly improve the quality of your conversations with inbound (and outbound) leads.

Lead Nurturing - 3 Ways To Get A Reply

Here’s an email I received recently.   Effective, or not?

"Hi David,  I have tried reaching out to you a few times now but it seems as if my timing could not get any worse.  I saw that you have expressed some interest in X by downloading some of our content so I just thought it would be a good idea to speak with you for a couple of minutes in order to gauge whether I could help you or not. Let’s connect sometime today or next week, which time works best for you?  Thanks David!"

At least the subject line worked (I opened it).   But there’s nothing in this message that will get me to respond.  If you want prospects to reply, do these 3 things:

1) Ask For What You Want (Be Specific)   If you want a phone conference, ask for it.  Effective salespeople ask for what they want, and make specific proposals, like this:  “Let’s talk for 15 minutes on Monday at 10amPT (or would Tuesday at 4pmPT work better for you?).”   That’s how you ask for a meeting, while offering the prospect an alternative.   

“Let’s connect...sometime today or next week” is not compelling.  “What works for you?” provides zero guidance.  Don’t make your prospect guess at your availability.  

2) Make Your Case  If you want a meeting, please give them a compelling reason to say yes.  If you want a meeting “to gauge whether I could help you or not,” well, you should already know the answer to that one!  If you think you can help them, say so:  “I can help you achieve X.”   If you are not sure if you can help them, you've got the wrong prospect, the wrong value proposition, or your confidence needs a boost.      

3) Grab, and Hold, Their Attention  Your first lead-nurturing sentence is the most important.  So why are you starting with your own troubles as a salesperson?  (“I’ve tried reaching out to you...”).  Do you think your prospect really cares that you’ve found it hard to reach them?  

Lead with something interesting or significant.  Or, express gratitude, and ask a meaningful question (“Thanks for downloading X, can you please share with me which feature you found most compelling?”).  Explain how someone else is using X successfully.  Share a fact that will be useful to their business or career.  

Ask for something specific.  Explain why.  Say something useful.  Do these 3 things, and your replies will grow.

Handle Close Dates Like Plutonium

Sales forecasting, like nuclear power, can be a dangerous business.

When a customer provides you with a date --- “we will purchase by December 15th” --- please handle this statement with extreme care.

The worst thing you can do:  take the date at face value, and tell your sales manager it’s the date you expect to receive the PO.  

Whenever you think you have a date certain for receiving an order, don’t celebrate.  Instead, put on your skeptic’s hat and ask questions, such as:   

Who needs to approve this purchase?

What forms must be completed prior to purchase:  an NDA? a Master Services Agreement? a Statement of Work (SOW)?  A W-9 tax form?

Will we need to be processed as an approved vendor?  

Will the purchase be made through a channel partner?

Here’s an example.  Two years ago a large bank told us with complete conviction that their absolute can’t miss purchase deadline was December 15th.  After inquiring further, they insisted that by that date (within the next 30 days) they would review competing products, issue an RFP, get through a security audit, and issue a PO to the selected vendor.  Yes, they communicated that timeline with a straight face, as if they were telling us the sun would rise tomorrow.  

But to us, it defied the laws of physics.  And so it did.  By December 15th, they hadn’t even finished reviewing our solution, let alone issued an RFP.  Purchasing was not a gleam in anyone’s eye by that date (and the purchase didn’t happen for another three months).  

Why would a buyer issue an unrealistic timeline to a vendor?  Let me count those ways in a future post.  Meantime, when you hear a close date from a prospect, bring your questions to the table.

Who's Closing Who?

There’s nothing more sacred in sales than the idea of closing.

It’s the stuff movies are made of.

But it’s an old paradigm that has been fading for years.  

Do salespeople in the 21st century really “close” CIOs and IT Directors?  More likely, these buyers may or may not select your product, after a lengthy period of investigation, trial, and internal discussion among multiple stakeholders.

An articulate statement of the salesperson as “closer” appeared in the Harvard Business Review in 2012 and seems as old school as it gets:

"Dominance is gaining the willing obedience of the customer. The customer listens to your opinions and advice, internalizes your recommendations and agrees with them, and when you close the sales call follows your course of action. Your personality greatly influences the way in which you establish dominance during sales calls…

A salesperson’s goal is to gain dominance over a submissive customer.”

Submissive?  Today, buyers are just as intent on dominating the sale as salespeople.  Asking salespeople to engage in a fight for dominance sets them up to lose.  

It’s true that salespeople need the internal drive to steer a sale to a successful conclusion, and need to take the wheel when the ship seems off course.  When things are not working during a sales cycle, it’s critical to get to the bottom of things and figure out how to get the process moving forward again (or whether it’s time to move on).

Today, buyers see themselves as co-pilots at the very least.  It’s essential that 21st century salespeople learn how to navigate towards happy outcomes while sharing power with their prospects.

This may not be true in all situations.  There may be products and markets where there are few alternatives and buyers must bend to the will of salespeople in order to get what they have to have.  But with most technology products there are multiple vendors, the differentiators are thin, and, thus, the tables are turned.  

Most importantly, buyers of technology are often not just looking for a one-time purchase, they are looking for a relationship with a company they will need to engage with for years, who can improvise, customize, and demonstrate the ability for give and take.  

In this century, the most successful closers will likely be those who are better advisors, catalysts, orchestrators and negotiators than dominators.

Time is your enemy

Patience is a virtue, and it can help in sales.  

As long as you remember this: time is your enemy.

“Aren't you beginning to feel time gaining on you? It's like a predator. It's stalking you.”

Dr. Tolian Soran

The longer it takes to close an opportunity, the greater the chance you will encounter some kind of sales-killing alien.  The dreaded Reorg.  The Disappearance of your coach/champion.  The sudden Freeze on spending.  

Best to take coach John Wooden’s advice:  be quick (but don’t hurry).

Speeding The Sales Cycle - 4 Ideas

"Why can’t you close more deals?”

“Because our sales cycle is so long.”

“So what are you going to do about that?”

Here are four ideas:  

1- Limit pilots, trials and evaluations to 15 days

The length should match the complexity of your product, and the employee/revenue size of your prospects.  For example, major banks will need more than 30 days to test your complex on-premise solution.  But an SMB should be able to test your hosted mobile app in less than 30 days.   

2- Limit to 15 days with a 15 day extension

This is a good compromise if a prospect explains the need for a full 30 days.  You can ask for a day-14, calendared status conference, to ensure you get their feedback and supply any needed support before the 30 days expires.  If there are issues or concerns, you don’t want your first follow-up conversation to occur on day 30.

3-Conditional POs

For smaller prospects and lower-priced offerings, consider offering the opportunity to buy it now with a 30-day return privilege.  There won’t be anything to physically return in most situations, so effectively it means you won’t invoice them until day 31 (assuming they “accept” your solution).  It’s a way to address the perceived risk, while avoiding the added layer and documentation involved in pilots.

4-Success Criteria

For more complex solutions and larger ticket sales, you should know what specific functions are going to be tested, and what will be judged a success.  Otherwise, you may be asked for extensions to test “just one more thing.”  Make a detailed list and get their (digital) signature on it.  You won’t know where you’ve been, or where you’re going, without this kind of roadmap.

MASTERING THE CONVERSATION

Selling is fundamentally about conversations.

Sometimes they happen in emails.  Sometimes on the phone.  Sometimes face-to-face.

But it all comes down to this:  what words are you using, and how are you using them?

When I was a lawyer (now fully recovered), words were everything.  Lawyers are careful about words because they affect outcomes.

Same thing with sales.

Your first ten to fifteen seconds on the phone with a prospect are important.  Get the words right.

Your email’s subject line matters.  The content matters.  Before you compose your email, follow the advice of my tax law professor:  “Think it through.”

Mastering conversations also requires good timing.  Reply immediately, or at the end of the day?  

Think about the best venue for your conversation.  Just because you received an email doesn’t mean it’s the best forum for your next communication.  Perhaps you should advance to a phone conversation, or an on-site meeting.  

Read carefully.  Emails can be misleading.  Without gestures, tone, and pitch, you may not understand what a prospect is truly thinking.   I’ve sometimes mistaken curt language for anger.  One of my maxims:  when in doubt, pick up the phone.

Lead qualification is all about words.  

Sales:        “Do you have budget for this?”  

Prospect:   “Absolutely!”

That’s an example of a poor initial qualifying question yielding a vague answer.  Choose your words differently, and you can do a better job of qualifying.