Kensei Partners

Enjoy

• Glenngary Glen Ross
• Boiler Room (cold call)
• Boiler Room (ABC)
• Tommy Boy

Sorry for yelling but I just got off a very annoying call with a sales rep who was following up with me from a Sales 2.0 conference I went to recently and it reminded me how little prep/homework many of us do before we call our clients and prospects.  I won’t name names this guy was selling a service that automates/aggregates information on prospects (quotes, events, press releases, etc) and helps you do research on them before calling or e-mailing them.  I think you see where this is going but I’ll continue.  To add to this, for those of you who don’t know, we (Kensei) train sales professionals how to use compelling information when reaching out to executives that will get them to respond to our e-mails and calls.  So, you’d think the rep who called me would at least know what the hell we do right? WRONG!

As he dove right into his ‘pitch’ and started asking me all the basic questions I realized he had no idea what we did.  So, I let him go for a while and answered a few of his questions before I stopped him and asked “do you even know what my company does?”  He had no answer for me.  At that point I stopped the conversation and told him (in so many words ) that he is the type of sales rep that gives the rest of us a bad name.  Unfortunately I think there are more than a few of him out there.  If he had just turned on his own product for 1 minute while we were on the phone he would have seen what we do, our client list and realized there might have been a much larger opportunity than just the two measly licenses he was pushing on me.  Ironically he even called me at the perfect time.  We’re literally looking right now to partner with these type of companies to augment our training and potentially introduce their services to some of the F1000 clients we work with.  Instead, he did what too many of us do and blindly called me to give me his canned pitch and missed out on what could be an opportunity to close 2,000 licenses instead of 2.

Do yourself, your prospects, your clients and the entire sales profession a favor and spend 2 minutes on a prospect or client’s web page before you call them.  If you happen to get an executive on the phone and get caught without an answer to “do you know what we do?” you should apologize, hang up the phone and go think about whether or not you really care about what you’re doing and what your selling.  By not doing your homework you’re basically just going through the motions which tells me and everyone else you don’t really care about anything other than a commission check.  If that’s the case please get out of this profession and let the rest of us who do care about making a difference actually do so.

Sorry for the negative tone on this one but this kind of thing has to change if we want people to respect Sales as a profession and us as Sales Professionals.  “Strive for perfection, settle for excellence.”

I’ve been running some training sessions recently and have come to realize that too many of us wait for our companies to invest in training for us instead of taking the initiative to invest in ourselves.  What makes it worse is that most of us have been through enough bad company-funded training that we walk into the next one expecting it to be bad and therefore we don’t leave ourselves open to the possibility we might get something out of it.  So, putting those two together, we rarely invest in ourselves and loath the training our companies invests in for us.  That’s not a good thing when it comes to getting better at what we do.

Many of us blame the fact that we have too much going on to spend the time to read a book or go to a class and that time management is our biggest challenge.  Time management is our own fault.  If you listen to all the reasons you would come up with why time management is a challenge I almost guarantee most of them will sound like excuses.  Time management is nothing more than focus and prioritization.  Since many of us are not strong in these areas we get stuck in this rut of ‘doing’ all day long and rarely take a step back and think about what we are ‘doing’ that is actually helping us get better and move forward.   If hitting your quota on a monthly basis is the only way you judge whether or not you’re getting better then congratulations you’ll be a pretty good sales rep for the rest of your life.  I don’t know about you but I’m not interested in a career as a pretty good sales rep.  If you don’t want to be the best, if you don’t want to be great then get out of sales and find a new career.  You have to push yourself every day to get better in sales and you can’t wait for someone else to do it for you.

Here are some small things that you can do to help you get better and fit your own personal development into your schedule:

• Subscribe to a Netflix type ‘Books on CD’ club where you can rent out business/sales CDs and listen to them in the car on your way to work instead of talk radio or music.  Here’s the one I subscribe to: http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com/.  You can also download a ton of business/sales podcasts and books from iTunes and put them on your ipod when you’re traveling.
• Have an open mind when walking into a company-funded sales training and set a goal of learning one new thing that will help you improve.
• Once a week grab some of your colleagues for lunch and pick a topic/challenge related to sales that you can brainstorm about instead of complaining about the Celtics loss last night (ugh).
• Go down the hall and ask your CFO out to lunch or coffee and ask him/her about what their priorities are and how best to sell to them so you can learn how to speak the language of a CFO.
• Take your receptionist out to lunch and ask him/her the best way to approach and get through gatekeepers.
• Sign up to blogs and other services that will keep you updated on certain topics
• Attend webinars during non-selling hours (lunch is ideal).
• Go to a business social networking event and practice your pitch to see how people react.
• Practice sales everywhere you go, even in your personal life.

GET BETTER!

Companies need vision, individuals need vision and customers need vision.  Without a vision how do you know where you’re going and therefore what you need to do to get there?  Most companies have a Vision Statement which should clearly define to their employees, customers and investors where they want to go and what they want to achieve.  The company Vision Statement is what most people think of when they think of Vision in business.  However, as sales professionals we also need to make sure we have Vision.  First, we need to have vision for ourselves.  Where do we want to be in 5, 10, 20 years?  What do you want to achieve in your career?  Some of the most successful sales professionals we work with always know what they are striving for and where they want to go. They even give themselves helpful reminders like posting up a picture of a yacht, a big house, their family or writing themselves a check for $1M they will eventually cash.  Professional athletes have vision too.  They envision the ball going through the hoop before they shoot, or into the cup before they putt.  Many of them see themselves winning the Championship before they are even close to it.  This Vision is what drives them to be successful.

If you’ve ever read the book “Think and Grow Rich” they talk about the secret to success and how all super successful people share one common trait.  The book makes you try to figure it out but let me save you some time.  They all set their sights on something they want to achieve (their Vision) and don’t let anything get in their way.  Vision is a powerful thing for us as individuals.

We also need to understand what the client’s vision is.  And, if they don’t have one, we need to give it to them.   Too often we get caught up telling our customer about all the speed and feeds associated with our products or services and we get “caught in the weeds.”  Before we know it we’ve bored the client to death and done nothing to get them excited about what we truly have to offer them.   The next time you’re working through the sales process with a potential customer don’t just tell them what your solution can do, make them envision themselves using it and how much better their lives will be once it’s implemented.   Once you have that vision then start working backwards to figure out how you plan on getting them there.

Leaders have Vision.  Be a leader.

There are plenty of great things about our products and services we can all talk about but which ones do our customers actually care about?  Unfortunately many of us show up to sales meetings unprepared, with no goals or actual agenda, we ask a few basic questions and then take a hard shift into a canned pitch about our company background and entire suite of services.  The customer politely nods there head, asks for a proposal and thanks us for coming in to meet with them.  We then follow up and send them our template proposal (via e-mail) without getting them to commit to a specific time and date for a decision and we never hear from them again.    Oh, sorry, I forgot to add the ten times we “touch base” and “check in” after we send the proposal.  Good stuff.

There are plenty of things to address in that scenario (which happens far too often) but I want to talk about the important one – what the client cares about.  Let me be very clear – THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT US!  At least at first, all the client cares (and should care) about is themselves.  We need to stop going through the motions and actually listen to what they’re saying and asking for and then sell to THAT.  THAT is their priorities.  Most people have a set of priorities they need to address when making a decision and those priorities are different for almost everyone.  Is price the #1 priority, Experience #2 and Quality #3 or is Quality #1?  We need to figure this out so we know where to focus our sales efforts.

Selling to priorities is not the only thing that will get you the deal but it will definitely help you stand out.  Sit down and try to come up with a list of ten things that people tend to consider when making a decision for your product/service/solution (i.e. Hourly rate, monthly investment, quality, ease of use, industry experience, flexibility, scalability, location, etc.).  Once you have this list ask your prospective clients to prioritize them 1-10 with 1 being the highest priority.  Then tailor your presentation, proposal and follow up to focus on the top 3.  Don’t ignore the others but make sure the important ones stick out.  Go sell something!

For many of us the sales meeting is our favorite part of the sales process.  It’s our time to shine and do what we do best.  We are face to face with the client using all the tools in our arsenal to convince them to buy our product and invest in us and our company.  So why do we fail so many times to make the impression we are so desperately trying to achieve?  Other than the fact that most of us don’t prepare well enough, have a list of questions, set goals or use an agenda (all of which I will talk about in later blogs), the main reason is because we do very little to align ourselves with the customer and get them engaged in the conversation.

Since the meeting is our time to shine we typically get hyped up for it (see video on Dwight getting ready for his sales call here at the bottom of this post).  Some of us actually listen to heavy metal music, others take a few quiet minutes to psych ourselves up but we all do it in some way or another.  Our temperature level is at a heightened level before we walk into the meeting.  Then we walk into the meeting, make small talk to try and build rapport by talking about the weather and the Red Sox (who lost last night when I was at the game against the Yankees…ugh), and then we dive into our typical questions that feel like a doctor check up visit (what do you do for this? what do you have for this?, etc.).  The entire time we are digging for pain and when we find pain and we get all excited (“like Joe Joe the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet”) and we pounce on it, letting the client know all the wonderful things we can do to fix it.  Then we walk out of the meeting telling them we will put together a proposal, send it over and never hear back.  Hmmmm, I wonder why.

Think about it for a minute, do you think the customer is listening to heavy metal music getting pumped up for their meeting with you?  Obviously not.  They barely even remember who they are meeting with or why they are meeting with you in many cases.  Also, how do you feel at the doctor’s office when they are asking you those questions?  And, when if the doctor were to find something wrong with you (i.e. pain) and proceeded to get all excited about it how would that make you feel?    I’m guessing not all that great (unless you were terminal and they had the cure).

So, what can we do (beside preparing better, having an agenda and setting some goals)?  Try to find a way to actually get the client engaged in the conversation early on and get their ‘temperature’ level up.  The way you do this is by preparing and asking meaningful questions about their business, initiatives or role that put them in the position to be the expert.  Let them talk about what they like talking about – THEMSELVES!  And, make sure you don’t just focus on pain.  Try asking pleasure questions every once in a while like “what opportunities do you see in the future for xyz?” or “what is your favorite part of this initiative?”  Lastly, make sure your questions are open ended, not close ended.  If asked a close ended question most people will give you a close ended answer (yes, no, etc.).  Get them talking.  My goal in the first 10 minutes of a meeting is to get the client from their usual starting position (legs crossed, leaning back in their chair) to the position I want them in (sitting up and leaning in to talk to me).  You’d be amazed what the client will tell you when they get talking about something they are the experts in and excited about.  Give it a try and see what happens.

Enjoy a little Office humor while Dwight gets ready for his meeting

Have you ever felt really good about a deal you were working, put it on your forecast and bragged about it to your boss and colleagues only to hear that “priorities have changed” or have the client ask “can we circle back on this at the beginning of next quarter?”  If you have (and we all have), then I almost guarantee you were selling to someone below the Power Line.  This is one of the biggest issues in sales.  Many of us are selling to people who can always say no but can never say yes.   Sometimes there is nothing we can do about it but most of the time there is.

If you’re not familiar with the power or the Org Chart I suggest you get started.  Every company has an Org Chart.  The Org Chart is the foundation for any strategy you want to develop when trying to get into a new account or manage an existing one.  It shows you what the client looks like, how the different departments are related, who reports to who, and where the person you are dealing with sits on the Power Line. The Power line is a line on every Org Chart that separates the people who can make decisions (or have heavy influence on them) and people who can’t.  The best way to get an org chart is to (ready for this…?) ask for it. You have to earn the right to ask for it and you need a good reason.  You can’t ask for it on the first call and your reason can’t be “because I know you’re not the person who is going to sign this contract.”  I usually ask after the person I am dealing with tells me about the decision making process and who is involved and then starts asking me for details on my solution.  It goes something like this “I’d be happy to give you some details about the solution we can offer your company.  Would you mind sharing with me your org chart so I can get a sense of how your organization is structured which will help me give you a better picture of the total solution we can provide?”  The reason I ask for it early on in the sales process is because just by asking it helps me understand whether or not the person I am dealing with has any chops (authority).  Usually people above the power line (who can make decisions) are more willing to give it to you.  Ultimately an org chart is really just a list of names and titles that with some due diligence on your part you could put together yourself.  However, people below the power line treat the org chart as a top secret file that will ruin the company if it were to get out.  Just by monitoring someone’s reaction to my request I can usually tell.  Also, try to get them to actually send it to you instead of just telling you about it.  The physical act of them sending you the document is a strong indicator that they are serious and one that I consider a very good buying sign.  If they don’t send or can’t send it to you see if you can build it with them.  if they are willing to build it with you then you might not be  dealing with true ‘power’ but you are dealing with a good ‘coach’ and someone who wants to see you be successful.

Once you have the org chart start coming up with legitimate reasons why you want to meet certain people in other departments or ideally above the power line.  If I have to deal with someone below the power line then I usually ask them questions about the overall strategy/direction/priorities of the company including growth goals and long term plans.  I ask these type of questions for two reasons: 1) because I genuinely want to know and need to know so I can align my solution with the overall direction and priorities of the company, not just a specific division and 2) because people below the power line usually don’t have a ton of insight into these questions and it opens the door for me to ask them if they will introduce me to someone (above the power line) who can give me the insight I need to develop my solution.   I believe that one of the main reasons people don’t like referring us to people above them is because they’re afraid of what we’re going to say and we will make them look bad.  If you ask them legitimate, quality questions with good reasoning they are more willing to make the introduction to people who can give you the insight you need.  It doesn’t work all the time but I found it to be extremely effective when done right.

The last thing I will say is about the org chart and going above the power line is that it takes a certain amount of confidence to pull it off.  Act like you’ve been there before.  Try it out the next time you’re dealing with a prospect and see what happens.  I guarantee you will be more effective in your sales if you can leverage the org chart and understand the power line.  Good luck and happy selling!

Have you ever noticed that when things are going good they tend to keep getting better and when they’re going bad they tend to keep getting worse?  We’ve all had those days when nothing seems to go right.  You wake up late in the morning, rush out the door, get stuck behind a school bus, hit every red light, spill coffee on your shirt, show up late to a meeting that everyone is on time for the first time ever, your computer crashes,  the deal you just knew was going to come in that day ends up calling you to tell you they went in a different direction or “priorities have changed,” and then when you get home and want to relax and watch your favorite show that you DVRed last night you realize the power went out and wiped out the entire series….yeah, we’ve all had those days.  Unfortunately those days sometimes turn into weeks and then months, especially related to sales.   On the other hand, when you’re having a good day everything seems to click.  You wake up without the alarm, hit all the green lights on your way to work, get in early with a fresh cup of coffee and time to plan out your day, call that client who has been avoiding you and they finally pick up the phone, close that deal you were counting on, get referred to another piece of business, and then on your way home a friend calls and asks if you want to grab a beer to watch your favorite team who ends up winning on a last second shot.

Believe it or not, the reason for this momentum (in either direction) is mostly within our control.   When things are going bad we tend to expect them to go bad and project that negative mindset on the people we come in contact with.  We always answer the question “How are you?” with an “Ug..” or a “well….” or “could be better.”  The tone of our voice is different, the way we walk and carry ourselves is different, and whether we know it or not, we project a negative vibe which ultimately gets projected right back on us.  When you feel good about yourself you have a certain spring in your step, a positive tone in your voice and you exude confidence which is contagious.  This is something we can’t ignore when it comes to sales.

If you currently have negative momentum in your sales career and can’t seem to catch a break or win a deal then start to think of little ways you can start winning again.  Set short term goals for yourself that are achievable like “make 20 calls and get 5 referrals” or “make 20 calls and talk to 2 people other than the secretary.”  As you set and achieve these small goals you’ll start to remember what it feels like to win again.  Then start to set bigger goals but make sure they all follow the SMART guidelines (Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely).  Tony Robins talks about “changing your state.”  I always say “fake it until you make it.”  You have the power to change your state and even if you don’t feel like it you can fake it until you make it.  I used to have a boss who would answer the question “how’s business?” with “business is great and I’m looking for more!”  regardless of how business was going.  People always responded positively to that and it led them to want to learn more about what he was doing.  A perfect example of this is my favorite sales movie of all time “The Pursuit of Happyness” when Will Smith shows up to the interview after getting out of jail in jeans and a t-shirt covered in paint and the guy asks him “what would you say if I hired a guy who came into the interview without a shirt on?” and he replies “those must have been some really nice pants.” He had all the reason in the world to complain and be negative but he refused to.  I’m asking you to refuse to let negative momentum build in your sales careers and to change your state when you feel it starting.  Winning is contagious so go start winning right now.

Many of our products or services are being commoditized or seen as a commodity by customers, especially the people below the ‘power line’ who are typically doing the evaluation.  We try to highlight the areas where we’re different from our competition and what makes us unique but ultimately they put us on a spreadsheet and beat us up on price until they get what they want or make a bad decision.

So, how do we differentiate our services if they are perceived as a commodity or put on a spreadsheet?   It’s in the way we sell.   The way you run the sales process and what you do throughout is what can make you stand out.  A typical sales meeting (phone or in person) is like going to a doctor for a check-up.  We ask all the typical questions to non-decision makers like “how many of X do you have? What’s your current solution? What could be better, etc.”   Then about half way through the meeting we make a hard cut over to our canned pitch that we’ve rehearsed so well and we proceed to throw up for the next 10-30 minutes about how great our solution is and all the wonderful things we can do for them.  Then we walk away, send in our proposal to someone who isn’t the decision maker and we hope for the best as we touch base and check in.  Hmm, I wonder why we’re seen as a commodity….

Instead of going through this ridiculous exercise every time, try to actually think through your own sales process and map out how you will differentiate yourself at each stage from a Sales standpoint, and not just rely on your product or solution.  How are you going to prepare for your meetings? What questions can you ask that are different from the basics? How will you follow up?  Who will you try to involve in the meetings and why should they be there?

Here are a few simple things I do to help make sure I stand out.

• Send an agenda to the client before the meeting and ask for their feedback.
• Ask about the decision making process before I meet with them to find out if anyone else should be in the meeting.
• Set specific goals before I walk into every meeting.
• Look at their web page and prepare questions based on recent events that are going on in their business that I can connect to my solution.
• Have a reason for every one of my questions
• Make sure I know exactly what their overall business objectives are for the next 12-24 months so I can align my solution with their overall goals.  If the person I am meeting with can’t tell me exactly what they are then I ask to be introduced to someone who can (above the power line).
• Follow up with the client with a brief summary e-mail of what I gained from the meeting and asking for their confirmation so I have everything in writing and expectations are clear.
• Make sure I get a committed next step after every interaction.
• Send a personalized thank you card to everyone in the meeting.

Remember, your product/service/solution might be perceived as a commodity but you’re not.  You make the difference so go make it.

This is something most sales professionals do not do nearly enough of.  Some professions are built off this approach 100%.  If any of you have bought life insurance you know exactly what I mean.  These guys are relentless about asking for referrals from everyone they know and every time they see you.  I have known my life insurance guy for about 5 years and to this day he asks me for referrals every time we talk (which is why I try not to talk to him all that often…sorry Mike .  We don’t have to take it to that extreme but asking for referrals, regardless of what you’re selling, is something we all need to do far more of because it is the easiest way to get to talk with someone.  We talk about this in our training – executives respond to internal referrals (someone inside the company) 84% of the time and external referrals (someone from outside the company) 44% of the time.  They respond to cold calls or cold e-mails less than 20% of the time (and I think this is being extremely generous).  Regardless, the referral is always more powerful than going in cold.  That’s why Linked-in is such an unbelievable tool to use for prospecting.

You can ask for referrals to almost anyone.  Ask you best customers if they know any other peers int he industry who might value your services.  Ask points of contact within your existing accounts for referrals to other departments.  When you have a good conversation with someone over the phone about your services but there doesn’t seem to be a fit, ask them if they know anyone who would be.  When you are at an event don’t hesitate to ask people who they know who you should be talking to.

Start by setting a simple goal for yourself of getting 1 referral a day and see what happens.  If you set some goals and start to incorporate this into your daily routine it will eventually become a habit and therefor much more natural.   And we all know, once it becomes natural it starts to click and gain momentum.

Also, make sure you have something to offer in return when asking for referrals.  It doesn’t have to be a referral.  It can be information, ideas, insight, whatever.  If nothing else, always ask someone what you can do to help them and make sure you remember and thank the people who help you.  This is a small world and the old “what goes around comes around” philosophy couldn’t be more true in my opinion.  The next good conversation you have with someone ask for the referral and then ask what you can do to help them and see what happens.   Good luck selling!