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Open Ended Sales Meetings?4

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Not long ago I posted a piece about the positive side of “closed ended” questions, and their place in the sale cycle. As with many things it is rarely the case of one versus the other but more of which is more appropriate for the scenario, and in sales for achieving the objective you set out to accomplish.

Sellers can and should take the concept of open ended and closed ended, and apply it to actual sales meetings. What you’ll find is that sales meeting properly executed should be more of a closed ended event, but all too often they end up being an open ended, in fact too open-ended, often becoming ever meandering affairs. The kind meeting which seem like they may never end, especially when you add a torturous layer of PowerPoint; or they end without a specific conclusion or direction. The meetings which follow frequently seem to be another try at getting it right, instead of moving things forward.

The problem usually comes down to what the objective is going into the meeting. I have written in the past about sales people not having a handle on the length of their sales cycle, saying things like “It depends”, or offering an unrealistic “oh 3 – 6 months”; that’s a big variable given that time is your most precious resources, and non-renewable to boot. Taken a step further and asking them how many meetings it may take to close the deal, they answer with less confidence and more ambiguity.

Well if you don’t know how many meetings it may take, (live or by phone, webinar, smoke signals), it becomes really hard to have specific outcomes or objectives for each meeting. This is why sellers at time lose control of meetings, leaving the client to take the meeting to a conclusion, one with no real next step.

Knowing what you want out of each meeting allows you to plan objectives, primary and secondary, plan next steps, and build a structure for the meeting, including questions, that will help you and the buyer meet mutual objectives. Absent that, it begins to look like an experience with the “Be found” camp, having abdicate their role as sellers, they are hoping the buyer will find something to continue for, something to buy. I propose they are hoping the client has a need, hoping they can strike a relationship based on something other than the buyer’s objective, hoping for the order.

Having clear objectives, measures and next steps defined and planned in advance will also allow you to do one other thing with great confidence, that is disqualify buyers. If you cannot achieve your stated objective, having executed your plan, you have to seriously consider that you are not dealing with a real buyer, real like the ones who buy when you achieve your mutually stated objectives.

I remember working with a “rock star” in Boston, he confidently told me his deals on average take four meetings, great, what was his measure of success for the first meeting, his objective? With expected bravado, he proclaimed “to close the deal man!” He did not have an answers as to why he bothered going back three other times if he was going to close the sale during the first meeting. Although there is a prospect I have, who will never buy from me, but he loves the same bands I do, and makes a great espresso, I love going there, but I leave my order pad in the car.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

This time of year is an interesting time for the retail trade. As memories of the holiday season begin to fade and the last of the Boxing Day (week, month) sales come to a close, retailers begin another annual ritual, the “Inventory Clearance Sale”. Makes sense, retailers want to clear old and non-selling inventory, freeing up cash, so they can reinvest it in more profitable inventory. In the process the can also open up shelf and storage space, again to make way for newer more salable goods; not so much out with the old in with the new, more like out with lower potential goods and in with better margin and turnover potential.

There are some lessons here for B2B sales people as well. Consider your pipeline as your inventory of prospects and opportunities, add to that the notion of time representing your shelf space, both finite, both needing active management. As such, applying the concept of inventory clearance could be very beneficial for B2B sellers.

When you look at your inventory of prospects, the reality is that no matter how much potential they had when you first decided to carry them, over time and as a result of a number of factors, the likelihood of that inventory turning over changes, usually diminishes, often to a point where they have a negative impact on your pipeline and success. Prospects are similar, in as much that some will close, many more don’t. Either way they need to be removed from the pipeline, or else you can’t bring in new inventory.

This is why sales people need to develop rules for purging their pipeline of bad prospects. Sales people hang on to bad inventory, many look at their pipelines emotionally, the fuller they perceive their pipeline to be, the lesser the propensity to prospect for new opportunities, fresh inventory, confusing a lot of inventory with quality salable inventory.

Bringing shelf space into this in the form of time, you can begin to remove bad inventory before it hit “best by date”. Prospects and opportunities time out, if 80% of your sales close in 75 days, what’s the point in keeping it in the pipeline on day 121; if 80% of the time you can complete the Discovery stage in 3 weeks, should you really continue the Discovery into its 10th week?

It is important to remember that these concepts also apply to your account base, not just prospects. How many low margin accounts are using up resources that if applied to other accounts or new ones would make for better revenues, margins and all around customers. Putting those accounts on the clearance list would allow you to achieve more, be happier, and probably have a better attitude towards new opportunities.

Clearing out bad inventory, be they clients or prospects, should be an ongoing process throughout the year, but even for where it is not year-round, doing it at least once a year, at the start of the year, can bring immediate and yearlong benefits. So good ahead, develop your policies, and hold that “Inventory Clearance”

The Art of Sales Contest Winners!

Congratulations to:
Kristin Geenty and Alan Hart, they are the winners of the tickets to the Art Of Sales, in Toronto next Tuesday January 29.

Enjoy and profit!

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

In previous posts I shared how time and your treatment of it have a direct impact on your selling results and success. How allocating time is a much more productive than efforts invested in trying to manage it; shifting time to help you and your buyer do more with a finite and non-renewable resource.

Since time is constant, and always a key part of the success equation, there are other ways for sellers to leverage time for success. One is the use of deadlines and critical milestones. A specific point in time creates focus all around. Once firmed up it can help the buyer prioritize their actions, resources and decisions in order to deliver by the given date. One of the most important components of an effective and successful Discovery stage and process, is understanding and confirming the buyer’s decision/process. Core to this, is the buyer’s timelines and most importantly, deadlines. Remember, gaining efficiencies and advantages by shifting time, is one of the key drivers for people making purchase decisions. To add impact, drive to establish and confirm not only when they need to make decision by, but when they expect the benefit of the purchase to materialize.

The purchase is an incidental piece of a bigger thing unfolding. Whatever you’re selling, the important time for the buyer is when they will get material benefit from using what you are selling, not the actual purchase of your offering. If putting your machine on the floor will:

Reduce errors in production by 5%
Which in turn means lower cost of production
Which leads to improved margins (don’t forget sometimes improved margins may be a direct objective for the director you are dealing with, which leads to a direct financial bonus for the buyer)
And the buying organization has set a margin target for end of next quarter

The end of the next quarter is a more prevailing a deadline than the slated purchase date. You can leverage both to create focus, having both “project” deadline and expected benefit deadline. Even when they may not have a formal buying/decision making process, having a timeline can be very powerful focal point; and most have a sense of time. Of course if they don’t it is a powerful clue that you may not be dealing with a serious prospect, even when they may have a decision process, but seems no need to make a decision now!

It is also important when you run into reluctance to change; having the deadline will help you accentuate the risk of inaction. This may not be that important to “be found” sellers, but for real sales people, it can help you calm a client by focusing on the upside of the projected benefit, and the risk associated with standing still; not easy, but if it was they wouldn’t need us. Having that point in time, helps you work backwards to where they are now, and create urgency and more importantly action – execution. Once you develop this skill, you’ll be able to work backwards in very effective way, most specifically in “if you don’t act by this date, you will miss”.

And let’s not forget the importance of deadlines you create efficiencies in the way you sell and manage your pipeline. Deadlines help you prioritize execution. They also help you time sales out, if your average sales cycle is 6 weeks, you can set a deadline for expected close, and measure you execution against that, and if need be disqualify opportunities that are beyond deadline.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

On Thursday October 18, The Proactive Prospecting Workshop is coming to Houston, specifically to Four Points by Sheraton Houston Southwest, at 2828 Southwest Freeway, Houston.

If you are in B2B sales, and need to engage with more new prospects, mark this date on your calendar, then sign up for this full day interactive prospecting program.

Whether you are with a small company or large, veteran or just launching your career, this workshop will give you the fundamentals needed to connect and engage with more qualified buyers.

We leave dogma at the door, this is not about old school vs. new school, this is about executing a proven methodology for prospecting more effectively and filling your pipeline with the quality prospects in the right quantities. This is the same program that has helps thousands of sale professionals improve their skills and increase prospects and sales. Sales professional in dozens of companies are using the methods and process delivered in the Proactive Prospecting Workshop to deliver consistent results.

What you’ll learn…

Overcome the fear of cold calling
Develop techniques for making successful cold calls
Take a proactive role in filling your sales pipeline
Write effective e-mails – Leave voice mail messages that get returned
Handle Objections – win more appointments

To learn more about the results sellers have realised just click here to read success studies, or watch what they said after attending the Proactive Prospecting Workshop.

Every New Customer begins as a Prospect!

Start filling your pipeline with Real Prospects!

Learn more at www.proactiveprospecting.com
Sign up today, seating is limited to 100 people!

Early Bird Specials Available – Multi-Attendee offers
ADDED BONUS – 500 FREE leads from LeadFerret.com
The Proactive Prospector’s Guide to Objection Handling Booklet

www.proactiveprospecting.com
Call – (855) 25-SALES

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Sep 8th, 2012 Appointments, Attitude, Business Acumen, Buying Process, Change Management, Cold calling, Communication, Disqualify, EDGE Selling, execution, Impact Questions, Leadership, Metrics, Next Steps, Objection Handling, Persistence, Proactive Prospecting, Prospecting, qualifying, Referrlas, Sales Cycle, Sales Leadership, Sales Mistakes, Sales Process, Sales Strategy, Sales Success, Sales Training, Success, Time Management, Voice mail, Workshops

Accountability, Appointment Setting, Appointments, Attitude, cold calling, e-mail prospecting, execution, Houston, how to sell better, Objection Handling, Pipeline Management, Proactive, Proactive Prospecting, Prospecting, qualifying, Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., Sales Technique, Sales Training, sell better, Selling to Executives, Texas, Tibor Shanto, Time Allocation, Voice mail, Workshop

Are You A Sales Hoarder?114

A few weeks back I posted about how good sales people are prone to Attention deficit disorder (ADD), well it turns there is another popular condition that many sales professionals suffer in silence, namely hoarding. While not a new, hoarding has come to the fore as a result of recent coverage on TV, and while sales people may look and see themselves as different, many are indeed hoarders. You can see evidence of this in two important areas.

First, their pipelines; don’t get me wrong having a full pipeline is a good thing, but it needs to be full of the right things, opportunities, not clutter. But some sales people are reluctant to get rid of any opportunities once in the pipeline, not matter how old, unreal, or how much mold it has on it. It is almost like they are living a role in a Monty Python movie, every prospect is sacred, not to be removed.

Every sales person should have a mechanisms for cleaning (or in some cases flushing) out their pipelines, getting rid of deals that are not going to happen. Specifically not going to happen now, meaning in the current cycle, or next. Yes, many will happen in the future, six months, a year from now, but they don’t belong in the pipeline now. You should nurture them somewhere other than where you are dealing with active, engaged buyers.

There two things you can use to gauge when it’s time to pull an opportunity from your pipe, first is the buyer’s engagement, are they actively engaged in the sales cycle, or dispassionate observers. Are you able to consistently secure the “next step” you need; specific time bound actions they need to take to move matters forward. Regardless of what they may say, are their actions supporting the lip service, because if they are not, than it just leaves the service part; no action = no interest = out of the pipe. Time is the second factor, if something is taking longer than it should, it is likely not taking at all. That applies to the sub-stages of the cycle as well, if it is taking you too long to gather the information you need to move the sale forward, take it out of the pipeline, and revisit it down the road. Of course the challenge is that if you take an opportunity out, you have to prospect to replace it; I guess it is easier to live with the clutter than to prospect for new opportunities.

Set up guidelines for removing stale opportunities, leaving you to deal with only those that are viable. Yes they may be fewer, but at least they are real and closable. You may feel better with a fuller pipeline, but the clutter is just keeping you from seeing and realizing the real good stuff hidden by your hoarding. One company I worked had relatively short cycle, 45 days, they had a rule that if an opportunity did not have a real next step for more than 14 days, it was removed from the pipeline. This kept things focused, opportunities were qualified or disqualified, closing the former, revisiting the latter.

The second area where you see strong evidence of hoarding is in their approach to territories. Sales people want to hold on to every account they can, and add as many as their eyes can see. Even though the reality is that they can only cover so many effectively. Time after time we see scenarios where the top 10 accounts in a rep’s territory accounts for up to 60% – 80% of their revenue base, if you look at the top 20, that number is even bigger. Reps we survey often never get around to directly touching accounts beyond their top 30, leaving accounts 31 and above, lonely, abandoned, and ignored. Well not quite alone, your competitor is likely calling on them when you are not. So why not let someone else in your company cover them properly, and you focus on growing your top 30, OK stop sniffling, top 40.

But no, the hoarding class just wants to add more accounts and geography, as though it represents some form of wealth. Company after company that take the smarter course, and shrink territories to create focus and growth, succeed; where as those who give in to the hoarders, don’t grow as well, have client satisfaction issues, and reps whom despite the size of their empire do not meet revenue or coverage targets.

Just like the hoarders on TV, sales hoarders are victims of their own actions, not wealthy collectors, just lost in a clutter of their own making. Once their houses are de-cluttered, and they get the help they need, they live quite well with not so much less, but the right amount of belongings; or in the case of sales, the right pipeline.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

As good as a qualification process is, none are perfect, and as a result, we do at times end up in meetings that could have waited or completely passed on. Many sales people bitch and moan about the lost time, and while that may feel good it doesn’t change things. But there are steps you an take to make some of these meetings have value to you moving forward, it comes down to what you can learn and apply back into the way you sell based on everything you professionally experience.

On a simple level you can learn what in you current qualification process misfired and allowed you to spend time with an unqualified buyer. Again, perfection is a lofty goal, but improvement needs to be a constant objective. By implementing a planned questioning strategy, and reviewing the results, you will begin to identify areas that will allow you to qualify, or better yet disqualify opportunities more effectively and earlier in the future.

Many is sales are accustomed to won/loss/no decision analysis at the end of a deal, but the same principle can and should be applied to successful and unsuccessful first appointments. By improving how and who you engage with, it will also lead to better if not more sales.

A more important thing to learn and take away from these so called “useless” meetings, revolve around specifics of the role and or industry of the unqualified prospect. These meetings provide a great opportunity to learn specific elements and nuances, things such as jargon. Speaking the language your buyer does, can only be good. By the same token, you can learn how they view things, some time by adjusting you view, seeing something from a new angel, will help you be a more effective communicator with more of the right people.

This also applies to certain common practices, especially as you expand your range and call on new people and new roles within the target account. The other side of the coin, is the ability to experiment and try techniques you may be reluctant to try with more established or qualified prospects; after all, if the meeting is going nowhere, there is little to lose but the chance to experiment and grow.

In the end, one big thing you can learn is how to qualify better and decrease a drag on your precious time, your most valuable and none ons forenewable resource.

Next Step

Make more appointments to minimize the impact of unqualified buyers
Feel free to experiment
Review and refine reasons for unqualified buyers

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Open Ended Sales Meetings?4

Inventory Clearance B2B Style0

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Deadlines – Your Sales Trump – Sales eXchange 16546

Houston, We Have The Solution!74

Are You A Sales Hoarder?114

What Did You Learn?53