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The Coma Call – Sales eXchange 1840

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

As the euphoria of the new year beings to fade and the harsh reality of winter and the pipeline begin to set in, it is a great time to go to your Coma List.

What is a Coma List? It is a list containing two types of prospects:

Those people who were involved in a sales cycle with you some time in the last 18 months, but did not go to decision, with you or any other vendor (You can say these are the folks in a self-induced coma, maybe there needs to be a third group, those that our sales effort put into a coma)
Those people you were going to call, but didn’t get around to, had better prospects, no time, etc.

Let’s look at the latter. I am not saying it is right or good, but the reality is that there are times when prospects do fall between the cracks, or maybe you had bigger fish to fry at the time, and you ran out of time. You get involved in other cycles and activities, the next thing you know several weeks of months have passed, and you did not follow up, some feel awkward reaching out given the time that has passed.

The start of the January is a great time to reach out to these people to see if there is an opportunity to reengage. Time has passed for them, as it has for you, their requirements may or may not have been satisfied, but statistics indicate that the status quo prevails, and they likely took no action. Either way it is a call worth making, if they “hate” you and don’t want to see you till the end of time, fine, it is a 30 second call.

But just as often the outcome of a “Coma Call” is surprisingly positive. If in fact the prospect falls into the majority and has not taken action, your call may be welcomed. It is the start of the year for them as well, they are reviewing objective for the coming year, and the issue that brought you together the first time may still be on that list, and you can be a familiar potential way to address it.

Don’t let pride or fear hold you back. Look at the percentages, the worst case is they say something negative and hang up, you’ll live! On the other hand they may welcome the call and reengage, and better, buy. I can tell you from firsthand experience that I regularly get business from Coma Calls, right through the year. Unless you were rude or abusive the first time round, chances are that they will reengage, and then it is up to you to go to work, rebuild your relationship, meet their requirements and deliver.

Yes, it was a mistake to let the sale slip into a coma, but that does not mean you should not take steps to revive the sale.

Enter to Win Tickets to The Art Of Sales

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

One of the greatest things invented by the financial service industry was “Compound Interest“. Save for the fact that no one is paying much interest on money these days, the reality of Compound Interest still holds and delivers added gain regardless of how low of high rates are. I was watching a teacher explain the concept to a grade 5 class, and he brought it down to “a little to start, a little from here, a little from there, and over time you end up with more than straight interest”.

As you assess your plan for sales success in 2013, you can take advantage of “Compounding” to achieve greater success. Rather than resolving to do new things in new ways in 2013, why not resolve to improve a little here and a little there with things you already do or need to do; but do it in a way that ends up being greater than the individual gains on your efforts.

Read On…

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Sales Calls: Success through Preparation50

Guest Post – Megan Totka

Sales people are tasked with some of the biggest challenges in the working world. Rejection comes with the territory and simply cannot be a deterrent for future attempts. Adaptation and the ability to learn quickly about a variety of topics are job requirements. A good salesperson consistently closes deals. A great sales person sells things, but also combines an air of expertise with a genuine feeling of concern for the client.

In a market that is increasingly concerned with “inbound” techniques, the traditional sales call is more powerful than ever. Whether a cold call or an arranged one, clients are more appreciative of the human connection than ever before. This does not mean that everyone will be happy to hear from you. It DOES mean that people on sales calls have an opportunity to reach clients on a personal level and close sales on the line.

One way to prepare for success is through pre-sales call preparation. Take time to form a game plan and winning mentality before dialing the number. Follow these simple steps in preparation and then feel confident in your sales approach.

Immerse yourself. If there are particular industries that you always sell to, get to know what makes them tick. Read up on industry trends, perform market research, attend trade shows and read the best blogs on the topics. You will be able to speak more naturally in your sales calls and your clients will regard you as an authority in your field.
Prepare questions. There is a misconception in sales that the person making the call has to know everything upfront. In fact, most clients find it off-putting if a sales person assumes to know more about their business or industry than they do. You may already have a template of questions that you ask every client, but go ahead and add a few more specific ones. As you call back for repeat business, you may not need a “list” in front of you because the inquiries will just flow.
Do not reinvent the wheel. If there are sales strategies that have worked for other businesses and company leaders in similar industries, use them again. It is not “lazy” to duplicate your tactics from one client to the next – it is smart and efficient. What you want to avoid, however, is the feeling that you are just reading from a script or “automating” your sales call. Even if you ARE reading a script – switch it up a little bit and make the words your own.

There are obviously more approaches each individual can take before a sales call, but these are some basics that every person can follow. As in any job, being successful in sales takes some trial and error. Each person will find their strengths and weaknesses through experience. Even seasoned sales veterans can learn a few new things along the way about what works, what used to work but no longer does, and what to completely avoid on all occasions. It is all part of an evolving marketplace – and one where sales calls still work if executed correctly.

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide. Megan also specializes in marketing solutions for businesses.

Most of the time in sale we focus on ensuring we connect with and sell to the key decision makers, influencers, those driving the strategy, in order to build a solid understanding of the buying organization’s objectives and capabilities to realize those objective. We work hard to align our offering with their key business goals, and help ensure that they can realize maximum benefit, regardless of how they measure it (revenue, market share, productivity).

But we have all been in situations where we did all we had to, did it well, by the book, only to have no sale at the end, or the sale coming much much later than forecasted. If you look back and examine these instances, what you will often find is that there were some key people overlooked and not engaged. Not in the decision making process, but in the implementation process.

The reality is that we are not just selling to get a decision made, but selling to have something delivered, implemented and paid for. To be more successful you need to sell the organization not just specific people. This cuts both ways, you need to ensure that your are engaged with everyone who can impact your success, this includes executive, middle management, users, AND implementers. On your side it needs to include not just you, but other people/departments they will be dealing with once you have done your part.

For example, if you sell IT related solutions (software/hardware/applications) you have all faced a scenario where everything was in place, then someone in the IT group throws up the argument that they can build it better, or decide to put it so low on the priority list that you’ll likely retire before it moves far enough up the list. What appears to be an unimportant link, undoes all the work you did to that point.

Awareness is the first step, with that in hand you can take steps to deal with it. First and foremost, understand how and who will be responsible for implementing whatever it is you sell. We often enquire who will “own” it, who the day-to-day administrators or users will be, but we take implementation for granted. Find out who they are early, really early and then engage them. Sell them on the upside to them the way you would anyone else.

One obvious question is to have them tell you about an implementation that went bad, really bad, take in the specifics, ask them how it specifically impacted them. Most importantly ask how they would have done things differently, what the vendor should have done things differently, focus on different – not better – you want their view on things need to be done, not value judgments. You will now be able to position your offering in a way that aligns with their views and wishes.

The implementers can also be a great source for information about some of the business decision makers, users, and others involved in the deal. Remember they have been through this type of thing before, they know who is mover and makes things happen, and who is all talk no results. Great way to know who can help you move the deal forward, better, and faster. Getting their support early may take away any reluctance or doubt from the business decision makers, knowing they will be able to get things done; by removing even a small unspoken doubt, you can move things along and gain velocity in the process.

Since you are already there, talking to all the “key” people, you may as well include everyone who can help you, or stop the deal dead, they may seem inconsequential early, they could be your eak link in the long run. So don’t forget the guy with the screw driver.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Success in sales comes down to ensuring you allocate enough time to the right activity, high-value activity, and how well you execute those activities. So any time you can find a tool that helps you reduce the time it takes you to do a high-value activity, and lets you do it in a better way with better results, you know you have a competitive advantage. Add to that the real bonus that it is cost effective, and you have a sales tool that is a no brainer.

The tool in question is Leadferret.

LeadFerret, the world’s largest B2B database offering a full range of information one needs for prospecting success. You have full access to complete data, including an email address for every record. For Social Sellers and Sales 2.0 aficionados, you will like the social media links for many records, allowing you to act instantly, find a prospects contact info and find out more about them from their linkedin, facebook, and twitter profiles/pages.

For those like me, frugal, the best thing about LeadFerret is … it is completely FREE.

You don’t have to upload any data, earn any points, or pay anything. Just go to LeadFerret.com, search for the records you want and you’ll soon be viewing them on your screen without paying a dime, or jumping through any hoops.

Other than rejection, the biggest challenge sellers talk to me about is sourcing quality leads, with accurate data, in a cost effective way. LeadFerret offers exactly that. Quality leads give you the confidence to reach out and engage with the right prospects, start the sale off right and build velocity as you move the sale forward to a more solid and value based close.

LeadFerret has a range of great search tools, giving you the ability to search by radius from your office, search by SIC and NAICS tools, search by title, search by company size; you can easily build a list of target contacts and companies from records you find while searching, hit the ground running, freeing up time to prospect and sell, not wait for people to find you.

In sales as in business, if you can find someone who will do it better, faster than you can, you need to leverage that to gain time and execution advantage, given the wealth, depth of the data and it’s cost, which is none, LeadFerret is an easy choice for productivity and sales gains.

And as we said before, best of all it’s free, give it a whirl.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Wednesday I posted the first in a series of 3 Things you Should Not Say on a Cold Call!, looking at avoiding the phrase “Just need…”. By the way, the word just should also be avoided when following through with a prospect, rather than saying “I am just following up”. Be proactive and leave out the JUST, get to the point, the thing that will move the sale forward.

Today we look at avoiding either of the expressions “Wondering if” or “I was hoping that we could…”, or any variations of these expressions. At the risk of coming on a bit strong, I think that these expressions can and do make you come across weak, tentative, unsure, unworthy of being followed, especially when you are asking the prospect to change. Often it comes across as frankly mealy-mouthed.

When you picked up the phone, you were not hoping, you were not wondering, you picked it up because you WANTED to SET an APPOINTMENT. So say that. As mentioned Wednesday, I know you want to be polite, you don’t want to perceived as pushy or aggressive. But clearly articulating your goal is not aggressive or pushy, it is what makes for good sales people.

Add to that the environment demands that you be assertive to compensate for the realities of a cold call. Consider that the experts tell us that communication is 60% body language; 30% intonation; 10% the words we use. Which means on a cold call you are missing the biggest component, the body language, yours and the prospect’s. You have to make for that somehow, and I would argue that beyond the words you use, and your intonation, it has to come down to how you deliver you message.

One way to overcome the environment is to be clear, to the point, which means the buyers’ points, not your brochure talking points. Which means when it comes to asking for the appointment, do ease off the gas, gear down, and tell them what your objective is, which is you want to meet. Not hoping, not wandering if, may be, could be, perhaps we could meet. What are you, Oliver asking for more soup, or a potential business partner of critical supplier that will help your prospect meet their objectives. I know who I would make time for, it is the same for most prospects.

Lets get past the cotillion approach to prospecting, and get to what’s in it for the buyer, why, and when you want to meet.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Prospecting is not fun for most sellers, and cold calling ranks as the least favourite form of the activity. While some may want to debate whether cold calling is still a viable part of a broad prospecting regime, I firmly believe it is, and the numbers prove it. There is no doubt that it is a difficult task, perhaps explaining its lack of popularity, but there are things sellers do, that make it more difficult and less productive than need be, further fueling the sense of frustration and poor showing some sellers have.

Many of the things sellers do seem innocent; most have their roots in social conditioning, that is, rules developed for social conversations not B2B calls aimed at starting and sales conversation. Others are based in our fears or misconceptions, again centered on our view of the situation, again, not on what makes for a good prospecting call.

There is also fact that in some case, some not all, sellers are resistant to changing, their fear of the unknown is greater than the suffering sales people go through with their current but not always effective prospecting routine. Cold calling is hard enough to just do it as a “chore” or a “necessary evil”, so if you’re going to pick up the phone you may as well play to win!

While not exhaustive, here are three things you should avoid saying in a prospecting call at all cost:

Wondering if or Hoping if
Just need…
Companies like yours…

The above are in no particular order, to prove this, we will start with the second:

Just Need… – In a world where the battle cry is “go big or go home”, the word “just” JUST doesn’t fit. Think about what the word conveys – Only – Merely – Slightly – Barely – Scarcely – Hardly; doesn’t sound like you are really going to add much to the existing situation, just maybe.

You here sellers use the “just” qualifier all over the place, but especially in prospecting, with one specific area that really bugs me. On that first important initial call, whether there was any lead up material or not, during that call many say something to the effect: “I just need 15 minutes…” I know, you “think” you can diminish things, its just 15 minutes after all, you say to yourself, “if I do a good job in those 15 minutes, I can stretch it another 15, if they still like me, I can get a 10 minute encore”, etc. I guess it works often enough that people still recommend it, but beyond the fact that you are knowingly lying to the prospect, nice start – there is the hidden cost. The opportunity cost of those appointments you don’t get because of the technique. Ask yourself how much value can you convey, communicate and capitalize on in 15 minutes; not much I’ll bet when you take small talk and introductions into account. The goal of “softening the blow” by making it JUST 15 minutes, in fact communicates, that you have little to add to their day, and the 15 minutes is better spent doing other things.

In most instances, it is not the buyer who brings up the time restriction, it is the seller; the seller as a result of making assumptions, and self-imposing limits on their opportunity and success. Even when the prospect brings up the issue, you have options. Most often they will ask: “How long do you need?” simply ask them “how long can you give me?” Most of the time I gear my initial meetings to one hour, most of the time the prospect says “an hour”. You assume the buyer is trying for a short meeting, when in fact they are trying to manage their calendar, something we all should be doing. If you are pressed for time, tell them the truth, “I usually need about 30 minutes for the interview, I am thinking you will also have questions, I would say at least 40 minutes”. Why would you want to start a business relationship by lying and saying 15 minutes, when you know you need at least 30 or more?

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

One common objection sales people face when making prospecting calls, is when the potentially prospect says “now is not the right time”. While timing is important, and understanding how specific triggers can help improve your timing, the fact remains that perfecting your timing will only help you in a very (very very) small way, in a very narrow part of you potential prospect segment. Here is why.

Timing is only important with two buyer groups, Passive, those who have realized the Status Quo no longer meets their requirements, and have decided to learn or check out “what’s out there”. Not actively looking, but getting feelers out, looking at some web sites, information, getting acclimatized, hence Passive. The other group are those Active buyers who have decided to buy, even what to buy, is now just down to where and from whom; this is where the order takers thrive. But together these two groups are a small part of the market, maybe 30%, but the remaining 70%, the Status Quo, timing, will by definition always be off. As a result, you have two choices, the popular choice for many whose business cards say Sales Representative, is to avoid prospecting and fully engaging with these potential buyers; taking the advice of some questionable experts who will encourage them to “nurture”. “After some nurturing, when they are ready, they will call you, since you stuck with them.” OK

So if you want to really change the outcome, read make more sales and generate more revenue, you need to work on the Status Quo, the 70% where you will always be too early, the 70% where other fear to tread.

The reality of timing is it will ALWAYS be either too Late or too Soon. If they are Passive or Active buyers, it will always be too late, and if they are in Status Quo, it will always be too early, because they do not perceive a “need”, until something changes and it needs to be NOW.

That being said, it is not as difficult to overcome the challenge as some will make you believe. First resolve to engage the entire market, including those currently removed from the market. Because you not only know that their circumstance will change, and what may seem too early becomes, “I need it now”, but given your experience you know what is likely to be the catalyst for that change, the challenges they will face and the solution they will need to resolve it.

How? By studying and understanding what led to that moment in the past with existing clients, prospects, and deals that did not go your way. Once you know this, by tracking deals you’ve won, lost and those that ended in no decision. You will understand what events led up to and caused the change, with that you can prepare, position and act. It takes work, sometimes boring work, but with the right tools, and right approach, you can take timing and turn it your way.

By studying past outcomes and inputs, you can take proactive steps to ensure that you don’t enter the fray too late, and always capitalize on opportunities other sales people and prospects will say is too soon.

It is never the right time if you relinquish control, and always the right time if you are willing to put in the work, and ask, “is it ever the right time?”

Next Step

Call everyone, not just the easy targets
Understand where they may be based on experience
You dictate the time

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Many sales people and their managers feel that a good sales person is one who is moving forward. This is fine, so long as you don’t move so fast that you miss or pass opportunities along the way.

Remembering that your buyers are moving at just a fast a pace, and are dealing with many of the same realities you are, namely greater demands on their time and resources, less people and resources to get things done; leaving them, like you, having to fit 16 hours of work into a 10-hour workday. Behind the eight ball, before the day even starts. And it’s in that environment, that we as sellers are trying place and raise our offering on an already jammed agenda or ‘to do’ list.

To succeed in getting and climbing that list, you will need to employ at least two things, first, creativeness, to stand apart from other (lots of other) sales people; the second is persistence. These two are not the only things you’ll need to succeed, but they are two core components that go hand-in-hand. While many sellers can score well on the creative part, many also fall short on the persistence side.

Persistent is different from stalking, and that is the fear for many, they don’t want to seem as though they are stalking someone, fearing an injunction order will be issued against them. While I don’t want to see an injunction either, I do believe that many can go further than they are now without risk, but greater success.

For example, it has been shown that most sellers will abandon a lead after three attempts; while most buyers will require 4 to 7 touch points before the engage, some will say even more. A clear recipe for failure, just as the buyer is getting warmed up, you disappear. Then your competitor comes along, connects with the client on their second call, 5th touch point from the client’s perspective (3 from you + 2 from the competitor); you just set them up, don’t do that! Unless you are persistent and make it a habit to plan at least six touch points with each lead before you put them back for more nurturing and future contact, you are working for the competition.

The touch points can be any combination of things, e-mail, phone, voice mail, snail mail, text, or get creative, send a video on a jump stick, greeting card on a delivered pizza, keep it clean, and the sky is the limit. Just touch them with something more meaningful than a Facebook ‘Like’, “no Virginia, a tweet is not a touch-point.” Oh yes, those six touch points are in the course of two weeks, 10 business days, not over six months.

I know for some that much contact in such a short time may seem a bit much, but remember, engaging with a buyer, a specially a Status Quo buyer, involves more focus and effort.

One reason I am given for not being persistent, goes something like this: “I don’t want to bug them, I wouldn’t like if that approach was used on me.” Which is fine, except the buyer is not you, and since selling is about the buyer, let’s start looking at things from their perspective. To start with, talk to people in your company who do what your target does, and talk to them about what would make a seller stand out for them, you’ll be surprised how different roles see things differently. Ask how many times and the type of touch points they respond to, and then adapt.

One more thing, people say they wouldn’t like the level of persistence I describe, but when asked about certain discretionary or course of business purchases, they discover that they do end up buying from the persistent seller, assuming all other things were more or less equal.

Next Step

Schedule one more call for everyone you called this week
Lay out your six touch points and time line
Commit to it in your calendar

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

As you know, I have always encouraged sellers to review all sales in which they chose to invest time and resources. Whether you win the deal, lose it, or if it ends in “no decision”, it makes sense to understand why for all the obvious reasons. The latter group, “no decision”, is more important than many give it credit. Depending on your source for data, this “no decision” group makes up a significant number of deals, and therefore consumes a significant amount time, resources, and costs related to sales. While most stats indicate that anywhere from 28% to over 35% of B2B sales end in “no decision”, I recently saw a presentation where a credible individual stated that some 60% of deals end with the buyer taking no action at all. Quite an bit of time and resources spent on something with no return.

Well to be accurate, no immediate return, as “no decision” outcomes can, and should be, revisited and re-engaged. That’s the good news, the ability to learn what led to the lack of decision, how that differs from deals you lose or win, and what might it take to change the outcome.

The bad news is that many sellers mistakenly look at a “no decision” the wrong way, they see these deals as a “draw” rather than a “type” of loss, I hear things like “we didn’t win, it but we did not lose.” But let’s be clear, if you didn’t win – you lost! You may not have lost to a competitor, but you did lose, time, resources and most importantly lost opportunities that came and went (to other vendors) while you chased the one that didn’t happen.

One way to leverage the “no decision” deals, is to review them along with the wins and losses. Few review all three, some review losses only, and some review wins. By digging into all three, you will learn not just why you win or not, but specific key differences, some you can address, some like price, you really don’t want to. BTW, if you are going to consistently review outcomes, you should assign it to someone other than the sales person who was involved in the deal. Through no fault of their own, they never seem to get as good a response as a detached third party. For example, if you lost the deal, the easiest and most time efficient response by the buyer is to say it was lost due to price, sales people say to themselves, “I knew it”, lick their wounds and move on without much learned.

As you look at wins and losses, you can begin to see trends and the shades of difference between wins and “no decision”, and the same with losses. In most cases it is easier to focus on and address the increments than the big picture. As you identify and address these things, you have the opportunity, or obligation to revisit deals that went nowhere. The reality is that there are some cases where you and your offer were nothing more than column fodder, with the buyer having made up their mind to stay with the incumbent before the cycle even began, but need to rationalize that decision. But there are also a good number of buyers, who can be re-engaged, resold with the new element in play, and taken to a win. They know you, they have engaged with you, and if you demonstrate a new understanding of their situation, and demonstrate that you and your company listen and act, you can win those the second time around. Beats feeling sorry or chalking it up as a draw!

Next Step

Commit to knowing and using facts to decide
Download our 360 Degree Deal View
Find someone in sales ops to take ownership of review process, if you do not have the sales op, don’t use it as an excuse, do it yourself.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

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The Coma Call – Sales eXchange 1840

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Enter to Win Tickets to The Art Of Sales

Compounding Your Sales Successes40

Read On…

Sales Calls: Success through Preparation50

The Mighty Weak Link – Sales eXchange 16274

An ‘Easy Button’ for Prospectors!49

3 Things you Should Not Say on a Cold Call! – Part II139

3 Things to Not Say on a Cold Call! – Part I73

Is It Ever A Good Time? – Sales eXchange – 14957

Stop Selling For Your Competitor!59

Win, Lose or Draw?42