Training

Interrogation Is Not A Sales Strategy

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You do it all the time.

When online, if you make me fill out anything more than my name and email address just so I can just learn more about your company or your product; then you believe that interrogation is a sales strategy.    And I will summarily go sign up for somebody else’s Webinar at their website and grow their business instead of yours.

When at the do it yourself superstor you ask me (after I politely ask you where something is…) questions like “If you were going to remodel your garage or your kitchen, which one would it be?” and without even taking another breath add, “And if it was the kitchen, would you have to move the stove or the sink?”; then you believe that interrogation is a sales strategy.    And the next time, when I need drywall screws or darned near anything else, I will go somewhere else. (His name was Steve and I kind of feel bad he was trained like that- seemed like a nice kid.)

When I call to order more business cards and you pepper me with six questions about my small business without so much as offering an ounce of proof that you even understand small business; then you believe that interrogation is a sales strategy.    And I will not buy another product from you.

Interrogation can be many things, but it is decidedly not,  a sales strategy.

Quit it.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Perfect Games in Sales & Marketing

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In baseball there is all the rage about perfect games this year.  But it’s not whether there have been two or three perfect games (I say 3) this year that strikes me.   What occurs to me is the tremendous advantage baseball has to know what perfection looks like.

In baseball, you know what a perfect game should look and feel like when you get there.   You can envision the 3 hour battle, the tension rising, the crowds standing all throughout the 9th inning and the euphoric on field celebration as the 27th consecutive batter is retired. 

In Sales and Marketing you aren’t sure what that perfect campaign or sale looks or feels like whether you are a big company, small business   or sell for yourself.   Wouldn’t it be great if we knew what a perfect sales or marketing campaign looked like?

If you knew, you could better build the path, the processes and the tools you’ll need to get there.  And when we you see a vision of perfection you can measure better your performance in sales and marketing comparatively.

Don’t take the easy way and say a perfect game in a sale or a marketing campaign would exceed revenue results, would be done ahead of schedule and under budget.  That’s not a perfect game.  Here’s the scorecard for real perfection.

A Sales/Marketing Perfect Game

1st Inning:  You took a big risk.  You targeted a new market.  This campaign, this sale is a game changer; no tiny incremental move here; you are going for it.

2nd Inning:  Before you’ve sold anything, you’ve ‘sold” everyone on your team first.  You get the Manager on board, your colleagues, your teammates and you’ve got them all ready to play like hell for you.  No lone ranger here, the most brilliant sales people and marketers don’t do it alone.

3rd Inning:  You are obsessed with differentiation.   99% of us have at least 1 competitor.  In this perfect game your lead story sets you apart in such a way that you create a buzz offline and online; just like a high and tight fastball buzzed inside gets attention.

4th Inning:  You are obsessed with credibility.  The marketplace today is trust starved.  The internet is the gathering place for pseudo soothsayers and the volume of baseless advice is endless.   In this perfect game you pull out all the stops, pick up the best radar gun and prove how credible you and your company are. 

5th Inning:  You focus on your prospect or your targeted market’s time.  It’s scarce and more valuable than ever.  The perfect campaign respects this.  The perfect campaign invests in this.  Maybe even pays the prospect just for their time.  Knee jerk spray and pray selling or marketing is the bane of the 6 hour, 9 to 8 game that is far away from perfect and creates indifferent fans.

6th   Inning:  This perfect sale doesn’t hit the prospect or the market just at the right time, no siree.  This perfecto takes   perfectly normal consumers or businesses that have no interest in what you have to sell, have no need, no desire and no problem just waiting to be solved and instead, creates interest where there is none.   If you can do that, that is really something.  This inning is where heads start to really turn and focus.

7th inning:  The 7th inning Stretch where the marketer and the sales person are getting real interest but instead of closing and/or pushing shopping carts; you are in it for the long haul.  You stretch the closing of the sale.  You ache to personalize the solution, the consultation.  You tailor your product for each client as this is a relationship you want beyond the first sale.  You want to build raving fans.

8thinning:    No need for a closing (or a closer for that matter).   The perfect sale or marketing campaign doesn’t need discounts, special offers, expiration dates and the like.  This perfect game needs none of that.  The visitors sign up in droves, the prospects ask for not just 1 but 2.  They leave a voicemail on your cell that they want to start on Monday. 

9th Inning:  Here is where the perfect games in sales and marketing matches that of baseball.  It’s a celebration.  Nobody is surprised (because they’ve all been really watching since the 6th inning.)  It’s a moment for posterity; everyone remembers where they were when that campaign or that sales rep delivered like no other.

You can still win lots of games without pitching a perfect one but at least now you know what one looks like in sales and marketing.   And just because of that, my guess is you’ll start playing better right away. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Open Ended Questions Are Overrated

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It’s like a religion almost.     

Every sales trainer since the turn of the 20th century has proselytized* that open ended questions are the key to sales success.  Those glorious questions like “How do you market your business?”, How would you describe your relationship with your current supplier?” and “How do you differentiate yourself in the market place?” are a constant in any sales training revival session.

The thought is that these types of questions will get your customer to leap to his feet and open up to you about his motivations, beliefs and values.

Except when they don’t.   The reality is that open ended questions are effective when there is already a good degree of trust established.  Open ended questions asked when trust is low can feel intrusive and just too much work to answer.  Both of these feelings by the way, shut down the sales process.

Here’s why it happens.  When you ask,   “I’m curious, how do you market your business?”  The client often thinks “Who the heck are you asking me that?” (The client rarely says this out loud, but rather will insert “brush off” language like “I’m really happy with my current supplier”).   The client could think as well “Gee, that’s complicated and you know what?, I’ve got work to do”.  Both of these reactions are the result of an unbelieving, untrusting audience.   

There’s a better way to get at the same information when trust is low.

Here’s how:  Say “I’m curious, is the business marketed online, offline or both?”   Think psychologically why this makes more sense:

  1. You took the “you” and “your” out of the question.  When trust is low a question about how you do something (especially something important like “marketing”) is a little too personal.  By saying “is the business marketed…” defers to something that, while it may be close to the client’s heart, is an it and not a you. 
  2. You gave options like “marketed online, offline or both?”.   Every Malcolm Gladwell Blink reader knows that options help decisions to be made and ideas to be chosen.   Wide open questions with no options, especially in this harried, rushed world, can stop communication altogether.  If the client has choices of responses, they are more likely to respond.  

 

So here’s the message.  Take your list of open ended questions and ask yourself a closed ended one before you use them. “Does the client/prospect trust me or my company enough to be asking these questions this way?” If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know”, take the “you” out of the question and add options to choose from. 

Till next time,

Go Forth and Grow The Business.

Mark

* Yeah! I can knock this off my “Bucket List” now. I always had a dream to use “proselytize” in a blog!

8 Minutes Ago

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A lot of bad things happen 8 minutes ago.  One in particular, is really bad.   But don’t worry about that one yet, we’ll get to it.  Just focus on helping the four people below, will you?

Just now, sales rep was getting all jazzed about making like 70 calls out in the next 3 hours and about making something happen on that phone.  Truth is that 8 minutes ago when he decided he was going to just click and dial and not do any real research or set objectives for each call, that he already guaranteed making no money for the rest of the day.

Just now, the product manager is thinking that the folks in the room that came to hear her presentation must still be “settling in” because they are not totally paying attention just yet.  Truth is that 8 minutes ago, when she began the meeting focused on herself, her department and her initiative, the audience tuned her out and will never be coming back.

Just now, the team leader thought it was really bad that there were no pens or pencils in this required training class and gosh darnit, she really needed one.  Truth is that 8 minutes ago her boss wrote her off for that next project opportunity because he saw that she chose to show up for learning without so much as a piece of paper, let alone a pen.

Just now, the call center rep is miffed that he didn’t close on the quantity upgrade with this customer even though he fixed the problem really well and fast.  Truth is that 8 minutes ago he lost that sale when at the beginning of the call he didn’t really apologize in any meaningful way for the problem they had.

You all know someone who doesn’t realize that bad things can happen 8 minutes ago.  Most people have a hard time seeing it themselves.   Some things can happen 8 minutes ago that are far worse and can offer a nice counter balance perspective as you go about lending a hand.

Just now, you were thinking that the sun is shining.  Truth is that 8 minutes ago the sun went supernova.  But because light (and heat) can only travel as fast as 186,000 miles per second, you won’t have a clue for at least the next 8 minutes, that you are toast.

Now don’t you feel better about the wee problems of the 4 people you are about to go help?

Go to it.  Help them.   You can even cut across the parking lot.   No need for sun block, you’re good I think. 

Check back with me in 9 minutes.  

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

 

Avoid Problems In The Shower

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Selling is not always about problem solving.   If you are reading the hottest sales books and listening to the trendiest sales gurus though, you might think it was.

 

It ain’t.

Every time I travel, I check into the hotel, throw the bag on the bed, adjust the heat down to 66 degrees (who can possibly be comfortable at 72?) then step into the bathroom to try to wash away a bit of the day’s travel.  I then invariably look up into the mirror and realize the recurring dream I have when dozing off in a plane about my sudden hair growth alas, did not come true.  I move on and peer into the mirror past my balding pate focusing in the space just behind me.

I see now as I always do in the reflection, the curved shower rod above the tub and get reminded once again so powerfully,  that sales is definitely not just about problem solving.

If you haven’t stayed in a hotel in the last 3 years and have not seen the curved shower rod, this post may not make much sense to you though I think they are being sold in some Home Depots and Lowes now. (Here is a picture):

The curved shower rod.   This thing is amazing.  Without changing the size of the shower, it just now feels bigger with a curved shower rod.  Who woulda thunk it?

That’s kind of the point.   Do you think hotel managers across the country were suffering for decades with the pain of having straight shower curtain rods?  Had they been for years dealing with complaint after complaint that the showers were feeling too small for the patrons?  Do you think they got thousands of letters demanding they make the showering experience feel like there is more room in said shower?  

Do you think then that a crack team of salespeople, product developers, sales leaders and marketers hunkered down in some basement trying for years to come up with the product that would fix this terrible problem of the normal straight shower rods?    Do you think they created the curved shower rod as a solution to a problem and sold it that way?

Nope.  Never happened.

Some brilliant person created and sold this product because it made the experience better, not because there was a problem that needed fixing. 

Sometimes if we obsess with “solution” selling or “problem solving” as our lead mantra on the phone or in the field, we’ll fall on deaf ears or worse as we try to illustrate problems that don’t exist in the mind of our customers or frankly in the mind of anyone.

You might get more business when you sell products that add better to a business, not just solve a problem.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark