b2b

Reminders

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Apple IOS 5.0 came with a new App called Reminders.   It’s pretty cool.   It didn’t come pre-populated though with any real helpful reminders about work so I thought I would do that in case you’ve forgotten.

  • Discovering needs is dead.  Creating needs is alive and well.   Big difference folks; a huge difference.   One assumes your prospect is a helpless victim of their environment, the other presumes they are definitively in charge of where they intend to go. 
  • Have you ever heard such a hue and cry for information and knowledge before?  Consumers and businesses yearn to understand social media, global marketing, internet marketing, economics, new languages, tablet and smart phone technologies and more.  Teach people too.  Teach people and you’ll corner that market and never go hungry. 
  • It’s not like it used to be anymore.   Before you ever hear from that prospect or customer they’ve been to your website and done lots of digging already (but they won’t tell you that).  When they finally get to you- you best deliver something other and better than a screen shot rehash.
  • You can choose not to have a credible or professional web presence for yourself online but that would be unwise.  Trust is at an all time low.  People, prospects, customers, partners and employers all want to see what your brand is and what you represent before they invest in you for real.    
  • You can have too many contacts, too many followers, too many fans, too many friends.  There’s a point where your influence like it or not, looks like it’s for sale or it’s too easily given away; either way – trust deteriorates, hits the tipping point and it becomes a zero sum game.
  • Be Invaluable.  Differentiate.  Simplify.   Hard to go wrong if you do those three things.  Just a reminder is all. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Email: mark.mccarthy@deluxe.com

Internal Blog: http://blogs.deluxe.com/Mark/

External Blog: https://growthebusiness.wordpress.com/

Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/GrowTheBusiness

Kids Make The Best Sales People

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Today’s post is a guest blog by my colleague,  Angie Harley.

For those of you who have ever spent significant blocks of time with children, you know what I’m talking about.  Kids are- and probably always have been- some of the best sales people I’ve ever encountered.

Now, since child labor laws exist, and we don’t sell cookies, this isn’t the next greatest idea for our business.  But, I think there are a 3 lessons we could all relearn- since each of us have this deep rooted experience from our own childhoods- from these little people.

Lesson #1: Be persistent.

My four year old has this down- see if you can relate. 
“Can I watch Megamind?”  No.  “Mom, can I please watch Megamind? “ No.  “But I said, please.” Thank you for using manners, but No.  “Why not?”  Because I said so…

Look at that- three no’s and there is still persistence.  No fear of the no with a kid- they just keep asking it differently. 

My six year old is a little better at this skill.

“Mom, if I eat all my dinner, could we go get ice cream tonight?”  Not tonight.  “Why can’t we have ice cream, it’s a beautiful day for ice cream, and I know you love the Dairy Queen?”  Good point.

See, she got the no- kept going, but look at the insertion of value statements, giving a benefit, seeking to understand the no.  Much more effective.  Be persistent, but do it well!  

Lesson #2:  Money isn’t the issue

“Mom, can I have a new game?”  We’ll see.  “Mom, this game is only $50 for the Wii, and you love to play the Wii.  We could have so much fun with this one.”  $50 is a lot of money, honey.  “Well, not if we play it every day, Daddy said your new pants cost $50 and you only wear them sometimes.”  Ugh, another point for the six year old.

You see, while money is important- it’s more about the value you get out of that money.  Don’t be afraid to ask for that high dollar sale, if there’s value to the customer, the money isn’t the issue.

Lesson #3: Be fearless of the insane.

Let’s use my four year old again- 5 minutes before bedtime.

“Mommy, I’m hungry.  Can I have some cookies?”  No, bud, it’s bedtime (what is he thinking!).

Call me a meanie, but asking for straight sugar right before bedtime is an insane question.  But, again, children are fearless when asking for the insane. Whether they know it’s crazy or not- it’s a bold, brave move to ask for the insane.  Try it, ask for that big sale, the crazy work schedule, or a day off- your fear may be the only thing in your way of a yes!

she wins another round. 

However, the lesson isn’t to pester your customers into prospects, but 

There is so much to learn, more than just the three lessons here.  So, the next time you are near a small child, pay attention to the little things they say and do to get their way.  You’ll be amazed how savvy these little people can be!

 

Angie’s Bio 

Angie Harley has a passion for learning- especially learning from the seemingly insignificant events of everyday life.  She has over 10 years of sales, management and training experience.  Angie lives in Minnesota with her husband and two sales savvy children.  She can be reached at angie.harley@deluxe.com

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

It Never Was About You

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In business to business selling (particularly small business selling), good sales people begin to fail when it becomes about them.  

I see it all the time but I don’t mean when it becomes about being number one, or hitting the goals or maxing out on commission plans;- ain’t nothing wrong with that. 

Consider rather, the talented Sales Rep who begins with a new company or now has to sell a new product.  He or she is trained and coached to present to the small business owner not only what this product or service does for them but what it does or has done for small businesses just like the prospect they are speaking to. 

That makes perfect sense because the credibility of the solution or product obviously is not with the Sales Rep – it’s with the common customer experiences of customers that look just like the prospect.  Just like it should be. 

But then something strange happens.   

As the sales person becomes more successful, they start to believe they can skip all that “other customer stuff” because after all, they understand it all now.  They start to omit the small business statistics, the stories and the testimonials of other small businesses in their pitches.   The sales rep begins to launch into monologues about what they themselves know, what they themselves believe and what they themselves recommend.  

But the problem is “they themselves” still have comparatively little credibility with a small business prospect and frankly boasting about their time or years selling the product is a poor substitute for sharing what other small businesses are actually doing.

It’s never good to stop leveraging with other like small businesses do.  Never.   Sure, your credibility and experience counts over time but know your audience (SB’s) –  Survey after survey will show “what others do” is a highly influential variable in the sales process with small business.

If you are a sales rep who had a great start last quarter or last year but are starting to tail off or perhaps you coach sales reps that have had a great start but are fading; think hard about why.  If there’s scant reference to other successful customers and what they do, then it’s time to pretend you don’t know much about your product and sell like that again. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

 Mark

Fixing a Throwback Problem

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Wiffle Ball (backyard baseball) is a real love of mine.  A plastic bat, 2 or 3 players, 6 to 8 Wiffle balls, a homerun fence about 70 feet away and you are good to go.  

 Unless you have pet peeves.  And I do.

One of which is this; When you are pitching to the other team or player, the least you should expect after throwing all the balls in, is that all the balls get thrown back somewhere remotely close to you.   For 30 years and thousands of games, this has been a problem.     

 

Because no matter who you play with from young kids to your adult friends, you are liable to get balls thrown back to you that are 10 feet left, 10 feet right, 10 feet short or 10 feet over your head. 

It slows down the game and frankly drives me insane.

So until a few weeks ago my effort to fix this problem was to progressively ask, then beg, then whine, then complain and then scream for everyone to please try and throw the balls back at least close to me, the pitcher. 

It didn’t work.  Balls were thrown back any which way (including the dreaded “soccer kick” and “plastic bat golf swing” of the balls back to the mound).

About 4 weeks ago it dawned on me.  I put a little plastic bucket at my feet when I pitched (see picture above of actual bucket in my backyard) and proclaimed new rules that an automatic run would score if upon the throwback to the mound, the ball landed in the bucket.   

It’s a rare moment when a ball actually lands or bounces into the bucket (it’s only 6 inches deep) so you’re not changing the outcome of any game and throwing the balance of the world out of whack but since then, almost every ball gets close to the bucket and hence, the pitcher.    Now everyone uses the “bucket rule”.  Problem solved.  Game on.

The point is kind of simple.  It’s either (or both) that I am a full Ginzu set of knives short of a silverware drawer for not thinking of this for 3 decades or it is that to change behaviors, sometimes asking for or demanding a behavior change does not work. 

Sometimes an incentive is better.

So the questions are, what work behavioral pet peeves do you have? And what could an incentive do for you?

  •  Your sales team is struggling to make the time to learn more about the industry they call upon or service?  Bury “incentives” in the details of industry knowledge materials you post on the Wiki.  (i.e. offer rewards for learning or knowing)
  • CRMor lead generation data not getting updated correctly or completely? Add a small “accelerator” to your SIP for quality detail about and for our customers.

There are a dozen more pet peeves for sure but don’t wait for years to figure out a solution to a nagging behavioral problem like I did.  I only wish I had thought of the “bucket rule” back when I was 12 and I probably would have gotten a few hundred more games in.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

 

“Can I Help You With Anything?” (Ugh)

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My wife went to look for a dress on Friday.

 She told me about it later (must have been a commercial break as I’m not inclined to really listen to mall shopping stories) but I was so pleased to have heard it.

 As she entered the store, the associate walked up to her and didn’t say “Can I help you with anything?”  She also didn’t say “Hi, how are you?”   She didn’t say too “If you need anything just let me know”…

 What she did say was – “What brings you here today?”

[How Wonderful!] 

My wife hesitated, (it’s just harder to blurt out “I’m all set” to that question!), then mumbled she was looking for a dress and the associate smartly followed with “…for a special occasion?….”

By golly, yes she was.  Happiness and an extra large charge on the credit card ensued.  🙂

**

What a great reminder of how idiotic in sales we often are.

Shoppers who enter your store or call your phone already have an interest in something (or um….they wouldn’t be there right?).

Yet how often do we neglect to enhance that energy or fuel that fire but saying silly things like “How can I help you today?” or “Can I answer any questions for you?”

Take a lesson from the associate my wife met on Friday and instead ask “What brings you here today?” or “What prompted your call today?” 

Energy and Need propelled the shopper to walk into your store or to dial your phone, don’t drain it with inane meaningless questions – fuel it! 

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

My 25 Secrets for Selling to Small Businesses

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Since 1988 I’ve sold, serviced and essentially provided for my family via the results of my interactions with, and strategies toward in large part,  small business.   Maybe that’s you too.  Maybe you are an indepent, an employee of a large firm or even a small business selling to small businesses – no matter — this is all good for you.  

I’ve forgotten far more than I’ve learned I suspect, but here are my 25 best kept secrets for selling to small businesses. 

  1. The worst time to sell to a small business is M-F,10am to 12pm and 1-3pm.  Ain’t nobody in small business interested in doing any business but their own at those times. Work harder on the fringes!
  2. New In Business is gold.  It’s a little like a chick imprinting on you just after hatching.  Help a small business when they are starting out and they will be fiercely loyal to you. 
  3. Not every SB wants to grow! (but they sure as hell want to at least keep what they have).  Use a maintain angle.
  4. Testimonials are so table stakes now.  What you need are testimonials from someone your SB prospect knows.
  5. Surprise! Surprise!  Small business owners are or once were; sales people.  They can smell your trial closes and rotating yes’s from 100 yards away.
  6. The most important word to think, proclaim, represent and lead with when talking with a small business owner is the word “easy”.
  7. Never forget how prideful, ego laden and direct a business owner usually is about his/her business! 
  8. I’ve never said the word “small” to a small business.   Ever.  I just won’t do it.   
  9. Your price, your service, your terms and even your competition are not remotely close to the biggest problem you face with small business.  Time (and getting it) is the biggest challenge by far.
  10. Whoever answers the phone at a small business is good at customer service, great at connecting you to brother Billy and a pro at getting rid of salespeople like you.  
  11. Everyone in a small business has at least some influence in the decision.   Sorry.  Dems’ the apples.
  12. If you don’t make it easy to switch to you, you won’t get a sale. 
  13. You get to go home to your kids.  The SB owner’s kids are in the back room coloring on the folding table.  Free up their time to spend more time with family and you win. 
  14. The first step in the SB sales model isn’t discovery or introduction or greeting or any other silly thing; it’s building credibility.  That needs to be your obsession.
  15. Time is so precious that “either/or” leading questions about anything are always better than open ended questions for a busy small business owner.
  16. Your customers have customers.  If you focus your solution on how it impacts your customer’s customers then it’s a win-win and the sale is easier.
  17. “What most people do..” is the most powerful phrase in small business sales.  Use it liberally.
  18. The SB’s website and/or storefront is the “face” of the business.   You can tell a lot by just looking at someone’s face.  Do that first!
  19. I bet a killer secret- to- be in cold calling is the phrase “Did I catch you at a terrible time or do you have 90 seconds?” right after you say your name and company.  (I just learned it so try it and let me know!)
  20. Your SB’s don’t realize yet (most of em’ anyway),  that that cherished Word of Mouth is changing.  Not in value, but in the tools being used to pass that along.  Help your SB’s see the value of social media!
  21. SB’s don’t want to hear about your “8:30to 5 shift” (they don’t have no stinkin’ shift) the old small business you had (that failed) or the other business you go to “just like theirs” (their competition).  So just knock it off. 
  22. It’s not what you think, believe or analyze about your SB customer or prospect so much that matters- it’s what they think of you.  
  23. Asking for help always worked for me.  And you know what worked best? 2 sales people knocking on doors (one being a trainee).  You always got time!  People (SB’s too) like to help people.
  24. Slick, coiffed, corporate and the King’s English doesn’t fly in Small Business.  Be normal, polite and smart but don’t be everything SB’s hate in the first 30 seconds inside the door.
  25. The greatest secret to selling to Small Business? They aren’t a sale, a lead, a customer, a prospect, your commission or even a business; they’re human and would just like a little help.

Till next time,

 Grow The Business.

 Mark

From Have to Believe

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It’s best to move on now from what you have, to what you believe. 

 If you are transforming from a commodity-like company to a knowledge and service based company, its best to move on from what you have, to what you believe.

 So many of us are doing just that.   Whether we are a company or a sales rep or a marketer or a trainer;   more and more of us are adding (or must add) insight/ intelligence to our stable of widgets or even in some cases, instead of our widgets. 

 The market is starving for direction.

Don’t get me wrong, what you have is fine for they are the products and services.   Thankfully, they pay the bills and feed the kids.    

But too often we eagerly share, shout and talk about those products and services.  Too often we earnestly show what we have for products and services on our websites, in our phone calls and during our webinars.  Too often we study too hard about what we have for products and services.   Too often we train too much about what we have for products and services. 

And we spend so little time talking about what we believe.  

That’s right, what we believe.  What your company believes.  What you believe. 

You thought I was going to tell you to focus not on what we have but on what your products and services do for the customer; how they solve a problem, how they fit a need.  

Good lord, that is so 80’s.   And that’s table stakes now.   

Belief sharing is better.  Belief sharing is needed now more than ever.   Belief sharing is the new black.   

We spend so little relative time in sharing our credible prescriptive path to success for our customers.  We spend so little relative time espousing our beliefs about the direction our clients must go to achieve what they want to achieve. 

Products and Services are critical yes, but amazingly, they are too often fun, too easy to count, too easy to have sales on and in fact can crowd out the very essence that they should be an extension of a very passionate and clear belief– not just about what our products and services do but what we believe the path is to get there. 

An obsession about what we have may work well for widgets, gum and shoelaces, but what we believe matters more if we profess to be in the Advice and Counsel game; the Insight game or the Knowledge and Service game as so many of us do ( and need to do).

Customers are drawn to those who have passionate beliefs.  Small businesses for example, line up to get counsel from SCORE, to join Mastermind groups, to access advice and counsel from Hubspot, DuctTape Marketing and Amex’s Open Network. .    

The difference between saying “We have this and this and this……” and “We believe the best route to success is …” is awesome.  And powerful. 

What you believe in the knowledge and service game sells the products and services that you have.   It’s not the other way around.

We must also be consistent about those beliefs from the company home page to the person in the field or on the phone.  And we must be different from the competition.  And we must be religiously true to those beliefs as if they were inscribed on tablets made of stone; not just in what the results will be but in the prescriptive method of how those beliefs are executed upon.

It’s OK to teach and lead customers to your beliefs.  It’s more than OK.  In a shaky economy and a world that gets more confusing everyday, it’s got to be your lead story now.  

For without that rock solid, credible path about what you believe, nobody will come to you, or listen to you or give a darn about what products or services you have no matter what they do.

Take a stand.  Have a belief.  Preach it, teach it, brand it, package and sell it.  Leave the obsession with products and services behind.

If your customer is so inspired, have no fear, they’ll ask you what you have.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Odd Duck

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What would you be if you believed that the real selling began after you closed a sale?

 What would you be if you believed that the real service began after the phone call ends?

 What would you be if you believed that real customer value began with what you believe and not what you have?

 What would you be if you believed that your real job began with what you think and not with what you do?

 Heck, what would you be if you believed that the real meaning of life begins with what you leave ahead and not what you leave behind?  

 Answer: You would be the most beautiful and wonderfully odd duck of a person, performer or company.

 Ever. 

 ****

 P.S.  Everywhere you see the word “be” in a question,  swap in the word “do”, go grab a pencil and answer it.   At length.

 Then do it.

 Odd Duck you will be.  How wonderful. 

Till next time,

 Grow The Business.

 Mark

5 Tips for Better Summer Selling

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It is engrained in all of us whether we are buyers or sellers; this summer season.

We all went to school at one point in our lives and most had “summers off”. More of us had summer vacations than winter vacations. There are more 3 day weekends, barbecues and down time no matter where you live during the summer season. It’s just the way it is.

And if you own a business or sell to a business that physiological indoctrination doesn’t just go away. It’s there.

So that old belief about selling and buying being a bit tougher in the summer has some truth to it.

It can be tougher. But rather than fight it; Embrace it.

Intensify Activity Mon – Wed: The summer weeks get compressed. Bring your A game to Work Habits and Sales Skills in a big way Monday through Wednesday. Start early and stay late. These three days in the summer week are the times when attention, interest and consideration of what you have to offer is best consumed. By the end of the week on a Thursday or Friday, the decision maker wants not to discuss much more (or can even find all the right players to gather and discuss) your proposal – but they do want to be able to make that decision, call you, get it done and move on.

Free Up Client’s Time; It’s about sharpening your sales messaging during the summer. There isn’t necessarily more time for business owners or executives to take off, but there is a strong desire to do so. Make your visits or calls to “take something off the plate”, or “to wrap things up before August”. The summer is when it is especially important to remind clients how brief and easy it will be to get things done. Talk in “minutes” not “appointments”, talk in “3 simple steps” not in “Let’s get this process started”. Time pressure in the summer is often higher than the rest of the year.

Focus on Low Stress Contacts: You don’t want to disappear from your customers mind for 3 months, so summer is the perfect time to arrange face time or phone time but in low stress (ah…summer…) ways. Arrange for the customer satisfaction survey, the yearly review, the product review session or the just plain ol’ “thank you for your business” call or meeting. Ask about ways you can make working with you easier or better. Ask about what’s happening with their social media efforts and how that’s going. These moments can often lead to a summer sale but if not, they at least keep you in mind.

Summer Clearance; You don’t hear about winter clearances much. And every savvymarketer knows if you have a reason for a sale like “We are changing over our inventory!”, or “Clearing out overstock!” people will buy. Summer clearance makes sense; create the need. You can create your own summer clearance message as a salesperson or within a sales team and frankly, the smaller the time window “July Fire Sale before they are all gone!” the better.

Focus on Strategy: Business owners or C-Suite types aren’t shutting down their brains in the summer. In fact, though vacation time is up and speed to decision time often slows, this is the time that these folks are thinking strategically. They are planning next year’s budget, ormarketing objectives, or sales strategies during the summer. Now is the time to plant those strategic seeds with your client that can help them. Share industry best practices, white papers or send links to informational pieces and talk strategy be it during a planned meeting or when they call you.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Oxymorons

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Yeah, these words don’t go together anymore.

 

 

Big Network:  Nope, you have no network if it’s too big.    Smaller is better.  Smaller is more influential.  Smaller is more trustworthy.  Too many connections or too many followers and too many fans and trust dissipates and doubt rises.   Micro Networks are growing and will grow and grow and then will split off and get smaller and smaller.  And then rinse and repeat.

 

Sales Expert:   They call me one but I know that phrase is dead.  Sales is marketing is sales is teaching is sales is training.  It’s all blending together now.  Marketing people sell and sales people market (and are marketed themselves).  Trainers sell (because knowledge is the new hot product) and trainers market and customers sell and customers market for themselves or you.   I see it every day.  It’s not always comfortable but that linear business model is no more- the prospects dear friends, have said they want it this way.

 

Closed Sale:  It’s a new game out there.  Nothing is closed when the sale is done.   Nobody need be loyal anymore.  Nobody need be local anymore.  It’s all about wanting to want to be.   So when a sales is closed, that is when selling really begins now.  When a sale is closed that is when investment and calories and phone calls and unbelievable customer experience has to begin.  It’s too easy to walk away now.  ClosedSale?  Hardly – it’s only just begun.

 

 

 

Till next time,

 

Grow The Business.

 

Mark