selling

Sharpen Your Sales Message

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Stop yourself just for a moment.  Breathe.   And Think.   

Listen to yourself or look at what you are writing.  Is it really what it should be?

Sharpen your Sales Messaging.   

It’s odd sometimes how much energy we spend pulling all the levers that we do to improve sales but often don’t take enough time to look hard or re-look at the very first lever – the most critical lever: Sales Messaging.

If your sales messaging is poo then it doesn’t matter how often or in how many ways you say it or distribute that sales message – it’s still poo.

  • It’s not “We have a special right now..”,  it’s “This special we have right now is flying out the door..”
  • It’s not “We can help you get Online..”, it’s “We can help you get more good leads …”
  • It’s not “There’s a price break at 2,000….”, it’s  “Hold on, let me save you some money here…”
  • It’s not “I’m calling to see what your supply of..”,  it’s  “I’m calling to take something off your to do list..”
  • It’s not “We’ve updated the product to include…”, it’s “Most people are flocking to the updated product because….”
  • It’s not “We have a some brand new Holiday cards and gifts this year…”, it’s “ Let’s help you stand out from your competitors this year..”
  • It’s not “We can customize this for you and add those things you want..”,  it’s “Let’s make your life easier for you…”

You get it.

But be honest with yourself.  Are you doing it?

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

I Love Dirty Jobs

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I love Discovery TV’s Dirty Jobs.  

They are always looking for new ideas for those dirty jobs.  I wonder if I should send a note to the producers and invite them to come out my way.

 

Dirty Jobs is a popular show where host Mike Rowe performs some of the most difficult and frankly, disgusting jobs done by real people.   These jobs run the gamut from the needed cleaning of shipping lane buoys ( crusted molting squishy marine life that needs to be chiseled off) to scuba diving for hippo poop at a zoo ( where else is it going to go?) and everything in between.

My wife loves Dirty Jobs too but I think she’s just in love with Mike Rowe.   He’s funny, smart and good looking.  Whenever the show pops on she’ll stop whatever she is doing and say “Oh, my Michael is on.”  Once, as she sat next to me on the couch watching the show, she began think out loud and dreamily blathered to nobody in particular, “I wonder if he’s married.”   (He isn’t).

Mike might be a smoldering hunk of handsomeness to some but truth is Dirty Jobs is a tribute to the people who do these jobs.  Mike Rowe simply adores these folks and it shows.  Most are people take great pride in either the “dirty job” at hand or they take pride in that the dirty job is just part of a larger endeavor that needs to get done right.  We here in our work have some jobs like these.  Jobs that are difficult and tough and hard and done by prideful, caring people.   They may lack the “ick” factor for TV but I’m betting they’d be some of the toughest work Mike and crew would love to try. 

Selling On The Phone:   Lots of rejection.  Lots of pressure.  Lots of importance.  Mike and crew would arrive and he’d strap on a headset and give selling a good try.   And he’d fail.  He’s get a lot of “no’s” and even more “annoyed” customers.  He’d get the kind of rejection Mike probably isn’t used to being a TV star and all.  But that’s OK because he would spend time with the pros who do sell well and then cut to a new scene where he’d share what he learned and say “It’s not really “selling” with these sales people, it’s more like they are helping out someone”.

Training:  Especially the “stand up in the classroom 10 hour day with the adults” kind.   This is simply exhausting stuff.  You have to be “on” all day.  Be on target, on message, on time and totally on hand with people who all learn differently and bring and array of attitudes to the party.   We’d give Mike a couple of hours to prep and have him lead the class.  By4 o’clock he’d be triple dog tired and barely able to speak.  No worries though, he’d turn slightly, smile into the camera and tell us how “crazy and tough” real trainers need to be to make learning happen.

Team Leader:  They’re the boss, the support, the help desk, the number watcher (and often the number cruncher), the master listener, the coach and oh by the way, they have one of the most difficult professions in the world; continually improving the performance of people (and sometimes 30+ people at a time).   Mike would set up in a cube and start leadering’ and Boom he gets an irate customer, then the system crashes ( everyone on paper!), the mid day numbers deadline comes and goes and then his boss walks by wondering where first pass of all the employee reviews are.  That’s enough and as Mike’s head is nodding in surrender he looks up at the camera and says “Boss’s day only comes once a year?  What a rip off!”

I think the producers of Dirty Jobs would like the opportunity to come here.  If they decide to come, do me a favor and keep it just between us.  My wife doesn’t need to know.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Larry Bird?

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image credit retroplanet.com

 

 

There’s a board game called TriBond where you identify the commonality of three clues given.  It’s pretty fun.

Last weekend, my 14 year old son was given these three:

“Big…Larry….Jay”

He correctly said “Bird”.  Then asked, “I know Big Bird and a Jay Bird, but what the heck is a “Larry Bird”?

Sigh.

Wow.

What else do I incorrectly assume is a basic reference with someone I know well? Or with colleagues, employees or customers?

It’s worse than that actually.

I assume this blog makes sense to you.   But how many are saying “Who the heck is Larry Bird?”

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

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Mondays are busy. All Monday posts are 100 words or less. 

Silence is Not Golden (And 2 Ways to Avoid It)

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Silence is not golden.     

It might be in the movie theater or as your buddy starts his back swing, but not in Sales. 

I get the whole “Don’t be the first to speak ” thing in Sales when trying to close a deal-  it’s pretty 80’s but that kind of silence has it’s place I guess.

But more often than not, silence from a customer in Sales means either they don’t care or they are confused.  

I’ve written plenty about the don’t care silence problem but confusion makes people quiet too you know.

I heard silence from a customer named Kelly last week.  I was listening in as she called about a service offering.     Dead silence……………….. as the sales rep shared the values of the service………. till she finally said, “I have no idea what “_______”  means”.   It was a critical piece.   She breathed a sigh and chuckled.  She was embarrassed.

Have you ever been in a meeting and no one says a word?  It’s not always because people don’t care.  Silence happens when smart people get lost in a sea of unfamiliar acronyms or in stories of experiences that just aren’t making sense for the discussion.

Did you ever clam up in an electronics department not because you didn’t want the product but because the sales rep wasn’t making sense to you and so you just stopped talking and muttered “all set” and walked away?

You must know your audience.  You must know the relative complexity of your products.  Kelly was a small business owner; a prideful person with a fairly large ego.   Confusion can make people feel dumb.  Confusion can make people tense, even angry.  And most critically, Confusion can stop the talking and the sales process cold. 

2 ways to avoid the Confusion Silence.

1.)     When it is 1 to 1:  When it is just you and he/ she over the phone or face to face; (i.e. nobody else around) – you can ask a simple question before you begin to converse, sell or service.  “To make this most helpful for you, could I ask if you would consider yourself very knowledgeable with _______ ,  somewhat knowledge, or not that familiar with ___________?”  This gets that answer without embarrassment.  This respects that just because you live and breathe your job’s products and processes everyday- most of your clients and prospects don’t – and are starting from a different place than you.

2.)     In a meeting with more than 1 person:  When the room goes quiet and you start to think nobody cares, stop and wonder “are people just confused?”  You could ask that question out loud (like everyone else ridiculously does) and get of course, no response (not many folks want to shout out “I don’t get it!” in front of others) or you can inject this phrase “At this point, some folks often ask about _________ “   or “Sometimes people ask me ________________about this”   and then look around the room.   If you get sudden eye contact from some or head nods, you know you’ve got confusion silence happening and you need to delve differently.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Kidnapped

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I realize now I never told him what we were doing and why we were doing it in any real detail.  It just needed to get done. 

I was busy, so he needed to be busy.  I just told him to get in the car with not much more than a “We gotta go!”

We went to Lowe’s.  We went to get him a haircut.  We went to the grocery store.   

Finally on our way to a fourth destination he said, “Am I not a real person here?  Don’t I matter?  Where are we going!!? ”

I realized then that I had essentially kidnapped my 12 year old son.

 

The problem is “Kidnapper” was not on my bucket list.   And a bigger problem might be that it happens in business more than we think.

During the kidnapping, my child felt anxious about where we were going.   He felt anxious about not being able to influence where we were going.   He felt anxious about not having any control of the situation.  And he felt anxious that he’s as the mercy of his captor (me) who is not talking too much. 

In hindsight, I think that if I offered more in guidance, direction or real or perceived collaboration about these errands, he would have felt a lot more comfortable and would have been engaged in helping me get everything done.

In foresight, I wonder if we as leaders or account executives or customer service reps unintentionally “kidnap” our employees or customers at times.    I wonder if we unintentionally kidnap these folks in a major way for as long as weeks or months or in a mini way for as little as hours or minutes.   Either way, kidnapping is a problem.

I wonder in the rush to get the message out, the order placed, the demo done or that call completed if we aren’t always so clear enough about where we are going and why we are going there. 

I wonder if we aren’t open minded enough about being influenced or sharing some control along the way in these and other situations.   I wonder if we don’t realize that our charges or customers feel as if they are at times, at our mercy.

What I don’t wonder about is this; If there is anxiousness about where, why or about influence or control, then employees and customers just stop.  Stop listening, stop caring and in the worst case, stop attaching themselves to you.

In the end, ask yourself if you’ve ever heard or sensed iterations of my son’s words to me on Saturday from an employee or customer.   “Do I matter?  Where are we going!? ” If the answer is yes then check the kidnapping skills at the door.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

[100 Words or Less] Persuasion

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You’ve got a way of persuading.  What is it?

Persuasion is crucial to your success.  Can you articulate and write down that process?  Is your way the same for customers as it is with colleagues?  Is your way the same for your boss or with your family?

What pray tell, is your way? 

If you don’t know, you can’t fix it when it’s broken or when the world changes around you.  If you don’t know it, you can’t influence, lead, close or help in any consistent way.   Persuasion for the best, isn’t by feel, luck or hope.

It’s known.   

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Mondays are busy enough.  Any Monday post is 100 words or less. 

5 Irish Sales Tips

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I’m Irish.

I grew up Irish Catholic in Boston.

That’s Wicked Irish to you.

May the road rise to meet you.  But if it don’t, here are 5 Irish sales tips to help you keep going anyway.

 

Irish Cooking Keeps The Focus On You:  Take a client to lunch or dinner.  Find a nice Irish restaurant (yeah, I don’t know one either) or pub and order something of what we Irish learned to do so well – boil the flavor out of what ever unidentifiable meat or vegetables are around.  Without much going on in the plate, you’ve got that client focused on you.

It’s All About The Jig:  I’ve got nieces who perform that Irish jig thing.  It’s a disconcerting dance to watch for sure.  Until you realize what a great lesson that is to you as a sales rep.  It’s all about keeping cool and calm on top but dancing like a fiend below.   It’s about doing all that legwork and dancing on the fly but never letting your prospect or competition see you sweat.

There’s No Hugging In Sales:   A simple nod, a quick handshake and 2 or 3 syllables is pretty much the greeting among acquaintances, friends and quite frankly, my family as I grew up.  Chit chat about kids, last weekends’ activities or heaven forbid – embraces or hugging we believe are just tension raisers amongst us Irish folk especially in sales. And tension my friends, stops the sales process cold.

Great Questioning Begins With A Brogue:   Everyone loves a good Irish brogue.   And you know you do it well when everything you say sounds like a question as the last word of each sentence inflects up in the air like a sweet Celtic jumpshot.  Questions in sales are good.  You can also avoid the discomfort of getting a direct “yes” or a “no” by saying stuff in an Irish brogue like “This is a fantastic offer” or “ This would work well for you” and just staying silent …as the prospect will answer you.

Irish Closing Skills:   Let the jokes fly here.   I‘ll start – “Irish closing skills begin at 2am”,  or “Did you ever try that Irish close called “Last Call””?   Truth is, we Boston Irish Catholic do have a great closing technique.  It’s called Guilt.  Here’s how the Guilt close works.  “Mr. Prospect, your staff deserves this widget as without it they’ll suffer and go home angry or depressed.  And think of the kids, think of them dealing with a Mom or Dad whose Boss never gave them that widget and that’s why little Johnny went without dessert last night.”

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Help for Loooonnngg Sales Cycles

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Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane
Too much information running through my brain
Too much information driving me insane

 

            – The Police “Too Much Information” (Ghosts in the Machine 1981)

The Police (Sting’s old group for you youngin’s-) had it right way back in the 80’s with this song.   Too much information is indeed a problem.

But 30 years later, insane would be better result than some of the other stuff that happens today because of information overload. 

For us business folks, the sales cycles are getting longer.  It feels like it is taking longer than ever for prospects to close or move to the next step or to just say “no” and allow us to move on.  That hurts.  That also makes us crazy. (Fortunately crazy is a tamer version of insane).

One of the biggest reason sales cycles are getting so long is that there is just so much information out there.

Today a prospect has a quadrillion options on line to learn about your industry, your company, your product or even you.  And what’s worse is that this prospect given the tough economy and the corporate trust issues, feels obligated to do that research.  He or she feels that due righteous diligence means a lot of research and study that years ago just wasn’t available. 

You do it too.  Used to be you threw the Sony Walkman on the beanbag, slipped on the Members Only jacket, jumped in the Taurus and trundled to the local department store to get a new fridge cuz’ the Kenmore up and died. 

Now you analyze product reviews, consumer reports, price shopper sites, debate whether to buy online or offline, wait for Twitter and Facebook replies from friends before you trundle anywhere and have a look.    Businesses do the same.  Your competitors are all over the world and they all have a website.  There’s a never ending supply of helpful online groups and associations to solicit feedback from.   Testimonials aren’t requested any more, they are already there and must be read through.

So much to look at.  So many options to study.

That takes time.  And that lengthens Sales Cycles.  That’s some of the pain of too much information. 

So what do you do?  Here are two strategies to help.  

Set A Table of Urgency: 

Some of the ownership of “over analysis” by clients lies with us sales and marketing folks.  Our meetings or our phone calls or our emails don’t always set the best expectations (often none at all) around time.  If they did, they might speed up the information review.

  • Set Up “Tentative” Meetings:  Trying to set up a meeting for real can be difficult when the prospect has all this information they want to review.  Set it up at least tentatively as you end the call or leave the meeting.  Use the word “tentatively” (it keeps that buyer tension low) and get it on an Outlook Calendar.   A recent study I saw said prospects are 70% more likely to keep a tentative meeting on a calendar than just an open ended invitation.

 

  • Build Checkpoints up front into the sales process. (Always position as a benefit to the prospect of course).  “At the end of this meeting you should be in a position to say you want to review more materials or not. Your time is not something I want to waste.”  Or “If you are interested in going to the next step after this meeting, the next 3 days are fully staffed for us to run numbers with your data groups”. 

 

Prescribe The Research:

 

Part of the problem with too much information is the prospect wondering where to begin to look- further stalling the sales cycle.

  • Share What To Do.   Give your prospect the competitor names, the associations to solicit feedback from and the sites where they can see objective product or company reviews.  Send them the links to the videos or the white papers and encourage them to dig in.    You’ll be surprised how this cuts the time and builds your credibility simultaneously.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

6 Rules Of Marketing & Sales

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I admit that I like rules.

Without some rules you see, it’s really just chaos out there.   

1) If the content of your campaign or sales presentation is poo, it does not matter how many ways you distribute it or how many impressions of your poo you give; it is still poo.

2) It’s more important to first understand and act aggressively upon what your customer thinks about you than what you think about your customer.

3) All the new ways to communicate with customers and prospects are by definition now, marketing and sales tools.  Everyone in each group should learn to use them well.

4) Sales is an extension of Marketing.  Sales is an extension of Marketing.  Sales is an extension of Marketing.  And Sales is an extension of Marketing.

5) Knowledge and Service is more of what many of us are selling and marketing today.  They both therefore are as much a product as any traditional tangible product and need all the planning, support and care any widget ever did.

6) The only reason Marketing and Sales exist is because your customers are not jazzed enough about your products that they’ll go out and sell them for you.  Aim for that.  When that happens, Nirvana is achieved and no rules need apply.  

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

But You’re In Sales

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You took that call, not knowing the client was sent an email offer by marketing or what it said but you’re in Sales, so you recognized that what’s important was that there’s interest so you fueled that fire and said “Yes, we’ve had a lot of calls about this! Let me make sure I know which one you are talking about…tell me what it reads…”

You personally didn’t screw up the client’s proof or was the one who didn’t call to arrange that installation but you’re in Sales, so you knew that owning the problem was critical and called that unhappy customer back and said “I am so sorry.  I own this, let me fix this problem right now…”

You knew there was a sales shortfall this month and you saw the silly contest poster to “Close the most sales over the next 24 hours!”  but you’re in Sales,  so you focused on solving customer problems and didn’t pitch and dump and spew and pound out phone calls just to hit that low hanging unloyal fruit opportunity and close the deal because heck, you’re not gonna leave a trail of garbage like that. 

Stuff happens.  And most of us;  be we actual sales people, marketers, trainers, leaders or even business owners sell all day long and know nothing ever, ever goes to plan.  But we’re in Sales, so we take our noble profession seriously and apply accordingly. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark