Sales Intelligentsia

Friendly Aliens

In science fiction stories first contact with an alien race is a favorite subject because it represents the ultimate unknown: Reaching out and interacting with strange beings who may be very unlike ourselves. They may be unfriendly or even dangerous in ways which we cannot predict. For the salesperson making first contact with a prospect, you can assume there is a very good probability that these ‘aliens’ will be friendly. In fact you probably have much in common. All you have to do is identify this common ground and use it to establish a bond.
Because you are both in business you have one bond. Because there is a connection between your business and theirs (or you shouldn’t be calling them!), you have another connection. These basic connections are a start. However common ground can be found in the most unusual places. It is part of the fascination I have with the sales process that you find unusual connections with the most unlikely prospects. Perhaps you grew up near each other, have mutual friends, live in the same kind of house, share unusual hobbies, etc. During an introductory get-together for a writing project I sat in a lunch meeting with an attorney, a venture capitalist and the CEO of a mid-sized company. Somehow we discovered that all of us had played in rock bands at one point or another in our lives! This unusual connection put us all on an equal level for a few minutes and established a bond that made the rest of the meeting a much more relaxed affair.

Ten Prospects For Success

The value of taking the time to profile good customers and target similar groups is particularly high for salespeople because we often don’t need large numbers of customers to prosper. In fact this is the great advantage we have over large companies with large overhead who must sell great quantities to earn enough profit. The average salesperson will probably do very well adding as few as one to ten new customers each year, particularly if those customers are exceptional. But what is an exceptional customer?
Let’s look at John K. who runs a landscaping company that specializes in designing, building and maintaining small but beautiful garden areas for urban dwellers and businesses. John’s edge is the fact that he offers one-stop shopping: He plans, builds and maintains, making it easy for his customers to have the garden they want without dealing with numerous contractors. The downside of his business is that he is limited by his size to doing a relatively small number of gardens.
John’s customers are highly educated, urban homeowners who are in a high income bracket and often hold executive positions or own their own businesses. They have limited time but a lot of disposable income. Once they contract with John they typically stay customers until they move or retire. He services about 25 homes and businesses and has a turnover of about 25% requiring that he add 5 customers annually to maintain his current sales level. If he wants to grow he should be adding around ten per year.
The challenge for John is to find the ten exceptional customers that will not only stay with him for years but will also make regular referrals. He already knows what type of people they will be and where he is likely to find them in his city. He can target his marketing efforts directly at these demographically distinct individuals. His ads, brochures and networking will focus exclusively on the best prospects and the responses they generate will be pre-qualified before he starts the sales process.
In addition to making the sales process much easier, targeting also helps generate referrals, references and networking opportunities. A landscaper like John will be in regular contact with his customers and their friends will see the results of his labors. This will generate referrals. Good quality referrals often do not require any selling other than price and schedule negotiations. Various networking opportunities arise as he is invited to social opportunities and community get-togethers that his customers attend. By sharing this part of their lifestyle he becomes an even more likely resource for them to refer others to.

Relationship Selling

John’s selling style is based on developing valuable and mutually beneficial relationships with his customers that generate rewards for both parties. The exceptional customers you should be seeking will expect something of value from their relationship with you. The values most prized in a business relationship are trust, quality, time and money. Offer these to the right group of prospects and your selling will become much easier.
Prospecting for exceptional customers and preparing your products so that they completely fulfill those customer’s needs can take much of the mystery out of sales. Target the right customer groups, send the message they want to hear and provide the stellar service they expect and your sales will close themselves. Skip these steps and you’ll spend a lot more time selling and have a much lower ratio of success to failure.
Knowing your prospective customer’s lifestyles and reaching out to them are only part of the whole prospecting process. You must also tailor your products to fit their needs and desires. The more perfect the fit between product and customer the easier the sale.

Networking and Business Development

An all too common scenario has a sales manager sending their reps into a networking situation and telling them to go out there and find some business. The networking situation might be a local business function, a trade show or conference or even something like a tip club. There are right and wrong ways to take advantage of these events- it is very possible to actually do damage to your company if you don’t take a planned approach to networking.

Several years ago I co-founded a very successful technology networking group in my hometown. We put on 15-20 events a year that attracted hundreds of participants to each event. I received quite an education in what works and what doesn’t at networking events. For this post I’m going to focus on business events rather than trade shows or conferences.

First, you should be clear in your goals and fairly specific. I usually had a specific person or persons that I wanted to meet. The overall goal was business development rather than sales, that is, seeking potential partnerships. The reason for focusing on biz dev at networking events is simple- it is a mutually beneficial relationship so you have a common interest to pursue. No one likes to get pitched by salespeople at events and savvy event hosts try to avoid having to many vendors or sales people as attendees because we know that this dilutes the value of the event for attendees. There is a certain amount of sophistry here in that most business people don’t want to be sold but would really like to walk away feeling they have an opportunity to sell! That’s the balancing act.

Determining your best outcome is the start: X number of good contacts, a meeting arranged, a referral to a potential client, etc. Match your outcome to the event- if the room will be full of IT types then you may want a chance to gather information on their needs rather than trying to sell as they are notoriously touchy about sales. I’ve actually seen IT types run away from salespeople at events!

Choose your events. This means going where your customers are- not where your peers are. Think about this. All too often we’re more comfortable going to industry events where we can schmooze with other people in our business. You have to get out of this comfort zone and go where the potential customers are. If you’re an ad agency don’t go to your local Ad Council meetings, go to the Marketing Association meetings- they’re your prospects, the Ad Council people are your competitors.

Once you’re at an event don’t be a wallflower. This is the high school dance theory of life- if you don’t wade in and ask, you won’t get to dance. Find your target, introduce yourself, look at their nametag and ask them what their company does. If you already know you should ask about some recent event associated with their business or ask an informed question about their product or service. This means doing some homework.

Don’t pitch your business at all. Get into theirs and let them ask what you do. Then tell them by giving an example rather than a pitch. Something like: ‘When we work with companies like your we typically start by analyzing …’. Never say ‘I’, say ‘we’. It implies that you are a part of a team and feel an ownership role, even if you’re not a principal.

The goal of these conversations is to have the prospect say ‘Maybe we should talk about how you could help us’. Then and only then do the cards come out, unless they’ve already offered theirs. The reason for this is that once the cards come out you have the opportunity to schedule a meeting or call so you want to build some value before you give them your information. Otherwise they are going to look at your card later and, if you didn’t build a base, not remember who you are or why they should care.

My personal approach to business networking is to first establish personal relationships and build my network, then focus on developing an understanding of how we might each benefit from those relationships; then suggest getting together to discuss a specific project. This may take several contacts over time at events but it has garnered my company the lion’s share of our business over the years.