I Made a Sale Now What?

Filed under Sales, Sales and Marketing by on September 3, 2009 at 7:00 am {no comments}

Now what?!?! The customer said yes and you’ve got a purchase order in your hand! Before you can get that product out the door, there should have been a number of things you did….If you didn’t do them, now you’re real sales skills will come into play. If you didn’t already arrange for a line of credit and for product to be on hand, you best start practicing your tap dancing skills.

Once that purchase order is in your hand, (We’ll assume you’ve set up the credit terms and you do have inventory to ship to your customer….after all, you’re a smart sales professional), call the customer and say thank you! Seems so trivial, but most sales people forget this step. A little thank you goes a long way (your parents should have taught you that!). Keep your customer informed as to the progress of his order. Let him know when it ships by sending him the carrier tracking information, many of the notification needs of you clients can be personalized even using automated systems. A simple thank you not with an email showing status. IF you can guarantee this type of communication through out the buying cycle talk about it during the presales phase. It might be a great competitive advantage. Your customer won’t expect that you took the time to do that, and you will have, once again, distinguished yourself from the rest of the sales people banging on his door. Give the order a couple of days to arrive and call your customer again, have the notification of delivery sent to you also and add it you your CRM system as a task and a reminder. Again, distinguishing yourself from the rest of the pack. He won’t expect this call either.

Follow the order from cradle to grave and you’ll win your customers heart. Keeping him informed will not only impress him but will show him that you truly care about his business. After all, in our world, it’s not about making one sale. It’s about making a customer for life. By keeping him informed, you’re really becoming an extension of his business. You’re helping him to move forward and in turn, you’re moving forward with him.
Simple things like knowing the ordering and delivering process in detail allows you to set the expectation. If selling an intangible make sure you give them that status of their paper work along the way whether it is a maintenance contract, financial service, or labor hours, customers need the same love and confidence maybe even more because they can’t touch it. Expectations are powerful images in the mind of your customer and they need to be cared for. Follow up and status isn’t enough you need to take the same care and follow up on outstanding issues that you did before you made the sale. Most clients are a one hit and move on but an opportunity for additional products, services and upgrades for years to come. By putting the emphasis on their experience with your company and products then you are setting up a future pipeline of business and referrals.

Things to do: Improving your customer’s experience

Ever call your own company and see how the phone is answered, how the call is handled. Now have you ever done it anonymously? If not and that is how your customer touch you need to. It will give you a window, quite possibly a terrifying one into doing business with you.

Look at your website…is is advertising crap or thing of value to your customers. Not why you’re the greatest widget company ever but tools and information to improve their lives and profitability. Think they care about you you’re dead wrong but they do care about themselves and what you will do to help them. Further more do they know how to contact you, by phone, email, snail mail or even in person. If people need to visit your facilities offer directions to your office from the major points in the area such as interstates, parts of the city or the airport.

Invoices- are they simple and easy to read, not the legalese on the back but the front, more than the remit to does it thank them for each and every purchase? Are the colors perhaps unique but inviting? Is the look and feel consistent with your company image, if not why?

How do you greet your customers and prospects, warmly or does the person at the front desk ask them to have a seat until hell freezes over or the person they are there to see appears. Chairs and a wait area are a necessity but why company’s skimp here amazes me. The one industry that seems to almost always get it right are plastic surgeons. Well decorated waiting areas with useable furniture that is both comfortable and inviting.

Understanding you capabilities goes right along side knowing your value often they should be hand in hand. All too often sales people come up short in their customers minds because they over promise and under deliver. Most sales books, trainings and even common sense say to avoid this but it goes deeper than that. Are you working miracles to win a deal? Dumping the responsibilities on another department or part of the organization that then has to be the face on pulling off the over commitment or letting the customer down. It is the business equivalent of the junior high move of having a friend break up with the person you’re dating for you. That always work well right? Of course not so think about that the next time you are tempted to over commit. In truth if you understand the customer’s needs and set the expectation properly then the reality is you have a better working relationship and will be able to meet their needs with in a reasonable and mutually beneficial way.

Part of that experience if taking the time to familiarize your own organization with the clients, for complex projects and internal planning meeting followed by a project kick off meeting is a great way to transition the process fro sales to delivery. Keep in mind that you need to allow the other professionals in your organization to do their jobs but providing a warm transition and hand off for the customer is like a warm introduction to a prospect it makes things that much easier.

TIP: Follow up. Constantly. Even after the sale is made. Call your Customer. Be in contact with them constantly. Be the one resource that they know that can always rely on.

Counting your Chickens or Sales Too soon

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on September 1, 2009 at 9:00 am {no comments}

It is a classic sales mistake. Thinking you have a deal before the order is firmly in hand. Maybe it takes the pressure off but maybe it also causes you to take your eye off the ball. So this is a touchy subject but do you know how the buying decision gets made? It is a little different at every company and with each sales cycle. There is more to this than almost making a sale there is your level of engagement in the selling cycle.

Typical office influences include –
Administrative staff especially those who work for the executive team, they have far more influence and access than you could ever hope.

Marketing and sales VP’s & Directors – so what you’re selling doesn’t affect them? Think again. The term higher and wider comes to mind meaning you need to be higher in the organization (i.e. decision makers) and wider, more contacts not just from the part of the business you touch. Another way of saying the same thing is where are you engaged but the real concept here is not just knowing people which is always helpful but entangling them in you product or service, making sure you deliver as much value as you can as many places as you can. Before you say to yourself, but my buyer is loyal. That’s great congratulations you’ve done a good job now what if they got hit buy a bus, won the lottery or highly more likely get a new job either inside that company or out side of it. How well positioned are you? Thought so.

So here’s a real world reason why you need to spread your contact through out an organization.

Once upon a time not so long ago an industry underwent a fundamental shift, during the post dot com bubble burst on the early 2000’s the telecom industry faced significant challenges. In addition to lessened demand for their products the foundation that their hardware platforms used was changing to the now much ballyhooed VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). What that meant was in addition to lessened demand the people who made the purchasing decision changed from what was a traditional telephony staff to the data geeks across the hall. What this meant is that two organizations that were generally diametrically opposed and very territorial now had to begin to work together. Worse if you sold phone systems and related technology most of your traditional contacts to quote four time super bowl champion coach Chuck Knoll would say “it was time for them to get on with their life’s work.” It meant that the people who bought from you began to get down sized, phased out or to put it more truthfully fired. Now imagine you are a sales rep who knew only that part of the organization, maybe you did a great jib knowing every one from the analyst to the Vice President but now you had to call on guys who spoke a completely different language, had different tolerances for how a product preformed, more readily accepted changes than the previous people whom bought from you and then add this new a terrifying proposition of having to solve a business problem and deliver a return on their investment with your product. Sad to say a lot of those sales people also got on with their life’s work, some of them had been the top performers, perennial president’s club attendee’s. What would the value have been if you had relationships with sales and marketing? How important would have been a VP or CFO’s endorsement from outside the telecom staff’s?

I personally watched a host of companies both big and small go down in flames. So how to take on such a challenge, learn where to be engaged. I took on a leadership role in a company struggling to make the transition and the reality is I was the specter of doom for a lot of those fallen stars who weren’t willing or able to change how they did business. Now in truth a lot of them had been victims of their own circumstance doing what always worked but wasn’t any longer. An example of the definition of insanity they kept doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, in their case they kept calling the same old customers, the same level of contacts and wondering why the same old orders weren’t coming in, everything around them was changing but them.

So how do you address time like these whether they are as wide spread as the collapse of telecom in the early 2000’s or a new buyer since yours just got promoted.
To spread your contacts you need to learn how to speak that person’s language and what mattered to them, was it efficiency? Pure ROI (Return on Investment)? Maybe employee retention was key to a part of the business does you product help that?
Where you fit into their world.

Other reasons to spread out you contacts is the following

Points of influence- Do you understand where your product and service is really used? The next thing to think about is the down stream effect is can and does have on an organization, who else’s world will you be changing if they buy from you. They might not have the direct buying power but they most likely have an opinion is not a vote in what is going on. Keep in mind a lot of people don’t openly accept change so if you’re changing how a company works or does business you need to care for all the parts of the organization that gets touched. Don’t lavish undue attention on them but build support by including them and addressing their issues. At the end of the day a little support can go along way to helping create a valued and ongoing business relationship. In a business environment where more people inside a company work with and cross departments not just in occasional task but as a mater of routine business and function not to mention who reports to who. Commonly referred to as Dotted line reports or a Matrixed organization. Sounds too funky to be true look at it this way Finance reports to the CFO directly but they have reporting responsibility to sales for aged accounts. Viola a matrixed organization not to be confused with our next category Matrix of Authority

Matrix of Authority- Welcome to the business world that is largely influenced by Sarbanes Oxley. The concept is simple new contracts and agreements ranging from the utterly simply to the extremely complex in more and more cases have to under go a formal authorization process that might land on an Senior Vice President, General Manager or Even the CEO’s desk for review and approval. Most times the trust the people below them to make the right decisions but now days they need to acknowledge that they do need to know what is going on and how and where. You need to be prepared in the selling process to deliver the type of information executive care about, it’s different for every one so asking strong questions along the way helps. Most often you run into this type of thing. So to over simplify Capital Expenditures (Cap Ex in MBA Speak) and contracts are most often subject to this.

Levels of Authorization- This comes into play on repetitive buying and simple purchases and inventory tasks. The concept is simple based on title and experience people have the ability to execute on types of transactions up to a certain dollar amount after that it moves up the food chain. Your job as a sales person is to know when and where those points are and position your self not only at the top of the line or where your ;[products typically fall but through out it. One person may buy the products but another may review the maintenance or service agreement and so on and so on.

Departmental cross training- OK we’re sale pukes we don’t cross train well but other positions do, it is not uncommon to see people from finance move into purchasing, or operation move into other parts of the business, whether for a short time as a training and enrichment program or permanently to perform the duties of the job. If you know some one is being cross trained because your regular contact has shared that with them ask if you can add value by meeting them and explaining the business relation or role you play in helping their company succeed. Worst case you made a new contact best case is two fold, they might tell others about you and of course you prepared methodically to add value to the conversation and didn’t just show up with a Pizza and no other plan or if they do land in the role eventually or even one high up the food chain you are now a real person who took the time to help them grow.

Competitive pressure- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, your competition is calling your customers each and every day some one is trying to take away the business you’ve worked so hard to create. Yes you think you are an invaluable resource to your clients, and your product fill a need no one else could ever hope to but what if some else, a c competitor gets their claws into a different level or part of the organization. If you are selling to the purchasing agent day in and day out and that’s the right place to be but if the VP or CEO doesn’t know your name and a competitor calls…you stand to lose. Lose sales, lose margin and just maybe lose the account.

Management or Staff changes-Change happens a lot of it is internal that you can control and depending on the industry the external change might be too. If you have a good relationship with a person and they move to a new company in the same or similar business there is a great chance to get a new client or additional business from where they landed. Will it be instant? Not likely and you will have to prove your value and win the business it won’t just get handed to you since you’re such an wonderful person but you have the possibility of having an internal advocate inside to help you get their pushing you and your service or products into the forefront of the discussion. On the same note if some leaves and the replacement comes in from the outside the more advocates you have the stronger the position but that doesn’t mean you won’t have to work hard to keep the business, be seen as a resource by the new ,manager and you can grow your business with them. While change is always a challenge it does at times open the door to conversations that couldn’t wouldn’t or just plain didn’t have with last contact.

Ownership changes- These shifts happen slowly but most of the staff and many of the suppliers get rotated out in the first two years after an ownership change. Make sure your not one of them.

TIP: Be prepared to speak to people at every level of the Customer’s company. This may require practice if you’ve never spoken at the executive level. Rehearse if need be, but always be prepared.

The Real Role of Product Knowledge

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 27, 2009 at 10:00 am {no comments}

I thank Mrs. Menard. In Kindergarten, this sweet old lady taught me to read. In first grade, Mrs. Beach taught me to write (and let me use my left hand – quite a challenge in “those days”!). Thanks to the two of them, I got the basic foundation for my learning.

When I first got into this business, I was determined to learn everything I needed to know so that I could be a top producer. Quickly. I made sure that every evening I was reading some technical manual or another. I got hands on experience, I was lucky, my boss at the time thought that this was a valuable way to learn. I remember him telling me to think like the computer….and always have an engineer near by! Great piece of advise. I carry with me to this day. I also learned that I didn’t need to be the type of sales professional that solely relied on my own training to get the job done. I discovered, in short order, that there were loads of technical people out there who could speak “sales speak”. You know them. Quite likely, they’re in your own company. Use them! Use their skills and expertise.  Bring into the sales cycle at the beginning…not when you’re trying to solve the problems of the western world because you misconfigured something! If your company offers product training, make the time to go. I’d bet that the person conducting the training is going to be a sales type person, and in the corner of the room, you’ll find his sales engineer, just waiting to jump into the conversation. It’s important to understand your product. It’s important to understand where it fits and what else you can add to your proposal to make it a complete offering. It’s equally as important to allow your engineering resources to be a part of the sales process. Typically, Engineers are a bit shy and not quite as “refined” as us sales types. Engage them in conversations with your customers (be sure to be a part of the conversation and to be able to redirect the conversation if need be!). When you’re listening to engineers speak to each other you’d be amazed at what you’ll learn! Learn something new every day. I do.

There are some wonderful websites out there that will teach you the basics, and beyond. Get onto their newsletter email blasts. Take the moment or two to read them. Displaying your product knowledge to your Customer is key to building your credibility and your success. Knowing how to present your technical expertise is yet another key. Your Customer doesn’t want to hear you spew a bunch of speeds and feeds. Your Customer is more interested in learning about how you’re going to solve his business problem. Learn to speak the technical speak so that anyone can understand it!

I’ve worked with a sales engineer who is gifted at presenting for many years. Tom can train a team of sales professionals on the latest products that his company offers and without fail, every time, the sales pros walk away understanding exactly what he’s just talked about. Tom speaks their language. He shows them where his products fit, he tells them the right questions of their customers to determine the need and the fit, and he speaks in a “non engineering” way so that we all get it.

The true role of product knowledge is knowing your resources. It’s also being able to describe the product so that the person you’re describing it to says “hey! Tell me more”. Get your customers interest in your product in a way that he’ll understand, and then let the engineers talk about speeds and feeds.

I conduct new hire training on a regular basis. I carry into every training session a plastic bag full of add on products and a cardboard box. The cardboard box is actually a mock up of one of the phone switches I offer my customers. In this training session, usually to new and very inexperienced sales people, I can show them, in terms that they can understand, how it all fits together. The cardboard box shows all the connections. The plastic bag has all the cables, key fobs and all the things that can connect to the box to make it work. I call it show and tell. The trainees call it easy to understand learning! They are learning with multiple senses. Not rocket science by any means, but they’re seeing it, they’re hearing and feeling it, and as a result, they’re gaining the knowledge that they need to offer to their customer. Using multiple senses to learning will help you to retain what you’ve learned.

When relating a product to a customer or prospect speak their language sounds simple enough but remember to be most effective you need to know what makes them tick, not so you manipulate their emotions and behavior because that doesn’t work and is how professional selling is done but by making sure everyone involved in the decision process understands how you are going to positively impact their life and make them look great!    Finance measures things differently than sales and marketing, well we all love those happy creative people but they definitely march in time to their own rhythms.

There is more to knowing you product than knowing what the brochure and web site say,  and while sales trainers every where will cringe there is so much more to knowing a product than what they think it will be bought and how they think to position it.  Granted if you learn those things they will make you stringer than the average guy who doesn’t and most don’t but you need to understand the impact of what you sell on a customer and every part of the organization it touches.  Part of product knowledge is understanding you own industry, identifying trends and innovation is as important as understanding obsolescence and decline.  The next responsibility is to understand your customer’s industry, not as an expert but as student who is trying to complete an assignment, the assignment is of course to serve your customer.   Tada the secret of the universe, knowledge and hard work, Shocking isn’t it?

Understanding and industry is a double edged sword.  One side makes you powerful and effect and the other side well it’s not quite so positive and that is you might begin to compare your self against the industry and rather than striving to grow or change you might use it as a crutch during the hard times of to justify your own short falls.  Well wake up  great people never run at the average doesn’t matter what they do the great one beat the average and your challenge is to learn how to do that using your knowledge and being creative in what you position and where and how.  Look at the companies who made wagon wheels, wooden round things with spokes that went on horse drawn carriages, once upon a time.  Yep wagon wheels were big business back then, now they don’t need them nearly as much even in third world countries,  How many went on to build rubber tires for cars?  I don’t know it doesn’t matter all we need to know is if they didn’t change with the times and find new products and new customers for those products both old and new then they aren’t around anymore.  They knew their products but were knowledgeable enough to change to survive as a company let alone be on the fore front to dominate the market share for those new products.

TIP: Don’t expect to know it all, but know the resources to get the answers that your Customers are asking. Make sure that you’ve got allies in other departments of your company so that when you have a question, you can get an answer quickly to relay that information to the Customer who is waiting for it. Don’t rely on email for the answer to a question….pick up the phone!

Sales Jobs vs. Sales Careers

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm {no comments}

It’s a Tuesday morning and I log in to email and there’s a note from one of the best Sales Managers I’ve ever known. So of course I open it immediately and not two minutes later I’m acting on his request to call him. Within a minute of the first hello the pleasantries are dispensed with and the topic of the day turns to the sales recruiter who called him and the upcoming interview.

“I’m not looking for a Sales Job” he tells me and as the silence carries over the phone I try not to spit out my coffee wondering why then is he wasting his time when he adds “what I’m looking for is a sales career.” The words that came out of his mouth stunned me. After all this guy has a top notch 20 plus year sales career filled with accolades and quota busting sales work to that many people would die for.
Well that sent me on quite the tailspin. After all sales recruiting isn’t exactly booming in this economy, sales recruiters who ring me are often delusional as they try to lure me away from a solid pay check with new opportunities that have only a slightly greater chance of paying off than a lottery ticket.

We came to the conclusion that no matter what the economic conditions whether it’s a less than stellar recession or a gangbusters boom cycle there are and always will be sales jobs. Even in those dire times if you look hard enough and have the luxury of time there are even great well paying sales jobs to be found.
Sales career they’re different. Finding a position that becomes a sales career whether it’s carrying a bag, being a sales manager or director takes time. It takes commitment, effort, and a network of people who know what you are looking for who are willing to help you.

On the surface the difference between a sales job and a sales career may not seem obvious but take just a minute to consider this. A Career is something you have passion for. A sales career is something that gets you out of bed in the morning with a sense of excitement, purpose and enthusiasm. You can’t wait to talk to customers and prospects, you have a deep seeded personal belief that what your are selling no matter how unglamorous is solving an issue fixing a problem, improving the quality of someone else’s personal or professional life. You could be offering improved efficiency, adding security and peace of mind to their family situation. A career is something you’re proud of.

A sales job is just that, a job. It’s nothing more. It pays the bills. You show up and do what you have must accomplish whatever is necessary and nothing more. I hear it all the time a person who is one industry looking over at another saying I wish I went in to medical sales, I wish I was in software, Ahh those pharmaceutical sales guys have the best gig ever. If its money and opportunity to earn more I get it but be careful because the grass isn’t always greener. From this point out I’m going to ask are you looking for another sales job or a sales career? Because at the heart of that answer it really comes down to Passion vs. Paycheck. Of course if you do it right there is no reason you can’t have both.

When it comes to the Customer Does the Shoe Fit?

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 20, 2009 at 9:00 am {no comments}

It’s important to understand who you want your Customer to be. To truly understand who your customer should be, you’ll need to start with a profile of the Perfect Customer. Is it a one time sale you’re looking for, or someone with whom you can build a long time relationship? Is it a large corporation or a smaller, growing “mom and pop shop”?

Does the shoe fit is not just a question the customer has to answer but one you need to answer for yourself as well.  Are they the right type of client for you.  Do they have realistic and attainable objectives and expectations?  Listen to what they say, then make sure you understand not every prospect is a good fit for you and a sale to the wrong kind of client can not only throw your selling life into a black hole but also your reputation in the market place.

Do you know what your ideal customer looks like, in size and structure, in how they use your products and services?  There can be more than one answer to this but you need to understand the places you play well if not you run the risk of burning a lot of time on the wrong kind of clients rather than a laser targeted approach to the right type of clients.  What parts of an organization does your product touch… sales, marketing, research, manufacturing, operations, or accounting?  Keep in mind that if they pay for it then it always involves the bean counters at a company.

How will they use what you sell.  It is not always what your sales literature says but how it really gets used.

What is the real benefit to them?  Is it tangible and if so can you use calculations like Return on Investment (ROI), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or ROE (Return on Equity)

Advertisers know and use demographic trends to get the most out of their dollars, you need to do the same out of you investment in time.  For example if someone’s retail product hits a 24 and under crowd they aren’t going to spend time reaching people in the late thirties.  Like wise if your typical customer is 50-500 employees why are you prospecting into companies with 20 employees.  Maybe it is an underserved market or maybe you’re spending time in the wrong place.  Going upstream can be the same thing also, are you big game hunting with a pellet gun.  If your offer doesn’t fit well into a particular organization’s size or focus no matter how big the win would be you have to make sure that there is a reasonable chance to walk with a deal.

If the shoe fits, have you determined where to poke holes in the other guy’s armor?  It can’t be mud slinging or disparaging them in any way but that said it doesn’t mean that it has to be a level playing field.  Turn every advantage you can get into them running up hill laboriously at the customer and you running down hill with great ease and even greater speed.  How you ask.  Lets say you work for a manufacture and your in the deal directly with the client knowing that you’ll direct it to a partner later in the process.  Your competition is another manufacturer but their partner is at the dance with out them.  Looks like a who really loves who situation, after all is the clients business so unimportant that they can’t spend a little time with the customer.  Another way is brand one and brand two are competing and while brand 2, you win against more than your fair share of the time (keeping in mind that there is never a level playing field)  but when their partner gets involved you lose more than average what do you do to win.  Keep it a manufacturer’s level conversation on business strategy that you can help drive from the very top levels of the prospects organization rather than letting the people who love the competition drive the sale.

Anyone who has been in sales has most likely heard the term FUD Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.  So prepare and preemptive strike where the competition usually targets you allowing you to drive home those strengths and then add your unique value to the equation and deal in a little bit of fear about choosing someone else over your solution and you have the start of the formula. Think of FUD in terms of helping your Customer securing their network for example. For anyone who has ever been hit by a computer virus, this is truly a buying motive.  Or perhaps you’re selling a product or service and your Customer’s aren’t yet clear on the benefits of it.  Clearly define your solution by helping your Customer understand what your solution can do for them and how they will utilize it in the future.

FUD – fear, uncertainty, doubt,  will most certainly come into play if your products aren’t perceived as the industry leader. You will need to spend more time showing the merits of your products positively against your competition.

Understand your competition! Compare your products against them. Know exactly where your products stand up again their competitors. Above all, present your comparison in a positive manner. You’ll find that most competitors sling mud rather than presenting themselves on their merits….be bold enough to speak in positives and you will win.

TIP: Have a customer “profile” ready. Understand the profile of your customer and target only those prospects that fit the profile. Bear in mind that this customer profile will most likely change as market conditions change, so it’s important to stay current.

If they look at their shoes…I’ve got them

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 14, 2009 at 8:59 am {no comments}

All too often we forget that it is really the little things that make the difference, perhaps even more so when it comes to making sales and caring for customers.   All too often people are tempted to go off and tackle the big issues, to move mountains to prove their ability to make things happen, meet the customers needs and make the sale. Instead of taking on the easy one.

Also often over looked is that at the heart of every business no matter what kind a restaurant, salon, landscaper, retailer, insurance, or even medical you need a customer and a sale to stay in business.  The problem is simple you need to know what your customer is buying and offer that to them. Also it helps to know when you’ve got a live prospect you can turn into a customer.  Do you know that and even if you do when was the last time you thought about how to improve it?

Walking through an airport and past the shoe shine guys have you ever considered them sales men?   If not pay attention next time, it’s not a complex transaction but at the very heart of what they do they are selling a service.  One you could perform for yourself for far less in only a little more time. Some sit there waiting for customers to walk up and ask for a shine.  They take the sale and sit and wait for the next customer to show up.  Just like a sales person carrying a bag who is nothing more than an order taker business shows up you meet the need and wait for more to show up.

Others proactively call out when times are slow to prospects as they approach “Need a shine”,  “ I can clean those up for you”   The equivalent of looking for prospects when your funnel isn’t quite so full and after you’ve realized that.   Doing what it takes to stay just  a little busy.

Then there are the great ones they have one guy in the chair they’re working on, another seated next to him waiting and a third just waiting to take a seat all the while the minute they have two seat they are looking for the third. There is always a fresh supply of prospects and they don’t discriminate if you’ve got on dress shoes or boots they’re asking if you want a shine. Men or women they are asking if they can help.

Sure most people say no but that is the nature of sales most people will say no but some will say yes and others if they are happy with they service they’ve bought will come back looking for that same person.  Keep in mind that its for a 5 dollar purchase with a 2-3 dollar tip.

Are they selling shiny shoes?  Not at all.  It is the experience?  Some of the value adds are comfortable seat, a few minutes of rest, maybe a paper or even a good friendly conversation and sage like advice.

What is really getting purchased?  They offer their customers is what a good looking pair of shoes represent, professionalism, success, attention to detail, and a host of other intangibles.

So how do you know if your customer is interested?  In one guys opinion it was simple “If they look at their shoes I know I’ve got them!”

Why a Website isn't Online Marketing

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 8, 2009 at 6:05 pm {no comments}

Let’s start with some cold hard facts.  Do you have a website?  Chances are you do since these days even people’s dogs have websites.   Sadly a lot of those vanity sites for people’s Pooches are getting more visits than your corporate site.

There have been a few widely held beliefs since business started moving to the web.

1)      Your web site should be just like your printed collateral

2)      People care about cool look and feel and will be amazed and want to do business with you because your so cool

3)      Your website and its content should be an integral part of your sales and marking plan and not a stand alone item.

On line Marketing is not a business card or brochure.  So if you subscribed to that idea then odds are you didn’t and aren’t doing to good in that arena.   Cars sell because they are cool but only in some cases most of the time they appeal to other factors such as safety, reliability, general brand image in the consumer’s mind and yes some times because they are cool.

So now looking at the third point there are a few things you need to answer for yourself.   First off what is the purpose of your web site?  Have you ever asked the question?   Better yet have you ever answered it?

We’ll assume for the moment that the sole purpose of your website isn’t to create business and sell product or services without other sales channels.  If you’re running a web only business, etailer, ebay store or other similar online venture your needs are the same as we are going to discuss but how you position and react act to them are even more important.

For the moment though lets assume that you have a “traditional business model”, one that has sales people either inside or outside, customer service, brick and mortar as they like to say in the press.    That doesn’t mean you don’t need to be online and properly positioned.  In fact the reality is that you do and that need is increasing every day.

I hear you scoffing at me “Oh sure look at the social reject with the glasses and the pocket protector telling me about needing to be online!”  Guess what chump call me a geek all you want.  Facts are facts I’m a geek and if you are not worried about your Web strategy and customer experience and  positioning you do and not only do you need to have a web strategy that is integrated with the objectives of the rest of the organization I’ll go so far as to tell you that if you don’t you are going to be on the down ward slide until you’re out of cash.

Am I say to change everything and go to a pure web based model?  No that in most cases would be stupid for a traditional brick a mortar business.  but answer these questions

1)      Who are you customers

2)      Who do you want to be your customers

3)      How do they search and research suppliers?

4)      If they  went looking for what you sell would you even show up at the dance or would you still be back in your office staring at a disappointing sales report?

5)      How many people see your website daily weekly, or monthly?

6)      How Easy is it to get those numbers? (It shouldn’t take a crystal ball to find out)

7)      What are the looking at, how many are new people, how long are they on your site and is it bringing you any business?

Facts are facts if you run a sales organization or company and your customers aren’t Amish its time to get your game together. Can you find useful information on your website with out a map, a compass, three special forces units from marketing.

Looking at what you learned from years of making a business work and the questions above.   Answer

A few cautions

Any web based strategy has to be grounded in good solid business.

Knowing your customers, your products and where you fit is key.

Just like prospecting and business development if you stop putting in the time then the results will stop coming too

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is only part of the key.   A first page ranking on google is nice but is it for the right thing and is for what people are looking for?

Marketing Organizations Are Part of the Sales Team

Filed under Sales and Marketing by on August 8, 2009 at 2:37 pm {no comments}

I know tell you something you don’t know because that added to your good looks, hope and 5 bucks might get you a cup of coffee but not any business.

The old saying actually went something like “yeah well that and 50 cents will buy you a cup of coffee.” But with inflation and all the fancy pants designer coffee folks are toting around 5 bucks just seemed to fit better.

Now look at the 5 bucks you spend a day on coffee, does it really get you anything? Ok maybe you wake up, get that little caffeine buzz going for a while and basically you threw good money at your little fix for a short term return. I’m not picking on coffee drinkers I happen to be a huge junkie of that product myself.

What about your business strategy and more important your new business strategy and is your company’s marketing budget doing anything to help drives sales?

When was the last time you tried something new. Tried to change it, tried to improve your new business approach or for that matter measured the money you keep dumping into the same old thing and the same predictable lackluster sales results. Business cards are important, do the sales folks get nearly as jazzed up about the new 4 million color brochure with non offensive stocks photos as Marketing does? Yeah I didn’t think so.

And that my friend is where the disconnect is. Marketing is supposed to dream up cool new stuff but rarely if ever does it tie into what you really need in the field to drive business. Concept pieces are nice but they don’t close business and if you’re like most company’s your online strategy has followed suit and is noting more than a company website that is a digital version of a leave behind old school paper brochure.

Its like you look nice, your mother would be so proud that you’ve cleaned up so well but at the end of the day its simply not enough to look great in the world you have to have substance. You have to use your own experience and expertise. Tell them what your good and help them benefit from it. Create a need or fill an existing one. Give them the steak and the sizzle and scream it from the roof tops.

Still doubt me, how many business cards have you handed out on sales call, during trade shows, industry events, and even during social functions when introduced. Odds are hundreds of them if not thousands. Fancy business cards are nice but basic ones are OK too. Odds are most of those and I’ll take a guess here 85% end up in a some type of card file system, whether its and old school Rolodex and a staple holding them in place to a box filled with them, to the fancy new card scan systems. Where you put them doesn’t matter its what you do with them that does.

Now think about a typical brochure for a favorite program, product offer, or sales widget. You go to a trade show and 50 of them are in your bag from the other vendors who are there. Maybe you dump them out on the floor in your room and rifle through them, perhaps you read a couple but chances are most of the get looked at for a few seconds and then discarded.

Why because there is no connection to them, no person behind the information, its just a sterile piece of information that is about as emotionally or intellectually engaging as a encyclopedia. What does a box of business cards cost? 5 Bucks for 1000? 20 Bucks for 1000 if they’re really fancy and on king like quality paper. Now what do your brochures cost? My guess is between 50 cents and 3 bucks a piece. Odds are you get better value out of the business card.

Am I suggesting that you stop printing brochures, and go only to business cards. No but I’m suggesting that you take your marketing and online strategy for a little run. Make a few folks break a sweat. Invite the people who put that drivel together to a lot of actual customer meeting and tell them to keep their mouth shut and listen. Write in their job descriptions, bonus them on actually getting it right. Then do the tough thing in the postmortem meetings on what they’ve learned. Be a leader and kill all the glitzy feel good stuff that they like and go forward with things that will impact your business for the better.

What was the expense? What was the call to action and what was the return good or bad? Don’t take the easy answer that it created awareness that’s “Marketing speak for we have no Clue”

Once upon a time a large and I mean multi billion dollar organization hired a Chief Marketing officer to brand the company. So the CMO ran off and created great and wild creative campaigns targeted all over the place. The were so good in fact that they won tons of awards on a global scale but there is only one problem. The CMO had a budget that was less the 1/5 of the their biggest competitor but that wasn’t the problem they had a market dominating share of the business. The problem was is the marketing wasn’t focused on what mattered. It didn’t drive old customers to buy more or create new customers and said company lost market share year after year.

Look at what is in your premium information, including printed material and website. Think about who you do business with and why they do business with you and then treat it like an opportunity to introduce others to it. Is it helping to feed the sales organization and putting money back in the cash register or is marking a black hole that no one has any clue about other than the stuff looks pretty and arrives late?

When you spend money on marketing it is no different than anything else in business you’re investing your money. Would you keep a dud sales person around for ever because you didn’t want to deal with it? What about a customer service person who creates customer or morale problems with their work habits or attitude? Yeah I didn’t think so. So are you getting anything out of that constantly redesigned pretty digital money pit that is you on line presence or lack there of?

Next time we continue you the conversation and will help some of you out of the dark ages of business development with some on line marketing basics in “Why a Website isn’t online marketing and social media isn’t just for kids”

Now unless I’m mistaken you need to get some marketing folks in front of customers, have some budgets to review and may you need to refill your coffee. Changes after all is best done one step at a time.