I just bought I car this weekend. I have been considering a purchase for a while and looked at many brands. I wanted a new car, but did not really need one, at least not right away.
After visiting 6 or 8 dealerships I had decided to keep my car for a while longer. After all, I love my car and really didn't need a new one. Then as I drove by a large dealership near where I live, I thought, what the heck I will just see what they have. An hour later I drove out of the dealership with a new car. I love it! What happened? My sales rep, Ed made it really easy to buy. I told him I wanted a lower payment, more options, maintenance and tire and wheel insurance rolled in and did not want to put any money down. Then I braced myself for the negotiating. I would have been happy to land somewhere close.
Ed returned from his finance manager's office with approval for everything I had asked for. I was a bit surprised. All I could say was "OK, let's do it".
All too often I think we make it difficult for our clients to buy from us. We try to fit prospects into our selling process, pricing is not flexible, contracts are onerous, terms difficult to meet. It seems like common sense, but when I sat with my business partner and looked at our process and pricing structure we realized we were not making it easy enough for our prospects to become customers.
While we have been very successful over the past eight years, times have changed. Buyers want increased flexibility and reduced risk. Buying my car was a no brainer; we needed to become a lead generation no brainer for our prospects. I want my prospects to look at our offerings, price, and deal structure and say "why wouldn't we do this". We know our value is tremendous; we just have to give our prospects the chance to find out what a value we are.
Recently we have re-tooled our pricing model to be more accommodating. The reception has been tremendous. We have made it easy to buy and have seen our conversation and conversion rates dramatically improve.
Sometimes you just have to get out of your own way, you won't have to worry about selling so much if you help your prospects buy.
I consider my job as CEO to also include the role of CSO, or Chief Sales Officer.
I work very closely with our sales team and our VP of Marketing to ensure we are an ever improving, world class, Sales & Marketing organization.
A theme I have been focused on lately has been accountability. Accountability is critical for the entire organization, especially sales. As a career sales guy I have heard ALL the excuses (and humbly admit I've used a few before), for not reaching a goal:
- "My quota is unrealistic!"
- "My territory is sub par!"
- "I am not getting enough leads from marketing!"
- "The leads I'm getting are no good!""
The list goes on and on, right?
The bottom line is accountability. All successful salespeople hold themselves accountable. They don't put their success in someone else's hands. They don't wait for something to happen. They make it happen.
In my most recent weekly sales meeting I challenged my team to think of their sales career as their own business. Focusing on doing the things they need to do to get to their number on their own. Make the time to network, to work proactively with marketing, and to work closely with your assigned CDR (Corporate Development Rep). Even if you fall short of reaching 100% of goal on your own, commitment to these behaviors will ensure you reach and exceed your goal when combined with the support provided by your company.
When you are self employed you can not rely on anyone. Successful salespeople don't rely on anyone to close business for them. They may anticipate marketing and a lead gen team to supply them with marketing qualified and sales qualified leads, but they are on their own beyond that. They run their own business, hold themselves accountable, and enjoy the flexibility and high earning potential a sales career can bring.
Sales is critical to every organization - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. If you are a superstar salesperson you can name your price, enjoy great respect and flexibility and be key in growing your company, large or small. But it's not easy. If it were, everyone could do it.
Okay, there's the rest of today left to Q1 of 2010. What are you going to sell today?
It's just a phone. Don't be afraid.
I would like build on my business partner's blog which has stirred up a fair amount of conversation, entitled "Stop telling me cold calling is dead"
I agree with Pete that inbound marketing is important and can help accelerate the sales process, but I also believe that nothing real happens until the first sales conversation.
Unless you are selling a true commodity where price drives the sale, nothing can replace a skilled cold caller with best in class process & execution. There in lies the problem, many want to believe cold calling does not work because they know it is difficult to do well. It is difficult to source, hire and train the right callers and even more difficult to find great managers to drive results day after day, month after month, quarter after quarter.
Cold calling is not just about a butt in a seat with a list and a phone, leaving a few messages and giving up. It is as much an art as it is a science. It takes skilled leadership with a well thought out process (science), balanced with the creation of a culture which combines the right combination of hard work and fun (art). Not an easy task.
I believe many are afraid. Afraid to pick up the phone and sell. Afraid to attempt something where most fail.
I know for a fact that cold calling works. Cold calling is far from dead. I have sold millions and millions of dollars of products and services over the phone over the past 25 years, most of which was generated by a cold call. I have also created a company with Pete and have helped a hundred or more companies over the past eight years close hundreds of millions of dollars in business from cold call originated leads.
I have seen the statistics, as well as the closed revenue. Cold calling just plain works better than any other method.
Other than that, I have no strong opinion on the matter.
Thanks for reading.
I just got back from a ski trip in the Birkshires with my wife and two boys. I love vacation time, absolutely love it. Some people use the fact that "they have not had a vacation in 3 years" as a badge of honor. While I respect and live by a strong work ethic as one of the keys to success philosophy, there is a point of diminishing return. You can always make more money, you can't make more time. Enjoy your time, it's going by faster than you might think.
Clearly few people would argue that taking time to "charge the batteries" is not important. But for me it is more about the healthy shift in mindset that occurs when you get out of the office. It allows you to think about your business and goals from a whole different perspective. With my mind uncluttered by the day to day execution of my business plan, I can think about the philosophy behind what I am trying to accomplish, and what that means to my customers and my company.
So, I used this vacation to think about my sales philosophy. Yes I still think a lot about work when I am "charging;" I love what I do, and it's not work when you love what you do.
I have long believed that providing the customer with value above and beyond their expectations through the sales process and beyond is the most important goal. What I thought about a lot this past week was not what, but how we deliver that value. I find both customers and prospects find it very refreshing when they feel they are working with a trusted advisor who has their best interest in mind. It is much easier to say than it is to do, but when you embrace this philosophy the people you interact with can feel the passion and sincerity and appreciate it. I find it's not that common.
More than once I have sent a potential customer away when I could have convinced them to buy. More times than not, maybe every time, they come back into the fold as a referral source or a client when the time is right. I'm a big believer in karma.
So, I guess my point is keep it simple and straightforward, do the right thing and good things will happen. Someone once said, "give the customer what they need and you will get what you want". Sums it up pretty well, don't you think?
A few weeks ago, we had our
annual sales kickoff meeting. I presented a review of the past and present and laid out the vision of the future, and how we would get there; Operations and Marketing did the same. The theme going into the meeting was to keep the goals for each individual as well as the team, simple, clear and attainable. Given the feedback I received I am comfortable we got the message across effectively.
I felt a strong sense of optimism upon leaving this meeting and saw immediate results upon returning to our offices. Our success in generating leads showed improvement of 20% over the previous week. I have long believed is that nothing extraordinary happens without optimism.
Optimism is contagious. I believe it is my job as a CEO to create, maintain and spread optimism.
Over my 20+ years in sales I have seen the positive effect of optimism on individual sales people and entire organizations. I recall a quote which states “If you believe you can or can’t, you are probably right.” This succinctly states the power of an optimistic attitude.
Of course, optimism cannot be created out of thin air, you must create an environment where individuals believe passionately in the vision of their and their company’s success (a subject for another blog). But once created, it must be nurtured constantly. Celebrate success, learn from failure and always behave in a way that creates opportunity. With opportunity comes success, with success comes optimism. This is the self fulfilling, upward spiral that is optimism.
So, as the AG Salesworks team embarks on helping companies grow their revenues, I will challenge our internal team as well as the Sales and Marketing teams of our clients to make sure they replenish and nurture optimism every day. Nothing good happens without optimism.
*On a completely side note, I'm happy to announce that AG Salesworks is now part of the B2B Marketing Zone, which is a collection of blog posts and articles all about B2B Marketing. We're really excited about being a part of that wonderful community. There is a ton of great information out there about our industry, and B2B Marketing Zone collects it all; it's a great place to learn more. You can check us out there by clicking the badge beneath the authors' pictures to your left.
Each December, I like to reflect on the previous year's challenges and triumphs as I prepare my goals for the following year. 2009 will likely go down as one of my most challenging years. While not without considerable triumphs, this past year had it share of challenges, as the AG Salesworks team navigated through uncharted economic times.
The three major categories I like to look at are business, personal, and family.
A few business lessons:
- Live within your means. Luckily, I have always been pretty responsible in this area. Even so, I learned that I could have done much better. Some things that seem like a must have when times are good, turn out to really be a nice to have. Don't get me wrong, I love nice things, and believe they can add considerable value to our day to day. It's the waste that I can not stand. I love efficiency; it lets me have more resources for the nice things.
- Plan ahead. We can never know what the future will bring, but we can make and educated guess and prepare for the worst. I don't do this because I am pessimistic; I do it for piece of mind. Kind of like insurance, having the resources to weather a challenging year or two can make the difference between dying, just surviving and thriving.
- Don't over leverage. Borrowing is useful and necessary, but, as we have all learned this year, too much of a good thing can bring tremendous pain when the bill comes due. Use debt responsibly. There is a very good chance that if you don't have the money in the bank you can't, and shouldn't afford it.
On the personal side of things, I believe that exercise is critically important not only physical health but also mental health. In order to perform under pressure and stress most effectively, you need to let your body perform physically. I pushed myself harder physically this year than ever before. That reminds me, I need to get a workout in today, I've been slacking a bit lately.
Family is what makes it all worth while, prior to becoming a Dad; I could not have imagined how fulfilling that role would be for me. I count my blessings every day for my beautiful, loving family.
Richard April, our VP of Marketing Services, told me a story last week over lunch. We were discussing family and what our expectations were prior to having kids. Richard told me about a conversation he had with a good friend of his. Richard told his friend "Sometimes I worry about bringing children into this crazy, sometimes even scary world." His friend offered what I thought was very inspirational optimistic advice. He said "The fact that you would be so concerned Richard, all but guarantees you will raise your children to be wonderful people who will make this world a better place."
So, all the lessons in the world are great, but if we don't learn from them and pass them on to our families, friends and co-workers they will have been wasted. I hate waste. Be efficient, pass you knowledge on and help the people around you.
In my next blog I will write about my specific plans to put the lessons I learned in 2009 to good use.