I was a huge A-Team fan as a kid. One of the more popular catch phrases came from John “Hannibal” Smith when he would exclaim, “I love it when a plan comes together.” The A-Team always had a plan and the A Team always won their mission. (Even though I was pretty sure they were doomed in almost every episode.) I like to compare my sales team to the A-Team every now and again. Sure we don’t stack up in a lot of the categories that you may think of. Despite my pleas to the CEO we have no weaponized van, no combat experience and no large, men with mohawks to intimidate our foes. We do however have one thing that the A-Team has, a plan, and that plan helps us to win our mission.
I suggest that sales reps create a desired order of events with specific goals before EVERY meeting (aka a plan). It takes about 10 minutes and it will make a world of difference when you are trying to move a prospect along and find out whether they may become a customers or are just tire kickers. Here is a basic format to start with. Keep in mind that this format will change quite a bit depending on the level of the call. A discovery call will have a pitch added in, a proposal call would have an ROI section, etc… These are just some of the universals.
Intro: It is amazing to me how many people don’t jot down or memorize a quick intro into the call. It is about 5 lines that set the table for the rest of the meeting. Talk about why you are having this meeting, what the goal is and what the format is.
Questions: It is said that we have two ears and one mouth because we are supposed to listen more than talk. Truth be told I think we have two ears because we’d look foolish with one and our hearing would be awful. That being said, you should have thoughtful questions prepared before you go into each meeting. The more well thought out the questions the better the information you will get in return. Use those ears and let your prospect answer without cutting them off.
Discussion Points: There are things that you want your prospect to know. It may be that you have worked in their industry before and have great experience, it may be that they are partnered with a company you work with and it could even be as simple as you are from the same area as one of the prospects you are talking to. Write these down and use them at timely junctions within your meeting.
Concerns: Sales reps use a lot of interpretation to discover the concerns the prospect may have about signing a contract with them. “We’ll he said he likes chicken more than fish…..big red flag right there”. I take a different approach. When you are trying to find out if a prospect has concerns, you should just ask them. “Bob thus far do you have any concerns that I can address.” The key is to make sure that you address your prospect’s fears before you move on to the next step. There is nothing worse than losing a deal at proposal because there was a misinterpretation of something you said in the discovery call, but you never addressed it.
Follow up: Set the stage for your next meeting based on the results of the one you are in the process of completing. This could be an exploration of a concern they have, an onsite demo, a proposal review, etc... The point is you should let your prospect know that there is a next step and that next step has purpose and should be important to them.
Sitting in a meeting where the sales rep has no plan is painful. The rep rambles in and out of thoughts not finishing one before cruising into another leaving the prospect to try and piece together what the sales rep was trying to get across. “Well, that’s an hour of life I will never get back.” Is not what you want your prospects saying when they get out of a meeting with you. Have a plan. Be the A-Team.
Happy Hunting!
Happy Friday!
Well, it’s the “unofficial” last weekend of summer…but not the end to some great blogs from our team.
I found a great blog this week that really mirrors what we try and keep in mind every day here at AG. In Barb Giamanco’s blog titled: The Great Sales Lead Generation Debate. She talks about the constant discussion on Quality vs. Quantity, and the importance of having a healthy balance. It’s a great read as it puts both sides into perspective.
Monday, August 30th
Does your inside sales team have the tools to succeed? – Ilona Jazdowska discusses in her blog the tools she’s found to be a most useful when it comes to performing successfully in inside sales.
“I have had the opportunity to work for a variety of clients. Some coming right out of the gates with little to no name recognition (some with products still in Beta!), companies with cutting edge technology, others part of the Fortune 500. From my experience, I know what I need to be successful. I am going to share with you some of the preliminary homework that you need to do in order to make your time and investment as successful as possible…”
Tuesday, August 31st
Do Your Inside & Outside Sales Communicate Well? – Craig Ferrara offers some great insight into his past work experiences and how communication is key in sales success.
“It seemed so foreign to me to not be allowed to communicate directly with the outside sales reps. at the hotel we would simply call or walk down to the department we needed answers from. Even if it wasn't the most pleasant conversation, we eventually found some common ground which allowed the team to work more seamlessly from that point forward.”
Thursday, September 2nd
5 Questions To Ask Before Sending Out That Sales Proposal– Chris Lang discusses 5 important questions that you should be asking yourself before you send out the sales proposal.
“Sometimes sales reps act like used car salesmen. “What’s it gonna take to get you into this storage solution?” “Look at this encryption right here…it’s just beautiful and I’m willing to give it to you for half the price!” The pitch is feature and not value focused and then a proposal is given to the prospect, often times without even hearing what the prospect’s full set of needs are. Not shockingly, close rates are usually low when the sales process is less complex than that of the ice cream man selling to a toddler. (He always got me with the Choco Taco) Here are a couple of questions to ask, pre-proposal, that will ensure your prospect is ready to move forward...”
That sums it up! We hope Earl doesn’t ruin your weekend! Be safe and we’ll see you Tuesday!
Sometimes sales reps act like used car salesmen. “What’s it gonna take to get you into this storage solution?” “Look at this encryption right here…it’s just beautiful and I’m willing to give it to you for half the price!” The pitch is feature and not value focused and then a proposal is given to the prospect, often times without even hearing what the prospect’s full set of needs are. Not shockingly, close rates are usually low when the sales process is less complex than that of the ice cream man selling to a toddler. (He always got me with the Choco Taco) Here are a couple of questions to ask, pre-proposal, that will ensure your prospect is ready to move forward.
1) Do they believe in your industry? The first question you have to answer is whether or not the prospect buys not into your particular solution, but into the idea of using a solution at all. EG: AG Salesworks is an outsourced demand generation firm. When I am selling to prospect I have to make sure that they are amicable to using an outside firm at all before I can pitch them on why use AG over a competitor. I can spend an hour talking about how we do things differently than (XYZ firm) and make a great case, but it won’t matter if my prospect doesn’t believe in outsourcing to anyone at all.
2) Do they believe you are a better than your competition? This one seems obvious, but you have to make sure that the prospect knows that you are the best solution for their problem. Do not go into a proposal wondering if you are number 2. If you aren’t the best company, how will you have any chance of winning the deal? You will have to drop the price and lower the perceived value of your solution. Margins decrease, you are put into a commodity bucket and you set a bad tone for future sales efforts as you have now shown that you can be beat down on price.
3) Have you addressed ALL the influencers’ concerns? Most sales managers love what we do. We can increase their forecast and keep them working on active sales opportunities. That being said, the CFO might not think we are necessary. The VP Marketing that splits the budget for this thinks that outsourced programs aren’t needed and that sales should work harder, and the demand generation manager has someone that they have known for years that they would love to give the contract to. Make sure you know every single person that will have an influence on the decision and that you have alleviated all concerns that they have. If you leave something to be questioned…it will be.
4) Do you really know what the prospect needs? Have you taken the time to actually listen to what the prospect needs and then created an action plan that addresses those needs? Furthermore, are you confident that your team can provide exactly what the prospect is expecting? If you don’t know what the prospect is looking for and you don’t know that you can provide the right solution; you shouldn’t be trying to solve their problem. Your prospect will see through this and your contract is liable to be trash bound.
5) Are they comfortable with the price? I always like to talk price well before I even get close to a proposal. If you are afraid to talk about the cost of working with you then you are afraid that your solution is not worth the money. If someone can’t afford you based purely on numbers, then why would you continue to pitch to them? On the other hand, if they can afford you, but they think you are too expensive, you have to show them why the cost is what it is. “Yes we are more expensive, but here is why.” Make sure that your prospect knows not only your price, but why your price is what it is. When it comes down to the final 2 and you are more money than the other option; you had better make sure that your prospect knows that you are worth the extra money.
Having a lot of proposals out does not necessarily mean that you will be closing a ton of revenue. If anything, sending out proposals too early will lead to low close rates, inaccurate forecasts one very irate VP Sales. Don’t be afraid to slow down the sales process even if your prospect is asking for a proposal. Telling your prospect that you can’t send them a proposal until you fully understand their needs is not a bad thing. If anything it can be a major trust builder and a differentiator between you and the 5 other sales execs that put proposals out after one meeting. Do not send a proposal when the prospect asks for it, send a proposal when they are ready for it.
Happy Hunting.
Sales cycles are longer right now. This is one of the unfortunate realities that a lot; if not all sales executives have to deal with. Blue birds that used to close in a matter of weeks now take months or even multiple quarters with painful negotiations that drag on and on……and on. I consistently have conversations with sales VPs that are looking for easy, quick fix ways to bring their sales cycles down. Though there are some excellent marketing tools out there, I believe in some of the tried and true methods that we often forget about in our pursuit to recreate the wheel.
1) Sell based on value. A good sales person loves the product that they sell. When I talk to them their love of the product often leads to long discussions on features and functionality. Features and functions are pain easers and while everyone wants their jobs to be easier, CFO’s don’t prioritize funds for a solution that will make someone’s day better. People buy based on 3 major motivations: to make money, to save money or to mitigate risk. If your product is seen as a “nice to have”, it can wait to be purchased. You have a much higher chance to close a deal quickly if you are able to sell based on value and show the prospect how this will help their company’s bottom line.
2) Pick up the phone. Cold calling is tough to do. It takes a lot of time, a ton of effort and you have to deal with a lot of rejection. Despite these factors, if done properly, it is the fastest way to build fully qualified sales opportunities. The reason for this, it is discriminatory. If you are trying to shorten your sales cycle you do not want a ton of unqualified leads coming your way. Simply put, you don’t have the time to weed through them and separate the wheat from the chaff. Cold calling allows you to go directly to decision makers, pitch your value, qualify them in or out and advance the sales cycle in one call.
3) Aim high. When you have time you can get away with selling lower in organizations just to get an “in” and then navigate your way up. When time is short you should be selling to as high a level as possible. This of course is much tougher to initiate, but again when time is short you do not have the luxury of nurturing low level contacts in hopes that they will escalate this for you. Getting someone that will be a champion for you is great. Finding the person that signs the check is much better. Even if the person on top passes you down (which often happens) you at least have an endorsement from the right person. If my boss tells me to take a meeting with someone I take it seriously. If that person were to call me without the endorsement from my boss I am more likely to blow them off.
I certainly encourage all sales and marketing executives to find new ways to increase their forecast. However, you should not turn your back on the proven methods that work just because they are “old school” and in many cases tougher to do. Roll up your sleeves, do the dirty work and close some deals.
Happy Hunting!
I just finished reading a great article from Josh Stailey with The Pursuit Group regarding how to best deliver “sales- ready- leads”.
http://www.imakenews.com/thepursuitgroup/e_article001828768.cfm?x=bhcrTyc,b26bn4tC
He touches on the misaligned expectations that exist between marketing and sales (my favorite topic) and how it results in limited attention being paid to those early-stage opps. As a result, most of them run the risk of falling through the cracks. Josh makes some excellent suggestions to prevent this from happening such as leveraging technology, launching an effective inbound marketing program, along with the use of metrics to link marketing leads/programs to revenue growth. But the most important suggestion he made (in my mind anyway) was building an effective lead nurturing process and I wanted to expand a bit on this..
Josh points out that nurture process can last for months, so both marketing and sales need to have an action plan in place to stay on that prospect's radar. At AG it's simply "the call plan". While I’m a firm believer in leveraging every tool at your disposal, we’ve learned the hard way that no matter how creative you get in reaching out to your prospects, nothing beats a good ol' fashioned phone call.
The last thing we want is that gap between your sales and marketing team to become a place where sales leads go to die. To prevent this from happening I suggest start by putting a call plan in front of your inside sales team. Step one should involve following up on any inquiry (assuming it's been scrubbed in some way) within 48 hours. As we all know, the longer a lead ages it becomes less and less likely the lead will convert to an opportunity for your sales team.
Most inside sales teams recognize the importance of continual follow-up with our prospects, but what we learned over the years is that you cannot rely solely on email or solely on the phone. It requires an effective combination of the two to quickly determine if an interest exists now or down the road. The problem with using email alone is that it tends to be less personal and the prospect may feel less inclined or compelled to contact you when they are starting to evaluate. When you rely only on the phone, you'll recognize, as many do in teleprospectng, that people rarely call you back. As a result you might find yourself out of the loop on the details when let's say they are actually getting close to potentially putting out an RFI/RFP.
The theory behind our call plan is that you can't assume that your prospect will ever respond to you. A consistent and deliberate approach combining both phone and email will greatly increase the chances that you will hear back. Hey- it may not be the response you are looking for, and you may get some folks that aren't all that fond of your persistence...but at the very least it will allow you to determine if the prospect is worth pursuing further and how much nurturing may be required.
Over the last 5 years or so I’ve interviewed a wide range of candidates for our business development role here at AG. They all have a variety of backgrounds from 10+ years of inside sales experience on down to a recent college graduates anxious to get their feet wet in the sales world. What I’ve discovered is that nothing surprises me anymore.
Now I wouldn't consider myself to be the toughest person to interview for. I usually try to play the role of good cop and allow the other folks I work with make the candidate squirm with the extra tough questions. My goal is to get a true understanding of whether or not the person is interested in working on my team. And are they someone that I can see myself spending 40-50 hrs a week working with. I recognize that I can't expect every solid candidate I interview to be someone that I want to head out and grab a beer with, but at the very least will they add value to AG? Could they challenge me to be better at my job? My president made a good point recently ..."If I'm thinking at any point during an interview that I want to "help" this person, then I probably shouldn't hire them. We’re not offering charity here; we're trying to bring in people that will help to grow the business."
Usually I try to set the scene by being relatively laid back in an attempt to draw out the interviewee's personality. Our culture is extremely important so I want to bring in people that I know can add to our work-place and co-exist peacefully with others. After a little small talk like ... any trouble finding the office? where are you from? ..I'll start with my first softball question to get them comfortable... So what interested in you the Business Development Representative role here at AG? Well apparently that isn't the easiest question for some candidates. A couple of my favorite responses include.. "Well if you worked at my current company then you would probably be looking for a new job too" or another beauty "The summer was over and I figured it was time to look for a job. Your company just happened to be the first company to call me back." Both true stories.
C'mon people since this is a sales job you need do a better job on selling ME on why YOU want to work at my organization.
Here are 6 warning signs to look for when a candidate comes in to interview for your company. Yes they may seem like interviewing 101 to some of us...but I've been unpleasantly surprised.
1) They trash their current or previous employer:
My first thought when people get into this is “ hmmm well golly, what will they say about me if they don’t agree with a decision I make?”
2) No research has been done on the company or the role they’re applying for:
If I’m going to spend a half hour of my time with you …then come PREPARED! I’ve fielded some interesting responses to my question asking them to explain to me what they understand that the job will entail. My favorite was “I’ll be selling office furniture here, right?” Nope sorry buddy…you might be confusing us with your last interview. Another true story.
3) They have little to no questions regarding the role they are applying for or on the company itself:
As with #2 above come prepared, surely there are a few things you would like to know about the role and the company.
4) They make their first or second question about the sales compensation plan or better yet vacation time:
I can respect that people are interested in what their compensation will look like, especially since they are applying for a sales job and all….but at least butter me up with questions about the job and AG Salesworks. And the vacation time question speaks for itself.
5) They never look you in eye:
At this point I’m thinking..”You got something to hide partner?” I understand they may be applying for a teleprospecting job that doesn’t require eye contact, but quite simply I’m not going to hire someone that I feel I can’t trust off the bat.
6) No follow-up email is sent after the interview thanking the company for their time:
Seems to me that this is common courtesy these days, if they want the job badly enough, they should go through the effort of typing up a simple thank you email.
From my experience as a hiring manager this has been a great way to identify a legitimate candidate from the rest of the field. It can at least be a better way of weeding out the folks that you are on the fence with. If they exhibit any of the warning signs above it may be time to remove them from the pool.
I was looking at my blogs over the last few months hoping for some inspiration for this week’s post and realized that I’ve been at this for just about a year. At least once a week I’ve “attempted” to come up with some original and compelling content to discuss, and I’m not gonna lie there certainly have been some weeks that I’ve struggled.
My first thought when I was tasked with writing my blog last year was- Isn’t this something that the Marketing team should be handling? I mean what value can a sales guy or sales ops guy add to the process? My second thought was, is it possible for me to come up with a unique topic to discuss after a few months of doing this? But as my VP of Marketing pointed out at the time - “You’d be surprised at the variety of topics you can come up with the experience you have gained helping to run this business for the past 5 years”
Well, I can honestly say that as much of a challenge as this has been on occasion, I cannot deny how valuable the process has been for me. What I’ve discovered is that blogging should not just be reserved for your marketing team. Our president, directors, sales team, sales ops, training team on down to our business development reps have all been included in the process.
What I’ve recognized, along with my fellow bloggers here at AG, is there is so much we can discuss when it comes to teleprospecting and cold calling. Hell, we talk about it in theory all day long with our management team and employees so why not use this as a collaboration tool for our organization along with all of the other sales teams out there trying to accomplish the same thing. Not only that but if you truly take the time to sit down to think of a topic, you can come up with unique content or at the very least take another spin on a topic you’ve already covered. By having to put these ideas on paper, this process has forced me to methodically think about what I do on a daily basis.
As I was looking back at all of the AG blogs over the past year, there were a few concepts discussed that are not always being put into action as regularly as I would like. This process, I’ve discovered, has also been a great way to self police myself and others I work with. Again, it’s great to talk about all of this in theory but if you are not putting it to practice then what’s the point? Practice what you preach baby!
Another fortunate benefit of this entire process is all of the great content I've been exposed to from other folks who understand what it takes to effectively cold call and to motivate inside sales teams. It has also provided me food for thought on the variety of ways I can manage my group. Here are a few blogs I would highly recommend reading - Paul Castain's Sales Playbook and Smashmouth B2B Blog: Sales & Marketing Demand Gen
If you, or your team are not active contributors to the blogosphere, consider giving it a try. At the very least it can get you thinking about best practices as it relates to your business and can expose you to other great content out there that could inspire you to become a better manager/employee/colleague/ Dance instructor…you name it.
My nephew Mike has “IT”. Even at the age of 3 you can already tell. Mike is a little rough around the edges and he’s a small, scrappy guy for his age. That being said, he will work hard for something he wants and nothing short of an act of God will stop him until he gets it. Last week, my sister had made brownies for everyone to have for desert. Mike had a couple and like any 3 year old he went back for seconds and thirds only to be told “no” by my sister as he had already had several. After some mild complaining he gave up, or so we thought. My sister woke up at about 3am to some rustling downstairs. She walked down quietly to see what it was. She flipped the light on in the kitchen to see that Mike had dragged a dining room chair in the kitchen and stacked about 10 books on top of it so that he could climb the books and reach the brownies which were in a pantry about 6 feet up. The brownie supply had been decimated by a 27 lbs ball of determination. The chair was heavy and the books were huge, it must have taken him a while. He looked at my sister and said, “Mom, I love brownies, but I love you more.” Mike didn’t get in trouble. He has “IT”.
I’ve been reading a lot of discussions on LinkedIn about what makes a great sales person. I see most of the same words time and time again to describe good sales executives, “Hard working, money motivated, honest, direct, and personable”, to name a few. While all of these are undeniable characteristics of a good sales person, I feel that the biggest factor is often left out, the “IT” factor. “IT” is what the best sales reps have in them and “IT” is hard to find. “IT” is the difference between a rep that makes quota and a rep that crushes the number quarter after quarter.
In my opinion, “IT” is the unique blend of talent and determination that drives the most successful sales executives. People that have the “IT” factor don’t want to be in the top tier of sales executives. They have to be number one. People that have “IT” don’t settle when they reach the top spot. They recreate expectations by beating their own numbers time and time again. People with “IT” do not stop until they have done everything they can do to be as good as they could possibly be. They use 100% of the tools and talents they have and when they run out of every option, they think of one more and try that. There is no half effort from a sales executive with “IT”. There are two modes, off and 100% full steam ahead.
I think everyone should look for the “IT” factor in their sales reps. They’re the ones with all the brownies.
Hiring a new sales rep can be an interesting exercise for us. Our services are not the easiest to sell. We offer a solution that most companies think they can do on their own and for less than they will spend on our services. To compound this issue, a lot of these companies have used other services to solve their problem and have been "burned" by companies that offer pieces of what we do. Picture your shoes being untied as you go for a walk, but you can't bend over to tie them because you have your hands full with groceries. (Yes I know you could put the groceries down, but roll with me here). Anyways, a person comes along and offers to tie your shoes for you for five dollars. Seems to be a waste, but you need the shoes tied so you give the person 5 bucks. He ties your shoes and then as soon as you start walking you fall on your face dropping your groceries all over the street. You look at your feet only to discover the guy has tied your shoe laces together. You tie your shoes the correct way, start walking and they become untied again. Here I come along and say "hey I can tie your shoes for you so that they stay tied, but it will cost 10 bucks". That's a tough sell.
As we think about who to bring onto the team we will look at what always appears to be a million resumes. Each one has the true sales spin on it, using terms such as rainmaker, self starter and my favorite, elephant hunter. Many of them look great and I would be happy to hire several of them, though the "elephant hunter" seemed to be logical choice to me. I mean hell, if a guy can bring down an elephant, he can surely sell our solution. My CEO will look at all the resumes, listen to my recommendations and then proceeded to ignore all of them. He often prefers to hire the guy with a total of 0 days experience selling solutions like ours. He explains, "He has all the tools to do this job and no one knows it yet." I would be skeptical to say the least, but fast forward 6 months, and the guy is a rainmaker. How does this happen? Not that I get upset about it, but I thought for sure that we needed to invest significantly in someone with plenty of experience to get the job done.
As it turns out the inexperienced candidates greatest weakness was can be his greatest strength. They are a blank slate. As the person responsible for training I did not yet understand this. I would have to show him who to call, when to call, what to say, what steps to follow, how to prepare a proposal, how to negotiate, hell even how to dress for different meetings. I quickly realized how much easier it was to train someone who just listened and learned, and did not have any preconceived notions or bad habits to undo. Absorbing every piece of information I could throw at them, following our processes to a T. A lot of experienced reps would have used their knowledge from past sales experience to guide them in their sales process. This could be great. Then again, this could be awful. Our sales process is a bit unique and more than a couple of reps have come to us thinking they were going to crush their number only to leave with their tail tucked between their legs. As these inexperienced new hires grow into their roles, I am always pleasantly surprised with how fast they pick things up.
When I relay my surprise with how well they are doing to my CEO, he explains: "What I look for in a sales rep is work ethic, intelligence, personality and the willingness to learn. The sales process can be taught. The personality traits cannot. I trained you and you were a lot further behind than him. Now you are training him. The goal is to have all of us sell the same way, to have the same message and the same great results. It takes a bit more work, but the end result makes it worth it." He has created a process to develop a sales team that emulates the behavior and has the passion of the first person to successfully sell our solution, himself. There is no replacing a great experienced sales rep. They bring industry knowledge, they are usually up and running quickly, they have contacts and they don't need to be closely watched over. That being said, you may want to look into bringing on some unproven sales executives into the mix at some point. They are a clean slate ready to learn and execute the sales process in the way that you would like. If you have the time, they could be well worth the investment.
Busy week for us at AG!
We discussed how feedback and collaboration are important for success in inside sales, and learn some tips on how to be Proactive as opposed to Reactive in order to have a successful Teleprospecting Campaign. We also released our 3rd Viral Video that shows a bit of the unusual yet interesting “pre call” rituals we’ve discovered in our BDR’s.
I’d like to thank Mike Damphousse from Green Leads for highlighting our post from last month in his blog this week, B2B Lead Generation Can Take The Heat Of Summer. In his entry he raises some great points on having a different mindset for lead generation in the summer, and that it’s not as slow as you may think!
Monday, July 12th
Feedback is the Key To Inside Sales Success! – Chris Lang offers great advice on the importance of feedback survey’s to measure the success of the meetings/appointments that your inside sales team is setting you up with.
“After a sales rep has a discovery call or introductory meeting that was set up by your inside sales team, send them a quick email. The email is going to gauge the quality of the opportunity sent. I list 3 questions that the sales rep has to reply to:…”
Tuesday June 13th
Collaboration Is Key With Your Inside Sales Team – Craig Ferrara discusses the usefulness of getting your team to work together and offer their thoughts and opinions on the work they do every day.
“The beauty of an exercise like this is you are encouraging individuality and creativity with your inside sales team AND their ideas are being exposed to both their team members and management.”
Thursday July 15th
Avoid Being “Reactive” For A Successful Teleprospecting Campaign – Nicole Puddester addresses the importance of being proactive as opposed to reactive in order for you to have a successful teleprospecting campaign.
“To ensure the success of a project, everyone has an important job to do. Communication can be so important to get this job done. If you are picking up on one of these “red flags,” it is important to address this immediately.”
So there you have it! Please be sure to check out our latest Viral Video: "AG’s Got Talent…” and enjoy a laugh get a taste of some of the culture we have here at AG. Have a great weekend!