subject: So You Say You Have A Sales Process? [print this page] We recently had a call from a client who said, We have a problem. Our phone isnt ringing anymore and our reps dont know how to pick up the phone and call a stranger.
He isnt alone. Today, most senior salespeoples prospecting skills are either rusty or were never fully developed in the first place. Most cannot effectively prospect, even with a gun to their heads. But in an economy like this one, they have to. There simply arent enough leads being generated through marketing.
Salespeople have to learn how to go beyond lead generation and create demand for their products and services. They must align their personality style to those of their buyers, find a message that resonates with decision-makers, and leverage new Sales 2.0 technologies to cultivate prospects so that they are making warm calls instead of cold ones.
Lead Generation vs. Demand Generation
Lead generation generally refers to selling a known product or solution to a marketplace that already understands the product and recognizes the associated pain it solves. For example, a customer is looking for a new point of sale system to replace their existing one. They are already aware of what the product does and their business pain theyre just looking for a vendor.
In this case, salespeople need complex selling skills to move the process from the logical and rational to the emotional and political to get all of the decision makers on the same page and in favor of their solution over that of the competition.
But prospects may not even recognize what their actual business pain is and, in this case, salespeople must first identify the pain and then create demand for their products and services. This requires a completely different skill set, as salespeople are selling products and services unknown in the marketplace to prospects who may not even know what they need.
Aligning With The Buyer
Demand creation selling has a different rhythm than lead generation. Salespeople are generally approaching a prospect for the first time, so they have to quickly align their personality style to the buyers and uncover a business pain their solution can solve.
There is an old stereotype that, in the south, you talk about football, BBQ, traffic or weather anything other than business for the first 20 minutes. In Manhattan, you have about 30 seconds to get to the point.
Over the years, we have discovered that most people generally fall into one of a handful of personality styles. Understanding your own style and being able to quickly understand your buyers helps with sales alignment especially during prospecting.
For example, if a buyer is a fast-paced, business results-oriented personality type, he or she needs to be approached differently than, say, a buyer who is focused more on relationships. Some buyers want to measure success in the proposal, where others may prefer to buy based solely on the recommendations of others. An analytical buyer may want to see charts and hard numbers from the beginning, while a more relationship-centric buyer may want to get to know you first on a personal level before hearing about what you have to sell.
The burden of flexibility falls on the sales rep. Salespeople must recognize the buyers personality style and align their prospecting efforts and presentations with that style. The first decision a buyer makes is if he like the sales rep. If you have bad alignment, a good message can be lost through a bad messenger.
Probing For Pain, Preference, and Power
In todays competitive environment, if you miss the mark the first time with a prospect, you may not get a second chance.
Even salespeople experienced in consultative selling and probing for business pain often miss the bigger picture because business pain is only part of the way buyers buy.
The strongest salespeople go beyond business pain to uncover individual agendas, previous preference for a competitor, who has buying power on a buying committee and who influences them. It is the art of winning before the demo and its a lost art today in sales.
Executive assistants, for example, should not be seen as barriers or obstacles to reaching an executive. Instead, treat them as well-informed stakeholders. Remember that you are trying to sell to them that you need five minutes to talk to their boss. You have to have a value statement that communicates what you can do for them.
We can save you money is no longer provocative enough everyone says that. The key is hooking into something emotional and political. Sell solutions not commodities. Providing a buyer competitive advantage, a stronger company image, innovation or security are examples of provocative value-ads to spark the interest of the executive who owns the problem and will serve as an entryway into the buying process.
Warming Up The Prospect With Sales 2.0
If youre on a demand creation call, there is little time for discovery.
As a salesperson, you have to be engaging. The best way to do this is with a one-two punch: a combination of Sales 2.0 marketing combined with effective follow-up.
According to Mike Scher, president of FRONTLINE Selling, for every 100 calls a salesperson makes, they will statistically get voicemail or an administrative assistant 92 times. Three people will hang up immediately, four will talk to you because they are being polite, and maybe one will agree to a meeting, he says.
No matter how good you are, they are only going to pick up the phone 8% of the time, said Scher. If you are only spending 20% of your time prospecting and prospects only pick up the phone 8% of the time, you have less than a 2% chance of reaching an executive to talk to them about your solution. But if you touch prospects a number of times, a number of different ways, with a specific message that resonates, statistically, a certain number of people will positively respond to you.
Buyers today have started the evaluation process long before sellers engage. Most buyers are technologically savvy and will visit a companys Website and do their own research before they ever speak with a salesperson, so sales and marketing have to find a way to engage with buyers earlier in the process.
Sales 2.0 adds value to the cultivation process by offering prospects ways to engage on a light basis through various white papers, trial offers, e-books, Webinars, research, etc. The idea is to stimulate interest by sending them different pieces of messaging and collateral tailored to their specific interests.
