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Yes, No, Maybe, Not Now...
Written by Ty Shewmake   
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 13:42
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Yes.  No.  Maybe.  Not Now...

Key Concept: Prospects buy when they're ready to buy - not when you're ready to sell.

We all love it when a qualified prospect just materializes (poof!) with the need, budget, time, authority, and willingness to buy right now.  Right?

In reality, however, how often does this happen?  Discussions with our clients indicate this is the case less than 15% of the time.  That means 85% of the time, there's a reason (at least perceived) that even qualified prospects cannot buy immediately.

Here's the rub:  Producers are paid based on closed sales.  This means producers are focused (primarily) on one thing - close-ready prospects.

Ok, but what happens to the 85% who are qualified prospects, but not ready to buy right now?  Unfortunately (more often than not), at some point (a week, 3 months, maybe a year) they simply fall off the radar - never to be heard from again.

This is what we call "wait-loss".

Wait-loss can affect prospects who just materialize, as well as the business spent thousands of dollars getting in front of.  In either case, this 85% represents the vast majority of potential volume a business could do...

And, more often than not, that 85% majority potential is just oozing out the door.

High-Growth businesses, on the other hand, are good at seizing and retaining clients and prospects.

They do it by:

  • Capturing prospects
  • Engaging prospects

 
 
Sell more by selling less...
Written by Ty Shewmake   
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 00:00
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Sell more.  Stop selling.

Key Concept: Prospects love to buy.  Prospects hate to be sold.

But, nearly every business we see tries to "sell" the prospect.  They meet a prospect, and begin a process of phone calls and letters that goes something like this:

"Hi Tim, how's it going?  Yeah, its been so hot.  Look, we're so great.  We're the best at what you need.  We've got the best XYZ.  Wanna buy from us?"

And off they go - they lather, rinse, and repeat  - hoping to get lucky and call at the instant the prospect happens to need what they're selling.

A call every 14, 30, 60, or 90 days is how they sell.  They'll also send a letter every so often that reinforces to the prospect just how wonderful their (quality, service, staff, experience, etc.) is, then closes with the line "Call me if you'd like to take advantage of all our wonderfulness."

And guess what?  Nobody calls.

That's because prospects don't believe a word you say.

That is the classic sales process.  Now, for something a bit different called the "The Perfect Buying Experience".

Prospects do love to buy.  They love to discover a better way to do what they need to do.  They cherish discovering a better product or service.  They're excited when they find a better process.  They are giddy when they root-out a better quality product.

It's all about their process of discovery.

The Perfect Buying Experience (PBE) is different from the sales process in the following fundamental and important way:

  • Sales Process - Is valuable to the seller...
  • Perfect Buying Experience - Is valuable to the buyer...

The setting for the PBE is what we call a "non-selling" space.  It's a space we create that's full of knowledge, learning, and value for the prospect.  We invite them to join us in that space with a promise that they'll learn and grow while there with us.  We never sell them in the PBE - we educate them.

And, while they're there with us in this unique non-selling space we're gaining their trust, earning credibility, and building rapport.

We've found a major impediment to making the sale to be what we call "buyer's resistance".  Buyer's resistance is that baseball bat we place in the hand of the prospect (and beg them to hit us with) every time we try to sell them our stuff.

Buyer's resistance is the result of every prospect's natural and healthy distrust for sales people (and anyone else) trying to sell them something.  Every prospect has it - it's our job to zero it out.

Inviting them into a PBE (that unique non-selling space) zeroes out buyer's resistance and takes that bat out of their hand...

Next:  Not Now, Eh?
 
Getting to different
Written by Ty Shewmake   
Tuesday, 12 January 2010 00:00
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Ok, you're still the best...

But, as we said, you've discovered all your competitors are telling all your prospects exactly the same thing you are.  Maybe you even compete with bigger, more established, or better funded firms.

So, at best, it's a dead-heat - your drivel versus theirs.  A level playing field that ultimately becomes a game of the lowest price.  At worst, they clobber you with their bigger ad budget, their better pedigree, a bigger staff, and flashy promotional materials.

So, what's a business to do?

You differentiate.  You stop selling and start showing...

There are two ways you differentiate yourself to your prospects: through your message and sales process.

Your Message:
(most) Every business has a unique selling proposition (USP).  A USP is a very handy thing because it tells them what to say when they're selling.  In reality, a USP is nothing more than a list of all those things that make them unique, special, or different.  However, for a USP to be effective, it must be demonstrable.  A USP that yells, service, quality, experience, etc. is ineffective - because it cannot be proven prior to the sale.

Your Sales Process:
Your "sales" process is where you can really differentiate yourself.  Every company promises quality, service, value, etc.  They spend their time convincing the prospect of all the great things that they'll experience as a client - after the sale.  What if (rather than a sales process), you could craft a "buying experience" that demonstrated your value prior to the sale?  

Next:  Delivering The Perfect Buying Experience...
 
It's great to be different...
Written by Ty Shewmake   
Monday, 11 January 2010 00:00
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You're the best and you know it...

You've told the prospect - even explained it in great detail to them but they don't seem to "get" it.  Your solution is a bit more expensive, but after all it is darn well worth it.  That's because you offer all these advantages over your competitors or the incumbent:

  • The Best Staff
  • The Best Service
  • The Best Solutions
  • The Most Experience
  • The Best Reputation

Guess What?  You're showing up like a peddler - and for two good reasons:

  • Your prospects hear exactly the same stuff from your competitors
  • Your advantages cannot be objectively measured prior to a sale

Peddlers (like penguins) are indistinguishable - they all appear alike to prospects.  They look the same, sound the same, and vomit the same message on their prospects all their competitors do - "We're great, we're the best, we're wonderful - buy us".

Sure - there are small differences, but by and large the message is identical.

So what's a prospect to do?  Almost always they default back to their only objective measurement - PRICE.  Now, you're competing on price along with everyone else.

Next:  Getting To Different...
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 January 2010 13:46 )
 
Daddy, Where do leads come from?
Written by Ty Shewmake   
Thursday, 03 December 2009 00:00
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Ok, you've got your Sales Funnel and your Ideal Prospect right.  Now you can hold your sales force accountable, right?

Whoa Sparky!  You're not there yet...

As business leaders we accept our obligation to provide what we believe our sales people need to be successful.  Most of us agree that producers need a phone, cell, computer, desk, car, expense account (some more than others), etc.

However, when we talk about prospecting many of us say this:

"Leads are a producer responsibility.  That's part of their job...".

Translated, what we're really saying is this:

"We'll provide them all the junk they need - just not the single most vital raw material from which they build their (and our) success - leads.  And, even better, every minute they're prospecting is a minute they're not selling."

While there are opportunities for producers to identify leads through existing relationships (and they should do that), month-in-and-month-out, they'll NEVER make the kind of raw lead numbers your sales funnel demands to make your sales goals.

If they do, your sales goals are way too low.

Ok, let's say you agree.  Just how do we get leads to our producers?

It's easy.  You see, we contend lead generation is an organizational (centralized) responsibility. You've created your Ideal Prospect, and now identify the best resources avilable from thousands on the Web.  You simply assign the responsibility to an administrative resource on your staff...

Lead Sources: We routinely use the following resources to buy general business leads:

www.SalesGenie.com
www.JudyDiamond.com
www.ZoomInfo.com
www.LinkedIn.com

There are other industy-specific lead resources available all over the Web.

The beauty of these lead sources is that you can refine your lead search down to a razor's edge (size, age, SIC, NAICS, revenues, location, employees, credit score, etc.).  And, most of these sources are very inexpensive (between $.25 and $1 a lead).

Case Study: To meet their 675 Raw Prospect goal, Kliber & Company trained Bobby Sue how to use their lead management system.  She's gotten familliar with the tools (above) they use to select and purchase leads.  Now, every month, Bobby Sue is responsible for selecting and downloading the required 675 Raw Prospects (which fit Kliber's Ideal Prospect model) into their lead management system, and assigning each Raw Prospect to a producer.

Supplemented by producer-generated leads (through relationships), Kliber never runs short of leads.  Every producer knows they have responsibility to develop and nurture their portion of the Ideal Prospect leads assigned to them each month, and producers spend ALL THEIR TIME SELLING.

This just sorta works...

Next:  It's Great To Be Different...
 
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