getting dial backs - leaving good voicemail

Having worked the phone for 9+ years as a sales person and for 8 years prior in a purchasing role where I'd receive dozens of sales calls sometimes daily I've had this love hate relationship with the phone.
There is no doubt what an essential business tool it is for sales so I'm astounded people don't do anything to improve phone skills. Email seems to have taken a lead in communications where it was all fax and phone before. Voicemails have really only been around since the 80s and prior to that it was secretaries and nearby co-workers that would take messages.
What we've lost in the past 20 years is the ability as a sales person to gauge interest or reaction while leaving a message. In doing so we now have to leave messages that are more likely to prompt some response and ultimately get a call back, or let us know if we are on the right path or not. When I was in Purchasing I received lengthy voicemails that would include sweeping descriptions of what products they sold or how easily the person could be reached. Frankly if I wasn't buying I didn't care how easily they could be reached and if the products were relavent to me knowing the person was easily reachable indicated they were overly eager to sell me something and I knew returning their call would include a long conversation with expectations of them providing me a quote. Thinking back to those days I was frankly listening for some reason not to call a person back so that I could get to my next message, or that fantastic game of minesweeper. Now when I leave voice messages for people I am trying to sell my products to I recall the reasons why I didn't call someone back and do the opposite. Here's some examples that may help.

1. No number, time, name, or garbled - Speak clearly starting with your greeting. Try not to use your cell leave your name twice and your number twice at the beginning and the end of the message. Many Vmail systems allow you to listen to your message before sending by pressing # at the end. You can re-record if its unclear.

2. No reason - Always state why you are calling and what you hope to accomplish - This could be a whole topic which I'll leave for another Blog but lets just say you need to do your homework before calling someone to ensure you are in the realm of possibilities.

3. No Time - I don't know when they called, or when they would like me to call back (hint try "please call me before 5:00pm today or at least by 10:00AM tomorrow" allows you to call back, or quickly determine the person is not interested)

4. Not Relavent - If the person leaves a message stating they want to talk, or discuss opportunities or follow up that is not usually an actual job that I or any person does. Leave a message about what I do for a living (usually saving money, streamlining processes, creating revenue)

5. Not for me - if the person is asking for something I don't do or provide, and they don't ask for help. I wont help them. Ask for help determining the right person to speak with. Especially if you are calling in High. The message may be forwarded to another person.

6. Tone was Smarmy - I love the word smarmy - imagine Dana Carvey doing his church chat lady as a used car salesperson - Tone sets everything when the person has never met or spoken to you before. You have 1 chance to make a 1st impression

Giving yourself an unfair advantage

Tossing some ideas around this week with fellow sales executives it amazed me how little people do to ensure they get the business in this world. You pitched, you promoted, you got them to agree they need a solution, and now they have to tender this out. We all know that clients shop around, or in the case of Government sales "perform due diligence" . How then to do we ensure that the competition doesn't get the business after you've done all the work?
Here's a few ideas... a) Own the statement of work. If you and the client have written the statement of work you have the best opportunity to ensure that a requirement, or lack of a requirement is featured prominently to make it a stumbling block for the competion. For example - CRM database must have been load tested with IT approval on existing infrastructure. Imagine the competition trying to get that done? b) Gain executive sponsorship of your project - by forcing your contacts to seek approval from senior executives you are alerting senior people to your product, and forcing them to make a mental decision prior to it being released for bid. You may get to know these senior people in the process. c) Help get your contact person promoted - This may seem like a gamble but if you help draft a success document with them to be released post project announcing its success, you will ensure your contact is seen in a positive light, and helps the decision maker envision the benefits prior to project completion. d) Call in a favor from a complementary vendor - there's nothing like asking the advice of people that have gone before you, imagine they tell you that their project was stalled on an unforeseen issue? Plan to avoid it and head it off. You'll likely need to return the favor at another account but other vendors can find out what the client really feels about you, and that can be golden.

Trade-show Selling - how can I talk to all these people?

After a short hiatus I thought is was about time to write again. Having been to a recent trade show it dawned on me the science of selling at a trade show. Preparation is key for any show, and hopefully if your marketing department has gone to "booth school" you have a platform ready to present and meet people from.
What needs to be thought out is how you are going to carve out a bit of someone's time at a show to sell to them!
Symantecs aside I think there's two types of people you need to decide on what you are going to say to them, or offer them.
The approach should be different depending on if you know the person or not.
Lets take a typical person you know. They may be there for any number of reasons but its up to you make sure that their experience talking to you was instantly memorable and worth while. If you are only given a few minutes with anyone before being dragged away you want to impart that you have something valuable for them you've been meaning to tell them. If they aren't a client already they may be leery of you trying to sell them something again. Instead offer to connect them to people within their industry at the trade show they may not know. Don't throw the information out, instead offer to introduce them to the person when they can come back to the booth later, or at a prescribed time. This will allow you to meet their needs and associate yourself with their success at this tradeshow. If its someone you don't know it is not as easy to decide what to say. They are probably waiting to be pitched to. Instead ask them what brought them to the show, and if they think this show is relavent to them. If they answer it will allow you to determine what they are there for and if its relavent for you to offer any information. Makes sense?
If the person engages you and provides answers, again offer to connect them to person within their field, or an opinion leader at the conference. If they decline or shy away, you can always ask if they have been "pitched to" yet at the conference and if they would like to hear your pitch. It get the job done and disarms them for feeling anxious about being sold to, and usually allows you to pass them in the hall and engage them again.

When selling isn't selling or is it?

Today I was posed with an idea from my principal to call upon my clients about this new product they were developing to see if they understood the need for it the way we did, or to simplify... they might buy it one day. It seemed reasonable for me to talk to my clients about new technologies and understand their needs, and in the process I'd get a better understanding of the market out there. The problem I was wrestling with was, was this a good use of my time for my customers or principal? I felt I'd be well suited to take on the task; talk to my clients, probe them about their strategies understand their needs. sounds like what I do all day... But something hit me that I wasn't really doing my principal any favors and it sounded like a "why don't you phone and tell me what you find out" project. Is this a good use of my time? Does this belong in sales?
Here's what I know: the art of sales is to take a candidate and move them from Prospect to Client for some mutual benefit for client and salesperson, and the principal owner of the goods. This is overly simplified but anything else is not selling.
You may; as part of this process perform additional work that may be useful, or form part of a series milestones in the process, but again if you aren't moving a person from Prospect to Client you aren't selling. So on one hand making calls to clients to see if they are likely to buy something they aren't qualified for might be a bad use of time. To argue the other side of this; this type of task would be useful to use it as practise. Imagine if you are able to try to sell goods to unqualified people only to learn along the way and refine your process so when you discover a qualified candidate you are much better at your job. Especially practise on people that are likely to take your call as they know you already, and won't stop taking your call when they've decided what you are selling they aren't buying. Good point! My conclusion is; if you in the course of your conversations with clients sell to them and also practise selling, I think both can be accomplished. Be honest with you client and mention you need to be ready to sell an emerging product, and can you ask them a few questions to help you. Afterwards say thank you, and ask if they know someone that may be interested to buy something like that. That way you will have a lead, referral, and have practised selling already.

No Capital? No Problem!

So today twice I heard that the client has a capital spending freeze and won't we doing anything. This pisses me off especially when its a partner or another sales guy. I mean what the hell does that matter? and buddy that means you aren't talking to the right people. Lets first of all all agree where money for IT comes from. Does it come from a sum of money that was set aside at the beginning of the year by Finance because IT will need something? Well yes in rare instances in growing economies maybe but lets look further. Money is nothing but cashflow for any company or organization. In order to survive there has to be a steady supply of cash to pay to keep things going. This money when pooled or summed is often called an operating budget, and are really a tally of what it cost lost year adjusted for inflation if people are lucky. When a client says they are not spending Capital they are saying that they don't have access to cash outside of their operating budget to buy anything, or hasn't sufficient reason to ask for it. Your job is to find out how they can save sufficient money in year to pay for your service to have excess operating budget. For instance if your service or solution saves 100k in service downtime for their clients or IT overtime, or reduces the amount of licenses the company has to buy that year then you have 10k of theirs. If one of these savings is on the list of the CXO's to do list (KPI) you have a compelling argument to have the operating budget adjusted and a Capital Expense PO cut for you. The trick is to prove it!

Con Calls and the gift of the awkward silence

Today I had 3 conference calls today with 3 different clients. What I noticed was that when I had multiple people on a con call on our side there was a lot more talking on the client's side than when there's just 2 people on the call. ie just them and me.
I mean that's what you want right? You aren't there to listen to your Engineer speak or your boss or yourself right? Who cares what your team says really. Its what the client or the prospect says that is of interest to you.
Even though you are likely statistically to hear less from the client with more speakers on the call I think what happens is the team is all engaged in active listening and perhaps afraid of breaking the thought or moving the call to where the salesperson didn't want it. Whatever the reason it works! Personally I think I'm more conscience of what I am saying and not just winging it to fill the dead air after a client is finished (or seemingly) on a point or sentence. Its astounding how much I learned just by listening to the client speak and ask questions of others and make comments on the material and answers etc. Especially after the pregnant pause or an awkward silence.
The most amazing part was that the best insights and thoughts tended to come when the client jumped in to fill the dead air, either adding to their previous point, or asking other questions. It is tough as a listener on the phone to hear nothing. A pause tends to bring the clients thoughts out, and help me as a sales person understand their thoughts and buying processes. The trick is to do this everytime, and not jump in every time we have a second or two of silence on a call.

Happy Monday

in Sales we get paid to talk to people and I've found that of the days that people are at their best is Monday's. This may sound strange as Monday's seem to be on the hate list for a lot of us. Dragging ourselves into work after a weekend to battle traffic after a couple days of TV, lawn cutting, skiing etc depending on your hemisphere. I really think people are actually anxious to speak on work related matters on Monday's as they've managed to rest their brains and be able to see things in a different light. Certainly I feel more confident to speak in friendly terms on a Monday more than any other. You can hear it in people's tone when they answer. Plus you get to ask how their weekend was! I think also people are more confident on Monday's. Certainly they have 4 more days to go through and if procrastination serves them the same way it does me we have time to do our chores later. Calling people on Monday's in sales gives them 4 more days to perform whatever you asked of them, and its all the more likely that your conversation could continue before the weekend. If you are compelling them to take action and review your product to see if its really up to the task or it warrants another look you are more likely to get their agreement when they have a week to do this. To hit home the point for sales people, in a host of oganisations check runs are Thursdays, with a requisitions approved by Wednesdays.. Mondays give you time to get that requisition going in time

Salespeople should embrace Mondays!!