S&MM SoundOff

What's Your Hook?

The best television shows,

Hollywood

blockbuster movies, and novels start with a great attention-getter. Something to quickly captivate people. In other words, a hook.

This is a highly relevant concept for sales people. If you don’t capture the attention of your prospect or customer immediately, then you will have to work that much harder to get the sale. Buyers and key decision-makers are extremely busy and they don’t want to be forced to listen to irrelevant information. However, a good hook has nothing to do with your company, how long you have been in business, what awards you have won.

A hook is something that will cause your prospect to sit up and pay attention. It can demonstrate that you understand a current business challenge your prospect is facing. It should entice your prospect and cause them to want to hear more. Here is an example:

“Mr. Prospect, research has shown that when two companies merge, overall productivity drops by as much as 28 percent. What have you experienced since you began your merger? Call me at 555-1234 and we can discuss ways to prevent this from occurring.”

In today’s highly competitive business climate you need to stand out from the crowd so before you make your next sales call, determine your hook.

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals reach their sales quotas and targets by showing them how to close more deals at higher profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.Fearless-Selling.ca. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Pay Attention!!

The other day I had a conversation with a sales rep from a company that offered merchant services for online sales. Although I was impressed by this rep’s consistent follow-up—he called me several times after our initial conversation—he made a common sales blunder when I told him that I had chosen another vendor.

 

The mistake: He didn’t pay attention to what I said afterwards.

 

When I mentioned that I had chosen another vendor for completely different reasons, he continued talking about rates and he suggested that I become a member of an association who would guarantee specific rates without a minimum contract. I couldn’t help but shake my head because it was obvious he hadn’t listened to me and that only validated my decision to use a different company.

 

Too many sales people ask questions or make assumptions and fail to REALLY listen to what their prospect has said. It doesn’t matter if it’s a question, and objection, or simply a statement, it is critical to listen and to pay attention to what they say.

 

Forget about formulating a response or rebuttal. Sit up. Pay attention. And listen.

 

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals reach their sales quotas and targets by showing them how to close more deals at higher profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.Fearless-Selling.ca. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Avoid This Fatal Mistake!

The manner in which an inbound sales call is handled makes a tremendous difference in sales results. Case in point: The other day I called a hotel to enquire about the costs for a meeting room for an upcoming program I am hosting with two other speakers in late May (watch for details). The sales person asked me pertinent information about the number of people, my food and beverage requirements and if I needed guest rooms. She quoted the price for the meeting room; I thanked her and hung up.

What did she miss?

At no time did she ask me for my name, contact information or if I wanted to book the room. She missed a fundamental sales opportunity. The sad thing is that this is a common occurrence with many inbound calls, especially in call centers. The sales person assumes that the caller is simply fishing for information and does not attempt to turn that call into revenue. It would have been easy for the rep to get my name, phone number and email address. That would have given her the ability to follow up with me and possibly close the sale.

Avoid this fatal mistake when YOU deal with inbound calls!

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals reach their sales quotas and targets by showing them how to close more deals at higher profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.Fearless-Selling.ca. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Stop Trying to Persuade

A spirited debate with a good friend of mine last week prompted this week’s tip. My friend and I had opposing views on a minor issue and we both felt that our individual perspective was the right one. We both acknowledged the other’s perspective but after a fifteen minute debate, it was evident that neither of us was prepared to change our mind.

 

This started me thinking about how often sales people try to convince a prospect to do business with them even when the prospect is adamant in their refusal. I love a good debate as much as anyone; however, attempting to push your idea on a prospect who reluctant to listen is not the best use of your time.

 

Not everyone you speak to will see the value of your product, service or solution. Persuading them to change their mind is usually ineffective. That means, even if you know that your prospect can benefit from your solution, you may be wasting your time and energy trying to convince them otherwise. In those situations it is better to walk away.

 

Stop trying to persuade people to take action and focus your attention on prospects who ARE interested.

 

Kelley Robertson helps sales professionals reach their sales quotas and targets by showing them how to close more deals at higher profits. Receive a FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to his free newsletter available at www.Fearless-Selling.ca. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or by email.

Madoff, Intelligence and Lost Customers

By Umberto Milletti, CEO of InsideView

What do the Bernie Madoff scandal and lost deals/customers have in common? They are the result of poor intelligence.Fortunately, while we can’t turn back the clock on Madoff, every day we have new opportunities to compete for customers.

Let’s take a look at the Madoff scandal. There were multiple warnings, from many different sides, that something was very wrong at Madoff Securities. Warnings from credible sources (such as Harry Markopolous) started as early as 1999, but it took the SEC almost 10 years to take them seriously.  I don’t believe the SEC acted in bad faith, but instead that the warnings got lost in the sea of information that constantly floods the SEC, and hence nobody recognized the pattern early enough. Lots of less important data drowned out the relevant intelligence. For those of you familiar with signal to noise ratio, you can think of intelligence as signal and data as noise.

Where am I going with this? I see this happening every day in the business worlds. Deals are lost, customers walk, opportunities are completely overlooked because sales professionals are unable to triangulate on the “right information at the right time.” Maybe they missed a news article about one of their customers or prospects that pointed to a clear opportunity. Or they didn’t see a key connection to a decision-maker. Or they didn’t see the background of a new executive at one of their customers, an executive that turned out to be a threat to the relationship. You might miss these vital pieces of information, but not all of your competitors will.

So what’s the answer? It’s definitely NOT more data. In all the examples above, the data exists and in fact it’s too much data that contributes to our inability to recognize an opportunity or threat. Instead, we believe the answer is better technology that can highlight relevant information for us, boosting the signal to noise ratio, and helping us make better decisions. What’s important to me is different than what’s important to you, which is also different from what’s important to the SEC. So technology obviously can’t be one-size-fits-all, it has to be customizable. And it needs to be easily accessible in the applications and devices that we use every day (CRM, e-mail, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.).

Paraphrasing the 1992 election, “It’s all about relevance, stupid.”

Umberto Milletti is the cofounder and CEO of InsideView, the pioneering on-demand Sales 2.0 application for the enterprise.  He has been a thought leader in the convergence of technology and content for the last decade. Prior to founding InsideView, he was co-founder of DigitalThink, where he led the company to a successful IPO, growing annual revenues to $60 million, and ultimately to its sale to Convergys in 2004.