Wake Up and SELL!

You've tweaked your business plan several times in the last year. You know that the business is out there... What else can you do to gain market share? How can you improve?

Who knows best about your clients' experience with your company than your clients?

Most companies are not leveraging their best resource: their customers. Are you receiving honest feedback from your clients? Do you truly connect and collaborate with your clients? In these times more than any other, you need to be hearing what your clients are really experiencing and, at the same time, strengthening your relationships with them.

Your clients have your best interest in mind. They want you and your organization to be successful. They offer valuable wisdom and experience, yet most executives don't tap this most important resource. Transform has been facilitating Advisory Boards for years and from experience these events create the win-win all business leaders seek: you learn how and where to improve your business; clients feel more committed to you; and your client base grows because they often become your best referral sources.

What's a Client Advisory Board? An Advisory Board is a small group of top clients who help you improve and grow your business. Those selected to be part of a council are clients who have a sincere interest in helping you grow and who enjoy being a sounding board, mentor, and referral source. When key clients are invited to become involved they are usually flattered as they understand how important their input is to your organization. Transform, Inc. facilitates the discussion with the Board to ensure that the most effective feedback is gathered in an environment where participants feel comfortable sharing on all topics. Often Advisory Board members comment that they learn just as much from the meetings as you learn from the input they provide.

To learn more about Advisory Boards and how to start your Advisory Board program, call (301) 419-2835 or email us at info@transforminc.com.

When we say ‘sales meetings’, what thoughts, feelings and sensations arise? If you had very positive thoughts, feelings and sensations, you are among the few. Unfortunately, sales meetings, like many other meetings you attend, are not run well and, hence, become a dreaded obligation rather than an event that motivates and inspires people. Here are some ideas to bring some energy and inspiration to your sales meetings.

First, let’s review the purpose of a sales meeting. The purpose is to inform, educate, communicate, and energize your sales team. It is not about you talking to them, it is about finding ways to fully engage team members so that they ‘own’ the meeting as well. It is crucial that they walk away with having gotten something worthwhile from the meeting. As a sales manager, you must always be asking yourself “What’s in it for them?” as you plan for the meeting.

Planning for the Sales Meeting

Preparation on your part is crucial. Here are some things to think about as you plan for the meeting:

• Ask yourself, “what are the most pressing issues my team or individual members are facing?” Make sure the information and topics discussed are important and valuable to attendees.

• Be very clear as to what outcome you want from the meeting. Do you want sales people to walk out with a new skill, role play experience, information, etc.? Know what you want to accomplish and what value/benefit each attendee will get from the time spent together – this lets your team know you value and respect their time.

• Create an agenda that is flexible yet consistent. The agenda needs to be flexible so ‘pressing issues’ can be discussed yet consistent enough that what is covered clearly communicates where you want your sales reps’ attention to be focused. See Agenda suggestions below.

• Never let your sales meetings turn into a lecture and rehashing of issues without reaching a decision, conclusion or agreed upon next step.

• Send the message that the time you spend together is important and your commitment to not wasting their time. Show up prepared for the meeting and ask that each attendee do the same. Gather what you need ahead of time. Send out what you want individuals to have reviewed, i.e., reports. Don’t waste their time reading reports in a meeting, rather, point out the good and bad news and get their input on ways to improve. The past is the past – keep the meetings focused on forward movement and finding solutions,

• The sales meeting is a forum for solutions ~ Ask salespeople to present problems along with offering solutions.

• Keep communicating the Vision for the team and the company ~ keep reminding why you do what you do and what’s in it for each individual. Successful individuals create successful companies – it goes hand in hand and your job as sales manager is to ensure that your sales people are set up for success and they have all the resources they need to be successful.

• Start and end the meeting on time. Table issues or move them to a committee or smaller group discussion to then report back to the team. Put time limits on each agenda item, ask someone to be the timekeeper, and a few minutes before time is up, ask the timekeeper to let the group know time is almost up. With a few minutes left, summarize what has been discussed and gain agreement on what the next step(s) need to be.

Suggested Meeting Agenda Topics

1. Recognize your sales team's efforts: Congratulate salespeople for any closed deals, opening new opportunities, doing new positive behaviors and realizing profits. Praising individuals for winning or making improvements reinforces and encourages winning and improvements.

2. Have sales people share one win. At least one positive “sales” story should be shared in every meeting. Have each salesperson come prepared with a story that either celebrates a success or teaches a lesson, or both. Make special note of lessons learned.

3. Review Sales Results - Review Company Revenue Goals (based on company budgets) and Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date revenue results. Celebrate success and if numbers are off, discuss the specific behaviors the team will commit to to turn things around.

4. Review Marketing/Networking Efforts
Each sales person should have a ‘Behavior Plan’ as it relates to their commitments to doing networking and marketing activities that generate leads, opportunities to get in front of prospects and further build relationships with current clients. Ask individuals to report on results achieved versus results planned. Encourage individuals to share lessons learned from marketing/networking efforts.

Give the team updates on Company-generated marketing efforts. Be sure these efforts are being tracked and that results of efforts are reported frequently. Debrief with the team what marketing efforts are working and which are not and what recommendations they have for increasing marketing results.

5. Give Updates on Company Initiatives - If the Company is engaged in company-wide initiatives, give the sales team an update on how the initiative is going. What results are being realized? What changes are occurring? Information is power – turn over as much as you can to your sales team, give them specific actions you want them to take to support the initiative and enroll them in championing the initiative throughout the company.

6. Competitive Updates - Knowing who your competitors are, what differentiates them from you, and how to position the company against them is crucial information that should be discussed during sales meetings. Ask sales people to bring information to meetings. Here are some questions to guide the discussion:
- What competitors did you hear about this week?
- What did prospects/clients say about them?
- Who was in the news?
- How will we prevail over XXX company or situation? (What is our
competitive strategy in this situation?)

7. Technical Updates – The latest and greatest

8. Set and Review individual commitments/next steps/decisions made during the meeting

Ideas for Mixing the Sales Meeting up
• Open up your meeting - Bring in clients and ask him/her to explain why he buys from you. Doing so is always powerful and eye-opening.

• Substitute the regular sales meeting for a sales blitz - i.e. Everyone makes prospecting calls and reports back on their success.

• Have each sales person present their top prospects to the team

• Have each sales person present their top clients and client relationship strategy to the team

• Have each sales person bring in something that they believe would be inspirational to the team

• Practice one training skill

• Have one sales person be prepared to Debrief a Sales Call – Using your company's sales process, review what happened on the sales call.

Running an effective sales meeting requires planning and preparation, involvement by all attendees and a perceived value that what is discussed significantly contributes to individual and the company’s success. Find ways to do that and your sales people will never want to miss another meeting again!

Labels: Sales Meetings

Who isn't having a few fears running through them these days? We are surrounded by the news about our faltering economy, Wall Street, bank crisis and so much more, so we are wondering how are you doing?

Fear is a normal human response yet it is also a conditioned response that runs on automatic if we let it. Some define fear as False Evidence Appearing Real. All this to say that fear feels real and yet often times it is merely a thought that we believe to be true.

How do you know if it is real or not? First observe yourself thinking the thought. From this position of objectivity, 1) ask yourself what evidence or proof you have that validates your fear or thought then, 2) notice the intensity of the thought, the emotions that are arising and the impact it is having on you physically. Next, move your attention to your gut and say "I have a thought that is creating a reaction (describe the reaction you are having) in me. What will I choose to do next?"

Having a strategy ready when fear arises allows you to acknowledge it, assess it and then move into action. As Theresa often says, "the goal is to shorten the window of time that we are on automatic [or having fearful thoughts in this instance]." Fear will continue to arise in us and we will continue to catch ourselves on automatic. The good news is you have control as to how long it runs its course and the impact it has on you.

Listen to Peter O'Hanrahan guide you through a 3 Centers Practice that helps you strengthen your inner observer and practice shifting your attention from your head to your heart to your gut.

Labels: Managing FEAR in the Moment

In working with our clients we are always looking for ways to differentiate them from their competition. One behavior we've found that does this is for the organization to commit to confirming an appointment at least one day prior to the appointment. While most physician and dentist offices do this, we have found in the service industry that not everyone does this. There are some compelling reasons to do this. Here's why:

From the prospect/client’s perspective, a confirmation call:

- Reminds the prospect/client of the appointment, thus making sure he/she will be there, establishes the length of the meeting
- Provides a better understanding of what will happen on the call and sets expectations for both the prospect/client and the sales person
- Gives the prospect/client the opportunity to talk with the sales person before he/she arrives on the appointment helping establish some rapport before the actual meeting and lastly
- Allows the prospect/client to ask any questions he/she may have before the appointment.

From the salesperson’s perspective, making confirmation calls does the following:

- Allows the sales person to further establish rapport before arriving in person.
- Establishes the length of time for the appointment (if not done when the appointment was set.)
- Helps both the sales person and prospect/client review the agenda for call.
- Allows the sales person to confirm that the prospect still is interested and that nothing has come up to change their mind.

From the company’s perspective, confirming calls sends a message that we value the prospect/client’s time and want to make that time as productive as possible. It also communicates that the company is a professional organization that works hard at ensuring that the prospect/client’s experience with us exceeds their expectations. We've had companies begin using this step and six month later they find that their competition has begun doing it to keep up with them.

The purpose of the Confirmation Call is to:

1. Create/build a relationship.
2. Set expectations for the call so that both parties understand what will happen during that call.
3. Establish the length of the call so that both the sales person and prospect can plan their day.
4. To verify that all decision makers will be present for the meeting.
5. To create comfort for all parties.

When to Make a Confirmation Call

Confirmation calls are to be made at least one day prior to the appointment. Each morning, the Sales Person should look at the appointment he/she has for the following day and place confirmation calls to those individuals. If you are unable to reach the prospect/client, it is appropriate to leave a message for them. The message should include the elements of the confirmation call discussed below.

How to Make a Confirmation Call

The elements of a confirmation call are as follows:

1. Confirm the appointment including how long the meeting will take.
2. Review the agenda for the meeting
3. Uncover Prospect's Time Line
4. Confirm who will be attending the meeting
5. Ask if they have met with any other companies (if they indicated they were going to during the initial call.)
6. Close the call.

Confirming the Appointment

The sales person calls the prospect/client and says:

SP: “Hi, Mrs. Jones, this is Tim Smith from ITT Services.I am calling to confirm our appointment tomorrow at 10:00. Does that still work for you?”

This not only reminds the prospect/client of the appointment but also allows them to tell you if they have a conflict with the established time. It is better to know now rather than at the appointment when you show up and the prospect/client isn’t there!

Then the sales person confirms that the meeting will last the amount of time discussed when making the appointment.

SP: “When your appointment was scheduled, Susan mentioned that the meeting would last one hour. Does that still work for you?”

Setting this expectation helps the prospect/client plan the rest of his/her day and also allows him/her to communicate if they have a tight schedule which means the meeting may be rushed. Again, better to know that now rather than at the meeting! If the prospect/client is going to be too rushed, it may make sense to reschedule knowing that it does take at least one to 1½ hours to meet with a new prospect. A client meeting may be shorter but be careful not to be put in a position to be rushed. Both the prospect and client need to be present (in mind and body) for the meeting – if they feel rushed, they may not be able to be focused enough to make a decision.

SP: [If you feel as if it makes sense to reschedule the meeting to allow for more time, say:]
“Mrs. Jones, I am concerned that we won’t be able to address all your issues given the time constraints we have, would it make more sense for us to reschedule so that when we do meet, we can cover all of your issues?”

Reviewing the Agenda for the Appointment

Once the time and length of the meeting are confirmed, the next step is to review the agenda for the meeting.

SP: “When we spoke you shared that the outcome of the meeting that you’d like to have is to get an idea of what this type of project might cost you. Is that correct?
P: “Yes.”
SP: “I suggested that we would meet, I’d find out more about what you were looking for, and then either give you a cost range, or if I wasn’t able to do that, I’d at least share with you my next steps and a time frame for when I could get you the information. Does that still work?
P: “Yes.”
SP: “Great. We also said that both of us might want to ask some questions. Have you been keeping a list for me?”
P: “I have a few. My CFO also wrote down his questions.”
SP: “That is great. I’ll have Bill Smith, our CEO, with me. We’ll review the project needs and potential solutions in detail. We’ll also review the project flow and ensure we answer your questions.”

Note: If others will be with you as well, let the prospect know their names and titles as well.

Uncovering the Prospect's the Timeline (for accuracy in projecting your potential business)

SP: “When we spoke you indicated that you’d like to start this project as soon as possible. Is there anything that could delay this project?”
P: “We’ll have to look at how costs will fit into the budget. We hadn’t budgeted for that this year.”
SP: “Why are you looking to do this now?”
P: “We have redundancy and duplication of effort and it has to stop ASAP. We've got to get our hands around this NOW!”
SP: “That makes sense."

Confirming who will Attend the Meeting

During the appointment setting call you learned who the decision makers were and if all would be able to be present. The next step is to confirm your understanding of who will be at the meeting. It sounds like this:
SP: “So just you and I will be meeting but you’ve had your CFO write down his questions right?
P: “Yes”
SP: “Great. Is there anything else we need to do for your CFO?”
P: “No”
SP: “How will you and your CFO go about making the decision to move forward – do you have criteria in mind?”
P: “It probably comes down to finances and the folks with whom we feel are most reliable.”
SP: “How will you know who is most reliable?”
P: “Those that do what they say they will do.”
SP: “And how soon do you feel you’ll select the right company.”
P: “As soon as possible.”

Note: If this has been reviewed in detail in the qualification call then you might simply check in to see if anything has changed since you last spoke. The same goes for understanding whether or not (and which) other companies are responding to the RFP.

SP: “I know we have the RFP that you forwarded and thank you for that, may I ask you a question about that?”
P: “Sure.”
SP: “What are the desired outcomes once this project is completed?”
P: “We’ll spend less time manually updating our inventory levels; the operations team will be more efficient.”
SP: “What is the impact of not having this up and running now?”
P: “About $20K per year in payroll.”
SP: “How do you envision us working with you?”
P: “We have an in-house IT team of 2 people. We figured we’d work out a general timeline from you and your primary contact will work with Jim, our Director of IT.”
SP: “Have you ever done a project like this before?”
P: “No. I don’t know why we didn’t even think of it until a few weeks ago. Well, now that I think about it, we did hire a firm to create our website, but that’s different.”
SP: “How did that project go?”
P: “It was a nightmare. It took a few weeks for our Director of IT to obtain all the necessary data from the company in order to take the website over in house. They just wouldn’t listen or cooperate.”

Learning if the Prospect has met with other Companies

This gives you the heads up if you are walking into a situation where the prospect has already gotten a quote or had a meeting with other companies and if they did what they found out. This information is helpful to know as you plan for your face-to-face meeting. This step sounds like this:

SP: “On our call you mentioned that you were going to meet with other companies. Have you met with any of them yet?”
P: “Oh yes, we met with Peterson IT Services company.”
SP: “How did that go?”
P: “It was good – they gave me some ideas that we could do and are working up an estimate for me.”
SP: “Did they give you any idea of costs?”
P: “Yes they said it would run about $35,000.”
SP: “What did you think about that?”
P: “Well based on what they told me, I thought it made sense but my CFO went crazy. He said he wasn’t willing to spend that much.”
SP: “Did he give you an idea of how much he thought he wanted to spend?”
P: “Not really.”
SP: “Do you think you’d be able to ask him that before we meet tomorrow?”
P: “I’ll try.”
SP: “That would really be helpful to know and would help me determine what I suggest or I may need to say that, based on what you want, the cost is right in line with what you heard from Peterson. So knowing what he is willing to spend is really important.”
P: “I’ll try.”
SP: “Thank you. Have you had a chance to review our website?”
P: “Yes.”
SP: “Good. What did you see that you liked?”
P: “There is a lot of information there.”
SP: “Do you have questions at this point after reviewing our website?”
P: “Not at this time.”
SP: “If you haven’t already done so, please review our client list and case studies/sample projects on our website. In a few minutes, I’ll e-mail our meeting agenda to you along with our contact information for your convenience. We’re looking forward to meeting you in person.”

Closing the Call

SP: “Okay, great then I think we are all set. Thanks so much for your time and further insights on the project; I’ll see you tomorrow at 10am. We’re looking forward to meeting you in person.”

The appointment is set and the agenda has been reviewed.

The other potential outcome is that the prospect provides enough information for you to discern that they are not officially qualified and that the appointment should be canceled or postponed. If this is the case, you’ll want to identify if you may add them to the mailing list and when it will be best for you to check back with them (if applicable).

Summary

Everyone, the prospect, the sales person and the company, benefit from making confirmation calls. This ones step sets an organization apart from its competition. It sends a message that we, the company, are professional and that we respect and value the prospect/clients’ time. It establishes the initial rapport with the prospect/client, reviews the meeting agenda, confirms who will be attending the meeting and gathers more useful information that is important to know before the first meeting. Set yourself apart from your competition -- in the long run, it will pay off big time!

We work with a lot of clients who do educational seminars and often wonder why they don't get the results they want from the effort. We believe in doing educational seminars, but to really get results from them, you need to be very clear about what return you want from doing them.

Many believe that if we 'dazzle' them with our knowledge and give the audience lots of information that shows that we are experts, they will want to buy from us. While information does build credibility, the goal of any educational seminar should be to pique your attendees interest so much so that they walk away saying "I can't do this without them." If your attendees don't walk away with this believe, you need to rethink your approach. Here are some tips we suggest for truly getting the results you want from your educational seminar.

1. Create presentation that gets the audience involved in discovering and discussing their concerns/issues/wants/desires.

2. If you are presenting for the first time or delivering a new talk, practice or review it with a co-worker at least once before the actual event.

3 . Ask at the beginning what each participants hopes to gain from the program (if the group isn’t too large.) If the group is too large, select a handful of attendees to answer the question. Get the group involved early.

4. If possible, get a list of attendees prior to the event to see if there is anyone you know or who fits your ‘ideal’ prospect criteria.

5. Be sure to leave enough time in your presentation to answer questions fully. Don’t dodge tough questions, but don’t tell them so much technical information that you bore the rest of the group. Important to remember: Attendees should leave the seminar/speech knowing that they don’t know enough, and that they want you to help them, whatever their reasons.

6. Be reassuring and nurturing throughout the program, but especially at the beginning, when they are talking about their issues/concerns, etc.

7. Don’t feel defensive if you can’t answer a question. After all, you’re human, just like them, and nobody is perfect. Your job is to communicate to them that your company, product or service – not just you – can help them solve their problems.

8. If you are talking more than 3-4 minutes without interruption, you’re usually boring someone! Involve the audience!!

9. Invite questions and remember to follow a question with another question (when appropriate) to make sure you know the ‘why’ behind their question and enable them to be more specific so that your response really addressing their question. For example, “When should I fertilize my trees?” Your response might be “What type of trees do you have?”

10. Before you close the session, ask for questions and comments. Be sure to ask for both, not just questions.

11. Always have a hand-out that participants take away with them. Make sure it have your name and phone number on it for future reference.

12. It’s important that the audience leaves the program having learned something, but it’s more important that they leave knowing they don’t know all they need to know, and that your company, product or service can help them.

13. If all you do is educate the audience without getting them involved or engaging them, you run the risk of only appealing to the technical people and losing the others.

14. Always ask them to fill out an evaluation sheet – name and phone number included. Be sure you ask is there is anyone who they think would benefit from this program or if they or anyone they know are interested in a personal conversation about their specific needs. Also provide a space for “Additional information you would like us to know.”

15. Always include a description of the company and services provided at the end of the hand-out.

Educational seminars and speeches are a great way to get in front of a large number of people. They are most successful when you create interest and a desire to talk to you personally about specific work to be done.

Have you read Wake Up and Sell? Learn how to breakthrough to greater levels of selling success. Click here to learn more.

Labels: Educational Seminars

Are you exhausted by budget curtailments and customer ambiguity -- all the result of the current economy? Don't slip into autopilot. The current business environment requires a new skill set that involves change.

Begin with the relationships you have with your customers -- who, too, are very likely facing economy-created frustrations. Your customers are in need of someone who will truly act on their behalf. This requires genuine interest, open dialogue, sincerity and professionalism. In no way does this imply subservience. To the contrary, your customers and prospects are looking for a partnership that will yield results. By offering solutions, you will build strong customer relationships.

When a sales mentality is based solely on personal gain, the results are bound to be limited. By expanding your approach so as to truly respond to your customers' needs, your results will be tenfold.

Change... it's a good thing.

All too often we work with companies that interchange the words sales and marketing when talking about business development . We view them as very different yet both crucial to business development.

Here's how we define the difference between sales and marketing.

Sales is the art of helping a client discovering their compelling reasons for buying our service. Sales is any client interactions during official or unofficial situations that may result in new business. It also includes the activities you perform within your company to prepare proposals, bids and/or presentations.

Sales is also anytime you interact with a client when you are negotiating a project where issues are discussed and mutually agreeable resolution results. Examples of this are:

- Meetings/phone conversations with decision-makers
- Meetings/phone conversations with informal decision-makers
- Proposal/Presentation development
- Internal team meetings to discuss account
- Interactions with strategic alliances about opportunities
- Meetings/phone conversations to develop strategic alliances and referral sources
- Dealing with clients regarding current projects

Marketing is the creation of opportunities for selling situations. It encompasses many research and promotional activities aimed at understanding the marketplace, the services or products that our potential market desires or needs, the competition present in this market and finally, the prices the market is willing to pay for services or products we offer. Most importantly, marketing efforts are aimed at increasing the level of awareness of the company and its offerings. Once awareness is raised, i.e., someone calls our office, the sales process takes over. Marketing, therefore, supports sales and when successful, results in leads and incoming calls for services to District offices.

Marketing activities include:

- Logo and Brand development
- Developing brochures and promotional materials
- Advertisements
- Trade Shows
- Educational Seminars
- Publishing newsletters and articles
- Sponsoring Events
- Public Relations: letting the media know what you are doing
- Attending Networking Events
- Researching business opportunities

Sales is what drives bottom line results; marketing is an expense that brings buyers to the table. The skills needed to be successful in sales are very different from success in marketing; both however are necessary in business development. In the end, the skill and art of moving a buyer from interest to a 'yes' defines the success of the company. The best ROI you can get is to invest in developing your company's sales skills. The next best is to ensure that your marketing efforts support your sales efforts and that you constantly measure the results you are getting from both your sales and marketing efforts.

Stay tune for our next blog on Prospecting Activities.

Read an excerpt from our book, Wake Up and SELL!

Labels: Marketing and Sales: Why the confusion?