Win More Deals and Qualify Better Leads Faster

7/28/2019 Win More Deals and Qualify Better Leads Faster

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Win More Deals andQualify Better Leads Faster

The Funnel Principle BlogA Breakthrough Sales Performance Ebook

By Mark Sellers


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.................................Sales Training: Beware The Assumptions You Make About Relationships 3

............................Sales Process And Sales Management: Sales Growth In Strategic Accounts 6

.......................................Sales Opportunities Stalled? Here Are 7 Tips For Kick Starting Them 8

......................................................................Sales Recover: Repairing Broken Relationships 10

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Sales Training: Beware The AssumptionsYou Make About RelationshipsSeptember 21, 2012

Theres one sales topic that is guaranteed

to get attention relationships. Sales

people want to know how to develop them

with the right stakeholders, how to get

more good relationships, and how to earn

the right to have the people theyre selling

to fight for the sellers solution. Who

would argue that relationships arent vital

to making sales?

Unless you work for the Greek

government and have been on an extended

vacation (sorry for being redundant)

youve come across the relationship

debate sparked by the book The

Challenger Sale. At least theyre getting

attention for the right reasons, not

something sensational like a trailer for amovie called Taken 2. (Havent seen it but

I keep asking myself didnt that girl learn

a damn thing the first time around?)

Relationships are a fundamental part of

selling, as basic as problem solving and

features-benefits. Ask any salesperson

about a sale in progress and he or she will

likely respond about relationships. Ivegot a good relationship with so and so

stakeholder, shell say, or We dont

have any relationships with key people,

he says. Salespeople who win will claim it

was their special relationship that sealed

the deal. Salespeople who lose will say

they got flanked by a low priced

competitor. Hmmm.

And yet in my sales seminars and

coaching with clients I often tell them

they have the wrong idea aboutrelationships.

Im not necessarily siding with Challengerwhich took a direct shot and did a lot of

damage to the relationship sales

approach. The main overlooked point is

that there are too many assumptions made

about relationships.

For one, theres an assumption that the

right relationship will either get you the

sale or dramatically favor you. This isnt

the case as often as it is assumed. The

problem is the salesperson doesnt dig

deep enough into the personal motivations

and risk factors of the people theyre

counting on for support. Those people

arent likely to be upfront either if they

cannot be the champion the seller is

expecting them to be. Theyre somewhat

embarrassed to admit it because it strains

the relationship.

Further, if the relationship is with

someone with no horsepower to help you

win, its not worth that much for this sale.

The relationship is overrated. Again,

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sometimes I see salespeople who protect

the relationship even when it means the

sale is in jeopardy.

Then, there are assumptions about the

underlying motivation that defines the

relationship. For example, a salesperson

might claim that since hes known a

stakeholder for 30 years he knows how

this guy is going to decide. I heard this

recently in a coaching session with a

client. But when challenged to prove how

the seller knows how the stakeholder will

decide there was no basis for it like a

recent conversation where the stakeholder

told the seller dude, Ive got your back

youre going to get the sale!

I think that in sales as it is in life

sometimes people are more comfortable

talking around the issues in the spirit of

not hurting the relationship. If a

salesperson asks Are you the PFA with

final authority?, this is a bold questionthat not only sparks an answer but also

can risk more than just this sale.

Often salespeople confuse relationship

with situational motivation. Relationship

describes an overall position the seller has

with the stakeholder that isnt purely tied

to the buying process.

Situational motivation describes the

stakeholders motivation relative to this

specific sale. The stakeholder has three

possible options. One, she wants the

sellers solution to win and will do

whatever she can to make that happen.

These are your Advocates. Two, she

doesnt want the sellers solution to win,

and shell be passive or do whatever it

takes to make that happen. And three, she

doesnt care one way or the other.

Her situational motivation determines

what she does. If shes for change maybe

its because she sees change as a ticket to

a promotion or leadership or maintaining

control or beating someone in the office.

If she sees your solution as the right kind

of change shes likely to lobby for you.

She is your Advocate. The mistake

salespeople often make is they generalize

what the motivations might be.

Sellers who make Advocates our of

relationships are working the process the

right way.

I made a sale in 2009 to the North

American business of a large global

healthcare company. The VP of Sales, Illcall Jane, was a major reason I won the

sale. She really wanted my solution.

Months after we had implemented my

companys sales methodology she told her

counterpart in Germany that he should

consider it for his team. Soon I was in

Germany training his entire European

sales team. With more help from these

two stakeholders I went on to make a salein the companys Asia division later.

I know I have a good relationship with

Jane. Shes on my speed dial whenever a

new prospect asks to talk to a reference.

But that doesnt mean she would step up

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for me for another sale within her

company. It all depends on her situation at

the time.

It helps you set better strategy if you dont

make assumptions about the relationships

you have with key stakeholders. Its not a

bad idea to validate and test those

relationships from time to time too before

it really counts.

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Sales Process And Sales Management:Sales Growth In Strategic AccountsSeptember 28, 2012

Recently I spent two days with a client in

Chicago kicking off the first round of

strategic account management (SAM)

reviews. If you regularly review strategic

accounts here are 5 tips that could help

you regain or refocus your teams

attention on the things that really matter.

Tip 1: A strategic account (SAM) review

should be unlike any other conversation

your team has.

One of the common mistakes I see

committed during SAMs is the team

discussing the same topics and

information that are already discussed

daily as part of ongoing communication

and working of the account. A SAMapproach will quickly lose value and

credibility if this is done.

Instead, SAM reviews should be framed

by a longer horizon such as 2-3 quarters

out. The team should be talking about

longer term issues like developing or

nurturing relationships with key

stakeholders, or making investments topenetrate new fields of play.

Tip 2: SAM reviews should force all team

members to participate. SAM is not about

one persons role in the company but

rather about a team of people

collaborating. One of the engineers at our

meeting spoke up about a relationship he

uniquely has with an engineer at one

account. We decided that he could gain

some valuable intelligence by talking with

this stakeholder. Also, since many of my

clients strategic accounts are global we

made sure that staff from Europe and

America were involved in the reviews.

Tip 3: You get out of a SAM review what

you put into it. All attendees of the SAM

reviews have to come prepared for the

review before hand. This means studying

the account plan and bringing questions

and ideas that the team can consider. Its

like voting during an election if you

think your vote doesnt count because you

assume everyone else will vote thats the

wrong thinking.

Tip 4: Assign roles to the process. You

cant just start going through your SAM

review and expect it stay on point and on

time. Assign a moderator to keep the

conversation on point. Assign a time

keeper to keep it from going too long.Assign a scribe to capture the key points,

goals and action.

Tip 5: Focus on how to grow funnel value

and sales! Its tempting to get lost in

words like maintain, protect, and manage

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the account with strategic accounts. But if

your team isnt focused on strategies that

grow sales, then your investment in the

account will get more and more expensive

with each passing year. The existing

business could also be more at risk than

you realize.

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Sales Opportunities Stalled? Here Are 7Tips For Kick Starting ThemNovember 5, 2012

Stalled sales opportunities can drive

salespeople crazy. Worse than losing your

sanity however is losing slowly and

watching your productivity drop like my

favorite band in high school, Led

Zeppelin.

Inspired by a conversation I recently had

with a client of mine, Kevin S., a Vice

President of Sales for a national printing

company, heres a set of tips on how to

kick start stalled opportunities.

Before the tips let me make one important

qualifier. Stalled opportunities are not the

same as unqualified opportunities. If its

an opportunity then it meets criteria for

being qualified at some stage on your

funnel. If its stalled it still has to meet

that criteria, otherwise its no longer an

opportunity at any stage on your funnel.

If you confuse stalled opportunities with

unqualified opportunities you risk wasting

time on leads that arent qualified at any

stage and you might not give sufficient

selling time to leads that are already

qualified. Dont be afraid of firing

unqualified opportunities.

Good selling!

1. Dont just follow up follow up with

purpose. A prospect gets no value out

of you following up some previous call

or action. Are you completing

something you said you would do

earlier? Are you delivering something

you promised earlier? Do you have

additional information you think theprospect should be interested in? Your

follow up should have purpose.

2. Dont just check in bring something

of value. If you think the prospects

interest has waned bring him

something that might provoke a newly

inspired level of interest. This might

be an article or white paper or latestnews about the situation the customer

finds himself in.

3. Help this stakeholder generate

interest with other stakeholders.

Too often were quick to anoint a

stakeholder as our coach or advocate

but were not as quick to continually

feed those stakeholders stuff that helps

them sell the change to others. This is

also a good way for you to get to other

stakeholders who might be a

bottleneck in making progress.

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4. Validate with your last contact that

the situation is a top 2-3 issue. Top

10 issues wont get attention right now.

Often the situation hasnt changed, but

what you really want to find out is ifher energy for the situation has

changed. Ask her if the situation is

better or worse not to know the answer

to that question as much as to read her

take on the situation. Does she

respond in a disinterested manner or

does her face get red and you have to

remove all sharp objects from the

desk? If its a top 2-3 issue shes stillmotivated to do something about.

5. Shift your discovery to learning the

financially compelling

characteristics of the problem.

Theres nothing like a cost that wasnt

budgeted or a top line that isnt

meeting budget to get a PFAs

attention. If the problem isntfinancially compelling enough to

commit funding the stalled lead will

stay stalled.

6. Dont let the sample become a sore

spot. If youre following up on a

sample you gave earlier and every time

you follow up you go right to the

sample dont be surprised if eventuallyyour stakeholder stops taking your call.

Maybe she said yes to the sample too

soon maybe you offered it too soon.

You could even be direct about it and

say something to the effect of lets

forget about the sample for now. Im

not sure I did a good job understanding

your needs the first time. Do you have

a second to answer a couple ofquestions?

7. Recommend some ideas as a way to

kick start the conversation. Janey, I

was thinking about your situation and I

had a couple of ideas that might

interest you. Want to chat about it this

Friday? Bringing ideas shows her

youre mentally engaged in herproblem or situation. Stakeholders like

that. One of those ideas could be just

the thing to inspire her to take action

right now.

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Sales Recover: Repairing BrokenRelationshipsDecember 10, 2012

Remember the scene in To Catch a Thief

when John Robie, aka the Cat, aka Cary

Grant, escapes into the restaurant of his

old resistance friend to avoid the French

gendarmerie nationale? Looking out onto

the kitchen from inside the owners glass

office suddenly an egg explodes on the

window. His former resistance friendsworking the kitchen no longer want

anything to do with him because they

think hes stealing jewels again and

bringing attention to them. As ex cons

theyd rather lay very low. It seems hes

run from one enemy into the arms of

another.

If youve ever taken over a territory andwalked into an account and found the

natives ready to burn you at the stake you

know how John Robie felt. Dont feel bad

for him however. He spent the rest of the

movie being seduced by Grace Kelly.

A recent sales strategy session with a

client reminded me of how as a new rep in

a new territory you can turn a situation

going south into an opportunity.

Joe works for a food service company in

Texas. Hes the number one rep in his

company. Hes set so many records the

company will have to reset all standards.

During a Funnel Audit recently he

described his approach to an account that

had problems related to a previous

employee. He said when he walks into

this account he actually senses the energy

being drained from the room. He doesnt

dispute the previous problems. Joe had

this account on his Buy Cycle Funnelbecause he felt it has long term potential.

Bam! Lesson one dont be afraid to go

back into an account that your previous

rep screwed up. This sounds simple, but

its tempting to avoid things that cause

heartburn. In this case theres no purple

pill you can take.

Joe continued. He said he doesnt take it

personally that this account doesnt like

his company.

Bam! Lesson two its not about you

when you inherit a gnarly situation.

I asked Joe what his objectives are when

he goes into this account and he said its

to repair the relationship first, then qualifysome new opportunities if possible.

Bam! Lesson three Joes not selling

because theres no buying going on. Over

time Joes salve on the relationship will

heal it to a point where the stakeholders

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give him and his company another shot at

business.

About twenty years ago I learned a

valuable lesson like this when I inherited a

trouble account in a territory selling

medical devices to hospitals. My

predecessor was so good that he sold more

stuff than the hospitals needed.

Impressive right? Hardly.

The operating room manager wanted to

take my head off when she learned I

worked for the company whose products

were sitting idle on her shelf. After

confirming there was no doctor who

would use these products I agreed to

return them. She never forgot that. As a

result she gave me access to doctors laterand eventually I sold them the products.

Everyone was happy.

By the way, To Catch a Thief isnt

Hitchcocks best but between scenes of

the French Riviera and Ms. Kelly, or Mr.

Grant, you can temporarily forget about

those tough customers.

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