When I teach a Karate Class, Teen or Adult, it often starts with some cardio to loosen them up and break a bit of a sweat.
Then we do some drills on basic techniques such as Block & then Punch. The reason for Block & Punch is simple. If you are out in the real world and someone throws a punch at you, you don't want to be hit, you want to block it, right? If someone is throwing punches at you, after you block their punch, you want them to stop punching don't you? The most effective way to get them to stop, is to land a punch and hurt them isn't it? Since this is a basic premise and the heart of self-defense, you want to make sure that Block & Punch is second nature. The best way to perfect your techniques is through practice and repetition isn't it? Did you ever see a kid walk up to a two wheel bicycle and ride the first time he/she got on without falling? Nope, me neither.
So how does drilling basic Karate techniques such as Block & Punch relate to Sales? You need to sharpen and maintain your skills in both areas. If you haven't practiced the sales equivalent of block & punch (responding to a customer objection with a suitable response), you'll be hit! If you haven't developed a credible response to "Why should I buy from you?” you're going to be knocked flat on your back.
How will you counter the inevitable, "Your price is too high!" (That you know is coming, it's just a matter of when) to justify the cost of your product (better quality; lower cost of ownership, etc.) your client won't select your offering.
So today's summary is try to anticipate your customers' objections and develop a response to educate them, so they understand why purchasing from you is the best buying decision they can make. Then, MAKE SURE they have a great buying experience.
Thanks for reading my Blog!
Jim
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The Master Deal Negotiators at T-Mobile
The Master Deal Negotiators at T-Mobile. If the acquisition doesn't get regulatory approval, according to the terms of the agreement, T-Mobile gets:
1. $3 Billion (That's Billion with a "B")
2. Wireless Spectrum from AT&T
3. A Roaming Agreement
So is there any downside for T-Mobile? I don't think there is any downside, just upside. AT&T bears all of the risk as best as I can tell. How could T-Mobile have said no?
What are Sprint & Verizon's next moves? Does Verizon acquire Sprint? They say they aren't interested and I question whether the Regulators would allow two deals of this size to be completed in succession.
So does Sprint go out and buy and integrate all of the other smaller regional and niche players out there like Leap & MetroPCS? Can they raise the cash and can they make it work?
Or will someone who's an outsider like Google come along and acquire Sprint to get into the wireless business?
Should be interesting. Stay tuned for more developments. Thanks for checking out my post.
Jim
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Changes in the Wireless Field - AT&T to Buy T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion
WOW! To quote the Grateful Dead's song, Truckin' "What a long strange trip it's been!" I have been wondering lately what was going on with the Sprint/T-Mobile Acquisition talks and BOOM, AT&T snatches T-Mobile, the smallest of the four major wireless carriers away from Sprint (see link nearby to NY Times story).
This makes a lot of sense in many ways. T-Mobile has been struggling for a while to increase their market share. Both AT&T & T-Mobile use GSM technology, so the networks are compatible. There undoubtedly be cost savings. The combined wireless giant will have lower network costs since they both use GSM. They will also be able to spend less on Marketing & Advertising, which is a large expense.
What will happen to Sprint now? They will now be a fraction of the size of the combined AT&T/T-Mobile Monster. They have been struggling with both churn and with not having the sexy iPhone. I understand Sprint's need to grow, but I thought after all the issues they had with Nextel and having to manage two incompatible networks (Sprint's CDMA & Nextel's iDEN) they would have been reluctant to go down the incompatible technology path again. I wonder how much of a factor that was for the T-Mobile execs in the merger talks.
What about Verizon? Just a couple weeks after they get a CDMA iPhone, they have to contend with this. They become a very distant second to the combined AT&T/T-Mobile. Will they now feel they have to acquire Sprint to stay in the game? Should be interesting...
Another interesting question is will this pass regulatory scrutiny? This will probably get looked over pretty closely by the regulatory bodies. I don't think it will be a quick review.
And what about the consumer? Will coverage be better with a more concentrated market? Will customer service a frequent pain point for consumers improve or deteriorate? Stay tuned. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading. Please drop me a line if you have any questions or suggestions for future posts.
This makes a lot of sense in many ways. T-Mobile has been struggling for a while to increase their market share. Both AT&T & T-Mobile use GSM technology, so the networks are compatible. There undoubtedly be cost savings. The combined wireless giant will have lower network costs since they both use GSM. They will also be able to spend less on Marketing & Advertising, which is a large expense.
What will happen to Sprint now? They will now be a fraction of the size of the combined AT&T/T-Mobile Monster. They have been struggling with both churn and with not having the sexy iPhone. I understand Sprint's need to grow, but I thought after all the issues they had with Nextel and having to manage two incompatible networks (Sprint's CDMA & Nextel's iDEN) they would have been reluctant to go down the incompatible technology path again. I wonder how much of a factor that was for the T-Mobile execs in the merger talks.
What about Verizon? Just a couple weeks after they get a CDMA iPhone, they have to contend with this. They become a very distant second to the combined AT&T/T-Mobile. Will they now feel they have to acquire Sprint to stay in the game? Should be interesting...
Another interesting question is will this pass regulatory scrutiny? This will probably get looked over pretty closely by the regulatory bodies. I don't think it will be a quick review.
And what about the consumer? Will coverage be better with a more concentrated market? Will customer service a frequent pain point for consumers improve or deteriorate? Stay tuned. Time will tell.
Thanks for reading. Please drop me a line if you have any questions or suggestions for future posts.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
St. Patrick's Day Posting - The "Secret Sauce" of Sales
Many people who do not have a background in sales wonder if there's a magic formula to success in sales. Some will ask if there's a trick or "secret sauce" that makes some sales people Rock Stars.
I guess that's a natural question. After all, there are some people who make it look so easy. I think it's human nature to ask if there's a short cut to success.
Have you ever seen someone who just seems to have the gift of gab? A sales person who makes it look effortless. If you don't work in sales you might have had an experience like this. If you have worked in sales I doubt you have.
Asking someone in sales if there is a "secret sauce" that makes someone successful in sales is like asking Paul McCartney how the Beatles became overnight sensations. To someone who doesn't know the background it could seem that the Beatles met, practiced a few times together and then became the biggest musical group ever. Effortless right?
Meet some other guys that like music, learn to play drums & play a few chords on a guitar, and it's done, right? Well, maybe grow your hair a little long for the times, just to get everyone's attention, and NOW it's a Done Deal?
The Beatles "Secret Sauce" was playing in dive bars in Germany for years. They perfected their music and stage show the old fashioned way, with blood sweat and tears. Their overnight success took years of hard work!
Success in sales is similar. The Sales Professional needs to learn to identify potential clients. The Sales Pro needs to learn his product's strengths and his competition's vulnerable areas. The Pro needs to learn how to position their product. They need to learn how to articulate how your product can solve the client's problem. They need to how to negotiate favorable terms and if their product is more costly than the competition, they need to be able to educate their client why they should pay a premium for the product. After they have LEARNED HOW to do these things to be successful, then they have to actually DO IT! Now you have to PROSPECT because with few if any exceptions, customers don't come to you, you have to find them.
So what I'm trying to say is when you see a Sales Professional who is articulate & knowledgeable, years have work have gone into polishing their skills. They became an overnight sensation who makes it look effortless because of years of hard work. So the answer to the question is, there is NO "Secret Sauce". The secret to success is as in many things in life, HARD WORK!. Hard Work is the "Secret Sauce"!
Early Happy St. Patrick's Day! May all you sales pros have the gift of gab.
Thanks for reading!
Jim
I guess that's a natural question. After all, there are some people who make it look so easy. I think it's human nature to ask if there's a short cut to success.
Have you ever seen someone who just seems to have the gift of gab? A sales person who makes it look effortless. If you don't work in sales you might have had an experience like this. If you have worked in sales I doubt you have.
Asking someone in sales if there is a "secret sauce" that makes someone successful in sales is like asking Paul McCartney how the Beatles became overnight sensations. To someone who doesn't know the background it could seem that the Beatles met, practiced a few times together and then became the biggest musical group ever. Effortless right?
Meet some other guys that like music, learn to play drums & play a few chords on a guitar, and it's done, right? Well, maybe grow your hair a little long for the times, just to get everyone's attention, and NOW it's a Done Deal?
The Beatles "Secret Sauce" was playing in dive bars in Germany for years. They perfected their music and stage show the old fashioned way, with blood sweat and tears. Their overnight success took years of hard work!
Success in sales is similar. The Sales Professional needs to learn to identify potential clients. The Sales Pro needs to learn his product's strengths and his competition's vulnerable areas. The Pro needs to learn how to position their product. They need to learn how to articulate how your product can solve the client's problem. They need to how to negotiate favorable terms and if their product is more costly than the competition, they need to be able to educate their client why they should pay a premium for the product. After they have LEARNED HOW to do these things to be successful, then they have to actually DO IT! Now you have to PROSPECT because with few if any exceptions, customers don't come to you, you have to find them.
So what I'm trying to say is when you see a Sales Professional who is articulate & knowledgeable, years have work have gone into polishing their skills. They became an overnight sensation who makes it look effortless because of years of hard work. So the answer to the question is, there is NO "Secret Sauce". The secret to success is as in many things in life, HARD WORK!. Hard Work is the "Secret Sauce"!
Early Happy St. Patrick's Day! May all you sales pros have the gift of gab.
Thanks for reading!
Jim
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Body Language at a Sales Call
This SimplyHired article on SimplyBlog posted on Jan. 14, 2011, discusses it at job interviews, but many of the points are relevant to sales calls. I have attached the link to the article if you want to read it in its entirety.
Some important things to remember on your sales calls are
1. Smile! People feel more at ease and relaxed when they see a friendly face.
2. Good posture and a firm handshake. If you don't feel confident and look confident, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
3. Change your pitch and tone. You want them to be interested and engaged, not bored to tears!
4. Maintain eye contact, but don't stare them down.
I have only listed a couple of points. This could can be dealt with in enough depth to be a 3 credit college course, but I want to give you something to think about.
If you have any thoughts, please drop me a line. Thanks for reading.
http://blog.simplyhired.com/2011/01/the-power-of-body-language-in-an-interview.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan25
Some important things to remember on your sales calls are
1. Smile! People feel more at ease and relaxed when they see a friendly face.
2. Good posture and a firm handshake. If you don't feel confident and look confident, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.
3. Change your pitch and tone. You want them to be interested and engaged, not bored to tears!
4. Maintain eye contact, but don't stare them down.
I have only listed a couple of points. This could can be dealt with in enough depth to be a 3 credit college course, but I want to give you something to think about.
If you have any thoughts, please drop me a line. Thanks for reading.
http://blog.simplyhired.com/2011/01/the-power-of-body-language-in-an-interview.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan25
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
If a company, in your eyes, consistently gives you bad service, do you continue dealing with them? Why or why not?
This question was posted on LinkedIn by Tim Tymchyshyn. I wrote a response to his question. Tim rated my response as a "Good Answer". My response is below.
“Hi Tim, I think it depends on your options. If you don't have an alternative; for example a government agency or a company with a virtual monopoly, you have no other option. If that's the case, it is often a large bureaucracy (think Dept of Motor Vehicle). If you haven't found someone helpful, leave and come back later. You'll almost certainly have someone else work with you and you might get someone more willing to assist you. (This works on phone calls too; hang up and call back, the chances of you being connected to the same person in the Call Center are miniscule).
If you have other options, I would exercise them. This is especially important to me if I need to have an ongoing relationship with this organization. I would rather pay a bit of a premium for better service.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for future topics. Happy New Year everyone. Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2011!
Jim Vogel
Jim.Vogel@hotmail.com
“Hi Tim, I think it depends on your options. If you don't have an alternative; for example a government agency or a company with a virtual monopoly, you have no other option. If that's the case, it is often a large bureaucracy (think Dept of Motor Vehicle). If you haven't found someone helpful, leave and come back later. You'll almost certainly have someone else work with you and you might get someone more willing to assist you. (This works on phone calls too; hang up and call back, the chances of you being connected to the same person in the Call Center are miniscule).
If you have other options, I would exercise them. This is especially important to me if I need to have an ongoing relationship with this organization. I would rather pay a bit of a premium for better service.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for future topics. Happy New Year everyone. Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2011!
Jim Vogel
Jim.Vogel@hotmail.com
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
What Sales Methods are Used to Deliver a Product to Market? / What Does the Term Channel Sales Mean?
Channel is simply the method used by the company that manufacturers a product, provides a service or develops software to deliver or sell it to the end user.
Companies use one or more channels to sell their products. The sales channel or channels are selected based on what the manufacturer believes is the most efficient method to get the product to market.
Direct Sales - the company has employees who have responsibility to sell the products either full time or part time.
Agents - independent sales people or organizations are agents for the company. They receive a commission on their sales but usually do not receive a salary and pay their own expenses. Life insurance is often sold this way in the US.
Value Added Resellers (VARs) - independent companies that often take something that they use as a component and incorporate it into a system. VARs often integrate computer hardware and software to provide a turnkey system to the end user.
Retail - stores and businesses that customers visit to purchase products. Car dealers are an example of a retail channel.
Manufacturer's Representative - separate businesses often with exclusive territories that sell a limited product set, but have expertise in the product. A Rep company will sometimes carry inventory of high volume products, but this is not always the case. They often provide Tier 1 support and are considered Subject Matter Experts (SME's) for the product. They will typically be able to demonstrate and make product presentations to users.
Wholesalers - sometimes are called Master Distributors purchase in large quantities from the manufacturer. They typically do not modify the product to see it. The Master Distributors in turn re-sell in large quantities to smaller distributors or retail stores.
Businesses will often utilize more multiple channels depending on the cost, complexity and breadth of their product line. A company that sells a broad line of computers might have some products sold in electronics stores and the more complex and expensive products sold by their own sales force.
Companies use one or more channels to sell their products. The sales channel or channels are selected based on what the manufacturer believes is the most efficient method to get the product to market.
Direct Sales - the company has employees who have responsibility to sell the products either full time or part time.
Agents - independent sales people or organizations are agents for the company. They receive a commission on their sales but usually do not receive a salary and pay their own expenses. Life insurance is often sold this way in the US.
Value Added Resellers (VARs) - independent companies that often take something that they use as a component and incorporate it into a system. VARs often integrate computer hardware and software to provide a turnkey system to the end user.
Retail - stores and businesses that customers visit to purchase products. Car dealers are an example of a retail channel.
Manufacturer's Representative - separate businesses often with exclusive territories that sell a limited product set, but have expertise in the product. A Rep company will sometimes carry inventory of high volume products, but this is not always the case. They often provide Tier 1 support and are considered Subject Matter Experts (SME's) for the product. They will typically be able to demonstrate and make product presentations to users.
Wholesalers - sometimes are called Master Distributors purchase in large quantities from the manufacturer. They typically do not modify the product to see it. The Master Distributors in turn re-sell in large quantities to smaller distributors or retail stores.
Businesses will often utilize more multiple channels depending on the cost, complexity and breadth of their product line. A company that sells a broad line of computers might have some products sold in electronics stores and the more complex and expensive products sold by their own sales force.
What is Meant by the Term "Channel Sales"? / What are the Different Ways to Sell a Product?
Channel is simply the method used by the company that manufacturers a product, provides a service or develops software to deliver or sell it to the end user.
Companies use one or more channels to sell their products. The sales channel or channels are selected based on what the manufacturer believes is the most efficient method to get the product to market.
Direct Sales - the company has employees who have responsibility to sell the products either full time or part time.
Agents - independent sales people or organizations are agents for the company. They receive a commission on their sales but usually do not receive a salary and pay their own expenses. Life insurance is often sold this way in the US.
Value Added Resellers (VARs) - independent companies that often take something that they use as a component and incorporate it into a system. VARs often integrate computer hardware and software to provide a turnkey system to the end user.
Retail - stores and businesses that customers visit to purchase products. Car dealers are an example of a retail channel.
Manufacturer's Representative - separate businesses often with exclusive territories that sell a limited product set, but have expertise in the product. A Rep company will sometimes carry inventory of high volume products, but this is not always the case. They often provide Tier 1 support and are considered Subject Matter Experts (SME's) for the product. They will typically be able to demonstrate and make product presentations to users.
Wholesalers - sometimes are called Master Distributors purchase in large quantities from the manufacturer. They typically do not modify the product to see it. The Master Distributors in turn re-sell in large quantities to smaller distributors or retail stores.
Businesses will often utilize more multiple channels depending on the cost, complexity and breadth of their product line. A company that sells a broad line of computers might have some products sold in electronics stores and the more complex and expensive products sold by their own sales force.
I hope this helps to clarify the terms for you.Value Added Resellers; Direct Sales
Companies use one or more channels to sell their products. The sales channel or channels are selected based on what the manufacturer believes is the most efficient method to get the product to market.
Direct Sales - the company has employees who have responsibility to sell the products either full time or part time.
Agents - independent sales people or organizations are agents for the company. They receive a commission on their sales but usually do not receive a salary and pay their own expenses. Life insurance is often sold this way in the US.
Value Added Resellers (VARs) - independent companies that often take something that they use as a component and incorporate it into a system. VARs often integrate computer hardware and software to provide a turnkey system to the end user.
Retail - stores and businesses that customers visit to purchase products. Car dealers are an example of a retail channel.
Manufacturer's Representative - separate businesses often with exclusive territories that sell a limited product set, but have expertise in the product. A Rep company will sometimes carry inventory of high volume products, but this is not always the case. They often provide Tier 1 support and are considered Subject Matter Experts (SME's) for the product. They will typically be able to demonstrate and make product presentations to users.
Wholesalers - sometimes are called Master Distributors purchase in large quantities from the manufacturer. They typically do not modify the product to see it. The Master Distributors in turn re-sell in large quantities to smaller distributors or retail stores.
Businesses will often utilize more multiple channels depending on the cost, complexity and breadth of their product line. A company that sells a broad line of computers might have some products sold in electronics stores and the more complex and expensive products sold by their own sales force.
I hope this helps to clarify the terms for you.Value Added Resellers; Direct Sales
Monday, May 24, 2010
Account Penetration into Different Business Units & Offices
Before I start, I want to post a shout out to my twin daughters, Theresa & Annie. Today is their twelfth birthday! Happy Birthday Annie & Theresa!
Love
Daddy
Account Penetration into Different Business Units & Offices
So, if the scenario is similar to the last posting, but instead of being the secondary provider to the business unit using the bulk of your product, you are the sole or primary provider for this unit but there are other areas of the company that also use your product you have a similar approach. You still leverage your relationships.
You might have to help your source uncover the person you need to reach. You can help by looking on the Web Site. Sometimes the Branch Manager or the Division Manager's name is listed if you look on the offices or business group pages. Sometimes the information is readily available and your contact will have to dig out the information internally.
This is important, so please make a note. There is NO BETTER WAY to reach someone you don't know than through an introduction / referral! If you have an established relationship with people in this company, they will be happy to tell you who you need to speak with if they know, or in many cases, try to find out for you.
Why is this so crucial? Think about your own life. If a friend or a manager in your company came to you and said, "We're doing business with Alphabet City Widget. Joe, the Account Executive has done a great job, giving us good service. The orders ship quickly and they're right, so we're not doing a lot of returns and re-orders. Why don't you meet with him and see if he can help you out?" How likely are you to refuse to meet with or at least speak with Joe? It's highly likely you would at least speak to him is it? Why, because if a friend whose judgment you trust or a manager, who at some point in the future might be able to help you asks, you want to be accommodating if you can don't you? Of course you do, its human nature.
Even if your contact doesn't know the person in the other division, having the ability to refer to him/her as a happy client is helpful and the fact that you have the ability to confidently begin your conversation by saying, "I know we haven't spoken, but I have been working with Mary in your Flushing office for several months" is a great ice breaker. They might call Mary to see what her experience is, or they might not, but it will definitely relax the barriers of entry a bit for you.
Thanks for reading my post. If you enjoy this and get some useful information from it, please tell your friends & business associates to check it out!
Love
Daddy
Account Penetration into Different Business Units & Offices
So, if the scenario is similar to the last posting, but instead of being the secondary provider to the business unit using the bulk of your product, you are the sole or primary provider for this unit but there are other areas of the company that also use your product you have a similar approach. You still leverage your relationships.
You might have to help your source uncover the person you need to reach. You can help by looking on the Web Site. Sometimes the Branch Manager or the Division Manager's name is listed if you look on the offices or business group pages. Sometimes the information is readily available and your contact will have to dig out the information internally.
This is important, so please make a note. There is NO BETTER WAY to reach someone you don't know than through an introduction / referral! If you have an established relationship with people in this company, they will be happy to tell you who you need to speak with if they know, or in many cases, try to find out for you.
Why is this so crucial? Think about your own life. If a friend or a manager in your company came to you and said, "We're doing business with Alphabet City Widget. Joe, the Account Executive has done a great job, giving us good service. The orders ship quickly and they're right, so we're not doing a lot of returns and re-orders. Why don't you meet with him and see if he can help you out?" How likely are you to refuse to meet with or at least speak with Joe? It's highly likely you would at least speak to him is it? Why, because if a friend whose judgment you trust or a manager, who at some point in the future might be able to help you asks, you want to be accommodating if you can don't you? Of course you do, its human nature.
Even if your contact doesn't know the person in the other division, having the ability to refer to him/her as a happy client is helpful and the fact that you have the ability to confidently begin your conversation by saying, "I know we haven't spoken, but I have been working with Mary in your Flushing office for several months" is a great ice breaker. They might call Mary to see what her experience is, or they might not, but it will definitely relax the barriers of entry a bit for you.
Thanks for reading my post. If you enjoy this and get some useful information from it, please tell your friends & business associates to check it out!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Business Development & Account Penetration
Business Development & Account Penetration
OK, so now you have established a toehold in a business that has the potential to really kick your business up to the next level. You're currently earning about 5 to 8% of their total annual spend on your product or service. Are you satisfied? I hope not!
So what are the next steps? As I teach my Martial Arts students, if you're attacked, you never throw one punch or land one kick and then stop and stand back to admire it. There are very few one strike fights. If you land one punch or a kick, you follow up immediately with another kick or punch; and another; and another, until your opponent goes away or is out of commission. The key is to follow up.
You need to determine whether the additional business comes from the area of the company you have established ties with or if it's originating in another office or division. If you need to work with the people you currently have developed relationships with, the task is pretty straight forward. You need to determine why they are using someone else for the majority of their needs and what their pain point is, and position yourself to solve that problem for them. It might be as simple as inertia. "We've been doing business with them for the past five or ten years, the order to them is kicked out to them automatically as soon as we run low." You need to provide a compelling reason to change their process so the orders are automatically sent to you. Sometimes it's as simple as asking; they simply forgot to change the order process. So ask and you shall receive. The sticking point might be relatively minor and easily resolved. They might say "You're getting 100% of our orders for equipment with an RS232 connection. Most of our customers now want a USB connection." Then you either tell them you have a USB connection, get a bunch of incremental business and take a bow, or you go to your Product Team and find out what needs to be done to offer a USB connection on your box.
Thank you for reading my Blog.
Next: Account Penetration into different offices and business units.
OK, so now you have established a toehold in a business that has the potential to really kick your business up to the next level. You're currently earning about 5 to 8% of their total annual spend on your product or service. Are you satisfied? I hope not!
So what are the next steps? As I teach my Martial Arts students, if you're attacked, you never throw one punch or land one kick and then stop and stand back to admire it. There are very few one strike fights. If you land one punch or a kick, you follow up immediately with another kick or punch; and another; and another, until your opponent goes away or is out of commission. The key is to follow up.
You need to determine whether the additional business comes from the area of the company you have established ties with or if it's originating in another office or division. If you need to work with the people you currently have developed relationships with, the task is pretty straight forward. You need to determine why they are using someone else for the majority of their needs and what their pain point is, and position yourself to solve that problem for them. It might be as simple as inertia. "We've been doing business with them for the past five or ten years, the order to them is kicked out to them automatically as soon as we run low." You need to provide a compelling reason to change their process so the orders are automatically sent to you. Sometimes it's as simple as asking; they simply forgot to change the order process. So ask and you shall receive. The sticking point might be relatively minor and easily resolved. They might say "You're getting 100% of our orders for equipment with an RS232 connection. Most of our customers now want a USB connection." Then you either tell them you have a USB connection, get a bunch of incremental business and take a bow, or you go to your Product Team and find out what needs to be done to offer a USB connection on your box.
Thank you for reading my Blog.
Next: Account Penetration into different offices and business units.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Maximizing An Account's Potential
Maximizing An Account's Potential
Creating a relationship with a business so they begin to purchase your product or service is hopefully the start of a beautiful relationship. So the Purchase Orders begin to come in and life is good. Now, assuming (always dangerous) that your agreed upon pricing means the transactions are profitable for your company, you're ready to sit back and look through the new car catalog to decide if you want that convertible in silver or red, right? Maybe, or maybe not.
Before you start sipping that cold, well deserved, iced tea & head over to the car dealer, here are some questions you should have answered.
Are the orders being processed correctly and in a timely manner? Are your installations being completed in the agreed upon interval? And the big one... are they paying their bills? The corollary to the old saying "Nothing happens until a sale is made" is "It doesn't matter how much you sell until the money is in the till."
So you're not quite ready to put the top down on your new convertible and sip that iced tea yet. You need to check to make sure your customer's credit line has been approved or they are willing to accept things on a C.O.D. basis (not likely unless they're desperate). THEN, you need to make sure the Bill to & Ship to information is correct, as well as the pricing, and after that you need to make sure your Accounting Dept is sending out the correct bills. I have yet to have a client send my company a check BEFORE they received a bill.
OK, so now everything's good! The orders are coming in, they're being processed, shipped and installed correctly and the customer is paying in a timely manner. The current run rate shows you'll receive about $200,000 in new business for the year. High five? You can go out, put the top down on your new silver convertible, open that baby up and zoom down the LIE at 30 MPH (yes, 30, it's beautiful sunny summer Friday, and it's rush hour on Long Island!).
Sure, until Monday, ... when you go back to sit down to see what else you need to do to get more business from your new account. You'll need to do that because you've realized that $200,000 in new business annually is a good start, this firm spends $25 Million on the product you're providing. This means you have lots of upside and growth potential.
What now? As always, you follow the money! Is all $25 Million ordered by the people you're currently dealing with? If it is, it seems likely that they're using you as a secondary source. Then your mission is to convince them that you're company is the best and you should either be their only source, or at a minimum their primary supplier.
Are you getting all of the business from the team you deal with and there are other parts of the business that order from your competitor? If you need to probe and penetrate other areas of the business, you need to expand your presence in this account & establish relationships with the other decision makers to get the additional business from them.
How? We'll talk about that next time.
Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are always appreciated.
Creating a relationship with a business so they begin to purchase your product or service is hopefully the start of a beautiful relationship. So the Purchase Orders begin to come in and life is good. Now, assuming (always dangerous) that your agreed upon pricing means the transactions are profitable for your company, you're ready to sit back and look through the new car catalog to decide if you want that convertible in silver or red, right? Maybe, or maybe not.
Before you start sipping that cold, well deserved, iced tea & head over to the car dealer, here are some questions you should have answered.
Are the orders being processed correctly and in a timely manner? Are your installations being completed in the agreed upon interval? And the big one... are they paying their bills? The corollary to the old saying "Nothing happens until a sale is made" is "It doesn't matter how much you sell until the money is in the till."
So you're not quite ready to put the top down on your new convertible and sip that iced tea yet. You need to check to make sure your customer's credit line has been approved or they are willing to accept things on a C.O.D. basis (not likely unless they're desperate). THEN, you need to make sure the Bill to & Ship to information is correct, as well as the pricing, and after that you need to make sure your Accounting Dept is sending out the correct bills. I have yet to have a client send my company a check BEFORE they received a bill.
OK, so now everything's good! The orders are coming in, they're being processed, shipped and installed correctly and the customer is paying in a timely manner. The current run rate shows you'll receive about $200,000 in new business for the year. High five? You can go out, put the top down on your new silver convertible, open that baby up and zoom down the LIE at 30 MPH (yes, 30, it's beautiful sunny summer Friday, and it's rush hour on Long Island!).
Sure, until Monday, ... when you go back to sit down to see what else you need to do to get more business from your new account. You'll need to do that because you've realized that $200,000 in new business annually is a good start, this firm spends $25 Million on the product you're providing. This means you have lots of upside and growth potential.
What now? As always, you follow the money! Is all $25 Million ordered by the people you're currently dealing with? If it is, it seems likely that they're using you as a secondary source. Then your mission is to convince them that you're company is the best and you should either be their only source, or at a minimum their primary supplier.
Are you getting all of the business from the team you deal with and there are other parts of the business that order from your competitor? If you need to probe and penetrate other areas of the business, you need to expand your presence in this account & establish relationships with the other decision makers to get the additional business from them.
How? We'll talk about that next time.
Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are always appreciated.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Creating and Building Business Relationships
Creating and Building Business Relationships
One of the most difficult areas in sales and yet one of the most critical areas that a person new to sales needs to learn is how to cold call and how to establish relationships. This is necessary in almost any business because the most common way to grow is to add new clients. You need new clients to replace clients that leave, move, change their business due to market forces, etc.
Most people fear the rejection of going into a business where they know no one and try to establish a rapport and start to develop a relationship with this new potential client. I would not categorize this as a trivial area, I don’t think it’s as intimidating as some its made out to be in many publications and many seminars I taken. The keys are to get your subject’s attention and interest. Think of it as a “Business Blind Date”. You never know what might develop…
A huge part of the issue is getting into the proper frame of mind. Keep your eye on the prize! This is the potential opportunity to break into a new account, meet someone who might be the decision maker for new business or you might just meet someone who is pleasant and you end up with a new friend. If you have a mutual friend or business associate, ask them introduce you. Meeting for a quick cup of coffee if possible makes the meeting a bit more relaxed and eases the tension. Having a mutual acquaintance breaks the ice and establishes some common ground for you both.
But it’s very important to that you respect the other parties’ time constraints and keep in mind that this is an introduction, not a sales presentation. Keep it light and keep to your agreed upon time frame. If you ask to meet for a half hour for a cup of coffee, keep it to thirty minutes. You should make a remark when you’ve been there for close to the half hour mark like, “ I noticed that its been almost a half hour since we sat down. I want to thank you for your time. I’m happy I had a chance to meet you and spend this time with you. I know your time is at a premium, so if you need to get back to your office now, I certainly understand. Can we continue this later in the week?” You are making this person aware that you respect their time. You are also setting up a follow up meeting. You might also get lucky if they’re interested and they’ll say, “I have some more time, let’s keep going.” But even if they leave, that can mean they have other obligations to fulfill. Don’t be discouraged!
Thanks for reading. Your comments are always appreciated.
One of the most difficult areas in sales and yet one of the most critical areas that a person new to sales needs to learn is how to cold call and how to establish relationships. This is necessary in almost any business because the most common way to grow is to add new clients. You need new clients to replace clients that leave, move, change their business due to market forces, etc.
Most people fear the rejection of going into a business where they know no one and try to establish a rapport and start to develop a relationship with this new potential client. I would not categorize this as a trivial area, I don’t think it’s as intimidating as some its made out to be in many publications and many seminars I taken. The keys are to get your subject’s attention and interest. Think of it as a “Business Blind Date”. You never know what might develop…
A huge part of the issue is getting into the proper frame of mind. Keep your eye on the prize! This is the potential opportunity to break into a new account, meet someone who might be the decision maker for new business or you might just meet someone who is pleasant and you end up with a new friend. If you have a mutual friend or business associate, ask them introduce you. Meeting for a quick cup of coffee if possible makes the meeting a bit more relaxed and eases the tension. Having a mutual acquaintance breaks the ice and establishes some common ground for you both.
But it’s very important to that you respect the other parties’ time constraints and keep in mind that this is an introduction, not a sales presentation. Keep it light and keep to your agreed upon time frame. If you ask to meet for a half hour for a cup of coffee, keep it to thirty minutes. You should make a remark when you’ve been there for close to the half hour mark like, “ I noticed that its been almost a half hour since we sat down. I want to thank you for your time. I’m happy I had a chance to meet you and spend this time with you. I know your time is at a premium, so if you need to get back to your office now, I certainly understand. Can we continue this later in the week?” You are making this person aware that you respect their time. You are also setting up a follow up meeting. You might also get lucky if they’re interested and they’ll say, “I have some more time, let’s keep going.” But even if they leave, that can mean they have other obligations to fulfill. Don’t be discouraged!
Thanks for reading. Your comments are always appreciated.
Friday, May 7, 2010
...And make no mistake, sales people, GOOD sales people are skilled!
And make no mistake, sales people, GOOD sales people are skilled, they're not just order takers. They add value to your company in numerous ways. I said I would address this in my next post on April 22, but things got a little away from me.
So here we go..
Skilled salespeople are not just order takers; they are the direct marketing line of your business to your customers and prospects. They are the people that generate revenue for your business. Skilled sales people bring new revenue in the form of new business. That increases top line revenue which should increase your bottom line revenue as well. They can also generate revenue in many other ways. Your Top Guns can increase your account penetration by expanding your geographic reach with an existing account (selling to new locations you haven't previously done business with in the past. They can increase your account penetration by selling products the client has never purchased from you in the past. This is done by leveraging the relationship they have with the people they have established relationships with in the account.
They achieve this in one of three ways.
A) They ask for a referral from someone they have built a relationship with over time. For example: "Hey Tom, I know your team does not have responsibility for Laptop maintenance, so can you please introduce me to the person responsible here who is? Our company has a great program and I want to make sure your company is aware of that, since you have used someone else for as long as I have been your Account Manager." Or,"Hey Mike, I now have responsibility for NJ, can you please put me in touch with your counterpart responsible for NJ?"
B) They offer a bundled offer discount. "Hey Sue, since you are using our laser jet toner, I want you to know that we can offer a discount if you also purchase paper from us too." If you've done a good job, they already feel comfortable with you and if you can shave a few dollars off for them as well, that makes it attractive. And most businesses want to do business with as few suppliers as possible. Working with more vendors means they aren't getting as large volume discount as they might if they spent more of their money with a smaller pool of vendors. In addition, their accounting costs drop, since they have less vendors to add to the approved vendor list, less invoices to check before payment is released, less checks to cut etc.
C) They find the client's pain point. They find out from their discussions where the other suppliers are dropping the ball and offer your solution. Here is another example: The probability is quite high that the person that the person buying Category 5 cable from you, knows devices the cable is connecting. Is it for a LAN? It is? We sell hubs & PC's. Routers? Is it for a WAN? A strong salesperson will know what's going on in your account and make sure the client is aware of every product offering and service your business provides. They might not need it today, but you need to lay the groundwork for the future, NOW.
Salespeople aren't just the people with Sales Representative, Account Executive, Account Manager etc, on their business cards. Your installation & service teams are also in a position to increase (or decrease) your sales. Make sure you coach them as well to look for opportunities.
Thanks for reading. Please send me any questions or comments you have on this Blog.
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this. Enjoy your day!
So here we go..
Skilled salespeople are not just order takers; they are the direct marketing line of your business to your customers and prospects. They are the people that generate revenue for your business. Skilled sales people bring new revenue in the form of new business. That increases top line revenue which should increase your bottom line revenue as well. They can also generate revenue in many other ways. Your Top Guns can increase your account penetration by expanding your geographic reach with an existing account (selling to new locations you haven't previously done business with in the past. They can increase your account penetration by selling products the client has never purchased from you in the past. This is done by leveraging the relationship they have with the people they have established relationships with in the account.
They achieve this in one of three ways.
A) They ask for a referral from someone they have built a relationship with over time. For example: "Hey Tom, I know your team does not have responsibility for Laptop maintenance, so can you please introduce me to the person responsible here who is? Our company has a great program and I want to make sure your company is aware of that, since you have used someone else for as long as I have been your Account Manager." Or,"Hey Mike, I now have responsibility for NJ, can you please put me in touch with your counterpart responsible for NJ?"
B) They offer a bundled offer discount. "Hey Sue, since you are using our laser jet toner, I want you to know that we can offer a discount if you also purchase paper from us too." If you've done a good job, they already feel comfortable with you and if you can shave a few dollars off for them as well, that makes it attractive. And most businesses want to do business with as few suppliers as possible. Working with more vendors means they aren't getting as large volume discount as they might if they spent more of their money with a smaller pool of vendors. In addition, their accounting costs drop, since they have less vendors to add to the approved vendor list, less invoices to check before payment is released, less checks to cut etc.
C) They find the client's pain point. They find out from their discussions where the other suppliers are dropping the ball and offer your solution. Here is another example: The probability is quite high that the person that the person buying Category 5 cable from you, knows devices the cable is connecting. Is it for a LAN? It is? We sell hubs & PC's. Routers? Is it for a WAN? A strong salesperson will know what's going on in your account and make sure the client is aware of every product offering and service your business provides. They might not need it today, but you need to lay the groundwork for the future, NOW.
Salespeople aren't just the people with Sales Representative, Account Executive, Account Manager etc, on their business cards. Your installation & service teams are also in a position to increase (or decrease) your sales. Make sure you coach them as well to look for opportunities.
Thanks for reading. Please send me any questions or comments you have on this Blog.
Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers reading this. Enjoy your day!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Part 2 - Marketing is like Fishing...
Part 2 - Marketing is like Fishing...
... because you need the right bait to be successful! When you go fishing, you can't use one type of bait for every type of fish. You use flies, minnows, killies, worms, corn or dough depending on whether you want to catch, stripers, bluefish, flounder, etc.
In the same manner, you need to get your message out in the right media to catch the most likely users of your product. If you're selling custom office furniture, you won't want to advertise in comic books, you want your space ads in the Wall Street Journal or Fortune Magazine. Someone marketing to businesses for off-site meetings won't want to spend marketing money in a publication that is frequently read by non-profit organization or small businesses. Their target market is large businesses with big budgets.
When you've determined you want to reach the DECISION MAKERS of large businesses that hold off site meetings, how do you contact them? You need to understand their habits and interests.
So there are two things that are critical for marketing success. You need to know your target market! If you don't know who is likely to have a need for your product, your marketing is guesswork. After you figure that out, you need to understand the best way to reach them. If your product or service will be purchased by a wide group of people, like coffee and donuts in Part 1, you need to reach everyone in a reasonable driving distance of your store. If you have a smaller audience, you need to reach a smaller slice of the population but you probably want to cover more geography.
Thanks for reading.
Comments, questions, suggestion for future topics are all greatly appreciated.
... because you need the right bait to be successful! When you go fishing, you can't use one type of bait for every type of fish. You use flies, minnows, killies, worms, corn or dough depending on whether you want to catch, stripers, bluefish, flounder, etc.
In the same manner, you need to get your message out in the right media to catch the most likely users of your product. If you're selling custom office furniture, you won't want to advertise in comic books, you want your space ads in the Wall Street Journal or Fortune Magazine. Someone marketing to businesses for off-site meetings won't want to spend marketing money in a publication that is frequently read by non-profit organization or small businesses. Their target market is large businesses with big budgets.
When you've determined you want to reach the DECISION MAKERS of large businesses that hold off site meetings, how do you contact them? You need to understand their habits and interests.
So there are two things that are critical for marketing success. You need to know your target market! If you don't know who is likely to have a need for your product, your marketing is guesswork. After you figure that out, you need to understand the best way to reach them. If your product or service will be purchased by a wide group of people, like coffee and donuts in Part 1, you need to reach everyone in a reasonable driving distance of your store. If you have a smaller audience, you need to reach a smaller slice of the population but you probably want to cover more geography.
Thanks for reading.
Comments, questions, suggestion for future topics are all greatly appreciated.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Follow-Up for a New Manager with an Inexperienced Team
April 30th, the end of another month! Let's do a little follow up on the last post.
Some of the other action items for a new manager with an inexperienced team are these.
Make sure your sales people are getting to the decision maker! Want to make yourself crazy? Work with a salesperson who has a primary contact and who has worked for months to develop a super strong relationship with someone who has can't buy what you're selling! The contact loves his/her account representative, but can't say the words, "I'm convinced, here is the contract." All the time, effort and resources have been expended for NOTHING!
This is a point that needs to be drummed and stressed to anyone new to sales, if their contact can't buy, be polite and courteous to them, but have them introduce you to the person who will do the purchasing. If they are well respected and have the DM's ear, make sure you stay in contact with them since they are probably an influencer. But you need to meet and speak to the decision maker at some point in the sale. They might delegate and have their trusted staff do the preliminary evaluations, but they will decide who is awarded the business, with input from their staff.
Know the Purpose of your Call or Meeting - Is the purpose of the call to prospect and introduce your service to a business that doesn't know your firm? Is the purpose of the phone call to make sure your proposal has been read and determine next steps? Is the purpose to arrange a face to face meeting? Is it to find out who the decision maker is? Is it to close the sale? Is it to invite the decision maker to play golf? They need to say different things and need to reach different people depending on what they want to accomplish.
Generate some buzz - I would want to try to have a contest of some kind to stimulate activity and interest. It might be a team contest or I might try to get my team to pull together and challenge another manager's team to some kind of contest. It might be closing sales, making cold calls, making appointments, but I would want to get them jazzed up.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the nice NY Weather they're predicting for this weekend.
Some of the other action items for a new manager with an inexperienced team are these.
Make sure your sales people are getting to the decision maker! Want to make yourself crazy? Work with a salesperson who has a primary contact and who has worked for months to develop a super strong relationship with someone who has can't buy what you're selling! The contact loves his/her account representative, but can't say the words, "I'm convinced, here is the contract." All the time, effort and resources have been expended for NOTHING!
This is a point that needs to be drummed and stressed to anyone new to sales, if their contact can't buy, be polite and courteous to them, but have them introduce you to the person who will do the purchasing. If they are well respected and have the DM's ear, make sure you stay in contact with them since they are probably an influencer. But you need to meet and speak to the decision maker at some point in the sale. They might delegate and have their trusted staff do the preliminary evaluations, but they will decide who is awarded the business, with input from their staff.
Know the Purpose of your Call or Meeting - Is the purpose of the call to prospect and introduce your service to a business that doesn't know your firm? Is the purpose of the phone call to make sure your proposal has been read and determine next steps? Is the purpose to arrange a face to face meeting? Is it to find out who the decision maker is? Is it to close the sale? Is it to invite the decision maker to play golf? They need to say different things and need to reach different people depending on what they want to accomplish.
Generate some buzz - I would want to try to have a contest of some kind to stimulate activity and interest. It might be a team contest or I might try to get my team to pull together and challenge another manager's team to some kind of contest. It might be closing sales, making cold calls, making appointments, but I would want to get them jazzed up.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the nice NY Weather they're predicting for this weekend.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Business Plan for a New Manager with an Inexperienced Team Selling B2B
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Business Plan for a New Manager with an Inexperienced Team Selling B2B
As the folks who have found this blog through my LinkedIn Profile know, I started this blog to keep my skills sharp during my job search. I interviewed last week with a telecom company for a Sales Manager position in their Manhattan office, managing a team of 8 to 10 Sales Representatives without a lot of sales experience or industry tenure. I need to convince the Sales Director (the Hiring Manager) that I am the best candidate for the slot on his team. I thought putting together a Business Plan of what I plan to do during my first sixty days might help convince him I am the right person for the job. I also thought it might make interesting reading for the next posting on this blog. So here goes my best effort to make this post interesting to you, the readers and persuasive to the Hiring Manager!
Assess the team QUICKLY - Get as much information as I can on each member of the team. Learn who’s making quota, who’s self sufficient, who has potential to be successful but is struggling and the hard one, decide who on the team isn’t suited to this position and needs to look at other career options. I would make sure their activity level was sufficient for them to be successful as well as make sure they were using their time as productively as possible.
Learn the company’s Sweet Spot in the Market - Determine what type of business has the need for this niche telecom service. It’s a niche, but in this case, it’s a big niche. The reason for this is if I can determine a strong vertical market where the company has had some success, I can have my team contact their competitors. They can say that the service is being used in their industry and mention the business’ name. They can talk about the way it’s being deployed and how it can save the prospect money, make them more efficient because they can connect offices in a way that was too expensive with traditional carriers, or keep their costs the same, but give them more (value) for the same amount of money.
Determine New Vertical Markets - If one of the uses is video conferencing as an example, determine what businesses currently use or could benefit from high bandwidth video connections that provide high quality video. How ‘bout?
Law Firms? Sure! One way they can use of video is they can hold and record depositions via video instead of traveling in some of their cases. Since these are billable hours at $500+ per hour, this is a sure moneymaker for them.
Ad Agencies? You bet! Them too! Use video conferencing as a collaboration tool for practicing and perfecting pitches and new ad campaigns before they make the final presentation to their customer. This is especially important if there are multiple offices collaborating on the project, as is common with larger Ad Agencies.
How about Hospitality and Hotels? Why not suggest to them that they outfit one or a few of their meeting rooms with video conferencing. How about this as an example? The Business Managers at the hotel can suggest to their customers that they rent a room in a Manhattan Hotel and a Room in the Los Angeles Hotel, and connect them via video. The benefit to the business is increased productivity! The people don’t lose two days traveling (not to mention the travel expense). The end client might be a company with a large sales force. The videoconference meeting might not replace their national sales meeting entirely, (but it might if the budgets are too stretched), however, it can be a supplement for quarterly updates, new product releases, etc. The hotel gets to rent two, three, or four meeting rooms, plus food and beverages to make the Hotel Catering Manager happy and will probably still rent some hotel rooms too.
Assess Competitive Strengths – Where does this company have an advantage over the other players? Is it a technology advantage? This is an area where a company like Apple would capitalize on by charging a premium price because they have a product that is superior to the other products available in the marketplace. Is it a size and reach advantage? Does the company have a greater footprint than the others businesses? Are you able to sell, service, install and maintain your product in areas where the other businesses either just can’t do business or have to engage a third party? If so, I would have the Sales Reps introduce FUD, (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to the users. Make sure they know there is a loss of control and often, but not always, quality, when a third party is engaged. Is the business’ competitive advantage a cost advantage? If you are the Wal-Mart of your industry, you will be able to increase market share because you can sell at a lower price that your competitors and still make money. With this company I am speaking with, their advantage is clearly a cost advantage, so I would instruct and work with every rep on my team to make sure they could clearly convey the story of lower cost and how their customer benefits.
For the Hiring Manager, I hope I was able to convey in this blog posting that I am the right person for the Sales Manager position. In any case, I enjoyed speaking with you and thank you for your consideration.
Everyone else; thanks for reading. Please send me any comments, suggestions and questions.
Business Plan for a New Manager with an Inexperienced Team Selling B2B
As the folks who have found this blog through my LinkedIn Profile know, I started this blog to keep my skills sharp during my job search. I interviewed last week with a telecom company for a Sales Manager position in their Manhattan office, managing a team of 8 to 10 Sales Representatives without a lot of sales experience or industry tenure. I need to convince the Sales Director (the Hiring Manager) that I am the best candidate for the slot on his team. I thought putting together a Business Plan of what I plan to do during my first sixty days might help convince him I am the right person for the job. I also thought it might make interesting reading for the next posting on this blog. So here goes my best effort to make this post interesting to you, the readers and persuasive to the Hiring Manager!
Assess the team QUICKLY - Get as much information as I can on each member of the team. Learn who’s making quota, who’s self sufficient, who has potential to be successful but is struggling and the hard one, decide who on the team isn’t suited to this position and needs to look at other career options. I would make sure their activity level was sufficient for them to be successful as well as make sure they were using their time as productively as possible.
Learn the company’s Sweet Spot in the Market - Determine what type of business has the need for this niche telecom service. It’s a niche, but in this case, it’s a big niche. The reason for this is if I can determine a strong vertical market where the company has had some success, I can have my team contact their competitors. They can say that the service is being used in their industry and mention the business’ name. They can talk about the way it’s being deployed and how it can save the prospect money, make them more efficient because they can connect offices in a way that was too expensive with traditional carriers, or keep their costs the same, but give them more (value) for the same amount of money.
Determine New Vertical Markets - If one of the uses is video conferencing as an example, determine what businesses currently use or could benefit from high bandwidth video connections that provide high quality video. How ‘bout?
Law Firms? Sure! One way they can use of video is they can hold and record depositions via video instead of traveling in some of their cases. Since these are billable hours at $500+ per hour, this is a sure moneymaker for them.
Ad Agencies? You bet! Them too! Use video conferencing as a collaboration tool for practicing and perfecting pitches and new ad campaigns before they make the final presentation to their customer. This is especially important if there are multiple offices collaborating on the project, as is common with larger Ad Agencies.
How about Hospitality and Hotels? Why not suggest to them that they outfit one or a few of their meeting rooms with video conferencing. How about this as an example? The Business Managers at the hotel can suggest to their customers that they rent a room in a Manhattan Hotel and a Room in the Los Angeles Hotel, and connect them via video. The benefit to the business is increased productivity! The people don’t lose two days traveling (not to mention the travel expense). The end client might be a company with a large sales force. The videoconference meeting might not replace their national sales meeting entirely, (but it might if the budgets are too stretched), however, it can be a supplement for quarterly updates, new product releases, etc. The hotel gets to rent two, three, or four meeting rooms, plus food and beverages to make the Hotel Catering Manager happy and will probably still rent some hotel rooms too.
Assess Competitive Strengths – Where does this company have an advantage over the other players? Is it a technology advantage? This is an area where a company like Apple would capitalize on by charging a premium price because they have a product that is superior to the other products available in the marketplace. Is it a size and reach advantage? Does the company have a greater footprint than the others businesses? Are you able to sell, service, install and maintain your product in areas where the other businesses either just can’t do business or have to engage a third party? If so, I would have the Sales Reps introduce FUD, (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to the users. Make sure they know there is a loss of control and often, but not always, quality, when a third party is engaged. Is the business’ competitive advantage a cost advantage? If you are the Wal-Mart of your industry, you will be able to increase market share because you can sell at a lower price that your competitors and still make money. With this company I am speaking with, their advantage is clearly a cost advantage, so I would instruct and work with every rep on my team to make sure they could clearly convey the story of lower cost and how their customer benefits.
For the Hiring Manager, I hope I was able to convey in this blog posting that I am the right person for the Sales Manager position. In any case, I enjoyed speaking with you and thank you for your consideration.
Everyone else; thanks for reading. Please send me any comments, suggestions and questions.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Coaching, Mentoring, Encouraging & Managing a Sales Team - Part 1
I realize many of you already know some of the stuff I'm writing about today, but even though you know it, sometimes a reminder will jog your memory and make you think and re-focus on it.
The purpose of camps and training for pro athletes is to get them ready for the season. They get ready for the season by conditioning themselves running as well as practicing things they have done since they were children. Can you imagine a baseball team having spring training without any batting practice? Nope, me either. How many times has a pro ball player tried to hit a pitch before he steps into spring training? Tens of thousands of times is my guess. But they aren't there to learn hitting as a new skill, they are there to hone a skill they already have.
But little league is different. As a little league coach, the focus is teaching new skills and practicing the fundamentals until they're done well and come second nature to the player. A Sales Manager with an inexperienced team needs to help them develop into top professional sales people. Green {meaning inexperienced in this context. I feel the need to clarify since today is Earth Day ;-)} sales people need a Sales Manager's help to learn, among other things, the fundamentals of business and the fundamentals of sales. They might need to learn how to dress and speak to convey a professional image. The Sales Manager needs to teach them about the product and the benefits of the product to the user. They need to be coached on handling legitimate objections. They need to learn how to call and introduce themselves to prospects, to get the prospect's attention and interest and also learn the purpose of the call, SEAL THE DEAL. Sealing the deal can mean different things.
If your business has no relationship with the prospect it can mean closing the sale for an inside sales person selling a low cost commodity or making an appointment to meet face to face for big ticket items. It can also mean finding out the person you contacted is not the right person to speak with for your product, and getting the contact info for the right person. If you've developed a relationship with the person you're speaking with, they might add them to the call and provide an introduction for you. This is very desirable because a warm call meaning the ice has been broken and they are speaking to you on the recommendation of someone they already know. This removes some of the natural hesitation / defenses people have when a person they don't know calls them to try to engage in a business transaction.
And make no mistake, sales people, GOOD sales people are skilled, they're not just order takers. They add value to your company in numerous ways. I'll write about the value a good sales person adds to your business in my next post.
Thanks for reading. Please, any comments or questions are appreciated.
The purpose of camps and training for pro athletes is to get them ready for the season. They get ready for the season by conditioning themselves running as well as practicing things they have done since they were children. Can you imagine a baseball team having spring training without any batting practice? Nope, me either. How many times has a pro ball player tried to hit a pitch before he steps into spring training? Tens of thousands of times is my guess. But they aren't there to learn hitting as a new skill, they are there to hone a skill they already have.
But little league is different. As a little league coach, the focus is teaching new skills and practicing the fundamentals until they're done well and come second nature to the player. A Sales Manager with an inexperienced team needs to help them develop into top professional sales people. Green {meaning inexperienced in this context. I feel the need to clarify since today is Earth Day ;-)} sales people need a Sales Manager's help to learn, among other things, the fundamentals of business and the fundamentals of sales. They might need to learn how to dress and speak to convey a professional image. The Sales Manager needs to teach them about the product and the benefits of the product to the user. They need to be coached on handling legitimate objections. They need to learn how to call and introduce themselves to prospects, to get the prospect's attention and interest and also learn the purpose of the call, SEAL THE DEAL. Sealing the deal can mean different things.
If your business has no relationship with the prospect it can mean closing the sale for an inside sales person selling a low cost commodity or making an appointment to meet face to face for big ticket items. It can also mean finding out the person you contacted is not the right person to speak with for your product, and getting the contact info for the right person. If you've developed a relationship with the person you're speaking with, they might add them to the call and provide an introduction for you. This is very desirable because a warm call meaning the ice has been broken and they are speaking to you on the recommendation of someone they already know. This removes some of the natural hesitation / defenses people have when a person they don't know calls them to try to engage in a business transaction.
And make no mistake, sales people, GOOD sales people are skilled, they're not just order takers. They add value to your company in numerous ways. I'll write about the value a good sales person adds to your business in my next post.
Thanks for reading. Please, any comments or questions are appreciated.
Monday, April 19, 2010
To Be Successful, You Must Know Your Audience
As I alluded to in my previous posts about fishing, you need to know who your audience is to reach them effectively. To return to the fishing analogy, you won't catch ANY fish if you use Godiva chocolate as bait. In addition, you'll spend a boatload of money on bait, and have nothing to show for it!
You also need to be in the right place as well as use the right bait. You can have the best bait, but you won't catch any tuna if the boat you're fishing from is bobbing in Lake Michigan. To paraphrase Willie Sutton, he robbed banks because "that's where the money is". So you want to your message message has to be the right message AND it has to be visible to your customers; in order for them to see it.
So, you need to make sure you reach the people most likely to purchase your product or service with the right message (bait) and the right place (someplace that will reach your desired audience).
If you're selling 316L Stainless Steel, you would target people making steel products that need to be corrosion resistant. If you decide to target water bottle manufacturers for the sake of discussion, what's the most efficient way to reach them? Probably not radio or television. Print ads in a local newspaper? Maybe. Manufacturing Trade Shows? Better, but how many trade shows are there? Two or three or four a year? Not too many chances to send out your message to your audience. A Trade Magazine? Probably a good choice, because you can advertise in each issue. If it's published monthly, you have at least 12 attempts to get your potential customer to see your ad.
As a twist, why not put a space ad in the Trade Magazine? In the ad say, "see us at Booth 212 at The Stainless Steel Water Bottle Show in Cleveland, TN (or Cleveland, Tx or Cleveland, Ohio). Mention this ad and get a free Stainless Steel ID Bracelet or get a free iTunes download on us."
This has several benefits. You will reach more people because your ad will be seen more frequently than a booth at a Trade Show. Because it will be in the magazine for a number of consecutive issues, casual readers who don't read each issue can be exposed to your product. You will also reach some people that don't read the magazine, but do attend the show (and vice versa). But the really good thing about an ad with a freebie like the bracelet or iTunes download, is you can capture the people that come to claim the premium AND you will see how many people see and remember your Trade Magazine ad!
Thanks for reading.
You also need to be in the right place as well as use the right bait. You can have the best bait, but you won't catch any tuna if the boat you're fishing from is bobbing in Lake Michigan. To paraphrase Willie Sutton, he robbed banks because "that's where the money is". So you want to your message message has to be the right message AND it has to be visible to your customers; in order for them to see it.
So, you need to make sure you reach the people most likely to purchase your product or service with the right message (bait) and the right place (someplace that will reach your desired audience).
If you're selling 316L Stainless Steel, you would target people making steel products that need to be corrosion resistant. If you decide to target water bottle manufacturers for the sake of discussion, what's the most efficient way to reach them? Probably not radio or television. Print ads in a local newspaper? Maybe. Manufacturing Trade Shows? Better, but how many trade shows are there? Two or three or four a year? Not too many chances to send out your message to your audience. A Trade Magazine? Probably a good choice, because you can advertise in each issue. If it's published monthly, you have at least 12 attempts to get your potential customer to see your ad.
As a twist, why not put a space ad in the Trade Magazine? In the ad say, "see us at Booth 212 at The Stainless Steel Water Bottle Show in Cleveland, TN (or Cleveland, Tx or Cleveland, Ohio). Mention this ad and get a free Stainless Steel ID Bracelet or get a free iTunes download on us."
This has several benefits. You will reach more people because your ad will be seen more frequently than a booth at a Trade Show. Because it will be in the magazine for a number of consecutive issues, casual readers who don't read each issue can be exposed to your product. You will also reach some people that don't read the magazine, but do attend the show (and vice versa). But the really good thing about an ad with a freebie like the bracelet or iTunes download, is you can capture the people that come to claim the premium AND you will see how many people see and remember your Trade Magazine ad!
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
A Quick Post on Telecom Terms
I plan to talk a little about Telecom in the near future. I think it will be helpful to those whose background is not in Telecom to have a little Cheat Sheet. I will add another or probably more, but I want to give you some of the common terms, since this is such an acronym heavy industry.
POTS Line - Plain Old Telephone Service, this is a plain old phone line into your house or business. This is traditional phone service, not voice over IP, like the service provided by a cable provider.
T1.5 - A "T One" is a high speed line 1.5 megabit per second line used for a variety of telecom services. It can be channelized into 24 channels for voice use. The channels can all inbound (incoming 800; Toll-Free numbers) Outbound for making outgoing calls or dynamically allocated so the number of channels for Toll-Free & Outbound will vary according to the calling pattern at any given time. It can be a 1.5 megabit per second Internet connection. The reason businesses will use this instead of a cable modem or DSL line is that with a T1.5, they have Service Level Agreements (SLA's) that guarantee availability of that bandwidth for something like 99.99X%, so it is essentially always available for their usage.
More to follow!
POTS Line - Plain Old Telephone Service, this is a plain old phone line into your house or business. This is traditional phone service, not voice over IP, like the service provided by a cable provider.
T1.5 - A "T One" is a high speed line 1.5 megabit per second line used for a variety of telecom services. It can be channelized into 24 channels for voice use. The channels can all inbound (incoming 800; Toll-Free numbers) Outbound for making outgoing calls or dynamically allocated so the number of channels for Toll-Free & Outbound will vary according to the calling pattern at any given time. It can be a 1.5 megabit per second Internet connection. The reason businesses will use this instead of a cable modem or DSL line is that with a T1.5, they have Service Level Agreements (SLA's) that guarantee availability of that bandwidth for something like 99.99X%, so it is essentially always available for their usage.
More to follow!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
A Key to Marketing Success - Persistence!
Anyone who watches Mixed Martial Arts or boxing knows there are very few, if any, one punch fights. The fights are almost always decided on points or well into the match by a knock out punch or strike. The winner is successful because he has trained better than his opponent. He has better technique and has worked many, many days to get into better shape by doing an incredible number of hours of cardiovascular training. He has run miles, he has lifted lots of weights, he has spent lots of hours sparring, because sometimes the key to winning is sometimes to be the last one standing. You need to outlast your opponent.
It's the same way with marketing. You won't be successful unless you get the message out for a period a time in a campaign. Even if your product is a household name, your money is much better spent on a mixed media campaign over a 6 week or longer period rather than taking $7 Million; $9 Million, (whatever the number was) and spending your entire budget on one 30 second Super Bowl commercial.
Why? I was hoping you'd ask! For a bunch of reasons! For one thing, a portion, large or small, of your target market doesn't or couldn't see the game (discounting DVR's for this discussion). So no matter how good the commercial is, if they don't see it, you didn't connect with them. Second, circumstances change. If you're selling pizza, some portion of your audience won't be hungry when the commercial runs. As a result, they MIGHT, but it's more likely they won't remember your product when they have the munchies a couple hours later. If you have a marketing campaign, they might not be hungry the first time they hear your advertisement, and might not be hungry the second and maybe even the third. But if you get the word out over an extended period of time you increase your chances of success.
You want to play the odds and if you don't get them the first time, catch them the second or fifth or twenty fifth time. If you're like me, you stand a better chance of winning by putting a couple of bucks on a few different number on the Roulette Wheel instead of betting the ranch on Black 7 to win! So the point I want to make is that your money is better spent getting the word out a bunch of times through different outlets in a less expensive method, instead of blowing the budget on a one shot star studded extravaganza.
Thanks for reading. Any questions, comments feedback of any time is appreciated.
It's the same way with marketing. You won't be successful unless you get the message out for a period a time in a campaign. Even if your product is a household name, your money is much better spent on a mixed media campaign over a 6 week or longer period rather than taking $7 Million; $9 Million, (whatever the number was) and spending your entire budget on one 30 second Super Bowl commercial.
Why? I was hoping you'd ask! For a bunch of reasons! For one thing, a portion, large or small, of your target market doesn't or couldn't see the game (discounting DVR's for this discussion). So no matter how good the commercial is, if they don't see it, you didn't connect with them. Second, circumstances change. If you're selling pizza, some portion of your audience won't be hungry when the commercial runs. As a result, they MIGHT, but it's more likely they won't remember your product when they have the munchies a couple hours later. If you have a marketing campaign, they might not be hungry the first time they hear your advertisement, and might not be hungry the second and maybe even the third. But if you get the word out over an extended period of time you increase your chances of success.
You want to play the odds and if you don't get them the first time, catch them the second or fifth or twenty fifth time. If you're like me, you stand a better chance of winning by putting a couple of bucks on a few different number on the Roulette Wheel instead of betting the ranch on Black 7 to win! So the point I want to make is that your money is better spent getting the word out a bunch of times through different outlets in a less expensive method, instead of blowing the budget on a one shot star studded extravaganza.
Thanks for reading. Any questions, comments feedback of any time is appreciated.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Part 1 - Marketing is like fishing...
Hi All,
Marketing in many ways is like fishing. You use the bait most likely to attract the kind of fish you want to catch. You use flies, worms, corn, dough, killies, crabs or minnows depending on whether you want to hook stripers, flounder, carp etc. In the same manner you select billboards, newspaper ads, radio or television commercials to attract your buyers.
If you're selling coffee & donuts and have a drive through, you'll probably have the most success reaching your customers in their cars. How would you reach them? A billboard near your shop is one way or if you have a big enough budget, radio, since many people listen to the radio when they're driving would give you greater reach, since they can be anywhere in the listening area, not just in sight of the billboard. And you can also run the commercials during morning drive time so people driving to work can stop for a blast of your Joe on their way to work.
If you're selling basketball sneakers, you're probably trying to reach a demographic in the 10 to 30 age range and might be targeting males, females or both depending on what your line offers. Your marketing would be targeting a different consumer. You would focus on the basketball players who'd want to wear your sneakers to run faster, be more comfortable to wear or emulate a favorite sports figure. You're customer goes to sporting events either to play or watch and probably watches basketball on television. Starting out on a low budget, you might put an ad in a high school newspaper or yearbook. You could sponsor a team in a local town league. As you got established you could one day be buying sixty second spots on ESPN or during the NBA Championships!
So go big or go home! Good luck and dream big. Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are appreciated.
Marketing in many ways is like fishing. You use the bait most likely to attract the kind of fish you want to catch. You use flies, worms, corn, dough, killies, crabs or minnows depending on whether you want to hook stripers, flounder, carp etc. In the same manner you select billboards, newspaper ads, radio or television commercials to attract your buyers.
If you're selling coffee & donuts and have a drive through, you'll probably have the most success reaching your customers in their cars. How would you reach them? A billboard near your shop is one way or if you have a big enough budget, radio, since many people listen to the radio when they're driving would give you greater reach, since they can be anywhere in the listening area, not just in sight of the billboard. And you can also run the commercials during morning drive time so people driving to work can stop for a blast of your Joe on their way to work.
If you're selling basketball sneakers, you're probably trying to reach a demographic in the 10 to 30 age range and might be targeting males, females or both depending on what your line offers. Your marketing would be targeting a different consumer. You would focus on the basketball players who'd want to wear your sneakers to run faster, be more comfortable to wear or emulate a favorite sports figure. You're customer goes to sporting events either to play or watch and probably watches basketball on television. Starting out on a low budget, you might put an ad in a high school newspaper or yearbook. You could sponsor a team in a local town league. As you got established you could one day be buying sixty second spots on ESPN or during the NBA Championships!
So go big or go home! Good luck and dream big. Thanks for reading. Questions, comments are appreciated.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Thoughts & Tips for Today - Voice Mail
The start of Q2 2010! I've been making a lot of calls and sending out a lot of resumes. The calls are starting to come in for interviews! Some are solid and some are long shots, but people want to talk and meet. That's good!
Marketing Idea and thought for today: Sometimes something a little offbeat gets people's attention.
I was trying to get a client to call me a couple of years ago and left 8 or 10 messages over a two week period. Nothing but deafening silence! I reflected on it over a 3 day weekend (Memorial Day weekend I think) and left a Voice Mail from him on Tues AM that said "Hey Joe, I haven't spoken to you in a while. I wanted to make sure you had my new phone number (212) Blah, Blah Blah.
Sure enough, Joe called me early that afternoon and said, "I got your voice mail and I'm confused. The number you left was the same as the phone number I had for you. What's going on?" What was going on was I got him curious enough to call me! I had called a couple of people I hadn't spoken with in about 6 months to make sure they had my NYC number. But I knew he had it because I had left it almost a dozen times in the last few weeks on his Voice Mail!
Another tip: When you leave a voice mail, say your phone number at both the beginning and the end of the message. Sometimes, especially if your a fast talking New Yorker like I am and the recipient isn't from NY or English isn't their first language, they needs two bites ate the apple to get the whole number. If you leave it at the beginning and end, they have two chances to write the number down and if they need to hear it again because of street or subway noise, the can rewind it and hear it again without going through your whole message.
Please leave a comment or question. Thanks!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Introducing the Simple Marketing & Telecom Blog
The Beginning -
Background and an Introduction to the Simple Marketing & Telecom Blog
Hi All,
This is a new experience for me. I have never blogged before! This blog has a dual purpose at this time. I hope to share some of my sales and marketing experience with all of you and keep my writing skills sharp during my job search.
I spent a total of 15 years in B2B Sales with two of the major US telecommunications companies. Nine of those years I managed multinational accounts based in Europe.
In the spring of 2008, I left to take the opportunity to be part of a software developer. The software focused on messaging. It seemed like a great move at the time. It is a small company of about 100 people at the time (now about 60). It has a great product and real entrepreneurial spirit. What I didn't account for was the long sale cycle (usually 2 years or longer for large systems) and the fact that although it is a great product, it isn't a complete solution. Because it had a flexible platform and performed well, I think it would have been a success if the economy hadn't dropped like a rock in Q4 of 2008. The company wasn't making money and I was a victim of the end of year effort to reduce costs in 2009.
It was a positive experience and I wish all of the people I worked with well, but I am now in the process of a career search in the New York City and Long Island area. If you have questions about B2B sales or marketing, I'll be happy to assist. If you have ideas and need a sanity check, I'll be glad to be a sounding board to let you know what I think of your plans. Comments, questions & suggested topics for future posts are appreciated.
Best,
Telecom JIm
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