The Scrambled Egg - a blog every sales professional should wake up to.

While it’s been a while since I wrote, I recently had an experience worth sharing. Last Thursday I was scheduled to meet with Rick Roberge. He was fighting through the traffic cause by Storrow Drive being closed. We were to be meeting in person, however we settled for meeting via phone. 

As I spoke with Rick, the door to the conference room opened. At HubSpot, we’re infamous for having a shortage of meeting rooms. It was Mark Roberge and Jill Konrath entering the room. Of course I recognized her right away (holly crap that’s Jill Konrath!) and assumed they were in need of a room. Although in mid conversation with Rick, I stood to offer the room. I had no idea Rick was the mastermind behind this meeting until Mark told me Jill was there to meet with Rick and I.

For those of you not yet familiar with Jill’s work, she’s the author of SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies among other accomplishments. Anyone would jump at the opportunity to pick her well tenured sales brain. That’s just what I did. This is when I learned her expression "movers and shakers".

I asked Jill what is the number one thing she looks for when determining if she should spend her time with an influencer. She answered, “if they are a mover and a shaker”. In other words, does this person get shit done? Do they take initiative? Are they proactive instead of reactive? It’s true and brilliant in its simplicity. 

Here are some questions to determine if your influencer is a mover and a shaker: 

Any of the above questions would help you uncover if you have a mover and a shaker on your hands. Why is this so important? Time management as a rep is a required skill for success and survival. Jill mentioned most deals she works on will close. She was not bragging, merely demonstrating by identifying who to spend her time with, yields a much higher probability of purchase.

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

Ever had a deal where the prospect loved what you were selling? They were really into it, you had a great relationship, they said they wanted it, they said they were going to buy and then….. the deal flat lines. The prospect disappears, you are now the stalker, calling, emailing, calling again, waiting, biting your nails, heart palpitations, maybe even offering discounts or something to help bring the deal back to life. 

So what happened? In some(not all) cases, this is a deal you should have never worked. You should have stopped the deal many steps or months ago.

Time management is a sales person’s greatest asset. Yes that’s right, sales reps, not everyone is a buyer. Not every prospect is worth your time. Even if they say they are a buyer – seller beware! How does one know where to spend their time especially if the prospect is so eager to purchase? Here are the two things in which a rep can use to determine if a prospect is worth additional time.

1) Able – is this person either the decision maker or do they have access to the decision maker(s). Most of the time you’ll be dealing with influencers, which is ok as long as they are the right influencers. There is nothing a sales person can do to give an influencer more internal power. Let me repeat – there is nothing you can do to make an influencer more powerful. You can ask such questions to determine an prospects internal power:

How often do you meet with ______(insert the name of the c-suite person)

Who do you report to?

What other solutions have you recommended in place today?

2) Willable (not willing – big difference) – has 4 elements. All must be met to qualify as willable.

A) Does the prospect have a problem?

B) Do they (not you, them) recognize the problem?

C) Is it a priority for them to fix.  Is there desire to fix it?

D) This problem is something your product or service can solve however the prospect might not yet know you’re the solution. In other words, is there desire to fix a problem the prospect is aware of that you can help. 

What if the prospect has a major problem that you don’t really have a solution for? Move on – not worth your time. What if the prospect wants your solution but doesn’t really have a pain? Not worth your time – it’s too risky other fires will become a priority.  Make sense?

Once you’ve determined a prospect is able and willable, this is where you spend your time. It’s the sales rep's job to turn the prospect from willable to willing. Willing is when the prospect now knows you’re the fix to their problem and they’re willing to purchase if they are the DM or bring you to them DM if they’re an influencer.

Spending time with a prospect because they say they love you is dangerous. Ever met a person who shares too much information too soon? You think “why?” or that’s too eager. You’re suspicious right? Well start asking, why do they love my solution? Why do they need it?

It seems counterintuitive to look for a “no” early and often in a sale. Haven’t we always been taught to look for a yes? Well with that said, you ever had a prospect “yes” you to death and then never buy? This is because yes is lazy. While a “yes” is confirming it can offer no detail or context into how the prospect is viewing your services or products. However a “no” can elicit much more.

Looking for “no” early and often is essentially trying to draw out objections. You want these early for several reasons:

1) Promptness: If they are not addressed right away, the prospect might not remember to bring them up and you don’t have the chance to handle the objection.  They will however, remember they’re not digging what you’re pitching.

2) Time Management: If you know early what the prospect is thinking you have the ability to determine if this deal is worth your time.

3) Forecasting: The prospect that “yeaps” you to death is sitting in your forecast (and usually for a long time), yet they never buy.

4) Closing Deals: you may find you’re able to provoke more pain and details when you look for no and that helps you ultimately close the deal faster.

Many reps have a hard time with this because no can feel like a punch in the gut. Think of a no as a positive and the opportunity to do all the above. Prospects also won’t anticipate a rep being ok with a no and actually seeking it out. They are used to sales people getting them to “buy in” or confirm with yeses. Here are two great ways to get no early and often:

1) At the end of each product and/or service you explain, ask the prospect a tie down question.  This is a question formatted in “How do you see yourself using ________ (insert product/service) to help with ________(insert the problem their trying to solve).  You want to ask this at the end of every tool to make sure they are on the same page every step of the way.

2) Ask the prospect to purchase. “Are you ready to get started today?” It’s crucial to include the word today. Otherwise they may say yes but their intent is to start at the end of the year. I love this question because sometimes you do get a yes – great sign them up! Other times I get a no and then I’ve earned the right to ask for more detail. I can find out anything from a hidden competitor, hidden purchasing steps, legal, a fake decision maker, etc. No matter what the answer is to this question I win.

There are times I ask the prospect to buy prematurely and I know they’re not ready. I do this to accelerate the process of finding out what’s left.  A bit of it is gut or instinct because I know while they might be yeaping me, if I ask them to buy, even if it’s too soon, that I’ll get the real answer. I’d rather have this than the deal sitting in my forecast for months on end without closing.

While no may seem counterintuitive to a sale, it’s actually quit productive. Don’t be afraid of no, it’s actually a great tool in your tool belt. Get used to it, get comfortable and start seeking it out! 

Liking these tips? Follow @KADScrambledEgg on Twitter for wisdom on #sales and #salesmanagement.

Open ended questions are the crux of a successful sale. So why aren’t questions such as these enough? Open ended questions are dangerous when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Reps that are taught to ask questions, but not shown what they are looking for will lose creditability with prospects and miss crucial pieces of information.  This is like giving reps a bat and not telling them where or what the piñata is. It is the manager’s responsibility to teach the other pieces of the puzzle. 

I’ve found success to first show reps what they are looking for before teaching them how to ask. In other words, tell them what and where the target is. Are we looking to find out if a prospect has internal power, do they have budget, is there desire and/or motivation to change, etc. If the manager can explain what information a rep is looking for, reps are pretty good at figuring out how to get it. As a manager, we can make the mistake of teaching reps endless amounts of questions. Mostly, reps will do what we ask and they’ll continue to ask unless questions to the prospects. Even after the answer has long since been given, passed and missed by the rep. The risk is the crucial information is squandered and the prospect will grow tired and feel as if they are in an interrogation.  In the prospect’s defense, they probably aren’t too far off!

There is another issue with only teaching open ended questions. Even if the rep understands what they are looking for, they don’t know how to reuse the information. They are great at asking questions and quickly obtaining the answer, but that information never resurfaces again when in fact the answers from the prospect should become the reps vernacular for every conversation thereafter. 

When coaching my reps I use what I call the 3Rs:

Recognize:

First teach reps what is it you want the rep to get. Be specific. For example, if you want the rep to find out if the company has urgency. Does the prospect already have a line item on their budget for such a service/product? If not, are there compelling events they should look for which can be used to build a case (I’ll discuss that under the “reuse” section).  Exactly what type of events do you want them to find, give the rep specific examples. Maybe you want them to find all of the above applicable.

Request:

Give the reps suggested open ended questions they can use to get what you want them to get. I’ve found reps are great at getting what they need once they know where the target is.

Reuse:

What do they do with the information once they have it? Teach them take the buying process customized to the prospect. Show reps how they weave the prospect’s terminology into the solution. If you’ve taught the rep to look for the prospect’s top priority, how do they then reuse this information to drive urgency. Prior to a closing call, ask your rep what the priority for the prospect is. Role play why the deal might delay or what objections they can anticipate. Show them how to use the prospect’s top priority to build urgency or to overcome the objections. This way when the rep is the phone they have all the ammunition and they’re prepared. Bullseye!

While open ended questions are an essential part of sales, they are dangerous on their own. Reps are most efficient when they can see the entire picture and they can sell more when they re-use the information and make the buying process about their prospects.  Give the reps the bat, point them in the right direction of the piñata and let them swing. When they are showered with candy show them how to open it and enjoy the fruits of their labor. 

There is an old expression you can tell a sales rep is lying because their lips are moving. While I don't agree reps lying, I will agree moving lips are not a sign of effectiveness.  In fact, the less a rep can move their lips, the better position they'll be in. This brings me to two of my favorite skills in a sales tool belt. 

1) Silence is one of the most unnatural to master yet yields the most results. Many of us, regardless of making a sale, feel the need to fill in the awkward moments of silence. In sales the knee jerk reaction is amplified. Reps tend to fill in the space with useless information that could risk the deal or completely talk a prospect out of a sale.

Be comfortable with silence and learn to embrace it. Sometimes it can be gut-wrenching and the sound of silence can be deafening. Get over it and get comfortable with the mute button. Once a rep can embrace silence, it's a waiting game. The prospect also feels the knee jerk reaction to fill in the silence. If a rep can be patient, the prospect's need to fill in the silence will take over. What the prospect will divulge during the "filler" time is MUCH more interesting and valuable than anything a rep has to say. Silence is a huge advantage in a sale. While it takes practice and patience, the sound of silence will be welcomed technique.   

2) Ask questions. When a rep is telling a prospect something or making a pitch it gives the prospect time to think of objections, check their email, hit mute, talk to their colleagues, day dream, etc. 

Instead of making a statement, pose it as a question. This does 3 things. First, it minimizes the amount of talking from a rep. Second, it keeps the prospect engaged and they need to think of an answer to the question asked opposed to thinking of objections, checking email, miming comments, etc. Third, it forces them to come to the conclusion on their own. It might also uncover a piece of information that would have otherwise never been discovered.

Here is an example:

Statement "We have a tool that tells you the best time to post a blog article".

Question "When do you think is the best time to post a blog article?" Even if one elicits the answer "I don't know" it still engages the prospect and divulges the prospect might need help. 

What do silence and asking questions have in common?  They both minimize the amount of talking one does during a sale. The less one talks in a sale the more effective you are. In other words, less is more. Stop talking and start listening!