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

Are you using influencer and champion interchangeably? If the answer is yes, you’re making a grave mistake. While the definitions of these terms might vary slightly, that minor difference can makes a massive impact in a sale. If you’re not aware of this difference you could also be misinterpreting how close you’re deals are to closing. Which could mean you’re not allocating your time correctly and missing quota. 

An influencer is someone who can impact the decision to go with your product or service. This is the person who has access to the decision maker(s) and is usually the one doing the research and evaluating vendors.

A champion is the influencer that will impact the decision. The slight difference is “can” and “will”. A champion is the person that will run through walls to get the deal done. Having a champion in a deal will increase the likelihood of the account purchasing by 2x. While the expression “running through walls” is a great analogy, how do you really know if your influencer has turned into a champion?

Here is a list of things that are indications you have a champion on your hands: 

1. You have been brought to the decision maker(s)
2. Your champion has coached you on how to sell the decision maker(s)
3. If there are extenuating circumstances where the DMs don’t allow vendor presentations (this can happen with DM boards and committees), your champion will allow you to coach them on their presentation.

The above list are clear examples of a champion, however they are examples of a deal that would be towards the middle or towards the end of the a sale. So the next obvious question is if there are indicators of a champion earlier in sale?

Here is a list of earlier indications you’re working with a champion:

1. The person will give you inside information about what’s going on internally at their company.
2. They will pull in other people who can help influence the sale.
3. The champion will tell you who to avoid at their company.
4. They will tell what steps are next with out you asking. They will become your GPS and will pull you through the sale instead of you pushing them.
5. The champion will provide you with something tangible. I had coffee with Jeff Hoffman in the Spring when he mentioned he used to look for a prospect to provide something tangible to gauge if he had a potential champion at every step in his sale. In other words, will they provide you with something? Anything.  Will they provide you with reports they look at, perhaps complete a questionnaire you provided or share their internal presentation they might have done recently. 

Having an influencer in a sale is the first step and it’s your job to turn them into a champion. Spending your time with deals that have champions will allow you to work the same amount of deals, however sell more.

Go back through your pipeline with the lists provide above. Do you have influencers or champions in your pipe? Forecast the ones with champions and remove the ones with influencers.  Determine if the influencers can be made a champion and if they can’t, move on to another deal.

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.

Many of us have been trained for years in sales that calling to the top is the right approach. I’d argue this tactic is now out dated and as sales people we need to change with the times. 

C-level execs have become skilled at blocking out unsolicited calls and emails. They have spam filters, caller IDs and gatekeepers to keep unwanted solicitations out. C-levels also have influencers which they will delegate projects to when they need something researched. Those influencers now have an abundance of information available to them when they want to look. For example, they have Google and their social networks to do their due diligence. C-level prospects are no longer finding out about tools and solutions by a cold call. This is why having an inbound marketing strategy is imperative to any company needing to generate leads.

This is not to say inbound marketing is the only way to penetrate a new account. If a rep is cold calling, it’s still best to call the C-suite and the next level below, essentially the influencer. The influencer below tends to have more flexibility with their calendar than the C-level and can make time for sales calls. If you can get the influencer bought-in they can more easily access and book the C-suites calendar than you can.

I’ve actually tested this theory. At my company, we deal exclusively with inbound leads. Most of frequently these leads originate from some type of whitepaper download or webinar registration. I took one rep, Alexndra Curtiss, as the experimental group. Every lead delivered to her, she didn’t call the influencer. Instead she called right to the C-suite.  In this instance, we know the company is looking to solve some type of pain (it’s an inbound lead so they found us by design when they were looking). We figured since the company was looking, we’d have a good connect and close rate with the c-suite. The control group was the rest of the team who continued to call the influencers who download content.

The results were dramatic. After just 3 weeks and about 100 leads we had to shut the experiment down. The experimental rep had set 1 appointment and nothing in her pipeline. The control group averaged about 18 appointments in the same time frame. While our sales cycle is about 60-90 long, longer than the experiment ran, we tracked to see if any revenue closed. Alexandra won 0 deals by calling exclusively to the top. Some could argue the rep and her sales technique may have played a factor. This could be true, however once back to calling the influencer she finished the next two months over 200%.

One thing we’ve found effective with inbound leads is to ask the following question, “Who asked you to gather information?” The ones who answer their boss, the CEO, the president, etc. are worth your time. If they say they are just looking, be suspicious but also be prepared they might not trust you enough to disclose details. If after several conversations you determine this is truly someone that is a tire kicker, move on.

I’m not arguing one should ignore the C-suite all together. Instead, realize an influencer is now a massive contributor to getting a deal closed. Here are the steps you should take to update how you work the C-suite and influencer in tandem.

1) Call the C-suite first.

2) Then the influencer. Tell the influencer “Oh coincidently enough, I just reached out to _____ this morning”.  Since you’ve already reached out to the C-suite, the influencer can’t play gatekeeper.

3) Work with the influencer through the sales process.

4) Update the C-suite on each step of the sales process regardless if you do or do not receive a response. This builds a relationship with them even if you’re not able to connect directly. You can do this through voicemails and emails.

5) Compliment the influencer in each update to the C-level. This avoids the influencer being upset or feeling you’ve gone around them.

6) By the time the influencer brings you to the C-suite, the exec should be well aware of you.

7) If the deal is to stall, gets side tracked, etc. it won’t be the first time you reach out to the C-suite.

Regardless of what you’ve been told about calling to the top, the technique is old. You can still sell by calling to the c-suite however you’ll need an unsustainable amount of leads to do so. Learn to work with influencers. Learn their job role, make them your partner in crime and turn them into champions. This is the most effective way to increase your closing percentage. 

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

Some may think it’s best to ask a prospect, "What's your decision making process?" I’d argue this is opening a can of worms. I’ve found it is not a best practice to ask questions about their process when evaluating your products and services. When asking for such details you can inadvertently cause more problems and delay in deals closing. There are more effective ways to find what you need. 

Here are some of the problems you’ll face:

1) Asking the prospect what the decision making process for your product and services allows them to dodge the question. In other words, they know you’re asking because you want to know what it takes to get your product or service purchased. If they’re not 100% sold on buying what you’re selling, then they have the opportunity to add steps to buy time and/or be deceptive.

2) Sometimes the prospect doesn’t know, however they won’t disclose their lack of knowledge. Instead they will make up the process they think will happen and then they will carry this out. Since they don’t really know, they might unintentionally add more steps and more people in the sale who are not necessary.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t find out the decision making process. I’m saying by asking the particular question, “what’s the decision making process” is actually putting you at a disadvantaged.  Here are some alternatives:

1) Instead of asking about the process for getting your product or service approved, instead ask about something they’ve already purchased. Here are the questions you can ask in sequential order.

“What was the last product/service you were a part of bringing on board?”

“How quickly did you know you wanted it?”

“How much did you spend on ______ (insert name of product/service)?”

“Who else was part of purchasing _______?”

The prospect has now told you if they’ve been a part of a purchase before, how quickly they make decisions, how much money they’ve spent in previous purchases and who else makes decision with them.

By asking about something else other than your product and service will yield a more transparent answer. In doing so you’ll get the facts regardless of their decision or lack of decision to purchase your product and service. The prospect might not be aware they’re revealing information about the process in which will be needed for you. 

2) Another best practice is to tell the prospect the process, don’t ask. If you tell them the process, they will either have to agree to it or correct you. If they correct you, it means they know the process. If they don’t know the process, telling them leaves no room for them to add unnecessary steps and/or people.

Before you tell prospects what their process is, you should know it yourself. In order to do so, go through all your closed deals and look for similarities. For example, what job titles are always involved in the decision? If you find the CEO is always in some way involved in the DM process, then that’s who tell them you need. Tell the prospect you’ve been doing this a long time and you know every time a customer has purchased, the CEO has been involved. Only ask for 20-30 minutes of the CEOs time initially as it’s less intimidating for an influencer and more likely to get from a busy CEO. You may get some push back; remind them this is not how it’s usually done. This makes them feel like the exception to the rule and usually makes them rethink.

While you still need to know the decision making process, there are more strategic and methodical was of getting the information you need. The suggestions above can also be the shortest point from A to B. Asking the decision making process has good intentions however it doesn’t mean it’s efficient or effective.

Follow @KADscrambledegg on Twitter for wisdom about #sales #salesmanagement. 

Sales people only have so much time in a day and should utilize every moment. Rapport building goes far beyond “building relationships”, take the opportunity to gather more information about prospects beyond their kids’ names, the weather, etc. In order to be a top performer a rep must be methodical and calculated in every step, even rapport building. Here are other ways to use rapport building to elicit valuable information from prospects:

1) Lower the Tension – A rep should build rapport at the beginning of every call. This helps to lesion the tension the prospect might be feeling in addition to the anxiety the rep may be experiencing. If the prospect’s guard is down, they are more comfortable and more likely to share. Going straight into a call, without rapport building, can feel like a plane coming into the runaway fast and furious! Slow down….

2) Authority or Influence Level – Rapport building is an excellent way to learn how much power a prospect has internally.

Start By - The rep can make small talk. Ask how long the prospect has been with the company. Are they happy? What do they like/not like? The rep can share stories of their experience at their work place (always remain positive).

What is Actually Gained - Once the conversation is flowing, here’s what the rep can really gain from the chit chat. The rep may find the prospect was newly hired or promoted. If so, why did the company hire or promote for this position? Why was it a priority to do so? The rep can find out who hired the contact. Was it a person in the C-suite? How often do they meet with this person? In other words, while the rep is “building rapport” they are multitasking by lowering the tension, easing their way into the call in addition to finding out if their contact has access to power and how often.

3) Decision Making Process – There are opportunities in the rapport building stage to gather information about a prospect’s internal decision making process.

Start By - Opening the conversation by trying to learn more about their culture. The rep can share stories of their experiences (always positive). Is the prospect’s culture fast paced? Do they have red tape? Are things decided as a group or in silos? Is this a headache? Do they like the process? Why or why not?

What is Actually Gained - While this may seem like small talk, the rep can start to understand their internal process for getting things purchased. The rep is also discovering timeline for how long the deal might take to close.

4) The Slip – Sometimes a prospect will reveal information during rapport building which might be imperative to a sale and otherwise missed.

Start By - The rep can ask if the prospect received the information and what the prospect’s thoughts are. Discuss what they liked and ask for feedback. The rep should have sent product information in addition to information that is strategically helpful. Information offering strategy is more likely to get read and gains trust with a prospect. A sale should rarely be about product/service. 

What is Actually Gained- The prospect’s guard is down and they feel the discussion is more casual or “off the record”. The prospect will reveal information that might have otherwise not been shared in a more “formal” setting. Such information could include, other vendors being evaluated, who internally is for or against the purchase of the rep’s product/service, an impending acquisition which might slow the process down, etc.

A great example would be from when a prospect was 5 minutes late to a schedule call. They’d asked the rep to remain on hold as they were running late. When the prospect returned to the phone they apologized and explained the CEO had pulled him into a last minute meeting. The rep was smart and jumped on the opportunity to gather more information. The rep asked if everything was ok and was it a normal occurrence. The prospect revealed the CEO does this frequently and trusts him to assist in emergencies. Prior to this auspicious interaction the rep was unsure of the contact’s internal power. Now the rep knows the contact had direct access to CEO and the CEO trusts the contact. This is invaluable information to the sale that might have otherwise been difficult to get.

Sales people only have their time. They should be methodical and calculated at every step in order to ensure they’re being most efficient. Work hard and work smart. 

Next Article:

The First and Easiest Rule of Negotiations Learned From the Worst Manager

There have been countless times I’ve heard “I am the Decision Maker” in my sales career and I’ve fallen for the line more times than I can count. While we’re ultimately looking to get to the Decision Maker, it’s one of the worst things a sales rep can hear.  If you do hear this, seller beware, this is a prospect you should be VERY skeptical of.  

There’s an expression, “if someone tells you how rich they are, it’s because they’re not really that rich”. I’m sure you’ve heard or seen these people talk about how much money they make or how important they are.  As many of us know, they are making up for something they lack. The same is true in sales. If you hear this in a sales process the person can be hazardous to your sale.

Here’s what to look for:

1) The Self-Proclaimed DM – the prospect who unsolicited told you they were the DM. If they offer up the information without you asking, they are toxic. They are being deceptive and gating you from the rest of their internal purchasing process. The prospect is not bought-in and you need to discover their objections and handle them or move on to the next. Do your best to gain trust, otherwise do not waste time with prospects that won’t be authentic.

2) The Misunderstood DM/The Recommender – the prospect has a different definition. Many times in sales we have our own definition of the DM but it doesn’t necessarily match that of the prospect.  I find this many times when a sales person is proactively discovering a purchasing process. The prospect actually thinks they are the DM. Yes, they actually think they are.  Their definition is they will be evaluating all vendors and bringing their decision to the committee, board, etc. By the prospect’s definition they are the DM because they are deciding what to recommend. This person is actually, what I call, the recommender.  In this scenario, the prospect is not being deceptive. However the sales rep is looking for the person who signs the contract and checks.  Don’t dismiss the recommender as they are extremely valuable in a sale. Spend time with this prospect, ask more questions and determine if it’s just a difference in meaning.  

3) The Decision Maker – the big kahuna, the person in charge, the person who signs the check. You get the picture.  This is the person who can say yes without having to check with someone, they can re-allocate budget on their own, they can (but don't always) work alone. I find it most common this person needs at least a C-level job title if not the President or Owner. A rep should be asking questions in order to determine if they have the ultimate DM.  For example, “If you decide you want to go with this solution, who else do you confer with?”

Working with the Decision Maker is the fastest and easiest way to get a sale closed. It would not be true if we said we work exclusively with DMs, the reality is many times we find ourselves working with non-decision makers as well. A sales rep can still be very success when using a non-DM to get to the real DM. Be smart with which ones you spend your time with and know the signs of ones who are a toxic waste of time.  Don’t take things at face value, dig deeper and seller beware!