Sales in Business: Qualifying skills
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Oct 10, 2008
I know this is a blog about marketing, but the point of marketing is to generate more sales, and it’s difficult to have enough sales without good marketing. Further, marketing all about communicating a message, which happens throughout the sales cycle (or should). So, when you are marketing, you are selling and when you are selling you are marketing.
That said, I want to share Q and A with you. The question is from a Your Marketing Lab member, and the answer is from Joyce Lillis, a Your Marketing Lab ProStaffer. Good stuff.
Question: “From the time a lead appears on the ‘radar’ screen, how many times should I contact them, and how long should I pursue the lead before letting them go? For example, sometimes leads appear to be interested even though they’re not always timely with their responses. Other times they really aren’t interested, but it’s hard to tell the difference. How do you know when you are doing a great job following up and when you are wasting your time?”
Joyce’s Response: First, when a lead appears it is important to qualify the prospective client by asking specific questions to determine if they are interested in your product/service. If you can provide one of the six “Reasons to Buy” below you will have an understanding of how you can provide a solution (VALUE) to their problem.
1. Reduce costs
2. Increase revenues
3. Leverage cost of capital
4. Increase productivity
5. Provide quality and customer satisfaction
6. Augment a new strategy or initiative
If you do not meet any of the above criteria then I would not put this prospective client on the pipeline. If you do meet one or more of the criteria above and you continue to make contact with this potential client it is important to trial close at the end of every conversation. A trial close means that there is a reason for you to follow up on a specific issue that has been determined during the conversation and allows you to move the opportunity to a closed deal.
Secondly, it is important to determine the following three reasons the potential client will buy from you.
1. A compelling reason to buy your product/service
2. Developing a business relationship with the decision maker
3. Determined there is a budget to support making a purchase
If any of the three are not determined in the beginning of the relationship, then I don’t believe there is a reason to continue to waste time with this potential client because there is a 90% chance that this is not going to become a closed deal.
Remember, to ask the hard questions. Sometimes sales people are not comfortable asking the question that allows them to make a decision to drop the lead because as sales people we are optimistic and we want to believe we can turn a lead into a closed deal. (For more about asking questions, take a look at this article: Yellow Lights)
It is important to recognize that there is always another lead that will turn into a closed deal so if any of the above cannot be determined move on to your next lead. Time is Money when you are selling.
Read more about Joyce’s upcoming course:
Qualifying and Closing Skills: Red Light/ Green Light
10 Ways to Conduct Continuous Market Research by Connecting with Your Market.
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Oct 8, 2008
10 ways to conduct continuous market research by better connecting with your market and improving your relationship marketing:
1. Start by building a relationship with a group of people you are interested in. If they are going to become your loyal fans, your audience needs to love you. However, you need to also love them. If you don’t they will know it.
2. Don’t just talk. Listen. Find out what they want. (Products are easier to find than audiences.)
3. Find out what they truly want – even compulsively need - to spend money on. There are many things they want. The real question is, what are they willing to spend money on? Further, they should have the ability (or at the very least, the strong inclination and potential near-future ability) to buy what you are selling.
4. Try to understand what is motivating their actions. What do they really want? (Sorry to complicate things, but this might not be what they say they want. I might say I want to lose 10 pounds and then order dessert. Pay attention to their behavior.) What’s their agenda? What are their goals? What are they afraid of? What problems are they dealing with? What are they running towards/ away from?
5. Be authentic. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Speak to them about them and about what they want, just be you while doing it. Capitalize on your own strengths. (For fun, read this great post by Sonia Simone at Coppyblogger, where she asks the question, “If your blog could be personified as a shapely star of a really cheesy 1960s sitcom, which would it be? Ginger, or Mary Ann?“
6. Do some research, find out what your market is interested in and study that. Subscribe to their publications, join their associations, do some keyword research, etc.
7. Recognize that your target market has no innate understanding the value of your service(s) and/or product(s). They didn’t wake up this morning with the vision that lives in your head about how your product or service can improve their lives and solve their problems. Teaching them in a way that is relevant to them is your job as a marketer. Important: “teach” rather than “preach”. You will further your connection with them while increasing the knowledge of the value you provide. Most importantly, they will not run away from you if you are really giving them good information.
8. Establish credibility. Do and say stuff that demonstrates your credibility. Associate with credible people. Do what you say and say what you mean. Then repeat. Over and over again.
9. Understand that if you try to sell before you have connected, your efforts will be largely wasted. If you do sell before you have connected, and don’t make every effort to connect after the sale, you will likely not be rewarded with a 2nd sale. And, “You don’t really have a customer until you’ve sold them twice.” - Joyce Lillis
10. Really contribute. Contribute to the conversation, contribute to their lives, contribute to their efforts. Give, not for the opportunity to get, but because you recognize that ultimately it will result in more opportunities to give.
Your Successful Small Business (Under any and all circumstances)
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Oct 7, 2008
Two important questions:
Do you have an answer ready to this question, “What are you really selling, and how will your business offering fare during hard times?” (What you think you’re selling and what your customers are really buying are likely two different things.)
Do you, as this article suggests, periodically “review and revise your plan to include everything and anything your business or startup needs during a crisis”?
If you don’t have a solid answer to the first question and answered no to the second, review your sales and marketing plans now. Get prepared.
Over-preparers take note (you know who you are): Getting prepared doesn’t have to be complicated and doesn’t require you to create fancy graphs and charts, emergency food rations, and an emergency exit plan involving the national guard. (Although, honestly, having an exit plan is just plain smart under any circumstances.) Something as simple as adding different price points can also enable you to weather an economic storm.
You could create (or recreate) a product or service (and marketing strategy) focused on marketing to the affluent. This could also involve creating (or repositioning your current product or service) a successful small business around those items that just make people feel like they are splurging. (Again - what are people really buying? Evaluate the real value of your product or serice.) After all, no matter what the economy is like, most of us will still splurge from time to time. Often, even more so when we are bummed.
Can you add value and market to a higher income demographic? (Check this out. The affluent are definitely still spending money.)
Can you add lower price points and keep customers who want to stay with you but can’t afford you right now?
You may need to completely reposition yourself. For inspiration (and just a really great story), check out this article by Larry Galler.
Regardless, get prepared. Get prepared not just to survive but to thrive. Shifts in demand are inevitable. But, there is no reason in the world why you have to be at their mercy. You can, in fact, remain in control and view times like these as rich with opportunity.
Marketing in Business and the Economy
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Oct 6, 2008
Last week I wrote a post (Right Now Might be the Best Time to Start a Business) about the advantages of starting a small business when the economy is less-than-perfect. As it turns out, eMedia Wire posted an article last week titled, Top Marketing Experts and Small Business Owners Agree There is No Recession, that makes a couple of excellent points along those same lines.
Here’s an exert from that article: “If we’re watching the news,” Lee says, “we have to ask ourselves do we really believe all these knee-jerk reactions? All we hear over and over is ‘the money is gone’ but where did it go is what we’re asking.”
Robin adds, “the thing is, the money is not gone. It’s still here, and for people who have the vision to agree that There is No Recession and to grab this opportunity, I believe we can have a repeat of what happened during the great depression where more ‘common folk’ became billionaires than any other time in our history”. “After all,” Robin adds, “what is really happening today is a correction of big business mistakes and a redistribution of wealth from THEM to US and truly there are time-proven and measured steps you can take today to make sure you take advantage of this immense opportunity that our government and big business has handed to us on a silver platter.”
Hmmmm…..
I attended a lunch meeting last week with 30 fellow entrepreneurs where the conversation sounded very much like the quotes in that article. In fact, most of the entrepreneurs at that lunch talked about how they were shifting their focus in order to best capitalize on the current economy.
Interestingly, most of them felt like this was the time to spend money, not hoard it; that right now they could indeed get the most bang for their buck and become the biggest fish in a smaller pond. (On a micro level, I say “good for them!”. On a macro-level, that’s also good for the rest of us. Those gutsy entrepreneurs are the grease that keep our economy moving no matter what.)
And where were most of them going to spend their money? On marketing their business.
An MSNBC report suggests that weathering an economic “storm” requires having a solid sales and marketing plan in place. I wonder how many small business owners and entrepreneurs have a plan in place to remain above water even in poor circumstances. Taking it one step further, how many have a plan to not just remain afloat, but to capitalize on poor circumstances. Do you?
Your small business blog’s organization and design
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Sep 29, 2008
Attention small business owners! Here are two great reads when considering your blog’s design and organization:
“One of the biggest challenges of Web design is making sure that a new customer immediately grasps that she’s in the right place. You offer what she’s looking for. You solve problems she has. Your customers look like her. And all of this is instantly communicated by your graphics. Which probably means your site looks more like Google and less like MSN, because only robots can assimilate that much information at a glance and glean anything useful from it.” Keep reading… (YML ProStaffer Sonia Simone, of Remarkable communication)
In The Elements of Business Writing, Gary Blake and Robert Bly cover principles of organizational order:
- Location: Use geography to create an order. For example, in a post on a travel blog, begin with where a country is on the globe, then cover the country’s geography, then focus on major cities, and finally, focus on one city.
- Alphabetically: Great way to do a list without appearing to give preference to any single item.
- Chronologically: When telling a story, tell the events in chronological order. Never assume your readers know times and dates, always tell them.
- Problem/Solution: This is a basis for much sales-oriented writing, and with good reason. It’s highly logical and effective.
- Inverted Pyramid: Journalistic style where the lead sentence explains all pertinent points. Each sentence after explains more and more detail about these points. Who, what, when, where, and how are explained.
- Deductive order: Start with a general statement and work into specifics that support the conclusion of the general statement.
- Inductive order: Start with specific statements and build them into a general conclusion.
- List: What this post is you’re reading now. Usually headlines for these posts use a number, such as 5, 7, or 10.
- Priority sequence: Rank recommendations, problems, or other items from most important to least important.
Also - it is important to define what the objective(s) of your blog is and know how to measure whether or not it’s meeting that objective. For example, is the ultimate point of your blog to increase sales in your business? Make sure you’ve clearly defined that and are organizing your blog around that objective.
Not sure what the point of your blog is or should be? Buzzgain.com has done much of the work for you by listing out 20 blogging objecitves and how to measure the results. If you’re unsure what the main point of your blog is, it will likely read like you are usure what the point is and certainly won’t accomplish much. Not to mention that it will be dificult to measure it’s effectiveness, an extremily important component to creating a successful business.
If your small business is experiencing a dip, direct attention to your marketing
Posted by Rebecca Blackwell on Sep 29, 2008
Jassen Bowman, in his article, The Fundamental Role of Marketing In Business, writes that, “More often than not, marketing is a back seat, tertiary thought that comes after their product/service and daily operations, if it’s even that high of a priority.” He goes on to say that, “….marketing encompasses all the activities that seek to identify what consumers want and how to promote and deliver those goods and services.”
Let me restate that: Here’s what marketing in business does - it identifies what consumers want and then acts as the conduit for which they find what they want and purchase it, equallaing sales in your business and ultimatly the acheivement of a successful business.
If that’s not all important when things are slow or difficult, or when you are just starting a small business, I don’t know what is.
If you are to survive your Dip, you must work to acquire good marketing skills. In fact, when business is slow, working on improving your marketing is the absolute best thing to do. Marty Foley identifies being skilled at marketing as as one of the most important skills an entrepreneur can have. In fact, when it comes to the success of your business, marketing is everything.
As Marty Foley writes, “The world can not and will not beat a path to your door to buy your “better mouse trap” if the world doesn’t know about it. Regardless of what business you’re in, marketing is the tool used to present the solutions that your products and services offer to the rest of the world.”
Well said.
I have found that many small business owners have a hard time making the time to work on increasing their marketing skills. There is too much “work” to do.
Our best small business advice is this: Acquiring knowledge about how to reach your customers is the most important work you can do if you don’t have enough buying customers!
Make a commitment to expanding your marketing ability. Read, test, try, join a mastermind group, find a mentor, whatever. But learn and act, and learn some more. Your successful business depends on it.
