Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

HOW TOP SALESPEOPLE USE LINKEDIN-Harvard Business Review

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “How Top Salespeople Use LinkedIn to Sell More.”

 

 

I recently interviewed 54 top salespeople about how they use LinkedIn to research accounts, prospect for leads, and generate sales. All of the study participants sell technology-based products to the IT departments of mid to large size companies.

The study included three types of salespeople: 33% were inside salespeople who sell exclusively over the phone, 41% were outside field reps responsible for acquiring new accounts, and 26% were outside field reps who managed existing client account.

The results suggest there are three types of LinkedIn users:

Enthusiasts: Twenty-five percent of the study participants would be classified as "Enthusiast" LinkedIn users. Enthusiasts have fully developed LinkedIn accounts and use LinkedIn continuously during the day. They believe it is an important tool for generating product interest and promoting their company to potential customers. Enthusiasts were more likely to be outside salespeople responsible for acquiring new accounts. The average Enthusiast has around 700 contacts, and one had over 1200. Half of Enthusiasts have paid for an upgraded LinkedIn subscription at their own expense.

Casual: Forty percent of participants would be classified as "Casual" LinkedIn users who access their account on a regular basis. They consider LinkedIn a useful tool to research and learn more about prospective clients. Casual users have about 250 contacts on average, and all use a free LinkedIn subscription.

Personal: Fifteen percent of participants would be classified as "Personal" LinkedIn users. Their LinkedIn accounts have ample information about their job history and past accomplishments. Their main purpose for having a LinkedIn account is for job-related networking and they rarely, if ever, use LinkedIn for work-related purposes. Personal users averaged around 300 contacts.

Non-Participants: Twenty percent of the salespeople were "Non-Participants." Non-Participants don't have a LinkedIn account or their profile contains very little personal information and fewer than 20 contacts. They don't consider LinkedIn a priority and seldom log-in to their account. These people were more likely to be older than Enthusiasts, and the majority worked in the same position or at the same company for many years.

 

Here's how data from the first two groups breaks down:

Contact Types
The composition of contacts varied greatly between Enthusiasts and Casuals. About 30% of Enthusiasts' contacts were with existing clients, compared to only 5% for Casuals. Over 85% of Enthusiasts indicated they use their LinkedIn account to engage prospective customers during the sales process, while only 20% of Casuals did. Twenty percent of Enthusiasts contacts were prospective customers, on average, whereas it was less than 4% for Casuals. Partners (resellers, consultants, industry influencers, etc.) who affect customer purchasing decisions account for about 28% of contacts for Enthusiasts and roughly 17% of Casuals.

Customer Research
Every Enthusiast and nearly half of Casuals use LinkedIn to find out who they should contact in order to secure customer meetings. Over 90% of Enthusiasts and 65% of Casuals use LinkedIn prior to customer meetings to find out more about the people they will meet. Specifically, they are interested in where they have worked in the past and who they might know in common. Both groups also use LinkedIn extensively to verify a person's title. About 55% of Enthusiasts and 10% of Casuals use LinkedIn to research their competition. In addition, Enthusiasts mentioned they will monitor a prospective customer's connections to find out which competitors and salespeople are working on the account. Overall, LinkedIn was rated as a research tool (on a scale of one to five with five being highest) by Enthusiasts at 4.1 and 2.5 by Casuals.

Account Prospecting
Less than 15% of Enthusiasts and none of the Casuals ever reported making an unsolicited initial customer contact directly through a LinkedIn invitation. Nearly all salespeople commented they were fearful this would be perceived negatively by the prospective client. Instead, over 85% of Enthusiasts and 50% of Casuals indicated they would use LinkedIn to ensure they were contacting the right person but make first contact via email. The majority of both Enthusiasts and Casuals indicated their companies supplied better prospecting tools than LinkedIn. Overall, LinkedIn was rated as a prospecting tool by Enthusiasts at 3.8 and 2.1 by Casuals.

Use of Groups
On average, Enthusiasts belong to 12 groups and Casuals to four. Both Enthusiasts and Casuals indicated their main purposes for joining groups was to keep in touch with colleagues they worked with in the past, follow companies of interest, and to improve industry related knowledge or sales-skills. About 40% of Enthusiasts and less than 20% of Casuals responded that they belonged to groups that their prospective customers were part of. No one indicated they had generated an initial customer meeting based upon a group membership.

Existing Client Communication
Seventy percent of Enthusiasts and 18% of Casuals reported they had used LinkedIn to keep existing customers informed about their company's offerings. Those who did used LinkedIn to send short messages that contained links to press releases, white papers, analyst reports, product announcements, and company produced videos. However, both groups overwhelmingly preferred to use e-mail to stay in touch with existing clients. LinkedIn was rated as an existing client communication by Enthusiasts at 2.1 and 1.5 by Casuals.

LinkedIn Generated Revenue
Over 40 percent of Enthusiasts indicated they have successfully generated revenue based upon LinkedIn-related efforts. Conversely, less than 20 percent of Casuals successfully generated revenue directly attribute to LinkedIn.

Overall, 18% of all survey respondents indicated they have generated additional sales as a direct result of their LinkedIn activities. However, this number is deceiving. In order to truly measure LinkedIn's effectiveness you must take into account how many salespeople are Enthusiasts, Casuals, Personals, or Non-Participants.

Click Here to other Harvard Business Review sales articles by Steve W. Martin

Is Your Sales Organization Good or Great? Harvard Business Review Article

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “Is Your Sales Organization Good or Great.”

 

What separates great from good sales organizations?  After working with over two-hundred different companies the evidence suggests that the best business-to-business sales organizations share specific patterns of organizational structure and behavior. These similarities can be defined into the seven different attributes listed below. Conversely, underperforming or weaker sales organizations tend to be missing some or most of these critical characteristics.

Strong Centralized Command and Control with Local Authority.  There is no single greater influence over the success of the sales organization than how the sales leadership creates the sales culture and environment for the people who will work for them. In this regard, the best organizations have strong leaders who exercise authoritarian control, dictate team direction, and establish the codes of behavior that all team members must abide by. Although these tenets are similarly used within military units to enforce chain of command, sales leaders prefer to use motivation and the force of their personal character before employing the power associated to their title.

In addition, the senior leadership team typically does not micromanage their sales teams below. Instead, there is independent and autonomous local decision making that operates within the guidelines and protocols established by the leaders above. But rest assured, the actions of the lower levels of the organization always take into account the goals and desires of the senior leaders. 

Darwinian Sales Culture. There are two different aspects of a Darwinian sales culture. The first is in regards to hiring. In essence, the next hire by the organization is of such high quality and capability that it actually “challenges” the more tenured sales team members to perform at the highest level (so that they are not resting on their laurels). The second aspect is that the sales organization is continually “culling the herd” and comparing each member’s performance against stringent criteria. Weaker sales team members who do not contribute their revenue share are quickly let go.
 
United Against a Common Enemy. I have found the best sales organizations, those who are driven to succeed against all obstacles and odds, have an archrival competitor whom they both resent and fear. This is actually a very important differentiator since it drives individual behavior. As a result, there is a higher win ratio because accounts are pursued with greater preparation, higher intensity, and a life or death seriousness.

Competitive but Cohesive Team. In one sense, a sales organization is an amalgamation of cliques. For example, a sales organization may be comprised of three areas that include North America, Asia-Pacific, and EMEA. Furthermore, North American sales may include three regions: east, mid-west, and west. In great sales organizations there is more than a friendly rivalry between the various regions. Each region is on a mission to prove it is the best. Although all the salespeople and their sales leaders are intensely competitive individuals by nature, they will support their area and regional teammates when needed. It is highly likely that the key sales management leaders have worked with each other before at prior companies. They know, like and respect each other.

DIY Attitude. Many underperforming sales organizations share something in common. The sales organization tends to blame the other areas of the organization (engineering, marketing, support, etc.) for the own failings. Members of top performing sales organizations not only take ownership for their own success, they have a “Do It Yourself” attitude. For example, they will not solely rely on marketing to provide their leads but build their own pipeline without any expectations of leads from marketing. When troubles arise at customer accounts, they will spearhead problem resolution efforts.

They Suspend Negative Belief Systems. Sales is a career that experiences tremendous highs and lows. Circumstances change very quickly in sales. A competitor’s new technology may leapfrog yours. The company whose account you worked so hard to close may want its money back because the product isn’t working right. The funnel of deals you may have been counting on for months could disappear in a few minutes. The sales team members in great organizations live “in the moment,” meaning they do not fixate on negative thoughts that prevent them from moving forward and taking action. They are not debilitated by bad news or self-defeating rumors heard through the grapevine.

There is Energy and Esprit de Corps! While all sales organizations can be defined as a collection of individuals trying to succeed as a team, there is a tremendous amount of peer pressure inside great sales organizations. If a member doesn’t achieve his revenue targets, not only did he fail personally, but he also let his team down. On the other side of the coin, when sales team members post great numbers, they are honored and respected by the team. This type of sales culture is very different from an individualistic “every man for himself” environment because it fosters team cohesiveness, morale, and a continually high energy level.

The members of great sales organizations don’t believe they are in sales by happenstance. They are professionals who believe they are fulfilling their own destiny. Collectively, as an organization they are united for a greater purpose than themselves. While the company’s goal may be to go public or reach certain revenue milestones, the greatest sales organizations are on a never-ending mission to prove to the world that they are the best.

 

Other Steve W. Martin Articles That Might Interest You:
Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople
What is Wrong With Your Sales Training Program
The Six Real Reasons Why VPs of Sales are Fired
Top Reasons Salespeople Lose Business

20 GREAT COMPANIES TO SELL FOR IN 2013

I’ve had the privilege to work with and study hundreds of companies and their sales organizations. Based upon my experience, here’s my list of the best companies to sell for in 2013. While it includes companies than range from start-ups to billions in sales, all of these businesses share three common qualities. They provide fantastic technology-based solutions, have great leadership teams, and offer high growth rate career opportunity environments!

Nimble Storage www.nimblestorage.com  – Nimble Storage is a revolutionary Silicon Valley flash-optimized storage company. It is the fastest growing storage company in history in terms of both revenue and new customers. “Nimble Storage was founded and is run by industry veterans responsible for ground-breaking technologies and architectures around primary storage. They've built a tight-knit culture of innovation focused on changing the data storage game.”

Cornerstone OnDemand  www.csod.com  –  Cornerstone OnDemand is one of my all-time favorite companies. It’s a phenomenal success story and 2012 annual revenues were up 63%. “Cornerstone OnDemand is helping some of the world’s leading brands get the greatest return on their human capital investment. Cornerstone OnDemand’s Software-as-a-Service provides a simple, user-friendly interface with advanced reporting and analytics features.”

Triple Point Technology www.tpt.com  – Triple Point Technology is fundamentally changing how purchasing departments operate by enabling them to implement proactive "market-based" procurement and risk management programs. “Triple Point Technology provides innovative solutions for managing all aspects of volatile commodity supply chains: trading, procurement, enterprise risk management, logistics, scheduling, processing, and accounting.”

Liaison Technologies www.liaison.com – Data transformation is a big problem for IT and a big business too… no one does it better than Liaison Technologies. “Liaison Technologies is a global integration and data management company providing unique and high-value solutions to securely integrate, transform and manage complex business information on-premise or in the cloud.”

Beyondtrust Software www.beyondtrust.com – Organizations with the most demanding security requirements (banks, healthcare, government, etc.) rely on Beyondtrust to secure their most valuable IT assets.“BeyondTrust is the only security solution vendor providing Context-Aware Security Intelligence, giving customers the visibility and controls necessary to reduce their IT security risks while simplifying their compliance reporting.”

MAPR Technologies www.mapr.com  – MAPR Technologies is definitely the hottest player in the “Big Data” market and has a very exciting future. “MapR delivers on the promise of Hadoop, making Big Data management and analysis a reality for more business users. The MapR Distribution brings unprecedented dependability, speed, and ease-of-use to Hadoop.”

Össur  www.ossur.com  –  Össur is a very different technology company than any other on this list. They provide incredible bionic technology, hi-tech prosthetics, and state-of-the art bracing and supports. “Össur offers a comprehensive line of orthopedic devices that provide users with protection, immobilization, pain relief, and increased functionality. Products combine some of today’s most effective technologies with over 30 years of biomechanical and design expertise.”

Lenovo www.lenovo.com  – Lenovo has been the fastest growing major PC company for 13 consecutive quarters and is recognized by IDC as the world’s third largest maker of Smart Connected Devices (PCs, tablets, & smartphones). They are on track to becoming #1. “Lenovo is a $30 billion personal technology company dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices. Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly-efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution.”

ON24 www.on24.com  – Awesome technology with a proven track record of delivery, ON24  IS the undisputed webcasting and virtual events leader.  “ON24 is the virtual communications platform for the global enterprise. ON24 offers an innovative product portfolio including webcasting and virtual events, accessible from any device and supported by robust reporting and analytics.”

Cadence Design Systems  www.cadence.com – 2012 was a big year for Cadence with revenues growing to $1.326 billion… 2013 promises to be even better.  “Cadence enables global electronic design innovation and plays an essential role in the creation of today’s integrated circuits and electronics.”

Visionary Integration Professionals (VIP) www.vipconsulting.com – It’s been said IT consulting firms are a dime a dozen. But VIP is very different. The reason for their amazing growth is the quality of their people and their “customer-first” philosophy. “VIP helps its client partners succeed by providing integrated results through purposeful strategy and process definition, proactive planning and management and smart technology solution deployment.”

Truven Health Analytics  www.truvenhealth.com – With all the changes happening within Healthcare, Truven Health Analytics’ broad portfolio of solutions uniquely positions them for future success.  “Truven Health Analytics delivers unbiased information, analytic tools, benchmarks, and services to the healthcare industry. We help our customers to uncover and realize opportunities for improving quality, efficiency, and outcomes.”

Datacert www.datacert.com – The top legal firms and legal departments of Fortune 1000 companies use Datacert to strategically manage all areas of their legal operations. “Datacert is the premier provider of enterprise legal management software and services that empower corporate legal, compliance, and risk departments and claims organizations to operate more efficiently.”

BLITZ Digital Agency www.blitzagency.com –  I am continually blown away by the web sites, mobile and social media campaigns that BLITZ creates…  you will be too. “At BLITZ, we find ways to create authentic relationships between brands and consumers—blurring the line between product and service, functional and emotional, physical and digital.”

More Outstanding Companies:
SAVVIS  www.savvis.com  - In Gartner Group Magic Leader Quadrants for both Managed Services and Cloud Infrastructure as a Service.
Mindjet www.mindjet.com – Over 2 Million people and 83% of the Fortune 100 use Mindjet to plan and map the future.
Thunderhead.com www.thunderhead.com -  Innovative customer experience management solution provider had another big growth year in 2012.
Sourcefire www.sourcefire.com -  Record 2012 revenues for this award-winning intrusion detection technology provider built on the open source Snort engine.
Recall www.recall.com – 80,000+ customers take advantage of Recall’s document storage, digital management solutions, and data protection services. 
Akamai www.akamai.com - Akamai closed out 2012 with record results on both the top and bottom line.

Other Steve W. Martin Articles That Might Interest You:
Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople
What is Wrong With Your Sales Training Program
The Six Real Reasons Why VPs of Sales are Fired
Top Reasons Salespeople Lose Business

Top Reasons Salespeople Lose Business

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “Top Reasons Salespeople Lose Busines.”

 

There's a natural tendency to assume that the losing salespeople lacked sales prowess that the winner possessed or their product was far inferior in some way. However, in the overwhelming majority of interviews the evaluators ranked all of the competing salespeople and the feature sets of their products as being roughly equal. This suggests that there are other factors that separate the winner from the losers with some being completely out of the salesperson's control. Below, you will find these key factors along with a corresponding win-loss interview quote.

 

Incumbent Advantage. The incumbent vendor has a huge sales cycle advantage and the tendency is for them to win business by default. Based upon my research, the odds of unseating an incumbent vendor is typically about one in five.

 "It's a pain to switch vendors. It's a pain to analyze whether you should or not. We naturally prefer working with our existing vendors." —Vice President of Purchasing

 

Inability to Remove Risk. Customers are never 100 percent sure they are purchasing the right product. Regardless of their confident demeanor, on the inside they are experiencing fear, uncertainty, and doubt. The ability to remove perceived risk plays a key role in determining who wins the deal.

 "It sorts itself out pretty fast — those who will and won't make it with us. We are a big company, so there's always a tendency to go with the big players. Who are your proven big-time customers? What resources do you have to get something fixed?" —Chief Operating Officer

 

C-Level Executive Access. Because every major purchase involves executive level approval at some point, a salesperson's goal is to connect with a busy executive and conduct a meaningful face-to-face meeting. However, one of the toughest jobs in all of sales is to penetrate the C-suite, and there is a direct correlation of winning to the number interactions the salesperson has with executives during the sales cycle.

"Every salesperson is trying to get into my office and explain how their wonderful products will save me tons of money. Very few do because most don't understand what it takes to sit across the table from me." —Chief Executive Officer

 

Business Solution Focus. A common interview theme is that both the winning and losing salespeople knew their products very well. However, winners were better able to prove their value as a business partner who had the expertise to solve the customer's problem.

"What's wrong withsalespeople is they're typically selling a product. I don't need a product unless it solves one of my business problems." —President 

 

Ineffective Messaging. Successful communication is the cornerstone of all sales. Winners have the ability to tailor compelling messages that resonate with the various evaluators across the organization and up and down the chain of command.

"We are a skeptical group, and they lost the deal during their presentation. They said they were different and much better than what we have, but they didn't provide enough proof. What they said didn't really apply to us." —Chief Financial Officer

 

Poor Pre-sales Resources. The complex sales process is typically a team-related sales effort that involves pre-sales product and consulting experts. Losers were often cited as having inferior quality pre-sales resources and equally important, the lack of knowledgeable resources who consistently attended each meeting throughout the sales cycle.

"The vendor we chose has a group of smart, dedicated, customer-oriented people. To a great degree, I don't think their products and services are different from their competitors'. They distinguish themselves with their people." —Vice President

 

Lack of an Internal Coach. A clear difference between winners and losers is that the winners developed an internal "coach" within the account. Coaches are evaluators who provide proprietary information about the selection process, status of the competition, and help the salesperson
determine his course of action. 

"Anytime we had a question, the sales rep attacked it. He would get their people on the phone within a day to answer how we could do something. He listened to what we were trying to do and he knew his resources. He earned our trust so we were much more open with him." —Chief Information Officer 

 

Out-of-range Pricing. Time after time, interviewees reported they did not pick the least costly option. Savvy evaluators realize there will always be a low bidder. In reality, there is acceptable price range that the prospect is willing to pay and this can be anywhere from ten to twenty-five percent higher than the lowest proposal (depending upon industry and products being purchased). However, solutions priced outside of this boundary will rarely, if ever, be selected.

"Price is always important but we did not buy the lowest priced solution. There are many other factors including the fit between organizations that render pricing to a secondary factor. With that said, I never want to buy the highest priced solution." —Vice President of Technology.

Losing is always hard. Learning you are the loser in the eleventh hour of a deal is a frustrating, humbling, and embarrassing event. If you find yourself in this circumstance, perhaps it's time to honestly ask yourself if any of the factors above were at the root cause of your loss.

 

Click Here to Learn more about Win-Loss Analysis

 

 

 

 

 

2013 TOP SALES TRENDS

 Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and

 



management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “TOP TEN SALES TRENDS FOR 2013.”

 

What are the top business-to-business sales trends for 2013? Here’s my list based upon my experience of working with some of the world’s best sales organizations this past year.

1. Sales Force Behavior “Modeling”
Models are verbal descriptions and visual representations of how systems work and processes flow. Models enable repeatable and predictable experiences. More organizations will study their top salespeople in 2013 to understand how they formulate their winning account strategies based upon customer politics, evaluator psychology, and the human nature of executive decision makers that are unique to winning every account. 

2. Win-Loss Analysis Studies
All companies and their salespeople are well versed on the logical arguments for selecting their product. However, the decision to make a major purchase is also influenced by internal politics, how the decision-makers receive information along with individual biases and personal desires. Unfortunately many companies don’t perform any type of win-loss analysis so they don't understand their customers in these regards. Because of the economy and relentless competition, 2013 will be the year that many companies have to re-discover the lost art of win-loss analysis.

3. Emphasis on Language-Based Interactions
While proponents of the consultative, relationship, and challenger-based sales approaches will continue to argue the merits of their respective philosophies, there is one thing everyone can agree on. For 2013, it’s not only what you say, but equally important, how you say it. Sales linguistics is the new field of study about how customers and salespeople use and interpret language during the decision making process. If you are in sales, you make your living by talking. You need to study language and perfect your use of words because your most important competitive weapon is your mouth. 

4. Sales Force Verticalization
A “specialist” beats a “generalist” every time. Closely related to Sales Linguistics, is the accelerated trend of sales force language specialization based upon the following strategies:
        Industry verticalization focus (finance, government, retail, etc.) to promote domain expertise.
        Technical application segmented by the different solutions the company offers to promote extremely deep technical knowledge.
        Business process improvement as opposed to the recitation of standard “generic” product features and functions to customers.

5. Sales Process Ineffectiveness
Many companies have realized that their sales didn’t increase even after spending a great deal of money and effort implementing a sales process methodology. The reason for this is because the “black hole” of the sales process is what happens during and at the close of sales calls. Today more than ever, it’s the personal interactions with prospective customers that determines winners from losers, not the internal processes of the sales organization. In 2013 more companies will be studying and categorizing these customer interactions so they can improve sales force effectiveness. 

6. Organizational Buying Psychology
If you are involved in selling enterprise solutions, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within the prospective customer’s company. Your solution might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and human resources. Therefore, it’s critical to map out the interrelationships of the departments within an organization. The essence of successful enterprise sales is understanding not only who to sell to, but how to craft a message that appeals to various departmental constituents. Understanding organizational buying psychology becomes an even more critical topic in 2013.

7. No Decision as the Main Competitor
For sales forces involved with large capital expenditure sales cycles, never before has the mantra “Call High or Die” been so true. Salespeople must reach C-level executive decision makers early in the sales process because the default for organizations today is to maintain the status quo and delay every major purchase. 

8. “Intelligent” Territory Management
Salespeople who have to manage hundreds of accounts and vast geographic territories face the perennial problem of where to spend their most precious resource, which is their time. Perhaps the most important “Big Data” application within sales will be the analytics that predict which prospective net-new customers should be called upon and what installed base accounts are most likely to buy next. As opposed to salespeople creating their own action plan for the day’s activities, more intelligent territory management systems will direct them to call on certain accounts and prospects in 2013.

9. Technology Fatigue
While technology has profoundly improved the effectiveness of salespeople, there is an interesting trend that has been growing over the past couple of years and will only get worse. Salespeople today are always available to customers via their cell phones, constantly receiving a gargantuan stream of e-mail information, and every account update they make in Salesforce.com is broadcast to sales management. Many long time salespeople are suffering from “Technology Fatigue” and complain they are burning themselves out.

10. Continued Migration from Field to Phone
One final trend that bears mentioning is the accelerated move from field-based sales to phone-based internet sales. Many companies have quickly transitioned the majority of their field reps to be almost exclusively phone based. Therefore, these reps must now be able to create winning relationships with their voices as opposed to how they sold in the past with their physical presence. Understanding and mastering the art of persuasion will become even more important for all salespeople in 2013.

Articles That May Interest You:

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople
Are Top Salespeople Born or Made?

Plan a Winning Sales Call Strategy

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles on creating a winning sales call strategy.

 

It's the question that goes through the mind of a salesperson during every call: How is the customer reacting to my pitch?

It's an apt question. In my win-loss analysis interviews with more than a thousand key decision makers about what determines success or failure in sales, I routinely ask at what point in the sales cycle the salesperson actually lost the deal. The most frequently mentioned response is during a sales call. With this important turning point in mind, let's examine how to develop a winning sales call strategy. 

Customers will have one of five different reactions to everything you say during a sales call. They will either reject your statements and ideas outright, ignore what you say, acknowledge they've heard you, accept what you say but do nothing, or internalize your recommendations and take action. The reaction you receive is influenced by the level of rapport you have established with the prospective customer.Similarly, sales calls can be classified by the level of rapport. 

Combative sales calls are antagonistic interactions with nonexistent rapport. Most likely, this type of situation occurs because the customer has a preexisting bias against your solution or an incompatibility exists between you or your company and the customer.

Contentious sales calls may begin congenially but are characterized by controversy or topical disputes that lead to ill feelings by the end of the call.

Unemotional sales calls lack outward displays of affection, and even though the call may last an hour, the customer remains aloof and unsympathetically distant.

Friendly sales calls are situations where the customer is generally receptive, cooperative, and open to your ideas. However, this doesn't mean they will buy your solution. 

In synergistic sales calls, the customer shows genuine excitement, is receptive to your advice and recommendations, and jointly plans the future steps of the sales process with you.

 

Customers can experience many different types of reactions to salespeople, ranging from fear and hate to love and trust. For example, combative and synergistic sales calls are at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The winning sales call strategy is based upon executing synergistic sales calls and this is dependent upon establishing four different receptive states with the prospective customer.

Personal Receptive State. The first priority is to build a personal receptive state by finding intersecting activities and interests you have in common with the prospective customer. By doing so, you develop rapport with the entire person, not just the business person--building a personal friendship that sets you apart from the competition. Collect personal information about the evaluators through research, casual conversations, and quick examinations of the pictures, objects, and mementos in their offices. Always, preplan how you will create a personal receptive state at the beginning of the sales call.

In addition, speak in the customer's unique language. Match the tone, tempo, and speaking style of your customer to make him or her feel more comfortable. The most important difference between you and your competitors is not solely your products, your company, or the services and support you offer. It's you and your ability to build a deeper relationship with prospective customers.

Technical Receptive State. Every industry has developed its own language to facilitate the mutual understanding of terminology and an exact meaning of the words. The "technical specification language" consists of these abbreviations, acronyms, and specialized terms. Whether you are selling airplanes, computer chips, or telephone equipment, you need to know the terms and nomenclature of your industry.

A critical aspect of the sales call is not necessarily what you have planned to say on your call or in your presentation. Rather, it is how you handle the tough questions the customer asks you. Your question-handling ability is what helps separate you from the pack and this requires you to speak fluently with the customer in the technical specification language. 

Business Receptive State. When you demonstrate that your primary interest is in the customer's success, you begin to build a business receptive state. At this point, the customer starts to consider you more than a vendor. You have proven your value as a business partner who has the expertise to solve the customer's problem.

One of the main traits of top salespeople is language specialization because a "specialist" beats a "generalist" every time. Instead of the recitation of standard "generic" product features and functions to the customer, the business receptive state is based upon a tailored discussion about business process improvement that is specifically applicable to the customer's environment.

Political Receptive State. You enjoy a political advantage over the competition when the customer believes that only your solution will help him achieve his personal benefactions. The term "benefaction" refers to the psychological benefits that determine a person's actions. It literally means receiving a benefit from taking action. Four core psychological drives determine selection behavior. People buy products they believe will help them fulfill deep-seated psychological needs: satisfying the ego, being accepted as part of a group or becoming the leader of it, ensuring survival, and avoiding pain. Customers rationalize their political decisions with logic and facts from the technical and business receptive states.

 

As a sales call progresses, continuously ask yourself if you are establishing the personal, technical, business, and political receptive states. A synergistic sales call occurs when all four receptive states are achieved whereas friendly sales calls may only have personal and technical receptive states established.

Finally, be sure to prepare your colleagues who will join you on the sales call by helping them understand what type of sales call to expect (combative, contentious, unemotional, friendly, or synergistic) and their role in executing your call strategy. Never forget, one of a salesperson's deadliest sins is to chatter and talk incessantly on sales calls. You have conducted the perfect sales call when you have listened far more than you spoke.

 

Articles that May Interest You:

The Seven Deadly Sins of Salespeople

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople

Closing Techniques Using Sales Linguistics

Win-Loss Analysis: Why Salespeople Lose Business

 

Top 10 Sales Articles

Here are the TOP 10 Heavy Hitter Sales Blog Articles as measured by number of times viewed... ENJOY!

 

 

1. Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople

2. Are Top Salespeople Born or Made?

3. Seven Fascinating Facts About the Salesperson’s Mind

4. Why Did I Lose the Sale? 6 Win-Loss Analysis Questions

5. ARE YOU A CLOSER? Take the Test!

6. What’s Wrong With Your Sales Training Program

7. Closing Techniques Using Sales Linguistics

8. Strategies for Answering Your Customer’s Toughest Questions

9. Win the Business with This Elevator Pitch

10. IT Sales Strategy: Software, SaaS & Hardware Sales

Click Here for 25 More Articles

 

Win the Business With This Elevator Pitch

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “Win the Business with this Elevator Pitch.”

 

I would like you to pretend that you are in an elevator at one of your industry’s trade shows. You are heading down to the lobby when the doors open on the thirtieth floor. You instantly recognize the executive who walks in and quickly glance at his name badge to confirm he is the CEO of the most important account you would like to start working with. You have never met him before nor have you been able to generate any interest from his organization. You have forty-five seconds to introduce yourself, explain what your company does in a way the CEO would find interesting and applicable, and motivate him to take the action you suggest. Ready? Go! 

So, how did you do? Even the most successful salespeople find this pressure- packed exercise difficult so you may have quit halfway through. However, you have only one chance to make a great first impression. With this in mind, here are the six most common mistakes salespeople make with their elevator pitch:

• They use truisms. They believe their company’s own marketing pitch, which makes claims that are not considered entirely true by the listener. As a result, they instantly lose credibility. 

• They describe themselves using buzzwords. They repeat industry buzzwords or, worse yet, use technical buzzwords that are known only within their company. 

• They use fillers. They make too much small talk or ask frivolous questions that reduce their stature to the customer. 

• They demean themselves or the listener. Their statements turn them into mere salespeople, not business problem solvers. They unintentionally demean the listener by asking impertinent questions or assuming the listener knows exactly what they are talking about. 

• They present an unreasonable close. They don’t take into account that they are talking to a senior company leader and use a close that is unrealistic or demands too much of the customer. 

• They are incongruent. Their tone, pitch, and tempo of speech don’t match. They speak too fast and their quivering tone broadcasts that they’re scared and nervous.

Here’s an example of a poor elevator pitch. The problems are identified in brackets. Luke Skywalker, a salesperson for XYZ Technologies, is attending a trade show and happens to be in the elevator with Norman Bates, chief information officer at Wonderful Telecommunications. 

 Hello, Norman. How are you today [filler]? Do you have a moment to talk [filler]? My name is Luke  Skywalker and I’m a sales rep [demeans salesperson] for XYZ Technologies. Have you heard of XYZ  Technologies [demeans listener]? Umm…[filler] Well, we are the leading provider [truism] of business  transformational outsourcing [industry buzzword]. We have a unique extended-hybrid implementation  methodology [technical buzzword]. Do you have time for me to buy you a cup of coffee and hear more  about it [unreasonable close]? 

My recent HBR article titled “Persuasion Tactics of Effective Salespeople”  introduced Sales Linguistics, the revolutionary new field of study about how salespeople and customers use language during the decision making process. A successful elevator sales pitch will incorporate the following sales linguistic structures:

• Softeners. A softener eases listeners into the next thought or is used to set expectations. When you say, “I’m sorry to bother you,” you are using the pre-apologizing softener technique.

• Facts. A fact is the undisputed truth. Facts are recognized instantaneously. 

• Metaphors. Metaphors are stories, parables, and analogies that communicate ideas by using examples that people can relate to and identify with. Metaphors enable complex concepts and theories to be explained in an understandable, interesting, and persuasive manner 

• Suggestions. Foreground suggestions are direct and explicit (“Consumer Reports gave our product the highest rating”). Background suggestions are indirect and their meaning is inferred (“One of their customers recently switched to our product”). 

• Fallback position. Every customer conversation is actually a verbal negotiation. Instead of giving ultimatums that force the customer to accept or reject your close, provide options from which customers can select from prepared in advance.

• Silence. Silence is an important and useful linguistic structure. It indicates you are listening and waiting for a response. Silence can actually be used to gain dominance during conversations.

Here’s an elevator pitch that incorporates these sales linguistic structures: 

Norman, hi, I’m Luke Skywalker with XYZ Technologies [fact]. It’s a pleasure to meet you [softener]. I’m not sure if you are familiar with us [softener], but we work with AT&T [fact]. They’ve had to  reduce their IT costs during these tough times. I’m here because James Bond, the CIO of AT&T, is presenting a case study on how he cut his IT costs by 20 percent using our outsourcing solution [metaphor, background suggestion]. There’ll be CIOs from some of our other customers, including General Electric and Johnson & Johnson, speaking as well [fact, background suggestion]. The session is tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. if you can make it [foreground suggestion, softener]. [Pause—silence, waiting for response.] That’s too bad [softener]. I’d be delighted to send you his presentation [fallback position, foreground suggestion]. Great. Just to confirm your e-mail address, that’s Norman.bates@wonderful.com. Is there anyone else I should send it to [fallback position]?  [Pause-silence]. Okay, that’s Ferris Bueller, your vice president of infrastructure. Thanks, Norman.  You’ll be hearing from me shortly.

Your words are your most important competitive weapons. In this regard, your ability to deliver a compelling elevator pitch is crucial to achieve success. There are many sales situations where you have only a minute or two to conduct an entire sales call. You must be able to deliver a compelling and memorable message during this pressure-packed time sensitive encounter.

Write down your elevator pitch and analyze its structure for the use of buzzwords, fillers, and truisms. Use language structures such as softeners, metaphors, and suggestions to improve its persuasiveness. Finally, be sure to practice your pitch aloud so your delivery is smooth and confidant. Remember, a sales call can happen anywhere and at any time. Always have a prepared elevator pitch.

Other Articles That Might Interest You 

Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics: 60 Second Summary

Sales Linguistics: 7 Languages C-Level Executives Speak

 

What's Wrong With Your Sales Training Program

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “What’s Wrong With Your Sales Training Program.”

 

Somehow, “successful” sales training has become associated with a thick binder of material the salesperson lugs home from the class (never to open again). The classroom experience is based mainly upon rote memorization of facts. There is little interaction, practical exercises, or meaningful conversation about the difficult “real-world” obstacles that need to be overcome. The training classes are pre-packaged sessions that are taught the same way over and over again regardless of the changing competitive landscape. In this article we review four critical elements that are commonly missing from today’s sales training programs.

 

1. It’s Not Based Upon Win-Loss Customer Interviewing

Unfortunately, I have some very frightening news to share with you based on more than one thousand customers I have interviewed as part of the win-loss analysis studies I have conducted on behalf of my clients. Approximately 30 percent of the time, the winner of the sales cycle was determined before the “official” selection process started.  Another 45 percent of the time, customers had already made up their minds about whom they were going to buy from about halfway through the process. That means 75 percent of the time, customers made their decision halfway through the process.

Only 25 percent of the time did customers make their final decision at the end of the selection process. Therefore, if you are not clearly in the lead at the midpoint of the selection process, the odds are that you are going to lose.

 Here’s another disturbing fact. In almost every case, the decision wasn’t even close between the top two choices. Even though customers had made up their minds, they still caused all the other salespeople to jump through a series of hoops for nothing, wasting their valuable time, resources, mental and emotional energy. 

The main point from the information above is that you truly can’t train your sales teams on how and why prospective customers make their buying decision if your training isn’t based upon direct interviews with decision makers at won and lost accounts.

 

2. It Provides an Incomplete Customer Decision Making Model

Many sales training programs today share the same fundamental flaw. They think of customers as rational decision makers who use logic and reason exclusively.  Meanwhile, the successful salesperson understands and appeals to the emotional, political, and subconscious decision maker. A sales training program should not solely educate salespeople about features, functions, and business benefits. It must also explain the psychological reasons customers buy and provide practical real-world examples on how to incorporate the elements of customer behavior into a winning sales strategy. 

People buy products they believe will help them fulfill deep-seated psychological needs: satisfying the ego, being accepted as part of a group, avoiding pain, and ensuring survival. All the other outward appearances of a customer’s decision-making process—the analysis, return-on-investment calculations, and other internal studies—are the means to achieving an overriding psychological goal. Therefore, the training program must take into account the psychological value of your solution and explain how to influence the politics of organizational decision making.

 

3. It Lacks Meaningful Cultural Transmissions

No one wants to endure endless hours of classroom lecture. Besides, learning by example is the best way to learn something new.  A “cultural transmission” is the method of learning a behavioral technique by emulating a successful practitioner as a role model.  

There are three types of cultural transmissions that should be included in every sales training program. First, there should be success stories about key wins explained using examples that the entire team can understand and learn from. Second, include role play exercises on everything from the elevator pitch and cold calls to the corporate presentation and negotiation. Finally, top salespeople should be interviewed in a panel-type setting about their sales philosophy, territory strategy, where they win and lose followed by an extensive audience question and answer session.

 

4. Sales Call Execution is Not Addressed

Many companies segment their vendors by value and whether or not they are strategic to the organization. Companies also classify their existing customers by the amount of money they spend and the products they buy. Unfortunately, very few companies today perform any type of segmentation of the sales calls their sales force makes. As a result, valuable win-loss-related information isn’t captured and sales force effectiveness is lost. Ideally, salespeople should be provided with a playbook for sales call execution based upon the classification of sales calls. 

Sales call segmentation is a method of categorizing customer interactions based upon prospective customers’ role within the organization, their orientation (technical, financial or operational), their political power, and how they process information. The goal of the segmentation strategy is to provide a predictive framework that helps salespeople anticipate customer behavior. Since the salesperson has a deeper insight about customer behavior based upon past interactions, he is able to conduct more persuasive sales calls. This strategy also serves as a communication methodology to educate and prepare the colleagues (pre-sales engineers, consultants, and sales managers) who will attend the sales call with the salesperson. 

In closing, all successful companies have trained their salespeople on the process to educate customers about their products and procedures to determine customers’ business qualifications and technical requirements.  Truly great sales organizations intimately understand how prospective decision makers think. They share information about how they win and where they lose. They analyze customer interactions and provide their sales force real world tactics so they can predictably close business. 

Other Articles That Might Interest You

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople

Why Did We Lose (5 Questions for the VP of Sales)

Learn About "Heavy Hitter" Sales Training 

 

Strategies for Answering the Toughest Questions

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “Strategies for Answering Your Toughest Customers’ Questions.”

 

One of the hardest things to do in all of sales is handle tough questions from skeptical prospective customers. After interviewing thousands of customers as part of the win-loss studies I have conducted, I can tell you with certainty that answering customer questions successfully is often the difference between winning and losing. Here are seven points to consider when answering questions: 

Clarify the question first. Customers ask two basic types of questions. Some are very specific questions about a feature or issue, while others are more general about a broad topic or your opinion. In both instances, make sure you understand the question before answering it. Either rephrase the question your own mind your own words and repeat it to the questioner aloud or ask the questioner to further explain what he meant before answering. Many times, salespeople are too eager to give an answer to a question that wasn't even asked. 

Show your domain expertise. If you intimately know your industry, company, and products and how they compare against the competition, you need not fear even the toughest question. Frame the beginning of your answers with statements that confirm your credibility like “Based upon my experience working with X, Y and Z companies” or  “I’ve been asked that many times over the years.”

Make sure everyone understands. Since most sales calls are conducted with groups of people, you should give a little background information with your answers to ensure everyone understands the topic of conversation. Don't assume everyone understands your company's buzzwords or nomenclature.

Provide an expert point of view. Never forget, your customer would rather do business with a trusted consultant who has intimate knowledge of the industry than an ordinary salesperson who simply understands how the product works. In fact, you are not actually there to sell anything. Your goal is to become a trusted advisor by intently listening to the questions the customer asks so that you can apply your expertise to solve the customer’s business problems or complete his initiatives. Ideally, once you have established yourself as an expert the conversation will flow into an off-the-record talk about the politics of his organization and his ulterior motives. 

Redirect inane and unfair questions. Don't get flustered when you are asked an inappropriate question. Simply redirect the question by saying something like, "The question you really should be asking is … " 

Respond with Metaphors. Metaphors are stories, parables, and analogies that communicate ideas by using examples that people can relate to and identify with. Metaphors enable complex concepts and theories to be explained in an understandable, interesting, and persuasive manner. The most important metaphors are examples about the customers that are successfully using your products and services. Instead of barraging the customer with point-by-point facts and figures, structure your answer in a logical way using an existing customer’s impactful storyline.  

Demeanor speaks volumes. The most powerful response to the most difficult question isn't solely the answer you give. It's also how you say it! Regardless of the question, keep a calm and confident demeanor. Most of all, do not get defensive. Stay positive. This is a critical lesson. When confronted by someone who disagrees with your opinion, it's okay to disagree without being disagreeable.

The demeanor and communication style used to deliver your answer should be collected and matter-of-fact. However, you want to build momentum as you make your response and finish on a high note. This is called a “build up.” Whenever you speak to a customer, you want to confidently peak during the final sentence of your paragraph. You don’t want your voice to trail off, signaling uncertainty or lack of conviction. 

Remember, behind every question customers ask is an ulterior motive. They may want to validate a bias or throw you off track. That's why you shouldn't be too eager to answer or say yes to every question you are asked. The first step is to quickly theorize why the question was asked. Then formulate your response strategy to demonstrate your industry and business expertise in order to command respect. Sometimes, it is best to address inappropriate questions by providing an answer that guides the customer to a different topic. Most importantly, maintain your composure at all times. So be sure to prepare your answers in advance to protect yourself from uncomfortable questions about your products, company, and competitors.

A critical aspect of every sales call is not necessarily what you have planned to say. Rather, it is how you handle the tough questions the customer asks you. Your question-handling ability is what separates you from the pack.

 

Other Articles You Might Enjoy:

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople 

The Seven Deadly Sins of Salespeople