One of the worst things a salesperson experiences is a prospect who keeps saying “maybe,” or who puts off making that yes/no decision. A stalled sale is a like a vampire, slowly sucking our life’s blood as we continue to hope that because the prospect hasn’t said no, there’s still that possibility of yes. This is not the sacred terrain of the green salesperson either; all of us fall into that trap. For example, I had a prospect I was really excited to have as a customer. I imagined the successes out of our combined efforts and the future lay shiny ahead. This company had a sexy product, a dynamic team, and the resources to push into a growth area with considerable promise. They were right in our sweet spot. I wanted them as a client. And then he stopped returning my phone calls or emails. Aaaargh!!!!
The way to overcome this obstacle is to give up all hope. (How cycnical.)
You can’t have a conversation with someone who won’t be in communication. And because sales is a dynamic conversation that leads to a change or an action, it’s vital to keep the conversation alive. The sad truth is, though, conversations fade. We forget them. They’re fun and exciting in the moment but even as jazzed as we can feel after a sales call that went well, we move on and that conversation goes to the background of our mind, for both the salesperson and the prospect.
Sociologists observed in numerous experiments in the past few decades that people remember the information we gain from a person we trust, but we forget the person who gave us the information. Likewise, when we don’t trust someone or don’t find them credible, we remember the person and NOT the information.
This is an interesting dynamic when you apply it to sales. While a salesperson works hard to get their information across to the prospect, and if they’re successful at creating credibility and trust, the prospect will forget them. What the prospect will remember, in the short term, is the information they discussed.
Keeping the conversation alive is no small thing because the salesperson is working two opposing dynamics in order to give up hope. That’s the art of sales.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Highest & Best Good
We’re in the middle of reviewing all Stonegate’s marketing materials--content, look, and type. So far it’s a process more of asking the right questions than getting any solid answers which feels a little frustrating, a little exciting.
My biggest roadblock has been our differentiator. Each time that one of us thinks “this is it!” our marketing consultant--doing her excellent job—asks ”so what?” One of the staff answered out of her growing frustration, “Unless I step into each of our competitors’ companies and learn about their people, their skills, and why they are doing what they do, I don’t have an answer beyond your 3rd ‘so what.’ And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
We don’t need to differentiate ourselves from the competition in terms of how well we perform our work. Everyone says they’re the best, have the newest, have proprietary processes, are unique, so on and so on. To a prospect looking for a company like ours to hire, s/he can’t weed out the great from the good from the bad. And frankly, all companies have both successful and unsuccessful projects.
In our field, the real differentiator becomes “interpretation.” Although I can’t speak to how well my competition performs for their clients, and wouldn’t dare to do so, I can guess at how they arrive at their solutions by looking at their client list.
Let me step back for a minute. Our field has many highly experienced, highly educated, very smart people providing service. And in truth, the tools we employ and the skillsets we offer, even the products we provide, are not radically different from each other when looked at from the 30K level. The point is we all do our work to the best of our ability (you hope) to help our clients.
We all:
· take in some form of data (through observation, interviews, financial statements, surveys, research, performance metrics, marketing, salespeople, and so on)
· interpret that input
· provide something (for example, a report, advice, actions plans, implementation partnership).
The way we interpret the data or input (as well as how we collect it), is directly related to who we serve; whose highest and best good are we looking out for.
Here's a simple example using the Balance Sheet. Am I looking at the activity ratios to help managers improve operating performance to increase their cash flow? Am I looking at how to clean up the balance sheet so an owner can generate new working capital or sell? Or am I looking at it for an equity investor who wants to determine whether or not this company can increase the value of their portfolio?
Interpretation, as I see it, is critical because it guides what needs to be done next. And that’s the “so what” that enables a prospect to decide between all the wonderful options out there.
My biggest roadblock has been our differentiator. Each time that one of us thinks “this is it!” our marketing consultant--doing her excellent job—asks ”so what?” One of the staff answered out of her growing frustration, “Unless I step into each of our competitors’ companies and learn about their people, their skills, and why they are doing what they do, I don’t have an answer beyond your 3rd ‘so what.’ And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
We don’t need to differentiate ourselves from the competition in terms of how well we perform our work. Everyone says they’re the best, have the newest, have proprietary processes, are unique, so on and so on. To a prospect looking for a company like ours to hire, s/he can’t weed out the great from the good from the bad. And frankly, all companies have both successful and unsuccessful projects.
In our field, the real differentiator becomes “interpretation.” Although I can’t speak to how well my competition performs for their clients, and wouldn’t dare to do so, I can guess at how they arrive at their solutions by looking at their client list.
Let me step back for a minute. Our field has many highly experienced, highly educated, very smart people providing service. And in truth, the tools we employ and the skillsets we offer, even the products we provide, are not radically different from each other when looked at from the 30K level. The point is we all do our work to the best of our ability (you hope) to help our clients.
We all:
· take in some form of data (through observation, interviews, financial statements, surveys, research, performance metrics, marketing, salespeople, and so on)
· interpret that input
· provide something (for example, a report, advice, actions plans, implementation partnership).
The way we interpret the data or input (as well as how we collect it), is directly related to who we serve; whose highest and best good are we looking out for.
Here's a simple example using the Balance Sheet. Am I looking at the activity ratios to help managers improve operating performance to increase their cash flow? Am I looking at how to clean up the balance sheet so an owner can generate new working capital or sell? Or am I looking at it for an equity investor who wants to determine whether or not this company can increase the value of their portfolio?
Interpretation, as I see it, is critical because it guides what needs to be done next. And that’s the “so what” that enables a prospect to decide between all the wonderful options out there.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Moving Day -- From a Previous Blog
January 20, 2008
Audience or Individual
By Stonegate
Are we trained to think as one of a crowd?
In the last century (doesn’t that sound cool?), one-to-one marketing was all the rage. For all I know, it may be the grandmother of viral marketing. But it’s still fairly new, and I’m wondering if it has the power to condition our thinking and shape our actions much the same way we’ve been conditioned to think about, and act within, communities, groups, associations, so on.
A friend was telling me about a run-in he’d had the other day with a colleague and he clearly was still angry and mentioned some of the “less generous” things he wanted to say. I immediately said, “You didn’t really say that did you?” to which he answered, “Of course not, I’m talking to you.” I saw how I was hearing the story as part of an “audience” rather than as a story crafted and told to “me.” Am I conditioned to take in information as if I’m one of many?
Posted on: Sun, Jan 20 2008 1:27 PM
January 17, 2008
A Mention or Chocolates
By Stonegate
I received two offers in the last week from companies that asked me to buy their product. One was a PR firm, and the other a Printer. I am not in the market for either at the moment, but my company uses these types of service. So I read on.
What caught my eye about the PR firm was the list of other companies using their service. It got me to wondering, Are they the size we are? Same industry? And then the brilliance of the tactic hit me. I would get double my coverage if I worked with them. Not only do they have a huge database of people reading their newsletter where Stonegate’s name could appear, but I’d get the regular service too. I’ll remember them.
The offer from the Printer really saddened me. I like this company. I’ve sent a lot of business to this company. I don’t eat chocolate. (I know, chocolate is the elixir of the gods, but that’s not my chosen path to sainthood.) Their offer was for cost savings which I do appreciate, but if they think that an offer of free chocolate for every purchase is going to close the deal, they’re using the wrong tactic. Not only does chocolate take my mind off printing materials, it further proves in my mind that their product isn’t any different than any other printer. Sad.
So the first one appeals to me, specifically, while the second puts me in a pool with every other customer they have on their list. The marketing significance of this is for the experts to decipher. What I got out of this was the significance of really personalizing an offer. Granted, this is incredibly difficult when you address something to a large audience.
Posted on: Thu, Jan 17 2008 11:12 AM
January 10, 2008
Hauntings
By Stonegate
I'm watching the dvd on Hauntings last night and feeling really bad for these people who had to leave their homes and uproot their families, some even going bankrupt because of ghosts that are hassling them. It doesn't take the eerie music to have me start yelling at the TV to "LEAVE! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!" I am not someone who would willingly go into a dark basement to investigate why I'm hearing a Gregorian chant when nobody's home. Really now! I would be gone so fast I'd create a sonic boom in my wake.
But these brave souls live with gross noises, bruised bodies, being stalked and enduring all manner of abuse until they finally get fed up and call in a psychic or a priest. Prayers or exorcisms are performed and then there's relief for a time. But the relief is rarely permanent and soon the problems come back.
What struck me in all of this was none of the people replaced the absence of the hauntings WITH anything. For example, if a house has had a fire, you clean up all the residue and then you replace your stinky furniture with new furniture. You don't just leave the room open. You replace the bad with the good. But in the cases of the hauntings, nobody replaced that bad juju with anything. Not that I know what you'd replace it with, but I DO know nature abhors a vacuum and something is going to fill that empty space. Better to fill it with something intentional rather than just let things happen.
Posted on: Thu, Jan 10 2008 2:50 PM
January 8, 2008
Conversation vs. chatter
By Stonegate
Has the art of conversation become a thing of the past in our fast food, sound bite, instant messaging world?
I don't think so. I actually think that if we look at all the recent innovations in communication technology, there's an opportunity just screaming to be heard. However, the defenders of traditional ways are refusing to budge and let the new come through. The myth of Oedipus is a good warning to existing authorities to make way for the new, (letting Oedipus pass on the road if you will).
One of the advantages of technology is reaching more people at one time. But I certainly don't want more chatter, like the man on the airplane who told me all about his achievements and his awards. Borrrrrring! I left that ride feeling empty and disregarded. That's how I see chatter. Conversation, on the other hand, brings us to a new understanding or calls us to act when we otherwise wouldn't.
I'm not sure how the two can be married, but I have a hunch if we look at the elements that make a good conversation and add speed and reach to it, there's a huge opportunity to breath to life.
Posted on: Tue, Jan 8 2008 10:51 AM
January 6, 2008
Action tempered by Reason
By Stonegate
URL: Born-Again Virgin
Why do some companies succeed in conditions that overwhelm others?
In this article, the Virgin Megastores are growing at the same rate that the rest of the industry is failing. The author points out that they observed what their customers wanted and then acted on it. This sounds to me like action tempered by reason, which is at the heart of successful entrepreneurial ventures.
In this instance, we can look at growth as a dynamic which frees us up to use sales as a method that achieves growth. There are a number of other ways to grow a company, through acquisitions for example, but let’s stick with sales. Success is the outcome of a set of intentional steps, a process.
Think of growing vegetables for a minute. We dig up the ground, plant the seeds, water and fertilize and weed. We wait for the first evidence of the vegetables, water and weed some more. These are steps intended to produce a garden. But action alone can’t assure a garden full of lettuce and carrots. What if you’re like the two brothers in the movie Second Hand Lions and as a new gardener you end up with a plot full of pig corn when you thought you’d planted a wide variety of vegetables?
That’s where observation and reason come in. You have to keep checking in to be sure each step is producing what you intend.
Source Blog
Posted on: Sun, Jan 6 2008 6:04 PM
Call to Action
By Stonegate
The book, The Survivor Personality, presents event after event where a person is thrown into impossible, life threatening circumstances, and survives. These are people like any other, but who have been thrown into the unknown, the seemingly impossible, and made it. They’ve survived plane crashes, being stranded on deserted islands, cancer death sentences, you name it.
Clearly, the survivors were thrust into these circumstances. This is not extreme sports. They certainly didn’t choose to be a prisoner of war for 7 years.
So what about those of us who aren’t given the cosmic shove? What if our company, for example, is going along fine and we’re making money. But we have this great idea that we’re sure would make a difference in the world. We get excited by this opportunity. We talk about it with our friends. So what keeps us from pursuing that dream and making it real?
In the case of the survivor, they don’t have anything to protect and everything to lose if they don’t act. On the other hand, a successful owner has a lot to protect and a little to lose by not acting. So what were the non-survivors thinking when they didn’t act and why do a lot of incredible inventions come out of successful companies?
Audience or Individual
By Stonegate
Are we trained to think as one of a crowd?
In the last century (doesn’t that sound cool?), one-to-one marketing was all the rage. For all I know, it may be the grandmother of viral marketing. But it’s still fairly new, and I’m wondering if it has the power to condition our thinking and shape our actions much the same way we’ve been conditioned to think about, and act within, communities, groups, associations, so on.
A friend was telling me about a run-in he’d had the other day with a colleague and he clearly was still angry and mentioned some of the “less generous” things he wanted to say. I immediately said, “You didn’t really say that did you?” to which he answered, “Of course not, I’m talking to you.” I saw how I was hearing the story as part of an “audience” rather than as a story crafted and told to “me.” Am I conditioned to take in information as if I’m one of many?
Posted on: Sun, Jan 20 2008 1:27 PM
January 17, 2008
A Mention or Chocolates
By Stonegate
I received two offers in the last week from companies that asked me to buy their product. One was a PR firm, and the other a Printer. I am not in the market for either at the moment, but my company uses these types of service. So I read on.
What caught my eye about the PR firm was the list of other companies using their service. It got me to wondering, Are they the size we are? Same industry? And then the brilliance of the tactic hit me. I would get double my coverage if I worked with them. Not only do they have a huge database of people reading their newsletter where Stonegate’s name could appear, but I’d get the regular service too. I’ll remember them.
The offer from the Printer really saddened me. I like this company. I’ve sent a lot of business to this company. I don’t eat chocolate. (I know, chocolate is the elixir of the gods, but that’s not my chosen path to sainthood.) Their offer was for cost savings which I do appreciate, but if they think that an offer of free chocolate for every purchase is going to close the deal, they’re using the wrong tactic. Not only does chocolate take my mind off printing materials, it further proves in my mind that their product isn’t any different than any other printer. Sad.
So the first one appeals to me, specifically, while the second puts me in a pool with every other customer they have on their list. The marketing significance of this is for the experts to decipher. What I got out of this was the significance of really personalizing an offer. Granted, this is incredibly difficult when you address something to a large audience.
Posted on: Thu, Jan 17 2008 11:12 AM
January 10, 2008
Hauntings
By Stonegate
I'm watching the dvd on Hauntings last night and feeling really bad for these people who had to leave their homes and uproot their families, some even going bankrupt because of ghosts that are hassling them. It doesn't take the eerie music to have me start yelling at the TV to "LEAVE! GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!" I am not someone who would willingly go into a dark basement to investigate why I'm hearing a Gregorian chant when nobody's home. Really now! I would be gone so fast I'd create a sonic boom in my wake.
But these brave souls live with gross noises, bruised bodies, being stalked and enduring all manner of abuse until they finally get fed up and call in a psychic or a priest. Prayers or exorcisms are performed and then there's relief for a time. But the relief is rarely permanent and soon the problems come back.
What struck me in all of this was none of the people replaced the absence of the hauntings WITH anything. For example, if a house has had a fire, you clean up all the residue and then you replace your stinky furniture with new furniture. You don't just leave the room open. You replace the bad with the good. But in the cases of the hauntings, nobody replaced that bad juju with anything. Not that I know what you'd replace it with, but I DO know nature abhors a vacuum and something is going to fill that empty space. Better to fill it with something intentional rather than just let things happen.
Posted on: Thu, Jan 10 2008 2:50 PM
January 8, 2008
Conversation vs. chatter
By Stonegate
Has the art of conversation become a thing of the past in our fast food, sound bite, instant messaging world?
I don't think so. I actually think that if we look at all the recent innovations in communication technology, there's an opportunity just screaming to be heard. However, the defenders of traditional ways are refusing to budge and let the new come through. The myth of Oedipus is a good warning to existing authorities to make way for the new, (letting Oedipus pass on the road if you will).
One of the advantages of technology is reaching more people at one time. But I certainly don't want more chatter, like the man on the airplane who told me all about his achievements and his awards. Borrrrrring! I left that ride feeling empty and disregarded. That's how I see chatter. Conversation, on the other hand, brings us to a new understanding or calls us to act when we otherwise wouldn't.
I'm not sure how the two can be married, but I have a hunch if we look at the elements that make a good conversation and add speed and reach to it, there's a huge opportunity to breath to life.
Posted on: Tue, Jan 8 2008 10:51 AM
January 6, 2008
Action tempered by Reason
By Stonegate
URL: Born-Again Virgin
Why do some companies succeed in conditions that overwhelm others?
In this article, the Virgin Megastores are growing at the same rate that the rest of the industry is failing. The author points out that they observed what their customers wanted and then acted on it. This sounds to me like action tempered by reason, which is at the heart of successful entrepreneurial ventures.
In this instance, we can look at growth as a dynamic which frees us up to use sales as a method that achieves growth. There are a number of other ways to grow a company, through acquisitions for example, but let’s stick with sales. Success is the outcome of a set of intentional steps, a process.
Think of growing vegetables for a minute. We dig up the ground, plant the seeds, water and fertilize and weed. We wait for the first evidence of the vegetables, water and weed some more. These are steps intended to produce a garden. But action alone can’t assure a garden full of lettuce and carrots. What if you’re like the two brothers in the movie Second Hand Lions and as a new gardener you end up with a plot full of pig corn when you thought you’d planted a wide variety of vegetables?
That’s where observation and reason come in. You have to keep checking in to be sure each step is producing what you intend.
Source Blog
Posted on: Sun, Jan 6 2008 6:04 PM
Call to Action
By Stonegate
The book, The Survivor Personality, presents event after event where a person is thrown into impossible, life threatening circumstances, and survives. These are people like any other, but who have been thrown into the unknown, the seemingly impossible, and made it. They’ve survived plane crashes, being stranded on deserted islands, cancer death sentences, you name it.
Clearly, the survivors were thrust into these circumstances. This is not extreme sports. They certainly didn’t choose to be a prisoner of war for 7 years.
So what about those of us who aren’t given the cosmic shove? What if our company, for example, is going along fine and we’re making money. But we have this great idea that we’re sure would make a difference in the world. We get excited by this opportunity. We talk about it with our friends. So what keeps us from pursuing that dream and making it real?
In the case of the survivor, they don’t have anything to protect and everything to lose if they don’t act. On the other hand, a successful owner has a lot to protect and a little to lose by not acting. So what were the non-survivors thinking when they didn’t act and why do a lot of incredible inventions come out of successful companies?
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