Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

This week’s “Featured Expert” on Top 10 Sales Articles is Colleen Francis of Engage Selling Solutions

I regularly receive her excellent sales tips and last week her topic was voice mail - yes, that piece of incredibly frustrating technology, that has caused most of us to pull our hair out at some time or another.

Exceptionally, I am going to reproduce her advice in it’s entirety, because it really is superb advice.

“Voice mail. We love it because it lets us ignore calls we don’t want to take, or prepare for calls we’d rather not take right now.We hate it because it also lets our prospects do the exact same thing - including ignoring calls from us!

This week, we focus on what you can do to better navigate your way through voice mail, and into closing more business.

Consider two voice mail fundamentals:

1. Never leave a voice mail for someone who doesn’t know you. To the prospect, you’re an anonymous sales person, and the chances of this stranger ever returning your call are between 1-2% at best.
The only time you should ever leave a voice mail for a new prospect is when you have been referred to them (more on that below).

2. Only use voice mail as a last resort. Too often I see sales reps giving up as soon as the voice mail kicks in, and either leaving a voice mail (bad) or simply hanging up (better but not great). The reality is, even if you’ve gotten someone’s voice mail, there are 2 or 3 other options you can exercise while still on that call.

What do I mean by only using voice mail as a last resort?

Before leaving a voice mail message for someone who doesn’t know you, I believe you owe it to yourself to try everything you can to find them, or at least find out something about them. For example, when you get
someone’s voice mail, instead of leaving them a message, hit zero. You will likely get bounced to one of: a) reception, b) a personal or Executive assistant, or c) a co-worker in their department. If you’re prepared to ask them the right questions, all of these people can actually help you reach your prospect.

First, try asking them the following question:

I was hoping you could help me. I’m trying to reach Jane Smith, and her voice mail picked up. Do you happen to know if she’s in a meeting, or out for the entire day?

Depending on their response, you can then try one of the following three approaches:

Scenario One:

Them: She’s in a meeting.
You: Thanks for your help. Do you happen to know when she will be available?
Then follow with, Maybe it’s best to call back then?

Scenario Two:

Them: She’s away today.
You: Thanks for your help. Do you know if she will be back tomorrow?

Scenario Three:

If you speak to your prospect’s personal assistant, ask if it’s better to schedule a call in advance, and then have them set an appointment for you for 15 minutes or less of their time. Make sure to mark this date and time in your calendar, and whatever else happens that day, don’t forget to actually make the call. (Sounds obvious, I know, but the majority of sales people fail to live up to this promise).

If you have received a referral to your prospect, however, leaving a voice mail is okay, because there has already been a common bond created between you and your prospect. This bond is a relationship,and this relationship is the reason a prospect will want to call  you back.

Three steps to voice mail success:

If you do reach the point of leaving a voice mail, try this three-step process to dramatically increase your chances of hearing back from your prospect, and obtaining a positive response:

1. The first call.

Jane, this is Colleen Francis from Engage. We haven’t yet had the chance to meet, but I was talking to (Paul Smith in Marketing or Deb Young at ABC Corporation) yesterday, and he/she asked that I call you. Sorry I missed you today, but I’ll try to reach you again on DATE and TIME. HINT: Make sure your tone is soft, non-threatening and friendly - you don’t want to sound like a radio ad for a furniture liquidator. Plus, it’s critical that you do call back exactly on the date and time that you say.

2. The follow-up.

Hi Jane, this is Colleen Francis from Engage. I promised to call you back today, and I’m sorry we missed each other. As I mentioned before, (person at company or department ABC) was really hoping that we would be able to connect. I’ll try you again on DATE and TIME.

HINT: Again, it’s critical that you call back exactly when you said you would. Anything else would result in your being less than honest, and risk losing your prospect’s confidence.

3. One last try at bat.

Hi Jane, this is Colleen at Engage Selling calling, because I promised to reach you today. I noticed that you are often away from your desk and I suspect it’s because you’re either swamped at work, I’ve been wrong at guessing the times you might be available - or (humorous tone) you just really don’t want to talk to me! Whatever the reason, if you wouldn’t mind letting me know how to proceed, that would be great. I promised (Paul) I would be in touch with you, and get back to him on our conversation.

This three-step approach works because it’s non-threatening, honest and friendly - attributes all sales people should develop if they want to be successful. It also works because it means you have shifted
your focus from trying to make a sale, to trying to start a conversation. In doing so, you give your prospect the expectation that you can be trusted to keep your word, and you begin to build the rapport that is so imperative to winning new business.

Since I started using this approach, our clients report an 80% increase in call backs and an increase in sales. By adopting this technique, before you know it, voice mail can switch from being your impenetrable Great Wall, to being just one more signpost on your road to success.

This success is one of the reasons why we created our coaching membership program, Lead-Up. Your program begins with a special welcome gift:Colleen Francis’ Honesty Sells e-book which gives you real life tactics to create open honest relationships with your clients.

As a participant, you’ll receive special Engagement action plans from Colleen once per week via e-mail. These lessons will challenge your thinking about why customers buy and how you should be selling, so you can develop the thoughts, behaviors and actions necessary for sales success. In addition you get to participate in quarterly tele-conferences to ask me questions, as well have access to an exclusive website just for coaching members that is full of tools, worksheets and audio tips. http://www.Lead-Up.com

If you would like to receive a 1 month trial of the membership and everything that comes with it, including the welcome gift please visit http://www.Lead-Up.com and take our membership program for a test drive.”

My advice? Take the test drive - it is excellent value for money.

Don’t forget, I am on the Turn every day!! 

Have a great week and I will see you back here on Friday - JF

Recent exhaustive surveys suggest that only 5% of professional salespeople reach and remain at the highest level, which we call Level 3. A further 15% attain Level 2 status, but the majority, i.e. a massive 80% remain at Level 1 in terms of potential achievement.

Level One salespeople sell products and depend on having the right technical solution for the customer’s specification.

Level Two salespeople sell solutions, which changes their image from sales rep to business consultant and positions them as a potential strategic resource.

Most salesmen and women manage to advance from Level 1 to Level 2 fairly easily but unfortunately; many find breaking through that final glass ceiling extremely difficult i.e. moving from competitive sales professionals to collaborative sales consultants.

Level Three salespeople are able to first identify and then capitalise upon the political component within the buying process. They develop and sustain strong commercial relationships at all levels within their accounts and these relationships endure because they are based on mutual respect and trust. Their clients feel secure, so secure, that they would be fearful of changing supplier.

Level Three salespeople rarely, if ever, lose an order that they really want because they are always in control of the sales cycle. They have identified that in marketplaces where product uniqueness and technical expertise are no longer enough, it is they themselves, that make the difference i.e. their superior skills.

Next week, I will explore this subject a little further and give you a greater insight into the world of the “Top 5% Achievers”

Hot news this week is that the “Top Sales Experts” team are issuing a free quarterly E-book, containing some of our best work and we have imaginatively called it: “The Top 10 Sales Experts Share Their Top Articles” At least it will remind everyone that we can write as well as judge!! Volume One will be available from June 11th and you can download it here or on the Top 10 Sales Articles site.

The featured sales expert this week is Terri Roulette McCartney, an immensely talented and experienced sales coach - you can learn more about her here

That’s it for another week and am I happy to see the back of it? You betcha - so many delays and hold-ups everywhere I have turned - but next week is going to be a real humdinger (never spelt that word before)

As ever, have a great weekend and do come back on Monday. - JF 

Pick up a typical company annual report and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess and schedule, are used in pursuit of organisations that are efficient, productive and predictable. What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive and co-operative.

However, I believe we need to go beyond – we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives. We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.

For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.

The primary objective of a professional Sales Leader has to be:

“To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.”

 The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force,

- Do you understand their motivators – what is driving them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?

- Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?

- Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?

- Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?

- Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?

- Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?

Over at Leadership Turn this week, the topic is “inspirational leadership” - inspiring leader or uninspiring manager?

If you haven’t already done so, may I urge you to visit Top 10 Sales Articles where the panel have chosen a particulary good set of articles this week.

You should also know that this week’s featured expert is the extremely talented and hugely experienced Terri Roulette McCartney and you can visit her site here

That’s it until Friday - have a great week. JF

Since the key to differentiation is in forging closer links with clients, the role of Long Term Ally is a crucial one. Once the salesperson has earned the right, it is important to develop and maintain the relationship.

As the term suggests, acting as a Long Term Ally, involves maintaining contact with the client even when there is no immediate prospect for a sale. It also suggests that the salesperson needs to be committed to the long-term development of the relationship. Our research shows that top salespeople demonstrate this commitment by continuously looking for ways to:

• Build interpersonal trust
• Create and maintain a positive image of the sales organisation
• Inspire respect for their company
• Show genuine concern for their customers’ short and long-term interest
• Identify ways to strengthen the quality of their business relationship
• Help the customer meet needs within his or her organisation
• Deal with issues openly and honestly
• Deliver on promises
 
It is also crucial for the salesperson to ensure that the relationship between the organisations is mutually beneficial. In other words, it is essential to build and honour the expectation that reaching agreements will mean good business for both parties.

At the end of the day, taking a long-term approach proves more profitable since the customer will recognise that the salesperson is taking a committed interest and in so doing is giving honest and open advice. This inevitably encourages the customer to trust the salesperson and to view him or her as a colleague rather than an opponent

In Summary: Long Term Allies and Mutually Beneficial Agreements.

Supplier organisations must be willing to…… 

• Elicit feedback from customers regarding overall satisfaction with the products / services delivered.  
• Maintain regular contact with current and prospective customers 
• Alert customers to new developments in own organisation 
• Review the business relationship underlying each account on a regular basis 

Buyer organisation must be willing to……

• Keep suppliers “in the loop” regarding the company’s strategic direction and needs
• Value the record of service provided by supplier organisations above lower cost competitors
• Grant access and information about their customers to the supplier organisations

I am certain that virtually anybody who operates in a sales related field will have heard of the “Queen Of Cold Calling” my good friend and fellow “Top 10 Sales Articles” expert panellist, the dynamic and immensely successful Wendy Weiss.

She is the author of the new self-study programme, “The Miracle Appointment-Setting Script” and the best selling book, “Cold Calling for Women”.

Her site is packed with cold calling tips, cold calling scripts and information on telephone prospecting and appointment setting. But best of all, Wendy is having her annual “Birthday Sale” until midnight on May 31st (EST) I urge you to check it out.

For a real treat, I urge you to listen to Wendy in conversation with Clayton Shold of Salesopedia here - it really is a superb interview. 

Another week, another dollar and another set of exciting new initiatives preparing for launch – watch this space!

You know what comes next – sincerely, wherever you are in the world, have a great w/e.

JF

To fulfil the role of strategic orchestrator, the salesperson needs to be seen as the key person responsible for engineering the appropriate solution. This involves co-ordinating all of the information, resources and activities needed to support customers before, during and after the sale. It means enlisting support from specialist colleagues and hence the move away from the “lone ranger” approach.

According to our research, effective Strategic Orchestrators have mastered the following competencies:

• Knowledge of their own company’s structure
• Expertise in developing and managing a team
• Ability to manage priorities and performance
• Ability to co-ordinate delivery and service to customers
• Efficiency
• Flexibility

Customers of Strategic Orchestrators express a high level of confidence in the salesperson and his or her organisation:

This increased confidence can lead to faster buying decisions, increased repeat business and strengthened links between customer and supplier organisations. Working as Strategic Orchestrators, salespeople are also able to develop their organisation’s capacity for team selling.

On Friday, I discuss the characteristics of the third and final element in strategic selling – The Long Term Ally

I know many of you understand the incredible value of networking but maybe, just as many have not fully harnessed it’s powers: This week my leadership blog focuses on that very subject, so if it is an area where you think you could improve, please wander on over.

The featured “Top Sales Expert” this week on “Top 10 Sales Articles” is the delightful and hugely successful Joanne Black, who is one of the top exponents of networking – you can hear her thoughts in an interview with Clayton Shold of Salesopedia here.

Finally, if you are not already aware, we named the first “Top Sales Article Of The Month” on Sunday and it is a cracker. You can find it here.

More on Friday – hope you are having a great week!

Today, I am continuing on the theme of “Strategic Selling” and it is my view that a strategic salesperson needs to fulfil three basic roles, that of Business Consultant, Long Term Ally and Strategic Orchestrator.

By combining all three roles salespeople are more able to develop and maintain long-term relationships with clients. At the same time, organisations need to ensure that they provide their salespeople with the vital support systems and training that enable them to make the most of their knowledge and skills, so let’s begin by understanding what I mean by “Business Consultant”

Business Consultant:

Gone are the days in which a salesperson could simply walk into an office, establish a good rapport with the client, show he/she had thorough knowledge of their products and services and clinch the sale. Nowadays, the emphasis is on establishing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships and in order to achieve this, the salesperson needs to earn the right to continue discussions with his/her client. Before they can proceed to sell their products or services, the salesperson needs to reassure the client of their integrity, reliability and ability to understand and recommend the appropriate solution. They can do this by demonstrating;

• Up-to-date knowledge of business news and current affairs.

Best practices include - reading newspapers, magazines, journals, trade publications and other sources of business information; maintaining membership of appropriate professional organisations; acknowledging gaps in knowledge and taking steps to fill them; locating or developing databases with information on customers, their industries and their own customers.

• An in-depth understanding of the customer’s industry, company and strategies as well as an appreciation of “the big picture”.

Best practices include - gaining an understanding of the issues at all levels of the customer’s organisation including strategic, departmental and individual needs; seeking to understand the customer’s perceptions of market trends, company direction, plus potential product and service needs.

• A readiness to exchange information and ideas between the supplier and client organisation.

Best practices include - familiarising the customer with your own industry and companies; sharing useful business information even if it does not directly impact on the sales effort; demonstrating the cost-cutting or revenue producing benefits of your products and services.
 
• The ability to listen and absorb information.

Best practices include - refining the way you identify customer’s needs by asking the right questions and listening actively to customer comments; speaking at the listener’s level of knowledge; using stories and analogies effectively; asking for feedback on the clarity of your message. By demonstrating comprehensive knowledge, outstanding communication skills and the proper attitude, the salesperson earns the right to move beyond the role of supplier to that of a valued business consultant.

Next week, I will share with you how you can develop into an effective “Strategic Orchestrator” and “Long Term Ally”

There are many so called “Leadership Gurus” around, most of them self-styled but one who is passionate about his work and speaks a lot of sense is my friend Wally Adamchik.

As an Officer of Marines, Wally deployed throughout the world in training, peace-keeping, and combat operations. First, in a tank battalion and then, as the pilot of AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters.
He is now the President of FireStarter Speaking and Consulting and serves today as a consultant, speaker, and author. His new book,“NO YELLING-The Nine Secrets of Marine Corps Leadership” is getting rave reviews. I particularly enjoy his newsletters and I think you will too.

And don’t forget, if you are as passionate about leadership issues as I am, you can read my thoughts every day on Leadership Turn

Have a great weekend, wherever you are in the world………JF
 

Now that I am posting twice every week, before possibly moving to every day, you will notice two things: First of all, I will be using a weekly theme and secondly, the posts will be in smaller digestible chunks – ahhhhh, …. I hear your audible relief !

This week’s theme is strategic selling, a subject that I know something about.

In most industries to-day, a handful of ideal customers have become universal targets. Nearly every industrial salesperson dreams of calling on the CEO’s or managing directors of those top companies, which logically means that there are maybe 500 customers for a million sellers. With such intense competition, conventional approaches are not equal to the challenge. Salespeople need to develop strategies that distinguish their products, services and their organisations in the mind of the customer.

Making a sale has always involved an element of systematic planning but strategic selling means more than rehearsing product information and timing the close. Strategic selling begins with understanding your company’s strategy, vision, and distinctiveness and then selecting high profile customers.

The next step, logically, is anticipating each stage of the buying process, from analysing the competition to identifying the influencers and decision-makers and being switched in to the buyer’s political issues. In other words, there is a need for a comprehensive strategic profile and rigorous opportunity assessment process.
Most important, strategic selling means strategising from the customer’s point of view. Top achievers see strategic selling as a routine part of their work - not a final resort.

If you have yet to discover the innovative and very clever Kevin Dwyer, then I urge you to acquaint yourself with him. He produces a weekly newsletter called “Winds Of Change” and in this week’s edition is a section on “Trust” – I quote:

“One might expect that trust was a normal state of mind for most people until they had some experience with others. Statistics from the 1990’s - pre-9/11 - suggest otherwise.

A World Values Survey revealed the following picture of the percentage of people saying that other people can be trusted.”

You will find the league table fascinating, unless you are French!!

Until Friday… JF

Obtaining continual feedback against a set of established criteria is vital if an organisation is to retain its existing top clients and seek to improve its standing and the quality of its service levels to them.

There are at least seven benefits of regular feedback.

• Feedback reveals your customer’s current and future plans.
• Seeing your business from your customer’s point of view allows you to answer the question “would you do business with you?” - if not why not?
• Feedback allows you to tailor your service levels so that you enjoy maximum customer satisfaction at a minimum cost.
• If you don’t ask you’ll never know how you are doing until it’s too late! Feedback is magnified by the ‘ice berg factor’ making it more critical than it originally appears.
• Feedback can reveal what your competition are doing helping you to be a consistently strong contender.
• Gaining a reputation for wanting to hear feedback can actually make money for you.
 

How Often?

This will depend entirely on the importance of the account and revenue levels being achieved - or anticipated.

Assessing The Feedback You Receive:

If the feedback you have been receiving to-date has not been useful, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I ask enough questions?
• Do I ask the right questions?
• Do I communicate effectively about why I am asking the questions?
• Do I ask the right people?
• Do I know how to use the data I collect?
• Am I organised to respond to the information?
• Do I value and trust the information I receive?

Remember,The Account Review Process:

• Is a non-threatening meeting.
• It is a fact finding session not a sales event in the short term. But ……………….
• It is highly likely, that during this meeting you will uncover additional short, medium and long term opportunities.

Well, we finally gave up on BlogTalkRadio, unfortunately we were experiencing too many “technical problems” Therefore, as from next week, we will be using the more reliable podcast to conduct interviews and make announcements on Top 10 Sales Articles.

I have downloaded a trial version of some very “whizzy” software, which also allows me to record Skype conversations, so expect me to use this facility extensively and have some interesting interviews here too, in the coming weeks.

Talking of interviews, I recently provided David Bain of PurpleInternetMarketing with my thoughts on article writing and publishing. David will shortly be launching 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing’ and you can listen to an excerpt of the interview here

Another great interview I urge you to take in is Clayton Shold of Salesopedia in conversation with the immensely interesting and hugely experienced Joanne Black. You can listen in here.

Finally, the featured “Top Sales Expert” on Top 10 Sales Articles this week is Dave Kahle of the DaCo Corporation. Dave has a live one-one seminar for sales managers coming up on May 21st/22nd – full details here

In addition, you can find full details of his excellent Business to Business Sales Academy here

That’s just about it – don’t forget that from next week I will be posting twice every week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Was that a “whoopeeee” I heard in the distance?

As ever, wherever you are in the world, my best wishes and have a great weekend.

PS: Almost forgot - ahead of the launch of my own new leadership blog, I am blogging over at b5 to gain additional experience, do come over and leave me a comment:Leadership Turn