Salespeople have questions. Jeffrey has answers.

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I get a ton of emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve their sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life, and (most important) your sales thought process right now.

Jeffrey, A company that installs gutter guards recently lost my business. I was solicited by their sales team twice. The second time I was in the market to buy. But their technique is different. They require both the husband and wife be home during their estimate. I do understand why they want both to be there (so they can eliminate any obstacles). However, my wife doesn’t care, nor does she want any involvement in these type of decisions. I told them if they require this, I will take my business elsewhere. They simply stated, “Thank you,” and hung up. They lost the sale, but I now have new gutter guards that were installed by another company. What is your take on this? Mike

Mike, Old-world salespeople are gonna die. In sales, it’s called a one-legged sale when only one of the two deciders is in the room. Companies don’t want to “waste their time” on someone who “can’t decide without talking to their spouse” because the objection they use is, “I’m going to talk this over with my…” The bottom line is that company is rude, stupid, and will lose people (just like they lost you).

First of all, men don’t decide anything, anyway! Only women decide. The woman will approve all decisions in any household. Don’t take my word for it, ask any husband.

HERE’S THE SECRET: If you’re in the business of sales, you’re also in the service business, you’re also in the people business, and you’re also in the friendly business. Anyone says, “I’m not going to give my sales presentation unless both decision makers are in the room,” doesn’t fully understand that concept. But that’s the bad news for them. The good news is you can call their competition and coach them on what to do correctly. Somebody obviously did. Best regards, Jeffrey

Dear Jeffrey, My company delivers mobile dictation and transcription service to field workers in IT and health care, saving these people time in reporting. Lately I have been promoting the service to sales professionals. I have written several 30-second commercials for this but keep running into all sorts of objections. Salespeople are difficult prospects and I’m constantly trying to find the right pitch. How would you approach the market of sales professionals and sales management? Do I need two different approaches? Gerhard

Gerhard, No. You need one approach. Every salesperson who has a CRM – SalesForce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, whatever it is – is required to put stuff into their computer on an everyday basis for every sales call they make and there’s one universal truth about it: they all can’t stand it.

But if you could get them to record something on their laptop immediately, like a two minute, this goes here, this goes here, and you could actually do their CRM entering for them… Oh baby! Their boss would buy it, they would buy it, their CEO would buy it, and their spouse would buy it. Everybody would buy it and they would pay double.

The problem is you’re trying to sell your service instead of giving them an answer that they’re looking for. Big mistake. Don’t tell me what you’ve got. Sell me what I perceive that I need and then I will buy. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, I’m an independent commercial real estate lender and commercial real estate mortgage broker. I’m trying to link up with referral sources such as CPAs, commercial realtors, financial planners, etc. Do you have suggestions for a thought provoking question or line of conversation to help me connect with these folks and open the door to more meaningful dialogue? Dennis

Dennis, Dude, you’re providing them with money. You’re helping them get deals done. Why don’t you ask them questions like, “What do you think about when your deal doesn’t go through? Do you think that there’s another alternative way?” and then follow with, “My name’s Jeffrey, and I would love to be your secondary source for the deals that don’t make it. If I can prove myself on a couple of them, maybe I can earn my way to becoming your primary source. Fair enough?”

All the people you’re talking to in the real estate business only want to get a deal done. That is their primary objective. It doesn’t matter what the interest rate is. It doesn’t matter where they get the funding from. They only want to get the deal done. If you can be a person who can help them get the deal done, they will use you. Best regards, Jeffrey

Jeffrey, I am a devoted reader of your weekly email magazine and a fellow Phillies fan. I’m not a salesperson by title, but as GM turned entrepreneur, selling is a vital skill, and your insightful information is greatly appreciated, not to mention it just makes sense. My strengths are more on the production and supply side, so I was wondering if you had any advice on how to find qualified salespeople in specific industries. I have several products that I’d like to develop sales channels for, but I’m not sure where to begin effectively. Rob, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Rob, Qualified salespeople are already working someplace else. You must attract them with reputation, range of salary and incentives, and social proof that you’re great. Look for people in related industries or directly at your competition. Ask your vendors. Ask your customers who they love to buy from. Search LinkedIn by keyword to see who may be “looking for career offers.” Go Phillies! Jeffrey

Jeffrey, My boss and I have drafted emails to different types of industries specifying how they can make money and profit from our service. The plan is to send out these brief descriptions through email and see who gets back to us. After reading almost all of your material, I know you don’t believe in cold calling, but in this case is it better to email the companies or call them on the phone? Ryan

Ryan, The answer is neither. What you need to be doing is blogging information about these companies that they would consider valuable. You have an email magazine. You post something on Twitter. And with their search for keywords about their own stuff, they will find you. If you only send out information about yourself… “We have this great service and it’s the greatest thing in the whole wide world” …delete, delete, delete! But if you put value messages out that they might be able to find, it will be delight, delight, delight! Best regards, Jeffrey

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The New World of the Global Consumer

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A customer-centric brand is clearly a priority today for most organizations. But how can management achieve that if they can’t believe what customers tell their market researchers?

The new global consumer appears to be a bundle of contradictions who keeps secrets from marketers and sometimes lies to us. A recent Y&R study, Secrets & Lies, the Hidden Side of the Global Consumer found that people appear to be hiding some of their most important desires and brand perceptions. The study asked about consumer personal values and their liking of brands in two ways:

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About the Author

Chip Walker is Executive Vice President, Brand Planning at Young & Rubicam Advertising, where he helps clients with brand strategy and consumer understanding as well as heading thought leadership initiatives for the Agency.

What are you thinking? Here are a few of my thoughts!

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The minute I get a thought, I capture it. For the past year or so, I’ve been texting myself through voice dictation. It works. It’s the same way I am writing this column. Voice to text. It works.

I’m about to show you, and share with you, some of those random thoughts. They are in no particular order, and as I paste them into this word document I’m reading them aloud and altering them. (That’s how I edit.) I’m reading them and expanding them on the spot so they become even more valuable and applicable to a salesperson. You.

ON QUESTIONS
When someone asks you a question, ask yourself, “Why are they asking this, and what does this mean in terms of this person moving toward a purchase?”

There’s a motive behind every question a prospect asks. And that motive is the sales driver. In reality they’re thinking to themselves, if this function works, I can increase my sales. That’s the motive, not the function.

For example, they may ask you, “Can this function take place?” If you answer, “Yes,” then you’ve gone right past sale. If you answer yes and then ask, “What will this function lead to?” or “What makes this function important to you?” you will then uncover the real buying motive. In sales this is known as the hot button. The reality is, it’s your money.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

  • In sales, the largest chasm is the difference between knowing and doing. You already know everything; the problem is you’re not doing it.
  • How many of you cannot afford to buy what it is you are selling? And how does that affect your belief system? And how does thataffect your passion to close the sale?
  • Whoever said, “Thoughts are things,” only had it partially correct. The better statement is, “Thoughts become things when plans are made, belief is strong, and action is taken.”
  • In a game of ‘sales chess’ you have to be thinking at least two moves ahead or you’ll likely lose your queen.

WHAT DO THEY REALLY WANT?
Your customer doesn’t want to buy a ball bearing. They want to keep their plant producing. Customers want outcome, not product. Your customer does not want a can of paint, brushes, and rollers. Your customer wants a beautiful room or a updated look to the exterior of their home. Sell OUTCOME, not product.

BE SPECIFIC.
Is your presentation full of generalizations or customization? If you only generalize for the enterprise and generalize about the business, you will lose. But if you customize for your customer, or their customer, they can visualize what’s in it for THEM, and they will buy.

SHOW ME THE MONEY, NOT THE PERCENTAGE
Don’t give me a percentage. Give me a dollar amount. EXAMPLE: You say, “We lost 7% of our customers this year.” Really? HOW MUCH IS THAT IN DOLLARS? That will make you mad. Large companies refer to this as “churn.” I define churn as management’s inability to keep customers loyal. And these same companies who call it churn only present it as a percentage. Our churn rate is 3.2%. Why doesn’t management have the intestinal fortitude to present that as a dollar amount? Answer: They don’t want anyone to know, and it places the burden on salespeople to replace the 3.2% in order to get to last year’s numbers. Not good.

WHAT’S THE REAL CHALLENGE WITH CRM?
Customer relationship management is the most purchased, least-used, and least-adopted software in the history of computers. Why? The salesperson looks at it as management’s tool for accountability. CRM adoption rates would triple if salespeople viewed it as something that could help them make a sale.

If you have CRM software for your sales and service people, and you have a 72% adoption rate, that means 28% of your sales team, and/or your service team, did NOT adopt it, and most likely hate it. I feel reasonably certain that of the 72% that did adopt it, a high percentage of them look at it as something they ‘had to do’ rather than something that would help them.

ON IMAGINATION AND WOW!
Salespeople are missing huge opportunities for engagement and opportunities to gain response from customers by not being imaginative or creative in their communications.

  • Show me a sales script, and I’ll show you a boring message.
  • Show me a slide deck prepared by marketing, and I’ll show you a boring message.
  • Show me an email prepared by a salesperson, and I’ll show you a boring message.

Where’s the value? Show me the value. Where’s the WOW? Show me the WOW! If you show me WOW and value, I will respond, I will engage, I will connect, and I will buy.

Those are my thoughts and ideas of the moment. All captured the second they occurred to me. Hope they get you thinking, taking action, and capturing yours.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

To bid or not to bid? That is the question.

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“They get bids for everything and always take the lowest bid.”
“They send out an RFP and I can never speak to the decision maker.”
“We’re becoming a commodity. All they do is take the lowest bid.”
“It’s the government. They have to take the lowest bid.”

Many companies have become smart buyers, but many have become too smart. They’ve refined the buying process so far that they have precluded the words ‘quality’ and ‘value’ from the buying process AND they have taken the words productivity, ease of use, and morale out of the delivery process.

The typical request for proposal (RFP) has a bunch of standards about what has to be offered by the vendor, but far too little (or nothing) about what happens after the company takes ownership. They have the ‘specs’ in the RFP, but not the details of use, value, productivity, or morale.

The major flaw with the RFP process is that the people conducting the bidding are not the people who use the product or service once the bidding is complete. Nor, for the most part, do they care.

The main goal of bidding is NOT get the best product. The main goal of bidding is get the cheapest price. And oftentimes that precludes the best product. It also lowers the profit of the company doing the bidding. Long-term, this is not good for the survival of a company.

REALITY: “The customer took the lowest bid” is as bogus as “the dog ate my homework.” The fact is you let the customer control the selling/buying process. Not good.
REALITY: If you follow the customer’s RFP requirements you will lose even if you win. If you win, it’s likely you did at a severe reduction of price and loss of profit. Not good.

That’s the bad news. Let me give you the good news, and the sales news…

There are several strategies you can employ to get around the bidding process, or legally and ethically change the bidding process. Here are some ideas you can begin to use immediately:

1. Ask for a clause to be put into the RFP that states all claims must be backed up with customer testimonial videos as proof. Any procurement department should be happy to add this clause into their bidding process. It will assure them that everything being claimed will come to pass. This will also help in establishing the reality of installation, ease-of-use, and long-term serviceability. PROVE IT TO WIN IT.
2. Request that the people who actually use the product or service you’re selling be more involved in the selection process. Especially as it relates to their actual experience and their projected needs. This is not as difficult as it sounds, especially if you can apply internal pressure to senior management where your product will be used. Keep in mind that procurement and purchasing don’t actually use what they purchase. They just buy. They’re relying on the person or people who made the INTERNAL request, and will often get their input before making a final decision.
3. Make an appointment with the CFO. He or she is most interested in making a profit, not just saving a dollar. Make your case against taking the lowest price and in favor of making a profit. RULE OF SALE: The higher you go to make your presentation, the easier the sale becomes.
4. Have an active social media presence that is easily findable, so your reputation is both visible and impressive. The customer will check you out BEFORE you get there, and may use it as part of the decision-making process.
4.5 GAIN BETTER INSIGHT TO THE PURCHASE OF YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. Talk to the person who MAKES the budget, not the person who spends it. Make service response time a mandatory part of the bid. Talk to those responsible for what happens AFTER purchase, not the people buying it. Make certain that third-party proof, in video, is a major part of your proposal.

CAUTION: The bidding process is often tightly controlled by those who execute it. The only people likely to influence change of modification are C-level executives. Get with them as part of your normal selling process.

NOTE WELL: Every company, even the government, has ‘preferred vendors.’ People who have achieved a ‘higher than equal’ status. Become one of them.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Continuum and the Marketplace

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In consumer business strategy – from branding to product development – addressing the emotional human needs continuum is crucial to success. Businesses that seek to create superior product/service experiences need to learn how to empathize with consumers’ needs.

Years ago, our firm conducted research at Universal Studios Florida and Walt Disney World, Orlando. At the time, Universal was searching for ways to distinguish itself from its giant competitor. Consumer deep-dive research with 14 families provided a participant mix representing the park visitor population. We followed these families observing their moods and behaviors, and discussed their impressions as they experienced the parks to determine what was really at play during a family vacation.

We take vacations to escape daily life and to provide children new experiences. Vacations satisfy our need for pleasure in an ever accelerating culture. So what happens when we escape and the work piles in our inbox? In the context of emotional needs, a theme park can mean more to its patrons than they can articulate. It’s not simply about the fun, but rather the function of the fun for the family’s growth.

One might think that the two parks are locked in a win-lose competition for Sunshine State vacationers, but that’s not necessarily true. Many families visit both parks. At one time the parks offered discernibly different atmospheres. One interview subject put it: “Disney is like sitting by a stream. Universal is like going rock climbing. Both are enjoyable, both are nature, but with one you’ve got more of that nervous adrenaline rush.”

Our researchers spent days observing how this participant’s analogy was on the money. The polarity of experiences is perhaps why some vacationers visit both parks. At the time, Universal and Disney mirrored the needs continuum. However, this has changed. They aren’t merely high-end amusement resorts that offer different thrills for families. They help families satisfy psychological needs for their children.

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About the Author

Mark Ingwer is a business psychologist and the founding partner of Insight Consulting Group, a global marketing and strategy consultancy specializing in consumer and business insights. He has over 25 years experience applying his unique blend of psychology, marketing, and business acumen to helping companies optimize their brand and marketing strategy based on an in-depth understanding of their customers. He has worked with a diverse range of companies across numerous industries, with a special focus on consumer packaged goods, healthcare, and advertising. Mark is a frequent speaker and media source, and has been featured in publications such as Business Week, New York Times, Crain’s New York, Brandweek, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Admap, Bloomberg Markets, Marketing News, and Advertising Age.