Sales Strategy

When I did my first draft of this blog and sent it to the person who checks it for mistakes, she didn’t seem to be able to read it all the way through. I ascertained from this that the blog was just a little boring and so I revamped it with my favorite subject “Fishing”.

Strategy means a lot of different things for different people in different situations. Today I’m going to discuss strategy as it refers to big ticket, long sales cycles, complex sales, but first I would like to talk about fishing strategies. You might not think that fishing requires a strategy but I would beg to differ.

You need to:
1. Decide what type of fish you are going to fish for. (In Sales this relates to defining your target market.)
2. Decide where you are going to fish. (Define your territory)
3. Decide what you are going to fish with. Are you going to use live bait or artificial? If you decided to use artificial bait, what type are you going to use and how are you going to display it to the fish?
4. Determine how deep you are going to fish?
5. Determine if you are going to troll?  If you decided to troll, how fast and deep are you going to troll?
6. Determine what kind of fishing poles you are going to use?

All of these decisions are very important and interrelated if you expect to catch fish. If your focus is just to relax then you could just put a hook in the water and hope that a fish runs into the hook. Trying to sell without a strategy is like fishing with a hook in the middle of the lake with nothing on the hook or like an 80 year-old-friend of mind says “fishin’ on credit”.

When it comes to complex sales, I like to break down strategy into 4 different types: Direct, Indirect, Delay and Divisional. Many sales methodologies use different terms for these four strategies but they are very similar when you drill down into each strategy type. While I think it is important to understand what these four strategies mean, I think it is just as important to execute your strategy to the best of your ability. I have seen a few unsuccessful sales people who were good at developing the strategy and poor at execution but I have seen many more unsuccessful sales people who just didn’t have a strategy. Keep in mind that there is no silver bullet in sales and a sales strategy isn’t the silver bullet. In fishing you are always being offered the magic bait but as someone who has purchased many magic baits, there is no magic bait. Being successful at complex sales is a combination of Strategy, Tactics, Product Knowledge, Client Knowledge, Politics, Identifying Pain, Establishing Value and Execution.
Four strategy types:

1. Direct Strategy: This is the strategy that most sales people use even when they don’t think about strategy. You should only use a direct strategy if you have an overwhelming competitive advantage. This includes both a product advantage and a relationship advantage. If you have this overwhelming advantage, you want push straight ahead and close it as soon as possible before the competition has a chance to catch up or change the rules.
If the fish are biting where you are and you have the right bait, you want to catch as many fish as fast as you can before the fish stop biting.

2. Indirect Strategy: If you don’t have an overwhelming competitive advantage then you need to change the buying criteria to your advantage. Many sales methodologies suggest that you do this at the 11th hour so that the competition doesn’t have time to react. While I somewhat agree with this, I must caution you that if you do this too late, the deal may already be done. Timing is important and I would suggest that you have to decide when is the best time to change the buying criteria based on your customers’ situation.

An example of an indirect strategy in my world: many potential clients come to us wanting to purchase a CRM product to improve the efficiency of their sales team by managing their contacts, activities and forecast. We would normally use an indirect strategy and try to change the buying criteria to focusing on making the sales team more effective. If we can get the customer to make this the buying criteria, then we will win the business because that is what Salesnet is all about.

The fishing analogy here is if you don’t have the right bait or if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you may have to change the bait you are using and how you are presenting it to force the fish to bite. You may even have to move to a different location.

3. Delay Strategy: This is where you can’t win the business now but you could win this business if the project were delayed. For example: if you have a new product coming out in six months that would give you a competitive advantage but today you would likely lose, you may want to try a delay strategy.

If the fish are biting but just not on something you have to fish with, you may want to delay your fishing until you can get the right bait.

4. Divisional Strategy: This is where you know you can’t win the whole project but you could win part of the business. Sometimes this means taking on a partner to take part of the project. This is also the strategy to use if you decide to go after a small division inside a larger company. You know it is unlikely that you can get the larger companies business, so you get your foot in the door with a small division and work up from there.

If you don’t have the right bait or tackle to fish for striped bass today but you do have the right bait and tackle to fish for largemouth bass, then maybe you should just try to catch the largemouth bass and leave the striped bass for another day.

We could spend much more time on each of these strategies but as this is a blog and not a training session, I would just like to say that if you’re in complex sales and you haven’t thought about strategy, you are at risk of losing to someone who has.

Know Your Product

My inspiration for this week’s blog comes from a trip to a plant nursery. Last week during a driving rain storm, I decided I needed to drive an hour each way to go to my favorite nursery to buy some fruit trees. I could have purchased these at a number of local places or I could have purchased them over the web. So why did I drive 2 hours to buy these trees? Well it was because I needed to find someone who could help me make the right decisions as to what type and variety of trees would work best for where I am going to plant them. So I went to this nursery and received a lot of consulting around what I should purchase and how I should plant them, fertilize, and trim them. While the sales person was ok at doing the selling, he was excellent at the consulting. This trip reminded me as to how important it is for a sales person to know their products and services, and to act as a consultant for the customer. It is not enough to just be friendly and ask all the right questions. The customer should look to you the sales person as the expert.

Even though most of the sales training I have delivered over the last 20+ years has been about strategy, politics, pain, value, and so on; product knowledge is also a must to excel in sales. I have always had a strong technical background and a very good knowledge of any product that I have sold. I have always used this as one of my competitive advantages along with the more strategic items like strategy and value propositions. It is true that in many cases the sales person’s product knowledge is not a must but, it sure is an advantage. If you are truly going to be a consultative sales person you have to know everything there is to know about your product. Of course you also have to know about the customers business, industry, and competition. Tactical sales skills are also important but to really be outstanding in sales you have to have three things (Business Knowledge, Sales Knowledge, and Product Knowledge). It really is like a three legged stool. You can sit on the stool if it only has two legs but you have to be extra careful and someone can easily knock you off. Make sure you have all three legs for your selling. Good Selling

Mobile CRM from a Sales Point of View:

Mobile CRM, would it help me and my team sale? As I think about how valuable my CRM product running on my cell phone would be, the first things that come to mind are the barriers. Will I be able to see and manage the massive amounts of data in my CRM on a cell phone screen? Will the data be secure? Will it be fast enough to be useful especially outside of my 3G area? Will I have to sync the data and if so, how long will it take? Will it work when I change phones? What amount of IT support will be needed to support my mobile CRM?

Then I think about all the value that it could bring. Since I started selling over 25 years ago I have never really taken a vacation that I didn’t do some work and where I wasn’t reachable. In fact almost all my vacations were somehow connected to work. My wife has a picture of us and the kids at the Atlanta Olympics and sure enough I have a cell phone in my ear. She has pictures like this from all over the world. So, how would the value of Mobile CRM be better than just having the cell phone? Well if I had access via the phone to my CRM, I could check and update the forecast, check on how opportunities are proceeding before I call the sales person to discuss it, look up customers and review the history of an opportunity before I call the customer, and so on and so on. I could do all of this without having to get out my laptop and trying to find a place to connect. I could do it from the car, the restaurant, the hotel room, and yes even from the Olympics. There is no question that having mobile CRM would be very valuable to sales teams.

So let’s talk about the issues. Small Screen / Massive Amounts of Data: I am in my mid 50’s so seeing a little screen is a challenge but with the help of reading glasses it is manageable. Also the screen technology for mobile devices keeps improving and in most cases they are also getting larger. I currently use an iPhone but most of the people in our office use Blackberries. With the new iPad, I guess you could solve the size issue but it doesn’t have the phone capability and it is a little big to put in your pocket. The real issue is the design of the interface with the data. CRM products have massive amounts of data. One way to help solve this issue is to limit the amount of data on the phone but as soon as you do this you limit the value that it provides. Another way is to have good search capabilities and well designed screen functions.

I have recently been playing with the beta of the Salesnet Mobile CRM product and am very impressed at how easy it was to use and how the data is arranged to make it very effective. I can’t wait until this product is released. I have also looked at several Mobile CRM products that just have way too much data on the screen and have limited search ability which makes it hard to use these products.

The security of the data will always be an issue. What if the phone is lost, will the data be assessable by whoever finds it? Many CRM products contain very sensitive data not only about forecast and strategy but about the customer. If you are working in the health care industry you have to worry about HIPPA regulations. If you have data such as social security numbers or other personal data you have a responsibility to your customers to protect that data. I’m a fan of not having the data reside on the phone. The use of browser based mobile CRM is a reality today with the coverage and speeds of mobile networks. This is not the perfect answer because there are places where you can’t get a good connection with your phone but, it not only solves the security issue but it also solves the dreaded syncing issues.

The browser based mobile CRM also solves the multiple phone support and the need for IT support. The bottom line is I’m all for mobile CRM and am looking forward to where it goes in the future. I believe that it is now feasible to have a standalone mobile CRM package that is only accessed by mobile devices. Until next time good selling.

The P’s Of Selling

Since P words tend to be positive, many people have used P words in training material with great success. At the risk of repeating some of what many of you may have already heard, I thought I would do a little blog about my P’s for Selling.
Perspiration – I have never seen a successful salesperson who didn’t work hard. You may not have the best product, or be smarter than your competition, or be better looking, or even have the best personality but you can work harder than your competition. Hard work doesn’t insure success but it can make up for many of your companies or your products short comings.
Persistence – I wouldn’t say you should never give up on a sale. Sometime you are better off to stop chasing business you can’t win and focus on the business you can win. Too many times to count, after months of calling a customer and leaving messages without a response, the customer has called me back and thanked me for my persistence. Being persistent also means being persistent with your efforts and your message. Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. Your message should also be persistent. Know who you are and what the value you bring to the customer is and stick to your message. You can adjust your message based on feedback from the customer but if your message keeps changing then your customer will be confused and a confused customer most likely won’t buy from you.
Positive – As a sales manager, I have been on sales calls where the sales person is so beaten down by internal issues inside the company that they come off as negative or not believable. If you don’t believe in your product or company then you are working for the wrong company. Believe me, a sharp client can see the look in your eyes if you lose faith in your company or in your product and if you have lost faith they aren’t going to buy from you. With that in mind, I do believe there is a time to do what I call “going negative” but that is a subject for another day.
Pain – Much is made about finding out about what the customer’s pains are. I am a true believer in uncovering the pain and mapping that to your solution. Keep in mind that there are three types of pain: Latent Pain, Pain Felt, and Pain Solution Vision. Each type of pain has its advantages and disadvantages. This would also be a good subject for another blog.
Punctuality – My wife and children say that I am a fanatic about being on time. This is true in every part of my life. I’m not only almost always on time; I’m almost always way early. I think this is one of the keys to my success in sales. If I have a meeting at a customer site, I try to arrive at least 15 to 30 minutes early. That way if I get lost or if there is bad traffic, I still arrive on time. If I get to the site early, I can spend the extra time going over my plan for the meeting and making sure I’m calmed down from my trip. If I’m flying in for a meeting the night before, I will always take a drive to the customer site the night before to make sure I know where it is and about how long it will take to get there. These days most of my meetings are via webinars. As you may have guessed, I always show up at least 5 minutes before the meeting is scheduled to start. This obsession with being early also relates to items I’m to deliver to the customer. If I say I’m going to deliver a proposal on Friday, I do everything I can to deliver it on Thursday. Always, “Under Promise and Over Deliver”. The negative part of this obsession is that I tend to drive people crazy with this desire to be early for everything. I would like to say that as I have gotten older that I have mellowed in this area but that would be a lie. Just ask my kids.
Personality – If you don’t have a good personality you probably aren’t in sales or you won’t be for long. With that said, you don’t have to have a great personality to be successful in sales. You can overcome your short comings in this area by making sure you focus on the customer. Ask questions, listen, and add value to the conversation. Keep in mind that most people like to talk about their stuff not your stuff. Get interested in their business and in them, and you will have no problems getting along with your customers. While relationship selling isn’t as important as it use to be, it is still very important. It is also much harder to develop a relationship if you do all your selling over the phone but building the relationship is still a must, it is just harder to accomplish.
Value Proposition – I know this is cheating a little bit on the P theme but, I think that understanding your value proposition and how it relates to the customer is the most important part of sales. Our value proposition at Salesnet is: “Based on the extensive knowledge of sales process and CRM technology. Salesnet has the ability to improve your company’s sales effectiveness with our patented sales process work flow engine. At Salesnet we will help you develop and drive your best practices and improve your ability to forecast accurately. ” Your value proposition can be different for different industries and can be refined as you work with a customer to become a much more detailed value proposition of the value you will bring to that particular customer.
Until next time, Remember “Success is 99% you and 1% the rest of the world.” Scott Farmer