Business Development
February 20, 2008
Workopolis TV Interview on Cold Calling
The media likes cold calling. I got a call from Bruce Sellery of Workopolis TV a few months back and he asked me to give an interview on cold calling for his show. It aired last week on BNN, the Canadian equivalent to MSNBC, with approximately 4.2 million viewers per week.
The interview was conducted at the NASDAQ in New York City. This sounds glamorous, but like all TV interviews, I was stuffed in a tiny room, given an earpiece, and Bruce jumped into my head and asked me questions. I answered them to a camera, and that was that. Enjoy the interview!
January 17, 2008
Inside Sales with Outside Sales
A recent webinar attendee asked the following question: We just started an inside sales position within the last year. Do you have any recommendations on how to best utilize that position with our outside sales reps?
Keep the following in mind:
- Make sure they conduct themselves with strong ethics. No tricks. And if you see tricks, don't look the other way; let the person go.
- Do whatever you can to help them get good lists and targets.
- Use direct mail and email to supplement calling activities.
- Make sure they call with some offer of value. (And make sure there is value in that value proposition.)
- Be very clear on what you need. Inside sales folks can have one background and skill set and make $10 an hour, and another will have a very different skill set and background and make $100k. If you know what you need, you can find someone who fits the bill.
- Make sure expectations are clear for what they're supposed to do, measure activity and output regularly, and coach the team to do as well as they can with the calls themselves.
- Have frequent communication between the inside and outside teams so they know what the other is doing.
- Don't drop leads. (Seems like a simple comment, but it happens all the time.)
- Once the outside business developer has the initial meeting or contact, make sure you know what the lead nurturing process is going to be if there isn't an immediate need or sale.
- Realize that if your inside sales group is one person or small, any staffing changes will drastically alter your ability to produce.
- Don't be surprised if someone does really well and leaves, or if someone doesn't do well and you have to figure out what to do with them. Finding someone who's "just right" for your firm, pay level, culture, etc. is harder than most firms think it's going to be with inside sales.
Good luck...
March 28, 2007
Making That One Big Sale
Hi:
Wherever I go, my standards for work quality and quantity seem too HIGH.
I've mostly worked on the client side, but have some entrepreneurial and agency experience, in which my clients and managers have been impressed.
Don't be fooled by my degrees - -I have real marcom skills.
Is there a place for me somewhere?
Probably, but not here.
The Wellesley Hills Group is hiring! We have a few open positions, including a Marketing and Consulting Associate. The above is the complete cover letter (sans signature) of a recent applicant.
The Buyer: Wellesley Hills Group has a need, a budget and a timeframe, and we're looking to make a very important long-term financial and business commitment – hiring a new member of the team.
The Seller: Anyone who applies for the position.
Over-and-above the specific criteria for the position, we're looking for someone who:
- Fits our values. The person above does an OK job with straightforwardness, but not a particularly good job at commitment, like submitting a cover letter as required – what you see above was what we got. This person also doesn't do a particularly good job of commitment to success of others like doing any research on us and including it in the cover letter, such as it is.
- Can help our clients be more successful. I'm not so sure I want cryptic and flip emails such as this one headed out to my clients, or headed out to the world on behalf of my clients. Clients: if you're reading the blog, we're keeping people like this out. I promise.
- Goes the extra mile in research and preparedness. For this position we're not necessarily looking for someone with extensive experience. We need someone who works hard, thinks clearly, analyzes situations and problems well, and writes well. This applicant, and practically everyone else who applies, does zero homework on our company. We have articles, we have a blog, we have case studies, we have information on the company, and we have much more on our website. Similar to business development for professional services, too few people read. Too few people customize. Too few people make the extra effort. More should.
It's hard work like this that gives us the indication that you'd be willing to go this far for our clients. You have to care to work here. And you can show me that you care right from the get-go in the cover letter.
Back to the buyer / seller scenario. By posting this position, we as the buyer have basically put out an RFP. You can respond, and your response – if well crafted – will get you in the door. If you actually go the extra mile and follow up (gasp!) then you might even find yourself at the top of the heap.
Since you're the seller, you may have been told by a career expert of your career counseling office that you need a unique point of differentiation (see #4) to make the sale (i.e. land the job). I'm sure this person was trying to stand out. And they did. They made it to the blog, didn't they?
You don't need differentiation per se, you just need to be very good. So few people are.
In our What's Working in Lead Generation benchmark report on RainToday.com, we asked over 700 buyers of professional services what types of content are most effective for lead generation. The top most effective content type is "Content 100% focused on individual prospect's specific situation." Meaning, if you do your homework and you customize your marketing communication tactics (like your cover letter and resume) to the prospect's specific situation (like the needs of the job and the company), then they'll work better.
The candidates that customize their applications specifically for us demonstrate passion, commitment, and an overall desire to work with a company with a culture and values such as ours. Research and customization demonstrate good marketing and lead generation instincts – qualities which we need to help our clients succeed.
If you're applying for a position here at the Wellesley Hills Group, feel free to follow the advice in this blog post. If you read the post, you have an advantage! If you didn't, you probably didn't do enough homework to get the job anyway.
March 19, 2007
Hello, I'm Lame
I'm a big fan of selling, and I truly enjoy speaking with sales people when they call me. The enjoyment isn't always long-lived, though. Perhaps because I study selling somewhat academically, I'm constantly disappointed with the lack of understanding from the sellers regarding how to connect with buyers on the phone.
One way sellers could make better connections with me is to have something worthwhile to tell me when they call. I got a call from a sales representative who I've been working with for quite some time. My company has a particular need and we might purchase something from this sales reps' company. We're just not sure when.
The call went something like this:
Sales rep: Hi Mike, it's John Smith calling from ABC Company.
Me: Hi John. How goes it?
Sales rep: Going pretty well. And you?
Me: Just ducky, thanks.
Sales rep: I'm just calling to follow up.
Me with my "silent" voice: Ugh. Can't you do any better than that?
Me with my "out loud" voice: Thanks for calling, John. We're still in the same place as before. I'll get back to you when we've gotten further down the path of making a decision.
Sales rep: Great. Looking forward to speaking with you then.
In her well written and practical book Selling to Big Companies (click on link to download free chapters), Jill Konrath says in Chapter 19 Keeping the Campaign Alive, "To avoid sounding pathetic on follow-up calls, don't ever say something lame like, "I'm just checking in." These calls are as important as your initial one and require just as much planning."
I couldn't agree more. If you're going to call someone to "just follow up"...don't. Call to offer some insight on new research you're company just completed. Call to offer a discussion with one of your clients who just succeed in conquering the issue that this prospect is facing. Call to see if you can take them out for coffee when you're in town next week. Call to see if the appointment of a new president at their company is going to affect what they need and offer to speak to them.
But don't call to "check in." As Jill says, it's lame.
February 27, 2007
How Swell Lookers Build Rapport
Ma Kelly needed to clear her son's name. Johnny didn't do it, but the cops thought he did so it didn't matter. Ma put on her detective shoes and went to work.
Turns out that the guy that did it wasn't careful. Mary Margaret Katherine Dineen was cleaning up in the building when she saw what really happened. But she wasn't sayin' nothin'. If you want to stay safe on the streets of the Lower East Side, you don't say nothin'.
Ma went to go visit her.
Ma Kelly: Look, I need your help. I need to know who did it.
Mary Margaret Katherine Dineen: Why should I help you. We ain't got nothin' in common.
Ma: We got a lot in common, you and I.
Mary: Like what?
Ma: Well, we both scrub floors for a living, we're both swell lookers, and neither one of us is Chinese.
Mary: Oh, well in that case, come on in...
Some time ago I observed an initial sales call between a professional services provider and a new prospect. The conversation went from handshake to brass tacks, with no pleasantries, no catching up, no connection making. It didn't go particularly well.
A certain subset of people (who often choose to work in professional services) simply feel uncomfortable having conversations like normal people. Yet, when you make connections with people, you can make a lot more progress getting done whatever you are trying to get done than if you work and talk like a robot. To paraphrase The Shining, "All work and no normal conversation makes Jack a dull boy."
Much as you might like to get straight to brass tacks, rapport is important in selling professional services, and in delivering professional services.
Why do you think so many professional service providers skip the important rapport generation part of building relationships and selling? If they didn't they'd probably make more progress. It worked for Ma Kelly...it'll work for you.
P.S. Johnny's nemesis Danny Vermin did it in an attempt to usurp Johnny's claim to the leadership of the Jocko Dundee gang.
January 29, 2007
Trust-Based Selling
I spent some time this weekend with Trust-Based Selling, a book written by Charlie Green from Trusted Advisor Associates. I actually found something new and worthwhile! As the publisher of RainToday.com, people send me books on marketing and selling all the time for me to review.
Sometimes I read them, rarely do I review them (and never on RainToday...we don't do book reviews), and almost never do I find something truly worthwhile. In a rare turn of events, this time I did. In the best appendix to a book that I've seen in years, Charlie has inserted a "compilation of lists." Here's one of them:
Why Client Focus is Critical (Chapter 4)
- Client focus improves problem definition for customers who deal in complex problems.
- Client focus allows constant learning on the part of the seller who can't know all the answers.
- Customers won't let you earn the right to offer solutions until they feel you've understood their situation – and that comes about from truly paying attention.
- True client focus works competitively – because few people really practice it.
- Customer focus encourages the customer to share more, open up, and allow more access.
- Client focus leads to collaboration by the client.
- Customer focus fosters acceptance of recommendations.
- An outsider's perspective often brings new insights that help all involved.
- Focusing on another enriches our own lives.
Other lists in the Compilation of Lists:
- 22 Benefits of Trust-based Relationships for Buyers
- Reasons Why We Resist Collaboration with Customers
- 23 Ways to Get and Stay Client-Focused
- A Beginning List of Curiosity Questions
- Reasons to Invite Customers To Your Meetings
- Eight Things Not to Do When Facing Formalized Buying Processes
For these lists alone, I'd recommend this book.
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