Articulate Why You Started The Business During Sales Onboarding

Posted on May 7, 2012 by in Sales Onboarding

So often when training new sales people, I think managers focus on the “What” (e.g., “This is what our product does”) rather than the “Why” (This is why we do what we do”).

Explain the WhyTo be clear, I think there is great value in teaching about the What because this is where they learn product features and how they map to customer benefits, however I do think that the Why offers a great bit of sales value.  For example – Why did you build your product or service?

  • Did your company see an opportunity to provide a more flexible, cloud-based alternative which promised quicker speed to market than that of your competitors?
  • Did your company feel as though a specific market segment was being ignored, and set out to provide a verticalized solution for companies in a specific vertical?

Tell your corporate story to help reps better understand why you do what you do.  Our story at Pardot, which is relayed to every rep on their first day with the company:

One of Pardot’s founders, David Cummings had also founded a content management company called Hannon Hill, which focused on providing CMS to higher education institutions.  Some challenges with selling CMS:

  • Length of Sales Cycle – Most organizations already utilize a platform to manage website content, so selling this technology requires that the rep be in contact as the contract is coming up for renewal.  Additionally, most governmental organizations like universities require a competitive procurement process that includes a Request For Proposal (RFP), “shortlist” demos and Best And Final Offers (BAFO).  These 2 factors make the sales process quite long.
  • Complexity of the Sale – CMS is generally managed by IT, however it’s users range from the webmaster (for sitewide changes) to marketing contacts in a number of departments.  The complexity of this sale cannot be understated, since the technical champion generally is not the end user

At the time, David was aware of marketing automation platforms, however all of the tools at this time were oriented toward the enterprise rather than SMBs, and this orientation led to enterprise-level price points, complexity and slow speed of deployment.  

David and his co-founder Adam Blitzer saw a market opportunity to provide marketing automation to mid-market organizations like Hannon Hill, and set out to provide what we deem “No Hassle Marketing Automation” which makes it easy for SMBs to adopt this powerful technology.  

Do your reps understand why you do what you do?  Tell your corporate story during new rep orientation and it may help crystalize the true benefits of your technology in the reps mind.

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A Scientific Model Of Sales Rep Evaluation

Posted on April 16, 2012 by in Rep Evaluation

False starts in Sales hiring are one of the most costly mistakes that an organization can make.  The costs are not just financial – the amount of time invested in training is high, and you generally don’t identify that the rep was a bad start for at least a couple of quarters.

In order to lower the risk of a false start, Pardot Sales utilizes a scientific and multi-disciplinary hiring model.

Stage 1 - Group Interview – Since reps are good at selling (e.g., they can fool you into thinking that they are an A player when they are not), it’s important to have a number of sales stakeholders involved in the initial interview.  During this time, our reps are equipped with questions that span a number of functional categories, including (but not limited to):  Fit with Corporate Values, Preparedness for the Interview, Markers of Being Coachable, and a Documented History of Success.

Stage 2 - Rating of the Candidate – Pardot utilizes a shared Google Spreadsheet (excerpt below) to rate the candidate in 10 weighted categories related to the questions in Stage 1.  It’s important to note that “Fit with Corporate Values” is as heavily weighted as “Preparedness for the Interview” – We do this because we can likely find a number of prospects who could do the job, but we want to make sure we do not pursue a candidate who could be damaging to our team.

 

Stage 3 - Written & Technical Evaluation – Since our reps manage the entire sales process, it’s important that they be effective written communicators (due to email) and technically proficient (since we provide an easy to use platform, we do not employ sales engineers).

Stage 4 -  Interview with “Culture Keepers” – Initially, this step was performed by our founders, however we’ve been hiring so quickly that we’ve actually created teams of long time Pardot-ers who give a final sign off on the new prospect.  It’s important to note that any candidate who advances to this phase is perceived as being capable of performing the job, however anyone who does not pass this final step is not considered to be a “Fit” with Pardot’s corporate culture.

By making our hiring model more scientific, we have reduced poor hires, gotten away from subjective “liked / didn’t like” hiring feedback and added a number of terrific team members.

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Getting Non Responsive Sales Prospects to Re-Engage

Posted on March 28, 2012 by in Sales Strategy

Author’s Note - I was tempted to name this post”  Breaking Up (via Email) isn’t Hard to Do”As a sales person, there is nothing more frustrating than a prospect who becomes unresponsive during the sales process.  I think that most reps go through the 5 stages of grief:

  1. Denial — “I really feel like they want to buy from me, so why are they unresponsive?”
  2. Anger — “Why me? It’s not fair! I’ve spent weeks understanding their business processes, and mapping our features to drive key benefits for their organization.”
  3. Bargaining — “Come on…just call me back…seriously”
  4. Depression — “I guess I’ve lost this one.  I’ve got no shot at my number.”
  5. Acceptance — “It’s just one deal.  I can rally”

 

Rather than making assumptions about what’s going on at their company (you know what happens when you assume), a rep who has reached the stage of Acceptance can almost certainly get the prospect to respond by sending one of these “break up” emails.  It may turn out the the prospect didn’t select a competitor, but was simply busy, sick, etc…Try these ideas out:
 

Subject:  I don’t want to be a bother
Psychology:  Guilt the prospect into reconnecting with you, while giving them the “out” if they selected another vendor
Body:
[Name]
I’ve reached out unsuccessfully several times to reconnect about your project and I’ve been unable to connect with you over the past few weeks.  I am beginning to feel as thought I’m bothering you, which is not my intent.
It’s okay if you’ve decided to go anther direction, however I’d appreciate you letting me know so I won’t continue to bother you.
 

Subject:  [Company Name] Opportunity Closed
Psychology:  Breaks up with the prospect, who is likely not responding because the project was either (a) never funded or (b) your contact does not have the authority to make a purchase decision.
Body:
[Name]
I’ve attempted to reach you several times to get feedback about the proposal I sent on [date] however I’ve been unable to reach you.  Since we have been unable to connect, I’m going to close out our opportunity in our CRM.  
Obviously, if you’d like to keep the conversation going, please let me know, and I can re-open this opportunity at your request.
 

Subject:  Beware the Alligators
Psychology:  This tactic has fun with the prospect and will almost always elicit a response (although it may not be a response indicating you’ve won the deal)
Body:
[Name]
I know that you are probably slammed, so I’ll make this as easy as possible.Please simply respond with a letter:A. We never intend to purchase your solution.
B. I have been slammed, but still intend to purchase this month.
C. It will have to wait until next year to buy.
D. I have been eaten by alligators. Therefore, I will not be responding to your survey.

 

Email is a powerful communication tool which you can use to build, reignite and terminate relationships with prospects.
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The Value of a Great Demonstration Environment

Posted on March 21, 2012 by in Sales Demonstrations

I’ve had the opportunity to see a number of demonstrations from sales people, and I strongly believe that one of the key ways to engage prospects is to help them see your solution in a dedicated demonstration environment. We’re fortunate to have a great environment at Pardot, and I’d love to share some of the key reasons our environment works for us:

  1. It lets us “tell a story” – Since we sell to marketers, we begin our demonstration by asking questions about the strongest channel for online  lead generation.  Based upon what channel is identified, we will walk the participants through a demo of a prospect visiting a B2B corporate website via that channel (Paid Search, Social, Natural Search, etc…).  By walking the prospect through a familiar scenario, it allows us to “tell a story” about prospect engagement that is similar to what the company experiences on a daily basis.
  2. It’s populated with common use cases – Once we’ve shown how our hypothetical prospect would engage with a corporate website, we then show the hypothetical prospect inside our platform.  We continue our story telling by displaying how a prospect is impacted by our automation system, using pre-populated examples that are applicable to their business process (e.g., assigning a “hot” lead to the appropriate sales professional inside their CRM).  We’ve elected to pre-populate common use cases because it stops the single most time consuming part of the demo – Sales rep typing and clicking – which allows us to showcase more of the product, and less of the reps typing acumen.
  3. Limited preparation lets it seem quite customized – Since we’ve already populated the system with common use cases, we are only required to invest a limited amount of effort (e.g., 5-10 minutes) to configure / import some client-specific data (e.g., data sheets, logos, landing page layouts) into the system.  By preparing the system with content familiar to the prospect, it helps them understand how the tool would work in their specific environment.

The combination of a prepared demo system, customized with prospect-specific data allows our reps to “tell a story” to help the prospect understand the value of our solution.

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Leveraging Social Proof In Your Sales Discussions

Posted on March 8, 2012 by in Sales Strategy

Let’s be honest – prospects don’t inherently trust sales people, and we need to be honest to say that some practitioners in our space have made us the technological equivalent of snake oil salesmen.   You don’t have think too hard to find examples of:

  • Over Promising – “Sure we do that,” often puts your service and support people in compromising positions.  Since Sales is generally compensated for getting the prospects to, as Alec Baldwin noted in Glengarry Glen Ross to “Sign on the line that is dotted,” many sales people have instinctively said “yes” to get a client when the answer is really “no” (NOTE – This is why Pardot’s “no contract” approach ensures transparency since the prospect is not obligated to remain a client).
  • Committing to Roadmap Deliverables – Many prospects have fallen for the classic sales tactic – “If you’ll sign, I personally guarantee we’ll write that integration”.  NEWS FLASH – Your sales professional controls a number of things, but sales does not normally have the authority to reallocate engineering resources to deliver components that are not core to the business’ goals.

In order to help prospects overcome their suspicion of sales people, reps can consider using “social proof” in their presentations and subsequent discussions with prospects.  Social proof can come from a number of places, including:

  • Expert reviews – this can include reviews from independent third parties (although it’s important to note that reviews who have actually evaluated the product should be weighted more heavily than analyst reviews, since analysts may not be evaluating features and how they are beneficial to your specific business needs.)
  • Social Messages – Although our team is careful not to send out negative social messages (since mudslinging can actually villianize the rep who sends them out).  When a client Tweets about how terrific your support was, or blogs about how impactful your product was, those are great, independent reviews of your business.
  • Powerful Statistics – I love citing statistics from happy clients clients (case studies, success stories), as well as statistics published by competitors (since we all have a vested interest in publishing how our technology is a business “game changer”).  Any statistic that helps independently drive the value of your solution will help cement the impact of your technology in the propsect’s eyes.

In the end, helping your prospect understand that a group of “experts” has evaluated and validated your solution as being impactful can change the prospect’s view of you from “snake oil salesman” to “trusted advisor”

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Coaching “B” Players with “A” Players

Posted on March 1, 2012 by in Sales Onboarding, Sales Strategy

Every sales team has “A” players – your rainmakers. And you have “B” players, who make their number, but aren’t in the upper 25% of your team. “A” players are generally a unique combination of effort (which is something that should be monitored by management), experience (which cannot be taught but key ideas can be communicated), and technique (which is the primary thing that your “A” players can teach their teammates). It’s important to consider the following items when you determine whether your “A” players will be tasked with coaching their “B” peers.

Individual Orientation –Does the rep even have the desire to do work that doesn’t directly lead to the “A” player’s bottom line? If your rainmaker is a “lone wolf” then no amount of requesting will drive the “A” player to truly invest in others. Remember: “Those who can do, and those who can’t teach”. It’s more likely that your “A” player who can (and does kill her number) is more driven by individual goals (which is great) rather than team performance.

Reduced Effectiveness - “Management is the punishment for high performing sales people” is one of my favorite quotes because it’s inherently true. Consider the case of Michael Jeffrey Jordan – The greatest player I’ve ever seen pickup a basketball – Although MJ’s orientation might have been to teach (however, books like “The Jordan Rules” make it seem as though he did not), Zen master Phil Jackson would have been a fool to take his MVP out of the game to spend time with lesser skilled bench players outlining his strategy on how to score 30 points a game. If you task your All Star with teaching, and doing, then they will likely be less effective, and if their individual orientation is not geared toward teaching, then you may drive your “A” player away.

Economies of scale Limit the Impact on Your Bottom Line – Despite the items above, I love for our team to learn from our “A” players, but I don’t want to distract our rainmakers. In order to lessen the impact on our “A’s” we try to leverage their experience without saddling them with the less lucrative (to both the rep and the company) task of coaching. We use:

  • Group learning – We identify unique differentiators of our rainmakers, and ask them to teach their peers about their “special sauce” in a group settings (both during the on-boarding process and periodically during sales meetings). By asking them to develop a cirruculum that highlights their unique tactics, it provides a more scalable way to disseminate their knowledge.
  • Mentoring – When a rep moves to being a Senior Account Manager, we ask them to spend 2 hours per week (30 minutes in a 1:1 meeting, 1 hour participating in a client-facing meeting, and 30 minutes reporting experiences to me) with one (junior) Account Manager.  We choose to keep the amount of one-on-one time low so the rainmaker can focus on direct revenue generating activities.

If you have “A” players who have the orientation to aid others on the team, leverage them to build a better team, but do so in a manner that does not reduce the effectiveness of your “A” players.

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The Word “Neat” and Other Negative Buying Signals

Posted on February 22, 2012 by in Sales Strategy

Neat
As a sales manager, I often hear excited reps tell me about early stage deals that are going to be quick closes.  Since I’ve been around the block a couple of times, I am generally skeptical of these deals, and will discuss the opportunity with the rep to understand why they are so bullish on the deal.

 

I often find common language in these deals:


  1. Use of generalities like “neat”– I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I’ve come to understand that when one word terms (like “neat”) generally mean that the prospect is seeing something that they have never seen before, however they don’t really understand how technology will improve their business.  The anthesis for words like “neat” would be when a prospect notes that something is “incredible,” combined with their synopsis of how the specific feature would drive value for their business.  I’m all for the positive feedback, but see more value when the prospect describes the ROI / uplift for their business
  2. Broad terms like “They love it” – This one sounds great, but it needs to be supplemented by information on what, specifically, the prospect loves about the solution.  This is the classic “N” or “Need” attribute in the BANT model – What specifically does the prospect love about the solution, because this data helps triangulate the specific value to the prospect’s business, information which can be utilized to drive the sale from “pipeline” to “commit”.
  3. The Prospect Notes they are buying and need to do their “due diligence” – This classic is the business equivalent of dating other people before getting married (which I’d guess most everyone has done).  It shows, first and foremost, that the prospect has a funded project (e.g., they are planning on getting married) and second that the prospect has pre-selected their partner (which isn’t you), and just wants to make sure nothing better exists.  You may be able to win a deal that is basically sold on another prospect, and is just doing their due diligence, however it’s much more likely that the prospect will “marry” their first choice and relegate you back to the dating scene.

By looking for these negative buying signals, it’s possible to be more objective about the opportunities that are likely to sign with you, allowing sales to focus on those prospects rather than those who find your technology “neat”.

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Best Sales Advice I Ever Got

Posted on February 16, 2012 by in Guest Post, Sales Strategy

I’ve been selling for quite some time now, and the best piece of advice I have ever gotten was the following, ”It doesn’t cost anything to be nice”. I just closed a deal that I lost to a competitor a few years ago. I kept in touch with them, and was always pleasant – even when they said they selected another vendor.

Although our initial interaction didn’t result in them becoming a Pardot customer, my pleasant persistence gave us a second opportunity to be their vendor. It just goes to show you that the  technology world is a tight-knit community who remembers when people take the time to be cordial…or not.

Treat all of your prospects with the level of respect they deserve and it will increase your potential over night. So next time someone is short with you on the phone, hangs up on you, or says “We’re Not Interested”, just smile and move on. It is better for you, your company, and your career…just don’t forget to set a reminder in the CRM to call them back at a later date!

 

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How Marketing Automation Helps Sales Professionals

Posted on February 6, 2012 by in CRM, Marketing Automation, Sales and Marketing Alignment

In a recent article about Marketing Automation, industry analyst David Raab noted that over 22,000 businesses are utilizing marketing automation technology to improve marketing and sales effectiveness.  Since Marketing Automation is becoming more mainstream, I do find it appropriate to discuss how this technology is used by sales to shorten sales cycles for us and our clients.

  1. Lead Qualification – In other sales organizations I’ve worked for, we generally had no idea which prospect was the most qualified beyond a “hot / warm / cold” rating, demographic information (territory, revenue, job title, etc…), and past purchase behavior (I came from an enterprise background where multiple purchases were more common).  Marketing automation allows us to have an objective view of qualification based upon fit (demographic data), engagement (implicit prospect behavior as they interact with a brand) and timeliness (when did they engage).  By looking for “exceptional behaviors” (e.g., visiting a pricing page, completing a high-value form, multiple visits in a short timeframe), sales professionals armed with marketing automation intelligence can objectively identify the best prospects to contact.
  2. Lead Intelligence – Historically, a name in a CRM database is generally lacking any tracking data (something Eloqua has aptly named “digital body language”) to help identify the prospect’s behavior and interest.  Marketing automation supplements this data with information about what brought the prospect to you (e.g., search terms, referring URLs, social sites, etc…), and about what topic they seem to have an interest.   This tracking data can help a rep “frame the conversation” with the prospect to focus the discussion on what’s most important to the prospect.
  3. Sales Alerts – All marketing automation systems include the ability to alert sales when prospects do something compelling.  Furthermore, most MA vendors deliver alerts and intelligence via interfaces the rep uses daily – namely via email and within the CRM.  Although sales alerts allow you to contact prospects almost immediately after they engage with your brand, experience has taught me to avoid being creepy with this information (e.g., “I know you were on the pricing page” will generally ensure that the prospect never engages with your online presence ever again).
As you begin the process of leveraging this technology as part of your sales process, you’ll see immediate impact (e.g., Gartner conservatively estimates a 10% revenue bump within 6 months of implementing the technology) from the features identified above.
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Sales 2.0 – Leveraging Social Media In The Sales Process

Posted on January 25, 2012 by in Sales Strategy

The social-sphere is a critical component of any B2B sales team’s lead generation arsenal, however social norms can be difficult to determine. To that point, I’ve included some pointers to help sales drive maximum value from this relatively new channel.

I Love Social Media

1. Listen - It’s critical to know what’s going on in the social sphere, and Twitter is the most timely of all the social channels. In order to capture key information in real time, you can leverage tools like Twitter’s TweetDeck to constantly scour Twitter to provide feedback for terms like:

  • Your company name (Does anyone have feedback on Company A’s widget)
  • Industry keywords  (I’m considering using Marketing Automation)
  • Your competitors (Competitor X’s system is down…again).

2. Connect - If prospects are talking about your space / product / competitors on Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, etc…, it makes sense to connect with them. I’ve always felt like following the prospect on Twitter is extremely effective in providing another touchpoint, however I personally (and please feel free to disagree) don’t feel it’s appropriate to connect to someone on LinkedIn unless you truly are a colleague, friend or went to school with them (As of the time of this post, LinkedIn doesn’t provide a “I’m a sales rep mercilessly stalking this prospect” radio button option for “how do you know this person” in LinkedIn). If you have visibility into their Facebook profile (which Pardot provides as part of our “Social Insight” package), it’s never appropriate to friend request (or poke) the prospect on their personal Facebook page.

3. Understand - Almost all social media outlets allow the user to tell you a little about themselves. Does their Twitter bio identify that they are an avid golfer, poker player, PTA member, Florida State graduate (like your’s truly) – Use this information to better understand the prospect and build rapport.

4. Participate - This is the toughest part of the social world. It’s important to contribute to the conversation and not be a troll. If you respond to a LinkedIn discussion, don’t say something meaningless (“I agree”) or go into a product pitch (“Our product provides X”), but rather add something of value.  AUTHOR’S NOTE:  Even though I know this isn’t what most social media experts perceive as being the right move – Once I’ve reached out via their preferred channel (e.g., Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, etc…) I generally find that connecting via traditional methods (e.g., phone, email) is a much better way to communicate because those tools are still the de facto communication platforms in today’s enterprise and because traditional channels don’t limit your ability to communicate (e.g., they have to be following you to DM, 140 character limit, etc…).

Using these 4 simple steps can help sales professional drive both leads and prospect engagement by leveraging social media.

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