B2B Sales Pipeline

I just saw this statement from Marketing Sherpa regarding their B2B Summit, and I felt compelled to point it out.

…Jackie Kiley of Sybase advised everyone to *never* put suspects, inquiries, or unqualified leads into the salesforce.com system (or whatever salesforce.com wanna-be you’re using.)Fact is, the minute names hit SalesForce they hit the laps of your sales reps who then are judged on performance from then on. If you put anything in the system that a rep probably can’t close, then they look bad, they waste invaluable time, and soon they begin to distrust *all* the leads you give them.

Once sales doesn’t trust your leads, you’re completely sunk. Time to look for a new job.

Let that settle in for a second. 

If Marketing floods Sales with a list of 100 Names, how can we be expected to find the estimated 20% of those names who are actual “Sales Ready” prospects.

Marketers - A couple of items in the above statement that I would point out and Translate:

1.  *Never* put suspects, inquiries, or unqualified leads into the salesforce.com system - TRANSLATION- If they just filled out a registration form for a general whitepaper…they probably aren’t yet a lead.   Lead Qual, anyone?

2.  If you put anything in the system that a rep probably can’t close, then they look bad, they waste invaluable time - TRANSLATION - Nurture them in the Marketing Pipeline, and only pass those who show buying signals to your sales team.  Sacrifice Quantity for Quality.

3.  …Your sales reps who then are judged on performance - TRANSLATION - Quota carrying sales people have to close deals today….You should consider the following when determining what constitutes a “Lead” (Thanks to Jame Ervin for the definition):

• Is this person someone who wants to buy something? - If Yes, proceed
• Does this person have approval to buy something? - If Yes, Proceed
• Will they will buy your product, or one like yours soon (and let me note that “Soon” differs from industry to industry)?  If Yes - Congratulations…You’re the proud owner of a “Lead” that you should pass over to your sales team.
  

Several days ago, I had the opportunity to chat with one of Parodt’s junior sales professionals.  This individual expressed frustration that it was difficult to get from a live demonstration (Stage 3) of the application to the close (Stage 6).  Since I’ve got a couple of years in this game, I thought to give a little advice.  Even though we talked about several concepts, I found a blog post on Selling to Big Companies, entitled Top 5 Tips for New Sellers, that I’d like to add as part of the advice.

1.  Actively Listen to Ask the right questions

Don’t assume you know what matters to your clients.  After you’ve done your homework on the prospect, you’ll need to put all of your preconcieved notions to rest and…Ask Them…what causes them aggravation on a daily basis.  Most importantly, you’ll need to actively listen to ensure that you can find opportunities to match your benefits to small admissions by the client.  And - Don’t just launch headlong into benefits once the prospect gives you “the in,” rather ask more probing questions to ensure you understand the depths of their pain.

2.  (Per Selling to Big Companies) - Focus on making a difference.

“Nobody cares about your product, service or solution. That’s the hardest thing for sellers to realize. All they care about is the difference you can make for their organization.”

This is so key - Not Features…Benefits.  No one cares that your organization’s Salad Shooter “Slices, Dices and Makes Salads”.  You may have to explain that once you’ve had the opportunity to demonstrate the product, however you can’t focus on these, since they are features. What prospects care about is Benefits such as “after a hard day at the office, it will allow you to quickly and easily make a healthy dinner for your family”.  If you asked the right questions, and have a thorough understanding of the prospect, you’ll know their pain points, hot buttons, and what benefits will be most valuable to this particular client.

3.  Ease Their Mind by Removing Risk

At the end of the sales cycle, you’ll need to reassure the customer that they are making the right decision and that there is no risk to them.  Think about it - You’re probably a little jaded by having purchased something and then having buyers remorse a short time later.  Remember that feeling - That’s what prospect’s are trying to avoid.

If you’ll take the time to listen, understand their needs, match your benefits to their needs, and then assure them that you’re their partner in this initiative, you’ll see your close rate shoot up.

 The economic prosperity of the last few years has begun to resemble Newton’s observations of gravity: What goes up, must come down.  News of the impending recession is everywhere, and if you listen to cable news you would think the entire country is about to collapse. While that may be somewhat exaggerated, what is true is that marketing budgets are usually the first to get cut by CEO’s looking for ways to cut costs and keep the company afloat until economic growth can be measured.

Of course, marketers we know that the few companies that actually invest in marketing during a downturn are those that will come out  of the recession with a competitive advantage, having kept open the lines of communication with potential clients. Does it have to be a big investment? Not necessarily.

Lead nurturing tools are a great - and inexpensive - marketing investment that can bring considerable returns and also help your sales team pinpoint their message in a refined manner. First off, nurturing your leads means that you will no longer throw away the majority of your prospects simply because they aren’t ready to buy: you can keep them in the system and educate them about your product over time by sending them emails and white papers. When they are ready to buy (and a lead nurturing tool helps you keep tabs on everything your prospect is doing), your sales team will be there, ready to make the sale.

Another great feature of lead nurturing tools is the ability to provide you with an ROI on your marketing dollars. In tough economic times, nothing is more important for marketers than being able to show that the money spent is generating sales for the company. Finally a way to show the CEO and CFO that marketing doesn’t just produce costs, it also creates revenue flows.

When the going gets tough, lead nurturing is the way to go.

Plus, it really makes it easy on those of us in sales, who are trying to capture a seemingly shrinking market, and nurture prospects along.

It’s critical to have competitive intelligence. There are a number of ways to get competitive intel - One of the tried and true techniques is to contact a competitive organization, pretend to be a prospect, and ask pertinent questions. The following is a story of such an attempt:

While I was on vacation in NYC, I received a voice mail from a gentleman named Adam Roud (If you’ve read my posts before, you’ll know that I always change the names to protect the innocent) from a company named “Sequento” (Google it…it doesn’t exist). Adam’s voice mail asked a pricing question about an application component that could not be purchased alone - This would be similar to calling the Mercedes dealership and asking the price of the drivetrain (”No, I don’t want to know anything about the car, just tell me how much the drivetrain costs.“). Immediately I realized that this question doesn’t pass the “Smell Test” (e.g., if it doesn’t smell right, it probably isn’t right), but I called Adam anyway, to try to get an idea of what he was hoping to accomplish, and determine if my company’s solution might meet his needs.

Cell Phone, with no company name provided - things are smelling worse.

I left a VM asking for a time to chat and determine exactly what he was looking for. Qualify young reps - Qualify. Since he didn’t call back, and for all of the items I’ve identified above, I considered him a junk (unqualified) lead, and I set a 30 day follow up in Salesforce.

When I saw the reminder earlier this week, I thought back to the Smell rule, which prompted me to search Adam’s name in LinkedIn. Lo and behold - Adam works for a competitor. I called the competitors office, asked for Adam, and let him know that I would love to chat with him, since it’s always good for competitors to get to know each other. At the time of this posting, Adam has not called me back, and has likely joined the witness protection program.

So here’s my point - Competitive Intel is King, so how can you get it?:

1. Act like a Prospect - Note to Adam’s boss - Get him acting lessons, because if he’s as bad of a sales support engineer as he is an actor, you should probably cut him loose.

• Make the Cover Story fit - In the era of Google, it’s probably a bad idea to name a company that doesn’t exist
• Pretend to be someone else - With resources like LinkedIn, Spoke and JigSaw, you probably shouldn’t use your real name.
• Ask relevant questions - Back to the Mercedes example - You should probably ask questions about the solution as a whole, and sound like an educated prospect (”After looking at the BMW, I feel this Mercedes is the better buy because it has Leather, Sunroof and Heated Seats for the same price…but I’m curious about the drivetrain?”).

2. Research on the Internet - Again, in the era of Google, you should probably just search for your the information you seek.

3. Post-Mortem Follow Up’s - Talk to your customers who you’ve won during a competitive procurement, or wrap up with prospects you’ve lost. Always preface with - “I don’t want you to cross any ethical lines, but…..” Satisfied customers can provide insight about the competitive landscape, and prospects who didn’t select your solution can tell you why they went with someone else.

In the end - Adam - I love your moxie. You did the right thing, but you aren’t getting any Academy Awards from me.

We’ve all heard the phrases and more than likely utilized them. “There is no I in team,” and “Don’t give up until you reach the finish line.”

You probably think I’m referring to sports, whether it’s utilized in basketball, football or baseball. In fact, these quotes, analogies or any of the Vince Lombardi phrases that people toss around are applicable in business.

The world of business utilizes sports analogies and phrases so much for one reason: both sports and business rely heavily on teamwork. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to accomplish much of anything on the playing field or in the board room.

Recently, I was playing in a church league basketball game. With my team engaged in a tight contest, we suddenly found ourselves a man short on the court. This was not due to an injury or for a lack of players, but because one of our players decided to take a breather by going to the bench to catch his breath.

Now, imagine our surprise when we realized we had only four players on the court to the opposing teams five.  When up against superior numbers in a team game, the side with fewer people will always lose. Look at how hockey teams in the NHL do in power play situations. Have an advantage over your opponent, especially in terms of a numerical advantage, translates to scoring and the ultimate goal: winning.

Taking this story and applying it to the business world would be interesting. Imagine your team is comprised of sales and marketing individuals. The marketer’s job is to promote brand and consumer awareness of your product or service. By advertising and distributing information on your company, the marketer does everything in their power to create an atmosphere where the sales team will be successful in that selling that product or service. 

By making the public or other businesses desirous of your good or service, the marketing team has done their part, and then they hand off the task of closing the deal to the sales team. If the marketing team has done their part, then a slam dunk will occur on the sales-side of things.

Say though, the prospect is like most potential clients, and requires a longer sales cycle then the slam dunk prospect we are all hoping will come along.

At this juncture, the marketing team must continue to assist the sales team if a prospect needs to be nurtured along the path to the promised-land: the deal. 

But what is the best way to utilize both sales and marketing department’s valuable time? Drip Marketing.

Through drip marketing/drip emails, the sales team can stay in touch with a client that is not sales ready and send out personalized emails on a timed basis. These periodic, automated emails ensure that you stay in touch with a client and nurture them to sales ready status, all along automating the process to further qualify your lead. This can help to free up valuable time for both sales and marketing teams, leading to high fives all around.

In short, marketing and sales teams working together to both nurture and ultimately convert the prospect into a client is the end goal. If one falters then the team suffers, much like the basketball team I play on when we were in a four-on-five match-up. By using drip marketing/drip emails, both sales and marketing can focus on other avenues and constantly stay in the prospects mind, without to much of a time investment.

Oh, and just to put a further exclamation on the point: we lost that game by 19 points.

A website I try and frequent for timely and provocative information is www.salesteamtools.com. This fantastic compendium of knowledge offers those of us who make a living in sales a vast portal of knowledge and ideas to incorporate into our thought process and stimulate our thinking.

Upon returning from the winter holiday’s, I went to salesteamtools.com and read a fascinating post, entitled, “How I Improved My 2007 Sales Results.”

This got me thinking. What were the things I did in 2007 that not only improved my sales results, but conversely, what did I do to to hinder my sales results?

One of the things those of us in leadership roles in sales try and do is take on too many tasks, instead of delegating assignments to other team members. Instead of trying to tackle every new project or starting work on an ongoing project that would have monopolized my attention and produced less than stellar results, it is sometimes vital to delegate that assignment to another team member. Offloading tasks can be the best way to ensure that:

A. You finish the tasks and jobs you currently have on your plate and give the proper attention to them that they deserve.

B. You learn where your strengths and weakness are and where to focus. If you have a task you feel you aren’t suited for, then the best idea is to delegate that duty to another team member.

C. Your relationships with your existing clients won’t suffer, as the days of trying to make everyone happy will be over. Let one of your team members help out.

D. Your time management skills will increase/ coupled with increases in productivity and efficiency.

E. You will energize your team members by improving their self-reliability.

It might be to late to work on offloading duties in 2007, but with the start of brand new year, implementing this approach to your leadership style will produce big results in 2008, not only for yourself and your individual goals, but also your company’s sales goals.

I had an eye opening experience yesterday that I wanted to lay out there and rant about. I had a customer do me “a courtesy”. Let me explain.

Following the lead of “Dragnet” the names in the following story have been changed to protect the innocent:

Courteous Person - I’ll call this guy “Clien Clodeberg“, so, in the off chance he does me “the courtesy” of reading my blog, he won’t be offended.

History - So I had called Clein several times over the past few weeks, because he was the logical point of entry at a business who fit my ideal customer profile (and yes…I’d done my research to ensure that we would be able to add value to a customer of this type). Clien didn’t return my calls, however he did shoot me an e-mail, asking for a meeting.

Sales 101 - Qualify the candidate - So I called several more times, trying to investigate his marketing pain, and try to identify ways in which a software solution could streamline his marketing to sales process. No return, however a few days before the meeting, I sent him a note with a brief list of Features and Benefits of our solution, and indicated that I would be equipped to perform a sales demonstration.

Yesterday - I drive across Atlanta in lunch hour traffic to meet with Clien. When I get there, he indicates that (a) his organization has no need for this type of solution, (b) he does not care to see any sort of demonstration, and that (c) he was simply doing me the “courtesy” of meeting with me, since they are a vendor to our parent company.

Here’s my confusion - How was he doing me a courtesy? In making me miss lunch to go to his meeting? In the burning of $3 of petrol? In the 2 hours lost of what would have been productive phone time calling west coast customers, in an attempt to schedule meetings that mattered?

You’ve heard the adage - “Everyone should have to wait tables once in their life”. I’d propose that everyone should have to be in sales for a month. The world would be a kinder and gentler place for the sales professional.

A couple of things that customers would do if they had ever been on the sales side of the equation:

1. Take 5 - Just take 5 minutes to discuss challenges ways that my solution may be of benefit or review information to determine if you see the value in what I’m proposing. As the sales professional, I’ve already done my part - determining if your organization is a fit, and crafting a value proposition that would be of value to you.

2. Thanks but No Thanks - If, in 5 minutes, you didn’t see the value, simply thank me for my time, and agree to a call 6 months down the road. AUTHOR’S NOTE - not responding (call screening, not responding to e-mails), makes me think that maybe…just maybe you’re still a candidate, so being honest with me will allow us both to get on with our lives.

3. Don’t do me any courtesies - This is where you have to practice”tough love”. If it’s not a fit, or now isn’t a great time, identify a mutually agreeable time to reconnect. Please don’t:

• Drag me away from ACTUAL customers to meet when it’s obviously not a fit.
• Since I don’t subscribe to “interruption sales / marketing”, my initial call always asks for 5 minutes at a time when we can both focus on the matter at hand - discussing a solution that will make your life easier. Agree to a meeting time, and then call screening makes me feel like you may have had car trouble, and that you want me to call you again…and again…and again…yada, yada, yada, ad nauseam (See #2 above).

So there it is - a couple of rules of thumb that will help you be a better customer, and understand as a sales professional that everyone deals with bad customers.

Now quit reading this blog and let’s get to selling on a Friday!

Sales Professional - Where do you live? I mean, where do you spend the majority of your time each day? If you answered anything other than “My CRM”, then in the words of Donald Trump - “You’re Fired”.

So why is the CRM so important? Whether you utilize Salesforce, Upshot, Dynamics, or something else, there are a few life lessons that my Daddy told me that ring true, and no, not his classic “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story”:

1. Use it, or Lose it - Retaining Important Information

Sure this rings true with things like your golf swing, your strength, and that jumpshot that had you 2nd Team All State, but it also rings true for CRM usage. Keep EVERYTHING inside the CRM. Names, Numbers, E-mails, Appointments, To Do’s and Customer Notes. Not using the CRM will directly effect your organization and productivity. You shouldn’t be searching for a scrap of paper that had a note on it, or having to look through Outlook to identify the last e-mail that was sent to this customer. Make the CRM your primary organizational tool, and you’ll be more effective in each communication with a customer.

NOTE - A recent post by Jim Berkowitz, CRM Mastery, indicates that 1/3 of new CRM implementations end in failure because Sales People aren’t using the technology. This is reflective of the attitude that many small companies have related to “My wallet is too full from all these 100’s, and my diamond shoes are a little too tight” - We’re already making money, so why should we care about process improvement or sales time optimization. Sad really………..

2. Shoot for Nothing and You’re Bound to Hit it - Opportunities

Your pipeline is your lifeline, so it is critical that you keep your opportunities entered, and more importantly, up to date. Having the opportunities to direct your activities will allow you to keep your focus while being bombarded by meeting requests, phone calls, e-mails and all the other things that attempt to take you away from the one thing that matters - Closing deals.

3. Focus on the Rim, two dribbles, elbow in, bend knees, shoot - Power of Process

As a washed-up, former basketball player, I often think back to days spent in the driveway learning to shoot free throws. Great free throw shooters, which I never was, shoot free throws the same way every time - it’s a process. Your sales process is defined, so reps can utilize the CRM to automate many of the common functions your sales representatives are expected to do. Most CRM Systems support the development of e-mail templates, many support rudimentary prospect scoring which can be augmented by third party products available on AppExchange (or other such sites), and most have the ability to automate the import of leads from a Marketing Automation System. Management can get into the act too, by implementing alerts when a lead is not acted upon in a specified amount of time, or receiving automated reports on a specific day.

In the end, get a CRM, use that CRM, and extend the power of that CRM by implementing processes and third party applications which provide advanced functionality. You’ll be glad you did.

Many organizations look at a sale as a “1 shot. 1 kill” scineario, where the salesperson meets, greets, engages, builds rapport, educates, and closes the deal with YOUR customer. Then it’s off to the next deal. YOUR customer thinks the same thing my mother says frequently - “You never call. You never write. You never visit.” That type of behavior will get me written out of the will, and get you ridden out of your customer’s life.

NEWS FLASH - A representative from your competitor is engaging YOUR customer, and if YOUR customer feels abandoned, or the solution hiccups one time, YOUR customer will likely become THEIR customer.

IN OTHER NEWS - Customer retention costs 20% of what acquiring a new customer does, and once you have the relationship, it should be easier to up sell them (assuming your eggheads can make the solution work like you said it would and your support representatives are helpful).

So what do you do to hang on to and / or upsell your customers:

1. Make No Assumptions

Sure you like your customer - who wouldn’t - they just wrote you a PO, however that doesn’t necessarily mean that they like you. What do I mean? Greg Rohm, VP of National Sales at Datamaxx once told me “Remember - they’re your customer, not your friend.” - This is to say that  the customer / sales relationship isn’t equitable - You shouldn’t expect the customer to give up a kidney to help you out, however they may reach in and tear your heart out if your solution doesn’t work as advertised.  A great article on GuerillaConsulting.com said it like this - “…the [salesperson] never assumes a client is loyal. A client’s trust and loyalty can be swept away if you get too confident or let performance slip, even on one project or sale.” Don’t assume that because your customer currently chooses to do business with you that he or she will continue to do so. You’ve built the rapport, so ask with YOUR customer how things are going, before they become someone else’s customer.

2. Make it Right

Once you’ve had a customer long enough, you will inevitably hit a snag, and since you would never oversell and under-deliver, it was likely - A deliverable was incorrect, late or substandard; support was lackluster; AR mis-billed the customer. Whatever the cause, snafus will happen, and when they do, it’s critical that you proactively step up, and as the customer’s advocate within your organization, find a way to make it right. If you wait for the customer to complain then you’re probably already too late.

3. Make it sticky

The more entrenched your solution is, the less likely it is to be pulled for a competitor. This “stickiness” is what many leading companies utilize to (a) ensure the solution is not replaced and (b) upsell by providing additional modules or professional services. Once you are filling a large amount of a customer’s needs with quality and a proven track record, it only becomes logical that you can ask for other opportunities. Just like in point #1 - You’ve already built the rapport - so ask about additional avenues where your solution could make the customer’s life easier by dealing with only one vendor.

In closing, I’ve got a great idea - Stop reading this post and go call your key customers…just to talk, but make sure that you steer the conversation toward: How is the solution working? Anything I should know about? Since all is well, let’s talk about some of your other needs. Like me with my mother, your customer will be glad to hear your voice, and less likely to write you out of their will.

I have a man-crush on a little fellow known around the golf world as “el Tigre”, Tiger Woods. This guy has it all…he’s successful, famous, beautiful family…I mean WOW. On the golf course he’s effortless - 300 yard drives, finesse with the irons and is a good enough putter when he gets on the green. When he leads going into Sunday he is nearly impossible to beat.

Let’s look at WHY Tiger is great -He has been golfing since childhood, he’s spent tens of thousands of hours practicing, and has 20+ years of experience. With a pedigree like that, he is probably so good that he can just show up on Sundays and win, right? He just puts on the red shirt and everyone else just starts playing for second…

Wrong! Tiger spends the week leading up to the competition playing practice rounds so that he better understands the terrain, and shows up early before matches sharpen his skills on the driving range and putting green.

Sales Person - I have read estimations that in 18 months you will become an expert in your industry. You will know all the answers to the questions, understand your organization’s value proposition, and be able to spout off features and benefits in your sleep. You’re good, but good enough that you don’t need to understand the terrain of your industry and sharpen your skills?

Actually, once a salesperson reaches this “expert” status, his or her effectiveness goes down. They’ve worked hard to understand things during the previous year and a half and now have reverted to being age 13, when they know it all. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw - “Teenagers, hurry up and get a job now, while you still know everything“.

How can we fight the apathy of expertise? By doing the things that allowed us to survive and even excel during the previous 6 Quarters, most notably:

1. Continued pre-call planning
2. Understanding the competitive environment
3. Educating yourself on market trends
4. Staying abreast of new technologies
5. Collaboration with co-workers

Continuing to do the things that made you successful are the quickest and easiest way to ensure future success.