I have to admit to using online dating sites in the past.  You write up a profile about yourself specifying your likes and dislikes, what your best features are, what turns you on and off and exactly what traits you want in a future mate.

I got to thinking that this is pretty close to how sales people prospect for new business.  You contact complete strangers and try to convince them that you have what they need.  You talk on the phone trying to say all the right things in order to get them to agree to a face-to-face meeting.  Just like internet dating.

Online daters and customers are disappointed most of the time, the proof being the small number of deals actually closed versus the high number of leads called on.  The answer lies in the details.  Online daters tell partial truths.  They specify their age based on what they believe will attract the most people.  They write too much or too little about themselves.  They go into excruciating detail of what they want, setting expectations that are impossible to meet.  They choose to post pictures that have no real resemblance to how they look today.  And they create a “false sense of intimacy”.  People think that spending a lot of time on the phone getting to know someone is the best way to make the first meeting more successful.  In reality, it does just the opposite.  It creates a false sense of intimacy leading to greater expectations that no one could ever live up to.

Selling successfully is about building relationships, but you need to be careful not to cross that intimacy line.  It will cloud your ability to remain vigilant and competitive.  You want to make sure not to exaggerate your product’s abilities.  And the best way to do that is to only present your solution in the context of their business requirements.   But, unlike online dating, where you are just courting one person (unless you are polyamorous), your deal usually involves a few people to court.   And finally you should be very clear on your proposal:  No old or fuzzy pictures.  What they are buying should be clearly laid out along with all the costs.  Breaking down the costs for each of the products and services allows your customer to pick and choose what works best for them given their budget constraints.

Most CRM solutions allow you to track personal information on your contacts, such as birthdays, sports, hobbies, and spouse and children’s names.  You should also be able to easily add your own fields to track additional information you find helpful.  It is very useful to keep this information up to date so you can build customer relationships that don’t seem superficial.  Most CRM solutions allow you to setup activities like reminders, emails, to do’s that will execute on a future date.  As an example, when you first enter a contact into the system you can setup any future activity like a birthday email or reminder that will automatically trigger on the date you specified.  It shows the prospects and customers that you are listening to them because you can remember the small details of their lives.  It is going the extra mile.  It is also important to use this information sparingly and not come across like you are best or old time friends.  But sending a quick happy birthday or an email about a sports team they like are good things to do.  Of course, this will also allow you to easily identify contacts who would be most interested in attending a golf or special event you may be planning. Wanting to be genuinely closer with your prospects and customers is not only good for business but makes it more enjoyable.

Tags: Add new tag, crm, Sales Techniques, sfa

I spoke about the importance of a sales methodology in the last post but whether you use one or not you absolutely need to configure your sales cycles in your CRM solution.  The sales cycle provides a number of key statistics for you as a rep or manager.  It is an easy way to keep all your opportunities organized so you can decide where you should be spending your limited time and resources.  Most CRM solutions allow you to configure this.

The sales cycle consists of  four attributes.  The first one is the “Cycle type”.  If you work in a company that has a single product or service than you will only have one cycle type.  But for companies with multiple products you might want to define a separate sales cycle for each product or group of products.  The complexity and cost of the product usually drives how long the cycle will be.

The next attribute you need to define is the “Step” you are in.  It represents how far you are into the sales cycle.  The steps you define should always be associated with a percentage.  It is important to remember that this percentage only represents how far you are into the sales process with the customer; it is not an indication of winning the deal.  A lot of solutions let you associate activities to each step so you can see what you need to do to get you from one step to the next.  This is great for new reps and gives them a road map on how to move the opportunity along with a customer.

The next attribute is the “Status”.  This is where you define the rating of the opportunity.  As you move your deal through the process the status might also change. It can go from a status of cold to hot to closed or dead.

The final attribute is what is referred to as your “Gut Feeling”, sometimes just referred to as “Gut” in the US.  This is your true sense of how well you are doing on the deal.  It is based on your instinct or intuition as well as on your experience.   This is the basis of your forecast and is the true indicator of whether or not you will win the deal.

Remember that forecast reports or views should always work off of your Gut Feel percentage and pipeline reports and views should work off of your Step percentage.  And weighted forecasts would be the revenue times the Gut Feeling percentage.

Here is an example of a sales cycle for a product company.

Cycle type:  Color copier

Steps: 
 10% Pre-Qualification
 30% Needs Analysis 
 50% Tailored Demo
 70% Proposal Submitted
 90% Negotiation
 100% Contract signed

Status:  Active, Won, Closed, Lost, Dead

Gut Feeling:  You specify some percentage between 10-100%. 

All the attributes except for the Cycle Type will change as you move your deal through your sales process. 

Configuring your sales cycles in most CRM solutions is relatively easy and does not require any programming.  The hard part is defining how many different sales cycles you have and the number of steps each one should have.  You do not want to input too many or too few.  It should be based on your best practices and should be easy for reps to work with. 

You should always define you sales cycles whether you have a third party methodology or not.  Do it for yourself if your company never did.  It will make working your deals so much clearer and will help you determine which things work in the process and which do not.

Tags: crm, CRM Basics, Sales methodology, sfa

As I was watching Sunday football I got to thinking about how teams work together to score a touchdown.  Every man on the team has a job; every play has a specific set of moves; and there is a predetermined amount of time to execute.  They work off a playbook that details the play and what everyone needs to do.  But once on the field they are faced with the opposition which will make everything unpredictable.  The army recognized this and created a document called the Commander’s Intent.  It specifies a battle goal but does not specify the steps necessary to accomplish it.  A commander’s intent requires periodic review as missions, conditions, and therefore, priorities evolve.  It’s left with the people in the field to figure out how to get there based on what the enemy does.  So why bother with a playbook or battle plan when they break down immediately?  It is because the planning process forces people to think through the right issues.  Just like no battle plan survives contact with the enemy, no sales plan survives contact with the customer.  

This leads me to this week’s topic on sales methodologies.  All companies should have one.  And, regardless of whether they are from a third party or developed in-house, all sales reps should be following one.  Companies that have longer sales cycles need to consider third-party methodologies such as Miller Heiman, Solution Selling, Holden or Samurai Business Group.  The underlying philosophy of these methodologies is to force you to continually qualify and re-qualify your opportunities.  Sales methodologies work on the premise that the customer is constantly shifting their position.  They are talking to your competitors and being faced with changing business issues that have them shifting their feelings and positions on the deal at hand.  A good sales rep will understand this and is constantly reevaluating the status of the deal.  A good methodology helps a rep determine where they actually stand on the deal.  It provides them with the questions and processes to follow in order to understand their position in the deal.  Are they ahead, behind or neutral?  You want to make sure you are spending resources on deals you feel you have a better than even chance of winning.  For companies that have shorter, less complex selling cycles, should still be following some proven sales process, even if developed in-house. 

Most CRM solutions allow you to configure your own sales cycle and steps needed to move you to the next level.  You need to do this and give it the proper time and thought even when using a third-party methodology.  Most sales methodology companies offer free or low cost plug-ins to be used with your CRM system.  However, they often require that you go through their training, which can run about $500-1500 per person.  Companies like White Springs supplies these electronic add-ons for quite a few CRM solutions. 

Some Yak Shaving will be required but worth it.

Tags: crm, Sales methodology, sfa