Sales Blog with Sales Tips

Have you ever thought about the following concept – disqualifying prospects? I believe we spend too much time trying to qualify prospects.

The Problem With Qualifying Prospects
We hate prospecting. As a result, we try to “force fit” leads into qualified prospects. But reality tells us that most of the leads we contact are not even close to qualified prospects.

We find ourselves in prospecting situations where:

• We aren’t connected to a decision maker.
• We don’t have a good product fit.
• The timeframe is all wrong.
• The budget isn’t there.
• The competitor is almost at the finish line, and we’re just starting.
• Contract and legal issues will be formidable, if not impossible, to contend with.

It makes prospecting so much easier – but not in the long term – if we pretend the pieces always fit.

The Beauty Of Disqualifying Prospects
Quit wasting your time trying to sell to prospects that aren’t the least bit serious about becoming your customer. Give them the boot.

I’ve always felt that: 1) customers are best, 2) qualified prospects are good, and 3) totally disqualified prospects are definitely not a bad thing. Why are disqualified prospects not a bad thing? Getting rid of tire kickers frees you to focus on genuine prospects.

Sales Tips On How To Disqualify
I have only two sales tips regarding how to mercilessly disqualify prospects. It’s time to identify them and throw them in the rubbish bin.

1. After getting a big cup of coffee (caffeinated, of course), create a list of questions that will let you quickly identify whether a prospect hits your sweet spot. In about five questions, you can tell whether you have a live one on your hands. You can make this list by yourself, but doing it with your sales peers will sharpen your efforts.

2. Throw away those lead lists. Is there anything more worthless than a purchased lead list?  Seriously. They should be called “make me look busy” lists. You’re a big boy or girl; it’s time to start using 21st century tools (that I’ve written about in this sales blog) to find prospects.

Sales Blog Epilogue
There are additional benefits in creating a list of pinpoint qualifying questions. You can use them to improve your elevator speech and to more accurately define your perfect customer when asking for a referral.

Further sales tips reading:
Be Bold about Qualifying Questions
Hierarchy of Prospects
Prospecting By Going-Through-The-Motions, Part 2 of 4
Prospects: Fired, Dead and Demoted

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>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
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Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
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Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
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—

I hate the term “salesperson.” Sounds empty to me. If we think of ourselves as a person whose primary job function is selling, then we are nothing more than a “salesperson.”

Why Being A “Salesperson” Makes Us Less Effective
The human mind is full of uncharted waters (you need to visit some of my family members if you don’t believe this). However, there are a few things about how we think – and more importantly, how our customers think – that are predictable. The following are “salesperson” behaviors that cause us to stumble.

• People resist being pushed because they are hardwired that way. Crowding and bulldozing customers causes them to instinctively resist.

• Being overly forceful and “salesy” causes us to exude a vibe of desperation. This is not a good thing. Social psychologists have shown over decades of testing that people prefer to buy from successful people, not ones who seem needy.

• When all we focus on is selling, selling, selling – we put ourselves under stress which makes us less capable sales professionals. Stress is circular. It creates feelings that are completely counterproductive. Stress causes fear, tunnel vision, disorganization. I’m amazed at the number of sales managers who think beating on sales professionals will create sustainable increases in sales.

A Metaphor
Everyone is familiar with Chinese finger traps. The harder you pull, the more they grip down on your fingers.

The harder we try, the more determined these traps seem to become.

Customers feel the same way about us. The more we “sell” them, the more they resist.

Sales Blog Antidote
The following three simple ideas will make your job as a sales professional more enjoyable, your customers more responsive and you more successful. These may seem ill fitting at first, but a great pair of jeans takes a few outings before things look and feel right.

1. Stop being “salesy.” Customers hate this. They see it coming 10 miles away. I know many salespersons who think “salesy” must work because people buy from them. No. People buy from them in spite of the “salesy” approach. Your authenticity is what customers want.

2. Instead of always asking questions, start providing answers to your customers. Giving them something they need (e.g. useful and timely information) is the best antidote to looking like a generic salesperson.

3. Provide your customers with service. I’m not talking about the services your company normally provides. I’m talking about helping your customers in ways that aren’t normally associated with salespersons. Give them referrals. Help them find suppliers for products you don’t sell. Find a new way your company can save them money (don’t worry; this will inspire them to find other things to buy from you that will eclipse any losses).

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
See yourself as more than a salesperson who is trying to maximize how much he or she can get from a customer. Turn down the sales volume and increase the “How can I help you?” volume.

Further sales blog reading:
Sales Advice: Is there a “vibe” in sales? You betcha.
Get customer cooperation by “lowering your shields”

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
—
Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
—
Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
—
—

The customer you start with is the customer you end up with. We have to establish rules, boundaries and limitations with our new customers immediately after consummation of the relationship. Like spoiled and ill-behaved teenagers, if we don’t follow common sense “parenting” principles right from the start, it’s hard to cure customer problems later.

Areas Where We Go Wrong
Here is where I see sales professionals get in trouble right from the outset with virginal customers:

1. Pricing. Train your new customers about your pricing; you aren’t the cheapest in town. You probably never will be, and there’s a reason. If price is their only concern, they need to look elsewhere.

2. Payment. Instruct your baby customers on the fine art of paying their bills. Let them know right from the first order that you are not intending to finance their business with your accounts receivable – and lost commissions.

3. Products. Educate your customers early on about your broad line of products and services. Let them know you intend to fill all of their needs with your products and services and won’t tolerate cherry picking.

4. Decision Makers. Help your newborn customers learn that you will be contacting decision makers at all levels of their company. Dealing with just the purchasing department won’t work for you.

5. Communication. By example, teach your newbie customers that you will return emails and voice mails within 60 minutes. You expect them to respond quickly to you as well.

6. Relationship. It’s impressive that one of the decision makers you’ll be working with at your newfound customer is a manager/director/VP/president/CXO/Intergalactic Lord of Nations/etc. However, you don’t really care about titles when it comes to how they treat you personally. You’ll treat them with respect, but you expect complete reciprocity in this regard. Can we say boundaries?

The Dance
When we initiate a relationship with a new customer, we begin a dance. A more sterile description would be to say that we are testing one another. A little push here. A little give there.

Sales Blog Epilogue
Confidence, authenticity and assertiveness will “break in” those fresh customers in all the right ways. If you let them grow up to be a teenager with a handful of bad habits and attitudes,  it will be difficult to fix the issues down the road.

The customer you start with is the customer you end up with.

Further reading:

• Ask Yourself, Am I a Pricing Wimp?
• Wrestling With Fear in Sales

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>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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You’re familiar with the concept of prospects and customers. Today I’m going to introduce you to the “prospect-customer.” You have prospect-customers and in quantities greater than you want to acknowledge. You’ve just never given them a name.

The Prospect-Customer
A prospect-customer is a company that may or may not buy from you and has one or more of the following attributes:

They like you very much. In fact, you’ve taken them out to lunch on numerous occasions. Everyone in their office knows and likes you. Heck, you like them too. They’re almost family. There’s only one big problem; they never buy.  Anything.

Even though they are a big company and use significant quantities of your products and/or services, their orders are infrequent and small. They’ve been your customer for a very long time. You keep thinking that someday they’ll become one of your best accounts if you can stay the course.

The person you sell to is a silo. All that’s missing is the corn. Oh sure, the buyer will throw you an order now and then, but there are six other departments in the company you could be selling to. The problem is that your contact is blocking you from interacting with other potential buyers at his or her company.

Ever feel like a fruit tree? Sometimes you are. When companies only buy products or services from you that they can’t source anywhere else, it’s called cherry picking. They need you, but only for what they can’t find somewhere else.

You know what they say about coming in second. The view never changes. When a company positions you as a secondary or tertiary supplier they’re saying, “Stand on the sidelines in case we might need you someday.” They just want you to stand there and wait and wait and wait.

The prospect-customer has a way of never blossoming and wastes your time with little to no ROI (Return on Investment). It’s a “they’re not that into you” scenario. However, this doesn’t always have to be the case.

Prospect-Customers, Kill Them Or Heal Them
When it comes to prospect-customers, you must take strong and deliberate action. If you don’t, these companies will loiter on your account list like perverts at a bus stop. The sales tips below are draconian; they need to be. Either make something of your prospect-customers or get rid of them. Make room for customers that are normal.

1. “The we-love-you-but-never-buy-from-you prospect-customer.” Point out to them that love is wonderful, but you need to feed your family. Your boss is wondering why you’re not getting any business from them. You’ll soon find out how much they really love you when you press the issue. The normal prognosis for this type of prospect-customer is not good. They love you less than you think.

2. “The never ending small order prospect-customer.” They think you’re happy with their order volume and you’ve gotten into the bad habit of not asking for more. Get assertive with them and educate them regarding the other products and services you sell. Let them know that sourcing more products from one trusted supplier makes their buying more efficient. The prognosis for this type of prospect-customer is good. It’s a matter of breaking some habits on the part of both the customer and the sales professional.

3. “The you-can’t-sell-to-anyone-else-in-this-company prospect-customer.” Ensure that you tell your contact at this company in advance that you will be contacting other department heads. Once you’ve informed him or her of this, then start contacting. What do you have to lose? The prognosis is good for this kind of prospect-customer. Usually you’ll find the “blocker” you’ve been waltzing around all this time has no fangs.

4. “The cherry picking prospect-customer.” See “The never ending small order prospect-customer” above.

5. “The you’re-on-hold prospect-customer.” This type of prospect-customer is easy to deal with. Simply give them your version of the following, “I’m not going to be able to keep in contact with you and act as an ongoing backup if you never buy anything from me. I understand I’m number two, but we need to establish our relationship through, at a minimum, some small transactions.” The prognosis for this type of prospect-customer can be very good once they realize you don’t intend to stand by forever.

Sales Blog Epilogue
Why do we have prospect-customers? We have them because we’re afraid to upset the status quo. “Maybe someday something will happen.” No, it won’t. Make something happen or fire these time consuming, resource wasting parasites.

Further reading:

• Always Being Nice Is Not A Good Sales Strategy

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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Are you satisfied with your sales results?
Kay Ray can show you and your team how to reach
your objectives and unlock the door to success.
thekayray.com