Sales Blog with Sales Tips

We’ve all done it. We’ve wasted ginormous (this is actually a word) amounts of time and resources selling to the wrong people. People who aren’t empowered to buy.

When the reality hits us that we’ve been chasing leaves in the wind, it always feels like a slug in the gut.

3 Kinds of Non-Buyers
These non-buyers fall into three general categories: 1) recommenders, 2) information gatherers and 3) influencers. Non-buyers are normally involved in any kind of significant purchase. However, for something to be sold, a decision maker has to enter the scene at some point – the sooner the better.

Not only is a decision maker necessary, but our chance of closing an opportunity goes from nearly zero to something far north of zero when we deal directly with decision makers.

Attributes Of Non-Buyers
These are a few of the common characteristics of non-buyers posing as decision makers:

• Pride. Virtually all sales tips deal with an element of this deadly sin in our customers. When we ask non-buyers if they have the authority to order, we frequently won’t get a truthful answer. Non-buyers find it hard to say, “I don’t have the authority to sign that contract.”
• They’re immensely available and always willing to talk with us.
• They’ll commit to everything, just short of a purchase. They know they’ll never make a decision to buy anything from us.  As a result, they’ll never be held accountable for anything either.
• Title incongruity. This is a fancy way of saying that non-buyers may be Executive VP’s, but they don’t have any of the normal privileges associated with the title – like the ability to buy. If you sell to banks, large utilities, telecom monopolies, etc., you know exactly what I’m talking about. Every third person is a VP of something.
• CXO’s. Most C-level executives don’t make buying decisions. They don’t have the attention span, time or interest in getting tied up in the majority of purchases. We can invest ginormous (remember, it’s a real word) amounts of time getting to C-levels only to find they have no interest in getting involved.

2 Sales Tips To Help Us Limit Black Holes
1. Ask the following potent question early in the selling cycle, “Besides yourself, who else is involved in the buying decision?”

This question is powerful. It strips out the pride issue because it assumes the person we’re addressing has buying authority. This question can only be answered in one of two ways:

• “No one else is involved.” If he or she is telling the truth, you’ve found a decision maker.
• “I’ll have to run this by…” You’ve probably found a recommender, information gatherer or influencer when you hear this.

2. Qualify the opportunity from all dimensions. We’re always in a better position to identify decision makers when we’ve done our homework on budget, competitors, timeframe, legal issues, product fit, etc.

The Single Biggest Problem
When we find ourselves in a situation where we’ve been pursuing the wrong person (i.e. recommender, information gatherer or influencer), it’s usually a result of our not assertively asking enough questions up front.

If we’re afraid to ask the questions that need to be asked, we increase our odds of heading down the spiral of a selling black hole.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Find a New Sales Job

We tend to treat our prospect funnels like a one-way street. We assume all prospects move in one direction.

New Opportunity -> Contact -> Opportunity Analysis -> Proposal -> Ready-to-Buy -> Customer

When we think this way, we can waste time and miss opportunities.

Funnel Fundamental #1
We hate the idea of taking prospects out of our funnel. We hate it because we like having a plethora of prospects and we don’t like giving up on them.

However, there is no such thing as a permanent prospect. If they haven’t moved forward for months and months, move on to new opportunities.

There is a time to remove a prospect from our funnel. Depending on the situation, we might want to openly tell the prospect why we have taken this action.  Frequently, and surprisingly, this will actually serve to get the prospect off the dime and get things going again.

Prospect hoarding is not selling.

Funnel Fundamental #2
Prospects can change their status – in all directions – when they’re in our funnel.

• They can change from a ready-to-buy to an opportunity analysis status.
• They can morph from a proposal stage back to starting over with a new decision maker.
• Etc.

They’re going to move according to their needs, not ours.

We’re in danger when we don’t recognize a change of status. For example, we can push too hard on a prospect we think is ready-to-buy when they’ve moved back to wanting us to submit an updated proposal. Because we continue to treat them as if they’re ready-to-buy, we mishandle the sales process and lose the opportunity.

Funnel Fundamental #3
How do we know when the status of a prospect has changed?

The biggest determinant of a prospect’s status is their behavior, not what they say. What they say means nothing.

We have to keep our eyes on what they are doing. Are they getting back with us? Are they being proactive? Do they have some skin in the game?

Conclusions
Sometimes it’s smart to do a stop-loss on our prospects and discard them from our funnel.

Prospects don’t move in one direction within our funnel. They can change their status in unexpected ways. Not recognizing this can cause us to botch opportunities because we’re operating under erroneous assumptions.

Finally, we must continually keep our eye on the behavior of prospects in order to accurately assess their status once they take up residence in our funnel.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Find a New Sales Job

There are a million myths about the selling profession. What’s most frustrating is that many “sales trainers” dole these out as quality sales tips.

Here are 10 of my not-so-favorites presented in no particular order.

Myth #1
Salespeople lie more than buyers. The math on this one is simple. A sales professional has a lot more to lose by lying than a buyer. As an example, I’ve asked dozens of professional buyers if they’ve ever lied about pricing. I haven’t found any who said they hadn’t engaged in this practice. A salesperson would be committing sales suicide to lie about a price.

Myth #2
The internet will replace all sales professionals. Ever see a website find a decision maker or uncover a prospect’s budget? How about discovering a buying time frame or learning about the competitive landscape?

Myth #3
Ninety-two percent of our communication with customers is through body language. If this were true, then phones, emails, text messages, marketing collateral, etc. would be virtually useless.

Myth #4
If you can just get your foot in the door, you’re halfway there. If this is how you get an audience with prospects, you’ve already alienated them. They aren’t listening to a word you’re saying either.

Myth #5
ABC (Always Be Closing). People are hardwired to resist being pushed. Push enough and they’ll run – and not toward you. The close is merely the final and natural step in a well-orchestrated sales process.

Myth #6
People buy on price. Price is always a consideration, but it actually ranks number five for buyers in study after study. Availability, risk, service and quality are more important to a buyer than price. Buyers ask about availability and price because we can immediately give them hard numbers on these items. Risk, service and quality are learned through relationship and time.

Myth #7
There is a stereotypical sales personality. If that were true, a pre-hire sales test would exist that could effectively weed out the non-sales types. There isn’t such a test (i.e. one that works) because all successful sales professionals are different.

Myth #8
Sales professionals only care about making money. Studies show that income ranks below a number of other factors such as job satisfaction and professional growth for sales professionals just as it does for people in other occupations.

Myth #9
Sales is just a game of numbers. This might have been true 15+ years ago – but not today. Sales is an information and relationship game. Quality, not quantity.

Myth #10
Working for the best vendor or supplier means you’ll win the sale. Creating a relationship with a prospect that is based on your good character and work ethic gets the business. Besides, the prospect decides who is the best vendor.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer