Disappearing Prospects

I was thinking about disappearing prospects. Don't you just hate it when hot prospects suddenly stop returning your call? It's especially hard to deal with when they'd been so eager to move forward with you only weeks before. At first, you assume their lack of responsiveness is an isolated situation that will quickly self-correct. But after repeated failed attempts to connect, you start to question your own sanity.You could have sworn they were interested, but their current behavior indicates otherwise. And, not wanting to appear too desperate or to come across as a real pest, you're stymied in terms of what your next steps should be.Truth be told, they've disappeared into the infamous "Black Hole" - sometimes never to be seen again. Why They Disappeared As a seller, it's always important to analyze what may be causing this behavior before taking action. In my experience, these are the typical reasons why prospects disappear into "The Black Hole."
They're totally swamped. Without a doubt, this is the most common. In virtually every company today, people have way too much to do and not nearly enough time to get it all done. They fully intend to continue the conversation, but not right now.

Priorities changed. This can happen overnight. Changing market conditions, bad 3rd quarter results, and new leadership are just a few of the possible root causes. But when this happens, it's darn near impossible to regain your momentum in the short term.
Lack of urgency. Sometimes sellers confuse a prospect's interest level with a desire to take action today. As such, they share all the glorious details about their offering instead of building a business case for immediate change.
Column fodder. Occasionally prospects just need comparative bids/pricing to justify their decision to go with another company.
They know everything. When prospects feel they have all the information they need, there's literally no reason to talk with you any further.
Different reasons call for different actions. Some you can prevent by doing things differently in your customer interactions. Always be open to this possibility since prevention is your best cure. Others you have no control over.Dealing with “The Black Hole” What can you do when your previously hot-to-trot prospects disappear into "The Black Hole?" When you don't know what's behind their silence, figuring out how to respond can be a dilemma - especially since you don't want to be a pest. Here are some strategies you can use in dealing with "The Black Hole:"
Just keep trying. Realize that prospects expect you to carry the "keep in touch" burden - so do it. It can often take 8-10 contacts before you actually reach them again. Don't panic. This is normal in today's business environment.
Make each connection valuable. Don't just say, "Hi Eric. Just getting back to you as I promised about your xxx decision. If you have any questions, give me a call. Instead, you might say, "Eric, based on our conversation last week, I know how important it is to you to shorten your sales cycle. There's a white paper on our website that addresses this issue. I'll be sending you a link via email shortly."
Have a sense of humor. After 4-5 contacts, leave a funny message such as, "Eric. I know you're swamped. But I also know that shortening your sales cycle is important to you. That's why I keep bugging you. I'm looking forward to FINALLY reconnecting."
Leverage a variety of mediums. Mix up phone calls with emails, mailings, invitations to upcoming events, sending articles, etc. To position yourself as a resource, makes sure each connection educates, informs or adds insights.
Create multiple entry points. Never let one person be your total gateway to a company. Identify and nurture multiple relationships concurrently. When appropriate, reference others you're talking to in your messages/emails.
Re-evaluate your initial connection. How could you increase their urgency? Determine if you're just column fodder? Or, tie your offering more into their business priorities? In way too many cases, sellers have done a product/service dump when talking to prospects. Instead you need to on critical business outcomes and the difference you can make.
Plan your next step now. Never leave a meeting without a homework assignment (for you and/customer) and a firm follow-up appointment scheduled. If they're unwilling to do this, it's an indicator that something may not be quite right - which should prompt you to explore their need and urgency in greater depth.
Let them off the hook. Send an email stating that you thought they were interested, but perhaps you misjudged the situation since you haven't heard back from them in the last 6 weeks. Believe it or not, this strategy often gets a response & an explanation from a prospect who is feeling guilty about not reconnecting.
Reduce your contact frequency. If, after ten touches, you still haven't heard, start contacting them less often. A quarterly schedule might be more appropriate. Or, you might want to keep on top of what's happening in the account and reconnect at a more appropriate time.
By leveraging one or more of these strategies, you'll often be able to re-engage a prospect who has disappeared into "The Black Hole." Not always, but often. And, if you've continually provided value and focused on the impact your offering makes, they'll likely be ready to implement your solution yesterday.

Bully with the Juice

Knowing how to appeal to the “Bully with the Juice” is a mandatory strategy in tough times like these because even though you may win the selection process, you still haven’t won the business. Who is the Bully with the Juice? The Bully with the Juice is the financial decision maker who will ultimately approve the purchase. It’s the person who controls the company’s purse strings. He could be the CFO, VP of finance, VP of purchasing, or even the president. Unfortunately, this person has the economy on his mind and is less likely to approve spending money more than ever.There are many different ways to classify people involved in the selection process during the sales cycle including title, influence, and orientation (technical, business or financial). Another interesting characterization is a person’s insistence that things be done his way. This is called being a “bully.” A bully will get his way at any and all costs. Being a bully is not necessarily a negative term, nor does it mean that the person is physically intimidating. It is simply the description of people who will tenaciously fight for their cause. Another concept by which people can be measured is if they have “juice.” Simply put, juice is leadership, authority, and charisma. During the selection process you will encounter bullies and evaluators with varying degrees of juice. However, only one person within the customer’s organization can be the Bully with the Juice. Even after the vendor selection has been made, releasing the funds must be approved by the ultimate decision-maker, the Bully with the Juice. Single-handedly, he imparts his own will on the selection process and will approve or deny the purchase to be made. The Bully with the Juice is the company’s equivalent of emperor Caesar. Only he can give his thumb up or down on the life-or-death decision to spend the company’s money. So even though you have won the evaluation and the CIO assured that a purchase will be made, you are actually now in the most critical part of the sales process. You must win the approval of the Bully with the Juice.Some people believe that the economy has changed the way products are purchased. People will argue that some purchases are truly made by committee without a Bully with the Juice. While a committee does put more fingerprints of accountability on the product selection, behind every committee (and its creation) is a bully who has the juice. In addition, every committee has to present its recommendation to someone, and that person is the Bully with the Juice. So even if the CIO and CTO are on the selection committee, they still have to sell their project internally to the Bully with the Juice.There are four important rules regarding the Bully who has the Juice. First, if you cannot accurately determine who the Bully with Juice is in your deal and none exists, be prepared for no decision to be made. It takes a Bully with the Juice to make a major software purchase happen. This is a reality in today’s economy. Second, if there is a bully with the juice in your deal and this person will not meet with you, always assume they are aligned with someone else or are against the purchase from being made at all. Therefore, the deal is lost. Third, if a Bully with the Juice does exist but you aren’t able to identify the person, be prepared to lose. You are in a position of extreme risk because you have no idea which economic decision-maker you must win-over. Finally and most importantly, you MUST meet with the Bully with the Juice as early as possible during the selection process! This is the only way to know whether or not a deal really exists.Software salespeople are constantly placed in an environment where they must differentiate themselves and their product from other attention-getting solutions. Under these circumstances, the salesperson’s job is to create a relationship with detractors as well as supporters. Ultimately, there is one person who makes the final decision and truly matters. In today’s economic malaise, it is the Bully with the Juice who reigns supreme.

WHO ARE YOU SELLING TO?

Don't Get Angry, Get Results

Three options for expressing anger

If you're concerned about how to express your anger with your customers, ask yourself which of the following three options would be most likely to yield the best results:

1. Denial.The first option is to deny that you're angry. The problem is, this seldom fools anyone. More importantly, denying anger breaks down trust by making people feel deceived. Remember, most of us are lousy actors, and most of our customers are smart people. Unless your name is Robert De Niro or Meryl Streep, odds are, they'll have a pretty good idea that they're not being told the truth.

2. Acknowledgement.The second option is to acknowledge the anger by saying something like: "Yes, I am very angry." This is preferable to denial, but it can still make the person you're speaking with feel uneasy. Why? Because you're still not stating the whole truth about the real cause of your anger.

3. Verbalization.The third option is the simplest, and also the most effective: acknowledge your anger and verbalize the complete truth. Here's an example: "Yes, I'm angry and upset by this decision, because it means that we won't have enough resources to do the job we agreed to do for you. I'm afraid that if the decision stands, it will negatively affect the outcome of your project, and our future relationship." This way, you're not only being truthful in what you say. You're also allowing others to see what is truly fuelling your anger, so that they will have a better idea of what they can do to help.

Just the facts:

In the final analysis, expressing anger comes down to the same principles that govern the expression of any other emotion: the fine line between honesty and brutality can be walked successfully only by remembering that a customer does not need - or want - to hear all your opinions and perspectives. To stay on the right side of the line, it's important that we recognize and verbalize our emotions, but not dwell on them. Successful sales people understand that they achieve the best results when they limit their communication to the facts and how they feel about them - not their opinions and perceptions.

Breaking out of a Slump

Tips for Breaking out of a Slump, and Getting Back on Track
By Colleen Francis

Sales people who have a poor start at the beginning of a year, often find themselves struggling for the rest of the year to catch up. The good news is, whatever you’re experiencing, we’ve all been there at least once. The bad news is, most of us don’t know exactly how to snap out of a slump, and start making sales.
First – don’t panic! If you’re in panic mode, you can’t be creative, and creativity is exactly what you need right now. Besides, just as dogs can smell fear in humans, prospects can smell desperation in sales people. If you panic, your prospects will sense that you’re desperate, and they’ll avoid you like last night’s leftover Tuna Surprise. Just take a deep breath, stay calm and focus on what needs to be done.
Next, don’t get down on yourself. Think about a time in your past when you were in a similar situation, and how you were able to climb out if it. Focus on that positive experience, instead of focusing on the negative.
Third, don’t get angry. Anger will be misinterpreted by your clients, peers and managers as being emotional or out of control. When you’re in a slump more than at any other time, you need to be totally in control, and assure others around you that you know exactly what to do. Whenever you find yourself becoming angry, try to be as honest as possible, and focus on solutions and options – not on laying blame.

Last but most definitely not least, don’t quit! The worst thing you can do during a slump is to stop trying. The Chicago White Sox were on the verge of a 90-year slump before winning the World Series last year. Yet during that entire period, their team motto stayed the same: “Win, or die trying.” Guess it paid off for them in the end.
Remember: there could be an almost unlimited number of reasons why you’re in a slump. It could be the economy, for example. But even in a poor economy, there are top performing sales people, and those who just scrape by. Admitting that your success is up to you is the first step in getting out of a slump, and getting your career back on track.
To help you snap out of a slump and get your year back on track, try some of the following tips, adapted from the strategies of the Top 10%:
1. Reconnect to your plan.
Review your goals and either recommit to the action plan you set for yourself at the beginning of the year – or create a new one! One client of mine recalculates his plan after every month he doesn’t hit his quota, to ensure his quota for the next month includes both what he was supposed to do PLUS whatever he missed last month. This helps him redefine his actions and gain clarity on exactly how many calls he needs to make, meetings he needs to secure and business he needs to close to get back on track. If you had a really bad month, you could perhaps work your underage into the next 2-3 months to make it more attainable.
2. Get back to basics.
Once, after Tiger Woods had spent hours on the practice green sinking hundreds of puts, a commentator asked him why he was still practicing considering how consistent he had been. Tiger responded: “I don’t like the way the ball is rolling into the cup.” That’s mastering the basics.
As Tiger knows full well, problems aren’t usually caused by something complicated. They’re usually the result of doing the simplest thing just slightly wrong. And more often than not, we know exactly what the problem is. In my experience, for example, slumps are almost always caused by not having enough qualified buyers in the pipeline – in other words, not enough prospecting. If you’re in a slump, start by looking internally, not externally. Remember that the slump is your slump, not someone else’s. Be strong enough to realize this, and take corrective action.
3. Work smarter and harder.
Think of 10 things you could do this week to work more effectively. Then commit to working just a little bit harder until you’re out of this bad spell. So you have to be out of “balance” for a short time. Would you rather that you’re out of balance, or your checkbook? The choice is yours.
4. Get a coach.
Have someone you respect listen to your phone calls, watch you at networking events and evaluate your presentations. This could be a manager, a colleague, a friend or a hired gun. Whoever you choose, ask them to be honest with you, and when they are, do something with the advice they give you.
5. Coach yourself.
Video or audio tape your presentations and calls, and be honest with yourself. Would you buy from you?
6. Change your presentation.
Maybe it’s time to turn your presentation style upside down, or inside out. What you’re doing now obviously isn’t working, so if you want a different result, you have to do something different. Try starting with the end, or in the middle. And while we’re talking about change, everyone should read the cover story of the June 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine: “Change or die.” It’s an excellent article on why change is so hard – yet so necessary.
7. Stay away from life suckers.
You know who they are. The one who lies in wait at the water cooler, just so they can whine, moan and complain to whatever poor, parched soul happens to wander by. The one lurking in the lunchroom way past 1pm to tell you about how nothing is ever right, and they’re always getting the short end of the stick.
When you’ve slept only 4 hours, they were up all night. If you have a stomachache, they’ve got near-fatal food poisoning. When you have a headache, you better believe they’ve got a migraine. Life suckers can’t help you; they have problems of their own.
8. Get to work earlier.
Yes, I know, you’re already screaming at me: “Colleen, I need balance!” Not while you’re in a slump, you don’t. Right now, you’re behind, and you need to do something about it. Only the mediocre use balance as their battle cry during a slump. So suck it up for this short period, and save the balance until you’re back on top.
9. Change your mood.
Listen to your favorite song, comedian or motivational speaker in the car on your way to your next sales meeting. This will help put you into an excellent, upbeat mood when you start your presentation, which will cause you to shine – and your prospect to take a shine to you.
10. Change your environment.
This could be as simple as de-cluttering your office. It’s impossible to feel fresh and excited about what you do if you can’t see your desk. A chaotic work environment will make you depressed to be there, and if you’re depressed to be at work, you won’t snap out of your slump.
Changing your environment could also mean – gasp, yes, it’s true! – taking the day off from selling! If you need motivation, go sit in a coffee shop or someplace with a nice view and read books and articles on positive attitude and self-development. If you need to be re-created, take a hike (literally), and then come back to the office re-energized and ready to take on the world.
Personally, I find that getting away for around 4 days (say, Thursday-Sunday, as I’m doing as I write this to you right now) can dramatically help me to create, re-organize and re-energize. It’s also one of the best ways I know of to avoid another slump in the future.
11. Follow a leader.
Trail the best sales person you know on their calls for a day. See what they’re doing differently than you, and how you can incorporate those ideas in your business. Note that this doesn’t have to be someone from the office. You can learn a lot from watching sales people in other industries, too.
12. Take your boss to work.
Take your boss with you on calls for a week. This will force you to be more prepared and on your best behavior. You’ll also probably receive more feedback than you probably want. Instead of rejecting this feedback, use it to be better.
13. Prove that money can buy a little happiness.
Buy something you can’t afford. This is radical, I know, and not many of you will like this idea or think it’s responsible of me to suggest it. But it works better for me than any other “counter slump maneuver” I know of, so I felt it wouldn’t be right not to at least share the possibility with you.
Of course, I don’t mean racking up all your credit cards to the limit buying gold toilets, and then spending the next twenty years paying them off at 21% interest. What I mean – and what I personally do – is book a first-class trip for 6 months from now. Then, I have to make more sales to earn the money to go. Or book a training class 9 months from now, and again you’ll be motivated to sell more in order to pay for it. I don’t know about you, but for me, the “coming into work early” and all the other hard tasks on this list get a whole lot easier to embrace when I know that I have a trip to Hawaii coming up in a few months, which I really don’t want to cancel.
Having a slump is not the end of the world, so long as it’s short, temporary and you know what to do about it.
Know what motivates you. Be disciplined – it’s the one thing that separates the best from the mediocre – and stay focused on those activities that you know will pull you out of the slump. And remember to keep it all in perspective.
You are responsible for your slump, and only you can change it. But you can change it, and once you accept the fact that you can reverse your fortune, you’ll already be on the road to recovery.

Believe in yourself. I know you can do it.

Filling the Sales Pipeline?

“I have made attempts to contact you to determine if there is a mutual fit between our companies. How would you like for me to follow-up with you going forward?

“I have been working under the assumption that Weiss Communications will be considering _________. Is this still the case? If you are not interested or if there is another person you would like me to follow-up with, please let me know. I certainly do not want to waste your time.”

This is an email I recently received from a sales representative. It’s interesting because this is the first communication that I actually received from this representative. Didn’t recognize the rep’s name. Didn’t recognize the company name. Don’t really know what he’s selling or why I should be interested. And of course, I have heard nothing further from him.

I suppose that if one sent enough emails of this type, eventually someone would respond that they are interested. This strikes me as a very frustrating way to fill a pipeline.

The bottom line is that if you want to be able to sell consistently, if you want to have those million dollar and beyond sales careers, if you want to avoid major frustration and wheel spinning, blanketing the earth with emails, voice mails or even phone calls is not the answer.

The answer is to be highly specific about who your prospect is and why they should buy from you. Far too often when speaking with entrepreneurs, business owners and sales
professionals, I ask them, “Who is your market?” and the response is “Everyone.”

Sorry. “Everyone” is not the answer that will make money for you. Even if “everyone” could use your product/service, (highly unlikely) they would all be buying for different reasons. Your job is to identify those reasons, make sure the reasons correspond with the prospect with whom you are speaking and help your prospect understand that your product/service is the answer to his or her needs, wants and desires.

So here are the questions that you need to ask yourself:

1. What am I selling? What is the value and/or benefit to my customer who buys what I am selling? What is the reason my customer buys? Why should my prospect be interested in
what I am selling? What need, want and/or desire does my product/service satisfy?

2. Out of everyone in the entire world who might purchase my product/service, who is most likely to purchase my product/service? Out of that group, who is most likely to buy a lot of my product/service? And who is most likely to return again and again to buy more of my
product/service?

If you are able to satisfactorily answer these questions, you will be able to spend your time wisely, focusing on prospects who are truly viable. Your selling time will be productive and your numbers will go through the roof.

To your success!

By Wendy Weiss

Think and Grow Sales

Just imagine for a moment that you have perfect sales skills. You know everything there is to know about selling and you know what to do in every sales situation. Now just suppose there is another person selling the identical products and services as you and they too have perfect sales skills.

Who is going to be more successful at selling? The person who is going to be more successful is the one who ‘thinks’ they can. Let me explain this further.

What sets the boundaries of your sales success is you, your thoughts and your beliefs. You can never sell more than the limits/boundaries you have set for yourself. You have thoughts and beliefs about the type and size of the sales you are capabable/deserving of and the amount of sales income you can earn.

So if you think and believe you are capable of earning $100,000 a year, your autopilot system will go into action to make sure you earn that $100,000. If you think you are a $500,000 a year salesperson, your autopilot system will go into action to make sure you take the actions to earn that $500,000. Yes, you may occasionally exceed what you think you are capable of but rest assured your subconscious will go to work to average it all out to what you think you can.

Your thoughts and beliefs are not the truth but you have made them your truth - probably subconsciously - and you will always be loyal to and live up to your truth automatically. All your actions will always be in alignment with making your truth a reality - whether you like it or not. So can you see now that your success at selling is not just about your sales skills?

Your sales success = your sales skills + your thoughts/beliefs.

It is interesting, don’t you think, that most sales training simply focuses on teaching you HOW to sell and how to perfect your sales skills? The false assumption is that to improve your sales success you only need to focus on improving your sales skills. This is only part of the equation.

With respect to selling, there are specific thoughts and beliefs that have a significant impact on your sales success. These are your thoughts and beliefs around: what selling is, who you need to ‘be’ to sell and how successful you think you can be. Your thoughts and beliefs in these areas act as throttles holding you back and there are fairly simple techniques to take these throttles off.

Imagine you have a belief that selling is about convincing/persuading/manipulating someone to buy something they may or may not want. How does that make you feel? Uncomfortable? Resistant to having sales conversations?

Now change that perspective to one where you view selling as having conversations to see if you can help people get what they want. How does this perspective make you feel? Comfortable? More relaxed about having sales conversations?

Where there is resistance there is a throttle. Throttles regulate flow and with respect to selling they regulate the flow/limit of your sales success. With this example, by changing your perspective on what selling is you have effectively released this throttle (resistance) so your sales conversations can now flow more readily. I hope you are getting the concept.

Go in search of all your beliefs and thoughts around sales and look for thoughts and beliefs that cause resistance as you will then have found throttles which are limiting your sales success. Work on releasing these throttles so your sales conversations flow.

At the beginning I said that you unconsciously and automatically live up to the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself with respect to your sales success. Hence it is logical then that the higher the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself, the higher your sales results will be automatically. So if you can remove any throttles you may have around selling, you will automatically raise the boundaries/limits you have set for yourself and you will automatically sell more. It will be automatic. How easy is that?

So forget about trying harder and working harder. Focus instead on lifting your boundaries/limits and watch the quantum leap in your sales happen automatically.

You can really think and grow sales!

by Tessa Stow

In the series of exploring and celebrating the art of selling, We bring you daily articles on different sales methodology, cultures across successful sales teams, Technology updates, changing sales landscape. In a prose very well defined by an anonymous writer (must be a poetic seller)


"I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand. Henceforth will I apply ALL my efforts to become the highest mountain of all and I will strain my potential until it cries for mercy.”



We will soon have a contest to find the best sales strategist........Wait for more it is coming soon your way;