The Sales Handicapper

Win Early

Thanks for the inspiration Jessica (@jessicahagy)

 

 

Five Most Important Sales Questions - where are "you" in their sales process

Sorry this post is so late. Life got in the way.  Thanks for understanding.

We're finishing our deep dive in the Five Most Important Sales Questions.  We've determined that budget is the most important question, decision criteria is the hardest to get a straight answer to; who else are you involving in the decision is the most sensitive and where they are in their decision process is the primary driver of your sales tactics.  But,

    5.  Where are "you" in their decision process...

...can mean the difference between you selling them or making them sell you.  If you're early (or better yet, first) then the normal tactics you've developed can be applied.  If you're late, then all the best tactics for selling won't work.  You may have to resort to having them sell you.

So, what does that mean? If you find out you're late to the game, all the positioning of your unique value will be viewed as defensive.  Everything you say or do will be met with the proverbial, "yeah, ok, but that is no different than the other Nth companies who want my business".  So, if you're really honest with yourself you'll admit that you're behind and playing catch up.  You can't win because the deck is already stacked against you.  For every minute lost trying to go through the normal motions with this prospect, your next big sale is being positioned away from you by the person who got there before you.

If you've qualified the prospect with the other four questions and you truly believe your solution is their last, best hope for success, then you're left with no alternative but to make them sell you on why you should continue to fight what appears to so obviously be a losing battle.  This may sound counter intuitive, but I have used it many times and I can assure you it works.  

How does this work?  One key thing to remember, if you know you're late then so does your prospect. So, you have nothing to lose by saying something like,

•  "hey, I think we both know I'm late to the game, so if you were me, would you even bother to keep trying?" Or, 
• "given how late we are to the game, and given that all of us competing for your business can deliver about 85-90% the same things, what is the 10-15% you REALLY want me to focus on so we're not wasting each other's time? Or,
• "you know, if you think you've already made your decision or at least have seen and heard all you need to, then it's perfectly OK to tell me and we can call it day".

Now I know these may sound weird, but if you say them with true sincerity and transparency, the prospect will appreciate it and most likely give you an opening you could drive a truck through.  If you try and fake it or are not truly vulnerable to the possible outcome, then the prospect will see through you, right to your competitor.  

But remember, if you go looking for the "no" then you have to be prepared to take it. But, if you're truly late to the game, then unless you are delusional, you've lost before you start so you may as well start at the end; and have them sell you on why you should continue selling to them.

NOTE:  If you want to learn the most powerful "late to the game" approach ever, then email me with your contact information and I will share it in a brief phone call.  Sharing it in an email is not an option because the effectiveness lies equally in the delivery as well as the message.  The only condition is that if you use it, you will let me know how it worked.

 

Five Most Important Sales Questions - Where is the prospect in their process

 

We're continuing our deep dive in the Five Most Important Sales Questions.  We've determined that budget is the most important question, decision criteria is the hardest to get a straight answer to and who else are you involving in the decision is the most sensitive.  But, 

4.  Where are you (the prospect) in your decision process?

...drives your tactical sales approach. If you're late to their process your options are much more limited than if you're early. And, if your are not early, you're late!  There is no middle.  There is no even playing field.  If you receive an RFP the same time as everyone else (and you didn't write it), you're late.  A very good book on the topic of RFPs; "RFPs Suck..." , by Tom Searcy is a good read for effectively dealing with RFPs.

If you arrive early to their decision process your only goal is to create the decision playing field that all your competitors will have to play on.  Move the decision along as quickly as possible and defend your ground.  It is very important that in creating the playing field you establish only two or three key areas of differentiation that you will defend with your life.  Don't worry if your competitors win on the small stuff. Remember, you don't have to win 100-0, just 51-49.  Read the post on decision criteria for more detail on how to determine what is important.

If you arrive late, then you have no choice but to challenge the key differentiators your competitor(s) has established and do it early and with as much passion and fact (in that order) as you can.  If you're late, all the little wins DON'T MATTER.  Pick the big stuff and go hard.  If you believe an important requirement for success is missing from their decision criteria, then lead with that.  If you can add a new decision criteria to the process then you will win all the small points you'll need.  You'll still have to win on the remaining important NEEDS and WANTS, but you will make up valuable lost time.

Remember, if you begin to see the slightest change in your prospect's behavior in the responsiveness or openess to your questions, then assume something has changed and go back and ask all FIVE questions again.  You can go from early to late with nothing more than a new person being added to the decision process.  Always knowing where they believe they are in their decision process is critical to accurate sales forecasting.  Easy questions such as;

• "Are we still on track for an end of month agreement?"
• "Is installation by the 15th still critical?"
• "I just noticed you got a new SVP.  What impact will that have on your decision timing?"
• "Anything new come up in your procurement process?"

One of the best ways to keep your finger on the pulse of their decision process and timing is to never take your finger off their pulse.  If you own their process and they continue to let you own their process, your odds for winning the business go up measurably.  If you're late, or become late, you either go big or go home.

 

Five Most Important Sales Questions - Decision Makers

We're continuing our deep dive in the Five Most Important Sales Questions.  While budget is the most important question and decision criteria is the hardest to get a straight answer,

3.  Who else are you involving in this decision?

...is the most sensitive, by a lot!   No matter what level of the decision tree you're playing at, there is no full proof way to ask this question and not raise the temperature of your prospect and lower the temperature in the room.

The way I've phrased it above is about the closest I've been able to come up with to quickly get the question out there without making it sound like I'm asking the prospect if they require permission to go to the bathroom.   The question has to be asked quickly, quietly, firmly, but humbly.  If you accomplish that then you have only to deal with the factual response, not the emotional one.  And, by the way, there is only one wrong asnwer to this question: "no one; I am the sole evaluator and decision maker". Unless you're dealing with a sole proprietor who is an only child, with no living relatives and unmarried, that cannot be the correct answer. You must probe deeper and find out who the person or persons are they will seek assistance from.  There will always be at least one more.

You're trying to achieve three primary results from asking this question:

1. Validation that a decision is imminent.  Show me a primary contact who can't quickly share who else will be involved in the decision process and I'll show you a sale that won't happen when they say it will.  If they hem and haw about who else to involve then you MUST GO BACK AND ASK THE BUDGE QUESTION AGAIN.  If money is allocated then everyone knows who has to approve the purchase.  Another reason they may not know, is that you're not at the right level.  Go higher.
2. Information on who they "want" to bring into the decision process and who they "need" to bring in.  That's right, WANT and NEED play a role in this question just as they do in the previous post.  Believe it or not, in this case both are equally important.  The WANTS provide emotional and political cover.  The NEEDS provide business and financial cover.
3. Introduction to the other decision makers.  We all know we are the ones who need to be selling our solutions, not the primary contact.  Making "that" sale may be the most important one of all and the sale will NEVER become personal to the other players without a personal meeting with you.

If new players emerge, then you have to ask all the questions again (and expect different answers).  If your prospect says nothing has changed when a new person enters the process, be sure and probe deep with questions about the new person(s) background, position and role.  Check them out on LinkedIn to see if they have a prior relationship with a competitor, etc.  New players almost always mean change. Don't be lulled to sleep by a primary contact who doesn't know as much as you do about how these decisions get made.

That brings us to the final point.  You should be experienced enough to know who the typical decision makers and influencers are for your solutions and the vertical markets you sell into.  If your prospect leaves someone out, don't be shy about asking, "typically, in companies like yours, the (fill in blank title) usually weighs in on this type of decision.  Is that the case here as well?"  To not ask the question is to set yourself up to be surprised when it's too late to recover.

Remember, while the decision maker question may be the most sensitive to ask, it is also the most valuable one to know the answer to.   What's been your experience?

 

Five Most Important Sales Questions - Decision Criteria

In continuing our deep dive into the Five Most Important Sales Questions we come to:

2.  What are your decision criteria?

While the first question regarding budget is the most important, the decision criteria question is probably the hardest to get a straight answer.  Why?  Because the old adage that people buy on emotion and justify with facts later is true even more today than ever!  Even if the prospect is using a formal RFP process and assuming most of the listed criteria are evenly weighted amongst competitors, winning still comes down to the best story and relationships.

So, how do you make sure you've identified the criteria that will make the MOST difference between winning and losing?  Ask the prospect to clearly define the criteria in two columns; NEED and WANT.  If they can't do that, then assume they're not really serious about buying and go back to the budget question and re-affirm the business need.  If they can differentiate between the two, then quicky review the NEEDS and make sure there are no "knock-out" issues for your company.  If there are none, then focus your time and energy on the WANTS - because that will be where the decision is made!

In reviewing the WANTS, you must address them as if they are NEEDS until the prospect says otherwise. This is very important because assuming the NEEDS are going to be evenly addressed by you and your competitors, the winning difference will be in how many of the WANTS you can deliver that they can't. Also, make sure you also ask "who" has helped determine the NEEDS vs. WANTS.  If it's only your primary contact, be wary.  Just as in real life, WANTS are prioritized by rank (just ask my wife and kids).  If the WANTS are only those of your primary contact (me), you stand much less of a chance winning on them than if they are owned by Power (my wife and kids).  Be sure and probe into "who" owns the wants and whether your primary contact knows the "why" behind the "what".  If they can't sell you on why the item is in the WANT column, then ask to talk to the one who owns it.  If they refuse then ask them if it can be removed from the list.  This will most likely lead to you either speaking to the WANT owner, or discovering that the owner is your primary contact and the WANT is theirs alone. Either way, you have an answer you can act upon.

The interesting thing about NEEDS and WANTS is that oftentimes there is a very fine line separating the two.  If one of their WANTS is one of your unique differentiators, then spend the time to get it moved over to the NEED column.  Why not just leave it where it is? Because the more WANTS they have that are unique to you that you can get moved to the NEEDS column, the more pressure it puts on your competitor(s) to meet the minimum requirements.  CAUTION:  Your competitor(s) is going to try and do the same thing to you.  That leads us to the final point.

The decision criteria question is also the most fluid of the five because the definition of NEEDS and WANTS can change throughout the sales process.  New information offered by you or your competitor(s) may cause the shift of one or more criteria from one column to the other.  That is why you must continuously re-affirm the decision criteria with each interaction you have with the prospect.  Any deviation from the current path requires further review of all FIVE questions to uncover any new decision makers, influencers, criteria or timing.  It also requires re-evaluation of where you may stand in the process.  You may move from first to last in the blink of any eye.

Remember, if you don't take great care in accurately and continuously assessing your prospect's NEEDS vs. WANTS throughout the entire sales process, you'll lose control of the conversation and your prospect will buy someone else's story - and then give you a long list of "facts" as to why you lost.

 

 

Five Most Important Sales Questions - Budget

I've received quite a bit of feedback on the Five Most Important Sales Questions post.  Most have been requests to address each question separately and in more detail.  I'll take them one at a time, so here it goes.

1. Are you budgeted to purchase this year?

Of all the questions, this is the most important (and most obvious).  Regardless of how favorable the responses are to the other four questions, without this question being asked and answered with strong affirmation, nothing else matters.  NOTE: (If they aren't budgeted and you are trying to convince them to re-allocate funds to your solution, then refer to Time, Tools and Talent post.  Today, we are dealing with the situation where your prospect indicates interest and wants you to invest your time and money in selling them.)

The budget question doesn't have to be the first one asked, however.  In fact, in most cases it shouldn't be asked until the question of where "they" are and where "we" are in their budget process have been addressed.  Asking the budget question too early will undermine your credibility.  Plus, when asking the "where" questions, you may discover the true answer to the budget question without having to ask it directly.  But, make no mistake, you have to ask it BEFORE you agree to spend any more of your time or your company's resources in the sales process.

Being budgeted is NOT the same as being in the budget or being proposed for the budget.  What you are trying to determine is if they have both the responsibility and authority to spend the money now and if it is already allocated.  Quite often, we can get caught up in the strong desire of our buyer who has the responsibility for successful "application" of funds, but not the authority to "allocate" them.  Understanding the difference behind the distinction can make a big difference in the quality of your sales pipeline.

There are literally thousands of websites that address the budget (read: price) "objection", but very few that actually address the harder question of whether the person you're talking to can actually spend money so here are a few ways you might ask the budget question:

• Are funds currently allocated for this project/purchase?  (If so, you need to find out under what conditions the funding could be taken away)
• When do you need this up and running?
• Are there any other projects/business goals dependent on this happening now?
• Do you share this budget with anyone else?
• What happens if you don't spend the money this year?

I'm sure there other ways to ask the question directly in order to receive a direct and unequivocal answer.  Don't get too cute and don't forget that once you ask the question, shut up! This is one question where the absence of a strong affirmative response is a negative one.

Time, Tools and Talent - we solve for little else

Time, tools and talent; we solve for little else when trying to sell our products and services.   Not just in today's market, but always.  Our prospects and clients "must" suffer from one or more of the following conditions or we can deliver no real compelling value:

1. They have the human resources (talent) they need, but don't have the tools or time required to address the challenge or opportunity.
2. They have the technology (tools) they need, but don't have the talent and/or time to use them.
3. They have both the tools and talent, but the time required to apply them hasn't been prioritized.

If one, two or all three conditions exist and your product or service aligns with one of more of the conditions, then you have a viable sales opportunity.  If you can't qualify that at least one condition exists, then you have nothing to solve for and should move on to the next opportunity.

The most opportune condition is "talent".  Most companies today are loathe to add "new" headcount unless the need is strategic.  If they are adding "tactical" headcount it's most likely replacing a cost rather than adding a new one.  So, if your product or service is replacing an existing headcount(s), then you have a real opportunity. If your offering addresses a strategic need and can be leveraged by existing headcount, you also have a real opportunity.  However, if your offering will only add new cost at a tactical level, good luck.  Your ROI promise will have to be amazing to win the deal.  Additionally, if your solution can eliminate headcount and deliver incredible returns, then you better be talking to the CEO or it will die an early death.

Solving for "time" is the hardest situation.  Determining what employees spend their time on is a strategic issue, not a tactical one.  It is very easy to get sucked into your buyer's desire to allocate more time to the challenge or opportunity your products or services address.  But you have to be careful.  They aren't spending time now solving that problem for a reason.  Make sure you qualify the condition of "time" very carefully and challenge your prospect's response aggressively.  If you can be sold that the need for more time is mission critical then you have a great opportunity.

Time, tools and talent - we're not solving for cancer, so keep the evaluation of your opportunities simple.  Your prospects will appreciate it.

Cellphone Selling - Words to the Wise

We've all heard these statements before while cellphone selling; "Whoever is calling from their car, please go on mute!"; or, "hey, can you speak louder?  I'm in my car and I can't hear whoever is speaking!"; or, my personal favorite, "Sorry, I'm in the airport and I can't find someplace quiet".  (I'm sure you've got some great lines too and I invite you to share them in the Comments section)

This is not rocket science folks.  We all think that because we are all busy, EVERYONE will give us a pass for being rude and not respecting our prospect's time.  Bad audio on a phone call is like taking a test on a subject you don't know anything about; you eventually complete the test, but most likely won't get the result you desire.

Just remember these words to the wise when cellphone selling, either 1:1 or, God forbid, on a conference call using a web platform (a post for another time).

1. Don't make a sales call from a moving car - no matter what you do, the road noise and cell tower tag will disrupt the call.
2. Even if you stop the car, make sure the air conditioning vents are not pointed right at you (unless you want your prospect to think you really like them)
3. If you're in an airport and you can't find a quiet place to call from, reschedule the call.  Or better yet, plan better and don't schedule or make a sales call when you are going to be rushing around in the airport.  Loud noises will cut your call short anyway due to your prospect's annoyance factor, so don't set yourself up to fail.
4. If you're calling from a public place you are either shouting or speaking too softly for your prospect to hear.  Either way, someone is annoyed.  Get to a "private" place, not just a "quiet" place.
5. Remember, good audio can overcame bad video, but not the other way around.  If you're conducting a sales webcast from your cellphone and PC and your slides are so good they would make Rembrandt weep, but your audio sucks, the call is a waste of time.  You'd be better served using no slides and verbally painting your presentation with a good, clear phone connection.

Being busy and being polite are not mutually exclusive.  Your consideration of your prospect's experience may be just the difference to help you win 51-49. 

The Dangerous Disconnect

No, I'm not talking about what happens when you cross an iPhone 4 with a call to 911.  What I'm talking about will have even more dire consequences.  This disconnect can cost you more than your life; it can cost you your job.  The disconnect I'm referring to happens when you cross a mid-level "innovator" buyer with their own "late follower" company.

How many times have you been able to excite and even sell your prospect (innovator) only to find out later that their company is a "late follower".  At best, the sale stalls.  At worst, it dies.  How do you make sure there is no disconnect between your prospect and their company?  Try these questions early in the selling process:

1. Tell me about the last innovation "you" were able to approve at this company? - If there isn't one or if its was minor, you really have to speak with someone higher up or walk.
2. Who, besides you, thinks this can happen?- You're listening for senior level sponsorship.
3. What are your top 2 goals for the year? - You're listening for either a strong revenue increase or expense reduction (or both).  Emphasis on "strong".  If their goals are not significant, then most likely neither with managements' tolerance for risk.
4. What would keep this from happening? - Your listening for candor in the response.  If your prospect can't give you any definitive reasons then they just don't know what they are because they've never tried anything new.  There are always reasons why something won't get done.  This person is just disconnected from the mother ship.

These questions (along with the ones now popping into your head) presumes you've done your homework already and have a fairly strong read on the company's cultural profile.  If the answers you hear don't indicate a strong connection in your favor, then nothing else you've shared relative to value will matter. Make sure there is no disconnect between your buyer and their employer before forecasting that next big sale or the next disconnect you hear may come from your company cell phone.

Understand the "Third" Currency (and use it wisely)

In the beginning, there was time.  Time was the only "currency" man could allocate or trade (beside manual labor) to achieve his needs and goals.  Somewhere around 2000 BC, the Egyptians invented the second currency; money.  For over 4000 years, these two currencies have really been the only things man has been able to control and trade for personal gain. (Clearly there is much more to this issue, but I'll leave that for others to spend their time on.)

For the last 10 years, for reasons which everyone is aware, a "third" currency has become mainstream; information.  Today, there is a continuous explosion of information being willingly provided by consumers and businesses.  Information is being bartered every nanosecond for goods and services all of the world.  In many cases it has become the predominant currency in use today.

This has never been more true than in today's B2B selling environment.  Our prospects are providing more information about who they are, what they want and what makes them tick (both corporately and personally) than ever before.  What that means is that the more time you make them waste, answering questions for information you should already have, the less money they're going to give you!

ROI now stands for Return on Information.  Be sure you invest your time to not only gather, but also analyze and package the information you find on your prospects and use that insight to share how much more money (read: profit) you're going to make them.  Do this first and well and your very first conversation will yield the greatest ROI you've ever experienced.

How good is your ROI?