Archives for category: Sales
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Wants and Needs

September 29, 2014 //
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One of the first things I learnt in economics was the difference between needs and wants, and how price indices were calculated using a ‘basket’ of essential items, items you needed to buy on a regular basis.

A want is a nice to have. It’s something you’d like, something you may even lust after, but you don’t need it. A need is something you must have, and if you don’t get it, something else you don’t want to happen will happen .

As marketers, we need to develop and highlight products and services that people need. If people want them, but don’t need them, we don’t have compelling products or services and we don’t have a sale.

As sales people, we need to create or accentuate need in the minds of the buyers, as they won’t buy unless they have to, unless they need to, unless they see a return on their expenditure or a problem taken away.

We all should gravitate towards needs, scarcity and value. We should eschew wants, dearth, and lack of value.

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

Selling to People Too Busy to Buy From You

September 26, 2014 //
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Even when you’re convinced you have a strong case for your prospect investing in you, it can still be really, really hard to let your prospect know that. These people are so busy it seems they don’t have the time or the inclination to fix the situation by talking with you, and that’s usually because they’re being approach by 19 other people who feel they have the answer to the prospect’s problems.

These people are practically impossible to reach. They don’t take calls, they won’t take meetings, they don’t read your emails, they bin your brochures, they’re ‘in a meeting’ if you call into their office. So how do you get through to them to persuade them that you are one of the 3 things they really must do on a given day?

There are three very important things to bear in mind. Firstly, you have to keep your message succinct. You need to be able to articulate in a clear, understandable fashion what you can do for these people. You will inevitably get their voicemail or their gatekeeper when you call, so you need to crystallise this when you leave your message. After all, you want them to call you back, so if you can’t get to the point quickly, they will never hear it.

For example: ‘Hi Jane, this is Paul Dilger. I can reduce your working week by 5 hours. I know this because it’s what our customers tell us. I need 20 minutes of your time to prove it to you. You can call me back on 12345678. Thanks for listening.’

Or maybe: ‘Hi Jane, this is Paul Dilger. My research tells me you’re only invoicing 85% of the work you’re actually doing for your clients. I can get that up to 100% within a week with our software. That’s an extra 15% for zero extra effort. You can get me on 12345678 to see how it works. Thanks for listening.’

Secondly, you need to make sure that what you’re selling is a major priority for them. Will it hurt them if they don’t fix it, or can they put up with it? If you’re not important to them, you have no chance.

Thirdly, you have to make it straightforward for them to deal with you, including buying from you. Simplicity is the key. Simple is harder to do, but yields better rewards.

For those with a major thirst for this subject area, there’s plenty of really good stuff written about the methodology of selling to busy people. Jill Konrath‘s SNAP Selling is a good example.

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Categories Marketing, Sales

Nice to Have Means Don’t Have

September 24, 2014 //
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If you’re in marketing and sales, your product will generally be perceived in one of two ways. It’s either a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘must have’. A must have is just that, something your buyer must have, and ideally by a certain time. These are the two conditions of the ‘opportunity’ holy grail known as BANT, where N is need and T is time.

I used to work in the email security business. Talk about a must have product. IT managers would call up on a daily basis either worried about the latest global virus to hit or because their network had just turned toxic from some ‘trojan’ and they didn’t want to be caught again. It wasn’t uncommon to hear them say things like ‘the CEO wants this sorted by the weekend or else, can you help us?’.

A nice to have is something you can live without. It means you don’t have a problem that needs fixing. You can sit on it for a while, do nothing – the secret, sneaky competitor of the sales person – or even try and fix it yourself. The way to figure this out for your product or service is to put yourself in the customers’ shoes and say ‘OK what will happen if we don’t do this?’ If nothing major will happen, you have a nice to have.

If you have a product or service that is perceived to be nice to have, you have no opportunity, you have no sale, you have a problem. Then you need to start building a must have case, such as ROI, TCO (total cost of ownership) or the lost revenues or savings from delaying a decision.

If you have something that people feel they can’t do without, it is indeed a thing of beauty.

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

The Number 1 Rule for Your Website Home Page

September 22, 2014 //
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What’s the number one rule for the home page of your website? It’s a pretty obvious one, but you’d be surprised at how many websites fail when tested against it.

When you go to a website for the first time, you want to know one thing: What do you do?

In other words:

– who are you?

– what do you do?

– how will this benefit me or my company?

This should not be difficult for you to address, regardless of your business.

Put it in a prominent place on your home page – or your landing page for whatever demand generation exercise you’re doing – so people can form a quick opinion as to whether what you have can help them. Otherwise they’ll leave frustrated. Why else do you think people typically abandon a home page way more than 50% of the time?

Don’t forget that you know your company well; how could people not know what you do? But you haven’t seen the website for the first time in a long time…

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy, Technology

Business Skills in Schools

September 17, 2014 //
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As we speak, my son is sampling a range of optional subjects for his new secondary level school. They’re all great subjects, but because of the small size of the school and the teaching abilities of the staff, he will have to make 4 ‘either or’ choices.

One of the either / or choices is business or art. Unfortunately it’s not art in the general sense that we should all strive to be artists, but it’s the painting and drawing variety.

I didn’t have the chance to study business at school. The closest I could get was economics at A level, and I eschewed that unknown quantity for languages, which I liked and was relatively good at. As a consequence I wasn’t exposed to business in any great degree until I got my first job as a college graduate. Of course, some people never brush shoulders with business their entire lives, preferring a life devoted to many of the industries in the pubic sector, like teaching, healthcare, academia and the like.

I think business is a really good idea for kids at school, and why not in primary school as well as secondary? For better or worse our lives are pretty well governed by money, so the sooner kids get their heads around the concepts of money, value, the effect of time on both and managing cash and priorities, the better. It also introduces them to the world of entrepreneurs and being enterprising, which – rather than big business – is the future of work for many of us and gives us control, flexibility and choice, which are all vital to a good quality of life.

Richard Branson has written very recently about the benefits of learning about business in schools and Seth Godin has some very well thought out views on what schools should be getting kids to do. So we’re in pretty good company then. It’s my son’s choice what he takes, and of course I and Mrs D will have some influence, but I hope he chooses business, and does it with artistry.

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Categories General, Marketing, Sales

A Gap in the Market

September 12, 2014 //
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Congratulations, you’ve discovered that great idea that no-one else has thought of. You’ve seen a gap in the market and you’re going to develop your product or service and make the gap yours. It’s your ticket to fame and fortune.

The most important question to ask yourself as you prepare to devote the time and energy to your project is this: there’s a gap in the market, but is there a market in the gap?

You need to estimate your addressable market. How many people – consumers or individual users within your business – are potential buyers of what you’re going to offer? How much would they pay for it? Would they pay on a one-off basis or would they subscribe every year? If it’s a one-off purchase then you’re starting from scratch every January 1st. If it’s a subscription model, then you can already rely on revenues come January 1st. This audience multiplied by the price is your addressable market size.

Now, how much of that market can you win? What’s your realistic market share? This market share is your total revenue from the venture. Is it enough to make it worth your while building your product or service, promoting it, and supporting it when your customers start using it?

If the likely income doesn’t outweigh the likely cost, you don’t have a market in the gap and you need to re-think.

 

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

Give Me Something Meaningful

September 10, 2014 //
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I have a mobile phone subscription, as do many of you I’m sure. My mobile phone company sends me a monthly mid-period statement to my phone of how much stuff I have left, depending on whatever bundle or package I have. I don’t know what my package is exactly. It’s cheap and cheerful, much like its owner.

I’m looking at the statement right now, and I have 98 minutes left across all networks, which is good. I also have 998MB of data left, which presumably means my allocation is a GB, because I don’t use it much outside of a wireless network.

Guess what? It also tells me I have 44,989 texts left this period. Yes, you read that right, 44,989 texts. WTF!! Clearly there is no or negligible cost to the company of processing a text message, and I can send them free with viber and whatsapp, including send photos and movies. But who in the marketing department decided that it would be a good idea a) to place a limit on this, b) to set it at 45,000 texts per month and c) to communicate how many I have left, when if I texted constantly for the period in question, 24/7, I couldn’t get through them all.

Give me something that is meaningful, something that I value. Otherwise you’ll make me angry. And you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

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Categories Customers, Marketing, Sales

It’s Not You, It’s Me

August 27, 2014 //
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A sales proposal is a bit of a misnomer really. It should be called a buy proposal. ‘Here’s how, what, when and why we propose you buy from us.’

I supposed it’s called a sales proposal because most sales proposals start selling from the first line. If you’re not filling in a tender document and are therefore constrained by the order and flow of the information you present, you have 100% control over this document. Sales proposals don’t start with you. They start with your customer.

Next time you write a sales proposal, try this approach:

– First, what is your customer looking to accomplish? What are their goals? They’re not looking to buy what you have, they’re looking for the benefits and achievements that result from buying what you have

– Second, if relevant, what is stopping them from getting to where they want to be? Especially for larger investments, there is usually something that’s stopping them from achieving their goals, otherwise they wouldn’t be spending money with you. There is also an opportunity cost of not fixing the problem if they decide to do nothing

– Third, how have you helped companies with this problem before? Relevant experience in your prospect’s field is very important. They don’t want you learning the job on their time and with their assets

– Fourth, how will what you have uniquely help them achieve their goals? What makes your offering better than the competition, including ‘internal’ or ‘do nothing’ options?

– Fifth, what results will they get from investing in you? You need to demonstrate the planned for value if at all possible

– Sixth, what will this cost them? Simple, clear, unambiguous is the way to go

– Seventh, your call to action. What do you want them to do next? Call you? Have a meeting? Seek further clarification? Place the order? Lead them down the next natural step towards buying from you

The Sales Proposal: here’s what we propose you do, not here’s what we propose we do.

 

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales

But Enough About Me

August 25, 2014 //
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In addition to my sales and marketing consulting work, I do a little bit of mentoring. The companies I work with tend to be either start-up companies looking for the best way to go to market or established companies who want to break into new markets.

I often ask the companies to show me samples of their communications and marketing, or to explain how they approach a sales presentation with prospects and existing customers. Most of them – around 90% I would say – start with themselves. Who they are, what they do, their history, that kind of thing.

It happens a lot, but it’s fundamentally wrong. Everything should start with your customer and their market. Whether you’re hoping to build a relationship, or you’re looking to challenge the assumptions and knowledge of your customer, you always start with them. Their market, their issues, their drivers, their objectives, their barriers, their success factors. If you can’t demonstrate that knowledge, you can’t make a connection, you can’t tell if you can help them, you don’t know if there’s a fit, you don’t earn their respect.

Once you demonstrate that you understand your customers’ pains and requirements, then you can establish how you’ve helped other companies with similar problems and how you’re uniquely placed to help them.

The direction of the dynamic with successful companies is from the customer to them, not from them to the customer. That way you’re not selling to them, you’re guiding them to buy.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales
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