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The Basics of Value Selling

2011-11-04T11:44:00.000Z

It's always worth reminding oneself of the basic concepts of selling, and for those new to sales, you can do no better than keep these core 101 principles front and centre when you're out meeting customers:

A few years ago, when theworld of business was gripped by the internet boom, it was fashionable topredict an end to traditional selling done by humans. Michael Dell, to name butone example, was showing the world how to sell complex technology over aninternet site. The tantalizing prospect of doing away with expensive, demandingsalespeople was seriously entertained.

But ten years on,professional selling is just as vital to the conduct of good business as itever was. And over the twenty-five years that I have been selling, the skillsand techniques have evolved with the development of technology and markets, sothat now, it’s a highly sophisticated profession.

It has always surprised and amused me that there are somany business people out there who think selling is a science, and want to find(or be sold) a mechanical formula which will always work. Actually, althoughthere are indeed proven techniques and methods that you can learn, selling ismuch more of an art – it’s about behaviours, emotions, communication andpeople.

Buyers are just people like you and me, and if they areto be persuaded or helped to make a purchase, they have to feel that the result for them will be some kind of positive change– in their lives, or in their company’s life.

It’s amazing how many people think that selling is justabout the product and its price. Offer something with a fancy new feature at anattractive price and it will sell itself. But that’s just marketing, notselling. It completely omits the role that a buyer has in considering howimportant the positive change will be to them – that is, what the value will be of that change. Value isthe most important concept in selling.

It’s highly likely that a positive change is needed orwanted because the customer currently has some kind of problem or difficulty.It’s helpful to think about these problems as business ‘pain’ from which thecustomer seeks some relief. Depending on how painful the problems are, thevalue of solving them will increase, and our opportunity to provide a solutionwill develop.

There are three basic types of value: Financial value is defined in moneyterms, Personal value relates to thebuyer’s own personal agenda or interests, and Business value relates to more general or strategic business aims,not necessarily quantifiable in money terms.

Unless the customer can see that the value of your product or service outweighs its price, they are unlikely to be motivated to buy.

Do these companies have a death-wish?

2009-10-28T12:49:00.003Z

Well, you can't say I don't practice what I preach: I've been putting aside at least two half-days every week recently to get some prospecting and target calling done. And that means spending a few hours relentlessy dialling numbers and making a concerted effort to make contact with the right people in the right organisations, and then have a conversation with them that leads to a next action. We all know how tough it can be to stick at this kind of work and achieve a result, and the major challenge is often overcoming one's own reluctance and fear. But each small success drives you onwards.

Anyway, the point of this post is to wonder aloud whether if some of the companies I am calling, far from needing sales skills training, ought perhaps to go back to very first principles of operating a business at all - because the level of basic human communication at the very first point of contact for any customer, potential customer or partner is in many cases utterly, incredibly awful.

I have half a mind to name & shame a few of these (in all cases, large, often technology) companies: what happens is, you call their main switchboard number and either a) it simply rings for ever and no one picks up or b) it goes straight to a voicemail message to the effect that we can't be bothered to answer the phone, please call back, or leave us a message or c) there isn't even a coherent welcome message , just a standard fob-off generated by an answer machine. One such company, when you call them, routinely answers its main switchboard with the message "This is the general delivery mailbox. Please call back." and hangs you up!

You would think that this kind of thing happens in very rare circumstances, perhaps when the receptionist is in the loo, or the company is about to go bust and they've given up entirely. But no - I made about 40 calls this morning and a good 8-10 of these were to comapnies unable or unwilling to do the most basic thing - answer their phone. The unavoidable impression is that these are organisations so incompetent, so dreadfully dead-beat, that they must be staffed and managed by morons. I just keep thinking, what if were a customer? What if I actually wanted to buy something? I'd be running a mile by now - and we are in tough times, when you'd think every outfit in the land would at least be trying to do its best with the in-bound enquiries through it main phone number. I can only assume that a lot of these companies have simply fired their receptionist, but Jesus, for £50 per week, you can get a virtual PA service to do the job professionally and with minimum setup aggro.

If you are a Sales Director or an MD reading this, I strongly advise you, every so often, to anonymously call your main switchboard number and see what happens. Then call through to your main Sales number. Go on, depress yourself. It is THE most basic thing to get right, and you don't need a training course to know how to do it either.

Right, rant over, I'm off to call up some more companies who think they are so successful they don't even need to answer their phones.

Breaking News - Sales Secrets

2009-06-04T11:36:00.002+01:00

I got one of those calls recently that you dream about, but one that also makes you swallow hard and think about your own abilities and wonder: can I achieve this? The Head of Business Books at the publisher Harper Collins approached me to write a book for them about Sales, and after jumping through a few hoops, digesting the fact that money would not be the prime motivator, and facing up the challenge of a 5 week deadline, I landed the commission. So I've got little time to put pen to paper and come up with 150 pages of sales insights, tips and techniques to help aspiring salespeople, especially those in emerging markets such as India, where the book will be primarily marketed, to hone their skills. I'll keep you updated, and you can follow my progress on Twitter.

For the price of tea and biscuits...

2009-04-09T08:57:00.006+01:00

There's no doubt that if you are engaged in the business of selling at the moment, there's no avoiding a certain level of frustration at every stage. Even with Winston's aphorism ringing in your ears about success being the ablility to meet failure after failure with repeated effort, it can get pretty difficult to keep positive in the face of mass job carnage, ever-decreasing budgets, decision-makers who can't or won't, and executives who are there at their desks one day and gone the next.

It is a strange new world we are dealing with, folks, and none more so than in the area of budgets. In normal times, the client objection that 'We've got no budget for this' was relatively simple to deal with: it often meant that no one in the company had thought about needing a budget for what you are selling, particularly if you were successful with a true 'creative need development' selling style. There would be a bit of internal haggling, existing budgets would need to be revised or reprioritised and the funds would be found. Even if there was literally no budget for something, it was often the case that in a few months or weeks time, new annual or quarterly budgets would again allow the spending to happen. In any case, good value-based selling could help the client build a compelling internal business case to justify finding some money, if enough concrete ROI could be defined - those were the rules of the game, this was the 'natural way of things' in the world of solution selling.

But no more. It would seem that when a client says to us 'I'm sorry, there's no budget for this' they really do now mean that there is literally zero money anywhere to spend on yours or anybody's offering. Anyway, that's the way it often feels right now, but is it really the case? On the surface, it does seem likely that in these market conditions, the customer has literally run out of money to spend on your service or product, and I have been noticing that the more this objection becomes believable, the more that customers are relishing its new-found power against the evil forces of sales darkness. All of a sudden, salespeople are less inclined to fight back against it, and more likely to retire, hurt. This means we are doing less to test this blanket assertion by customers, and the result is carnage in your sales pipeline.

But I think it is more complicated than that. Have your clients really run out of any money to spend on anything discretionary? If so, they are probably about to go bust. And some will be in that position. So move on, and leave them quietly to their sad fate. But all the others are simply hording cash, operating on a slimmed down P&L model, picking and choosing who they tell about existing budgets, or just being more careful, or more political, about where they make invesments. I've come across several blatant, recent examples of this. I'll give you two of them, at opposite ends of the budget scale, if you like.

One company in the Financial Services sector, one of those actually in the news recently for having been a culprit in the bank credit rating fantasy, says it is unable to spend a paltry £7,000 on a discretionary invesment in its best people, for a professional development initiative. But they are quite happy to press ahead with an £18M refurbishment of a new office block they wish to move to in Docklands this year (despite a 20% reduction in their workforce). Quite incomprehensible, until you consider that it is so much easier to pretend to the purveyor of the £7K service that there is no budget, rather than have to cancel an £18M project. Think of all the senior skin in that game. Think of all the top brass who have had a say in the decisions leading up to that office move, and who would now have to admit they cannot achieve it. Those really massive projects will often avoid the chop, simply because they are too big for the client to contemplate stopping in their tracks. Their hubris and desire to avoid embarrassment will translate into a genuine lack of any funds to spend on much smaller things that may have had more business impact for the short-term. A lack of courage at the top will lead to damage to the business at all levels.

The other example is more generally prevalent, and versions of it apply to practically every company out there. It reveals the importance of the relative value of things companies buy, and the lack of proper rigour in budgetary decision making. I have experienced it first-hand, and unless you are selling the really massive projects, you will too. Quite simply, it is the ludicrous claim made by businesses that 'there's no budget' for something like, say, a long-planned training programme or a marketing campaign - that is, things designed to help the business survive. But there continues to be plenty of budget for other things, that are, shall we say, less obviously business critical. Like tea and biscuits. A company I know, who have just cancelled a small investment in training, continue to spend the equivalent amount every month on biscuits for internal meetings. Or how about £3K a month on finger buffet food. Or £8K per quarter on London taxi rides for all executive levels (there's a recession on, get the bus, do a car-share rota, get the tube, ride a bike). Or £200 a month on newspapers to clutter up reception. Or £3K to have someone come and water the office plants for crying out loud. I realise the people who provide these services are in business too, but the point I am making is that few executives are questioning these 'investments' and making a proper, relative value decision before they throw your discretionary marketing service or training programme out of the window. Because they exist below the radar, a whole range of spend is taken for granted.

If you are in the business of providing services or products that have a genuine return on investment - i.e. real business value for companies right now, you are in a fight for survival and a fight for available budgets. And the bad news is that your clients may regard your sophisticated product or service as less important to it than tea and bloody biscuits.

DIY is the Order of the Day

2009-03-08T13:04:00.001Z

I've been spending a quite a bit of time recently with small business owner/managers, independent traders and freelancers of one sort or another, helping them to improve their sales success rates. This came about because we decided to run our first open, public workshop which attracted a number of new business starters, in addition to delegates from established companies. I had been going around the various networking events , breakfast meetings and local business clubs raising the profile of a workshop designed to help business owners generate their own new business leads using the telephone. I noticed a common theme that united these 'Go It Aloners' with their corporate brethren, despite the fact that their respective business challenges, resources and even reasons for being in business were so radically different. It seems that most people in business, of whatever sort or size, will do almost anything at all to avoid having to pick up the phone and make an unsolicited sales call to a prospective customer.

It's been apparent to me for a long time that this is the case in larger corporates, and that seasoned salespeople will enlist the services of outsourced telesales companies in the face of evidence that tells them that the leads they get are far inferior to the leads they could create if they took the job onto their own shoulders, rather than relying on a 19 year old in a basement in Brighton, working for a minimum wage. In many ways, it's completely understandable: they've grafted their way up the greasy sales pole for years, and now that they are finally able to call themselves 'Senior Account Manager' with some degree of credibility, the last thing they expect to be asked to do is to make 'cold calls' - oh, the indignity of it! Plus, of course, they work for companies with Marketing departments and budgets, so it's relatively easy to persuade management that this is a job for someone else, even if that someone else has no experience of their complex solutions, or their markets, or even much experience of how to speak to business decision makers. An industry has been built on the luxury of being able to pay rooms full of students and job-market vagrants £250 per day to make the whole nasty job just go away.......

It's less obvious to see why small business owners and freelancers take the same attitude. In most other respects, independent business people know they have to take on any number of unappealing tasks every week - licking stamps, fixing printers, humping stock, doing the VAT return. But generate new business? Nearly everyone I've met would rather stick pins in their eyes. Or go to a networking club, or spend a small fortune sending out pre-paid postcards, or pay Google £200 a month on AdWords - basically, in fact, do some cheap marketing and wait for the phone to ring. Which it doesn't - not nearly enough, anyway.

This really does puzzle me, because most people who have managed to survive their first 6 months running their own business have a degree of belief, energy and resolve which would lend itself perfectly to the business of growing a pipeline using the phone. All the drive and resilience required to create some really solid results is at their finger-tips, not least the added spur of sheer fear of (total business) failure if the sales dry up, as most of us must recognise in 2009. But I met quite a few chaps and lasses who were quite content to spend serious money on dodgy telesales operations (one had even hired a bored housewife to do it for him). It's funny - most of these folks have stepped up to the challenge of learning many other new skills to run their business - doing the books, figuring out HR issues and legislation, fixing the PC - but I found the suggestion that they could themselves learn the techniques for making successful prospecting calls to new clients tended to produce slight embarrassment: a ready acceptance that it was in principle a terrific thing to do, and probably pretty necessary at the moment, but no inclination whatsoever actually to do it, or learn how to.

I think this has something to do with the fact that the whole idea of 'sales' as a category of business activity has a pretty nasty 'smell' about it for most people without any proper sales background. It comes tainted with all the negative associations of doorstep selling, double-glazing antics and 'wide-boys' who exist, in the public mind, on an even lower social plane than estate agents and traffic wardens. This is a terrible shame, because the art and science of professional selling is a world away from anything remotely dishonest, or deceitful and manipulative - in fact, quite the reverse. As any successful professional salesperson will tell you, it is the scrupulously honest and respectful approach that wins the long-term, lucrative customers, coupled, of course, with a good sprinkling of planning, strategy, technique and emotional intelligence.

I don't know who said it, but the adage "If you want something doing properly, do it yourself" rings true when it comes to generating new business opportunities - no one will do this for your business better than you can, if you bother to learn how. Unlike marketing or graphic design, or building a web site, this is a proactive initiative that anyone can do with just a telephone. It costs virtually nothing, and it is one of the best and quickest ways to learn what it is about your business that needs fixing, and what is so appealing. Do It Yourself in 2009!

Stepping Up to the Challenge

2009-03-08T13:00:00.000Z

Customer Success Story: UNIT 4 Agresso

It’s getting pretty difficult these days to come up with any silver linings in the black clouds that have gathered over our collective heads, as technology companies in particular start to feel the full impact of the economic slowdown, but it is a truth often overlooked that it is in these market conditions that really innovative thinking can have dramatic effects: companies are forced to think much more creatively and consider strategies and tactics that in the good times would have been considered too risky or just plain unnecessary. You might call it another timely reminder that necessity is the mother of invention. It’s certainly the reason why some more aggressively-minded CEOs would consider this recession a chance to build a competitive edge and steal business from lazier rivals. When business is good (and this only becomes obvious in hindsight) it is easy to get complacent and under-invest, particularly in the client-facing and selling parts of the business - even though the funds are there. Paradoxically, when the tough times are upon us, the funds to invest in doing anything new or different have disappeared. This is a Catch 22 that is right now catching out a lot of technology companies.

An exception might be the UNIT 4 Group company Agresso, which is a leading developer of mid-level ERP, Finance and HR systems for more than 2,600 public sector and medium to large enterprises around the world, such as EasyJet, Halcrow and LogicaCMG. The company, headquartered in Bristol, employs over 3,500 staff worldwide, and over 1,000 staff in the UK with more than a third of these in roles with direct, regular customer contact. However, of these, only about 50 staff are in traditional Sales roles; all the rest are in fee-earning consultancy, implementation or project management roles, working with customers in post-sales systems implementation. An obvious and very significant business improvement opportunity presented itself when Anne Bark, Agresso’s Director of Professional Services, came across Redline Associates, a company principally focussed on helping technology companies improve sales performance. Unlike most companies of this type, Redline is not just a sales training outfit, content to deliver training courses to the Sales team. “If you want to make genuine, lasting improvements in sales performance, you also have to pay attention to the behaviours and skills of everyone who comes into contact with your customers, especially project delivery staff, who are guardians of much of the credibility of the solutions you are selling.” says Nick Constable, Redline’s Managing Director. “That means aligning what the professional services people are doing with the sales team’s efforts, and giving them an insight into why the client is spending its money with you. At its simplest, it means training technical people to appreciate the sensitivities of the buying process and not put their foot in it when talking to clients. At a more sophisticated level, it is about helping them to understand value concepts, client motivations and the importance of maintaining often complex relationships, rather than just turning up to offer a technical solution. After all, customers will remain in ‘buying mode’ throughout the implementation of a project and rarely feel ‘sold’ on a system until the ink’s dry on the final acceptance form.”

Anne Bark’s team of over 180 professional services staff attended Redline’s Sales Awareness for Consultants workshop programme throughout 2008. “The Redline programme was delivered to our project managers and consultants in the Professional Services team to help improve their commercial effectiveness and client management skills. The training had an overwhelmingly positive response, with delegates appreciating the relevance of the content to their roles, the depth of experience of the trainer and the enthusiastic, interactive style of the presentation.” says Anne. The training classes were supported with personalised coaching for key members of the team and team leaders. “Changing behaviours for the better doesn’t happen just because someone attended a training course.” says Nick Constable. “Managers and team leaders need to support and re-enforce the adoption of new skills in everyday situations, and the coaching support from us helps the individual feel that they are part of a continuous learning process.“
However, Redline’s approach to sales performance improvement is to ‘treat the whole patient’ and skills development is only a part of the therapy. A typical improvement programme could include the development of a company-wide sales strategy, which complements and involves other business functions, such as HR, Marketing and Finance; a sales management programme to develop performance assessment methods, best practice benchmarks and new processes; and a review of compensation plans and the whole motivation and incentive culture of the company. To this end, Agresso’s Sales and Services management teams are working together to change the way both teams are paid bonuses, in order to encourage co-working and seamless communication with clients. “Redline took a partnership approach to working with us. A lot of ground has been covered, with good concepts implemented for differentiating our approach to client projects and learning to be more aware of sales processes.” concludes Anne Bark.

Into 2009, and Agresso’s sales management team is embarking on a Sales Performance Management programme with Redline Associates, in a concerted effort to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the sales team in the face of renewed challenges in the market. “There’s less business out there now, so smart sales teams need to be raising their game and improving not just their skills, but also their activity levels, attitudes to winning, and they way they work with client-facing colleagues,” comments Nick Constable, “and sales managers generally need to rely less on what the CRM system is telling them and more on their observation of behaviours and communication with salespeople.” Whilst other technology companies shut down on all investment in their people, just at the time when they need to improve the most, Agresso, true to its name, is aggressively pushing forward with a sales improvement programme that is innovative and timely.

2009-02-03T16:42:00.000Z

A One-Day Cold Calling Workshop
How to generate new business using the phone

Picking up the telephone to make a new sales call can be a very daunting experience, but if you know exactly what to say and have planned your approach, the results can be dramatic for your business pipeline! We’re experts in the art of new business prospecting on the phone — and it’s the most cost-effective way of finding more business when times are tough.

We’re running an open, one-day version of our popular Sales Accelerator workshop, designed to help salespeople, business owners and freelancers find and win more new business using the telephone. We'll be getting to grips with these practical techniques:

> How to research the best prospects
> How to find & speak to the right person
> Exactly what to say to create interest and rapport
> How to build meaningful relationships that lead to results
> How to deal with objections, blockers and push-backs
> How to organize & motivate yourself to succeed
> How to double your pipeline!

Dates for these two workshops are now confimed as:
Friday 3rd April and Friday 8th May
in Guildford, probably at the Holiday Inn

Limited delegate spaces available at the Special Offer price of £299 each.

The full agenda for the workshop, booking forms and PayPal payment facility will be up on the website very shortly. In the meantime, you can call or email us to book your place:

Call/email us to book your place!
Phone: 01428 641001
E-mail: bookings@redlineassociates.co.uk

Sales training in a recession

2009-01-16T00:29:00.000Z

Most training is often regarded by FDs and senior people managing a smaller budget as a 'discretionary spend' and one of the first things to get crossed off the list of priority activities. But there's plenty of enlightened managers out there who take a different view when it comes to sales training. And guess what? I agree with them. Here's my persepctive.....

If the outlook feels pretty grim heading into 2009, it’s worth remembering the age-old business principle that you can’t (only) cost-cut your way out of a downturn. In previous recessions, the businesses that continued to do well were those that concentrated their energy and resources on ruthlessly driving the top line – improving their selling effectiveness, working harder to find new customers and taking revenue from lazy rivals, by demonstrating business value rather than just cutting prices and costs.

It’s no different today – the good news is that for companies able to refocus their efforts single-mindedly on the sound principles of professional selling, the opportunities are out there to keep the revenue flowing, and push weaker competitors out of your markets. Yes, there’s less business around, so it’s a question of how hard and skilfully you work to find and win what’s there. That's why proactive sales directors will right now be looking at ways to re-energise their teams, and making a small investment in sales skills training or coaching is one weapon in their arsenal.
Inevitably, the vulgar question of money and budget rears its head.........

Regarding the good old ‘budget’ question: the ‘sales textbooks’ would say that “I haven’t got any budget for this” is either:

An objection about value – i.e. even if it was free, I still wouldn’t do it, because I see no value in it

An objection about price – i.e. if it was free, I would do it immediately, because it is of course important.

I'm going to make the rash assumption that you, dear reader, understand the value of this type of training in principle. So it becomes a question of how to justify the price, compared to other things you are currently spending money on, or losing money on. If we can define the value of it, we can justify the price.

Often, this is a comparative exercise. That is, it is not a question of having no money for anything at all, (if the FD has removed all the teabags from the kitchen, now is a good time to head for the exit) but a question of what we spend the limited funds on, given that we will continue to buy various business services even in a downturn. This is where us in Sales get to have a go at the Marketing Director's budget, among others...

How much is the company still prepared to spend on various nebulous marketing activities, like exhibition stands, mail-shots etc. that generally have a woeful return in terms of quality business leads? Get a fraction of the Marketing Director’s budget diverted towards helping your guys become more effective at finding new business, retaining clients and selling more to existing clients. Far more likely to positively affect the top line. (He might not see it your way though...!)

What other expenditure choices is the company making at the moment? I am willing to bet that you will still be spending tidy sums on all sorts of discretionary things that are not necessarily as important. Often, finding the budget for priorities, as you know, is about making the case to the FD or the MD to take existing money from another budget.

I know I am probably preaching to the converted. The thing is, in this climate, you have to be very precise about making the business case, and that means doing the maths, lining up your ducks and then arguing the case. I used to work for an MD who thought the first thing he should cut when business looked a bit bleak was a few sales heads, 'cos they drive about in Mercs and cost a lot of dough to employ. Needless to say, he was an accountant who looked at everything through a calculator. What he couldn't get his head around was that fewer (well trained)salespeople will normally mean less revenue, which means......oh shit....we better cut more costs then....and so on, spiralling into the void of business doom.