The Salesby5 Blog

Last week, while speaking at NAWBO, I met a lady who wanted help getting more sales by 5 pm. I asked what she was currently doing and she said she was sending letters, cold calling, and emailing everyone. I asked what worked best and she said a little bit of all of that.  She wrote and spoke of what they had to offer.  I advised her to try some different things and gave her examples.  I also asked her to stop telling people what she has to offer and find out how she can help them. She said the gate keeper would never let her though. Ah yes, the beloved gate keeper.  Well, the following has been true for many years but has just gotten more important since September 11th.

The gate keeper is either your best friend or they are your competitor’s best friend. If this person does not give you the time of day, you give it to them. If they are power hungry, and many are, give them power!  How? Ask them to set up your meeting!  Yes, it works over 80% of the time in an internal study done at SalesBy5.  Again, if they want or exude power, give them something to do that is powerful and then give them a reward. Think about having a small backpack of smart weapons. If the gate keeper is having a bad day, what would make them feel better? If they look like they are hungry or thirsty, what would make them feel better?  Many are even told not to go to take a break for the restroom or a call unless they have found a replacement for themselves for that 5 or 10 minutes. Many must eat lunch at their desk. Find out the key to the gate keeper and you just got in the gate.

A wonderful old story from Southwest Air lines executive offices noted that the higher end applicants for Southwest Airlines had to pass the test with the gatekeeper first, before they could be offered the job.  If they upset the gate keeper, they still got an interview but it was cut short depending upon how they treated the gate keeper. In our office, if you make Sarah unhappy, you have made the whole office unhappy, and we do not take kindly to that.

If you try this and have success, please share your story. If you try this and have no success, again, share your story.

Sell everyone!  Decision makers are not who they used to be!

photo by anniebee

 Yesterday was about: seeing. Real matters more than ever before. People have no tolerance for fake.

Today is about how to take see, feel and touch and make it work for you to sell more with less effort by 5pm today.

You have your touch, the feel of your company, and what the customers see down, and you are ready to use this to make a cold call or warm lead work.

FACTS:  The #1 preferred mode of communication by businesses today is email. 67% prefer email versus 29% phone. How do you work this? Ask for a phone meeting via email at a specific time on a specific day with a specific time frame that is short, like 5 minutes. You will be the initiator of the call. By the way, in person meeting are at 10% of preferred communication! Please do not attempt a face-to-face if you want to stand out and sell more with less effort.  Unless you are invited, there is not time to fit you in, unless you stand out and have true benefit. We recommend you do not even ask, instead, intrigue and then be asked! By the way, these numbers will get even more dramatic in the next 5 years and email will come down as will all the others, what will go up?  That is a future blog that is a few weeks off.

Now, when you get your meeting on the phone, get to the point fast.  Use the following approach:
1. We recommend starting with appreciation for the call and a sincere approach that is real,for example “how is your day?” If you can add anything that denotes your life or real personality, it is good to do so.  This is great for warm leads and not for cold. For cold go to 2.

2. Let them know what benefit you offer, that you could solve a problem they might have or have in the future that is different from possible other vendors. Do not mention other vendors, instead focus on extreme clarity of your top two benefits. No more, as you need to focus on a few things. If you have 30, that is not believable today. Focus on one or two.

3. Ending your call quickly or offering to, you need to make sure you the other party sees the benefit, make sure you talk for 2 minutes of the 5 minutes or less and allow plenty of time for questions by them, not you!

4. Ask how they would like you to follow up with them and their preferred means of communication.  This is a forgotten element for most sales people, yet shows respect and eases the new relationship.

5. Follow up with an added benefit; surprise is awesome, find anything from a coupon for their kids to attend a concert for lesser money or news that will benefit them that may not have seen prior!  Introduce them to a vendor that can save them thousands of dollars! Need one? Call Kevin Kemp at (210) 630-2200.  He will save them thousands on their cell phone bills and is a hero of SalesBy5.

Summary: Focus your efforts on real.  Get passionate about what you offer to someone and speak less than you are spoken to by inspiring questions.