B y R o B e R t C a R e y

success

for sales

Blueprint

Sales pros dissect the sales process step-by-step and share their best tips from real-life experience.

Unless you’re inside their heads, nobody really knows the exact moment the customer decides to buy from you. s It

could be when you walk into his office and remind him of his best friend. Or it might not be until she is convinced –

through your powerful presentation skills – that you could make her look like a hero to her boss. The point is, selling is a

process, from initial prospecting all the way through to the follow-up that seals the deal and delivers the goods. s

Here we bring you great ideas and fresh perspectives for each step of the way, all boiled down into a handy blueprint for success.

1. ProspectingThe cardinal rule: Never get complacent, relying only on the usual avenues. “Whenever we hire a rep, the first thing we require is that they list 100 people they have relationships with, from family to friends to people in their community they know even in pass-ing, with whom they could develop their business,” says Andrew Langsam, president of Dynamic Adver-tising Solutions (asi/184666) in Arlington, VA, and Philadelphia. “This way, on day one, they have their very own starting point for reaching out and generat-ing business.”

Think outside the usual business parameters to identify all of your business possibilities, always carry business cards, and ask people in every area of your life to refer you to others. Lilian DeAngelo, owner of Proforma Custom Business Services (asi/490466) in Marietta, GA, broadened her prospect pool just by looking outside the front door of her distribution center. Calling it “business-neighbor prospecting,” she sent a box to the companies that are right in her corporate park, plus those in other complexes around town, with materials introducing her services.

DeAngelo also included a printout from Mapquest.com that shows exactly where her firm is located in relation to that prospect. “I ended with, ‘We should get to know each other better,’” she says. “When they can actually see that you’re right around the corner or just five minutes away, it creates a connection; you

have the shared experience of the town, using some of the same vendors, eating at the same restaurants, hav-ing the kids go to the same schools. Salespeople often overlook the possibilities right under their nose.”

Regardless of the avenue you’re mining at a given moment, your desire to make that prospect’s busi-ness more successful must come through in your interactions. Case in point: DeAngelo recently brought a marketing consultant on a sales call, and afterward he remarked on the excitement he saw in her as she explained her services.

“Showing that passion is a huge key to sales; it’s infectious,” DeAngelo says. “It’s not about being a ‘people person,’ because that doesn’t help in sales as much as some might think. It’s more about being excited about your products and how your efforts will help increase your clients’ revenue. If you learn that difference, you’ll focus on the right things.”

2. QualifyingIf you’re going to expend that much effort on each prospect interaction, it’s imperative that you don’t waste time and energy on those folks who cannot make or influence a buying decision.

Jack Carroll, principal of SalesLinks Inc., finds that asking about the specific problem, need or desire that the contact has in his or her work cuts to the heart of the matter. “If they can’t answer that, you don’t have a legitimate prospect,” he says.

Even if this primary qualification is met and the rep establishes the value of her services, Carroll stresses that the rep must probe further regarding, first, peo-ple. Who is involved in the decision-making process, and what are their roles? There are often multiple decision-makers involved in a sizable sale (marketing, procurement, HR, etc.), each fulfilling a different role that requires different information from you.

Next, ask about the process: How does the organiza-tion make such decisions? What are the steps and pro-cesses? Map it out and get their agreement on the map.

Then, there’s the question of timing. Why are they looking now? When will they be evaluating or buying? How long will it take them once they start? What is the level of urgency? And then there’s the money talk. What’s the budget? Is it approved? Is it adequate, or will they have to get money from new allocations?

There’s one more variable to flesh out: the willing-ness of the prospect to switch vendors. New York-based sales consultant Stephan Schiffman notes that a rep’s biggest competitor is actually the status quo. If a vendor isn’t delivering all that’s desired, many firms think it’s easier to work out the problem with the current vendor than to start from scratch with another. So reps must ask questions that produce information they can use to convince a qualified prospect that switching will not be more costly or time-consuming.

• Broaden your horizons.

• List 100 people you know, even just in passing.

• Do some “business-neighbor” prospecting.

• Ask about specific problems, needs or desires.

• Ask about timing. What is the level of urgency?

• Ask about budget. Is it approved?

Kelley Robertson, head of Robertson Training Group in Burlington, Ontario, suggests asking these open-ended questions: I notice you currently use XYZ Company. How long have you used them, and what do you like most about your working relationship with them? If you could change one aspect about your current arrange-ment, what would it be? What are the most important issues to you in this area of your business?

Cliff Allen, president of software firm Coravue and an electronic marketing expert, says that some-times contacts are simply gathering information to become educated about a product category, but reps assume that they are evaluating products to make a purchasing decision. Those few qualification ques-tions can reveal whether they’re prepared to seek management approval for a purchase. “While the prospect could turn out to be a valuable client in the future, it might be best in the near term for the rep to provide education and information through e-mail and the website,” he says. “When a contact is clearly gathering preliminary information for a project, a friendly e-mail might be all that’s needed to maintain contact for the time being.”

3. BrainstormingWhen a qualified prospect wants to see possible ideas for their program, a rep should keep the ques-

tions coming. “I try to get as much fact-finding done prior to my appointment in terms of what the objec-tive is, who exactly the audience is, what the budget is, plus the desired quality, quantity, and turnaround time,” says Janet Greenberg, president of Star Spe-cialties (asi/334933) in Cherry Hill, NJ. “Even little things like knowing their logo colors really helps a lot. All of this lets me narrow down the universe of vendors I might use.” She also attends various trade shows to find items that would have the highest per-ceived value yet cost no more than the client bud-geted for.

Connie Jones, president of Rimco Marketing Products in Orlando, FL, notes that custom-made products require all of that sleuthing, and then some. “We have to ask what purpose it will be used for, so we know how durable a product we have to create,” she says. “We’re trying to build an idea beyond their original concept; they usually ask for something very simple, but if that’s all they really wanted they wouldn’t need us. So it’s always more time-efficient and less expensive to have details on every aspect of their thinking.” Her offerings will include some simple choices that the client asked for, plus her own next-level ideas.

In short, “This is such a personal process. You might have the best idea, but if the person making

the decision doesn’t like it, or if the idea is outside their corporate culture or personality, you won’t get anywhere,” says Langsam. “So we try to learn as many of those sensibilities as we can up front. It’s not just asking the goals and objectives of the program, but also if they’ve seen anything they liked that would

Reps must ask questions that produce information they can use to convince a

qualified prospect that switching will not be more costly or time-consuming.

sales blueprint

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• Get all the details, such as logo colors and target audience.

• Include what the client has asked for, plus your own next-level ideas.

• Ask about the corporate culture and brand identity.

give us a starting point for their preferences, which makes us both effective and time-efficient. Don’t think you are being a pest by asking lots of questions, and don’t pretend you know everything they need.”

Besides these interactions, reps can use Google to find recent news articles or press releases involving a client in order to get a feel for the direction of that company. Another way to spur creative ideas: Immerse yourself in the client’s industry. One rep for a small firm who landed a trucking company’s safety and performance-recognition programs actually went on an undercover fact-finding mission, conducting surveillance at highway truck stops. The mission: Determine which products were most popular among drivers, and how they used the prod-ucts within their work space – the cab of a big rig.

To garner the full range of possibilities, Amy Kwalwasser, president of Kwalwas-ser Ad Specialties (asi/246663) in Round Rock, TX, investigates trends in the over-all corporate and economic landscape, and even examines retail trends “to see if there are things that are not readily available in our industry that I could adapt,” she says. Other sources she uses: “I rely heavily on ESP to get my thinking going in different directions, and I will also look through a thesaurus to find different meanings or uses of the words that are in the tagline of the client’s program or event, or in their company slogan. And I always add the obvious product ideas to my list so I know I thought of them – and then I ignore them.”

Langsam pushes his reps to refer frequently to catalogs because they have the latest items. “But we make sure to have a sales meeting every week where we’ll brainstorm additional ideas or refine a rep’s ideas for a certain client. There is always one of us who’s done something for a similar type of client or had a simi-lar objective,” he says. “You definitely need to kick ideas around with others; it’s much easier than trying to build something great all on your own.”

4. Presenting Ideas and QuotesThere are competing schools of thought regarding whether to present to a single person or to a group at a client firm. On one hand, if the right people in a group like your ideas, they can persuade oth-ers to go along. On the other hand, “Our con-tacts are often mid-level managers who see this project as a chance to make a positive impact in their company,” Langsam says. “They have to get approval from above, but they want to be seen as the one who provided the idea. And if we are mak-ing them look good, then it’s great for both of us.” So a one-on-one session can be fruitful if you have read the situa-tion correctly.

Once you have the undivided attention of a key contact, “You must be cognizant of today’s budget limits – don’t walk in with a $20,000 idea when they’ve said they have $10,000 to spend,” says DeAngelo. But this does not mean that you shouldn’t try to upsell the client. The key: Bring real numbers into the meeting that prove the added value of the more-expensive option.

DeAngelo recently pitched a commercial-van builder that sought a com-pelling idea for a mailer. Based on previous campaigns where she used per-sonalized URLs, she knew that it would likely boost response rate by as much as 5%. “Personalized URLs are not cheap to do,” she says. “But, when you talk about the additional benefits outweighing the cost, and show them proof, you demonstrate your knowledge as well as your commitment to

• Bring real numbers.

• Show them return.

• Work on your stage presence.

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maximizing their objectives.”But, a standout impression comes not just from

the product, the supporting data and the means of presenting it to the client. It also comes from a rep’s stage presence. Shelly Aberson, president of Aber-son, Narotzky and White (asi/102667) in Westfield, NJ, recently landed a program for a Fortune 100 firm in part by setting up a soap opera-like story that incorporated the challenge that department faced. In the plot, she made her firm the hunk with a heart of gold, who listened carefully and then acted to save the day. “It took me about 30 seconds to set the scene for them, but it warmed them up to me because they saw I understood their needs, and that I would make creative use of the products I brought into the room,” she says. But because people always want to see what is new and hot, she also brings a few of the latest items from trade shows, just in case.

5. Closing the SaleIt might be due to the economy during the past two years, or simply a change in the nature of how deci-sions are made regarding promotional products and campaigns. But, the sales veterans we spoke to all said something like this: The close does not really happen in the presentation meeting any-more. “It’s been a long time since I presented and

came away with an order the same day,” Jones says.Increasingly, reps have had to deal with clients

who aren’t as experienced as their predecessors, “so you end up training and teaching them, and they also have to get approval,” Jones says. As a result, momen-tum for the close has to build all along through the process. “I don’t close hard; it’s always been a consul-tative sale, so by the time we have the product built and we are quoting prices, there is not much left to close,” she adds. Particularly with larger firms, “all you can say is, ‘What more can I give you to help you present this to others? Do you want me to be part of that meeting?’”

The answer to that last question is usually “no,” so Jones makes sure to “present enough options so that when the boss asks my contact ‘what if …’ he or she has an answer,” she says. “And I stress that they can absolutely call me during that meeting if they have a question.”

Similarly, Kwalwasser describes herself as a very laid-back closer. “I try not to consider myself a sales-person in relation to the customer, but a consultant. I don’t have a canned closing speech; I try to listen well so I can figure out where the person is by the questions they ask, and also by the way they answer my questions – not just the words, but whether they are firm or hesitant,” she says. Perhaps the most

important thing: Figuring out whether the primary contact has the power to say “yes” or whether they only have the power to say “no.” From that, she will figure out how to get that person or their boss to feel confident enough in her to say “yes.”

• Build momentum throughout the entire sales process.

• Use a consultative approach.

• Don’t use a canned closing speech.

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sales blueprint

6. Following UpIn light of this environment, it’s most likely that success in finishing a deal will come from the strength of a salesperson’s follow-up. Langsam recom-mends sending an e-mail the same day confirming details of the meeting and thanking the contact for his or her time and confidence in you. What’s more, “Depending on the feeling the rep gets about the meeting, he or she will send a handwritten card,” he says.

But, when it comes to sending a small gift, Langsam is wary. “If you’re asking if we throw a Starbucks card in there too, we don’t, because a lot of our work is government-related, and that stuff can be taken the wrong way.” Instead, the handwritten note is the gesture that he feels gives his firm an opportunity to get in front of the client again, even if they don’t get that particular project.

The good news is that today’s environment is so time-pressed that it gives a rep a built-in reason to stay on top of the client. Before the presentation meet-ing ends, Greenberg asks the best way to make follow-up contact and exactly when the client wants to next communicate “so I don’t make myself a pest,” she says. And if a quick turnaround is necessary, she lays out the timetable for each step and asks if she should initiate contact at a particular time, to avoid rush charges for the client, of course.

Once Kwalwasser knows the project deadline (it’s often an event date), she makes a note in her ACT database to follow up with the contact by e-mail or phone to remind them that the window for producing what they want is closing. “I have no problem leaving detailed phone messages to review steps, ask where they are in the decision-making process, and to say that we only have a few more days before the opportunity to fulfill this is past,” she adds. “Getting a project to go forward is rarely a problem of money; it’s usually a problem of time. But we can use that to gently push them toward a decision.”

If Jones does not hear from a client after a week, she initiates contact to ask if it is still an active project, if it has changed direction or if the order has gone to another firm. “Nobody wants to tell you they gave the order to someone else, so we try to make it easy for them to say, ‘Well, the project took a turn; we’re not going to go the way we originally thought.’” By giving the client a diplomatic way out, Jones makes it possible for them “to turn you down but not feel that they can’t call you when the next project comes up. It’s a lot like a mother with her child,” she says.

When an order does come through and gets fulfilled to everyone’s satisfac-tion, Langsam moves quickly to compound the positive impression and lay the ground for future business: His firm will cater a lunch for 10 or 12 people in the client’s office. Why? “To let the contact be recognized as doing busi-ness with a reputable, caring company. It shows that the person made a good decision,” he says. “It also gives us an opportunity to meet other decision-makers there, so we are building our network and building goodwill. In the event that our primary contact leaves, we now have other contacts there to keep the account going.” s

Robert Carey is a freelance writer based in NY.

• Send a handwritten card.

• Ask the client the best way to follow up, and when.

• Celebrate a successful order with the client.

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