Special Speech

I was recently speaking with a mutual friend who has been in
sales for several years about the benefits of CRM. (For the sake
of this newsletter, we’ll call him Jim) Jim was quick to comment
on how he didn’t like any of the current CRM software packages,
and had used several of them for his various employers. Jim told
me how he swore by Outlook and that he had used it for many
years, and had developed such efficiency that every other
solution was less effective for him.

**************************************** We will talk in a few
weeks about how important the CRM system end user experience is
to the success of any CRM deployment, but for today, I would
like to focus on another topic.
****************************************

You see, if “CRM” is only being implemented as a new contact and
appointment manager, then Outlook probably is an appropriate
tool. ACT! is the world’s leading contact manager and there are
tens of thousands around the world that swear by it. These are
both good, solid, workable tools for some remote salespeople.

However, Customer Relationship Management is a much more
comprehensive endeavor than simple contact management, or even
efforts to automate the sales force’s daily activities. It
requires integration of processes, software applications, and
databases.

**************************************** We are now talking
about strategically making the customer experience better,
across the organization…

When they interact with their salesperson… When they call the
finance department… When they need technical support… When
they visit your website… and when they are marketed to.
****************************************

Outlook cannot possibly enable such things, or capture
information to be analyzed.

When I began to dig a little deeper to understand why Jim had
this apprehension and distaste for CRM products, the picture
became a little clearer. You see, he really let me know that his
main problem was not necessarily the CRM products themselves,
but rather the executive team and sales management’s perception
of the system and what is was supposed to do.

Many times, management recognizes the need for CRM. Their
competition is “Implementing CRM”. The press is talking about
CRM. They know that they need to change something, increase
their sales, while reducing costs. But a lot of times, CRM is
reduced to just another contact manager, implemented with three
times as much administration for the sales team, so that
management can see what the heck they are doing. Tough sell? You
bet. Especially to salespeople who are used to working
autonomously, and earning six figures a year.

It is important for executives and senior managers to recognize
that CRM is more than just getting information for themselves.
This is a very critical requirement, and an essential gain for
any implementation. However, we must go back to positioning CRM
as an initiative focused around making the customer experience
better. One of the ways to do this is to arm the people who are
dealing with the customer with relevant, timely, easily
retrievable information. It is also important to empower them
with applications that make it easy for them to enter new
information they discover during their interaction. The next
step, the critical factor we are discussing today is to make
that information available to all parties within the
organization who might be able to take advantage of it -
executives, managers, sales reps, marketing, tech support reps,
finance, customer service, etc.

CRM truly is a mindset. It is the implementation of customer
centric business strategies and processes that are intended to
make the customer feel like they are the company’s first
priority. Implementing these strategies generally require the
proper technology as an enabler to successfully deploy and
implement the new systems and processes.

**************************************** If you missed my
article about customer centricity last month, take the time to
review it here “Why Customer Centricity?”
****************************************

My converation with Jim continued, and went something like this:

BRIAN: “I assume you don’t do any of the order processing, when
your prospects sign a purchase agreement for your products and
services.” JIM: “No, once I receive the signed contract, I fax
that back to headquarters, and they follow up with fulfillment
and billing”

BRIAN: “Are you ever aware of any issues that the customer has
after the order has shipped?” JIM: “Not always. Occasionally,
when they are really mad, or are having serious trouble, I’ll
get a call.”

BRIAN: “Have you ever gone to call on an existing customer, and
walked into a landmine because they have a nagging issue with
your tech support or finance department?” JIM: “Yeah, that
definitiely happens. It would be nice to know ahead of time
somehow, but unless tech support is really proactive and knows
our schedules, they really never notify us, especially because
we are in different timezones”

BRIAN: “So you have no idea what is going on with your customer
with other departments in your company, the other “touch points”
your customer has with your organization?” JIM: “Well, I try and
stay in touch with the customer as much as possible, but no, I
don’t generally know what is going on with them unless there is
a serious issue.”

BRIAN: “Is it fair to say that the rest of your organization
really has no visibility to what is going on with you and the
prospect/customer either?” JIM: “Pretty much. I sent in a report
monthly of my activity to my boss, but that is about it.”

BRIAN: “How about any financial information? Do you have access
to any of that?” JIM: “Quarterly we get a spreadsheet from
corporate. I compare my personal spreadsheet to theirs just to
make sure that my commission is right.”

Perhaps some of you can relate to this situation. It is not that
uncommon, but more and more companies are realizing the benefits
of moving towards being a customer centric organization through
a CRM initiative.

I went on to begin to paint a different picture for Jim about
how his life could be made a lot easier and how he could be more
productive with his time. Below are just 4 ways that integrating
department silos, and disparate applications and data could
improve a salesperson’s life. I could expand and share a similar
list about each end user of a CRM system, but I think that you
can probably draw some conclusions on your own about how
integrating information would help Sales Managers, Customer
Service Personnel, Technical Support representatives, and
Accounts Receivable specialists.

****************************************

1. What if you could turn a quote into an order with the push of
a button, and have it automatically inserted into your
ERP/Financial system? Wouldn’t that cut down on time and errors
spent entering orders in two systems?

2. What if you had visibility about all the open tech support or
other customer service issues that your customer had called
about, and you were able to proactively contact them, instead of
being blindsided when you are trying to sell them additional
products or services? Do you think they might be impressed with
your level of service and attentiveness? Do you think that your
unsolicited follow up might communicate to them that even when
things go wrong, you are truly interested in helping them?

3. What if you had access to see how much a customer had spent
over the past year, the products they had purchased, and whether
they were on time with their payments? Do you think this might
give you increased visibility to who your most valuable
customers are? Do you think it might help prioritze who you
should be calling on?

4. What if you could sort your customers easily by product line,
and easily market to them with complimentary products and
services that you offer? Do you think it might help enhance
collaboration between Sales and Marketing departments in cross
selling efforts? ****************************************

“An effective CRM implementation will have to be able to account
for an entire spectrum of customer-based systems and how they
interact with customers themselves. This is likely to include
conventional personal interactions, paper-based transactions,
Web site browsing, e-commerce, telephone contact or voice/data
interaction via wireless technology. Organizations must be able
to manage and maintain these multiple points of interaction to
say they have an effective CRM system.” says Charles Saunders in
the September 24, 2001 edition of EAI Journal.

Outlook can be effective for managing your day to day tasks. But
how much time is spent on the phone, through email, looking at 4
different spreadsheets to gather fragmented, out of date
information? No wonder so many people are frustrated.

To learn more about how Initium Technology can help integrate
your applications, data, and information silos into an efficient
customer relationship system, please call us at 1-800-250-5732,
or visit our website http://www.initiumtech.com/rfi.htm

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend! Be
sure and take the time to express your love to the special
people in your life!

Kind regards,

Brian Vellmure Initium Technology bvellmure@initiumtech.com

Copyright 2003 Initium, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Here’s an idea on how to make reading the daily newspaper a source for new selling ideas. Make it a point to identify at least one thing that you can use in your business whenever you read the newspaper. There is always great stuff in the sports and business section of most newspapers. Here are some examples.

The words “Blazing Fast” were used in an advertisement. If one of the benefits of your product relates to speed why not kick it up a notch by describing it as “Blazing Fast.”

In an article that talked about fair trade organizations, the headline was “Small Steps Big Impact.” Couldn’t that be reworked to say, “When working with new customers we like to take small steps that create a big impact.” Then proceed to give you potential customer some examples.

In yesterday’s sports section there was an article with the headline, “Speedy adjustments.” If it fits your business you could probably work “Speedy adjustments” into your sales presentation.

Has your company ever dropped the ball? Have you ever experienced delays with new product launches? Have you ever had to deal with products that didn’t live up to everybody’s expectations? Sure who hasn’t. In today’s paper there was a headline “Martha Stewart Living rebounds.” When the problem(s) is fixed you might consider using the word “Rebounds” in your sales presentation to your customer base.

If your company is planning to announce new product introductions you might be able to take a lesson from this headline in today’s business section. “Apple sprouts 4 NEW iPods.”

In today’s sports section there was an article about baseball Hall Of Famer, Johnny Bench, who’s coming to Sarasota to give a speech. The article mentioned how his father told his son that learning how to catch was the shortest route to the major leagues. He also had his son practice throwing 250 feet, from a crouch position, which was more than twice the distance from home plate to second base.

Johnny Bench would later claim he could throw out any runner alive. If you’re in sales you should be able to get a little inspiration from Johnny Bench’s practice routine. What could you prepare and practice that would give you that level of self-confidence?

The world is filled with ideas you can use to grow your business but you have to keep your eyes open to avoid missing them.

Yes indeed - there is news you can use, in your business, in your daily newspaper.

Jim Meisenheimer’s business is your business. His sales techniques and selling skills focus on practical ideas
that get immediate results. You can discover all his secrets by contacting him at (800) 266-1268, e-mail: jim@meisenheimer.com or by visiting his website: http://www.meisenheimer.com

You can also check out his NEW online Sales Effectiveness 360 Assessment at this website: http://www.no-brainersalesprofiles.com

Sales leads are the lifeline of most small business owners, business professionals, and salespeople, especially in B2B marketplaces. Sales managers pressure their staff to get more sales leads and close more sales. But, you cannot close sales, even with the best sales closing techniques, without leads. It all starts with a lead.

So, where do you get sales leads? Where do leads come from? There are plenty of sources for leads with some being better than others. Here is my list of ways to generate sales leads:

Customer Inquiries: A customer inquiry about your product or service is the best source of new business imaginable. The customer has sought you out so you know that he is already interested in your product or service. In this case, it is your job to keep that customer and be sure that he does not look elsewhere. You need to know your product inside out, know the features and benefits, and make sure the prospect likes you. Your closing ratio should be highest with customer inquiries.

Customer Referrals: When a current customer refers a colleague to you it is the same as him vouching for you. There is nothing better than this as a “trust” factor has already been developed. He would not give you a referral if he did not trust you. This is a good reason to ask for testimonials from all your clients. Your closing ratio from customer referrals should be high as well.

Advertising: There are many places where you can advertise your services, some expensive, some cheap, and some free. This includes yellow pages, flyers, and online business directories, classifieds, and websites such as trade-pals.com, craigslist.org, and LinkedIn.com. Your closing ratio should be good with advertising as well.

Cold Calling: Not everybody can cold call well. If you make an attempt at cold calling be prepared to put a lot of time and energy into it and be prepared for a lot of rejection. A lot of busy executives and decision makers are unresponsive to cold calling; it is interruption marketing and that usually doesn’t work out well, especially if you called someone unknowingly that was on a “do not call list.” However, it is still possible to generate some new business through cold calls just make sure that it isn’t the only think you do to generate sales leads. Expect your closing ratio to be quite low with leads generated from cold calling.

Sales Lists: Companies such as InfoUSA, ZapData, and Dun & Bradstreet compile and sell targeted lists of contact names in specific industries, geographic locations, and company sizes of your choice. From this information, you can cold call, email, or do a direct mailing campaign to reach specific executives or decision makers. The closing ratio here should be better than doing random cold calls, but still not as good as direct customer inquiries or business referrals.

Tino Buntic’s website, TradePals provides free B2B and B2C sales leads to entrepreneurs and small business owners across The United States and Canada.

To Keep Growing, Replay The Call - Every Time

Most salespeople continue to make the same mistakes over and over, never recognizing their errors. Therefore, beyond a certain point, they never really get much better at what they do. How can you avoid that trap?

Top salespeople never stop improving because they ‘replay’ every sales call they make.

To continually improve your performance, you need two things. First, you need a systematic, step-by-step approach to planning and conducting the sales call that gives you a clear picture of what the whole process looks like when it’s done right. Second, you need a strategy for critiquing your own performance regularly in light of that ideal approach.

The nine-act structure of Action Selling provides you with the systematic process. And by mentally reviewing your performance in each act after every sales call you make, successful or not, you ensure that you will never stop improving as a sales pro.

Here are some sample questions that top-performing salespeople ask themselves after every sales call:

1. What Commitment Objective did I set for the call? Did I achieve it? If not, what commitment did I gain from the customer and how?

2. Was the person I called upon the ultimate decision maker? If not, did I gain a commitment that will take me closer to that decision maker? Why or why not?

3. What needs did I uncover and agree upon with the customer? Are they needs that will let me differentiate my product?

4. How did I show that my company would be a good match for the customer’s company? Could I have done this better? How?

5. Did I tie the needs that I uncovered to the capabilities of my product? Did I describe my product’s benefits in terms that address those needs specifically and powerfully? How could I have done better?

Objections are the customer’s response to unasked questions. Ask The Best Questions early in the sales call, and customize your presentation so that you’ll hear far fewer objections later. If you do hear an objection late in the call, figure out the question you should have asked and ask it now.

In The Field:

After the conclusion of an Action Selling Sales Training Workshop not long ago, I was approached privately by one of the more mature attendees. “If I had only learned this 30 years ago,” he said ruefully, “my life would be much different today.”

Naturally, I had to ask: “What would be different?” I will never forget his response. “Everything,” he said. “I wouldn’t be working at this stage of my life. This workshop has pointed out so many mistakes that I have been making throughout my sales career. Those errors have hurt my income for 30 years.”

Those may be the saddest words I’ve ever heard. If you have a feeling that you may be repeating the same old mistakes in your sales approach, take charge now.

Duane Sparks is chairman and founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based sales training company that has trained and certified more than 200,000 salespeople in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions.

In a 30-year career as a salesperson and sales manager, Duane has sold products ranging from office equipment to insurance. He was the top salesperson at every company he ever worked for. He developed Action Selling Sales Training while owner of one of the largest computer marketers in the United States. Even in the roaring computer business of the 1980’s, his company grew six times faster than the industry norm, differentiating itself not by the products offered but by the way it sold them. Duane founded The Sales Board in 1990 to teach the skills of Action Selling to others.

Contact The Sales Board for more sales information or sales training that’s been documented and research-proven to help you sell more! 1-800-232-3485

When you become a Master Persuader, you will learn to love objections. You will come to understand that when people voice their objections, it actually indicates interest and shows that they are paying attention to what you are saying. The key to persuasion is anticipating all objections before you hear them. Fielding questions and handling objections can make or break you as a persuader. Such skills will help you in every aspect of your life.

Four different times to handle objections:

1. Before they occur

2. When they occur

3. Later

4. Never

Real Objections Vs False Objections

You have to be able to weed real objections from false objections. People are nice and sometimes won’t tell you the truth. Most people won’t say “I cant afford it.”

1. The first thing is to find out if the objection is something you can solve. Suppose you are negotiating a large office furniture order and the objection comes up about not being able to afford your furniture. You then find out your prospect just declared bankruptcy. Obviously there is nothing you can do or say that will resolve such an objection.

2. Let your prospect state his objection: hear him out completely, without interruption. Wait until he is finished before you say anything. Hold your response until the other person is receptive to what you are about to say. This is the first time your prospect has voiced his objection; he will not listen until he has said what is on his mind.

3. Always ask your prospect to restate or repeat his key points. Every time he replays his objection it becomes clearer in both your minds. Letting him speak, particularly if he is upset, drains emotion from his objection. Allowing him to voice his concerns also gives you time to think about a response and helps you determine his intent in bringing up the objection in the first place.

4. Always compliment your prospect on his objection. As a Master Persuader, you can appreciate a good objection; it dictates the direction in which you should take your presentation. You don’t have to prove you are right 100% of the time. Skillful persuaders will always find some point of agreement. It’s important to recognize the apprehension or objections people have instead of ignoring them.

5. Stay calm. Scientifically proven tests show that calmly stated facts are more effective in getting people to change their minds than are threats and force.

6. Don’t be arrogant or condescending. Show empathy with your prospect’s objection. Let him know others have felt this way. Talk in the third person; use a disinterested party to prove your point. This is why we often use testimonials - to let someone else do the persuading for us.

7. Give the person room to save face. People will often change their minds and agree with you later. Unless your prospect has made a strong stand, leave the door open for him to later agree with you and save face at the same time. It could be that he did not have all the facts, that he misunderstood, or that you didn’t explain everything correctly.

Questioning can also measure the level of receptivity in your prospects. How receptive your audience is correlates with how many questions or statements arise. So what if there are no questions? What do you do? If there are no questions, it could be because the audience needs time to think about what you have just said, they could be afraid to ask because of what others might think, or they just might not be able to think of a good question to ask. Maybe you went on too long or stepped on a sensitive issue. Perhaps the audience has already made up their minds, or maybe they don’t speak English. The best questions draw a person into a conversation and out of being unreceptive. So, it is to your advantage to direct questions at your prospects that will reel them in: What do you think about…? Have you ever thought about…? How do you feel about…? When did you start…? Where did you find…? No matter what, when you get people involved in the process, you will get some objections. The way you handle objections will correlate with how mentally involved people become with your message. The better you become at handling objections, the more persuasive you will become

Conclusion

Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. It is the missing puzzle piece that will crack the code to dramatically increase your income, improve your relationships, and help you get what you want, when you want, and win friends for life. Ask yourself how much money and income you have lost because of your inability to persuade and influence. Think about it. Sure you’ve seen some success, but think of the times you couldn’t get it done. Has there ever been a time when you did not get your point across? Were you unable to convince someone to do something? Have you reached your full potential? Are you able to motivate yourself and others to achieve more and accomplish their goals? What about your relationships? Imagine being able to overcome objections before they happen, know what your prospect is thinking and feeling, feel more confident in your ability to persuade.

Go to http://www.prewealth.com/iq and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis to determine where you rank and what area of the sales cycle you need to improve in order to close every sale! Take your test now at http://www.prewealth.com/iq

Kurt Mortensen teaches over a hundred techniques to give you the ability to effectively work with every customer that walks in your door. Professional success, personal happiness, leadership potential, and income depend on the ability to persuade, influence, and motivate others. Kurt Mortensen’s trademark is Magnetic Persuasion; rather than convincing others, he teaches that you should attract them, just like a magnet attracts metal filings. He teaches that sales have changed and the consumer has become exponentially more skeptical and cynical within the last five years. Most persuaders are using only 2 or 3 persuasion techniques when there are actually 120 available! Learning how to persuade and influence will make the difference between hoping for a better income and having a better income. Go to http://www.prewealth.com/iq and take the free Persuasion IQ analysis.