When times are good and business seems to be rolling in so easily that it’s like fruit windfalling from a tree right into your lap, anyone can be successful as a sales person. But when times get tougher from a variety of factors, be it from increasing competition in your space, commoditization, or a tougher economic climate such as we are facing right now, it takes greater tact, strategy, and discipline to continue to acheive success.

Yesterday afternoon I attended part of Brian Carroll’s web clinic. I would have liked to attend the entire thing, but my web connection would not upload for the streaming content, and Tucker duty cut my attendance on the telephone portion short. At the beginning of the call Brian polled his audience comprised of sales and marketing professionals, and the attendees reported the following:

1. 48% are having trouble generating enough leads in the current economy

2. 17% are having trouble identifying/qualifying leads

3. 17% are having trouble nuturing leads

So this is evidence that the remaining fruit is closer to the top of the tree at the present time.

To make matters even worse, Brian also pointed out the following:

1. In this economy, many companies are not finding it cost effective to spend money on lead generation and marketing.

2. Most companies do not have an established standardized process for quantifying/qualifying leads.

3. There is no agreement on what a lead or sales-ready lead is organization wide.

So the remaing fruit on the tree seems even more out of reach… But there is hope! By evolving your sales approach to get to, and more importantly harvest that hard to reach fruit, you can acheive sales success in just about any environment! Here is a brief overview of a few key core principles that I will cover in greater detail in the next few blogs to come:

1. Establish the Zebra Philosophy

Creation of your Zebra, the profile of your perfect prospect, is the first step. Real success happens as you implement the processes that drive the Zebra philosophy.

2. Establish a Culture of Selling Value

Selling based on value is more than just basic return on investment (ROI). Sales people must go beyond ROI to succeed in today’s sales environment.

3. Establish a Culture of Force Success

Force Success means including everything needed for your customer to fulfill the promised project goals, ensuring you deliver effective and consistent results for your customers. Establishing a culture of Force Success enables you to create a reputation for consistently meeting customer expectations.

More to come!

So, you’ve identified Power at your prospect account, and now you’ve got him/her live on the other end of the wire. If you’re not prepared, this would be a perfect time to PANIC!

But let’s suppose that you’ve done your homework and identified ahead of time that Power has several pain point business issues that you can heal for them with your solution. You KNOW you already have what they want and need, now it’s time to communicate it.

First let’s put things in perspective to set the mood… You’ve just sat down to eat dinner with your family, and the door bell rings. Some how your vicious guard dog (read: lovable pet that would lick an intruder to death) was sleeping on the job, and you open the door to find yourself face-to-face with a sales person. Never mind that they might be selling the greatest product in the world that could make you richer, healthier, happier, and better looking. Inevitably you find yourself thinking, ‘How can I get rid of this person as quickly as possible so that I can back to utilizing my valuable time the way I had intended to this evening?’

Now that you’re in the mindset many if not most Power-level contacts will have when you get them on the phone for the first time, unless you’re supernaturally lucky, or you’re going to need a dynamite approach to successfully secure an appointment.

GETTING A MEETING THE ZEBRA WAY

1. Inform Power of your research and communicate the pain points you uncovered. Confirm the existence of these pain points.

2. Confirm that Power cares about these paint point business issues and wants to address them now or soon.

3. Link the paint points to what you’ve done for other customers just like this prospect.

4. Present the prediction of value. (Use those great financials the value model can produce for you — there’s more info about building a value model in Selling to Zebras, and you can find a free template to build your own value model at Zebra U).

5. Verify that the amount of incremental value you can create is enough to be worth it to Power to spend twenty minutes discussing it with you. If it isn’t, get a referral to someone in the organization, perhaps in a different department or at a different level, who would be interested. (If you know that this prospect does suffer from the pain point business issues you solve, there IS another person that will be Power AND will have responsibility for those issues.)

6. Close for a twenty-minute appointment.

Time to share my reflections on the last blog entry, and how they pertain to our sales methodology. Incidentally, this all ties in perfectly to my blog from Friday, August 22 about conducting a successful ‘buying cycle’ that I still wanted to get back to! Must be something about Fridays…

Remove the small stones while SIMULTANEOUSLY taking care of your minutes!

After reflection, I found both of the two metaphors in my previous blog to be quite interrelated in a sales context. In order to be most effective, we must practice techniques that remove the small stones while simultaneously practicing the discipline required to make the most efficient use of our most scarce resource… time.

One of biggest mountains sales people face is conducting a successful buying cycle, and it all begins at the base with lead generation. Three key small stones to successful lead generation:

1. Identify the profile of your perfect prospect and the critical issues your solution addresses (Zebra), so that you can…

2. Get to Power on the telephone, and make your message compelling enough to stand out by… (see Zebra Jeff’s definition of Power near the end of his September 11 blog entry)

3. Helping Power connect the solutions you are selling to the critical issues they need to address in their businesses.

These three small stones account for the main aspects of lead generation, and practicing a disciplined, methodical approach to removing these stones will go a long way towards climbing the summit towards a successful buying cycle. We have thoroughly defined what a Zebra is and detailed how to identify one on our website, and you can even find a free template to create your own by signing up for Zebra U. Further, Jeff has already identified several ways to help make your message to Power compelling in his blog entry on August 27. So… what about actually getting to Power on the telephone?

First, some fun-facts:

1. It usually takes about seven phone calls to talk with an executive at a Global 2000 company.

2. You will be relegated and delegated to the management level that matches the image you project on the telephone when calling upon a prospect.

Indeed, the hardest part of getting a meeting with Power may be just getting him/her on the phone and willing to talk to you. There are books on the market that offer some helpful dos and don’ts, but today, Power is often guarded by an almost impenetrable voice-mail system. Some companies even make you fill out an online vender profile that is fowarded to the purchasing department for screening before they will connect you beyond the switchboard. Suddenly, you’re stuck in purgatory many levels below Power before you’re even out of the gate.

Here are a few steps from the proven approach detailed in our book Selling to Zebras. These techniques were specifically designed to work in today’s highly competitive pursuit for Power’s share of mind:

1. Uncover the names of executives who might be Power (at least three executives to pursue).

2. Send e-mail to at least three potential Power-level contacts to pave the way.

3. In all communications, mention the other two executives your are pursuing.

4. Conduct a voice-mail campaign, leaving something of value with each message.

5. Prepare an executive brief that you can send if necessary.

In the next blog we’ll address the third stone: Helping Power connect the solutions you are selling to the critical issues they need to address in their businesses… aka, ‘what to say to make an impact’ once you get to Power.