2006 March | CASKEY

Bryan Neale, Brooke Green,
and Bill Caskey

Value is the relief that your prospect feels when you can find and solve a pain they have.

Excerpt from post on:
December 14th, 2007

Archive for March, 2006

March 28th, 2006 “Safety is the final danger…” --RUMI Every day, a sales professional is faced with danger--not physical danger--emotional danger. Think about it. Fear of rejction. Fear of loss of deals. Fear of ...READ MORE: “Safety is the final danger…”
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

–RUMI

Every day, a sales professional is faced with danger–not physical danger–emotional danger. Think about it. Fear of rejction. Fear of loss of deals. Fear of non-acceptance. You can discount these feelings, but that only serves to make them more paralyzing.

So what? How do you change? Move through them.

We’ve always taught that the way “out of your comfort zone” is to move through the danger. But, that sounds scary. It can be but only if you fail to reconstruct reality.

The reality is that these kinds of dangers won’t kill you. They WILL make you stronger. So how does one reconstruct reality? Simple. Each of these dangers has one thing in common. Do you know what it is?

It has to do with the orientation of your reality. In all of these cases, the dangers are all ME oriented. We are all so concerned with how “we” look, how “we” will be thought of that we get consumed with fear.

No mention is made of the real issue and that is ‘how does our fear affect our prospect?’ A true sales professional is able to ’set the ego aside’ long enough to do what’s right FOR THEIR PROSPECT. Begin a list (yes, another list). On that list, write down how your fear affects your ability to solve the prospect’s problem.

When you take yourself OUT of the equation, you’re left with a “you orientation.” And that, friends is the way to move past your fear and expand your comfort zone.

Easy? Yes. Simple? No. But it’s a start. RUMI was right–safety is a danger. When you feel the fear, you have a choice–shrink to safety–or reconstruct reality to allow you the power to move through it.

Tags: safety is a danger, sales, you orientation
Posted in Favorite Quotes | No Comments »
March 25th, 2006 Rule #23 - Know Upfront… Have an upfront understanding prior to a sales call. I've been called on by a lot of sales people over the years. And few--very few--ever tell ...READ MORE: Rule #23 - Know Upfront…
Saturday, March 25th, 2006

Have an upfront understanding prior to a sales call.

I’ve been called on by a lot of sales people over the years. And few–very few–ever tell me what the call is going to look like. They never send an agenda upfront–they never tell me the process they’ll use–they never tell me what the outcome could be.

Shame…shame…shame….

If you are in professional sales–and make face to face calls on prospects, Rule #23 says, always have an upfront agreement prior to the call. What that means is have a conversation with your prospect on the phone talking about the topics of conversation for the meeting–maybe some of the questions you’ll ask–and maybe what the potential outcomes are (we meet again, we abort the process). Have a “process” agenda.

We always speak the line, “I respect your time,” yet when it comes down to it, very few of us respect our prospect’s time by sharing an agenda for the call, upfront. Do it and watch the level of truthfulness soar.

Tags: agenda, sales call, sales people
Posted in Rules, Tools & Attitudes | No Comments »
March 17th, 2006 Professional Services Sell, Too… "Oh, Bill, we don't sell at our accounting firm. We prefer to wait until the phone rings with referrals. Besides, selling is so unprofessional." Believe it ...READ MORE: Professional Services Sell, Too…
Friday, March 17th, 2006

“Oh, Bill, we don’t sell at our accounting firm. We prefer to wait until the phone rings with referrals. Besides, selling is so unprofessional.”

Believe it or not, I actually heard that once–from a CPA. Absurd I know, but talk to some young attorneys or accountants today, and rarely will they say they’re prepared for selling. It was never taught in grad school–so it must not be important.

In fact the way they get around it is they call it “marketing.” Well let’s set the record straight. Selling is the discipline of communicating your value (solutions) to a potential client with the intent of determining if they have a need for it.

If you’re a professional services deliver (technical / subject matter expert) you sell, every day. Whether it’s talking to new prospects, getting referred by your current clients, uncovering problems your clients have, or getting a fee increase, you are selling.

In my work with services firms, the first thing they must do — and the only point of this message –is reframe the discipline of selling. Right now, you must start thinking of selling as the “finding and solving of problems.”

Once you do that, you will be set free. You won’t have to convince, persuade or defend your price. You’ll be liberated to go out and find problems. If you show up and the prospect loves his current lawyer, has no problems now or doesn’t anticipate problems, then he is not a prospect. And you can leave. Don’t stick around and tell him how great you are and how smart you are (we know you are).

I’ll go even one better than that—articulate that position to your client. Say to him, “I have no idea if I do anything that could be of service to you, but here’s the kind of people we work with–with these issues–do you fit?” It may not be quite that straight, but it’s pretty close.

If you really believe you help your clients solve problems, then you are obligated to ask for referrals. If you don’t, you’ll leave a lot of people on the sidelines, unable to take advantage of your value. You’ll leave them laying in the muck of their own pain.

So you see, it’s time to ask for referrals and go find problems. Stop selling and convincing and start solving. You’ll get paid a lot more for that anyway.

Tags: , communicating your value, referral, selling
Posted in Professional Services | No Comments »
March 14th, 2006 Customer Value Propositions… You've heard me say before that I 'hate the term value propositions.' I just got back from therapy with my advisor where I found out ...READ MORE: Customer Value Propositions…
Tuesday, March 14th, 2006

You’ve heard me say before that I ‘hate the term value propositions.’ I just got back from therapy with my advisor where I found out why I despise the term….and on my desk is the latest Harvard Business Review. You guessed it–a long article on Customer Value Propositions.

You can find it here, although it will cost you a few dollars. It’s probably worth it. HBR March.

Overall, the article makes the case that every company needs constant work on its value propositionn to customers. I concur. Not nearly enough time is spent on this exercise. I see it being an annual topic of a strategic retreat, where several hours should be focused on ‘what our propostion is’ and ‘how has it improved/changed?’ Just think, if you get this right, most selling becomes a piece of cake.

I also like the claim that most value proposotions are full of marketing fluff. As I say to clients, if your value claims are nothing but that–claims–and are not customer centric focused on the customer’s pain or potential, then they will be discounted by your customer. Often it’s more about how they are expressed than it is what they are in the first place.

Where I differ from the article is that they maintain that all of the company value is tied up in the delivery (of products/services and such). I think the value has to start with the sales process itself. If the sales process you’re taking your clients through is not valuable, in and of itself, then why should a customer feel like you’ll bring value after they pay you?

Your sales process, in a B2B environment, should expose shortcomings and problems in how your prospect is doing business now. This happens through the diagnostic you do–through the questions you ask–through who you call on at your prospect company. If your sales process is more intentional and buttoned up, then you (and your customer) will discover those pains better than your competition does. And when you do that, you’ll have the competitive advantage.

Rigorous Honesty

I also think they should have paid more attention to the process you go through to determine your value’s advantage (above competition). They say it’s hard work, and they’re right. But what does that mean?

One must have the orientation of “pain” when they go through the value definition process. One way to do that is to ask two questions: What does my prospect “give up” when they don’t buy at all (when they continue the status quo? ) And, “what do they give up when they decide not to buy from me?” And when you’re answering those questions, rigorous honesty must be the mantra.

If you have a bunch of “yes men” in that meeting, you’ll never get to anything meaningful. One of our clients even had three customers in their ‘value definition’ meetings to help keep them honest. They learned a lot from them–on what was valuable–and what was marketing smoke.

In our flagship product, Selling From Strength, I devote an entire section to ‘fleshing out your value’ so that you are left with words that describe it. A handy tool when you are in a meeting and your prospect says, “so, John, why are you different?”

Tags: sales process, Selling from Strength, value propositions
Posted in Expression of Value | No Comments »
March 13th, 2006 A “Shut Up And Listen” Story… Received this success story from a reader who is a medical sales exec. He had just read an article I published on the 5 Mistakes ...READ MORE: A “Shut Up And Listen” Story…
Monday, March 13th, 2006

Received this success story from a reader who is a medical sales exec. He had just read an article I published on the 5 Mistakes Sales People Make. His lesson was from mistake #1–Shut Up And Listen.

“I attended a trade show recently where I worked our booth for several days. I flatter myself as being a “seasoned problem solving pro”, however, after two days of constantly “throwing up” on customers with the features and benefits of my product, I read your article and changed my approach for the final day of the meeting.

It was unbelievable what problems I discovered when I closed my mouth and opened my mind to their problems. With just asking the simple question, “how do you see this helping you?” a totally different dialogue emerged where the prospect identified problems they were having in how they were currently doing things. The prospect felt better about telling me the truth- no pressure from me. I felt much better because I discovered problems that I never knew our prospects were having. Lesson learned - sales will follow when problems are solved.

Well done. We hear this all of the time…our ego gets in the way of the prospect buying. Selling is simple. Don’t screw it up by overdoing it!

Tags: medical sales, sales, selling is simple
Posted in Communication Skills | No Comments »
March 10th, 2006 Want To Learn Communication? Don’t Watch Bush! I voted for him, but I've never quite seen someone so inept at communicating to people. His poll ratings reflect that--more than they do policy ...READ MORE: Want To Learn Communication? Don’t Watch Bush!
Friday, March 10th, 2006

I voted for him, but I’ve never quite seen someone so inept at communicating to people. His poll ratings reflect that–more than they do policy questions. If he’d have been in my seminar in January in DC and had asked me how to handle the Port deal (Dubai World Ports), here would have been my suggestion. (I know he won’t read this–this is really for you–the advanced seller). By the way, I’m not supporting or in opposition to the port deal. I’m merely pointing out errors in process.

TIP 1. Always say immediately what you’re going to say eventually. You can’t hide from the truth so why bother? Caskey: “GW, go on TV and say, ‘Folks, we are looking for ways to create better inspection at our ports and we are talking with some companies. Yes, we are even talking to some foreign companies. I’ll keep you posted.’”

TIP 2. Keep ‘em posted. When will GW learn that he needs to inform us directly, rather than waiting until the media does it? The media leaves out important information that he could include. But if he can’t sit down and have a discussion with us, with some charts and graphs and graphics (yes, maybe even a PowerPoint), then you can’t blame us for listening to the media. Where else would we go to get our information? Come one George. Keep us posted. Not on spin, but on facts.

TIP 3. Keep the original intent on the table. In sales, whenever we get sidetracked with objections from our prospects, we always go back to the original pain–the orginal intent–why is the customer wanting to solve this problem? He should do the same. “Folks, here is what we found. That in order for us to run our ports effectively and safely–with a maxmimum of protection–we are looking at one of the largest companies in the world–Dubai. Here is why I’m leaning toward them….a), b) and c). Let me give you some of the ports they manage. Let me tell you what I heard when I talked to the countries they worked with. ”

But the bottom line is he didn’t do any of that. Some of you will say, “yes, but he didn’t even know about the port deal.” To which I would say, yeah, right.

Tags: errors in process, sales process
Posted in Communication Skills | 1 Comment »
March 10th, 2006 Rule #9-Stay Behind The Prospect [STAY BEHIND THE PROSPECT] This is part two of many, on Rules we use in our trainnig with business-to-business sales teams. ==================================================================================== This means to be slightly less ...READ MORE: Rule #9-Stay Behind The Prospect
Friday, March 10th, 2006

[STAY BEHIND THE PROSPECT]

This is part two of many, on Rules we use in our trainnig with business-to-business sales teams.

====================================================================================

This means to be slightly less positive than your prospect. This might go against everything you’ve heard about professional sales….”be enthusiastic…it’s contagious.” I don’t find that to be the case.

If you’re going to be Selling From Strength, you have to create space for the prospect to convince you that they have a problem worth solving…and you can’t do that when you’re more positive than they are. If a prospect says, “I’m not sure we’re interested,” you say, “I’m not sure you should be.” If a prospect says, “We already have a current supplier” you say, “Maybe you should stay with them.” If the prospect says,”Your solution is great, I want a proposal by tomorrow” that’s equally as dangerous…especially if it transgresses your process.

Here is where you have to slow them down by getting behind them. ”Wow, that sounds kind of quick…I’m still not sure I fully understand what you’re trying to fix. And if I don’t understand it yet, how am I going to be able to recommend the best solution? Can we take a step back for a moment?”

How is this relevant to me and my business? Mentally check back to the last few calls you made. Did you sound like you were needy for the sale? If you did, then you were too far in front of the process.

My suggestion is to play a game–with yourself. The game is, create the environment where they are convincing you. Afterall, they’re the ones with the problem, so why should you be convincing them to buy?

Tags: business-to-business sales, sales process
Posted in Communication Skills | No Comments »
March 7th, 2006 Rule #12 - No Persuasion This is from my very own Trainer Rule Book. Over the next few days, I'll give you some of the rules we teach our clients ...READ MORE: Rule #12 - No Persuasion
Tuesday, March 7th, 2006

This is from my very own Trainer Rule Book. Over the next few days, I’ll give you some of the rules we teach our clients who ask us to help them grow their business.

[NEVER COERCE PEOPLE PSYCHOLOGICALLY.]

Our freedom is most dear to us. When you, as a sales professional, begin to encroach on that freedom, you become the pain and you won’t make a sale. But the problem is that you won’t make it…not based upon the product or pain…but based on your approach.

Tell people upfront, ”It’s ok if you decide not to pursue this….let me know and I’ll be gone.” Give them an out. They’ll find you’re the only safe person they have to talk to. Stop being a master persuader and start being a master communicator and qualifier. That’s what separates the wannabees from the super achievers. No more persuading and defending.

How is this relevant to me and my business? Take a moment and examine your language in the last customer encounter you had. Was it full of platitudes, claims and opinions? Was it self serving? Or, better, was it real communication–not trying to convince or persuade–but trying to have an honest conversation.

Tags: convince or persuade, sales
Posted in VP of Sales | No Comments »
March 5th, 2006 If You Must Make A Cold Call… As a trainer I get these questions all the time: How do I make a cold call? Should I be making cold calls in the ...READ MORE: If You Must Make A Cold Call…
Sunday, March 5th, 2006

As a trainer I get these questions all the time: How do I make a cold call? Should I be making cold calls in the first place? Do cold calls work?

I must be honest–I hate ‘em. But if you must make cold calls here are some tips I gave to a client last week as he posed the questions above.

[Head Right]. My fave author, Stuart Wilde, says, “expect nothing. Then you’ll never be disappointed.” Cold calls are no exception. Occasionally, I’ll be driving by a new business and I’ll pick up the phone to talk to the CEO, just to keep my skills sharp. My odds grow with my detachment. I have absolutely no expectation of him picking up the phone or inviting me in. When I’m detached I come across differently–and more inviting. Strange paradox isn’t it? Like a friend says, “the best time to get new business is when you don’t need it.”

[Techinque Right]. Be vulnerable. Don’t be so buttoned up. Tell the truth. It’ll set you free. Say, “John, this is a long shot (it is). I saw your name on a list (if you did) and wondered if I should even call you (you probably had this thought). I have no idea if what I do would have any value to you (you don’t at this point so why assume?). Rather than assume it did or didn’t, I thought I’d call you, tell you the kinds of problems we solve and then you tell me if we should talk (pretty vulnerable, isn’t it?).”

[Intent Right]. Your intent on these is to do one thing and one thing only–determine if it makes any sense to talk further. That’s it. It is not to impress him or get him to ask you over. Keep your itent true and you’ll be more attractive if you must make these calls.

If you’re a sales manager overseeing a team making cold calls–and their performance is awful–then check out their intent. If it’s about “getting appointments” or “pleasing the manager” it won’t work.

Better than cold calls…

Even better for your new business development is a good ‘referral program.’ Begin thinking leverage–how do I use my current clients and associates as a sales force? How can I help them refer me to other prospects or other referral partners? Asking those questions–and coming up with answers–will make cold calling irrelevant. But if you must…there you have it….

Tags: cold call, referral program, sales force, sales manager
Posted in Lead Generation | 2 Comments »