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    Home Unlabelled Do NOT qualify another prospect before reading this... Sales and Selling

    Do NOT qualify another prospect before reading this... Sales and Selling

    December 10, 2017

    Do NOT qualify another prospect before reading this... Sales and Selling

    Do NOT qualify another prospect before reading this...

    Posted: 10 Dec 2017 08:20 AM PST

    Hey all, following my first post covering product demos, many people have asked me to write an article covering the essential qualification-call skills that helps me crush quotas. So here is what I came up with/hope you find these tips useful:

    Before the Call

    1. Adopt the Selector Mindset.Think of yourself as a doctor running tests for a unique treatment with amazing benefits. You can only accept patients (clients) that meet certain conditions. Your goal throughout the call is simply to determine whether the prospects meet these conditions. If they do, you award them the privilege of moving down your pipeline by seeing a product demo. This is probably the hardest tip to follow as it can be counterintuitive to the buyer-is-the-selector mindset. But it will go a long way to turning the tables and having the prospect see you as the selector.

    2. Be Prepared to Give an On-the-Fly Demo. If a prospect says you are one of their last demos/they need to make this happen ASAP, or if they are an influencer who will need to sell this internally in order to get other stakeholders to a demo, be prepared for—and open to—a quick walkthrough. Note: if you are an SDR working with Account Executives, always try to have your AE's on Skype/chat so you can quickly message them for availability when needed.

    During the Call

    1. Frame the Conversation. Briefly outline why you are both on this call. Though this may be obvious (they responded to your outbound effort/are your inbound lead, etc), doing this establishes you as the leader in the conversation and creates a favorable context. For example, "Before we jump into this, I'd like to summarize why we are talking: We reached out to you via email because we work with companies in your space and think you might also have a need for our solution. You responded that you're in the market and want to setup a call. So, here we are… Is that a pretty accurate description of why we're talking?"

    2. Cold Read. If the opportunity arises, demonstrate that you are an experienced authority in their field who has high business acumen by cold reading safe assumptions about them and their needs. For example, prospect is a 50-200 size company that just hired a large marketing team and is shopping for a marketing-automation tool. It's safe to assume they are in aggressive expansion mode, your contact was tasked with shortlisting 2-3 vendors, and they are looking to implement ASAP. Even if your assumptions are slightly off, this will give the prospect opportunity to 'correct' you which is a smooth way to get them talking. This tip is especially useful if the prospect is being closed-mouthed and giving one-word responses to qualification questions.

    3. Adopt a Casual Tone. Attempt to keep a pretty casual tone of voice throughout the call, especially if it is with higher-level people at larger companies (translating as a chance for bigger business.) This is a very hard tip to follow, but if you can pull it off, you will be a lot more appealing compared to the super-excited sales person whose excitement over the possibility of a large deal can be off-putting to the prospect.

    4. Ask Smart Questions. One or two very smart open-ended questions is all you need to get their mouths moving for a while. This one tends to do the job: "So, I'd love to hear more about your needs and how you envision a tool like ours helping your team" Bonus: The latter question not only tends to get your prospect talking, but sets them up to speak in future tense about how they envision using a tool like yours. What's better than having a prospect sell themselves on using your product a couple of minutes into the call? ☺

    5. Be Quiet and Listen. Pay close attention to who is doing most of the talking; the prospect—NOT YOU—should be doing most/all of the babbling while you sit back and take notes, with the occasional chiming in or digging deeper when needed.

    6. Artfully Introduce Yourself and Your Company. At some point in the conversation, it will make sense/the prospect will ask you to talk about yourself and your company. It's helpful to do this with an interesting narrative format. For example: "So, John, to give you a little background about myself and my company: I've been in this space for 5 years, I actually heard about this company while I was looking for new marketing tools at my last job; ended up connecting with the CMO and that's how I got here. We've been around since 2010 and we didn't come into existence to re-invent the wheel, rather we found…" The point here is to tell a story.

    7. Level the Playing Field. Shoppers will often try to commoditize you and your product in the subtle form of name-dropping your competitors, and mentioning having several similar meetings set up. They are testing to see if you'll get defensive or thrown off from a mention of competitors or allusion to their buying power, as many salespeople do. Do NOT fall for this. It's perfectly ok to reply with something like "so yeah, you must be exhausted from all those meetings ☺" and move on with the call. By responding in such a manner, you will be perceived as higher value by your prospects.

    8. Get Them to Qualify Themselves to You. Describe an ideal customer that is slightly more successful than your prospect. It often gets them to start explaining why they think they can still be a good fit though not quite your ideal customer, making them do the qualifying. For example: If selling an email marketing tool to a company with a smaller marketing team: "typically our ideal customer has a sizable marketing team already running a significant amount of weekly emails, and is frustrated with the lack of integration and time-intensive manual effort involved. However, we also have customers with smaller teams like yours" Caution: avoid causing offense by saying it gently and casually.

    9. Neutralize the Know-it-All/Free Trial Requestor. If your prospect tells you how they already know everything about your tool, have demoed with your competitors, and just want a free trial and pricing, try something along these lines: "Happy to hear that you did your research, we might be able to arrange a trial and can definitely cover pricing, but first I have to determine if you meet our criteria, as not everyone is a good fit for our solution. So, I need to understand how YOU envision a tool like ours fitting into your current process."

    10. Pay Close attention to Tone and Mood. Throughout the call, notice if your prospect sounds stressed or annoyed and don't be afraid to call them out on it. Here's a way to gently do this: "Hey, John, sounds like you've been through a few of these calls today, am I right☺?" Bonus: if this is their 5th demo of the day and they seem tired of the process, don't hesitate to get straight to the point by asking what they liked and disliked about the previous product demos. You'll be able to position yours differently and be appreciated by busy decision makers.

    11. Be a Smart Wheeler and Dealer. Even if it's clear from the conversation that there is not a fit, try to leverage this interaction towards getting an introduction to another team or a referral to another company that might be a perfect fit.

    12. Do NOT Start Selling. If the prospect asks detailed product questions (that you know can be answered during the demo) do not go into detailed answers. Doing this on an initial call risks diminishing their desire to see the demo later. Keep your responses to simple yes and no, followed by some variation of "that's something we cover in our product demos."

    13. Pay Close Attention to Feature Questions. This is an easy way to determine which of your competitors a prospect is evaluating without having to ask directly. If they ask whether you have the ability to do xyz, you can know there are only one or two major competitors that do. You can even show you are a seasoned pro by mentioning it: "Based on that question it sounds like you just had a demo with competitor X, am I right?"

    Bring it Home

    1. Summarize the Call & Get THEM to Request the Next Step.Recap that you think you have the solution based on the problems they just described, and say you'd be happy to show them how it works so they can make an informed decision. Usually they'll respond excitedly asking for the next step/demo. It's far more effective than asking if they want to move forward.
    2. Do NOT Offer Too Many Scheduling Options. Keep it simple with up to 2-3 choices. Example: "Klara, you have you calendar in front of you? Great, we have some availability this Wednesday at 1pm EST and Thursday around the same time. Works?"
    3. Put Something on the Calendar NOW. If they want a demo, try to not let them leave the call without scheduling something. Even if it's just a placeholder while they sync with their colleagues on a definite date/time. Just having a placeholder is always better then leaving the call with a mere verbal agreement to send over time slots later.
    4. Get Off the Call.Confirm your agreed-to date and time, say something along the lines of "ok so you're all set, hope you're excited, this is something else ☺" then get off the call.
    submitted by /u/B2BVoyager
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    Trying to get an edge to end the year as top rep.

    Posted: 10 Dec 2017 12:10 PM PST

    Hey guys,

    I'm in my second full-year at my company (industrial equipment sales) and have been doing really well. We've had some staffing changes and let some people go since I started last April, and I'm currently neck-and-neck with the only other rep doing inbound work.

    I am about $50k behind our top rep but that distance could be easily closed (~2 moderate deals). We are pushing a new product so a lot of our day-to-day is focused on pumping up pre-orders for it, but their contributions to the total YTD sales and commissions are relatively low.

    Here is the thing with the other guy- he's lazy. He's been top dog by virtue of being with the company so long, that anyone that circles back has probably talked to him previously and is deferred to him if they want to proceed with ordering. He has been coasting off this and it's really frustrating when I'm doing everything I can to try and get an edge on him. He set his own (sale) prices for some equipment when his numbers were down and got a slap on the wrist, but blew me out of the water that month as a result.

    I'm obsessed with outperforming this dude. I'm a competitive guy and this would put me in a great position for my annual review and continuing to grow in my company, as well as saving me from having to listen to his bullshit about being #1 year-in and out.

    Any ideas on how I can edge him out and go into next year on top??? I've already run old salesforce reports and reached out to all existing customers of mine about the new machine and working the leads I have very hard. Any suggestions are welcome.

    submitted by /u/CaptainBumout
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    Construction Sales

    Posted: 10 Dec 2017 11:20 AM PST

    Hello everyone!

    I wanted to see if anyone on here has ever called on job sites(actual construction sites). I sell rigging equipment and am looking for tips/success stories on the best time to call on them, how to approach the contractors, and anything else that might be useful.

    I have found this community to be helpful so far.

    Thanks in advance!

    submitted by /u/cuphead11
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    What has your yearly salary progression been like, since you've been in sales?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 02:09 PM PST

    Would a non English native speaking foreigner be successful in sales in North America?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 09:42 PM PST

    To be a sales, I know that some aspects contribute significantly to your career success, language fluency, culture and even connections. But still I am wondering whether a 1st generation immigrator could survive as an sales in IT industry.

    Thanks

    submitted by /u/zphou
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    Graduating soon and don't know where to start

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 10:57 PM PST

    I am 24 years old and I am graduating with a bachelors in professional sales next fall. I am nervous to go job hunting in the near future because of my limited experience in sales. I have worked the basic high school and college jobs like grocery store clerk, Costco cart guy, and call center sales rep for a couple months. Nothing huge.

    The main sales experience I have is selling pest control door to door for the past couple summers. I make around 40k in the 4 months that I work, which makes me complacent for the rest of the school year. I don't really have a need to work because of the money I make and I like the freedom to focus on school and have fun. I love sales and being able to get paid based on how hard I work. I'm nervous that this type of sale won't relate when I'm trying to find a more normal sales job.

    Questions I have... When companies higher new reps, is door to door sales something companies like? I've heard both good and bad. What experience should I try to gain right out of college? What are some good companies I should apply for with my experience? Are there any red flags I should look for? What is the most profitable type of sales?

    Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure I will have many more questions but these are just what came to mind.

    submitted by /u/Kylekyky
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    Marketing software - Sales tips?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 11:47 PM PST

    Hey guys.

    I have recently spent a couple of months developing a software platform that can potentially help businesses with improving customer retention, driving incremental sales and performing e-mail marketing.

    At this point, the application is completely ready to be used.

    Now, I'm a software engineer with absolutely no sales background. So, marketing/selling this product to prospects is going to be the biggest obstacle in my way.

    That's why I thought I'd reach out to this community and see if I could get some basic tips.

    My potential customers are retail businesses such as massage places, restaurants, bars, cafes, and beauty salons.

    I plan to generate leads by looking up these local businesses in my area, and jump right to picking up the phone and calling them to see if they would be interested in investing in my product. The total investment is less than $1000/year, so this shouldn't break the bank for most of my prospects, of course, assuming that the see the value.

    Alternatively, I could consider creating a landing page to gain some exposure through AdWords, but truthfully, I feel like that route won't be nearly as effective as cold calling or knocking on doors since targeting retail business owners is theoretically quite difficult via keywords alone. Please let me know if you think otherwise.

    Do you guys have any practical tip/advice for me?

    Cheers :)

    submitted by /u/SellSellBoom
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    Is Car Sales still a good career?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 01:54 PM PST

    Thinking of becoming a car salesman for Ford or Chevy, something high volume.

    Is this career path secure with all the buzz about electric cars and ride sharing?

    submitted by /u/MindConqueror
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    What are the best cities for a sales career?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 06:18 PM PST

    I'm interested in getting into sales for a career. Thinking finance, auto sales, SAAS or B2B. I know that this is a noob question but, I searched the sub-reddit and couldn't find anything. Are there some cities that are better for a sales career or does it not matter? I'm in the Philadelphia area right now but, I'm considering relocating to Washington D.C. or New York. I know I can do auto sales anywhere but, I'm thinking moreso for finance or SAAS.

    submitted by /u/an_oxford_man
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    Cold email to pre-IPO companies

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 01:29 PM PST

    I'm a BDR for a big European tech conference, meaning I'm trying to get appointments with potential sponsors/partners. Companies that are highly likely to be interested in this, are those that are planning an IPO.

    I have quite a lot of experience with (successful) cold email campaigns, but am struggling to find a good approach to emailing these prospects. Does it make sense to mention the IPO? Or should I stick to my usual, more general cold emails?

    Curious to hear your thoughts!

    submitted by /u/JakobHC
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    Where to get templates like this to make sales?

    Posted: 09 Dec 2017 02:32 PM PST
    Read more
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