Author Archives: richAdmin

What Happens When a Challenger Sales Rep Meets a Challenger Prospect?

Challenger Sales caught the world’s attention by revealing that most buyers are now almost 60 percent through their order cycle before they talk with a sales rep. Prospects are getting their information independently and access to old-fashioned probing is no longer permitted. These facts are hard to dispute but the conclusions and solutions of Challenger Sales are highly questionable.

The Challenger Sales rep has been profiled as someone strong that will stand his or her ground with a customer. They are known as strong debaters and often have conflicts with other team members in their company. In the Challenger Sales process, sales reps are encouraged to challenge their prospects’ assumptions after they have labored gaining knowledge and making decisions via their research. Challengers then question their prospects’ beliefs by providing “compelling data” to prove them wrong. In the Challenger Sales methodology, the roadmap is taking control by presenting first and asking questions later.

In comes today’s prospect. They can be called the Challenger Prospect. They worked hard independently to gain knowledge. They forged an opinion and believe they are correct and the purchase ownership is theirs, so they feel in control of the experience. Why would we throw a Challenger rep into this scenario? The Challenger Sales rep would be better suited to the prospect of yesteryear that had little information and needed to be led, while today’s prospect might find being challenged a bit unnerving.

The Challenger program contrasts a Challenger Sales rep with what they call the “Social” sales rep. The social sales rep focuses on knowing their prospect, what they buy, and do their best to befriend them. Now, I do not have access to the data used or have the means to validate what the Challenger program used but has there ever been a situation where your solution was better and cheaper yet you still lost to someone who had a better relationship with the prospect? Despite this common scenario, Challenger Sales puts the social sales rep at the other end of the success chart.

I can’t argue with the information presented about our changing prospects but how we treat them can’t be something suited to what worked in the past. How many people, after gathering information and coming to a conclusion, would be open to being challenged? Let’s say you wanted to buy a truck. You searched trucks and decided on a Ford F-10. You went online, picked out your towing package, color and interior and then headed over to the Ford showroom to buy your F-10. The sales rep just finished the Challenger sales book, and in an effort to win the dealership’s Fusion contest, starts telling you that you really don’t need a truck and you should buy a Ford Fusion. As a Challenger Sales rep, he stands his ground and shows you the statistics of how many people buy Ford Fusions to win you over. Does the response, ‘OK’ immediately come to mind?
Now, for all you Challenger Sales zealots, the acid test. You have read the book, completed your information gathering, and reviewed the proof data. You have made up your mind that Challenger Sales is the answer, as is your right to do so. Now I come along, as a Challenger author, stand my ground and challenge that premise. How are you feeling about being challenged?

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

In Search Of The Sales Holy Grail

I often travel throughout the country to work with sales organizations and a common theme seems to be in play. Everyone appears to be looking for that one thing that is going to lift revenue to new heights. People are looking for the Holy Grail of sales tools that is the answer to prayers.

It appears the world of business development has spilled into two camps. On one side of the great divide, we have the traditionalists who seek age-old sales training and selling techniques. Their thinking is that it has always worked so why reinvent the wheel. They seem to be more content with following past processes over getting results. They forget that buyers have changed and how these buyers get their information has changed, locking many of the doors that once had a welcome mat. These die-hard traditionalists have an answer to cold calls that don’t generate results – make more of them. Of course, when the strategy does not work, they seek training from 20-year-old sales manuals to polish their cold calling skills.

On the other side of the great divide, we have the early adopters with their answer to business development. They throw out all of the old selling techniques and believe that social media is the only true modern path to business development. They have even engraved, “Social Selling” on their Holy Grail, as they chase the latest social media platform and abandon the one before. Their battle cry is, “it has to be good – it is new.”

So, who is correct? The answer begins with an understanding that there is no Holy Grail, and as difficult as it is to accept, there is no magic pill and no one silver bullet to effective business development strategy. It is going to take a combination of the correct selling tools to get the job done today. Having an understanding of buyers today and selecting selling tools that are effective with those buyers is one half of the mission. The second half of the mission, an even more important one, is realizing the tools you select are supposed to compliment each other. Selling tools and your processes have to be integrated. You can create and deliver the best presentation of your life, but giving it to a person who has no need for it will result in no sale. Don’t use a great tool to drive an interested party to your website, only to find when they get there it has extinguished their interest because it was designed for your company’s bragging rights instead of being customer-centric.

It’s going to take a holistic approach to business development today and therefore the need for Integrated Social Selling. By social selling I am not talking about the new branding of social media but instead how do we become closer or more social with our prospects and customers. In this age of point and click, are we really working harder to know our prospects and customers and how they buy? Are we working all stages of the sale cycle with the laser focus of purpose and making sure we aren’t unconsciously sabotaging our efforts by ignoring the power of integration? Have we become content in accepting a sales funnel with its 85 percent effort and wasted resources or are we working to widen it into more or a cylinder shape?

Replace your search for the Holy Grail with the knowledge that a holistic, integrated plan is needed. A plan that insures that you have correctly identified your target, selected the correct tools and they are working with each other and not against each other. Do these things and keep a Social Selling Playbook and you will achieve successful business development today using Integrated Social Selling.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

It’s Not the Same Door Your Father Knocked on

Buyers have changed and how they get their information has changed along with how they now want to be treated. Your father worked with a totally different buyer from another generation who is nothing like the buyer of today. So why do sales people today still use the techniques their fathers did? Hockey players understand if you skate to where the puck was, you missed the play, however sales people waste so much time working in the past.

Your father’s prospect invited him in for a chat. They welcomed him with open arms to find out the latest about their industry, new products and services. That is how his prospects gained information. The door you are knocking on has a much different buyer on the other side. Your prospect now gets their information from the Internet and now chats to gain industry knowledge, with their peers via social media. Those open arms your father once saw are now hugging more easily accessible information and the need for that cold call chat is all but non-existent. Even though those doors are now locked and lights are turned off, some sales reps today still pull out their father’s sales manual and continue to wear out their knuckles cold calling until they get frustrated and find another profession or their sales manager convinces them to just cold call more people.

Today, sales reps knocking harder won’t get those doors unlocked and lights turned back on, however they can be personally introduced to this new kind of buyer, from a trusted associate by using Social Selling. Social selling is a Selling in the Now technique, that supports the concept of becoming more “customer intimate” by using social media to gain insight into a prospects industry, buying preferences and get that locked door reopened by using a friendly introduction. A well-orchestrated plan using integrated social selling techniques is more aligned with today’s buyer than how it was done in the past. Your father was smart enough to understand what his prospects wanted to get the opportunity to make sales. It’s time for all of use to do the same thing and start “Selling in the Now”.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Your Customers Should be Building Your Website

This is going to be great, you finally decided to build or rebuild your website. So off you go, searching through the web, looking at other sites to collect great looking ideas. Banners on the top? No, you think down the side looks better. How about color? Your spouse really likes red but blue is more your shade and it will match your logo. How about content, font style and color? You always liked that Century Gothic 12 pitch script. Someone mentioned that everyone is using video, so now you are writing a script about your company, what you do, and then practicing it in front of a mirror. Next, you’re shopping for a web designer because you don’t have a clue how to create that dancing baby you want in the upper right corner of your home page. Now here comes the harsh truth … It maybe your website but it is not about you. It is about your prospects and customers and what they want not what you want. Using your website creation methodology is like going fishing and using your favorite doughnut as bait. I know you really like that glazed chocolate but fish don’t eat doughnuts.

It’s your customers that should be building your website. You should be taking into account what they like to see when they click on your URL. How do you do this? You ask. Ask your current customers what they like most about your company. What sold them on your product or service and what were the most important criteria they used when they decided to do business with you. It’s their comments that will give you clues to who your ideal customers are, and what they are using to make their decisions. If it turns out that service is higher at the top of their list, then a picture depicting a robust service organization might be a better choice than that dancing baby. Smart companies spend more time with their customers than fishing with doughnuts. Your customers can more accurately articulate your value and light the way to others like themselves. Connecting with your customers and prospects, in this way, is an integral part of Social Selling.

Social Selling is all about connecting with people and using those connections efficiently and profitably. When your customer-designed website is used with other social media tools, as part of an Integrated Social Selling Plan, you will not only be on target with your resources but will be using a holistic approach to success.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Breaking the Code for Business Development

It was no secret to companies that measured their ROI on sales performance that only 15% of the prospects they invested money and resources in became customers. It was just something that was expected. If you wanted more customers just pour more into the top of the sales funnel and accept that you would throw away 85 percent of your investment for business development with no return. When the recession hit, companies no longer could survive with such a small ROI and cut back. They cut back support; they cut back advertising and even cut back the sales force.

We are now seeing a slight upturn in the economy and are ready, once again, to return and are forced to accept the fact that 85 percent of what we do will yield nothing. This is the way it has always been so why not just get on with it? But times have changed. How people buy and how they get their information has changed. The good news is that there is also a new change in a methodology that alleviates the need to revisit that black hole of inefficiency. Yes, someone has broken the code. Finally, there is a Selling in the Now technique that will yield a greater return for your sales efforts by following a successful business development process that works in today’s business environment.

Here’s how it works. Why spend time working with people who are not predisposed to buy from you and probably will never buy your product or service. Your potential customers are easily recognizable much like a Zebra amongst a group of other animals. This new process focuses on how to find your Zebra and the efficient methodology to turn them into a valued customer. Think of it as a front end to a CRM system. While a CRM system records efforts, tracks results and allows you to forecasts outcomes, this tool is different. It helps you to find your Zebra and guides you through the sales process to keep you focused and on track. Ironically, this company is called Selling to Zebras. Their expertise is helping you find your ideal customer profile and implement a system that nurtures your prospect into becoming a valued customer.

For more information about Selling to Zebras, they offer a free downloadable book.

Link here to download the ebook Selling to Zebras.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Is Your Social Media a Juggling Act?

No one wants to be left behind without the latest and greatest thing, after all, it has to be good, everyone else is using it. So you run out and sign up for LinkedIn and may have even invested in some training so you can help your business development efforts. Then along comes Twitter, and the crowd roars and you head off in that direction. You get a couple of hashtags and you are off to the races, when someone tells you about Adwords, SEO and Internet Marketing. You make a few calls, read a few blogs, watch a few YouTube videos and with your newly found success pill take yet another sallow of, “this one will cure me”

It’s like a bad juggling act. As soon as you get a few balls in the air one drops to the floor as a new ball is added. “ Oh well, that one didn’t work anyway”. Why worry, there will be another ball along soon that is even newer and better. We tend to treat each social media tool as if it is its own vehicle as opposed to part of a vehicle. You wouldn’t call a carburetor, tires, dashboard or other car parts a car, would you? Yet, when skillfully assembled, and each part is used for the purpose it was designed for, it becomes a car. So why do we treat each Social Media tool as the answer to more sales?

This is where Integrated Social Selling can help. It takes social media and begins with two questions. Who am I trying to reach? What am I trying to accomplish? Social media tools or the features of those tools, when integrated properly, help build a playbook for success. You might need LinkedIn, but not all of it. Your Twitter use should be a strategy that supports your other social media strategy. If your Internet strategy doesn’t compliment your other efforts than you just might be chasing customers away. After all, isn’t the mission to sell more? Using a holistic approach and integrating these tools into a Social Selling Playbook will be more effective. Avoid wasting your time juggling all those balls, and build your success vehicle to finally get you to your destination.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Forget the Elevator Pitch, Take the Stairs

There is so much emphasis these days placed on how you must develop an elevator pitch. You know, what you say to someone when you first meet them about what you do (as if you were in an elevator and have to capture their attention before they get out). Ask yourself, do you want to listen to an infomercial when you first meet someone? Well guess what? Neither do they.
I get a big kick out of networking events that start off with a rotating chance to give your elevator pitch. As you speak most people aren’t listening to you as they are mentality figuring out what to say when it’s their turn. Some people are making believe they care with a visual that is more like a bobble head doll with a glazed over stare than truly listening. It’s as if everyone is pitching and no one is catching. You can’t play ball that way and starting any relationship with “I” is an open invitation to the land of loneliness.
We all would be better served to spend the time working on our elevator pitch to develop better listening skills. Learn how to ask people what they do and why. Show them you really care about what they are saying. They will appreciate it much more and you just might learn something and gain some insight into their personality. Sure you want to help people but hearing someone rattle off what they do won’t immediately light a fire under you to reference them to your contacts. After all, just because they can say what they do in thirty seconds doesn’t necessarily mean they are good at what they do. I know the elevator pitch is quick, and taking the stairs of listening takes more time, but listening, not talking will be more appreciated and have a more valid outcome. Remember the best relationships are built one step at a time.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Who Let The Dogs In?

In the pursuit of increasing sales be careful your sales organization doesn’t let the dogs in. Think twice before you allow them to hunt for just any sale. Wrong fit customers can put a drain and even bring down the best of organizations. A wrong fit customer, who continuously demands high amount of resources, pays slowly, and drives terms and conditions can cripple your company’s ability to deliver to all of your customers.

This problem can be solved and, at the same time, can result in an increase in sales and profit. It begins with identifying who is a best fit for your company. A company called Selling to Zebras uses this Selling in the Now technique to identify who are the ideal customers for your company: Your “Zebra”. They suggest you internally create a Zebra team from all disciplines, finance, manufacturing, legal, HR, etc, not just sales, to help create the customer that works best with your organization. Once this is accomplished, send the sales organization out to only hunt for Zebras. By hunting only for Zebras, your sales people won’t be selling to potential resource-draining customers and will not be wasting their time with people who will never buy.

The world has changed and sales must also change to a more holistic company perspective. That is the focus of Selling in the Now. Sales techniques from another era will not get you the results you seek and could be sabotaging your entire company’s mission. There are plenty of best-fit customers and there should never be a need to let the dogs in.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

We Were Buyers Long Before We Were Sellers

I find it ironic how most sales people put on their sales hat and forget what it is like to be a buyer. It’s as if wearing their sales hat gives them special powers to forget what they themselves object to when they are being sold to. Ask a sales person if they enjoy getting that cold call during dinner or receiving the 150 emails from people trying to get their attention and they will respond with a resounding, “No way”. Yet, they spend their days involved in cold calling, e-mail blasting and other annoying selling behaviors.

Even with these techniques decreasing in effectiveness, it still doesn’t occur to a lot of today’s sellers that there must be a better way. This is the way it has always has be done so it must be correct. Sales people are forgetting that buyers have changed and how they get and want their information has changed. They are determined to keep following sales training techniques that were designed thirty years ago.

It is time for a wake-up call. Treat your prospects as you would want to be treated. No one likes to be contacted cold. Being interrupted by someone unknown to you, with unclear motives, is undesirable no matter what hat you have on. So, before you embark upon a selling technique that was designed before the invention of color TV, ask yourself, would I want to be treated this way? Sales people who are students of Selling in the Now broke this code and have moved to social selling with far greater success.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

Cold Calling or Shopping?

There’s a sales lesson to be learned by how we shop. Before we go shopping, we mentally decide what we are shopping for, about how much money we are willing to pay, and what store is best to go to make our purchase. Let’s say we want to buy a lawnmower. We don’t go to the mall and start going into each store asking if they sell lawn mowers. We know in advance that Dunkin Donuts, Radio Shack, Macy’s and the food court don’t sell lawn mowers. Why waste of our time and have a very low likelihood of finding a lawn mower. Maybe we should use the same wisdom when looking for new business.

When we cold call, we do the equivalent of looking for a lawn mower at Dunkin Donuts and when we don’t find one there, sales managers tell us to just try more places. It’s as if sales people have a recessive gene from snake oil salesman that makes them automatically start each day with, “everyone gather around” assuming everyone is dying to buy what they are selling. Sales trainers encourage this ancient practice with phrases like, “Sales is a numbers game”, as if doing the wrong thing again and again will somehow change the outcome.

People today, have little patience for being contacted cold, and less, for something they don’t want or need. Selling to Zebras is a process that does away with blind cold calling and is in tune with Selling in the Now. Like shopping, it helps you identify where to find your best prospect. Who is that best match for your company and services and has the budget to buy from you? Contacting people who are predisposed and have the money to buy from you makes more sense than wasting your time calling people who are not a good fit. So before you waste your time cold calling ask yourself, “Do I shop this way”?

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com