Category Archives: Blog

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

Selling is Not a Rodeo

Did you ever notice how, for years, sales training has been closely matched to a rodeo event? Sales reps are taught to chase after and rope prospects like mindless steer before they get away. We call that cold calling. When the rope is secure around their neck, we move into a trained sales pitch. If they fight to get loose, we break out another rope and tie their feet. We call that handling objections. The process of both roping steer and selling assumes that your target doesn’t want to interact with you and getting trained in clever verbal ropes will bring them to their knees.

Prospects are not mindless steer. Thanks to the Internet, they are more knowledgeable than ever and are more guarded from anyone who is a self-serving roper. Knowledgeable prospects are 60 to 75 percent through the order cycle before they even interact with a sales person.

So why to we continue this annoying random cold calling, roping selling technique to close business? Prospects today don’t want to be roped or sold; however they do want to buy. Selling in the Now takes into account today’s buyers, how they want to buy and from whom.

Using social media as a cold calling replacement is a Selling in the Now technique that is more aligned with the world today. Another is focusing on prospects that are already predisposed to buy from you. This results in a more valuable customer and doesn’t waste selling time on trying to close someone who will never buy from you. So leave your rodeo sales training home and tune in to your prospects and how they buy today.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com

When Hiring for Sales, Replace Your Open Door With a Screen

I live in a wooded area and I take great care in making sure my garage door is kept closed. It’s not that I don’t want neighbors, friends and family to visit, just the opposite. What I don’t want field mice, raccoons or numerous squirrels wandering in to set up home. When that happens I have to stop what I’m doing and take the time to remove them, hoping they haven’t done too much damage.

How many of us see this same scenario when hiring a sales representative? We quickly open our company’s doors to whomever wishes to wander in. Sure, we want to fill the position with the best quality candidate as quickly as possible, however we have to have the skills and time to sort through the numerous people to find that best fit from all the wildlife that is out there. Tragically, if we do wind up with a squirrel, can we afford the lengthy process of damage control and removal? Don’t even compute the lost opportunity cost and the time to repeat a flawed methodology.

Before we just accept this as an avoidable business risk, consider a better way. Replace your open door with one with a screen. Yes, outsource your hunting process. Let a qualified recruiter screen out the wildlife and present you with the best fit. A qualified recruiter has the experience and skills to filter out the field mice, raccoons and squirrels. I have had fabulous results from using great recruiters to allow me to focus on what I do best while they do what they do best. They successfully do this every day, you don’t. You may know the ideal prospect profile, so tell them, and let them sort out the herd.

I know what your thinking, “Why should I pay to get sales candidates, there are so many available out there”. There is a reason; there are just too many frogs out there to kiss to find your prince or princess. Screening candidates is not your daily focus and you might allow someone to join your organization that might look great but is really a squirrel in disguise. I learned years ago, that when a candidate had an exceptional interview and after being hired was a poor performer, they were probably good at the job seeking process because they did it often.

So before you post your open sales position on the Internet and populate the social media world, consider the outcome. You will get a bunch, a huge bunch of responses from people looking for work. Evaluate your time, risk and overall importance of filling this position. If the evaluation reads high to very high, replace your open door with one that has a good screen.

Author: Rich Lucia
www.RichLucia.com