April 2006
Get Through The Right Doors
Cut The Costs Of Finding And
Managing Leads
Become A Better Communicator
Start Early To Beat The Rush
 
Get Through The Right Doors
Businesses that involve face-to-face meetings
with their clients need to keep in mind that
they might be knocking on the wrong doors, or
that they’re not the only people knocking on the
right ones. Identifying and targeting the key
decision makers in a prospective customer firm
is essential to getting your foot in the door in
dealing business-to-business.
Do your homework
Whatever it is that’s being sold has to meet the
exact needs the firm’s decision maker has
identified as right for their business. This
means doing research into the customer’s
industry, their position in the marketplace, and
learning about their business. This knowledge
provides you with a level of personal
credibility with the customer and the knowledge
to be able to present your product as the best
solution to their needs.
Talk to the right person
Every organization has levels of
authority that may be difficult to recognize
from the outside. Trying to sell a $10,000 item
to somebody with a spend authority level of $500
is a waste of time. So is trying to sell
stationery to the purchasing officer of machine
parts. In fact, if the organization is big
enough you may find that no single person has
the authority to purchase everything you’d like
to sell them, and it’s even possible that the
contact person you have been calling on for
years has changed positions and is now the
‘wrong’ person to be pitching sales information. Try and target the most appropriate person
in the firm for what you are selling.
Cultivate the managers
Just as important as knowing who your
competitors are is knowing who those competitors
are talking to at your customers’ offices. You
might have a terrific relationship with a buyer
who’s quite happy to select your products, but
if your competitor knows somebody higher up in
the organization who can order your contact to
change suppliers regardless of how strong your
relationship is with them, then you are talking
to the wrong person. Make contacts as far up the
pecking order as possible, even if they aren’t
the ones in the business who actually issue the
purchase orders.
Suit your offering to
the customer’s options
There’s increasing emphasis in most medium to
large-sized organizations of the need to present
a financial case to management for purchases
before approval is given. This is especially
true of big-ticket items when decisions about
repair or replacement are being made. Your
salespeople have to be prepared to sell the case
for your offering which may not be the
product itself. If you are aware of the
customer’s alternatives to making an outright
purchase, such as rebuilding older equipment or
subcontracting the work outside the company, you
can make an offering that covers those
possibilities.
Get outside advisers
on your side
Third parties are frequently brought in to
provide their input on a prospective purchase.
The best approach to use with them, whether they
are familiar with your products or not, is to
treat them as the prospect – but one with
different needs from the actual customer. What
they really need is the information to make a
decision, and if you’re able to give them enough
information to justify purchasing your product
(as well as for rejection of the alternatives)
they will become an ally in your selling
efforts.
Stay in touch while
the decision is being made
Circumstances within a customer’s business can
change as information about a prospective
purchase is assimilated and analyzed. It may be
that you will be asked back to provide further
details, but often you won’t be and what you’ve
proposed first time around is considered to be
your best and/or most complete offer. Stay
within the purchasing process as closely as
possible, letting everyone involved know that
you’re there to help them in any way possible.
This will put you in the best position to become
aware of changes in the customer’s requirements
while it’s still possible to so something about
it.
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Cut The Costs Of Finding And Managing Leads
Every organization with a sales force keeps an
eye on the leads it generates - how many does
each salesperson get and how many are converted
into customers. But as most companies now
appreciate, the costs of generating and
converting leads need to be carefully managed or
they can become a real drain on profitability.
The basic tasks of lead management are to lower
the costs of lead acquisition while at the same
time increasing the rate of conversion into
customers. To do this it’s best if you separate
the lead-getting activity from the selling
activity and develop metrics for monitoring
each. The two are actually separate functions
and require different sets of skills and
resources. Lead-generation is a marketing
function, while the job of converting those
leads to customers is a sales function.
Lead quality is
essential
Leads are acquired in any number of ways. For
marketers who purchase prospect lists, the
content and quality of the list should be far
more important than the cost, yet how many lists
are bought on the basis of price? The answer is,
far too many. Those who specialize in lists
know that good lists are worth what they cost.
They’re regularly updated, their data is
accurate, and it’s possible to organize
prospects by geographical area, by age, by
occupation, or any other profile that will allow
the sales team to target suitably qualified
prospects. You don’t have to pay for a huge
list if you’re only a small company or are
restricted in your geographical coverage.
Carefully targeted prospects are available on a
cost-per-lead basis; it’s even possible to rent
or buy lists of people who have previously
responded to the same form of marketing you
intend to use.
The most important metric to monitor is not the
cost per lead, but rather the relationship of
leads to final sales, by dividing the number of
leads purchased by the number of conversions
obtained from those leads. The closer this
result is to ‘1’ the better the quality of the
leads you’ve paid for.
Another way to improve the quality of the leads
you get is to have your existing customers
provide you with referrals or word of mouth.
Referrals are really a way of leveraging off a
high level of customer satisfaction and
represent a much more valuable set of prospects
than leads gained from cold calling.
Raise conversion rates
High quality leads make it possible for your
sales team to achieve better rates of conversion
from leads to customers. This effectively lowers
selling costs and will go a long way towards
offsetting any additional costs incurred to
ensure that lead quality is consistently high.
There are many more steps you can take to
improve the conversion rate your sales force
achieves.
Have a system that assigns a relative value to
each lead at the first contact. ‘Hot’ leads are
those who are definitely looking to buy; ‘Warm’
leads are those who might buy; and ‘Cold’ leads
are probably not interested in buying. Discard
‘Cold’ leads at the outset of the selling
process. Concentrate selling efforts on ‘Hot’
leads. Give them priority and only after all the
‘Hot’ leads have been processed should the sales
team turn its attention to ‘Warm’ ones.
Leads are often obtained through offers. Before
the handover to the sales team the lead should
be provided with any information they may have
requested – a sales brochure or product order
form for example. Have a system that records
what was requested and what was provided. Be
persistent. One inquiry handling expert
estimates that 45% of all leads turn into a sale
for someone, but only 22%-25% actually convert
within the first six months. That means that 45
out of 100 leads might eventually convert to
customers if they’re correctly handled.
Keep in touch
Another consideration is that competition
usually decreases over time. The reason is
simple – most businesses lose interest in a lead
if it doesn’t turn into a customer pretty
quickly. Patience and ongoing communication will
eventually deliver all the conversions you’re
going to get, but many won’t convert until
several months have passed.
This tells us that every lead management system
must accommodate the need to stay in touch with
leads over a fairly long period of time. So
communicate with leads – perhaps by telephone,
email or a newsletter – until they either
convert to become customers or must be
reclassified as ‘Cold’.
Keep in touch for an appropriate length of time
until you’re absolutely certain there’s no hope
of ever converting that contact to a customer.
Remember too that most businesses have
competitors and if you’ve done your prospecting
correctly even the people who initially reject
you are somebody else’s customers. They may
eventually become yours if you don’t give up.
Each member of your sales team will have a
conversion rate that shows how successful they
are at converting leads to sales. This metric
can be used in conjunction with total dollar
volumes when you’re comparing the results of
individual members of your sales team and
determining which salespeople are your top
performers.
To Top
Become A Better Communicator
Most of us perform better in one part of the
communications process, as either a Speaker or a
Listener, but don’t go to the effort to make the
most of our communicating abilities by improving
the weaker skill. But our communication is
likely to be so much better and more effective
if we did. It’s not too difficult.
Speakers need to be
aware of their audience
Speakers are good at sending out a message.
They’re focused on what they’re saying and how
they say it. What they too often miss is how it
affects their audience – the listeners. Speakers
who don’t think about their audience when they
speak are likely to be talking mostly to
themselves.
Listeners should think
about what they hear
Good listening involves thinking about what the
speaker is saying and integrating new
information with the existing body of knowledge
so it becomes relevant on a personal level. Good
listeners actively work to understand what the
speaker is saying and focus their thoughts on
the content of the message directed to them.
Listeners who don’t listen actively will miss
out on much of the speaker’s message.
Listening isn’t the same as just hearing
what other people say - that’s what the ears do.
It’s the brain that does the actual listening,
and the more mental power you apply to what you
hear, the more you’re going to understand.
You’re only going to apply this extra effort if
you’re interested in what you’re hearing. That
means thinking about what’s being said,
word-for-word. Repeat the other person’s words
in your mind and analyze what’s been said.
Don’t try to think about what you’re going to
say in response; that will take you away from
active listening and make you partially
disconnect from the conversation.
A message is more than
just the words
The content of the message isn’t just what the
speaker says; it’s also the thoughts and
feelings the speaker is trying to communicate.
It’s the sum of what the speaker’s words really
mean, which can also be conveyed by their facial
expressions, body language, and even their tone
of voice. The ideal communicator is aware of all
the subtleties involved in communication and
understands that it’s not just about the words
used in a conversation.
Give feedback and
learn how to receive it
All human communication is a two-way process.
Getting feedback from your audience is important
so that you know if your message is being
understood and also whether it’s being accepted
or generating a hostile response. It can help to
imagine yourself as your audience and ask:
“How is this speaker going? Do I understand
everything or do I need clarification?”
Good speakers always get audience feedback and
can adjust their presentation accordingly.
Improving your
technique
The simplest way to improve your speaking
technique is to invest in a simple webcam and
record yourself giving a 60-second talk on your
favorite subject. When you play it back you’ll
notice so much about the way you speak and
quickly get an idea about how to improve it.
By thinking about how we speak, how we use our
voice, and how we sound, we can greatly improve
our skills of communicating to an audience,
whether it’s to one person or to a roomful.
Establish a communications link with your
audience and maintain it while you speak. Eye
contact is essential, but you should also watch
for changes in facial expression and posture to
see how your message is being received, and
pause from time to time to give the other person
a chance to respond.
Communications are the way we relate to other
people. They’re the basis of how we make
friends, influence others – and do business.
Start working today to become a better
communicator and it will have a positive impact
on every aspect of your life.
To Top
Start Early To Beat The Rush
Most businesses experience fluctuations in
demand and it’s not always easy to predict such
things as staffing requirements, quantities of
stock, storage space needs and sales. The
majority of organizations have quiet times and
rush times, and being prepared for the next rush
can become a critical factor in determining
overall annual profitability.
Christmas is one of the biggest rush generators
in the world, although there are holidays and
celebrations in every country and culture that
involve similar revenue opportunities and
planning problems. In retailing terms, Christmas
begins well before October when the first
decorations appear in stores, along with
Christmas cards and a massive increase in the
range and quantity of toys available from
retailers.
Plan staffing needs
early
People are needed to help most businesses cope
with holiday rush periods, yet there’s every
likelihood that this will also be the hardest
time to get staff because they’re planning
holidays themselves. Line up your supplementary
staff early and get commitments from your
permanent staff that they’ll be there when you
need them.
If you’re a retailer and intend to sell products
that are specific to the theme of the
forthcoming rush, get your orders in early and
follow up with suppliers for delivery. Be
realistic in your calculations, but realize that
if you under order there’s a very good chance
you won’t be able to get additional stock in
time to meet the seasonal demand.
Customers plan ahead
too
Even though there’s usually a last-minute rush
at holiday times, there are also many customers
who plan ahead to beat the rush and will do
their purchasing early. Don’t be slow in
bringing out the seasonal music and decorations;
this includes carrying the theme over to your
website and your advertising.
Websites are especially flexible. You can put
seasonal goods on a separate page and have a
prominent link on your welcoming page that will
attract early purchasers. Let this area be
developed over a period of a month or two until
it becomes your featured area as the rush gets
underway.
Remember too that people often shop for presents
to send to friends and relatives overseas. They
need to be able to make a purchase and have it
dispatched to another country, and to have it
arrive before a designated time.
Don’t lose the space
race
If your own
premises won’t be able to accommodate your
needs, prospect neighboring businesses to see if
one of them can rent you the space you need.
It’s also possible to find a broker who’s
looking for a long term tenant but who can let
out space on a short term basis until the
permanent tenant is found.
To make use of the opportunities such holidays
and other rush periods represent takes a lot of
forward planning and preparation. Orders have to
be placed, stock has to be stored and
distributed, and advertising and other
promotions have to be planned well in advance.
The earlier preparations begin, the more likely
it is that projected revenues and profits
will be realized.
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