Tag Archives: prospect

Sales , , , , Leave a comment

Lemons into Lemonade: When the Prospect Says No

by

Unless you’re selling iPhones and iPads or another hot product, you know that sales is a tough business (I speak from lived experience). It’s a fact that prospects usually decline to buy. According to 2024 data compiled by researchers at Hubspot, the inbound marketing company based in Cambridge, MA, the average B2B sale has a success rate of 29%. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-statistics

Selling is a complex and intimate form of communication, a skill that’s impacted by luck (good or bad), timing, money, relationships, serendipitous trends and the needs or wants of prospective customers. Is it possible to crack the 29% close rate? Maybe if you’re an especially gifted talker and luck is on your side. For the rest of us, though, a lost sale means trying to get past disappointment as you pick up the pieces and move on.

When you think about it, you may agree that the best outcome of a sales presentation is to get an honest answer from your prospect. The worse possible outcome is when the prospect ghosts you, gives you the silent treatment. According to research by Matt Dixon and Ted McKenna, co-founders of DCM Insights, a B2B sales training company, and co-authors of The Jolt Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision (2022), 40% – 60% of B2B sales are lost to no decision—ghosting by another name. Yes is always the favorite answer but even no feels better than being ghosted.

If selling is integral to your business, you’ll do well to focus on just getting an answer from your prospect, even if it’s not the one you hope for. In the competitive terrain of B2B sales, the pressure to extract yes from prospects can lead to frustration and stress. But those whose livelihood depends on successful sales—Freelancers, business owners and sales reps working for a company they don’t own—cannot continually chase down prospects, especially when it’s obvious they’ve slipped away. That’s a losing strategy, both time-wasting and corrosive to self-esteem.

There is a sliver of bright side, however, because when the prospect says no, it doesn’t always mean that you leave the scene empty-handed. The less experienced or confident salesperson will automatically assume that no means never. That could be true, but those who’ve been around the block a couple of times know that a prospect who declines to buy today might mean, “let’s talk at another time.” Those who sell should be aware that a third option can exist beyond the yes/ no paradigm.

The often neglected third option can lead prospects to revisit, reassess and sometimes redo a rejected sales decision. If you enable the process, you and your prospect together can access the third option and expand the meaning of a successful sale. It’s good sales strategy and respects the power you’ve earned as a professional who creates value.

So, when preparing for the next sales meeting, why not adjust expectations of potential outcomes and re-frame your definition of a “lost” sale? Like describing whether your glass is half-empty or half-full, allow yourself to reclassify no and redefine it as another type of opportunity—kind of like turning lemons into lemonade. Many prospective customers are not completely forthcoming when discussing a potential sale. As noted by Dixon and McKenna (above), roughly half of B2B sales are lost because no decision is made.

That all-too-common lapse should be the biggest motivation for those who sell for a living to ask probing questions when meeting with prospects. You need to tease out any unspoken agenda items and get the cards on the table. You set the stage for a candid discussion during sales meetings by showing that you care: listen well, take notes and repeat key phrases to confirm what needs to be resolved, achieved and/or avoided. Do that and you’ll earn trust and make it comfortable for the prospect to tell you what’s up, instead of ghosting you because s/he can’t figure out how to talk about things.

Yes, no, next steps

To encourage yes (and discourage a future no), make sure you and the prospect establish and agree on whatever next steps will continue the positive momentum of your conversation and facilitate ongoing engagement. In other words, do what you can to keep the prospect talking and keep alive the possibility of a sale, even if the timing will be later rather than sooner. Make the lemonade.

For best results, propose a specific time-frame for follow-up actions that lead to the next conversation. The follow-up will be an action plan that functions to promote the chances of converting the prospect into a yes in the future. Still, remember that your reassessment of a win should mean that you focus on getting a well-considered answer. If the answer is based on a thorough evaluation of your proposal by the prospect’s decision team, then call it a win, whether s/he says yes or no. Ghosting is what you want to avoid. Here are rewards you’ll get when you re-frame the meaning of successful selling:

  • Yes: Always the favorite answer. Your talking points and proposal convinced the prospect.
  • No: An unequivocal no does not always represent failure, as it tells you to move forward and pursue potentially more promising leads. The earlier in the sales process that no arrives the better it is for you. Then, you can redirect your time and energy on opportunities that may get you to yes.
  • Next steps: This option is based on specific follow-up actions and a scheduled time to meet with your prospect. Next steps is a win because it confirms potential interest and outlines a roadmap to a possible “yes.” The key to next steps is a specific follow-up time-frame.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty images. Children Selling Lemonade, 1945

Sales , , , Leave a comment

Talking Your Way into the Sale

by

Selling is an inescapable part of life and plays a significant role in your personal and professional sectors. Selling is a foundational life skill and your mastery of it can be a game-changer. When you’d like to get your hands on something that you value, it’s often necessary to sell a decision-maker and persuade him/her to agree that you deserve what you want—the acceptance of your proposal, approval of your promotion, or maybe just agreeing to have Italian food for dinner tonight instead of Mexican. But if the decision-maker declines to give you the green-light, you are left with two choices:

1.) Give up and walk away, perhaps to wait for a favorable outcome that might emerge in the future.

2.) Develop a strategy that might persuade the decision-maker to approve your request. Presenting the right information to the right person can open doors.

Because you are a savvy Freelancer, I am confident that you will not accept no for an answer. Your DNA tells you to climb through a window when the door shuts in your face. Achieving success usually requires a strategy, a road map and a script designed to overcome obstacles and objections. Those of you whose livelihood involves boots-on-the-ground selling must devise a proactive sales strategy, one that is finely attuned to the prospect’s needs, goals, competitive landscape, anticipated objections and budget availability.

In this era of economic uncertainty, prospects are inclined to scrutinize every dollar spent. Selling is more than ever an uphill climb that entails a delicate balance of relationship-building, negotiation and communication skills. Here are five steps you can take to help you persuade prospective clients to spend money when budgets are tight:

1. Stakeholder perspective

Because the most successful sales pitch is personalized and addresses the unique needs and concerns of those who will hear and discuss it, ask your prospect if you might schedule a 10 minute conversation with one or more of the project stakeholders in advance of submitting a proposal and/or having a meeting. At the very least, ask your prospect to supply background info that provides context.

You would be wise to learn, for example, what the stakeholders hope will be the expected impact on the prospect’s organization when the chosen solution is implemented? You would also be wise to ask how the stakeholders define success and, on the other hand, find out what worries them?

Your purpose is to get an indication of the perhaps unexpressed expectations that stakeholders have for the project. Once you figure out what’s going on behind the scenes , you’ll incorporate that information into your written proposal and talking points for the meeting.

2. Articulate benefits

Again, what do the stakeholders really want to see happen when the chosen solution is implemented? Is your solution expected to improve the company’s competitive position, create excellent PR and significantly enhance brand awareness and reputation? Or is your solution expected to position the company for growth or expansion?

Your proposal and sales pitch should clearly describe your solution, detail how it will achieve the prospect’s goal or resolve the problem and how it will also satisfy stakeholder expectations and concerns. Provide examples of tangible and intangible benefits that your solution will deliver and what the results will mean in terms of ROI.

The idea is to make it as easy as possible for your prospect, the stakeholders and the final decision-maker to agree that your solution is the ideal choice. When spending money is an issue, focusing your proposal and sales pitch talking points on the value your solution delivers and the return on investment derived is the best strategy.

3. “Now is the ideal time”

When persuading others to take action, it is wise to create a sense of urgency. The background info that you learn in pre-meeting talks with stakeholders and your prospect will help you to communicate the cost of lost opportunity if the stakeholders and decision-maker fail to step up and approve the necessary funding for the project. Remind the stakeholders that enabling the project to move forward with your proposed solution will not only ensure that the problem will be resolved or the goal achieved, but the organization will reap substantial benefits as well.

Consider how you can persuasively describe how delaying a decision or under-funding a credible solution will be more costly in the long term. How can you demonstrate to your prospect and the stakeholders that they can’t afford to not take advantage of your solution?

4. Anticipate objections

Again, your off-the-record talk with the prospect, along with conversations you have with stakeholders before you submit a proposal and/or sit down for a meeting, will likely give you insights into any objections that lurk. In fact, you should directly ask if anyone opposes the project and what causes that hesitation.

You can take on matters that concern the naysayers in your proposal and in your talking points for the meeting, but it’s wise to be prepared for anyone who is not convinced by initial attempts to quell objections. I recommend the “feel, felt, found” technique, which shows empathy as you present a rebuttal:

  • I understand how you could feel that the solution proposed might not be entirely effective for this aspect of the problem/ goal.
  • Others have also felt that the solution proposed might not perform well in such challenging circumstances.
  • However, those who were initially reluctant, once they became aware of the documented efficacy of this solution, gained the confidence to move forward and found that the desired outcome was achieved.

5. Propose a logical next step

Once the objections have been settled and removed or, if there were none, once the benefits have been accepted by the stakeholders as likely to occur, move to conclude your meeting with a suggestion of next steps. Honestly, you want to get out of the room before someone gets the bright idea to raise a red herring issue that undoes your deal. Your purpose is to help the decision-maker and stakeholders see themselves successfully implementing your solution.

Ti that end, you might confirm the project timetable and ask when your proposed solution will be implemented (and note that your organization can adhere to the prospect’s preferred schedule). You might also ask if, since the stakeholders agree that your solution will be effective, s/he who has the authority to sign the contract would like to do so now, or on a date in the near future? Preparing a hard copy contract for your (we hope!) soon-to-be client to review and sign is another way to politely and firmly steer the decision-maker and stakeholders toward confirming that they’ll choose you.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-2021) and American actress Jean Seberg (1938-1979) in Breathless (France, 1960). Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)

Sales , , Leave a comment

Speed Date: How to Connect With Clients Faster

by

Time is money and relationships matter. Those sometimes conflicting realities must be confronted when, for example, you meet someone who may become a prospective client by chance, maybe at a business association meeting or even at a backyard barbecue. Somehow you two start talking and along with names and what brought each of you to the event, what each of you does for a living is revealed and it’s an aha! moment. As luck would have it, your new acquaintance is looking for a talented Freelancer with your kind of expertise to get an upcoming project done. Excellent!—now how do you connect quickly and start the process of establishing trust and rapport with someone you’ve only just met?

Building a relationship that you’d like to expand to include business requires finesse. It may be off-putting to appear to rush things but if you don’t move it along, your opportunity to do business may stall out.

Because you’ve only just met, each of you is an unknown quantity to the other. You’ve shared only cursory information but a spark has been ignited. The next step a successful Freelancer takes is to swiftly move to build a connection with this intriguing person. Happily, there are a few effective and easily executed hacks that in short order can help you steer the relationship in the right direction and avoid a cringeworthy scene as you do.

1. Repeat after me

Your prospect wants to know that you understand what s/he needs your product or service to deliver. There are simple and intuitive ways to convey that you “get it” as you and your prospect discuss the possibility of doing business.

One good way is to confirm that you’re on the same wavelength is to incorporate, that is, repeat, a few key words or short phrases that your prospect uses to describe what s/he wants to achieve. Do that and you’ll communicate to the prospect that you two literally speak the same language.

2. Feel their pain

Empathy is an essential component of every healthy relationship. When your goal is to fast- track a serendipitous meeting and build it into a mutually beneficial experience, acknowledge the urgency, excitement, importance, concern and/ or stress that motivates your prospect to seek a solution and demonstrate that you not only understand what s/he wants to achieve, and why, but you also validate his/her reasoning and judgment.

What motivates your prospect to obtain a solution and address the matter may be a problem to solve or a success to celebrate. While in conversation, your job is to affirm good news or encourage a prospect who faces a challenge. Either way, describe how your product or service can expertly and efficiently either save the day or maximize a happy occasion.

3. Sum it up

Confirm your understanding of what your prospect would like to achieve with the assistance of your products or services and you’ll boost the prospect’s confidence as you do. The budding relationship will strengthen as your prospect’s confidence, trust and comfort level grows. Sum up the points made by yourself and the prospect, distilling and paraphrasing what each of you has said, and confirm that you see the big picture of what your prospect has in mind and your capability to fulfill the objectives.

If for some reason either of you has misinterpreted or omitted some relevant information, a correction and reconfirmation can be quickly made. Showing the prospect that you’ve listened and understand his/ her priorities, concerns and goals is, BTW, a compliment and a sign of respect. Your prospect will know that s/he has been heard and that his/her feelings, judgment, priorities and goals are valued.

4. Next steps

While your prospect is basking in the glow of having found a capable, trustworthy, good-natured problem-solver who appears to be someone with whom s/ he can connect and work successfully, suggest that the two of you schedule a face2face or video meeting. It is in your interest to move the process steadily forward and into substantive talks. You have business to discuss!

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: In 1977, actress Marlo Thomas was invited to be interviewed on The Phil Donahue (talk) Show. I watched the episode and it was something to see! No doubt about it, Phil and Marlo connected in a live broadcast from Chicago. The couple married in 1980. They live in Manhattan.

Sales , , Leave a comment

5 Ways to Keep Prospects on Your Website

by

Persuading potential customers to visit your website is a big step. You have a shot at winning a customer, but first, you’ll need to do a few critical things right. Your objective is to supply the information that prospects want (and need) to become customers.

Your website must deliver—in clear, enthusiastic and reassuring language and images—that portray your products and/or services as effective, easy-to-use and eye-candy visible. Create a yellow brick road journey that moves webiste visitors through a trust-inspiring buyer’s journey that has a real Hollwood ending—a sale!

1. Landing page

No one wants to waste time trying to figure out what your company sells, how they can buy it or other essential information. If they don’t find what they’re looking for in what they feel is a reasonable amount of time it’s click and they’re out of there. Disappointed site visitors will leave you and find someone who makes it easy for them.

Think objectively about what you would want and need to see and learn about your products or services if you were searching for a solution. Your landing page should include the big picture basics of why your products and services make sense and it’s all got to be right there at eye level.

2. Decision-making info

Especially for B2B products and services, prospects will conduct extensive research and compare the offerings of two or more competitors before committing to buy. Make information about who you are and what you do easy to find. You can add more content to your website by starting a blog, adding more web pages and ensuring all the essential information a customer needs is there. Further, ensure your website is uncluttered and easy to read, so that prospective customers are drawn to keep browsing and reading your content.

3. Call-to-action

A single CTA on your landing per page, no matter how appealing, may not grab the attention of site visitors who do a quick scroll through your site as they search for specific info. Someone who might do business with you might skate by during a hasty tour of your site, no matter how bright and eye-catching your CTA. Be smart and proactive and include multiple calls to action.

Tie your CTAs to specific steps in the customer buying funnel—click to receive a case study that helps you understand how we help customers get the job done; click here for a 30 minute free consultation: get started with a one month free trial here.

4. Purposeful content

Include content that demonstrates your expertise because that’s the information that supports decision-making (in your favor!). A regularly published newsletter or blog, white papers and /or case studies, customer testimonials and articles about you and your your organization that appear in the press, including your hyper-local neighborhood publications are validations of your expertise. Everything that you post onto your website is there to be in service to persuading a prospect to become a customer. This is not about window dressing.

5. Trust and authenticity

The best way to combat distrust is to demonstrate your relevance, ability to do the job and authenticity. Personalizing your website with real photos and details. If you can’t afford to hire a professional photographer, take photos of your staff, office and products using what you have at your disposal — even if that’s just your cell phone camera (making sure that your photos are clear and not blurry). Adding personal details like photos of yourself as the owner, a street view of your location, etc. will elicit more trust from online shoppers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Vogue Magazine Collections app for Apple iPad and iPhone

Marketing , , Leave a comment

What the Elevator Pitch Must Do in 2022  

by

Yet another pandemic-era reboot that everyone who earns a living would be wise to make is how you introduce your professional self to prospective clients, a potential new employer, or your colleagues and peers. In-person meetings and events are reappearing and your clients are returning to the office, maybe reluctantly and just a couple of days a week. There are advantages to getting back into the swing of things, but your face2face interaction skills may have become a little rusty from lack of use.

I recently attended a virtual meeting of about 15 people and since we didn’t really know each other, we were asked to introduce ourselves and say a little something about our professional background and current role—- in other words, everyone gave an Elevator Pitch. Most of us were a little flabby because that muscle hadn’t been flexed in many months.

But hitting the restart button and expecting your 2-fer Elevator Pitch/ self-introduction to slide off your tongue the way it did in January 2020 is magical thinking. Navigating life and business in the New Normal requires a skill set update.

Remember that the purpose of an Elevator Pitch is to facilitate the growth of your network and your business. In a good Elevator Pitch, you persuasively communicate your value proposition and help prospects understand what you can do for them. A well- worded pitch will express the purpose and usefulness of your business and make clear what sets it apart from alternatives offered by competitors.

Craft your Elevator Pitch to:

1). Capture the attention of prospects and entice them to devote valuable time to listening to you tell them why your product or service might interest them.

2). Help prospects see a possible role for your product or service in their organization.

The prospect

In-depth and continuously updated knowledge of your target customer groups is a given, so you’ll know who you’re selling to. What do you offer that they might need and value? How can your product or service help them to either achieve objectives or solve/ avoid problems? What might your prospects find worrisome in 2022 and how have they managed that challenge so far?

Taking a few moments to think about these questions will help steer your pitch in the right direction and lead to what you’d like prospects to remember about you and your business. The goal is to make your pitch powerful yet succinct, clearly articulating why prospective customers should choose you.

Your value

What are the unique attributes and selling points of your product or service? Understanding the value you deliver will bring to the forefront talking points that prospects want to hear. Keep your customers, competencies and your competitors in mind as you develop your value proposition. Your task is to recognize and articulate what differentiates your company and how you are uniquely positioned to more effectively, quickly, or inexpensively solve problems and help customers achieve objectives, as compared to the competition.

BTW, your main competitor is inertia. Doing nothing is a popular “solution” because it’s easy and people think they’re saving money. Can your pitch motivate listeners to become customers? Assess the response your pitch receives from different customer groups and make adjustments where necessary.

How you say it

Experts recommend that you limit your Elevator Pitch to about 30 seconds and 75 words. Ideally, your little story will be clear, concise and compelling. Fine tune the wording to ensure that you express your company’s (and your own) unique value proposition in uncomplicated language that resonates. The ideal pitch will also be adaptable and easily made longer or shorter to fit different contexts.

Do it well and you’ll make a memorable first impression on a potential client (or new employer). A good Elevator Pitch in your back pocket makes it easier to start conversations off on the right foot, with the ultimate goal of discovering or creating opportunities. The process needed to create your pitch will take not only time, but also face2face experiences before you get it the way you need it.

In 2022 and beyond, all sales and marketing messages must be digestible in mere seconds if you intend to hold a listener’s attention. Clearly and concisely roll out a maximum of three or four selling points known to intrigue prospective customers and become persuasive and memorable takeaways.

  • What you do

Identify the need for your product. Encourage your listener to become interested in your products and services. Show that there is demand for what you provide.

  • For whom you do it

Describe your product-market fit with a powerful sound-bite that sums up in a sentence or two the customers you usually work with and why they do business with you.

  • The value delivered

The listener is more likely to trust your solution when it’s presented as an easy-to-picture remedy that gets the job done. After you establish the need, briefly explain how or why your solution works, based on real-life examples.

When and where to pitch

To more consistently recognize circumstances when it would be appropriate to present your elevator pitch, train yourself to be hyper-aware of your surroundings and the people you meet. Opportunities to deliver your Elevator Pitch don’t always occur where and when we might expect. Do not overlook casual settings as places to meet and interact with potential customers or employers. A wedding you attend, a running group or book club you join, a summer holiday barbecue, or chatting in line at the grocery store can lead to a door-opening, satisfying or lucrative discovery.

Follow-up

Conclude your Elevator Pitch with a call-to-action when the listener shows an active interest in the use and outcomes of your products or services. Ask for a card and offer yours, so that everyone’s website and social media sites can be viewed. Better still, offer to send the link to a newsletter, podcast, blog post or other source that addresses the topic or questions that were raised. You’re looking to establish legitimacy and expertise, build a relationship that leads to trust and rake in some billable hours.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Associated Press President John F. Kennedy visited Tirana, Albania while on a state visit to Europe June 23 – July 2, 1963.

Sales , , , , Leave a comment

On Becoming an Expert

by

Can we agree that competition for the eyeballs, ears and wallets of prospective customers in both the B2B and B2C sectors has resulted in near-intolerable noise in the marketplace? As a result, the 70% or so of Americans who are Freelance solopreneurs or small business operators face an uphill battle to get noticed by those who might become your customers. So the big question is—-what strategies might you employ to persuade prospects that you are The One? In the B2B sector, perhaps the most effective way to gain trust and sign contracts is to present yourself as an expert throughout the buyer’s journey and particularly in decision-making conversations.

To win clients, Freelance consultants have to be the smartest ones in the room, or at least make everyone think they are. On the other hand, you can’t look like a smart-aleck know- it-all because diplomacy matters. Just keep in mind that successful Freelancing is about inspiring trust and confidence and building relationships. Everything you do must support those objectives, which are the pillars of your business. Let’s look at some pivotal moments in a sales conversation where you can reveal your expertise and win over prospects.

Problem-solver not sales rep

Rule #1 of sales is to sell the customer how s/he wants to be sold. The way that prospective customers, especially in B2B, want to be sold is to first, connect with a problem-solving expert who’ll listen and learn what s/he needs to achieve and then recommend potential solutions that are tailored to the prospect’s objectives. High pressure sales pitches have no place in the scenario and are best left in scary memories of the 20th century.

Question, listen, diagnose

Think like a doctor and listen well to accurately diagnose the problem or objective the prospect must resolve or achieve. Ask open-ended questions that encourage the prospect to open up and talk. Your questions should aim to uncover the frustrations associated with the problem, the importance of achieving the objective and the impact of either on the prospect’s business. Ask questions to also discover if the customer has attempted to “self-treat” and attempt to solve the problem in-house. As the prospect tells the story, you’ll envision potential solutions that your organization can provide.

BTW, if you realize that you’re not a fit, it will reflect well on you to make a referral to a colleague or even acompetitor. Do that and you’ll enhance your credibility and brand. You might even get some business from this prospect in the future, either directly or through a referral.

Share experiences, show empathy

Let the prospect know that you are an seasoned problem-solver who has successfully resolved knotty problems before and helped customers achieve mission-critical, high profile goals. As an expert, you have valuable industry experience that prospective customers will be reassured to hear. A short, well-told war story or two will increase your perceived value. Moreover, your anecdotes will help the customer to feel more comfortable to spill the tea and tell you what’s really going on. Plus, it’s a great relationship- building technique.

Talk just enough

Another sales rule is that the seller talks just 15% of the time. In a sales meeting, the floor belongs to the prospect. You’re there to ask the right questions, share a good war story or two to give the prospect confidence in your abilities and judgment and then suggest a couple of possible solutions.

Through your questions, you will control the conversation and the sale. Follow this rule and prospects will respect you as a trusted expert, one with whom they’d be happy to do business.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Business Strategy , , Leave a comment

Moving the Needle on B2B Sales Deals

by

Selling B2B professional services is no day at the beach, as you’ve probably deduced by now. Getting B2B sales deals across the finish line can be an uphill marathon that leaves you face down on Heartbreak Hill. Unlike your B2C colleagues, you can’t ride the wave of multi-million dollar product launches or other advertising campaigns to convince prospects of the amazing benefits that your product or service delivers.

Moreover, there are no impulse buys in B2B, no equivalent of customers adding candy to their shopping basket while waiting in the check-out line. Your marketing campaigns and sales pitches speak to business goals with a deadline and problems that must be resolved.

On top of that many, if not most, B2B services that Freelancers provide are unlike the various software as a service products that can be easily compared and evaluated, feature by feature. Once a prospect has found you, it’s necessary to pitch your solution in a narrative mix of hard facts and soft skill intangibles that portray you and your capabilities as an effective and trustworthy choice.

In some instances, you may even work to convince a prospect that there actually is a problem to solve, that something can be done in a faster or easier way. As a result, the sales cycle of the typical Freelance consultant is long. So what can you do to keep the pipeline filled and your cash-flow positive now and into 2022? There are some cultural shifts to keep in mind as you consider strategies that you might implement.

The Great Resignation factor

In the early 2000s, I started to notice that important contacts at companies with whom I worked regularly disappeared in about two years. Not good! So much of obtaining repeat business depends on relationships. It costs you money when an ally leaves a prospect’s decision team. You may not know where they’re going next and they usually don’t take you with them by introducing you and your services at their next assignment

This phenomenon is detrimental to the future of your business. The Great Resignation factor (addressed in the September 7, 2021 post) has heightened this trend. Freelancers are advised to include this reality in client pursuit and post-project client retention strategies. You can’t control what will happen, but knowing that a change is brewing gives you the opportunity to ask who will join the project discussions, so you’ll have a chance to begin building a new relationship, starting with an email introduction.

The 2021 LinkedIn Global State of Sales Report, which surveyed 7,500 B2B buyers and sellers in 11 countries, advises sellers to stay current with intel about project decision-makers and stakeholders. The survey found that 25% of decision-makers either change roles or leave the company in a given year. The survey also found that unfortunately, 85% of sellers reported that they lost at least one sales deal, or that a deal was delayed, because a key stakeholder left his/ her job. Of the many advantages acquired by tactfully remaining in touch with the primary decision-maker and influential stakeholders of every potential sales deal is receiving updates regarding who’s on and who’s off the team.

The Work From Home factor

Some companies have at least temporarily continued the work from home protocol for their employees when possible, but many have begun asking staff to work on-site at least 2 – 3 days/week. Still, the practice throws cold water on face2face sales meetings. The 2021 State of Sales Report indicates that B2B virtual selling gives the advantage to buyers, however McKinsey reports that 76% of B2B buyers prefer in-person sales meetings, or at least a telephone meeting. when evaluating a product or service that they’ve not used before. Zoom is convenient but apparently not considered ideal for first time meetings.

When appropriate, McKinsey found that 46% of B2B buyers say they’ll make purchases online online, but only 10% do so. Notably, 46% of B2B buyers feel it’s too difficult to compare the available products online. These buyers also are dissatisfied by the frequently slow responses to their inquiries.

The Digital transformation factor

Warning: 70% of digital transformation initiatives fall short of expectations. McKinsey reported that companies achieve the best results when a combination of human and digital interactions create a hybrid buyer’s journey. Because prospective buyers appreciate fast answers to their basic questions about your products and services, installing a chat bot and adding a FAQ tab to your website will expedite the delivery of information and facilitate a satisfying buyer’s journey that instills trust in your company and its solutions.

If you are tech savvy, explore and evaluate UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) digital tools. The free Adobe XD starter plan lets you design digital features that maximize the impact of touch points along the buyer’s journey, after-sale service experience and other customer service experiences that you’d like to enhance. Think carefully about how much digital interaction your prospects and clients will appreciate and strike a balance between digital and human communication.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Commodities traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (founded in 1874)

Sales , Leave a comment

Whenever You Call

by

If half of what we do to find success is about showing up, the other half is surely about follow-up. Money is regularly left on the table because the person who was awarded the golden key couldn’t make him/herself go to the post office to pick it up.

A handful of hustle and a drop of two of discipline are required for this recipe. When your marketing tactics actually work—-you meet a potential prospect while networking and s/he hands you a card and asks to continue the conversation—-you must respond. Or maybe you want to drum up some business and feel that making a few cold calls will be worth the effort. The operative word is call.

Despite the technological advances that have been made over the years the telephone, patented in the U.S. by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, has demonstrated staying power. Videoconferencing makes electronic communication more personal but it must be scheduled. Also, WiFi access is needed. The telephone’s audio-only format nevertheless enables good communication and it’s easier to use than Zoom. Plus, it never crashes.

According to a 2021 survey by Indeed, the best time to call a prospect, especially when you’re cold calling, that is, attempting to make your first contact, is between 4:00 – 5:00 PM. At the. end of the day, the prospect is often more inclined to not just take the call and more likely to your pitch. At the end of the day, the prospect is more likely to be at his/her desk, is unlikely to start a new task and is perhaps wrapping something up and is perhaps also more inclined to listen to your offer.

If you’d like to try a morning call, late morning is preferable. Calling during the approach to lunch time, 11:00 – 11:45 AM, is the best time for morning calls to prospects, whether cold calls or warm (meaning the prospect has requested a call).

The best days to call prospects are, you guessed it, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday and Friday are likely to yield less than stellar results for obvious reasons. Tuesday isn’t so bad, but apparently there can be spillover from the Monday rush that takes away some of its appeal.

Script your pitch

It will be very helpful to create a cold call and a warm call script. You want your delivery to be smooth, your language concise, your tone upbeat and, of course, your pitch airtight. You do not want to forget to say something important and you don’t want to be at a loss for words. Neither do you want to sound like a robot who’s memorized the words. Write a script to ensure that you’ll sound confident, conversions, knowledgeable and in control.

Helpful hints

  • Should the prospect take your call, ask if you’ve called at a good time and next, ask if s/he has five minutes to talk.
  • Present your call-to-action not as an urgent push to make an immediate decision but rather to persuade the prospect to commit to follow-up action, as a way to continue the conversation. S/he will likely want to discuss your offer with the team.
  • If a prospect contacts your company by phone or email for any reason, respond within an hour.
  • If you meet a prospect while networking and s/he has questions about your products or services, call or email the next day.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Tippi Hedren, the original Cool Blonde, in The Birds (1963), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Sales , , , Leave a comment

Make Email Subject Lines Pop

by

Email marketing is an all-star player in your outbound marketing lineup. During the 15 month pandemic shutdown email marketing which, BTW, includes your blog posts and newsletters, became even more important as business leaders struggled to maintain communication with clients and prospects.

Think about it—-before you can schedule a video call to launch a full-on sales presentation, you need to establish contact with would-be prospects and open the door to the buyer’s journey. LeadGen is how to keep your sales pipeline filled and the process deserves a comprehensive inbound and outbound approach.

The challenge with email marketing is getting your message opened and read, even when the recipient knows your company. The powerful decision-makers you need to reach are pummeled with dozens of emails every day, Monday to Friday (and sometimes on the weekend). To manage the inflow, your decision-maker prospects are constantly prioritizing their inbox, often setting up filters and other gateways to organize messages that help them respond to important and urgent notes as efficiently as possible.

If you expect to persuade your intended prospect to click on your email in the midst of a typical deluge, it’s imperative that your email stand out in the best way. The way to do that is to create a stop-and-read subject line, an irresistible headline, that acts like a magnet. The subject line is the single most important part of an email because the opportunity to tell your story is lost if your email is sent to trash. The success of your marketing strategy is tied to the open rate of your sales/ marketing emails.

So, how does one create an intriguing, arresting, read-me email subject line? While every subject line is unique, there are guidelines to keep in mind as you write. In short, your subject line must tell recipients that your email contains information they’ll consider valuable, or somehow interesting, maybe a tad controversial or unexpected.

Eye-catching

Words such as free, limited offer and new are among those that can potentially make your subject line grab the reader. Providing a contrarian or surprising fact or statistic that challenges a common belief can likewise be compelling. Info that concerns a recent change in the industry is an update that many clients and prospects will appreciate.

Call-to-action

A call-to-action asks the reader to do something — learn, win, sign up, give feedback, for example. Many emails that drop into the average inbox lack an interesting, appealing subject line. It’s so easy for the eye to slide over much that is sent.

Devise an amusing, novel, or practical call-to-action that will both grab attention and either inspire or dare your intended reader to read on.

What’s in it for the reader?

Do you sell a product or service that can help your email recipients make money, save money, or save time? Can you help the reader’s organization achieve a mission-critical goal faster, more easily and maybe at a lower than expected cost? All of these scenarios offer value to your recipient and are enticing benefits to include in your subject line.

Be concise

Your subject line must do a lot of work in a small space. It must grab attention with a call to action, tempt the recipient with what could be in it for him/her and concisely getting to the point.The ideal length of an email subject line varies between mobile, desktop, and tablet devices, so keep this in mind as you craft the perfect one-liner for your sales email. On average, the maximum subject line is about 40 characters so that it can be seen in its entirety on phone, tablet, laptop, or desk model devices.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Attention grabbing front page headline in the Roswell (NM) Daily Record July 8, 1947 issue

Sales , , , , Leave a comment

LinkedIn Special Report: B2B Selling in the COVID era

by

In our uncertain times, for-profit organizations have elevated selling, the means by which revenue is generated, to the highest priority. Sales revenues are the life blood of a business and enable its survival. As a result, sales professionals are under significant pressure to identify, connect with, engage and bring in new clients, as well as obtaining additional business from existing clients.

No surprises there. Making sales is the role of sales reps. It’s just that thanks to COVID, the playing field has undergone a seismic shift. Once-thriving industries, most notably restaurants, hotels and fitness, have been greatly diminished. Commercial real estate sales and leasings are staggering, as legions of white collar professionals cobble together DIY offices and work from home. How can sales representatives reach prospects when they’re usually no longer in the office? How can they introduce themselves and their products and services when they can no longer meet prospects face2face?

Virtual technology has solved most of the communication problem, but virtually enabled conversations do not make it easy for sales reps to meet and lay the groundwork for building new relationships. Furthermore current or previous clients, who now work from home, are often overwhelmed as they strive to meet the new and growing expectations of their jobs. Receiving a request from a sales rep to schedule yet another videoconference call does not spark joy.

LinkedIn has issued its fourth annual State of Sales Report after interviewing some 1,000 B2B buyers and sellers in several countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, the UK and the US. Here are some key takeaways.

Good data matters

To clarify and justify their buying decisions, the report found that 49 % of prospective B2B buyers feel that objective data is a required element of a sale and data- driven decisions have grown in popularity in the COVID era. Data adds value. Sales professionals need only to determine which metrics matter to the prospect?

Doing some homework and asking a few questions is the way to learn what information will persuade your prospect. Now when you send an email to request a videoconference call, you can tempt your prospect with a couple of data tidbits that signal you understand what matters. Now you present yourself as being a problem-solver. Present some data and ask what other information will be useful.

Getting to know your prospect as you get to know their business challenges and objectives is part of engagement. Demonstrate that you’re not just trying to make a sale, you’re trying to help the prospect do solve, or avoid, a problem.

Be a problem-solver

Problem-solving emerged as an attribute that 47% of B2B buyers value highly. As always, effective selling means knowing the customer. One way to engage prospects is to ask about their business and learn as much as politely possible about why and how your product or service could help the organization achieve important objectives. In short, what do they really need to do and how can you help them get there?

Furthermore, you might ask prospects how they did what they need to do before you and your product or service came along? Now you’ll pick up some useful intel on competitors and know how to position your offering as superior, as you assume the role of problem- solver.

When sellers focus on client objectives and provide meaningful data it’s possible to position oneself as a problem-solver, if not as a trusted adviser and collaborator for the prospect. In this way B2B sellers earn trust. For 75% of B2B buying decision-makers, the amount of trust that they have for a seller is the number one factor that leads a buyer to do business with a particular company.

Expect change

In sum, 70 % of survey respondents feel that leading through change is now a required competency for sales managers and is more important than it was five years ago. Sales leaders are wrestling with the question of what the change in the business environment means for their organization and their team. In a separate LinkedIn survey of sales managers conducted in March 2020, 55 percent of the 200 respondents feared that a decrease in their sales pipeline is inevitable.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Over tea, Moroccan Berbers (Amazigh) build a relationship and discuss the potential sale of a rug.