A big thank you for all who attended SalesCrunch’s Online Class ”How to Ask Questions That Get the Sale,“ hosted by Yan Tsirklin of Gorilla Group.

Below is Part 2 of the online class.

In this class, you’ll learn:

• Learn how to identify buyers and stop wasting time with wouldas, couldas, shouldas, and no pos
• Learn how to reveal their buying motives
• Learn how to struture your questions to get more detail then ever

How to Ask Questions That Get the Sale (Part 2) (10:20)

A big thank you for all who attended SalesCrunch’s Online Class ”How to Ask Questions That Get the Sale,“ hosted by Yan Tsirklin of Gorilla Group.

Below is Part 1 of the online class.

In this class, you’ll learn:

• Learn how to identify buyers and stop wasting time with wouldas, couldas, shouldas, and no pos
• Learn how to reveal their buying motives
• Learn how to struture your questions to get more detail then ever

How to Ask Questions That Get the Sale (Part 1) (35:12)

By Linda Forshaw

There’s little doubt that the majority of sales proposals fail to make the grade. Some experts estimate that as little as 10% succeed. How do you make sure that your proposal has a shot of the money?

Focus on the solution

Keep the focus on what your prospect wants to hear; namely how you are going to solve their problems and the benefits of signing on the dotted line with you. You want to get right in there and wow them from the start. Leading with ten pages of egotistical marketing fluff is not the way to go about it. Kick off with their project details and how you can help, throw in the opportunity of a virtual demo if it’s appropriate, before including a brief summary of your company.

Choose comparisons carefully

Steer clear of comparing your costs to those of your competitors. That just puts your competitors on the minds of the decision makers. The better option is to compare your costs to what the client is currently paying. Show them exactly how much they will save and what they will gain.

Know your audience

Sales proposals that work for department bosses are not going to have the same impact on a C-level executive. To get the attention of the head honchos, you’re going to need to identify and align with their priorities, demonstrate a strong ROI and acknowledge any risks. You have to really connect with their mindset if you want to be in with a shot.

Get to the point

We’ve all read them; those outright boring proposals that ramble on for the best part of thirty pages. It’s just bull shit masquerading as a proposal. Does anyone ever actually read them to the end? Probably not. Keep it concise, succinct and effortlessly clear if you want a chance of winning the business.

Follow up

As part of the diagnostic and discovery phase, make it your business to find out your client’s review and decision process. Who needs to sign off on your proposal and when is a decision expected? Ask them if you can schedule an online meeting on the day that a decision is expected. If the decision is going to take any longer than two weeks, touch base at least once before the big day to make sure you’re on top of any changes.

This is the stuff that matters; get it right and you’re on the way to nailing that business.

Image courtesy of Eric McGregor

About this class:

 Learning points:

• How to use a new model of success and failure, creating an entirely new mindset
• How to set “no goals” to reach a new level of productivity
• How to overcome the emotional challenge of getting a “No”
• How to quickly deal with a “No” to effectively move on to more opportunities for “Yes”

This class will be held online on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 at 3pm EDT / 12pm PDT.

Only the first 40 to register will get into the live online class, so register early! All other registrants will receive a link to the recorded class as soon as it becomes available.

About the Host:

Andrea Waltz is the co-author of Go for No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There.  Along with her partner Richard Fenton, Andrea has made it her mission to liberate people from fears of failure and rejection, sharing an entire new mindset about hearing the word NO. The philosophies have been embraced by people in a wide variety of industries and businesses to rave reviews and amazing results. The book, Go for No! hit #1 on Amazon’s “Selling” list and has remained in the top 20 of ‘Sales’ books for the last 2 years.

Only the first 40 to register will get into the live online class, so register early! All other registrants will receive a link to the recorded class as soon as it becomes available.

Several weeks ago, Sara, our über-talented UX Designer, shared something she found on Facebook or some other social media community she would “never be caught dead on.”  It was a link to a page on pawnation.com that claimed, “May 1 is Save the Rhino Day, 24 hours dedicated to protecting this interesting but severely endangered animal. Wildlife charities around the world are encouraging citizens to donate time and funds to efforts like Save the Rhino Trust. Do your part: learn why rhinoceroses need and deserve our help to stay alive.”

So, we did!  We checked out Save the Rhino International and offered our assistance.  After all, our logo would no longer represent a living creature known for its large horn, toughness and thick skin. Although the rhino’s features can appear quite mythical, we prefer to help to keep Gertie (we named ours) and her real-life bruthas and sistas alive and well.

That said, we invite you to take a look at what the Save The Rhino International is doing and consider supporting their mission of conserving viable populations of critically endangered rhinos in Africa and Asia.

We’re expecting some awesome news from Save The Rhino International in a few weeks (can you say baby rhino?!) so stay tuned and we’ll update you as we learn more.

This post originally appeared on IdeaTransplant by Jan Schultink. Although the topic is centered around IPO meetings, some of these lessons can be applied to any sales meeting, in-person or virtual, even a product demo webinar.

I was asked to mention common pitfalls in IPO presentations the other day. Here are some of my thoughts in random order

• Using an internal strategy deck as the basis for your presentation, rather than starting from scratch. Internal presentations are targeted at insiders, IPO presentations are meant for people who do not suffer from the Curse of Knowledge.
• Talking management speak, full of buzzwords. Institutional investors are sifting through investor pitches and data all day long, they are trained to cut out the noise. If you provide a lot of noise and padding, they automatically think there is no real substance to talk about.
• Over-structuring, repeating, repeating again. In a short investor pitch tell a story, do not try to get investors to remember key facts by drilling it in their heads.
• A generic investment thesis. Very high-level bullet points that could apply to just about any company: growth, profitability, etc. Diluting the core of what is special about your company with many, many other positives that are valid, but not that important. Like in marketing: too many benefits, no benefits.
• Avoiding the elephant in the room. institutional investors probably are pretty well informed about your company, and the key questions they have (often shared with journalists and bloggers) are pretty clear. Your presentation should address those, maybe not explicitly (here are our weaknesses), but implicitly. These questions are the only thing that people are worried about.
• Avoid the long-term growth options. There are legal restrictions to what extent management can provide business forecasts in an IPO filing, but that does not mean that you cannot educate investors on how you can think about valuing your business. Give a framework on what value components could be there for the long-term.
• Focus only on the company, not on trends in broader society. Sometimes the key driver behind the success of a company is a fundamental shift on how people are operating, how things are changing in the world. Your IPO is an opportunity for an investor to invest in that trend. If that is the main driver, discuss it.
• Confusing financial data. A 30 minute pitch is not enough time to go over the financial data in full detail. Still, there is no reason why you should confuse things instead. Give a good overall picture of the components of your company. Show how the revenue model is working. Show how the cost structure works.
• Forget the front line. Management talks about a company in terms of top line revenue, overall market share, but the real action is in the front lines. Give customer case examples, they are often a much more powerful illustration of the attractiveness of a business than top line figures.
• Recording your presentation in front of a camera, without an audience. Unless you are a professional TV host, people find it difficult to look natural in front of a camera. Invite a small audience when you are video-ing your tape. If that is not possible, maybe tape some images of people on some chairs in the studio/conference room so you can imagine talking to the people who are listening/watching you later.

By Linda Forshaw

Forget cold calling and outbound marketing techniques. There’s a damn good reason it’s been described as interruption-based. Wouldn’t it be better if your existing customers could warm up your prospects for you? Generating referrals is one of the most effective things you can do to grow your business.

Seize the moment

It’s critical to ask for referrals at the right time. If a client is talking in terms of how much they like your product, how much money it is saving them or is expressing any sort of gratitude, it’s a safe bet it’s a good time to ask for a referral. If they’re happy with you and can see the value of your product, they are likely to be receptive to your request. Don’t be shy about it; don’t come across as arrogant, but there’s a lot to be said for being assertive and asking for help acquiring more business. After all, your product is the best there is. Right?

Be memorable

In that magical moment when someone asks your client if they know anyone who does whatever it is that you do, you should be the first name that comes to mind. Damn, you should be the only name. Keeping in contact with clients post sale is a good idea for up-sell opportunities anyway, but the possibility of gaining referrals is an added bonus. Make the most from the opportunity by gently coaching your client on how their contacts can get in touch with you. Perhaps remind them that you offer online demos or give them the go ahead to invite people to your next webinar. It really can be that simple.

Be grateful

If someone has sent a nice bit of business your way, its important to show your gratitude. Remember what Mom and Dad taught you about the importance of saying please and thank you? It turns out they were right. In general, people like to feel appreciated, so keep them in the loop. Let them know how it’s going along the way and the ultimate outcome. Even if you don’t end up winning the business, a simple hand written thank you note goes a long way.

Approached correctly, referrals can represent a significant source of new business with minimal cost. It’s by no means a done deal, but generating referrals means the hardest part of clinching a sale is done for you. You just have to concentrate on not screwing it up.

Image courtesy of Allen Murabayashi

By Cara Celli

…Could be your downfall.

In a world where businesses are barely scraping by, we’ve become blind to what really matters. A lot of businesses are selling the same products. What would be the main way to set themselves apart? Obviously, it would be to provide amazing care to their customers. Making sure that, even if they’re buying the same stuff, that there was something about them and their offering that made their customer decide to choose them over a competitor.

It’s my company’s motto

We know we sell the same products our competitors do. The way we set ourselves apart is in how we care for our customers. We go above and beyond expectations, making sure they remember how they were treated. And it works! Our loyal customers are what have helped us survive this recession. And we continue to succeed because of this belief system.

Take care of them, or lose them

The funny thing is, we complain about not having enough customers, and when we finally get one, we get annoyed. God forbid we should have to do an order for them, or show them how to use a product. Shouldn’t they already know this? When they ask for help, it’s not okay to just point to where they need to go instead of showing them. Or to not say hello because you’re tired, or just don’t care. You don’t care if you keep your job, or if your company stays in business?!

Even if no one else saw that, the customer did. And in their minds, it matters. If they didn’t feel cared for, they won’t come back. I’ve heard of a stream of customers coming into a business, which for most salespeople would be thought of as a golden opportunity. And the sales rep didn’t even look at them, or say hello. The customers waited around, hoping to be greeted, but nothing happened. So they left. Unacceptable. And a great way to lose future business.

It really is that serious

There will always be another guy who is willing to provide amazing service to YOUR customers. It presents the worst possible image of a company if the marketing is great, and they succeed in getting customers to come in, but fail miserably in taking care of them. They will feel tricked and betrayed, and will go to a competitor whose marketing may not be as good, but took better care of them. Because that’s what matters.

How do we change this?

When that customer comes in, they’re your new best friend. They’re your focus. Not all the work piling up on your desk, phone calls you need to make, or anything in your personal life. You may be tired, but your customer’s counting on you to help them a hundred percent. And I know you’ll do it, because now you know what’s at stake.

Special thanks to my colleague, Linda Duran, for coming up with the title.

About the Author:

Cara Celli is an expert customer service representative and sales professional, with over thirteen years of inside sales experience. She has gained experience in managing her own department at her current company, and is an advocate for selling with integrity. Her specialties are in customer service, sales, team leadership, new business development, and customer advocacy.

By Art Sobczak

A stranger approaches you on the street and asks for some money.

A person wielding a clipboard (or an iPad) jumps in front of you as you’re walking down the shopping mall and asks if you can take 10 minutes for a survey.

A woman at a bar is approached by a man she doesn’t know, who asks, “Hey, want to have a relationship?”

What were YOU feeling as you read each of those?

Discomfort. Resistance. Maybe skin-crawling creepiness in the last example?

Why? Because an unknown-someone blindsided the target out of nowhere, asking for something without giving a reason for doing so. Of course the natural reaction is resistance.

Here are sales examples:

A sales rep calls a prospect he has never spoken with before and in the opening says “…I’m with ABC company and I’d like to set up a time to meet with you to …”

Or,

“…I’d like to discuss what it would take to do business together…”

Or,

“…I’d like to invite you to a webinar…”

When a sales rep who is unfamiliar to his/her prospect begins with asking for, or implies that he/she wants something from the prospect, without giving any reason why, the result is similar to the previous examples: resistance.

Yet, those sales-related examples are still widely used, and I’m assuming, taught by someone–or by many.

That blows me away.

So what should you do?

Make your calls about them, not YOU. Have something FOR them, instead of wanting to take something FROM them.

Here’s a simple opening template based on my Smart Calling™ system:

1. Identify yourself and company.

2. Mention what you know about them based on your research. Get information before your call by going online to their site, search engines, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, and free and paid information-aggregating services like InsideView and OneSource. You get it in real time by placing a “Social Engineering” call to the company to ask questions of people other than your decision maker, to gather information that will help you customize your call so you are able to say something relevant and on target.

3. Hint at your Possible Value Proposition.  Talk about results, which everyone wants, and not a product or service which most people react to with, “We’re satisfied with what we’re doing.” Say what you’ve done for others so it is substantiated. Use numbers, dollars, and percentages to really make an impact.

4. Add more possible value, and move to the interaction. Get them answering questions quickly. Telling them you would like to provide information, or would like to run a few ideas by them is very non-threatening. You aren’t seeking a decision for anything other than moving to the questioning part of the call.

For example,

“Hi Pat, I’m Dale Stevens with Atlantic Associates. In speaking with Jolene in your marketing department, I understand that one of your initiatives for the year is strengthening the communication and collaboration between your account management and production departments, so you can increase your customer retention rate and order frequency. With another components manufacturer we were able to help them do exactly that and raise their retention by 55% in six months, and reorder rate by 34%. I’d like to ask a few questions to see if I could provide you with some information.”

It’s about THEM, not you. The first part of the call is not about throwing the long bomb at the first opportunity. Give them a reason to move forward with the call, engage them, ask questions, and you’ll find your calls progressing more smoothly.

About the Author:

For over 29 years Art Sobczak has helped sales pros avoid resistance and get success using the phone in their prospecting and selling. Get his free report, “The Top 10 DUMB Cold Calling Mistakes that Ensure Failure and Rejection” http://www.BusinessByPhone.com)

Photo courtesy of Appitive.com

By Janelle Vadnais

Just because the economy slowed down doesn’t mean that your business has to. Use the following five tips to help ‘turn your sales engine on’ and get things moving!

5 Keys to Sales Growth

Get personal.

As human beings, we like to feel that other people care about us. Also, statistically-speaking, people tend to buy more from those businesses who have developed a more personalized sales approach or message that is centered around their target consumer. So, how do you begin to do this?

Figure out who your audience is. Then customize the content on your website to cater to that particular group of individuals.

Manage your time well with social campaigns.

Building a social presence on the Internet is important. Managing it well is an entirely different story.

While having a Facebook page and Twitter account may be a key part of your social strategy, ask yourself how much time you are spending on each social site. How many social campaigns do you have going- and on what networks? What sorts of valuable, sales-driven content are you providing on each? How often?

Knowing what works well for your particular business is important. For instance, spending 80 percent of your time on Facebook, connecting with customers may prove to be less beneficial for some companies than spending that time on a different social network, like Twitter or Squidoo. Understand how each social network works as well as the frequency with which your audience frequents them.

Don’t post videos just because.

When I was working on my Master’s Degree in college, I used to share this theory with my friends that PowerPoint presentations were pointless. It seemed as though everyone had jumped onto the PowerPoint bandwagon as a way of presenting information. However, in the overwhelming majority of presentations, the person would just end up reading a bunch of text off of the slides. There was no other real visual element to the presentation.

The same thing applies to videos. Anyone can post a video on YouTube or elsewhere. But when you’re trying to market something, don’t simply post a headshot of you talking. Instead, provide your audience with a visually appetizing display. Show. Teach. Demonstrate. Be humorous. Be entertaining. Do this by using some sort of hands-on demonstration. Create a cartoon. Use imagery or graphics. Make it useful and engaging; otherwise, a bored audience will head elsewhere.

Check in on the competition.

Healthy competition is never a bad thing. Keep a finger on the pulse of what’s going on within your niche industry. Don’t simply spy on your competitors and then steal ideas. Rather, look to see what you can learn from them and use it to help you improve your own marketing goals. How can you do things differently than them? Be an innovator.

Connect with your customers, and LISTEN to them!

Doing this will not only help you reevaluate your business goals; it will also help you better manage your funds. Sure, spending X amount of dollars on that Facebook ad campaign last year might have worked for you, but today’s customers really seem to love using that mobile app that your competitor just came out with.

Don’t be afraid to ask your consumers what they want, and then work to make it happen!

About the author:

Janelle Vadnais is a web copyeditor and social media strategist at Unlimited Web Solutions, Inc., a Raleigh-based Internet marketing company focused on providing organic SEO and social media optimization at both the local and national level. She is also an avid runner and the author behind run, janelle, run!