Conrey is for Closers

The Internet and Sales

conrey — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:52:51 +0000

Attention salespeople – I’m tired of reading articles from you about how the Internet has made sales more difficult.
They are blatantly, egregiously, and obviously wrong.

Stop writing them.
Stop reading them.
Stop thinking that it is true.

The internet (and the child trends of social media, reviews, google, SEO, and everything else you are blaming for your sales failures) is not making sales harder.

The Internet makes sales easier

Yeah I’m going to get strung up by many of you who are clinging to your old world views of how sales should be done, but there’s a reason why I’m looking to the post modern sales world.

Yes it has made the pool of competition wider and more accessible to your buyers, but it has also made your pool of potential customers wider and more accessible.

Yes you now have to maintain a web presence and participate socially online to stay relevant – but you don’t have to commit 40 hours per week to it to be successful.

Yes your buyers can now price shop you with the flick of an email – but if that is where you are losing people you’re not a salesman, you’re an order taker. Go work at Burger King’s drive thru window or learn to build value.

Yes there is more information about products and services than any human could potentially ever read – but that allows you to help sift through the crap and find the relevant stuff to your prospects.

Quit your whining about how the world has changed and change with it or you will get run over.

The Internet and Sales is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

Social Media Isn’t Just on the Internet

Three Ways Your Sales Team Will Ruin Your Business

conrey — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:07:48 +0000

Is your sales team killing your business? Seems counterintuitive, but sadly it is more common that you think. There are many ways they can kill your business in the exploding-train-derailment sort of way, but most of you know how to prevent those. What you are probably missing are these three ways your sales team is killing you slowly:

Saying Yes to Every Deal:
Raise your hand if you think your sales team’s job is to go out and get every piece of business that they can find. Now those of you raising your hand please take that hand and smack yourself. Your sales team’s job is to go out and get the right business for you to complete. It is just as much a function of their job to protect you and your business from bad deals as it is to close good ones. Don’t be afraid to say no to a deal that is going to be more harm than it’s worth.

Lowering Your Prices:
As a sales manager or business owner have you ever had a salesman come in and say “We can win this deal, but only if we drop our price to ….”? Remember that hand you raised earlier and smacked yourself with? Hit them with it next time they ask this. I’m guessing you had a pretty good idea of what you thought your value proposition was when you sent them out into the wild to sell for you. Lowering your prices is a great way to bleed off margin, make for additional stress for everyone in accounting, and kill any chance you have of making the right money on this customer or any referrals they send. More importantly, the first time you lower the price it will feel really bad, you’ll think about it for a while, and then ultimately decide it’s the right play. But the second time it’s not so hard, and it gets progressively easier until without even realizing it you’ve lowered your bar entirely.

The Client is Always Right:
Yup, the tried and true mantra of customer service will kill you. I’m all for pleasing and delighting the customer as much as the next guy, but if you’ve failed at one or both of the above things, my guess is you’ve got clients in the pool who are demanding more of your time or product for less return, holding you hostage for payments because they want “one more thing”, or generally making your life hell because they’re never quite happy. Remember that clients are made just like you and I, human and imperfect. They’ll be wrong just as often as you, and while you shouldn’t go pointing out all of their flaws, you should be willing to draw a line in the sand when you have to. Sometimes you just have the better position to fight from.

No go forth and diagnose these problems within your organization and make the changes to prevent them from leading to a slow painful death.

Three Ways Your Sales Team Will Ruin Your Business is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

How to do Cold Calling and Emailing Right

conrey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:24:38 +0000

Today I received a cold email that was as bland and unlikely to get a response as possible (redacted to protect the guilty):

I know you have been approached by other folks that say they are like [REDACTED] but, I want to tell you how we could greatly affect your bottom line. [REDACTED] is an [REDACTED] company that delivers [THEIR PRODUCT] for agencies through intelligence, innovation and technology. I’m interested in scheduling a call to discuss how our services can help grow your online business. I understand you guys already offer a nice array of services and I think there are a number of ways we can work together!

At the bottom was attached two PDFs, a flyer and a brochure for their services.

I tweeted “If you are attaching your brochure or sales materials in your first cold email you’re not getting my business #salestruth” and very nearly got a response asking how I do my first cold email or call from Matt Secoske.

So let’s break it down with the patented Conrey advise:

I rarely do what would traditionally be called a cold call or email – I ask for introductions once I’ve targeted someone. I try to find any way in other than just barging down the front door. In the age of LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media tools there are so many options. Even check out the Cold Tweeting Episode from the Don’t Sell Me Bro Podcast for one idea.
When those options fail, I will reach out but not like the above. My initial email or call will never say what I’m selling or anything else. I’m going to go in with a listening and learning mindset. Something that is giving and not asking. Compare the following example to the above:

Hi there Chris, I’ve been following YOURCOMPANY for a little while on Twitter/FB/LinkedIn/YourBlog/TradeOrganizationWeAreMembersOf/Etc and realized that we’ve never spoken. I’d love to learn more about YOURCOMPANY and what makes you tick. When would be a good time to get together and let me borrow 20 minutes of your time over coffee/lunch/drinks/phonemeeting to chat with you?

Now for the hard part. When you go to meet with that person – you can’t pitch your services at all. If they ask what you do, sure you can say what it is, but you primary mission in that first meeting is to learn about them. Ask questions and learn where their pains are and what issues they deal with. Then in a second meeting or follow up email you can offer ways to solve those problems – bonus points if it is through referring or connecting them to someone else when you don’t solve their problem directly.

The difference is mindset – you have the sale in mind, but you’re not selling. You’re going in to learn and help, and build a relationship.

How to do Cold Calling and Emailing Right is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

Bad Salesman Chonicles – Cold Calling Suckas

Out of Office Emails: A Different Look

conrey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:23:46 +0000

Sorry I cannot respond immediately to your message as I will be away from the office January 11th through 13th. For urgent matters, please contact me at xxx-555-1212.

Thanks,
Prospect

The bane of a cold-calling salesman’s existence is the Out of Office reply. It means for certain that your email will be relegated with the rest of the newsletters, Groupon deals, junk mail, and solicitations that will clutter an inbox on their return. It means a cold, dead lead for most of you.

But does it have to?
What if you did something different?
What if you separated yourself from the crowd?

What if you replied to the Out of Office email?

Yeah, I went there. I’m putting it out there. I’ll even admit this isn’t my idea, but it’s genius. It shows that your email didn’t come from a robot or an automated list. It shows that you actually can respond (maybe with some humor, if you’re like me) and give them something new to remember.

Not only that but you can use that for intelligence. You now know things about your prospect. You know when they’re gone and when they’ll be back. In some cases you’ll know what they are doing while they aren’t answering your email so you have conversation starters when they get back. I received this real Out of Office message yesterday:

Please note that I will be out of the office with no access to
email/phone as I attempt to hike to the roof of Africa (Mount
Kilimanjaro).

Kindly note the following points of contact:

You’re damn right that gives me all kinds of ammo to work with. Imagine the response I’ll get when he gets down from the mountain and sees an email like this:
“Awesome! That sounds like a great accomplishment and something that is a cool story. The kind of client who takes some time to climb a mountain is the kind of client I want to work with, I’d love to hear about your climb when you get back!”

What have you thought about differently today?

Out of Office Emails: A Different Look is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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The Bar is Raised

conrey — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:16:17 +0000

The bar is only getting higher every day.

You used to be able to pretty good at one part of your job to stand out from the crowd. Have slightly better customer service? Have a 24 hour phone line? You won the game if that was your model 20 years ago – be the least painful option.

Then you had to be excellent at one part of your business to stand out. Win awards, get recognized, be brilliant. That is how you stood out 10 years ago, by being a better option.

That doesn’t work anymore. Being brilliant is no longer a differentiator, it is expected. It’s the minimum level needed to be truly successful and sustainable. Buyers are looking to only spend their money on the things that will give them the best result, the best experience, the best return. This is double so as the recession continues globally.

If you are not absolutely brilliant at what you do, and you don’t show that to your clients, you are losing. Start to show your awesomeness now if you have it, and if you don’t – it’s time to change what you do.

The Bar is Raised is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Business Disuse Atrophy and 3 Steps to Fighting It

conrey — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:55:05 +0000

Disuse atrophy of muscles (muscle atrophy) and bones, with loss of mass and strength, can occur after prolonged immobility, such as extended bedrest, or having a body part in a cast (living in darkness for the eye, bedridden for the legs etc.). This type of atrophy can usually be reversed with exercise unless severe. Astronauts in microgravity must exercise regularly to minimize atrophy of their limb muscles.

From Wikipedia

In the course of recording Don’t Sell Me Bro last week, we interviewed Andia Winslow – US Olympic hopeful in the Skeleton and someone who is looking to get her business off the ground. Coming from an athletic background she dropped a great term on us – Business Disuse Atrophy.

Much like the muscle atrophy above, your business skills will lose mass and strength. It’s easy to get away with taking some time off from selling when business is good, your future work schedule is stacked up and you’re no longer worried about paying rent next month.

However, just like your endurance wanes when sitting on the couch watching sports instead of playing them, your sales skills will get rusty just the same. Some simple steps to keep this from happening to you:

Educate Yourself: My guess is if you are here you’re already doing some of this. But read about your craft, read about what you want to get better at, take a class, read things that don’t seem necessarily related but tax your brain. Give yourself the chance to learn something that you can apply to your business and try something new.

Schedule Your Workout: Take some time on your calendar every week to do sales related tasks. Block a couple of hours for prospecting, a couple of hours for reconnecting with past clients, and even some time for checking on deals you thought were dead. Put that time on your calendar as an appointment with yourself and keep that appointment!

Get a Coach: When you want to take your game up to the next level, you’ll have to have someone push you beyond what you think are your limits. A coach or trainer in the gym will push, yell, bribe, and pull you to your best workout, so why not in business? Have a coworker partner with you on this, where you’ll work to hold each other accountable to getting better. Work by yourself? Get a fellow solo entrepreneur to have lunch with once a week and check in on each other. If you can’t do that, find a group online to start this process

Keep your business muscles worked out and they’ll be there when you need them.

Business Disuse Atrophy and 3 Steps to Fighting It is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Three Ways Your Sales Team Will Ruin Your Business

How To Not Sell Anymore And Keep Your Business Rocking

conrey — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:21:01 +0000

This may sound like heresy but as a salesman your greatest aspiration should be to stop selling.

I’ll let you re-read that again and catch your breath before I move on.

The best brands out there do not sell you – you seek them out. You want to buy from them even with minimal visible effort on their part to convince you of that. Contrast the number of commercials you see on TV for Hondas, Chevys, and Toyotas versus the number of ads you see for Rolls Royce or Maybach. Those are all great cars that will get you to where you need to go functionally but you want the form and style of the latter ones. That’s an extreme example but let’s break down why it works.

Ultimately it comes down to one thing: Rolls Royce (and their analogs across other verticals) know themselves.
They know what they are, what makes them desirable, and what their buyers want. They know that they are the top of their food chain because they perform at a level above and beyond functional. They are flawless in style and performance. For an average user the differences aren’t something that you can really tell, but you know you want them. They go above and beyond to demonstrate, often by literally holding their buyers hands and showing, the most detailed of features so that there is no mistake of what you’re getting.

As a salesman if you know yourself, you’ll be able to identify what makes you so desirable to your buyers, and in time turn them into your sales force. It takes a commitment to excellence that is difficult to hold yourself to, but all great rewards come with a great cost.

How To Not Sell Anymore And Keep Your Business Rocking is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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On Being Professional

conrey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:42:08 +0000

In working with a number of small businesses and solo entrepreneurs I’ve noticed there’s a struggle on deciding when to bring in a professional salesman versus doing it yourself. The common theme I’ve heard from my friends and clients is that they don’t “feel like” a salesperson. They don’t feel like they can do the sales game.

In most of these cases, these are people whose greatest sales asset is themselves – they are selling their expertise, their talents, and their skills. In these cases you don’t need a professional salesperson, in fact it will probably hurt you more than help. If you are selling yourself, no one is going to do a better job of that than you.

If you love what you do, or what you are selling in a way that is self actualizing, then that same truth will ring here as well. Most of you don’t need to hire a salesperson, you need to put in the work yourself and unlock your inner salesman.

On Being Professional is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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Are you Afraid of Your Quote?

conrey — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:23:46 +0000

I was asked a great question by a salesperson I was consulting with recently:

Chris, how do you deliver an estimate when you know that it is going to be significantly higher than what they expect or can afford?

This is an experience that I’m sure a number of solo-entrepreneurs and salesmen have encountered. The real question here is why are you afraid of your quote? Are you not sure that you have built enough value into your pitch to justify the budget you’re proposing? Follow along for three easy steps to not being afraid of your pitch:

Build Value – Give solid reasons why the quality of what you do is worth what you cost.

Build Value – Give solid reasons for why you cost what you do and why you’ll give them more than they expect

Build Value – Give them a taste of what they’re in for once they sign up. Get them hooked on the service and attention to detail you provide.

Never give a quote until you’ve put in the time to do those things. And once you do put in the time and effort to build that value up, a quote with a big number on it is just that – a number. If you believe that you’re worth it – and build the value up the same way -if they can’t afford you it wasn’t going to be a great client for you anyway. But you may have salvaged an opportunity for them to either unearth new budget or refer you out to someone else who can afford the excellent work you do.

What would you do to overcome a proposal you’re afraid to send?

Are you Afraid of Your Quote? is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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RIP Steve Jobs

conrey — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:17:18 +0000

There have been better salesmen, showmen, thinkers, innovators and business leaders. But no one that embodied all of these things the way that Steve Jobs did.

Some of my posts that reference Steve’s salesmanship:
Are Salesmen Sociopaths

Birth of a Salesman

RIP Steve Jobs is a post from: Conrey is for Closers

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