Know Your Customer-The Straw Man

Or "How To Sell Girl scout cookies."

How To Sell Girl Scout Cookies

This is an old but valuable method that can save you time and frusttration when delivering your product/solution to market.
The straw man is a composite of who you want to sell to.
An amalgam of past customers, opportunities and pains. The path you took to win them and the lessons learned by losing them.
Properly executed your straw man can be the starting point out of which your sales process grows.
Start by imaging the straw man.
Who is he?
What are his pains?
How does your solution address those pains?

In previous posts we discussed the flow of pain throughout an organization and how pain is felt differently by different parts of the team.
The Business side and the technical team manifest pain differently, yet the root cause can be the the same.


Just as a band is dependent upon one another to deliver a professional performance, so too is the organization inter dependent to deliver a successful project.
Do your homework.
Know your straw-man.
Know your pain chain.
Now go sell me some cookies!



Your pal,
Sean

Acheiving Customer Alignment

Failure to properly align your sales process with your customers buying process represents the single biggest reason why we lose IT sales.
Why?
Because we are not in sync with the way our customer does business.
We are following our process and not working within the perimeters of his.
Sounds simple because it is.
When you can make your sales process align with your customers buying process you dramatically increase your odds of winning the client and of properly addressing his organizations pains.
This is achieved only after you understand his organizations buying process.
We define a process as a repeated series of steps and activities that are designed to achieve an outcome.
Just as we have our sales process the organization we are selling into has its buying process and we must respect and align ourselves with it as closely as possible to get the sale.
Typically this will include a presentation, demonstration and sometimes a trial that is accompanied by your proposal and ROI.
Ask the customer how the process is conducted in his organization and then model your plan around it.
This will not win the day every time but I can guarantee results that are measurable and repeatable and a much more satisfying experience for everyone involved.

Your pal,

Sean

"O'Reilly's Rules" The 11 Commandments Of Telesales

Cold calling scripts/frameworks do work if they are well crafted and properly delivered. I know because I have done them for every industry from auto repair to enterprise solution sales.


I work with frameworks instead of scripts as they allow for a more organic dialog, but experience has taught me that a properly written well delivered intro is the difference between winning sales or asking:
"Do you want fries with that?"

"O'Reilly's Rules"

1. You must make your compelling statement within the first twenty seconds or you lose
2. You must be talking to power or have access to power.
3. You must make them feel the pain. No pain no sell
4. You must NEVER lie
5. You must take verbatim notes of client pains, (These will be your tools when overcoming objections) you can argue with me but not with your own words.
6. You must not educate your customer but you must engage them.
7. You must control the call
8. You must assume the close 3 times
9. Never disrespect your prospect if they cannot or will not buy we thank them for their time and tell them we will follow up in a few months.
10. Never get into a battle of wits the odds are you are out gunned, instead tell your prospect that while you are a salesperson you are surrounded by experts who can and will answer the question.
11. Use your support team! That's why they are there,

Depending on the product and cycle these can also help you set and measure metrics and do forcasting
If you are selling to a specific industry learn enough about that industry to know the players and how your particular product or service can help.
Remember:

-Do No Harm.
-Always Add Value.

Your pal,

Sean

The Objection Formula

Objections are as much a part of process as any other step in your sales cycle and will likely happen more than once during the cycle.

If you are working your steps they can be handled quickly and easily and will strengthen the bond you have with your customer.

1. Agree

2 Restate

3 Isolate

4 Overcome

Customer Objection: Too expensive

Response:

Yes I agree it can be very expensive to find the right solution(Always agree, it validates the customer concern) So, your saying that it's cost that's preventing us from moving forward?(Restate his concern so you are aligned) But other than cost, you believe my solution represents your best path forward and cost is our only issue(You are now isolating his objection, making sure you get him to agree on the pain and how you resolve it)

well, I can't change the price but I can show you how having this tool will save your company money instead of costing you money.

Now review his admitted pain points and how you solved them getting his agreement along the way.

Do you see now how we are going to save, not cost you money?(if you did your pain points right he told you verbatim what those pains were, you can now close him using his own stated pains to deliver the close.

Why?

Because you can argue with me on my statements and opinions but how do you argue what you yourself have already stated?

This is why you must write down, verbatim the customer pain as he he describes it.

No pain no sale

To recap: Pain is felt differently throughout the organization and as such you will encounter different objections relative to addressing that pain at different points along the way.

Stick to your formula, work the steps and every time you get an objection write it down and review your best answer until you know it by heart.

Objections are buying questions, So know your answers.

Your pal,

Sean

Why Are You Saying No When Yes Feels So Good??

Say it with me: Yes! Yes! Yes!

This is a great word full of promise, hope and joy.
We need to hear this word a lot as salespeople.

Yes means, hitting quota, yes means achieving professional goals and yes means personal satisfaction.

But as salepeople we do not hear yes as frequently as we'd like do we?
Telemarketing studies say we only hear it about 1-3 times every 100 people we connect with.
Wow, that's a lotta no!

So, how do we turn a no into a yes?
Well, it really depends on you and your alignment with your prospect. But you can make that big "Yes", the close easier when you enable little Yeses along the way.

How do we do this?
We ask for it.
Your sales presentation and your process are full of opportunity for your customer to say yes So help them say it.
Here is a sample of how we might achieve this:

Telephone call warm:

Hi_____(prospect) my name is Sean O'Reilly and I build teams, I have over 25 years of successful experience doing this and based on my review of your(product good, service) I'm convinced that I can add immediate value to your organization.
Do I sound like someone you could work with?"

Customeer: 'Yes."

Sean: "Great! let me ask you a few questions to learn a bit about you and the process you have in place now and then based on that information we can determine whether or not we are a fit, and forge a path forward, sound fair?"

Customer: "Yes!'

Sean: "Tell me about your existing process and the path you take to get there.
(This part cannot be scripted but it can and should be frameworked, ask this customer, REAL questions and then right the answers down verbatim.)

Now, if you have used your most valuable of sales tools your ears, you have just been armed with all you need to win this account.

Sean :"Let me make sure I understand you, (read back what your customer told you, emphasis on pain and your value add )

"Am I on the right track?"

Customer :" Yes"

Sean "Great, I believe I can help you and we can get your sales ramped up right away, Are you ready to light this candle?"

At this point this is your baby to lose, you want to wrap up now and get the appointment.

Always leave the party early.

Your job here is to engage, not to educate.

The best presentation ends when your potential customer is left wanting more.

(to be cont)

"It's, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"

One of the most common problems in our society is the all or nothing approach to embracing new concepts, ideas and or philosophies.
Why?
It is, IMO, our innate need to constantly see and discover new and better ways of moving forward.

No methodology is perfect and no technology complete, there are always going to be alternative paths to achieve success and it is in our nature to seek them.
This human foible, is one of the key elements that make life and the evolution of sales and technology so exciting.

What approach do use to engage your head space in new ideology and alternative concepts?

Are you able to separate yourself from the leash of convention and explore the possible and the impossible?

Try to examine one new possibility every day, take a counterpoint to your own preconceived notions of what is and is not possible and then use that position to explore the cracks and fissures in your own reality.
What is then possible?

We have been extremely blessed to live and work in a time where the possible is limited only by our willingness to contemplate, explore and imagine.
Today, I challenge you to look around at you and find something that has confused frustrated or confounded you and rediscover it.
Why is this idea concept or belief impossible to you?

Chris Nielsen "What Dreams May Come?"

"Not only did I rediscover every experience of my life, I had to live each unfulfilled desire as well—as though they’d been fulfilled. I saw that what transpires in the mind is just as real as any flesh and blood occurrence. What had only been imagination in life, now became tangible, each fantasy a full reality. I lived them all—while, at the same time, standing to the side, a witness to their, often, intimate squalor. A witness cursed with total objectivity."

When you can do this and shed your armor of the possible you are free to embrace the impossible "What dreams may come?"

'Empower The Troops'

Usually I stay away from politics in here as they tend to repel rather than attract your followers But today I am making an exception to post a letter that I wrote to the editor published today in the SF Chronicle:



Empower the troops
Aside from being unconstitutional, "don't ask, don't tell" goes against the ideals we stand for.
We live by a code of duty, honor and country. As an Army sergeant my duty was to tear you down physically, mentally and emotionally and then rebuild you. To instill in you a confidence and knowledge that you were capable of far more than you ever imagined. To then reinforce that knowledge with praise, discipline and purpose and then demand excellence from you and allow you, the empowered soldier, to do the rest.
I cannot empower or demand excellence from someone who is forced to hide what and who they are, and constantly made to feel that they are not equals to those troops they will serve, fight and die with.
Thank you, America, for finally letting our brave LGBT warriors serve openly with the dignity, honor and the esprit de corps they deserve.

Bayonet!

A grateful veteran
Sean O'Reilly, San Francisco