Some sales trainers teach that persistence is a horrible idea. If you start to suspect that the buyer is just "kicking the tire" the sales person is often instructed to cut the prospect loose. My experience finds that philosophy is not applicable in the B2B marketplace.
As a SVP of purchasing for a national company, it was the persistent salesperson that won my business. How did they do this? They developed top-of-mind awareness, so when I was ready to talk to them, I knew who they were, where they were from and what they were selling.
The American Marketing Association says 27 touches are required before people will buy anything new. It takes an average of 5 'touches' just to get an appointment, yet 50% of salespeople give up after the first touch. here are some actionable tactics that you can pursue that will help your message be relevant to a buyer without appearing like the proverbial "pain in the posterior."
You can't develop top-of-mind awareness with a buyer unless you provide frequent "reminders" that you exist. The very best salespeople have worked long and hard to establish a strong working relationship with their buyers. Make contact about once every two weeks in the earliest stages of prospecting. Keep in mind some of the other key communication behaviors in these early calls: be targeted, be relevant, and be purposeful. Using tactics outlined in "What Buyers Want" keeps persistence from crossing the line into irritation.
After developing rapport with your buyer, reaching out to your buyer once every couple of months should be adequate to maintain top-of-mind awareness if the timing for a sale wasn't quite right when you initially were prospecting.
Whether it's due to caller ID or just a busy buyer, expect to reach your prospects voicemail an average of three times before getting through, so...be persistent! Since you should plan on being put through to voice mail, consider it a free advertisement. It's an ad that makes your buyer aware of who you are, what your company does and what you can do for them. (See our article on targeted communications for more on voicemail messages.)
Finally, persistence does not mean you shouldn't vary your methods of contact. Until you know for certain how your prospect prefers to communicate with you, it's best to cover all your bases by changing your method of contact. Plus, by changing communication vehicles, it's a great way to demonstrate your persistence without crossing the line to irritant, or worse yet, a pest. Two voice messages, a follow-up e-mail message, a customized letter or package sent via snail mail or another voice message "touches" the buyer differently than call after call with virtually identical voice messages.
"What Buyers Want" is a sales rep that is persistent in his communications, reflecting commitment to their buyer and his needs.
To find out more about "What Buyers Want," check out our website at www.whatbuyerswant.net
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Grabbing your buyer's attention: Purposeful communications
The customer always needs to feel like there is momentum in the relationship, and knows where things stand at any given time. Some of the best sales persons that I've had the pleasure of working with always ensured that each piece of communication had a stated purpose for occurring.
A phone call might confirm an upcoming appointment or may provide follow-up information from an earlier face-to-face meeting. E-mail can also confirm a meeting or reinforce information, but may provide more specific details than a quick phone call. With an identified purpose, I know that sales person is not going to waste my time.
Imagine two voice mail messages that the customer picks up one morning.
Message number one:
"Hey Bob. John from Acme Tools here. Sorry I'm calling after hours but I've been on the road the past week and phone time has been hard to find. I wanted to catch up when you have a minute, so...give me a call tomorrow when you get a minute, OK? I'm at 555-555-5555."
Message number two:
"Hi Bob. This is Tom Johnson from Baxter Tools. When we spoke last week I promised to check on the price of some components on the R-17 for you, and I just got that information late today. Call me anytime tomorrow and I can go over the details with you. I'll e-mail you the information, too, before I head out this evening. You can reach my direct line at 211-555-5555. Thanks, Bob."
If I'm returning one of those calls, Tom has my attention. It's brief, tells me why he called and also provides an e-mail to confirm his message. John might get a call back, if time allows, but I really don't know why he called and I may easily decide to wait for him to call me back instead.
Let's not forget that some sales people like a personal touch- it doesn't always have to be all business. If a customer is a baseball fanatic for their local team, throwing in a game comment in a voicemail or e-mail won't derail your purpose in calling-as long as that purpose is still clear and the message brief. If Tom added this to the above message, has he fouled out or still likely to get to first base? (No second base jokes; I don't know Tom that well yet.)
"Hi Bob. This is Tom Johnson from Baxter Tools. Did you catch the Phillies last night? That was a great game- wasn't sure they could pull it out in the ninth, but they did it! Anyway, when we spoke last week I promised to check on the price of some components on the R-17 for you..."
if Tom knows his customer likes baseball, the comment seems reasonable-quick, and it relates to the customer but doesn't bog down the message with an instant replay of the game. (writing from the home of the Kansas City Royals, I rarely have sales people dwell on recent games so please note these are purely hypothetical examples based on ancient memories of a team with a winning record.)
What Buyers Want: A reason for your communication. Whether it is a face-to-face meeting, a phone call or e-mail have a point and get to it. Your customer will be much more receptive to your next call when they know you respect their time and can keep to the designated point.
For more information on What Buyer's Want: please visit www.whatbuyerswant.net or e-mail me at mark@whatbuyerswant.net
A phone call might confirm an upcoming appointment or may provide follow-up information from an earlier face-to-face meeting. E-mail can also confirm a meeting or reinforce information, but may provide more specific details than a quick phone call. With an identified purpose, I know that sales person is not going to waste my time.
Imagine two voice mail messages that the customer picks up one morning.
Message number one:
"Hey Bob. John from Acme Tools here. Sorry I'm calling after hours but I've been on the road the past week and phone time has been hard to find. I wanted to catch up when you have a minute, so...give me a call tomorrow when you get a minute, OK? I'm at 555-555-5555."
Message number two:
"Hi Bob. This is Tom Johnson from Baxter Tools. When we spoke last week I promised to check on the price of some components on the R-17 for you, and I just got that information late today. Call me anytime tomorrow and I can go over the details with you. I'll e-mail you the information, too, before I head out this evening. You can reach my direct line at 211-555-5555. Thanks, Bob."
If I'm returning one of those calls, Tom has my attention. It's brief, tells me why he called and also provides an e-mail to confirm his message. John might get a call back, if time allows, but I really don't know why he called and I may easily decide to wait for him to call me back instead.
Let's not forget that some sales people like a personal touch- it doesn't always have to be all business. If a customer is a baseball fanatic for their local team, throwing in a game comment in a voicemail or e-mail won't derail your purpose in calling-as long as that purpose is still clear and the message brief. If Tom added this to the above message, has he fouled out or still likely to get to first base? (No second base jokes; I don't know Tom that well yet.)
"Hi Bob. This is Tom Johnson from Baxter Tools. Did you catch the Phillies last night? That was a great game- wasn't sure they could pull it out in the ninth, but they did it! Anyway, when we spoke last week I promised to check on the price of some components on the R-17 for you..."
if Tom knows his customer likes baseball, the comment seems reasonable-quick, and it relates to the customer but doesn't bog down the message with an instant replay of the game. (writing from the home of the Kansas City Royals, I rarely have sales people dwell on recent games so please note these are purely hypothetical examples based on ancient memories of a team with a winning record.)
What Buyers Want: A reason for your communication. Whether it is a face-to-face meeting, a phone call or e-mail have a point and get to it. Your customer will be much more receptive to your next call when they know you respect their time and can keep to the designated point.
For more information on What Buyer's Want: please visit www.whatbuyerswant.net or e-mail me at mark@whatbuyerswant.net
How to grab your buyer's attention: Making your communication relevant
Top salespeople succeed at getting noticed. They know how to get the buyers attention and create awareness because they make every single encounter relevant to the prospective buyer. your ability to present information in a concise, clear and to-the-point manner is what most affects message relevancy. Why? Concise, clear communications stand a better chance at being read, regardless of their timing. Here are some ways to make sure that your message is relevant to the buyer.
The first tactic to ensuring that your message is relevant is to keep all of your informational exchanges brief, clear and to the point. In your exchange, use executive summary formats, grouping like points together and label similar information with short, easy-to-read subheadings. Another great way to be relevant when sending hyperlinks is to send your prospect a specific link, rather than a web address and making them find the information on their own.
The best salespeople "translate" their marketing group's messages to make them precisely relevant to the specific audience they want to reach. This includes industry jargon, coding and specific terms that should stand out in your communication.
Lastly, showing your product is relevant to the prospective buyer is to use stories. Relevant stories work! Choose stories that are relevant to the buyer's situation and that support the message you need to relay. Interestingly, studies have shown that relationships begin to develop when people disclose information about themselves to other people.
For more information on What Buyers Want; please check out www.whatbuyerswant.net and click on the products tab to see actual clips from a recent seminar in Kansas City!
The first tactic to ensuring that your message is relevant is to keep all of your informational exchanges brief, clear and to the point. In your exchange, use executive summary formats, grouping like points together and label similar information with short, easy-to-read subheadings. Another great way to be relevant when sending hyperlinks is to send your prospect a specific link, rather than a web address and making them find the information on their own.
The best salespeople "translate" their marketing group's messages to make them precisely relevant to the specific audience they want to reach. This includes industry jargon, coding and specific terms that should stand out in your communication.
Lastly, showing your product is relevant to the prospective buyer is to use stories. Relevant stories work! Choose stories that are relevant to the buyer's situation and that support the message you need to relay. Interestingly, studies have shown that relationships begin to develop when people disclose information about themselves to other people.
For more information on What Buyers Want; please check out www.whatbuyerswant.net and click on the products tab to see actual clips from a recent seminar in Kansas City!
Friday, July 17, 2009
A1, What Buyers Want
Ever heard that saying "For want of a nail...the war was lost?" it suggests that if you focus too hard on the little mundane details, you may lose sigh tof what's really important- winning the war! Buy I'm here to tell you that sometimes it's the little details that really matter in building and managing business relationships and the "little things" can put you ahead of the competition when dealing with a buyer.
Bueyrs are busy enough before you walk in the door or give them a call. If you can save your buyer even a little more time and effort, not only will they be appreciative, they also will remember that effort in the future. If you're sending out a booklet or catalog bigger than a couple of pages, write a quick personal note adn make the message relevant.
Put your note on the inside cover or shoot the buyer a quick e-mail saying "Tom, the products you're interested in are on pages 45-49, the rest of it is worthless to you. I'll call you later on in the week to discuss details of our products on those pages, have a great week. -John Doe." Hardly any of the salespeople that called on me did this, and the ones that did had a huge advantage when I came to choosing my rep.
In addition, a personal note increases the buyers curiosity and the odds that your material will be read sooner than later. When I received a 60-page catalog filled with junk I didn't ask for and no note from the seller, the catalog found its way to the far end of my desk where, to borrow from Verizon, it was forever lost in "the dead zone."
Another little detail often overlooked: prepping for common buyer questions. Buyers often ask themselves these questions every time they receive a communication from a rep. Before the buyer has time to wonder the vast possibilities of answers to these questions, make sure you have a response lined up for them, and don't wait for them to ask, make sure you tell them in your introduction.
1. Why am I receiving this communication?
2. How did you get my name? (If it was a reference, make sure to name the reference so the buyer knows you are recommended by a trustworthy source)
3. Do I know this person? (i.e. you! Have you met before, Been at a meeting together?)
4. Is this product important to me, the buyer?
5. Is there any reason I should pay attention?
Make it easy for the buyer to see the relevance of your communication and your message will get read. These little things may not win you the way, but it keeps you in the battle.
What Buyers Want: reassurance that time spent with you today can pay dividends tomorrow.
For more information about "What Buyers Want" or to sign up for our newsletter, please check out http://www.whatbuyerswant.net
Bueyrs are busy enough before you walk in the door or give them a call. If you can save your buyer even a little more time and effort, not only will they be appreciative, they also will remember that effort in the future. If you're sending out a booklet or catalog bigger than a couple of pages, write a quick personal note adn make the message relevant.
Put your note on the inside cover or shoot the buyer a quick e-mail saying "Tom, the products you're interested in are on pages 45-49, the rest of it is worthless to you. I'll call you later on in the week to discuss details of our products on those pages, have a great week. -John Doe." Hardly any of the salespeople that called on me did this, and the ones that did had a huge advantage when I came to choosing my rep.
In addition, a personal note increases the buyers curiosity and the odds that your material will be read sooner than later. When I received a 60-page catalog filled with junk I didn't ask for and no note from the seller, the catalog found its way to the far end of my desk where, to borrow from Verizon, it was forever lost in "the dead zone."
Another little detail often overlooked: prepping for common buyer questions. Buyers often ask themselves these questions every time they receive a communication from a rep. Before the buyer has time to wonder the vast possibilities of answers to these questions, make sure you have a response lined up for them, and don't wait for them to ask, make sure you tell them in your introduction.
1. Why am I receiving this communication?
2. How did you get my name? (If it was a reference, make sure to name the reference so the buyer knows you are recommended by a trustworthy source)
3. Do I know this person? (i.e. you! Have you met before, Been at a meeting together?)
4. Is this product important to me, the buyer?
5. Is there any reason I should pay attention?
Make it easy for the buyer to see the relevance of your communication and your message will get read. These little things may not win you the way, but it keeps you in the battle.
What Buyers Want: reassurance that time spent with you today can pay dividends tomorrow.
For more information about "What Buyers Want" or to sign up for our newsletter, please check out http://www.whatbuyerswant.net
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