Selling to Big Companies Blog

3 Hard-Earned Sales Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks

The pathway to sales success is strewn with lost opportunities, embarrassing moments and downright stupid mistakes. In my opinion, one major difference between top sellers and average ones is their ability to turn these disasters into growth opportunities.

Painful though it might be, top performers revisit their gaffes to figure out how they can avoid similar outcomes in the future. Scarred, but not beaten, they gradually learn what it takes to be successful.

I know. I've been there. Over the years, I've had more than my share of blunders. And just the other day, some of my biggest ones came flooding back to me as I was driving to do a training program for a local printing company.

When I exited the highway onto Como Avenue, I was immediately transported back to my days as a Xerox sales trainee when I covered the 55414 zip code. It's where I learned many invaluable lessons that I still embrace today.

Lesson 1: How to Get Unstuck
After finishing the Xerox training program, I was assigned to follow Jim Farrell for several weeks to learn the ropes. But finally the day came when I was sent out on my own.

At 9 a.m., I pulled up in front of Quality Products to begin my cold calls. But I couldn't get out. I was terrified and tongue-tied, convinced that my sales career was over before it even began.

Prospecting: How to Create Instant Rapport

Calling Don Diggerman was always painful. Much as I wanted to do business with his company, I dreaded talking to him. I'd sit at my desk, staring at the phone, trying to figure out how I could avoid dealing with that man.

But it was just wishful thinking. The decision rested on Don's shoulders and unless I won him over, one of my competitors would get the order.

When I couldn't delay any longer, I'd close my eyes, take a long deep breath, and then slowly exhale. Over and over, perhaps twenty times or more. To the casual observer, it might have looked like I was meditating in the middle of the office. In reality, I was calming myself down before I called him.

You're probably wondering what was so awful about this man that caused me to go through all those gyrations. Was he abusive, ornery, or downright mean? Was he sneaky, manipulative or slimy?

No, this man was not an ogre. He was the nicest man in the whole wide world. Kind. Gracious. Warm. Everyone loved him - even me.

It was just that talking to him required a tremendous effort on my part. You see, Don was the slowest talker I've ever met.

When I'd catch him on the phone, I'd say something like, "Don, Jill Konrath calling."

"Oooooh, Jiiiiiilll," he'd say ever so slowly. "Howwwww niiiiiiiiice of youuuuuuu to caaaaaall. Weeeeeee've beeeeeeeen taaaaalking abooooout commmmming in for a deeeemooonstraaation, buuuuuut caaaaan't deeeeeciiiiiiiide if Tuuuuuuuesdaaaaay or Thurrrrrsdaaaaay is beeeeeettttter."

It took him forever to say anything - and it drove me up a wall. But he never knew, because I'd respond, "Donnnn. Caaaaaaaan weeeeee doooooo it onnnnnnn Thurrrrrsdaaaaay? It's beeeetter for meeeeeee."

Our entire conversation went at that speed - on purpose. If I'd talked to him normally, I would have scared him away. My goal-oriented behavior was totally out of synch with his laid-back, slow-paced manner.

Because I recognized this, I made a conscious decision to relate to Don in a manner that made him feel comfortable. Maintaining this calm demeanor was certainly not one bit relaxing for me though.
But, it wasn't about me. It was about my customer. I was treating him the way he wanted to be treated. And that's a good thing.

One Sales Strategy that Really Works

How do you capture the attention of corporate decision makers today? If you're not using educational marketing, you're missing out on a huge opportunity. 

Michael Stelzner used it to get 60,234 leads over a five year period. He's a small business owner ... a regular guy who stumbled onto this strategy that:

• Brought him high quality prospects virtually overnight.
• Established him as a thought leader in his market space.
• Kept on generating leads for years.

Using educational marketing, his company landed accounts such as Microsoft, FedEx and Dow Jones. Not too shabby a client base!

Today Michael is launching a series of videos on how he used these educational techniques to transform his business. 

You can watch his first video, "How to Generate Mass Interest in Your Business During Tough Times" right now.

It's worth it!  I just finished watching the 2nd one. Also excellent. (Note: He references my blog post on Trash Talk & Delete Buttons in it!)

Again, check out video now.

Top Sales Resources, April 2008

Can LinkedIn Increase Your Sales?
by Jill Konrath, Selling to Big Companies

If you're wondering if social media is worth it or a waste of time, check out my newest ebook. Learn how others are leveraging LinkedIn to connect, create opportunities and more. Click here to get your copy.

Prospecting is Changing
By Nigel Edelshain, Sales 2.0

This excellent ebook focuses on ideas & strategies you can use to harness this change and to tilt the playing field your way.  Download ProspectingIsChanging.pdf

67 Tips for Presenting Like a Pro
By Anne Miller, Chiron Associates

Written by a top presentation expert, this ebook is filled with golden nuggets that will keep you on top of your game. Download PresentingLikeaPro.pdf

The Latest Scoop in Sales Development

What are the leaders in sales development thinking about these days? If you'd like to find out, check out Dave Stein's new podcast series.

Dave is the author of How Winners Sell, one of my favorite sales books, as well as a thought leader in the area of sales effectiveness and especially sales training. He's also the  founder of ES Research, the "go to" resource if you want independent advice about which training program best meets your company's needs.

Dave interviewed me recently for his podcast series. We talked about how to gain access to decision makers, trigger events, sales enablement tools and more. If you're interested, you can download it here.

But if I were you, I'd check out his other podcasts too. They're excellent. He talks to:

• Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group. They discuss sales process, challenges for first-line sales managers, Sales 2.0 and other areas of technology support for sales effectiveness

• Ken Allred, CEO of Primary Intelligence. They talk about competitive intelligence, win/loss analyses, and how companies can be more competitive.

• Julie Thomas, CEO ValueSelling Associates. They discuss the challenges of helping sales people become more effective.

And there are more. But I'm also looking forward to the upcoming sessions. I can't wait to hear Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index and Barry Trailer of CSO Insights.

Finally, I'd encourage you to check out Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders. You'll like his thought-provoking commentary on the what's happening in & out of the industry.

How to Schedule More Appointments in Less Time

What would happen to your business if you were able to double the number of qualified prospects you were able to reach?

For most sellers, it's really tough these days to set up meetings with corporate decision makers. If you're struggling,  I recommend you listen in to the Cold Calling College FREE Preview Call on April 24th. 

This session is being put on by Wendy Weiss, a real pro at cold calling, appointment setting and new business development. I'm really familiar with Wendy's work and find it to be a real complement to my strategies.

She's got some really good ideas & insights about what it takes to get in. If you need help with prospecting, check out her Cold Calling  College program. It's good. 

Cool Sales Tools You Can Use

NetProspex, a website where sellers can buy/exchange leads, just released the Sales Lead Toolkit with some cool tools you might find helpful:

Company Email Pattern Lookup: Use this tool to select a company and find the email pattern for that organization.

Email Checker: Use this tool to evaluate the validity of an email address without actually sending one to a recipient. It can also be used to verify a group of email addresses.

Leads by URL: This tool helps you quickly find contacts in your target companies just by inputting a target company URL. Use the search feature to select your leads by title, job function or geography.

Hopefully, they'll help you find the right person to contact in those big companies.

If you lead a sales team, this post is for you

Last week I wrote about my 5 Top Tips for New Sellers. Many of you added your own suggestions. Today I want to address sales managers & entrepreneurs.

If you want your new salespeople to be successful, you can't just fill them up with info about your product or service, then kick them out the door to make calls. Yes, miracles sometimes do happen, but it's not a real proactive way to grow your business.

More than anything else, your new salespeople need you to be a sales coach for them. Most likely, you haven't been trained in this critical skill.

From my own personal experience, it's not something that comes naturally or that we do intuitively. It's a learned skill and it's a discipline - and it will have a huge impact on your sales results.

If you'd like some insights to help you be better at it, download these chapters from Keith Rosen's new book on Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

• Nine Barriers to Coaching Your Team
• The Seduction of Potential
• Fatal Coaching Mistake Number 5

If you like what you read and want to learn more, Keith is offering a whole slew of bonuses if you buy the book before April 17th. There are goodies in there from me and a whole bunch of other sales experts.

Note: This is a time sensitive offer. Click here to learn more.

Teleseminar: The Voice of Experience

Developing Instant Credibility & Contagious Confidence on the Phone

When: Thursday, April 17th, 2 pm ET
Price: $79 for this session
Guest Experts: Marguerite McLeod-Fleming & Mark Bowden
Register now.

Most people hate the way they sound on the phone! And it's no wonder. Their voice is weak, boring, smarmy or even perky – not a tone that appeals to corporate decision makers or gets you past gatekeepers.

Once you know what you want to say, the key to success is how you say it. Improving your telephone voice makes a huge difference in your ability to set up meetings with decision makers.

In this teleseminar, you'll discover:

• How to use your voice to create immediate attention.
• What to say to gatekeepers/administrative assistants to get immediate access to decision makers.
• How your physical posture and hand movements translate into your voice and what that means to the person on the other end of the line.
• How to match your voice, tone, intonation and wording to your prospect in order to generate immediate relationship.
• What to say when you're stuck in a conversation that will get you back on track
• How to develop your “Sales Genius” to strengthen relationships, lead conversations and close more sales.

Sign up for the Voice of Experience teleseminar or sign up for the entire Foot-in-the-Door Series.

 

Interview with a Guru

When Dale King from GuruKnowledge contacted me about doing an interview, initially I was thrilled.  Who wouldn't want to be featured as a "guru!" Then I learned that his website was focused on "internet marketing's biggest stars."

"I'm not an internet marketer," I spit out, with great disdain. I couldn't believe he'd lumped me into that slimy group of online scam artists who sell their lame information products at obscene prices. (Do I have an attitude, or what!)

It took Dale a while to calm me down, but eventually he convinced me that internet marketers could be nice people too - like me! 

Afterwards, I realized that my own visceral & wildly negative reaction was exactly how lots of people feel when they go in to sales. They don't want to be one of those manipulative, product-pushing salespeople! And I don't blame them. I don't want to be one either.

But it was good for me to feel that feeling again. It reminded me how important it is help salespeople understand that good selling (whether online or in person) is based on creating value & making a difference.

So, after all that, if you're interested in reading my views on internet marketing, click here.