COMMENTS
Ty. This is our daily angst. Sales people do not visualize the customer and their wants and keep Hope as their primary strategy apart from meaningless sales mumbojumbo. Need to change - Mantra is Know more- Help More - sell More
Great post,
Where marketing can help sales most is in two areas; an intimate knowledge of how my buyers buy, and create tools that help me, help them buy.
When you look at the statistics, 70% of leads are dismissed and 80% of those dismissed buy within 12 months.
Serve your clients don’t sell them.
When you study why buyers do not buy, the #1 reason is the salesperson did not listen, and therefore did not understand the problem. If you ask sales guys, as I have done for over 25 years, you hear; price was too high, if it only could have a new feature…and my favorite “ the other rep has such a close relationship with the buyer…he was the only rep at the buyers daughters’ wedding..”
If you want to create sales velocity, you must teach your team to connect to your client’s problems and not theirs like; their personal goals and desired targeted personal income. I share some information about creating sales velocity in my post: http://nosmokeandmirrors.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/entrepreneur-best-practices-1-more-sales-or-create-sales-velocity/
Marketing must help create tools that mirror how my customers buy, and pay particular attention to trust building prior to prospects even becoming “leads”.
Mark Allen Roberts
www.outbsolutions.com
Dave,
I agree that you must start with open focus questions that are designed to qualify the lead, but I think yours are a bit too specific up-front. Why not start with something even more general and helpful like "how can I help you today?" That way, you've established yourself as a consultant, not a salesman trying to close a deal. You next questions should focus down to what specific action does this person want? Geven that, you can start providing possible solutions, including your product or service but not excluding others. Always acting as a consultant, your goal is to convince the prospect that there are several possible solutions, but yours is the best. Then you can start qualifying them as to time, budget, resources etc.
John McTigue
www.kunocreative.com
This post is exactly what I needed to hear at this exact moment in time.
I have a challenge with sales people that are unable to convert prospects that I manage to attract to the company via our blog, our website and via the social space.
I have made the decision to start doing sales conversions myself, but never having done sales I was at a disadvantage.
This post gives me a very clear guide regarding where to start, how to start and what direction to move in
Thank you.
Sounds a lot like the
law of attraction marketing in action - nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody likes to buy. It's a hard lesson to learn, but gets easier from there.
Ana
thanks for the nice words Ram, Ana, Mark and Arthur.
John, I appreciate your thoughts too but must push back a little. You talk like an expert but your suggestions are what I was hoping to help marketers NOT do...you can read more about the right way to sell at
Understanding the Sales Force.
Dave,
I guess I'll have to push back a little too. I've been succesfully selling for 30 years in a wide variety of industries. I recognize your renowned career, but I'm guessing my expertise is every bit as well founded as yours. No offense, but your response to my comments seems to be nothing more than an invitation to attend one of your events. Thanks, but I'm busy selling HubSpot software.
My comments stand. If you want to "sell" people, then don't sell. Help them achieve their goals by steering them in the right direction. If the right direction is best served with your products or services, all the good. If not, steering them in the right direction wins you credibility and possible referrals down the road. Your method is pushy, invasive and downright "salesy". This is exactly what inbound marketing is not. I'm surprised the HubSpot guys embraced you.
John, I didn't mean to upset you. You got a bit defensive there with your response...sorry if I offended you.
It's possible tha you are confusing inbound marketing with sales. You are an inbound marketing expert. I am a sales expert. They aren't the same thing and they aren't done by the same people.
I don't tell inbound marketing experts how to do inbound marketing so I'm not sure why you feel it necessary to correct a sales expert on the proper way to sell...
Help me out, other than directing you to (my blog which is hosted on HubSpot software) some helpful articles (which you obviously didn't read) on selling, how was I trying to sell you on attending one of MY events? Were you referring to the event that HubSpot is sponsoring on 11/3 that Brian Halligan and I are speaking at?
For the record, asking questions shows that you care and that you are listening. It demonstrates expertise, builds relationships and credibility and gets to the reasons why they would buy from you. You can't "steer them in the right direction" until you can explain how it will help solve their problems (that you don't want to ask about). There is nothing pushy, invasive or salesy about asking the right questions.
John, I thought I was being gentle when I pushed back in my earlier comment but you took it a little further with your sarcastic "surprised that the HubSpot guys embraced you" comment.
Let's keep it intelligent and civil, shall we?
Dave,
I'm not upset, not offended, not defensive. No need to be. We're just disagreeing about something important.
I'm not confusing inbound marketing with sales. Inbound marketing is sales. It is a process that includes building relationships with people, helping them achieve their goals, and ultimately selling to a person who trusts us to deliver the goods. This is the new sales. This is what consumers want. They want to get to know you. They want to talk with you like they live next door. All that before you ask them to spend their money.
Consumers are telling us that they don't want to be be "qualified". They don't want to be questioned. They don't want to be treated as an obstacle to a sale.
This is the new sales. It's up to you, but if I were you, I'd rethink some of your sales strategies.
Best Regards, John McTigue
I have been in sales since 1986 and the constant challenge is to overcome the desire to sell. Clients have a very strong need to tell you what they want. And, until they feel like you really understand their needs, it is a waste of time to throw at them solutions. Especially if the solutions aren't a perfect fit for them.
Ask questions. Get the potential client to talk about what they have and what they need. Then, after they are all done, tell them you can fix all of their problems and meet all of their objectives.
It sounds simple because it is. But suppressing the desire to tell them how great your company is can be difficult. Encourage the potential client to TALK.
Great article. I cut/pasted the list (with some modifications) into the sales notes I will take with me on a very important sales call I have on Friday. :)
Stu Kushner
www.ProgressiveOffice.com
Excellent article a great reminder to put customer service first.
Dave Kurlan, has the 'beentownbully' of selling all salespeople need his testing or there just idots... I find it so 80's but amusing.
As I read this exchange, I found myself thinking, "This is exactly why I asked the question, 'Is Inbound Marketing Killing Your Business?' on the RainMaker Maker blog." Before I proceed, I want to temper my comments by saying nothing is absolute. Please don't think that I'm talking 100%.
Not many of us take sales course in college. Much of what we learn about selling comes from the movies or the way we're treated in our own buying experiences. (Ever bought a used car? Did you learn anything about selling during that experience?) There are books written and sales training courses available, but many small business owners have difficulty choosing between a bag of tricks, a complicated, difficult to apply system, or just 'show up and throw up'. They may not know whether they struggle because they don't know what to do (skill) or know what should be done, but can't execute (strength/weakness).
So, they hope that Inbound Marketing will do more than it’s capable of doing. Inbound Marketing is awesome. Done properly, it can improve the number of qualified prospects that ‘come into range’, but if you’re closing one out of ten conversations before Inbound Marketing, you’ll continue to close one out of ten of a bigger number after. Face it. There’s only 24 hours in a day and eventually, business owners have to figure out how to convert a higher percentage of the conversations to dollars. More demos and more presenting do not save time. Asking the right questions during a ‘neighborly conversation’ can reduce (by mutual agreement) the number of demos necessary and as a result, increase the closing percentage by reducing the denominator. This saves time and makes the sales process more efficient and the business more profitable.
One last point. When Inbound Marketing works, it’s not unusual that a company will hire salespeople, layers of management, and continue to increase their investment in Inbound Marketing, but isn’t this creating a bigger inefficient company? It might be interesting if the Hubspot folks did an analysis sometime comparing the ROI of additional investment in Inbound Marketing vs. an investment in ‘post lead’ quality.
A great article. I really respect the approach of asking more questions in sales as a consumer. The salesman who takes the time to find out what is really needed and educates on the solution has my dollar every time.
I am very interested in the article that you write on the blog . I would come back to read your post again next time.Great job ,Thanks.
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