CHAPTER 1
Becoming Sherlock
IN "JULIE'S DILEMMA," we saw Julie overcome a common obstacle insales. You uncover the customer's problem, present the product as a wayto help the customer solve it, and then the customer gets cold feet. InJulie's case, it's important to ask why the executives allowed us to makethat presentation to upper management. Julie's personal value currencyplayed a major role in her success, but there is more to it than that.
Learning from Julie
Let's go back to the beginning. Remember, Julie had invested agreat deal of time and energy on this deal. She had established herselfas a credible, trustworthy source of information and help for thesecustomers. She'd made many, many deposits into her personal-valuebank account, and in the end, she needed to make a big withdrawalfrom those reserves to close the deal. Developing this personal valuecurrency began with the very first call Julie made.
Most salespeople do not operate the way Julie did with thiscustomer. Even Julie herself did not when she was newer to sales.
We've all been there. You arrive at the office knowing thatyou're about to spend the day making cold calls. How many "no"answers will you receive? As usual, there were far too many to countyesterday. Today, you resolve, will be different. Today, you are goingto get that yes and get yourself in the door. But as the day begins, youfind yourself staring at the phone, which seems to weigh a thousandpounds. You resolve to push forward, because you must somehowfind a way in. You aren't exactly sure how, but you know this is yourjob and this is what must be done.
I remember the countless days of calls we all made, Julie included.She made tons of calls, "dialing for dollars" as we called it. Using hernicest voice, she'd politely ask potential customers to meet with her,saying something like, "I will be in the area and was wondering ifyou would like to meet," or "I would like to meet with you to let youknow about some of our new products," or "I was hoping we couldmeet to discuss your buying plans for next quarter." The approachdidn't result in many meetings.
"When": Calling Too Soon
In retrospect, Julie was not really asking but rather hoping thecustomer would feel charitable and responsive to her "polite beg."She was making her calls too soon, before she had a compellingreason that would make the customer want to meet with her. Inreality, this approach simply told target executives that she was notprepared. I'm sure they interpreted this to mean that if they met, theywould be doing all the work to educate her, rather than the otherway around.
Julie was essentially telling customers that she wanted to meetwith them to benefit her, not the customer. Focusing on "polite begcalls" without having done adequate homework caused Julie to makea poor first impression and yielded few positive results. She failed toidentify a compelling reason for the customer to meet with her. Shewas getting the "when" wrong by calling too soon.
Excelling in the initial call is about how tolook out for the customer, not what thecustomer can do for you to sell him or hersomething.
"When": Calling Too Late
Knowing she had to do research, there were times when Julieprocrastinated too much before making the call. She knew that sheneeded to know about her target customer during her initial call, andshe got caught up in thinking that more information was better too.Gathering a high pile of information would make sure she wouldalways say the perfect thing.
Like so many of us, she had analysis paralysis. Perfection can bethe enemy of progress. As Julie spent time planning, her call volumedropped, which in turn negatively impacted her pipeline.
I have seen many salespeople spend way too much time trying toget the perfect amount of information, and the sad thing is they don'tneed to be perfect. They only need to have enough information tocreate an idea or hypothesis about how they can help the customersolve a current or emerging problem. They need to play the part ofthe sleuth. Play a hunch and make the call!
Julie fell into a common trap. She let the cold calls intimidate her,causing her to do too much homework instead of taking action. Thistime, she was getting the "when" wrong by calling too late.
Your target customers endure a nonstop flood of calls fromsalespeople just like you. Customers are busy, and they often feelas if they are doing just fine. They cannot keep up with so manysalespeople asking for their time. They may be thinking, I am constantlygetting calls from salespeople wanting to sell me something. Why should Ispend time with another sales rep right now?
My Moment of Clarity
For me, one call changed everything. I can still remember theVP's voice on the phone. He sounded interested. He was intriguedand wanted to learn more. He was not just appeasing me; his interestin meeting me was genuine. But why? What had I said differentlythis time? After careful analysis, I understood. I knew somethingnew and different about what he cared about. I had almost dared himto meet me by making a more provocative call.
That was it! What worked in this case was to entice the customer,challenge him, and intrigue him by having something different to saybased on something that I knew about his situation. This discoveryput me on an all-new path. From that point on, I actually enjoyedmaking calls. I made them with purpose and confidence, knowingthat I had something meaningful to say.
Cold calls are more effective if you identify a problem or a wayto improve the customer's business and take it further by alertingsomeone who will care. If you get the right person curious, he orshe will want to know more. Thus, I advised my sales team to callwith the goal of "alert the relevant executive about a current oremerging problem that will stimulate curiosity and motivate themto meet you."
How did Julie take this theory and actually put it into practice?How did she create intrigue and entice the customer to meet her?It all began with her focus. Instead of concentrating her efforts onknowing everything about facts and figures, her new focus was allabout doing research that would enable her to form a hypothesisabout how a particular executive will deal with a looming situation.Her new goal was to pique the customer's curiosity by sharing herhelpful ideas that would impact him or her personally. It required herto become a sleuth—the first of the Four Faces of Sales—to uncoverideas that would intrigue the customer.
This shift in focus makes for an initial branded experience thatsounds good and feels right to the customer. As a result, you willbegin to create personal value currency and get an appointment fora first meeting.
CHAPTER 2
Understanding ICE
WITHOUT PROPER RESEARCH before your initial call, you'll havenothing meaningful to say, and the customer won't feel there is valuein meeting you. However, if you're not careful, you may waste yourtime looking for information that the customer doesn't care about.ICE enables you to find the right quality and quantity of informationneeded to stimulate the customer's curiosity and get you a meeting.ICE stands for the things you focus your research on:
1. Industry trends
2. Company pressures
3. Executive goals
The objective of your ICE research is to uncover informationabout a problem or situation that the person responsible mightnot even know. You will use this information to create an impactstatement that identifies a problem or makes a suggestion for how toimprove his or her situation. A call that makes the customer curiousabout an idea that you have to share will get you in the door. I'll gointo the impact statement and the initial call later. For now, let's stayfocused on the three components of ICE research.
Industry Trends
Your ICE research begins with industry trends. When I sayindustry, I'm talking about large segments of the economy, suchas automotive, finance, health care, consumer staples, and so on.However, it can also mean a grouping of people with similarinterests—such as project managers, operations managers, and HRexecutives—that can represent a sort of mini-industry. Keep an openmind. Industry needn't be telecommunications. It could be CIOsfrom companies of all types.
By learning about the customer's industry, you'll gain invaluableknowledge that will feed into your company research (C) andexecutive research (E) later on.
Your sleuth research may begin with reading industry tradepublications and attending events. However, it shouldn't end there.To succeed, you'll need to go a lot further by being a center ofindustry activity. By creating industry activities (I), you'll hear aboutwhat companies are out there doing (C). You will also developgoodwill with industry contacts that may help you with conductingexecutive research (E).
Creating Industry Activities
When you create industry activities, you brand yourself as acenter of gravity. You become a point person who makes thingshappen and brings peers together on industry-related topics. Howcan you do this? Create ways for executives to hear what others intheir position are thinking about topics of interest and give themopportunities to make connections. By making yourself a channelfor this type of contact, you build your personal value currency. Twoways to do this are creating an industry LinkedIn group and hostingindustry events.
LinkedIn
Executives within an industry are curious to know what othersin their position are thinking about a particular topic. Satisfy theirinterest by creating a special industry group in LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com). Encourage members to post their own ideas andquestions about trends, challenges, and successes. Ask group membersto adhere to the rules of learning and sharing views on industrychallenges, and creating new industry peer relationships. As theowner of this group, your name will be known to everyone.
It's simple to replicate your efforts to target multiple industries.For instance, if you sell software to all industries, you can start bycreating LinkedIn groups for media, finance, telecommunications,and insurance. This is a lightweight way to bring people togetheron common topics.
Blogging would be an ideal way to establish credibility, but youlikely don't have the time or expertise to do this. If this is the case,it is more practical and time-efficient to leverage other experts toblog on your behalf in your LinkedIn groups. That way, you are notresponsible to keep up the content but only to include experts whocan be leveraged in your LinkedIn group.
Industry Events
Your potential customers are interested in making connectionswith their industry peers. Capitalize on this by creating events and webconferences where peers can meet and discuss industry-related topics.This is different from typical networking events where participantsare on their own to wander around and make connections. Instead,you make these connections for the attendees since your events areall about them.
Peer connections will emerge naturally, unforced, when youdraw the audience into group discussions. For example, you mighthost a web conference on industry trends or moderate a panel ata forum event. When you are in front of the crowd, you are theirconnector to others.
Hosting Industry Events
By inviting (Sending out e-mails and calling) potential customersto a web conference or forum related on trends in their industry, youget in front of them outside the setting of a sales meeting. Duringyour event, facilitate a high-tempo venue for participants to connecton topics of interest. Never let participants be responsible to networkon their own or just show up, sit there and listen to a speaker droneon about a topic, and then leave. You have to make this fun ifyou want them to come back. You are responsible for make theseintroductions for them.
Running an executive forum isn't hard. Follow these steps:
1. Ask everyone in the room (or web conference) to give a ten-secondintroduction, including name, title, and company.
2. Have one participant (who you got to commit to doing thisbefore the event) share a success story on a relevant topic. It'syour job to join in several times to ask clarifying questionsin front of the audience. This gives a feeling like it's a TVor radio talk show and you are the host, getting guests totalk more about what is on their mind. You are gettingthe audience involved and excited by rephrasing what eachparticipant is saying.
3. Politely ask the participant to clarify by saying, "I am notsure the audience understands that point," or "The audiencemight find that part a bit confusing or hard to believe."When you do this, ask the audience to comment on yourquestion and ask if they would like to add to it. This gets aconversation going around the room.
Never call on nonvolunteers, but rather say, "I see a fewcompanies like yours in the audience that might have differentperspectives on that." Like a talk-show host, you make it fun for theaudience by getting the conversation going with your rephrasing andclarifying questions about what the participant is saying. Peer-to-peernetworking naturally occurs on the topic of interest. The best partis, you are the center of making good feelings and connections occurwhile learning about industry-related trends.
Company Pressures
While conducting industry research is essential, the sleuth mustalso understand how the customer makes money and what pressuresthe company (C) must manage. These pressures may be coming fromcompetitors, customers, finances, and operations, as well as compliancerequirements. What new investments or initiatives are underway todeal with these pressures—such as a mergers, business investments,reorganization, product announcements, or technology initiatives?
Company Pressure Table
Your first step is to create a company pressure table in orderto understand how company pressures affect how your customermakes money. You'll use what you have learned from industry (I)activities, as well as information the company releases as current newsand events. Check Twitter (www.twitter.com) and the company'swebsite. Companies use Twitter accounts to communicate news andevents to followers. On the company's website, click under investoror media relations to find annual reports (public companies only),speeches from executives, and press releases.
Creating a company pressure table enhances your chances ofidentifying a problem or a method to improve the business that willget you your first meeting. Create a table that answers the followingquestions:
1. How do the company's competitive pressures impact how theymake money?
• Who is the company's biggest competitor?
• How large of a threat does it pose?
• What is its market share?
• Is your target company exposed to new competitive threatsfrom emerging niche competitors?
• Has any competitor developed a unique solution that wouldpose a competitive threat to this company?
• How does this company stay ahead of its competitors?
• What is the company's key competitive advantage?
2. How do the company's customer pressures impact how it makesmoney?
• What is the company's current level of customer satisfaction?
• Has that percentage been improving or declining over thepast few years?
• How are their customers' expectations changing? How arethey striving to meet these expectations?
3. How do the company's financial pressures impact how they makemoney?
• How does the financial performance of this company compareto similarly sized companies in the industry?
• What is the direction of the company's revenue, profits, andcosts?
• What controls has the company put in place to addressslumping profits and/or revenues and rising costs?
• What are the major financial trends and metrics for similar-sizecompanies in this industry?
4. How do the company's operational pressures impact how theymake money?
• Does the company have the right skill mix in place to achieveits major objectives over the next three to five years?
• Has the company recently experienced substantialorganizational changes?
• Have there been any major cultural changes within theorganization as a result of mergers and acquisitions?
5. How do the company's compliance and regulatory pressuresimpact how they make money?
• What regulatory issues is the company dealing with at thepresent time?
• Is there any impending legislation that could result in newregulations that would affect this company (either positivelyor negatively)?
• How will any of these regulatory issues impact the company'sfinancials?
• What new technology or other changes may have to be madeto conform to these new regulations?
Executive Goals
You've enmeshed yourself in the customer's industry and chartedout the many pressures the customer is facing. Next, select a companypressure and ask, "Who cares?" Who is the person charged withhandling this particular company pressure? There is one high-levelexecutive (E) who has the most to lose or gain because of thispressure. This person is the sleuth's target executive. This is theperson you want to call when you've finished your ICE research.
