Effective Sales Prospecting is a Mindset, Not an Event
Today, we begin the process of differentiating between networking and sales prospecting. Many sales people confuse the two but the differences are important and relevant.
Networking, in the context of this blog, is in-person interaction typically experienced at business gatherings sponsored by local Chambers of Commerce, trade associations and business referral forums. In this setting, the goal is to assemble professionals to meet in non-intimidating settings where introductions are made and business cards freely exchanged.
Think of networking as a source of prospects. Attending multiple networking events monthly typically generates bundles of business cards. So, it is important to already have a proven successful sales prospecting system in place. An effective system entails several steps which when correctly applied can net one an abundance of customers from these business cards.
While Sales Prospecting is a more assertive, individual activity where the end-goal is to qualify a suspect’s decision-making authority, ability to pay and urgent, recognized need for a product or service, it can be fine-tuned and polished to eliminate any notion of cold-calling. The 2 step process begins with: 1] A personalized direct mailing to set the stage for an expected, timely; 2] Qualifying phone call. If you are willing practice, rehearse and internalize this process it will become a second-nature mindset as a result of your disciplined, habitual application.
While many consider networking to be an event, Dr. Ivan Misner, founder and CEO of BNI (Business Network International, www.bni.com), the world’s largest referral networking organization with 130,000 members worldwide; would disagree. Networking is a lifestyle, not an event. It is a way of being, not an occasional occurrence.
Picture the poor sales person who religiously attends all networking events but fails to follow up in a timely manner. You know her. She is quick to show you her business card booty file hoarded in plastic sleeves; yet, sadly, no sales were transacted to justify her effort!
I praise those who leverage their networking skills and who possess the sales prospecting mindset and discipline to convert weekly networking contacts into serious prospects and eventually raving customers. These are my heroes!
Why Passion Matters Most in the MLM Success Equation!
In our hardscrabble economy where a double Recession looms on the horizon, those who ask me, “what is a good business to start?” get my safest answer “find an MLM organization with a product or service you can become passionate about, and do it.”
The usual caveats about starting a business or new career are still essential and include: reputation of MLM organization behind the products and/or services; startup investment, operating capital, product and/or service reputation, customer credibility, industry veracity, marketplace share, distributor training, print and electronic collateral sales materials; and compensation, to name a few. All the stuff you will find inside the pages of any Marketing 101 textbook are important ingredients of any success recipe.
So why is ‘passion’ at the top of my list of essential reasons to choose one MLM organization over another? Because when the novelty wears off and the success hype is a distant echo, what you are selling and how you feel about meeting unsatisfied needs is the very essence of your new business challenge. Finding a need and filling it can be challenging in a good economy but especially so, in this economy.
Passion and Perseverance (belief in yourself and what you are selling) will see you through the lean and good economic times. I am living proof of this reality. Since 1978, when I opened the doors to Mr. Mailer, Inc., mastery of direct mail marketing has been my focus. It was then, and is now. Now, more as a component part of Leads-Plus, Inc., my prospecting for new business-to-business marketing consulting practice. Since 1978, I have weathered eight economic downturns and come out stronger as a result. Perseverance born of Passion was always the deciding factor.
I am more fortunate than most people who hitch their wagon to an MLM star. I was a Send Out Cards (SOC) user for four years before I jumped onto their MLM bandwagon last month. Their greeting card personalization and online processing services fit seamlessly into my consulting and direct mail marketing business at the ‘ideal’ time when I most needed a fresher, more attractive direct mailing platform to enhance my Power Prospecting™ Formula for b2b client new business development.
In my last blog, I credited my wife with my enlightenment, my Eureka Moment of truth that I had foolishly left $48,255 on the table by NOT participating in the MLM side of SOC.
Had I not had the passion and proof that SOC products and processes worked so well for me, my clients and the perpetuation and growth of my business, I would have been foolish to jump into the MLM side of the business.
So, answer the Passion Question, first when deciding whether to jump into a new career or business opportunity.
Why MLM Deserves a Serious Second Look in This Economy
Those readers who know me must be astonished I would ever endorse MLM (Multi Level Marketing) but the fact is I have changed my tune for several valid reasons.
Two weeks ago my wife, who is a spreadsheet and numbers whiz sat me down, as only a wife can do, and showed me how “I left $48,255 dollars on the table” by not participating in a MLM program offered by one of my major direct mail marketing suppliers.
I have always had a somewhat vocal, negative attitude about MLM organizations. This was due to my distasteful past experiences with several high profile MLM companies during the late 1980s. A few who nearly hired me as a marketing consultant attempted to barter my services for their products. Trade-outs have never excited me. I cannot feed my family or keep the lights on by bartering my services. Besides, why should I when I have plenty of clients willing to pay me with good old American greenbacks!
After my wife’s lesson, I decided to reconsider MLM since leaving $48,255 dollars on the table disturbed me, to put it mildly.
While the MLM business model has been around for at least 70 years, there are a few new players in the MLM Industry who have very generously skewed their commissions and bonuses in favor of their sales organizations with astonishingly positive results.
One such company www.sendoutcards.com, (SOC) founded in 2004, in Salt Lake City in just 5 years achieved annual revenues of $140 million. This privately-held company is entirely debt-free and continues to experience double digit growth despite this worsening Recession.
They offer unique, in-demand services in the formerly sleepy $7.5 billion Greeting Cards Industry. Unique because greeting card buyers can (from the convenience of the computers) select a card from an online inventory of over 15,000 postcards, two or three panel glossy stock greeting cards; enter the name and address of the recipient into a contact management system; compose a personalized message online, then transmit that captured information with a single Click on the SEND CARD screen button. It goes to the company’s Salt Lake City Mail Processing Center.
Each night, hundreds of thousands of personalized greeting cards are processed; inserted into envelopes with return and sender addressee direct imprinting on the envelope (no labels) plus a first class stamp is affixed and envelopes are sealed, trayed and delivered to the Salt Lake City Sectional Center for mailing for a mere cost to the sender of between $1.06 – $1.42 each.
While e-mail has negatively impacted US Postal Service profits and a 2 cent First-Class Postage Rate hike is in the works, to offset a $7 billion dollar deficit; the Send Out Cards business is expanding at an exponential growth rate.
I joined SOC in January 2006 and I was issued a 4 digit User ID number. Yesterday, a friend was issued a 6 digit User ID number which is proof of over 106,000 member enrollments in six years.
SOC has built a better MLM Model which has driven this new contender to the forefront of the formerly sleepy $7.5 billion Greeting Cards Industry dominated by Hallmark and American Greeting Cards. SOC, the new kid on the block, is gulping up market share because of their technological innovation and a refreshing simple but effective MLM business model.
In my next blog, I will elaborate on SOC’s success and why I have become a devoted disciple.
Back to Business-to-Business Prospecting Opportunities
One of the wonderful side-benefits of writing a blog is reader feedback. Some readers have been candid and on an occasion even caustic, which is fine with me. It’s encouraging to hear from those who care enough about a topic, content or direction to suggest corrections when I have wandered off my original path.
As a result, I’m discontinuing my C-Suite Prospecting* focus and instead getting back to what it takes to successfully access middle management decision-makers in this roller coaster Obama Economy. While last week’s disappointing new jobs reports revealed we are still steeped in the doldrums of a struggling economy despite government bailouts and some optimism in major industries.
Small to medium size b-2-b business owners and decision-makers I called and spoke to recently about the possibility of a Second Recession perched on our near term doorstep made some interesting comments.
Overall, their collective opinions concerning their 6 month sales strategies and goals wouldn’t change their tactical sales prospecting activities. In other words, unless economic indicators dramatically shift for the better, it is business as usual and just staying the course.
Nothing radically different but just staying active in their local business networks such as BNI, Chambers of Commerce and their online communities such as Linkedin.com. Expanding and working their existing networks, trade association affiliations and their online presence.
While business as usual may seem to be a safer course of action, I am going to suggest in the next few blog posts some tactical strategies and techniques to increase market share and improve sales prospecting performance and results.
I apologize to those of you who were subjected to my C-Suite Prospecting diversion and who are seeking hands-on how-to’s for more efficient tactical prospecting methods. I’ll stick to my knitting and look forward to your candid and timely feedback.
*For the few who are interested in C-Suite Prospecting, here are two must-read books. Selling to the C-Suite by Nicholas A.C. Read and Stephen J. Bistritz, Ed.D., Mc Graw Hill, 2010, ISBN #: 978-0-07162891-4. Also, Escaping the Price-Driven Sale by Tom Snyder and Kevin Kearns, McGraw Hill, 2008, ISBN #: 978-0-07-154583-9.
These books provide substantive new content backed up with supporting documentation as to how and why to pursue prospecting in the boardroom domains. They include invaluable scripts and preferred wording to achieve the exalted position of ‘trusted advisor’ with C-Suite deciders.
The Importance of Business Acumen and Industry Insider Savvy
Arrive at the C-Suite prepared and ready to demonstrate you have done your homework and, unless you have garlic breath, you will likely win an invitation to return to start building your ‘Trusted Advisor Capital’.
Doing your homework means, you have:
- Researched online sources to obtain ‘situational’ corporate information.
- Studied industry trends and the opinions of industry-respected gurus.
- Become conversant and comfortable with the industry jargon and buzz.
While you are not yet an industry-insider, you are well on your way to understanding the challenges and opportunities those who granted you C-Suite access face on a daily basis. Simply stated, you are developing an industry insider savvy and matching business acumen.
You only have to demonstrate this acquired understanding (savvy) by asking the right questions of the right C-Suite executive at the right time plus to add some new insight, not just information.
Mastering the Questioning Process is no small skill. In fact, do it poorly and all of your pre-meeting research and preparation will be for nothing because you will be unceremoniously ushered out the door with this morning’s coffee grounds and stale donuts!
Framing your questions is an important step. For example, which of these 2 would reveal more thorough preparation by the questioner:
[Mr. Chief] would you agree that XYZ Objectives have a greater priority than…….?
Or
[Mr. Chief] in your summation to the Stockholders Last Quarter, you stated that XYZ Objectives had a greater priority than…….Do you still feel this way in light of the current Recession?
The second statement clearly demonstrates someone did their homework more thoroughly before inquiring about the priority of XYZ Objectives in light of the current Recession. Presumption and relevance based on a foundation of preparedness are the clear winners!
How well or poorly we frame and ask our questions can quickly reveal our:
- Work ethic and thought processes.
- Appreciation of the opportunity we have been granted.
- Intention to deliver on the promise of adding value and insight.
Never forget the importance of adding value in the form of insight, not just information. An insightful observation can do more to establish our contribution of value to our new found C-Suite friends.
Speak C-Suite, the Language of the Boardroom, or Else
C-Suite Speak, or the language of the boardroom, is a given if you are to gain repeated, ‘trusted advisor’ access to the Chiefs of the Boardroom. All my marketing life I have been a tactical person, at home with sales managers and field sales professionals, in the business-to-business sales trenches and their marketing arena.
A few years ago, when I decided to move up to the C-Suite or Boardroom where the big bucks decisions were made I had to re-learn a new vocabulary and with it, a new mindset or frame of reference.
It was a rude awakening to say the least, but a good friend and professional management consultant who ascended to the CEO’s position at a sizable company in the Commercial Cleaning Industry, became my Boardroom Mentor and Teacher and gently (patiently, too) walked me through the process.
Because it worked for me, I will share this process with you in this and future blogs. Let us start at the top of the decision-making pyramid where the buck stops at the desk of the Chief Executive Officer.
First, by revealing what keeps CEOs awake at night? What issues must be addressed if CEOs are to responsibly lead their companies?
The CEO Focus:
- Increase stockholder value.
- Execute strategic goals, missions and objectives to inspire their other Chiefs.
- Reinvent the company so it is correctly aligned with its now and future customers.
- Make strategic decisions to recruit, keep and motivate company-centric employees.
- Make strategic decisions to position their company as a market leader 2-4 years from now.
There are others, but these five are the drivers in which CEOs invest the majority of their time. A simple but relevant metaphor is to think of the CEO as a bus driver. They control the direction, acceleration and are responsible for the safety of their vehicle, its conductors (other Chiefs) and riders (employees).
They must always keep their eyes on the road in front and way ahead. They must see down the road and over the horizon. Their time-line is about the future, which is 2-4 years from now, because their today-leadership and today-vision have the most serious consequences when these become down-the-road realities. Wrong, reactionary decisions today can have catastrophic consequences down the road.
CEOs often have the final say in big ticket purchasing decisions when hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars are at stake. The higher you venture up the corporate ladder, the more at ease and confident you must be with P&Ls, financial terminology and the numbers on their electronic spreadsheets.
In my next blog you will learn the importance of business acumen and industry savvy.
Toastmasters International, a Network of Nice and Talented People!
Last week I celebrated my 32nd year as a Winter Park Toastmaster. I know, this is older than some of the people reading this blog! My reason for joining was selfish. I needed to improve my public speaking skills so I could spread the word at local business meetings about my (then) new, business, Mr. Mailer, Inc. There were many more reasons I stayed for one score, ten and two. In fact, it was my Toastmasters Experience I credit with many career and life-uplifting experiences.
Five years after joining, I sold Mr. Mailer, Inc., by that time, a flourishing direct mail processing and mailing list brokerage and I became a for-profit professional speaker which I practiced for another 17 years. I still pinch myself when I recall how many people actually paid me (and, still do) for opening my mouth.
Toastmasters can take most of the credit for giving me the confidence I needed to stand and deliver over 1,917 paid speaking engagements during my professional speaking career. I tested much of the material for those speeches at my weekly Toastmasters meeting. If those I knew responded well to my message, I figured it was good enough to try out with paid audiences and most of the time, this was a correct assumption! My weekly Winter Park Toastmasters meeting became my ‘learning laboratory’ and it still is after 32 years.
It was there that I made lifetime friendships with some outstanding people from all walks of life. Preachers, poets, professors, lawyers, business professionals; actually all very positive, professionals who joined to become “Masters of the Spoken Word”, the slogan of our chapter which was founded that 1963 day JFK was assassinated.
This group made me truly appreciate the sacrifices of the generation, which came before me. Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation had many alumni in our chapter. One in particular, was my mentor. First, he repeatedly harassed me to come to my first Winter Park Toastmasters meeting in February 1978.
Like many over-worked new business owners, I was too: busy, overworked and tired. The meeting was too: far, early and frequent. Actually, I was too chicken for fear I would have to stand and speak in front of strangers and probably embarrass myself. My mentor, a successful insurance professional, Harold Lanigan, would not take no for an answer. True to his nature, he just kept on closing. Finally, I relented and attended, and that singular experience forever changed my life.
Harold’s signature WW2 stories galvanized our attention with his narratives of a 22-year-old pilot of a B-17 over the war-torn skies of Occupied France. In one losing encounter with an enemy plane, he and his crew parachuted out of their broken War bird at 11,000 feet. In a second two years later, piloting another plane, he was shot down and spent the rest of WW2 in a Nazi POW Camp.
Harold is gone but his stories, his character and his influence on me live on as my legacy. I am still a Winter Park Toastmaster. I still enjoy speaking and improving with each speech. Even more, I enjoy sharing my knowledge with our newer members, so they too can carry on the tradition of our great Toastmasters chapter.
This is one anniversary I have truly enjoyed celebrating. To learn more about Toastmasters International, go to www.toastmasters.org and maybe, someday you will thank me. FYI, if you visit the website soon, CLICK on “A Funny Thing Happened”…..and read my Talk about starting over! story.
Who Dares………………..Wins!
Outside London, England, the motto: Who Dares…..Wins, is chiseled in stone on a monument to commemorate men at arms who died in the service of Great Britain, as members of one of the world’s most elite and audacious fighting forces: the Special Air Service, also known as the SAS.
So, what does this have to do with C-Suite Prospecting, the theme of this blog, for the coming months. It takes courage and tenacity to step outside one’s comfort zone into the challenging arena of boardroom decision-makers especially if you have made a living calling on mid-level managers. In this tight economy decisions formerly made by mid-level managers have been kicked upstairs to the COO and CFO’s desk.
I adopted this inspiring motto as my motivator to have the courage to take action when my entrepreneurial instincts whispered to me to test a new concept or analytic technique, rather than doing nothing and remaining inside my comfort zone.
Megatrends, a 1982 best-seller, featured 10 trends most likely to change our lives. One research technique used to substantiate the author’s claims inspired me to apply it to my (then) new sales discipline of C-Suite prospecting.
Content analysis was first used by military intelligence to collect and analyze public attitudes from printed newspapers. During WW2, military intelligence readers, conversant in Japanese, Italian and German studied newspaper editorials from combatant cities to interpret the psychological impact of bombing raids on civilian populations. The resulting increase in bombing raids was credited with shortening the length of the war and saving millions of Allied lives.
In 1983, I applied this technique to corporate annual reports to drum up business for my infant marketing consulting practice. A stockbroker provided current annual reports from multiple CEOs in the computers, communications and chemicals industries.
In one annual report, that of a Midwestern computer reseller, the CEO’s message to stockholders cited the ‘spoked-wheel concept’ repeatedly as his breakthrough initiative for his forthcoming nationwide expansion. There was absolutely no doubt who took credit for this concept!
When I solicited his business, I praised his brilliant ‘spoked-wheel concept’ in my letter and again, in my timely follow up phone call. His ego got the best of him, as he flew to Orlando a few days later, to meet with me to explore our potential to become one of his regional distribution points.
Since then content analysis techniques have enabled me to mine gems from corporate annual reports which have served me well to ethically access C-Suite deciders. Is this a brazen misuse of content analysis? Well, I prefer to credit intelligent risk-taking as inspired by the proud SAS motto: Who Dares…………………………Wins!
Are You a Sought After Adder of Value?
Think carefully before answering this question. Your answer will determine if you will be invited for a return engagement to the C-Suite. Answer affirmatively, and you will be expected to prove it, early and often. Answer negatively or demonstrate you are not a value-adder, and you are guaranteed to become an exile banned forever from ethically accessing the C-Suite.
Those who occupy the C-suite have too little time and too many strategic decisions. The patience-threshold of those at the top of the corporate pyramid is very narrow. The successful ones depend on staff and trusted advisors to lighten their decision-making burdens so they can focus on what really matters most to fulfill their CEO, COO, CFO, CIO, CMO or other Chief duties and expectations.
The conjunctive noun: value-adder carries obligations. The higher one climbs up the corporate ladder the greater the expectation of shared value. Deliver high value often and others will seek you.
Value, at this stage, is relevant, accurate, insight that enables Chiefs to consistently make informed, correct decisions. Time and outcomes reveal whether a decision is correct or incorrect.
Notice I said: insight, NOT information. This distinction is important. Information is a free, readily accessible commodity that may be true or false. Staff credentials carry the expectation of skilled Information-gleaning skills when accessing the World Wide Web and its seemingly infinite resources.
Insight is information with a dose of expertise from first-hand experience or substantiated secondary sources. Insight is the platinum standard in the corporate or C-Suite information game.
The expertise of the insight provider must be established as a credible, trustworthy source; otherwise, the shared insight of the bearer is of marginal value. The very first challenge of a value-adder is to establish trust-worthiness as a reliable, consistently accurate insight-provider.
This process begins outside the domain of C-Suite occupants. Often, it begins with a subordinate. Sometimes it arrives on the wings of a peer. Even someone in another company or institution who the C-Suite occupant knows and respects can be the bearer of relevant insight.
Becoming a value-adder of insightful information is a disciplined process one must acquire and repeatedly exercise to master. Recently, I overheard a truism of our instant gratification society:
“In a society where average is the standard few people are willing to sweat to achieve excellence.”
Becoming an excellent value-adder of insightful information sought after by C-Suite occupants requires sweat equity plus the application of disciplined rules. These I will share in my next blog posting.
Get Started NOW Conducting Sales Calls Up the Corporate Ladder!
Are you at ease conducting sales calls on Chiefs? You know, the occupants of the Ivory-towered boardrooms, commonly referred to as CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CMOs or CIOs. Do your palms sweat in their presence? Do you stutter-step at the very thought of being seated opposite these buck- stops -here deciders? Well, it is time to get over your jitters.
A recently completed 2009 Boardroom survey confirmed an interesting trend. Decisions, formerly delegated to mid-level operations managers are now being made at the top or executive level.
In this period of tight money, boardroom executives are frequently making decisions about interim financing. With easy money sources drying up in our uncertain economy dominated by government bailouts and bank failures, senior executives across all sectors are handling finance-related activities. At least, until some degree of consumer confidence is restored and demonstrated with more robust retail sales, which are unlikely to happen until 2011.
So, how do you begin this process? Why not add this activity to your 2010 Business Resolutions? Make it a priority! Add this 2010 Resolution: I will identify and call on executive level decision-makers who will be most affected by the use of my services and products.
Much of what you already know about successfully dealing with entry level and mid-level managers still applies. However, because the stakes are higher as you ascend the corporate ladder, you need to learn some new rules of engagement plus new realities.
While What is In It For Me (WIIFM) still rings true, there is a new caveat. It is essential to identify who at the executive level will be most affected by choosing your products and services over your competitors’ or even deciding to budget money for your purchasing category, at all.
This person’s buy-in or sponsorship has several ramifications. If the company has never made this type of purchase, then finances set aside for other capitol equipment purchases may be reduced or denied entirely, if your category is determined to be more strategically important to achieve long-range goals.
Even the lingo or language of those who occupy the boardrooms is different. Strategic implications and concepts, which affect long-range goals and objectives, are the words of the day. People at this level are concerned with multi million dollar decisions which will affect their entire organization and how they will be scrutinized by corporate stockholders and their Boards of Directors.
In my next posting, I will share the details of how my understanding of one CEO’s concept landed me a training client worth several hundred thousand dollars and a referral for a training contract with an Industry Leader.