After 30 years, I still let distractions such as business event luncheons and networking meetings interrupt my weekly b2b sales prospecting activities. Sometimes, I will scold myself with every intention of not repeating THAT mistake again, when my attendance proves to be a waste of time. You see for me, lunchtime hours are some of my best times to access decision-makers by phone or computer. This blog is about how to choose the events which net meaningful and worthy b2b prospect contacts.
I’m constantly getting e-mails and voice-mails from consulting associates telling me about the wonderful ‘exposure’ they received speaking for free at local trade association chapter or business networking luncheons. It’s their shameless way of coaxing me to do the same. Most often, I politely refuse and just keep prospecting and working my referrals. Exposure, without meaningful sales contacts, is counter-productive!
I could fill every waking hour in my appointment planner with free speaking or networking engagements but I don’t for several reasons. First, I have to pay my bills. Second, when I’m not on the phone or my laptop connecting to new sales prospects, following up on strategic referrals, or servicing clients; I’m not ringing up sales. Negative cashflow is a commission sales person’s worst nightmare. There are too few prime time prospecting hours in my day even though my day begins at 4:00 am.
So, today, I’m going to share with you my 4 test questions for deciding whether to be distracted or to pass on an ‘opportunity’. Distractions are always cloaked as ‘opportunities’. I still do an occasional free luncheon speech, and I selectively attend b2b networking luncheons but ONLY if they pass my test.
When I am invited to attend an event or to speak at an event, I always ask the meeting planner 4 questions:
What is the exact purpose of the meeting or event? I avoid meetings or events positioned as ‘the networking event of the year’. It’s pure hype. Anyone who has to pitch their event so blatantly is seeking to seat ‘breathers’, not professionals. Not for me! Also, I’m not into networking luncheons open to ‘entrepreneurs’. ‘Entrepreneur’ is a code-word for b2c MLM sales agent who seem to be popping up, like attorneys at traffic accidents. Since I only train b2b sales professionals and I only accept money, not beads and blankets (trade-outs) for my services, I avoid b2c MLM groupie events.
Were I attending as a guest, what would it cost me? I avoid free events. The food is usually marginal and the company isn’t much better. Moochers who are regulars at free events don’t spend money. I guess that’s why the moochers usually show up en mass. My interest begins at $35 per person. People who call themselves professionals realize they will not sit in the company of peers for free. They ‘get’ it and so do I.
Name some of last month’s attendees by company and their job titles? The answer to this question is the deciding factor for me. While b2b company names are important, I’m more interested in the job title of the typical attendee. Why? My best prospect-types by job title are: sales managers, regional sales managers, new business development directors and marketing directors. These are the people who sign contracts to hire me to re-tool their b2b sales teams and they make quantity purchases of my eBooks. So, an opportunity to rub elbows or to speak to a group of 40-60 of these job titles is worth my time.
How many people attended your meeting last [week, month or quarter]? For some reason, meeting planners have a tendency to add 10 to their last attendance count. Maybe, 10 more attendees is a lucky number! So, if I hear 25-30, I presume, it’s usually 15-20 which is too small for me to net any worthwhile contacts. When I attend functions, I’m seeking a critical mass of 40 - 60 attendees. This is true whether I’m the speaker or just an attendee because I will always meet 3-5 serious b2b decision-making prospects for my services.
How do you find out about these business event luncheons? Of course, most daily newspaper have a business section with weekly event listings. Also, GOOGLE ”local business event luncheons by City, ST”. But what about business event luncheons of decision-makers, by their job titles, for what you sell?
Read Chapter 1 of my new How to Get Face-Time with People Who Buy What You Sell ebook (also called the PowerProspecting eBook) and you will learn how and where to get FREE Lists of these decision-makers, by their job-titles, for contacts in your local, regional or national sales territories. To preview my eBook for FREE, CLICK on Purchase The eBook Now, in the right sidebar. CLICK on Home Page. CLICK on View FREE Minibook. Remember, you have a 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee to tailor and test my Power Prospecting Formula to painlessly and systematically get qualified prospect appointments for your b2b products and services.
Starting next week and every week, thereafter I’ll deliver shorter blogs beginning with Part 1 of How to Prosper in Tough Times. Have a happy and carefree Halloween and remember to vote next Tuesday.
I love it when readers challenge my b2b sales prospecting phone-use tactics. It brings out my best and provides me an opportunity to share tactics (hands-on, how-to’s) b2b sales professionals can use to master the sales prospecting process. Not theories but successful techniques tested on the street.
How do you, the sales professional, determine whether the person on the other end of the phone is being truthful? Your questions and how you ask them will reveal whether you are speaking with a liar or a potential buyer. Asking these questions on the phone will eliminate wasted face-time sales calls.
Professional Pollsters and Marketing Researchers who use the phone know the answer and so should you. They ask shielded questions. Actually, the same question, worded differently and asked once, twice or three times during the same phone interview.
I’m a great believer in having my 5-6 Qualifying Questions documented on a form I refer to as a CPQ (Call Planner Questionnaire). In fact, the CPQ is the lynchpin accountability tool I encourage sales managers and small business owners to use to make certain their sales team members are turning in legitimate expense reports at week end.
You may recall from past blogs my statement, “You are making a Social NOT a SALES CALL if you do not have 1 completed CPQ for each face-time decision-maker appointment.” None of us in sales were hired to make social calls. We aren’t paid for visits - ONLY CLOSED SALES! There should be 1 CPQ for each completed face-time sales appointment. This is RULE Number 2 of my Power Prospecting Formula.
One of the ‘key’ questions asked early on during the Qualifying Phone Follow up Calling Sequence should answer the important question:
Answering these questions strikes at the very heart of my Power Prospecting Formula. In 1967, when I began my formal sales career with NCR selling computers to the hoteliers on Miami Beach, I often discovered decisions to purchase equipment were made at the holding company HQ office, seldom at the local hotel property. My sales proposals were accompanied by the local managers’ purchase request and mailed to a distant decision-making office, far removed from Miami Beach.
Today, more than ever before, determining who signs the checks locally is critically important.
Many times, when I have conducted my Qualifying Phone Follow up Calling Sequence, I have discovered I’m speaking with an ego-centric ‘decision-maker’ who replies, “I make the decision!” Then, when I ask a variation of the same question later on during the same phone interview, their answer conflicts with their first reply.
Ah ha, a liar versus a buyer!
As a rule, I will not keep an appointment with a prospect to fails my shielded questions test. How can I believe anything else that person will tell me at our face-time appointment?
Am I being too sensitive? Am I placing an X on the door of a potential prospect? No! In fact, those few times when I have kept the face-time appointment with a liar, I have wasted my time on non-prospects. I don’t have the time or patience to meet with people who don’t respect me. When someone lies to me, they don’t respect me!
This shielded questions technique works especially well for commercial and industrial telemarketing sales. In 1987, I developed a CPQ scenario for an industrial sales software vendor. Elaborate product information kits were mailed, in advance, to all inquiries. Yet, fewer than 8% of these elaborate product information kits resulted in sales.
Two CPQ Questionnaires were designed and tested. The first CPQ narrow-focused an inquirer’s: urgency, decision-making-process, including who in the company by name and position was seated on the Software Evaluation Committee and whether the committee had a ‘funded budget’ to thoroughly research, conduct field trips to vendor installation sites prior to creating a short list of the three most capable solution providers. The ‘funded budget’ shielded questions and answers separated the curious from the serious.
The second CPQ Questionnaire was used after the prospect received the basic information kit which was one quarter the length of the original elaborate product information kit. The telemarketers asked the prospects specific questions about the software architecture and platform. Questions which could only be answered if the prospect thoroughly read the basic information kit. Both CPQ’s included multiple shielded questions.
Almost 8 months to the day the dual CPQ Questionnaires were implemented, conversions to sales were averaging 19-24%.
I’d be shocked if most of you aren’t using a CPQ type document, either printed or screen-displayed. However, if you aren’t using shielded questions, make some changes; add a few and you are sure to improve your conversion to serious, not curious decision-making prospects.
In Chapter 7 of the September edition of my How to Get Face-Time with People Who Buy What You Sell ebook (also called the PowerProspecting eBook) I detail how to design the ideal CPQ. Also, how to skillfully use my best secret weapon: The Columbo to forever eliminate wasted face-time sales appointments! CLICK on Purchase eBook Now. CLICK on Home Page. CLICK on View FREE Minibook. Remember, you have a 1 Year Money-Back Guarantee to test my Formula.
So, what works for you and your sales team? How do you filter liars and buyers?