Today, connecting is a difficult proposition. It is even tougher when you prospect.

There is no doubt that people are overly busy with their day to day personal and business tasks- and even worse, they are being “contacted” in more ways than ever: email, SMS, social media, and by phone (by “pesky” telemarketers to say the least).

It is a virtual flood out there.

How to prospect today? Differentiate in your approach

Even with all the technology and distractions today, people appreciate a real person and voice behind the attempts to connect. It just has to be done right. When was the last time you got a call from a bank with an un-targeted, sloppy approach? I got one the other day.

“Sir we can arrange a loan for you.”

“I don’t need a loan. And how can you make a promise like that- I might not even qualify?”

I challenged the caller with those questions- she had no response. Yes, I know it is her job. She is not to blame- it is management. She is following orders.

This is a  great example as to why people are being “bothered” by prospectors today, as this is an untargeted, “spray and pray” technique. There were also a lot of assumptions in this approach.

What really works? In order for the conversation to be successful, it needs to:

Achieve a goal

Satisfy a need

Solve a problem

What tools/skills does one need? The caller needs to:

Use the right opening statements, vocal techniques and rapport building skills to create interest and capture attention

Utilise conversational bridging statements to keep the customer engaged during the call

Ask effective questions in a logical order to discover the customers current situation, their stated needs and their hidden needs

Listen actively and accurately to capture relevant information first time and recognise the input and contributions received from the customer

Pick up on and respond to customer buying signals and clues that indicate the interest level of customer

Explain and link  the benefits of a product or service to meet customer needs, create interest and secure commitment versus relying on product features

Handle common customer objections by using the APART approach to keep the customer involved in the conversation and focused on the value the product will bring

Use a conversational close to ask for permission to proceed

Professionally close the call to leave a positive, lasting impression in both successful call outcome situations and when the customer declines to proceed

Yes prospecting is difficult…but it can be done. It is all about the approach.

For more, see Connect Through High Impact Sales Conversations

Andrew Sidwell, Team Egyii, Singapore

Whether you are a working for a large consulting company or an IT/Telecoms vendor, chances are you may be wasting one of your best resources to win business- the resources that are the least “threatening” with the most potential to influence; your professional services, consulting or sales engineering team.

Buyers buy from a non-rational (emotional) approach. Most companies (salespeople, consultants, engineers and services) approach it from a rational approach- that is positioning on a technical and/or a needs base basis. There is nothing wrong with this, however it needs to be recognized, because if it only goes to a technical or needs base basis, then chances are opportunities are missed and wasted.

As you build your relationship and the client relationship progresses, it moves from the  technical or needs base basis and  reaches its peak at the next level, the relationship level. Again, there is nothing wrong with this, but rarely does it reach the trusted advisor status, the highest status of all relationships.

Reaching a trusted advisor status opens up more opportunities by easing the lines of business and the relationship highways that need to be built for current and ongoing business.

It is also a BIG differentiator in today’s competitive services world, that everyone wants a part of.

What keeps most companies from meeting the trusted advisor status?

The sales organization’s “processes.”

The pressure of sales organizations tends to drive salespeople to be very “seller” centric, which then tends to drive the buyer away. This gives the professional services team the opportunity to be more customer or buyer centric (focusing on the buyer’s personal needs), as they don’t have the pressure to sell and close.

Most sales organizations treat their clients as “competitors,” often holding information back and not collaborating. They are often afraid to open up and share too much. Buyers value openness and openness build trust. Professional services team don’t typically feel the “heat” of the corporate led competition attitude – this gives them the opportunity be transparent and to collaborate.

Most sales people are not good listeners (and it’s not always their fault). They are focusing too much on the sales process, the outcome of the meeting, the “advance” and their own “seller focused” agenda. Professional services teams have a better opportunity to listen (once they get over their rational, technical product approach) and the power of listening builds relationships.

Most salespeople are short term focused- whatever it takes to close the deal to meet monthly or quarterly objectives. Buyers sense this and know it- and don’t necessarily like it. Professional services teams can capitalise by looking medium to long term- to build the relationship, to keep the client long term.

(I am not blaming the sales people for their faults- it is typically the system that drives their behaviours. The system, or sales process is typically a “one size fits all” process. A process is OK, it just needs to be flexible)

All of these models build trust. And trust transforms relationships, which transforms business.

The Personal and Risk Aspect

Trust and relationships are personal. Professional services teams appear to be less threatening in the eyes of the client, and therefore have great potential to become more personal, to build trust and relationships, and therefore influence, without changing the professional services teams status quo and making them feel “uncomfortable.” After all most professional services people are not salespeople and many don’t want to be.

The risk in buying professional services is also very high. Why?

The product is partially intangible and partially comprised of people knowledge and skills

The overall stakes are high

The range of outcomes can be wide and unclear

The seller typically has command of technical expertise that the buyer does not (which makes it somewhat threatening to the client)

There is financial and business risk–but there is great emotional and political risk as well. In a trusting relationship, risk is mitigated because the “transactions” become personal.

Is it time to look at your business, transform it and fill your pipeline by releasing your hidden weapon of influence- your professional services team? Give it a think. A big think.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

….and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time”

Ok so this book is about 5 years old. Maybe I am a bit slow getting to it. Doesn’t matter. After about a half dozen people recommended it, I bought it “used” on Amazon.

It is the best book on meaningful connecting and networking I have yet to encounter. There are no voodoo tactics. It is all real. OK, so Keith is smart- he is extraordinary. Doesn’t matter, he is real.

Read it early in your career. Read it when you near the middle or end of your career. Read it. Please.

The following quotes sum the book up better than I can. Why reinvent the wheel?

Ferrazzi grew up in rural Pennsylvania, the son of a steelworker and a cleaning lady, yet his ability to connect with others led to a scholarship at Yale, a Harvard MBA, and a prestigious partnership at Deloitte Consulting. His skills at creating and maintaining a network of contacts are nothing short of those of a serious presidential contender. All business hopefuls seek to enter a sphere of players more powerful than themselves, and Ferrazzi says that sometimes all it takes is asking. The book is dense with suggestions. Seek out mentors to guide you and introduce you to the people you need to know and then become a mentor yourself. Use your initial conversation to show the other person what you have to offer them, and never keep score. Make others feel important by remembering their names and birthdays. And don’t be afraid to open up and show vulnerability–it’s a great icebreaker. Ferrazzi presents a whirlwind of ideas to widen your circle of contacts that goes way beyond the usual stale concepts of “networking.” David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The youngest partner in Deloitte Consulting’s history and founder of the consulting company Ferrazzi Greenlight, the author quickly aims in this useful volume to distinguish his networking techniques from generic handshakes and business cards tossed like confetti. At conferences, Ferrazzi practices what he calls the “deep bump” – a “fast and meaningful” slice of intimacy that reveals his uniqueness to interlocutors and quickly forges the kind of emotional connection through which trust, and lots of business, can soon follow. That bump distinguishes this book from so many others that stress networking; writing with Fortune Small Business editor Raz, Ferrazzi creates a real relationship with readers. Ferrazzi may overstate his case somewhat when he says, “People who instinctively establish a strong network of relationships have always created great businesses,” but his clear and well-articulated steps for getting access, getting close and staying close make for a substantial leg up. Each of 31 short chapters highlights a specific technique or concept, from “Warming the Cold Call” and “Managing the Gatekeeper” to following up, making small talk, “pinging” (or sending “quick, casual” greetings) and defining oneself to the point where one’s missives become “the e-mail you always read because of who it’s from.” In addition to variations on the theme of hard work, Ferrazzi offers counterintuitive perspectives that ring true: “vulnerability… is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today”; “too many people confuse secrecy with importance.” No one will confuse this book with its competitors.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore (go get ‘em, tiger! 虎 )

What am I talking about here? Coffee? A hospital?

You may need both to help build stronger business relationships…but that is not what I am referring to.

The “Drip Method” is all about feeding the client bits and pieces of valuable information to “hook” them into a long term relationship.

How is this done?

To start, you need to always be:

Understanding the client’s business

Anticipating his needs

Listening to him to understand his needs/priorities

Keeping a record of those needs/priorities so you can constantly refer to them

What is next?

You use the vast world of the internet, your creative mind and your network. You then gather the pertinent information, put it all together and send “value packages” to your prospects and clients.

With the value packages of client pertinent information, you feed your prospects and clients, on ocassion, through emails or face to face, pertinent articles (preferably ones that you write in your own blogs) and verbal tid-bits of information. Make sure that every message is personalised and timely. Make sure it is unobtrusive.

What does this do? It keeps you in front of the client with their agenda, not yours. It builds a value add relationship. Simple as that.

Keep in mind that this requires a lot of thinking and research… and it takes time, but it will bring results.

By the way, I drink my coffee expresso style…

Cheers.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

 (A true story)

Successful.

Uneducated.

Wealthy.

Four priority bank accounts.

Four banks.

Four different Relationship Managers.

There is a fifth bank that also wants his business.

The fifth bank will get his business- if they do it right.

Why and how?

This particular “prospect” is an acquainance of one of the bank executives. The prospect is open with the executive, shares his personal life, discusses business matters and financial matters, socializes regularly with him, talks sports and even shares aspects of  his social life. He respects the bank executive for his knowledge and there appears to be no threat. He is comfortable with the relationship. They are friends. 

Interestingly enough, the bank executive is not a relationship manager- he is not in sales.

How does the bank executive do what is best for the bank, and “convert” this into a sale? That is the dilemma.

Clearly the “prospect” is an unsettled man. He has new-found wealth and is somewhat leery of the people around him. This is probably why he spreads his wealth between four banks and four relationship managers.

How many times have you come across this or a similar situation to this?  A situation where there is a bond or relationship between a client or prospect and a non-sales related executive? From my experience in my days of technology sales, quite often the relationship was between the client and the sales engineer. Is that because there was no “threat” from the sales engineer? Was he providing more value? Was he not chasing the sales for the close?  Most probably.

So why is this happening and why does it happen? And how do we turn the banking scenario around and turn it into a “sale?” I will let you figure that out on your own.

For related articles (and for a clue to why this may happen) see:

Two Simple Keys to Success in Sales

Want to Add Value in Your Sales “Process?” Try Adding Trust

The Agile Mind of a Salesperson: Motivation

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

No longer can global or major accounts programmes rely on decisions being made in mother countries. Decisions now need to be made on a local, Asia Pacific level, whether it is in Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai or Tokyo.

And no longer can account teams rely on relationships alone. They must also add value.

Adding value means understanding what is on the mind of the client and giving them the tools to meet their personal and business goals. It’s not all about bits and bytes, bandwidth or speed or bells and whistles. To meet the goals, it’s all about understanding their problems and where they are in the decision making cycle…and being sensitive to that.

Neil Rackham, of Huthwaite and SPIN, was not a salesperson, but a behavioural psychologist. He studied how buyers bought and did not focus on how sellers should sell. He built a simple yet powerful tool to understand the buying cycle, or decision making process. He added sensitivity to the buying cycle.

In the buying cycle, there are multiple stages..changes over time, recognition of needs, evaluation of options, resolution of concerns, decision, implementation. No matter where you enter the buying cycle, you need to work (by continually adding value) with your client until he enters the “recognition of needs” area. This is the crucial time to be side by side, collaborating with your client to build the solution. (Rackham  also recognises that all of this takes time, so focus on medium-long term, not short term).

Once you are at the recognition of needs phase, you should understand how the client makes the decision.

What motivates him to buy?

The client (or buyer) typically has four levels of questions when it comes to the question of motivation when buying:

1) The product and its characteristics/features

2) A solution to the problem

3) A good business partner

4) Someone we can trust

Buyers state that they want want the first or second and ocassionally the third. Most sales programmes/processes focus on levels two and three- focusing on identifying the buyers’ needs through consultative selling.

Levels one through three are rational and impersonal. The fourth level, a person we can trust, is far more powerful.

If you understand the buying cycle and ultimately what motivates your client when buying, you are one step ahead of your competitors.

There is a lot more to it than that for global/major accounts selling but understanding the crucial aspects of buying are vital.

*Derived from Trust-based Selling by Charles H. Green.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

(The author ran the Anixter Asia Pacific Global Accounts programme in the earlier part of this century. There are certainly a few things he did well but there are a lot of things he could have done better. He wishes he had known all of this then.)

Products aren’t the only things that need marketing. People do too. How do you build your presence for your clients- to market yourself and your company?

In a world where millions, if not billions, of people converge on a digital platform, communicate via mobile phones and meet face to face, to really establish a presence, a salesperson should create his own personal brand.

Twitter. Facebook. Linked In. Blogs. All free ways to create your extended presence.

Your extended presence  is a great way to add value to your current relationship. Post and share your content and others’. Build upon subject matter that is relevant to your clients’ needs. Base it on the last conversation you had with your client.

A few helpful hints…peruse the following; Dan Schawbel’s articles as he is the personal branding expert who pens Personal Branding Magazine and, of course,  the business guru Tom Peters, whose  article The Brand Called You was originally written in 1997.

After all, the client’s relationship and loyalty is with the salesperson, not with the company.

Heat up the branding iron.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

“Effective networking is about building relationships with others who can refer you once they’ve come to trust you, have confidence in you and feel loyal to you. This truly is the key to networking success. And this process takes time.”  Duct Tape Marketing, “The Keys to a Referral Relationship.”

What is the easiest way to get new business? Referrals.

Is it easy to get referrals? No and yes.

The Dilemma

Most salespeople and managers agree that referrals are the best way to get leads for new business. There are methods for getting referrals, however it sill remains “difficult” for a salesperson to get them.

So how do we “speed up” the process and make it simple?

Build the Relationship

As for “speeding up” the process, there are no methodologies that can really get you to where you need to be to ask for referrals quickly. Too often salespeople jump on the opportunity too early, at the wrong time. It takes time. So be patient.

Where to start? Make steps to build the relationship and add commercial and personal value. The best way to build a relationship and add value is by establishing  trust. In order to build trust for refferals, you should understand the components of trustworthiness. 

The Components of Trustworthiness

The components of trustworthiness, in the world of the The Trusted Advisor, reside in the Trust Quotient.

The Trust Quotient consists of the Trust Equation=

C=Credibility

R=Reliability

I=Intimacy

S=Self-orientation

C=Credibility has to do with the words we speak. In a sentence, we might say, “I can trust what she says about intellectual property; she is very credible on the subject.*

By contrast, reliability has to do with actions. We might say, for example, “If he says he’ll deliver the product tomorrow, I trust him, because he’s dependable.” *

Intimacy refers to the safety or security that we feel when entrusting someone with something. We might say, “I can trust her with that information; she’s never violated my confidentiality before, and she would never embarrass me.” *

Self-orientation refers to the focus of the person in question. In particular, whether the person’s focus is primarily on himself or herself or on the other person. We might say, “I can’t trust him on this deal—I don’t think he cares enough about me, he’s focused on what he gets out of the deal.” Or—more commonly—“I don’t trust him—I think he was too concerned about how he was appearing, so he wasn’t really paying attention.”

Keep in mind that Credibility and Reliability are the easiest aspects of the Trust Equation. Intimacy and Self Orientation are by far more difficult to attain.

(*for more information, see Trust in Business: The Core Concepts from Charles H. Green, Trusted Advisor Associates)

Simply Ask for Referrals

So, once you establish the relationship, you can simply ask for referrals. The biggest problem is, salespeople just don’t bother approaching clients for referrals. How many times do salespeople actually ask for a referral? rarely. Ray Silverstein suggests a few simple but great pointers in his article, Get More Referrals by Asking.

So, build the relationship and ask. It may take some time but it sure is simple.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

(I am have just come back from United States as we speak so this write up is timely. These are general comments on business and society in the United States, which certainly afffects the whole world,  as I see it today. )

Values drive beliefs and beliefs drive actions. Most of us are aware of this.

The Allen/Coolidge family (my relatives) followed three (amongst many) important personal, work values and beliefs:

The “Protestant work ethic.” The Protestant work ethic is “based upon the notion that the Calvinist emphasis on the necessity for hard work is proponent of a person’s calling and worldly success is a sign of personal salvation.” (Wikipedia) Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist, penned a book called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He believed that the Protestant work ethic (under Calvinism) was the driving force for capitalism. Capitalism (whether you like it or not) has clearly brought America its success, wealth and abundance today.  An interesting article to read on thsi matter is Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic?by Steven Malanga of City Journal.

Honesty. “Honesty is speaking truth and creating trust in minds of others.” (Wikipedia) Speak the truth. Never lie. Honesty is so vital to my family values and beliefs, that, my Grandfather, as a state Congressman, quit politics due to his belief in the lack of honesty in government.

Loyalty. The definition of loyalty is “feeling of duty: a feeling of devotion, duty, or attachment to somebody or something.” (Encarta) Loyalty was and is used across the board for our personal/family and business matters. Unfortunately, the term “loyalty,” from a business perspective, has been diluted with loyalty programmes for repeat buyers. This is not loyalty- this is convenience  for the buyer. Real loyalty, like trust, is personal.

With these values and beliefs, all we Americans prospered and continue to prosper. We need to continue to lead in such manner.

OK maybe I am a little old fashioned. But a lot of these and other important values and beliefs have been diluted or lost over a short period of time (sometimes I even tend to sway off track).

Many influences around us have affected these values and beliefs including:

Our immediate surrounding personal and business environments

The need for instant gratification and results (short term Vs. medium to long term thinking)

Greed

Transactional based scenarios

Think of “me” vs thinking of “you” 

…and more.

I believe that working hard (and of course smart), honesty, and loyalty are important in our personal and business relationships. Let’s go back to basics. It certainly is a lot easier.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

I met up with an Account Executive from one of my former employers the other day and she asked me, as we were parting, “Can you give me some tips on how to be successful in sales in my current position?”

I love these kind of questions where I am asked for advice.

I answered “Relationships and value.”

“The relationships with your internal support mechanism (your colleagues) and the relationships with your clients are the most important. Without either of them, you will not survive.”

Simple enough. But…

“Relationships are very important but you must also add value. Always be adding value.”

“With your colleagues, always understand what drives and motivates them. Know their “business.” Instead of asking for their help, ask how you can help them. You would be amazed how they change their perspective.”

“With your clients, always be adding value- know their business and environment, anticipate their problems and offer solutions. Become a trusted advisor.”

This would be my simple answer to anyone who asked me about success in sales.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore