THE MAIN 2 RULLES IN B2B or B2B SELLING

 

Knowing Your Product or Service!

 

The best method and fastest way to gain product knowledge is to read or watch as much as you can about the product. Devour product information. First, memorize the important features of your product. Then, develop benefit statements (i.e., what it will do for the prospect) for each feature your product has to offer. Finally, to really build your knowledge base, list every possible question a potential prospect may ask about your product. Your job as a salesperson is to be able to answer these “feature” questions, and then add a “benefit” statement. Prospects want to feel comfortable about their decision to purchase. The best way to reduce buying anxiety is to demonstrate your competence by recommending the best product for them to buy. But in order for them to believe you or take your advice, they have to see you as an expert—someone who knows what they are talking about. Sometimes, selling is simply a transfer of confidence. If prospects feel confident that you’re providing them with the best solution for their need, and they believe you, they’ll buy from you!

Know Thy Competition!

The Internet has commoditized information (i.e., can get it cheap), democratized it (i.e., available to anyone), and made it ubiquitous (i.e., available anywhere). Today’s prospect is more informed than ever when it comes to the available options in the marketplace. No longer do they have to buy your product when with a simple click of the mouse they can locate a multitude of others, often at a better price. These days, it’s not enough to study your product only. If you want to be the best amongst the best in selling, you have to know what your competitors are offering as well. The first step in keeping current with the changes is to list your top three to five competitors for the product or service you’re offering. In any market space, at least three companies always dominate. The next step is to collect information on these companies as it relates to your product offering. One of the best ways to do this is by periodically visiting your competitor’s website and monitoring the updates (e.g., new product release, press releases about changes, etc.). Then, create a comparative table that lists all your product features alongside your competitors. This will help you see where your product strengths and weaknesses lie. Understanding the weakness of your product is equally important to understanding your product’s strength. Having this type of information prior to meeting with a prospect will insure that you won’t get caught off guard if a competitor is thrown into the sales mix. Demonstrating to a prospect that you’ve looked at other companies and you offer the best of the best, will make it that much easier for the prospect to decide in your favor.

6 STAGES OF SELLING IN B2C

Stage 1 Prospecting

You have to know where the fish are biting to be successful. Begin by identifying a target market and then contact those potential prospects to set up a meeting to discuss your product or service. Earlier, you were asked to describe specific characteristics of your ideal prospect. You were also asked to define yourself , and provide a sketch of your ideal prospect. Doing all of the above will help you narrow your selection, and focus on those prospects who are most likely to buy from you.

 

Stage 2 Qualification

Now that you’ve identified the market you’re targeting, the next step is to weed out potential buyers versus non-buyers, or at a minimum, prioritize potential buyers. The sooner you can uncover whether or not the identified prospect needs your product or service, will make a decision to buy, and has the financial resources to make the purchase, the more effective you’ll be at selling. Here is where asking closed-ended questions (i.e., getting confirmation) will really come in handy. It will help to uncover whether or not the prospect is in a position to make a purchasing decision.

 

Stage 3 Investigative

Once you’ve qualified the prospect as a true potential buyer, it’s time to have a more in-depth discussion about their needs and your ability to offer a solution.

At this stage, your goal is to ask key open-ended questions that will further substantiate the prospect has a need, and that your solution is a good fit. It’s worth noting that up to this point you still haven’t presented your product offering. The key to the investigative stage is to uncover as many needs as you can by asking a lot of open-ended questions.

Then, when you present your product, you can gear the presentation to answer the prospect’s needs or concerns.

Stage 4 Presentation

Having understood your prospect’s needs and concerns, you are now ready to talk about how your product or service can help the prospect. Each point you make in your presentation should be aimed at answering: a) a prospect’s concern;

b)  informing the prospect of things he may not be aware of; and c) addressing any “unvoiced” concerns (i.e., concerns or needs that the prospect did or may not want to voice aloud). The presentation should highlight product features, but should stay focused on how it translates into a benefit for the prospect. Remember, features tell, benefits sell.

Stage 5 Pricing

When all is said and done, it will come down to pricing or simply, “How much?” The presentation stage is about

creating value; the pricing is about proposal, a value proposition. If in the presentation stage you’ve made your case that the prospect would be better off exchanging his money for your product, then you’ve done your sales job well.

Stage 6

Closing

The final stage is the close or obtaining a commitment. Here’s where the proverbial pen meets the paper. If you’ve sold well, the prospect will sign on the dotted line and the deal is sealed. There are numerous ways to ask for the order. Here are just a few:

 

“Mr. Prospect, where do we go from here?” “Mr. Prospect, can you see any reason why we should sign you up?”

“Mr. Prospect, based on what you’re telling me, let’s go ahead and get the process started.”

 

Asking for the order is the key. Too often, salespeople hesitate to ask for the order for fear of rejection. There’s only one thing worse than rejection in selling—not asking for the order that could’ve been yours if you simply had asked. Remember, ask!

Your prospects expect you to ask for the order. Don’t disappoint them by not doing so.

GUIDELINES FOR B2C and B2B SELLING

 

“The sale starts at the first NO”

 

Rule of Consistency!!

 

This is also known as cognitive dissonance. This rule states that when your beliefs or values are not in line with your actions, you feel compelled to act to resolve this tension. For example, if you state you’re going to do something and

then don’t follow through, you will feel an uneasiness brought on by your inconsistency. Think back at a time when you

told someone you would do something, but at the last moment you decided to back out for some frivolous reason. Do you recall how you felt? That’s cognitive dissonance. This rule further purports that the more public the declaration, the more you will feel compelled to act consistently.

 

How Telemarketers Use Consistency!

 

Telemarketing folks will often ask you right off the bat, “How are you doing?” and then go silent. If you’re like many people you’ll respond, “I’m doing great! What can I do for you?” At that moment, you’ve fallen into the consistency trap. Once you’ve told them you’re feeling great, you’ve set yourself up to be influenced. Studies have shown that telemarketers are able to sell to you more effectively (i.e., you are more susceptible) if they can get a positive response to the question, “How are you doing?” People will act consistently with what they’ve stated aloud. (Refer to the rule of consistency.) It becomes more difficult to be rude or simply hang-up after stating you’re doing great, and manipulators know this!

But in order to do that we need in the first 5 seconds from the phone call to show that we are:

·       Sharp as a tack

·       Enthusiastic as hell

·       Eloquent and well spoken.

·       An Authority Figure

 

By doing that I’m proving to the client that:

·        I’m a person worth listening to.

·        I’m a person who helps people to gain control of their life.

AIDA SYSTEM

ATTENTION-” the main goal here is to get the prospect comfortable with us to talk”

1.  Listening Tonality: -volume (high, low), -speed (fast, slow)

2.Emotion: -positive-negative or neutral-key words (slang)

About emotions, the words are not so much important as to recognizing the emotion itself and react to it.

“People judge people based on their style not on their content” “People like people who are like themselves, or liked to become”

1.     Rapport- is a subconscious connection. Is one of the most important features of characteristics of unconscious human interaction. It is commonality of perspective: being “in sync” with, or being ” on the same wavelength”

as the person with whom you are talking.

“Building rapport is in our tonality and it can only happen like that, and we are starting to recognizing it happening and building when the client is starting to share some information that we didn’t ask him.”

TONALITY:-Mastering the art of speaking like the influencer is learning to effectively and elegantly apply tonal patterns to control somebody else’s internal dialogue so that they’re thinking exactly what you want them to be thinking without having to say a lot of words.

BODY LANGUAGE:-It’s more than just how you stand or the gestures you use: it’s the management of space and time around you. Key elements of body language include: non-verbal communication (i.e. eye contact), wrapping your package, matching and mirroring, and pacing and leading.

a.               Match and mirror- (using tonality)

b.     React to the emotion- (if the prospect is in a positive state of emotion we always boost, on the other hand, if the prospect is in a negative or neutral state of emotion we should be slow and low with our tonality)

 

“The only way to stay confident enough is not to have unwanted pauses in your sales pitch.”

INTEREST-KYC- “to find something, information that we can use as leverage against him”

“Every sale in life is done base on trust and on a emotional level, regardless if you are the seller or the buyer”.

 “Turn your Should into Will or Must”

Three things must be established in order to close:

1.   Love your product.

2.   Trust you.

3.   Love your company.

Use needs to establish air-tight logical case and air-tight emotional case.

Rules to follow when we come to the decision part of the sales pitch:

1.   First qualify KYC, then do the presentation. In order to do that you need to be sharp as a tack, enthusiastic as hell, eloquent and well spoken and an authority figure, in the first 4 seconds. But along the sales pitch you also need to develop at the prospect that he likes you, he trust you, you care and you are just like them (match & mirror), and you have done 50 % of the job done. Using these you have already developed emotional and logical air-tight case with the prospect.

2.   Never ignore the rejection.

3.   Every time where there is a change in the tone, there is a change in the emotion (listen to the client).

4.   K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid)- when we come to this part of the sales, we never want to use big words, or to add more and unnecessary information, cause that WILL confuse even more the client and making him to back off from the sale.

5.   Do not make assumptions.

6.   No promises.

7.   A.B.C. (always be closing)-ACTION-CLOSING THE SALE.

 

“People will buy with emotion (hearth-emotionally connected with the product, but it also need to be justified by logic (brain-to make sense why to by the product ”.

WHAT NOT TO DO WITH THE CLIENT

 

1.                To apology when calling the client. You are not sorry for calling and the client knows that.

2.                  To be afraid to ask for price.

3.                  To be afraid to challenge the client with a question when the client has some excuses.

4.                  To be afraid to change his approach when it’s not functioning.

5.                  To be afraid not to be aggressive.

6.            To be afraid to mention about the regulative of the firm – it can only lead to security both for the client and the firm.

7.                  Not to guess. On every question that the client has , we have to have firm and strict answer.

8.                  Not to interrupt the client when speaking. It is a big indicator that we are not listening to the client.

9.            Not to lie-every now and then no matter what’s the question whether is Forex or something else, everybody who lies get find out, with will only lead to ruin the credibility to the firm and us as individual.

10.     Not to forget to ask if somebody else is interested if the client is not (maybe he has a family member or a friend )- instantly we can offer the client bonus 50 if the client refers to a friend with will lead to having two clients instead of 0 .

11.        To make assumptions based of what we already know- there is always something new.

12.     Do become a friend with the client. The client job is to block us always in doing our job , by making excuses and lots of objections, we always have to be prepared to answer them properly.

13.        To talk  with the client by the book – technically. We sound boring and like a robot.

14.        To use his name to much in a sentence. It sounds like we are begging the client to invest.

15.        To be pushy.

16.        To challenge a client that he doesn't know enough about him.

17.        To rush.

18.        To make judgment before something happens.

19.     To sound boring and not interested. By doing that the presentation will be boring and eventually the client will be bored.

20.     To talk to fast. That doesn't make us smarter, it sound like we want to close the client without giving him absolutely nothing.

21.     To give an excuses. This is a big NO. As a sales man, especially one who is selling something like Forex, we always have to be ready with the right answers.

22.        Aaaaaa-gaps between questions and answers. We need to know what to answer.

23.     To use some words that we as sales mans do not know the meaning of them. This could lead to the client answering in same manner, and by doing that getting us unprepared and finding out that we do not know , and we are suppose to be account managers.

24.           To use unnecessary humor. There is one saying -GET TO THE POINT.

25.        To explain our self. We need to be more strict and to give concrete answer-TALK LESS SAY MORE.

26.        To be stabber. There always has to be room to evolve.

27.     To argue with the client, if the client him self is not interested. We as a firm and as an account manager , always have to keep our integrity and credibility, if he is not interested the only thing that we can do is to show to the client in short words what he can gain and what he can lose, and let him be.

28.        To call a client unprepared for his excuses and accusations, and a way to deal with them.

29.        To forget/ or not be able to call the client in agreed time.

30.     To make the client to buy. In other words, we can not literally tell the client COME ON MAKE DEPOSIT,COME ON COME ON, and so on. We need to lead him to that acct, not push him, and be boring about it.

HOW THE CLIENT WANTS TO BE TREATED

 

1.      Just tell me the facts-I don’t want to have long pre-speech. After you get to know me, cut to the main thing.

2.      Tell me the truth, and do not use the word honest-if you say something in which I have my doubts, and I know that that is not honest and true, you are out.

3.      I want and honest sales man- sales man often get a bad replies because of some sales mans in the past without ethic. Your deeds will reflect on your ethic, not your words.

4.      Give me a good reason why this product or service is perfect for me- if I need what are you selling, I need to understand in what way it will be useful for me.

5.      Show me some prove- there are bigger chances that I will buy from you if you can prove me what are you talking about ( the buyer usually says – I do not believe the sales mans, they lye just like us).

6.      Show me that I’m not the only one and alone- tell me about similar situations, that someone like me is successful. I do not want to be the first or last. I need to hear that this service has been profitable with someone else. In that way I will have more trust, if I hear about someone who is like me, or in a similar situation, who has already buy from you in the past and he likes it or he went perfect with it.

7.      Show me a letter from a satisfied client- one testimony is worth 100 presentations.

8.      Tell me and show me, that you will be at my service after you sell me- in the past I have bought 1000 promises that later on I will still have service, but all of them were empty.

9.      Tell me show me that the price is fair- I want to have and impression that I have done well on this deal.

10.  Show me the best way to make payment- if I cannot afford it, but I want it, offer me an alternative.

11.  Give me a choice or let me decide, but also give me an advice- tell me honestly what would you do if your money was on the table.

12.  Confirm my choice- I’m maybe scared that I will make the wrong choice. Help me to confirm my choice with facts that are useful to me and make more secure in buying this.

13.  Do not argue with me- even if I’m wrong, I do not want some smart ass salesman to tell me that, or try to prove that. He might win the argue itself, but he will lose the sale.

14.  Do not confuse me- to more complicate it is, the smaller the chances are that I will buy it.

15.  Do not tell me negative stuff- I want everything to be perfect. Do not say bad things about someone else, especially about the competition, about yourself, the company or me.

16.  Make me feel special- if I’m going to spend my money, I want to feel good about it. All depends of your words and deeds.

17.  Do not talk to me like you are above me- sales man has the tendency to think that they know everything, and to think that I’m stupid. Do not tell me what do you think that I want to hear. I’m so stupid that I’m going to buy the same thing from someone else.

18.  Do not tell me that that thing which I have already bought in the past or did something is wrong- I want to feel smart and good for something that I did. Be tactical if I made a mistake, show me others that did that, so I can have some comfort.

19.  Listen to me when I’m speaking- I’m trying to tell you what I want to buy, but you are too busy with trying to sell me what you have. Shut up and listen.

20.  Make me laugh- bring me in a good mood and the chances for me buying from you are bigger. If you make me laugh that means that I’m agreeing with you, and you need me to agree with you in order to close the sale.

21.  Be interested in what I do- maybe for you is nothing, but for me is everything.

22.  Never lie- I can see when someone is faking it just to take my money.

23.  Do not use a lot of sales techniques to make pleasure on me to buy it when I do not want it- do not sound like a sales man. Sound like someone is trying to help me.

24.  Help me buy, do not sell me- I hate when someone is selling me, but everybody likes shopping.

B2B SELLING PROCESS

 

In B2B selling knowing your target (i.e. company profile), will allow you to focus on those business that are more likely to buy from you. Typically in B2B selling no matter if it is telemarketing or face to face sales, before we do that, we need to answer couple of questions:

-What type of industry are you selling to?

The answer to this question is very simple and easy. If we refer to the first rule of selling KNOW YOUR PRODUCT, the most likely we know in what industry we are and who to target ( if we are a software company offering a backup solution software, then our targets are IT companies or IT departments, MSPs and so on, or if we are a forex brokerage house then our target is big companies to manage their investment portfolio or pension fund and so on).

 

-What are the company’s annual sales?

This always comes in handy to know, so we can have a better view of our target profile, in order to do a better presentation on our product or service, or in other words, how our product or service will help them boost their sales or annual goals/profits.

Let’s say for an example I’m a software company and I’m talking to a MSP that his annual sales does not quite overcome his annual business cost, by using one of our competitors product, with performances that are meeting the client’s needs but not enough to boost the sales goals ( refer to the second rule in sales KNOW THY COMPETITION), for an example he has a monthly subscription of 6000 usd, with the possibility to add only up to 100 VM’s, has 5 hour RPO with 192 bit AES encryption without any WAN Optimized Replication, and my companies product offers 5 minute RPO, with WAN Optimized Replication and 256-bit AES encryption, and the only thing that we are asking from our client or the MSP is to subscribe for a monthly subscription of minimum 10 VM’s, with the possibility to add up to 1000 VM’s, meaning not only that he is going to reduce his annual cost’s, but he will most likely have better performances for his current clientele, he will manage to get more clients and thus boosting his sales by using our product and service.

-How many employees does the company have?

The answer to this question relates to the previous one about the annual sales, cause if the company has 100 + current employees, that gives us a picture frame that the company is small and new, and it needs a high performing digital

infrastructure, with very low cost, and a backup system with high security that won’t let them down, in order for them to reach fast and in a safely manner the annual sales goals and grow even more, or if the company has 1000+ employees, that means they need a software that will reduce the annual cost, boost their sales and expand their business and also to meet their current demands of performance.

 

-Where is the company geographically located?

The answer to this question is more about marketing and from economical point of view, cause if we are targeting a country where the NFP is to high and the GDP is very low, and the industry that we are selling our product is not so much developed, obviously we have misted our target market, and we will have trouble selling our product.

-What product are they currently using?

This related to the second rule of selling, in order to do better presentation and help the client/prospect boost his annual sales/profits, by showing NOT TELLING him the benefits of our product/service.

-Who are the decision makers?

In B2B selling, more often the first contact that we have is not with the decision makers ( CEO, CMO, COO ), but with the gatekeepers, usually they are secretaries, personal assistance, etc. Our job is to find a way to past the gatekeeper and talk to the decision maker in order to sell our product/service.

HOW TO CONSISTENTLY GET AROUND GATEKEEPERS WHEN PHONE PROSPECTING

 

Usually when we are talking to a gatekeeper, the first question is, what is this call regards to? And they are asking this to get us to answer something that signifies that we are a sales person, and if we answer honestly like we are selling or offering something, they will be more than happy to get rid of us, so answering this question is a little bit tricky.

Another answer that is more often and common is We are not interested.

Now hearing that from the decision maker and the gatekeeper is very different, because hearing it from a gatekeeper is very wrong, cause that is not the person whom we try to sell to, and even if we tried to sell them our product/service, most likely they are not qualified, or do not have the proper knowledge and experience about the industry or the product/service, and they are not letting us to get to the right person who is qualified to answer all the question- the decision maker.

 

Another objection that we hear often is Send me your info. Everyone who is in sales, know that this is a polite way to get rid of us over the phone, and our mail most probably will end up in spam or it will be deleted.

We spend 50% of our time talking to gatekeepers, 25% is voicemail and 25% is prospecting, so if we do not have a perfect game plan and a good mindset, we will be easily brushed off.

Other thing that we will need to know about the gatekeepers, is that they are naturally going to post them self as opposition or in other words defensively. Regardless if they are polite or not, in the very start the first few seconds, a gatekeeper and a salesman have conflict of interest, because our goal is the get in and theirs is to keep us out, pointing us on a different side of the table. Basically,50% of our phone time, we are dealing with an adversary who is preventing us to do our job, and that is why we need to prepare our self’s for the upcoming battle.

 

 

TYPES OF GATEKEEPERS

 

 

1.     Front Desk Receptionist.

-High level of chaotic environment

-   Checking people in

-   Receiving packages

-   Answering phone calls

-   Knowledgeable about organizational details

-   High focus on screening

-   Assigned to keep callers out and trained how to recognize and keep out salesman’s out.

Day to day, 8 hours a day they are working in chaos and under pressure and stress, dealing with clientele and workers as well as superiors, answering calls and mails, and then our call comes thru, then most likely they will put us on hold or shut down the line. They poses medium knowledge about the organization in terms of job titles and what they do and to whom we need to speak to. They are decent resource to get pointed in the right direction, that is if we manage to past them. They have high focus on screening us out, cause they have been strictly instructed to keep us out, and if they let us pass them, most likely they will look bad in front of their superior, so in other words, the front desk receptionist gatekeeper is the worst nightmare for the telemarketer in B2B sales.

2.     Switchboard operators- (usually in bigger companies)

-            Less chaotic environment

-            Only responsible for call routing

-            Limited organizational knowledge, limited to information’s in directory

-            Low focus on screening

-            Only concerned with directing calls.

Usually they work in an open office like a call centre, with less chaotic environment, and they only concern is about the files in the directory what gets in or out and rerouting calls. They do not bother to screen us salesman much, pretty much they are very polite and liberal, so if we asked them for a file or to connect us to the right person that is if we know that person they will do it.

 

3.     Executive Assistant’s

-            Medium level of chaotic environment

-            Typically busy but accessible for brief conversations

-            High level of knowledge

-            Organizational details and current processes, systems, initiatives and challenges

-            Sometimes has influence and power

-            Has medium level of screening.

Typically they work in an office, assistant to maybe an execute or couple of them, might be an assistant to a whole department. So they are assistant maybe to the CEO or IT director personally, but they are also sort of like an admin to the IT department so to say. The environment is a bit less stressfully and less chaotic then the front desk receptionist, and they will not put us on hold or brush off if we have our sales pitch sorted out good. They poses high level of knowledge, not only about the job titles but as well as for organizational details, and it’s not odd for an assistant often to attend to meetings where are the CEO’s and take notes, and they might have a certain level of influence when it comes to making a decision, cause often they are asked for an opinion. About the screening it self, they are on medium level, not like the front desk receptionist which job is to block us, but the assistant is more thorough, cause they also do not want to look bad, and if our pitch is good and we show him the value of what we are offering and how it may help him, we may pass him, cause he make his decisions more on a educational level. The way we need to treat them is as a valuable resource, for the execute they serve, build trust with them, convince them that we are in this together, and that we are here to help him look good in front of his boss by making this decision.

4.     Automated phone trees

-            Automated menu that answers in place of a live person

-            Sometimes can be more difficult than a live person

-            More common in large businesses.

These robots are very time consuming and the only thing that we can do is to get very fast to a person who works there, no matter who that person may be, and work our way from there.

UNDERSTANDING THE GATEKEEPERS

 

 

“Seek first to understand in order to be understood”

“Great spirit-Grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins”

So the first step getting around gatekeepers to understand what they do, how they do it, in order to make a good approach.

A day in the life:

-hectic

-high volume of calls and requests

-high volume of sales cold calls (competitors)

-not completely satisfying job ( no one has ever dreamed as a little boy or a girl, that when he grows up wants to be a front desk receptionist)

-one of their main objectives is to keep cold callers out (they have been instructed to do so)

-when you get in, they stand to get in trouble

 

 

TACTICS TO PAST THE GATEKEEPER

 

 

1.     Enlist their help

Try to get the gatekeeper to shift from blocking to helping. Present yourself lost as in need of help and direction:

-            “Maybe you can help me with…”

-            “I’m not really sure who I need to …. “

-            Speak with curiosity

-            Ask for an advice ( about, organization, process, scheduling)

2.     Treat like prospect

-Take a step back when notice resistance and begin to go through your sales script or pitch “Actually, let me take a step back and tell you who I am and why I am calling”

-Redirect them to your elevator pitch at in which point you are starting to educate them and helping them.

-Ask your pre-qualifying questions. Let’s say for an example we are a software company and the gatekeeper is starting to block us over the phone. We do the following:

Value Statement:- “ The purpose of my call today is that we help MSP’s or IT departments with better backup software solution, I’m not sure that we are a right fit for you”- by doing that I have delivered my value statement in my elevator pitch in communicating with the gatekeeper, and why it would make perfect sense to talk to the right person.

If they still not letting us in, we ask them a question they do not know the answer to, but it’s important for the companies organization. In our case that would be something like:-“ Is the IT department operational system still working on VMware vSphere 5.5 , or did they got upgraded?”- Most likely the gatekeeper will not know the answer-“ that is one of the reasons why I am calling, so if you could connect me with the management or someone from the IT department, we can finish this very fast”- and by doing this we have shared a valuable information with the gatekeeper making him or her fell like helping by connecting us to the right person.

3.     Name dropping

There is a concept called social profile

-            Internal contacts

“ I spoke with Mr. John from IT department earlier this week, and it seems I can’t get him now, can you connect me to him?”

-            External contacts

“We work with.. (competitors name ) and helped them to decrease annual cost, and they where kind enough to make a refer your company as a potential client”

4.     Mention an Initiative

-            “I’m calling to talk with him about the Renew Project”

-            Can be found through research

-            Mention a generic project

-            “I’m calling to talk with her about the current project to decrease labor cost”

-            Most business have similar projects going on

5.     Ask probing questions

-            Opportunity to extract valuable information’s

-            Will show respect and could be an opportunity to build rapport

-            Asking questions they to don’t know can help you get through them

6.     Be friend with the gatekeeper

-            Catch and use the name of the gatekeeper

-            Focus on tonality, smile, laugh

-            Share that you understand the challenges

-            Know that there are many salespeople calling

-            Are responsible for screening calls

 

 

 

 

 

Now once we have past the gatekeepers using these tactic’s it’s time to talk to the big guys, the decision makers.

THE DECISION MAKERS

 

 

Who are the buyers in B2B? Who are the decision makers in that specific company that we are trying to sell our product or service?

Well, for this in sales, there is an acronym for it. MUTE. It stand for:

-            Management buyer

-            User buyer

-            Technical buyer

-            Economic buyer

The management buyer is usually looking for what is best in class, (if we are software company selling our software), is this the best software out there, what are our competitors using, how does this software compare to our competitors. These are some of the questions that the management buyer wants answers to.

They are thinking high level, and with them, we shouldn’t get much in details, but just enough to get them interested about our product/service, so when we are doing our sales pitch, we should sound exited cause they require hot approach. Let’s say for an example, we are talking to a MSP, it’s always good to mention some of the competitors as our client.

When talking to management buyer, we need to remember, that in business he only cares about 3 things. Increase revenue, reduce cost and expand market share (expand his business). They want to know how will our product/service help them make more money, reduce their annual cost and how will our product/service help them expand their business. They are looking for the long term benefits. The management buyer typically is the CEO of the company, the CMO (chief marketing officer) even sometimes can be the COO (chief operating officer).

Always we need to remember, when talking to management buyer, we always need to be prepare to answer what are the competitors doing and he isn’t.

 

 

The user buyer is a key player in the industry, although he haven’t got any major job title usually is some worker in the company, he can push our sales to the management itself. He only wants to know one thing. IS THIS BETTER? And there is a sub-question to this, how it is better, how long would it take to learn the new product/service (i.e. software), and it takes too long, what are the benefits of it, how is this better that the one we are now using? But the biggest question that they want answer is how will this product/service make their job easier and more effortless.

Basically in the case of user buyer, in order to answer this question, it is crucial for us when talking to him to do a very thural KYC, so we can position our presentation of our product/service to answer those questions, and to talk about the features and benefits of our product/service, so can see that instead of using 3 products or services from 3 different companies, he can do it with one. They do not care about reducing cost, or how it’s going to look on the market or what are the competitors using, they only care about one thing- how is our product/service going to make his job more easier and is it better.

 

 

The technical buyer usually are concerned about the technical aspect of the product/service that we are selling. So they want to know ( if we are selling a software) is it compatible with their current operating system, is it upgradable, can they add features on it, is it reliable or is it going to crash on them, can they immigrate our software to other systems that he is using, can he connect them, is it expandable, can he add thing is the system and how much, what can he do with it, and then there is the biggest question of all-overall implementation, or in other words, what is going to take to implement our product/service to their system that are currently using. What is going to be the impact on their workers and clients and in general. They are going to want to know about trainings, services, are there any maintenance contracts or licenses that might be associated with.

So basically, when we are talking to a technical buyer, first we need to convince them, that what we have is better, but we also need to give them something called a blue print, or in other words, to show them where is our product/service going to be in the next 3 or 5 years. Technical buyers love that.

The economic buyer wants to know only about price. But not only that they are concerned about the price they also want to know about the value. And they want to be able to compare our product/service with what are the competitors using. Price is always an issue, but if we position our self on value, we can overcome that problem. The economic buyer will ask himself, if I buy this product/service what is the breakeven point, how fast I will get my money back. But they will also want to know about return on investment, not only about the breakeven point- “If It takes me 6 months to get my money back and additional 10 to have 30 % profit of it, that is to long”. So if we can show them that by buying our product/service he can get his money back very fast with an return on investment, we should be fine. And there is the third aspect that economic buyer wants to know- total cost of ownership. Economic buyer knows that price is what you pay only one time, total cost is what you pay over time. So they want to know, if they buy our product/service, do they need to pay any extra fees for licenses, maintenances, services or support, if adding new features and upgrades does he needs to pay for it… etc. All these things are overtime costs.

So when talking to a economic buyer we just need to point out 3 things: breakeven point, return on investment and total cost of ownership.

 

 

In summary, if we are talking with one of these 4 decision makers or all four of them in a conference room, in our presentation we should always list out WHY SHOULD THEY BUY our product/service, but also simultaneously in the very presentation to block WHY THEY SHOULDN’T buy, we position our self to close the sale very easily.

FIVE REASONS PROSPECT DON’T BUY

 

“The buyer doesn’t buy from you, not because of your product or your presentation, or your company or you, it’s because of their believes that they have, and they are the best buyers”

The Action Threshold is the unconscious set point that somebody has to be motivated to in order to take action.

 

The Action Threshold is perhaps the most important concept when it comes to influencing people. Human beings are not random creatures. We don't do things by accident. We do things for a reason and we generally have positive intent with what we do. This doesn't mean we always do things that empower us. Sometimes we make lousy decisions, but we do it because we think it's in our best interest. The Action Threshold represents this.

The Action Threshold is merely someone's beliefs about buying. Through life experiences people build up a resistance, or limiting buying beliefs, that lead to a higher set point for buying. Past experiences buying a car or other product, a negative experience where a company didn't stand behind their warranty, or even the advice our mothers gave us while growing up have created voices in our heads that tell us "Don't Buy!"

The best way to combat these limiting buying beliefs and lower someone's action potential is through the use of: language pattern, belief busting, making logical cases.

Think about a person's Action Threshold as a big scale. The fulcrum in the middle of the scale is the person's action set point, with all of the positives (good things that will happen if the decision is made) on the left-hand side and all of the negatives (bad things that will happen if the decision is made) on the right-hand side. And then you have the invisible force, which is limiting beliefs about buying, affecting whether the scale tips to the negative or the positive. Tipping the scales is where the positives outweigh the negatives and vice-versa.

When you're going through the sales pitch from open to close, you're knocking out negatives, building up positives, and changing the client's beliefs about buying all at the same time without the client even knowing it. That's what the core of selling is-to get someone to a point where they say "yes." But you can’t crack their believes about buying, when you are qualifying. You need to establish that your product is perfect for him, he trust you and the company is ethical. When qualifying we are identifying emotional and physical needs, and while doing that rapport will be developed thru tonality and body language.

Think back to the last time you tried to close someone on a say, or simply requested something from someone and the answer was a polite “No.” Maybe at the time you didn’t know why, but if you really give

it some deep thought, you might conclude that they may have said no for one of the following five reasons:

1.  No Money

2.  No Time

3.  No Need (or No Interest)

4.  No Urgency

5.  No Trust

 

An acronym is one good way to remember these five reasons. I came up with: MT. NUT, which stands for (M)oney, (T)ime, (N)eed, (U)rgency, and (T)rust. Every sale you fail to close in your sales lifetime can

be categorized under one or more of these five reasons. It’s imperative that you memorize these five reasons so when you’re face to face with a prospect who doesn’t seem to be moving in your direction, you

can look for signs of one or more of these reasons.

When the Prospect Says They Don’T Have The Money

 

I’m going to venture and guess that 95% (I’m being conservative) of all the prospects who say they won’t buy because of money are using money as an excuse to back out of the deal. If someone wants something really badly, they always find a way to come up with the money or some creative way of financing the purchase. When a prospect uses a false reason for not buying, this is referred to as a “stall”. Stalls are how a prospect indirectly communicates to you, the salesperson. They let you know that, until they receive more information, something about the item makes

them feel unsure or unwilling to commit to the purchase. You, as a salesperson, must learn how to “vet” these stalls by asking key questions that remove the initial stall. A good way to find out whether or not money is really the issue is to ask a “What if” question. It goes something like this:

“If I can show you how you can afford this item or suggest a creative way of financing this item, is there any other reason why you wouldn’t want to go ahead and purchase the item today?”

At this point, the prospect has to come clean. If money is the real issue, then he or she will request

that you show him or her some options. If the prospect was being insincere (e.g., using money as an excuse to not buy), he or she will more than likely you give you the real reason for why he or she won’t

make the purchase.

When the Prospect Says They Don’t Have the Time

 

A prospect may tell you the reason they won’t buy from you at this moment is because they simply don’t have the time to invest in implementing, using, or learning about your product. I’ve had prospects tell me the reason they won’t buy my product is because it takes too long to install or it takes too long to learn

how to efficiently use it. The best way to handle this stall is to test the prospect’s knowledge of efficiency and

utilization. For example, if you’re selling a prospect a product that will help him or her save one hour a day, any sane person would be interested in finding out more.

“Mr. Prospect, I know that you value time and that time is money. If I can show you how this product will not only save you money, but will give you more time to do other things, would it be worth spending ten minutes of your time, knowing I can save you an hour a day?”

 

 

Notice again that my question is aimed at vetting the prospect by asking him a question to see whether or

not his time excuse is a real excuse, or just a stall tactic. Any sane person would at least be willing to listen to such a proposal, if they’re being sincere. A prospect who responds by saying that it is not worth ten minutes of his time to learn how he can save an hour is being disingenuous, indicating that it might be time to move on to another prospect.

When the Prospect Says They Don’t Have the Need

 

A prospect who tells you he doesn’t need your product is either telling the truth or is unaware of what needs he really has. The latter may sound like an odd statement, but in the majority of cases, you’ll find in selling that many prospects simply don’t know what they “need”. The goal of any salesperson is to show prospects how much they need to use their product in order to save time or money. It may require that you demonstrate how, by not using your product, it is costing them time, money, or anything else of value. Let’s say, for example, that you are selling facial crèmes that give the face more vibrancy and elasticity, making clients look younger than they really are. A prospect might say that he doesn’t need to look younger; he finds his appearance fine the way it is. This is a classic situation of no need. The key here is to develop a need where one is not present. You can use many strategies to appeal to time, money, or even ego. You can remind the prospect that:

·       Appearance over time changes even without us really noticing.

·       Studies have shown that younger-looking people tend to get hired faster than people who are in their late 40s and up.

·       The crème can be used to prevent wrinkles or skin damage from appearing before their time.

 

Whatever your tactic, the aim is to create a need for your product by giving the prospect reasons why they should buy from you.

 

 

When the Prospect Doesn’t Have a Sense of Urgency

 

You must, I repeat, you must create a sense of urgency, or the prospect will simply not take action.

A sense of urgency is created when you can convince the prospect that delaying the purchase of your product will in some way be detrimental to the prospect. For example, if your product is designed to save the prospect time, highlight how much time he or she is wasting (loss of productivity) by not using your product. If money is the fulcrum, then translate the amount of lost time into how much money he or

she is losing.

Urgency is created by using reasons for buying your product as momentum. Each reason you give for buying your product should have a cumulative effect. Think of a weight scale. On one side of the scale you have this big weight

that says, “No sale”. This is the prospect’s current mindset toward your product. Now, imagine that on the other side of the scale you begin to add weights (i.e., reasons) for why it is imperative that the prospect buy. Each weight is a tangible reason for why the prospect should buy. The more weight (reasons) the more likely the scale will rule your way where it reads, “Ready to buy.”

A good strategy for creating urgency is to do a “Where are we now?” and “What if?” scenario with the prospect.

“Mr. Prospect, how are you currently doing this task today?”

The prospect will then proceed to tell you, and as he explains, listen carefully for where your product might be able to help make his situation better.

 

 

 

 

 

“Mr. Prospect, based on what you’ve described, I can see that you may be unaware of how much time or

money you’re losing (i.e., what it’s really costing you). Allow me to show you where I believe we can help you save time (or money).”

At this point, you begin to lay out all the ways the prospect is losing money or time. Each reason is aimed at creating awareness of the problem with the resulting effect being a sense of urgency to resolve the situation. By identifying and highlighting how the prospect is losing money or time, you are driving home the point more and more, causing the prospect to understand and realize the pain of his position. Pain is a great motivator. In fact, I will say that pain is the motor that drives urgency. So the more pain you create, the greater the sense of urgency.

 

 

Building Trust When There is No Trust

 

Trust is usually developed over time, but what happens when you don’t have the luxury of time? When you meet a prospect for the first time who promised to give you 10 minutes of his time, how can you create trust with such a short window of time? There are two effective ways of creating instant trust. Demonstrate expertise, as well as unsuspecting honesty. Demonstrating expertise really needs no explanation other than to say people respect people who know more than they do and can help them solve their problems. You can’t tell someone you’re an expert. The most effective way to demonstrate expertise is in how you ask questions, and more importantly, the quality of questions you’re asking.

What you ask tells the prospect immediately about how much you know your product or their problems.

Being unsuspectingly honest is telling the prospect something he doesn’t expect to hear from a salesperson (e.g., product weakness). Admitting to your prospect what you’re product can’t do is just as potent as telling your prospect what it can do. Imagine walking up to a car lot to buy a car and the salesperson says something like…

“Many people are drawn to this car for its looks, but given its maintenance track record, I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who is looking for a reliable car.”

Your immediate reaction might be one of disbelief! After the shock has worn off, you feel a sense of trust develop. Who else but a trustworthy salesperson would be so brazen and forthright as to tell you NOT

to buy something? Learn to build trust quickly by demonstrating expertise and unsuspecting honesty!

CROSSING THE SALES GAPS

 

In order to get anyone to buy your product or at a minimum get them to consider your product, you

have to get them to cross over three mental sales gaps. The first sales gap is “Awareness”. A prospect has to be aware that he or she has a problem. This may not be as obvious as it sounds. Sometimes, the prospect isn’t aware of a situation that may be costing him time or money.

Step one is to create awareness by identifying the problem for the prospect. The next phase of the selling process is what I call crossing the “Urgency Gap.” Once the problem has been brought to the prospect’s attention, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll act on it. In other words, he may have a need or a problem that must be resolved, but he’s not in a hurry or rush to do it right now.

This is where a good salesperson can come in and create a sense of “Urgency” by showing the prospect how much he is missing out on or losing by not having your product. Lastly, even if the prospect is aware of the problem and acknowledges that something has to be done (e.g., a sense of urgency), he still needs to cross the “Solutions Gap.” The solutions gap is where you demonstrate, to your prospect that you have the solution to solve the prospect’s problem. Stated another way, you’ve made the prospect aware of a need, and the prospect acknowledges the urgency of the need. The only question remaining is do you have the right product or service to satisfy this newly discovered, urgent need?

During this last phase, you take the time to present your product and how it can resolve your prospect’s urgent needs.

 

 

THEY ARE REJECTING THE OFFER, NOT YOU

 

Consider the following scenario: You’re walking down the street and you see someone fall. You walk

over and extend your hand, to help them get up. They refuse to take your hand, so you withdraw your hand, and keep walking. Here’s my question to you: Since your help was rejected, do you walk away feeling bad? Your answer should obviously be no. You saw someone fall. You assessed the situation and decided they needed the help that you could provide. The person’s refusal had nothing to do with your “intentions.” Your intentions were good, so there is no reason to feel bad at all. This is how you should view selling. If your intentions are good (i.e., wanting to help, not sell), and someone refuses your help, there’s no reason to walk away from the prospect feeling bad.

Selling is all about good intentions in helping prospects achieve their goals by helping them solve their problems or fill their needs. All you can do as a salesperson, and all that is expected of you, is that

you get in front of the prospect, uncover a need, and offer them a helping hand. If they refuse, just remember, they’re not rejecting you—only your intention in wanting to help. Oddly enough, in this

profession we call selling, there will be prospects who desperately need help or a helping hand, but will simply refuse to take you up on your offer to help. Just remember, intentions count for everything. It’s their loss, not yours…keep walking.

 

 

…remember…

“IN SALES EVERY CALL IS A SALES CALL. EITHER YOU SELL TO HIM, OR HE SELLS YOU A GOOD  REASON, AS WHY NOT TO BUY”