I thought I would share a remarkable networking tale to which I was party this week. It just shows how valuable can be accumulated contacts, albeit in a small way.

I have been networking since 1999 and I have kept all the names of the people that I have met. Each record has a note of how we met, a personal note about that person and about our conversation (taken from the back of the card usually where I wrote the notes).

You never know how people will be able to connect you to a potential client or commercial partner. So I don’t judge the relationships. They all go into the electronic black book.

It is quite amusing when I come across people I met years ago. I am able to recall my notes on the PC and tell them how we met. Some find it creepy. Others are flattered. Either way, they know I take business relationships seriously.

So back to this tale: in 2005 at a networking event I met a financial adviser. We got on well but neither of us was able to help the other immediately. I did note that he seemed professional and appeared well connected. This was before LinkedIn (well, at least my use of it) so he is not in my LinkedIn connections. But he is in the black book.

When the most profitable networking group I attend asked for people from particular sectors in a specified geography, up popped our IFA. Several weeks later he has joined the group.

So what? I now get a lifetime discount on my group membership as a result of the introduction which will be worth several hundred pounds over the coming years.

Not all connections make you rich but some will be of value one day. Don’t prejudge. Do record every contact.

I have just received the following from LinkedIn effectively confirming that they are clearly having a spat with Twitter and that the previous integration appears as if it is effectively being unwound:

“1. First, we are not eliminating the ability to send updates between your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. You can still go to your Settings page and choose to send either all tweets or only tweets with a #in hashtag to your LinkedIn status updates. It’s up to you. Again, tweets imported from Twitter into the LinkedIn network updates stream will not be affected.

2. At the end of January, however, we will not be supporting the standalone Tweets Application on LinkedIn (see image), that displays tweets from everyone you follow on Twitter on your LinkedIn homepage. As of January 31st, this module will no longer be available.”

Linkedin have very introduced some new settings that potentially affect your privacy and your ability to prevent unwanted emails. These new settings are defaulted ON and include allowing Linkedin to use profile information, names and photos in third party advertising. Please see the links below for opting out. Thanks to Peter Duschinsky for alerting us.

To reach the hard-to-reach settings options the following URL’s should take you directly to them (cut and paste into your browser if they don’t work as live links)

Manage social advertising:
https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-social-advertising&tab=account

Manage enhanced advertising:
https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-enhanced-advertising&tab=account

Data sharing with third party applications:
https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-data-sharing&tab=groups

Partner InMail:
https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-partner-inmail&tab=email

I would not say most salespeople are delusional, but it certainly seems like many of us are. We tend to kid ourselves about the value and convertibility of prospects.

If you have ever been a sales manager you will be familiar with the conversation about the percentage likelihood of a long-standing prospect harboured by one of the salesteam. Possibly it is the client from years back that put through a huge order. Maybe it is the prospect that keeps sincerely reassuring the salesperson that the project date just keeps moving back to the horizon. Or the salesperson simply refuses to refill the salesfunnel and insists on keeping everyone in their ‘warm lead’ pile until that lead says an absolute NO.

Why do so many salespeople do this and why is it such a bad thing?

We do it because:
- someone is measuring us on the numbers (it could be ourselves) and the absolute number of prospects needs to be kept high
- we are under threat and we need to exaggerate our possibilities of success
- the market (or marketing) is drying up for our product and service and we don’t want to face the fact
- we are not honest with ourselves about the differential in convertibility of prospects (“any one of these could be the next Kohinoor diamond”)
- someone is measuring our success by activity and not results
- we don’t have a system for automating contact with less-good prospects
- we have forgotten that our prospects are not our friends but our pay cheques

Each of these can be sorted out with good system, education and improved sales management control.

And it is so bad because:
- we are inevitably spending more time with the wrong prospects
- we are less motivated to keep filling up the pipeline
- we are not converting the hot prospects because we are not distinguishing them
- our positive state of mind can suffer because we are getting less sales
- this is the route to ultimate sales failure

Some of the best salespeople are ruthless with their time. This might not make them the nicest drinking buddies, golf partners or shoulders to cry on (unless we are a hot prospect ourselves!). But is does bring in the commissions.

I have met plenty of very skilled salespeople who once had a great marketing department. The department fed them appointments and they just had to close. But in their new job that have to spin more plates, including managing their pipeline.

These days salespeople are expected to be part marketer/part salesperson. And that means thinking how we manage prospects.
Top prospects need for example
- regular nurturing telephone calls
- invites to events
- to be sent useful information for their sector
- research to make sure you know the full decision making unit, company developments and financial standing
Long-shots need
- adding to your email circulation
- invites to seminars (that cost you nothing)
- emailed Christmas cards
- 6 monthly list clean calls

And you need to have proportionate activities for everyone in between.

I have just realised that reputation makes our ears work.

The realisation came with the installation of a new antivirus application on all our PCs after getting fed up with our previous application AVG which slowed down PCs right down. Hence the installation of AVAST. And then I noticed AVAST’s neat little add-on to one’s browser called Web Rep .

You may have noticed Google’s +1 feature which serves a similar purpose, namely measuring the ‘reputation’ of a web page. Why do we care about the reputation? Because it is a form of what is called social proof. In other words, “if other people like it then I guess I should like it too”.

We are all bombarded by so many marketing messages these days that we are looking for more short cuts than ever in deciding to which to pay attention. And one shortcut is reputation.

This is the basis behind the tired old idiom ‘no-one ever got fired for buying IBM’. In the 80s IBM’s reputation in the IT sector was such that it was difficult for any competitors to get a look-in. Your personal reputation (or personal brand as it is increasingly being called) and that of your firm will determine whether you even get a hearing from prospects.

I frequently hear delegates at our sales and marketing seminars moaning that clients much prefer to go with larger companies rather than their own smaller firms. Setting aside the automatic reflex that most people in sales love to cite the relative inadequacy of their firm as an excuse for their own inadequacy in selling, this observation has merit. The larger firms indeed have a better reputation sometimes. However their products may not be better than that of the smaller rival.

So those involved in business development both strategically and tactically (ie the managers and the salespeople) need to work hard to enhance their reputations. This will mean engaging the marketing function and working together to make sure your brand gets as many of the ‘7 touches’ of marketing as possible. And the salespeople are doing what they can to be ubiquitous and get people talking positively about them and their personal brands.

When we have built up our corporate and personal brands, then our prospects’ ears will start working a lot better.

Customer service is a powerful route to increasing your customer numbers and the head of the LoveFilm movie rental service says businesses should focus all our energies on it to build our revenues.

A major part of effective selling is joining up the various divisions in a business. New customer acquisition is not just about actively going out and harvesting opportunities. It is also about building services and systems that make it easier for salespeople to exploit opportunities. Making sure you customer service and account management functions really push the boat out when it comes to looking after clients will build opportunity.

LoveFilm was bought out by online retailer Amazon in January 2011 and is a huge brand, but even smaller businesses can learn from CEO Simon Calver’s wise words in a recent interview (http://bit.ly/tJtqup). Calver’s business started some 7 years ago and recently sold out to Amazon for £200m. In the interview he maintains that the company’s secret was to “became absolutely tyrannical in ensuring every customer experience was the best possible experience that they had”.

We often integrate our sales training and consultancy with other customer-facing activities to exploit all the possible touch points in a business. By offering superb customer service you can generate ambassadors for a business that then tell all their friends. This generates leads for salespeople.

When you bend over backwards to please the customer, they will not hesitate to give you a superb testimonial. And these testimonials are critical ‘social proofs’ that help salespeople to close deals. What is more, when account managers and salespeople ask for referrals, clients are compliant because they are so delighted with the service they received.

Check today how your customer service helps to feed your pipeline and generate clients for your sales function.

Professor Neil Rackham in his new book on selling, a follow up to his classic on SPIN Selling introduces an interesting concept in categorising sales people. Of the five categories his new research identifies, by far the most successful are the group that he calls the Challengers.

What is it that makes these people so much more effective in major account selling (note, this does not apply to lower value or commoditised products)? He notes 3 elements:

1. Challengers teach their customers: they focus the sales conversation not on features and benefits but on insight, bringing a unique (and typically provocative) perspective on the customer’s businesses. They bring to the table new ideas for their customers that can make money or save money — often opportunities the customer hadn’t realized even existed.

2. Challengers tailor their sales message to the customer: they have a finely tuned sense of individual customer objectives and value drivers and use this knowledge to effectively position their sales pitch to different types of customer stakeholders within the organization.

3. Challengers take control of the sale: they don’t leave it to chance, they diarise follow-ups, make sure they understand all the players in the decision making unit and keep in regular touch with the prospect contacts.

In essence, Challengers work hard for their prospective clients. They think ahead and they are assertive. They add value to the sale and are more than simply persistent order takers. What could you learn from the three features of Challenger salespeople?

I keep hearing and reading about this concept of putting the passion back into selling. Nonsense.

Passion is equated with romance, love, emotion. Is that what we want our salespeople to exhibit?

Alternatively, do we want them to do the basics well? Things like elevator pitches, value propositions, objection handling, closing and listening skills.

Sales is about making a human connection. But it is not about smooching with our prospects. That is account management – making the customer feel loved.

Prospects don’t care whether you love them. They care about return on investment. Once your foot is in the door, you need to be getting down to the nitty gritty. Sure, you need to build the relationship. But that is about empathy and rapport, not about passion.

Look at this way, to which would prospects respond better: the enthusiastic puppy dog with little product understanding or core sales skills or the cold, calculating sales machine that knows how to turn every objection into a benefit and closes even the most resistant of buyers?

Sales team motivation is not about encouraging sales people to appear passionate. Look at the sales figures. You will have all types of personalities achieving all levels of sales. The miserable beggar can be your top performer. Your energetic client-lover may be the busiest but could be failing to bring home the bacon.

Instead of passion, think motivation. Carrot and stick. And give your team the sales ‘tools’ they need to be better sales professionals.

The best way to avoid objections? Don’t ask the questions.

So, if you agree you have to start asking the question – will you buy? – now you accept you will have a lot of ‘no’s. So we can’t avoid it as salespeople, much as we would love every prospect to write us a cheque.

There is a paradox in selling – the more passionate you are about your product, the more likely you are to get the sale. Forget the facts, if the prospect gets the message that you believe in what you are selling, a part of them thinks “well if he thinks it is that great, maybe there is something in it”. And the paradoxical part? It is that very passion that can allow you to be upset when prospects fob you off sometimes.

Some prospects will give good, objective, rational reasons as to why they will not buy your product. The other 99% will just say they are not interested, or something similar. And a significant proportion of these will try to make you feel bad about contacting them (that helps them to deal with the difficult job of being nasty to you).

The ones that try to make you feel bad can be the most problematic for empathetic salespeople. You can start to believe them if you are not careful! If the prospect has an opinion about you or the product, then try to reason with them once, but give up quickly. Emotion will outweigh the facts and they will still want to make you feel bad, all too often. At this point, you respect their opinion – for it is no more than an opinion - and move on. Put the experience behind you, neither you nor the prospect have learnt anything, but it was a necessary bump in the road to the summit of sales success mountain.

Telemarketers in particular need to be thick-skinned. The prospects are not rejecting the telemarketer. They don’t know them from Adam. They are saying no possibly for a huge range of reasons, some of those reasons can be dealt with, others are best circumnavigated.

So embrace the ‘no’s. Sometimes you are the fly, sometimes you are the windscreen. It is an immutable fact that prospects will beat up on salespeople. But it is also immutable that the buyers are out there somewhere. The more people you talk to; the more people you will sell to.

No, this is not a sales training blog about A Levels or MBAs, it is about making sure we understand the quality of our prospects.

A recent project reminded me about this neat and simple way of starting to prioritise prospects. Many sales people focus their attention like magpies on the new shiny lead that has just come in rather than older better quality sales opportunities. As a result they can be very busy but are failing to get the sales results that they should

A system of lead qualification focuses your attention on when you are most likely to get the best reward. Don’t be fooled by suggestions that every prospect is a potential goldmine. It is an altogether different thing to make sure you capitalise on every opportunity and another to avoid wasting your precious selling time.

We use a sophisticated scoring system known as MANDACT with clients but the principle can be applied immediately by any sales person or sales manager reading this. In essence we look at 7 factors related to the opportunity. By scoring those individually, we sum the scores and arrive at a total. This number gives us an opportunity score. The higher the number; the higher the priority for us to pursue the opportunity.

Higher opportunity scores also indicate to us that we should focus more resources on these prospects. That means more time, manpower, mileage, financial cost and ‘opportunity cost’. We do that because the score suggests that we are likely to get a better return on this opportunity than those with lower scores.

We won’t discuss scoring criteria here, but they will vary between businesses. Sales people will generate higher scores for opportunities that win them more commission more quickly. The enterprise might score differently based on lifetime value of the client (if the two requirements are not aligned, it teaches us that the compensation and benefits system for the sales people are not correctly designed!).

Looking at the elements of MANDACT:

Money: here we consider whether there is budget allocated by the prospect, how large is that budget and does our opportunity sponsor have control over the finances?

Authority: this point encourages us to analyse how well we understand the decision making unit (DMU) and how much influence we might have over it.

Need: otherwise know as ‘pain’. How pressing is it for the prospect to acquire a product or service to cure their operational pain?

Decision: what things is the prospect going to consider when making the decision? In other words, what boxes do you need to tick to get the sale, how well do you know these boxes and how well would your product or service fulfil these criteria?

Ability: what is the ability of the prospect to implement your product or service? Are all the logistical, technical and practical steps in place to immediately take on board the solution you might propose?

Competition: how devoted to your company is the prospect? Have they gone out to 10 companies and they want the cheapest solution, at one extreme? Are they a loyal client that is willing to pay more for your solution because they understand the quality that you offer, at the other end of the scale.

Timing: put simply how soon do might they buy?

Once all these considerations have been weighed and compared via a MANDACT analysis, any salesperson can start prioritising opportunities and making the best use of their time to win more sales, more quickly.