Archive for the 'Sales - Sales Management' Category

Small business economics

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on July 18, 2011
in Economy: National and Global, Politics and Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

Two years after the technical end of the Great Recession, the U.S. economy is still struggling to recover. It’s clear that the residual of the causes of this downturn have yet to be absorbed. In fact, GDP growth for 2011 is tracking at a slower pace than last year.

As we’ve done periodically in the past year, we recently asked our audiences about their experience in the economy right now. We asked, “Based on your small business right now, which of the following most closely fits the economic conditions you’re experiencing?”

The first choice, “Up - our business is good,” was chosen by barely more than one in ten of our respondents. This is pretty close to the top response in the last poll we took.

The middle question, “Flat - we’re doing okay, but growth is slow,” was the big group, coming in at 65% of our sample. The last options, “Down - we’re barely holding on,” was admitted by almost one-fourth of our respondents.

With almost 90% percent of our poll participants reporting either slow or no growth, this, unfortunately seems to track pretty close with other polls I report about on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, as well as the national economic indicators.

It’s clear to me that the U.S. economy is not going to grow until small businesses are able to grow.  What part of this is lost on the so-called leaders in Washington who are doing more than anyone to dampen the enthusiasm of America’s marketplace heroes, small business owners?

How do you feel about what our political leaders are doing to stimulate the economy?

I talked more about the economy and small business on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate. Take a few minutes to listen…

Don’t give in to call reluctance

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on June 9, 2011
in Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

So, you’re sitting outside of a prospect’s office in your car (or staring at the phone number), knowing you need to make a sale. What’s holding you back?

Well, there are lots of excuses – here are four likely ones:

1. “The economy is bad - everybody knows that.”
2. “Everyone’s holding on to their cash; they’re not going to buy anything from me.”
3. “I heard they just laid off some people. They’re probably just holding on.”
4. “The last prospect didn’t buy anything, why would this one be any different?”

Actually, these aren’t excuses or reasons, they’re lies you tell yourself. Even though the information may be correct, what’s that got to do with the prospect you’re looking at through your windshield?

Why do we tell ourselves these lies and, worse, believe them enough that we fail to make the call? The answer is Call Reluctance.

Call reluctance is a destructive state of mind virtually every salesperson gets into from time to time. The simplest explanation for the call reluctance emotion is that you presume too much. For example:

You presume that you will be rejected.
Actually, the prospect might reject your offer, but not you. Since everyone knows an offer doesn’t have feelings, separate yourself from your offer, and at least go make a new friend.

You presume that they will kick you out of the office.
In truth, they might tell you they don’t have time to talk, so the worst that could happen is you find yourself outside of their office. Since that’s exactly where you are right now, you will be no worse off. What part of “I can’t lose” is difficult?

You presume that they don’t need what you sell.
Here’s a flash: That decision is above your pay-grade. Who do you think you are, answering for them? Get over yourself and allow prospects to decide for themselves. You might be right, but until you know for sure, you’re just betting against yourself, which doesn’t sound like a very intelligent career strategy, does it?

The slayer of sales is not a recession. The killer of commissions is not budget cuts. The most potent prospecting poison is not 9% unemployment. The greatest impediment to sales success is found in the wisdom of that great philosopher, Pogo the Possum, who so famously said, “We have seen the enemy, and he is us.”

You can prove Pogo wrong by overcoming call reluctance. Somebody is buying something you sell right now! It might as well be you.

I’ve talked with Robert Levin, publisher and editor-in-chief of The New York Enterprise Report, about  how selling is different in the 21st century. Take a few minutes to listen to our conversations and leave your thoughts on what you’re finding in the “new normal” that is different than in the past.

Is selling different in the 21st century?

The 21st century sales process is different

It’s the Age of the Customer - get over it!

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on February 16, 2011
in Problem solving and Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

Markets were born when humans chose to acquire what they needed by trading with each other rather than producing it themselves or taking from someone else by force. The moment of proto-market conception was when the first seller offered to trade with the first customer, and that offer was accepted.

For millennia, this marketplace dance was as beautifully simple as it was exquisitely effective, having at its nucleus three primary elements:

1. The product, controlled by the seller
2. Information about the product, also controlled by the seller
3. The buying decision, controlled by the customer

From that first transaction, when shells were the reserve currency, to about 1995AD, the marketplace dance was performed zillions of times with little variation. I’ve termed this period “The Age of the Seller,” because the Seller controlled two of the three elements.

Then something happened that had not occurred for 10,000 years: A new age – I call it The Age of the Customer™.

This new Age was born as micro-computers and associated innovations converged with high-speed Internet and associated applications. As this convergence shifts marketplace paradigms, it conveys the balance of power from the seller to the customer.

The millennia-old marketplace dance is still beautifully simple. But when the dancers come together in the Age of the Customer, a new leader emerges, because control of the three major relationship elements has changed:

1. Products and services are still controlled by the Seller.
2. Information – including customer experiences – is now easily and abundantly available to the Customer without being controlled, filtered or distributed by the Seller.
3. The buying decision is still controlled by the Customer.

The Age of the Seller is succumbing to the new Age as customers resist the restrictions of the former Age and embrace the empowerment of the new. During this transition period, Sellers are operating in parallel universes, but not for long.

Your small business is now operating in a new age where customers rule. They like this new-found empowerment, and increasingly expect sellers to connect with them on Age of the Customer terms. Sellers that transition to the new Age with their customers will be successful. Hidebound sellers, nostalgic for when they had control, will become irrelevant and perish.

It’s the Age of the Customer – your world has changed.

Recently on The Small Business Advocate Show I talked more about the Age of the Customer and how you can avoid becoming irrelevant. Take a few minutes to click on the links below and listen. As always, leave your comments on what is working for you in the 21st century marketplace.

It’s the Age of the Customer - get over it!

Avoiding irrelevance in the Age of the Customer

When “No” turns into the quantum leap for small business

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on October 31, 2010
in Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

What do you do when you work hard to get a prospect’s business and they say “no?”  When this happens, as it inevitably will - many times in your career - the first thing to do is to NOT take it personally.  Remember, this is not a rejection, it’s just business. And just because they’ve said no today, doesn’t mean they won’t say yes to you in the future.

But for the no to turn into a yes, you first have to show some class. This means you swallow hard, smile, thank them for considering you, ask them if there is anything you can do to help them make the conversion to the “other guys” - I’m serious! - and tell them you will keep working to get their business in the future.  And then continue to check back with them.

If you use this strategy whenever you don’t get the business, you’ll be amazed how many “No”turns into “Yes.” It might be as soon as that very day or it might be in five years, but more people than you think will respond favorably to your demonstration of class and professionalism.

Recently, I talked about this with long-time Brain Trust member, Jeff Zbar, on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show.  There are actually two short segments to listen to that cover this topic completely, including the Holy Grail of persevering in sales, the “quantum leap.”

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to listen and learn. And, as always, be sure to leave your thoughts, comments and experiences.

Click on one of links below to listen or download:

When a prospect doesn’t become a customer

How to accomplish the quantum leap

Small business retailers competing in the 21st century

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on May 21, 2010
in Online strategy and Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

Every day, small business retailers feel they’re fighting a war on two fronts: 1) being bludgeoned by the Big Box anchored around the corner, while 2) simultaneously being mugged by an online competitor floating around untethered in the clouds of cyberspace.  So how do small traditional establishments go to war with these two formidable opponents?  The answer is short and sweet: They don’t.

Here are a couple of quick points about defending your traditional retail small business:

1.  Prospects of your small retail business are the least likely prospects for a Big Box. The feeling that makes customers prefer the comfort of customization and connection to being overwhelmed by size is so compelling that they will choose you and pay the price you have to charge to fulfill this strong emotion. But you have to deliver on this emotion with the offense of value instead of acting defensively - like being seduced into a price war. Remember, the price war is over, and you lost.

2.  These same prospects are increasingly demanding that the companies they do business with provide them with online capability.  Small brick-and-mortar retailers don’t have to conquer the e-commerce world, but they do have to have a presence there.

In summary, you can beat the Big Boxes primarily by just not trying to be them. But the only way to stay competitive with the online assault is by incorporating an online strategy with your traditional model, which means a website at a minimum - at least e-shopping, if not an e-commerce component - plus the methodical collection of customer contact information, serving a periodic connection strategy to stay top-of-mind.

Recently, on my small business radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, I talked about the future of small business retail with Darlene Quinn. Darlene is a journalist, the author of Webs of Power and a member of my Brain Trust.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to listen to our conversation and be sure to leave your own thoughts about small business retail in the 21st century. Listen Live! Download, Too!

Building and loading your small business sales pipeline

Published
by
Jim Blasingame
on January 18, 2010
in Leadership and Sales - Sales Management
. 0 Comments

There are many maxims in professional selling, but perhaps the most important holds that selling is a numbers game. This is a generally accepted truth because of two realities:

 

1.  There are hundreds, nay thousands, of things that can go bump in the night and cause a fully qualified prospect to not complete a transaction, at least not on your preferred timeframe.

 

2.  Regardless of all of the bumps on the path to a signed contract, it’s still your job to produce enough sales revenue to stay in business. 

 

Enter the sales pipeline.

 

A pipeline is a planning concept that helps managers and salespeople forecast sales for any given period: week, month, quarter or year.  Think of your sales pipeline as overhead plumbing with faucets positioned at those calendar intervals, as your business model requires. From these faucets you draw the mother’s milk of any business – sales revenue.

 

Pipeline faucets have special screens that only allow a sale to pass through. So into the pipeline you load only those prospects of which you have asked enough questions to determine that, in a reasonable amount of time, what they want and your ability to deliver will combine to produce a faucet-conforming sale. Until then, a prospect is either on track to become a sale or a forecasting mistake to be removed.

 

As you record a prospect’s entry into the pipeline you must include what you know about their stage of decision-making, plus what you have to do to move them to customer status. Identifying what’s left to be done with each prospect – demo, trial, proposal, final close, etc. – will help you forecast which faucet – this week, next month, etc. – you can expect a sale to pour out of.

 

At this point, let’s refer to The Bard. In Act I, Scene III, of Hamlet, arguably Shakespeare’s most important work, Pelonius famously says, “This above all, to thine own self be true.” If you aren’t completely honest about a prospect’s progress to customerhood, you’re only setting yourself up for an unacceptable flow of sales as you turn on future faucets.

 

How much and how often you draw revenue from your sales pipeline depends on the twin standards of sales success: quantity and quality. You must load the pipeline with enough prospects on Monday (quantity) to have enough qualified prospects to close on Wednesday (quality) so that after all those “bumps” happen you can still draw the sales you need from your pipeline on Friday (success). 

 

Finally, I’ll leave you with Blasingame’s Law of the Sales Pipeline:  “Quantity, quality and to thine own self be true.”

Recently, on my radio program, The Small Business Advocate Show, Skip Miller and I talk about the pipeline development process. Skip is President and founder of M3 Learning, and author of a number of books on sales and sales management. He is also a long-time member of my Brain Trust. Take a few minutes to listen my visit with Skip and leave your comments on how you’re building and loading your sales pipeline. Listen Live! Download, Too!