Presenting

Five Questions to Ask if your Deals are Not Closing: Who, What, How, When, and Why

Last week, I led a two hour seminar at a client’s annual meeting of partners and agents – think 40 B2B sales people and executives.

Good Selling.

Vistage All-City Conference – My Notes

I attended the Vistage All-City meeting in Atlanta yesterday.  Vistage describes itself as “The World’s Leading Chief Executive Organization.”  I would guess around 300 CEOs, key executives and “Trusted Advisors” attended.  I am a member Larry Hart’s TA group.

Before lunch, there were three breakout sessions: one on technology, another on fitness and a third on best places to work. After lunch, best –selling author Keith McFarland gave a keynote presentation, “Getting Breakthrough Results.”   Throughout the day, I took notes on my Ipad, which I will share with you in two parts. If you want, you can skip to Part 2.

Aside:  I am really enjoying this move away from handwritten or laptop note taking for three reasons:  My penmanship is atrocious; the Ipad automatically emails me my notes which I can then copy, paste and edit without having to re-transcribe; and note taking on the Ipad is much less awkward than on a laptop.

Part 1

In the morning, I sat in the breakout entitled, Technology Panel: What every CEO Needs to Know about Digital Megatrends.  Scott Lutz of SAP led this discussion.  That’s a big topic for only one hour, and sure enough the roomful of CEOs and other high powered execs somewhat sabotaged the presentation.  If you reviewed a transcript you would guess the topic was “A 101 level Understanding of Cloud Computing” – there was a lot Q & A on “the cloud.”  Nevertheless, Lutz did a good job answering questions and a least describing an outline of what CEOs are paying attention to or at least should be.

Lutz said that CEOs today are tackling the following big five challenges:

1)    Preparing to compete with global competition both here and there;

2)    Security, collaboration and effectiveness of an increasingly tethered rather than physically present workforce;

3)    Taking business to near real time;

4)    Engaging with hyper informed customer; and

5)    Keeping an eye on reinventing the business model before competitors do it for them.

Since this was a breakout on “Digital Megatrends”, Lutz then listed four technology areas whose capabilities might help CEOs sleep at night:

1)    Cloud computing – that is, web accessible core applications which are highly scalable and deployable (this took up a large amount of time, but the audience was engaged and appreciative);

2)    Mobility;

3)    Analytics – driven by a CEO’s need to access the data he or she really needs to make decisions. Since Vistage is made up of small and medium size companies, the member CEOs often wear many hats.  They need to have access to information and analysis relating to sales, operations, finance, etc. at their fingertips, when they need it; and

4)    Social media.

Lutz commented that highly effective CEOs should figure out how these technologies can help them make decisions. Where to start? Know the answers to four questions:

1)    Where is your data?

2)    What decisions do I need to make?

3)    What are the sources of value?

4)    How can I control and consume data?

At this point, many in the audience started to squirm.  One gentleman asked, appropriately, “How does a CEO keep up and get unfiltered new info on technology?”

Lutz, who is clearly one of the well informed, suggested starting with these news and information outlets (I believe in this order):

1)    The Wall Street Journal Online

2)    USAToday online

3)    Silicon Valley online.  I believe he is referring to Siliconvalley.com

4)    Analysts such as Saugatuck Technology

Those are my notes from the morning breakout session.  Later, possibly tomorrow, I’ll post Part 2 – my notes from Keith McFarland’s keynote address.

Five Minutes on Creating Great Presentations

Maybe the best 5 minute investment I’ll make today – ppt on creating awesome presentations – http://slidesha.re/S6th5

A warm review on a cold day

Posted 11/3/10 By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email 

via www.sellingtelecom.com

Free Kindle and Facilitation Book with Every Class from Leadership Strategies – The Facilitation Company

MUST USE COUPON CODE: KINDLE

via www.leadstrat.com

Wow, I just read that my client Leadership Strategies is giving away a free Kindle with attendance at one of their public workshops. If you lead meetings or workshops of any kind, you need the facilitation skills they teach.

Six years ago when I first started leading my own workshops, I took the Secrets of Facilitation class. It was invaluable. I learned a ton that I still use today including tools for openings, increasing audience participation, working through dysfunction, and much more.

I highly recommend you get your free kindle and take a class.

Good Selling!

Intro to Cross-Selling

How do you leverage success with one customer into a cross-selling opportunity with another?
I hope the below presentation that I delivered earlier this week helps.

Whither Mike Bosworth…

I’m often asked, “So, what is Mike Bosworth up to?” Here you go – http://ping.fm/0SCI0

So, How’s it Going?

A year after helping a client of mine with their Customer Centric Sellingimplementation, the Sales Operations Manager (SOM) asked me to spend a half day facilitating a review and refresh of the sales process with the sales team.

Our agenda at the request of the SOM was the following:

1. Plusses of the CCS sales process
   
2. Deltas of the CCS process and the implementation at their company
   
3. Refresh the group on best practices when having an initial conversation with an interested prospect
   
4. Best practices for over-the-phone sales calls
   
5. What’s so important about “Artificial Patience”
   

I asked the shortest-tenured salesperson to take notes figuring he would gain most from this task.  Below are his notes with some elaboration and editing.

Aside – I learned the Plusses and Deltas tactic for audience participation from another client, Leadership Strategies (LSI).  LSI’s bailiwick is teaching folks how to be great facilitators.

Say you are in a meeting and you need feedback on an idea or program, or whatever.  Too often, you receive a lot of blank stares or repetitive “what she said” responses.  So, instead of asking for direct feedback, ask everyone to take two minutes to jot down the plusses or positive things about an idea or concept, then the negative ones or deltas on their own scratch paper.  Then, go around the room getting everyone’s plusses first, then the deltas and put them up on a white board or easel.

I often joke that this is the “Focker” facilitation tool.  In the movie “Meet the Fockers”, Ben Stiller’s parents loved Ben so much they never criticized him and overly praised him to the point of cherishing his 9th placed ribbons.  Similarly, we don’t want to upset anyone by labeling negative feedback as a “minus”, so we call it a delta, as in a process engineer’s “gap”.

I.  Plusses regarding the company’s sales process implementation

1. It’s great having a structure
   
2. Love the SOE [Sequence of Events, documenting the process the prospect says they will undertake to evaluate the sellers offering(s)]
   
3. The Process reinforces that it is beneficial to treat prospects as unique, even if they are not.
   
4. The Process Establishes Trust & Credibility
   
5. It’s a Consultative not stereotypical approach
   
6. Company-wide support around the sales process
   
7. Product Specialists are motivated because they love process
   
8. Company-wide alignment with CCS Success Stories, Plausible Emergencies, and Usage Scenarios
   
9. Not manipulation, rather based on persuasion
   
10. Pausing throughout the process helps give the buyers room to express themselves and not feel hurried
    
11. The Sales Process is all about the Customer and reinforces the sellers ability to Qualify/Disqualify
    
12. Don’t forget you (sellers) have a role on demos – Bring it back to Value; Ask: “Does ‘this’ help with the discussed challenges?”; Ask:  ”Are their other challenges you are experiencing that we have not addressed?”
    
13. Important to get appropriate pushback from product specialists; they withhold resources if they see they are being brought into the opportunity too early, before it’s properly qualified
    
14. Because the company has adopted the sales process top-down, managers know how to coach, manage.  They provide  a 2nd set of eyes on correspondence and a reality check – slapping down happy ears
    
15. Salesforce.com has been aligned with CCS and now houses all info, so sellers live in it.
    

II.  Deltas regarding the company’s sales process implementation

1. May be too formal/heavy based on audience; for example, need pared down champion letter for small opportunities
   
2. Need more on how to do first call when they ask for a trial
   
3. Need a balance between heavy qualifying and serving the prospect
   
4. Need help w/ research about prospects businesses
   
5. Compromise btw 30 day trial and customer’s evaluation process
   
6. More help w/ e-mail correspondence such as with templates and language barriers
   
7. How to deal w/ reclusive, distant (personality-wise) prospects-Suggestion:  rely on emails more than conversations
   
8. When prospect is doing a trial, it’s tough to qualify from lead to opportunity – Suggestion:  wait a little for the prospect to gain familiarity then call to ask some light diagnostic questions.  If eager to talk, go to full solution development.
   
9. SOE not getting designed results w/ losses, need to figure out qualification questions when prospect receives SOE less than enthusiastically.
   
10. No one at prospect has time for Solution Development [comment – so, find others to talk to).
    

III.  Warm/Initial Interest Calls:

Do Research On Front End.  Then build credibility and rapport with the following

• I am a Certified ____________ (at this company, all salespeople hold particular industry-recognized certifications)….
  
• Are you currently _________, How long, etc…
  
• How did you get here?  “What made you do this today?”
  
• What tools are you currently using?
  
• Tell me about your team size, makeup?
  

IV.  Best Practices from the Moment You Schedule Something to Placing the Call  - Group Feedback

• Review Notes On Past Correspondence
  
• Know Your Audience
  
• Goals and Objectives for Customer, the Call, and Your Next Steps
  
• Agenda
  
• Align with prod specialists
  
• Confirm Call Before
  
• Send an electronic Meeting Request
  
• Who’s going to be on call?
  
• Be prepared with success stories
  
• Next Steps-Make Suggestion
  
• Follow Up w/ e-mail and ask for feedback
  

V.  Artificial Patience – When do you need to slow yourself down, even if it seems unnatural? Consider these…

• Initially when the lead comes in, take a step back early in the conversation and ask, “What is your objective, what are you hoping to accomplish?”
  
• After a solution development call, consider waiting to send an e-mail follow up until the next day.  Let it sink in, give yourself time to make sure you do a good job with it.
  
• Ask yourself before calling up with a limited selfish agenda, “What is another e-mail/call going to accomplish”?
  
• End of Quarter-Be Careful!!
  
• When an evaluation drags out, sometime life does get in the way. Chill.
  
• In between items on your sequence of events – consider letting them marinate.
  

Good Selling!