What makes "Cold Calling" such a hot topic?

Cold calling is an old and fundamental sales skill like closing. 10 years ago a sales person might use direct closing techniques like assumptive closes. Today smart sales people let the prospect close themselves by constantly injecting soft closes in the discussion. No one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy. Leading the prospect in direction you want them to go builds long lasting relationships.

Cold calling is another very old sales technique that has changed over the years. It doesn't make sense to start dialing through the phone book. There are just too many defensive strategies that your prospects have already engaged. They are inundated will sales pitches. The old adage that you have 3 seconds to get 3 minutes to get 30 minutes applies. If you can't say something in the first 3 seconds that gets them to stop multi-tasking and respond, you'll never get to your 30 second elevator pitch.

What that means is that you need to already know what would stop them in their tracks before you dial the phone. As a cold caller you will need to segment your market so that each group has a discrete business problem that they would stop what they're doing to hear more about. You can't use a shot gun here, its work for a sniper. You have to be able to present that business problem in the form of a question that they would respond to. And then you have 30 seconds to hook them into a conversation.

Most cold callers are dialing machines. They could care less what the response is on the other end. They assume they will lose 98% of the time. They are trying to get through the no's to get to a yes. This is brutal on everyone. If you really planned out your approach you might only get shot down 93% of the time. Your probability of success goes up if the caller knows and expects you to call. That is where referral marketing, web marketing, snail mail, and e-mail marketing can help. It's like artillery bombardment before the beach landing.

If this is an important tool in your sales arsenal, then it makes sense to think the entire process through from the prospects end before dialing the first number.

How should a Sales Program be created and run?

Kees Vogelesang, Head of Business Operations, Oracle EMEA Strategic Accounts division
wrote:


Best Answer: Took some time for me to rate all the answers ;-)

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His Question: How should a Sales Program be created and run?

My Answer:
First of all I distinguish "Sales Program" from "Sales Process" they are very different. You're at Oracle, so the first question is; "What is the sales program for? Is it to grow revenue organically or provide market share growth?" Sales programs around market share growth are much more difficult than programs geared toward organic growth.

In any case I would start with an analysis of the installed base. What have they bought, when have they bought and who are they. Knowing the business profile of the clients that bought the product you want to promote during the same time frame you have targeted gives you a running start. If you don't know what you want to promote or when, this might help answer that question. Sometimes a trend pops out that answers the question for you. During this analysis for another program my staff noticed a very large installed base of EOL software; we quickly created a sales program to get these upgraded. Easy money…

Once you have a good understanding of who buys today and why, you have the starting point to move forward. Again, not knowing specifically what you would like to accomplish I can only guess at potential avenues to follow. I generally have target revenue for my program, so I work backward. What is the value of the product I want to promote and how many of these do I have to sell to make my target? I can look at my data to see who has bought it in the past. I can project that profile over the market to see the potential prospects. I can calculate the probability of success.

Now the hard part… the science is easy, the art isn't…. Now you have to be able to exploit the unique sales proposition you have in the market place to create two important things… a driving mechanism and a critical event. You have to create an offer that is so compelling that the market will want to act and a time frame to act that causes them to make a decision. Without these you have nothing….

Once you have these in place; (i.e. steps 10 through 600 are left up to you) you can create a program roll-out package for the sales force. They need the list of targets, sales training, the product promotional, and the calling scripts. Personally I would go one step further and provide proposal boilerplate and sample letters. The less you leave up to them the faster they can execute.

Last, and I always leave this to last, you will need a sales SPIFF. Some incentive to get them to act differently during this campaign then they would normally. Sales activity is driven by the compensation plan. Tie it to desired financial goals, not sales activity.

This is the best I can do without writing a book.

"Two men are walking in the woods when they come across a bear...”

At the point of conception we are endowed with a stew of DNA. It determines our height, our weight, our hair color, our eye color, everything about us. This includes our intelligence, our passions, our resilience and our desires. We have a DNA blueprint of how our lives could roll out. We are in part a reflection of our life experiences, but more importantly, if we choose, we are the product of who we are destine to be.

Every morning when we first wake we are given a chance to mold the rest of our day. We can choose to look backward at those things that have happen to us or we can chose to look forward to how we will change our existence into something of meaning. All too often I meet people whose yardstick of success is predicated on the performance of those around them. In the story of two hikers in the woods who come across a bear, the one hiker puts on running shoes. The other asked "why, you can't outrun the bear." The first responds "I only have to outrun you." I would suggest that we are all given the innate ability to overcome the bear in our own unique way, without sacrificing someone else.

The travesty of this "outrun you "mentality is that first of all it creates a win-lose scenario and second it robs us of our true potential and our self actualization. We go through life thinking that we have to be better than someone else to have meaning and value. The problem is that we will always know people who are better than us in many ways. Ways in which we are not naturally talented or gifted. The truly competitive people among us become good at marginalizing these talents in an effort to build themselves up.

I know that a better approach is to surround yourself with those much more talented than you and learn from them. "Fly with the eagles." Know that your destiny is as unique as your talents, passion and drive. Spend every day living up to your DNA. The great thing about following your passions is that it makes everyday an adventure. It's easier to get up, it's easier to learn, it's easier to excel and you can do it longer.

Nothing could be more tragic than a life wasted and yet I see it every day, people going through life trying to be better than their neighbors or co-workers, but falling short of their true potential. In time this constant competition, in which we are doomed to lose, wears us down. Retirement is that far off goals that signifies the end of the race. Those, whose focus is on living to their potential, don't want the race to end. They are still creating the person they ultimately want to be. Retirement means no longer working for money.

At conception each and every one of us has all the tools to be successful and happy. It is not externally driven, but internal. Madison Avenue, MTV or Vogue Magazine doesn't own your potential, don't let them form it. Find that which your inner-self longs for, nurture it, feed it and watch it grow. Jack Trout, one of the great pioneers in marketing says "If you can't be first to market, create your own market."

Hiring Soft verses Hard Sales Management Skills

 

Now is a key time to upgrade you staff. As unemployment rises more qualified people find themselves out of a job. If you have questions about your staff's ability to take you to the next level now is the time to make a critical review and take action if required. I want to provide a framework for thinking about this next step. I have hired or help organizations hire hundreds of sales people and sales managers. This discussion is about sales leadership, but some of the principals could be applied to hiring individual contributors.

So you have two candidates which one do you hire? Candidate "A" has a strong understanding of the correct profile of high producing employees. This person can articulate a sound sales methodology and has documented success in teaching and coaching sales skills, but they have average knowledge of the industry and although they know many of the businesses in the territory they don't have personal relationships with decision makers. Candidate "B" has a good track record of sales success but can't easily tell you the profile of a good sales person, their sales methodology is generic and simple and they say they are good a sales training and coaching, but can't give good example where they have actually done it. The good news is that they have been in the industry for years; know all the key players, including the one you're trying to land and can walk the sales people into a few good accounts.

 

Skill	Candidate "A"	Candidate "B"
Employee Profiling	High	Average
Sales Methodology	High	Average
Sales Training and Coaching	High	Average
Industry Knowledge	Average	High
Territory Knowledge	Average	High
Rolodex	Average	High

 

What I find is that most CEO's and business owners with say candidate "A", but their interview techniques lead them straight to Candidate "B". Now I'm going to distinguish between large company CEO's and small companies CEO's at this point because large company CEO's have a tendency to be more strategic in their outlook, because they have staff to handle the tactical issues of implementing the vision. Small companies CEO and middle managers of large companies are more tactical in nature. Small company CEO's and middle managers of larger companies are closer to the market. They naturally understand the need to get into XYZ Corporation or out sell ABC Company at a pragmatic level. Someone else has helped profile the employment candidates (if it is even done), build out the sales methodology (which might be a natural melding of past managers) and they have third parties do their sales training (outside firms or dedicated training departments).

The end result is that the hiring manager has pointed and specific questions about competitors, companies, decision makers and tactical sales strategies. They know the objections they are trying to overcome; they know the frustrations in the market. They are focused on the next 30 days, 6 months and year, not how to sustain growth over extended periods. They could and sometime do ask questions about the perfect sales person, but they don't know the answer, so they have no gauge. Their sales methodology is a simple six step sales process. They sometime feel if they can hire someone to come in to train the sales force once a year or once a quarter, they don't need to want their sales manager to take the time to do it. They need to be closing business. In the end they can full quantify a candidate's ability to interact with the market, but they can't quantify their soft skills. So the hire hard skills

Here is the reality of your decision. Markets change, people come and go. Any industry, business or decision makers knowledge a sale leader brings to your company will be dated in 6 months. Once they run through their rolodex they don't have any new value to add. Once new competitors come into the market or old ones change their products, their value diminishes. From that point on they will be doing an average job of managing your sales organization. Here is what I would suggest. Turn your hiring criteria around 180 degrees. Hire a consultant to get you into the prime accounts. Hire consultants to update your organization on industry knowledge. Hire your sales leader to build and maintain an innovative sales methodology that will constantly change with the market. Hire a sales leader that will teach your sales people to be successful in any environment. At the leadership level hire someone who knows the science of sales and sales leadership. Know that they can coach the sales people into executing the strategy that produces results. They need to be a student of sales, sales processes, sales strategies and tactics, not a student of the industry or the geography.

You can hire sales people to get you into accounts, but once they are there can they close business?

 

The battle sir, is not of the strong alone.

Patrick Henry said: 'An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle sir, is not of the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.'

I was reminded of this passage recently. It is an incredible call to arms. It envisions patriotism, honor, valor, and bravery. It inspires us to reach deep inside ourselves to seize that part of us that longs for heroics. It is recognized as one of the truly great moments in American history. This imagery is improved by the fact that we did successfully rise up and prevail.

At times I think we are again under siege by a tyranny just as dangerous as the revolutionist faced. This time it is more psychological than physical. We are under siege from bad economic news, unemployment news, and uncertainty in how our country will impact these events, all blaring from the six o'clock news daily. Those that have jobs live in uncertainty at worst and declining income or overwork at best, and they are the lucky ones. Many would like the privilege of being overworked. Depression is growing at an alarming rate.

Let's take a page out of the life of Patrick Henry. Every morning we are given a choice. The choice is simple, you are about to live this day, you can live it to the most or you can chose to not participate. We need to make the courageous decision to not only participate, but to attack the day. We need to set goals and then drive toward those goals. Just the act of pursuing will ultimately improve the chances of success even if results of your activity don't seem evident.

It's about action, a call to arms. To help fight off worry, have a plan and work that plan every day. In the movie "What about Bob?" remember it's about "baby steps". You have to get up; you might as well make something of it. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Don't try to eat the elephant in a single bite… should I go on?

In case you haven't noticed I'm kind of big on personal responsibility. But no one can do it all by themselves. Everyone needs help once in a while. If you feel you can't do it alone don't be afraid to reach out. There are a lot of people out there that genuinely care. They just might not know your situation.

Worry is about uncertainty. Making a plan and then following that plan removes some of the uncertainty. It gives us a sense of hope. It also keeps our minds busy. Waiting for events to improve is a fool's game.

Mathew 6:25 "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life"

Innovation is the only Sustainable Advantage

I work with all types of companies. Some of them are trying to sell products based on leading edge technology, some are trying to sell solutions built on sometime very good, and other times mediocre, technology and others are trying to sell concepts that can be cobbled together using existing technology.

What I see as overwhelming common among all of these is that whatever advantage they perceive to have in the market will be short lived. Technology, solutions, concepts and ideas can all be copied and improved upon. No company, whether they sell hardware components, software programs or services can maintain a leadership role without constantly striving to improve their offering. They not only have to invest in the improvements require to just keep their offering viable in the short term; they have to invest in finding the next "game changer". This is time, money and resource intensive.

Common sense and urban legend tells us that every company must reinvent itself three to five years. This is not a disruptive shift in the direction of the company; it is a constant morphing of product offerings, markets served, and corporate culture. Here is what I think is the real "game changer". It is the way that companies innovate, changing the not-invented-here mentality to a proudly-found-here mentality. Rather than protecting intellectual property as a means of providing a unique selling proposition embracing openness and collaboration to accelerate time to market.

To sustain a position as a leading edge innovator in the market a company must build a collaboration mentality embracing customer ideas, employee ideas, supplier ideas, competitor ideas, government ideas and ideas from our financial stakeholders. The concept of throwing a need out in the open and allowing all the stakeholders to add input and suggestions, not only to potential approaches to meeting the need, but the very nature of the need itself.

Look at the concept of XPrize Foundation. They provide an incentive for collaboration. The problems are unique and complex. The intent is to harness intelligence from all over the world to bring creative solutions to market. A pragmatic application for the Xprize concept would be to post a need on your website. Provide an incentive to the party that comes up with the most creative solution. The incentive should mirror the internal cost of ideation. Don't just get the R&D folks involved, get all the employees involved, get your suppliers involved (they'll see a potential new market for their products), get clients involved (after all the need is most likely one of their problems), talk to your neighbors, challenge trade associations, expand your team with free intelligence.

If we think that we have little time to respond to market changes now, think forward ten years. How fast do you think you will have to react to stay current, not to mention get a head. You are going to have to implement a want – find – get- manage model to stay viable in future markets. Why wait? Start expanding your teams internally and work toward total worldwide collaboration somewhere down the road.

Business Development verses Sales

I was following a car to work today that has the prestige license “VPRES”. I wondered if this person was a teller in a bank. Kidding aside, titles can really be confusing. I’m in the business of creating long-term incremental new revenue. One might think that means adding new accounts or growing embedded accounts. To me the answer is “yes” and “no”, but mostly “no”. I have traditionally approached sales as the means by which a company achieves its annual revenue plan. This includes both growing existing accounts and adding new ones. I like to think that a good rule of thumb is to have 30% of revenue from new accounts. This helps deals with the revenue attrition experienced with older existing accounts.

So in my definition, what is business development? Clearly you have to be able to sell to develop incremental new revenue. But the selling is more strategic than tactical. A good business development person is opening an all new market. The selling is typically to the early adopters who will blaze the trail for the mainstream sales force to take over. I think in terms of a three year cycle. At the end of three years it becomes more of a sales activity than a business development activity. What are the traits of a very good Business Development person?

Sales: Number one on the list. It’s about revenue. There is no reason to have a business development process if the end game doesn’t produce significant revenue growth. Solution selling skills are the minimum requirement. Advanced skills and experience are what you are looking for. Do they have a wide variety of successes or are they a specialist? I believe a variety of experiences is always best.

Marketing: It’s not about spinning an existing product to fit a new market. It’s about finding and validating an all new revenue source. There is a lot of advanced marketing going on here. Market research is paramount to long term success. Remember, in no more than three years you want to turn it over to the rank and file sales teams to exploit. The marketing is not so much copywriting and collaterals as it is messaging. What is the Unique Selling Proposition and what’s the value add that makes the solution appealing?

Product Development: Again, this is not classical product development. But it is the ability to create a new product from existing parts, with an extra dash of new. It is understanding the effort required and the resources available to meet time-to-market. It’s the ability to assure that it is within the product roadmap for the company.

Business Skills: Are they going to treat the company’s money like their money? It cost money to develop a new market. Can they run it like a profit center or are they content to run it as a cost center. Do they understand the investment they are asking for and the return they are willing to deliver? Have they built Pro Forma statements to use as milestones?

In the end, if you hire a sales person for a business development position, you may grow revenue in the short term, but will it dramatically affect the revenue potential of the company in the long term? And the other point is…. If you are looking for a pure hunter to open new accounts, don’t call it business development. If you want a hunter, ask for a hunter and hire someone who is proud to be called a hunter. If they don’t like being called a hunter then they probably aren’t one…..