I was sitting down with one of my favourite clients for our scores on the doors monthly KPI review. As always we look at her marketing activity and the leads it is producing.

As we looking through which sources her leads had come from, she mentioned to me that she was really pleased to have nearly hit her target, but they hadn’t come from where she had expected them to come from. As we went through where each lead had come from, what seemed like a random collection of leads corresponded rather well to where we had expected them to come from. Towards the end of the conversation, my client remembered a lead she had forgotten about. This extra lead meant she had hit her target for lead generation for the month.

As this is the 5^th month of using a tactical marketing plan, and recording where every lead was coming from, we were able to look at and compare 5 months of data; which allowed us to see any trends which were starting and change our marketing activity based on those trends.

The Tactical Marketing Plan

So, what’s the point of telling this story apart from helping me feel good about helping my client achieve her lead target for the month?

1. Her use of a tactical marketing plan showing what activity she was going to do to achieve her targeted number of leads was fairly accurate. It also gave her peace of mind that she was doing the right level of marketing activity for her projected business growth.
2. We identified that her best source of referrals were her existing clients. Consequently we upped the activity and number of touch points with existing clients to see whether this would have any effect or not.
3. Having five months of data where her leads were coming from was enabling us to take informed management decisions about where to spend time and resource on marketing.
4. Doing this monthly review was giving my client reassurance that the grand plan was all coming together and also making sure that she did actually compile the numbers every month!
5. Working in partnership with a coach can give you the discipline and accountability to do the important but boring stuff in your business, whilst also being a sounding board for you

Could you predict with 50+% accuracy where your leads will come from this month? If not, then perhaps you need to think about implementing a tactical marketing plan for your practice.

What’s your experience of using a tactical marketing plan?

“It was a great sales meeting, but they were not ready to sign….just yet“, ever heard your team say that (or even said it yourself)?

OK, we could talk about trying to close whilst you’re in front of the client, but there are times when it is about the follow up. Follow through is one of the most important parts of selling, but is often forgotten - just like in golf where the whole swing is important (not just the contact with the ball).

I meet business owners who don’t get round to following up from good (let alone normal) sales meetings. I recently wrote about one that made me want to cry as I watched it.

I don’t like feeling pushy

This is a very common fear, but the reality is you’re probably not. Phoning somebody up because they asked you to, with a specific aim in mind, isn’t being pushy. That’s what I would call doing something you promised. The answer to this lies in the conclusion to your previous meeting; ask them what the next step is and when you should call. Giving them, and you, a task to do in that period is often a good idea. Now you can call “as promised”, to review something specific – that’s not being pushy, it’s being professional.

How often should I follow up?

The real answer to this lies in the section above; but what happens when they didn’t answer/ return you call? Now you have to re-establish contact.

Calling and or e-mailing daily to follow-up with a potential client will probably put you on their “avoid” list. If you have their permission to call them, and there is a specific purpose, calling another 2-3 times isn’t too much?

Remember that they have a life too, other priorities may have occurred sine you initially spoke. If after 2-3 calls leave a message to say that you really want to carry on the discussion, but recognise that they’re too busy at the moment. Perhaps then just revert to periodically sending them something usefully related to the discussion you had with them, then you’re staying in the game – without being a pain.

“I’m rubbish at following up”

Interesting statement, I’ve heard it a few times. What evidence do you have for this, or did you persuade yourself? Remember you are not calling to be a pest; you’re calling because you previously had a good discussion with them and they were interested.

Think about the two key points that you want to make during the call, think about them from the other person’s perspective.

• If you talk from their perspective you’re more likely to be listened to
• If you’re not clear from their perspective, you didn’t listen enough at the first meeting.

What is the next thing you need to do in order to advance the sale? Think small steps rather than one whole jump to close. Having a clear sales process, and then following your own rules will help you here.

What have your worst follow up nightmares been and how did you resolve them?

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A leader’s role is managing change and nothing else

I was participating in a recent discussion with some business owners about leadership  The key theme was “A leader’s role is managing change and nothing else”.

Think about it for a second, what’s your role?

Think about some of the things that are going on in your firm which mean your team need to change the way they do things.

• Clients are driven by society, which changes constantly, like it or not.
• Clients want ever increasing levels of service.
• You want to increase revenue or profit?
• Your offer, delivery of it, or cost structure is changing.
• The only way you can deliver this change is through your staff.
• There is no change if your people don’t change

People don’t all look at change in a rational way.

Some will want to impress and want embrace change, some will be fearful and act to delay change, some will move from one camp to the other depending on the subject, the time and their emotional state. From a personal perspective, having a house flood and not living at home affected me over the last few months in ways I am only just beginning to realise!

Managing change is your role

If you accept that change is a constant nowadays and that as a leader your only role is to get the most out of your staff – your only role is change!

When you think about technology, economics, global trends, social structure and laws, change is indeed constant. People can deal with keeping their job the same (and if they can’t should you be employing them in that role?), but change is something that causes stress. Your role thus becomes one of helping them deal with change.

Why do people struggle with change?

There are a number of reasons why somebody may struggle with change, but first recognise that you maybe different!

Actually you are probably the same, but have either worked through the issues before your team or, being more driven (which is why you are a leader) have a very clear identity in terms of:

• Certainty
• Purpose
• Control
• Constants
• Can-do confidence

Realising this list and being able to focus on helping them with the relevant elements in it will help you improve your ability as a leader.

In the following articles I will go into each of these in more depth, so keep coming back. But in the mean time, what do you think – is change your most important role?

Imagine the scene: you were discussing your offer with a prospective client, that was interested in purchasing your services.

Sometimes you might expect one or two “objections”, but you know how to deal with an objection. Normally objections are simply issues the prospect wants clarified (hence the statement objections are not rejections).

You’d got over those objections and made no assumptions (assumptions do not help you sell more). You had talked about benefits, not features, and gone into the detail only where they needed to.

You asked some great questions that redirected their thoughts where they necassary ( your first car will help you sell more talks about questions). Despite all this,  they said “NO”.

What should I say when they say “No”

As long as it has been a good meeting, try showing  real concern. Your objective now is to learn what went wrong. That can either help you learn for another client on another day, or it might help you get back into the sales conversation with this prospect.

Try something like:

“I’m genuinely surprised, I thought that I had understood your needs better than I obviously have.

Could you tell me what went wrong?“

Certainly show no anger (there’s no reason why you should) and do show the genuine concern that you have as faking this does not work.

What have you got to lose?

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Getting your client to buy, when they won’t commit.

You’ve had the nice warm, fuzzy words. They like you and said they really want to work with you. They have even said that they are not even looking at anybody else. But they still don’t buy!

Perhaps you’re trying too hard, perhaps there are a couple of steps you could put in place, or perhaps….they never will.

The pains of young love

Do you remember, when you were younger, wanting to go out with somebody? Perhaps you’d hung around them for ages, you thought you’d made it clear to them that you fancied them and they were always saying great things about you?

Like a puppy dog, you would drop everything when they called, go running if they felt sad and always make yourself available.

It hurt! I learnt that sometimes the answer was to simply stand back (and then realise that they didn’t fancy you at all, but wanted to go out with Simon instead), sometimes it was to be bolder and ask them out (properly, no silly hints), sometimes there something you could ask them to do for you (it’s quite telling when they won’t help you, like you helped them).

The sales ladder

Back to your sales problem. What is the purchase that you’re hoping they make? Perhaps they’re not ready because it’s just too big a jump? Is there a smaller purchase that you could have available, that helps them to start working with you in a smaller way? As they do this and become more of a fan, you could help them move to the next step. Is this like our love struck teenager asking for a bit of help with something?

Their biggest fear

The biggest fear a potential purchaser has, is not that something is too expensive; it is making a mistake and looking or feeling stupid. I was told that Eskimos discipline their children, not by telling them off, but by laughing at them!

Fear of making a mistake could be the thing that’s stopping your prospect from committing. How could you mitigate that risk? A clear guarantee could help, that’s why we include one with our business coaching.

Small steps and small exchanges of commitment

A clear sales process can help you sell more as it prescribes how you sell and breaks it into small steps. Each step should have something where they, and you, commit a bit more towards the sale. If they haven’t “passed your test” then they haven’t moved forwards, they’re not ready to buy.

Follow Up

Are you scheduling time to follow up, or doing it when you remember? Perhaps you could ask them when you should follow up. then you are involving them in the process and won’t be “pestering” them. You’ll also get an idea of what speed they’re ready to move at.

When as a love struck teenager I was told to ring back in three weeks, perhaps I should have learnt that she wasn’t ready to go out…as much as I was.

Perhaps they never will buy.

In the end it could be this simple, they won’t buy. They didn’t believe they had a problem needing solving, put enough value on fixing it, can’t make a decision, or maybe nowhere near buying (but can’t admit it to you). Recognise it, be nice to them, stop wasting as much time on them and move on. Buyers have a process they go through too, understanding that helps.

Maybe they didn’t really fancy our love struck teenager and had been too nice to let him down! It’s frustrating when people can’t be honest, but that’s life!

What else have you tried to get somebody to make that small jump from being a prospect, to a client?

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How annoying is it when somebody else comes along and steals your prospects, despite everybody despising her?

Have you ever been out on the circuit to find that your rival is there too, behaving badly, breaking “the rules” and getting all the attention you don’t?

What are the rules of networking you’re thinking about?

You’re doing things right, not annoying people, turning up on time to meetings, don’t overstay your welcome, don’t get forceful and pushy at networking events and everybody says great things about you?

Then there’s the other person, turns up late, only talks about me, me, me; endless “pushy selling”, doesn’t listen, and everybody (yes everybody) says the same things about her. But, despite all that, they flock around her rather than you?

Does that annoy you? Do you have a “nemesis” who seems to get in your way and get results despite “breaking the rules”? What’s more you find out that she isn’t actually very good at her job, treats clients poorly and yet STILL manages to grab your prospects?

Was there a tart in your year at school?

In your year at school was there that one person that everybody moaned about? His/ her behaviour, dress and sexual morals were regularly brought into disrepute, your class mates said they would never go out with him/ her and yet….they did! Yes, I was going to say something other than “tart”, but you get the idea!

What can you learn from that to help your sales problem?

Don’t get mad; get even. Sell more despite your nemesis.

Firstly remember the proverb “he who seeks revenge, should first dig two graves”, stay positive.

1. Enjoy it when people moan about your nemesis, never join in.
2. Consider your strengths and why people admire you. If you’re not sure, ask some of your closest contacts for feedback. Check that your networking is not working for the reasons you think!
3. Play to your strengths: If you’re well known for being fair, be fair; if you’re really helpful, be helpful. What are your strengths, how important are they in delivering great service? Get specific testimonials where people recognise your strengths and the results they give (other testimonials are a complete waste of time).
4. Educate people how important those strengths are and most importantly how to spot when they’re not delivered. Aim your discussions, presentations and material at educating what excellence looks like.
5. Be sure that you’re clear when you ask for things, maybe you need to wash your words, to ensure greater clarity.
6. Recognise and fix the bits where, if you’re truthful, it was your fault that you didn’t close the deal (see people are saying they want to work with you, but never quite commit).
7. Focus your networking on those that are most important to you, and that you get on with. After all not all networking contacts are equal!
8. If you know they will be in the same networking meeting as you, calm yourself first, don’t allow her to put you off and play the game your way.
9. One  last thought: she probably doesn’t get all the results that it looks as if she does! If her client service is poor, she needs to devour more leads than you!

Without resorting to anything childish you may have done at school, is there anything else you did to deal with the class tart?

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A buying process is a logical step of steps that all buyers go through when they are purchasing something. Yesterday’s article unpicked the beginning of the alphabet, today concludes with steps 3 to 6.

If you understand a prospects buying process you can help them, give relevant support as needed and are more likely to get the sale.

What does the buying process look like?

What is the buying process and how can it help me to increase sales part 1 covered the identifying the problem and the the cash consequences of it.

Step 3: Funding.

Committing funding needs to happen so they formally see the size of the problem  (thus their potential willingness to spend). It’s likely to be a sensible estimate here, for budgeting purposes if nothing else. Getting money into a budget is, of course, not the same as finally get approval to spend. But sales people that didn’t get their prospects to this stage were always doomed to failure. In a small business, this budgeting might be the outline discussion with partners, the board or simply an acceptance that the identified amount of money is available.

• How can you can help get funding commitment? Can you help them present a case, or present it to their management.
• How can they get the money?
• If they have no idea where they’ll get the money from, are they likely to complete?

Step 4: Decision Definition

As interested parties start to understand more about the problem, they being to  think about how they will decide. Before this stage they know roughly what’s needed (e.g. invoicing system to save £3,200 a month), but not how they’ll decide which system to buy.

• How will they compare the different options available
• How will they compare your to the competition and decide which to choose?
• What are the important factors in making a decision?
• How can you help them think about how to decide?

Step 5: Evaluation.

Now it’s time to look at available  solutions (and how they fit their budget). This is where they may start seriously looking at two or three solutions. Of course if they didn’t go through the previous stages, they aren’t really in a place to decide. This is where things that sounded as if they were going to buy……..often stop.

• How can you ensure their decision favours you?
• How can you check that they really have gone through steps 1-4?
• Presentations about your service are more likely to be useful here than at stage 1, as they now know how to decide and are looking at comparisons.
• Many firms get approached at this stage, but don’t think to ask about the earlier information!
• Many more firms assume that the prospect is at this stage and simply produce a routine presentation, with no thought about the information that could be gained from the prospect.

Step 6: Selection

Finally…. They make a decision on who to buy from! When you think about it there was no point in trying to persuade them before now, as they weren’t ready to buy.

Maybe now apply gentle persuasion; of course if throughout the process you’ve been providing them support and not trying to persuade them (as others have been) you are more likely to get the sale. If you helped them set the decision criteria, budget and understand the problem….you should be in a good place!

• What actions should you take to ensure you’re successful?

If these are the buying steps, why do people “sell”?

Other than saying people have never through about it, I don’t know! Selling too early is not going to help. Providing relevant support and assistance at each stage is.

If you link your new knowledge of this alphabet soup with a clear sales process driven approach, you can really focus on selling more.

How have you helped prospects understand their problems, rather than sold to them?

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A buying process is a logical step of steps that all buyers go through when they are purchasing something. Do you serve up a jumbled alphabet soup, or help your prospects make sense of their issues?

If you understand their process you can help them, give relevant support as needed and be more likely to get the sale.

Think of it like the alphabet; if a sale actually occurs at “Z” in the alphabet, maybe they start thinking about buying when they’re at “E” of “F”. It’s no good just working with those that are approaching Z, and it’s no good trying to “close” if they’re at G.

What does the buying process look like?

I often describe it as a series of 6 steps, understanding them and tailoring your effort to the relevant step helps increase sales.

Step 1: Recognition

Very few prospects buy anything unless they know they’ve got a problem which needs a solution! Recognising a problem is a first key step. Questions for you to think about:

• How can you help them recognise they have a problem (assuming you can solve it)?
• Educational material to help them see they have a problem may help here? Showing a solution before they know they’ve got a problem is a waste of your time!

Step 2: Consequences.

Could you make a sensible decisions about a problem or see its importance with no idea of its cash value?  Neither can they! If you’ve ever though some of your prospects merely have wish lists, this maybe the problem.

• How can you help attach a £ sign to their problem?
• If they don’t have any idea of the value, they won’t progress!
• If you don’t know the value, you can’t produce a good solution for them.

Steps 3-6

You can click here and read part 2 of what is the buying process and how can it help me to increase sales.  Firstly think about what you can do to help people in the first three stages if you’re not trying to “close the deal”

How have you helped prospects understand their problems, rather than sold to them?

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Failing to follow up properly is something that many people worry about, I did think of calling this article 9 ways to lose a sale, it can be that simple!

Imagine it, you’ve spent time with somebody, got to know them, they’re interested in you, you’re interested in them and all you have to do is follow it up to seal the deal – but you mess up on the follow up!

So, what are the commonest mistakes when following up and how can you avoid them?

The common sales follow up problems.

1. Not calling at the time you promised: Agree with them when you’ll follow up and stick to it. Yes, I know you’re busy and have every intention of calling – it’s not your fault that you got caught up with something?  Traffic, meetings overran, the cat was sick, it was a Thursday…..Did you ever get away with any of those at school when you hadn’t done your homework? Even if you did, you can’t now!
2. Forgetting about what’s in it for the client: You may be passionate about your service, you may be the best in the county – so what? The client has a life and many competing priorities. Follow-ups need you to give them useful information from their perspective, and think about the how they will feel as a result as well. Focus on the (or three features of your service that really hit home for them, don’t mention the others unless they’re interested in them. What do you sell?
3. Just picking the ones you like: It’s easy to judge a sales call by the enthusiasm or the number of questions asked by the client. But it often doesn’t work (This is where a sales process can really help you judge more accurately). The prospects who asked less questions likely 20 can also result in sales. Follow up all of your leads, in the same systematic way.
4. Not knowing what to say: Your goal in following up is to advance the sale, not just say Hi! Be clear in your mind, why you are making the call and focus on that during the call.

• Is there extra information you can bring into the call?
• Are you answering a previous question they had?
• Are you seeing how they got on with something they were checking out?
• What is the next stage of your sales process? Don’t move them to it until you have both completed the previous one.

5. Being scared of voice mail: Calls are often screened (don’t you?), so prepare for what you’ll confidently say on the voicemail. Why you’re calling, as agreed, in order to, and make a small reference to something they were specifically interested in.
6. Using the wrong medium: How would they prefer to have the follow up? Phone, face to face, Twitter, Facebook, email, postcard?
7. Getting somebody else to follow up: You created the initial relationship, you need to do your own follow-up. Handing your leads over to someone else means that they have to establish their relationship; it’s almost like starting again. Making a sale often results from building a relationship, moving it doesn’t help.
8. Not being available: When they call, what happens if your phone goes to voicemail it’s very easy to lose the sale – the onus is on you to contact them, not the other way round. Tell them when you can be contacted, or have your calls forwarded to a good answering service.
9. Not Listening: Proving that you didn’t listen at the previous meeting is a very big own goal. A sale is often lost because the business owner “keeps on selling” and doesn’t focus on the specific needs of the potential buyer. For 5 tips to help your listening, click here.

What are the worst follow up nightmares you’ve had and how did you solve them?

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Well, what does “I love you” actually mean?

OK, a better question might be why is Jon Baker writing an article about it? Actually this article is really about all the assumptions that we make, expect other people to understand and how that can stop you from selling. After all if three very common words can be so misunderstood, maybe we need to think about the less well known words we use!

Brevity helps sales

Do you hate the old style sales person who drones on and on in the hope that eventually you will submit and buy? Maybe for some people it works, but I’m sure that for most (well, me at least) it has the opposite effect.

So, brief is good? But does  it run the risk of missing the ONE thing that the other person needed to hear before buying?

Your summary condenses all the things you’ve ever thought and known about a subject into a few words, that’s great but it may be misunderstood. What you mean by a word, let alone a phrase, can be different to what I mean. The words “I love you” are a great example, bringing together all a life’s feelings and experiences. But with your different set of life experiences, “love” will mean something else.

How does this help you sell more? Checking your understanding in small stages, is a good starting point.

Talking benefits not features, helps you sell more.

Some people the other day were telling me that benefits and features are now old school in terms of selling. I disagree, a feature is something that a service does and a benefit is what it does for a specific person that the person wanted in the first place. That can never go out of fashion, maybe the descriptive phrase will change, but understanding a person, what they want and what it will do for them is still key.

Asking questions and checking your understanding is still essential.

Assumptions destroy sales

So, what would you say if I asked what do you mean by the phrase “I love you”? Maybe you’d ask me questions to understand me better: who are you saying it to, under what conditions, etc. It could mean different things at different times? It’s hard enough to know what one person means by that very common three word phrase, let alone hundreds with different backgrounds and experiences.

Question, listen carefully and test your understanding; then you are in a better place to be on somebody else’s wavelength and sell to them.

A shortcut to selling more.

If you’re thinking all this takes too long when selling, there is something that can shortcut some of it. Making your marketing more focused in the first place, so you are only attracting the type of people you really want to deal with will help. Yes, your service might help anybody – but which are most likely to be quickly understood by you, value your experience and buy more quickly from you?

I love you: Love is a strange thing and my experience is different to yours. What examples have you had of being misunderstood, when you thought the meaning was crystal clear?

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