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I can’t believe that after 18 years of continuous selling I still get nervous calling new or important customers!
I just made a call to someone that I worked with quite closely in a precious role. The response was warm and I could not believe I was feeling nerves...
But nerves can help sharpen your mind and provide focus to the situation.
If you are a startup and new to sales, don’t feel bad that you are uncomfortable. It’s completely normal. 😀
Many who are new to sales, worry about the impact of rejection on their psyche.
Its true that to be successful you MUST remain positive, despite having the occasional bad day.
Underpinning your positive attitude is the need to keep your body and mind in a good healthy state.
Why is health connected to sales?
Firstly being an entrepreneur is a job. Your job requires many years of effort to see the fruits of success. You won’t make it in the long run if you ignore your health.
Everyone has a different approach for maintaining their health. Some go to the extreme with highly competitive sports and training. Others will timebox activities with families and friends to keep the balance.
The second reason is that we all want to buy from people we like and can trust. You and I can sense when someone’s life is out of balance by the way they speak and the tone of their voice.
Sales is about being in a state of happiness, working with customers and genuinely caring about helping them make progress.
You cannot fake that.
As humans we have well developed detectors to sense when someone is trying to “sell” us. Nobody likes to be sold to.
However they are more than willing to work with partners keen to see their success.
In short
Today I had a first meeting with a senior manager for an existing customer.
Over the past few weeks I had been socialising a novel approach to solve one of their ongoing challenges. The reaction so far had been warm. However when I described it to this senior manager, she got excited and asked for a full description of the solution.
If you are the technical founder of a startup, it is very tempting at this stage to dive into a technical briefing. But don’t do it!
If you elaborate the solution too early you risk missing aspects that will enable you to win the sale. It is far better to work collaboratively with the customer, with SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) from both sides, to develop the solution.
You cannot always collaborate. But when you do, it can be very powerful.
I know this is really simple stuff but even experienced sales people can fall into the trap!
A great tactic to implement this approach is offering to run a workshop with SMEs on both sides. Your proposal will then be designed for acceptance! 😀
Wherever you work in the world and whatever corporate culture you are dealing with you should always foster openness and from your customer.
Being open with a potential supplier carries with it many risks. Can they trust you with sensitive information? If your proposal is accepted and then it fails, what will be the consequence?
Some cultures are comfortable being extremely DIRECT with you, but how can you get them to trust you? One of the best books that have addressed customer trust is The Trusted Advisor .
In the meantime here are some practical tips that I have found to enourage openness:
These are some of the tactics that have worked for me. Do you have any additional experiences or tactics to add in the comments below?
I shudder to repeat the phrase, leaving money on the table phrase because it’s been used repeatedly over the past 20 years.
If you are new to sales or negotiation, it’s commonly referred to not being thorough enough with unpacking all the customer’s needs. Once you have identified what you think is a big deal, you prematurely conclude the meeting.
Very recently (a few hours ago) I had a meeting with an existing customer, which was going very well! I was ready to conclude the discussion. We had a very good meeting and my colleague and I felt we had been fully briefed on the customer’s requirement. I had already asked whether they had any other need to cover and the answer was “no”.
It was only when I recalled a separate conversation with a colleague who incidcated there was an additional opportunity to raise. When I raised it, the immediate reaction was that they had sourced the product/solution via a competitor. However as I indicated we could supply them immediately with their requirement, I began to get interest.
Long story short, the meeting concluded with a commitment from me to provide two proposals instead of one.
The value of the second proposal is somewhere between $50,000 and $250,000!
If it was not for the insight of a colleague, the second opportunity would have definitely been left on the table!
I recently discovered a question that helps customers get to the heart of their motivation to purchase from you:
What progress are you seeking to make?
The question is simple in its nature, but a powerful way to encourage a customer's openness and transparency.
Once the customer has shared what progress they are trying to make, you are more prepared to know how your startup can help them.
As a startup entrepreneur you will have to balance more than one hat or responsibility. For example you need to perform in the following roles:
Sales Hat
As a startup entrepreneur you should be dedicating at least 1-2 hours each day on outbound sales activities.
This daily effort will compound the growth of your startup when you complete the following:
If you commit yourself to these tasks every day you will be building the growth of your new startup.
Many entrepreneurs I work with are very disciplined in blocking out 8.00am - 10.00am each day for outbound sales activities.
Happy prospecting!
You find yourself in an introductory meeting with a potential customer.
It appears to be going very well!
It is often tempting on these occasions to keep the happy feelings going, and not go into "tactical mode" with very direct questions.
There is one question however that cannot be left out: “How does your organisation make decisions?”
This question can be rephrased in many different ways:
When you ask this upfront in the first meeting, it might raise a few eyebrows but most will respond positively.
However not asking the question will lead to frustration and confusion when your contact does not return your calls or emails. There is no way of finding out what is happening (which can be frustrating).
If you are able to have a discussion about the customer's decision process, you will be free to follow up at future times to verify or receive an update on how their decision process is going.
An added bonus to this tactic, is that it helps your contact to start thinking practically on how they will buy from you!
Trust me on this!
When you first launch your product it is very tempting to start looking your first sales person.
Fortunately (or unfortunately) for the foreseeable future, your first sales hire needs to be you!
As a startup founder you are the most qualified to be the sales person for your business because:
The amount varies for each startup.
In my humble opinion (IMHO) your goal should be to reach $1M in sales, before contemplating hiring sales people. By that time you will be much more successful in hiring sales people.
You cannot outsource the sales responsibility to anyone else!
Startup Sales Coach is designed to help all startup founder to be more successful in sales!
Nearly all the companies I know that sell to other businesses, rely on repeat transactions from the same customers to stay afloat. Repeat transactions only occur when there is mutual trust. You are never going to be successful in your B2B sales without fostering strong trust with your customers.
It goes without saying, but the last thing you should do is to say, "Trust me!". I guarantee that statement will cause the opposite effect :)
Instead you should focus on building your empathy for your customer's challenges and figure out how you can help them make progress.
When the customer knows that you are completely open with them and have their back, it will be more likely they will work more collaboratively with you and help you to sell into their organisation.
Future posts will open up this conversation on building greater mutual trust with your customers.
