Sachs on Sales (and other things...) @russellsachs - Tumblr Blog

A better way to forecast your "close date"

As a sales leader, over the years I have observed that one of the more challenging things for sales reps to deliver is an accurate forecast around close dates. While there will always be external factors that come in to play and put timing “at risk”, I continuously coach my team that one avenue to improve accuracy is to evaluate the opportunity through the lens of the customer. Specifically, in order for you to more accurately forecast when (and if) a deal will close, it is essential that you engage your customer in dialog regarding its target start date and what the customer needs to accomplish to meet that date.

Too often sales reps commit deals without truly understanding timing and what is driving that timeline from the customer’s standpoint. More directly, one simply cannot take the customer’s response at face value. When trying to gauge timing, here is how the typical conversation unfolds:

Sales Exec: So XYZ Customer, if all goes well, when do you want to get this implemented by?

Customer: If we are going to use this, I need to get it implemented by February.

Sales Exec: Why February?

Customer: We have a project kicking off that I would love to be able to leverage your software for.

Sales Exec to Sales Manager (during pipeline review): "I am going to get XYZ Customer to sign a deal by February. The Customer told me he has to get it done by then because they have a project coming up and need our solution.“

As a sales professional, it is not enough to ask "when do you want to get this implemented” and use that as your barometer for calling a close date. The essential follow up to this is a line of questions to help you understand the “why” from a timing perspective to see if there is a compelling event driving this deal.

In other words, consider asking sample questions like these:

- What happens if you don’t implement us in the target time frame? What is the impact to your business? Who else cares about this?

- What is the cost of making those changes?

- What is the value that you recognize by utilizing our software? How are you quantifying that - are we saving/making you money? If so, who else should know about the impact of this switch? What is the most effective way to educate them?

- Does the CXO understand the impact that ABC Software will have on your business? Does he or she know that we are talking and support this initiative What and when do we have to present this to him or her?

- In order to get something purchased in the identified time frame, what are the sequence of events that need to occur?

- What other parties need to be involved (e.g. does IT need to evaluate this, does CISO have security questions, does procurement get involved?)

- Who needs to review this? Who needs to sign off on this?

- Where does this project stand in terms of priority against other business initiatives?

- Are there any systems that this touches which we need to account for?

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list - but it demonstrates the importance of peeling back the onion the next time your prospect says “I need to get this implemented by X”. Remember to ask enough questions so that you thoroughly understand the “why” behind the desired date. If your prospect doesn’t have all the answers, that’s ok! Your job is to help him get those questions answered. Just remember to set appropriate expectations with your manager along the way!!!

Happy selling!

A better way to forecast your "close date"

As a sales leader, over the years I have observed that one of the more challenging things for sales reps to deliver is an accurate forecast around close dates. While there will always be external factors that come in to play and put timing "at risk", I continuously coach my team that one avenue to improve accuracy is to evaluate the opportunity through the lens of the customer. Specifically, in order for you to more accurately forecast when (and if) a deal will close, it is essential that you engage your customer in dialog regarding its target start date and what the customer needs to accomplish to meet that date.

Too often sales reps commit deals without truly understanding timing and what is driving that timeline from the customer's standpoint. More directly, one simply cannot take the customer's response at face value. When trying to gauge timing, here is how the typical conversation unfolds:

Sales Exec: So XYZ Customer, if all goes well, when do you want to get this implemented by?

Customer: If we are going to use this, I need to get it implemented by February.

Sales Exec: Why February?

Customer: We have a project kicking off that I would love to be able to leverage your software for.

As a sales professional, it is not enough to ask "when do you want to get this implemented" and use that as your barometer for calling a close date. The essential follow up to this is a line of questions to help you understand the "why" from a timing perspective to see if there is a compelling event driving this deal.

In other words, consider asking sample questions like these:

- What happens if you don't implement us in the target time frame? What is the impact to your business? Who else cares about this?

- What is the cost of making those changes?

- In order to get something purchased in the identified time frame, what are the sequence of events that need to occur?

- What other parties need to be involved (e.g. does IT need to evaluate this, does CISO have security questions, does procurement get involved?)

- Who needs to review this? Who needs to sign off on this?

- Where does this project stand in terms of priority against other business initiatives?

- Are there any systems that this touches which we need to account for?

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list - but it demonstrates the importance of peeling back the onion the next time your prospect says "I need to get this implemented by X". Remember to ask enough questions so that you thoroughly understand the "why" behind the desired date. If your prospect doesn't have all the answers, that's ok! Your job is to help him get those questions answered. Just remember to set appropriate expectations with your manager along the way!!!

Happy selling!

#sales #sales skills #forecasting

10 overlooked best practices for enterprise sales

It is no secret that we live in an era of instant gratification. The old adage of good things comes to those who wait has been rendered somewhat obsolete by modern technology. However, in an enterprise sale, there is a big difference between accelerating the sales cycle and being careless. I remind my sales team whenever I get the chance that they cannot cut corners when selling into the enterprise. Just like a professional athlete, you always have to practice and reinforce fundamentals to remain at the top of your game.

Below are a few best practices that I have compiled over the years that still tend to be overlooked from time to time, by even the most competent sales executives.

Remember that it is wise to slow down in order to accelerate your sales cycle. If you take the time to prepare for your calls, set thoughtful agendas, map your actions to your sales process and be diligent in your followup and you will be rewarded handsomely! Here are 10 of my favorites that you can apply every day (actually more than 10, but I took liberty to bundle some together to complete full thoughts and actions):

1) Make sure you define what your objectives are for the call - what is your end in mind? How will you measure success for each call? It's way too easy to jump on a call and hope that your oration skills will knock them dead, but defining what you truly want to accomplish on the call will help keep you focused and the conversation on track.

2) Before you hang up the phone or leave a meeting, make sure you get your prospect to agree on specific next steps. Also, if you are on a call, never hang up without setting a time (even tentative) on the calendar and waiting for the prospect to accept the invite before hanging up. Confirm your online meeting 24 hours before and when traveling you should confirm before you hit the road to go see your customer. There is nothing worse than getting canceled on in the lobby (especially when flying in for that meeting).

3) Always put together an agenda based upon the specific end in mind, and send it out in advance of a call to solicit feedback from the prospect. In addition, make sure you ask for a full list of attendees, roles and responsibilities before a presentation, demonstration, pricing call or meeting. This will help you navigate the room, and help you get wider in your account and build more relationships to influence your sales effort when you follow up after the meeting.

4) When you kick off a follow-up conversation, always recap the prior conversations and key takeaways and pain points and ask for the prospects feedback and perspective. Getting their affirmation before starting ensures you are on the same page.

5) Before starting a demonstration, spend a few minutes up front going over your value proposition and product framework (reinforcing what was covered on your prior call) and level setting what you intend to cover in the demonstration. Not only will this help refresh the memory of the parties you have met with previously, but more often than not, there will be someone new attending (he or she will appreciate the crash course to help get them up to speed). This will work to your advantage to clarify any confusion or flush out misaligned expectations.

6) During the demonstration, make sure that you reiterate the customer's pain points that you uncovered during previous conversation, and how your solution maps to resolving those pain points. Do not do a complete end-to-end demonstration of every bell and whistle that your product has. No one enjoys the old "show up and throw up" routine!

7) Whether it is a demonstration presentation, technical discussion or pricing conversation, do not be afraid to ask for feedback! Too many sales executives are scared to hear an answer they won't like, but there is no room for guessing or assuming when it comes to selling. Does your product address their key pain points? What are their thoughts and impressions? Do they have any concerns that you have not addresses? Get them to talk - the more you learn, the more you will know how your product maps to their pain, and how much more work you have ahead of you.

8) Memorialize every single call, meeting and presentation in a well crafted plan letter/email. Customers appreciate when you take the time to outline the conversation, what you learned and how your product addresses their concerns. Memories will fade over time, so a well documented email with key discussion points and next steps will help the prospect stay focused on your solution and will help you drive success.

9) When selling higher priced solutions or custom proposals, do not send over a proposal without walking a prospect through pricing first. Letting them react to the pricing while you are engaged in live dialog is invaluable. Not only does it let you gauge their reaction (and respond accordingly) but it eliminates the guessing as to how they feel about what you have shown them.

10) There is no need to negotiate on price before you understand who holds the budget, who would sign an agreement and where you stand from a product fit. There is a time and place for everything, but negotiating on price before you know if you are the right solution, or if you are talking to the right person makes your product a commodity!!!

Hopefully you will find these tips helpful and a good reminder that nothing replaces preparation and hard work.

#Sales Tips #sales skills #sales #strate

Why You Should Be Using Software (Not Spreadsheets) To Manage Your #FieldService Technicians

Why You Should Be Using Software (Not Spreadsheets) To Manage Your Field Service Technicians

By Russell Sachs

What would happen if you brought a floppy disk into a big client meeting. For starters, you wouldn’t be able to load your presentation. You’d also probably get laughed out of the room. You’re essentially doing the same thing by managing your field services technicians with spreadsheets.

In a hyper-competitive service ecosystem, more and more IT service providers are turning to technology to efficiently find and manage their field service technicians. VARs, MSPs and other service providers that continue using dated technology to manage key service functions – recruitment, dispatching, scheduling – will be at a significant disadvantage.

The keys to success in a fast-paced service world? Speed and agility. Today’s top service providers are ditching their spreadsheets in favor of Freelance Management Systems (FMS) in order to more efficiently manage their 1099 field technicians and become more responsive to customer needs. Here are some more reasons you should consider using an FMS to transform your field service operation:

Premier Contractor Marketplaces

One of the biggest concerns that service providers express when leveraging contractors is that they might sacrifice quality. But this doesn’t have to be the case. Take the eBay model as an example – You check seller ratings before making a purchase on eBay, so shouldn’t you at least do the same thing when looking for field service technician to represent your brand or company? FMS technology helps IT service providers benefit from eBay-like marketplace ratings so you can search and find the best technicians for your business.

Once you onboard your contractors and route work, you will be able to pinpoint exactly which technicians are your top-performers, and conversely those who were late or performed sub-par work. While these tasks can be done on a spreadsheet, it would require a significant amount of time to manually rate and rank all of your contractors, and you would be limited to just the information that your organization provides.

FMS software gives you dynamic information (real-time ratings, past performance, etc.) as opposed to data stored in a static spreadsheet, and that information can be parsed by your company ratings, or the entire marketplace at large. You can also leverage software to screen your techs and check for credentials, certifications, insurance policies and work experience. Spreadsheets are only as good as the person reviewing the data, and humans make errors.

Enhanced Cost Management

When was the last time projected your annual labor costs accurately? Because of the variability and unpredictability around managing service events, it’s hard to accurately forecast costs, resources, etc. Now take a second and imagine you could get in-depth analytics and insights into the breakdown of all your service costs. How much are you spending on Cisco technicians in California? What portion of your overall service spend was allocated towards 1099 contractors? Until now, that kind of intelligence has been almost impossible to glean. Fortunately, FMS software is giving field service managers a much better estimation of service costs than a spreadsheet ever could and allowing them to implement tighter cost controls.

Moreover, by building out your bench of available technicians, you can actually control your costs, instead of being beholden to the one contact you have in a particular region or for a particular skill set.

Real-Time Intelligence

Suffice it to say, there are many moving parts when it comes to managing a 1099 workforce of service techs. Using spreadsheets and email to manage your workforce can be problematic for a number of reasons. With spreadsheets, the details of the jobs are often dispersed in different documents, tabs, etc.

Software allows you to aggregate everything under a single interface and makes searching for information infinitely easier. At a glance, you can quickly discern the status of every single project, understand where you are completing tasks in time and under budget, and alternatively identify where things are degrading so you can take action before its too late. And since most techs are equipped with a smartphone, they can use their mobile device to upload assignment information in the field. This gives you real time intelligence you need to be responsive to customers and adaptive to market opportunities.

Powerful Workforce Analytics

What service company isn’t looking to drive additional revenue. Each service call represents an opportunity and a chance to delight your customers, secure repeat business and establish your reputation as an elite service provider. By using powerful workforce analytics inherent in an FMS, you can analyze a myriad of data points to better understand your customer’s behavior, begin anticipating their needs and proactively deploy service resources to better serve them. FMS workforce analytics can help your business identify those opportunities and prepare accordingly. Even the most sophisticated spreadsheets simply can’t connect the dots.

Intelligent Service Routing

Time is money. By using an FMS to more intelligently uncover your team’s availability and route work to your service technicians, you can save hours of time and benefit from a more nimble and responsive workforce. FMS software is helping today’s IT service providers get tighter control over their workforce, be more proactive and reduce customer response times.

Spreadsheets simply can’t provide you the dynamic capabilities that FMS software can. You wouldn’t send your technicians into the field with outdated tools. So why are you using the same type of tools to manage them? Kiss your rows and columns goodbye and learn how an FMS can transform your service delivery model!

Need a sales methodology?

Just posted my @BoweryCapital Sales Podcast about navigating a deal http://bit.ly/1wyv8Ur

russellsachs

Sachs on Sales (and other things…) turned 2 today!

Sachs on Sales (and other things...) turned 2 today!

#tumblr birthday #tumblr milestone

MSPs have started adopting freelance management technology in order to better manage the growing legion of independent workers that they're responsible for.

Top Tips for Sourcing Freelance Workers via an Online Marketplace

Every day, new freelance talent enters the on-demand workforce. In fact, over the next four years, the number of freelancers is expected to grow at a staggering rate of 35 percent. Very plainly, the talent exists; the challenge for businesses is finding — and leveraging — the right talent.

Recognizing this trend and the advantages it affords them, many companies are achieving growth while cutting costs by extending their workforce beyond the traditional W2 staff model and leveraging the flexibility of skilled, on-demand freelancers. The freelance model provides increased capacity, a broad talent pool, and lower overhead.

Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Flexible, Freelance Workforce

Whether you are seeking to supplement your existing W2 staff with an on-demand, peak-season workforce, or you are considering filling once-internal positions with freelance talent, many questions come to the forefront.

How and where do you source freelancers?

How can you properly verify a freelancer’s skill set?

How can you make sure you are engaging freelancers in a compliant manner?

How might you be able to leverage technology to help manage your freelance workforce strategically, and not on a piecemeal basis?

One popular way to source talent is through an online marketplace. It’s no secret there are countless online employment marketplaces, but how do you know which one best meets your company’s needs?

What to Look for in a Freelancer Marketplace

Choosing the right freelancer management platform is about both finding the right place to host your community and selecting the tools you need to manage your projects.

1. Hire Already-Skilled Freelancers

Skill verification and ongoing education is a core component of any workforce — it’s expected by employees and mandated by executives. Ideally, you want to work with the most-skilled freelancers that will enable your team to hit the ground running competently and without the administrative burden normally associated with ramping up a full-time employee.

One way to do this is by ensuring that your platform allows for skill verification through transparency into the type of work the freelancer has done in the past. Moreover, more sophisticated solutions embed Learning Management Systems into their software. Learning Management Systems allow businesses to test freelancers on their knowledge of whatever services or skills need to be delivered.

2. Utilize Freelancer Checks, Ratings & Verification Tools

Sure, you can post a job opening on Craigslist and receive hundreds of responses. But for those that (at least on paper) appear to meet your qualifications, how do you ensure they are who they say they are? The time and expense of verifying your contractors manually is too great a task for most organizations to perform effectively.

You can ensure successful hiring by leveraging a software solution that allows you to tap talent in a marketplace setting that embeds built-in qualitative (did this freelancer do a good job on the assignment performed) and quantitative (did the person show up on time, did they provide deliverables in timely fashion) ratings and verification tools. This is especially helpful when directing current and interested talent as it unifies practices into one ecosystem.

3. Keeping Compliant

Compliance comes in two forms: internal within your company’s regulations, and external within the state and government’s regulations. When shopping for a system, make sure it allows you to track your unique company’s requirements (insurance, background checks, etc.) as well as the tools necessary to engage freelancers while abiding by federal and state laws.

4. Communicate the Freelance Project Details Clearly (and Frequently)

A crystal clear understanding of a project is critical to its overall success. Historically, piecemeal emails, text messages, and quick phone calls constituted job management. This lack of organization undoubtedly leads to confusion, misinterpretation, and mistakes. A freelancer management platform that lets you control the entire lifecycle of your engagements from one system (from assignment creation to status of the job through completion and closeout) especially one that lets you scale as your business grows, will aid your review of each project’s progress and details, thus, helping you clearly communicate each project’s complexities to your freelance contractor.

The ability to provide these capabilities is the Work Market difference — the Work Market platform inherently offers and guides its customers through these tips for sourcing a freelance workforce.

How Work Market Helps You Build Your Flexible Freelance Workforce

Work Market helps you recognize and secure the most skilled freelancers in the talent pool.

And through its public ratings and verification tools, you can view each freelancer’s profile, past job ratings, cancellation rates, and overall satisfaction scores.

Then, once you’ve built your freelance workforce, Work Market’s Assignments feature curates the project overview, project notes, project checklists, contact information, any critical deliverable milestone dates, as well as payment status all in one location.

It’s a one-stop-shop for everything administrative, keeping all tasks under one pseudo-umbrella to enhance both your personal — and your freelancer’s — productivity.

#freelance #sales #sales tip #online platform #workmarket

Understanding your target customer

Step 1: Define ideal customer profile

It sounds obvious, but one of the biggest time sucks for sales professionals is running after a potential customer that does not fit your target prospect profile. The question I always ask early stage sales teams is: "do you understand what type of business can benefit most from your product or service?" Rather than try and boil the ocean, especially for earlier stage companies, identify key verticals and target profiles that are most likely to identify with your offering. As tempting as it might be to go on a wild goose chase with a "sexy" brand name or sell to someone who seems interested in what you do, if they are not within your target and you cannot justify spending sales cycles without making significant enhancements or changes to your product or service, stay focused on executing against your game plan. Once you get some traction and start gathering momentum, you can look to expand into other areas! Of course, you can share your learnings with your executive team and evaluate what it would take to move into a new vertical or industry - but do it in a thoughtful, organized approach rather than cowboy it as a lone ranger!!

Step 2: Research your target prospects

Now that you have figured out your target segments, and are calling on companies, make sure you do your homework.

Do you truly know your prospect and key players in the organization?

Do you know what business they are in?

How do they generate revenue?

What is their corporate strategy?

Do you know their competitors?

When you are about to engage a prospective customer, it is incumbent on the sales professional to research that organization. Read their website, press releases, public filings, etc. Understanding what business they are in and what their corporate charter is will help you not only sound intelligent but frame the conversation in a way that you can weave their specific challenges into the story that resonates to them. You should also understand the competitive landscape - who else is in their space and who keeps them up at night? If you are already doing business with a direct or indirect competitor, use specific examples of how you were able to help others in their industry (you can do this even if you don't mention that competitor by name.)

The more you know about the customer's business, the more you can ensure that your product or service is the right fit for them. And, the more you know about their business, the more you can relate how your offering will help THEM in their daily operations! Remember, its not about what you want - its about what your offering can do for them. Use examples, use stories and paint a picture on how you will improve their lives! Credibility is key - and the more you show that you understand how they operate, the more they will trust you and value your opinions.

Until next time, happy selling!

#Sales Tips #sales #sales skills #SaaS

What is the compelling event driving your deal?

As a sales manager, one of the more challenging areas to navigate and forecast is when a sales executive commits to a deal, but does not have a grasp on whether there is a compelling event that is driving the prospective customer's interest. As most seasoned sales people will tell you, selling to a customer without a compelling event can prove to be a more difficult task, because it is often murky as to why or when a customer will make a purchase decision.

Too often, sales professionals will confuse what a compelling event is and how to create it. In short, an often cited definition of a compelling event is a business influence or pressure that forces action or response, which has a defined date and often a business owner. Compelling events are NOT price driven, meaning that you can't simply create a compelling event by using price as your leverage. Rather, compelling events are specific catalysts that are driving interest - by uncovering and understanding this you can accurately forecast when the deal can close.

Specific events that influence buying decisions are urgent projects or time sensitive issues (think mergers/acquisitions, layoffs, new business opportunities, etc.) Great question to ask yourself is whether there is a personal gain driving interest? Is there a bonus tied to performance metrics? Is there pressure being exerted from external sources (e.g. a government agency audit prompting compliance concerns, board of directors mandating technology changes)? Is your customer being forced to act and what are the consequences if he or she doesn't? Compelling events accelerate your sales cycle, and cause decisive action to be taken.

Sometimes, your customer has a clear vision and lays out why he or she is looking to buy. More often, it is up to the sales executive to ask terrific questions, work WITH the customer and understand exactly what is causing that customer to engage with you. Identify the pain and you will reveal why the are looking for a solution - if there is no pain, you need to step back and reevaluate whether this is truly an opportunity.

Remember, always ask WHY and you will find your way to the right decision. Happy selling!

#sales #selling #Sales Tips #sales skills

Great information to understand the operating metrics behind saas companies!

#saas #software as a service

Top 5 Critical Sales Skills for Every Job

Although most people may not recognize it, almost every job today has an aspect of sales to it. Whether you are selling a product or service directly to a client, selling an idea to your manager, presenting a new initiative to your colleagues or instead selling your boss on why you deserve a raise, sales skills are critical in today’s workplace.

Below are the top 5 sales skills to ensure that you are effective at nearly every job.

Listening: There is an old saying in sales - “A doctor doesn’t prescribe you medication before listening to your symptoms, so don’t recommend a product before understanding the prospect’s pain.” Listening is a great skill in every job, but particularly in sales. If you don’t know your customer’s needs, you can’t propose an effective solution. That is equally true when it comes to workplace effectiveness. If you don’t take the time to listen to your boss and colleagues before you tackle the challenge or problem, you will potentially miss the underlying areas of concern, expected outcome and areas where you can add maximum value.

Building Your Network: The best and most effective sales people are constantly networking as a way to work towards a full list of prospects. Asking clients for introductions and referrals is one great way to do this. The same is true when it comes to assessing opportunities in the workplace. Take yourself from a reactive position to a proactive position by looking to establish relationships both internally within your current organization and outside with industry peers, as well.

Not only will this help you keep abreast on industry trends and opportunities, but if you are ever in the unfortunate position of dealing with a reduction in force (RIF) staying connected might just enable someone from within a different department to throw you a lifeline. Moreover, those people that you hobnobbed with at tradeshows, meetups and other industry events just might be able to provide you with hot tips on who is hiring within their organization.

As an added benefit, networking within your company will also present itself with a pipeline of opportunities for good work. Ask current project leaders about what else they are working on and what else you might be able to help out with - you just might land on the big boss’s coveted new project or learn a new set of skills along the way, which will only increase your value and desirability.

Diligence: From researching prospects to identifying the right contact, scheduling meetings and following up consistently, being great at sales requires a huge amount of diligence (and persistence). You need to drive the sales cycle and show that you are prepared, don’t drop the ball and are ready to provide the prospect with any pertinent information needed for them to make a sound decision.

This is equally true in the workplace. Showing up on time for meetings (or even a few minutes early), being prepared for the task at hand, knowing your business inside and out and bringing new ideas will set you apart from your peers. Remember, while you may be able to “get by” with less than 100% effort, you certainly won’t stand out. And in this competitive world, it is the intangibles that will make the difference. Ultimately people buy from the sales professional that impresses them, and the same holds true in organizational promotions as well!

Effective Communication: If a potential client doesn’t understand what you are offering and the value proposition of your product or service, they can’t properly evaluate whether it is the right fit for their company. Being great at sales requires excellence in written and verbal communication.

This is absolutely also true when it comes to workplace success. With people increasingly communicating through social media and short emails and texts, it’s easy to lose sight of how important communication skills are. Whether you are participating in a conference call, sending out a memo that captures the key items discussed in a meeting, or you are presenting a project plan for a new initiative, communicating effectively is vital.

When you are speaking, do it slowly and confidently. Deliver your points with passion and enthusiasm, and make sure that you are using proper grammar. Its ok to pause and think before you reply to a question. When drafting an email, make sure you spell check, use proper punctuation and re-read your work before distributing it out. The more time you take to deliver your message, the more confident you can be that your work will be respected and valued! And after all, that is what will separate you from the rest of the pack.

Personal Branding: Managing a reputation is as important when it comes to selling a product or service as it is to when it comes to an individual. People want to buy products/services from others that they perceive as trustworthy and knowledgeable and companies that offer high quality and innovation. The same is true when it comes to the workplace — your colleagues and superiors will give you more responsibility if they view you as someone they can count on, especially if you establish yourself as a credible authority. There are many things that one can do to enhance their personal reputation, from how they conduct themselves at work to how much they go about establishing themselves as an industry expert.

The big thing to be aware of is social media—while this can be a tool to enhance a personal brand, it can just as easily detract from it. This is something to be particularly aware of when posting on social networks! Regardless of how much fun you may have in your personal life, giving your colleagues access to that experience may not be the best idea!

#sales #jobs #sachs #sales skils #Sales Tips

Align with your champion

In sales, one of the most critical success factors is identifying a champion in your target company. A champion is someone who will do the internal selling at that company when you are not around.

Moreover, champions almost always have a personal win tied to your project and have the power to make things happen. Therefore, when you are in a sales cycle, it is critically important to align your actions with the goals of your champion.

Remember that even though sales professionals are all rewarded and focused on getting deals done, you need to make sure you understand why they care about your product or service by asking discovery questions around their goals. Why is he/she evaluating your solution? What does he/she want to accomplish? What is the win for their organization by getting your solution in place? If you don't have a deep understanding of this, you aren't aligned with your prospect and are too focused on your own net gain.

More often than not, you can uncover this on your own. Some reasons why your champion will advocate your solution include:

this person is an agent for change and wants to make a name for himself or herself

was promoted into a role and is looking to demonstrate his or her ability to make things happen

views what you are selling as a way to deliver his or her responsibilities in a better, faster, more cost effective manner

If you cannot easily explain what the win is for them, you need to stop and ask yourself if you have done enough discovery to understand why this person is engaging with you. After all, the whole point of selling your solution is that you believe that you can solve a problem or pain point for the customer!

#sales #sales champion #sales tips

Sales leads on a small budget

Uncovering Qualified Leads Without a Big Marketing Budget

It is hard to debate the fact that leads are the lifeblood for virtually every sales organization. Without qualified leads, scaling a business can be a tricky thing to maneuver. For large organizations with big marketing budgets, there are many options at your disposal – trade shows, conferences, SEO, social media, lead lists, outsourced sales and webinars to name a few.

But for startups, early stage companies and small/medium businesses, uncovering qualified leads on a tight budget is a very different situation, and one that many organizations struggle to figure out. While I am not suggesting we have discovered the holy grail here at Work Market, I am going to share some of the more effective methods that we have used, and look forward to additional comments on what this readership finds successful.

“Calling All Customers”

One of the easiest and most accessible sources for new prospects resides in an all too often untapped source; existing customers. What we have found in our organization is that there are networks and friendships that extend well beyond the walls of competition. If you are doing a sound job of servicing your customers, they will happily (in some instances eagerly) share the success with their peers; even those that work for a competitive organization. Asking your customer who else they can recommend can uncover a bounty of qualified targets for your sales team to go hunt. The obvious caveat here is knowing when you have earned the right to ask for referrals and recommendations.

A great example was a recent trip we took to visit a customer in a major metropolitan location. The customer was so impressed with our software and team that when we asked her if she knew anyone else she could refer us to, she picked up the phone and called her colleague at another company right on the spot.

Leverage the Marketplace

For those who are not familiar with Work Market, we are a contractor management platform tied to an online marketplace that lets enterprise organizations efficiently find talent and manage the onboarding and offboarding process of that contractor and freelance workforce. Literally thousands of jobs are run through our platform every single day, and we are proud to be able to support such a vibrant community. Because our freelancers have a great experience on our site, get paid every week by hundreds of companies and can essentially keep themselves busy all year, they are all too happy to refer us to other companies that they do work for or have a relationship with. In fact, some of our best customers are the direct result of our talented community referrals.

Recognizing that not everybody has access to an entire marketplace that they can tap into, there are countless similar ways to leverage the same “crowd” dynamics. Whether you sponsor a specific user group in your community, get active in a local “meetup” or become a visible member of a relevant organization, you can successfully create trust and credibility. Having others sing your praises will drive interest in you and your company after all, word of mouth is some of the most effective marketing available! Volunteer to host or chaperone a session, moderate an interesting discussion, or present on a topic of interest at a trade show or event. People will not only approach you to get your perspective on what you presented, but they will be more inclined to invite you into their office to learn more about your organization (and you) since you have removed the threat that you are simply contacting them to “get the sale”. And, they will willingly share your information with their peers if you are providing them with content and direction.

Get Social with “Social Media”

I am not proclaiming that you should create a Facebook page to drive inbound interest (since this is an obvious solution). But there are a variety of professional tools like LinkedIn and Twitter that will enable you to find out who your customers are connected to and what their interests are. Too often, people are looking to link with others simply for the thrill of accumulating contacts or to help them get a job. But, by reaching out to your customers and partners and explaining why it makes sense to truly network via LinkedIn, you will have visibility into who they socialize with and open doors to a vibrant community of constituents.

Similarly, by using Twitter to communicate relevant articles, blogs and data to your community, potential customers will start following you and be more receptive to your overtures if they perceive you as a contributor and expert in their field. Creating a corporate and individual brand are vital to differentiating yourself. In our organization, we try to share content about contingent workforce topics, associated companies and pertinent data to our followers every week and have built a strong brand in the process.

Generate a Newsletter

At Work Market, we strive to educate our customers and prospects on a variety of issues, including product updates and new feature releases, ways to improve and scale contractor business, customer success stories and case studies, as well as industry topics.

For example, tax and compliance are of top of mind for organizations that leverage contractors. To address this, we recently ran a series of short newsletters educating our database about the pitfalls of improperly managing and utilizing those resources, and found the interest on this topic to be overwhelming. We used the power of sharing knowledge to establish credibility and enable prospects to feel comfortable reaching out to us to learn more.

In addition, there are plenty of wonderful, low cost tools that let you email your prospects and understand their open and clickthrough rates, survey them to gather feedback and opinions and have visibility and transparency into exactly what messages are resonating. You can then share this information with your sales force and arm them with a more precise, targeted message to serve as catalysts for powerful conversations.

Outbound Calling Team

To be clear, I am not saying that outbound cold calling is a “new” strategy, but I am shocked at how many people have proclaimed that using the telephone to source opportunities is dead. We have proven this model to be extremely successful, and have tied incentives to ensure that we are promoting the right behavior. For instance, we reward our inside sales team for setting up qualified appointments and provide an additional bonus if their appointments turn into closed deals. Lists on the internet are in abundance, and should be leveraged to their fullest capacity. In my experience, if you are calling a prospect with genuine intent to uncover whether a problem or pain exists, and are respectful and intelligent in your dialog, you will uncover great opportunities at every turn.

I am sure that there are dozens of other ways that people get effective leads without spending big dollars for them and I am looking forward to hearing more! Please share your thoughts.

#sales #marketing #lead generation #AVC #fred wilson #USV #workmarket

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