Monthly Archives: March 2015

Are you a Hunter or Farmer when it comes to selling?

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Is it a good idea to divide up your sales team by hunters and farmers?

First, some definitions.

The hunter in salesA hunter is someone who strictly prospects for new business. He usually makes a ton of warm or cold calls. However, in some cases, he may be responding to inbound inquiries from e-mail, trade shows or other sources.

A farmer is someone who manages existing accounts. His job is to handle all billing and shipping inquiries, but more importantly, he is responsible for growing the accounts by cross-selling or up-selling.

The farmer in salesI have worked as both the hunter and farmer simultaneously, i.e., I was responsible for managing x-number of accounts, but I was also expected to prospect for new business. I would normally set time aside each day and just prospect. Based on studies that I’ve read, the best time to prospect is between 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., and again from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. From 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. are normally not considered good times because people are out to lunch.

But is it a good idea to divide up the hunter and farmer roles? It really depends on your industry, the type of products and services you are selling, and how many accounts your company has. If you are working for a start-up or small company, you may end up wearing both the hunter and farmer hat – and other hats as well! But as a company begins to grow and add more accounts, those roles may be separated.

As a general rule, the more complex or longer the sales cycle, the better you should allow only hunters to focus on them. The last thing you want to do is have hunters distracted managing existing accounts while trying to close new business. After all, if you are working for months closing $50K orders, do you really want to deal with existing accounts that may only generate an additional $1,000 or so a year?  On the other hand, it may not be a bad idea to allow hunters to manage only large accounts, and handoff smaller accounts to farmers to manage.

By allowing hunters to manage some large accounts this may introduce a little variety in their jobs. After all, hunting can be stressful because you are constantly dealing with rejections and meeting quota. Allowing hunters to deal with some friendly existing customers may ease the stress level a bit.

The biggest challenge for the farmers is to make sure they don’t become glorified customer service reps. They sometimes have to be pushed to upgrade customers. Yes, this does take time. After all, you are building up relationships. You are digging deeper to learn more about the accounts, and finding other decisions makers to contact. You have to keep up with the industry news and be on the alert of any changes at your accounts. You also have to keep a close eye on your competitors to ensure they don’t steal your customers.

The biggest risk of hunters transferring over their closed accounts to farmers is ensuring that customer relationships will not be impaired. I’ve worked at some companies where customers insisted on only working with the hunter because they developed a good relationship. Despite the hunter reassuring the customers that the farmer will take good care of him, the customer still insisted on working with the hunter. In those rare cases, the hunter kept the customer to ensure peace.

When determining the hunter and farmer role, consider what the salesperson prefers doing. Some people thrive on the challenge of making sales calls and closing business, but they get bored easily managing accounts. They either don’t have the patience or desire to slowly grow accounts over a period of time. Those are your hunters.

The farmers, on the other hand, like the challenge of growing existing accounts. They like digging deep into accounts, learning more about their needs and problems, and uncovering new decision-makers.

And there are some who can do both.

 Hunter, Farmer or both. You decide what’s best for your company.

Let me “Think it Over” Objection, Part 3

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overcoming the "I need to think it over" objectionI hope you enjoyed the videos from parts 1 and 2 of this post.

So how do we overcome the “I need to think it over” objection?

1). Be prepared. Along with the price objection, the “I need to think it over” ranks among the two or three common objections that you will hear. You need to be prepared to handle this properly. Don’t be defensive. Don’t argue.

2). Ask questions. You need to uncover the real concerns. I agree with Annette Lackovic that 99% of the time the real objection is price. But sometimes prospects are either too polite or embarrass to tell you this, so they give you a smokescreen excuse in hopes that you will just go away.

3). Empathize. I agree with Alan Gordon that you shouldn’t use gimmicks or do a close. Forget the hard sell tactics. Most prospects are too sophisticated for that to work these days. You have to be more subtle in your approach. How? By following Mr. Gordon’s approach of agreeing with the prospect, summarizing what he said, and asking questions. Put yourself in the place of the prospect. This could be a major buying decision for him. After all, it’s only human nature that we hold onto our money.

The “I need to think it over” objection is really like most objections we all encounter. By putting ourselves in the prospect’s shoes, and asking the right questions, we can uncover the real concerns and hopefully close the sale.

 

Let me “Think it Over” Objection, Part 2

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In part 1 of this post, I shared two videos from sales experts on how they would handle the classic “I have to think it over” objection. Below Annette Lackovic, an Australian sales trainer suggested that you relax when this objection comes, and ask prospects questions to uncover their real concerns.

Here is her video below –

Let me “Think it Over” Objection, Part 1

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Let me “think it over” objection ranks as one of the most common objections you will hear along with the price objection.

But do prospects really need to “think it over”? No. It’s really a stall on their part because they are still interested in your product or service, but they have some concerns. Your job is to uncover those concerns, reassure the prospect that he is making the right decision, and move forward with the close.

But how do you do this? In the next few videos, let’s see what the sales experts have to say about this, and what they would do.

Dan Boe from The Selling Shop suggests taking an assertive approach by asking the prospect to sign a contract, but with a promise to tear up the agreement in a few days if the prospect does not want to move forward. His argument is by taking this approach, the prospect is either serious about moving forward, or it will allow you to uncover the real truth behind the prospect’s concerns.

Here is his video –

Alan Gordon, the author of The Big Book of Sales, argues that this objection is really a buying signal and that you need to agree with the prospect, paraphrase what he said, and then ask questions to uncover the prospect’s real concerns. He makes the case to avoid using gimmicks and just get to the heart of the issue.

Here is his video –

The Challenger Sale, Good or Bad Advice? Part 4

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the challenger saleThe Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation.
Is it good or bad advice?

As you may recall, in Part 1 of this post, I offered the pro side of the book. In Part 2, I offered the con side, and in part 3, offered some of the mixed views about the publication.

Let’s examine some of the major criticism of the book in more detail –

1). The authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson are not salespeople.

House Speaker Sam Rayburn once said of Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, “I just wish he had just one time run for dog catcher.”

While it would be great if sales researchers had once been salespeople, it doesn’t mean that you should dismiss their findings or advice because they have never sold. It’s like saying that you should disregard the findings or advice from astronomers because they never flew in outer space. The fact that an astronomer has never been an astronaut doesn’t mean he still can’t publish research about our Solar System. The job of a researcher is just that – do research. You can either agree or disagree with their conclusions. That’s your right.

But sometimes you need an “outsider” to see things that others don’t see. We are so caught up in our careers and daily lives, it’s hard for us to see the forest from the trees. It takes a good researcher to stand back, observe, conduct surveys and point out things that we simply didn’t notice before.

The Challenger Sale authors conducted a diagnostic survey of more than 6,000 sales professionals in more than 90 companies worldwide. The survey included every sales model category under the sun, including hunters, farmers, field and inside sales reps, key account and broad-based reps, and direct and indirect sellers.

Putting in place a set of controls and variables, and disregarding things like personality, the survey focused one thing – “Of all the things a sales rep could (italics from the authors) do well, which ones actually matter most for sales performance?”

While I’m not an expert on surveys, it appears the authors did a pretty thorough and extensive job.


2). The authors are just repackaging old ideas.

I don’t know if the authors are repackaging old ideas or not. Certainly, the idea of understanding your industry or tailoring your sales presentation to your clients are not new concepts. I’ve used those concepts myself long before I read the book. But sometimes it takes someone to tie all of those ideas together into one book before everyone “gets it” and can apply it to their careers.

And frankly, repackaging old ideas is not new. For example, when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he admitted that most of the ideas were not his own. Most historians agree that Jefferson received ideas from the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the English Declaration of Rights, the works of John Locke, Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, among others. What is new is that Jefferson put those ideas together and created one of the greatest documents in U.S. history.

Or closer to our industry, does anyone really think that Dale Carnegie was the first one to figure out How to Win Friends & Influence People? Of course not. Many of the ideas outlined in his book were around long before he wrote it. But Carnegie was the first one to pull those ideas together to write a bestselling book that still remains a classic today.

While I don’t compare “The Challenger Sale” to the Declaration of Independence or to “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” what the authors have done is take a lot of ideas that have been floating around in the sales community, put them together into a great book, and backed it up with solid research. And research is the keyword here. The book is not based on speculation. It’s based on a careful study of thousands of salespeople in various industries worldwide.

3). You can’t teach “The Challenger Sale” approach.

Nonsense. Of course, you can. While some may be natural salespeople, most people can learn new sales techniques and concepts. Sure, it takes time, practice, patience and a little coaching. But it can be done. To say that you can’t teach someone how to sell is like saying you can’t teach someone how to read or write.

The Challenger Sale4). Relationships are important. 

The biggest misconception about the book is about relationships. The authors do believe that relationships are important. The difference is that they believe good relationships are more the result and not the cause of successful sales. In other words, customers are not looking for a salesperson to be their friend – they are seeking an advisor. They are searching for someone to teach them and offer insights to improve their business and make more money. The traditional glad-hander or back-slapping salesperson has given way to the salesperson who teaches and leads customers in the right direction.

5). Putting “The Challenger Sale” in practice.

Example: When I joined a small health club several years ago, I was introduced to a personal trainer who was going to offer me a “free” consultation. Rather than come to me as a teacher, he tried to build an immediate relationship with me – he acted like we were long-lost friends. He was too enthusiastic, too desperate, too needy, and frankly, just too creepy for me. I left the health club after a few days because the guy was too annoying to deal with.

Now, how would things have been different if the personal trainer had applied “The Challenger Sale” approach on me? While “The Challenger Sale” focuses on the needs of companies, I thought it would be more interesting to apply this concept focusing on one person. Let’s take a closer look –

Warmer – “I know what you are going through. I’ve worked with a lot of clients in this gym, and I know the challenges you are facing to lose weight and become more physically fit. A lot of people come to this gym exercising, but they quickly get frustrated and leave because they are not seeing any immediate results.”

(Rather than try to be my buddy, the personal trainer is establishing himself as an expert).

Reframe – “Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to exercise for a long period of time every day. In fact, studies have shown that if you just exercise 30 minutes a day, that will help you reduce your weight and help you live longer.”

(The personal trainer is offering me a unique insight into an exercise that catches me off guard. Like most people, I always thought you had to exercise for hours each day to become physically fit).

The Challenger SaleRational Drowning – “I know you think that using a personal trainer is expensive. But given the amount of money, you already spent on ineffective diets, and exercise equipment that you are rarely using at home, having a personal trainer is a good return on your investment.”

(Here the personal trainer is making a good case for ROI – return on investment).

Emotional impact – “It’s one thing to set goals, but it can be difficult to achieve them. I’ve seen people come and go to this gym without using a personal trainer, but they never accomplished their goals of losing weight. But I think you’re different. You understand the challenge before you and I believe you see a real opportunity to get back in shape. The fact that you came to this gym tells me that you are committed to change.”

(Here the personal trainers are making an emotional connection. He convinces me that I have a problem, and I need to take action to lose my weight).

A New Way – “By investing just 30 minutes a day with me for the next couple of months, I can help you lose weight and become more physically fit. You will save money because you won’t get as sick as often. You will also become more productive at work because you will feel more energized and be less stressful. You will also be able to sleep better at night.”

(Here the personal trainer is offering me a solution – one that I’m beginning to see and may accept).

Your Solution – “Unlike other gyms that just throw you on the gym floor and let you sink or swim, I’m here to give you personal support every step of the way. I’m very flexible in how I work with my clients. I don’t force you to do the same boring exercise routines every day. Instead, I offer a variety of exercises that are challenging, but exciting at the same time. Under my program, you will have so much fun exercising that you will be surprised how much healthier you will be within just a couple of months.”

the challenger sale(Sold. Sure, I could look at other gyms. But the personal trainer demonstrated that he’s an expert, he offered me some unique perspective about exercise, he understands my health and financial concerns, and he’s providing me a clear solution. In the weeks ahead, we will develop a professional relationship based on his insights, expertise and help; not based on some phony pretense of being my best friend).

Is “The Challenger Sale” the right approach for every industry? I don’t know. You know your industry and customers better than I do. But when more than 54% of the Challenger Salespeople are closing complex sales better than the Relationship salespeople, it has to make you stop and think.

Reading “The Challenger Sale” has made me realize where I made mistakes in some of my previous sales. I’ve been a combination Relationship Builder/Hard Worker salesperson. Now, I believe if I had adopted “The Challenger Sale” approach, I could have reduced my sales cycle, upgraded more sales, and even gain better respect from some of my clients.

I only read “The Challenger Sale” once. This is the type of book you need to re-read several times to better understand it. I recommend that you read the book. Watch some of the YouTube presentations on it. Keep an open mind. You be the judge. Let me know what you think.

The Challenger Sale, Good or Bad Advice? Part 3

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In part 1 of the post, I provided videos from those who support The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. In part 2, I presented the opposite point of view. In this post, I provide videos from others who are taking a mixed position in the book.

Andy Boyd from 3M’s industrial sales team likes the Challenger Sale concept. While the Challenger Sale approach works well for the top 13% of salespeople, he argues that the majority of salespeople are having a tough time adopting it. Mr. Boyd believes in order to use the Challenger Sale more effectively, you need to first make a connection and build trust with your clients through storytelling. If this is not done, then salespeople risk over challenging their clients and losing the sale. In short, he argues you need to combine both the Challenger Sale approach and storytelling to get the best results.

Here is his video –

Geoff James, a sales columnist, and author feels that much of the material in The Challenger Sale book is a repackaging of other information that has been written already. While he doesn’t dismiss the research in the book, he argues that you can’t replicate the skills of other top salespeople.

Here is his video below –