Category Archives: Inside Sales

5 ways to close more sales

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handshake, closing salesClosing sales can be difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are 5 tips to help you close more sales –

1). Be prepared:

The Boy Scout motto is “Be prepared.” The same applies to selling. You need to do your homework first. Research your prospect’s LinkedIn profile. Read his website – especially blogs. If they are available, download any relevant white papers, cases studies or e-books from your prospect’s website. Subscribe to your prospects newsletter. In short, you need to get inside your prospect’s head and understand his concerns and problems. Initially, you don’t have to spend a lot of time on research. But if you are dealing with a serious prospect who is trialing your service, or requesting a demo, that’s when you need to dig a little deeper to learn more about him.

2). Ask good qualifying questions:

If you really want to know what your prospect thinks, or how to help him, ask good qualifying questions. By qualifying, I mean open-ended questions that will result in more than the standard “yes” or “no” answers. You may be a professional salesperson, but start acting more like a professional journalist.

3). Be an expert in your industry: 

No matter what you are selling, you must become an expert in your industry. These days, prospects are looking for more than just order takers – they are seeking expert advice. They want you to teach them and show them the way. Frankly, most prospects have already done their research long before they contact you. They are now at the stage where they are seeking confirmation on what to purchase, or they want to use you as a sounding board. They want someone they can trust. The more you know, the more you will sell.

4). More empathy, less greed:

If you come across too desperate or greedy, it will show. Show some concern. Listen. Put yourself in the client’s shoes. Remember, you are not a telemarketer making a quick sale by credit card over the phone. You are a professional salesperson who is trying to close a large sale, but more importantly, one who is developing a long-term relationship that could result in more sales and referrals down the road.

5). In fact, don’t close at all:

Most clients are too savvy these days to fall for the stereotypical closing techniques. Contrary to the advice from Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross, you shouldn’t be closing all the time. That’s for con artists – not professionals. If you did everything right throughout the sales process – ask good qualifying questions, determine needs, making sure you understand the decision-making process, ask good trial questions, and handle objections, the close should actually be the easy part.

Surprisingly, some salespeople actually forget to ask for the order! Or, they are so shy, they assume the prospect will make the purchasing decision without their help. Wrong. You always need to ask for the order. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong business.

Closing should be easy. It’s getting to that point that may be difficult. As the self-help experts like to say “it’s not about the goal but the journey that matters.” Take your time. Do it right.

 

5 Ways to help Angry Customers

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angry customerWe all have to deal with angry customers at some point in our careers. That’s especially true if you work in inside sales or customer service. What are the best ways to handle those types of clients?

1). Listen and don’t interrupt

One of the best ways of dealing with angry customers is to let them vent. Sure, it’s hard to do. But the more they complain, the more they will let it out of their system. When I’m listening to a client vent, I always take good notes. It helps me better understand their problems, and I can refer to them during our conversation. Just remain calm and don’t take it personally.

2). Admit the mistake and apologize

If you know for a fact that your company made a mistake, admit it, and offer a sincere apology. Whatever you do, don’t argue. That will only make the client angrier. Also, try to use the client’s name a few times during your conversation. It’s better than saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am.” Using the client’s name goes a long way in making it sound more personal.

3). Try to find a solution without transferring to a manager or someone else

Nothing makes a customer angrier than being transferred to someone else. If you know you can solve the problem, solve it yourself. Don’t pass the buck.

4). Try to avoid putting the client on hold

Yes, sometimes you don’t know the answer and you have to put a client on hold. If possible, try not to do that – it will only make your client angrier.

5). Always follow-up

Once the problem has been resolved, it’s always a good idea to follow-up a few days later. You can call or send an email. But let the client know that you sincerely care about him and want to make sure everything is OK.

Angry customers can be toxic to your company. With social media these days, a few angry comments on Yelp, Google Reviews or industry discussion boards can be a death sentence to your company unless you rapidly respond. The sooner you deal with it, the better.

 

5 mistakes to avoid when making Cold Calls

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avoid cold calling mistakesCold calling is a fact of life in sales. Despite all the books and blogs announcing that cold calling is dead, the reality is that you will be making cold calls throughout your career. That being the case, here are 5 mistakes you should avoid when making cold calls –

Mistake 1 – Not having a goal in mind:

It’s not enough just to pick up the phone and start dialing. While “dialing for dollars” is a catchy phrase, the fact remains you must have a goal in mind.

Are you trying to set an appointment?

Are you trying to get the prospect to trial your service?

Are you inviting the prospect to watch a webinar?

Know why you are calling before jumping on the phone.

Mistake 2 – Not using the direct phone number:

Vorsight, a sales consulting firm, has an excellent blog post on the importance of using direct lines. See “Direct lines: the often overlooked element of sales prospects”.

(Full disclosure: I took sales training from Vorsight).

In a nutshell, Vorsight argues that you can dramatically increase your effectiveness by using direct lines as opposed to going through the nightmare of calling the prospect’s main phone number. As we all know from experience, when you dial a main company phone number, you could literally spend several minutes going through options before you reach the decision-maker. That’s the time you simply don’t have when working on commission.

There are several lead generation tools on the market that you can use. For example, I’ve used Data.com (formerly Jigsaw from Salesforce.com). While not 100 percent accurate, it’s still very helpful. If you work in the IT industry, consider using RainKing. DiscoverOrg.com is also good if you are working in both the financial and IT industry. Sometimes I’ve been successful in finding a prospect’s direct phone number by using Google.

Mistake 3– Not doing some research in advance:

You are not a telemarketer. You are not using sales scripts. You have to put a little thought into making each call. You should try to be a little unique in order to stand out from the rest of the salespeople making calls to your prospects. How can you do that? By doing a little research before making each call. You don’t have to spend hours researching a prospect or his business. Just go to LinkedIn – read his profile. Maybe check out the company’s website. Find some nugget of information that could help you. Example – if your prospect worked at one of your current clients, mention that. If you know for a fact that your prospect is having a problem that your product or service can help, mention that too. Being a little original can go a long way to helping you increase your sales.

Mistake  4 – Phone calls are not enough: 

With all the noise and business in the world, you can’t rely on your phone anymore to generate sales. Cold calling isn’t just picking up the phone and making zillions of calls every day. You have to use a combination of tools to get through, including email, voice mail, and direct marketing pieces. Sometimes sending out unique swag like a magnet or mouse pad with your company’s logo and contact information may be the trick.

In advertising there is any old saying when trying to reach an audience – “you have to advertise on different days in multiple ways.” In cold calling, you have to contact your prospects on different days in multiple ways.

Mistake 5 – It’s not about you:

The focus should be on the prospect – not you. Doing a product or benefit dump doesn’t make sense until you learn if what you are offering has any value for your prospect. Your prospect isn’t buying products and services – he’s trying to find a solution to his problem.

Cold calling can be hard work. But it can get easier if you have a plan, get to the point, and focus on your prospect.

 

Tomorrow is National Stress Awareness Day

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how to avoid stress in salesSales can be stressful. We all know that.

And to remind you how stressful sales can be, tomorrow is National Stress Awareness Day – yes, it’s a real special day!

How you can reduce stress?

1). Set priorities – don’t try to do everything at once. Have a clear plan for your top goals on a daily basis. Yes, it’s tough to do that because there are always emergencies – a client calls to complain, a package wasn’t shipped out on time, your computer crashes, etc. But if you write down your daily goals, that will help you minimize your stress.

2). Sleep – yes, it’s tough. But getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night will help.

3). Listen to relaxing music when commuting – while I love Rock n’ Roll, I prefer listening to classical music when I commute. It helps to relax me.

4). Turn off the news – at least until you get home. In sales, you always want to maintain a positive attitude. The last thing you want to do is listen to bad news while heading to work. That will only make you more stressful.

5). Avoid negative people – yes, that’s hard to do in sales if you have some angry clients who are always bitching and complaining. That comes with the territory. But if you are dealing with negative people at work, try to avoid them as much as possible.

6). Exercise – you don’t have to go to the gym every day. Take a walk. Maybe walk during lunch. Maybe bike ride to work.

Stress is a killer. According to the American Institute of Stress, work stress increases the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke. In fact, according to the Institute, stress is the basic cause of 60% of all human illness and disease.

So please – take good care of yourself. Work is important. But so is your health.

Is it a good idea to work on straight commission?

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When is it good to work on a straight commission?

Here are some things to consider –

1). Is your employer well-known in the industry? If yes, that’s half the battle right there. Nothing makes your job more difficult than working for a company that has very little name recognition. If a prospect instantly recognizes your company name, that will save you a lot of time by not having to explain what you are trying to sell. A good example is real estate. If your company has little or no name recognition, you will be wasting valuable time explaining to the prospect who you are and what you do.

2). Does your employer have a good marketing plan? If your company is helping you generate good, qualified leads, you will save yourself a lot of time. Nothing is worse than working on straight commission and wasting half your day finding leads. Searching on Google may be fun but it doesn’t pay the bills. You are a salesperson, not a glorified lead generator. If your company does not have a good marketing plan, your valuable time will be eaten up hunting leads.

working on straight commission3). Does your employer offer benefits? Believe it or not, some companies that pay only straight commission will sometimes offer benefits. Unless you are married and can piggyback on your spouse’s benefits or your parents’ insurance policy, this could be a big help to you.

4). Does your employer offer paid training to help you learn about the products or services you are selling? That could go a long way in helping you get a jump-start in filling your pipeline and generating income.

5). Does your employer give you some compensation for a short time? To help you ramp up, some employers will pay a small base salary for a few weeks or months. This should give you enough breathing room to build up a reasonable pipeline so you can start earning a commission.

6). Is the company’s commission structure generous? Normally to make a straight commission plan work for you, you either must be selling a high ticket item (e.g., real estate), or a lot of smaller items (e.g., vacation packages or timeshares) to be successful. As a rule, the higher the item’s cost, the longer the sales cycle will be. Can you afford a long sales cycle while working on straight commission? Only you can answer that.

There is nothing wrong with working on straight commission. Sometimes, your commission will be uncapped – meaning you can earn as much as you want. At some companies, if you are working on a base salary plus commission structure, your commission may be capped.

At the end of the day, only you can decide what works best for you. Just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

Should you dump your inside sales team?

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don't dump your inside sales teamI have worked for two major corporations that eliminated their inside sales teams. Both corporations thought they were “saving money” by dismantling the inside sales teams and transferring the duties to the outside sales reps. Both corporations also believed there was too much overlap between the inside and outside sales departments, so they wanted to eliminate duplicative efforts. The thought was that the outside sales team could handle simple duties like renewing customers and selling smaller products or services, along with the rest of their responsibilities.

However, in both cases, the corporations realized a major mistake was made and they later reinstated a new inside sales team. In fact, one corporation did an about-face within a matter of 4 months. However, since most of the inside sales reps were no longer working at either company, both corporations had to start from scratch by hiring and retraining a whole new group of inside salespeople.

What happened?

In the first case, the corporation saw a major drop in the sales of durable medical equipment parts. Since outside sales reps earned most of their commission selling large equipment and services, they didn’t waste their time selling smaller items.

In the second case, the corporation received pushback from both their outside reps and customers. The outside reps complained they didn’t have time to follow-up on renewals, and frankly, they weren’t earning a lot of commission on renewals to make it worthwhile. Customers began complaining they weren’t given the same level of excellent service they received in the past from their inside sales reps. With renewals starting to drop, a new inside sales team was quickly assembled and they began the long process of retaining customers.

What can we learn from these two cases?

1). Focus. Selling is about focus. If your sales team is selling too many products and services, something is bound to fall through the cracks. Salespeople are commission driven. They are going to focus their time and energies on products and services that will generate the most commission. That’s common sense. For example, if given a choice between generating a new sale for a $5,000 product vs. a $50.00 product, which one would a smart salesperson focus on? You got it – the $5,000 product. So an outside sales rep isn’t going to bother chasing after a small order when there are bigger fish in the sea to catch.

2). Time. Salespeople have only so much time in the day to sell. So smart salespeople realize they must set priorities and stick with them. Time management is critical. Larger orders will always be a sales person’s first priority.

3). Small products add up. While renewing customers or selling small products may not be very sexy, the orders do add up. A $700 subscription may be chump change for some. But when you start dealing with thousands of subscriptions with that price point, you are looking at some serious money. Not to mention the opportunity to cross or up-sell once a subscription or small product is purchased.

4). Eyes and ears. The inside sales department serves as the eyes and ears for the outside sales reps. Outside sales reps can’t be everywhere at once. They have too much of a geographic territory to cover. But inside sales reps can cover a lot more territory quicker and easier. They can provide intelligence that outside sales reps can’t always get. Examples – a competitor is making a major play on a large account, or an account is threatening to cancel. By acting as an early warning system, inside sales reps can alert outside sales reps of potential threats to their sales.  This collaborative effort is a win-win not only for both sales teams but for their employer too. It ensures more sales.

5). The larger picture. What many companies don’t understand is this – inside sales departments don’t exist just to sell.  Inside sales departments are your last line of defense. If the marketing department fails, if the billing department fails, if top management fails, if the outside sales reps fail, if the production department fails, it is the inside sales department that will come to the rescue and turn things around.  Thus, the inside sales department serves as the checks and balances to the rest of the departments.  Inside sales teams are more motivated to solve problems because they are earning a commission.

Inside salespeople are also serving on the front lines. They “get it” if customers are upset and complain. They act quickly to resolve issues before they erupt like wildfire throughout the market. Inside sales reps know so well the power of social media these days. All it takes is a lot of negative reviews on Yelp, Google Reviews, industry discussion boards, and blogs before its game over, and sales begin to slide.

While some companies may have a love and hate relationship with their inside sales departments, it’s time to start sharing the love. Don’t dump your inside sales team.