Managing Large Customer Meetings - Contact Information

Recently, one of my reps was in the midst of working through a very important transaction with a large customer. One day we were both surprised to learn that our key contact had resigned from the company. The resignation revealed the fact that we were single-threaded in the account, exposing us to all sorts of risks. We had been on-site several weeks prior with a large audience of important people and neither one of us had their contact information. That’s a rookie mistake that we should have never made. Here’s a very simple solution for avoiding that situation in the future.

When you are presenting to a large group of people and you want to capture everybody’s contact information the first course of action is to grab their business cards. More often than not, the majority of meeting attendees will forget their cards, so here’s what you do as a backup. Come prepared with a simple print-out of an MS Word table that has these headings: name, title, email address and phone number. Ask them to pass around the sheet and fill in the information.

Blog continued below

Would you spend $3.99 to get a big deal un-stuck? Seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t. Well, I have developed a killer email that gets deals unstuck and it works so well that I wrote a book about it. And, I have also included two other emails to help you as well. It’s a short book – 22 pages printed – and it will take you about ten minutes to read. The ideas in the book are simple – almost silly. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked with the results.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

I have done this for years and just forgot about it. It’s a great tool and makes sure that you capture everyone’s contact information. Only once has a group refused to fill-in the information. That was fine with me; we were responding to an unsolicited RFP and had not been driving the transaction. In my experience, those situations are rare. But in those accounts where you have (and are building) relationships, there’s nothing wrong with asking for attendee contact information. Most often the customer will oblige.

Sometimes individuals in the company will refuse to provide you with their contact information. That’s fine. As long as you have the majority of the participants providing theirs. At least you’ll have a backup plan for if/when your key contact leaves the company. And, you’ll be able to send a personalized follow up email to every attendee at the meeting. You never know what questions or comments you’ll receive back and what golden nuggets of information that you can gather from attendees other than your key contact.

Go in prepared with a simple table that gathers contact information and lessen the possibility of being hamstrung with a single relationship.

How to Follow Up on a Large Number of Leads

Leads are the lifeblood of sales people. You rarely ever hear a rep complain about too many good leads. You might, however, hear a rep complain about too many leads. (note that the word “good” is missing in that sentence). Companies spend good money on leads and expect them to be acted upon. When there are too many it can be a challenge for a rep to spend quality time on every single one of them while still working with existing deal flow and customers. Here’s a way to follow up and get stellar results.

Let’s say that you get a stack (or a large spreadsheet) of leads from a recent campaign that your company just executed. It could be an email advertising campaign, trade show, or any other activity that resulted in a large (that word depends on t he company and number of reps) number of inbound leads. “Hooray!” you say until you start sifting through the leads and find all kinds of tire-kickers, students, or otherwise unqualified buyers. Deflated, you start sorting through the leads looking for anyone that could potentially buy from you. Sound familiar?

There is a solution to your problem and it’s an email. And, it goes something like this:

TO: Prospect

FROM: Sales Rep

SUBJECT: What is?

Dear Prospect,

Thank you for attending our webinar, “How to Get the Most Out of Your Sales Team”. We hope that you found the information useful.

What is your particular interest in this topic?

Regards,
Sales Rep

That’s it. This email will elicit a 20% response rate – an incredibly high rate for email. There are a myriad of reasons that this email works so well, all explained in my book. And there are samples of other emails that work too.

If you are sitting on a stack of leads and don’t know what to do, take a few minutes to send a “What is?” email and you’ll be pleased with the results. And when you are, check out my book for more incredible email secrets.

The book is available at every major ebook retailer including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

How to Answer "Who is Your Competition?"

Years ago I was the COO of a technology firm and was responsible for buying a new security system. I didn’t know the security market very well so I did a little research and without much effort had an eager sales rep sitting in front of me within about 48 hours. Among other questions I asked him was, “Who are your chief competitors?” He rattled of three specific companies. After the meeting I set appointments with each of them and ultimately purchased a solution from one of the three that he mentioned.

So where did this seller go wrong? Is it incorrect to name your competitors? After all, that’s exactly what I asked him. He just gave me an honest and straightforward answer. But it cost him the business. That one question was his deal breaker. How could he have answered it differently? How should you answer that question?

Blog continued below . . . Here’s a killer review of my book and why I think you should buy it today…

How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride? Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of "Click, Send and Sell" but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what it’s worth, I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but, I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam. – Tom E.

I wrote the book because the emails work all the time. I have heard countless stories like Tom’s and I’d like to hear yours too. There’s very little to risk at $3.99 and plenty to gain. If your sales need a shot in the arm, this is just the remedy. It’s available at every major ebook retailer including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

First, don’t answer the question by rattling off a list of companies. Don’t ever, ever do that. Instead, say something like, “There are a number of companies in our space. I’m sure that you have heard of many of them. But none of them do exactly what we do, so it’s really hard to say.” That statement should not be a stretch. Your competitors don’t do exactly what you do. You have additional services, better customer support, more flexible payment terms, more locations, a better distribution system, an ISO 9000 certified facility, safer drivers, more automation, and many other things that differentiate you from your competitors. If you don’t have that short list of key differentiators get one – fast!

I also like another, more straightforward approach like, “We don’t talk about our competitors. If you have specific questions about how our products are different I would love to speak to those.” Very powerful answer. In this instance you are stating it more like company policy. Your prospect should appreciate that.

And, whatever you do, never ever bash your competitors. It’s a low class thing to do and your prospect will not appreciate it one single bit. It speaks poorly of you and your company and may cause them to question your integrity.

Personally, I was being a lazy buyer when I asked the security system rep who his competitors were. I didn’t really know the market. And his answer cost him the business. Maybe your buyer is just being lazy too. Why give your competitor an edge by mentioning their name?

So when you get that age-old question, “So, tell me, who is your competition?” no matter what, no matter how uncomfortable you get, do not ever give a prospect a short-list of your competitors. It could cost you the business.

Try Using the Dry Erase Board Instead of PowerPoint

There’s something about using the dry erase board during a sales call that makes it more interactive. So much so, that I recently purchased a product called Bamboo Connect so that I could white board presentations via the web. So far it has worked out really well.

Customers and prospects are tired of the PowerPoint pitch. I’ll bet this is how yours flows:

1. Title slide

2. Agenda

3 – 8. About your company. How large you are, how fast you are growing, and of course that slide with all of your customer logos. No doubt without their permission.

9 – 15. Your products and services.

16 – 20. Your proposed solution for the prospect.

21. Your proposed pricing

22. “Questions”, or “Thank you!”, or “Next Steps”.

Blog continued below

Would you spend $3.99 to get a big deal un-stuck? Seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t. Well, I have developed a killer email that gets deals unstuck and it works so well that I wrote a book about it. And, I have also included two other emails to help you as well. It’s a short book – 22 pages printed – and it will take you about ten minutes to read. The ideas in the book are simple – almost silly. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked with the results.The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

This is what I call the show-up-and-throw-up deck. (I reprinted a great article about the overuse of PowerPoint. Click HERE to read the article.) Don’t you think that your customer has seen about ten thousand of these? Can’t you see their body language change as you grind through the deck? And after your presentation, what have you done to truly differentiate yourself as a seller? By the way, if you count your slides, my guess is that you have about two-times more slides than I suggested above.

At one recent meeting the room didn’t have a dry erase board. The prospect quickly grabbed a tripod with the 3M self adhesive flipchart paper and in about an hour the conference room wall was completely covered with my “artwork”. After the meeting I took down the pages and started to throw them in the trash. The customer shouted “No!” and grabbed the sheets from me. That was one meeting that they did not soon forget.

That’s an example of why I like to whiteboard my conversations. There is so much more interaction. You can build the story as you go. My main problem is that I’m left-handed and write like a 2^nd grader. But nobody seems to care. I draw pictures, get excited, and make large gestures with or without the pen. It just makes for much better selling and storytelling.

Any rep can stand in front of a group and give an average, boring PowerPoint pitch. Do you have the confidence to break free from the projector and use the dry erase board? Try it and see what happens. I think you’ll like the outcome. So will your prospect!

Take Ownership of the Sales Process

I remember going on a sales call and really wowing the prospect. I did a white board presentation and really educated them on how an emerging technology was going to completely change the way that conducted business. The meeting was very interactive and they asked a ton of questions. I was even invited to join a national meeting via video conference and give a brief presentation. In the end, they bought from a competitor. I realized that my job was not to just educate – it was to educate AND sell!

Blog continued below

Would you spend $3.99 to get a big deal un-stuck? Seems like a silly question – who wouldn’t. Well, I have developed a killer email that gets deals unstuck and it works so well that I wrote a book about it. And, I have also included two other emails to help you as well. It’s a short book – 22 pages printed – and it will take you about ten minutes to read. The ideas in the book are simple – almost silly. But you’ll be pleasantly surprised if not shocked with the results.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

Don’t let a great, interactive session with a customer go to waste like I did. Use the opportunity to move the sales process along. In the above scenario, I allowed the prospect to dictate next steps. That’s something that I should have done. Now, when I have one of those really great and interactive sessions, I’ll end by suggesting the next steps. I'll take ownership of the situation and recommend a trial or other tangible event that moves the process along. That, or I’ll start sketching out a Mutual Activity Plan. By recommending next steps and taking ownership of the sales process, my close rates have increased and my forecasting accuracy has improved.

Let’s be clear about something. Educating your customer is important – use sales calls to do just that. Any time that you can add value to the conversation by sharing knowledge you should. But, your job is to sell – not just educate. Don’t fall in to the trap that I did years ago. Yes, it’s cool to have knowledge that others are thirsting for; yes it’s cool to wow a prospect with your product or industry knowledge; but no, it is not cool do use all that time, talent and resource to educate them well enough to buy from a competitor.

Own the sales process by recommending next steps and taking a leadership role. Your results will definitely improve.