I’ve dedicated this week to blogging about how much time we waste selling to people who have no power. I’ve received emails asking me about the warning signs. When we work in a non-visual medium, it can be difficult to identify when one lacks power. When you are face-to-face around a conference table, you can immediately see who holds the power and influence. Mainly, it’s by the way others turn to them before they speak or their body language and commitment to the meeting. But when you are on the phone, you can listen for red flags that indicate you may be speaking with someone who lacks power, otherwise known as a No-Po. Here are five clues to listen for:

1. They really like your product/service and really get it. They know how it fits in and how they would implement it.

2. They ask lots of questions–most of them are really good questions and most require additional legwork on your part.

3. The additional legwork is usually about you helping them to make a more convincing argument about why your product/service is necessary.

4. They schedule meetings that get rescheduled at the last minute because something more important took priority.

5. When you ask them pointed questions, they answer in a definitive manner–so much so that they need to convince themselves.

Only one day left until the end of the quarter. By now, you may have already experienced some betrayal from No-Po’s whom you thought would commit but didn’t step up and actually sign your PO. I know, I know, I know. You really believed them when they said you were the vendor of choice and miles ahead of your competition. You waited patiently each week while they tried to assemble the right people for the meeting that kept getting rescheduled. You agreed never to call anyone else within their organization because they had it all covered. You continued to hang out with them because they were cooperative, engaging, interested and they even became your Tuesday morning phone buddies. And surely, with such titles as Manager, Director and Consultant, you assumed they maintained a level of power and influence. So what happened?

How many No-Po’s have been lingering on your forecast that you’ve had to pull out? You may have listened to our very insightful podcast earlier this week, Betrayed by No-Po’s? and realized we are all lured by what we believe are buying signals.

New resolution for the new quarter= Stop selling to people who have no power. 

The last thing a No-Po is going to do is admit they lack power, so they’ll exercise the little power they have over vendors. It makes them feel important, needed, authoritative and poweful.

Earlier this year, I wrote about this concept in Why do we call people who have no power? The answer to this question is we don’t always know they don’t have power. They will show interest, be cooperative and sound excited about our products and services, and we respond well to all that. After all, who wants to question that? As salespeople, we are confronted with rejection on a minute-by-minute basis; it’s refreshing to receive such positive signals.

But that doesn’t last long before red flags start popping up and we start piecing things together and realize they don’t have the power we thought they had. The most suprising fact is that we sometimes find out before they do how little power they actually have. We find out by calling deeper and wider and learning the political hierarchy. Even if we confront them with this knowledge, they may deny it and keep leading us on because that’s their job.

Learn to qualify the hierarchy early in the sale. Ask questions about the decision-making process early. Questions such as:  Please tell me about the decision-making process within your organization/department? How do you come together on decisions? Who researches it? Who signs the purchase orders? Please walk me through your approval process? Who has spending power over $10K or $30K projects? What is the chain of command? What is your role?

  Asking these questions early will drastically shorten your sales cycle and help you forecast realitically.

Our panel members include:

Chuck More, Apple Computer
Kirk Adams, Altiris
James Frazier, Mercury Interactive

Listen to this enlightening, relevant and timely discussion on No-Po’s.

MP3 File

It’s the last week of a very important quarter and time to take a close look at your forecast. Don’t wait until it’s too late and certainly don’t get betrayed by a No-Po. Check our recent post on Have You Been Betrayed by No-Po’s Lately?  Now, it’s time to hear a few people sound off about it. Stay tuned for our podcast tomorrow on this topic. You’ll learn:

• The definition of a No-Po; who they are and what titles they usually carry
• Success stories from those who’ve been betrayed by No-Po’s
• The warning signs you are hanging out with a No-Po
• How No-Po’s affect your sales cycle
• How No-Po’s influence your forecasting
• Tips, advice, ideas

Stay tuned!

Ever been in an unhappy relationship that you can’t seem to break off? Holding on to leads too long is like being in a relationship that’s going nowhere. Here are the similarities:

You think it’s going to change. When you call them next month, they will be ready to buy.

You get attention. They return your calls and emails so you believe they are being cooperative.

You don’t think you’ll find another. You’ve learned so much about them by now.

You make future plans together. Adding them to your forecast doesn’t close the sale nor get you a PO.

You have gotten used to each other. You’ve invested so much time with demos and evaluations, you can’t stop now.

This is the time of year for reflection and renewal. Letting go is part of this process. Take the time to carefully review your pipeline and learn to let go of your stale sales clutter and prepare to bring in the new.

Ever wish you could know exactly what your prospects do when they receive your emails, eblasts or newsletters? Sure, we track click-through rates and page views, and measure response or no response. But the field of web analytics is getting more sophisticaed and I’m excited about a great tool that Genius has created. It’s called SalesGeniusâ„¢, which is a tool that helps you understand and track the emails you send out.

I’ve been using software for my eblasts that basically tracks the number of times it’s been viewed or forwarded. So when I review my stats, I’m usually interested in contacting someone who has viewed my eblast over 5 times. But I don’t really know when they looked at it, what exactly they looked at, and to whom they forwarded it.

SalesGenius takes it a step further as it tracks or maps the specific web visits and alerts you with a clever-sounding chime when someone is visiting your site. Okay, so check this out: you send out a small blast (small because you want to be “on call” once it’s received) and minutes later, chimes go off to let you know your prospects are checking out your site. You immediately contact them and introduce yourself, and your prospect responds with great surprise at how incredible your timing is. What a perfect first impression–so smooth and yet so calculated.

Sales is all about timing and when we are dealing with distracted and busy decision-makers, maximizing the moment is all we ever have. This tool helps you stay on top of that and, as a result, your leads are stronger because the response is good.

Inside sales people must wear their marketing hats every day and not rely on the department around the corner to do that. The days of separating sales and marketing are over as both are essential when it comes to prospecting and positioning yourself.

If your SFA tool is Salesforce.com, Genius is a perfect complement. Check them out.

I’m back from my world-wide summer road trip training and certifying inside sales teams, managers and trainers on our TeleSmart 10 methodology. It’s been fun and very rewarding.

These days, I seem to find deeper meaning in my training as I believe the real message is helping inside sales people stay away from talking with ”No-Po’s.” I introduced this term this year and it has resonated with everyone. A No-Po is someone who has no power, authority or influence to make anything happen. They are a sophisticated gatekeeper and unlike the traditional gatekeepers who are very obvious about it such as receptionists and executive assistants, these No-Po’s are very knowledgeable and are part of the committee or department. The problem is they don’t know how little authority or influence they actually have. But what they know is that talking with vendors is a way for them to believe they have some power.

Because of this, we naturally wind up spending time calling and talking with them. We even forecast sales opportunities based on discussions with them. Then one day, it’s usually after our deal has gone south, that we realize we’ve been hanging out with the wrong person and we feel betrayed by them.

That’s the part of my training that I find most significant as I help prevent the feeling of betrayal you can experience if you are not positioned well within the account. The cool thing is the sales cycle moves so much faster when you are aligned at the right level. So where are these No-Po’s? How do we stay away from them? How do we recognize we are talking with them?

Stay tuned for a podcast this week on this topic.

How many of you have been involved in long-distance relationships in the past? Lots of phone time, text messaging, emails and few face-to-face encounters. Sound familiar? There are many similarities between a long-distance relationship and working within inside sales. There’s a level of distortion that takes place; an elusive disconnect that inevitably happens.

I’ll give you an example: You’ve been trying to reach high-level decision-makers who have been heavily guarded for months. You keep sending them emails, leaving voice mails, talking with their admen and department heads but you can’t get through to them. They don’t respond because they are busy, in high demand and not available. As time goes by, it’s harder to make contact with them, which makes them more desirable to you because they seem so unattainable.

One day, you have the opportunity to meet them face-to-face, whether it’s a trade show or you travel the territory, etc. Something suddenly happens within seconds of that meeting. You realign and readjust your expectations and perceptions and everything you’ve built up to for so long because you suddenly realize they aren’t so unattainable, so desirable or so powerful after all. They’re just regular people and very approachable. Though the phone is an invaluable tool, nothing beats fact time.

The fact that I work in corporate high-tech keeps me current on early adopters of technology. I recently met someone from a completely different industry and line of work and mindset. He had a cell phone but didn’t want to get into text messaging. He didn’t know what a BlackBerry® was; had heard of an iPod but had no desire to own one; and didn’t conduct his business via email. We found a lot of interesting things to talk about once I qualified him.

Check out Seth Godin’s stats on technology’s adoption curve.