Most No-Po’s make it a career to be a No-Po. You don’t just walk into an organization and become a No-Po overnight. You have to demonstrate enough clueless skills to convince those around you that you have been put out to pasture. Just to recap the personality traits of a No-Po is someone who lacks influence within the organization to make any purchasing decisions. They are a sophisticated gatekeeper and in the sales training world, my No-Po’s are tired old sales guys who need to be in some sales capacity. Solution = Training Director. They put them in the training organization to manage the slimy vendors who barrage them with endless phonecalls and demand their attention. I’m not one of theses of course.

So they hold steady and protect their turf. They actually hate vendors and because they once knew how to sell, they also hate salespeople.  When they protect their turf, they discourage any solution you might be able to provide and downplay any needs they have. Ultimately, they are competing with you and that’s why they protect their turf. Admitting to needing your service will confirm to their managers that they are deficient in this area so why were they hired? So, they are threatened by you because you possibly could contribute to their jobs being eliminated. 

So how do No-Po’s protect their turf? The following includes things they do to vendors:

Discourage you from calling their boss

Avoid giving you the name of their boss or anyone else within their company

Claim they are set and things are under control

Complain they have way too many initiatives before they even begin to consider your solution

They will not endorse you and provide you with a reference to someone else

They continue to be friendly and ask that you call them next year (with that insipid smile on their face).

 So I say, enjoy that turf you are so tightly protecting and be ready for the next new job offer.

As my daughter prepares to leave for college, I’m struck with nostalgic last minute thoughts. I find myself wandering aimlessly down Safeway aisles wondering what will replace the Sun Chips and Oreo cookies I’ve been buying for the past 18 years. I check my cell phone and wonder how many more times I’ll receive text messages asking me to “pik me up @ 9 2nite plz, luv u.” 

We rarely think about lasts because we are usually too busy thinking about nexts. Especially since thinking about lasts means saying good-bye and that’s never fun.

When change is constant, we never know the last time you will be speaking with someone or a prospect. How many times have we talked with someone only to contact them a few months later to find they are no longer with the organization. Poof, they are gone, never to be found, and did you say good-bye? Then you wonder when the last time was since you talked. In sales, saying good-bye can mean losing a deal or actually closing a deal. It’s all the way you look at it. Here are my thoughts on this:

Before ending a call, gain commitment before hanging up. We tend to end a call with the passive question,  “do you have any questions?” versus spending time setting up next steps. I suggest you ask: “Bob, just so I make sure we reconnect in the next few weeks, I’ll send you my information and you’ll review it. When we reconnect back, we can discuss the areas you might have questions on.”

When presenting a proposal, gain commitment one you deliver it. Instead of writing, “I have included the proposal for your review.” You may want to gain commitment by writing, “Your proposal is ready for review, when is a good time in the next few days to discuss what I’ve outlined?”

When closing a deal. Instead of saying, “Thanks for your business” you may consider saying, “Now that we are moving forward, let’s schedule our next call to talk about implementation strategies and include other departments who may want to be included.”

If we think of lasts, it helps us to say good-bye in a way where we create opportunity instead of creating a void.  

Well it’s about time that a legitimate sales blogger is writing about selling. Geoffrey James used to write for Selling Power and now writes for the Sales Machine blog through BNET Insight. Some good blog posts and some I don’t necessarily agree with- but that’s okay because it encourages Geoffrey to learn more about the power of Web Conferencing throughout the sales cycle and not just in the introductory stages.

I really enjoyed reading Solution Selling is all in Your Mind- so very true. Geoffrey observes that most people are selling products and not selling solutions and the way to make the leap is to change how you talk and think about the product. He suggests making 4 mental shifts which include:

1. Think about what you sell as a verb rather than a noun- just in case you forgot the differerence between a verb and a noun- a verb illustrates action, experience, occurance.

2. Think about yourself as the customer’s ally rather than an adversary- Remember customers don’t want to feel sold, they want to believe you are partnering with them.

3. Think about sales calls as inquiries rather than pitches- So true, that’s why curious salespeople make the best hunters, they love to dig and find new information.

4. Think about disqualifying a customer as a success rather than a failure- hmmmm, so if I lose a deal, is that a success? Actually it could be if there wasn’t a good match with you and the customer, you’ve saved time and stress.

Great work Geoffrey, I’ll add you to my blogroll if you add me to yours?

Last week I sent out my Inside Sales 2.0 Trend Talk eblast to my very targeted list of prospects. It was mainly to promote the upcoming Webinar titled Sales 2.0 Report from the Front Lines. The fun started a few minutes after it was sent out because I got to track who was checking me out and where they were going on my site. I noticed a few names were rising to the top as they had the most unique clicks and views. (That’s marketing talk for a good prospect).

I drafted my follow-up email and wrote Thanks for paying attention as my subject line.  They responded and we scheduled a meeting the following week to discuss our offerings and their potential needs.

The scenario I’ve just explained describes what takes place when you are selling in a Sales 2.0 environment. I’ll break it down for you:

1. It all started by the target list of email contacts I created. Thanks to Spoke,  I learned a few new email addresses and patterns to people in a large Fortune 100 company I was targeting.

2. I usually switch from Campaign Monitor to Genius in tracking their viewing habits. It helps me understand where they are going and what they are interested in.

3. Now, my follow-up efforts were prioritized based on contacting a captive audience who had reviewed my eblast.

4.  I drafted a short email follow-up thanking them for their interest and used an inviting subject line. I also requested a quick 6- minute phone meeting to demonstrate it wouldn’t be a waste of their time.

5. Once I confirmed the appointment, I went back to Spoke and built out the target company org chart, learned the chain of command and leverage more names so I don’t get stuck with the No-Po’s.

6. The day arrived for our phone appointment and it resulted in a RFP.

These days everyone is taking more responsibility for their marketing and sales efforts. They are not pointing a finger at someone else and waiting for it to happen. As a salesperson, what is your marketing contritution?

What if you woke up one more and realized the way you’ve been selling is wrong? Or in your forecasting review, you walk away and start doubting your selling strategies?  Selling in a Sales 2.0 world is not only about thinking different but more about thinking again.

In today’s webinar, Sales 2.0 Report from the Front Lines presented by Phone Works and TeleSmart, we are going to convince you to think again and not assume that the way you’ve been selling for years is the right way. It’s wrong.

 This slide captures it all. The biggest difference from moving from Sales 1.0 to Sales 2.0 is people used technology in the past to help them work faster but today it’s to help them work smarter. Aligning technology with the sales cycle and your buyers needs versus just using it because it’s there.

No excuses, even from your summer home in Tahoe you can tune in to our webinar from 1:00-2:00pm PST.

This week we are are preparing for our Sales 2.0- A Report from the Front Lines Webinar on August 16th- which promises to be a winner. Sally Duby, President of PhoneWorks and I will sound off about Sales 2.0 and the sales evolution that spans back 25 years. Yikes, sounds pretty geriatric to me but it’s true, we’ve been around a long time which proves why we are the most qualified to be talking about this. We’ve also invited Kathleen Lord, VP or Sales and Marketing at Intacct to share her secrets on what they are doing to amp up their Sales 2.0 efforts.

I was checking out another Sales 2.0 thinker, Brian Carroll’s B2B Lead Generation blog and read his interview with Marketing Sherpa’s Director, Anne Holland. I downloaded their Business Technology Marketing Benchmark 2007-2008 study and was so excited to review some results. They asked technology marketers what their biggest marketing challenge was this year, and their response was the ever-growing committee of decision-makers.

This shift from mega-committees is definitely a trend, a reality and why my No-Po concept is so totally right on for today’s Sales 2.0 salespeople. In the past, purchasing decisions were made by one contact at the IT level or the C level. We are dealing with fearful prospects who have been burned from bad decisions in the past or through mergers and acqusitions, don’t know how much power they really lack- the reality is they are pushing this off to the committee. Which means that when a committee decides, the odds of landing on a No-Po are greater than ever before.

Last night I was invited to speak in front of the Business Planning group at the San Francisco RenCenter.  This place holds a special place in my heart because 14 years ago I brought an idea and watched it blossom into my company, TeleSmart. It is led by the very inspiring Paul Terry who has the gift of taking eager potential entreprenuers and shaping them into smart business professionals. He is one of my mentors.

I looked across the room and saw the most diverse group of business owners all working at their business plan or their roadmap to success. I always like the business ideas that float around in this space such as a Pet Retail Store, Bakery, High Fashion Clothing Store, Karaoke Bar, On-line Magazine for Alzheimers and a Life Coach.

So the interview started and Paul shot some great questions my way at the end, I shared some advise for all entrepreneurs out there:

Stay true to your niche- you will gain respect in your industry as an expert.

Listen to your customers and what the market is saying and learn to react quickly

Always find a way to say you can do something

Be fearless, open, agile, forgiving and flexible

Keep your spirit alive because you will attract business just because of your excitement

Create strategic partnerships

Hire consultants and coaches to bring you up to speed instead of spending days in training

Remember the sign of a true entrepreneur is having people tell you “it won’t work” or “that’s not a good idea” and you get to respond with, “watch. this.”

Thanks Paul for inviting me and best of luck Business Planning Class of 2007

We all know the major email components include tone, word choice, organization and pacing. Tone is communicated in many ways on email and it all started about 25 years ago with emoticons.   A recent New York Times article titled (-: Just Between You and Me;-) highlights how they have moved into the business world. An interesting statistic is over half of people using emoticons are over 30 years old. 

So how many of you are using emoticons in your sales messaging? The article indicated emoticons are used when closing a sale.  Tone is risky on email because it can be easily misunderstood and emoticons run that risk. Although this article introduces some fun new icons such as *\0/* (cheerleader) and //0-0\\ (John Lennon) and B-)(cool), I suggest you play it safe and be deliciate if you use any of these with prospects:

happy

sad

wink

grin

:-/ confused

:-0 surprise