Category: Articles

Uncovering A Prospect’s Budget

File this under … Qualifying 101. The simple fact is, unless your prospect has the money needed to invest in your product or service … they ain’t much of a prospect. On top of this, you may have several product/service options available and, while everybody wants champagne, some can only afford beer.

I have consistently found two challenges associated with the budget discussion …

  • Salespeople are loath to even ask the question
  • Prospects are even less excited about sharing the answer

In many cases, salesperson fear is due to the fact that talking about money might be uncomfortable for both them and the prospect. Maybe it seems too forward. Perhaps the question is too early in the sales process. The prospect might say “No”. And, your point is … what? Without that budget you will often find yourself spinning those proverbial wheels. Continue reading “Uncovering A Prospect’s Budget”

Sales Tip – Clarify and Confirm

This will be the first of, hopefully, a weekly post devoted to short and simple sales tips. Where appropriate, we will also sneak in references to how this will apply in social selling situations. Thanks for visiting!

We’ve all been here. You ask a salesperson a question and before you have even gotten that question completely out, they are already off to the races answering … something that was not even related to your question. Then they merrily move along to the next part of their pitch. Now, be honest about this. How many of us will stop that person and raise the issue that this was not even remotely related to the question that you posed? The answer is … damn few. More likely, we just walk away and try to find someone who does listen. For our salesperson, this results in an immediate, and unnecessary sales loss. Continue reading “Sales Tip – Clarify and Confirm”

Are You Creating The Opportunities Or Just Responding To Them?

Or, to put it another way, are you proactive about creating deals or do you just sit back on your ___ and wait for the phone to ring? Are you a salesperson or are you an order taker? Sales pro’s are always, one way or another, out prospecting for new opportunities. Yes, I said prospecting.

I had actually set up a draft of this post several months ago (title only) and then had promptly forgotten all about it. Then a couple of weeks ago, one of our NetWorks! Boise Valley members, Justin Tarpley with CableOne Business, pipes up in the meeting and thanks everybody for the general shared leads that people had been providing and indicated that he had actually called on a number of these and had been able to successfully secure their business. I was floored. “Justin, let me get this right. You are actually calling on leads that were not specific referrals for you and you are making sales!!!???” Well, what a novel idea  🙂 Continue reading “Are You Creating The Opportunities Or Just Responding To Them?”

Adventures With Web Hosting – A Customer Service Tale

Over at least the past six months, the performance of my websites has ranged from abysmal to flat out not being able to even access them. On-line chats with the support staff of my web hosting company have always been a nightmare. They read to me from a script and they always lay the blame on my sites and particularly whatever plugins I am using. A couple of months ago I was forced to beg and threaten until they finally agreed to escalate my service request to a higher tier. As it turned out, the server that hosted my sites was under a denial of service attack which they were attempting to fend off. During the battle, my sites were moved temporarily before being brought back on line. Even then, it took 48 hours before they were accessible again from any computer. I was not a happy camper. Problems I get. Poor customer service … I don’t. Continue reading “Adventures With Web Hosting – A Customer Service Tale”

Social Networking For Those Of Us Who Are Not Particularly Social

Does social networking work for those of us who are not particularly social? What about those of us who are private by nature or have concerns regarding privacy in general? Are any of these platforms great places for introverts to hang out? The simple fact is, you can be effective on social networking sites and you don’t have to be particularly social in order to be so.

I know this to be true because I meet or exceed all of the above mentioned concerns. My focus tends to be task oriented. I’m intently private with all those who I am not close to. My cynical nature constantly fuels my privacy concerns. That being said, there is a HUGE difference between somebody who is social on the surface and somebody who is relationship oriented to the bone. Who will be more successful in the long run? The social butterfly who flits from person to person at a party or the relationship-builder who has deep and meaningful conversations with the few? Continue reading “Social Networking For Those Of Us Who Are Not Particularly Social”

Instead Of Whining About Your Networking Group … Dial Up Your ROI

This is going to be one of my “tough love” posts 🙂 Let’s start this conversation by defining ROI. That stands for Return on Investment and not Return on Expense. Who expects a return on an expense (ROE) anyway? I’ve never even heard of that term before. However, every day we make investments with the hope, the expectation, of receiving some form of return. How many of you out there have actually invested in yourself? Invested in your own success? Investing in a networking group, any networking group, in terms of time and money, is exactly that. It is an investment and it in no way should this be confused with being an expense.

Still, I hear this all the time … “My company won’t pay my dues”. Assuming that your compensation is at least partially based on your ability to generate new revenues, I’d have to ask … “Why should they?” Of course, if they do, that’s very nice but, if you can invest $100 (time and money) a week and get $200 back in return and you won’t do it because your company won’t pay for your dues, who’s not the sharpest knife in this drawer? If on the other hand, you are a salaried employee, I would expect your company to pay. Enough said about that. Continue reading “Instead Of Whining About Your Networking Group … Dial Up Your ROI”

If We Were The Lowest Price, You Would Be A Trained Monkey

For the majority of my career, I ran sales teams. I was constantly amused and perplexed by the statement that most, if not all, sales managers have heard over and over again … “I lost the deal because our price is too high!”.

I can only speak for myself but, about the only time that I buy an item based on price alone is if I do not perceive that there is any value associated with paying more. Canned corn comes to mind. I buy store brands. So what do I tell these salespeople?

“If we were the lowest price, I wouldn’t need you. All I would need is a trained monkey to take the orders.”

And, if you could process the paperwork correctly, that would make you a highly trained monkey. Seriously, what are salespeople good for if they can’t properly justify the price we are asking for our product or service? They expect us to be the lowest price and still pay them the highest commissions? Don’t answer that (smile). Here is another one of my favorites …

“There is no honor in being low bid”

Why? See trained monkey. Conversely, there is great honor in being high bid. You have demonstrated that you have a superior product/service and that it presents a better value than that which was offered by your competitors. And regarding your competitors, they have been stunned! They are forced to go back to the barn with the full knowledge that they could not even make the sale based on being the lowest price. How demoralizing is that? Things that make me (smile). Continue reading “If We Were The Lowest Price, You Would Be A Trained Monkey”