June Tip of the Month

With Spring marketing, conference and trade show season in full swing, remember that if you want to turn your leads into sales, DON’T give all the leads directly to your sales reps.

Why & what should I do?

Click here to check out the article that I wrote for more info!

May Tip of the Month

Wanna Turn Leads Into Sales? Don’t give them to your sales reps!

Why? Because 80% of leads that come in are NOT ready to buy anytime soon. They are inquiring.

So What? Let’s look at the make-up of a sales rep:

• Skill: Sales reps are better at closing deals vs. nurturing long term relationships.
• Focus: sales reps focus their time on closing deals vs. nurturing long term relationships.
• Preference: sales reps prefer to focus their time on closing deals vs. nurturing long term relationships.
• Compensation: sales reps are paid when they make sales – not nurturing long term relationships.
• Management Pressure: Managers are focused on what the sales rep closed – not what they are nurturing long term. Now you understand why long-term leads often rot in CRM’s and on desks all over the world.

April Tip of the Month

What should you do when your prospect or customer wants a discount?

The process is simple:

If someone asks for a discount and you are open to it (as it depends on the account), you simply ask them “what kind of discount are they looking for to move forward?”

You will get 2 responses:

a. They won’t tell you but will say “you do your best and come back”

b. They tell you

• They won’t tell you: you tell them that you don’t want to guess. You would love to do business with them so encourage them to tell you. If they don’t, then accept and do your best and hope you win (but your odds are lower).
• They Tell you: you tell them that you will try to see what you can do (unless you know on the stop that it is or is NOT possible) and that if you are able to meet that, you expect the business (said in a nicer way). If it’s not possible, tell them. No sense in discounting a $40,000 to $32,000 when someone only wants to spend $25,000.

Discounting exists but there needs to be a “reasonability” barometer. And .. you are challenging your customer to say .. “if I meet this, the biz is mine”, right? (again, said in a nicer way).

March Tip of the Month

What should you do when your prospect or customer wants a discount?

The process is simple: – If someone asks for a discount and you are open to it (as it depends on the account), you simply ask them “what kind of discount are they looking for to move forward?”

You will get 2 responses:
a. They won’t tell you but will say “you do your best and come back”
b. They tell you

• They won’t tell you: you tell them that you don’t want to guess. You would love to do business with them so encourage them to tell you. If they don’t, then accept and do your best and hope you win (but your odds are lower).
• They Tell you: you tell them that you will try to see what you can do (unless you know on the stop that it is or is NOT possible) and that if you are able to meet that, you expect the business (said in a nicer way). If it’s not possible, tell them. No sense in discounting a $40,000 to $32,000 when someone only wants to spend $25,000.

Discounting exists but there needs to be a “reasonability” barometer. And .. you are challenging your customer to say .. “if I meet this, the biz is mine”, right? (again, said in a nicer way).

February Tip of the Month

Disengaging with dead prospects. Every day I see pipelines full of opportunities that are going nowhere. But the sales rep keeps chasing & defending. Try this instead: If there has been no response to any emails or phone calls, send them a “disengage email”. Tell them that at this point you are going to assume that xyz is NOT a priority for them right now and if that changes to get in touch with you when they are interested. Those who are interested will likely feel bad and respond. Those who are NOT interested, will be glad.