Research… just one word… just one action… just a little bit of time… and it may well be the difference that makes the difference between winning and losing. For all that know my views on sales management and pipeline management in particular… will know there are only two outcomes in sales… win or lose. If you don’t win then you’ve lost. It’s that simple.

The last thing you need to do and it’s the very last thing you need to do in this current economic climate… is to kid yourself that you are better placed with your deals then you really are… and percentage forecasting… factored pipelines… and blindly following the sales process… are all designed to kid you… to fool you… to lull you into a false sense of security. Percentage forecasting is like building your house on a foundation of sand… it can come down collapsing all around you at any point in time.

And speaking of foundations… the foundation of a solid deal is the research you put in at the very beginning and the continued research you do during the whole sales process. I am always amazed at how little research many so called sales professionals put in… they turn up and do a product pitch hoping they strike lucky. Well, there’s not much luck around at the moment and so all your deals need a solid foundation.

So where do you start? The prospect’s web site is always a good place. The larger the company, the larger the organisation, the more information you will find on the web site. If it is a listed company then you will find lots of information. If it’s a private company then there will still be information around. Public Sector organisations… particularly public facing ones will also publish lots of information on their webs sites. I have even found complete board minutes for some of the hospitals that I have researched… these minutes tell everything you need to know.

Another useful place to look is services such as LinkedIn. Not only will you be able to find people on LinkedIn who currently work for the organisation, but they now also have information about the company as well. You are selling to people, not organisations, so getting some background on who you are dealing with is very useful. Some people almost put their full CV up on LinkedIn!

Google Alerts… how many of you use this free service. Set it up and anything that is in the news, on a blog, press release, etc for your chosen subject could be sent to your email… which means it does the research for you and delivers it on plate! All you have to do is read, take note and if necessary act!

So what do you want to do with your new found hoard of information? Well, you need to use it to find ways of getting hold of the one thing every single CEO in the world is trying to keep hold of at this moment in time… cash. Cash is the one thing hard to come by at the moment. Companies used to be able to go to the banks and borrow some to fund their capital expenditure and working capital requirements, but no longer… it seems the banks also want to hold on to their own cash and are not lending… and it has just come to light, in the UK at least, why they are doing it… to pay themselves massive bonuses… which they truly deserve for doing such a fine job in killing the economy.

Meanwhile, Mr or Mrs CEO has to conserve their cash and therefore if you want some you need to link it to something on the CEO’s agenda and most notably that will be to do with some business issue or other… and that’s where the research comes in.

When doing your research there are 3 little words to that are most important to remember and apply… behaviour follows intention… and I may well post about exactly what I mean and how to apply it another day… meanwhile start the research.

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It’s all very well talking about the theory of customer care, but you learn from experience and so let’s talk about it in practice and use a real example… of how not to do it.

There’s a lot of talk going around about a recession… banks playing up, people losing their jobs, governments buying banks, car makers wanting loans from governments, banks not loaning to each other, consumer spending down, house repossessions up, house prices falling… I could go on… generally things don’t look all that bright… attracting new customers may become a tad more difficult than it was before… so keeping hold of existing ones may be a good strategy… perhaps customer care is important after all.

So where does customer care start… at the bottom or the top the organisation? If staff morale is low do you get the right level of customer care? Is it important that the organisation looks after its staff just as much as it looks after its customers? If a company doesn’t seem to care about its staff how well will it look after its customers?

Let me give you an example of excellent customer care… British Airways… the world’s favourite airline… as they like to be known. Staff are pleasant, helpful and go out of their way to help. The lounges are exclusive, clean and relaxing. The food is good, the wines excellent and upgrades are often given… you want to fly with BA just in case you get one of those free upgrades. It is certainly what I do and have a BA gold card to prove it. But… alas… I feel I am day dreaming back to the 1990s. Back then BA was a well respected British institution that lived up to its self proclaimed status as the world’s favourite airline… but… alas… I fear no more.

I used to do a lot of flying in the 1990s… too much… so when it comes to flying I do believe I can recognise good service when I encounter it. I do believe I can recognise people who have a genuine interest in their customer. I am sad to say that I have been doing a lot less encountering and recognition lately. Admittedly I try not to fly and no longer have my gold card, but I still have my memories and things are not what they used to be. Perhaps with the advent of the no frills airlines, standards have been allowed to slip. Perhaps having a great British airline is no longer desirable.

Whether having a great British airline is desirable or not, BA still needs customers. So, caring for your customer should work for customer retention. Whatever the business making sure your customer has a good experience is important and never more so than in the service industry. So moving forward a few years let me update you with my latest BA experience and the Rottweiler of an air stewardess I met on the flight back to London from Toronto via St Johns. To say she had little sympathy for the suffering her passengers were subjected to on our horrendous journey back is an understatement… I should have mentioned to her that … “I have paid money to be on this flight, unlike you who are paid to be here”… although I doubt it would have made a difference.

We were diverted because a passenger was taken ill, but we were stranded because BA doesn’t seem able to organise the proverbial party in a brewery…

Did BA do the right thing by diverting?… yes.

Did they know the crew were on limited time and could not fly after a certain time?… yes.

Have BA ever diverted an aircraft before?… yes.

Has an aircraft ever diverted to St Johns?… about 2 or 3 a month.

How long did BA have to get the paperwork right before the crew ran out of time?… at least 3 hrs.

How long does it take to change flight plans?… we did it mid air by diverting to St Johns so can’t take that long.

Did any member of the BA crew stay at the airport to advise passengers on what was happening?… No
Did anyone give proactive advice to passengers about taking duty free back into Canada, about entering the country after your one entry visa has been used, about losing connecting flights in London, about the procedure to get through ticket control when looking to board the replacement flight, exactly when the replacement was due so arrangements in London could be made, etc, etc?… No.

Talking of BA’s organisational skills you need look no further than the mess they made of opening Terminal 5 at Heathrow… and who was it that said something like…”it was not our finest hour” and “the buck stops with me” and then two of his directors suddenly left?… but the one where the buck stopped… stayed… along with the what I have seen written as 28,000 bags, 300 delayed flights and plenty of stranded passengers. The compensation offered to stranded passengers was criticised by the UK’s Consumer Watchdog for the Aviation Industry and BA were forced to pay ‘reasonable costs’… which to me, and I may be unreasonable in my assumption, shows just how much BA care about their customers… and in my experience they still have that care less policy.

However, back to the Rottweiler… she seemingly was taking her cue from the man at the top as she didn’t take into account that it was not our fault that she had to be diverted along with her airplane from New York to pick up paying passengers who were left stranded in St Johns in Newfoundland after being diverted due to a passenger being taken ill. Not the passenger’s fault and respectable of BA to divert due to a medical emergency… but you would have thought this was the first time that they have done this… divert… and so ‘clueless’ is another understatement.

So having sat in the aircraft on the tarmac for 4hrs and then after being let off and back into Canada to savour the delights of St Johns for a further seven hours… just waiting for grumpy to pick us up… our mushroom status was complete. Fed bull manure about not being able to complete paperwork and have bags taken off the aircraft while we were on it and then kept in the dark while waiting in St Johns. So when we finally boarded, approximately 12 hours after boarding in Toronto tired, bored and hungry we needed a crew who were a little sympathetic to our plight… not one who considered they were doing us a favour… and not one with grumpy herding us to our seats.

Mistakes and problems do happen, people will get things wrong… it’s what you do after the mistake has been made that sets you apart.

So all appeared to come good when BA wrote to me and said they have given me 10,000 BA miles into my account as way of recompense for their innate organisation skills – I thought this was very generous until I found out that BA Miles are not miles and that you needed at least 500 miles to get down the runway – 10,000 will get you from London to Paris. However, the salt was clearly rubbed in when a few days ago I had circular from BA saying that they will be paying out 5,000 BA air miles to passengers departing more than 15 minutes late… we were 15 hrs late… that means BA owes me 290,000 more miles if they want to compensate on equal terms. The 10,000 miles gesture is therefore more of an insult then actually wanting to retain customers and shows they have learned nothing from the Terminal 5 fiasco… BA… you need to up your customer care program as the old adage… ‘less is more’ does not apply when dealing with customers… unless of course you are trying to lose some.

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You have been eyeing up this girl called Anne for a long time… opps…  I mean you have been targeting this prospective client - Associated News NEtwork (ANNE) - for a long time.

No matter what you have done, up until now she really has not noticed you… um… no matter how many times you have called you have not been put through to the head of all corporate buying decisions.

Then one day you find out that the sister of your best friend is really good friends with this girl of your dreams… actually… you find out that your best customer is a strategic partner of ANNE and knows the head of all corporate buying decisions very well.

With a little hesitation you approach the sister of your best friend and she agrees to talk to Anne to see if she can set up a date… kindly… your best customer agreed to talk to the head of all corporate buying at ANNE and put in a good word for you.

After a little deliberation Anne agreed to a blind date and will meet you in this new swanky restaurant in town… incredibly… the head of all corporate buying has decided to meet with you as the recommendation from your best customer was very compelling.

With a lot of excitement you make your way to the swanky restaurant and during the journey you try and figure out a way to impress the girl of your dreams… thoughtfully… you plan for the meeting with the head of all corporate buying knowing that you only have one chance to make a first impression.

You arrive at the restaurant to find Ann already there and she gives you a nice warm smile that makes your heart flutter with joy… excitedly… you arrive to see the head of all corporate buying knowing the time to impress is near and you are immediately shown to her office where she welcomes you with a warm smile.

Soon, you are both shown to the best table in the swanky restaurant and you take the time to introduce yourself while starting to sum up the courage to impress… apprehensively… you walk to the meeting table in this large imposing office and you introduce yourself knowing the time is nigh.

You compliment Anne on the dress she is wearing that fits so well with her warm smile… unassumingly… you compliment the head of all corporate buying on the tastefulness of the office decor.

Anne gives you another warm smile and you ask her how her day has been… unimpassioned… the head of all corporate buying thanks you for the compliment and sits back waiting for you to impress.

Having found out that Anne works with disadvantaged children you ask her what she would do if she found a magic lamp and was the recipient of the incumbent genie’s three wishes… enthusiastically… you begin to tell the head of all corporate buying about the company for whom you work and how they are the market leader for widgets.

Taking the time to actively listen to the heartfelt emotions behind the three wishes allows you to ask many thoughtful and intelligent questions about Anne’s values, beliefs and experiences… oblivious… to the signs emanating from the non verbal behaviour of the head of all corporate buying you continue to talk enthusiastically about the achievements of your company and what you could do for Associated News NEtwork.

Anne is impressed with the interest you have shown, enchanted with the thoughtfulness of your questions and altogether has had a delightful evening, which is why she gives you her number so you can arrange the next date… devastated… you fail to understand why the head of all corporate buying is showing little interest and you seem to be completely perplexed when after having shown her your client list she likens it to a list of sexual conquests that you are asking her to join!

The morale of the story… If you want to impress your prospective client… what are you going to talk about… you or them?

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The current economic climate is going… to coin a phrase… sort out the men from the boys… or the women from the girls.

Those sales reps that, in a buoyant market, have a poor sales record will be down and out in this current climate. Those with a mediocre sales record will look rather poor in this current environment and will equally be down and out if the economy gets significantly worse. However, the good will look even better.

So what’s the evidence?

Let me see… we are in an economic melt down that has seen the flow of money in the economy reduce to a trickle… the banks are wary of lending to each other… consumer spending is being reined back and the profile of the spending is changing… consumers are dumbing down and even stopping the more frivolous purchases. The housing market has stagnated and the values have plummeted… lower house prices have removed the piggy banks from many households… many used to borrow against the increase in house prices to fund their lifestyles.

When consumer spending stops every business will eventually feel it. Look at the drop in the price of oil… consumer demand is down… leading to a reduction in manufacturing output… therefore demand for energy is down… oil price falls… oil company revenues fall.

So, without writing an economic paper the upshot of all this is that companies are going to conserve their cash. Many will still spend, they will spend less and they are going to be a lot more careful. The business case is going to have to be bullet proof. The risk of buying has to be reduced to marginal levels. Trust in the supplier will have to rise to unprecedented levels. The ‘walking talking brochures’ are not going to be able to cope. The good guys will know what to do and will up their game.

If you are a sales rep… there has never been a more important time in your career to differentiate yourself… and you do that by the way that you sell… in fact stop selling rather help the customer to buy… this is the first step to differentiation.

If you are a walking talking brochure – start changing now, or head for the hills… you are on a rough ride to nowhere.

I’ll write more another day about the second step to differentiation.

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A post at last…

Looks like I’m back from the dead…

But I’m not, I’ve not been, nor have I come back from it… just incredibly busy… but the fear of being killed does feature in this post… curious?… then read on!

A few posts ago I mentioned my friend Chris Whyatt and his Eureka moment… well I think I had a similar experience the other day when I was sitting down talking to a sales rep… I finally was able to put my finger on what I now consider to be the underlying quality that all sales reps must have… curiosity.

However, this nice sales rep I was talking to must have thought of himself as a cat… and therefore as a member of the feline society he has obviously bought into the proverb that has lately been attributed to Eugene O’Neill. Basically he wanted to live longer and being devoid of any curiosity was going to help him do just that… and for any doubt the proverb I’m referring to is ‘curiosity killed the cat’… so having no curiosity may well help you live longer… if you are a cat… but it’s not going to help you progress the sale.

It’s not that cat man could not ask any questions, he could, but he did not follow up with any further probing… he just took what was said and recoded it in his note book… ready to play back at any sales meeting he was likely to attend.

I now use the curiosity approach when I’m delivering my training workshops. I’ll open the session by asking the delegates what they know about the training they are attending, what they know about Firstborder and what they know about me… and the response… nothing… nothing is known… and they all failed the first lesson of selling… so please be curious… it’s not going to kill you… unless of course you are a cat!

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There has never been a better time to up your game… up your selling skills. Working harder is not going to be good enough… working smarter is your only chance. Relying on just taking orders is no longer going to cut the mustard… the walking talking brochures are going to find life difficult… and companies are going to be looking to cut costs… with the wage bill being one of the largest, if not the largest bill they have to pay.

If the commission plan is being fiddled with it means the company is looking at the wage bill… after the fiddling comes the direct action… the sales reps at the bottom of the pile will be the first to go… then the ones in the middle will be the next. The reps at the top may also be under scrutiny if the company begins to lose its nerve… they get the feeling they are paying too much for the top performers and so get rid of them and the middle performers can take up the mantel… which they often don’t, unless they can up their game.

Upping your Game

1. First thing to do in upping your game is to be rigorous about the pipeline. You need to show how you are going to make your number. Get rid of any notion of factoring your pipeline and go straight for the binary option – you are going to either win or lose the deal… focus on the ones that you believe you can win. See the Buying Process and download a copy of Focus… understand it, apply it and you may find it is the best decision you have ever made in your selling career. Managing you number is a personal thing… as personal as earning commission.

2. Second thing you need to do is apply rigorous qualification. Selling is not a game, it’s a serious business and unless the customer can show commitment… unless the customer will give you access to the right people… unless the customer will be open with you… move on, don’t waste your time. You have to take religion out of selling… that is holding your hands together and looking up to the sky and praying the customer will buy… it don’t work no more. See our Qualification Analysis.

3. All buying decisions have to be linked to a good business case… if the business doesn’t see the value… if the business is not going to get a massive return… then it’s not going to be funded – simple. You can’t leave it to the customer to create their own business case… you have to work with them to make sure it is rigorous.

4. Having the business case on its own may not be enough… you have to create the sense of urgency for them to buy… discounting won’t do this… the imperative has to be linked to the business case. See our Business Imperative Analysis.

5. You have to sell on value. If you don’t understand you value how do you expect your customer to understand it? In my experience most companies totally under whelm their customer with their value. If you can’t take the time to fully understand your value and then articulate it to your customer with passion, excitement and belief you won’t be around for much longer. Whatever you are going to say to your customer about your value write it down on a piece of paper first… look at your statement and then ask ‘so what’. So why should your customer get excited? If your statement does not pass the so what test then you have not fully articulated the value.

6. You have to sell high and wide. You have to create sales momentum within your customer. If you cant’ get to see all the people you need to see then are you in control. If you talk about the customer’s business rather than your solution then will have a better chance of getting to the right people. The people you need to see will be the Commercial, the Business and the Technical people. You need all three groups to sign off before you can get the deal… working with just the technical people will not get you the deal.

Something that will help

Last but not least… if you have read this post and get to this point then I will be prepared to help out by giving a free copy of Focus to the first 50 people that send me a request to talktous@firstborder.com. Download Focus from our site and sen me the email… I’ll send you a full activation key. Focus is a personal pipeline tool that is very quick to update and very visual. I will also arrange a free web training session to all those that are interested in participating… and you should also download a copy of The 15 Second Sales Review.

So in summary… focus on how you are going to make your number… binary forecasting, make sure your qualification is rigorous and therefore take religion out of selling, link what you are doing to the business case and create the imperative to buy, develop your value proposition and deliver it with passion and excitement and last, but not least make sure you are talking to all the people that are in the process.

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I’ve not posted for awhile… business has taken its toll with my time… and I’m just about getting back into putting up a post or two and to start the ball rolling I thought I would share the 3 sales strategies that I see out in the big wide world of selling.

Spray & Pray
I’ll start with the strategy that is used by people who are most sales skilled challenged… often found in the double glazing, fitted kitchen and the ‘transfer your phone, internet, utilities to us; brigade.

Spray and Pray is practised by those who believe selling is a numbers game. The more you call on the more chance you have of making a sell. They are indiscriminate and often believe selling is about employing some underhand tactic to get you to part with your money.

The good people falling into this category will eventually get bored and move on up the ladder…

…oh and how come these people always call when you are eating your evening meal?

Show & Hope
This group of people are predominately in retail and other product selling groups. They will gladly show you their wares and the good ones will even tell you all about them in the hope that you will see the value and buy something. Estate agents, car sales reps et al fit in to this category. Ever tried selling your house and felt frustrated by the estate agents total lack of selling skills who after not being able to sell the property believe the price is too high… do you believe for one minute they would ever think it is the lack of their skills rather than the price?… and as for car sales reps… wouldn’t know a sales skill if it bit them on the behind.

Involve & Close
The Involve and Close strategy is practised by those who understand selling, in fact they don’t sell they help their customer to buy. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts… Ben Franklin once said… tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I’ll understand. Involve & Close is practised by the enterprise sellers and consultants.

That’s it… a quick post… but although I may well have upset some people in the professions I’ve mentioned… and they are a little tongue in cheek… I believe I have generally got it right… however, there are always exceptions and those punching above their industry skill level will move up the food chain and those punching below will move down… simple!

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If you don’t understand your value… why would your customer?

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Customer Service… two very good words that can often be at the top of the oxymoron list of words that just don’t sit well together… like two supporters of different teams being asked to sit together, in harmony, to watch the match… and to be absolutely clear, my metaphor relates to football supporters watching a derby match… and for those that need translation… football can also be called soccer… and derby is not the town in middle England, nor the horse race that is run annually at Epsom Downs in Surrey which adds to the confusion because Epsom is nowhere near Derby… but to get back on course… the derby I refer to is not the cheese, but an important local competition. Ask Manchester United fans to live in harmony with Manchester City, or Portsmouth with Southampton or Rangers with Celtic… mixing these fans would be like mixing oil and water… it doesn’t work… and neither does customer service in many organisations.

Having used two metaphors in my opening paragraph… the first to help explain an oxymoron and the second to help explain the explanation, I’ve come to the conclusion that customer service is not so much an oxymoron but an idiom. As we all know, an idiom is a term or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions of the words used. For example, we Brits often refer to ‘kick the bucket’ as an endearing way to express the passing of one’s sole to another place… or more bluntly… it is a better way to express the word ‘die’. Now, if you took the literally meaning of ‘kick the bucket’ you would think that people go around doing nothing more harmful than putting one’s foot in contact with a water holding receptacle. Now for those not versed in local language a foreigner to our shores may well get into trouble in wondering why the middle of town is full of people six feet under ground having done nothing more than kick a bucket… and why they are buried with 6 feet when they should only have 2 just further complicates things… and having to explain that a grave yard is not a dead centre and therefore these people may not actually be in the middle of town is just a confusion too far… which is about how I felt today after speaking to customer services at British Midland Airways.

I’m a regular customer of BMI… I might not be their best customer but I try and use them whenever I can. I’ve used them so much in the past that I have lots of frequent flyer points… and now I like to use some of these loyalty points to upgrade from cattle class to mildly acceptable class… they call it club, but on short haul is only just acceptable. However having used my frequent flyer points, my loyalty to the airline puts me in a different class to everyone else. One would think better, but it appears cash still talks and those that fund the whole journey with cash… are king… and those that show loyalty and use their points are trailer trash… which of course, trailer trash… is an idiom, but I think more of American origin than British. An idiom can be thought of as a colloquial metaphor… so origins can be important as we will see later.

It all started with booking on line. Booking on line saves the airline money and generally, when it works, it is easy to do. However, it seems that booking on-line and using points to fund some of the journey does not allow you to reserve your seat. If you pay cash then the system will allow you to reserve your seat. My reservation confirmation sent to me by email says that I can manage my booking on-line… but I still can’t reserve my seat. I therefore call the customer service number shown on my confirmation. I called, had to listen to their on line advert about flying to wherever and then wait in a queue for an agent. The line dropped… I called again and listened to the same advert over again, then went into the queue and the line dropped again. I called a third time and listened dutifully to the advert… which is wasting my time and my call money… and went into the queue, and thankfully this time the line did not drop and after 5 minutes I heard the dulcet tones of someone sitting in a call centre in the middle of India. I explained what I wanted. I had to give the booking reference, my name, the first line of my address, my post code, the full details of my itinerary, my date of birth, by which time I was prepared to give my inside leg measurement, what I had to eat yesterday, the mileage on my car and anything else to confirm who I was. Having gone through all this and wasted 20 minutes of my life I was informed that because I use points I need to call another number. It’s not what it said on the confirmation. This man could book my seats… I know he can… he works for British Midland Airways… he has my reservation details on his screen… but could I persuade him to do it… no… unemotional, uninterested, jobs worth. I now had to ring another number and go through the whole thing again, except this time the dulcet tones had just too much of a local accent to be fully understood and so most things had to be repeated as I strained to work out what was being said. It’s not a pleasant experience speaking with someone you just don’t understand.

So, something that I could have done on-line when I booked the flight, which because I used some frequent flyer points – and cash I may add – I am in a different class of customer and the airline wants to penalise me for my audacity of using my loyalty points and therefore restrict me from booking my seat in the club class cabin. When I pay full cash the system will let me do this. I am therefore forced to pick up a phone and spend a whole day confirming who I am only to be told that the person on the end of the number I was given to call will not book my seats as I am a different class of passenger… one of the unclean who has had the audacity to use their loyalty to the airline points… and therefore I have to speak to someone else who has yet to be trained in building linguistic rapport with their customers and wants all the same information again from me  before they will deal with my request. I got there in the end… but customer service… no it is not, rather customer disservice… and that’s not an oxymoron.

Had a similar experience with customer service?… then add to this post and name and shame those corporations who have more customers than they sometimes deserve.

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If you don’t find what you are selling exciting or compelling… then why should your customer?

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