Category: Sales & Marketing

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Planning & Management Sales & Marketing

Successful Negotiation: Start Early

A gift for you

One of the key aspects of a negotiation is that both parties leave feeling that they got what they wanted. The hardest aspect of the negotiation is to actually achieve that as there is always a fine line that needs to be found early. How do you find it early? You start the negotiation early.

I’m not saying make phone calls and send emails to get into the head of whoever it is you’ll be meeting with but instead it’s to start the process of understanding what their strategy could potentially be. Once this has been understood you can start to align your negotiation to match with the other member of the conversation.

Always Plan

Some sales people and business people do like to think themselves as master negotiators, they can roll up to a meeting, make their demands and leave with everything they wanted and then some.

Very few of us are like this.

Instead you need to focus on doing research on a whole host of information to better understand the potential for negotiation tactics and ideas.

–          Management team

–          Company direction

–          Financials

–          Recent News

All of these aspects can and will play a vital part in the actual negotiation and the more you understand the more you can understand where, how and why the negotiation takes the route it may take.

The idea of planning is that you can construct the ideal negotiation with a counter to follow, the most important part of doing this is that you can then align your offer with the company, individual or management’s needs. All sales are completed once you’ve understood perfectly the customer’s needs, pain points and have aligned a solution – this is the foundations of a successful negotiation.

Always having a plan A and B gives you the chance you consider your options in every negotiation, having a template that is permanently stored within your memory means when a meeting gets tricky you can fall back quickly onto this “template”.

Plan A and B is also a good way to practice getting ready for the meeting in advance, because you have to understand more you’ll need to spend more time seeing if you’ve missed anything. A Plan a and B 5 minutes before the meeting rarely works in fact it probably wrecks every negotiation tactic out there.

Fear Has No Room

People like to storm out of rooms, smack the table or throw things around during the negotiation process; this isn’t a Hollywood movie so it shouldn’t even cross your mind. The trouble with fear is that we naturally experience it when rejection seems inevitable, let’s face it leaving a negotiation without matching your terms is always going to feel like rejection.

If you’ve initiated the negotiation/meeting then you need to focus in on a win-win strategy that won’t encroach on the line of “defeat”. Again this refers to the idea that if you’ve done your research and planned early you’ll understand the company and the individuals direction helping you align and create the perfect negotiation that means no one has to leave feeling a sense of remorse.

The main point of this whole article is that you need to be prepared early, if you do that then you eliminate the fear that sets upon you pre-negotiation and it gives you the best opportunities to create a win-win situation. Few can master the strategy and a lot of the times they’ll leave with either a feeling of remorse or with a bad reputation of pushing and “wounding” the other party. First things first the person opposite you should never leave with buyer’s remorse or anything closely associated with the feeling, it’s incredibly bad for business.

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Sales & Marketing

Sales Follow-Up Calls – “I’m Just Touching Base”

calling

Article Contributed by Marius Fermi

That phrase ‘I’m touching base’ is like the awkward moment you try to engage in a conversation with someone on a night out. You know why you’re there but the other person doesn’t care.

It’s down to you to have a reason, be confident about that reason and make sure everything is clear as to why you have just decided to ‘touch base’.

So here’s  a run-down of what to say instead of generic phrases;

  • “Hi Mr/Mrs X, (general chit chat). When we last spoke we discussed your need to have our service going ASAP but obviously wanted to determine the benefits for you. So let’s set up a time and date that suits you to have a meeting and we can start saving you money right away.” – Remind your client that what you are offering is something of true benefit to the company. If it greatly reduces the price or improves on efficiency then most people are willing to listen. As always prepare with some research to identify key features only a market expert in their industry would know.
  • “ Mr/Mrs X, it’s always hard to leave the comforts of something you have used over and over, but I’m sure switching over to this would be of huge use for you. The best thing to do is have a look at this (blog, slideshow, ebook, podcast etc). If we can set up a time and date to meet that would be great.” – Many small businesses will fall into fear of leaving something they are used to simply because it’s a scary world out there with the big players. Education is essential so explain how it will work and make sure you have case studies at hand, even provide a means of communication with previous customers.
  • “Mr/Mrs X, we have just had a trial run of this (product/service) and it went great. (Case Study) has seen a huge improvement and they have a heap of similarities to your company. Is there any chance you have a few minutes to discuss it?” – The standard phrases ‘you are the first to try it’ are boring and we all know they are usually not true, but having a case study that shows a resemblance to the clients company is a great way to build a relationship and more importantly it makes your client aware of the fact you are actually looking to help them rather then drain them of all their money.

An important aspect of any call is that you have reason for this contact, rehearse what you need to say before the call or just go with the flow – when going with the flow you’re much less likely to include buzzwords and structured sentences that turns the whole conversation into an automated machine.

Some other pointers to consider:

  • People in business generally have no time or at least they’ll tell you so. Within the first sentence of your reason for calling tell them you’ll only be on the phone for X minutes (5, 10, 15 but no more) and have a stop watch.

Sticking to the short amount of time you mention may seem to go against all rules of sales but essentially this is a follow up call, one that has to resemble as little intrusion as possible into the world of this very busy person.

  • We all love emails because they offer us freedom of expression, editing and time to answer without the pressures of phonecalls. With your 10 minute follow up call, you’re going to have a reason for the call – details, new products, and general ideas – so mention these but say that you’ll email everything over right away.

Once you’ve got this trust with your customers that a 10 minute call is going to be a 10 minute call, an email of information is actually going to be just that your future phone calls won’t be treated with hostility. The last thing you need is a follow up to be cut short or ignored because of your inability to be quick and concise.

Follow up calls come at awkwardly inappropriate times and many people find it difficult to chit-chat with a sales professional – in order to turn all of these issues around you need to make sure you leave the customers wanting more of your time, but always being there when they call or contact you.

Less intrusion, more structure.

About the Author: Marius Fermi, director of online communications at Tactical Sales Training – B2B focused sales training and courses. We teach the subtle art of sales with next day results.

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Sales & Marketing

The Fuel that Drives the Engine of Your Sales Success

The Fuel that Drives the Engine of Your Sales Success

It is important to identify the prospects that will have the highest need for your product or service.  These are your best prospects—the ones who are most likely to buy, use, and recommend you and your services.

When you have identified your best prospects and know where to find them, you can use your marketing skills to generate leads that will most likely result in profitable sales. Qualified lead generation is the fuel that drives the engine of your sales success.  The techniques discussed here can keep you supplied with highly qualified leads.

How can you identify those prospects that are most likely to want to hear your message? And, once you’ve identified the profile of those most likely to buy—your TOP 20%—where can you find prospects in large numbers who fit that profile?

Begin with an analysis of your sales over the last year or two.

In your analysis, you look at three things:

1.            Who bought what?

2.            How did you find and sell those customers?

3.            Why did they buy what they bought?

Possessing the right marketing skills is crucial in properly identifying the right kinds of prospects for a company. Smart companies accomplish this responsibility by profiling the top twenty percent of their current customers who typically provide eighty percent of their profits.

Looking for new business is very expensive. Therefore, companies need to avoid the wrong kinds of prospects for them.  Just as it is critical in distinguishing the attributes of the right prospects, a company needs to outline the characteristics that make-up the bottom twenty percent of their customer base. Anybody in business can easily recognize who the complainers, price-grinders, and transaction-oriented clients are. By clearly understanding the bad traits of those bottom twenty-percent, companies can much easier avoid the wrong prospects.

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Sales & Marketing

What Ducks Can Teach You About Branding and Business Success

Of all the mascots I would expect a high-end luxury hotel to have, the lowly mallard duck is certainly not one of them. And yet, that was what greeted me when I stepped into the Peabody Orlando Hotel.

There is an actual story behind the ducks (which is printed on the napkins) but the reality is the story is less interesting than how the hotel has built a brand around ducks.

First, you have the “March of the Ducks” — at 11 am the ducks “march” (or more accurately waddle) on a red carpet to spend the day in a luxurious fountain. This fountain is located in the middle of the hotel and is actually quite a nice place to get a little work done or enjoy a coffee and cupcake (while watching the ducks splash around).  At 5 pm they then “march” (waddle) back to their Duck Palace to enjoy a duck dinner and a “quiet evening” together.

Now the fact they make this an event — with marching music, a red carpet and an actual Duck Master (which is trademarked — yes if you were thinking about hiring a Duck Master for your own Duck March you would be out of luck) is one thing. But the ducks are also front and center to their branding.

There are ducks on the carpet, duck soaps in the rooms, drinks named after ducks, ducks embroidered on the staff’s clothes — the list goes on and on. It’s all quite tastefully done and the ducks are elegantly and subtly woven throughout the hotel’s brand and image.

Now the real question is, of course, is it worth it? Only the Peabody knows for sure but from the outside it certainly appears like it is.

First off, remember where the Peabody Orlando is — it’s in Orlando competing against Disney World (who knows a thing or 2 about branding themselves) Universal Studios and other theme-oriented attractions. Without the ducks, the Peabody would be a very nice, high-end hotel that would be like every other very nice, high-end hotel. With the ducks, now you have your own attraction. Now you have something to talk about.  Now you have something your kids might want to see almost as much as Mickey Mouse.

 

(Now there is another Peabody, complete with ducks, in Atlanta as well. The Atlanta Peabody certainly wouldn’t be in competition with Mickey and company, but I suspect there’s enough other competition with high-end hotels and history that the ducks earn their keep there as well.)

One of the main ways you can successfully market yourself to an affluent clientele is to provide an experience. People like experiences. It gives them something to talk about (or write ezine articles about). And if you wrap an experience inside your brand, you just transformed yourself from a “good” business to something extraordinary. And extraordinary is what gets people to notice, to “take a chance on” if nothing else to witness that experience for themselves.

So, for you, what can you do to create an experience for your clients? And is this something that can be woven into your branding strategy? (And if you can make it unexpected or off-the-wall even better.) Or maybe it was an accident you overlooked at the time — with the ducks Mr. Peabody came back from hunting and was enjoying some Jack Daniels with a friend, when they decided it would be a nifty idea to put the duck decoys in the fountain. Well everyone loved the decoys floating around so now we have actual ducks in the fountain. (See what I mean about how lame that story is? But no matter, the point is they saw an opportunity and seized it — do you have any of those “happy accidents” in your own business you can capitalize on?)

Remember the point of a good brand is to make yourself memorable to your ideal clients. And a great way to make yourself very memorable is to wrap your brand around an experience.

 

Categories
Sales & Marketing

The Fuel that Drives the Engine of Your Sales Success

fuel

It is important to identify the prospects that will have the highest need for your product or service.  These are your best prospects—the ones who are most likely to buy, use, and recommend you and your services.

When you have identified your best prospects and know where to find them, you can use your marketing skills to generate leads that will most likely result in profitable sales. Qualified lead generation is the fuel that drives the engine of your sales success.  The techniques discussed here can keep you supplied with highly qualified leads.

How can you identify those prospects that are most likely to want to hear your message? And, once you’ve identified the profile of those most likely to buy—your TOP 20%—where can you find prospects in large numbers who fit that profile?

Begin with an analysis of your sales over the last year or two.

In your analysis, you look at three things:

1.            Who bought what?

2.            How did you find and sell those customers?

3.            Why did they buy what they bought?

Possessing the right marketing skills is crucial in properly identifying the right kinds of prospects for a company. Smart companies accomplish this responsibility by profiling the top twenty percent of their current customers who typically provide eighty percent of their profits.

Looking for new business is very expensive. Therefore, companies need to avoid the wrong kinds of prospects for them.  Just as it is critical in distinguishing the attributes of the right prospects, a company needs to outline the characteristics that make-up the bottom twenty percent of their customer base. Anybody in business can easily recognize who the complainers, price-grinders, and transaction-oriented clients are. By clearly understanding the bad traits of those bottom twenty-percent, companies can much easier avoid the wrong prospects.