If you focus on one thing in sales, focus on “proactive pursuit”

Posted in Discipline, Kick in the ass, Lead generation, Sales on April 19th, 2012

I had the pleasure of working with the Kauffman Foundation and their Global Scholars program recently. My favorite part of the entire day was a live cold call one of the scholars made in front of the entire group:

Cold Calling: Marin’s Story

Marin Story Blog Post from Craig Wortmann on Vimeo.

Make some enemies

Posted in Lead generation, Qualifying, Social Media on June 19th, 2011

Making enemies and being “PG-13″ from Craig Wortmann on Vimeo.

Cold calling hot

Posted in Lead generation, Story, Toolkit on June 9th, 2011

When is the best time to cold-call? This is a question that gets asked a lot, and my standard answer is “around the edges,” meaning call early and late and try to catch people at their phones. But the BEST answer comes from a former sales manager of mine, Kevin Higgins, who taught me a lot about selling.

Just before I became a first-time entrepreneur, I worked for a mid-size consulting firm based in Boston. I had decided to take the leap and become an entrepreneur, so with more than a little trepidation I resigned my job (which I loved). The hardest part was telling Kevin, as he was – and remains – the best boss I’ve ever had.

I gave him three weeks notice, and with four days left in my job, I went to see one of my largest clients to break the news. Long story short…I ended up taking a taxi back to the office with a $1.4M signed contract in my hand. I couldn’t believe it. My client had said; “You’re leaving? So what do I do now??” And I said; “DO the damn deal I’ve had on the table!” To which he said; “Okay. Just get me someone who will take care of me…” And that was that.

I brought the deal back to Kevin, and after he congratulated me, he said; “So what are you going to do now?” Thinking that that was entirely obvious, I said; “Take the rest of the day off!!!” Kevin, in a calm voice said; “No you’re not. I know you are leaving us, but with this good energy, you are going to get on the phone and make a bunch of calls.” Of course I thought he’d lost his mind, but I respected him so much I did it. And I’ve never had a day like that. People could FEEL my energy..they picked up on the positive attitude I had, and I booked more appointments (for my remaining team) than I ever had. That’s cold calling hot.

Knowledge, Skill and Discipline

Posted in Frameworks, Lead generation, Teaching on February 8th, 2011

One of the mistakes I made in running my first company, WisdomTools, was to mistake “training the salespeople” with equipping them with the knowledge, skills and discipline they needed to succeed. A training exercise is a skill-building exercise. But too often the newly-acquired skills don’t stick.

It took me a long time (too long, really) to figure out why. When you train, all but the very best trainers are “transactional,” meaning they essentially say; “Do this this way and you’ll be fine.” But that advice doesn’t translate into behavior change. So much of the training we do overlooks the underlying frameworks that provide the foundation for high-performance. One of the frameworks I use to help build sales engines is “knowledge/skill/discipline.” This K-S-D framework allows firms to see that they often over-rely on “knowledge” in the hiring of sales people. Then, once onboard, they default to “skill” development. But then they leave the “discipline” part to chance.

But one thing we know for sure about selling is that the front and back ends of the sales process are ALL ABOUT DISCIPLINE. Making the required number of calls and conversions to fill the top of the sales funnel, and asking for the business at the back end takes guts. And guts require discipline, NOT knowledge.

It’s just like training an elite athlete. A trainer wouldn’t leave “diet” off the table, as it is critical to the athlete’s performance. And what is eating your vegetables? Knowledge? No way. You already know that you should be eating your veggies. It’s discipline. Crunch.

Lead generation – Less said, but sharper

Posted in Lead generation on January 26th, 2011

Step 1 in the sales process – lead generation – is the hardest for most firms. A target is selected…a set of prospects is identified…and now it’s time to talk to them.

Recently, we’ve been helping a bunch of firms make these initial contact with their prospects. This is hard on a good day, but we are finding that success comes from keeping the first statement (we call it the “Sales Trailer”) very very tight. Provocatively tight. “We revive ailing schools.” Or “We turn customer management on its head.” Or ours; “We help firms build and tune their sales engine.” FULL STOP. And this is where we mess up. Usually, we keep talking because it’s impossible to relax into the silence. So we fill the air with “We would like to talk to you about how we evaluate the varying aspects of your business across the following dimensions blah blah yuck.”

So stop. Say your Sales Trailer and stop. Let the prospect react and say; “What does that mean?” or “Go away.” Either one is fine. We are selling, not trying to fall in love. If the prospect doesn’t like your Trailer, thank them and go to the next guy. If they do, then give them the next small chunk (see the next post). Full stop.

Hello Marketing, it’s me Sales

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Lead generation, Marketing vs Sales on January 11th, 2011

Why is there so much confusion around what is marketing and what is sales? On one hand, the true answer is “who cares?” On the other hand, though, I see entrepreneurs make assumptions about sales and marketing that cause them early, costly mistakes. The most common assumption we make is that we need to get our messaging right very early. That assumption causes us to spend too much time worrying about ‘messaging’ (surveys, blogging, website development, materials) and not enough on making direct, one on one contact with buyers. Direct, one on one contact with buyers gives you the information you need to design a message that works, not the other way around.

A rule of thumb you can use to determine if you are reaching all the way to the buyer is whether you are getting objections. Yes, objections. This happens when a buyer says; “Craig, this is really cool, but I just don’t have budget right now.” Or “Man, I’m so busy that this may be something I think about in six months.” But you’re an entrepreneur…you need to make payroll right now. You need to grow your business now. Not in six months. Success is determined by how you handle these objections. This requires direct contact with buyers, not messaging. It’s too easy these days for us to hide behind websites and blog posts and surveys. Sales is the gritty stuff that happens when the message meets the market.

“Sales Trailer”

Posted in Art of conversation, Lead generation, Marketing vs Sales, Sales, Targeting on October 27th, 2009

A “sales trailer” is to a business what a “movie trailer” is to a movie. It’s the short, 30-second piece that draws you in and generates interest. Every business and every sales (and marketing) person should be able to rattle off the company’s sales trailer at a moment’s notice. There’s no excuse for not being able to do this.

The sales trailer answers the question; what problem do you solve? But it doesn’t give the boring technical reasons why this is so. Too often the sales trailer ends up filled with jargon that just clogs and confuses. A mistake that almost all entrepreneurs and sales people make is that we know our product or service too well, and so instead of being concise we toss jargon around like a child in a tantrum.

Here’s a great way to take a time out and stop using jargon in creating your sales trailer: use a magnetic poetry kit to create it. That way, there will be no risk of “phosphate-free” or “API-enabled” leeching into your sales trailer. Just sit down with the kit and a handy refrigerator and go to work.

Sales people need to trust that simple is better and that less is more. If you draw in a prospect with your sales trailer, you will get to the next step. Really. My sales trailer? “We tune your sales engine for high performance.”