The first is from Dr. Victoria Medvec, negotiations expert
from Northwestern University and author of the series Nothing Improves Cash Flow and Revenue More Than Reducing Your Sales
Cycle Time. And an important technique to dramatically reducing it is to
use synchronous communication throughout the sales process.
“This starts with NEVER presenting a sales proposal to a
customer without being on the phone or meeting them in person,” notes Medvec.
Emailing a proposal to a customer ahead of a meeting doesn’t give you the
opportunity to react immediately to potential concerns and objections that
might arise as they read through your proposal.
It has been found that the more time the customer has to
ponder an objection and potentially pollute their colleagues with negative
reactions (or spouse if it’s a business to consumer sale), the more difficult
it will be to move the sales process forward.
Even if the customer is adamant about receiving a proposal
ahead of a physical meeting, suggest it will save them time if you can review
the proposal over the phone and that you’ll email it to them a few minutes
before a scheduled phone call. What you and your sales people want is the
opportunity to see, hear, or at least sense specific objections, as you review
the proposal, so you can react immediately. And then you want to continue to
utilize various communications for the rest of the sales negotiation process
i.e. if a customer emails back a question, pick up the phone and discuss with
them vs. simply emailing an answer back – it gains you more clarity, builds the
relationship, and avoids misunderstandings that come with email.
“I’ve seen this single technique reduce sales cycles from
months to weeks and even to days,” concludes Medvec. Fred Crosetto, CEO of
Seattle Ammex, who has seen his company achieve record revenues the first part
of 2009, is so convinced of the power of this technique that he’s driving it
across his entire company using Medvec’s series.
2.) Pricing with
Confidence
Of the four P’s of marketing (Price, Product, Promotion, and
Place), Price is the only one which directly puts money to your bottom line and
into your pocket. Yet I continually find companies setting price with little or
no strategy behind their decisions. And panicked decisions about pricing in troubled
times can be costly in both the short and long run. For answers, read Reed
Holden and Mark Burton blog. Pay particular attention to Rule Three in their
book where they outline three simple pricing strategies all firms can use.
Noted Burton in a recent conversation, “too many firms have
gotten caught flat-footed and are using price discounts in a panic to try to
keep demand that is going away no matter what they do. The firms that do this
are creating two very significant long-term problems. First, they are
destroying the integrity of their pricing and the value of their brands.
Second, they are training their customers to negotiate for every last penny
thus undermining their most valuable asset – trusting customer relationships.”
Both of these forces will make it extraordinarily difficult
to bring prices back up when the economy finally does turn. In addition, it
will take much longer to bring prices back up to a level that reflects the true
value of the goods and services being sold.
Burton suggests the way around this is to look objectively
at pricing as a strategic tool that must be managed systematically based on
value, market demand, cost structure, product lifecycle, and firm capabilities.
This view leads one to make decisions on the basis of preserving and gaining
pricing power be it through reducing capacity to match demand, introducing low
price – low value offerings, or making systematic adjustments to price lists so
that list and street prices are more in line.
3.) Multiple Channels
“Place” is one of the other four P’s of marketing. And
research by Neil Rackham, modern sales management techniques, reveals that
companies with more sales channels trump competing firms with less. This means
setting aside all the debate about protecting various territories and giving
your customers as many options for purchasing your product as you can. In the
end, you can’t dictate from whom and how your customers will purchase your
products and services. They all have different preferences and will find
competitors who give them these options.
In turn, it’s up to your various sales channels to earn
their right to distribute your services. If the customer wants high-touch,
value-added consultative help in purchasing your product, they’ll utilize that
channel. If instead, they prefer to “do-it-themselves” then give them that
option as well. Read Michael Masterson and Mary Ellen Tribby book as they
detail how to utilize a dozen different marketing channels for your business. She said, I’ve been visiting with a
Sydney-based entrepreneur who has seen his revenue jump 70%. One key is a
website he’s launched that allows his do-it-yourself customers to purchase
products direct from his factory versus through his normal channels. To smooth
over what could be contentious channel conflict discussions with his agents,
the website does offer a slightly different product line and it trades under a
different name. However, he’s utilizing multiple channels nevertheless and it’s
driving revenue.
4.) Half the
Customers; Twice the Attention
Though a repetition of Neil Rackham’s advice, more than ever
you need to identify your best customers and shower them with twice the
attention.
Chet Holmes, author of Mega-Hit,
drives home this point in Chapter 4 of his book. Holmes, who doubled sales
three years in a row for nine divisions of Charlie Munger’s firm (Munger is
Warren Buffett’s partner), encourages firms to focus on their Best Buyer or
Best Neighborhood and then create a nurturing marketing campaign that touches
these customers 10 to 15 times with educational information. If you’re not
familiar with nurturing marketing, also read Jim Cecil’s book it starts with
doing a thorough job of researching the benefits of your product or service.
For one major roofing company, Holmes’ market research firm found that a large
percentage of the time a roof is replaced when it only needs repaired. In turn,
greater than half of all building maintenance problems emanate from problems
with the roof. Armed with this research,
the company structured an educational campaign that reached out to the owners
of large facilities every two weeks over a period of months, which dramatically
increased warm leads for the sales team to close.
5.) Web 2.0
The third P of marketing “Promotion” has taken on a new
twist given the power of the Web to reach customers. Given the confusing array
of terminology and options, read David Meerman Scott’s best-selling book. The
title itself gives you a flavor for the array of inexpensive promotional
opportunities available to a growth firm. And his book is the first to explain
the options in a way that non-tech growth company executives can understand and
implement.
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