Great advice for all start ups - from experience at many companies, quite a few career salespeople miss a number of the points mentioned here. The value is so easy to extract - we should all be able to let the grammar pass for a man that is taking the time to share - especially where his first language is not English.
What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
31–40 of 78 posts
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#32The bit about cold calls working better than anticipated rings true. I advised a company I help out with not to bother cold calling, because it never works, and was embarrassed to learn a few months later that it had been extremely effective just to have the founder ring random people up. The bit about remembering names, deploying kids names, and talking about football --- that part does not ring true. I've done sale…
The kids and football thing is about building a rapport so the next time that you call they remember you, or will at least take your call. This is important when for example someone may not be buying right now. If they say we will be looking in 6 months time and you only call back in 6 months time they will be unlikely to remember you. If you call them every month by the time the 6 month marl comes around you are speaking to them regularly and may pick up some other business in the intervening period.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#33These tactics work. I purchase technology for an "enterprisey" type company and these definitely help make sales to me.
However, they do not work on their own. There still needs to be a strong value proposition, good fit between the product and the need, lots of technical info to satisfy suspicion and curiosity, a reasonable contract, etc.
What these tactics do is help get the conversation to a place where it can be substantive. I'm busy, you're busy, we're all busy. I'm going to say no, reflexively, to any conversation I'm not initiating or continuing--to anyone I don't recognize.
If someone sounds tentative or scared, if they don't seem to know a thing about me or my employer, if they can't just hold a normal human conversation, I don't know why I would want to talk to them.
Any product or service that is sold by a person is going to involve a relationship. Services and products need training, support, and improvements. The sales person is almost always going to be my champion in that relationship, because they want an easy renewal or upgrade. So if I don't trust the salesperson, it's hard to trust that I will get the support and service I'm sure I will need at some point.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#34At this point I don't answer a call that isn't in my contacts. I sign up for a trial of some cloud service and it is like clockwork, 2-3 days afterwards I get a cold call from someone in sales. It's like they are all following the same playbook at this point and it's ruined the effectiveness of the strategy, at least on me...
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#35If people can get past the poor English (and seriously, his English is much better than my Hebrew!), this is a great little article about salesmanship. I particularly like the bit about concluding with something concrete. That's great advice
I think this pretty much applies to anyone who has to talk to people, and get things done.
I do tech support of complex software for a living, and if something is not solved on a call, then the best way to leave the call gracefully is to itemize and describe next steps.
This applies anywhere you are driving a process.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#36The bit about cold calls working better than anticipated rings true. I advised a company I help out with not to bother cold calling, because it never works, and was embarrassed to learn a few months later that it had been extremely effective just to have the founder ring random people up. The bit about remembering names, deploying kids names, and talking about football --- that part does not ring true. I've done sale…
The kids and football thing is about building a rapport so the next time that you call they remember you, or will at least take your call. This is important when for example someone may not be buying right now. If they say we will be looking in 6 months time and you only call back in 6 months time they will be unlikely to remember you. If you call them every month by the time the 6 month marl comes around you are spe…
I love college sports and I always tried to talk to my interviewers about their schools' teams. I distinctly remember two women interviewers from Oregon, a football powerhouse, who did not appreciate the conversation. Now I just talk about restaurants. Everyone likes food.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#37At this point I don't answer a call that isn't in my contacts. I sign up for a trial of some cloud service and it is like clockwork, 2-3 days afterwards I get a cold call from someone in sales. It's like they are all following the same playbook at this point and it's ruined the effectiveness of the strategy, at least on me...
It still works.
One of the hard parts about sales is understanding that people don't like to be pitched, or intruded on, and balancing that with the fact that the product or service may well be to their benefit!
If you had a good friend struggling somehow, and you knew you could save them a lot of money, time and effort would you not strongly desire to communicate that to them?
And when you are struggling, don't you want answers?
What about when you don't know you are struggling?
That's why the strategy works. Good people will not make the call painful. I have similar experiences to yours with cloud services. Honestly, I'm not sure they always have the best people attempting those phone calls...
One thing highlighted in the article, but not completely expressed is the concept of adding value to the phone call. All the charm and basic human communication is needed to get somebody talking. From there, being able to help them, or give them something of value can often make the phone call higher value. This could be a stat or metric they can consider, or a qualifier. "Are you... ?"
Doing this is important as a few "check in" calls over an extended period of time are actually welcome things in more cases, and when that's true, the sales person experiences a much higher close rate and more happy customers and better relationships. In the example of the qualifier, they make think on it, and realize "Yes! That's us." When you call back, they share it, and a sale begins.
They (better sales people) get that, because they took the time to understand something of who they are talking to and that gives them the ability to make good use of that understanding, which is seen by the person being talked to as a reasonable, valuable thing.
I did this in my past, and reached a point where I would make a quick call, and they were nearly always, "catch up" calls. Take 5 minutes and find out what is new on both sides, exchange some news, etc... and then get to it, whatever it is. Over time, increasing numbers of those people would actually call me when it became time for them to buy. They remembered the nice person who didn't just pitch them, instead expressing meaningful interest and understanding.
Begin the week, "catching up on the people who seem like they could benefit from whatever it is", follow up on anything resulting from that, and contact "new" or "cold" people to fill in gaps. This kind of cadence brings you a growing list of familiar and increasingly well qualified people, which is what you need to build sales. Some people flip it too. Begin the week with all the follow ups, do new calls, interleave with familiar "catch up" or "check in" type calls to ease the pain of new calls, etc... Doesn't matter. What does is the regular, meaningful and consistent contact.
Done well, that interest and understanding IS THE PITCH, because the product of it is a rational conclusion that a purchase, or no purchase makes sense. That bit is missing from this quick write up.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slightly offtopic, but in English it's called Persian, not Farsi. You probably wouldn't say "my Deutsch is worse than my Francais".
Really? I worked for an Iranian-American for 2 years, and my aunt 30 years in the state department stationed in various locations in the middle east—both refer colloquially to Farsi. I don't think it's in the same category as French and German.
According to this it is:
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#39At this point I don't answer a call that isn't in my contacts. I sign up for a trial of some cloud service and it is like clockwork, 2-3 days afterwards I get a cold call from someone in sales. It's like they are all following the same playbook at this point and it's ruined the effectiveness of the strategy, at least on me...
It still works. One of the hard parts about sales is understanding that people don't like to be pitched, or intruded on, and balancing that with the fact that the product or service may well be to their benefit! If you had a good friend struggling somehow, and you knew you could save them a lot of money, time and effort would you not strongly desire to communicate that to them? And when you are struggling, don't you…
Oh I believe it still works. I can feel the psychological effects when someone is persistently trying to sell me. It may manifest as guilt, annoyance, or for the genial ones a desire to help them out.
My favorite failure though was when one sales guy sent me an email asking for another colleague's contact info because maybe I wasn't "in the position to make the decision." Ballsy but boy did that backfire on him.
Re: What I’ve learned from sitting next to a pro salesman
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It still works. One of the hard parts about sales is understanding that people don't like to be pitched, or intruded on, and balancing that with the fact that the product or service may well be to their benefit! If you had a good friend struggling somehow, and you knew you could save them a lot of money, time and effort would you not strongly desire to communicate that to them? And when you are struggling, don't you…
Oh I believe it still works. I can feel the psychological effects when someone is persistently trying to sell me. It may manifest as guilt, annoyance, or for the genial ones a desire to help them out. My favorite failure though was when one sales guy sent me an email asking for another colleague's contact info because maybe I wasn't "in the position to make the decision." Ballsy but boy did that backfire on him.
That's funny!