Finding People Online is Not the Same as Closing a Sale

 

finding people online

Have you noticed how it is getting easier and easier to find people online? Nowadays you can find Java developers on GitHub, accountants on LinkedIn, journalists on Twitter and your  neighbour’s cat on Facebook. Everyone is leaving an online footprint somewhere, whether it’s actively pushing content out on Google Plus or just being listed for tea duties at your local church. Marketers, business developers and recruiters are getting increasingly skilled at finding not just your profile and information but also your activity trail that you leave behind when just answering a question or writing up a review.

What does all this mean? Well probably that the challenge for salespeople moving forwards will not be to find and identify prospects, rather to make the approach and win their interest and trust. Branding in all of its forms will come in handy; if a potential customer has seen your LinkedIn status updates (which weren’t just plugging your company I hope) they are more likely to take time and chat to you about opportunities. If you produce blog posts, video or podcasts you have actively contributed and will be seen as a source of information rather than just looking to do the next deal.

Do you agree with me? Please let me know in the comments!

photo by: horsager
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How Not To Make a Sales Call

 
I got a call last week from a woman that sounded like a potential client for Link Humans (my company). She introduced herself by saying her name and company and that she was recommended to speak to me by someone in a meeting she just had. Something didn't sit right with me so I only gave her small tid bits of information. She was asking whether we do work in the public sector and more importantly if we would be interested in doing so, as the spending budgets in this sector are in the billions of pounds. I explained that we are in no position to handle that much business but she persevered.

 

No research before a sales call?

 
The woman on the line then asked more about my company, what we do and our clients. She hadn't bothered to look at our website and she knew pretty much nothing about us, indicating she had done absolutely no research before a cold call  - this may save her time but she loses all credibility. She could easily have googled Link Humans and myself to get a gist of what is going on with a company. I always look people up on LinkedIn for instance before a call or meeting (although I never do cold calling to be fair).
 

Only in it for the quick sale

 
This woman I spoke to had no interest in meeting me, sending me a brochure or even an email. Her job was to close this sale on the phone there and then – classic sales stuff. The trouble is that it will never work in my mind. Business is all about building relationships, not short term wins (unless you are selling widgets on a street corner of course).
 

Knowing where the pushy boundaries are

 
Toward the end of this call I had completely lost any interest in listening to her spiel and simply said "thank you, I'm not interested". When I said this she countered with more questions like "why are you not interested in new clients with millions to spend?". I repeated my statement and she popped out one line after the other. By this time I had put her on speaker and others were listening in and giggling away, something she seemed oblivious of.
 
When a customer says they are not interested, and even repeats this I would recommend quitting for the day. The only way to continue the dialogue would be to ask to send an email or call back later – she did neither of these, only kept pushing with ultra-salesy questions. I sales you typically want to advance a relationship and get it closer to that sale, but you have to take the steps to get there. If you don't have a brochure or a PDF to email over, be a bit creative instead of just firing over more cheesy statements like "so you are telling me you want to walk away from solid new business"?
 

Word-of-mouth is the way forward

 
We will only work with companies and people we have met in person or at the very least have had a number of conversations over Skype. Link Humans typically gets clients through word-of-mouth and I prefer to have been recommended through a mutual contact. Yes, of course we get clients through social media, as it is what we do, but a surprising number of these have another connection to us as well. My point here is that cold calling companies, doing no research in advance and only looking to close an instant deal is simply not going to work.
 

How to deal with calls like these

 
When somebody sounds a bit too nice for comfort, just ask straight away: is this a sales call? When they confirm that it is (they have to), you can simply say you're not interested in anything and cut the call short. As long as you don't know the person is selling, you're wasting your precious time with a call that is leading nowhere. My gut feeling on this call was that it was a sales call but I failed to ask the question early on and wasted eight minutes of my time (and hers!). It turned into a bit of comedy instead and a blog post of course so I guess I shouldn't complain.
 

Conclusion

 
How do you deal with pushy phone sales people? Please share your tips!
 
Still looking for sales tips? How about Creating a Twitter Marketing Strategy instead.
Filed Under: Marketing, Monthly, Rant Tagged With: ,

Story Telling is Story Selling

Before an important business meeting, most people will spend time to prepare answers for likely scenarios and questions. This is useful and can get you prepared for the basics. The trouble is that your counterpart (the buyer) is not looking for answers that are already in your brochure, they want to hear something that adds to it.

You have to realize that a successful sales meeting isn’t a cross examination, it’s a conversation. If you want to break out of the question/answer ping pong match, you should aim to sprinkle in some interesting information about yourself in the shape of stories. People buy from people, and the more you can get the other person to buy into you – the easier it will be to close the deal.

The case for telling stories

If you have ever sat through a competency based job interview, you know how important stories are to convey your message. I say that stories work really well in any sales meeting as they are memorable. Facts can easily be forgotten and mixed up but people tend to remember stories and who told them. The human brain is hard wired to remember stories, not just the words but the visuals that went through the listeners head as well. Marketers make very clever use of stories to sell products and services and so should you.

If you think about it, your whole life you have been told stories in one form or another. Whether it was bed time stories or fairy tales adapted by Disney, whether it’s a French art house film or a detective novel– there is a story there that you will remember. By using stories you will appeal to the human mind, you will create a strong connection with the listener, you will demonstrate your communication skills and finally you will be remembered.

How to tell stories

A story needs to have a clear beginning, middle and end. The punch line will be your result. You don’t want your anecdotes to be too long, aim to be able to deliver the story within 60 seconds if required. There is no need to put more details in there, if it’s an interesting story you can be sure the other person will ask you about it and there is your chance to elaborate.

In order to tell a really memorable story, you will have to make it original. People want to hear about your out-of-the-box way of doing things, your imaginative and clever methods to reach goals. Your meeting counterpart has heard a few stories in their day so make sure yours are special and they will go down a treat.

Make sure you listen first

Another really important aspect to this is to remember to listen to the other person’s questions. Make sure you understand exactly what they are asking and what type of story that would apply. The kiss of death to your meeting would be you going in all guns blazing, churning out story after story when all they asked was whether you wanted coffee or tea. Remember that it’s a sales meeting, you are either selling yourself, a product or a service. You have to put the focus on the buyer and their needs as opposed to your ego.

Call to action

Tap in to the age-old human love of stories, get into story telling mode before your big meeting and you will be interesting, different and memorable. Work on a few different stories that you can fire off at will, making absolutely sure they are relevant to the person listening. The more stories you tell, the better you get – before you know it you'll be the bard of your industry!

More on storytelling in our Personal Branding workshops in London!
 

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