Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship

by Mahan Khalsa

second source of referrals is accessible and often has the contacts we need. They are also usually agreeable to helping us. Yet often, when we call to ask for their help, they agree (because they are polite) and then nothing happens. We need to make these people confident about referring us to their personal or professional contacts.

three has a lot of contacts, yet they are people who are harder to connect with and less motivated to help.

We get more referrals from sources two and three when we: 1. Treat the call asking for a referral with the same, if not more, care and attention as when calling the client. 2. Make it easy for the referral person to take action.

script differently, note that it covers the three common beliefs: 1. There is something worthwhile to talk about. 2. It will be enjoyable rather than painful. 3. Your time will be respected.

What made the difference in this situation was treating the referral source that same way I would treat a client.

you can build a referral network that will turn cold calls into warm calls and put you on the fast track to achieving your sales goals. It is almost always possible to get a referral if you are determined to do so.

High Risk Five. Some common errors that occur here are: • Lack of preparation • Last minute rehearsal • Monologue vs. dialogue • All about us • Too long and detailed • Not compelling

Nowhere in the sales process do a few minutes of dialogue more quickly determine whether we continue or end our relationship than the initial interaction.

steps to help make practice lead to successful and effective execution. 1. Begin early. It almost always takes more time than you expect to get it right. 2. Write it. Writing a meeting plan takes some time. However, it takes far less time to write a meeting plan than it does to pursue numerous low probability opportunities. Writing and executing a meeting plan will very likely help you to: • Exit low probability opportunities early. • Shorten the sales cycle. • Increase the win rate. 3. Say it out loud. Often what we write seems to flow and make sense, until we actually say it. Practice your script until it flows freely and naturally; ideally, practice with another person. 4. Visualize success. Have a successful call first in your imagination and then with the client. Imagine yourself talking with the client, either on the phone or in person, and pay close attention to what success looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Right before your actual meeting, re-create the look, sound, and feel of success. Begin the meeting with that state of mind and body. Visualize your success and you are likely to experience it more often.

in an opening statement we want to: 1. Connect personally. 2. Be clear about the purpose of the call. 3. Quickly create some curiosity or interest. 4. Transition to inquiry.

While we would like to do business with you, if it’s not in the cards—no harm done. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you today. Does that fit your sense of what you would like to accomplish?

four key elements to pre-positioning. 1. Agreeing with the client on the End in Mind for the meeting. 2. Gaining an agreement that the agenda for the meeting is appropriate, complete, and, if covered, would actually enable them to execute the End in Mind. 3. Outlining what the client could do in advance to be well-prepared for the meeting. 4. Requesting information in advance that you might need to maximize the time.

Working together, this sales cycle was successfully executed in fewer than sixty days. This was possible because we: 1. Prioritized our list of prospects, which allowed us to pursue fewer opportunities and do them better. 2. Prepared a highly relevant business case hypothesis, based on an in-depth knowledge of the company and people we met with. 3. Personalized our approach by gaining a referral to the key stakeholder. 4. Practiced our Meeting Plan as a team well in advance of our call and meeting. 5. Pre-positioned our agenda prior to the meeting, so that the time we spent together was well used.

Hints for Asking Effective Questions • Ask for permission to ask questions. • Ask one question at a time; wait for the answer. • Reward the response, then ask your next question. (When appropriate, use the client’s words from their questions: it’s a powerful reward.) • Be cautious of leading questions (questions designed to get agreement, not information or understanding). • Be aware of when “how” or “what” works better than “why.” • Summarize: Did I get it right? Did I leave anything out?

Hints for Effective Listening • Listening is a matter of choice and concentration. Choice: You must choose to listen actively. Concentration: Focus your complete attention on the other person. • Focus on the client’s answer, not on your next question. • Be aware of and Lower your internal dialogue. • Listen with your ears, watch with your eyes, sense with your intuition the real meaning of the client’s communication. Is there a difference between what was said and what was meant?

Opportunity 1. What are all the issues the solution is intended to address? Quick List 2. What lets you know it’s a problem? Problem Evidence 3. How much is this costing your organization? Problem Impact 4. How will we know we are successful? Results Evidence 5. What is the payoff if success is achieved? Results Impact 6. Who or what else is affected? Operational Context 7. What is the big picture? What is important to understand about your organization as a whole? Organizational Context 8. What has stopped your organization from resolving this in the past? What might stop your organization from achieving these results in the future? Constraints 9. Did I get it right? Did I leave anything out? Summarize

Resources 10. When are you hoping to get started on this project? Time 11. Do you have any thoughts about how we should divide efforts between your people and ours? (Look for a rough percentage: 70/30, 80/20, etc.) People 12. Have you established a budget for this project? Money

Decision Process 13. What are all the steps your organization will have to take to make a good decision in its own best interest? (Make sure yes or no is an okay outcome.) Steps 14. What decision gets made in each step? Decisions 15. When will each step take place? (You want at least a tentative date.) When 16. Who gets involved in each step? (Make sure it’s complete.) Who 17. How will the decision makers decide? What criteria will they apply? How Find out the how directly from the who. 18. How will decision makers decide among alternative solutions? Competition 19. Who stands to gain or lose if this solution is adopted? Gain/Loss 20. How committed are you personally to resolving this issue? Personal Stake

“Never Do Something for Nothing” redirection: • Define success: What specifically is needed in the future to make a good decision, and what are their success criteria for those actions/information? • Verbally walk into the future: give them the ideal of what they want and ask, “Then what happens?” • If the End in Mind decision is not “what happens,” something is missing. What is it? • Clarify what needs to happen to get to a Yes or No—and No is okay.

no need to eliminate nor conceal self-interest—only to align your self interest with theirs.

“four Vs”: Verbal: the actual meaning of your words Vocal: how you say the words Visual: how you look when you say the words Visceral: a gut sense by others that you mean what you say—which is heavily influenced by the other three Vs.

The single largest determinant of profitability in service businesses is account retention. . . . It also applies as much to product companies.”

1. Be Proactive. Salespeople are famous for having excuses—there are many reasons outside their control to explain why sales aren’t as good as expected or desired. Being proactive encourages us to take responsibility for what we can control, to increase our response ability

focus on results, not excuses; focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do.

Begin with the End in Mind. This habit suggests that we clearly and deeply understand what is truly important to us, what we value most. We can then assess if our activities and thoughts bring us closer to, or farther from, our life priorities.

5 percent of activity that would most likely generate 95 percent of the desired results?

“Six Rights”: 1. The Right Processes 2. The Right Structure 3. The Right People 4. The Right Information 5. The Right Decisions 6. The Right Rewards

We recommend the body of work by Fred Reichheld, in particular The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth. The ultimate question is, “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a colleague or friend.” The answer to this question drives what Fred terms the Net Promoter Score: “Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories. Promoters are loyal enthusiasts who keep buying from a company and urge their friends to do the same. Passives are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who can be easily wooed by the competition. And detractors are unhappy customers trapped in a bad relationship.” NPS is calculated by subtracting detractors from promoters. The idea of running your business to create net promoters is completely aligned with the selling process of Helping Clients Succeed. This book and process are also an excellent fit for creating referrals on purpose.