Think about those critical business skills that really matter.

Not how to read a P&L or sandbag a budget.

But the real-life interpersonal skills that helped you succeed with customers.

Things like:

• Introducing yourself to customers at a trade association lunch
• Proper etiquette at a dinner meeting with customers
• Working the room at a formal cocktail party
• Getting customers to like you

These skills aren’t taught. You had to learn them yourself, tossed into the pool without water wings.

Yet these skills are important because they all begin relationships between you and customers. And who doesn’t need customers?

Getting customers to like you

Leading sales trainers (Jeffrey Gitomer for example) teach sales people to help customers buy.

And buying is based on customers trusting, respecting and, most importantly, liking you as the salesperson.

Liking you starts in the blink of an eye

That first impression you make on customers, in person, face to face sets out a path for your future relationship.

Liking you literally starts with customers in a blink of an eye.  Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking calls it thin slicing and it occurs within the first two seconds. In psychological terms it means making sense of a situation based on the thinnest slice of experience.  It’s not right or wrong, it’s just the way things are.

In sales terms, customers are assessing whether they’re going to like you in the first two seconds upon meeting you. In this rapid cognition customers know a lot about you. Most likely whether they’re going to like you, trust you, respect you.

Since getting customers to like us is important in selling, and customers assess whether they’re going to like us in the first two seconds…

Why aren’t we taught the basic skills so crucial to success?

The genesis for this post came from a friend of mine who’s also an extremely successful, high-performance saleswoman. She felt these skills weren’t being taught today because they were a generational legacy – left overs that are seen as old fashioned and out of place today.

However she didn’t feel that way. With her sons, she intentionally taught them to be comfortable in business settings. Starting when they were 6 or 7 years old she prepped them at home and then practiced in the real world.

When going out to dinner one of her sons would order the meal, ask questions of the waiter about the menu, or make other requests.

She brought her sons to the annual sales award presentations, black tie affairs. In advance they were taught good questions to ask someone they’ve just met, and what not to ask. During the event they went out on their own and struck up conversations, met people, and learned a lot.

She even taught them how to shake hands and make that first connection to someone they’ve just met. A skill that made them aware of others poor efforts at shaking hands.

Her efforts have paid off. Now that they’re college aged young adults they’ve thanked her for that early teaching and experience. It gave them confidence in business settings and will help in their careers as they move forward.

The business benefits from these skills

There are always the inevitable sales situations of customer lunches, business social events, and tradeshows. Being comfortable in them is a tremendous advantage for a young adult, or one of any age.

When manners are present, courtesy extended, and etiquette followed, good things happen:

• You help others feel at ease (customers included)
• Customers like you & take an interest in you
• Customers want to be around you, spend time with you
• Relationships begin seamlessly
• You’re accorded credibility & respect

Who wouldn’t want the above when helping customers buy your service?

Do you know how to shake hands?

Of all the things that occur in the first two seconds of meeting someone, shaking hands is likely the most common.

And let’s face it, we judge from that handshake:

• The vice grip…”what’s he trying to compensate for?”
• The clammy fish…”no spine and overly fearful”
• The arm socket wrencher…”you’re the last person I’d buy something from”

As we judge, so do the customers we meet judge us by how we shake their hand. In case your curious about how to shake hands, here’s some guidance from Kevin Eikenberry in Make a Connection: Seven Secrets to Great Handshakes

1. Start with eye contact and a smile.
A great handshake isn’t just about a physical gesture, it is about connecting with the other person. It is a physical greeting and you want to convey your pleasure in greeting the other person. The best way to do that is with your face and your eyes.

2. Go for the thumb.
Keep your hand open and make sure your handshake will be a hand shake, not a finger or palm shake. This means getting the joint of your thumb (the lower joint – the tissue between your thumb to your forefinger) nestled into the joint of their thumb. This allows you to truly have a full handshake.

3. Firm, not strong.
A good handshake is firm but not overpowering. It isn’t the precursor to a wrestling match, and it doesn’t feel like a dead fish. Do you wanted to be handed or greeted with a dead fish? I doubt it! Always make your grip firm, but make adjustments based on the firmness of the other person’s grip.

4. Up and down, not back and forth.
A good handshake has a nice up and down motion, not a back and forth one, as if you were jointly trying to saw some wood. Again, adjust the motion to what seems natural and comfortable to the other person.

5. Adjust duration.
Some people prefer a long handshake, others prefer them much shorter. Observe the other person and adjust the duration to the situation, how well you know the person, and what seems comfortable to them.

6. Consider your left hand.
While it may not be appropriate in some cultures, I often use my other hand to grasp the other side of the person’s hand or to touch their arm. This gesture makes the handshake warmer and more personal. When I am trying to convey those feelings I include my left hand as well. You might consider doing that too.

7. Close with eye contact and a smile.
If the smile and eye contact hasn’t continued throughout the handshake, finish it out that way.

It may be too late for you, but…

Consider teaching your children these interpersonal skills, help them be comfortable in business settings and ultimately more successful in their careers.

If you have sales people from Generation X and the Millennial Generation, consider making teaching resources on these skills available. As they begin to understand more about customers and selling, they’ll recognize these skills as relevant, useful and essential.

Counter-intuitively, the absence of manners, courtesy and etiquette today make them even more noticeable when they are performed. Stand out from the competition, be polite and confident. Now there’s an idea.

The benefits to business, customers and your personal experiences are worth the attention to them.

From the first day you started service you’re a potential victim of incumbent-itis.

As you work diligently towards “wowing” your new client, you’re also on the road towards the first rebid.

And there will be a rebid.

There always is. In most cases there has to be because of procurement requirements. Or, over the years customers simply begin to feel it’s time for a change.

But you’re busy. You’re very busy:

• Delivering on your service promises
• Continuously improving your quality
• Responding to customers ad hoc changes & requests

You’re busy.

Then out of nowhere comes a slight whiff, a faint rumbling, a vague rumor your contact passes on to you. Yes, it’s true. Procurement is preparing to rebid your contract.

My contract? The one I’ve busted my backside to serve. Yup. Procurement has the bid process in their teeth. It’s cued up and in process. As soon as the RFP is sent out to bidders Procurement will drop the cone of silence around your contact. You won’t even be able to pick their brains for rebid insights. It’s too late.

Too late to do those things you wanted to do but didn’t have the time. Too late to position yourself against the oncoming competitive wonder promises. It’s too late to:

• Introduce that innovative new technology
• Share cost reductions realized from productivity gains
• Publish your successes to the upcoming decision makers

Now you’re faced with the dilemma of either proposing new ideas before the RFP process (trying to demonstrate your worth) or holding back those great new ideas to include in your rebid proposal.

What’s the answer?

Plan for the Inevitable

Begin working your rebid process before Procurement steps in. This means working backwards from the contract term date. You know when that is because you’re the incumbent.

Start 6-9 months before your contract expires, earlier if the contract dollar volume is large.

Pre-bid Goals

The goal is to avoid the rebid if possible. Ideally proposing a contract extension, possibly with incentives of cost savings or avoidance and/or additional value-added services.

If that isn’t possible and the rebid is going to happen, seek to:

• Raise your visibility internally among potential decision makers beyond your direct contact (i.e. Procurement, Safety, Legal, whomever is likely to be part of the decision team)
• Publish quantitative achievements (i.e. productivity increases, quality scores, etc.) during performance review meetings
• Include examples of your innovation, flexibility & responsiveness in performance reviews
• Provide examples of your continuous improvement, specifically process improvements in your service delivery

Save Some Thunder

Identify a number of “wow” initiatives and save the highest profile ones for the upcoming bid. Again, this is only if you’re unable to avoid a rebid process.

You’ll need to have enough “wow” factors to show your customer that they haven’t seen everything you can do. That you’re still bringing innovations and new ideas to them.

Avoid the “Why Didn’t You” Trap

Sometimes incumbents feel they can’t propose new ideas in the upcoming rebid. They believe their customer will ask them “why didn’t you provide that idea before?” Maybe your customer will ask you that, but they’re the ones putting your contract out to bid.

Of course you’ll have to answer their “why didn’t you” question, but only after you’ve made the short-list and are already moving towards reselection.

Once the contract is out to rebid, you, as the incumbent are freed up to address this as a new opportunity. It is a “request” from your customer for a “proposal”. This is the incumbent’s license to wipe the slate clean and get creative. Take advantage of that. Better to be seen as “out there” rather than being ignored as “same-old, same-old”.

Good luck. Rebids are a roller coaster, hopefully you enjoy the carnival. For more insights see “Would You Rather be Barbarian or Duck?“

From the media’s perspective the economy is a very frightening animal. Fear-inducing articles sell ad space.

So their perspective is often short-term, the immediate take on last month, quarter, or year. Keep the fear factor up and so goes ad revenue.

Until one looks at a more historical view, which is what “The Recession Dating Game” by Michael Boskin does. He presents a longer term perspective on the economic situation and puts it in historical context.

Evidently recessions are never straightforward affairs. There’s always ups and downs, and ups and downs again. That’s normal for the abnormality of recessions and recoveries.

While things are definitely not so good now, they’re likely not as bad as the general media hype.

What’s this mean for Sales, Selling & Salespeople?

Whatever you’re prospects are feeling in this economy it’s likely to be around for a number of years. So here are four “B”s that might help you stay sane, maybe even increase your success.

#1 BE Aware of Changes in Buying Behavior

What’s changed about the way your prospects are buying your service in this economy?  How has their behavior changed because of what appears to be a long, slow recovery? Are they:

* Taking longer to make decisions?

* Highly price sensitive?

* Contracting for shorter periods of time – 1 year instead of 3 year contracts?

* Procurement involved in every bid?

Whatever these changes might be, they’re your new sales reality. Recognize and adapt to them, whether it’s a re-honed message or different approach.

And with your changes, still hold true to universal, timeless truths (WIIFTP: what’s in it for the prospect?) and your personal values (you’ve still got ‘em right?).

#2 BE Focused on a Plan

Have a long-term plan (1 year minimum, 3 years is probably too far). Plans provide gravity, emotional stability and personal fortitude. They make us feel as if we have control over something, and that’s a good lie to live with.

Don’t have an individual sales plan? Here’s a free one in “Sales Plan-o-rama“.

#3 BE Flexible in Approach

Seems contrary to #2′s having a plan, but a plan requires you to spell out your approach in a strategic way.

#3′s Being flexible in approaching prospects is tactical. It’s what you’ll do on a particular day. You start from your plan but now you’re now faced with an alternative. Don’t shun it. Sniff it, ponder it quickly, then act. Maybe it’s meeting prospects in new ways, such as:

* Attending a Sustainability networking event

* Introductions via LinkedIn

* Participating on committees of trade associations

Here’s more info in “Selling in our Millennium“.

#4 BE Topical in Conversation

Prospects’ attention, like ours, is pulled to the new crisis of the moment, whether its the economy, upcoming legislation, emergent threats or latest technology.

It’s the salesperson’s job to connect the relevance of the service being sold – to – the survival and success of prospect’s business.

That’s an easier conversation when it begins (appropriately) with the topic of the moment. The salesperson connects that upcoming legislation, emergent threat or latest technology with an impact on the prospect’s business. Then shows how the salesperson’s service can help the prospect solve their business pains and achieve their goals.

Here’s an article that speaks to the salesperson’s job of making the connection, “The #1 Secret to Sell More Service Contracts“.

Unfortunately, the future of the economy is unclear, but hopefully your selling will continue to be successful. Good luck.

POV is the genesis of customers buying, contracting, managing, and changing suppliers. Of contractors selling, serving, retaining, and profiting from customers.

Can’t understand a customers’ POV? No business. Period. End of story.

Understand how customers view the world, and contractors can:

• Help customers buy
• Make customers look good
• Work on the customers side of the desk (partnering anybody?)

Free Training

Here are a number of past blogs and articles that focus on the customers POV, specifically when they’re buying.

Buying in General

3 Stages of the Buying Cycle: Start here if you’re trying to sell, the PDF download details specific seller activities based on where the customer is in their buying cycle.

Voice of the Customer in the Buying Cycle: You can almost hear them speak (shouldn’t you hear them anyway?).

Crystal Ball

Overcoming Recession Reluctance: NOTE the date, Feb 2008. Wow, got this one right.

Horse’s Mouth

Procurement Talks: An Interview with Microsoft,  Expedia

Procurement Mindset

Selling to Procurement: A look at 2 styles of procurement and how sellers can approach them.

What’s the Right Price for Service?: Hand this to customers/buyers. Help them understand it’s a SERVICE, not a PRODUCT!

Reversing into Darkness: One of my favorites. There’s a great comment from an outsourcing procurement firm, wonderful insight into the buying POV.

Good Luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ & Service Performance

Many sales people feel calling on prospects’ C-suite is like confronting Travis on a bad day. It makes them anxious, sweaty. They’d rather talk to anyone other than the CEO.

Then there’s the fearless but clueless salesperson. The one who attempts ramming their way into the exec office totally unprepared. Of course they’re soundly and forcefully rebuked by the Gatekeeper extraordinaire – the exec admin.

The C-suite is where its at

Many sales people want to first talk with their prospects’ top dog, knowing they’ll likely get referred to the lower level buying manager. That works.

Many sales people want to talk to others in the prospect’s org before reaching up for the C-suite. That works too.

The 6 Gold Keys speaking to the C-Suite

The C-suite is the sales destination for greatest influence whenever its approached. You want to go there.

When that hopeful moment arrives it’s absolutely essential to be prepared. This is true whether it comes through an introduction, or you cold call and luck out.

Here’s the basic research sales people must have if they don’t want end up with egg on their face, nor waste a CEO’s time and blow future chances.

The following must roll effortlessly off your tongue, in your own words.

#1 Knowledgeable about Their Industry

What are the trends, new regulations, technology developments, market drivers, etc. of their industry? This is the water your prospect swims in. You need to know it really well.

#2 Understand Their Issues & Where You Can Help

This isn’t the granular details, but a concise synopsis of ROI, adding to their competitive advantage, enhancing their brand/reputation, improving their performance, lowering their costs, etc.

This forces you to connect your service to their larger overall business issues and goals. Can you do that? Better had.

#3 Prepare for the Questions They’ll Ask

Imagine what a CEO would ask you about. Credibility? Proven results? Referrals they know and admire? Proof that what you’re saying is true? Or is it implementation time? Past failures? Your firm’s R&D investment?

#4 Relate to Their Organizational Role & Responsibilities

The C-level have big responsibilities. Make sure you include those considerations in your preparation, such as SOX compliance, public image, investor accountability, time constraints, community participation, etc.

#5 Have Relevant Case Studies/Examples to Share Right Then

Time is crucial. You’re in front of the highest decision maker. Have those proof materials with you.

Bring only the brief, cleanly produced ones. Leave the 6 page, single-spaced versions at the office. You’ve got seconds. The material has to be eminently skimmable. No in depth reading will be done then, and if not then, likely not ever.

#6 Knowledgeable about Their Specific Business

Obvious. Embarrassing though if you only have a superficial understanding of the CEO’s raison d’être.

In addition to the web, talk to those you know who know about that business. Here’s where lower level initial conversations can help supply that background. Just don’t put off approaching the C-suite with “forever research.”

Summary

Dig for these. Get them down cold. Bring sharp leave behinds. Go for it. After all, the C-suite are only human.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue-IQ

There’s always competition. Those you know about, and those that come out of the woods at the 11th hour.

Isn’t it tempting to tell customers what you really think about your competition?

While giving vent to your innermost feelings may be therapeutic for the moment, successful business lives another way.

Competitive Positioning

Here’s several thoughts for talking about the competition in ways that will help you get more contracts.

#1 Never bad-mouth the competition

Enough said.

#2 Your Strengths Highlighting Others’ Weaknesses

Always present your strengths that highlight competitors’ weaknesses.

Connect the dots so your conversation about your goodness raises questions in customers’ minds about others’ vulnerabilities.

For example:

When you’re major competitor is a large national contractor, one with rigid chains of command and slow to respond, you may talk with customers about:

“You would be one of our largest customers, actually you’d have “preferred-client status”, which we only give to our top 3 customers. That means our President will return your call within 4 hours. It means we have the flexibility to adjust service on the fly as you need it. It means our site manager has authority to spend $100k on the spot in serving your account, no pre-approval. Higher investments are assessed and answered within 24 hours”.

Whether you name your competition is up to you. There’s always a chance you may introduce a new contractor to your customer who hadn’t known about them until you put your foot in your mouth. But that’s up to you.

#3 Proactively Defend Your Weaknesses with Workarounds

Proactively defend your weaknesses by presenting a workaround as a strength, don’t wait to be asked.

If you bring it up with a positive workaround that weakness now becomes a strength. It takes away your competitors undercutting you later.

For example:

If you don’t have a local branch office, but tell customers:

“We’re project based, our site management is based at your site. This means we don’t have to cover costs of branch office overhead – and you get managers focused solely on your needs, quickly and reliably”.

#4 Pre-bid Talking Strategy

Prior to the bid going out, there may be the opportunity to speak with various decision makers and learn about their situation.

Part of those conversations will be answering their questions about “why should we use you”?

So you’ll trot out your trusted list of competitive advantages.

And so will your competitors. They’ll be sitting where you are in a few days, or even hours. Nothing takes place in a vacuum.

So why not put them in the hot seat?

Add these talking points to your good ole competitive advantage lists.

–> Competing against Bigger competitors

Tell your story about your:

* Flexibility – create/deliver ad hoc, non-contract services
* Responsiveness – quickly take action & resolve issues
* Caring – focused on that customer because they’re important (big) to you
* Customization – designing one-off solutions to customer needs

–> Competing against Mom-n-Pop competitors

Let customers know you have and use:

* Leading technology
* Service best-practices
* Highly-effective operational procedures
* Experience & qualified management
* Backup resources
* Financial stability

–> Competing against In-Betweens

Apply steps #2 and #3 above as you’ll need to be more specific about who you’re competing against.

Summary

These informal and formal conversations influence decision makers’ perceptions. That counts when they’re reviewing your proposal and they’re deciding the fate of the contract award.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President,  Revenue IQ

As dumb and basic as this sounds, most sales people still work as if this wishful thinking were true. They expect buyers to do the sellers’ work, helping sales people sell.

Doubt this? Ask a salesperson to answer the following:

• What message do you leave on buyers’ voicemail that gets a return call?
• What do you email buyers that gets a reply?
• How do you get buyers to call you from your web site or direct mail piece?
• How do you get a face-to-face intro appointment with buyers?
• How do you elicit open & honest communication with a buyer you’ve just met?
• How do you gain a buyer’s trust so they share complete & thorough information about their situation?
• How do you secure a face-to-face meeting to submit your proposal to a buyer? (when not part of an RFP process)
• How do you engender fair & value-based consideration of your proposal
• How do you get timely & honest feedback from buyers after your proposal & presentation?

2X Questions

Tough questions to be sure, but asking them provides focus and can mobilize sales efforts to come up with answers, even though the first ones may not be ideal.

They’re also trick questions too.

Because whatever the answers are they’re describing what sellers want – not what buyers want. And to win sales means satisfying buyers’ wants.

Those seller’s questions can help translate seller’s wants into buyer’s wants. For each question above try to:

1) Identify a matching buyer want, then

2) Develop an action that satisfies the buyer’s want

When sales people can do this successfully they’re able to advance the sale to the next step, and the next, and the next, right up to the buyer signing.

What Buyers Want

Buyers want many things, but you already knew that. Their wants can be grouped into Business-Related and Personal-Related. Here’s a simple list for both:

BUSINESS-RELATED WANTS

• High-value suppliers sourced & vetted
• Trusted supplier-partnerships established
• Vendor/service management time reduced
• Costs lowered
• Defects/deficiencies minimized
• Output/yield/throughput increased
• Customer satisfaction raised
• End-user productivity raised
• Value from spend optimized
• Service contributions valued
• Service performance visibility
• Regulatory compliace ensured

PERSONAL-RELATED WANTS

• Recognized for personal successes
• Justified budget & headcount
• Tasked with high visibility/importance initiatives
• Increased job security
• Optimized performance-based bonuses

Connecting the Wants to Actions

The exercise of translating seller’s wants into buyer’s wants, then developing seller’s actions might look something like this:

SELLER’S WANT: To elicit open & honest communication with a buyer you’ve just met.

BUYER’S WANT: To find high-value suppliers that can become trusted supplier-partners.

SELLER’S ACTIONS:

a) Present evidence to buyers of seller’s long-term valued customer partnerships, in testimonials, case studies, white papers, videos, etc. – avoid bragging

b) Get buyers together with your reference customers, at lunches, in seminars, in benchmarking groups, on site tours of your references’ facility, etc.

c) Tell buyers what you’re going to do, do it, and then confirm that you did it. Do this in everything, especially  little things, like calling back on a certain day and time, emailing materials, etc. Always follow up with a call, voice or email to show you met your follow-up commitment. Your actions live the promise of reliability and trust that buyers want.

d) Plan and implement a series of small events/activities during the initial contact period that deliver value specifically to what the buyer is interested in. This means fact finding early and repeatedly so that you’re delivering specifically what they’re looking for. Even if it’s as simple as a restaurant recommendation.

In the End

Our success as sellers is based on first identifying what we want and then translating those into buyers’ wants. Once done, we can focus on how best to deliver and get both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ

Sales investments are often made on the beginning stages of the sales cycle, i.e. awareness, lead generation, relationships, etc.

Most contractors budget for entertainment, tradeshows, marketing collateral, some even budget for sales training. All worthy and necessary, but…………

New business only starts with a sales proposal.  It’s the only stage in the sales cycle a customer can sign. It’s the only time revenue and profit can start to flow.

Lose the bid and it’s “Thank you very much, see you next time.” Efforts on losing bids have some value, just not this year.

But the revenue monkey needs to be fed. Therefore, a clear-eyed assessment says “lose the bid” and forfeit that year’s investment in that prospect. Applied to all your lost bids, that’s a great deal of money and time invested in the early stages now gone, vanished.

The Dark Side is your Loss Ratio

Here’s the dark, dirty truth – you lose more than you win.

That’s your Loss Ratio. It’s calculated as:

(total # bids – # bids secured) / total # bids

Or, put another way:

(# of lost bids + # of no-decision bids) / total # bids

Yes, no-decisions are part of your Loss Ratio. You had the chance to win but didn’t. Any bid not won = a loss. Harsh but true.

Don’t feel bad. The typical contractor Loss Ratio is anywhere from 65% up to 80%. That represents possibly hundreds of bids going south during the year.

And that means millions in lost bid revenue – year after year after year.

Here’s a 1-year example:

–> 75% loss ratio on 120 bids per year =

–> 90 LOST bids @ avg of $120k/yr per bid =

–> $10.8 million LOST revenue, or even more painfully

–> $648k LOST net profit @ 6%

But I Cant’ Win ‘em All

Of course not, that’s not the point.

The point is to shave your loss ratio by a fraction and add to your top and bottom line – almost instantly.

In the example above, improving your loss ratio from 75% to 65% hands you:

–> $1,440,000 additional revenue

–> $86,400 more profit

–> from the bids you already participate in!

Is that kind of reduction doable?

If a customer gave you such a large number to improve you’d find a way. Why not take that approach with your loss ratio?

Big Bucks in your Backyard

You already have access to the fastest way to your largest revenue increase.

Counter intuitively, it’s available to you at the end of the sales cycle, not at the beginning.

Secure more of the bids you already have.

A slight decrease in your loss ratio and you:

• Fire up revenues with faster growth
• Realize greater sales ROI
• Retain more of your flagship accounts

Take a look at your sales budget and consider focusing on the moment of truth – the sales proposal. After all, it’s the key to decreasing your Loss Ratio and with a leaner Loss Ratio comes millions.

When you’re ready to lower your Loss Ratio, we can help, it’s what we do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen, 206-780-2963
President, Revenue IQ

They screen out the undesirable and demote the mediocre, making efforts more effective, optimizing investments and producing more desired results (leads, meetings, bids, sales, etc.).

Traditional profiles are good for bucketing prospects’ demographic criteria, such as:

• geography – state, MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), zip code
• prospect company size – revenue, employees, square footage, etc.
• estimated contract size – annual $s, FTEs, or HPWs (calculated from company size)

Traditional Profiles Stuck on Demographics

However, demographics aren’t the whole picture.

Psychographics (the attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles)  can highlight a true affinity between a contractor and desired future customers, instantly identifying prospects.

Psychographics of people and companies can include:

• socially conscious (eco-green) or personally ambitious (profits) only
• prompt payers
• politically savvy working bureaucratic processes
• detailed down in the weeds or 50,000 foot visionary
• open, honest & with integrity
• fun to work with
• data-driven or fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants
• blame-oriented or personally accountable
• loyal
• risk averse/tolerant
• experienced old-hand or arrogant greenhorn
• people who value your contributions & expertise

Yet these aren’t captured in demographic data.

Profiles target Companies, Not People

Traditional prospect profiles target companies only, not people – and companies aren’t as friendly or accessible as people.

Instinctively people relate to a company as if the company is another person.

Think about how you feel when stuck in a long line to board a plane, or when holding that first, hot cup of Starbucks on a cold morning.

Whatever made you feel that way was definitely human, and since it’s highly unlikely you know the individual, you associate those feelings with that company. Voila! From that point on that company feels like a someone to you (until they do something out of character and you revise your feelings).

That’s a major drawback because traditional profiles aren’t energizing, they aren’t a welcoming beacon.

Keeping Sales People Motivated

Sales people must continually overcome the day-to-day obstacles of convincing prospects to become customers. Anything your firm can do to help them move forward increases sales’ ROI.

That’s what a motivating, energizing profile should do – pull sales people, like an extreme magnet, inexorably towards prospects.

Not just ordinary prospects, but to perfect prospects,  because the point of perfect prospects is that they become perfect customers when sold. Perfect customers are always worth extra effort.

A New Type of Prospecting Profile: Personas

Personas can be a tool for enhancing sales motivation and accuracy towards generating the perfect kind of new business.

Originally created for software programmers, personas are an archtype of the perfect customer. They’re a fact and story based description that includes psychograpic and demographic data.

Personas are based on data from live prospects and customers.

Through research in surveys, focus groups and one-on-one interviews, qualitative data forms the basis of the persona’s pyschographics . Quantitative data forms the basis of its demographic data.

Both are combined into a narrative about a specific, fictional, yet representative person. The research identifies the number of personas to be used, but typically there can be 3 to 5 different personas.

A persona works at a company of:

• a particular size
• in an industry / market vertical
• in a geographic area

They work:

• in a specific position/role
• overseeing a service contract of a certain size
• employing a type of contractor -or- in-house staff
• within a budgeting / bidding cycle & schedule
• in a company culture of A/P & reporting practices

The persona also includes descriptions of their personal and job-related:

• goals
• motivators
• objectives
• personal profile

Additionally, the persona includes:

• a picture
• quotes
• anecdotes
• personal stories

3 Powerful Reasons to use Personas

Personas used to profile perfect prospects deliver three key benefits.

#1 Glitteringly Clear Picture

Using personas presents diamond like clarity for targeting perfect prospects.

Personas enable our minds powerful ability to pull partial information about people and then create a coherent bigger picture, which can then be projected into new situations.

This is exactly what profiles should do – point prospecting efforts unequivocably towards perfect prospects.

#2 Energizing the Quest

Personas provide sales people a warmer, welcoming target to go out and seek. That keeps them at it.

When sales people are looking for someone they like and who likes them, they’re more confident. This helps get novice sales people over the starting hump and reinforces experienced sales people to continue.

It’s like looking for a known friend out there amongst strangers.

#3 Multiplying the Uses

In addition to prospecting activities, personas guide marketing and social networking efforts as well.

Personas provide a specific target audience for developing marketing messages. Think how much easier and effective copy writing for ads, web sites, and brochures will be when speaking to that perfect reader, the persona.

Personas also provide a process for uncovering where perfect prospects live, work and socialize. That’s developed during the creation of the persona, and shows sales people where they should go to network, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, or Chamber of Commerce mixers.

People & their personas make the world go round

For selling and marketing it’s all about people: prospects, customers and sales staff.

Using personas makes the early out reach efforts clearer and more enjoyable, which for sales people means more likely they’ll continue doing it well year after year.

Good luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ

Not all customers are created equal. Some are toxic, some dribble in revenue or profit, and some are perfect (while “perfect” is impossible, think of it as “the closest thing to perfect”).

The point of perfect prospects is…

…that converting them into customers gives you perfect customers, not just ordinary ones.

The qualities that make customers perfect are with them at the beginning, as prospects. Their perfectness is with them whatever sales stage we come across them (look for next week’s blog for a new way to identify perfect prospects).

And adding perfect customers will balance your book of business against the toxic and dribbling customers.

What’s a perfect customer?

At a simplistic level, without defining demographic or psychographic criteria, perfect customers are:

• demanding
• highly profitable & prompt payers
• long-term & loyal
• valuing your contributions & expertise
• open, honest & with integrity
• enjoyable to work with

The first bullet is intentional; demanding. Without it a customer isn’t perfect, just good (which ain’t bad, but not good enough).

It’s perfect customers that…STRETCH us. They are the harbingers of change. They move us out of our comfort zones.

Let’s face it, the motivation for making big changes most often comes from the whip, not the carrot. Think of the changes driven by large fines, lost contracts, accidents, looming insolvency, etc.

However, perfect customers are different. They’re change agents with a carrot.

And while stretching to serve perfect customers often feels uncomfortable and frequently painful, it leads to major increases in your firm’s:

• capabilities
• capacities
• expertise

The down side to rising up to meet perfect customers are unexpected costs and time investments, but then again they’re worth it (review the list above).

3 stretches caused by perfect customers

For clarity’s sake, let’s remember that the following are only for perfect customers – those that meet most, if not all the attributes listed above.

#1 Raising site standards

Perfect customers have higher expectations. Ever hear something like this?

–> “Well, as the world-class supplier we hired we’re glad you see bid specifications as guidelines, just like we do. What do you say, let’s work together to do what needs to be done. We’ll make sure the dollars are covered, one way or another.”<–

By rising to meet perfect customer expectations, we raise our standards for their site(s). If they’re truly perfect customers it’s worth serving them this way.

#2 Gaining competitive advantage & confidence

Once we’ve risen to serving a perfect customer’s demanding expectations we’ll have gained in the process: Whether it’s a higher level of service at the same price (productivity gains), or introducing a new related service (innovation).

With our new capability or capacity, we’re able to selectively use it as a competitive advantage when bidding new contracts, and/or rebidding to retain incumbent work.

Additionally, our firm’s self-confidence has increased, so when it’s time to creatively bid new contracts our hands are steady. Also, when having to solve never-before-seen problems, we now have a history of rising to the challenge.

#3 Aggressively searching for new solutions

When pushed to solve challenges by perfect customers, we’re put into R&D mode. And because we’re trying to satisfy a demanding (perfect) customer, we’re motivated to do this promptly and fully.

After that mission is accomplished, we’ve gained expertise that can be leveraged to other customers, selectively and as needed.

More importantly, we’ve worked a process of R&D that should be institutionalized. An R&D process that we can continue as a matter of course within our firm. Imagine the improvements to be identified, tested and verified when we’re not working at the 11th hour.

Perfect customers are the point of perfect prospects

Perfect prospects lead to perfect customers, and they’re demanding, in a good way. Perfect customers can lead to improvements in our firm’s competitive advantage through increased capabilities, capacities and expertise.

Next week’s blog  will look at a new way to identify perfect prospects.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Arlen
President, Revenue IQ