If I get to the meeting location first it isn’t personal.  Twice I’ve arrived 5 minutes early for a meeting this week and had the sales rep annoyed. And showed it! Before we’d even been introduced!  Seriously?  If you wanted to buy the coffee, buy yours and grab a gift card.  Don’t get annoyed!

READ our website.  Seriously. Please.  Develop a list of questions before the meeting and see if any of the answers are on the website.  I had one person tell me proudly that he had read the site.  But then he didn’t understand  the service my client provides.  Foolishly, I started worrying we hadn’t written that page clearly.  After several minutes, he finally confessed that he “looked” at it but didn’t get into the detail.  Come on people!

You know how sales trainers tell you to repeat back what the person says to show you were listening?  Unless you are a Freudian therapist, turning the exact words I said into a question is annoying, not demonstrating you were listening.  One sales rep asked about our target audience.  I answered and he said, “so I hear you saying [insert my exact words], right?” Without some interpretation or at least changing the order of the words, he was just a parrot.  Not someone understanding what I needed.

So, the morale here is listen to sales trainers but be smart, think about the intent of the training and be sure to be respectful.  A sales call isn’t about YOU – it is about THEM.  Or if you want to work with my clients, its about ME.  And I get there early. Deal with it.

Many years ago I had to make a tough pitch to a vice president known for being a ruthless negotiator. The team elected me to be the voice but I was definitely nervous. I chanted “he who speaks first buys” all the way up the steps to the meeting. Once there, I laid out our very well thought out plan and then shut up. He reviewed the material, checked his watch, and then simply stared at me. At the time I would have told you it was an hour and half (and my team completely agreed) but I’m sure it was less than a minute. At the end of that time, he agreed. Signed the document and walked out. At the door he told us we’d done a good job. WAHOO!!!!

Later, he stopped me in the hallway and asked why I didn’t say anymore. I told him I had made my case and there was nothing more to say. He laughed and waited. So this time I bought and told him “he who speaks first buys”. He got a big laugh and said he hoped the sales people he had trained had learned the lesson so well.

It came up again this week because I’m conducting interviews for a client. A candidate had a difficult situation in his background and I had to ask him about it. He explained and I sympathized and then explained I needed to pause for a sec to make sure my notes were correct. While I was doing that, he continued talking. And talking. And talking. Seriously. I get that he wanted to make sure I had the right impression and understood what happened wasn’t his fault, but after he talked SO MUCH, I started to wonder why. He was buying, but I wasn’t.

So this week – try it. Put an idea out there whether that’s to a coworker, a client, a prospect, your significant other, your child, whoever and be quiet. It is amazing how powerful it is!

Now take that a step further. Now you know what they say. Happy with that? Happy telling people at a meeting, “we do XYZ and our clients tell us we are the only company they’ve brought in that actually understands what they needed.” You certainly sound more credible and people like knowing others agree. But what do you really want them to say? That’s your next strategic direction. Set up the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you decide you want your client to go to an event, talk to someone and say X, you will provide X.

So how are YOU different?

So what can we learn from him? Give yourself an agenda for any sales meeting you have with a prospect. What do you need to know about the person before you walk out of the meeting? At a minimum, know how to pronounce their name. Write it down on your notes phonetically. That way in the future you will use it properly.

After that, give yourself a list of 4-9 things you want to know about them before they leave. If you have 30 minutes for the meeting, plan on getting the answer to one about every 3-6 minutes. That means the person gets time to talk about their answer. Think about that. If you want to know the goals for our marketing plan, that is going to be a longer answer than 30 seconds. YOU WILL NEED TO SHUT UP FOR THE WHOLE TIME. (sorry – rant sneaking in) So let’s say that answer is 2.5 minutes. You get 30 seconds to ask your question. We’ve already used up 2 minute doing the name thing. You have now used 5 minutes of 30. If you know your presentation on your tool / service / widget will take 10 minutes (and you should know because you should PRACTICE and have information AT HAND to provide), then you know you have a total of 20 for fact finding. You’ve used five. You are a quarter of the way through your fact finding time and you have two pieces of information. See why you need a plan?

So set yourself an agenda to help keep yourself on track. At the end of a meeting you have to have answers to those questions you gave yourself so if you are getting toward the 10-minute-left mark, you know to STOP TALKING. You can’t get answers unless you stop talking.

A little bit more rant – don’t look at the person’s business card and ask a question about something on it in a negative. If I have my twitter address on my business card, I bet there’s a reason. Asking “do you like that twitter?” almost sounds like “is your baby that ugly?”. Obviously I like it or I wouldn’t put in on my BUSINESS CARD. Sheesh.

A friend of mine sent an email to someone and said something sarcastic. It is difficult to be sarcastic in email but in her head, it was hilarious.  When it was received, the person took it at face value – in their head they weren’t being sarcastic. And the ensuing conversation was all kinds of trouble for no reason.  In fact, when I was shown the email I immediately pointed out the first person was being sarcastic and suddenly the receiver felt very foolish.  Her reason was she was busy and stressed at work when she read it, so she read it from her point of view – in her voice.

So what’s the point?  Well, when you read an email from someone you know, read it in their voice if you can.  It will help interpret things so much better.  If you don’t know the person, assume formality. There’s nothing worse than thinking someone is joking when they aren’t.  Awkward!   And when writing an email, keep in mind the person receiving it won’t start in your voice – they start in theirs.  So even if they know you well, they may not think about that right off.  Since I’ve had my revelation I have sent a couple emails with instructions at the top to read it as if I was saying it.  The feedback has been hilarious – people said the emails got much funnier because I am funny. I’m not even there!

What other tips do you have in our digital media world to help people avoid this kind of problem?

Headed out last week to a meeting with a new sales rep. There are 6 traffic lights between my house and the coffee shop on the square. At light number two I won a guy behind me who tailgated the whole way and made me extremely uncomfortable. I was confident we would be meeting over insurance information any minute.  Looking in my review mirror, I had a clear shot of what he looked like.  Clearly a total jerk.  We each went different ways at the square and I didn’t think anything about it.

As you’ve already guessed, he was my new sales rep.  And of course he couldn’t see me and has no idea he’s an aggressive driver, so he walked in quite confident that I would love him. And here I already had all these negative emotions about him. I dutifully took his information and to make sure my judgment wasn’t unfair, shared it with my client and she agreed this wasn’t a product for us. But, who knows how things would have  gone if we’d started out in a different place?

So the point is, you are the face of your company no matter if you are working or not.  If I freak out on a sales person somewhere, the woman behind me may be my prospect meeting Monday. Or if I drive badly and cut someone off, he may be my appointment tomorrow.

You are the face of your business anytime I can see you.  And if you have a sticker, decal or car wrap, then you better remember you have CHOSEN to be the face of your business even when I can’t see your face!

For instance, I got to spend a couple hours with Patti Boyert over at Boyert’s Garden Center.  I just have to say – WOW.  I am not a gardener, much to my mother’s chagrin. It isn’t that I can’t grow things, I just don’t know because I don’t want to. I don’t care about it!  So talking to Patti, who loves it, is fascinating for me  because she truly does. And she knows EVERYTHING.

We were walking through the greenhouses talking about plants.  On the scale of subjects, plants for me ranks just slightly above football. But there I was, diligently taking notes. Until she started explaining how to select plants for your yard.  She suggested I get down closer to plant level and look across the greenhouse to see what jumped out at me.  What a cool idea! I saw things I didn’t see just looking around and suddenly wanted to know what they were and where they would work in my yard. She talked about how to take care of the plants and why she doesn’t carry certain varieties. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t carry one type of daisy-looking flower that my husband bought elsewhere last year because they get “heat stressed” and die. Sure enough last year they made it to June and then died. I was disgusted that we had plants for no reason and here it wasn’t me, it was the plant!  If I had talked to Patti, I would have known what to buy instead and had plants all season.

Another thing she recommended was bringing in pictures of your yard. Then she and her staff will make recommendations on what to get within your budget. So I don’t have to figure it out?  Because look -when I say I don’t do this, I’m not kidding. When it says “shade”, I’m the one asking my husband does that mean under the deck or could it handle it if there is a little sun?  Turns out, talking to Patti, it means it can handle morning sun but not the hot afternoon kind. And it doesn’t matter any way because I can show her my yard and she’ll tell me what will work where. No guessing, no worrying, nothing!

She then showed me an area where she had planters all lined up full of plants. She said people bring their planters from the previous year back in and she fills them. Drop them off in March, pick them up in May and you are out the door with a beautiful pot or hanging basket! So that means other people don’t have this weird collection of pots and planters underneath their decks! Genius.

This all comes back to passion because Patti was able and willing to talk about plants and growing them for as long as I was willing to listen.  She had ideas and ways to get someone not interested at all excited about the day when the rain stops and I can plant some things.  And, she gave me a list of what I need and the supplies so I don’t have to worry I’m missing something or don’t know what to do. And she never made me feel stupid when I had to ask what “dead heading” means since to me that’s something to do with a band. It was important to her to share her love of what she does with me and made me get excited too. Now that’s following a dream.  Thank you to Patti and Boyert’s for all the information and I’ll be back soon!

I learned “she who speaks first, buys” when I started in IT and the company believed we were all part of the sales team so we all needed to learn sales techniques.  And in IT, you are absolutely selling your solution to a problem because generally the user has no way of knowing if you are right or wrong.  ”She who speaks first, buys” is all about making your case and then getting out of the way.  Generally, we want to fill that silence.  It is so much better when people are talking because you have a chance at knowing what they are thinking and what’s going on.  Karen made the point today that the power in an interaction is in the silence and that is so true.

Not sure?  Years ago I was the chair of a team sent to research a solution for a problem we were having as an organization.  There were two cheap solutions that would have required hours and hours of maintenance and support, or there was a more expensive option that would actually solve more than the initial problem and just work.  The team was completely behind the more expensive solution but were scared to death to present to BOB, our VP (Bob was definitely an all-caps kinda guy).  Bob was never unreasonable, but he did have lots of pressures on him that we may or may not know about and he expected people to be consummate professionals.  In this particular organization, most of us were young and inexperienced so we didn’t necessarily know how to be who he wanted us to be.  But, I was the chair so I got to present.

We sat in the conference room and I presented our proposal. I hit all the points that were important to Bob as well as why we felt they were important. And then, I sat down and kept my mouth shut.  I had told the team they couldn’t talk after I finished the proposal.  I looked at Bob and he looked at me and my friend looked at her watch.  A minute and 30 seconds later, Bob asked a question.  We got what we wanted.  Later he told me I had handled it well and was surprised I could sit that quiet for that long. But I knew if I kept speaking, I was the only one buying the proposal – and I was already sold!

So in the end, the lesson is, present and then be quiet.  You have no idea what the person is thinking so stop trying to guess. While you’re trying to read their face and are freaking out that your price is too high, they are trying to decide how to tell their boss they don’t want to go with his college buddy because they want to buy your product or service.  Same uncomfortable expression on the face, but totally different reasons!

Write it down, carry it with you, use it everywhere.  But I will caution you – if you teach it to your children, they will learn it and use it. Thank goodness the dog doesn’t understand…..

Now I am not going to tell you I was super-careful when I dialed or anything, but quickly looking at this information I dialed 880…. NOT 330.  So now I’m dealing with a vendor for one of my clients and I couldn’t even read the phone number quickly! Are you kidding?

So I ask you – beg you – plead with you!  If you are a sales person, be sure it is easy to contact you in multiple ways.  A friend of mine recently pointed out that you should have your email address in your signature so if people are using a cell phone, they can click on your email address. Or, if the email is forwarded and that person has you in their address book, the email address still comes through.  You should also spell out your web address rather than just have links so it is easy to click on it.  And while cutsie fonts are fun for party invitations, get them off your email signature.  It doesn’t help anyone if they can’t call you because the font is so flowery they can’t tell an 8 from a 3.

What ways can you think of to make it easy for your client?

I have a client in need of a database product.  In the course of my evaluation of software, I went to the top software’s website.  I’ll be nice and leave them anonymous.  They have an on-line chat feature so I used it.  Twice “Alex” greeted me and asked how he could help and twice while I was talking he hung up.  I, thinking both times were software glitches, tried a third time. I got “Stephanie”. We got through her questions for me and she indicated I needed an account rep.  Great. On to the next part of the process. Instead, the person who left me a voice mail was Alex. When I returned the call, I was told they couldn’t connect me to an account rep without the client name. When I questioned why they needed that, it was because they might already be in the system.  Since they haven’t ever looked into a database product, I knew that wasn’t the case but when I said so, I was told I had no way of knowing that in a tone that sounded like he thought I was lying. Needless to say the call went downhill from there.

I did speak with another rep and when we talked about the client name piece, the second rep indicated that if they help a customer who is already assigned elsewhere, they don’t get the “credit”.  And there is no way to reassign an account from one rep to another so if I want to talk to someone at this company, I have to work through Alex. Period.  Oh -and just for fun – all the account reps and managers are in Vegas today at a sales kickoff meeting.

So basically a new customer calling in has to give their name, phone, company name, address, and email address so that the rep can see if they are in the computer and if they are, transfer them to someone else who may or may not be available.  It is not in the best interest of the person who answers the phone to answer any questions the caller has because it may not be their account.  And at the end of the day, they only get “credit” (I’ll translate as commission) for those accounts assigned to them.  None of this takes the customer’s needs into account. AND THEY SELL SALES SOFTWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I ask you – when was the last time you jumped through your sales process hoops as a customer?  Do you set up road blocks or systems that encourage the wrong behaviors?  Are people on an incentive plan to help customers or themselves?  It is definitely time to take a look.

So what happened?  Several factors came into play.  This is a much larger client than she usually has.  She really wants this business.  She got this through a cold call and has no common people to give her a recommendation.  At the end of the day she knows she can do this work for them with her eyes closed so she is confident which makes her nervous.

It is key to be so strong in your process and so committed to listening that this can never happen to you.  Or if it does, you wake up before the  meeting and have someone to help get you back on track.  In this case, there were multiple directions the conversation could have gone, all within my friend’s wheelhouse, but if she had launched into a big presentation would have lost half the group.  Instead, the listening made them see how smart she is.

So always, always always listen to your clients first.  THEN it is your turn!

Everyone I know feels they do this.  But let me tell you a little story.  I periodically need printing services for my clients.  There are several options to choose from in my area.  I got a call one day from a new company that wanted my printing business.  I didn’t have anything at that time, but promised to keep his information on file and by the way, I’m in a networking group that would be a great place to meet 20 or so business owners in the area who would like to know about your service.  We went on to have a 20 minute conversation about marketing a new business and how this networking group could help.  He said he would definitely be there that Friday.

Now, I fully understand that our group meets Friday morning at 7:30.  But I have not missed a single meeting since its inception in August of 2009.  So I have very little sympathy for the whole, “can’t get out of bed” thing.  Friday came and this individual didn’t show.  I have certainly had this happen before – I’ve invited a lot of people to our group.  But this individual specifically said he would be there.  So I went back to my office and frankly, forgot.  I then started receiving marketing emails from him, but never once got a note explaining why he missed, or that he decided it wasn’t the right avenue for him, or anything. He just didn’t do what he said he would do.  And guess what?  I will never give him printing business.  I don’t trust him to follow through or follow up if there’s an issue.  And as a side note, the printer I am currently using visited our group because she is a class act and follows through. But I digress….

So in his mind, we had the conversation, he either put the meeting on his calendar or not, didn’t think it was a big deal and blew it off.  Because it wasn’t about me, it was about him, right?  Except it was a commitment he made and I was expecting after spending 20 minutes of my time with him he would give something back – either attend or drop me a note as to why he didn’t. Regardless, I don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about him over something he wrote off as no big deal.  And that’s where the danger lies – in the no big deal.

So be careful in your daily interactions that you aren’t calling something “no big deal” that is.  When you are on the phone with someone, if you give any indication you will do something, put it in your calendar, on your to do list or whatever you need to do to remember.  Because your no big deal could cost you business.

The meeting starts off with the standard statement and I do think every person I met with believes it.  Then, with many of them, it is followed up with a complete spewing of all of their options.  I let them because the only way I know to think outside the box is to know what box you are in so hearing about options that might on the surface not work for my client may turn out to be fantastic.  But the sales people completely waste their time, look silly and don’t get the information to be able to follow up with me on new ways for my clients to advertise. Because they don’t know what would work.

So what should they do?  Here’s a crazy idea – prep for the meeting, have questions ready, and then SHUT UP. It is endlessly frustrating to feel like I have to interrupt to talk about my client.  So to my readers, I ask you to do the following before meeting a prospective client:

1.  Know something about me.  Don’t assume  because you know my company name that I sell pedestals.  The good news is it is all on my website!
2.  Have some questions you prepared in advance that would help you match me to products.  The best part is these can be standard questions you ask all your prospects!  Write once, use often. Brilliant!
3.  Ask me a question and then stop talking.  Take notes instead.  When you get back to your office, you should be able to say concrete facts about my business, my clients, and what I need.  Test yourself by describing me to a co-worker.  If you can tell real business information, you did a good job.

Only after doing these three things should you start to show me product.  Showing me things that will meet my needs is great – I don’t waste my time and you look great.  Once we get through the initial information, then you can pull out the other products to help me in the future or with other clients.  But wait until you’ve presented the targeted stuff first.

Someday I’ll meet this sales person and will gush about them forever.  In the mean time, if you see me at the coffee shop with my eyes glazed over, you’ll know it is another one so stop by!

“What went right” is a question that should be a part of every sale.  It is vital to understand why the customer bought, what they liked and why they are a good fit for your company.  Armed with that knowledge, you can go on to replicate the sale over and over!  So next time you land a sale, be sure to say, “yay – what happened?” just like you do with the lost deals!

One of the biggest areas where this happens is specialization.  You spend a great deal of time working out your niche market making sure your value proposition is clear and straight forward.  You put your message in the places where your clients are, and you go to work generating leads.  And then, it happens.  The sales part of you starts to stress that you are “missing out on sales” because you are too focused or only focusing on one aspect of the message.  And then sales tweaks the marketing and it becomes confusing.

Specialization works. Period. Everyone knows it.  But it is one of the hardest things for a small business to do.  Some get around it by specializing in “manufacturing” or “families” etc.  But these broad categories don’t give a person a “like me” feel – sure, I may be in manufacturing or have a family, but how can you meet my needs when you lump all those other people in with me?

The best way to get sales and marketing on the same page when both are in the same person or couple of people is the use of buyer personas.  A buyer persona is where you sit down and create a profile of a specific buyer.  The more detail the better!  You can have more than one buyer persona and you should.  These profiles help you tailor your messages to those specific audiences.

The reason this works is because when the sales part of you rears up, you can see the other buyer personas in your arsenal so you aren’t excluding people you want as customers.  And each message is tailored to a specific group so the messages generate the “like me” feel in the customer.  So aligning sales and marketing is key, but make sure you do it in a way that both sides are answered.