Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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I walk into a prospect’s office with a new salesperson named Zack (not his real name).

We have the obligatory first-meeting conversation with the prospect.

Out of the blue the prospect holds up a part and says, “How much do you guys get for this?” Will Zack remember the sales advice I’ve given him about these situations? Zack immediately dives for his catalog and finds the price. “$375.00 each.” The prospect looks unimpressed and says, “Too high. I can get those all day long for much less. Thanks for coming by.” [Sound of door closing behind us]

When we get out to Zack’s car I ask him what he thought of the call. Zack is a smart guy and he knew where he blew it. We reviewed the following basic sales tips when a price question is unexpectedly thrown in our face.

Fundamental sales skills tell us to never quote a price when you’re not prepared. Never quote under duress. Hold off quoting until you get more information and can educate the customer on your added value.

When you get blind sided with a price request and you throw out a price, you’ve eliminated the chance to sell your added value. Remember, you justify your pricing by telling the customer all the additional things you and your company can do for them besides shipping them a product. An ISA study found that 74% of buyers would buy at a higher cost if they better understood the added value a vendor brings.

Always be sure to ask how many the customer needs and when they need them as part of your information gathering. If you have them in stock and they need them quickly you gain some pricing control. If they say they don’t need any at this time, then you know they’re just price checking and you should ignore the request (see Customer Price Sensitivity).

What are the two most important things to remember when you’re hit unexpectedly with a price request and forget how to sell? Information and time are critical. Find out some basics about their needs, educate them on your added value and tell them you’ll get back to them with a price.

To receive this blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

I saw a sign at a salesperson’s desk once that read, “Dear Customer, you may select any two of the following when purchasing from me: service, quality, price.” The words on that sign are true and they provide real sales help. They tell us that customers always have to pay for value. There is no free lunch.

Think about the selling environments that are possible using this bit of wisdom. We all sell in one of three scenarios noted below, depending on our market and our selling situation at the moment.

1. We can provide great service and high quality products, but we can’t do it at discount prices.
2. We can provide great service and discounted prices, but we aren’t going to be able to provide high quality products.
3. We can provide high quality products at discounted prices, but our level of service will be low.

This is a simplistic model, but it demonstrates that it’s impossible for a company to be profitable if it provides its customers with high quality products and high levels of service at discounted prices. Professional sales help and support come at a cost. Companies that have tried to do all three at once go out of business.

As seasoned sales pros we know that we have to sell the value we bring to our customers in order to justify the pricing. When customers understand the value they are buying they understand the price too. They know they can’t get sales help and assistance for free.

Sometimes we find ourselves in selling situations where we are selling a cheaper product or a lower level of service. It is important in those environments to educate the customer about the compromises they are making in order to receive lower pricing. It’s all about setting realistic expectations about value and price in the customer’s mind.

To receive this blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

[I had the opportunity recently to ask Jim Fowler, CEO of Jigsaw, some questions about his company. Jigsaw is a fast growing company with interesting concepts regarding leads that will be of interest to many sales professionals.]

1. You are the CEO of Jigsaw. What is the history of Jigsaw?

Jigsaw was founded in late 2003 with the mission of mapping every business organization on the planet. The concept was that salespeople could work together to build a gigantic shared Rolodex.

Jigsaw launched in late 2004, has raised $18M in venture funding, currently has ninety employees and has over 500K members (mostly sales professionals) who build and maintain the collaborative database.

2. Who do you consider your biggest competitors and what are the differentiators?

Jigsaw competes most directly with traditional data companies like Hoovers and InfoUSA. Jigsaw differs from them in several key ways:

They build and maintain their own databases. We believe there is no way a few dozen or even a few hundred employees can compete with an army of 500K motivated salespeople who build and maintain the Jigsaw shared Rolodex.

We have many more contacts and they are much better. Specifically, every single Jigsaw contact is complete – including email address and phone number. Seventy-two percent of Jigsaw contact records have a direct dial phone number. Virtually none of our competitors’ records have either an email address or a phone number.

We give our company data away for free. Members can download up to 50K complete company records at a time in the format of all of the major CRM systems.

3. As a sales professional what are some of the compelling reasons for me to use Jigsaw for leads versus more traditional ways of lead attainment such as leads lists and networking groups?

Jigsaw’s data is not only complete, but it is also much fresher than any other lead list. Jigsaw’s 500K members constantly clean the data, updating records and graveyarding dead ones.

Jigsaw is, in essence, the largest networking group around. There are currently almost nine million complete contact records on Jigsaw.

In essence, Jigsaw is doing to the traditional data companies what Wikipedia has done to Encyclopedia Britannica.

4. Is Jigsaw responding to a change in how professional salespeople network and acquire leads?

We prefer to think that Jigsaw is changing the way sales professionals network and acquire leads. Never before have leads of this quality been so easily obtainable. We believe the increase in transparency of data will fundamentally change the way salespeople sell. We believe that it will no longer be about just getting the data, but about how to rise above the noise. We believe salespeople are going to have to become better marketers in order to get a prospect’s time.

5. What is your sales demographic and industry demographic? In other words, are you marketing Jigsaw to certain types of sales professionals that operate in certain industries?

Technology sales professionals were the early adopters, but now sales professionals from all industries and company sizes use Jigsaw. We offer a Jigsaw Team product that allows entire sales teams to use Jigsaw. We have over 600 of these corporate accounts.

Members use Jigsaw for two main purposes – to find prospects and to map organizations in order to understand the buying influencers for deals farther in the pipe. Our market must almost always perform one or both of these tasks on a regular basis.

We also sell our CRM cleaning and maintenance services to CRM owners/administrators. This is the fastest growing part of our business.

[Thank you, Jim, for answering my questions. I think many readers will be interested in looking into Jigsaw further. Scott]

To receive this blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Do you know someone that is perfect? They never seem to make mistakes. They look perfect. They act perfect. Many sales trainers dispensing sales tips will tell you never to show a weakness to a customer. I disagree.

No one really likes perfect people because we know it’s impossible to be perfect. I know I’m certainly not. We like hanging around people that are real with all of their good points and their bad ones too.

Our customers feel the same way about the companies where we work. They know there is no such thing as a perfect vendor. They know the company they work for isn’t perfect and they know the company we represent isn’t either. The more we try to convince them of how flawless and perfect our company is, the more they aren’t buying our gospel.

So what are the sales tips then?

We must be willing to give away something to our customers. I can best explain this with an example.

Customer: “Debbie, I need 20 of your assembly line robots and I need you to install them at all my locations.”

Salesperson (Debbie): “I know we can do a good job of taking care of your robotic needs and I’m looking forward to this project. When it comes to product availability and service there is no one better than us and everyone knows that. We could install those robots for you but that is not a strength of ours. I can arrange for another company that is excellent at these installations. I’ll take care of all the details. I want this equipment installed with no problems because I want to keep you as long term customer.”

Debbie was brilliant. She “gave up” one thing by stating that her company wasn’t strong at installations, but she gained the trust and respect of her customer in the process. She kept the part of the business that makes Debbie and her company the most money. She demonstrated to the customer that she was looking after their best interests. She was partnering with them in the truest sense of the word.

Put yourself in this customer’s shoes the next time they need to buy something from Debbie. Would you be inclined to believe Debbie’s recommendations? Absolutely.

Debbie gave away an ounce of business and earned a pound of credibility and a pound of future business.

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When I was a salesperson I had a handful of best accounts where I felt like one of their employees. They loved me so much they bought everything from me, said they always would and considered me one of the family.

I specifically remember one of my favorite and best customers. I didn’t need a security badge to walk through their building. They trusted me so much they literally let me determine what their product needs were and write up the order myself. They just signed the order without looking at it and gave me a PO. They loved me. I needed no sales help.

Unfortunately, I soon learned that things aren’t always as we’d like them to be.

One day they told me, “Everyone here loves you and your service but competitor XYZ has been visiting with us over the last few months. They offer the same products and can provide us the custom packaging and labeling we need. We’re going to start using them from now on. If we need something special we’ll call you. This doesn’t mean we’re not friends anymore Scott. Come by and see us often. Have a great day.”

This good customer of mine was highly visible to all of my competitors; of course they were calling on them. How had I not seen that? The reason I got this great account in the first place was through my own prospecting. I had to steal it from another salesperson. My sales manager had even provided additional sales help to close the first deal. I thought since I was so entrenched at the account that my competitors wouldn’t call on them, nor would this loving customer even consider talking to my competitors.

If my competitors called on and took an account away from me where I felt so secure, then it made sense that they were calling on all of my customers. They all were vulnerable. Wake up call.

I learned the following from that experience:

1. My competitors are calling on all of my accounts and getting through to the decision makers.
2. I must always be adding new value to my existing customers, especially my best ones.
3. I can’t solely rely on personal relationships to keep me in an account.
4. I need to always keep prospecting; no account is guaranteed forever.
5. I have to accept that I am going to have some customer turnover, even from my best accounts.
6. I should never be too proud to accept sales help even on accounts where I’m completely confident.

By continually adding value to my customers and focusing on prospecting I not only replaced that lost customer but added enough so that my sales grew even bigger. My new philosophy was, “Enjoy the revenue you’re getting from the customer today, but plan to lose them at any time.” Customer turnover is a fact of life in sales.

Please tell your business associates about Scott R. Sheaffer’s Sales Tips Blog with sales advice for sales representatives and sales management. To receive by email <click here> to receive by RSS feed <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer