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July 14, 2005  http://www.thecompetitiveadvantage.net
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CONTENTS:

• Two-Minute Sales Tips: How to Counter “I’m Just Looking;” How Strong is Your Opening?; Paint Word Pictures to Change Minds; Why “Shut Up!” May Be the Best Closing Advice; Create Your 30-Second Commercial; Show Composure in the Face of Disaster.
• The Top 10 Loyalty Program Essentials, By Bob Grothe, Maritz Loyalty Marketing
• Sales Management: Before You Fire a Sales Rep… By Barry J. Farber
• Why Making Presentations Can Cost You the Sale, by Jeff Thull
• A Referral System That Always Works, by Doug Carter

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Two-Minute Sales Tips
Editor’s Note: The following sales tips are from The Competitive Advantage newsletter, available only by subscription at Briefings.com.

Retail Sales: How to Counter “I’m just looking”

If you approach a new prospect and ask a yes-or-no question such as “May I help you?” 80-90 percent will tell you “No thanks; I’m just looking.” When you hear the phrase “just looking,” you also need to hear the two words they’re not saying: “I’m just looking…for now.” Keep these tips in mind to turn browsers into buyers:

• Remember that it’s difficult for prospects to ask you for help if they have no idea what they’re looking for. Offer options: “Are you interested in a new vehicle today or would you like to see some of our factory certified pre-owned vehicles?
• Don’t come off as a know-it-all. That distances you from prospects and makes you less likable.
• Give prospects a reason to seek you out. For example, providing access to your product helps prospects need you. Take jewelry out of a case, point to the apparel fitting rooms, hand them keys for a vehicle test drive or offer a sample of the food or wine they’re examining.
• Honor the space prospects want and don’t hover around them. But remain within line of sight so they can call upon you easily for information.

Adapted from Women Make the Best Salesmen, Marion Luna Brem, Currency Doubleday, www.currencybooks.com.

How Strong is Your Opening?

Most salespeople take for granted how they open a sales call and underestimate how it can help to differentiate them from competitors. An effective opening lays important groundwork for the entire call. Remember these important points:

• Don’t forget about rapport. Prepare for it. Look for rapport cues. People buy from people they like when all else is fairly equal.
• Rethink your purpose. Saying “Before I discuss what I have prepared, I'd like to learn about you …” is better than saying “I’m here to tell you about us and what we do …” 
• Gain credibility by leveraging your prep work. Tell the prospect “In preparation for the meeting, I have … (example: “discussed X with our specialists …”)
  Strengthen your credentials further by giving a 30 to 60-second overview of what your company does, tailored to your prospect, and check if there are any questions.
• Lead out of the opening by going into the needs vs. your presentation. Then you can ask questions, listen and drill down so you can be persuasive when you present. Wrapping up with a question sets the expectation you will be asking more questions and enhances client cooperation.

Adapted from “Richardson Cyber Tips,” Linda Richardson, www.Richardson.com.

Paint Word Pictures to Change Minds

Descriptive phrases that create vivid mind pictures for prospects will surprise, grab, inform and persuade them in a way that dry, long-winded explanations will not. A carefully considered metaphor will lift you over anticipated humps of boredom, information overload, confusion or negativity during your sales presentation.

Examples: One salesperson compared buying the wrong software package to “marrying the wrong guy.” Everyone instantly understood the urgency of avoiding that scenario. Another salesperson compared a prospect’s outdated lead management system to “shoveling sand with a fork while your competitors use an end loader.”

If you think you’re not creative enough to come up with good metaphors, think again. You reach for them every day in common conversation when you “chew” on an idea, “plow” through your work and return a “mountain” of voicemails. You hear them every day, too. When Sen. John McCain said “Being chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is like being a mosquito in a nudist colony,” listeners took notice.

Bonus: When you package an idea in highly vivid language, you make it easier for prospects to repeat your bright language when they present your message internally. And after prospects hear five similar presentations, yours will rise above the crowd – metaphorically speaking.

Adapted from Metaphorically Speaking, Chiron Associates, Inc., www.annemiller.com.

Shut up! The Best Closing Advice

Too many salespeople ruin their perfectly executed sales presentations by failing to heed the one most important rule of closing: Whenever you ask a closing question, shut up. The first person to speak loses.

Why silence? Because if you say anything, you relieve the pressure on the prospect to speak first, answer the close and commit.

It sounds like simple advice but it isn’t.

The average salesperson can’t wait more than 10 seconds before talking again after asking a closing question such as “We’ve just about covered everything. What would be more convenient, delivery on the 1^st or the 15^th of next month?”

If the prospect says nothing, the salesperson inevitably says something like “Well, we can talk about that later…” and goes on talking, unaware the closing situation was just destroyed.

Having the courage and concentration to sit still and be silent for a half a minute requires practice. It may sound ludicrous, but if you sit alone in a place you might very well be closing in, and concentrate on doing nothing and saying nothing for 30 seconds, then it won’t be so nerve-racking when big money rides on how calm and silent you can be in a real closing situation.

Adapted from How to Master the Art of Selling, Tom Hopkins, Warner Business Books, www.twbookmark.com.

Create Your 30-Second Commercial

Every salesperson should carefully craft a 30-second commercial. This set speech is the first thing people will ever hear about you and your company. Whether for initial telephone contact or networking, it has to convey, in an informative and memorable way, who you are and what benefits you bring.

The elements include a brief introduction of yourself, your company and what you do. Your second and third sentences should introduce the business solution you’re offering and a proof source -- companies that have successfully employed your services. If you already have solid metrics for your product or service, use them, but be ready with additional sources. The closing should be an open-ended but firm request for a time and date to meet.

Adapted from The Million Dollar Sale, Patricia H. Gardner, McGraw-Hill, www.mcgraw-hill.com.

Show Composure in the Face of Disaster

All kinds of things happen to derail well-planned sales presentations. People show up late. Technology causes delays. Executives get pulled away unexpectedly.

Handle these circumstances gracefully by preparing for them.

• Build a shortened version of your presentation, or know which key slides form the highlights you absolutely have to cover if you’re suddenly cut short on time.
• Be sure that your final slide summarizes your main message, so you can skip to the last slide at any time and still be able to summarize your presentation.
• As important as it is to bring redundant technology like multiple laptops, extra cords, markers, etc., it’s even more important to have a backup method that doesn’t require technology: a set of paper handouts and a good strong voice.

Adapted from “20 Steps to Great Presentations,” Hugh McNiven, Carlsonmarketing.com.

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The Top 10 Loyalty Program Essentials
By Bob Grothe

So you’ve looked at your products and services and the way you’re currently marketing them and you’ve concluded that loyalty marketing might be a way to go. You might be right. But there are things to consider about effective loyalty marketing programs before you dive in.

A loyalty marketing program that reduces customer attrition and increases lifetime customer value while producing a positive ROI is a complex undertaking that can produce optimal results only when it becomes an integral part of the customer experience, supported at every customer touch point. When you select partners to help you design and implement your loyalty marketing program, be sure to consider the following:

• Value Segmentation
  An underlying principal of loyalty marketing is “not all customers are created equal.” Companies need to align their benefits and interactions by customer value, meaning they have to have a clear picture of the potential ROI in a given customer audience.
• Attitudinal Segmentation
  Most companies can segment on value, demographics or behaviors, but tend to overlook segmenting based on attitudes. This level of segmentation–the thoughts, feelings and social norms that affect customer behavior as determined by way of proven research techniques--allows you to communicate with more relevant messaging and to develop stronger offers and more effective rewards.
• Two-Way Communications
  It’s important to not only provide information to your customers on how they are doing in a program, but also to solicit feedback from them in order to make program improvements. 
• Targeted Strategies
  Broad campaigns have their place. But when it comes to loyalty programs, it’s important to utilize the program-generated data to target and refine strategies to drive greater results at traditionally lower cost. Activation, growth, retention, advocacy, save/win-back, etc. need to be applied based on where the customer is in their life cycle.
• Ongoing Analysis
  You can’t set up a loyalty program and then walk away.  A successful loyalty program is constantly reviewed and evaluated, which means you need to continually monitor member performance.  But looking just within one program may not give you the best indication of performance.  It’s important to look at how your program members are doing compared to the industry.
• Customer Biographies
  After having started with a demographic or behavioral profile of your customers, you need to update individual customer biographies continually with insights gleaned from your ongoing analysis, campaign responses, program redemptions, program surveys, attitudinal modeling, feedback surveys, etc.  An effective loyalty program allows you to do that. This rich history allows for better targeting and more effective future messaging.
• Corporate Buy-in
  Because well-run loyalty programs cross over departments, it’s imperative that all employees, from frontline employees to backroom processing and merchandising staff, understand and believe in the objective of increasing customer loyalty.
• Value for the Customer
  The value to you of loyalty programs is the data and insights they generate. But they will generate that data only if customers get involved. For that to happen you need to provide some value back to them. WIIFM (What's-In-It-For-Me) is a key element in driving customer participation, so you have to make sure that what you’re offering customers will get their attention and will truly be of value to them.
• Reasonable Line of Sight to that Value 
  The No. 1 reason a customer leaves a program is that it took too long for them to earn a reward. That ‘value’ noted above needs to get into the customer’s hand in a reasonable amount of time for them to stay with the program.
• Positive ROI
  Align payouts to profitable behaviors. What are the desired behaviors you want to drive and what is the value of that behavior to you?  When you’ve answered that question, you’re ready to align the appropriate level of reward to your customers to ensure you have a positive return.

Bob Grothe is the director of Client Marketing Strategy at Maritz Loyalty Marketing.
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Before You Fire a Sales Rep…
By Barry J. Farber

You’ve counseled and coached for months on end.

Is it time to let the rep go? When you’ve put you heart into an effort to save someone’s job, it’s easy to lose your perspective. Use the following checklist to help you make this difficult decision.

• Weigh your own efforts. Have you tried as much as possible to help the rep? Have you considered the rep’s individual goals and needs? Are you sure that no personal problems are influencing the rep’s performance? If you really care about your team—and if you’ve been giving the rep 110 percent—it’s fair to expect the rep to turn in a similar effort.
• Measure specific factors. Look at these main areas as you consider terminating the person: the rep’s attitude toward the job; the rep’s efforts at improving; the rep’s effect on total sales team morale; and the rep’s potential and performance history. Rating each of these factors on a one to 10-point scale will help you.
• Take advantage of last-chance options. Maybe you’re still convinced the rep has potential, but you can see that you’re just not getting through to the person. Send that rep on joint calls with other reps, choosing people who are stronger and more experienced in the areas that the rep is weak. You could also review the rep’s personal goals and set up an action plan—with built-in checkpoints to measure progress—based on specific improvement areas. Another idea: Put the rep on probation and lay out the exact numbers the rep must hit to keep the job.
• Sleep on it. The rep may leave you feeling frustrated, angry and resentful. Those are bad conditions for making a termination decision. Make sure you’re basing your decision on long-term performance and not making a snap decision based on your own emotions. The only time you should carry out an immediate termination is when you’ve caught a rep performing an illegal act or committing a serious breach of ethics.

Adapted from Superstar Sales Manager’s Secrets, Barry J. Farber, Career Press, www.careerpress.com.
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Why Making Presentations Can Cost You the Sale
By Jeff Thull, CEO of Prime Resource Group

Too many sales professionals spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for a razzle-dazzle presentation and often lose sight of the issues at hand. Everything that salespeople do beforehand, like prospecting, contacting and qualifying potential customers—seems to be aimed at creating the opportunity to present their solutions.

Everything salespeople do after the presentation—overcoming objectives, negotiating and closing—is designed to support and reiterate the presentation. Consequently, sales organizations devote a tremendous amount of time and resources to creating compelling presentations and proposals.

The irony is that most of this effort is lost on customers. Presentations that are too early in complex decisions are largely a waste of time.

Conventional salespeople hate to hear this because the presentation is usually the key weapon in their sales arsenal. They seem to be on a mission to educate the customer relentlessly because, after all, they will not buy what they don’t understand.

A presentation—even one that includes advanced multimedia elements—is, in its essence, a lecture. The salesperson is the talking teacher and the customer is the listening student. The big problem with teaching by telling is that little information is remembered.

A typical sales presentation rarely devotes more than 10 to 20 percent of its focus on customers and their current situations. Generally, 80 to 90 percent of a typical sales presentation is devoted to describing the seller, its solutions and the rosy future if you buy. Therefore, while a presentation may raise the customer’s level of understanding, that gain usually is centered on the solution being offered and not the implications in the customer’s business. As a result, customers still lack a compelling understanding of how it applies to their situation and why they should buy it.

Your competitors are following your same strategy and are busy presenting. Your team is telling the customers that they need the solution that only your company offers, and your competitors are making the same arguments about their solutions. In every case, the presentations are heavily skewed toward the seller and the solutions. 

It is highly likely that two-thirds or more of the information that customers hear falls outside their area of comprehension. Furthermore, what they do hear sounds very much the same. What does the customer understand? Price. As you may already expect, everyone is now starting their downward spiral to commoditization…the natural outcome of presenting too much, too soon and too often.

To help you avoid falling victim to the Presentation Trap, ask yourself these five critical questions:

• What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your company and your solution?
• What percentage of your sales presentation/proposal is devoted to describing your customer’s business, their problems and objectives?
• How well do customers understand their own problems?
• How much of your presentation is focused on persuading and convincing?
• How well can your customers connect your solutions to their business situation?

The advice I share with sales professionals wishing to avoid the Presentation Trap is “Don’t present.” Instead, use a diagnostic approach—simply stated, conduct a thorough diagnosis to uncover problems and expand the customer’s awareness of their situation. Once the problem is clearly understood, and the customer perceives all the ramifications of that problem, then the salesperson is justified in making recommendations and a presentation will not be necessary. When you guide your customers through this process, you will establish a high level of credibility and find yourself jointly developing optimal solutions, which will ultimately benefit both you and your customers.

Jeff Thull is president and CEO of Prime Resource Group and has designed programs for clients including Shell Global Solutions, 3M, Microsoft, Citicorp, IBM and Georgia-Pacific. He also is the author of the best-selling book Mastering the Complex Sale—How to Compete and Win When the Stakes Are High.
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