I once had a sales coach that taught me a method to base customers visit or sales calls on. He called it the 0.5 – 5.0 method and it works so that you follow a scheme to eventually get an acceptance, for example on an order. Subsequently you continue with conducting a needs assessment or a presentation of the company and the products.
0.5 Waking the interest – Have you ever had this problem with…?
1.0 Aim and objective – Then I have this solution for you.
2.0 General problem picture in third person – I’m often in contact with customers who have a demand for…
3.0 Our solution, the product – For these type of customers we have this solution…
4.0 References – Our customers are…and for them it is important that…
5.0 Acceptance question – Is this important for you, too?
The method is off cause not applicable to all customer situations. Sometimes for example, only 2.0 – 5.0 are applicable to the situation. As my sales coach pointed out “our customer shall enjoy doing business with us, not only meet with us”.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Don’t take no for an answer
-Can I help you?
In 99 of 100 possible cases the answer you get from asking this question will be “no, thanks”. This is not the answer you like to get when exhibiting at that congress you spent a lot of time and money to be present at. Instead, try starting with a question to which the answer is not yes or no. Try starting with questions like “where are you from”, “what type of business are you in”, what is you research interest”, “what do you think about this interesting product”, or similar questions that demands more of an answer than simply a yes or a no.
I was in a clothing store once just browsing around. Instead of giving me the “can I help you” question the clerk turned to me with a pair of trousers in her hands.
-What do you think about these? she asked me. Just got them in this morning.
She instantly gained my interest and now she had the opportunity to show me something additional.
At a different occasion I was trying on a shirt at a department store when a shop assistant came up to me.
-You do look good in that color, she said. That shirt suits you very well.
I ended up buying the shirt.
My colleague told me about when he was admiring a coat in a clothing store once. The salesman approached him.
-Do you think you’re worth it? he asked.
That question has only one answer and that answer is yes. My colleague went straight out of the store to withdraw money from the cash machine whereupon he went straight back in to get the coat.
In 99 of 100 possible cases the answer you get from asking this question will be “no, thanks”. This is not the answer you like to get when exhibiting at that congress you spent a lot of time and money to be present at. Instead, try starting with a question to which the answer is not yes or no. Try starting with questions like “where are you from”, “what type of business are you in”, what is you research interest”, “what do you think about this interesting product”, or similar questions that demands more of an answer than simply a yes or a no.
I was in a clothing store once just browsing around. Instead of giving me the “can I help you” question the clerk turned to me with a pair of trousers in her hands.
-What do you think about these? she asked me. Just got them in this morning.
She instantly gained my interest and now she had the opportunity to show me something additional.
At a different occasion I was trying on a shirt at a department store when a shop assistant came up to me.
-You do look good in that color, she said. That shirt suits you very well.
I ended up buying the shirt.
My colleague told me about when he was admiring a coat in a clothing store once. The salesman approached him.
-Do you think you’re worth it? he asked.
That question has only one answer and that answer is yes. My colleague went straight out of the store to withdraw money from the cash machine whereupon he went straight back in to get the coat.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Sensory marketing
Today's major information flow and constant lack of time requires new ways of communicating. Functional benefits are no longer enough. It has become increasingly important to communicate the brand through the company's values, material selections (not only in products but also in packaging and brochures), product design and the design of the graphic profile (visual identity). I read Bertil Hultén’s book Sensory Marketing (ISBN: 9789147087105) with great interest. Fascinated, I read about companies working to create the brand's soul with the help of signature scents, signature sound, design and figurative marks, taste strategies and choice of materials. For example, to add weight to technology products signals quality. Some companies work with the same face or the same jingle voice year after year and I dare say that most of us know the signature sound of the ice-cream truck. Shops and hotels are working with signature fragrances, furnishings and lighting to create a company identity.
How can you apply this to a company whose products mainly are exported? Start by clarifying what the company stands for and what values there are in the company. Based on this, think about how to convey this through the company web site, marketing material, product packaging, etc. Review the company logo, paper quality in printed material, packaging design, colors and graphic images in the marketing material, design of the website, etc.
To signal quality, trust and responsibility you can for example select an FSC certified paper and environmentally friendly print production. Select signature colors and work only with a few in your marketing communication, preferably the same as in the company logo, review the choice of images, fonts and layouts and ensure that it strictly abides the selected graphic profile. By this you create a company identity through the selected colors, design, form and images (visual) and a feeling of quality through the selection of paper quality and design of printed material (feel). Visual and audio impressions can for example be conveyed through a video on the company website and that presents the company or its products. As an added value, you can offer something that is specific to the country or place where the business is located, to your customers to eat or drink at visits or congresses (taste and smell). Company values are communicated through all the things you do and all the choices you make.
How can you apply this to a company whose products mainly are exported? Start by clarifying what the company stands for and what values there are in the company. Based on this, think about how to convey this through the company web site, marketing material, product packaging, etc. Review the company logo, paper quality in printed material, packaging design, colors and graphic images in the marketing material, design of the website, etc.
To signal quality, trust and responsibility you can for example select an FSC certified paper and environmentally friendly print production. Select signature colors and work only with a few in your marketing communication, preferably the same as in the company logo, review the choice of images, fonts and layouts and ensure that it strictly abides the selected graphic profile. By this you create a company identity through the selected colors, design, form and images (visual) and a feeling of quality through the selection of paper quality and design of printed material (feel). Visual and audio impressions can for example be conveyed through a video on the company website and that presents the company or its products. As an added value, you can offer something that is specific to the country or place where the business is located, to your customers to eat or drink at visits or congresses (taste and smell). Company values are communicated through all the things you do and all the choices you make.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Dare focusing
How many times a week, if not daily, do you not get calls from sales persons who convincingly tell you how many their magazine actually reaches out to and what effect an ad in that same journal would have on your sales. I once got a call from one of Sweden's leading tabloid newspapers. The salesman informed me correctly that many of our existing and potential customers on the Swedish market actually read this paper. With that being said, he wanted me to know what true potential an ad in this tabloid would have for us on finding new buyers of our products on the Swedish market.
As a marketing manager at a company that provides tools for scientists within a niched field of research, my question back to him was if he really believed that our customers would be receptive to the message in an ad from us in the tabloids? My experience is that it would have been wasted money. For a message to come through, it is important to find the right medium in which the recipient is most likely to be receptive to the information. A scientific journal is a more appropriate forum in our case. For us, where the recipient most likely do not even read the printed edition, but instead scans the electronic version of the same for what is published in his or her own field of research, an ad in the printed edition would probably pass unnoticed.
The same way you evaluate where to spend your money best, you should evaluate how to spend your time most effectively. The reasons for a potential customers to choose a different technology than the one you have to offer is important information for you not to waste time on so-called cold leads. It is equally important to be aware of how the products fit the user needs and why customers choose to work with your products, as it is to know why in other customer situations the products fit less. Resources are always a limitation. Hence it is important to decide how to spend them, in terms of time and money, to get the biggest bang for the buck.
As a marketing manager at a company that provides tools for scientists within a niched field of research, my question back to him was if he really believed that our customers would be receptive to the message in an ad from us in the tabloids? My experience is that it would have been wasted money. For a message to come through, it is important to find the right medium in which the recipient is most likely to be receptive to the information. A scientific journal is a more appropriate forum in our case. For us, where the recipient most likely do not even read the printed edition, but instead scans the electronic version of the same for what is published in his or her own field of research, an ad in the printed edition would probably pass unnoticed.
The same way you evaluate where to spend your money best, you should evaluate how to spend your time most effectively. The reasons for a potential customers to choose a different technology than the one you have to offer is important information for you not to waste time on so-called cold leads. It is equally important to be aware of how the products fit the user needs and why customers choose to work with your products, as it is to know why in other customer situations the products fit less. Resources are always a limitation. Hence it is important to decide how to spend them, in terms of time and money, to get the biggest bang for the buck.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The distribution network
For small and medium-sized enterprises with less possibilities of establishing own sales offices worldwide, it is instead important to build up a good distribution network of dealers and agents. Ideally would be to find distributors who are dedicated to the supplier's own products and can devote all resources to the sales of these. That is not always the case. So how do you choose the right partners?
There are a lot of different distributors out there. There are large ones with a broad product range, small dedicated to a specific product category, major catalog companies with minimal customer contact and smaller companies with more focus on being out at customer sites.
The large, reaching broad has not always proven to be the best. Neither has the small niched ones shown to be the most appropriate. The ones that usually succeed as distributors are the ones that have a clear profile towards the customer, who do not have a too wide range of products, which have the right customer profile in their CRM systems, who have similar products as the supplier and hence can offer them in packages, so called product bundling.
After having worked myself some years for a distributor on the Swedish market, I cannot stress enough the importance of the supplier keeping good contact with the distributor. Of great significance for the inspiration is also the opportunity to receive training from the supplier. When the dealers have a good relationship with you as the supplier, have knowledge of your products and their market positioning, are familiar with the product's unique selling points versus the competition, have good knowledge of the product's customer profile, and feel comfortable with the sales of your products, only then you have a good chance of succeeding with your distribution network.
There are a lot of different distributors out there. There are large ones with a broad product range, small dedicated to a specific product category, major catalog companies with minimal customer contact and smaller companies with more focus on being out at customer sites.
The large, reaching broad has not always proven to be the best. Neither has the small niched ones shown to be the most appropriate. The ones that usually succeed as distributors are the ones that have a clear profile towards the customer, who do not have a too wide range of products, which have the right customer profile in their CRM systems, who have similar products as the supplier and hence can offer them in packages, so called product bundling.
After having worked myself some years for a distributor on the Swedish market, I cannot stress enough the importance of the supplier keeping good contact with the distributor. Of great significance for the inspiration is also the opportunity to receive training from the supplier. When the dealers have a good relationship with you as the supplier, have knowledge of your products and their market positioning, are familiar with the product's unique selling points versus the competition, have good knowledge of the product's customer profile, and feel comfortable with the sales of your products, only then you have a good chance of succeeding with your distribution network.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Competing on price or quality
It's not unusual to end up in a price discussion in a customer contact. It is important therefore to in advance have thought about what is included in product pricing. What do the customer pay for? Anyone can offer a low price, but can your competitors offer what you have?
It is common to speak of "quality-to price ratio”. As a customer you may strive for the lowest price, but it can be expensive to buy cheaply. You do not want to pay a high price for a product that keeps mediocre quality, but it is conceivable to sometimes cut down on quality and instead go for a cheaper product. However, no one wants to buy a product with such low quality that one cannot get the expected out of the product. This can lead to a need of byuing a new or more expensive product and then it becomes expensive to buy cheaply. Although it sounds like the obvious, it is important to clarify this for the customer.
A product may possess a higher price due to the fact that it is based on reagents or components of higher quality and hence are more expensive in purchase.
Maybe your quality system requires more resources than your competitor’s and hence the product is safer for the customer to use. You might be more accessible to the customer than your competitors are. You may have specialized knowledge and therefore can provide better service and support around the products than competitors can. If this is important for the client and included in the price, the customer will most likely see it as getting high value in exchange for the money paid and that the product holds a high "quality-to-price ratio”.
It is common to speak of "quality-to price ratio”. As a customer you may strive for the lowest price, but it can be expensive to buy cheaply. You do not want to pay a high price for a product that keeps mediocre quality, but it is conceivable to sometimes cut down on quality and instead go for a cheaper product. However, no one wants to buy a product with such low quality that one cannot get the expected out of the product. This can lead to a need of byuing a new or more expensive product and then it becomes expensive to buy cheaply. Although it sounds like the obvious, it is important to clarify this for the customer.
A product may possess a higher price due to the fact that it is based on reagents or components of higher quality and hence are more expensive in purchase.
Maybe your quality system requires more resources than your competitor’s and hence the product is safer for the customer to use. You might be more accessible to the customer than your competitors are. You may have specialized knowledge and therefore can provide better service and support around the products than competitors can. If this is important for the client and included in the price, the customer will most likely see it as getting high value in exchange for the money paid and that the product holds a high "quality-to-price ratio”.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Creating a go in the sales force
I do not think you can exhort the sales force to great deeds by just putting up sales targets. In fact, I do not think the sales targets create a go in the sales force at all. This go has to come from the team members themselves. Is there nothing you can do as a manager? There certainly is!
It may sound unbelievable, but what is often overlooked is proactivity and making plans for the year's marketing activities. Go through previous years' sales and sales trends over the past few years. Based on this a budget proposal is made, and sales strategies to achieve the goals decided. Go through what marketing activities should be implemented, what congresses to be present at, and if there is any particular product or product area that needs a little extra push during the year.
When budget is set, go through this with all team members as well as the strategies with which it is thought that sales target is to be achieved. Then you decide together with each individual employee the individual goals and what is expected back in the form of reports and presentations. Everyone's responsibilities are peaces in the organization puzzle and the tasks and activities related to the responsibilities included in the marketing plan and in the strategies you put together to achieve the sales targets.
It is important to clarify personal responsibilities and the distribution of responsibilities between the team members. By distribution of responsibilities within the group and give mandate to carry out the work in the best way everybody will feel involved in the group’s work and be able to implement one’s tasks without stepping on each others’ toes. Everyone knows what to do, who does what, when it should be done and how it should be reported. But is distinctness sufficient? It will take you a long way, I would say, but if you want to take the team all the way you have to spice up the work with joy. Add in some fun activities during the year, perhaps a reward for achieving certain milestones, or make something together in the marketing group outside working hours. Put up a ship’s bell that you can ring in when you receive a larger order or an order from a customer you worked on for a long time. Distinct distribution of responsibilities and job satisfaction will create a go in the sales force.
It may sound unbelievable, but what is often overlooked is proactivity and making plans for the year's marketing activities. Go through previous years' sales and sales trends over the past few years. Based on this a budget proposal is made, and sales strategies to achieve the goals decided. Go through what marketing activities should be implemented, what congresses to be present at, and if there is any particular product or product area that needs a little extra push during the year.
When budget is set, go through this with all team members as well as the strategies with which it is thought that sales target is to be achieved. Then you decide together with each individual employee the individual goals and what is expected back in the form of reports and presentations. Everyone's responsibilities are peaces in the organization puzzle and the tasks and activities related to the responsibilities included in the marketing plan and in the strategies you put together to achieve the sales targets.
It is important to clarify personal responsibilities and the distribution of responsibilities between the team members. By distribution of responsibilities within the group and give mandate to carry out the work in the best way everybody will feel involved in the group’s work and be able to implement one’s tasks without stepping on each others’ toes. Everyone knows what to do, who does what, when it should be done and how it should be reported. But is distinctness sufficient? It will take you a long way, I would say, but if you want to take the team all the way you have to spice up the work with joy. Add in some fun activities during the year, perhaps a reward for achieving certain milestones, or make something together in the marketing group outside working hours. Put up a ship’s bell that you can ring in when you receive a larger order or an order from a customer you worked on for a long time. Distinct distribution of responsibilities and job satisfaction will create a go in the sales force.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Competency training nourishes creativity
Working with sales is a way of life. You can never become a skilled sales rep without feeling passion for business. The salesman’s profession is a creative profession. Attending sales meetings or sales trainings is inspiring and nurtures the creativity. In my opinion all staff with some sort of customer contact should have the opportunity to repeated sales and marketing trainings. However, these courses and conferences are expensive and the resources limited.
A good idea is to create your own trainings at the company. Decide for example, to meet once a month for an hour sales talk. Decide an agenda for the meeting. Someone might present a book in sales and marketing which he or she read, you may be discussing an assignment you had from the last meeting, you can listen to sales training courses on CDs, or just discuss different sales situations or something that happened on your market. At some point you can simply analyze yourself as salespersons or members of the team with any suitable method.
If you felt drained of inspiration before the sales meeting, you will come out with new inspiration afterwards. Do not be surprised if you get so inspired that you challenge yourselves to different sales tasks. Maybe you decide you should contact 10 new potential clients a week for a month, conduct a product training at customer site or something else challenging, but still achievable and that can generate future sales.
A good idea is to create your own trainings at the company. Decide for example, to meet once a month for an hour sales talk. Decide an agenda for the meeting. Someone might present a book in sales and marketing which he or she read, you may be discussing an assignment you had from the last meeting, you can listen to sales training courses on CDs, or just discuss different sales situations or something that happened on your market. At some point you can simply analyze yourself as salespersons or members of the team with any suitable method.
If you felt drained of inspiration before the sales meeting, you will come out with new inspiration afterwards. Do not be surprised if you get so inspired that you challenge yourselves to different sales tasks. Maybe you decide you should contact 10 new potential clients a week for a month, conduct a product training at customer site or something else challenging, but still achievable and that can generate future sales.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Free tools to optimize your website
I have worked in sales and marketing since 1988, with breaks for children and higher education between 1993 and 2003. Much has happened in this area since then. In just five years ago the product catalog was the most important sales tool. According to a survey, as much as 60% of all customers made their purchase decisions based on the content of this tool. This is not the case anymore. Today purchasing decisions are largely made on the Internet.
The company behind the product has also gained increasing importance. As a customer you want to have a good feel for the company and even sometimes identify yourself with it. In today's marketing, it is therefore important to be distinct in the communication of the company's values and vision.
The development of the Internet and different tools for electronic marketing communication offer companies new opportunities to reach out with their products into the global market. It is important to make the company's web site selling and coordinate information on the website with other activities such as newsletter mailings, product focus on meetings and conferences, etc. to hang on to the leads, which you manage to interest out there, and which then choose to visit the company's website. To follow the results of this work, you can use Google Analytics, a free tool for tracking visitor statistics on your website. From here you can follow which pages on the website has been most popular during a certain period and how long visitors stayed on different pages. This information can then be connected with the other marketing activities to monitor the effect of these activities on the web site traffic. Google offers a variety of free tools for electronic marketing communication. From Google Webmaster Central you can learn how to optimize a website to increase its visibility in the Google search results. With Google Trends, you can analyze search patterns and with Google Alerts keep track of what is written about the industry, the company or its competitors. Completely free, and soon you become a skilled web master and a professional designer of websites with high visitor frequency. At least well on your way to become...
The company behind the product has also gained increasing importance. As a customer you want to have a good feel for the company and even sometimes identify yourself with it. In today's marketing, it is therefore important to be distinct in the communication of the company's values and vision.
The development of the Internet and different tools for electronic marketing communication offer companies new opportunities to reach out with their products into the global market. It is important to make the company's web site selling and coordinate information on the website with other activities such as newsletter mailings, product focus on meetings and conferences, etc. to hang on to the leads, which you manage to interest out there, and which then choose to visit the company's website. To follow the results of this work, you can use Google Analytics, a free tool for tracking visitor statistics on your website. From here you can follow which pages on the website has been most popular during a certain period and how long visitors stayed on different pages. This information can then be connected with the other marketing activities to monitor the effect of these activities on the web site traffic. Google offers a variety of free tools for electronic marketing communication. From Google Webmaster Central you can learn how to optimize a website to increase its visibility in the Google search results. With Google Trends, you can analyze search patterns and with Google Alerts keep track of what is written about the industry, the company or its competitors. Completely free, and soon you become a skilled web master and a professional designer of websites with high visitor frequency. At least well on your way to become...
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Company profiling with small resources
I was at Pfizer, the other day to listen to Bengt Mattson, who lectured on the company's work on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the business opportunities it can generate. It is interesting to follow Pfizer's efforts to build a profile as a responsible company, which supports projects in global health and sustainable development and the use of this profile in the corporate business plan. For those of us who work with sales and marketing at a small or medium-sized businesses the difference in resources becomes very clear here. We do as well want to create a defined company identity to use in our business models, but do not have the same muscles. Inspired by a small company from the north of Sweden, Västerbottensost, I am convinced that it is possible to do this even with limited resources. A good start is to review the company's profile.
• What was the reason for the company starting and what was the original business idea? Write down the company history!
• Who are the users of products today and why? How are the products tailored to user needs?
• Analyze the competition. What is the brand's Unique Selling Points (USP)? How do the products stand in the competition and what are the benefits?
• What does the company's future look like? Write down the company vision?
From this, you get the brand value. A clear market positioning is now beginning to discern.
A clear corporate identity is not only important for the customer to understand when to turn to your company for business. A clear corporate image also provides the company guidance in using its resources right. For example, it is not only important to know why your customers choose you, but also important to know why, a seemingly potential, customers still opt for another product or technology. This in order not to waste your sales resources on so-called cold leads.
• What was the reason for the company starting and what was the original business idea? Write down the company history!
• Who are the users of products today and why? How are the products tailored to user needs?
• Analyze the competition. What is the brand's Unique Selling Points (USP)? How do the products stand in the competition and what are the benefits?
• What does the company's future look like? Write down the company vision?
From this, you get the brand value. A clear market positioning is now beginning to discern.
A clear corporate identity is not only important for the customer to understand when to turn to your company for business. A clear corporate image also provides the company guidance in using its resources right. For example, it is not only important to know why your customers choose you, but also important to know why, a seemingly potential, customers still opt for another product or technology. This in order not to waste your sales resources on so-called cold leads.
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