sales 101
sales 101 epiphany
sales, especially inside phone sales, is hard. it sucks a lot of times, especially when you first begin. talking to people who do not wish to ever hear from you is a daunting task. today i had an inkling of how it works, and how i can become better at my job.
scenario: california is fucked due to their budget crisis. the governator is slashing budgets across the board. the first people to get fucked over are schools, and the first people within schools is the tech department. gotta pay the teachers and staff, right? fuck the internet!
anyways, i have been calling people and it went like this (these convos are paraphrased, obviously):
M= me
T= them
M: whats up man, what are you shopping for, what are you getting prices on, let me send you a quote
T: dude we have no money, we are on budget freeze thank to the governator.
M: wow that sucks, talk to you later
absolutely nothing good in that conversation. didn't learn anything, brought no value to the customer. i did that maybe 5 or 10 times this morning. then i had an idea.
M: whats up dude, what are you looking at right now? lemme send you a quote.
T: dude we have no money, we can only spend on mission critical expenses.
M: ok that's reasonable. what do you consider to be mission critical?
T: what the fuck do you think, asshole?
ok obviously internet connection, phone service, data backup, network integrity. great. this went on for 5 or 10 calls before i came to that logical conclusion.
ten or so calls later...
M: whats up man, what are you working on these days? lemme send a quote on what you're shopping for.
T: dude we have no money, can only spend on emergency items.
M: you know, i have had the same conversations with all of my california customers. fuck the governator! but really, people can only invest in their most importent systems. i've found that the most important resources for schools to retain is obviously their storage systems, their internet connection, their phone service, and everything that runs their network. isn't that what you would consider on the top of your list?
T: yeah
M: cool, yeah, i mean, it makes sense. i wonder how it would affect you if any of those systems went dark. by the way, do you have a disaster recovery plan?
T: (one of three answers)
1) yes.
2) no
3) what's it to ya, assface?
1. great. what is that plan?.....(sell upgrades)
2/3. what would happen if god forbid a wildfire or earthquake or anything else hit your area? we all know california is notorious for brown outs and black outs. what are you doing for data backup? wouldn't you feel more comfortable with a redundant internet connection and phone service? or even redundant power? wouldn't it be nice to know you could be back up and running within minutes or hours rather than days, or even weeks should the item you need be on backorder?
T: yes.
and so on....
point is, i am getting better at my job! a few months ago, even a month ago, i was always viewing the successful account managers like "damn, how the fuck do they do that much revenue?!?". there was this grey area where i saw that somehow, in some way, phone calls equalled money for me. but what you have to do is lead the conversation, and lead the customer down a path of logic.
what i am learning is that you can develop strategies for any conversational situation. it can be disaster recovery, it can be storage scenarios, it can be networking goals, it can be internet service provision...it can be anything. what i today started to develop for disaster recovery is what i will eventually develop for every other scenario. eventually i will be able to lead every conversation into the avenue that i prescribe.
i think of those flow charts where there's a question at the top, with two arrows going down below it saying "if the customer answered 'Yes', then this" or "if the customer answered 'No', then this". then more and more branches below each level. it may actually be that simple.
what you do is identify a problem and/or pain point. you get them to verbally acknowledge that pain point and repeat it verbally. then you get them to admit that they would like a solution; something that would make their life easier (save them time, save them money, free up resources, etc). then you propose solutions that will solve their problem. you get them to repeat verbally how that solution will solve their problem. then you tell them, "ok, we identified a problem, and i told you how i can solve it. would you agree?". they will say yes. then you find out the barriers to obtaining that solution, which will always be cost. you tell them that we just went through the logic of how this will save you money, time, and frustration. in most cases, it will prove to save them money over time, if you care to go over the math with them on the phone (which i hate to do, cuz i suck at math =P). then you ask for the sale. never end a sales call without asking for the sale. or at least a quote.
this is all of course paraphrased. you are never this blunt with a customer, but this is the jist of it.
it is friday night at 10:14pm and i can't wait for monday so i can get back to work and start developing strategies in other areas! i can't wait to pick more senior account managers' brains and see how they navigate different scenarios.
i actually enjoy my job!
sales, especially inside phone sales, is hard. it sucks a lot of times, especially when you first begin. talking to people who do not wish to ever hear from you is a daunting task. today i had an inkling of how it works, and how i can become better at my job.
scenario: california is fucked due to their budget crisis. the governator is slashing budgets across the board. the first people to get fucked over are schools, and the first people within schools is the tech department. gotta pay the teachers and staff, right? fuck the internet!
anyways, i have been calling people and it went like this (these convos are paraphrased, obviously):
M= me
T= them
M: whats up man, what are you shopping for, what are you getting prices on, let me send you a quote
T: dude we have no money, we are on budget freeze thank to the governator.
M: wow that sucks, talk to you later
absolutely nothing good in that conversation. didn't learn anything, brought no value to the customer. i did that maybe 5 or 10 times this morning. then i had an idea.
M: whats up dude, what are you looking at right now? lemme send you a quote.
T: dude we have no money, we can only spend on mission critical expenses.
M: ok that's reasonable. what do you consider to be mission critical?
T: what the fuck do you think, asshole?
ok obviously internet connection, phone service, data backup, network integrity. great. this went on for 5 or 10 calls before i came to that logical conclusion.
ten or so calls later...
M: whats up man, what are you working on these days? lemme send a quote on what you're shopping for.
T: dude we have no money, can only spend on emergency items.
M: you know, i have had the same conversations with all of my california customers. fuck the governator! but really, people can only invest in their most importent systems. i've found that the most important resources for schools to retain is obviously their storage systems, their internet connection, their phone service, and everything that runs their network. isn't that what you would consider on the top of your list?
T: yeah
M: cool, yeah, i mean, it makes sense. i wonder how it would affect you if any of those systems went dark. by the way, do you have a disaster recovery plan?
T: (one of three answers)
1) yes.
2) no
3) what's it to ya, assface?
1. great. what is that plan?.....(sell upgrades)
2/3. what would happen if god forbid a wildfire or earthquake or anything else hit your area? we all know california is notorious for brown outs and black outs. what are you doing for data backup? wouldn't you feel more comfortable with a redundant internet connection and phone service? or even redundant power? wouldn't it be nice to know you could be back up and running within minutes or hours rather than days, or even weeks should the item you need be on backorder?
T: yes.
and so on....
point is, i am getting better at my job! a few months ago, even a month ago, i was always viewing the successful account managers like "damn, how the fuck do they do that much revenue?!?". there was this grey area where i saw that somehow, in some way, phone calls equalled money for me. but what you have to do is lead the conversation, and lead the customer down a path of logic.
what i am learning is that you can develop strategies for any conversational situation. it can be disaster recovery, it can be storage scenarios, it can be networking goals, it can be internet service provision...it can be anything. what i today started to develop for disaster recovery is what i will eventually develop for every other scenario. eventually i will be able to lead every conversation into the avenue that i prescribe.
i think of those flow charts where there's a question at the top, with two arrows going down below it saying "if the customer answered 'Yes', then this" or "if the customer answered 'No', then this". then more and more branches below each level. it may actually be that simple.
what you do is identify a problem and/or pain point. you get them to verbally acknowledge that pain point and repeat it verbally. then you get them to admit that they would like a solution; something that would make their life easier (save them time, save them money, free up resources, etc). then you propose solutions that will solve their problem. you get them to repeat verbally how that solution will solve their problem. then you tell them, "ok, we identified a problem, and i told you how i can solve it. would you agree?". they will say yes. then you find out the barriers to obtaining that solution, which will always be cost. you tell them that we just went through the logic of how this will save you money, time, and frustration. in most cases, it will prove to save them money over time, if you care to go over the math with them on the phone (which i hate to do, cuz i suck at math =P). then you ask for the sale. never end a sales call without asking for the sale. or at least a quote.
this is all of course paraphrased. you are never this blunt with a customer, but this is the jist of it.
it is friday night at 10:14pm and i can't wait for monday so i can get back to work and start developing strategies in other areas! i can't wait to pick more senior account managers' brains and see how they navigate different scenarios.
i actually enjoy my job!