Episode #124: How To Deal With The Dog Days Of Sales

Nothing goes in a straight line in sales, does it. That order we received gets canceled, suddenly, inexplicably and mercilessly. The client disappears from the face of the earth and despite initial interest, is now permanently incommunicado. Appointments are not coming your way, as we learn that everyone is too busy, not interested, already have it, the brother-in-law is the supplier, etc. Meetings go badly, as the buyer demands our pitch, then opens up the 12 gauge shotgun and proceeds to blow it to shreds, with all the things which are thought to be wrong with it. Depressing.

This series of disasters, coming on top of each other, one after another, eats into our self-belief and confidence. We doubt whether we can actually sell anything anymore. The pipeline is high and dry, there are scanty meetings planned and time weighs heavily upon our shoulders. The boss is a maniac, beating down on us with heavy expectations and threats of elimination. The money isn’t flowing and our spouse isn’t understanding about the lack of dough.

“Whatever was workin before sure ain’t workin now”. What do we do to climb out of this funk? We need to look at our original strategy. Perhaps we had too much at stake concentrated with too few clients, so that as they dropped out, the cupboard became bare. We may have neglected to keep prospecting as we were servicing our orders.

We need to get busy and stop focusing on what we can’t do and switch mental gears to what we can do. Get out a large sheet of paper. Make a column of existing and previous clients on the left, noting the industry in the adjoining column on the right. Taking the list of clients, start calling them and ask for referrals.

Don’t say something useless like, “Do you know anyone who would be interested in our widget?” The answer will be “no” because you have now confronted them with the entire world and they can’t think of anyone. Narrow it down to a group of people whose faces they can see in their mind’s eye. For example, “Thinking about your fellow chamber of commerce members, would there be some in that group who are having similar issues to what you have had and who similarly would benefit from finding a solution?”. This is easier for them to come up with possible candidates. Ask them to introduce you by connecting you both on email, so you can follow up with them.

Back to our strategic planning. Continuing with our chart, in the next column, again to the right, start listing up lookalikes. These are companies in the same industry who are not already clients. We have some degree of experience with one company in the industry and all of their problems. The chances are high that other companies in the same industry are also suffering from similar problems. This gives us better insight to suggest reasons why we should have a face to face meeting. Start calling them.

You will hit the ubiquitous gatekeepers, whose only joy in life is ditching pesky salespeople trying to talk to the boss. Call before 9.00am, when the boss is likely to be there and the lowly gatekeeper won’t be there. Call just after 1.00pm, when the gatekeeper is at lunch and the boss will be back, and call after 6.00pm when the gatekeeper has tootled off home. The chances of talking to someone a bit more senior, who will better get the value of the call goes up.

Grab another big sheet of paper. In the first column start listing up ideal clients you would like to target. In the adjoining column on the right list up any contacts you have, who can introduce you to decision makers in that company. Start calling them. Be prepared for tonnes of rejection in Japan, because this country is not geared up for dealing with unknown companies and individuals.

Nevertheless, work on crafting a great credibility statement. It should start with a brief statement of what your company does, then immediately transition into an example of where you have done something wonderful for another client, including concrete, verifiable numbers or percentages, and suggest maybe you could do the same for this company.

Immediately state however, that you are not sure if that was possible, but that it would be worthwhile to have a conversation to find out and segue into whether this week or next week would be better to get together. It might sound like this, “My name is Greg Story from Dale Carnegie Training, we are global soft skills training experts, with a long history of over 100 years in operation. Recently we did sales training for XYZ company and they registered a 30% increase in sales as a result. Maybe we could do the same thing for your company, I am not sure. In order to find out if that is possible, would you be available this week or is next week better, for us to get together?”

Are these strategies guaranteed to strike success. Of course, not. However, by getting into action, good things start to happen. The chances of getting meetings with clients goes up dramatically. These meetings could lead to fruitful discussions where the client learns what you do and how you might be able to help them. The point is to stop whining and start winning by calling clients.