Sales Driven Marketing Hub

San Diego State Head Basketball Coach Steve Fisher spoke to his team Thursday night after pulling out a 73-69 quadruple overtime victory against New Mexico State on Day 1 of the NCAA tournament. When he walked into the locker room, after the game, he could see that his team was physically and emotionally drained. Unless you knew the outcome, you wouldn't know you were in the winning team's locker room.

Much like a sales manager, Fisher had to think quickly, manage emotions, and create perspective. He said,

Prospects don't answer the phone anymore and they rarely respond to emails. Everyone talks about adding value, but the question is... how? How do sales reps take the time to add value when their manager is constantly on them about getting on the phone, logging activities in Salesforce, and building a stronger pipeline?

The answer is... ALIGNMENT... between sales and marketing to develop a strategic value driven approach to sales prospecting.

Sales has to stop complaining about not having enough marketing, and Marketing has to stop complaining about Sales not using the multitude of makeketing peices "hidden in Uncle Charlie's Garage," A.K.A. Sharepoint.

One of our top performers called me to her cube and said, “I need your help. I was supposed to get a final decision today from a big account I’ve been waiting on. Although the prospect promised to call me, she didn’t. I’ve tried calling her and haven’t been able to reach her. It’s the end of the day, and I’m writing her an email. Can you read over it and tell me what you think?”

I read through the first three sentences and noticed it was just a bunch of fluffy language that didn’t really say anything… a bunch of blah, blah, blah. We’ve all been there right?

Shortly after the publication of my book,"Just Listen" Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone, I gave a presentation to a financial services company that prides themselves on understanding their client's needs because they said they wanted to improve their listening skills.

In such presentations in addition to providing something didactic, I like to facilitate discussion and sharing of best approaches from the participants. I also ask that top performers be forthcoming with the best techniques they have learned.

Two thirds of the way through my presentation I explained a few of the approaches from my book they could use. After I finished making my points, one person pointed out that what I had suggested was exactly an approach that the most successful person in the group used, but never shared with others.

What brings grown men and women to their knees, often making them cry, cringe and gnash their teeth about sales?

Cold calling, my friends... You may know it by a nicer name – prospecting, screening, dialing for dollars, building a pipeline, hot knocking, profiling, warm calling, business development, inside sales or lead generation – but, strip away the hype and it is All.Just.Cold.Calling. You’re contacting someone or a company by phone who should be interested in your product or service to bring them into the light of your product’s awesomeness. And bring more cash into your pocket.

So let’s make the process easier and more cash full for you. Here are my top tips to make fewer cold calls and take home more money for your efforts. By the way, there is still effort to this (hey, I can’t do it for you!) but if you follow the tips, they will pay off handsomely for you.

What are you selling? I'm not sure, but the one thing I know is... I can give you a discount! I walked into Baskin-Robbins the other day, and saw this sign...

The image stuck with me, and I started thinking about how sales people (and their managers) are stuck in a belief that every prospect they meet is looking for a discount.

You’ve heard all this talk about building relationships. I hate to say it, but that’s not the priority. Building relationships is secondary to building business.

How do you feel about Predictive Analytics? Companies, governments, law enforcement, hospitals, and universities are using your past behavior to predict your future. In February 2013, Eric Siegel released his book Predictive Analytics, where he shares how organizations are seizing upon the power to predict whether you're going to click, buy, lie, or die...

When you ask a great sales question, do you stop to listen, or do you fall into the temptation of answering your own question? I've seen sales people ask great questions and just before the customer responds... the sales person starts guessing at the answer.

A sales rep might ask, "What demand generation and lead conversion strategies are you using?" one second... two seconds... of uncomfortable silence, and the sales person jumps right back in with, "Are you focused on content marketing? ...or on blogging? ...or are you running any social media campaigns?" ...followed by a little rambling and rephrasing of the original sales question, "What kinds of things... uh... are you working on to... uh... help your sales and marketing team... uh... generate more leads and close more new business?"

I’ve been thinking about the way sales has changed. It seems a lot of people have been thinking about that lately, but there’s a fine line between reality and confusion.

Then it hit me, there’s one thing about sales that will never change. Think beyond the obvious… Can you guess what it is?