I received an email today from a well-known information marketer (who I have the misfortune to share surnames with) inviting me to join him at a “Herd Building Day” at an upcoming seminar he’s putting on.  I’m sorry, but something about the title of that program just screamed “Come on out…you can learn to be a douchebag like me!” when I read it.

“Herd Building Day”?  Seriously?  I have a question: are they going to teach me how to build a “herd”, or am I going to become part of the “herd” that they’re building?  My guess is the latter.  But wait, there’s more: if I’m one of the first 800 to sign up, I get a super-razzoo discount AND they’ll let me to be part of the “herd” day for free!  Please.  Spare.  Me.

I’ve had my suspicions about this particular marketer before.  The worst was when I received a series of “invitations” to a previous event that became progressively more abusive the closer the event got, eventually culminating in an email that seemed to question my intelligence, pleading with me to pay up and attend the seminar so I could be smart like them.  I wish I would have saved that email, since it was about the closest thing to a perfect example of how to market like a jackass I’ve ever seen.  Instead, I let it get under my skin and deleted it.  Oh well…I’m sure there will be another.

So, back to “Herd Building Day”.  Can you think of a more insulting way to refer to your clients than calling them your “herd”?  I can’t, and I’ve been trying to think of something for the past 20 minutes.  Maybe your “mindless zombie pack”?  No: I think I’d actually rather be a zombie than part of your “herd”.  At least if I was a zombie, I could still come after you to eat your brain.

Let me be perfectly clear: I’m not one of those people who hates sales and marketing.  In fact, I’m a big fan of sales and marketing.  Ask anyone who knows me: sales and marketing is what I do, it’s what I live, eat, sleep and breathe.  I just like to see it done right.  When someone refers to “building a herd” of customers, it turns my stomach.  After all, what do you do with a “herd”?  You milk it for all it’s worth, right?  Does that sound like marketing done right to you?

You know the part of this invitation that bothers me most, though?  The fact that there’s a better than average chance that the seminar is gong to sell out.  Why?  Because there are plenty of people who would love nothing more than to build a herd that they can milk for everything it’s worth.  There are people who are more than happy to fall for the appeal of a shortcut to success.  They’ll line up, cash or credit card in hand, for the opportunity to learn how to make a quick buck off the gullibility of the “herd”.

What they don’t realize, though, is that they are the “herd”.

Do me a huge favor: don’t be like them.  Accept and commit to the fact that lasting success comes to those who follow a course of demonstrating, on a daily basis, that they have the best interest of their customers at heart.  Wouldn’t you rather do that than be part of the “herd”?

One of the worst questions a sales manager can ask a salesperson is, “So when is Prospect X going to sign with us?”  I’ve got news for you Mr./Ms. Sales Manager: not only is that question impossible for your salesperson to answer, it clearly demonstrates that your management efforts are misguided.  Instead of managing the sales process, which is squarely under the control of you and your salespeople, you are trying to manage the outcome, something that neither you nor your salesperson is capable of doing.

Understand this: while you and your salespeople are in control of the sales process, your prospects and customers are in control of the buying process.  And the buyer is ultimately the one who controls the outcome of any sales situation.  We’ve all had the experience of executing the sales process flawlessly only to have the prospect we were courting say “No thanks” in the end; it happens, and it’s out of our control.  Getting frustrated or angry about it is silly; it’s like being mad that it rained today.  Recognize that it’s out of your control, let it go, and move on.

Does that mean that sales managers should just forget about the performance of their sales people?  Not at all!  They just need to shift their focus from the things they can’t control (outcomes) to the things they can control (processes).  Are the salespeople in their charge following a good sales process, or are they “making it up as they go”?  Has the process been clearly defined?  Are their rules of engagement and scripted responses for different contingencies?  Those are the things you have control over; manage them.

And if you’re reading this thinking that it doesn’t apply to you because you don’t manage salespeople, think again.  If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner who is an army of one, you have to apply these same principles to your own sales efforts.  Too many solo business owners are not taking their sales efforts seriously.  Sales is something they do when they feel like it or something they will try to get to “when things aren’t so crazy.”  As a result, they’re in a constant feast/famine cycle that they just can’t break.

See if this sounds familiar: you panic because there’s not enough work, go out and make some sales, shift your focus to doing the work you sold, then panic again when the work runs out.  It’s no way to live, and that kind of panicked sales effort leads to trying to manage outcomes and frustration when deals aren’t happening quickly enough.

There is a way off the hamster wheel: implement and execute a consistent sales process that involves some kind of sales activity every day.  If you’ll commit to managing your sales process, you won’t have to worry about trying to control outcomes; instead, you’ll end up getting more of the outcomes you want by virtue of having a consistent process.

A final word of advice to those who do manage salespeople: if you’re trying to manage outcomes and you think that you can get your way by beating up on the people who work for you, think again.  What you’re actually doing is creating a highly motivated sales force for your competition.

What a great day!  I was spending some time on TweetDeck when one of the Tweets in the stream caught my eye.  It said, “I take pride in the ‘No’s’ that I get (means I am taking action!)”

What was this?  Another crusader for “No”?  I checked the Twitter profile and found not one but two advocates for our two-lettered friend.  What a great connection.  This is why I love social media!  So keep up the “No” campaign Andrea and Richard, and I’ll be cheering you along the way.

On with the series, then.  Today’s step offers you the keys to the kingdom when it comes to getting to “No”.  Asking better questions really is the best, fastest, most efficient way to get to the “No” you need to hear and avoid that “Maybe” trap.

Let’s start with the reason you’re asking questions to begin with.  First of all, lose the illusion that qualifying questions are supposed to help you close sales.  Not so, my friend.  Qualifying questions are meant to help you sift the wheat (potential buyers) from the chaff (friendly people who have trouble saying “No” and want to keep you in the “Maybe”-loop).  Great questions help prospects self-select so that you can find the ones who really want to work with you.

What kind of questions do you need to ask?  IT sales and marketing expert Robin Robins recommends a simple, three-step series of questions that will help you and your prospect determine if it makes sense to continue the conversation.  The first question is “What’s most important to you when it comes to…”  The purpose of the question is to start to get an idea of the values of the prospect you’re talking to.  If the answer is something like “Getting the lowest price and the best service possible”, you’re probably in for trouble, especially if your great service comes with a heftier price tag than your competitors’.

Of course, you’ll need to dig a little deeper than that.  Pursuing the intent of identifying the the values of the prospect, you might try asking “What else is important?” a couple of times until you feel you’ve got a complete list of concerns, ranked in order of relative importance.  Now it’s time to move on to the next question.

Ask, “Why is that important to you?”  This allows the prospect to clarify, both to you and to themselves, whether there is a real opportunity for partnership.  If a prospect says that getting the lowest price is the most important thing and you feel like you can provide the lowest price, yet they follow up by saying that the reason they need low prices is that they’re having cash flow problems and “by the way do you offer 60-day terms?”, you know the opportunity is a risky one, right?  And when you explain your COD terms, you’ll probably get that “No” you were looking for.

Next question: “How will you know when you’ve acheived [whatever they said was most important to them]?”  This part of the discussion is really going to help you make sure there’s no confusion when it comes time to present possible solutions.  If the prospect tells you at this point that they’ll know they’re getting the lowest price if their current vendor isn’t willing to match or beat it, again, it’s time to start packing your things and thinking of an exit strategy (more on that tomorrow); this situation is clearly headed for a “No”!

But let’s say that these three questions uncover a real oppportunity to move the sale forward.  What then?  It’s time for the most important question of all.  You say, “So I have a question for you: keeping in mind the agreement we made at the beginning of this conversation about telling me “No”, if I could show you something that would give you [most important thing] that covered [why it's important] and gave you [how they'll know it when it's right], would it be worth it to you to meet again and learn about that solution with an eye toward partnering on such a project?”

This is it: their opportunity to deliver a big fat “No” and let you off the “Maybe” hook.  And if you’ve followed these first four steps correctly, chances are pretty good that that’s exactly what you’ll get.  At the same time, you’ll also have improved your chances at getting a “Yes”.  And if you do, congratulations!  You now have the green light to switch gears from getting a quick “No” to looking for the “Yes” at the end of the funnel!

But before you start writing up that presentation, there’s one more step we need to consider, and it’s going to be the hardest one to do: developing the ability to know when you should say “No” to the prospect.  Be sure to tune in for this last step tomorrow!

I’d like to make a couple of clarifications before proceeding with the Getting to “No” series.  First, when I’m addressing salespeople, I’m including you business owners and entrepreneurs in the conversation.  If you’re not doing all the selling in your organization yourself, you’re likely the one managing the salespeople.  You need to pay attention to this stuff.

Second, this series is focusing on the importance of getting to “No” faster and more often in the early stages of the sales process, specifically when prospecting and qualifying.  In the latter half of the process (presentation and conversion), you’re definitely looking for a “Yes” (look for a follow-up series on getting to “Yes” next week).  And if you apply the principles in this series to get more “No”s, you’ll be more like to succed when it comes time to ask for a “Yes”.

That said, thanks for tuning in to part 3 of our 5-part series, “5 Steps To Get To the 2nd Best Answer In Sales”.  The third step in the process is simple: Clearly State Your Intention.

Like many of the suggestions you read in this blog, this is really just common sense.  The idea here is to get an agreement from the prospect regarding the outcome you’d like to acheive right at the beginning of your conversation.  If you state your intention right at the beginning of the conversation, your chances of getting the outcome you’re looking for go up pretty significantly, right?

And what is that desired outcome?  You guessed it: to avoid “Maybe” at all costs, even if that means you’ll get a “No”.

But how do you get your prospect to agree to that?  After all, these folks have been professionally trained in the art of the 1001 “Maybe”s.  They’re Masters of the Hem, and if that doesn’t work they fall back on their trusty old Haws.  They can evade being pinned down to a definite answer better than a stealthy ninja can avoid detection.  How in the world will you get them to agree to giving you a “Yes” or “No” and not a “Maybe”?

First, understand that the reason prospects have such an affinity for “Maybe” is that they don’t like saying “No” to a nice person like you any more than you like hearing it.  They’ve just been trained by all the lousy salespeople they’ve dealt with before that “Maybe” is the safest answer.  They’re afraid to commit, one way or the other, because they’re afraid of making the wrong decision.  Just like you, they are human beings with fragile, neurotic egos and they want other people to like them.  If they say “No”, they fear that you won’t like them (of course, none of this applies to Gatekeepers; they are a different breed entirely, and they thrive on saying “No” and being disliked by salespeople, and eating small children).  So make it easy for them to say “No”.

Just be honest.  Try something like this: “You know Mr./Ms. Prospect, I really appreciate your taking the time to see me today.  I know you’re a busy person, and so I’d like to make you a deal: if what we talk about today aligns with your values or strikes a chord with you, I’d like to explore our opportunity for partnership a little further.  If it doesn’t, though, I don’t want to waste any more of your or my time.  So if you don’t like what I have to say, I’d like for you to let me know right up front.  I promise you won’t hurt my feelings, and I promise to take you at your word.  If you tell me “No”, I won’t be pestering you with pointless phone calls and emails; I’ll only contact you if and when I come across something in the future that looks like it might be a good fit based on the conversation we have today.  Does that sound like a plan to you?”

Don’t try to back the prospect into a corner, though.  Remember: you’re not trying to get the sale at this point.  You’re merely asking that they be honest and upfront about whether they see a match of their needs to your product, and whether they’re willing to listen to more information.  You’re not asking them to commit to anything other than another specific, well-defined conversation (as opposed to a pointless “follow-up call”).  If you try to get them to commit to anything more at this point in the game, you’ll be hearing “Maybe” all the way to next year.

Tune in tomorrow for Step 4: Ask Better Questions.  In the meantime, please leave a comment to let me know what you think of the series so far.  Ciao for now!

I just finished a post over at the Sales Bloggers Union about the importance of getting to “No” faster and more frequently in order to be a successful salesperson.  You can read that post here.

As I was writing that post, though, I started thinking of some ways to help salespeople get better at eliciting those “No”s from their prospects more efficiently.  I decided to write a series here called “5 Steps To Get To the 2nd Best Answer In Sales”.

We’ll start with the most important step: getting your mindset properly aligned.

Step #1: Remember That “No” Really Means “Not Now”

Why do I say that your mindset is the most important step?  To begin with, developing the right mindset will help you handle the inevitable rejection involved in selling for a living.  Have you ever wondered how great salespeople can get rejected all day long and get up the next day to do it all over again?  It’s because they know this little secret: “No” doesn’t really mean “No”…it just means “Not now”.

If the person you’re talking to is really a prospect (and if they’re not, why are you talking to them in the first place?), the fact that they tell you “No” today doesn’t suddenly turn them into a non-prospect, does it?  Of course not.  It just means that either you didn’t do a good job of uncovering their triggers and presenting the right solution, or that they just didn’t connect with you on some level, or that they really just are not going to buy right now.

And that’s OK.  It happens to the best of us.  But it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still a valid prospect and that maybe, if you play your cards right, you’ll get another shot at some point in the future.  In the meantime, move on.  It’s not the end of the world.  Put them back in the queue and check in with them periodically, keeping an eye on any relevant sources of information (their website, news articles, social media) that might indicate a change of circumstance.  And when the time is right, make another run at it.

While you’re at it, how about a sincere “Thank you!” to the prospect who had the guts to tell you “No” instead of dragging you through that Vale of Shadow known as “Maybe”.  Remember: “Maybe” is the natural enemy of the salesperson, to be avoided at all cost!

Salespeople have begun to develop an aversion to hearing “No”, and we sometimes do stupid things to avoid hearing it.  Like not making calls.  Like not asking for the business.  Like playing the “Maybe” game with prospects who wouldn’t buy from you if you promised them all dates with George Clooney.  Sound familiar?  If so, it’s time to get comfortable with “No” again.

And before you think I’m encouraging salespeople to return to the “bad old days” of sticking your foot in the door and not taking “No” for an answer, let me assure you that nothing could be further from my mind.  On the contrary, I’m encouraging you to take “no” for an answer as often as possible so that you can move on more quickly to prospects who want to engage with you.

So what should you do when a customer says “No”?  Shake his hand, say “Thanks very much!” and get your behind back in the saddle as quickly as possible.  Otherwise, this may not be the right profession for you.

So now that your mindset is in order, what next?  Tune in tomorrow for Step #2: Talk to More People!