When market conditions become tough or change suddenly, businesses tend to seek and then implement quick fixes to improve falling sales. Most of these turn out to be disastrous if not suicidal. Nevertheless, they soldier on hoping that what they can see is a light at the end of the tunnel. They little realise that what they actually see is an express train rushing towards them on the same track. Even when all the evidence is showing that their strategies are not having the desired effect they continue.
Why? Because of four little words, most businesses cling to until the end:
1) Our
2) Business
3) Is
4) Different
In general, most businesses believe that they do offer something so special and so different that they can break the fundamental rules of ‘tough times’ selling. They agree that these fundamental rules exist but they only apply to ‘everybody else’. This is sad because it isn’t true…at least out of the 30-40 new customers we work with each year (and the past 10 years) it hasn’t yet been the case.
As they start out by sincerely believing this, each business attempts to tackle the challenge of increased sales by adopting what they think is a good ‘bespoke’ strategy for their ‘uniqueness’. Actually they tend to pick one of the four suicidal strategies set out below.
1) Carry on as normal
2) Work Harder
3) Fiddle with PR and advertising
4) Offer discounts
Let’s look at each one to discover why they are suicidal and what simple steps every business can take to truly differentiate their offering and secure more sales.
Suicidal Strategy 1: Carry on as normal
This is usually based on finding a new potential customer who is willing to ‘grant them an audience’ then giving them the company presentation. The sellers can’t wait to get the brochure out or start the PowerPoint presentation. They are bursting to talk about solutions and tell the potential customer about everything they can do for them. They are then surprised when they eventually stop talking to hear the customer ask, “So…How much is all this going to cost?”. The reason so many salespeople act like this and are encouraged to do so by their sales managers is ‘that’s what used to work’. In the old ‘pre-internet’ days when there were no ‘websites’ our job, as sellers, was to ‘communicate’ our features and benefits. Our skill as communicators was what differentiated our company and our product from all our competitors. Nowadays because of the internet and our websites, the truth is we do all look and sound very much the same. At an average surfing rate of about 14 seconds per site we (potential customers) read that you offer the best value for money; the best service; are the most experienced and so on. You ALL say precisely the same things. So we ‘take –it-as-read’ that’s what everybody in your market is offering too. So, when we agree to meet you and you start to tell us the same stuff (again!) (supported by your various ‘crutches’: Brochures/ Flyers/ PowerPoint presentations) well….we already know all that. And as a result we just tune-out; usually in about 30 seconds). So what’s to be done? Something different!
Suicidal Strategy 2: Work harder….(Knock on more doors)
Going back four decades this “ramp your activity”….” work harder”….” knock on more doors” strategy is the one I was taught in order to sell more Xerox Copiers. It is still very common 40 years on because (once again) that’s what used to work. But again it was a pre-internet era. And our patented ‘plain paper copier’ was ‘unique’; back then no competitor could copy on to plain paper. So doing lots of demonstrations every day was a strategy for success: “The more doors you knock on …the more orders you get”. But alas that doesn’t work now. Rushing around with no thought, doing your pitch to everyone and anyone who will see you, may win you the odd sale but the dominant emotion will be ‘disappointment’ Why? because most of the time all you’ll hear is “No”. But hey… if rushing around and doing ‘busy-work’ makes you feel good please carry on. Meanwhile, because you clearly believe the old folklore that, ‘selling is a numbers game’, I, meanwhile, will steal the really profitable work you should have been getting if you’d had a better strategy. So, what can you do? Something different!
Suicidal Strategy 3: Fiddle with PR and advertising
This is a very common, seemingly simple, sometimes rather expensive, a solution designed to generate lots of quick inquiries often when things are quiet. The company feels that it will be a subsequent quick exercise to sort the rubbish from the genuine prospects and then close them fast. Many companies have permanent parallel marketing and PR campaigns to support sales activity. But the problem with advertising and PR is that it is designed to attract a lot of attention….which it often does. Lots of inquiries come in but a high proportion is false leads; the enquirers turn out to be ‘suspects’ but not prospects. Nevertheless, salespeople often chase these into the ground for weeks only to arrive at eventual disappointment. And if there is one thing that demotivates salespeople it is constant constant rejection. The typical sales manager’s fatal, demotivating, question when the seller arrives back in the office: “Well …did you close it?” is the final straw. Sellers hate replying ‘No’ because they hate hearing ‘No’ so their sales performance steadily deteriorates the more they hear it. High turnover sales forces are often found in those companies where scatter gun, catch-all advertising is part of the culture. But if they suddenly reduce or even stop advertising (to cut costs) their potential market stop seeing them around and generally believe they’ve gone out of business. On the other hand when those companies which have never really spent any money start advertising they only initiate and repeat the cycle of ‘Suicidal Strategy 3!’
As John Wannamaker millionaire founder of the store chain of the same name once remarked: “I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted…trouble is I don’t know which half !”
Suicidal Strategy 4: Offer discounts
“Actually it’s all about the price”, is the commonest belief as to the reason that ‘sales are down’, particularly when times are tough. Yet ask a class of trainee salespeople to list all those things they have personally bought recently where ‘price’ was the main criteria and you will find it a very short list indeed containing things like ‘socks’, ‘toilet paper’ and ‘soap’. Yet as far as their own company’s products and services are concerned: “We’re just too expensive” (Our Business Is Different).
The truth about discounting (unless you’re a Pound Store /Pound Shop/ Primark/ Cut-price supermarket etc., all with a business plan to suit that mode of trading from the start) is that it doesn’t bring in any more business. There is no evidence that cutting prices do anything except eat into your profits especially during tough times. Because, at all stages of the business cycle, it is not about the price, it is about ‘value for money’. We are all prepared to pay more than the cheapest on-offer provided we perceive value in the offer. In fact, when situations become uncertain customers seek not the cheapest’ but the one they believe they can rely on to provide safety and a sense of confidence.
So, what can you do? Something different!
Here it is: ‘Something Different’
Instead of pitching, telling, presenting, discounting, and ‘working harder’ you can transform your sales meetings by simply asking the right questions.
Here’s how to do it in three steps:
1) Before you start showing them everything you can do, start by picking the type of potential customer that has bought from you in the past and find out what exactly they want to buy. Instead of planning what you’re going to tell them you should be planning what you’re going to ask them. Your customers will be amazed when you start to do this but they will love it especially if you’re clearly listening to what they say and taking notes. The ‘chatty’ questions should be about problems you know you can solve. You’re simply aiming to find out what areas they might have a problem in where your product or service would form a perfect fit.
2) Once you have this clearer picture it is still too early to show your solutions. What you must do at this pre-meeting planning phase is to imagine the customer saying, “Yes that is a problem we have…however it’s not worth the cost or hassle of fixing it”. If they were to say that why would they be wrong? What could be the ‘knock-on effect’ or ‘implication’ of a failure to find a solution? Again make it a question: “Mrs. Prospect you say that your current software company was good at delivering on time but not so good at after-hours support. So if something went badly wrong with an installation outside office hours how catastrophic could that be to your business? ” Questions like these which guide the client’s thinking to the implication of ignoring something apparently minor, show insight which immediately starts to differentiate you, your company, and your product.
3) Keep this discussion around both the problems you know you can fix and the implications of ignoring the problems, for as long as you can. We call it “The Investigation phase”; research shows that the longer it goes on, with your prospective client doing most of the talking, the more persuaded they will become. Resist the temptation to show or talk about your solutions for as long as you can. Even when a competitor tries to undercut you on the price for an almost identical product or service, the fact that you have provided more insight is a very persuasive proposition.
Bob Etherington
“Europe’s Best Sales Trainer” : [Voted by ‘Sales Innovation Expo’ 2015 and 2016, Excel London.]
bob@bobetheringtongroup.com
