The most powerful yet grossly under-utilized tool in business and selling today is video; both live and on-demand. Given the current global outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the safety measures and travel restrictions companies are rapidly putting in place, this is changing. Quickly!  

 Most companies simply have not whole-heartedly adopted video for outbound prospecting emails, video messaging through the LinkedIn mobile app, live-video conferencing for client calls, or the use of video to train and coach salespeople on both sales skills and products knowledge.

 I can’t explain why there is so much “friction” to adopting video communications in business. Perhaps it’s a lack of knowledge around the technology available. Or just not enough experience to recognize the incredible value it adds to both internal and customer-facing engagement.

 Let’s look at just a few specific applications for how video can not only eliminate health and safety risks, but drive incredible savings in terms of both money and time.  

 1.    Sales Calls with Customers and Prospects

When all we had was a landline, we had no choice. But anyone who has ever used something like FaceTime (or Zoom, Skype, Webex, Citrix, etc.) knows how much more powerful a conversation can be when you can SEE the other party.

 Psychologists tell us that more than 60% of what is communicated between people conversing is non-verbal. Meaning it’s what we see. Using video we can see body language, facial expressions, eye movements, etc. You can get so much more feedback on how your message is being received. And .. . because they can also see you, they can also get a better sense of who you are as well. Video enables us to build rapport and earn trust much more quickly.

I have been using live-video for every conversation (where possible) with both clients and prospects for over 3 years. I’m turning more conversations into opportunities, accomplishing more in every conversation, and closing more business because of it.

Of course, there will always be tremendous value in being in the same room with your customers, assuming it’s cost effective and you can do so without catching a deadly virus. But salespeople can dramatically improve their productivity (their ability to “see” more people) and companies can save a ton of money leveraging video in the right situations.  

2.    Training and Coaching Salespeople

There was a time when the only really effective environment for training salespeople was the classroom. But with the technology that is available today, a blended approach that leverages on-demand video, video micro-learning, interactive live-video sessions, and video-based coaching is actually more effective in driving lasting changes in sales behavior than a classroom setting alone.

But here’s the thing . . . You can’t just take the same slide deck you used to use in the classroom and do a one-way “broadcast”webinar and expect people to show up and want to be involved. The way learning has to be constructed is very different than the old-fashioned narrated slide-show approach.

Learners need to be challenged to come up with ways to solve problems with real accounts and active opportunities. They need to engage with the learners in small-group discussions (something only a few live-video platforms do well). They also need to be held accountable to go back out to the field and use what they’ve learned, then report back on the results.  

Whether it is selling skills or product knowledge, learners need things broken down into bite-size chunks which they can go out and easily apply to see positive results. They also need feedback and coaching to maximize the impact of learning reinforcement.

3.    Prospecting for New Sales Opportunities

Real estate agents have known this for decades. But the world of B2B sales has yet to really grasp the power of a face (and now even a voice) to go along with a name when it comes to earning trust, eliminating fear, and breaking down communication barriers with people that we don’t know. There are at least two ways video is being used extremely effectively by companies willing to embrace it.

The first is a video message embedded into an email. You can make a generic video and embed in an email blast it to 5000 recipients. But what is far more effective is recording a short 30 to 60 second video that is customized to ONE recipient. There are a number of software tools out there that do this very nicely. Just do a search for “embed video into email” to find a bunch of options.

My new favorite for reaching out to people that I do not yet know is to engage them via video on LinkedIn. First you have to get familiar with their posts and comments (assuming they are active on the platform), then respond to something they post with a request to connect. THEN continue to engage with their posts for a bit before you send your first video message via the LinkedIn app.

What you are looking for is a way to connect the dots between something they obviously care about, revealed by what they write in their posts and comments, and the kind of value you can potentially bring to their world.  If you just cold-connect and immediately hit them with a video, you will be very disappointed with your results.

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These are only a few examples of how video is revolutionizing the way business people communicate. We are all very aware of the impact of video on mediums such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. NOWis the time to embrace the future of selling and start to leverage video in many aspects of how you communicate both internally and externally.

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If you’d like to learn more about how we are helping clients leverage the latest in video technologies to dramatically drive down costs, reduce time-out-of-the-field, and eliminate health risks in sales training, please visit us at:  www.salesexcellence.com  

Our complete Sales Excellence Core Methodology program is now available on-demand at:  https://www.salesexcellenceonline.com/store

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At some companies, forecasting has become more like “fore-guessing” or “hope-casting” and with all the uncertainties of today’s marketplace, the problem is getting worse not better. The root cause of poor sales forecasting is usually not poor salesmanship, more often it is the lack of a good method for forecasting, or the existence of a bad one. Forecasting by “gut feel” or “seat-of-the-pants” is a major contributor to the consistent sale of antacid and headache medicine, but it usually does very little to accurately anticipate the sale of our own product or service.

Many companies use an inferior or outdated forecasting methodology and some have no formal forecasting process at all. They ask their salespeople to, “Tell us what is going to close,” and when their people don’t “commit” enough business, they ask them to “commit” additional business that is nowhere near closure. In this manner, some managers set themselves up to be disappointed, or even worse: surprised.

The most effective sales forecasting methodologies are based on the observable milestones of the customer’s buying process. Note that these are not milestones of our own sales process. Actions we take or activities we engage in may actually do nothing to move a deal toward closure. Checking the box next to “Delivered the final proposal” might make us feel good, but it probably won’t increase the likelihood that the sale is going close.

What an accurate forecast considers is, “What are the steps that the client must take to execute this contract or place this order, and what do we need to do to enable them to take those steps?” This requires a lot of research and questioning, but good sales forecasting should be less soothsaying and more investigative reporting. If what we discover suggests less forecast-able business than our quota requires, then at least we know where we stand. Most managers would agree that they’d rather know where they are, than make believe they’re somewhere that they’re not.

About the Author

Sales Excellence, Inc. is a consortium of world-class sales management consultants, sales trainers, and personal coaches who help business executives and sales professionals grow their client base, increase revenue, and keep more profit. They can be reached at 1-800-524-1994 or by email at staff@www.salesexcellence.com.

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Focus on what they do

As sales professionals, you and I don’t retire quota or earn commissions for anything that we do. We get paid on what our clients do. When they sign a contract or issue a purchase order, then we make some money. This is the root of one of the major challenges of selling. We have to accept that we cannot control our customers. We can only seek to understand them and influence their actions.To further illustrate this point, I ask you the following question; “Is it possible that we could do everything that we are supposed to do in our sales process and still not make the sale?” I suspect you’re thinking “Yes.” Then I ask you this; “If the client does all of the things that they need to do to buy, and we missed a few of the steps we had to do, could we still book the deal?” Of course. So, in reality then, it’s not what we do to try to make the sale that really matters. What matters is that the client does the things they have to do to buy.

Map it out

As sales people or managers we often ask, “What do we have to do to close this deal?” That, in fact, is the wrong question. What we should be asking is, “What does the client have to do in order to buy?” and then the follow-on question is, “What do we have to do to get them to do those things?”Whether or not we have or follow a documented sales process, we should endeavor to understand and document our client’s buying process. We must understand not only the things that have to happen throughout the selection and approval process, but who will be involved along the way. You won’t take the time to do this for a small add-on sale, but if you intend to complete a six- or seven-figure transaction, which might take months to close, the payback is well worth the investment.

Sell with specific intent

Armed with a thorough understanding of the steps and stages of our customer’s buying process, we can plan our work accordingly. Then every single move we make can be made with the specific intent of enabling or empowering our client to take the next step they need to take in order to buy.If you think about it a minute, before we speak to a prospective client on the phone we should know and understand exactly what has to happen next in their buying process, and what we’re going to do on this call to make that happen. And if we spend the time and money to go visit a client without a plan of what we intend to say and do to help them take the next step in their buying process, then we are little more than a professional visitor.Defining and documenting a useful map of our customer’s buying process will take time, it will take effort, and it will require that we reach, qualify, and sell to all of the people who will play a part in the selection and approval process. We will need a lot of input and perspective because simply accepting any one person’s opinion of their process leaves too many variables to chance and ultimately leaves us with too much exposure and opportunity for failure. Taking the time to thoroughly understand all of the things that the client needs to do in order to buy often makes the difference between the very successful and those who simply hope to hit their quota by playing “the numbers.”About the authorBill Stinnett is the founder and President of Boston-based Sales Excellence, Inc. and is a highly sought after speaker appearing at sales meetings, conferences, conventions, and annual sales kick-offs world-wide. He is the creator of many popular sales programs including Selling at the C-Level® and Accelerating your customer’s buying process. For more information on these and other services please call 1-800-524-1994 or send email to bill@www.salesexcellence.com.

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• Recommender(s): Individual or a small group of individuals who are given the task to evaluate various suppliers, vendors or providers and make a recommendation to someone for which one they think is best. This may involve a pretty drawn out process which might include requests for information, asking to have you come assess their needs, filling out requests for quotations, providing references, etc. There is a lot to the process that this group of people might be demanding before even getting to a place where they make a recommendation.
• Project Owner: This is the person to whom the Recommenders will make their recommendation. This person oversees the project at hand, and probably several other projects, too. This individual is obviously going to decide which direction they want to move in and if they want to take action on the recommendation that they receive. Even if they do decide that yes, this is a good recommendation, and that they would like to move forward, the project owner is probably not the person who is the final decision maker; they are just one decision maker in the process before they pass it along to the person who is the next approver in the buying process.
• Investment Owner: This is someone who is managing a Profit and Loss and is responsible not only for making investments, but also has a responsibility to return some profitability on those investments.
• Financial Approver: If the Investment Owner approves the project, it is likely to then go on to this person, someone in the finance department – a Controller, a CFO, etc. – somebody who gives approval to move forward with funding and says, “Yes, we can write a check for that”.
• Technical Approver: Someone with specific technical expertise who might be involved in the process after the Recommender, but before final financial approval who can say whether the solution meets all of the technical requirements; sometimes they might even hire an outside consultant to help them make a decision as well.
• Legal Approver(s): Once everything has made its way through and has the approval of the stakeholders and other various constituencies, the project may then need to go to the legal team to be sure that their requirements for Terms and Conditions have been met.
• Final Approver(s): An individual or maybe even a committee who determines that a project can move forward.
• Buyer or Contract Signer: After final approval, the project would then go on to this person who actually issues a Purchase Order Agreement or physically signs the contract.

I spent much of my sales career oversimplifying my customer’s buying process, hoping that the person that I know will get the deal done for me. I’ve found, as I’m sure you have too, that there is some risk in that. I can look back on almost every single deal that I’ve ever lost and think to myself: “I just didn’t know enough people.” If I had just known that that controller had as much sway as he did, or if I had only known that the legal approver was going to get the deal hung up in the legal department for weeks causing me to miss my quota for the month, or if I had just known that the Final Approver didn’t know my company or had never heard of us. If I had just known the importance of the roles played by these groups or individuals, I would have won the deal in most cases.Never oversimplify a deal and don’t take any one person’s word for it. Ask a lot of questions, seek to meet more people and when you meet those additional contacts, ask them who else is involved in the process. Try to find out, if you can, every single person that plays a role.I recognize that, in some cases, it boils down to an issue of time management; there’s not always enough time to meet them all. Here is the question I have for you: Which one of these should we ignore? The consultant who they have hired specifically to give them advice on which direction to move forward and who to buy from? Should we ignore the financial approver, for example, and not have any influence over whether they say that our project is a good investment versus using the money for a different project? Or perhaps we can ignore that buyer or contract signer in the procurement department? I think you recognize that we can’t afford to ignore any of these.You can use your own terms and label the different roles in the buying process however you’d like, but it’s a matter of putting forth the effort required to determine who plays these key roles in your client’s organization and buying process so that we can meet as many of them as we can.

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Manage Your Attitude

The first step in surviving and thriving in our current economic climate is not accepting the notion that we are helpless to determine our fate. It’s one thing to acknowledge “times are tough.” It is another to sit and wait for things to “turn around.” As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Your attitude is a direct result of what you listen to, the things you read, and the people you associate with.  So, start to manage your own attitude by being more selective.1. Regulate your exposure to the negative. Be careful not to overdose on news and “talk” about the news. Every depressing piece of information which suggests your customers might be resistant to buy becomes another subconscious reason not to reach out to a new prospect. Enough of this can lull even the most experienced salesperson into inactivity.2. Read the classics. No offense to Tolstoy and Dickens, but the classics of managing your attitude are:

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger

These books have inspired millions. Develop the habit of reading 20 minutes each night just before you fall asleep. This alone can have a huge impact on your outlook.3. Spend time around people who are successful and optimistic. They may be hard to find, but identify those people around you who are enthusiastic about their present and their future. Optimism is contiguous.  Catch it!

Manage Your Sales Activity

When the economy starts to tighten, and customers begin to hesitate, the natural tendency is draw back and wait. We have to fight this tendency with everything we’ve got. This is the time to increase your sales activity. Reach out to some new customers. Broaden your relationship footprint within each account. Engage in some good old-fashioned reverse planning.Start by laying out your revenue goals for the year. If you’re on a quota, this step is already done for you. Then, figure out how many sales opportunities (of an average size) you will need to close to reach that goal. Determine how many new sales meetings (or telephone discussions) it will take to find enough new opportunities. Then, estimate how many new prospects you need to approach every week to secure enough new meetings or telephone discussions.The biggest challenge of reverse planning is we tend to drastically miscalculate what it’s going to take reach our goals. If you overestimate by thinking that you can close 60% of the opportunities you try to close, but you actually only close 30%, you’ll fall short of your overall goal. Likewise, if you underestimate your success rate at each step in the process, you’ll come up with an impossible number of new prospect approaches and scare yourself into inactivity.The only way to get good at reverse planning to track your success in each major step in your process. Where performance is measured, performance improves. Overtime, you’ll find that your success rates will improve and your ability to manage your activity and control your revenue results will improve substantially.

Change the Way You Sell

We don’t have the luxury of selling the same way we sold five years ago – or even two years ago – and simply doing more of the same. We must continually evolve and rethink how we sell so that we are not just selling more, but selling better every single year. Consistent sales activity is vital to sales success, but just being busy isn’t the objective.  Don’t fall for the assertion that sales is simply a numbers game. Evolving as a sales professional requires more than just a firm resolve to “do more;” it requires us t learn to “do different” in order to produce different results.

In our workshops we teach eight habits that sales professionals and their managers must develop to survive and thrive in our current global economic climate. Mastering these will help you become an even better sales professional than you already are:

1. TAKE CONTROL of what you can control. Use the suggestions above to create your own situation. Don’t let other people or outside circumstances determine what kind of a year you will have.2. RETAIN your best clients by treating them like new clients. Go back to the beginning. Understand your customer’s “new” current state and help them create a vision of a desired future state which you can help them achieve.3. CREATE new sales opportunities within both new and existing accounts. It seems almost too simple, but everything – even your attitude – gets better when you add a couple of new sales opportunities to your pipeline. Make a commitment to consistent prospecting and business development.4. PENETRATE new and existing accounts to broaden your relationship footprint. The more people you know within each account, the more influence you will have and the better you can qualify opportunity.5. SCRUTINIZE every sales opportunity with a systematic approach to qualification. Improve your skills in diagnostic questioning to really evaluate your customer’s world. The better you are at understanding both why they would buy and how they would buy, the more effective you will be bringing business to closure.6. PRIORITIZE your investment of time and effort in the best opportunities. All deals are not created equal. You can’t afford to spend your time on opportunities that don’t offer a high probability of success.7. MANAGE the events and milestones of your customer’s buying process. Get more involved in helping your customers buy. Figure out all the steps your customer must take in order to buy, and help them take those steps one at a time.8. PROTECT revenues and profitability through more effective negotiations. Don’t just hand over profit. Make sure that you are asking for something of equal or greater value in exchange for anything your customer asks for or demands from you.About the AuthorBill Stinnett is the founder and president of Sales Excellence, Inc. and is a highly sought after speaker appearing at sales meetings, conferences, conventions, and annual sales kick-offs world-wide. He is the author two best selling books: Think Like Your Customer (McGraw-Hill 2005), which has been translated into nine languages, and Selling Results! (McGraw-Hill 2007). His clients include General Electric, SAP, Microsoft, IBM, Verizon, Harvard Business School, and many others. Bill also serves as a faculty lecturer at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

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• A reference point they can easily recognize as your reason for calling such as, “I met this person who suggested I give you a call.” “I read an article where you were quoted.” “I went to your website and saw that you’re in charge of the division.” Give them a reason you’re calling.
• Share something you’ve learned about them. You’ve probably done some research, read their website, gone to their individual LinkedIn profile, and you’re going to talk about something you learned about that person or organization. Share with the assistant what you’ve learned.
• Tell them how you’ve helped others like them. Share with the assistant exactly what you’ve done to help other companies like theirs solve some business problems or achieve some results that might be relevant to them.
• Give them a call to action. What you want them to do next? Take a phone call, join a web conference, meet with you when you’re in town? Tell the assistant what you’re hoping the executive will do next.

In my experience, when you present the executive assistant with those four things a surprisingly high number of them will respond favorably and help you find time on their boss’ calendar. Use the exact same approach on the assistant as you would on the executive. If what you have to say isn’t good enough to impress the assistant, it’s probably not going to be good enough to impress the executive either.

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