I Have Something to Say!
American Music Icon
Willie Nelson is turning 81. While most octogenarians enjoy hanging out
at home and occasionally doting over grandkids, Willie is still way out there;
touring, “toking,” and writing songs. For those of you who happen to
be near Austin, Texas, Willie has a big shindig lined up on April 29th to
celebrate his birthday. True Confession: I love Willie’s
music, it comes with growing up in a Texaco Station. But this isn’t
about Mr. Nelson, it’s about you.
Some time ago, I read an
interview where Willie said his songs rang true because he really had something
to say. The same concept might be applied to individual sales
effort.
If we don’t have
something to say, why visit the customer? This sounds sort of
strange. But, “having something to say” might mean having a plan for
the sales call; better still, a strategy for the next three or four
calls.
Why am I writing
this? A couple of days ago, I heard the following two back to back
comments. The first from the head of a customer’s engineering group,
the other from a sales person.
Comment One (Engineering
Group Manager):
“Sales people have the
easiest job on the planet. Most don’t do much these days. It
seems like they are just dropping by to say, 'don’t forget to call me if you
want to buy something.'”
Comment Two (Salesperson
with 2 years of experience):
“We are just stopping in to see this customer as a way of showing
the flag and letting them know we want their business.”
We have a failure to
communicate. The two statements bounce off one another. Certainly,
the Engineering Group manager’s thoughts were confirmed. Seemingly many
sales types don’t have much to say. I want to explore why this might
be the case.
Back to the Engineering
Manager. During our short time together, he shared the biggest
concerns in meeting his departmental goals.
Lack of qualified people, issues with maintaining the proper software to
commission his equipment, and understanding the lead time of purchased
components weighed heavy on his mind. What’s more, he told me these
juicy details during a 40 minute conversation which was originally scheduled to
cover his views on 3-D printing. I wasn’t selling anything, but if I
were a distributor salesperson, all of these could have and would have fallen
straight to my wheel house.
On to the sales
guy. Wouldn’t it be nice if he had something to say? I
know some new salespeople struggle for topics. Creating a list
of topics is easy but it does require some thought and planning. I
could spew forth on this topic for hours. But since I have a
self-imposed limit of 750 words, let me give you three often overlooked topics
for discussion:
What trade publications
does your customer read?
Every lobby in America
has a stack of trade publications thrown around the waiting area. National
Hog Farmer, Bulk Transporter and Aviation Week join Foundry Magazine and Coal
Prep Magazine on the side tables of mismatched naugahyde chairs throughout our
territories. If your customer advertises in these publications, you
have double discussion points.
Has the customer been in
the news recently?
The CEOs of companies
large and small are often quoted in the press. Using Google Alerts
via Google.com you can receive an email (for free) every time your customer is
mentioned in any news publication on the planet. Try following your
customer via social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn. Some even do product demonstrations on their own YouTube channel. Let them know you pay
attention and want to know more about their business.
Warranty follow-ups
might be a good thing to talk about.
If your customer uses
any product on your line card, discussing warranty periods is a natural ice
breaker. You’re not selling, you are servicing. For some
products, the warranty periods are expanding. Case in point, some
sensors and drives have gone from one year to three year warranty
periods. Bringing in this information gives you something important
to say.
Finally, last week one
rookie sales friend asked me if there was a question I would never use. The
answer is yes. And, this is a true story. Way back, during
the Regan Administration, I was forced to make calls with a pipe smoking guy who
launched every call with the same question:
“You don’t have anything you want to buy this week, do you?”
Mostly…. the answer was
no.
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