Stop The Archaic Sales Pitch!

First off, my apologies to all my sales friends out there, and also to the awesome sales people who truly understand relationship building. This post is not aimed at them.

I can’t pinpoint when it all started to go downhill, but I assume that Linked, social media, and the fact we all have websites has made it easier to get in touch. There is also more information out there on potential prospects then there has ever been. And therein lies the problem. With more info at sales peoples’ disposal (for the sake of this post, I will loop you all in together), their selling habits have not changed.

They are aggressive on first touch point. They know very little about you or the company you represent. They throw out numbers that have little true meaning. Or they offer a client roster that is irrelevant to your business, industry, or department. And they over-confidently ask for budget or the sale way too early.

So let’s get started on what annoys us – your potential prospects – the most.

Change the *!c%en Font!

Through discussions and informal polls of what irks us as digital marketers and Ecommerce professionals the most, none is further up the list than the template email. Here is what it looks like. “Hi Johnny…” which is followed up by a 2,000 word novel that borders on a diatribe throwing out some industry terms like ROI, SEO, SEM, and social commerce. There are a few flags as to why we know this happens (so listen up, and fix this, pretty please).

• The “Hi Johnny” font and font size are completely different than the text that follows. (Sarcasm coming). Well done on the copy and paste.
• You have forgotten to insert the current company I am working at, so for instance, instead of writing in “Bentley Leathers,” it reads “insert company name.” Or possibly worse, you call us by the wrong name (damn CRM system) or insert the wrong company name.
• Your sign off name is a completely different font than all the text above.

I understand. You are likely using a marketing automation tool to get this all done. But if you can’t make the effort to personalize the experience, then why should we take the time to respond?

Being Too Aggressive

Sales training courses always tell you to ask for the sale. It eventually does need to happen, to be sure. However, maybe it’s a generational thing of wanting things quickly, but asking for a sale too early, or being too aggressive, is a turn off. Sometimes you need to take it slow. It also helps to respect the process.

Another way sales reps can be overly aggressive is when trying to set a meeting. Understandably, the over-aggression usually happens at the end of a quarter, when sales reps can become lions who have not been fed in quite some time, but have a bit of respect for a busy calendar. I work in retail. And retail head office employees will tell you that Mondays are extremely busy with reporting for the week that passed, and planning for the week ahead. So when you send an email and ask for a meeting on the same day, that’s taking a leap of faith. I get it. You want us to pin down a time. But give us at least a week of breathing room to shuffle our calendar, or fit you in. The worst cases I’ve seen are actually sending a meeting calendar invite – before we’ve even spoken or had a chance to respond.

On the first call, you should be finding out more about our business, culture, organizational chart or decision makers, perhaps, and our greatest issues as it relates to your solution. Asking for the sale or the budget on that initial call or shortly after is like me asking you for pricing in my first email response. It feels off, right?

And if we say it’s not in our current roadmap, but it may be in 12 months, then don’t ask for a meeting next week. Make a note and say you will touch base with us in about 3-6 months (depending on the length of your sales cycle). That will be received warmly.

My advice, coming from a prospect perspective, would be don’t force it. Like a relationship, let it flow naturally.

Here’s Our Client Roster, a List of Little Relevance

Make sure to understand the industry of the prospect you are chasing. So if I work in fashion, a client roster that includes McDonald’s, Sony, and McKesson is powerful, but has very little reference. But if you mention Macy’s, Zara, and Forever XXI, then you have my attention.

So I am not saying to not include your power clients, but please make sure to do 3 things when you share your client roster.

1. Try to show clients in the same industry or sector, or that share some kind of problem/need.
2. Showcase clients that you think are in the same realm in terms of sales revenue, budgets, set up, growth, roadmap, etc.
3. Be prepared to share a reference that we can speak to for any solution – or customer – you showcase. If we ask for this, and it takes more than a few days to get the reference, we question the relationship or your product/solution.

Using Google Translate to Write the Email

So here’s the thing: Google Translate is a pretty cool tool. But I would caution to use it more to check out a word’s translation, than a 400-word email. So if you make the assumption that because I am in Quebec, and the email should be in French, yet use Google Translate, the first impression is not going to be a strong one. My advice is to initially contact the person in the language you are comfortable in. If your prospect prefers to speak another language, which he/she should make clear on that first contact, and you don’t speak that language, it might be best to hand off the account to another sales or account manager.

There’s Nothing More Annoying Than a 3-Minute Voice Message

If you need to leave a message that is longer than one minute, that is way too long for us to hold our attention. Get to the point. State why you are calling and from which company, how you think you can help, be sure to personalize it a bit, and leave your number (please repeat it twice) or contact info. That should take no longer than one minute.

You Had Me at Hello, and Then it Went Terribly Wrong

With LinkedIn and Twitter, not to mention the company website and all the other social media networks out there, you have very little excuse to not to do your research. There are numerous instances I could list where research could have made the initial contact a good one, but the scenario below is one of the worst I encountered regarding a lack of research, or just plain laziness.

Bentley re-launched its Ecommerce site in May 2015. In February, about 3 months before we re-launched a drastically different site experience, I had a number of messages, in my inbox, on LinkedIn and on my voice mail, saying they loved the new site, but noticed areas where they could help. Which new site, I asked? They said the one that was live. Bentley had actually decided to shut its transactional site for a few months to prepare for the new one. And here we had some well-known technology companies, with some very inexperienced sales reps, telling us they loved the new site, yet never opened up their browser and checked us out. That was lazy.

And then the opposite happened. We launched our website, and then months later, I had sales people asking me if we had launched our website yet. That gives me very little in the way of confidence that you will be able to understand our needs, and how you can help satisfy them.

Flat Out Lying Gets You Nowhere

When you call into a company and are talking to a new employee , someone who has just taken over a position from another contact you had, and you lie, that is simply irresponsible.

When you say that you’ve talked to the previous person in your position, and that they were very interested in the product or solution, and say it was close to a deal, when none of it is true, you have ruined your chance at trust. Besides, if there is a new decision maker, you have to convince him/her, and that new contact does not really care about what occurred before his time, or “conversations” that did or did not take place.

Get Your CRM Act Together, or Quit Trying

In this digital age, where CRMs like Salesforce or marketing automation tools like HubSpot are plentiful, user-friendly, and very affordable, there is no reason for multiple reps from the same company calling in to talk to a prospect, and not knowing that their colleague has already called in or emailed. Especially in the digital marketing or Ecommerce sector, if you can’t manage technology on your end, it gives us little confidence that you’ll be able to manage our account, project, or budget in a responsible manner. So get your CRM act together, quick!

Guidelines For An Impactful Intro

So how do you get our attention? How do you get the conversation started on the right foot? How do you get a response or call back? Here are a few guidelines to steer you in the right direction.

• Get to know the prospect before contacting him/her: With social media, internal networks, company website, blogs, and Google, there is no excuse for being lazy and not researching the person you are contacting. So if you are trying to get a meeting with a prospect, and that person has a blog or frequently tweets, try to use that in your email. Personalize it: mention their most recent blog post, the tweet you enjoyed, the LinkedIn article you appreciated that they shared. Or maybe even try starting the conversation on social media, rather than in Outlook.
• Having a conversation: Most of the vendors I work with and deals I signed never felt like a sales conversation. It just felt like a conversation. Build a relationship with your prospect, so much so that it seems like a natural flowing conversation, where you’re not seeking a deal, but you’re genuinely trying to help them. If you are actually genuine, you will win a lot more than you lose. We can usually smell when you’re not.
• Get on social media: Just as you research us, we prospects also research you. So if you sell social media services, for instance, and have no presence on social media, our guard goes up. I have had numerous sales reps try to sell me on the latest and greatest social media automation tool, and either the rep selling, or the company itself, was completely inactive on social media. Again, it raises a flag.
• Meeting at a conference: meeting face to face during a conference works wonders. It does require a little research to see if your prospect is going (but most shows do send out the list of attendees in advance). Meeting for 15 minutes, shaking hands, and chatting off the record is a great way to be remembered, and we are then more receptive to a call or meeting when we get back to the office.
• Starting with some java: rather than asking for a demo off the bat, how about chatting over coffee? If you live near your prospect, and you know meeting face to face is a good opener, why not invite him/her for a coffee to meet and see how you can help with their challenges. It might be a longer sales process, but it’s also more effective. Again, face to face is always a great idea.

Again, I have built great relationships with sales reps over the years, many I now consider friends. And I guess that’s what makes a bad sales experience even worse, because I know what a great one feels like.

 

So what irks you the most about sales reps trying to contact you? Any personal story you’d love to share? Also, what action that a sales rep took actually worked quite well? Please comment below.