Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 - (Page 9)

> SMART > PASS IT ON SALES THE BOTTOM LINE Sticking Out Want to stay top-of-mind with clients? John Doerr, principal at Wellesley Hills Group, a consulting and marketing services firm in Framingham, Mass., suggests the following tips: Selling Across Generation Gaps How to find common ground with the New Millennials BY DAVE STEIN KEEP IT TRENDY Monthly enewsletters are fine to send to clients, Doerr says. Just make sure they’re newsworthy and include some cutting-edge piece of information about the client’s industry. MIX IT UP Contact clients the same way each time and they’ll become immune to your message. Find ways to send compelling information by phone, e-mail, fax and mail. BE SPONTANEOUS Don’t wait until the next scheduled communication piece to reach out. If you see an article online or gain insightful knowledge that could affect your client’s business, pick up the phone or shoot him an e-mail with your latest tip. [THE PULSE] SOURCE: BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE SURVEY OF 2,000 AMERICAN MANAGERS 90% of managers think they’re in the top 10 percent of performers at their workplace. > LEAD GENERATOR These days, less is more when it comes to cold calling, says Jill Konrath, chief sales officer for Selling to Big Companies, a sales consultancy in St. Paul, Minn. Skip the mass calling lists and focus more attention on a few key prospects. ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY That’s done in a few key ways, Konrath says—through a referral, specific research on the prospect you’re calling, or through in-depth knowledge of a major news event in the prospect’s industry. Any of those buys you five seconds, if not more, in the initial call. PIQUE CURIOSITY Call with a specific proposal for how the prospect could save money, become more efficient, or some other market advantage. Rattle those off before even mentioning your own company to really grab the prospect’s attention. CONCLUDE WITH CONFIDENCE Don’t ask if you can have a follow-up meeting, Konrath says. That’s too standard an approach. Overworked, stressed-out decision-makers don’t want any more meetings than they need. Instead, offer to follow up with additional information, such as a study, analysis of their processes, or other piece of information that would help the company be more productive. www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com Irrelevant and interchangeable if there were ever two words to describe how we don’t want to be viewed as B2B marketers and sellers, these certainly make the short list! Yet “irrelevant and interchangeable”is precisely what we are to men and women in other generational groups if we don’t understand the context in which they live and work. Cam Marston, of Charlotte, N.C.based Marston Communications, sees four distinct generations, each with its own shared history, common biases and core beliefs. Successful selling and marketing to each of those groups, he says, requires the ability to create rapport, develop trust and establish long-term relationships with buyers very different from us. Marston categorizes his groups as follows: The Matures, born before 1946; The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964; The Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1980; and The New Millennials (Generation Y), born after 1980. Picture yourself as a Baby Boomer making a sales call on the 27-year-old Chief Technology Officer of a hot startup. Even as your initial impressions are forming when entering their office, you might find yourself fighting to keep Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words from overpowering you:“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.” Selling to this New Millennial the same way you would like to be sold to won’t get you very far at all. Instead, sell to them as they would like to be sold to. They are different. They don’t have the Baby Boomers’ need to be part of a team, our degree of competitiveness, our trophies, plaques and other visible trappings of success, our work ethic, our need for control, or our need to be defined by our jobs. Before you ever meet that prospect, understand that “different”in terms of cross-generational selling is neither right nor wrong; it’s just different. Seek to understand what those differences are. Follow that by developing an approach that leverages those differences—the attributes,biases and preferences—of your prospect. Making no apologies for generalizing, Marston suggests that in addition to having all the skills, experience and knowledge required in every other sales situation,selling effectively to our New Millennial prospect requires that you become a non-stressful provider of information,because New Millennials are over-stressed and over-scheduled. You’ll need to highlight peer-to-peer testimonials,because New Millennials seek that approval. And you’ll need to position the immediate impact your product will have on their lives. Good products,good processes and good people still comprise the foundation of successful selling. However, with all of us seeking new opportunities for competitive advantage, learning to communicate more effectively with those from other generations can mean the difference between winning and losing. Dave Stein is the author of How Winners Sell and CEO and founder of ES Research Group, West Tisbury, Mass., www.ESResearch.com. He can be reached at edit@salesandmarketing.com. OCTOBER 2007 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 9 http://www.ESResearch.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies Why Prospecting Gets No Respect Sales Strategy: Spotlight your Services Marketing: A Social Intelligence Primer Management: Steer your Team to Success Motivation/Incentives: The No-Pain Way to Gain Training: Looking for Yesterday’s Learning or Tomorrow’s? Technology: Get Trade Show Satisfaction with the Video Massage Focusing on SMB Solutions The Best Sales Force The Hottest Job Industries Overseas Aggravation Gadgets & Gear: Pen and Ink as an Art Form Books that Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales One Foot Out the Door Work/Life: Calling in the Fitness Cavalry. Take-Aways: Bite-size Strategies to Help You Sell More, Market Smarter and Manage Better

Sales & Marketing Management - October 2007

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