Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 - (Page 11)

> SMART > PASS IT ON SALES THE BOTTOM LINE Super-Size It Up-selling is an essential technique for increasing order size, seeking an order for more expensive items, upgrades or other add-ons that the customer might not have considered. Jerry Shapiro, a Marlborough, Mass.-based promotional products manager with Office Depot, suggests the following: Redefining Negotiation Keep your sales team from getting eaten alive BY DAVE STEIN MORE EXPENSIVE SPREAD If someone has a $50-per-item budget, lead with an $80 or $85 item. This way, it becomes a best, better, good situation—not the reverse. STAY LOCAL If at all possible, avoid your customer’s purchasing department. Dealing with procurement is no way to build relationships or increase orders. Stick with the departments that will actually use your products. BE INVENTIVE Consider unique variations on tried-and-true products. Instead of offering, say, the standard presentation pointer-clicker, suggest one that shines the corporate logo on the screen instead of a simple arrow. [THE PULSE] Your company may be spending more, but only 34 % of small business owners will increase their business development budgets in the next six months. SOURCE: DISCOVER SMALL BUSINESS WATCH/AUGUST 2007 > LEAD GENERATOR Lead generation methods aren’t terribly complex if you pay attention to a few basics, says M.H. “Mac” McIntosh, a business-to-business sales lead expert based in Kingstown, R.I. and publisher of Sales Lead Report. AGREE ON DEFINITIONS When everyone (marketing, sales and management) agrees on what constitutes a qualified sales lead, you stand a better chance of logging incremental sales increases. HAVE MATERIALS READY Prospects have their own agendas and timelines, so know in advance what to send and to whom. Have electronic versions of your collateral as well as printed material, and strike quickly with the right version when information is requested. MEASURE SUCCESS Measure and track the results of your sales-lead generation, cultivation and follow-up programs. Determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead, cost per sale, which lead programs generate the highest return on investment, which nurturing techniques worked and which didn’t, and the pay-off in increased sales and market share. www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com Any sales manager will tell you that negotiation is one of the required skills for success in sales.Yet few salespeople are equipped to go one-on-one with the increasingly experienced and tough corporate buyers and purchasing officers with whom they must negotiate in order to make a sale. Even some companies that provide guidance for pursuing the most complex sales opportunities not only leave money on the table, but allow the perceived value of their brand to be whittled away during negotiations. The Strategic Account Management Association and Think! Inc. recently completed a study that benchmarked the current state of negotiation against other professional skills and practices in the selling and account management disciplines. Look at this statistic: Eighty-three percent of the 361 respondents reported that they have no negotiation strategy, or merely an implied one. Within the companies surveyed there were considerable discrepancies in how negotiation was seen. Executives were 77% more likely to view their decision-making authority as highly centralized, whereas salespeople were 71% more likely to view it as somewhat or highly decentralized. Brian Dietmeyer, CEO of Think! Inc., says that many companies have little agreement cross-functionally on what a successful negotiation should look like. Only when organizational silos are broken down and stakehold- ers are aligned around desired outcomes—margin protection, mitigation of legal risk and top-line revenue, to list three examples—can a solid foundation for successful negotiation be built. The study also showed that of the 50% of respondents who attended traditional negotiation skills training, only 6.8% rated themselves as highly effective negotiators. Tactical negotiation training alone doesn’t get the job done in today’s highly competitive selling environment. Think! Inc.’s approach integrates negotiation with a company’s sales process so it is managed strategically, starting at the discovery phase of the sales cycle. Integration of negotiation into the sales process has other benefits as well, including knowing what is important to the customer and what isn’t, so that trading can be leveraged. The study revealed that 79% of respondents said they effectively trade for customer demands only occasionally, or not at all. In most cases, they just give value away. Dietmeyer says that when negotiation is integrated with an effective selling methodology, there is no longer any reason for a salesperson to get rocked back on their heels when a purchasing executive says their competition is offering what they are—at 20 percent less. Going head-to-head against professional negotiators isn’t easy. If that is part of a salesperson’s job,then it is our responsibility to provide them with a proven and effective approach. 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. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 SALES&MARKETING MANAGEMENT 11 http://www.ESResearch.com http://www.salesandmarketingmanagement.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007 Contents Editor’s Letter Management Strategies What “Tell Me More,” Really Means Sales Strategy Marketing Management Motivation/Incentives Training Technology The Brains Behind the Brawn Are You a Bad Manager? Pipeline = Lifeline Feeling the Squeeze; The Foray Mobile Workmate; Seeking the Sights of Pittsburgh; Testing the Social Media Waters. Gadgets & Gear Books That Improve Strategic Thinking, People Skills and Sales Work/Life Take-Aways

Sales & Marketing Management - November/December 2007

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