Power Prospecting
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3. Keep your fax design as clean and simple as possible. Faxes with too much “black space” or too many images and pictures don’t fax well. Likewise, faxes that cram every last inch with text are neither inviting nor appealing. Remember that less can be more, so simplify your message with clear language and an obvious call to action.
4. Make certain you include all of the return contact information possible. Your company name, address, telephone number, fax number, web site, and email address should all be clearly visible on the fax.
5. Be creative. Humorous fax messages are attractive, fun, and stand out among sheets of fax messages. Fax a joke to a decision maker and be funny. Clean humor will almost always generate a positive response. By sending a humorous fax message, your fax will stand out among the other sheets of paper on your prospect’s desk. WinFax Pro, for example, includes a collection of humorous cover sheets with their fax software that you can customize with your own captions.
Humorous fax transmissions are also an effective way to sway gatekeepers since they are often responsible for picking up faxes and delivering them to the appropriate individuals or departments. Gatekeepers often determine which faxes get placed on the decision-maker’s desk and which faxes end up in the garbage bin. Humorous faxes are a great way to make a favorable impression and almost always have a way of making it to the desks of decision makers.
Using faxes as a means of communication offers several advantages. First, with the advent of email, and attaching documents to emails, the number of faxes being received has dramatically decreased. Second, faxes are not in envelopes that are more likely to find a garbage bin than a decision maker’s desk. Third, faxes can be sent in the morning and followed up with a phone call the very same day.
By law, fax transmissions must include information that identifies the caller’s name, phone number, the date, and time of transmission. See The Telephone Consumer Fraud Protection Act to ensure compliance with fax transmission laws.2
Caution! Know the law. Blindly sending unsolicited, blanket fax messages is against the law without including required information on the fax transmission.
Effective Email Messages
Used appropriately, email is a simple and easy way to communicate with potential clients. Like fax messages, email messages can be used for both pre-call correspondence and as follow-up tools.
Many of the fundamental rules that apply to phone, fax, and voice mail communication also apply to email communication. When using email to communicate with buyers, follow some simple guidelines:
1.Be brief. No one likes long emails (except your mom), and no one reads them.
2.Use proper grammar. Capitalize the first word of each sentence, use appropriate sentence and paragraph lengths, use commas appropriately, and be sure to spell check your message before sending it. Don’t expect a first class response from an email that looks like it was sent from a middle school drop out. Communicate that you care and that you are competent.
3.Go easy on exclamation marks !!!!! and email headers set in ALL CAPS. Use email titles and headers that don’t sound or look like every other desperate business trying to cajole people into reading their email message. Start your email with a professional, friendly, and courteous header. For example, “Thank you for reading this email,” or anything that does not lead people to feel like they have been “e-violated” when they open your email.
4.When possible, be personal. Use the person’s name and your name. Communicate to the prospect that your message is not a generic email sent to thousands of people.
5.Leave as much return contact information as possible. Be sure to include your return telephone and fax phone number in the email.
The Point? A variety of approaches provides more opportunity to connect with potential buyers. Utilize phone, fax, voice mail, and email to solicit buyer interest, generate leads, and set appointments.
1. See Sales-Side Negotiation for details concerning how to deal with price demands and buyer negotiation tactics.
2. Contact the American Telephone Association for updated information regarding fax transmission legalities.
Chapter 14
The DNA Selling Method
On February 28, 1953, Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge, England, and announced that he and James Watson had “found the secret of life.” In just a few weeks of frenzied inspiration, the two men made one of the most profound discoveries in history by building a model of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that demonstrated how the very structure of DNA provides one of life’s most essential features: the storage and transmission of genetic code. The men had solved a problem that had been baffling the scientific community for years—how did the DNA molecule make exact copies of itself? Biochemists already knew that DNA contained a biological code, a genetic language that consists of four types of molecules, known as bases—adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine—referred to as A, C, G, and T, but how those molecules made exact replicas of each other was still a mystery.
Back in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, Watson and Crick concentrated on identifying the form of DNA rather than its function. They built model after model of the possible structure of DNA until on March 7, 1953, they discovered the solution: DNA is a double helix shaped like a spiral staircase with the four bases representing the steps. Their model suggested a mechanism by which DNA could make copies of itself. The two strands of genes that made up the DNA molecule can simply unzip or unravel into reverse images of each other that can act as templates for new strands to build on.
The genius of DNA is that its form is its function. Its shockingly simplistic double helix structure allows the molecules to make facsimiles of itself, and because the bases always bond in the exact sequence, the finished copies are always the same. The concept was stunning in its implications.
Using the scientific method, Watson and Crick made the most celebrated discovery of the twentieth century. The double helix now stands as an icon of the scientific understanding of life.
The Science of Selling
Like most sales professionals, I learned early in my career that selling was more of a science than an art. I learned that asking the right questions was more important than looking for the right answers; however, knowing the importance of asking the right questions was not enough. My questions seemed random and, at times, even uncomfortable. Asking questions “off the top of my head” was sporadic and ineffective. This unorganized approach quite often left me tongue-tied and unable to communicate effectively. I needed a system—a questioning methodology. I needed a process that was easy to understand, easy to remember, and easy to replicate from one sale to the next. I decided to write down a series of questions that I deemed important to making sales, I then organized the questions into categories. For example, I separated qualification questions from questions that identified client needs. I differentiated need related questions from solution related questions. The result was The DNA Selling Method—a questioning methodology that leads buyers through the sales cycle.
The Same Way DNA Consists of the Building Blocks of Life, The DNA Selling Method Consists of the Building Blocks of Effective Selling
Similar in concept to DNA, The DNA Selling Method is a selling language—a code of questions that sales professionals ask buyers. It is a process of discovery—a questioning framework whose “form is its function.”
The DNA Selling Method is a question-based approach to selling that follows a rational probing sequence and provides sellers with a systematic approach to qualifying accounts and closing sales. Like the four bases of DNA, The DNA Selling Method consists of four categories that guide buyers and sellers through the purchasing process.
D Discovery Questions: Questions that discover a buyer’s circumstance, account facts, qualification factors and purchasing capabilities.
N Need-Pro
blem Questions: Questions that identify a buyer’s needs, problems, and primary buying motives.
A Ascertain-Pain Questions: Questions that ascertain the negative consequences of unfulfilled needs and/or unresolved problems—the pain.
S Solution-Benefit Questions: Questions that identify the benefits of a pain and problem resolution.
Because questioning is such a fundamental part of successful selling, it’s important to use an effective questioning methodology—a strategy. By using The DNA Selling Method, sellers add structure, repeatability, and predictability to the questioning and selling process.
Note: The DNA Selling Method is a holistic questioning approach. For prospecting purposes, only the first two steps of The DNA Selling Method are emphasized in this book.
The DNA Selling Method
Figure 14.1
Discovery-Qualification Questions
The first stage of the sales cycle is the prospecting stage. In the prospecting stage, sellers focus on asking questions, acquiring account information, and qualifying accounts. By using discovery-qualification questions sellers equip themselves with the information they need to progress the prospecting call into a sales call.
Discovery-qualification questions are primarily used in qualification-based cold calls. As discussed in Chapter 7, qualification-based cold calls move sellers from the prospecting stage of the sales cycle to the investigation stage of the sales cycle—in a single call. The remaining steps of The DNA Selling Method rely on information gained from discovery questions.
Note: The guiding principle of The DNA Selling Method is to always get a presentation before you give one.
Discovering Account Facts
A wise man doesn’t give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
—Claude Levi-Strauss
In his waning years, Prussian premier Otto von Bismarck developed cancer. His wife, Johanna, brought in a new, young doctor to attend him. At their first meeting the chancellor told him brusquely, “I don’t like questions.” “Then get a veterinarian,” replied the doctor. “They don’t question their patients.”
Good doctors do not initially worry about getting the right answers. They concentrate on asking the right questions. They make intelligent inquiries, take notes, make observations, and listen intently. They gather information instead of providing it.
The most brilliant thinkers, innovators, and explorers of our time emphasized questions more than answers, a characteristic of highly intelligent individuals. Note the root of the word question is “quest”—the act of seeking or pursuing something, a search beyond that which is already known.
Discovery questions are probes that focus on a prospect’s existing circumstance and discover account facts, background information, and fundamental issues related to the sale. For example, a salesperson selling vehicles would ask discovery questions such as, “Mr. Jones, are you looking for trucks or vans for your delivery business?” “Are your current delivery vehicles two or four wheel drive?” A salesperson selling networking solutions would ask discovery questions to determine what networking platform the prospect is using. “Ms. Prospect, what platform are you currently using, Microsoft or Novell?” “What version of Novell are you using to run your servers?” etc. Discovery questions not only reveal insightful information, sometimes they expose certain biases prospects have. For example, a simple discovery question might reveal that a prospect is a Novell fanatic and hates Microsoft networking solutions.
I managed a salesperson who continually neglected to ask simple discovery questions. He seemed to view them as a waste of time and instead preferred to jump to the presentation stage of the sales cycle. He once made a sale that illustrates the importance of asking discovery questions.
A few weeks after selling a complete software and networking solution to a client in British Columbia, the technical administrator who made the purchase called to inform me that he was returning our software. I was stunned as this was a big sale, and I was totally unaware of any problems or mishaps. I asked the buyer why he wanted to return our product. He told me that he felt that our salespeople were dishonest and that he did not want to deal with a company that took advantage of their customers. When I asked him why he felt that way, he stated, “Because your sales rep sold us a Web-based product knowing that we did not yet have the hardware or networking infrastructure in place to use it!”
When I approached our salesperson to find out what happened, he was shocked to find out that they did not have the hardware or networking capability to use our Web client. He just assumed they had the technical requirements to implement our Web-based line of products. Because he failed to ask simple discovery questions that would have identified their exact technical capabilities, he sold them a solution they couldn’t use.
The Point? Equipped with information that identifies a buyer’s existing circumstance and account facts, sellers make better recommendations, deliver account-specific presentations, and close more sales.
Question Rationale
In 1582, Protestants in the Netherlands were struggling to gain independence from their Catholic overseer, Spain. Brutal executions and cruel torturing techniques rallied the Dutch Protestants to revolt. Seeking assistance from England, the Protestant rebels appealed to Queen Elizabeth I. Not wishing to engage in open warfare with Spain, the most powerful empire in the world, Elizabeth resisted intervention. By 1585, however, she assented to a treaty which bound her to send an army to assist the Dutch Protestants. Before committing English troops, however, she issued an extraordinary twenty-page pamphlet, translated it into French, Spanish, and Dutch, and distributed it across England and the European Continent. This pamphlet was an unprecedented move—a sovereign ruler justifying her actions before the opinions of the world. In her political treatise, she provided the reason and rationale for her intervention. She discussed the tyrannical nature of Spanish governors and outlined the violation of “ancient laws of liberty.” The pamphlet had the desired effect and rallied Protestants across Europe to support her decision.
Although salespeople should never feel obliged to apologize for their questions, like Queen Elizabeth I, they should be prepared to provide rationale to justify their inquiries.
Remember when you were a kid how much you feared your neighbors’ big dog? When you hit a ball over the fence and had to retrieve it, how did you speak to the dog? More than likely you approached the dog saying, “Nice doggy. Easy boy. Good dog.” Why? You didn’t want your language or tone to arouse the hostility of the dog. Rationale statements do the same thing. They remove the potential harshness of the question or approach.
Prospects should not feel like they are being grilled with unnecessary, useless, or endless questions, so “tee up” your questions with a statement of rationale. The statement of rationale softens the probe and justifies the question.
For each questioning category in The DNA Selling Method, a statement of rationale is provided prior to the sample question.
Sample Discovery Questions
Rationale: “Mr. Prospect, I would like to tell you about [name of your product or service]; however, in order for me to do the best job I possibly can for you, Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about how you are currently [managing X]?”
• Tell me more about .
• What are you using at present to ?
• Help me understand how you currently .
• Tell me a little bit about .
• How many ?
• How long have you been using ?
• Tell me how you presently .
• How many people utilize ?
• Describe for me .
• What are your key initiatives/requirements ?
Qualifying Sales Opportunities
In respect of military method, we have, firstly Measurements; secondly, E
stimation of Quantity; thirdly, Calculation; fourthly, Balancing of Chances; fifthly, Victory.
−Sun-Tzu
George Armstrong Custer fought in the Civil War at the first battle of Bull Run. He distinguished himself as a member of General McClellan’s staff in the Peninsular campaign, and was made a brigadier general of volunteers in June, 1863. The youngest general in the Union army, Custer ably led a cavalry brigade in the Gettysburg campaign and was made a divisional commander in October, 1864. During the spring of 1865 Custer was in hot pursuit against Lee’s army in Richmond, Virginia. In April, 1865, Custer received the Confederate flag of truce and was present when General Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Courthouse. His military record, considering his youth, was one of the most spectacular of the Civil War.
In the reorganization of the U.S. army after the war Custer was assigned to the 7th Cavalry. In 1875 his regiment was deployed to fight in the Indian conflicts in the west. President Grant, who had a low opinion of the Indians, ordered the Lakotas and neighboring tribes to leave the Great Plains, where they were in conflict with the ranches. This, following the systematic destruction of buffalo, led to the Great Sioux War of 1876.
In the campaign against the Sioux, Custer, now a member of the 7th Cavalry, was sent forward to locate the enemy. Custer came upon a combined Sioux-Cheyenne encampment near the valley of the Little Bighorn River on June 25 and decided to attack at once. Without conducting pre-battle reconnaissance or determining the size and fighting capability of Crazy Horse and his warriors, Custer ordered an immediate attack. Not realizing the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Indians, most of whom lay concealed in ravines, he divided his regiment into three parts, sending two of them, under Major Marcus A. Reno and Capt. Frederick W. Benteen, to attack farther upstream, while he himself led the third (over 200 men) in a direct charge. Every one of them was killed in battle. The men (except Custer, whose remains were reinterred at West Point) were buried on the battlefield, now a national monument in Montana. “Custer’s Last Stand,” daring charge and spectacular death made him a popular but controversial American hero.