Virtual is our new normal; adapt and master what you need to flourish

Part 2: Effective sales calls whilst working remotely

The impact of the last few months has affected and shocked us all. Fear, anxiety distress are all natural responses concerning health, finances and careers. Like it or not, we have to compose ourselves in the face of adversity and turn toward pragmatism. As I heard someone say this week, this is not business as usual, this is ‘business as unusual’.

We must move forward and manage the situation as best we can. There are still customers out there who will be buying; selling situations will undoubtedly be fewer, more hotly contested and require greater competency levels from us as sellers. It is for this reason, I wanted to extend my help and support over the coming weeks and months by serialising knowhow for you to get the most from your virtual selling situations. I start with providing insights on how to effectively execute client calls in a remote selling environment. The content for this post is taken from Miller Heiman’s long established and world famous Conceptual Selling? - a methodology I have been coaching for many years. I hope this helps.

Let's start with an example of what not to do. A friend contacted me recently for some advice. My friend, we’ll call him John, worked for a consulting firm; one that had been hit particular hard over the last 2-months. He had recently been on an important virtual sales call with a major potential client – a large financial services business. Three people attended the call from the sell-side; 9 senior people including executive board members attended from the buy-side. Fast forward to the end of the call; the customer decided to end the call abruptly - before time. They were openly disappointed; their expectation was to hear something that resonated with their circumstances - now. The sellers had begun the call with an unqualified product-focussed perspective based on the their perception of the customer’ s world – which, as they were advised was not relevant. My friend John lamented:

”We had one shot at making that first impression. They had 9 very senior people on the call, it must have cost them a fortune to get them all together. We did not prepare and we had only a fraction of the information we needed to conduct the call. There was no structure and consequently we missed a big chance - chances like this may not happen again in times like this.”

Not wishing to compound John’s misery further, but my first thought was; what if the competition who could have been on the preceding or the next call did get it right? The difference in buyer’s perception between the two would have been quite profound.

By John’s own admission, it was such a striking example of what not to do. I felt we should use John’s lesson as a reminder that in times when opportunities are fewer, we need to be on our game - not just performing to, but extending our competency range. Over the next few weeks I want to take time to revisit the principles of Conceptual Selling? and place these principles in a remote call setting to add-relevance for you. My hope is that it will engage you to bring process and structure to your pre-sales call preparation and virtual sales execution. Unashamedly it's back to basics.

What makes for a great virtual sales call?

It’s the same basic principle as an in-person sales call, for which there are four keystone elements:

1.    Getting ready

2.    Getting information

3.    Giving Information

4.    Getting commitment

Having a process to prepare and execute a sales call, is essential to consistent sales success. In this environment, it is profoundly more important because we cannot afford to miss a trick. Using a methodology, a common set of principles helps you and your fellow meeting attendees speak the same language, prepare efficiently and perform at your best. Let's discuss each component.

Getting Ready

You and your fellow sellers attending the call need time beforehand to discuss and prepare. Using a sales call planner is invaluable to help organise and structure thinking, and help you collaborate effectively and efficiently. In Conceptual Selling ? this is called the Green Sheet.

Customers will talk to us if they believe we can impact their business priorities; this is the essence of buyer motivation and we must be relevant to these priorities. There are some key pieces of information you should know in advance of the call - some of these must come from the customer:

1.    Who will be attending from the buy-side and what are their roles?

2.    What are they trying resolve (their buyer motivation)?

3.    Who do we have credibility with, who do we not?

4.    What will determine the call’s success from their perspective?

5.    How do we bring maximum value to the buyers?

How do we get this information before the call and who can give us insights into the customer’s business? if you don’t know, you need to research. If we don’t know the customer’s business, what do we know about their industry or their business environment? What challenges do they have? What are other companies in their space prioritising at the moment? At the very least, we should have an idea of what they are trying to fix, accomplish and/or avoid before the call, because it reinforces seller credibility and conveys customer centricity. We can never understate the value of being prepared.

Getting Information

Getting information in a sales call requires you to ask high value questions. If you are early in the buying journey then the emphasis is on understanding the client’s situation and their perceived needs. Customer’s today expect you to at least have basic situational knowledge of their business. The seller’s job is to understand the buyer’s needs, be relevant and align capabilities to the issues they are trying to resolve – in that order. Be careful when you are preparing your questions, that you don’t ask for information you should already know. This will be low value for the customer and may create an adverse perception. Extensive research tells us that aligning to the buying journey is linked to sales success. Sellers need to meet the customers where they are to ensure relevance and to guide their actions.

You should also consider what qualifying questions you need to ask about the opportunity itself. You have a right to ask for this information as you will be deploying sales resources to help them. Sensitivity and timing should be a consideration when asking these questions - I have a list of 15 ‘big rock’ pieces of qualifying information I need to know. I probably won't get to know all in the first meeting, but I am building a picture with every interaction, becoming clearer on what I know and don’t know. Here are five of the fifteen:

·      The business issue they are trying to resolve

·      The impact the business issues is or will have on their business

·      The value of solving - the benefit of solving the problem

·      Their sense of timing and urgency to act

·      Their view of what a possible solution should look like

Questioning skills are a sellers professional craft. How competent you are at asking questions will determine how successful you are at sales.

Giving Information

Giving information is code for articulating your differentiation. It can be helpful to categorise meetings in to those where you get information, and those where you give information. If you operate a product-centric mindset and lead with products or your company before ‘getting information’ you will lack relevance and quickly turn your buyers off - remember John’s lament. Too many sellers still do this – it's not viable or acceptable.

When you have the information you need about the issues they are trying to resolve, you are then at liberty to discuss your capabilities. Prepare beforehand - perform an exercise to think through your differentiation with your fellow sellers. Think of the strengths that you bring to this situation and align them with how they help the client resolve their business issue(s). Then, identify which of these are unique to you, thus giving you an idea of your unique strengths. Connect your unique strengths to the outcomes the buyer is trying to achieve. It's usually one or more of these three; reduce costs, increase sales or improve productivity. And finally, connect a proof point to demonstrate you can actually do this; case studies, testimonials and references are helpful.

From experience, the differentiation exercise needs about 20-30 minutes to really think through your unique strengths. If you draw a blank i.e. there are no unique differentiators there is a different approach that I can take you through in another post. Or you can connect with me directly. Remember, don’t talk product or solution too early and be clear on what makes you different.

Getting Commitment

In a business-business sales call, success is defined by your customer’s commitment to action to move to the next stage in their buying journey. You may have multiple meetings with different customer stakeholders; defining whether a meeting was a success or not, may not initially be clear. The goal of each call is to secure commitment(s) that incrementally move the buyer forward. In your preparation with your co-sellers, use the time to envision what action you would like the customer to take to move the opportunity forward - be realistic in terms of who you are meeting with and where they are on the buying journey. Prepare your questions in advance and give thought to what could prevent the customer from moving forward.

There we go, the four keystone elements of an effective sales call. They are as relevant when meeting in-person as they are virtually. It cannot be emphasised enough the importance of you and your team committing to process discipline, using a methodology and preparation time. It's often the most experienced of us that miss those important basic steps.

Do not let time or performance pressures be the excuse for not putting in a great performance because great professionals do the fundamentals well, time and time again –irrespective. That’s the difference between good and great. Commit yourself to process, get across a sales methodology even make one up for yourself if you need to. It is research proven that adopting a common approach to sales generates improved sales results.

For more information on the context of this post and for further help and support feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or email me on [email protected]. We are all in this together, if I can do my part to help you that’s my way of being in service to you and our community. Be well and prosper!!