Home

Blog

Schedule Your Customer Intell Gathering
Jeanne Buchanan
Apr 16, 2013

We emphasize time and again the importance of having a deep understanding of your customers' business to be successful in account planning and execution.  But how can you efficiently stay up to date on your customer's goings on?  Sales Source columnist Geoffrey James recommends setting up a regular schedule for keeping tabs on your customers.  Here's how:

1. Check major news about your major customers. (real-time)

You want to be among the first to know if something big comes down so that you can figure out what it means to your relationship to that customer.  Set up a news feed (like Google Alerts) that sends you a warning when your customer's firm pops up on the "Internet radar." To filter out the day-to-day activity and get a heads-up when something really important happens, set the feed to search for the corporate name in article titles rather than in the contents.

2. Check your customers' press releases (daily).

Press releases are your basic tracking mechanism for every customer account because they document and briefly describe new products, new initiatives, personnel shifts, and financial milestones. By reading between the lines, you might see trends that your competitors miss.

3. Check your customers' "jobs available" page (weekly).

A customer's "jobs available" page gives you insight into both what a company needs and where it's headed.  Increasing job postings usually signal expansion while a decreasing number signals the opposite. The nature of the jobs also might indicate where where the customer feels a weakness.  More importantly, job descriptions often describe specific skills that imply future product strategy.

4. Call your customer contacts to "touch bases" (monthly).

If steps one or two signal a big change, you immediately contact the people you know at that account and find out the details. However, even if nothing leaps out at you, you should have regular contact to catch up on the news.  Pay attention to personnel changes. Such shakeups may change the way that the customer's firm make decisions, or that your contacts are losing or gaining internal clout.  Personnel changes may also reflect an alteration to the customer's business model, in which case your offering may become more (or less) valuable.

5. Check your customers' SEC filings (quarterly).

If your customer is publicly-held, glance through any new 10K or 10Q document that your customer files at SEC.gov.  These documents contain far more financial details than "earnings announcement" press releases.  Comparing the official document to the press release reveals the "spin" that the customer's management wants to put on their performance. When you see "spin," try to figure out why that's important; you might find a "hook" that opens up new doors. One more thing, the "Risk Factors" section provides a high-level description of everything that keeps the customer's top management awake at night. That's useful to know when you're positioning your offering.

|

account planning, customer intelligence, customer news


Secrets to Masterful Meetings
Ken Evans
Apr 12, 2013

I like meetings….short ones.  I do not mind long ones if there is a great agenda and an action plan results from the meeting.  But I will say again, I like short meetings.

I recommend Michael Wilkinson's reference book, Secrets to Masterful Meetings, as a gift to those in your organization who could use coaching on how to improve the effectiveness of their sales team's meetings.  I found this tidbit in the book about getting consensus, and I like it.

Once an alternative is presented to and discussed among your team, and the team is ready to get a reaction on if and how to proceed, use the “five-finger consensus” approach. Ask each team member to hold up their hand according to these meanings:

  • 5 fingers - Strongly agree
  • 4 fingers - Agree
  • 3 fingers - See plusses and minuses and can roll either way
  • 2 fingers - Disagree
  • 1 finger - Strongly disagree

Round 1 - Everyone raising three to five fingers?  Go for it.  If there are a few ones or twos, the team leader asks the originator of the alternative to ask for ideas to make it an even better decision.  The originator might reframe the question. Then the meeting leader asks for another round of "voting."

Round 2 - If the hands improve, go for it.  If there are still some ones or twos, the meeting leader asks them to explain why the alternative isn't acceptable and under what circumstances would it be.  If appropriate, reframe the question and go to Round 3.

Round 3 - Majority rules.

I like this technique. It encourages listening--and listening twice.  It also encourages action that is not watered down by a few who might disagree.

|

masterful meeting, Michael Wilkinson


How Should You Spend Your Time?
Jeanne Buchanan
Apr 10, 2013

Sellers need an organized way to plan where to spend time, how to allocate resources, and establish achievable expectations—all while differentiating themselves with their customers.  How best to do that?

  • Start with your customers.  It is 6 to 12 times more expensive to sell to prospects than it is to sell to existing customers.  If your company sells multiple lines, additional services, long-term contracts, or complementary products, you should first pursue those opportunities with your existing customers.  This allows you to sort your territory and customers in a variety of ways to establish priorities around specific goals and helps you make more educated decisions.
  • Develop a contact strategy.  Starting with a list of potential new customers, set priorities and evaluate each of your prospective customers to determine who to pursue (or not pursue) and how to pursue them.  Based on where the prospects are distributed, the go/no-go decision becomes clearer, the approach to get them into the optimum segment can be formally developed, and those that rank the highest become a priority for your time and attention.
  • Make every customer visit count.  A written call plan and strategy for each sales call is a best practice that will differentiate you from your competition, bring more value to your customer, improve your odds of getting back in front of the decision makers, and ensure that you are efficient and effective each time you meet with your customers.
  1. Establish your objectives for every call.  In a perfect world, what would you want to achieve?
  2. Establish back-up objectives.  Be prepared to be more successful.  Should you meet your primary objectgives, have more to offer.
  3. Develop good questions.  Write down the questions that support your primary and secondary objectives.
  4. Send an agenda ahead of time.  Prepare your customers for your visit.  Show respect for their time by being clear about what you want to achieve and let them add to the agenda.

To make sure you are not always in a reactive mode and allowing others to establish the priorities, you must take the time to plan and strategize how to be most efficient and effective.  Your payoff will be added value for your customers, more effective use of your time, and better, more profitable sales results.

|

contact strategy, existing customer, sales call, sales priorities