Oops. What happened? He promised me the order.

Inc. Magazine had a very insightful article recently about a step that is often missed in the sales process.  ("The One Sales Step that Most Sales People Miss", by David Finkel).  You get the order, you go back to your office and celebrate with your colleagues.  Next day the customer calls you (if you're lucky) and tells you he gave the order to your competitor or that he decided he didn't need the product after all.  This has happened to every salesperson at least once.  What happened?  He promised you the order.

What could have happened was that your competitor was more aggressive than you.  He got a second look.  He went back and back again and made a better deal. You tell your boss that your "greedy" competitor took the order by "dumping the price". And you know that's not what happened.  You know he took the order by one-upping you.  He was last in and he could have taken it by just promising better service or by showing the customer he wanted the order more.

When a customer says you have the order, that is NOT the order--a promise to place the order is not the order.My wife, who spent her carreer in credit and collections, says an order is not an order until the customer's check has cleared.  I can't tell you how many times a salesperson has called me and said "I got it--I got the order".  And my response is always--you don't have the order.  You have a promise of an order.  So many things can happen after the customer promises you the order: your competitor one-ups you; your manufacturer can't deliver when the customer wants the order; your customer credit doesn't pass; etc. etc.

The lesson is simple: stay close to your customer all the way from the promise to the delivery to the payment.  Then, and only then, can you celebrate.

Finkel suggests a "post sell plan":  Make sure the customer is comfortable with his decision by making them feel good that they made the right decision.  Make sure there's no room for buyer's remorse or for testing the market with other suppliers. And make sure the customer knows what the process from now until shipment is.

To quote Finkel: "By strategically and systematically building in a 'post sale' step into your sales process, you'll keep more of the business that you would otherwise have lost through buyer's remorse" and other reasons.

Stay close to your customer until the product is paid for.  Then celebrate.

Collaboration

General Stanley McChrystal, with Chris Russell, has just published a book entitled "One Mission".  It is a discussion of teams and teamwork and how teams are more effective than individuals because teams bring the power of multiple brains to a task.  But we are sales people, and sales people are loners.  We don't want to involve others because that will effect our sales dollars and maybe our commissions--and bosses will think less of us because we can't close without help.
The facts show that success comes from collaboration--so how do we reconcile our need, as salespeople, to go it alone and the fact that we can be more successful if we collaborate in our efforts?
Fortunately, technology comes to our rescue here.  There are lots of "apps" that allow us to collaborate and still go our ways as independent salespeople.
The hottest new app for collaboration is "Slack" (www.slack.com).  Someone described it as a text messaging system on steroids.
Matt Mansfield, in his Small Business Trends blog states: "Integration is what catapults Slack into a category all its own. The solution enables you to centralize all your notifications, from sales to tech support, social media and more, into one searchable place where your team can discuss and take action on each."
So, instead of scrolling through your text messages to find that note that you sent your sales manager, you use Slack to keep track of all messages on all subjects.
Three things that are very very important--Slack is free for small businesses: Slack is very customizable so that you tailor it to your business; and Slack is available for all platforms--smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, Android and IOS.
Slack is organized by "Channels", so that you can have a separate Channel for different parts of your business, including Private Channels for management, you can share files, send notifications to your team--all the stuff that is difficult to do with texting.
Check it out.  Collaboration is the secret to future success in sales with the world moving so fast; Slack is a free and easy way to collaborate.  Much better than email, and more effective than texting.

Take the Blinders Off When Making a Sales Call

I was stunned when I read this LinkedIn post from Joshua Wamser, President of Industrial Compressor Solutions:  "During your interview, I was there. You didn't notice me, because I was dressed like a service technician. You walked past myself and another potential coworker 3 times without ever saying hi. You were very cordial to the people you believed to be in charge though. None of us are better than anyone else. Say hi, smile, wave, or engage everyone you can." This is a classic example of how to lose a sale--of not being aware of your surroundings; of not understanding who your customer is; of not doing basic research before your sales call. So, a salesperson makes a call on Industrial Compressor Solutions and ignores the president and talks to the guys in the polo shirts or suits--thinking that they're the decision makers. Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that this has violated several sales commandments. If any salesperson walks into a customer's facility without understanding who the players are then he needs to go back to Sales 101. And this goes for any kind of salesperson. Have you ever been in a situation in which there have been two customers together, one male and one female, and the sales person addresses the male, thinking the female is NOT the decision maker? Underestimating the influence of one or the other person while making a pitch is a sure way to lose the sale. I have a customer who are a wife and husband team and the wife is the president of the company. I can't tell you how many times I have watched sales folks address the husband and ignore the wife--and LOSE the sale. When you're making a sales pitch, make sure you understand who the players are and their roles in the decision making process. If you don't know, ask. Take your blinders off or risk losing the sale--it's that simple.

Getting Organized--the Old Way

ScanCard Organizer 

Back in the 80's, before Facebook, Twitter, email, texting, and cell phones, I used an organizing system called ScanCard. Good old paper and pencil.  Notes written on a card and inserted into a "control panel" for easy viewing.  The original owner sold the company and computers and cell phones made scan cards too "old style".   The system went out of use.
Recently, one of my colleagues reminded me of this system.  He was overwhelmed by all his emails, texts, phone calls, sales calls--with no way to organize at the things he had to do for customers.  He remembered the card system I used to use.  He thought that this would be a good way to organize himself.  You can use a note pad, but then you have to find the page you wrote the notes on--you have to remember that you were supposed to do something for someone, you spend a lot of time reading over old pages to find what you're looking for.
So I Googled "ScanCard" and found the system has been revived and was now owned by the original owner's son.
With the ScanCard system, you see it all in a glance: emails that have to be followed up on, texts that need your attention, calls that have to be returned--everything is there to be looked at every day.
Keep the cards by your side making notes as you read your emails, as you watch TV, during customer visits--all your notes go into the binder for easy viewing.
I have stepped back into the 80's and ordered the ScanCard system once again.  Sometimes things that are old are better than things that are new.  (I speak from personal experience.)
You can find the system here: