1    

 

 

Kutenda  brings  you  

A  Managed  Service  Provider’s    

Guide  to    

Sales  and  Marketing      By  Michael  Cooch,  CEO  of  Kutenda  

                                         

   

2    

A  Managed  Service  Provider’s  Guide  to  Sales  and  Marketing    by  Michael  Cooch,  CEO  of  Everon  

Introduction    

With  all  of  the  offerings  and  opportunities  available  for  MSPs,  the  challenge  for  Service  Providers  has  become  less  about  having  an  offer  that  businesses  are  asking  for  and  more  about  making  businesses  aware  of  what  you  can  do  for  them.  The  problem  is  most  service  providers  are  unsure  of  where  to  begin  when  it  comes  to  generating  awareness  and  effectively  marketing  their  businesses.  If  you’re  like  most  service  providers  and  you’ve  been  hesitant  to  put  the  time  and  budget  into  risky  marketing  strategies,  A  Managed  Service  Provider’s  Guide  to  Sales  and  Marketing  is  for  you.    

Kutenda  is  bringing  you  this  tried  and  tested  guide  filled  with  proven  techniques  so  you  can  take  the  guesswork  out  of  growing  your  business.  In  this  guide,  Mike  Cooch,  CEO  of  Everon  (an  MSPmentor  Top  250  company),  reveals  his  approach  to  sales  and  marketing.  Mike  has  worked  tirelessly  throughout  his  career,  investing  his  time  and  money  to  discover  and  fine-­‐tune  his  approach.  Now,  you  too  can  leverage  Mike’s  strategies  to  grow  your  MSP  today.  

In  A  Managed  Service  Provider’s  Guide  to  Sales  and  Marketing  by  Michael  Cooch,  CEO  of  Everon,  you’ll  learn:  

• Lead  generation    • Logistics  of  prospecting  • Cold  call  tactics  • Follow-­‐up  tips  • Referral  processes  • Successful  sales  principles  • The  ideal  elevator  pitch  • Effective  sales  management  

 

 

 

 

   

3    

A  Managed  Service  Provider’s  Guide  to  Sales  and  Marketing    by  Michael  Cooch,  CEO  of  Everon  

Lead  Generation  1. The  most  important  thing  you  can  do  before  prospecting  for  leads      There  are  two  questions  you  really  need  to  answer  before  you  ever  have  your  first  prospecting  conversation.  Most  salespeople  and  business  owners  never  even  ask  themselves  these  questions,  let  alone  figure  out  the  answer.      This  is  a  huge  mistake,  because  the  answers  to  these  two  questions  are  the  most  important  factors  in  determining  how  successful  you  will  be  with  your  prospecting  efforts.            The  two  questions  are:  

1.  Why  should  my  prospect  care  about  me  and  what  I  have  to  say?  2.  Why  should  my  prospect  choose  to  work  with  me  over  all  of  the  other  comparable  options  they  have  available  to  them  in  the  marketplace?  

 If  you  can’t  clearly  answer  these  questions,  your  prospecting  and  sales  efforts  will  limp  along  without  the  impact  you  surely  must  hope  to  achieve.    In  every  sales  situation,  whether  it  is  happening  consciously  or  not,  the  prospect  is  asking  themselves  two  questions:   "Why  should  I  give  my  attention  to  this  salesperson?  Do  I  really  care?"  "Why  should  I  choose  to  work  with  this  company  versus  the  other  one  down  the  street?"    It’s  your  job  to  provide  them  with  an  answer.  If  you  don’t  have  an  answer  to  these  questions  clarified  in  your  own  head  today  –  get  started  with  this  immediately.    2. How  much  to  spend  on  acquiring  a  new  client  -­‐  Total  Lifetime  Value      Before  you  plan  your  lead  generation  and  marketing/sales  efforts,  you  really  must  understand  the  concept  of  Total  Lifetime  Value  (TLV)  of  your  clients,  otherwise  you  won’t  know  how  much  money  you  can  spend  to  acquire  a  new  client.    The  TLV  calculation  does  exactly  what  its  name  implies;  it  tells  you  the  total  value  of  the  client  over  its  lifetime.  In  other  words,  it  tells  you  how  much  your  client  is  worth  to  you,  which  is  the  number  that  determines  how  much  you  are  willing  to  spend  to  get  a  client.    How  do  you  calculate  TLV?  I  would  suggest  you  use  the  following  formula:  

   

4    

Average  revenues  from  client  over  lifetime  of  service  relationship  X  Gross  Margin  %    So  let’s  say  that  your  typical  client  is  worth  $5000  per  month  and  on  average  they  stick  around  for  3  years.  This  means  that  this  client  brings  in  a  total  of  $180,000  in  revenue  over  its  lifetime.  Let’s  further  say  that  you  operate  at  50%  gross  margins.  This  means  that  the  amount  of  money  that  is  actually  returned  to  you  from  your  work  with  this  client  to  cover  expenses  and  generate  profit  is  $90,000.    Theoretically  you  could  spend  $90,000  to  acquire  this  customer  and  still  break  even.  Now,  that  wouldn’t  leave  you  with  any  money  to  cover  any  of  your  operating  expenses,  so  it’s  not  a  realistic  strategy  in  the  long  term.    A  more  realistic  strategy  can  be  found  by  multiplying  the  $90,000  by  whatever  percentage  of  your  budget  your  business  model  says  you  can  spend  on  sales  and  marketing  and  still  have  a  viable  business.  Let’s  say  that  the  total  combined  number  is  15%  of  total  revenues.    That  means  you  could  spend  up  to  $27,000  (15%  x  $180,000)  in  total  sales  and  marketing  expenses  and  still  be  operating  within  the  framework  of  your  business  model!  If  you  were  to  find  a  way  to  operate  with  even  higher  gross  margins,  you  could  spend  even  more  money.    There  is  an  old  saying  in  direct  marketing  circles  that  goes  something  like  this:  "The  company  that  can  spend  the  most  money  to  acquire  a  customer  wins."    Effectively,  if  I  know  the  TLV  of  my  clients  and  you  don’t  know  the  TLV  of  yours,  you  are  going  to  be  very  hesitant  to  spend  the  kind  of  money  you  could  to  win  new  business,  which  means  that  I’m  going  to  beat  you  all  day  long  out  in  the  marketplace!    You  must  calculate  your  TLV  so  you  know  how  much  money  you  can  spend  to  acquire  a  customer;  otherwise  you  may  not  be  putting  in  the  appropriate  amount  of  effort  to  be  competitive  in  the  marketplace.    

3. Segment  prospects  and  identify  target  customers    Introduction  to  customer  segmentation    One  of  the  most  damaging  statements  every  made  in  the  history  of  business  is:    "The  customer  is  always  right."    Why  is  this  one  of  the  most  damaging  statements  ever?  Because  too  many  people  take  that  statement  and  expand  it  in  their  minds  until  they  think  that  they  have  to  do  anything  and  everything  for  every  customer.  

   

5    

 Not  all  customers  are  created  equal!    We've  all  had  customers  that  want  everything  in  the  world,  but  don't  want  to  pay  for  it.  We've  also  all  had  customers  that  won't  actually  listen  to  our  advice,  and  then  get  upset  when  they  haven't  had  their  problems  solved.    These  customers  are  called  Killer  Customers,  and  you  need  to  learn  to  identify  them  and  deal  with  them  appropriately,  or  they  will  suck  the  life  out  of  your  business.    This  idea  -­‐  that  I  could  run  my  business  without  bowing  down  to  every  demand  of  every  customer  -­‐  was  a  revelation  to  me.  I  first  grasped  the  concept  when  I  read  the  book  Killer  Customers:  Tell  the  Good  from  the  Bad-­‐-­‐and  Dominate  Your  Competitors.  It's  a  great  book;  you  should  add  it  to  your  business  library.    The  point  of  the  book  is  that  you  should  get  really  good  at  telling  the  good  customers  from  the  killer  customers,  and  then  ditch  the  killer  customers  so  your  competition  can  have  them  and  get  bled  to  death  (that  may  not  be  how  the  author  would  summarize  it!).    How  to  segment    In  my  experience,  the  keys  to  customer  segmentation  are  the  following:  

1. Know  your  target  customer  very  well    2. Train  your  salesforce  to  find  target  customers  and  provide  incentive  to  make  sure  they  

don't  sign  killer  customers    3. Have  a  process  for  continuously  reviewing  your  customers  to  weed  out  the  killer  

customers  that  you  accidentally  let  on  board    4. Have  enough  service  offerings  to  match  the  various  needs  of  your  clients'  desired  

service  levels    Doing  any  one  of  these  things  will  help  you  out  a  lot,  but  doing  all  four  will  result  in  increased  profits,  happy  customers,  and  happy  employees  -­‐  a  combination  that's  hard  to  beat.    We'll  cover  specific  strategies  and  tactics  for  customer  segmentation  in  the  rest  of  this  course  topic.  If  you  execute  on  these  on  a  regular  basis,  you  will  see  profits  rise  consistently  over  time.  Profile  your  ideal  client    Perhaps  the  most  important  thing  you  can  do  to  ensure  profitability  at  your  company  is  to:  

1. Really  know  your  ideal  client    2. Design  your  services  to  fit  the  ideal  client    3. Be  very  disciplined  about  not  working  with  clients  outside  of  your  ideal  profile    

By  following  these  three  steps  religiously,  you  can  create  a  very  efficient  sales  and  service  delivery  system  that  eliminates  unnecessary  costs.  

   

6    

 Most  companies  in  our  industry  -­‐  in  any  industry  for  that  matter  -­‐  will  take  business  from  anyone  that  wants  to  give  them  money.  This  is  awfully  tempting  and  may  seem  lucrative  in  the  short  run,  but  is  very  costly  and  damaging  in  the  long  run.    Profile  your  ideal  client    The  first  step  in  this  process  is  usually  ignored.  If  you  don't  profile  your  ideal  customer,  you  can't  possibly  do  steps  #2  and  #3.    Profiling  your  ideal  customer  is  very  easy,  and  it's  actually  an  exercise  that  your  team  will  enjoy  participating  in.    The  outcome  you  are  looking  for  is  to  create  a  very  brief  description  of  whom  it  is  you  want  to  do  business  with.  One  paragraph  with  a  few  bullet  points.  The  most  important  factor  in  creating  an  effective  profile  is  that  it  contains  both  of  the  following:  

1. Demographic  information    2. Psychographic  information    

 Demographic  information  is  the  black  and  white  statistical  information  about  your  ideal  client.  Factors  such  as:  

• Size    • Industry    • Location    • Positions/Titles    • Type  of  technology  they  use    

 Psychographic  information  is  the  "softer  side"  of  the  description  about  your  ideal  client.  It's  the  psychographic  information  that  is  the  most  valuable  of  the  two  as  it  really  tells  you  how  you  should  shape  your  sales  and  marketing  messaging  to  be  most  appealing  to  your  prospects.      Psychographic  information  includes:  

• The  challenges  they  are  facing    • Their  attitudes  and  beliefs    • What  they  value    

 Combining  the  two  is  powerful    By  combining  these  two  types  of  information,  you  get  a  real  understanding  of  your  ideal  client.  This  makes  it  easier  to  identify  them  and  to  design  ideal  solutions  for  them.  An  example  profile  could  look  something  like  this:    

   

7    

We  work  with  solo  dentists  in  the  greater  Denver  area  that  have  just  recently  established  their  first  practice.  These  dentists  are  typically  just  getting  started  in  their  careers;  often  having  just  finished  dental  school  and  typically  aged  30-­‐35.  They  are  anxious  to  get  off  to  the  right  start  with  their  practice,  and  are  usually  very  technology  savvy,  having  grown  up  with  computers.  They  value  having  the  latest  technology  in  their  practice  to  help  them  be  more  efficient  and  profitable.  They  are  not  afraid  to  make  investments  that  have  a  clear  ROI  and  really  value  their  vendor  relationships.    You  get  the  idea,  and  if  you  ran  into  one  of  these  dentists  versus  an  older  dentist  that  had  a  25  year  old  practice  and  was  set  in  their  ways,  you'd  know  it  right  away.  That's  what  you  want!  If  everyone  in  your  company  -­‐  especially  your  salespeople  -­‐  can  clearly  identify  the  ideal  client,  you'll  spend  much  less  time,  energy,  and  money  on  clients  that  aren't  a  good  fit.    Segmentation  through  multiple  layers  of  service    We  said  that  an  MSP  should  have  enough  service  offerings  to  match  the  various  needs  of  your  clients'  desired  service  levels.    One  size  does  not  fit  all  when  it  comes  to  offering  services  to  your  clients,  so  you  need  to  have  a  variety  of  services  if  you  want  to  keep  your  clients  happy  and  keep  your  business  profitable.  At  the  same  time,  you  can't  let  your  service  offerings  become  too  rambling  or  out  of  focus,  or  you  will  destroy  your  service  delivery  capabilities  and  cost  structure.    So  how  to  accomplish  all  of  this?    The  key  is  to  really  understand  the  target  market  you  are  going  after,  and  to  thoroughly  understand  the  cost/benefit  of  your  service  offerings.    Who  is  your  target  client?    It's  absolutely  critical  that  you  really  know  this.  If  your  answer  is  "anyone  with  a  network",  you  are  in  big  trouble.  Small  companies  and  big  companies  both  have  networks,  but  their  service  needs  and  how  they  want  to  be  worked  with  are  dramatically  different.    Let's  say  that  you  are  targeting  small  law  firms  in  particular.  You  may  know  that  their  most  pressing  needs  are:  

1. Speedy  performance  of  desktops  and  laptops    2. 24-­‐7  access  to  their  case  management  systems    3. Handheld  support    

If  you  know  your  market  this  well,  then  you  can  structure  service  offerings  that  match  their  needs  and  protect  your  profitability.    

   

8    

Designing  segmented  service  offerings    Layer  In  this  case,  you  could  easily  develop  three  service  offerings:  

1. A  desktop/laptop  support  service    2. A  service  with  the  above  and  case  management  support    3. Both  of  the  above  and  handheld  support    

You  are  effectively  layering  additional  benefits  into  each  service  package.  If  you  know  your  cost  to  support  these  really  well,  it  becomes  pretty  easy  to  also  put  layered  pricing  in  place  that  properly  compensates  you  for  the  effort  you  are  putting  forth  in  the  service.    You  can  also  layer  based  on  things  like  response  time,  access  to  higher  level  of  engineers,  SLA's,  etc.  There  is  really  no  limit  to  the  creative  things  you  can  do  to  layer  your  services,  as  long  as  each  additional  layer  has  obvious  value  to  your  client.    In  this  scenario,  a  lot  of  law  firms  will  choose  to  sign  up  for  option  1  or  2,  and  not  find  value  in  signing  up  for  the  handheld  support.  That  additional  layer  may  not  seem  like  it's  worth  the  extra  expense.  That's  ok,  as  long  as  you:    Control  the  variables  In  the  scenario  described  above,  many  of  the  law  firms  that  don't  sign  up  for  the  3rd  layer  of  service  are  still  going  to  call  you  for  handheld  support.    This  is  fine,  as  long  as  you  have  a  way  to  control  your  variable  costs  and  make  sure  you  bill  for  the  additional  costs  of  supporting  this  client.    This  is  where  it  is  absolutely  critical  to  have  a  PSA  package  like  ConnectWise,  Autotask,  or  Tigerpaw  in  your  business  that  allows  you  to  use  distinct  billing  codes.  In  this  case,  you  would  need  an  hourly  billing  code  that  resulted  in  the  client  receiving  an  additional  invoice  for  services  outside  of  their  contracted  agreement.    Success  -­‐  with  the  proper  agreement  structure  and  PSA  billing  codes  in  place,  you  have  successfully  controlled  your  costs  and  billed  for  the  additional  effort  you  put  forth  for  this  client.  Again,  this  can  be  done  for  just  about  anything,  as  long  as  you  have  proper  billing  codes  in  place  and  your  staff  has  the  means  to  easily  (or  better  yet,  automatically)  identify  the  right  codes  to  use  at  the  right  time.    Easier  to  sell  The  beauty  of  having  multiple  packages  like  this  is  that  it  becomes  easier  to  sell  your  ideal  services.  We've  found  over  time  that  people  generally  do  not  like  to  choose  the  cheapest  or  the  most  expensive  packages.  Why?  The  fear  of  buying  the  wrong  thing  and/or  getting  ripped  off  -­‐  fears  commonly  associated  with  both  the  cheapest  and  most  expensive  products.  The  middle  

   

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seems  "safe".    If  you  know  this  is  true,  you  can  consciously  design  your  middle  package  to  be  your  most  profitable.  The  majority  of  people  will  be  drawn  to  this  package  by  their  own  instincts;  you  just  need  to  make  it  an  attractive  offering  and  your  sales  and  profits  will  come  easier.    

 4. The  logistics  of  prospecting      Good  prospecting  isn’t  something  that  happens  by  accident.  In  fact  I  would  say  that  a  good  prospecting  process  is  something  like  a  factory.  Good  prospecting  happens  when  a  salesperson  follows  a  specific  process  very  consistently  day  in  and  day  out.    To  make  sure  this  is  accomplished,  you  must  ensure  that  the  right  systems  are  in  place  and  that  you  and  your  team  follow-­‐through  consistently.    Schedule  prospecting  time  When  you’re  a  busy  owner  or  even  a  busy  salesperson  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  do  is  select  a  second  time  slip  off  of  your  calendar.  There  is  always  something  more  important  that  comes  up  each  day  and  it  becomes  easy  to  let  their  prospecting  time  on  your  calendar  get  pushed  around.    You  absolutely  must  not  let  this  happen.  Every  salesperson  should  have  scheduled  a  dedicated  time  on  their  calendars  that  is  100%  devoted  to  prospecting.  This  time  should  be  held  as  absolutely  sacred.  Come  hell  or  high  water,  prospecting  should  be  done  during  that  time  every  single  day.    One  of  the  most  impressive  examples  I’ve  ever  seen  of  this  was  from  one  of  our  first  clients  at  Everon.  Two  Harvard  MBAs  were  starting  their  first  company,  and  realized  that  they  had  very  little  time  to  get  revenue  coming  in  the  door.  Although  they  had  1000  things  to  do  each  day  including  finding  new  employees,  finding  vendors  to  work  with,  and  developing  their  products  and  services,  they  realize  that  the  most  important  thing  that  they  could  do  was  to  find  new  customers.    During  my  first  meeting  with  the  founders  of  this  company,  I  was  surprised  when  one  of  the  first  things  that  they  told  me  after  they  said  that  we  would  be  working  together  was  that  I  shouldn’t  bother  calling  them  after  8  AM  or  before  6  PM.  That  didn’t  leave  very  much  time  in  the  day  to  work  with  them  as  far  as  I  was  concerned.    Why  were  they  so  strict  about  this?    

   

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Because  from  8  a.m.  to  6  PM  every  single  day,  they  sat  together  and  did  nothing  but  prospect.  They  knew  that  the  single  most  important  thing  that  they  could  be  doing  every  day  was  finding  new  prospects  and  finding  new  revenue.  Until  they  do  that  nothing  else  mattered.  This  was  the  greatest  example  of  prospecting  discipline  than  I  had  ever  seen.    It  would  be  hard  to  maintain  this  kind  of  discipline  once  a  company  got  going,  but  it  would  also  be  the  most  powerful  thing  that  a  business  could  possibly  do.  These  gentlemen  knew  their  first  priority  so  clearly  that  the  major  that  nothing  else  got  in  the  way  of  it.  This  is  exactly  how  salespeople  at  your  company  should  treat  their  prospecting  time  each  day.    Let’s  make  sure  that  we  have  a  clear  understanding  of  what  schedule  prospecting  time  means.    It  doesn’t  mean  researching  prospects  to  call  on.    It  doesn’t  mean  reading  the  paper  to  find  new  prospects.    It  doesn’t  mean  organizing  your  list.    It  doesn’t  mean  putting  together  proposals.    And  it  certainly  doesn’t  mean  spending  15  minutes  getting  coffee.    It  means  prospecting:  making  phone  calls,  sending  e-­‐mails,  and  having  conversations  with  potential  clients.  Everything  else  can  be  done  later.    Schedule  administrative  time  As  I  said  above,  everything  other  than  selling  can  and  should  come  second.  Just  as  you  should  schedule  solid  blocks  of  dedicated  prospecting  time,  you  should  also  schedule  solid  blocks  of  administrative  time.    If  someone  asks  you  to  send  them  a  proposal  or  anything  else  that  will  require  your  manual  effort  to  complete,  do  your  best  not  to  let  it  interrupt  your  prospecting  time.  You  can  usually  accomplish  this  by  asking  your  prospect,  "No  problem  Mr.  Prospect,  do  you  mind  if  I  get  that  to  you  at  the  end  of  the  day  (week)?"    In  almost  every  case,  this  will  be  fine.  This  strategy  allows  you  to  do  the  administrative  work  necessary  at  a  later  time  that  is  convenient  to  you  and  doesn’t  interrupt  your  prospecting  time.  Contrast  this  to  the  typical  salesperson  reaction,  which  is  to  get  excited  that  somebody  actually  gave  them  the  time  of  day,  then  spend  the  rest  of  the  next  several  hours  putting  together  the  perfect  proposal  for  the  prospect.  That’s  good  prospecting  time  they  burned  putting  together  something  that  could  have  waited  until  a  better  time  to  be  done.    Get  a  large  prospect  database  to  call  on  In  order  to  make  the  most  of  your  prospecting  time  you  need  to  have  a  large  list  of  prospects  to  call  on.  As  I  mentioned  above  prospecting  time  is  not  to  be  used  for  finding  new  prospects,  it’s  

   

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to  be  used  for  calling  on  new  prospects.  That  means  that  you  should  have  your  list  developed  and  organized  before  you  start  your  prospecting  time.    An  aggressive  cold  caller  can  make  100  calls  per  day.  To  be  able  to  do  this,  they  have  to  have  a  large  database  and  the  confidence  to  call  each  prospect  without  doing  research.  There  are  many  resources  available  that  can  provide  you  with  quality  information  about  business  owners  in  your  area  as  well  as  provide  details  about  the  nature  of  their  business  the  size  of  their  business  the  revenues  that  they  have  the  employees  that  they  have  and  even  their  technology  purchasing  habits.    Make  the  investment  to  get  a  database  that  is  large  enough  to  keep  your  salespeople  busy  and  high-­‐quality  enough  to  make  each  call  efficient.  In  addition,  you  should  always  be  adding  to  the  size  of  this  database  by  putting  in  new  prospects  from  people  that  you  meet  and  business  card  that  you  collect.    Record  every  detail  of  each  interaction  with  your  prospect  Keeping  very  good,  detailed  notes  of  each  interaction  with  your  prospect  turns  your  database  into  gold.  When  your  database  gets  filled  with  rich  information  about  each  prospect,  sales  start  to  come  more  frequently  and  more  easily.  

•  What  type  of  systems  do  they  prefer?  •  When  was  the  last  time  they  made  new  system  purchases?  •  What’s  their  favorite  baseball  team?  •  When  do  they  do  their  budgets?  •  Who  makes  the  final  decisions  when  it  comes  to  IT  purchases?  •  Who  are  they  currently  working  with?  •  What  are  their  favorite  hobbies?  

 All  of  this  information  should  be  diligently  recorded  after  every  interaction  with  your  prospect.  You  can  use  this  information  in  the  future  to  give  you  the  best  chance  of  success.    Use  ticklers  to  ensure  that  you  touch  your  prospects  at  least  once  every  ninety  days  We  have  found  over  time  that  90  days  is  the  maximum  amount  of  time  that  you  should  let  pass  without  making  some  sort  of  contact  with  your  prospects.  After  90  days,  people  tend  to  forget  that  you  even  exist.    The  simplest  way  to  do  this  is  to  create  a  tickler  file  that  reminds  you  when  somebody  needs  to  be  contacted.  Each  time  you  make  contact  with  the  prospect  you  should  immediately  record  your  notes  and  schedule  the  next  contact  that  you’ll  make.    

   

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This  requirement  to  contact  each  of  your  prospects  at  least  once  every  90  days  really  determines  the  size  of  the  prospecting  database  that  each  salesperson  needs.  For  example,  let’s  say  that  a  salesperson  will  consistently  make  50  prospecting  calls  each  day.  Now  let’s  further  assume  that  there  are  22  working  days  in  each  month,  and  therefore  66  working  days  in  each  90  day  period.    The  math  says  that  the  salesperson  could  theoretically  only  be  effectively  working  a  database  of  3300  total  prospects.  Using  these  calculations  will  help  you  determine  the  size  of  the  database  you  need  to  purchase  for  your  sales  team  to  work.      Of  course,  during  the  90-­‐day  period,  your  salespeople  will  find  database  records  that  aren’t  good,  or  will  find  businesses  that  will  never  be  a  good  fit  for  your  services.  Because  of  this  it  is  necessary  to  continuously  update  the  database  with  fresh  prospects  -­‐  this  should  probably  be  done  formally  as  a  company  every  90  days,  and  should  be  done  continuously  by  your  salespeople  by  adding  prospect  information  from  business  cards  they  collect  at  networking  events  or  from  referrals.    Use  a  CRM  system  Given  the  audience  that  is  reading  this,  I  shouldn’t  have  to  spend  any  time  on  this,  so  I  won’t.    Make  paperwork  simple  When  you  understand  the  importance  of  making  enough  time  for  prospecting,  you  realize  that  everything  else  needs  to  be  done  very  efficiently.  This  includes  sales  paperwork  and  proposals.  Every  good  salesperson  will  tell  you  that  they  spend  too  much  time  on  paperwork.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  it’s  true.  Doing  paperwork  and  other  administrative  tasks  is  a  necessity  of  every  business  job.  However,  when  it  comes  to  salespeople  every  minute  that  they  spend  doing  administrative  work  is  a  minute  that  they  aren’t  selling.    Make  administrative  work  and  the  creation  of  proposals  at  your  company  as  simple  and  efficient  as  possible.  In  fact,  if  you  can,  take  it  out  of  the  salespeople’s  hands  completely,  and  give  it  to  an  administrative  assistant.  This  may  not  be  practical  at  your  company,  but  that  shouldn’t  stop  you  from  doing  everything  you  can  to  make  the  paperwork  process  streamlined.    Create  boilerplate  proposal  templates  that  your  salespeople  can  modify  for  the  needs  of  a  particular  prospect  very  quickly  and  very  easily.  Get  them  back  to  selling  as  quickly  as  possible.    Learn  to  use  the  phone  It  seems  that  every  sales  trainer  in  our  industry  stresses  the  importance  of  getting  an  in-­‐person  appointment  with  your  prospect.  Getting  an  in-­‐person  appointment  is  very  important,  but  only  if  you  get  the  appointment  with  someone  who  actually  needs  your  services,  is  qualified  for  your  services,  and  can  pay  for  your  services.  

   

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 For  this  reason  you  should  learn  to  use  the  phone  as  your  most  effective  sales  weapon.  The  phone  is  still  one  of  the  most  efficient  ways  to  reach  a  large  number  of  prospects,  and  should  be  used  to  your  advantage.    When  you  find  someone  that  expresses  interest  in  your  services  don’t  just  rush  to  set  an  in  person  appointment.  Take  the  time  to  pre-­‐qualify  the  person  over  the  phone  to  determine  if  it  is  really  wise  to  spend  the  time  meeting  with  this  person.  One  in  person  meeting  per  day  with  the  wrong  prospect  can  kill  your  prospecting  efficiency.      

5. Successful  cold  calling    Cold  calling  techniques  I  know  people  don’t  want  to  hear  this,  but  cold  calling  works  and  is  a  foundation  of  any  small  business  prospecting  campaign.  Yes,  other  things  may  seem  easier  and  more  effective,  but  cold  calling  has  been  around  for  a  long  time  for  one  reason  –  it  works.    We  built  our  business  for  three  years  doing  essentially  nothing  but  cold  calling.  We  had  no  money,  we  had  no  marketing  people,  and  we  didn’t  have  any  of  the  ideas  I’m  about  to  share  with  you  –  all  we  had  was  time  and  a  desire  to  get  off  the  ground.  So  we  picked  up  the  phone  and  started  dialing.    It’s  not  sexy.  It’s  not  easy.  But  it  works.    To  this  day,  our  salespeople  make  50+  sales  calls  each  and  every  day.  I  think  this  will  always  be  the  case.    You’ve  got  to  learn  to  love  the  phone!    Cold  calling  expectations  The  reason  most  people  dislike  cold  calling  is  because  they  have  the  wrong  expectations.  If  you  think  that  every  call  you  make  is  going  to  result  in  someone  being  glad  to  hear  from  you,  then  you  will  of  course  be  sadly  disappointed.    However,  if  you  understand  that  for  every  50  calls  or  so  you  are  likely  to  get  one  good  appointment  that  may  lead  to  business,  then  you  will  be  able  to  find  success.  50  calls  for  every  appointment  may  not  sound  like  a  great  ratio  to  you,  but  considering  you  can  make  50  calls  in  one  day,  it’s  not  that  bad.  The  way  to  improve  that  ratio  is  to  "warm  up"  the  calls  you  make,  and  every  one  of  the  additional  techniques  we  cover  will  help  you  do  so.  

   

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 Cold  calling  scripts  Every  call  you  make  should  have  a  script  that  you  follow.  You  should  always  be  testing  and  refining  your  script  based  on  what  works  for  you.  Try  one  script  for  a  week  and  carefully  record  your  results,  then  try  another  script  that  is  slightly  modified  from  the  original  for  a  week  and  compare  the  results.  Continuously  work  this  process  and  your  script  will  continuously  improve.    There  are  all  kinds  of  ideas  on  how  to  cold  call.  Some  of  it  comes  down  to  personal  preference  and  what  feels  comfortable  to  you,  but  it  should  primarily  be  based  on  performance  and  results;  after  all,  most  people  find  any  cold  calling  uncomfortable  –  you  can’t  let  that  stop  you!    The  following  script  works.  I  first  heard  it  from  my  friend  Andrew  Morgan,  but  I  had  always  practiced  something  similar  to,  if  a  little  less  refined  than,  this  myself.  I’ve  broken  it  down  below  to  illustrate  the  specific  steps  of  the  call.  These  steps  are  critical;  the  specific  language  you  use  at  each  step  is  less  so.  It  goes  like  this:  

1.  Get  their  attention    Use  an  opening  line  that  will  get  them  to  pay  attention  to  you.  Just  using  their  name  is  enough:  "Jim  -­‐  Mike  Cooch  with  Everon  here."    2.  Lower  their  defenses  Humor  is  often  a  great  way  to  get  them  to  lower  their  defenses  and  be  more  receptive  to  your  conversation.  "This  is  a  sales  call;  I’m  sure  you’re  excited."    Or  you  may  have  something  local  going  on  that  you  could  reference:  "I’m  glad  I  caught  you  at  your  desk;  most  people  are  at  home  mourning  that  Patriots’  loss  last  night!"  

 Just  find  something  that  fits  your  personal  style  and  gets  them  relaxed  a  bit.    3.  Set  an  up-­‐front  contract  An  up-­‐  front  contract  is  a  way  of  laying  down  some  ground  rules/commitments  that  make  your  prospect  more  comfortable  and  will  give  you  a  better  chance  of  success.    At  this  stage  of  the  prospecting  call,  an  example  would  be:  "Look,  I  know  I’ve  caught  you  off  guard  and  I  know  you  are  busy.  If  I  promise  not  to  take  more  than  3  minutes  of  your  time,  could  I  ask  you  a  few  quick  questions  to  see  if  it  makes  sense  for  us  to  continue  speaking  with  each  other?"    4.  Ask  questions  that  demonstrate  your  knowledge  of  their  world  and  challenges  An  example  at  this  stage  in  a  prospecting  call  is  to  say  something  along  the  lines  of:  

   

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"Typically  when  speaking  with  other  (Their  title)’s  in  your  industry,  I  find  that  they  face  the  following  challenges:  

Challenge  1  Challenge  2  Challenge  3  

Do  any  of  these  challenges  resonate  with  you?"    This  type  of  question  is  an  opportunity  for  you  to  establish  credibility  and  demonstrate  your  knowledge,  while  giving  the  prospect  the  opportunity  to  "raise  their  hand"  by  acknowledging  a  challenge.    5.  Respect  the  up-­‐front  contract  you  made!  When  you’ve  used  up  your  initial  time  say,  "Mr.  Prospect,  I’ve  used  up  my  three  minutes,  but  it  seems  like  we  have  something  to  talk  about.  Do  you  have  a  little  more  time  to  continue  now?"    This  shows  that  you  do  respect  their  time  and  keep  your  word.    6.  Lower  their  guard  even  more  and  demonstrate  proof  of  your  capabilities  at  the  same  time  At  some  point,  the  prospect  will  most  likely  ask  something  along  the  lines  of  "How  are  you  suggesting  that  you’ll  help  me  solve  my  problems?”  to  which  you  should  reply  with  something  along  the  lines  of:  "Well,  Mr.  Prospect,  I’m  not  sure  that  I  can.  But  here  is  what  we  did  for  a  similar  company  in  your  situation."    By  doing  so,  you  keep  yourself  from  going  into  a  pitch  about  how  you  can  make  their  world  perfect  without  even  knowing  the  details  of  their  problems  -­‐  a  common  salesperson  affliction!    7.  Set  another  up  front  contract    "Mr.  Prospect,  I  think  the  best  way  for  us  to  proceed  is  to  meet  and  spend  some  time  discussing  your  specific  business  needs.  If  I  promise  to  keep  it  to  45  minutes,  can  I  come  to  your  office  next  week  to  meet  with  you?"    8.  Set  the  appointment,  if  that  is  your  objective.    Again,  it’s  the  process  behind  this  cold  call  that  is  most  important,  not  the  specific  language  you  use.  The  entire  call  structure  is  designed  to  get  a  conversation  and  establish  credibility  with  the  prospect.  

 There  are  many  other  cold  call  script  structures,  and  many  of  them  will  work  for  you.  Experiment  with  several  and  use  what  works  best  for  you.  Just  stay  away  from  anything  that  is  

   

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overly  gimmicky,  and  keep  in  mind  that  the  cold  call  is  just  the  first  step  in  an  often  long  sales  cycle,  so  do  everything  you  can  to  leave  a  good  impression  and  establish  yourself  as  a  trusted  resource.    V.I.P.  Selling  We  ensure  that  we  are  making  the  right  impression  and  adding  value  in  every  call  by  practicing  what  we  call  V.I.P.  selling.  V.I.P.  selling  means  that  every  conversation  we  have  with  a  client  should  meet  the  V.I.P.  criteria:    

1.  It  should  add  VALUE  2.  It  should  create  INTEREST  3.  It  should  POSITION  your  company  and  yourself  as  a  thought  leader  and  trusted  resource    

 Perhaps  not  every  call  will  accomplish  all  three,  but  you  should  always  get  2  out  of  3.  This  means  that  calling  to  "just  check  in"  is  not  acceptable  -­‐  it’s  a  waste  of  an  opportunity  to  have  a  more  engaging  interaction  with  your  prospect!      Instead,  call  with  an  introduction  to  somebody  else  they  would  want  to  know,  or  tell  them  about  an  interesting  event,  or  a  great  article  you  read  about  their  industry.  Something…anything…to  make  the  call  more  relevant  to  the  prospect.  Warming  up  the  prospect    Ideally  you  find  a  way  to  warm  up  every  call  you  make  to  a  prospect,  so  it  isn’t  really  a  cold  call.  Most  people  find  this  creates  a  much  more  comfortable  prospecting  environment  because  it  gives  them  a  reason  to  call  the  prospect.    What  exactly  does  "warm  up"  a  call  me?    It  means  a  number  of  things:  

•  The  prospect  has  heard  of  you  before  the  call  •  The  prospect  was  expecting  your  call  •  You  have  a  specific  reason  to  call  that  is  of  interest  to  the  prospect  •  You’ve  already  done  something  of  value  for  them  that  triggers  a  sense  of  reciprocation  •  You  have  a  relationship  with  them  that  is  of  interest  

 You  get  the  point.  It  doesn’t  have  to  be  all  of  these  things  at  once  –  any  single  factor  will  help  –  but  the  more  you  have,  the  better  off  you  are.    When  these  factors  exist,  the  call  is  less  cold.  The  prospect  is  more  receptive  to  hearing  from  you,  and  you  are  usually  more  comfortable  with  contacting  them.    

   

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If  you  believe,  like  I  do,  that  the  far  majority  of  managed  services  sales  will  happen  in  a  face-­‐to-­‐face  meeting  with  a  prospect,  then  the  point  of  all  of  these  tactics  is  to  help  the  salesperson  get  a  meeting.  If  you  are  an  owner  or  Sales  Manager  reading  this,  it  is  critically  important  to  involve  your  salespeople  in  the  decisions  around  these  campaigns  so  they  are  confident  that  what  is  being  sent  represents  them  well  and  helps  them  get  in  the  door.    Specific  tactics  for  warming  up  the  call    Send  a  sales  letter  with  "lumpy  mail"  A  very  common  sales  strategy  for  warming  up  a  prospect  is  to  send  them  a  letter  first,  then  place  the  follow  up  call  referencing  the  letter.    There  are  many  theories  of  what  the  letter  should  be  about.  One  of  the  most  famous  books  that  addresses  this  technique  is  called  "Selling  to  V.I.T.O."  by  Anthony  Parinello.  It  goes  into  great  detail  about  what  specifically  should  be  in  the  letter  and  how  it  should  be  used.    I'm  less  concerned  about  the  specifics  of  the  content  of  the  letter.  I  am  more  concerned  that  it  gets  the  prospects  attention,  gets  opened,  and  is  memorable.    For  these  reasons,  I  highly  recommend  using  what’s  called  "lumpy  mail".  Lumpy  mail  is  just  as  its  name  describes  –  lumpy.  An  example  would  be  an  envelope  that  has  something  large  stuffed  inside  of  it.  Because  of  the  odd  shape  the  envelope  takes  because  of  what’s  inside,  the  piece  of  mail  is  lumpy  and  really  stands  out  from  others  in  the  stack  of  mail.  This  almost  guarantees  that  it  will  be  looked  at.    If  it  gets  looked  at,  it’s  very  likely  that  it  will  be  opened.  And  if  it  gets  opened,  and  you  put  something  interesting  inside,  it  is  very  likely  to  be  memorable.    Let’s  assume  all  of  this  has  happened.  How  much  easier  is  it  for  the  salesperson  to  now  call  and  say,  "Did  you  like  the  X  I  sent  you?"  or  "This  is  Mike,  I’m  the  person  that  sent  you  X"?  It’s  much  easier!  Your  salesperson  is  more  confident  and  having  more  fun  because  they  had  something  specific  to  reference  and  the  prospect  is  more  likely  to  welcome  your  conversation  out  of  a  sense  of  reciprocation.    There  are  a  million  ideas  on  how  to  use  lumpy  mail.  The  best  resource  I’ve  found  for  ideas  is  the  website  www.3Dmailresults.com.  They  will  send  you  a  free  course  on  how  to  using  lumpy  mail,  and  they  can  serve  as  your  source  for  "lumpy"  products.    Get  their  free  course  and  study  the  principles  of  how  to  use  lumpy  mail  effectively,  and  then  get  creative  with  how  you  execute  on  the  concept;  there  really  is  no  limit  to  the  number  of  things  you  could  do.    

   

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This  technique  is  one  of  the  best  ways  to  leverage  your  time.  You  can  reach  a  huge  number  of  people  with  direct  mail,  and  by  using  "lump  mail"  techniques,  you  can  make  sure  that  what  you  are  doing  will  stand  out  in  the  mind  of  your  prospect.  Once  you’ve  found  a  campaign  that  works,  you  simply  repeat  it  over  and  over  again.    Send  an  article  or  report  Sending  an  article  or  a  report  to  a  prospect  is  similar  to  sending  a  sales  letter,  but  it  adds  a  degree  of  perceived  value  and  thoughtfulness  to  your  approach.    Put  yourself  in  the  prospect’s  shoes.  If  you  receive  a  letter  from  someone  saying  that  they  will  be  calling  soon  to  introduce  themselves,  it  has  limited  value  –  primarily  just  creating  awareness.  However,  if  you  receive  a  report  or  article  that’s  of  interest  to  you  with  a  note  attached  that  says,  "I  thought  you  might  enjoy  reading  this…"  you  now  attach  the  value  of  the  article  or  the  report  to  the  person  that  sent  it  to  you.    As  the  salesperson,  you  are  effectively  "borrowing"  the  value  of  the  article  or  report.  This  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  the  world  to  do.  You  don’t  have  to  be  the  genius  that  wrote  the  article  or  report  –  just  find  one,  cut  it  out  or  photocopy  it,  and  send  it  along  to  your  prospect  with  a  hand  written  note.  Then  follow  up  with  a  phone  call  to  introduce  yourself.    It’s  best,  but  not  necessary,  if  your  handwritten  note  adds  something  of  additional  value  to  the  article  or  report.  If  your  note  shows  some  thoughtfulness  or  expands  on  the  ideas  of  the  article  or  report,  then  you  gain  an  extra  degree  of  additional  credibility  with  the  client.  Invite  them  to  an  event  Inviting  a  prospect  to  an  event  can  be  one  of  the  most  enjoyable  ways  of  warming  up  an  initial  contact.  People  love  to  leave  the  office  to  do  something  different  every  once  in  a  while,  and  they  particularly  enjoy  it  if  it’s  on  somebody  else’s  dime,  makes  them  feel  important,  and  is  entertaining.    The  number  of  things  you  can  do  here  is  unlimited,  and  really  depends  on  the  time  and  money  you  want  to  put  into  the  event,  as  well  as  the  one-­‐on-­‐one  time  you  hope  to  achieve  with  each  prospect  at  the  event.        For  example,  a  popular  use  of  the  "invite  someone  to  an  event"  strategy  is  taking  someone  to  see  a  local  professional  sports  team.  Salespeople  and  business  development  people  have  been  doing  this  for  ages  for  one  reason  –  it  works!  The  downside  is  that  this  can  be  pretty  expensive;  the  upside  is  that  it  takes  virtually  no  effort  to  plan  and  it  gives  you  great  one-­‐on-­‐one  time  with  your  guests.    As  an  alternative,  try  events  such  as  Small  Business  Roundtables  in  which  you  invite  a  number  of  small  business  executives  –  say  10  or  so  –  to  a  private  event  at  a  nice  hotel  conference  room  so  you  can  ask  them  their  thoughts  about  business  trends,  use  of  technology,  etc.  

   

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 Position  these  events  in  such  a  way  that  the  business  executives  feel  honored  to  be  invited  because  we  are  acknowledging  them  as  experts  and  influential  in  their  local  business  community.  During  this  type  of  event,  do  very  little  in  the  way  of  selling  our  services,  but  get  a  ton  of  good  connections,  build  good  relationships  with  influential  people,  and  get  good  one-­‐on-­‐one  time  with  prospects  for  the  several  people  on  our  staff  that  you’ll  have  attend.  The  sales  flow  naturally  as  a  result  of  the  impression  you  make  on  our  prospects.    Finally,  you  can  put  on  many  local  seminars  of  our  own  about  topics  related  to  small  business  technology.  You  should  be  able  to  attract  anywhere  from  10  to  25  qualified  prospects  to  these  types  of  presentations.    Seminars  such  as  this  serve  as  an  excellent  way  to  position  your  company  and  your  people  as  thought  leaders  and  experts.  They  can  cost  a  significant  amount  to  host,  and  they  don’t  give  you  as  much  one-­‐on-­‐one  time  with  the  prospects,  but  they  do  serve  as  a  great  way  to  impress  a  significant  number  of  prospects.    Note:  see  the  "marketing  seminars"  section  in  Lead  Generation  for  more  information  on  how  to  hold  these  events    No  matter  what  the  event,  it’s  nice  for  a  salesperson  to  have  an  invitation  to  extend  to  a  prospect;  it  feels  like  you  are  giving  them  a  gift.  This  makes  for  a  totally  different  call  versus  calling  in  to  speak  to  a  cold  prospect  with  nothing  but  your  elevator  pitch  in  hand!      Speak  at  local  business  groups  and  events  Public  speaking  is  probably  the  fastest  way  to  create  credibility  in  the  eyes  of  most  people.  Speaking  at  local  conferences,  events,  and  industry  trade  shows  or  meetings  in  particular  is  a  great  way  to  establish  yourself  in  a  local  community  and  get  the  word  about  your  services  out  to  a  large  number  of  prospects.  These  types  of  events  are  happening  all  the  time,  so  there  is  literally  no  limit  to  the  number  of  opportunities.    These  events  allow  you  to  borrow  from  the  pre-­‐established  credibility  of  the  organization  you  are  speaking  for.  People  assume  "if  he’s  speaking  at  such-­‐and-­‐such  conference,  he  must  be  the  real  deal".  This  gives  you  an  immediate  and  dramatic  advantage  over  those  that  don’t  speak  in  public.    Speaking  at  events  like  this  gives  you  several  opportunities  from  a  sales  perspective:  

1.  Call  to  invite  prospects  to  the  event  2.  Collect  business  cards  and  have  conversations  at  the  event  3.  Follow  up  via  phone  call  and  email  after  the  event  

 

   

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That’s  three  touches  that  all  have  the  event  as  an  obvious  reason  to  get  in  touch  with  the  prospect,  making  it  much  easier  to  get  a  conversation,  and  pre-­‐qualifying  the  prospects  that  showed  up  based  on  their  interest  in  the  subject  and  taking  the  time  to  attend.  In  order  to  execute  on  this  idea,  you  must  get  comfortable  with  the  idea  of  being  a  thought  leader.  Most  people  aren’t  comfortable  with  this;  they  get  a  sensation  known  as  Imposter  Syndrome,  where  they  assume  that  they  aren’t  smart  enough  or  qualified  enough  for  the  role  they  are  playing.  You  must  not  fall  victim  to  this.    The  truth  is  that  if  you  are  in  this  industry  and  have  been  for  a  decent  amount  of  time,  you  have  a  ton  of  valuable  information  to  share.  Take  some  time  to  document  those  ideas  and  organize  them  into  a  thoughtful  presentation,  then  practice  delivering  it  until  you  feel  very  comfortable  that  you  are  an  expert  on  the  subject.  You  need  to  sell  yourself  first!    It  only  takes  a  few  good  presentation  topics  to  fill  your  calendar  full  of  speaking  engagements  each  year,  so  be  disciplined  enough  to  develop  them  and  book  your  first  presentation!    Do  Drop  offs  I  just  learned  this  one  recently,  but  it’s  a  proven  strategy  that  I  plan  to  deploy  aggressively.  Drop  offs  are  very  similar  to  the  lumpy  mail  concept  we  covered  earlier,  but  instead  of  being  mailed,  they  are  delivered  in  person  by  the  salesperson.  Delivering  them  gives  the  salesperson  the  opportunity  to  do  a  little  bit  of  discovery  while  at  the  client’s  office,  and  sometimes  meet  with  the  prospect  immediately.    I  don’t  know  who  originally  created  this  strategy,  but  I  learned  it  from  a  District  Sales  Manager  at  ADP.      If  you  aren’t  familiar  with  ADP,  they  are  a  nationwide  giant  that  provides  a  variety  of  services  to  small  businesses  –  largely  focused  around  payroll  and  HR  administration  outsourcing.  My  understanding  is  that  they  have  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  15000  sales  reps  out  in  the  field!  We  all  have  something  we  can  learn  from  them.    ADP  uses  drop  offs  very  successfully  to  help  their  salespeople  get  in  the  door  with  new  prospects.  My  contact  at  ADP  says  it’s  by  far  the  number  one  way  they  go  about  getting  appointments  with  prospects;  that’s  enough  for  me  to  hear.  Specifically,  for  every  25  drop  offs  he  does,  he  gets  in  the  door  with  about  two-­‐thirds  of  those!  Any  salesperson  would  kill  for  those  kinds  of  number!    How  do  you  use  drop  offs?  It’s  very  simple:  

1.  Identify  a  target  list  of  prospects  –  I  would  keep  this  to  30  prospects  or  less  per  salesperson  per  campaign  2.  Identify  a  theme  for  your  campaign  messaging  –  examples  could  be  "protection"  or  "security"  if  you  are  marketing  a  data  protection  service  3.  Choose  a  product  that:  

   

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a.  You  can  buy  in  bulk  at  an  affordable  price  b.  Is  related  to  the  theme  you  chose  c.  Will  get  the  attention  of  the  prospect  d.  And  ideally  is  something  they  will  want  to  keep  around  and  use  

4.  Have  it  branded  with  your  company  logo  if  there  is  an  affordable  and  appropriate  way  to  do  it  –  you  can  get  this  done  with  almost  any  product  5.  Write  a  note  or  sales  letter  to  go  with  the  product  6.  Deliver  the  product  to  the  prospects  office,  addressed  directly  to  the  prospect  you  hope  to  meet  with  7.  Follow  up  the  next  week  with  phone  calls  and  email,  identifying  yourself  as  the  person  that  brought  the  gift  and  asking  for  an  appointment  

 A  very  high  number  of  people  will  accept  your  call  or  respond  to  your  email,  and  a  good  number  of  those  will  agree  to  meet  with  you  to  discuss  your  services.      The  more  creative  you  are  with  these  ideas,  the  better.  Get  a  number  of  people  in  your  company  to  brainstorm  ideas  and  give  a  small  reward  for  the  best  idea  –  you’ll  come  up  with  some  very  clever  ones.    There  are  two  very  important  things  you  should  consider  when  using  this  strategy:  

1.  The  number  of  drop  offs  a  salesperson  can  reasonably  do  in  a  month  is  not  a  huge  number  perhaps  50  or  so.  However,  the  number  doesn’t  need  to  be  huge,  because  this  idea  will  get  them  in  front  of  a  very  high  percentage  of  their  prospects.  2.    You  can  afford  to  spend  considerably  more  money  on  each  of  the  drop  offs  (as  compared  to  the  "lumpy  mail"  concept  or  other  similar  marketing  tactics  due  to  the  high  success  rate.  Keep  in  mind  the  concept  of  Total  Lifetime  Value  when  you  develop  your  campaigns  and  spend  enough  money  per  drop  off  to  give  them  some  real  firepower.  

To  illustrate,  if  you  were  running  a  campaign  about  security,  you  could  have  your  salespeople  deliver  a  nice  padlock,  or  you  could  spend  more  money  and  have  them  deliver  a  personal  fireproof  mini-­‐safe.  Which  do  you  think  would  get  a  better  return  for  your  money?  You’d  have  to  test  and  measure  the  ROI  to  be  sure,  but  my  bet  is  that  the  personal  safe  would  get  your  salespeople  in  front  of  a  dramatically  higher  number  of  prospects.    Follow-­‐up!    No  matter  what  warm  up  strategy  you  are  using,  you  must  have  an  organized  strategy  for  following  up  with  the  prospect  after  the  initial  contact.  SO  MANY  salespeople  give  up  after  one  or  two  attempts  to  follow  up  with  a  prospect  –  this  is  ridiculous!  Often  it  can  take  more  than  8  touches  to  make  contact.    

   

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Keep  in  mind  that  you  are  trying  to  reach  a  very  busy  businessperson,  and  you  are  interrupting  them  to  try  to  get  their  attention.  The  likelihood  of  you  getting  in  touch  with  them  on  the  first  shot  is  very  slim.  You  need  to  follow  a  specific  follow  up  strategy  that  gives  you  the  best  chance  at  success,  and  doesn’t  make  you  look  like  a  stalker.  I  would  suggest  something  like  this:  

5  days  after  initial  deliver/contact  –  Phone  call  +2  business  days  –  Email  +2  business  days  –  Phone  call  +3  business  days  –  Email  +2  business  days  –  Email  +3  business  days  –  Final  phone  call  

 If  you  haven’t  reached  your  prospect  at  this  point,  they  probably  aren’t  interested  right  now  and  you  should  make  a  graceful  retreat  –  for  the  time  being.  Leave  them  a  message  saying  something  along  the  lines  of,  

"It  must  be  a  very  busy  time  for  you  right  now,  which  I  understand.  Please  take  down  my  name  and  number  and  give  me  a  call  if  you  can  free  up  some  time.  Otherwise,  I’ll  stop  trying  to  reach  you  for  now."    

 Leaving  messages  Whether  or  not  to  leave  voicemail  during  your  phone  call  attempts  is  the  point  of  much  debate  in  the  sales  industry.  I’m  not  going  to  take  a  strong  position  on  when  or  when  not  to  in  this  guide,  but  I  will  tell  you  one  thing  for  sure:    If  you  are  going  to  leave  a  message,  make  it  a  good  one!    As  the  CEO  of  a  company,  I  get  a  lot  of  sales  calls.  I  also  get  a  lot  of  voicemails  from  salespeople.  Most  of  them  are  horrible!    When  I  say  horrible,  I  am  not  suggesting  that  the  salesperson  needs  to  have  a  perfect  script  for  leaving  a  voicemail.  What  I  am  suggesting  is  that  if  you  are  going  to  leave  a  voicemail,  it  should  be:  

•  Professional  sounding  •  Clear  •  Slow  enough  that  I  can  actually  hear  what  you  are  saying  and  write  down  notes  •  Repetitive  –  give  your  name  and  phone  number  multiple  times  throughout  the  message;  it  is  such  a  pain  in  the  neck  when  somebody  gives  it  once  quickly  at  the  beginning  of  the  message  and  I  have  to  replay  the  message  three  times  to  get  their  name  and  phone  number  written  down!  

 And  finally…whatever  you  do…don’t  try  to  guilt  the  person  into  calling  you  back;  I  can’t  believe  how  many  people  try  this!  

   

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"Jim,  I’ve  got  something  really  important  to  discuss  –  I  don’t  know  why  you  won’t  call  me  back…"  

 It  makes  me  100%  sure  that  I  DON’T  want  to  call  them  back,  and  that  they’ll  never  get  my  business.    If  you  are  going  to  leave  messages,  be  clear,  professional,  and  courteous.    

6. Overcoming  the  fear  of  prospecting      There  is  a  phrase  that  I  often  hear  in  this  industry:   "I  can  sell  our  services  to  anybody,  if  I  could  just  get  in  the  door  with  more  of  the  right  prospects."      Well,  that’s  the  trick,  isn’t  it?    How  do  you  find  more  qualified  prospects  that  will  give  you  the  time  of  day?    Most  people  find  prospecting  to  be  the  hardest  part  of  sales,  and  with  good  reason.  Prospecting  generally  means  picking  up  the  phone  to  make  100  phone  calls  and  only  getting  one  or  two  people  to  even  give  you  the  time  of  day.  It’s  such  tough  work  that  most  people  find  themselves  unable  to  do  it  for  very  long.    After  so  many  calls  and  so  many  rejections,  most  people  start  to  let  the  weight  of  their  perceived  failure  break  them  down.  Pretty  soon,  it  gets  to  the  point  where  just  picking  up  the  phone  causes  a  reaction  in  their  stomachs  that  makes  them  feel  nauseous.  Once  they  hit  this  point,  the  classic  signs  of  someone  who  is  afraid  to  prospect  start  appearing:  

•  Doing  extensive  research  before  being  willing  to  make  a  call  •  Spending  more  time  on  coffee  breaks,  smoke  breaks,  and  lunches  by  themselves  than  time  with  prospects.  •  Spending  more  time  looking  through  job  listings  on  Craigslist  than  they  do  talking  to  prospects  

 Eventually  this  downward  spiral  creates  what  amounts  to  an  impossible  psychological  roadblock  to  sales  success.  If  a  salesperson  is  that  defeated  mentally,  the  sales  process  is  stopped  before  it  has  even  started.    This  condition  is  called  "sales  reluctance"  in  the  sales  training  industry,  and  is  so  common  that  it  is  the  subject  of  hundreds  of  books  and  countless  training  programs.  Due  to  sales  reluctance,  thousands  or  millions  of  sales  careers  have  ended  before  they  ever  had  a  chance  of  seeing  their  potential.  

   

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 Now  I’m  not  going  to  try  to  tell  you  that  the  prospecting  process  is  all  roses  and  sunshine.  It  isn’t.  People  are  going  to  hang  up  on  you,  lie  to  you,  and  treat  you  like  a  second-­‐class  citizen.  These  conditions  are  just  a  reality  of  the  sales  career,  and  anyone  that  tells  you  they  can  teach  you  a  sales  process  that  won’t  involve  these  tough  realities  is  selling  to  your  wishful  thinking.  In  spite  of  this,  there  are  millions  of  people  making  big  money,  enjoying  their  careers,  and  living  a  fantastic  lifestyle  because  of  their  ability  to  sell.  If  you  want  to  join  their  ranks,  you  must  overcome  your  fear  of  prospecting.  I  would  suggest  that  there  are  three  keys  for  doing  this:  

1.  Accept  the  challenges  of  your  sales  career  and  committing  and  re-­‐committing  each  day  to  not  letting  them  defeat  you  mentally.  2.  Learn  to  focus  on  the  behaviors  that  lead  to  sales  success,  rather  than  focusing  on  the  results  of  each  individual  attempt.  3.  Learn  strategies,  techniques  and  tools  that  give  you  the  best  chance  at  success  and  at  avoiding  as  many  of  the  unpleasantries  of  sales  as  possible.  

 You  alone  are  responsible  for  achieving  the  first  two  steps.  There  are  a  number  of  great  resources  out  there  to  help  you  overcome  the  fears  of  call  reluctance.      You  need  to  learn  the  strategies,  techniques  and  tools  that  work  for  you  when  selling  managed  services  to  small  business  clients.  Please  set  your  expectations  correctly.    None  of  what  you  are  going  to  learn  is  going  to  make  the  sales  process  a  walk  in  the  park,  and  anybody  to  that  tells  you  that  they  can  do  so  is  just  plain  lying  to  you.  However,  using  the  material  presented  here,  you  will  make  the  sales  process  easier,  more  fun,  and  more  successful  if  you  apply  what  you  learn  enthusiastically  and  consistently  over  time.    

7. Referrals    One  of  the  best  and  most  well  known  ways  of  finding  new  business  is  through  introductions  and  referrals.  Most  people  in  our  industry  rely  way  too  much  on  these,  so  I  hesitate  to  even  bring  them  up.  However,  it  is  still  a  great  strategy,  and  one  that  is  rarely  used  to  its  potential  effectiveness.    Most  salespeople  are  limited  in  their  effectiveness  at  getting  referrals  for  three  reasons:  

1.  They  don’t  have  a  process  for  asking  for  them  2.  They  don’t  develop  a  network  of  strategic  referral  relationships  to  leverage  3.  They  don’t  have  a  formal  referral  program  that  clearly  identifies  rewards  

 Without  doing  these  three  things,  you  will  still  get  referrals;  you  just  won’t  get  nearly  as  many  of  them  as  you  possibly  could.    A  process  for  asking  for  referrals  

   

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If  you  just  expect  people  to  think  of  giving  you  referrals  on  their  own,  you’ll  get  a  very  small  percentage  of  your  satisfied  clients  to  actually  do  so.  The  reality  is  that  even  if  they  love  your  service,  it’s  just  not  top  of  mind  for  them  to  work  to  get  you  additional  business.    You  have  to  ask,  and  you  have  to  have  a  process  for  doing  so  if  you  want  to  reach  your  full  potential.    The  strategy  for  this  goes  back  to  our  section  about  asking  smart  questions  earlier  in  this  document.  If  you  ask  someone  "do  you  know  anyone  else  that  could  benefit  from  my  services?"  you  will  more  often  than  not  get  a  "Hmmmmm….nope."  in  return.    It’s  not  that  they  don’t  want  to  help  you;  it’s  just  an  easy  answer  that  gets  them  off  the  hook,  whether  they  are  consciously  doing  it  or  not.  You  have  to  have  a  better  script  to  ask  for  referrals  if  you  want  to  raise  your  chances  at  success.  I  would  recommend  something  like  this:  

"Bob,  as  you  can  imagine,  I  get  a  lot  of  my  business  from  referrals  given  to  me  by  satisfied  clients.  Since  you  seem  pretty  happy  with  the  work  we’ve  delivered  to  you,  I  was  wondering  if  you  would  be  willing  to  introduce  me  to  other  people  you  know  that  might  be  a  good  fit  for  my  services?"  

 They  will  say  yes  or  no  here.  If  yes,  proceed  to  the  rest  of  the  script.  If  no,  you’ve  just  uncovered  that  you  probably  have  a  problem  with  this  client  that  you  need  to  dig  into.  

"Great,  thank  you.  Bob,  do  you  mind  if  I  try  a  quick  exercise  to  see  if  we  can  come  up  with  any  names  of  people  you  could  put  me  in  touch  with?  Great.  Keep  in  mind,  these  don’t  have  to  be  people  you  think  or  know  have  an  immediate  need  for  our  services  –  I’d  just  like  to  meet  people  that  could  potentially  find  value  in  our  services  –  it  always  pays  to  have  more  contacts  out  in  the  marketplace."  

 At  this  point,  take  them  through  an  exercise  to  get  their  brains  working  on  your  behalf,  and  should  provide  you  with  names  of  qualified  clients  or  strategic  relationships:  

1.  Do  you  know  anyone  starting  a  new  business?  2.  Do  you  know  anyone  moving  offices?  3.  Do  you  know  anyone  that  recently  downsized  their  business?    4.  Do  you  know  anyone  running  a  company  that  is  experiencing  rapid  growth?  5.  Do  you  know  a  good  small  business  attorney?  6.  Do  you  know  a  good  small  business  CPA?  

 These  questions  are  specific,  so  they  get  specific  results.  Just  about  everyone  you  talk  to  will  be  able  to  come  up  with  a  few  names  when  asked  this  list.    When  you  get  the  names,  it’s  best  if  you  can  get  your  client/contact  to  make  an  introduction  for  you.  Have  them  send  an  email  copying  both  of  you,  or  even  make  a  call  while  you  are  sitting  

   

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there.  If  they  aren’t  comfortable  or  don’t  have  the  time,  don’t  press  the  issue.  Just  get  the  name  and  contact  info  and  give  them  a  call.  Make  sure  you  reference  the  referrer’s  name!  

"Hi  Susie  Lawyer,  Bob  asked  me  to  give  you  a  call…"      Building  strategic  referral  relationships  Each  sales  rep  should  actively  build  and  cultivate  a  list  of  potential  referral  resources  with  which  to  keep  in  touch.  If  you  are  selling  to  small  businesses,  the  most  likely  and  strategic  candidates  are  those  people  whose  profession  brings  them  in  daily  contact  with  business  owners  -­‐  commercial  real  estate  brokers,  accountants,  lawyers,  telecom  sales  reps,  office  supply  sales  reps,  payroll  sales  reps,  HR  outsourcing  reps,  etc.      Each  sales  rep  should  make  it  a  point  to  build  a  list  of  ten  referral  partners  that  they  actively  cultivate.    Once  you  have  identified  a  potential  referrer,  you  need  to  build  an  ongoing  relationship  with  them  that  goes  beyond  the  casual  and  occasional  ask  for  referrals.  You  ideally  want  to  form  an  alliance  with  this  person,  so  that  they  are  always  looking  for  business  for  you,  and  you  are  always  looking  for  business  for  them.  Otherwise,  the  alliances  really  aren’t  alliances  at  all;  they  are  just  lunch-­‐buddies.  You  don’t  need  lunch-­‐buddies,  you  need  new  business!    To  get  the  relationship  to  the  level  of  a  strategic  alliance,  you  need  to  get  commitment  from  the  other  person  to  actively  look  for  deals,  and  you  need  to  provide  compensation  in  the  way  of  referral  bonuses  or  introductions  to  possible  clients.    Once  you’ve  built  your  network  of  alliances,  you  need  to  make  a  point  of  staying  in  touch  with  them  and  constantly  remind  them  of  the  services  you  can  provide.  I  would  suggest  that,  as  a  minimum,  every  one  of  your  strategic  alliance  partners  should  be  put  on  the  following  contact  plan:    

•  Monthly  -­‐  phone  call  •  Quarterly  -­‐  in  person  meeting,  breakfast,  lunch,  dinner,  etc  

 You  should  use  these  contacts  not  to  just  "touch  base";  you  should  use  it  to  remind  them  of  your  ideal  client,  tell  them  about  new  services  you  are  offering,  give  them  case  studies  about  clients  you’ve  delivered  great  service  to,  etc.      The  following  script  is  a  good  one  for  building  the  initial  alliance  relationship.  Keep  in  mind  -­‐  you  should  use  these  conversations  and  meetings  as  a  time  to  feel  out  the  quality  of  your  potential  partner  just  as  much  as  you  should  be  selling  your  alliance  idea  to  them.  The  last  thing  you  want  to  do  is  get  partnered  up  with  someone  that  is  a  C  player  in  their  industry;  they’ll  just  drag  your  reputation  down.  You  can  only  reasonably  plan  to  keep  in  touch  with  about  10  referral  partners,  so  make  them  good  ones!      

   

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Initial  call  script  to  get  an  in-­‐person  meeting    "Hi  Bob  -­‐  this  is  (name)  from  (IT  company),  how  are  you  doing?    Great.  How  is  business?  Yeah,  it’s  a  tough  time  for  everyone  right  now  –  which  is  actually  the  reason  for  my  call.    I’m  trying  to  make  a  conscious  effort  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  people  that  could  potentially  benefit  from  the  referral  program  we  have  at  my  company,  and  you  came  to  mind.  I  was  wondering  if  I  could  buy  you  breakfast,  lunch,  coffee  soon  so  we  could  catch  up  and  see  if  there  is  a  way  we  might  be  able  to  help  each  other  out.    How  does  next  X-­‐day  look  for  you?"    

 In-­‐person  meeting    Make  small  talk;  ask  them  how  they  are  doing,  what’s  new  in  their  life,  etc.  Feel  them  out  –  would  they  make  a  good  partner?    

"Look  Bob,  I  think  we  are  running  in  pretty  similar  circles  in  terms  of  the  business  owners  and  executives  we  are  talking  to  on  a  daily  basis  –  so  I  thought  we  might  be  able  to  help  each  other  get  more  business  and  make  a  little  more  money.    As  I  mentioned,  we  have  a  pretty  aggressive  referral  program  right  now  that  allows  me  to  reward  you  pretty  substantially  for  any  business  you  are  able  to  send  our  way.  I  know  you  probably  have  a  lot  of  other  contacts  in  our  industry  –  and  I  would  never  ask  you  to  refer  us  business  if  you  didn’t  feel  100%  confident  in  our  abilities  –  but  I  thought  it  was  worth  discussing."    

 Make  sure  to  start  with  a  discussion  of  how  you  might  be  able  to  help  them  find  more  business!    Then,    •  We  will  never  embarrass  you  by  putting  on  high-­‐pressure  sales  approach  •  We  promise  only  to  attempt  to  sell  to  prospects  that  we  believe  we  can  add  real  value  to  •  We  can  make  payment  to  you,  your  company,  or  your  favorite  charity  if  you  feel  uncomfortable/like  there  is  a  conflict  of  interest      Discuss  the  details  of  your  plan;  give  them  your  referral  program  materials  and  business  card.  Make  sure  to  make  the  following  points:    Try  to  incorporate  some  specific  ideas  on  how  you  can  help  their  clients:    •  Real  estate  broker:  if  you  have  clients  that  are  about  to  move,  we  can  offer  an  evaluation  of  their  networks,  do  move  services,  put  in  technology  that  will  lower  their  expenses,  etc.  •  Business  broker/lawyer/accountant:  If  you  have  a  client  that  is  about  to  buy  a  new  business,  we  can  help  evaluate  the  technology  assets,  risks,  etc.    Once  they  are  pretty  comfortable  with  you/you  with  them    Use  the  brainstorming  script  that  you  used  with  your  clients  when  asking  for  referrals:    

   

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Bob,  do  you  mind  if  I  try  a  quick  exercise  to  see  if  we  can  come  up  with  any  names  of  people  you  could  put  me  in  touch  with?  Great.  Keep  in  mind,  these  don’t  have  to  be  people  you  think  or  know  have  an  immediate  need  for  our  services  –  I’d  just  like  to  meet  people  that  could  potentially  find  value  in  our  services  –  it  always  pays  to  have  more  contacts  out  in  the  marketplace.  

 At  this  point,  take  them  through  an  exercise  to  get  their  brains  working  on  your  behalf,  and  should  provide  you  with  names  of  qualified  clients  or  strategic  relationships:  

1.  Do  you  know  anyone  starting  a  new  business?  2.  Do  you  know  anyone  moving  offices?  3.  Do  you  know  anyone  that  recently  downsized  their  business?  4.  Do  you  know  anyone  running  a  company  that  is  experiencing  rapid  growth?  5.  Do  you  know  a  good  small  business  attorney?  6.  Do  you  know  a  good  small  business  CPA?  

 If  you  follow  this  process  consistently,  stay  in  regular  contact  with  your  referral  alliance  partners,  and  have  a  bonus  program  of  some  sort  to  reward  them  –  you  will  get  referrals  from  this  group.  We’ve  found  that  it  does  take  all  three  components,  however,  so  don’t  expect  it  to  work  well  if  you  only  have  two  out  of  three!    If  you  follow  a  conversation  process  similar  to  this,  you  will  get  exponentially  more  referrals.    

Lead  Conversion  

8. The  shift  you  must  make....      Before  you  can  be  successful  in  marketing  and  selling  managed  services,  it  you  must  first  make  a  shift  in  your  thinking  that  only  you  have  control  over.    Our  experience  in  this  industry  is  that  the  far  majority  of  people  tend  to  think  like  technologists  first,  and  sales  and  marketing  people  last,  if  at  all.    In  this  industry  or  any  other,  this  mind  set  is  the  number  one  killer  of  growth.  You  are  too  focused  on  the  doing  of  the  work,  and  not  nearly  focused  enough  on  the  selling  and  marketing  of  the  work.   If  you  want  to  grow  beyond  a  small  business,  you  must  make  the  shift  to  being  a  sales  and  marketing  company  that  happens  to  deliver  technology  services  as  its  product,  instead  of  being  a  technology  services  company  that  happens  to  do  sales  and  marketing.    If  you  make  this  shift,  you  will  find  your  efforts  rewarded  with  a  healthy,  growing  business.  

   

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If  you  don’t,  you’ll  struggle  to  grow  and  every  new  client  will  seem  to  come  only  after  a  challenging,  long  sales  cycle.   Learn  to  love  to  sell  Selling  is  the  foundation  of  any  good  business.  If  your  business  struggles  with  sales  then  everything  else  is  a  struggle.  It’s  not  any  fun  being  in  business  every  day  with  the  lack  of  customers,  a  lack  of  revenue,  or  a  lack  of  profits-­‐they  can  make  business  feel  like  trying  to  push  a  snowball  uphill.    But  it  doesn’t  have  to  be  that  way.    Just  about  everybody  can  learn  how  to  sell  effectively  and  when  you  do  business  becomes  fun  again.  If  you  are  in  business  for  yourself  you  probably  enjoy  the  experience  of  helping  your  clients  and  you  just  wish  that  you  could  have  more  clients  to  help  and  that  they  would  enjoy  and  place  value  on  the  service  that  you’re  providing  to  them.    But  it  all  starts  with  the  sale.    Almost  everybody  has  a  strong  opinion  about  selling  and  salespeople.  You’ll  usually  find  that  people  either  love  selling,  or  they  absolutely  hate  selling  and  everything  associated  with  it-­‐including  salespeople.  Our  beliefs  about  selling  usually  come  from  a  combination  of  social  stigma  about  who  a  salesperson  is  and  how  he  goes  pitching  their  wares,  and  from  your  own  personal  experiences  of  rejection  when  trying  to  sell  something.  Usually  this  combination  of  factors  leaves  people  with  a  very  bad  taste  about  selling.    Many  of  the  smartest  people  we  know,  if  asked  about  a  career  in  sales,  would  laugh  in  disgust.  The  possibility  of  a  career  in  sales  is  something  they  would  never  even  consider;  they  would  believe  that  it  was  too  far  beneath  him  to  take  on  such  a  role  in  society.    This  is  incredibly  unfortunate,  because  this  attitude  is  probably  the  single  factor  that  is  most  responsible  for  limiting  their  career  progression  and  potential  income.    But  you’re  different.    By  reading  and  focusing  on  these  materials,  you’ve  acknowledged  that  sales  is  an  important  part  of  your  career  and  that  you  are  committed  to  improving  your  abilities  in  the  realm  of  selling  –  whether  you  are  a  full  time  salesperson,  or  a  business  owner  wearing  many  hats.    Congratulations  on  taking  this  step;  most  people  will  never  get  that  far.  You,  on  the  other  hand,  have  committed  yourself  to  learning  the  skills  and  knowledge  that’s  necessary  to  have  a  rewarding  sales  career  and  to  build  your  business.    But  our  hope  for  you  is  greater  than  just  learning  new  skills  and  knowledge.  

   

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 We  want  you  to  learn  to  have  fun  selling.  We  want  you  to  enjoy  the  process  of  finding  your  own  clients,  creating  your  own  revenue,  and  controlling  your  own  destiny.  The  person  who  is  willing  to  work  hard  every  day  to  create  revenue  has  one  of  the  noblest  positions  in  our  economy.  You  make  things  happen.  You  create  jobs.  You  are  the  fuel  that  fires  the  economic  engine  of  our  country.    It’s  probably  obvious  by  now  that  we  don’t  take  the  subject  lightly.  We're  very  big  believers  in  the  power  of  entrepreneurship;  the  power  to  lift  people  and  economies  to  their  greatest  potential  by  creating  individuals  and  organizations  that  feel  accountable  to  themselves,  to  each  other,  and  to  their  society  as  a  whole.    America  has  long  recognized  the  role  of  the  entrepreneur  as  a  hero  in  our  society.  Our  country  was  founded  by  entrepreneurs  who  were  unwilling  to  accept  the  status  quo  in  their  lives,  thus  creating  an  environment  of  opportunity  that  has  thrived  for  over  200  years.    But  let’s  not  be  fooled  by  the  word  entrepreneur.  It’s  a  long  word  that  many  people  have  a  hard  time  saying,  let  alone  spelling.  What’s  most  important  is  that  we  understand  the  core  skill  of  those  people  with  word  entrepreneur  on  their  resume.  I  would  suggest  that  if  you  ask  100  successful  entrepreneurs  what  the  most  important  skill  they  have  that  has  allowed  them  to  create  their  companies  and  create  their  success  that  almost  all  of  them  would  tell  you  that  it’s  their  ability  to  sell.    You  should  be  proud  of  your  ability  to  sell.  You  should  be  proud  of  your  ability  to  create  jobs.  You  should  be  proud  of  your  ability  to  wake  up  every  morning,  face  rejection,  and  still  have  the  guts  to  go  after  your  dreams.  And  most  importantly,  you  should  be  proud  of  the  fact  that  you  are  connecting  clients  with  the  products  and  services  that  will  help  them  accomplish  their  goals.    This  is  the  essence  of  selling:  providing  value  by  connecting  those  with  a  need  with  those  with  a  solution.  In  complex  sales  such  as  managed  services  this  doesn’t  happen  on  its  own.  People  don’t  typically  wake  up  in  the  morning  looking  for  a  new  managed  services  provider.  This  is  the  case  in  most  businesses,  which  is  why  a  successful  salesperson  is  still  the  most  highly  paid  profession  in  the  world.      Selling  can  and  should  be  something  that  you  enjoy.  It  is  our  hope  that  you  spend  just  as  much  time  learning  to  have  fun  with  the  process  of  selling  as  you  do  learning  specific  techniques  strategies  and  knowledge  to  make  you  a  better  salesperson.  When  you’re  having  fun  everything  comes  easier,  including  sales.      

9. Five  foundations  of  an  effective  sales  initiative  

   

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• Foundation  #1:  the  right  people    • Foundation  #2:  effective  compensation  plans    • Foundation  3:  Effective  training  • Foundation  #4:  effective  sales  management    • Foundation  #5:  Have  products  worth  selling    

 

10. Sales  principles  that  lead  to  success  

Every activity worth pursuing has a set of guiding principles or philosophies that when known and accepted make everything easier. A light bulb seems to turn on when people absorb them for the first time.

The following business principles are some of our favorites. You may know them too - if so they have probably already had a very positive impact on your life:

"Nothing happens until someone sells something."

"Salary earns you a living, equity earns you wealth."

"Work on the business, not in the business."

When these principles are unknown or ignored, everything is harder than it needs to be. Achievement comes slowly and with difficulty.

Selling in this industry is no different – there are principles that need to be learned and practiced to make your life easier and get the results you desire.

The principles described below have served MSPs in this industry very well. Learn them and do your best to incorporate them into your business every day. Let them guide your decisions and behaviors and your sales efforts will be more successful.

Principle #1: YOU are responsible!

That’s right, YOU.

Sales and marketing is the #1 job of anyone reading this guide, even if (especially if!!) you are the founder of the company. You sell your employees on your vision, your clients on your abilities, and your investors on the potential of your business.

If you think being a good technician is your #1 job, you will remain a small company (if this concept is new to you, your very first homework assignment from this guide is to buy a copy and read E-myth).

   

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If you want to remain a very small company, that’s fine. But don’t complain that your company isn’t growing or that you aren’t making as much money as you want to. Rather, accept your fate as a very small company and don’t get stressed when you don’t grow.

That’s not meant to be harsh, just honest.

If you want to grow to be a bigger company – one that gives you freedom of finances and time – then you have to be absolutely diligent about building a sales and marketing engine at your company.

If you are a salesperson reading this, YOU are also responsible. Every company that you will go to work for has its flaws. The products should be better, the services should be better, marketing should do a better job of finding you leads.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that someone else is responsible for your success or failure as a salesperson – it isn’t true. Accept that you are 100% responsible and get to work!

Whether you are the owner of the company, or a salesperson, know your goals and have the guts to develop the skills and behaviors necessary to go after them.

Principle #2: Know your goals and track your results

I’m a big believer in goal setting. Everyone at our company has written goals for each month, quarter, and year. It’s been proven over and over again that people who have set written goals for themselves and regularly review their progress against those goals have a dramatically higher chance of actually achieving them than those that don’t.

Don’t deny yourself the extra firepower of knowing your goals and clearly articulating them on paper. You should create a personal goal setting routine that is reviewed and updated regularly. And I’m not just talking business goals; I’m talking personal goals that get you juiced to come to work and bring your best every day.

The trick is to then translate those goals into the daily sales behaviors you need to achieve the goals you’ve laid out. In other words, to earn enough money to go on that big vacation three months from now you:

• Need 3 more clients

• Which means you need to send out proposals to ten qualified prospects

• Which means you need to have 30 meetings

• Which means you need to make 100 calls per day

   

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You get the picture.

If I just tell you that you should make 100 calls per day for the rest of the year, it will hit you with a thud. But if we are able to draw a clear line between making 100 calls per day and achieving your personal dreams, we will create energy and passion in your work!

Principle #3: Consistency is key- you must make time for prospecting every day

If there is one characteristic that stands out amongst all of the best salespeople I know it’s that they are consistent. They get to work early, work their game plan, and repeat it day after day without fail.

This is a secret to sales success at your business. Someone must be prospecting at all times. Every minute that someone is not prospecting is a minute that can never be re-gained.

Whether you are the salesperson or you have hired someone else to play that role, make sure that dedicated time is set aside every day for prospecting, and that this time is considered SACRED and UNINTERRUPTABLE!

The number one killer of prospecting consistency is not being organized and disciplined. The number two killer is call reluctance, which is why you must…

Principle #4: Expect rejection and don’t take it personally

Taking rejection personally when you’re a salesperson is kind of like getting down in the dumps if you don’t hit every single basketball shot. In basketball it is impossible to make every shot, and if you let missing get into your head then you’ll never be a championship-caliber player.

The same is true for prospecting. Rejection is just a part of the game. You must recognize this and learn not to take it personally so that it does not slow down your prospecting efforts.

The best way to do this is to focus on the process, not the result. Most people experience call-reluctance when making cold calls because they are so emotionally attached to the results of cold calling - being hung up on, having people tell you no, etc.

This is natural, of course, but you must not let it stop you from making progress! The best way we’ve found to not get emotionally carried away is to focus on the process, not the result. Focus on the specific techniques you are using and how well you are executing on them - the results will fall in line.

The reality is that for even the best cold callers, a majority of calls will end in not getting an appointment with the prospect. If you focus on this and see it as a failure, you’ll never sell much.

Principle #5: Have an objective for every call

   

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Each and every prospecting call you make sure have a specific, measurable goal. As I’m sure you understand by now, if you have a specific objective for any situation, you are much more likely to make that objective a reality.

The same goes for prospecting. Before you pick up the phone or walk in that door, make sure you know what you are trying to accomplish. Is it:

• Getting an appointment?

• Learning the decision maker’s name?

• Determining their budget?

• Inviting them to an event?

• Educating them?

The objective of a prospecting call isn’t always to get an appointment or make a sale. Because of the long-term nature of the sales cycle in the MSP industry, it is often that the objective of the call is something other than appointments or immediate sales.

Principle #6: Don’t spend time on the wrong prospects

Having the wrong customer in a managed services relationship is a killer.

It eats up the time and morale of your team and distracts you from your good customers.

Good customers start as good prospects. Bad customers start as bad prospects.

You must profile the characteristics of a good customer and have the discipline to turn away prospects that don’t fit the description.

You will not turn a bad prospect into a good customer!!!

It doesn’t matter how big the deal is or what the prospect tells you about how the relationship will be after you have signed a deal- it won’t turn into a good customer. You must make sure that you don’t bother bringing the wrong customer into your portfolio of business. The sale won’t stick and neither will the commission – it’s a waste of time for everyone involved.

Principle #7: Look for people who are interested in buying today

The primary objective of prospecting is to find someone that is interested in buying your services TODAY. This should be top of mind during your prospecting activities.

   

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Some simple laws of mathematics make this a critical principle to abide by.

You only need to sign one or two deals per month to have a successful career selling managed services. The challenge is that it’s very easy to let a month slide by without having signed a deal. This happens when you get so carried away with nurturing long-term prospects that you don’t make the time to hunt for immediate opportunities.

Now don’t get me wrong – you MUST nurture your long-term prospects as well, but it shouldn’t be your primary objective as a salesperson; it should be your secondary objective.

Your primary objective should be to look for business that is going to close in the next thirty days – whether that comes from a new prospect or one you’ve been working for years.

So let’s look at the math behind this.

Let’s say that perhaps 1 in every 100 business is looking for your services today. The number is probably actually smaller, but we’ll keep it simple.

Now let’s say that you are a very aggressive cold-caller and will make 50 calls every single day. Let’s also assume that the chance that you’ll actually get through and get a conversation with the right person at these companies is 5 percent – that’s probably generous.

That means that the chances that you’ll get a conversation with someone looking for your services immediately is…well…I’m not a math genius, but the odds aren’t very good.

The point is this: if you spend all of your time on long term prospects, you aren’t going to sign any deals this month unless they just happen to fall in your lap. That means that your prospecting process must be good at identifying people who have a problem they are looking to solve immediately.

Principle #8: The sales process establishes the relationship

The sales process is the start of the client’s relationship with your company. You’d better make sure that you know how to get it off on the right foot!

You must ensure that your sales process and salespeople reflect the values of your company and avoid doing anything that will set you up for future problems.

Like what?

Lying – for some reason it’s become socially acceptable for salespeople to "bend the truth" to try to win business.

   

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Discounting – "Sure Mr. Prospect, we’ll knock $15/hour off of our rate to get in the door." Now the client knows they just have to push and they can get a big discount on your services, and ruin your profitability.

Giving away time – this has become a common marketing tactic in our industry. Do a job for free to get in the door. Bad news. What precedent does it set with the client when you are willing to give away the only thing you have to offer them?

Your salespeople need to demonstrate and protect the value of your services at all times during the sales process, or you will always be considered a low value vendor.

Principle #9: Get the relationship

As I said before, you will have long-term prospects to nurture – eventually they will become the lifeblood of your sales pipeline.

In every case, in every interaction, you should try to establish a positive relationship with the person you are prospecting.

People buy from people they like and trust.

Try to add value to their life on every interaction you have with them.

This can be done by providing helpful information, telling them a good joke, giving them a gift, introducing them to someone of value – there are a million possibilities.

If you establish a relationship, they will think to call you when they are looking for services.

Principle #10: Make sure that no single deal becomes too important to you

There’s nothing worse than seeing a salesperson struggle to close an important deal that they’ve been spending all of their time on, and then having that deal fall through. The salesperson was putting all of their eggs in one basket and it didn’t pay off.

The reason for this is that the salesperson was not doing enough prospecting. They found what they thought was a hot deal and they started to spend too much time on that one deal at the expense of finding possible new prospects.

The solution to this is to make sure that you have a large database of prospects, and that you are always working a large enough number of prospects that you never become reliant on the success of any one deal.

 

11. Sales  techniques  to  grow  your  business  

   

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Your  elevator  pitch    Before  you  start  talking  to  anyone  about  your  company,  you  should  develop  your  elevator  pitch.      The  elevator  pitch  is  so  named  because  the  idea  is  that  you  should  be  able  to  deliver  it  on  a  brief  elevator  ride  when  the  stranger  next  to  you  asks  what  you  do  for  a  living.  You  don’t  have  much  time,  so  you  want  to  make  it  clear,  concise,  and  memorable.      There  are  a  lot  of  theories  about  how  to  deliver  a  great  elevator  pitch,  and  I  happen  to  think  that  most  of  them  are  wrong.  Here’s  why:      Most  people  take  the  “elevator”  thing  a  little  too  seriously.  They  think  they’ve  got  to  come  up  with  something  that  in  30  seconds  or  less  perfectly  explains  what  it  is  they  do  and  is  memorable  enough  to  leave  a  lasting  impression.  After  all,  when  that  person  walks  out  of  the  elevator  two  floors  from  now,  you  won’t  have  a  second  chance.      This  was  perpetuated  by  Silicon  Valley  lore  that  said  that  the  way  you  raised  big  money  for  a  start  up  was  by  seeing  Mr.  Hot  Shot  Venture  Capitalist  at  his  favorite  coffee  shop  and  in  30  seconds  dazzling  him  with  your  perfect  elevator  pitch.  If  he  immediately  saw  the  light,  you  had  access  to  unlimited  amounts  of  money.  If  he  didn’t,  you  went  back  to  your  job  flipping  burgers.      It’s  a  silly  fable  that  has  created  a  lot  of  goofy  elevator  pitches!      I  think  there  are  two  flaws  to  this  approach  to  elevator  pitches:    

1. That’s  a  lot  of  pressure,  and  it  is  incredibly  rare  that  you  are  going  to  be  able  to  pull  this  off  without  sounding  a  bit  weird  or  ridiculous    

2. How  often  do  you  meet  someone  and  strike  up  a  situation  with  the  expectation  that  they  are  just  going  to  walk  away  from  you  in  30  seconds?!    

 I  think  the  only  time  this  might  be  a  reality  is  in  Hollywood,  where  as  soon  as  someone  realizes  you  don’t  have  the  power  to  give  them  a  role  in  the  next  George  Clooney  movie,  they  ditch  you  and  move  on  to  the  next  person  at  the  party  without  saying  a  word.      But  let’s  assume  for  a  minute  that  the  rest  of  us  are  actually  participating  in  normal  society.  In  99%  of  cases  you  are  going  to  have  more  than  thirty  seconds  with  the  person.  In  this  case,  what  is  the  real  goal  of  your  elevator  pitch?      The  answer  is  best  given  by  one  of  my  favorite  sales  quotes:      "The  seminal  skill  of  the  salesperson  is  to  get  the  prospect  talking."    Mark  Fitzgerald,  Sandler  Sales    

   

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 Amen,  Mark.      The  point  of  your  elevator  pitch  is  to  get  the  other  person  talking!  Have  a  conversation  with  them  like  normal  people.  This  gives  you  time  to  learn  about  them,  and  them  time  to  learn  about  you,  in  a  pace  and  tone  that  doesn’t  sound  like  a  ridiculous  pitch.      So,  assuming  you  agree  with  this,  let’s  look  at  the  different  ways  to  put  together  an  elevator  pitch.  If  you  don’t  agree  with  me  –  no  problem  –  you  can  always  go  back  to  doing  things  your  way.      The  Old  School  Elevator  Pitch    The  traditional  way  of  doing  an  elevator  pitch  would  have  me  saying  something  like  this:      “My  name  is  (name);  I  work  at  (your  company).  We’re  the  leading  provider  of  managed  IT  services  to  businesses  sized  10-­‐200  around  the  country.  We’re  unique  because  we  were  one  of  the  first  companies  in  the  country  to  provide  almost  all  of  our  services  remotely.”      Gag!  It  sounds  so  stale  and  silly,  and  it  makes  you  sound  like  a  salesperson.  I’m  sure  you  could  find  some  elevator  pitch  book  out  there  that  would  give  you  some  formula  like:      

1. State  your  name    2. State  the  name  of  the  company  you  work  for    3. Describe  what  the  company  does,  using  a  word  like  “leading,  #1,  superior,  or  top  

performing”    4. Describe  your  target  audience    5. Describe  what  makes  you  so  unique  that  the  person  you  are  talking  to  will  be  jumping  

out  of  their  skin  to  tell  their  friends.      Just  follow  the  formula  and  you’ll  have  such  a  memorable  elevator  pitch  that  everyone  will  be  finding  business  for  you!  Right.      The  reality  is  that  you  have  people  thinking  “oh  brother!”  and  heading  to  the  punch  bowl  to  get  away  from  you.  What  should  you  do  instead?      The  Alternative  Elevator  Pitch    Keeping  in  mind  that  the  point  of  your  elevator  pitch  is  to  get  a  conversation  going,  I  would  suggest  that  the  ideal  elevator  pitch  would  leave  a  person  asking,      “What  do  you  mean  exactly?  Tell  me  more.”      

   

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In  fact,  if  you  were  to  use  this  elevator  pitch  in  a  room  full  of  people  who  work  really  hard  to  script  the  perfect  elevator  pitch  (say…at  your  local  Chamber  of  Commerce  event!),  the  people  you  deliver  it  to  will  probably  be  thinking,      “Gee,  that  guy  really  needs  to  work  on  his  elevator  pitch.”      If  that’s  the  case,  you  are  doing  it  right!      So  what  would  a  good  elevator  pitch  sound  like?  I  would  suggest  something  like  this:      “Hi,  I’m  (name)  –  I  help  companies  use  technology  to  be  more  successful.”      Well  what  the  hell  does  that  mean,  (name)?      Exactly!      The  logical  question  after  I  say  something  like  that  elevator  pitch  is,  “Well  what  exactly  does  that  mean?”      Congratulations,  you’ve  just  started  a  conversation!      This  elevator  pitch  is  clear,  short,  doesn’t  sound  silly,  and  was  vague  enough  that  the  person  you  are  talking  with  would  have  to  ask  for  more  details.  That’s  exactly  the  goal!      Watch  your  tone    Don’t  sound  like  you’re  from  Disney  I  think  that  the  next  most  important  thing  you  can  work  on  before  making  a  lot  of  real  sales  contact  with  prospects  is  your  tone.    I  used  to  be  terrible  with  tone.    I  am  a  product  of  customer  service  businesses.  I  worked  at  restaurants  and  did  internships  at  Disney  World  –  it  was  ingrained  in  me  at  an  early  age  that  you  were  supposed  to  do  everything  with  a  big  smile  on  your  face  and  a  ring  to  your  voice.    Let  me  ask  you:  when  somebody  cold  calls  you  and  the  first  thing  you  notice  is  that  they  have  a  ridiculously  chipper  voice,  what  is  the  first  thing  you  think?    Salesperson.    

   

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The  first  dead  giveaway  that  somebody  is  making  a  sales  call  is  when  they  follow  the  old  rule  of  "make  sure  you  smile  when  you  are  calling"!    Everybody  knows  you  are  a  salesperson  from  the  second  you  get  on  the  phone.    Let  me  ask  you  a  second  question:  if  you  were  getting  a  call  from  a  seasoned  businessperson  that  you  knew  you  could  trust  and  that  had  valuable  advice  to  give,  do  you  think  they  would  be  calling  with  the  same  tone  in  their  voice?    Probably  not.  They  have  a  totally  different  attitude  about  their  call,  because  they  know  they  have  something  of  real  value  to  offer  you  and  they  feel  no  need  to  grovel  for  business.      That’s  the  way  you  need  to  sound.    You  want  to  come  across  as  a  seasoned  business  advisor,  not  a  kid  straight  from  training  at  Disney  World.    Don’t  sound  like  you’re  calling  the  Oval  Office,  either    On  the  other  end  of  the  spectrum,  but  just  as  common,  is  the  salesperson  that  sounds  completely  scared  and  intimidated.  I’ve  been  guilty  of  this  as  well.    You  would  swear  that  some  salespeople  were  calling  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  every  call  –  they  sound  so  scared!  That  doesn’t  work  either.  If  you’re  not  confident  in  yourself  and  what  you  have  to  offer,  why  should  anybody  else  be?    Somewhere  in  between…    Now,  please  don’t  get  me  wrong.  I’m  not  asking  you  to  try  to  pretend  to  be  someone  you’re  not.  Rather,  I  am  simply  suggesting  that  you  should  just  be  conscious  of  not  letting  your  tone  get  out  of  control,  particularly  over  the  phone.  People  pick  up  on  it  and  label  you  right  away.    Instead,  you  should  do  your  best  to  sound…well…"neutral".      

Learn  to  ask  good  questions      

 “The  seminal  skill  of  the  salesperson  is  to  get  the  prospect  talking.”  -­‐Mark  Fitzgerald,  Sandler  Sales  

 This  is  one  of  the  most  important  quotes  about  sales  any  salesperson  could  ever  hear  and  absorb.  The  majority  of  time  in  your  conversations  with  prospects  should  consist  of  you  asking  them  good  questions  that:      

   

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1.  Allow  you  to  control  the  flow  of  the  conversation    2.  Uncover  their  needs    3.  Uncover  their  goals    4.  Establish  you  as  an  authority    5.  Qualify  the  prospect    6.  Move  the  sales  process  forward    

 Unfortunately,  most  salespeople  still  tend  to  do  the  "show  up  and  throw  up"  model  of  selling,  not  giving  their  prospects  enough  air  time  to  let  the  salesperson  know  their  needs  and  wants.  This  wastes  time,  annoys  the  prospect,  and  results  in  fewer  sales.      Instead,  a  salesperson  should  "dumb  up"!      By  this,  I  mean  they  should  use  questions  to  get  the  prospect  to  do  more  talking  instead  of  blabbing  on  like  an  "expert"  and  never  letting  the  prospect  talk.      There  are  techniques  to  asking  good  questions,  which  we  will  cover  here.  They  aren't  rocket  science,  but  they  do  take  some  practice  to  do  well.      Principles  of  Question  Based  Selling      1.  Prescription  without  diagnosis  is  mal-­‐practice    A  common  problem  in  selling  is  that  salespeople  often  fall  into  the  trap  of  giving  proposals,  quoting  solutions,  or  discussing  prices  before  they  even  know  the  exact  challenges  of  the  customer,  and  therefore  what  they  really  need.      Use  questions  to  avoid  getting  caught  in  this  trap.      If  someone  prematurely  asks  you  for  a  proposal,  say:      "I  don't  know  what  I  would  put  in  it.  What  problem  exactly  are  you  looking  to  solve?"  or  something  similar.      If  they  ask  how  much  your  service  costs,  say  something  like:      "I  don't  know.  Let  me  ask  you  a  few  questions  to  determine  exactly  what  offering  you  would  need."      2.  People  prefer  to  be  listened  to,  rather  than  listen  to  you    People  like  the  sound  of  their  own  voice,  and  don't  typically  like  to  be  sold  to.  Let  them  do  the  talking.  By  asking  them  good  questions,  you  can  effectively  get  them  to  sell  themselves.      

   

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3.  People  respond  in  kind    If  you  ask  a  stupid  or  gimmicky  question,  you  will  get  the  same  in  your  prospect's  response.  Make  your  questions  sincere  and  professional.  Additionally,  if  you  ask  questions  that  lead  to  dead-­‐end  responses,  you  are  going  to  get  a  lot  of  dead-­‐ends.      "Are  you  interested  in  discussing  some  options  for  IT  services  for  your  business?"      "No."      Awkward  silence.      Use  thoughtfully  structured  questions  that  will  stimulate  conversation.  Don’t  give  your  prospect  easy  ways  to  dodge  a  conversation,  and  you  will  find  yourself  having  more  conversations.      Techniques  for  Question  Based  Selling      1.  Ask  open-­‐ended  questions    Open-­‐ended  questions  are  those  that  won't  result  in  a  simple  "Yes"  or  "No"  answer,  which  means  they  engage  the  other  person  in  active  conversation  with  you.  There  is  a  simple  formula  to  make  sure  you  are  asking  open-­‐ended  questions,  which  is  to  try  your  best  to  start  each  question  with  one  of  the  following  words:    

• Who    • What  • When    • Where  • Why  • How  

Go  ahead  and  try  to  ask  a  Yes  or  No  question  using  this  formula  -­‐  it's  very  difficult!      NOTE:  be  careful  with  Why  questions.  Ask  them  carefully  and  softly  so  that  you  don't  come  across  as  confrontational  or  questioning  someone's  judgment!      2.  Stop  giving  away  your  knowledge    Most  salespeople  give  away  too  much  knowledge  and  effort  without  getting  anything  in  return.  Most  salespeople  have  a  real  desire  to  show  how  smart  they  are,  so  they  jump  right  in  to  presenting  their  expertise.      The  problem  with  that  is  two-­‐fold:      a.  You  don't  yet  have  a  good  understanding  of  their  pain    b.  You  haven't  really  engaged  them  in  the  process  of  connecting  with  their  frustrations      

   

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People  are  motivated  by  their  pains  and  frustrations  -­‐  even  more  so  than  they  are  by  their  desires  and  wants  (in  most  cases).  That's  why  people  typically  look  for  IT  help  when  there  is  a  problem;  they  rarely  buy  proactively.      Your  job  is  to  get  them  to  really  identify  and  associate  with  their  pains  so  they  get  themselves  into  a  buying  mood.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is  to  ask  questions  and  let  them  talk  rather  than  launching  right  into  a  presentation  that  demonstrates  how  smart  you  are.      3.  Use  Reverse  Questions  to  control  the  conversation    Reverse  Questions  are  questions  in  response  to  someone  else's  questions.      Oftentimes  you  will  get  asked  a  question  that  you:      a.  Don't  know  the  answer  to    b.  Don't  know  the  true  intention  behind  it    c.  Don't  want  to  answer  because  it  is  too  early  in  the  sales  process      You  can  use  Reverse  Questions  to  thoughtfully  control  these  situations.      "That's  a  great  question,  why  do  you  ask  that?"      "Why  is  that  important  to  you?"      "Has  that  been  a  problem  for  you  in  the  past?"      Role  Play!    It's  way  too  easy  to  read  this  lesson  and  think  that  it's  common  sense  and  get  the  false  impression  that  you  don't  need  to  practice  asking  good  questions.    Don't  fall  into  this  trap!    I'm  telling  you  with  100%  certainty:  if  you  haven't  practiced  asking  good  questions  over  and  over  in  role  playing  exercises,  you  aren't  very  good  at  it!  Practice,  practice,  practice  -­‐  and  you  will  be  able  to  use  questions  to  control  your  sales  conversations.  

 Principles  of  handling  objections    Most  salespeople  don’t  spend  nearly  enough  time  perfecting  their  objection  handling.  This  really  is  pretty  ridiculous  when  you  consider  that  there  are  a  very  limited  number  of  objections  you  could  realistically  run  into  during  a  call.  If  you  take  the  time  to  get  to  know  them  very  well,  and  have  your  best  responses  ready  to  go,  you’ll  see  dramatically  improved  results.  

   

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 As  with  other  areas  of  sales,  objection  handling  has  its  own  set  of  principles  for  success:    1.  Have  a  script,  but  don’t  sound  scripted  Have  your  best  responses  scripted  out,  but  practice  making  them  sound  natural,  otherwise  you’ll  create  a  negative  "salesy"  impression  in  the  mind  of  your  prospect.  This  is  particularly  true  with  objections;  people  want  to  feel  like  they  are  being  listed  to,  not  that  you  are  just  regurgitating  a  slick  response  to  anything  they  have  to  say.    2.  View  objections  as  a  gift  When  someone  objects  to  specific  facets  of  your  offering,  they  are  letting  you  know  two  very  important  things:  

a.  That  there  is  some  interest  in  buying  your  products  or  services,  otherwise  they  wouldn’t  still  be  talking  to  you,  and  b.  The  specific  thing  they  are  objecting  to  is  what’s  holding  them  back  from  pulling  the  trigger.  All  you  need  to  do  is  handle  their  objection.  

 If  you  don’t  understand  this,  you  will  pack  up  and  leave  as  soon  as  they  throw  an  objection  your  way,  when  you  really  just  need  to  stay  and  address  the  objection.    3.  Don’t  answer  un-­‐asked  questions!    This  is  one  of  the  most  common  challenges  for  less-­‐experienced  sales  people  –  they  get  into  a  panic  mode  and  just  start  answering  objections  that  haven’t  even  been  raised!  You  must  learn  to  keep  your  mouth  shut  and  only  answer  what  needs  to  be  answered,  and  nothing  more.  Any  other  time  spent  could  just  get  in  the  way  of  the  sale.    And  when  they  do  raise  an  objection  or  ask  a  question,  don’t  assume  you  know  the  root  of  their  questions;  ask  them  to  clarify  before  giving  them  a  response:  

a.  "Which  means  what  to  you?"  b.  "That’s  a  great  question,  why  do  you  ask?"  c.  "Has  that  been  a  problem  for  you  in  the  past?"  d.  "Is  that  a  serious  concern?"  e.  "Is  that  important  to  you?"  f.  "Why  is  that  important  to  you?"  

   By  asking  these  clarifying  questions,  you’ll  get  the  prospect  to  talk  some  more  and  reveal  what  it  is  they  are  really  after.  Often  times  they’ll  end  up  just  dismissing  their  own  objection  as  not  really  being  that  important!    4.  Bring  up  potential  problems  or  concerns  directly  and  work  with  the  client  to  solve  them.    

   

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This  may  seem  counter  to  point  #3,  but  sometimes  it’s  actually  best  if  you  raise  the  objection  yourself,  rather  than  waiting  for  them  to.  If  you  know  that  there  is  a  problem  that  needs  to  be  overcome  in  order  for  you  to  work  together,  then  bringing  it  up  yourself  makes  you  look  honest  and  credible,  and  it  enables  you  to  get  the  prospect  to  suggest  their  own  solution.  When  they  suggest  a  solution,  they  are  much  more  likely  to  feel  good  about  it  versus  feeling  like  they  were  sold.    Here  is  a  model  to  follow  (I  learned  this  from  the  Dave  Sandler  book  titled  "You  Can’t  Teach  a  Kid  to  Ride  a  Bike  at  a  Seminar",  which  I  highly  recommend!):    You:    "We  may  have  a  problem  here."    Them:    "What  is  that?"    You  state  your  concern  and  ask,    "Do  you  see  a  way  to  overcome  this?"      You  could  be  bringing  up  any  number  of  things  that  you  know  are  common  problems:  

•  They’ve  never  budgeted  for  IT  support  in  the  past  and  you  are  concerned  they  don’t  have  the  funds  available  •  They  have  very  outdated  systems  but  want  a  flat-­‐fee  support  plan  •  They  keep  focusing  on  getting  a  lower  rate,  and  you  don’t  drop  your  prices.  

Whatever  it  is,  it  may  be  best  to  bring  it  up  yourself.  This  is  particularly  true  if  you  are  getting  toward  the  end  of  the  sales  process  and  it  hasn’t  been  covered  directly  yet;  don’t  wait  until  to  last  minute.    5.  Agree  with  them  before  you  try  to  counter;  it  feels  less  combative.  Some  salespeople  let  objection  handling  turn  into  a  fight  with  the  prospect;  never  let  that  be  the  case.  You  always  want  your  prospect  to  feel  like  you  are  on  their  side  and  not  trying  to  cram  something  down  their  throat.  When  you  get  an  objection,  practice  responding  with  language  like:  

"I  can  see  why  you  would  say  that,  and  many  of  our  customers  said  that  at  one  point…"  "You’re  right,  we  are  priced  towards  the  top  of  the  market,  and  here’s  why…"  

 By  using  language  like  this,  you  sound  much  more  agreeable,  and  you  avoid  butting  heads  with  your  prospect.    Universal  objections  As  I  said,  there  really  is  a  short  list  of  potential  objections  that  you  are  going  to  face.  If  you  don’t  believe  me,  get  your  sales  team  together  and  brainstorm  a  list.  You’ll  find  that  most  of  what  you  come  up  with  is  actually  a  slightly-­‐different  worded  version  of  another,  and  you’re  final  list  will  likely  be  around  a  dozen  objections.  

   

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 Here  is  the  list  we  came  up  with:  

1.  We  are  happy  with  our  current  provider.  2.  Someone  internal  takes  care  of  our  IT.  3.  I  don’t  have  time  to  speak  with  you  right  now.  4.  Not  interested.  5.  Why  don’t  you  send  me  your  literature  to  review?  6.  We  don’t  have  any  money  budgeted  for  this;  call  back  later.  7.  Timings  not  right;  check  back  in  X  months.  8.  The  person  you  need  to  speak  with  wouldn’t  be  interested  in  this.  9.  We  are  in  a  spending  freeze  right  now…don’t  even  bother.  10.  Your  prices  are  too  high.  

 Ten  measly  objections!  You’re  not  going  to  let  ten  measly  objections  get  in  your  way,  are  you?!      Take  the  time  to  script  out  the  best  responses  to  these  that  you  can  possibly  come  up  with  and  practice  them  until  you  know  them  cold.    Note  that  some  of  these  objections  are  more  likely  to  come  up  when  doing  your  initial  prospect  (Not  interested),  while  others  are  more  likely  to  come  up  later  in  the  sales  process  (Your  prices  are  too  high).    It’s  important  to  consider  this,  as  your  objection  handling  strategy  has  different  objectives  depending  on  where  you  are  in  your  sales  cycle.    If  you  are  doing  a  cold  call,  the  objective  of  your  response  is  really  just  to  keep  the  conversation  moving  forward.    Later  on  in  the  sales  cycle,  the  objective  of  your  response  should  be  to  actually  overcome  or  address  the  objection,  otherwise  the  deal  won’t  close.    

Can  one  email  add  $20k  in  sales  overnight?  Yes,  here’s  how…      

Successful MSPs do quite bit of marketing to try to keep their managed services sales engine running at a high speed. They use Internet marketing tools to market on the Internet, direct mail, hold events, speak for associations - they try to do it all, and they are continuously working to refine their approach and increase their volume.

But sometimes the best marketing tactics aren’t really planned in advance at all, they just come from someone in your company using their common sense. We experienced one of these situations recently, and it’s something everyone in the industry should be sure to use immediately!

   

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The head of our Professional Services group was sick of our clients dragging their feet on projects. He felt that many of our clients had every intention of doing the work, but they were just taking their time since summer was starting and they would rather plan their vacations than plan their projects!

But this was screwing up his numbers, and he was set on hitting his goals. What did he do? He sent a simple yet effective email to all of our clients telling them to GET THEIR PROJECTS DONE or they would risk being delayed when we got a flood of projects signed at the end of summer (like we always do).

And guess what happened?

We added $20k in cash flow immediately to the month of June, and another $20k+ booked for the early part of July.

Just from sending one email. (See below for the actual email text!)

This illustrates a very important concept in direct marketing:

Very clearly tell your prospects exactly what you want them to do. When you do, the likelihood that they’ll actually do it increases significantly.

Now, summer isn’t the only time this email can be used. I can think of several others off the top of my head that will work with slightly different language:

1. End of year 2. Before tax season 3. Before a major industry event (if you focus on a vertical)

Get creative. Look for opportunities, and SEND THE EMAIL! It is simple, cheap, and incredibly powerful.

Text of the email:

Hi “Insert Name”

With summer coming around and people taking vacations I just wanted to reach out to you because we have sent you a proposal for a project in the last few months. Typically every year there is a lull in project work around the beginning of the summer but then in July and August there is a rush to try to get projects completed before the fall busy season starts up again.

   

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In light of this and the economy right now, projects that are signed over the summer with the expectation of being completed in July, August, and September of this year will be completed on a first-come first-serve basis. What this means is that if you are holding off to sign a proposal and wait too long you may not be able to have your project completed when you need it.

If you have the ability to sign your proposal now and start work in June or July you can guarantee your project will be scheduled and you won’t have to worry.

Please let (YOUR COMPANY) know if what your plans are so that we can get everyone scheduled accordingly.

Thank you and have a wonderful summer!

 

12. Effective  sales  management  for  busy  MSPs    

Principles  of  effective  sales  management        If  our  industry  is  known  for  being  bad  at  sales  (which  it  is!),  I  think  it's  even  worse  at  sales  management.    

Why  is  that?    First  and  foremost,  I  don't  think  most  people  in  our  industry  actually  do  any  sales  management.  We  hire  

a  salesperson,  give  them  a  desk  and  a  phone,  and  tell  them  to  find  clients.  No  training,  no  ongoing  support,  and  no  specific  performance  expectations  to  make  sure  they  are  on  track.  And  we  wonder  why  salespeople  don't  do  well.  

 Sales  is  a  very  difficult  job.  I  think  it's  the  hardest  in  business.  It  can  also  be  the  most  rewarding.  But  trying  to  be  a  successful  salesperson  at  an  organization  without  effective  sales  management  has  got  to  

be  dreadful  for  all  but  the  very  best,  most  self-­‐sufficient  of  salespeople.    So  how  do  we  get  on  track?  How  do  we  establish  proper  sales  management  in  our  industry  and  at  our  

individual  companies?  The  first  step  -­‐  it's  always  the  first  step  -­‐  is  to  understand  the  key  principles  of  the  job  that  will  lead  to  success.    

Principle  #1  -­‐  The  Sales  Manager's  job  is  to  develop  salespeople,  not  sales    I'm  sure  you're  thinking,  "What  in  the  hell  is  he  talking  about?  I  want  sales!"  

 Well,  yes,  of  course  you  want  sales.  I  do  to.  But  it's  important  that  those  sales  come  from  your  salespeople,  not  your  Sales  Manager!  

 

   

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You  see,  most  Sales  Managers  were  at  one  time  very  good  salespeople,  and  often  the  one  thing  they  still  want  to  do  more  than  anything  is  to  sell.  Closing  a  deal  is  usually  a  lot  more  fun  than  trying  to  manage  a  salesperson  (that's  why  it's  usually  a  mistake  to  promote  your  number  one  salesperson  to  the  Sales  

Manager  position  -­‐  it's  very  different  skills  and  a  different  mindset)!  But  that  isn't  the  Sales  Manager's  job,  and  they  need  to  get  that  through  their  head  or  your  organization  won't  develop  the  sales  engine  you  need  to  grow.  

 The  Sales  Manager's  #1  job  is  to  develop  his  or  her  salespeople.  When  they  accomplish  this  objective,  

the  sales  at  your  company  will  grow.    Principle  #2  -­‐  You  aren't  responsible  for  motivating  your  salespeople  

 You  can't  motivate  anyone.  People  are  either  motivated  or  their  not  -­‐  it's  your  job  to  find  the  ones  that  are  and  hang  on  to  them  for  dear  life,  while  weeding  out  the  ones  that  aren't  very  quickly.  

 Now,  don't  get  me  wrong.  You  can  spark  someone's  motivation  with  the  right  compensation  plan,  incentives,  and  sales  competitions  -­‐  that  very  clearly  is  the  Sales  Manager's  job.  And  you  can  do  your  

best  to  guide  their  energy  in  the  most  productive  manner  to  get  results  -­‐  this  is  often  critical  with  salespeople.    

But  it's  not  your  job  to  motivate  them.  If  you  have  accidentally  let  someone  slip  on  to  your  sales  team  that  doesn't  have  an  absolutely  burning  desire  for  success  -­‐  get  rid  of  them  quickly.  You  don't  have  the  time  or  resources  to  try  to  change  that  person.  

 Principle  #3  -­‐  Accept  the  fact  that  most  of  the  salespeople  you  hire  won't  be  successful    

This  one  can  be  a  hard  one  for  to  accept.  I  take  great  pride  in  my  record  of  hiring  all-­‐stars  at  our  company,  and  I  expect  that  every  person  I  hire  should  be  very  successful.    

The  harsh  reality  is  that  sales  is  so  tough  that  most  people  just  won't  cut  it,  no  matter  how  hard  you  or  they  try  to  make  it  work.    

Over  the  last  year,  I  have  picked  every  effective  Sales  Manager's  brain  that  would  give  me  a  few  minutes  of  their  time,  from  several  different  industries.  One  of  the  questions  I  always  ask  is  "out  of  ten  salespeople  you  hire,  how  many  will  be  successful?"  The  answer  I  always  seem  to  get  is  "about  three".    

 Three!      

If  we  had  that  kind  of  track  record  when  hiring  for  other  positions,  we'd  be  in  miserable  shape.  I've  seen  studies  that  show  that  roughly  25%  of  all  salespeople  account  for  70-­‐80%  of  all  sales  that  happen  in  this  

   

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country,  across  all  industries.  That  means  that  most  salespeople  just  aren't  cutting  it.    This  has  a  huge  negative  impact  on  our  industry.  I  can't  count  the  number  of  people  in  our  industry  that  

I've  heard  say  "I  hired  a  salesperson  last  year  and  he  didn't  work  out.  I'm  not  sure  I  can  afford  to  hire  another  one!”    

Hire  a  salesperson.  Singular.  That's  a  recipe  for  disaster.  You  need  to  expect  that  you  are  going  to  go  through  a  number  of  salespeople  before  you  find  one  that  really  fires  on  all  cylinders,  which  brings  us  to  

our  next  principle.    Principle  #4  -­‐  Constantly  look  for  new  sales  talent  -­‐  you  ALWAYS  have  room  for  a  top  salesperson!  

 Great  salespeople  are  tough  to  find,  and  worth  their  weight  in  gold.  And  they  are  not  usually  out  looking  for  jobs  -­‐  they  are  already  successful  where  they're  at.  So  you  have  to  be  on  the  lookout  constantly  to  

try  to  find  that  next  great  addition  for  your  team.    And  you  can't  just  leave  it  to  chance.  You  need  to  develop  a  recruiting  process  that  works  and  work  it  so  

you  can  create  a  pipeline  of  salespeople  to  join  your  organization.  And  when  you  find  one,  make  them  an  offer.  Now!  Don't  wait  until  you  have  room  in  the  organization  or  in  your  budget  -­‐  make  room!  If  you  miss  the  opportunity  for  a  great  salesperson  today,  you  will  likely  not  have  an  opportunity  with  that  

person  again  for  years  to  come.  

How  to  create  a  sales  plan  that  motivates  your  salespeople  and  consistently  achieves  your  goals      A sales plan is the first step for success in meeting your sales objectives. It sets the tone for the team, and it determines the resources that you'll need to invest in to be successful. One of the failures of many Sales Managers is that they create their sales plan and assign their salespeople a quota without participation from the salesperson, and that quota is the same for everyone. This sets salespeople up for failure and often delivers lower performance than they could otherwise get. What's a better way? A better way is to involve your salespeople in the development of the plan. This gets them enrolled in the process, makes them aware of company goals, and creates a sales plan that is personalized to the individual motivation levels and performance expectations of your salespeople. The process for doing so is pretty simple: Step 1 - Determine your company-wide sales goals

   

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Perhaps you want to grow by 20% this year, which equates to $200,000 in new revenues for a company currently doing $1 million. Factor is a 10% churn rate on that $1 million in revenue, and you now have to come up with $300,000 in new revenue to reach your goals. Step 2 - Determine how many salespeople you need to realistically hit this goal Let's make a few assumptions:

• The average salesperson in our industry signs one full managed services deal per month (according to the top consultant in our industry)

• The average size of that deal is roughly $3,000/month in recurring revenue • The average managed services client will spend an additional 30% on non-recurring

project work

If those numbers don't seem exactly right for your business, tweak them accordingly. Whatever you come up with, plug the numbers into a table that shows the sales you would expect to get each month for the year and how this adds up over the course of the year. How much does one person generate? Is that enough? If not, you'll need to plan on more salespeople to make up the difference, and you better get hiring (you can safely assume that your salespeople won't find their first deal until their fourth month; don't forget to factor this into your forecast!). Step 3 - Share these numbers with each member of your sales team and ask them to tell you their goals Sit with each salesperson and walk through these numbers. Explain why your company goals are what they are. Explain how you determined the number of salespeople you need and what "average performance" is. Then ask them what they believe they'll be able to generate this next year by themselves. In almost all cases, the salesperson will tell you a number that is above the average - sometimes way above it. This is, of course, what you want a salesperson to tell you! You want them to have confidence in themselves and expect to do better than an average salesperson. Who wants to be "average"?! But as we already know, most of our salespeople are actually going to fall short, and a handful are going to do much better than the rest. Which makes the next step critically important. Step 4 - Ask them to commit to a minimum level of performance This is the number that they should be willing to bet their life (and most certainly their job!) on.

   

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This is the number that if they don't hit, you will be 100% justified in showing them the door. If the number they commit to is too low for you, you probably need to find a new salesperson. The one you have is willing to commit to getting it done - which all great salespeople are. If the number they commit to is a reasonable one, confirm it with them. Then confirm it again. Ask them how they came up with the number. Make them sell you and themselves that there is no way they are going to miss this number. Then hang it on the wall in front of their desk for them to see every single day. This will create an absolute burn in your best people to make sure that they never miss - which they occasionally might - shit happens. But if you find that you have a salesperson that misses a couple of months in a row, and doesn't seem to have an ulcer about it - get rid of them - they aren't a top performer, and they most likely will never be. Cold? You may think that my approach to managing salespeople seems a bit cold or harsh. I understand where that feeling comes from, but I honestly don't believe it's true. Sales is a very tough job, and not everyone is cut out for it. Managed Services sales is an even tougher job, and even fewer are cut out for it. In my opinion, a plan like this gives a salesperson the best chance at success. If they aren't able to meet their goals, they probably aren't ever going to be a great salesperson. I believe it's best for everyone if they find that out as soon as possible so they can make a transition and start looking for the thing that they will be great at in life. This type of sales planning process gives you the best chance possible at getting consistent results. You must take a disciplined approach to using it and recruiting and terminating salespeople based on it, or your sales will suffer.

 

How  to  conduct  sales  role-­‐playing  that  leads  to  rapid  performance  improvement      "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice!" The average salesperson doesn't practice enough. Great salespeople practice all the time; constantly reviewing the best way to deliver their lines, and religiously fine-tuning their approach based on real-world feedback. It's your job to make sure that your average salespeople get enough practice in, and role playing is a great way to do it. I learned this approach from Jack Daly, a phenomenally successful salesperson and entrepreneur.

   

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He claims it's the single best way to increase the performance of your salespeople in a rapid fashion. If he says it, it's worth a listen! The right way to role-play The Jack Daly model of role-playing looks like this:

• Three people role playing together • One person sells, the other objects, the other listens and takes notes • Rotate each person through each role in one sitting

As you can see, it's a very simple process. But don't be fooled, it's also very powerful and effective, for a few reasons:

1. This can be done every day. It only takes about 30 minutes, so it can be done at lunch, first thing in the morning, or at the end of the day.

2. It gives the salesperson the opportunity to "try out" different approaches in a safe environment, instead of trying them out with your prospects.

3. It gives each salesperson the ability to pick up the "gold nuggets" that other salespeople have in their repertoire. Every salesperson has a line or two that's pure gold; it's a matter of getting this cross-pollinated throughout your team.

Make it a habit Make it a point to instill this into your culture so that it becomes a daily habit - it will create results. And use this with your service team as well! You'll be shocked and appalled when your first do it and hear the inconsistencies in how your team is dealing with your clients! By using role-playing, you can create a more consistent sales and service delivery.

 

Set  goals  and  keeping  your  sales  team  accountable      

S.M.A.R.T.  GOALS  (Specific-­‐Measurable-­‐Actionable-­‐Realistic-­‐Timely)  

90-­‐Day  Goals      Personal    (Lose  5  pounds,  save  $3000,  go  to  Europe,  etc.)      

   

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1.  2.  3.    Professional    (Find  10  new  clients,  improve  my  calls  to  meetings  ratio,  etc.)      1.  2.  3.    Sales  per  month      $_________  3  month  total  sales  $_________    Earnings  per  month    $_______  3  month  total  earnings  $_______      6-­‐Month  Goals    Personal      1.  2.  3.    Professional      1.  2.  3.    Sales  per  month    $_________  6  month  total  sales  $_________    Earnings  per  month    $_________  12  month  total  sales  $_________    Earnings  per  month    $_______  12  month  total  earnings  $_______      One-­‐Year  Goals    Personal      

   

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1.  2.  3.    Professional    1.  2.  3.    Sales  per  month    $_______  6  month  total  earnings  $_______