contains3 CHAPTERS of

SALES SECRETS

Chapter 1: Do not wait for the perfect page to start

This book takes you through the magical world of marketing and sales. Meet the hobbits. And the wizards.

Jessica is 16. She received her learner’s permit yesterday by mail. Today, she patiently waitsat a busy crossroad. Both hands on the wheel. The junction has no traffic lights. With herdoting father at her side, she feels calm and poised.Jessica is scanning for a gap within the oncoming rush-hour traffic. Behind her the number of cars are growing. She decides towait until it is absolutely safe to pass. The perfect moment never comes. An impatient driver starts honking at her. Shecontinues to wait, nervous now, her fingers fidgeting. Sensing her unease, her father intervenes. Guides her. And soon she pullsout of the junction. Later when they stop for coffee at Dunkin', her father reflects on the time they spent at the junction. Hesays ‘Jess, you got few near-perfect chances to pull out, but you chose not to use them. But later when hounded by the honkingfrom the guy behind, you got desperate. So I stepped in’. She smiles at him, and says ‘Thanks Pa’. He continues, ‘I want to tellyou something about it, Jess. The art of safe driving is all about identifying these near-perfect chances. And use them’. ‘It’s truefor driving. It’s true when you hold out too long for the perfect guy, and then rush into a bad relationship. It’s true for most ofthe things in life’. Her large blue eyes are glued on her father’s face. This is the man she adores and looked up to, herwhole life. She asks, ‘Pa when did you learn about this?’. He said ‘I learnt it from my long career in marketing and sales’.

You can sell,

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2speak the Lingo

4use the Lists

3master the Lessons From the best

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A book by BeingDavid© 2016 being david publishing house

www.beingdavid.com

BUY RATE LIKE FOLLOW

Prologue

This book is for those who received their learner’s permit just

yesterday. Like Jessica. If you have been driving heavy trucks through

the mountain passes in Colorado for the last 27 years, there’s always a

chance to refresh on basics

Are you new to sales and marketing?

Are you a startup taking the plunge into inbound marketing?

Or a sales newbie looking for advice from the masters. How have

they used marketing and sales techniques effectively?

Have you just switched your career to sales, and wanting to

understand the big picture?

Are you the one in constant search for knowledge ?

If the answer to any of these questions is a yes, then this book is for

you. We understand you. We see you. We have been there. You will

sure find this book a good read. Come let’s fly. Let’s fly high. Together.

what is a sales cycle?

The Sales Cycle is one of the most misunderstood concepts in sales and

marketing

how is marketing different to sales?

During your career in sales or marketing , you will be surprised to know just

how many people can not grasp the difference between the very distinct

functions of marketing and sales

what is the role of pre-sales?

Pre-sales often gets less air-time. However, studies have shown that the

companies with strong presales teams achieve win rates of 50% with new

customers. And up to 90% in repeat business. Consistently.

on the next pages

and finally stitching it all into one single infographic

Chapter 2 | speak the lingo

what is a sales cycle?

No matter if you are selling books door to door, or selling acres of land

on the moon, every sale follows the same pattern. A sequence of 6

steps. Throughout the book, jargons used in the sales world are marked in blue.

Step 1 Find new potential customers. They are called leads.

Step 2 Make first contact. cold calls. emails. texts. Referred to as

outbound contact. It’s possible that a person makes a sales enquiry.

When a contact is initiated by a lead it’s called inbound contact.

Step 3 This steps starts when a prospect shows interest. It’s time to figure out if

you should spend lots of time with this lead. Usually it’s an appointment.

If you decide to keep your pursuit on, the potential customer is now

called as a prospect. The process is called prospecting.

Step 4 Now is the time to present your product or service. Called as the sales

pitch. Sales pitch is a 2-way street. It doesn’t work like a TED talk. It’s

a conversation. Research your prospect beforehand. Listen to your

prospect. Actively. Ask real questions. Offer a real solution. A solution

that truly helps. If everything goes fine you make a proposal with the

details of the product and services being offered, and the commercials.

Step 5 Usually your prospects will have some concerns. Called as

objections. If there’s an objection it’s usually great news! The prospect

is considering the deal seriously. The objection could be about the cost.

Or the support. Or a missing capability. This step is called negotiation.

Step 6 The final step is closure. You make a deal. The prospect

transforms into a customer now. The champagne moment has

arrived. Do not forget to request for referrals. The customer is then

handed over to delivery.

A sales cycle is the length in days from Step 2 to Step 7 - from first contact to

signing of the deal. A sales cycle ends with a hissing sound – that’s the cork popping

out of the bottle.

how is marketing different to sales?

Marketing is Step 0

6 S

teps o

f S

ale

s

Marketing generates leads and sends

the leads to right here, the sales funnel

The first date analogy of

marketing and sales

He first saw her at his local

park. A blonde with soft

beautiful angelic face. She

was with her friends, flying

kites. She was a shy girl.

The role of marketing ends

when the blonde with the

soft beautiful angelic face

gives her number. Now she

is a lead.

The role of sales is to call

her and find out what she

is doing for dinner this

evening. This is when she

enters the sales funnel.

Instead of a diamond ring,

he proposes with Albert – a

9 weeks old Russell Terrier

pup. ‘Will you be my

girlfriend, Claire?’ he asks.

Albert says nothing. He just

blinks his tiny black beady

eyes in approval. She takes

Albert in her arms. Holds

him close to her chest.

Then she cries.

The sales funnel ends here.

Claire is now a customer.

They kiss for the first time.

And he buries his face in

her hair. She rests her head

on his chest, inhaling the

musky scent. She was soft

in his arms. Felt safe. That

is delivery.

He teaches her a thing or two

about flying though none of themwere thinking about kites now.

Claire inherited her scientific

bent from her father, whom she

idolizes. She is doing her

major in theoretical physics

Marketing is one-to-many. Focuses on ‘common nouns’

Young Girls. Teachers. Writers. CEO of Telecom Companies

Marketing pulls. Attracts. Creates brands. It’s about future.

Marketing thrives on research. Works on the big picture.

Advertise. Promote. PR campaigns. Newsletters. Branding

Till the ground. Sow the seeds. Gently cover with soil.

Sales is one-to-one. Focuses on ‘proper nouns’

Claire. Mrs. Singh. Simon Lewis. Mr. Stephen Robbins

Sales pushes. Converts. Sells what’s in stock. It’s about now.

Sales thrives on relationships. Works on the details.

Travel. Meet. Know the customer. Present. Pitch. Negotiate.

Some seeds will sprout. Grow them. Care for them. Harvest.

what is pre-sales?

Pre-sales is tricky. It almost sounds like a riddle. Pre-sales is not

Sales. Pre-sales is not Marketing. It is the ‘Third Dimension’.

Meet ‘The Bouncing Balls’. The company manufactures balls. The CEO thinks

they have the biggest balls that bounce a lot. The marketing team has identified

Tibetan Lamas as their largest customer base. The company’s research team

found that there are 1000s of Lamas in San Francisco alone. The company

hires Bob, a sales representative. And Tom, Tiger Woods and Harry. Company

runs high-budget PR campaigns. Bob is now flying to SFO to sell balls to

Lamas. Bob will meet the Lamas based in West America. Tom Central. Tiger

Woods Southwest. And Harry Northeast and Southeast. Each were given $1M

as individual quota or target. The company also hires Paris and Hilton for

pre-sales. Paris and Hilton are both mapped to a group quota of $4M for

America.

Bob Tom Tiger Woods Harry

Harry

Tom

Tiger WoodsBob

Paris

$1M

$1M

$1M$1M

Paris Hilton

$4M

Hilton

1. Pre-sales provides 3 key value propositions to the sales guys

• Our balls are about the right size. Competition is either too small or too big

• Our balls bounce 5% higher than competitors

• Our balls have 15% longer shelf life than competitors

2. A Lama in West says he is a democrat. He wants to

know if the company makes blue balls. Bob calls

Paris for details. Paris confirms the balls can be

painted blue. Of course tax will be slightly higher.

3. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods

calls Hilton and requests

for an internal demo. By

then $4M Group Target is

already achieved. Hilton

shows no interest. Tiger is

mad as he is just half-way

through his quota. Finally,

Hilton shares only images.

Biography of a deal

23rd January The marketing team of a telecom company decides to run a

PR (public relations) campaign out of their stall at a tech fest. The pre-sales

team offered a sneak peek of some of the latest offerings of the company. The

visitors were encouraged to see a demonstration. At the end the visitors were

requested to fill in leaflet with a short questionnaire. Write their name, age,

designation, email and phone number on it to enter a lucky draw. The first prize is a

voucher worth $5000. The 3000 people who leave behind contact details are the

unqualified leads. Also known as raw leads.

4th February The marketing team scans through the 3000 leaflets and sends

out a common email - ‘Please fill in a web form if you want to try a trial version of the

company’s flagship solution’. 100 people download the trial. These are the

qualified leads. Also called as MLQ (marketing qualified leads) or unqualified

prospects. Some companies prefer the term suspects. This is where marketing

ends.

2nd March The list of 100 people is handed over to sales i.e. fed to the Sales

Funnel. Bob asks his team of salespersons to cold call and email to the 100

qualified leads. The sales team makes cold calls. Writes emails. Gathers more

information. They score these people using a method called BANT. B = Budget (does the person’s company has enough budget to buy our solution)

A = Authority (is the person a decision maker in the company)

N = Need (does the person’s company problem be addressed by our solution)

T = Time frame (is the need to solve the problem immediate?)

The sales team shortlists 15 people from the original list of 100 based on BANT

scores. These 15 people are the qualified prospects. Also known as SQLs

(sales qualified leads). All the details are duly entered in the company’s CRM or

Customer Relationship Management database. Prospecting is now completed.

15th March Bob calls up the person from the top of the list. Her name is Claire

McCarthy. She is the CIO of her company. Claire agrees to meet Bob at her office on

17th May. Then Bob calls the second person from the list. Altogether he could reach

12 people and 10 of them agreed to meet.

17th March Bob meets Claire at her office . She describes her problem in

details. Bob listens actively and asks questions. Then they talk about US election.

Claire agrees that the solution offered by Bob’s company can solve her problem with

some customizations. They agree for a demonstration the next week. Bob calls up

Paris from pre-sales team and asks her to create a few slides on how the solution

can be customized to meet Claire’s requirements.

Biography of a deal

22nd March The next week Bob and Paris meet Claire for the demo. Bob

throws the sales pitch using a well-rehearsed deck of slides. He had

researched about the company beforehand. He understood Claire's problem

quite well. Bob mentions that the USP or unique selling proposition of the

solution is the built-in analytics engine. Later he hands over the presentation to

Paris. Paris demonstrates the product and presents the slides about the

requested customizations. They took questions from Claire and her team.

After few more meetings, Claire requests for a proposal. Bob and Paris work

together and prepare the proposal. The proposal details the technical solution,

proposed customizations, delivery timelines, and commercials (or quote). Bob

sends through the proposal to Claire for her comments. Claire suggests few

minor changes. She also negotiates on the price with Bob, and requests

inclusion of one month technical support at no extra cost. Bob agrees as he had

already added mark-up costs (money that a selling company adds to the cost

of a product or service in order to produce a required level of profit).

25th April Claire signs the contract on behalf of her company. The

contract is also called – SPA or sale and purchase agreement, PO or purchase

order, SoW or statement of work, MSA or master service agreement. They also

sign an NDA or non-disclosure agreement to make sure proprietary information

is kept secret. This clinches the deal. Bob and Paris thank Claire, and request

her for referrals. This is the end of the Sales Funnel. The length of the sales

cycle was 2nd March (First Contact) to 25th April (Closure) – about 50 days.

Over a course of few years, Claire is a regular. She buys many solutions and

services from Bob’s company. She and Bob develop a good working relationship

based on mutual trust. After a long fulfilling engagement with Bob’s company and

being benefitted professionally from her purchasing decisions, Claire has become

someone who eats, lives and breathes Bob’s brand. She recommends Bob and

his company always and at every opportunity. Claire has completed a full lifecycle

from an unqualified lead to a brand ambassador.

FROM A CATERPILLAR TO A BUTTERFLY

caterpillar to | butterfly

crowd lead

lead generation prospecting

prospect

customer regular

retention

ambassador

referrals

first contact

deal

delivery

lead time

(deal to delivery)

sales cycle

(first contact to deal)

proposal

sales pitch

SA

LE

S

MA

RK

ET

ING

1 2 3

4 5 6

negotiation

DELIVERY

product demo

proof of concept

PRESALESmarket research

Chuck decides to sell his cow

You have finished Chapter 1. This is your little reward. Laughter.

not all sales go as planned

One Sunday morning Chuck decides to sell his cow. The next day chuck gets up early,

feeds the cow, ties a rope around her neck and starts walking down the road to the

farmers market. The little calf came running after its mother. Chuck had not thought

about the calf. ‘What will I do with the calf if the cow is gone?’ he asks himself. After

some pondering Chuck settles on a plan ‘I will sell the cow and the calf together. I can

close the deal faster if the calf goes free with its mother’. Once decided Chuck

continued walking towards the market. It was a hot sunny day. And the market was a

long walk from Chuck’s village. The road went through deep woods. When inside the

woods, Chuck feels tired. He sits under a tree to rest. Three dacoits find Chuck

resting. They take the cow. They take the little money Chuck had on himself. They

also take Chuck's clothes. Tie him to the tree with a rope. And off they went. Only the

calf was left behind. For three long days Chuck was tied to the tree, unclothed, thirsty

and unfed. On the fourth day some villagers on their way to the same market find

Chuck tied to a tree. They shout ‘O my God it’s our Chuck. He is robbed.’ They rush

towards him. They untie him. They offer him clothes. But Chuck did not bother about

the clothes. He takes a stick from one of the villagers and starts beating the calf. The

villagers are puzzled. They try to calm him down. But Chuck is angry, very angry. The

villagers ask ‘Chuck what happened? Why are you beating the poor calf?’. Chuck

finally gasps for breath, and says – For three long days I have been telling this little

dimwit that ‘I am not your mother’ ‘I am not your mother’.

A book by BeingDavid© 2016 being david publishing house

www.beingdavid.com

BUY RATE LIKE FOLLOW

what is marketing automation?

Marketing automation was once the preserve of the royalty – likes of

Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Now even a small start-up can successfully

use marketing automation to shoot them into overnight fame

on the next pages

and many more …

Chapter 3 | master the lessons

what’s going on inside the brains of

b2b & b2c buyers?

These are two forms of commercial transactions. Business to Business – like

when Goodyear sells tires to Honda and Business to Consumer – like when

Apple sells iPhone. But for the marketing and sales world B2B and B2C are

two types of mindsets.

why 80% of the total sales is done by

20% of the core sales people?

All sales teams have a small core of high achievers. It pays to be within that core.

on the next pages

and many more

Chapter 4 | use the lists

list of best marketing & sales tools

‘The bad workman quarrels with his tools’ goes the popular adage. The world

has come a long way though from this popular wisdom. Today’s workman

needs to choose weapons as carefully as a Martial Artist.

list of practical insights of the wizards

Likes of Seth Godin, Geoffrey Moore, Hugh Macfarlane, Eddie Obeng and

many others. Building a successful career in sales and marketing can be a

long and tough climb. To reach the top, you must learn from these Harry

Potter-Like 'Magical Beasts' of Sales and Marketing world. They are holding

the wands of success. The success that can be yours. They have wisdom. They

have super powers. They are your guardian angels. They are here to save you

.

Stats are your guide. As a sales and marketing person you must hug numbers.

list of the 15 most fascinating sales

& marketing statistics?

A book by BeingDavid© 2016 being david publishing house

www.beingdavid.com

BUY RATE LIKE FOLLOW