Ask (Questions) And Ye Shall Receive (Sales)

The only way to determine if your contact is a good fit for your products/services is to begin asking questions to understand their goals and other vital information. You are doing them, your company, and yourself an injustice if you do not get a complete understanding of their needs. The person must feel a bit of comfort with you before you can begin asking those key questions. If you are too aggressive (or not aggressive enough, depending on the contact's personality), you may have your conversation cut short before you get any information on the client's Value Opportunities. If done properly, you will get an explosion of information, and they'll do most of the talking.

Two Types Of Questions
Surface-level questions are used early in the conversation to determine if the contact could be a good fit for your products/services:
* Does your product/service match what they do? (You can't sell a jitney to a doctor.)
* Can they afford what you're selling? (Good luck selling enterprise-level software to a mom-and-pop operation.)
* Is the contact part of the decision making process?

In-depth questions are asked after you determine the client could be a fit for your products/services. Because that list of questions is almost endless, we'll just list the category headers here:
* Identify and fully understand their Value Opportunities and business processes
* Identify and present the specific value that will build acceptance from them
* Better understand and respond to their objection
* Better understand and respond to skepticism if necessary

If you're hit with a smokescreen, stall, or objection early in your conversation, that should be your cue to begin asking questions. Then you can understand, isolate, and eliminate the objection to continue the conversation or to acknowledge it, put them at ease, and keep going.

Here's the mindset you should have: Ask questions as though you have $50,000 to invest with them and you need to determine who you will invest in.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Expert Advice On Prospecting, Cold Calling

At an Erie Sales Club Workshop, our group discussed Prospecting and Overcoming the Fear of Cold Calling. Here are some highlights and comments from that discussion that we hope you'll find helpful:

1. What are the reasons you hear why salespeople fear cold calling?
- Fear of rejection
- Don't want to appear "salesy" or pushy
- Believe they will eventually be more effective if they could just arrange a convenient meeting some other way (email, face-to-face, etc.)
- They're more comfortable maintaining current customers
- They feel like they're interrupting someone else and infringing upon their time

2. Many sales “experts” say don’t cold call. What do you say to those who say you shouldn’t cold call?
- Depends on what your definition of "cold" is. If it's "call someone who doesn't know you and bother them," then you shouldn't cold call. If it's "calling on someone we believe we can help, but we don't have a relationship with yet" -- then I'd defend that to the death. Why wouldn't you want to do that?
- There are a lot of so-called sales experts screaming that sales has changed and we have to do everything different these days. I think we have to look at what's changed and what hasn't changed. Today buyers are more informed than ever. They have the web, social media, and they get information from networking with their peers. They know a lot about our products and services before we ever have a chance to interact. As salespeople, we know a lot more about our prospects, because we have the web, social media, sales 2.0 tools like LinkedIn, etc. We have more communications options (face-to-face, mail, phone, mobile phone, email, text, social media, etc.) True "cold calling" is less effective -- because buyers have a right to expect you to know a lot about them before you call. What hasn't changed in the world of complex products and services is that you can't buy or sell effectively without a conversation. No matter how much they read our product brochures, advertisements, and websites, buyers won't know what they should know unless they interact with a professional salesperson. And, no matter how much homework we do on our prospects, we won't be able to provide the right solutions without a conversation. So it has to start somewhere and that's the first call.

3. What advice do you have for someone who fears cold calling?
- Don't make cold calls, make "warm" calls by doing your homework on the prospect.
- Understand your product and your industry. For example, a real estate agent should know about other houses in the area and where interest rates are.
- Use referrals and/or marketing that produces warm leads.
- Don't make your cold call your sales call. Advance the call but don't close on the first call. Determine 1 or 2 other basic outcomes for your cold calls (qualify, appointment setting, trial close, etc.).
- Build an action plan for these conversations. Not a script but an outline.
- Don't stick your toe in the water. It's cold and if you don't like cold water it'll just prolong your misery. Jump in and swim as fast as you can or you'll never get warm. Jump in all the way, give it a real effort.
- Have a strong belief (conviction) in your product and yourself. If you don't have this, get it.
- Practice: test and track what's working and what isn't working.
- Study and memorize your delivery and value -- own it.
- Look for trigger events to integrate into your call. For example, a newspaper article on the company.
- Start your day with a warmup call -- to your spouse, a good customer, even a co-worker -- to get started right.
- Record your calls and listen to them.
- Wear your company logo attire everywhere so people you call are more familiar with your company name when you call.
- Use brutal honesty: Tell the contact it's a sales call right off the bat.
- Discipline yourself: "At 10 AM every day, I will make 5 new business calls." Get an accountability partner to hold you to it. You don't have to like it, just do it.
- Work through all your fears. Successful sales reps live outside their comfort zone.

4. What cold-calling techniques have you seen that have NOT worked?
- "Let me tell you how great I am."
- "Bait and switch" or any other type of trickery.
- "Weather, vomit, close." How's the weather where you are today? Let me tell you how great I am! Buy now!
- Unprepared pitches -- the rep doesn't know anything about the company they're calling.
- Calling on a cell phone with poor reception makes a bad first impression.
- Bullying -- browbeating the contact and talking over them to force them into a sale.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Advice From Sales Pros On The DM Process

Contacting and influencing the Decision Maker (DM) and others in the DM process is required. It's part of your job as a salesperson. In addition to contacting the DM and those in the DM process, you must:
* Identify each person in the DM process
* Validate each person's role in the DM process
* Determine what to accomplish with each person in the DM process

When your initial contact is a blocker (or other non-DM), there are several ways to get around them and reach the influencer or DM. This is a partial list -- you can come up with your own to fit your situation:
1. Ask to have the DM paged
2. Mail them a personal note
3. Mail an article from the newspaper or a magazine that would interest them
4. Send them a new report pertinent to their industry
5. Send them a testimonial from a competitor
6. Send them a personal gift
7. "Carbon copy" the DM on an email to the non-DM
8. Join a club or organization they belong to
9. In your voice mail or email, lead with value to get their attention and increase the likelihood they will contact you.

Leaving a vanilla, generic email or voice mail is rarely effective. Same with sending a form letter. They are a waste of your time and their time.

Important note: No matter what method you use to get to the DM, you MUST be honest with your words and actions.

If you get through by bypassing a blocker, you must be ready with a presumed value to give the DM based on your company research, your market research, and your knowledge to keep them engaged with you. Depending on how much time they have and how much value they perceive in you, you may have to schedule an appointment when you and the DM can talk further.

Final Words On The DM Process
We've talked a lot about the DM process, but we haven't mentioned everything. Here are some miscellaneous tips about the DM process that we've found helpful:

1. It's OK to ask your contact if they are a DM as long as you ask appropriately.

2. Don't just believe their words. Measure their actions against their words to validate if they are a DM. Scrutinize the results you get when working with them.

3. Once you reach the DM, don't allow yourself to get pushed back down. Earn the right to stay at that level by aligning specific Value Propositions to directly address their needs.

4. You need to build relationships horizontally with others in the company to increase your chances for retaining their business. Don't limit yourself to just one contact. The more people you reach and help, the more widespread your acceptance will be.

5. Even with a team decision-making approach, there is typically one driver.

Our final note on DMs comes from Woody Allen: "In my house I'm the boss, my wife is just the decision maker."

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Change To May 8 ESC Workshop

The Erie Sales Club Q2 workshop will still be held May 8 but at a different time and location. The workshop is now slated for 11-11:30 AM at the Bayfront Convention Center. Our get-together will be held before the eMarketing Learning Center’s own workshop titled, “Industrial Social Media Marketing: Using Today’s Tools for B2B Sales & Marketing Professionals” which runs from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

The event features a lunch presentation by Andy Martin, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Best PumpWorks in Texas. He will share case studies demonstrating how he has used social media to be visible, prospect new clients, and drive hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales. A workshop presented by Andy Fritts of Erie’s FH Group will follow. Learn how to map out a social media strategy for your company and how to implement those strategies.

Click here for more information and to register for this event. You can save 15% on your registration fee by entering the code “eriesalesspring2013.”

How To Test The DM Process

If your initial contact does not have a title that indicates a decision maker (DM), you must quickly get through them and to the DM. Titles that typically indicate influencers or DMs (these are guides, not absolutes:
* Influencers: Managers, some Directors
* DMs: Some Directors (especially of a division), VPs, Owner, President, CEO

These can vary with company size and management structure. For example, a Director in a very large company may not be the DM, but in a smaller company they may be part of the executive management team.

The role of each person in the DM loop is not always tied to a title. If it is not an obvious DM title, you need to test them. Regardless of title, use skepticism to ensure you identify their true role in the process:

1. Ask about the DM process. Get into the details, and if they are not the DM they will not be able to answer effectively. Surface answers usually indicate they are not a DM; once this is recognized, you should consider ending the conversation and going upline ASAP. The longer you talk with a non-DM, the more rapport you build and the harder it becomes to end the conversation.

2. Do they make recommendations to the DM? Sometimes it's a rubber-stamp situation where the DM will sign whatever the contact recommends. Often you need to talk with the ultimate DM because your contact is only an influencer. Many people will speak to their ego and say they're the DM when they have only a small amount of input.

3. Exhaust your questions on the DM loop. Get the information you need, but don't go to the point of offending the contact.

4. Should you circumvent the contact and go upline? Some contacts want you to go upline to make their job easier. Some don't. This is a judgment call based on their personality and the rapport you have built.

If you're going by titles, it's much better to aim high and get referred back down than to start low and have to claw your way up. You may get talking to the DM right away, but worst case you get talking to an influencer and have not burned any bridges. You can usually validate influencers by asking:
* Would you present this and support this to the DM?
* Why would the DM like or dislike our product/services?
* How often does the DM follow your recommendations?
* What was the last thing you recommended and was it successful?

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Identifying Decision Makers, Influencers

Although many sales reps have anxiety about getting to the decision maker (DM), reaching the DM is important because:
1. In order to make a sale, you must talk to the person who makes purchasing decisions to show that you can help them.
2. Prompt identification of the ultimate DM and influencers prevents wasting time speaking to someone who either cannot make the ultimate decision or cannot influence the person who does not make the ultimate decision.
3. You can have a textbook conversation with a non-DM and sell nothing. You can make mistakes with a DM and still make the sale.

In today's collaborative business environment, sometimes there are multiple people in the DM loop. If this is the case, you must reach the ultimate DM and all their influencers to understand what's important to them. What do they need to see in order to purchase your product or service?

Here are some tips on doing that:
1. Schedule separate conversations
2. Develop separate action plans
3. ID different Value Opportunities
4. ID if there is an upline influencer and contact them
5. Keep everyone in the DM loop informed when appropriate.

If your discussions are out in the open, recap discussions of accepted value and "cc" the entire DM loop as a follow-up to your conversations. If you cannot reach everyone in the DM loop, then ensure you keep the influencers informed of all the discussions you have with the ultimate DM you do talk with.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Open Your Ears & Actively Listen

Everyone knows how to listen. But top-of-the-line sales reps are Active Listeners. Active Listening refers to being engaged in the conversation and paying attention to what the contact is directly and indirectly telling you. You need to understand not only what they say, but their tone, their change in responsiveness, and what they don't say.

If done well, Active Listening can:
1. Help you accomplish your Business Outcomes and Emotional Outcomes for your call.
2. Help you identify as many Value Opportunities as possible to probe deeper to gain more information.
3. Reveal cues about how a contact is feeling. Often the cues are subtle. They contact may not state their thoughts and feelings explicitly about how they feel about you, your products/services, your company, and their own company.
4. Help you understand their personality type.
5. Help you identify potential issues with the customer before the issue is stated.
6. Shorten the sales cycle.
7. Help you know where to go next on the sales call.

Understand there are direct answers and indirect answers. A direct answer is a response that absolutely answers your question. An indirect answer answers your question but also includes important information to things outside of the question asked. The additional information may be important to advancing the account. For example, you ask a prospect if they will be available for a longer call next week. They say they will be out of town at their biggest trade show of the year. If you are actively listening, you should probe to understand details around that trade show and how it impacts their business. An indirect answer also includes their attitude or tone plus repeated phrases/words.

How You Actively Listen
1. Keep an open mind during the conversation -- don't assume what they are going to say next or what they're thinking. Don't anticipate an answer. Pay attention to what they're actually saying.

2. Be aware of what the contact wants to discuss. Don't simply follow your own set of questions. To get the outcomes, you'll have to steer the conversation; but don't hijack it.

3. Don't assume anything. Ask follow-up questions to gain a full understanding. If you believe you know the answer, say, "I think I know the answer to this but I'd like to clarify to be sure ..."

4. Sometimes, you have to let the contact talk for an extended period without interrupting them. In this case, Live Note Taking is critical. You must have a method for capturing and recalling the useful information the contact gives you.

5. Comment on what the contact is saying throughout the call -- that's the only way they know you're Actively Listening and engaged in the call. Your comment can simply be a reiteration of your understanding, or you can deliver value that is specific to the contact. Example: "So you're saying that you're outsourcing those responsibilities but you're not happy with their timeliness, and you're interested in us because we have an on-time guarantee. Is that right?" This confirms that what you heard is what the contact actually said and meant.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Selling To More Informed Customers

Terry Cascioli

Terry Cascioli, the Chief Revenue Officer for the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com, was the featured guest speaker at the Erie Sales Club workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Cascioli and the attendees discussed how the Internet has disrupted the sales process and how sales reps should adjust their approach when selling to more informed customers.

Here are 10 of the best quotes and points of advice from the workshop:

1. Change is permanent. Disruption is something we all have to deal with.

2. I hear all the time that Erie is slow to change. But the change will come.

3. Margins shrink with empowered, informed customers. They walk into a car dealership and know what they should pay for the car. They aren't relying on the salesperson to inform them.

4. With so much information available, consumers believe they can perform services on their own. Real estate is a good example of this. You see "For Sale By Owner" signs because those sellers think they have all the information they need and the real estate agent can't provide them value. A real estate agent needs to convince that consumer their professional service has value.

5. Some people want self-service and want to pay bare bones for it. They don't want consultation, and they don't want to pay for it.

6. Self-service doesn't mean you don't need a salesperson. They can make follow-up calls to the customer to make sure they are satisfied with their purchase. They need to ensure the customer has a good experience.

7. Sometimes self-informed is misinformed. The sales rep needs to identify the misinformation and convince the customer if they're not working with a consultant, they're making a mistake.

8. Technology changes have allowed sales reps to service more customers and service them faster. You can get information and communicate with customers more quickly, but only if you take advantage of the technology.

9. Customers don't want you to learn about them during the first sales call. They want you to do your research online before the call. On that first call, you need to teach them that they need your service.

10. You have to ask yourself frequently, "Is the need for your product changing or declining?"

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Sale a No-Go Without a VO

A Value Opportunity (VO) is a need, want, or desire that is important to the person or company that would cause them to buy from you. There's no reason for a person to buy anything without that thing satisfying a need, want, or desire. Once you identify and fully understand what's important to the customer, you can show them exactly how your services/products will meet their need, want, or desire, thus prompting them to buy. If you don't identify the VO, then you're just throwing mud against a wall to see what sticks.

In order to identify VOs, you must actively listen to the contact and take notes during your conversation. Usually, as you are probing to identify a Value Opportunity, other VOs present themselves. Ideally, you want to fully understand the current VO before moving to another VO. However, if the contact wants to discuss a different VO, follow the contact's lead. Probe to fully understand the VO the contact wants to discuss. After you've exhausted that VO, be sure to go back to the original VO to finish probing to fully understand.

Some VOs are surface level. If you dig deeper to understand WHAT they are trying to accomplish in these areas and WHY, you'll uncover a core VO that you might be able to address with a greater number of services/products. That's key to generating additional sales from one customer.

A few other thoughts on VOs:
1. If you identify and fully understand a potential customer's VOs before making a proposal, your consultative approach will separate you from your competition.
2. VOs will vary among the decision makers and influencers. So, it's important to ask probing questions to everyone in the decision-making loop so you get a complete picture of the opportunity.
3. You may have to use multiple lines of questioning to fully understand each VO. You can segue between topics as much as necessary to fully understand a VO, as long as the dialogue remains conversational with the customer.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

How To Read, Respond To The DM's Personality

Understanding, recognizing, and responding to the decision maker's personality is important for a variety of reasons:
1. It allows the conversation to continue. You can stay on phone with the contact or keep the face-to-face meeting alive.
2. You can appropriately establish rapport with your contact at the beginning of your sales call. How well you establish rapport depends on how well you recognize and respond to the contact's personality.
3. It leads you to establishing a relationship with the contact. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. A contact won't give you any business information until you establish a personal and/or professional relationship with them.
4. You can effectively identify and influence decision makers or those in the decision-making loop to advance a sale.
5. You can effectively steer the conversation toward a sale.

During a sales call with a contact, you can recognize their personality by:
* How did they greet you?
* How did they answer your first few questions?
* How did they interact with you or others?
* Were they responsive?
* How well do they progress the conversation? Do they stay on business topics or stray to personal topics?
* Do they have high drive or low drive?
* What questions do they ask?

How To Respond
Mirroring is the act of tailoring your response to a contact and presenting in a way that does not offend them. Your initial goal is to recognize how the contact is behaving so that you can mirror your response and have an effective conversation. Your longer-term goal is to have an idea of their personality tendencies to that you can influence them appropriately.

To work effectively with a dominant personality, you should be direct and succinct, deliver value as soon in the sales call as you can, don't waste their time on non-business topics, and stress their agenda and how you can help them.

For a more influential personality (high drive and highly responsive), you should be direct with your questions and be sure to speak to their agenda. Let them drive the conversation as long as they stay on the path towards a sale.

For a personality with more social tendencies, you may need to keep pulling the contact back to the business topic, but you'll need to do it without being pushy. Let them talk about what's important to them, but don't let them get too far off the path. You may need to spend more time in the warm-up.

For more compliant personalities, such as an engineer or accountant, you will likely need to emphasize detailed, specific data points, using statistics where possible. You should be more to the point, be specific and detail-oriented, and be prepared to give them time to consider the data you supply them.


The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Location Change For Feb. 12 Erie Sales Club Workshop

Due to flooding at the Knowledge Center which is where we usually host our Erie Sales Club workshops, the Feb. 12 workshop has been moved. It will still be in Knowledge Park but will be moved to the Jameson Publishing office in the 5340 Fryling Road building, 3rd floor. Signs will direct attendees to the Jameson office. For directions to Knowledge Park, click here.

Here are details on this upcoming workshop as previously published on this web site: The Erie Sales Club will host a free sales workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 12, from 6:00-7:30 PM in Knowledge Park (near the Penn State-Behrend campus). The featured guest speaker will be Terry Cascioli, Chief Revenue Officer for the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com. Cascioli has worked in sales and marketing at the Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Daily News since 1998.

The workshop also includes:

o     Breaking into small groups to discuss sales challenges

o     Attendees take the stage for a 30-second commercial about their company

o     Networking with other local sales professionals

o     Free coffee and baked goods for all attendees

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Embrace Both Empathy & Aggressiveness

Being over-aggressive has led to the term "pushy salesperson." Oftentimes, just the word "salesperson" includes the connotation "pushy." But if a salesperson isn't aggressive enough, they don't make the sale. What to do? The key is to combine empathy with aggressiveness.

Let's define these terms first. Empathy is caring about what the customer does, how they're trying to do it, and what hurdles they're facing. Empathy is not soft; it's sharing the feelings of your client without letting emotions dictate your actions. Empathy is different from sympathy in that even though you may be able to share their feelings to the same depth, you allow your intellect to dictate your actions. This allows you to make clear-minded decisions that are in your clients' best interest. Aggressiveness is continually trying to advance the account to a sale. Aggressiveness is not harsh; it's simply your persistence in driving to close the sale.

Empathy ...
* Makes the client feel like you're working to their agenda
* Makes the client like you personally
* Earns you the right to ask difficult questions
* May get you off the path to closing the sale if you use it too much. You'll never get to closing on the sale if you're overly empathetic.

Aggressiveness ...
* Advances the discussion towards a close
* Results in fewer calls to advance the account to a close
* Keeps the call valuable to the client (they have a busy schedule, too!)
* Helps you gain a better understanding of what's needed to close the sale

How To Combine Empathy With Aggressiveness
Empathy and aggressiveness should be integrated throughout each call. You should always be doing both. The more aggressive you become, the more empathetic you need to be. Both should be applied as overarching principles throughout the call, such as combining emotional outcomes (empathy) with business outcomes (aggressiveness). Example: You call a prospect and they have a meeting in five minutes. Ask, "When can I call you back?" and make sure you get a specific time and date.

The mix will be dictated by the situation. Aggressiveness should be constant throughout the call to drive towards closing. The amount of necessary empathy may be dictated by the cues or by your amount of aggressiveness. Example: During a phone call, the client sounds disconnected, and you hear typing in the background. You could stop and ask if this is a good time or, "Should we reschedule another time that would be better?"

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.  

How To Execute A Prospecting Call

Many reps think closing calls are more important than prospecting calls. They'll zip through the prospecting call in hopes that their next call could be a closing call. The correct approach is to understand the importance of the prospecting call so you will plan and execute it effectively.

On every call, including the initial sales call, you should be trying to advance the account as far as possible towards a sale. The goal of each call is the same -- to get them to a close, not to send them your literature or schedule the next call. Half the battle is getting people to talk with you. Why would you want to cut it short?

There are a few components that are unique to your initial sales call:
1. Introduction: This occurs when you are calling on a new customer or a new contact at that customer. You need to share your niche statement and introduce yourself as their salesperson.
2. Ask key "knockout" questions: Some standard "knockout" questions center on budget and decision-making ability. If they don't have money to buy what you're selling or they don't have the authority to buy what you're selling, why are you talking with them? If you don't ask your knockout questions on your initial sales call, you will waste your time (and theirs) until you get those questions answered.
3. Establish their first impression: You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Much of their attitude towards you will be based on this initial sales call.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.  

Is Your Elevator Pitch A Downer?

You can't make the sale if the person you're talking with has no idea what you do. And they won't give you half an hour to explain it to them. That's why it's important for you to take the time to craft a niche statement. A good niche statement isn't "one size fits all." A tailored niche statement, combined with your statement of purpose, gives enough information so the contact understands who you are, what your product is, and why you're calling. But don't give enough information for them to think they can make an informed purchasing decision.

Tailored niche statements:
1. Are only applicable on your initial sales call
2. Get the prospect's attention quickly so you can continue the conversation
3. Let them know who you are and why you're calling without providing too much detail.

You will leave them wanting more information about you. If you say too much, you give them an opportunity to develop a preconceived opinion that you're not a good fit for their needs. It's better to leave them wanting more information about your company. This can be a way to spark interest.

How To Tailor Your Niche Statement
1. Set up the framework for the rest of the call
2. Be direct and succinct. Think "elevator pitch." If you cannot describe your product to a prospect while on an elevator by the time they reach their floor, it's too long.
3. Be accurate and applicable
4. Purport a potential fit between the customer and your company
5. Convey your overall focus
6. Convey a stature or uniqueness (e.g. "We are the leading..." or "We are the only...")
7. Be tailored to the prospect based on information you've gathered about them. For example, if you're selling to a family doctor, you should emphasize family doctors in your niche statement. Then, when you're calling on a specialist, you should mention their specialty in your niche statement. Remember point #3 when tailoring your niche statement -- it has to be accurate and applicable.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

Erie Times Exec Is Featured Speaker At Erie Sales Club Workshop

Terry Cascioli

The Erie Sales Club will host a free sales workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 12, from 6:00-7:30 PM at the Knowledge Center in Knowledge Park (near the Penn State-Behrend campus). The featured guest speaker will be Terry Cascioli, Chief Revenue Officer for the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com. Cascioli has worked in sales and marketing at the Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Daily News since 1998.

The workshop also includes:

o     Breaking into small groups to discuss sales challenges

o     Attendees take the stage for a 30-second commercial about their company

o     Networking with other local sales professionals

o     Free coffee and baked goods for all attendees

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting. 

"Failure To Plan Is A Plan For Failure"

Do a Google search on that above phrase, and you'll receive 158,000 results. So it's no secret that we need to plan to achieve success, but many sales reps don't take the time to Precall Plan. A precall plan can:
1. Help you ID the desired Business Outcomes and Emotional Outcomes of a call
2. Help you tailor your "elevator pitch" to the client
3. Help you align pitches and proofs
4. Give you something to start the conversation with and get their attention
5. Help you understand what the client does

The time it takes to develop an adequate precall plan could be anywhere from 10 minutes for a prospect to 30 seconds for a follow-up call deep into the sales cycle. You want to limit your time because you could get lost in the planning which will affect your ability to achieve a sufficient volume of True Sales Calls. There's no bigger waste of time than preparing an hour for a prospect only to find out 45 seconds into the call they have no legitimate need for your service.

For an initial call, gather just enough information so you don't sound like a neophyte and enough information to star a conversation. Do you understand what the prospect does? Do you know the right person to call? Also, prepare your potential proofs and put them into a folder dedicated to that prospect.

For follow-up calls, much of your precall planning should occur when completing the previous call while it's still fresh in your mind. Reviewing your notes (which sometimes look like hieroglyphics) two days after the call is not as effective as planning immediately after the call. Think about and plan what you want to do next and record it. Then, prior to the next call, review those notes to refresh your memory of the account.

These tips aren't earth-shattering. But we've seen a common reason sales reps don't achieve their desired outcomes with a customer is simply because they didn't plan -- they didn't prepare prior to the call and they didn't complete takeaways from the previous call. Some reps do get away with little preparation (for a time), but don't leave your success to chance.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Face The Facts, Then Make The Sales Call

Among the advice shared by Erie Insurance VP Mel Hirst at the Nov. 14 Erie Sales Club workshop was, "The primary difference between successful, growing salespeople and those who aren't as successful or who aren't growing is that successful, growing salespeople make more contacts." Another term for that is "NETSCAD," which stands for Not Enough True Sales Calls A Day. This is a disease that has a 100% mortality rate in salespeople. You need to speak with the final decision-maker (DM) or someone in the DM loop who has the ability to influence the DM.

On a True Sales Call, you can achieve:
1. Identifying the client's budget constraints to make your initial sale as lucrative as possible
2. Probing to understand their value opportunities (needs and wants)
3. Providing value that shows you can help them
4. Uncovering/revealing attitudes
5. Validating a current customer's expectations and satisfaction
6. Validating previously delivered value. Get them excited again about what you've done for them.

You need to apply skepticism to ensure you actually made a True Sales Call. The client may want to just be nice but did not give you any real information that was useful. Set aside your feelings about the call (emotions) and consider the facts:
1. Was the same topic/information simply rehashed?
2. Have you progressed toward a sale or upsell?
3. Did you get new actionable information?
4. Did you get additional critical information such as DM loop, budget, and new value opportunities?
5. Ask yourself the hard question -- "What information did I actually get from the contact and is that information useful?" -- and give yourself an honest answer.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Golden Nuggets For Salespeople -- Part 3

This is Part 3 in a series of articles based on information gathered at the Nov. 14 Erie Sales Club workshop. Mel Hirst, Vice President of Sales Promotions and Agency Relations at Erie Insurance and a 30-year sales veteran, was the guest speaker and shared several nuggets of wisdom with the attendees. We recently featured 20 great quotes from Mel in two articles. Click here for article #1 and click here for article #2. Here are some final highlights from his presentation:

1. "We all must have a sense of urgency about achieving our sales objectives."

2. R = E (Rewards equal Effort)

3. "Know, believe, and do."

4. "Set goals -- keep track of results."

5. "Help others get what they want."

6. "The primary difference between successful, growing salespeople and those who aren't as successful or who aren't growing is that successful, growing salespeople make more contacts."

7. "The largest sales objections generally lie in the mind of the salesperson. You will never sell a product that you do not offer to your clients. You will also never effectively sell a product that you do not believe in enough to buy yourself." -- Phil Garlow, Erie Insurance Agent, West Virginia

8. "Perfection is not attainable. But, if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence." -- Vince Lombardi

The next Erie Sales Club workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 12, from 6:00-7:30 PM at Knowledge Park, near the Penn State-Behrend campus.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Golden Nuggets For Salespeople -- Part 2

This is Part 2 in a series of articles based on the Nov. 14 Erie Sales Club workshop. At that workshop, Mel Hirst, Vice President of Sales Promotions and Agency Relations at Erie Insurance and a 30-year sales veteran (pictured here), shared several nuggets of wisdom with the attendees. We recently featured 10 great quotes from Mel. Here are 10 more of his best:

1."In any organization, nothing happens until something is sold. You don't have support staff unless salespeople are selling."

2. "Find a way to fill a need, and you'll ultimately sell."

3. "You're not always going to be able to overcome the objection. Just try to."

4. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to be successful. For salespeople, that often means planning."

5. "Ask people how they want to be contacted. Don't assume or do what works best for you. The method of how you contact people is increasing in importance."

6. "Remember your customers, not just your prospects. Conduct at least an annual review of existing customers through a conversation with the customer."

7. "Find the best salespeople and they will carry the ball for you."

8. On sales techniques: "Find your own thing and do it."

9. "If you dread what you do, find something else."

10. "Forget your failures. You need thick skin to be in sales."

To read Part 1 of of this series, click here. Stay tuned to ErieSalesClub.com for more sales advice for serious sales professionals.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.

Golden Nuggets For Salespeople -- Part 1

At the Nov. 14 Erie Sales Club workshop, Mel Hirst, Vice President of Sales Promotions and Agency Relations at Erie Insurance and a 30-year sales veteran, shared several nuggets of wisdom with the attendees. Here are 10 of the best:

1. "I don't know for sure what will work. But if you do nothing, it won't work."

2. "What will work depends on your strengths. And just because you try it and it doesn't work doesn't mean it will never work."

3. "If you're waiting for your phone to ring, it's not going to happen. You have to make it happen."

4. "The five qualities of successful salespeople: competitive, self-reliant, persistent, energetic, and sales drive."

5. "Study your competition's products. Know where you can beat them and where you can't."

6. "Some of the best salespeople I know don't say much. Stop trying to sell all the time, ask questions, and listen."

7. The Art of Acknowledgement: "People like to be heard. Acknowledge their circumstances and people will open up." Example: "So what you're saying is ..."

8. "People are so sophisticated with technology, nobody talks face-to-face anymore. Get off your duff, get out, and talk to people."

9. "It's not complicated. Just talk to more people."

10. "You will fail a lot, but you can't be worried about that in sales."

This is Part 1 in a series of articles based on the Nov. 14 Erie Sales Club workshop. Stay tuned to ErieSalesClub.com for more sales advice for serious sales professionals.

The Erie Sales Club is a joint effort of four leading local businesses: Jameson Publishing, Marsha Marsh Real Estate Services, VertMarkets, and Howland Peterson Consulting.