Jeff Garrison

Your Value Proposition in Sales should be D.I.R.T.Y.

Crafting your sales value proposition or "elevator statement" well is perhaps the most crucial element in a systematic business development program for the small and medium sized business.  If done well, it becomes the foundation for all of your branding, networking, and other marketing efforts. 

If done well, it is D.I.R.T.Y.

Different

If the statement is true and accurate when you substitute the name of your competitor's business for yours, then yours is not different.  You must discover the value that you provide that is unique from others.  Often times what is different is not your actual goods or services or your price. 

What may be different is how you can help prospects realize greater valuefrom your companies expertise with products and services that are not necessarily unique.

Inviting

Compelling, attractive, or even interesting are other ways to express inviting.  Although your value proposition should be clear and not cryptic, it should also cause a positive reaction.  For example, it should cause people to reflect at least for a moment or to ask you a question.

Relevant

You value proposition must promise to do one or more of the following to be relevant:

1. Make money for your prospect
2. Save money for your prospect
3. Minimize a negative emotion such as fear
4. Maximize a positive emotion such as joy, pride, or peace of mind

Truthful

If your claim to provide a certain value is not true, you will get crucified in today's Word of Mouth society.  You definitely don't want to be talked about on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or Linked In for the wrong reasons.

Yours

Your value proposition must be something that you and the people you hire can be passionate about.  It's a great idea to get help from a professional marketing firm or consultant, but you can't let them create your value proposition for you based upon their research or their ability to be "quippy" or clever.

Is your value proposition D.I.R.T.Y.?  Show it off in the comment section below. 

To get direct feedback, feel free to send me an email or contact the brand experts below.

Mike Wagner of White Rabbit Group.  Mike first introduced me to D.I.R.T.Y. branding.  His company focuses on performance branding (connecting the performance of your organization and the customer experience to your company's promise).

Drew McLellan of McLellan Marketing Group.  McLellan helps companies identify why they matter to their best and most profitable customers and then to leverage this knowledge to enhance the customer experience and to develop the most effective marketing plans.

Social Media Experts and Sales

Check out Mike Sansone's video post.

Sell with Stories

For nearly a decade I was an executive recruiter which is very complex selling when done well.  On the client side, there are multiple decision makers to be satisfied and complex needs to be met with a product (the candidate) that also has professional and personal needs that must be met.

One major reason for our firms success is that we did not sell with "features."  In other words, we were not selling those jobs, skills, and years of experience featured on candidate resumes.

We sold with stories!

We asked our candidates, if there were a hall of fame for professional __________, what things have you done that would get you in?

We would find the stories that demonstrated the candidate's ability to meet the needs of our client.

The ensuing conversation with the client would go like this:

When we began this project, you said the top three needs to be met were __________.  Has anything changed?

Great.  We have a candidate who has just the right track record.  Let me tell you what we have learned.

We would then proceed to tell the stories. 

Create your own stories!

Look back at the issues that past clients have had and the specific solution and the benefits that you have provided.  Start building a set of stories that demonstrate what you can do.

Here is how the conversation might go:

Ms. Prospect, if I understand correctly, the issues that you would most like to deal with are these.  First, ...  You want to solve them because the specific impact of each is ... The results you would like to achieve are ...  Is there anything else?

Great.  We have solved each of these or similar problems in the past.  For example ... (tell a short, to the point story).  Is this the type of solution for which you are looking?

This is a simple example and is not meant to demonstrate the entire sales process by any means.  It is just meant to show how powerful good stories are in sales.

How have you been able to use success stories to move a sale forward?  Tell us the story?

Photo on flickr by Notley

Ask the Right Questions

Ask the right questionsand the prospect will give you an appointment to come see him.

Ask the right questionsand the prospect will get to know and like you.

Ask the right questionsand the prospect will begin to trust you.

Ask the right questions and the prospect will tell you everything you need to create an exact solution and earn the business.

Sales: How Long Have You Been in Business?

If you have not been around long, how do you answer the question, "How long have you been in business?" or "How long have you been in sales with ...?"

How have you handled this question in the past?  What advice do you have?

Sales & Customer Service

How clients perceive the quality of yourcustomer service begins with their expectations.  So, what does this mean for the sales person?

It is the sales person's responsibility to set realistic expectations with customers during the sales process.

After all, if a customer is upset later, it does not solve the problem to say that their expectations are outside the industry norm, unreasonable, or downright ridiculous.

The best way to avoid assuming or guessing what the customer service expectations are is to ask what they are. 

"Ms. Prospect, what are your customer service expectations of a good ____________ company?"

There are many good things that could come from asking this one question.

• You may discover that your company is a good fit for the prospect regarding their customer service expectations and your actual service.
• You may discover that the prospect has unrealistic expectations and you have the chance to address them before there is an issue.
• You may discover that their expectations exceed your normal service levels, but that you can provide what they want easily.
• You may discover that the expectations are such that you can provide what they want, but only for an additional fee.
• You may beat out competitors because you asked and they did not.

Work this question into you normal sales process and see what kind of reaction you get.  It will start some surprising and worthwhile conversations.

How have you been stung by unrealistic, or even crazy, expectations?

Photo on flickr by Heberger Site

America's Got Talent (How to Handle Sales Objections)

Imagine being on America's Got Talent.

"Our next act is Jane Doe, a professional sales person who is going to perform the ever popular handling objections dance."

You go out on stage and give your elevator statement to the judges. 

"My company ..."

Then you ask ...

"Can we help you with ...?" or "Do you have need for ..."

The judges respond ...

"We don't have any needs" or "It is not in our budget" or "We already have someone who ..."

Three strikes and you are done.

Well it is not a television show.  It is taking place thousands of times every day.  Just like on the show, the sales person walks out on stage without knowing exactly what the audience wants to see.  They just start performing and the prospect is just looking for reasons to push the button giving them a strike.

To be effective, turn the tables. Get the judges to perform.  Suppress your natural inclination to talk about what you do, your company, your products, and your services.  Ask them about their company.  Learn to ask them intelligent business questions so that you can discover what your "audience" does want to see.

Start by writing down five questions that can be easily tweaked for your particular audience.  Practice asking them in front of the mirror and then with your sales manager or a peer.

Soon you will find that good conversations are easier to start with prospects and that the conversations will last longer and go deeper.  They will happily be performing for you.

Photo on flickr by Keys Connoisseur

Sales Habitudes for Women Workship Videos

We have broken the first session of the Sales Habitudes for Women workshop series into a set of short videos.  If you missed the first week, you still have a chance to attend.  View the videos before the next session, or watch them at your leisure in the future.

Enjoy and give us your feedback.

Sales Compensation Systems

A question we get all the time is "how should we compensate our sales people."  Those asking fit into one of two categories.

1. They are hiring their first sales people and have no experience with incentive based sales compensation systems
2. They are frustrated with the production in general of their sales staff and they want to see if a tweak in their sales compensation system will make the difference.

There are a ton of ways to go about it and no one way is best.  However, there are some things to keep in mind when creating an incentive compensation system. 

For this post, I consulted with my father Ed Garrison.  He has been consulting for three decades with senior leaders in the financial services industry and has seen more convoluted sales compensation systems than most people alive today.

Here are a few of the things he would tell you.

1. Keep it simple.  If the salesperson has a difficult time understanding what they have to do to reach their personal goals, it can be demotivating.
2. Make sure that you understand what you want your sales people to do before you create incentives.  If not done carefully, people may behave in ways that you did not foresee.
3. You can't motivate lazy or undisciplined sales people by offering higher commission.  It only increases your cost of carrying a poor performer.
4. You can't increase performance of a poorly trained sales person by offering higher commission.  Spend the money on training instead.
5. You can't get a sustained increase in sales of a poor product or service by increasing commission.  Spend the money to improve the product or service value.
6. Sales people are not purely motivated by the commission.  They are also motivated by things like serving their clients and recognition for their accomplishments.
7. When hiring, it is generally better to decide upon your compensation structure before beginning to interview.  If you get very excited about a prospective job candidate, you may be too generous with compensation.
8. Don't cut commissions unless you can afford to lose your best salespeople.

What is your experience with good and bad systems?  What pieces of advice would you add to the list?

Photo on flickr by mysavingtips

 

Sales, Ethics, and Company Culture

I recently had a conversation with a fellow sales professional about one particular company and our personal experiences with their sales practices.  Their front line people are not transparent and they are manipulative.

Although this may appear to help the bottom line, questionable ethics in the front line sales process will have a long term negative impact on the company culture.

The sales associates who are the most successful with these tactics will naturally get promoted and they will train new people on their techniques.  The better their people are with these practices, the better their supervisors look leading to further progression in the company.

Subtle deception or worse is what leads to success in this culture.

If you were running this company, could you trust your direct reports to not deceive you?

If you were an employee, could you trust management?

If you were a customer, would you stay with this company?

What happens when these practices are perceived to define an entire industry such as banking, mortgage lending, auto sales, and government?

The bottom line is that long term health and success of both people and companies is tied to the level of their ethical standards and transparency as well as putting the interests of their clients ahead of their own.

What has been your experience regarding manipulative business practices?

Photo on flickr by philobiblon