The Cycle of the Sale

Since sales is probably the one business function that most of us would prefer to steer around, or completely ignore, I thought it might be good to visit. So, put on your favorite pair of checker slacks and that stunning plaid jacket - we're goin' sellin.'

Selling services are different that selling a tangible product. With product sales, the prospect looks it over, compares features and benefits, compares competitive prices, etc. In days gone by, people would visit several stores before making their buying decision. Now days, they compare products and prices on the Net, often long before they ever step into a store or showroom. With service sales, the "product" is intangible during the sales cycle. That's one reason why the sales cycle (going from first contact to signing on the dotted line) can be 6 - 8 months or, often, longer. To keep yourself afloat, you'll need to have several irons in the fire at various points in the cycle. Some will close sooner, some later and some not at all.

Typically, there are three phases of the cycle: making contact; building the relationship and, finally, closing the sale. Let's take a look at each.

Making Contact
There's several articles across the Web (and on this blog) that talk about self-promotion and marketing tactics and techniques - all the fun ways to get the word out. None the less, it's always good to have a reminder. Here are some of the typical methods:

• Networking events such as ad clubs, chambers of commerce, trade shows, clubs & organizations.
• Direct Mail such as postcards, sales letters, printed samples, brochures, 3-dimensional pieces
• Cold/warm phone calls
• Speaking engagements such as seminars, lectures or talks and workshops to a targeted audience
• Press releases
• Writing articles
• Online prospecting
• Working on charitable events and programs
• Award competitions
• Skywriting above your prospect's place of business (Okay ... that's a wee bit extreme).
• Asking for referrals from business contacts, friends and family
• And of course, your Website, blog and social media of choice such as LinkedIn, Biznik, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The idea during this phase is to actively be working several methods to get your name around, known and remembered. You want to meet people. But, not just anybody. Ideally, you want to meet and qualify folks who need what you provide and have the dough to pay for it. Plus, it's a good idea if they also offer the potential for repeat business.

Find those techniques that fit your style and personality. Shoot for at least three to five activities each day. If you plan well it won't take too much time. Maybe you make a few phone calls, attend a chamber breakfast, shoot off an intro letter with a few printed samples one day. Then, on the next, you give a talk at the local Rotary Club, attend a Board meeting at a nonprofit and crank out some emails to current clients and friends reminding them that you're always on the lookout for referrals.

If you're diligent, you'll meet several new people who just might become clients. But, to do that, you'll need to build a relationship with them.

Building the Relationship
Building a business relationship is like building a personal one, so don't sweat it. Unless you're a total hermit, you've already got the experience you need. Just like with a significant other, you need to show up. What I mean is to be available. Listen. Learn and remember what's important to them and help out where you can. Timing is the trick. You don't want to come off like a stalker or pain in the hind quarter.

Here are some methods

• Take notes during your conversations.
• Find out their spouse's and kids' names. Who's their boss? What are the challenges they face in their job and industry? Who are their key competitors? What kind of hobbies do the enjoy? Look around their office if you've gotten that far. What's on the walls? Any nick nacks and perhaps a paddy whack or two?
• Pop all this info into your handy contact manager (you've have one, right?) and set it up to alert you on important days.
• Be sure to ask how their family members are doing.
• Send out cards for birthdays, special achievements, etc.
• Send a handwritten thank-you note when appropriate
• Take them to lunch, dinner or a special event
• Forward articles of interest, special deals you may hear about, special events (Like that club meeting where you'll be speaking. What a coincidence!)
• If they've mentioned a problem or challenge they're having, and you know the answer, for goodness sake, tell them. Don't go too far with this, though. You can easily cut into your billable potential if your answers to their woes are the services you sell. Think of it as sampling and whetting their appetite for more.

The point is to become a resource and someone who is looking out for them. It's very important that this be true and authentic. People can usually spot a thrower of baloney. Have some integrity. Integrity, by the way, is rooted in the word, "integrate." That means what you believe on the inside is what you do on the outside. That's one reason why it's good to find prospects you like as people. Hopefully, you'll be spending a lot of time with them working on that big project. But first, you've got to close the sale.

Closing the Sale
The day finally comes. Mr. Marketing Manager gives you a call and asks you to submit a proposal for Da Big Project. You set up a meeting to go over the specs, at which time Mr. Manager clues you in that you'll be competing against three other groups. You're still not as "in like Flint" as you may have thought. You've still got one big hurdle to jump. You also learn you'll be presenting to a couple of VPs and the CEO, along with your buddy, Mr. Manager.

After the meeting, you get to work and begin to craft your perfect proposal and plan your presentation. You review the company again, its products, its competitor and audience. You go through the project goals and draft some delicious prose showing how you're going to meet them with your brilliant work.

Judgment Day comes and you make your pitch, showing what needs to be done and why your the right solution for the project. You ask for the sale. You're in good shape from all you learned during the relationship building process. You have an edge over the other groups who were called in cold. Your presentation is dead on-target. They give you a standing ovation, sign on the dotted line and write you a deposit check on the spot. The planets align and rainbows appear in the sky. You've closed the deal - all because you're the one who took the time to make the best use of the sales cycle.

The Importance of Follow Up

Well, I’ve been a very bad boy and haven’t posted for a long time. Bad, Neil! Bad! You know ... busy at work, life, yada, yada, yada. Excuses, excuses.

Let’s see if I can change all that and pick up where I left off.

Today’s ditty is about following up when you don’t win the gig. It’s one of those things that a lot of folks forget to do, or simply don’t want to do. But, it’s important. When you don’t land the project, you need to know why so you can adjust things, as needed, for the next go around. Without that information, you run the risk of repeating the same mistake (if there was one) over and over. That’s generally bad.

Some prospects will let you know, others will blow you off, but at least give it your best shot.

Here are a couple of examples:

We had a prospect call a while back to invite us to pitch their account. They’re a heavy industrial manufacturer. It’s an industry where we’ve historically had a lot of experience. And, it would be a high six figure chunk of change if we landed it.

So, we rolled up our sleeves and started to do the background research, went to several meetings and drafted our proposal. We felt good about things. The proposal was solid. The chemistry seemed positive. We didn’t get it.

Why? It turns out, when I followed up, the president of the company felt our experience was too much on the consumer end of things. He felt that way because the work on our site showed a lot of pieces with that slant.

Lesson learned? NE Ohio is still an industrial area. Even though the economy here for heavy industry is pretty much tanked, there are still prospects out there who need what we do and have money to spend. Needless to say, I’m working on adding more industrial pieces to our site.

Here’s another one. We had a former client contact us about a site redesign. We had done a few projects for them in the past, so they knew us. It was one of those Friday calls where they needed an estimate for a Monday meeting. I scrambled to put together the estimate and we got it to them late Friday afternoon.

Tuesday we got an email. We didn’t get that one either. My cohort here at the office called to follow up. Silence. Nada. Zilch. So, we figured they went with some other shop and blew us off.

A few days later, said cohort received an email from his contact. As it turns out, our numbers were fine. Pretty much the same as one of the other shops. They also had the place that did their current site quote the gig. They were lower than us, but the client didn’t have confidence in them anymore. Another firm came in roughly three times higher than us. What gives?

What gave was politics. One of the client’s employees spouse’s recommended the company that did their site and that’s who ended up winning the work.

The moral of the story is that sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. But, when you follow up and learn the reasons why you lose, you can position yourself in a better way down the road.