Sales on a Beermat

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Sales on a Beermat
Mike Southon mike_at_beermat.biz www.beermat.biz

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Agenda

• Sales on a Beermat
• Salesperson attributes
• Qualification
• Closing
• Sales Management
• The Meaning of Life

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The Original Beermat
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Sales on a Beermat

• Elevator Pitch
• do you really know what youre selling?
• Mentor
• do you have a Customer Mentor?
• First Customer
• every sale is a first sale

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Are you A Salesperson?

• In a Beermat Company, everyone sells
• though some find it more natural than others..
• NOT forecourt selling
• see Glengarry Glen Ross
• Not Engagement Management
• e.g. McKinsey's, law firms.

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Salesperson Attributes

• Ambitious
• Driven
• Energetic
• Listener not talker
• Resilient
• wont take no for an answer!

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The Original Sales Beermat
- Be Liked - Qualify - Close
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Be Liked!

• If they like you, theyll see you
• If youre interesting, theyll listen to you
• If they trust you, theyll see you again

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Qualify!

• NEEDS and MONEY
• What is your first market?
• Can you identify 100 targets?
• On the Web
• personal contacts
• your Mentor

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Telemarketing

• Very different to telesales
• no actual selling at this point
• Do your research
• all the e-mails you want are out there
• Be charming!
• realistic success rate 98

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Elevator Pitch E-mail

• Personal, individual e-mails
• not spam
• Three sentences only
• your elevator pitch
• why were sending it to you, specifically
• PROOF a gilt-edged, personal reference
• Wins you a 15 minute meeting
• they are interested, but not convinced

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Customer Responses

• 5 is a good result go sell!
• 12 is your target
• this is not a direct mail campaign (gt1)
• Write a better e-mail to next 100
• consult with your Mentor
• Do two more iterations
• then go back to the pub!

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Before The Meeting

• Research!
• all about them, their company, their customers,
  their needs
• Research!
• Its all on their site and on the Web
• Research!
• Have a pre-meet, if necessary
• ..the meeting is about them not you

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What Are You Selling?

• Services rather than Products
• there may be some free software or prototype
  widgets
• Youre solving their widget problem
• not delivering a set of features
• Is there a seminar in this?
• good way to identify a real need

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Strategic Seminar

• 100 people, good venue
• Central London, Friday morning, small charge
• 3 customer stories
• no explicit sales pitch, but buffet lunch and
  demos..
• The ones still there at 5pm have needs and money
• .today!

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At The Meeting Sales 101

• Ask questions to elicit buying signals
• what we need is, our problem is.
• Reinforce Needs
• shows you understand their business
• Meet Needs with Benefits
• NOT features!

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Closing!
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Small Closes

• Small deliverables by the customer
• arranging a meeting
• agreeing to a trial
• identifying the decision-maker
• Meet the real decision maker(s)
• five minute meeting
• Headed Notepaper Close
• legally meaningless, but good test

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Closing Is Easy!

• If you have a good product or service
• it should sell itself!
• If youve done your homework
• and really understand their needs
• If your customer has needs and money today
• Theyll tell you!
• if they say yes S.T.F.U. and take the order!

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Dealing With Objections

• Imagined
• deal with misunderstandings
• Real
• re-emphasise the Benefits
• focus on the features that they liked
• The most difficult attitude is indifference
• back to asking questions..

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Marketing

• Not required in Beermat companies
• comes later, with Business Development
• No brochure
• salespeople should deliver elevator pitches
• Free PR
• feed freelance journalists with customer stories

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Pricing

• You have no price only value
• what is it worth to you?
• NOTHING IS FREE
• adds a perceived value and forces a proper close
• Avoid competition on price
• youll always lose..
• products have a price, services have a value

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Ramping Up Sales

• All about activity level
• no excuses or yes, buts
• Avoid research, writing proposals etc
• takes time away from real selling
• Always be talking to the customer
• .and Always Be Closing!

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The Sales Pipeline

• Everything below 0.4 is ignored
• Performance should be at least 2x target
• Probabilities should move up monthly, or be
  removed

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The Sales Manager

• Completely different activity to selling
• Looks at spreadsheets all day, rather than sells
• Attention to detail
• Moves items up the probabilities or off the chart
• Understands the process
• Been there, done that
• knows when salespeople are exaggerating

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Channels

• One degree of separation from customers
• is this a good thing?
• are you ready for this?
• Always leads to channel conflict
• all about account control and margins
• Avoid integrator partners
• completely event-, rather than relationship-driven

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Strategic Customers

• More valuable than channel partners
• a genuine winwin
• You help them sell
• work with their Major Account Managers
• Your major reference account
• credibility, endorsement, resources..

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Account Management

• Pipe-smoking, reliable character
• completely non-threatening
• Understands customers better than they do
• frequent golfer and general schmoozer
• Not supposed to find new customers
• works existing ones very effectively

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And Finally..

• Never diss the opposition
• this always comes back to haunt you.
• Never promise anything on the spot
• this way lies madness.
• Always tell the truth
• and theyll come back, forever

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The Meaning Of Life

• Have as much fun as you can
• selling is fun for everyone!
• Create good karma
• Employees
• Customers
• Proof The Happy Pipeline!