R.I.P.- Door-to-door selling

Every Thursday evening this summer I religiously sat in front of the television and watched Mad Men on AMC. Thanks to my friend Nick who pointed it out, I became addicted very quickly.

That being said. In episode 11 a 1960's suburban housewife (Betty, wife of the main character) is called on one day by a door to door salesman who is selling air conditioners. Now, set aside all of the 1960-isms, think for one second about the success of a door to door salesman back then versus now.

Then: The chances of the door being opened were pretty high. Most housewives in suburbia stayed home, you could target affluent neighborhoods and get a good 'open door' rate.

Now: The chances of the door being opened are relatively slim. On the off-chance one is open it could be someone who works overnight. I Googled "door to door salesman" looking for a picture for this post and found this article. It sheds even more light on the environment that salespeople would face if they continued to do door to door sales.

So in this series I want to look at what trends in what I will call the modern era (1960-present) of selling that have died off. The first being door-to-door selling.

When did "the knock on the door" become more costly than a phone call? There had to have been one day when the CEO of Electrolux sent a memo to his sales staff calling them in off the streets.

When that day did happen what was the results and how did that change the landscape of sales? We can all look back now and see the that the next logical step in sales was the cold call and the catalog. However that is hindsight, so what was their foresight?

The point of all of this is to see what will be changing in our landscape and what we can do to anticipate those changes. I have to believe that one day sales will evolve from relationship selling to what?

Please post your comments.

Toilet water

That is how I expressed the quality of leads I saw coming in from our sales staff after they attended trade shows.

Specifically I said "If you want me to keep giving you toilet water in Salesforce.com I can, but lets try something different."

Sales people hate different. We like to keep doing the same thing we have always been doing but we expect better results.

Different means change, scratch that different means work.

The culprit was those instant scan machines we all love to buy at trade shows. In the past we purchased one for every trade show that offered them. We loved them! And why not, they gave us tons on names at the swipe of the card! How easy was that? TOO EASY! I say, too easy.

When the leads got back to the office, many if not most were only mildly interested in our product. In fact, in the year prior we only closed one deal from a trade show that we had used a card scanner. ONE! That is horrible.

---------------------------------So I drew a line in the sand.---------------------------

"We are going to try it my way." I said. "For this next (major) trade show you don't get a scanner."
I saw them begin to light the torches and gather pitchforks, but I stood firm.
Instead you get lead pads to have the customer write their name down, or you could do it for them. On the back I want information about the discussion you had and their needs.

I don't care how many you come back with, but make sure the ones you come back with were meaningful conversations.

A hush came over the room.

You mean we aren't being graded on whether we come back with a lot of leads?

That is exactly what I am saying.

If you wanted a bunch of leads, I could save us a ton of money by not sending you, the booth and putting you up in hotel by simply buying the conference registration list. A few hundred bucks, and we could ding them via email, direct mail, whatever. But what would that get us? Nothing. I would rather have someone (who knows what their organization needs) stop by and have a conversation with us. That is where the value of the trade show pays for itself. It is that conversation that makes it invaluable that we attend the trade show, we have to open up the lines of communication.

The Selling Point:
In my organization trades shows get a bad rap.
Upper level management has a hard time wrapping their head around the ROI factor, to be honest I think they view it as a vacation for the sales staff. And I am going go out on a limb and say that your organization is the same way.
Which is too bad.
Think of how much money it would cost to send your sales people out on 50 calls around the country. Now deduct how much it cost you to send them to this ONE trade show and have 50 conversations. This is how much you are saving by sending sales people to a trade show.
But sending is only the first part.
Give them parameters to work by, number of conversations they should be having. Not number of leads they came back with.
Conversations are key to starting a friendship with a customer. You don't just call someone up and ask to be their friend. You both identify how your needs can help each other.

Technorati Tags: Trade Shows Relationsip Builiding Things that bug me Lead Generation

Put your customers to work

By all means this isn't a new concept, but in a meeting a few days ago it was scoffed at when I mentioned it.

The concept I proposed was putting our customers to work for us, making them the evangelists for our new program.

Not really something my company embraced.

In fact they were far from it. Too bad really, because your best customers can be better than some of your salespeople. They already have the trust, rapport, and correct message for the audience they speak to. But lets get into that another time. Or read this great blog by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.

So for the sake of argument let's say that my company (or yours) embraced the idea. How easy would you make it to spread the word for them? Would you do anything at all? And more importantly, what would you do for them?

Fortunately for us we can turn to our political candidates for the answers. Yup, the candidates are now doing a fantastic job of recruiting every supporter to help spread the word. This last Sunday (Earth Day) I attended a rally in Iowa City for Barack Obama. Later that night, I went to his website to see what else I could learn. His site is a case study in using word of mouth and social networking for recruitment. You can set up a personal profile, find other supporters in your area, blog to other members, and watch videos.

What does this all sound like?

Hmm.

Maybe myspace, blogger, and youtube all wrapped into one. Of course he has links to profiles on all the social networking sites, but the best part is its one stop shopping. Everything I need is located in one location, and the best part is that it is user friendly, even for those a little less web-saavy.

The Selling Point:
Whether or not you are actively engaged in making your customers do work for you, some of them have the ability to move mountains. But they can only do so if they are properly equipped. So why not start today by setting up a page so they can watch videos of customer testimonies, you could have youtube host it. Make it easy for them to set up a members or customers area to find other companies looking for the same solution that you provide. And give them the tools to post everything they find to a blog or social profile. Chances are your customers outnumber your salespeople, why not properly equip them to spread the word?

Who knows they may be motivated to do this...

Technorati Tags: Creativity Lead Generation Sales Tools Church of the Customer Ben McConnell Barack Obama Word of Mouth Advertising

Impromptu Marketing

Quick- answer this question: You have 2,000 wanna-be college students walking around a campus low on energy do you want to sell to them?

YES!

And that is exactly what Monster Energy Drink did!





Here is the story, about eight blocks away from a college that was holding an open house Monster Energy Drink had one of those fiercely modified vehicles booming out music and giving away energy drinks to help promo a concert with a radio station. Not getting the traffic they wanted and hearing that a college not to far away was having an open house, they packed up, drove over and set-up the truck along a tour route. To say the least they immediately attracted a crowd. I witnessed this first hand yesterday while visiting the college, and like a bug to a glowing blue light I had to go over. I got the story from one of the guys handing out the cans. It did its job, and now I might be more inclined to buy Monster whenever I need an energy drink.

It was the perfect storm for a marketer. Captive audience- young & impressionable- free product. This is a great example of thinking on your feet. Kudos to Monster Energy Drink, your clearly not the brand leader but your not willing to sit back and be a complacent No. 2.

tags technorati : Creativity Lead Generation Target Marketing Monster Energy Drink

A miracle worker I am not.

Last week sometime I got a very nice direct mail piece from a local movie store called Mr. Movies. It was well conceived and on the back it had four coupons. Each giving me a different reason to go visit the local rental store. According to mapquest.com I am only about three miles from their location. But I haven't rented a movie there in over a year, the main reason- customer service. Or should I say the lack there of, coupled with a smaller movie selection. So I have become accustomed to renting from the local Blockbuster, which is more than 12 miles away. Yes, that is how important customer service is to me. And I am not alone in this opinion.

Ok, so back to the direct mail piece. I dusted it off today and decided to give them a second shot. Perhaps the customer service had improved, and the selection had more to offer. Plus being a sucker for coupons I couldn't pass up a free movie. It's at this point the marketing manager for Mr. Movies can rest assured that she still has a job, she got me in the store. And I was about 90% likely to rent since one of my two movies was free. I grabbed Flyboys and The Gaurdian (I haven't seen them yet, so I won't comment on them), but that doesn't matter anyway. The customer service is still terrible. Nothing has changed! The person who rang up my movies was on the phone with one of his friends talking about how "wasted he was last night" and whatever "bangin" party this was... you get the point. Things that a customer really wants to hear. After he took my money and I was ready to hand my movies after I go through the obligatory metal detector he decided to comment on my movies. "These are really good movies" he uttered, "the alternate ending on 'The Gaurdian' is better than the original." I mumbled a brief thanks, and walked out the door.

When I got in my car I thought about the poor marketing director for Movie Brands Inc., the parent company for the Mr. Movies franchise. She probably got an earful about same store sales being down, traffic being light and dissatisfied franchise owners not making profit margins, or something to that effect. So she masterfully crafted a direct mail piece with coupons to drive traffic and movie rentals in specific areas. And I bet right now she is being celebrated for a successful campaign. Heck, one of the coupons was a $25 forgiveness of all late fees, who could pass that up? But come March 15th, her head will be back on the chopping block--you see that's when the coupons expire. Too bad her boss doesn't get why traffic is down.

A good marketer can only do so much, in this case they effectively drove traffic. Too bad the customer service wasn't there to capitalize on it. Now I will only go back when I have a coupon, at which time they need to prove to me that customer service has improved. But your in-store staff or for that matter all of your customer facing representatives need to be a 'Martin to your Lewis' an 'Amos to your Andy'. Both need to be in-concert for a promotion to work effectively. To put it simply, your marketing department can only do so much, what they can't do is be a miracle worker. If you have a customer service problem that is affecting traffic, fix the customer service problem first. Then address the traffic problem.

The Selling Point:
Don't expect your marketing team to fix every problem in your organization. The entire organization needs to adopt a philosophy to stand on. And when business isn't where you think it should be, the entire organization needs to take a look at its role and what it can do to make the experience better for the customer. The days of pointing fingers is over, the world is simply too competitive for that.

tags technorati : Customer Service Retail Blockbuster Mr.Movies Direct Mail
Lead Generation

A phone call follow up...

Last week I posted about Sellingpower.com and how we should add that website to our toolkit for numerous reasons. Well, while I was there I signed up to receive the newsletter that they put out. I only had to enter some personal information, and I was done. Simple enough.

Today my office phone rang... it was Sellingpower.com!
I didn't think they would call?


They were just "doing a follow up to my submission for information, and wanted to inform me about the magazine they also offer." Lori and I had a great less than two minute conversation, followed by an immediate email that she promised to send.

I hung up being so pleased with the whole experience I am writing about. They quickly qualified me as someone slightly interested in the magazine, but not willing to commit right now. Rather than prophesying about how great their magazine is and how I should take advantage of the offer, they simply let me get on with my day.

The Selling Point: Qualification shouldn't be painful for either party. In fact it should be like a trip to a fast food restaurant--get in, get out, get on with your life.

The dreaded fishbowl

This weeks sales tool is not what you should add. But what you should take away. And smash!

I call it the "Trade show Fishbowl." You know exactly what I am talking about. It's that bowl you put out when you are at a trade show with the promise that everyone who enters could receive a free iPod or a gift card. You know you are guilty of doing it, I know I am. I will admit to it.

STOP PUTTING THE FISHBOWL OUT!!!

I am not sure when CEO's decided that the measure of success at a trade show was based on the number of inquiries you had received. But it happened and to respond to that added pressure we all started to put out fish bowls to garner more inquiries. What we find out is that we receive a whole bunch of names of people interested in winning an iPod. Perfect! If your in the iPod give-away business. Of which I am not.

Sure it's great to get inquiries while your at a trade show, but that shouldn't be the measure of success. Trade shows offer the chance to interact with your clients on a neutral playing field. They also give you a chance to scope out your competition and most importantly gauge the pulse of your industry. I could go on, but you get the point.

The Selling Point: Determine your goal of a trade show early on in the planning process. Make sure that you have at least one person from your sales team there to work the booth and qualify the inquiries on the spot. And most importantly, gather quality information for your sales team.

And the fish bowl...well I am sure that your secretary would love a goldfish.

Get SMART

Ready-fire-aim. How many of us have used this as our driving force when we are called upon to generate leads or get sales threw the door? Maybe it was the CEO or some top level executive that wanted to see leads right away? Rather than taking the time to plan out a campaign or look at what our objectives are we simply starting firing in the dark and hope to hit something, anything.

I think we call take a page from Don Adams when setting goals and priorities and make sure they are:

S-pecific
M-easurable
A-achievable
R-ealistic
T-imed

The Point:This shouldn't be a new concept for you. But I feel the need to be reminded of the most simplest things.
By making sure that your plan is specific its easy to measure your success. The goal should be achievable and realistic to keep you team and staff motivated. And lastly your goal should have a time table to allow for evaluation and benchmarking. Firing in the dark, hoping to land a million dollar sale sometime in the future isn't the best way to run a sales team. By setting SMART goals, your sales team and your bottom line will thank you.

Ring ring!

It goes without saying that the "right hand" of any salesperson is the phone. Phoning is timely, interactive, and personal–the perfect combination of assets for building a relationship.*

When I started in sales I failed over the phone. We are talking crash-and-burn. And I didn't know why! I couldn't get an appointment, much less sell anything. My ship was sinking and I had to find a way to plug the holes quickly or start looking for a new job.

So I went a bought a book about relationships. Not a book about sales.

I turned to the chapter about talking over the phone. And I began soaking up every word on every page. It became clear to me that I wasn't listening to person at the other end. And not just the words coming out of there mouth, but the tone and inflection in their voice. The little "non-verbal" cues they were giving me.

The Selling Point: Some of the best advice about sales is not always found in a book written about sales. I didn't have a problem selling I had a problem developing relationships. Since I had to learn how to develop a relationship with my customer over the phone, it only seemed natural to read a book about relationships. My best advice for you is to not always jump to the business section of your local bookstore when you are looking for an answer.

* Quote taken from Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.

Being outside the box

To some extent today your target market is outside of normal thinking. Look at the world we inhibit. Do you really think your target market reads a billboard, or a magazine ad? Nope, they don't have the time. So what about the social networks?

The increasing trend in marketing and advertising is to create a myspace webpage or something similar on facebook. Think I am kidding? Just jump over to myspace and search for your favorite item. Sobe Adrenaline (part of the billion dollar energy drink industry) has a page, even a new show on HGTV called "Living with Ed"has a myspace page!

The Selling Point: Are you taking advantage of all the FREE sites that are out there? And more importantly are you paying attention to what your target market looks at while online. The best rule to remember is that your customers are paying more attention to your competitor's site than they are your site.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!
Nick just pointed me to a couple of Presidential websites. Both the John Edwards Presidential site has a link to his myspace page and the Tom Vilsack Presidential site also includes a link to myspace and facebook. These are two great example of expanding your thinking and working to grab your target market.

It's not a lead, It's and inquiry!

Too often we come back from a tradeshow or a meeting with a client and the first question from our boss is "so how many leads did you get?" The smart salesman says "none", because he knows a lead isn't a lead until you qualify it. Until the qualification stage happens it's merely an inquiry.


Brian Carroll, author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, states it best when defining a lead over an inquiry. "An inquiry is an interested party who has requested information and needs some level of assistance."

The first step in defining an inquiry is to have an ideal customer profile. Yup, that means your sales department and marketing department are going to have to get together and agree on something. But it's the most important thing they will agree on. It's your ideal customer, and it's vital to your marketing department to target. And even more important for your sales department to pursue. Having a universally defined ideal customer gives you a blue-print to qualify an inquiry. Your ideal customer profile should be based on previous leads (not inquiries) that turned into successful sales. It should represent your target market for your product or service. To put it simply, it should the person that you always want walking through your door, going to your website, or calling you on the phone to buy your product.

So what is a lead anyway? Well a lead is a potential customer who inquired about your company and fits your description of an ideal customer profile. Therefore, not all inquiries are leads. A lead has a high probability of turning into a sale. Where an inquiry has a low probability of turning into a sale.

Why all the fuss? Well if you feed your salespeople too many inquiries and call them leads your going to frustrate them immediately. They will loose faith in the marketing department and have zero faith in your leadership.

The Selling Point: Stick to the basics, qualify your inquiries, and give your sales people the best leads possible. I assure you that your bottom line will thank you.

The Gas Station Marketer

From a marketing and advertising standpoint the gas station sign has always intrigued me. From its early days of the flashing arrow, harkening you to come in and purchase trinkets including the occasionally over-cooked hot dog. The gas station sign has become a part of Americana. It not only gives us the price of gas, but reminds us that a slurpy is only $.99 and is for a limited time only. The funny thing about the gas station sign with its pre-spaced letters is the limited amount of space you're given to convey a message. Companies will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year looking for way to incorporate a theme into every inch of packaging. (Which to be honest, the gas station sign is packaging.) Need an example? Take for instance Snapple, with its phrases underneath the cap. Bingo you just been sold to! So the fact that a company would spend thousands of dollars on a sign and then let someone who makes like $8 bucks an hour use it for advertising is beyond me. None-the-less. While driving back from lunch one day I made it a point to drive by this gas station whose sign always gives me a chuckle, and usually causes me to think. But usually not think in marketing terms. So today’s sign was:

Chicken
Tenderloin
Pizza

That’s it? What's so special about that, I thought. Are they now selling the worlds first chicken-tenderloin-pizza? And if so, good god how gross could that be! Or are they selling chicken, tenderloins, and pizza? More than likely its probably the latter, as they mostly get construction workers in and hand held food is the way to go for lunch. ( I don’t mean that in a derogatory fashion , but it is true.) Then I thought, way to go $8 dollar-an-hour-gas station-attendant-wanna-be-marketer! You just got me so intrigued about the product your selling that I almost want to check it out. And you did it without the use of flashy billboard style advertising. Of course he must still bow his head to the greatest of all $8 dollar-an-hour-gas station-attendant-wanna-be-marketers, that person resides in Cleveland, just north of downtown. Where in his infinite wisdom he placed the words:

Fried Chicken
Baked Fish
Praise Jesus

Not only did he get product placement its due justice, but reminded me to be religious. And the whole time I thought. I probably would need to praise Jesus after eating any of the first two.

The Selling Point: No matter what your budget is, take a cue from the gas station in Cleveland and BE CLEVER! The best advertising is one that causes conversation and not amnesia.

Sales Quote: Today, many companies are reporting that their number one constraint on growth is the inability to hire workers with the necessary skills.
-Bill Clinton