Archive for February, 2010

Auto Suggest Slip Ups

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Software providers have developed tools that help us message faster. Auto suggest is the capability of a software to anticipate what word you might be trying to type from the first few letters. Accepting the suggestion saves keystrokes. It also causes some interesting messages.

I thought I’d capture those I encounter occasionally. The first one that happened occurred this week in an email exchange. I sent a message to an associate on my team asking if he would like to invite one of our corporate experts to participate in a customer meeting next week. The exchange went something like this:

Me: Would you like to bring the subject matter expert to our performance review?
Associate: Defiantly!

Obviously the response was meant to be “Definitely!” but the auto suggestion introduced a little humor to the dialogue.

I’ll keep an eye out for these auto suggest slip ups and share them. Feel free to add yours in the comments section below.

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Spreading the Word

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I spread the word on priming and had some interesting things happen. An associate at work who deals with subcontractors asked me about priming after he saw my reference to Brian Ahearn’s tip posted on my Linked In profile. I explained the concept.

Consider that my friend is sitting on the other side of the desk, in a purchasing role. If anyone doesn’t believe this is good for both parties – read my friend’s reaction to my explanantion of priming.

“Awesome Ray. Thanks. Thinking about this we get a lot of supplier visits…sometimes they prime us sometimes not…and it does go better when there is priming!”

I was working with an associate on my team in South Bend this week. Over dinner we discussed priming. I could tell she wasn’t sure about it. On the first call we made the next day the customer came out and asked “Are you just checking with me or did we need to meet today?”

The customer was also surprised to see me. She had not planned for the meeting because she hadn’t been primed. She had to go secure a conference room at the last minute.

Despite the missteps at the beginning the call went well and we actually secured a significant piece of new business. However, the point was made. Given that this representative is a professional, she quickly said “Excellent Advice for a more prepared & successful sales call. A technique that I bought into today…..great coaching advice. Thank you for sharing.”

So you see, good sales techniques aren’t manipulative. Priming makes the sales meeting better for everyone. Well, everyone except the competition!

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Priming

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

My friend Brian Ahearn shared this material on a strategy to make sales calls more effective for both the sales person and the customer or prospect.

Vince Lombardi said, “The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.” His philosophy captures the fundamental principle of success – preparation. You may have heard these quotes, “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity” and “Chance favors the prepared.”
Preparation for a sales call includes how the sales call is set up. A recurring theme I heard from managers was they felt their people could do a better job setting up their sales calls. Below are a few simple steps people can use to ensure the best chance for success.
  1. Follow Up Email. After an appointment is set by phone have sales associates send an email confirming the date, time and agenda. The email should also ask the agent if there are other issues to look into before the meeting to avoid being blind sided while in their office. Have your people cc you so you can be sure it’s getting done and to use it as a potential coaching opportunity.
  2. Confirmation Email. It’s always good to confirm the appointment is still on so have people resend the original email the morning of the scheduled meeting. It can be as simple as telling the agent they’re looking forward to seeing them. By sending the original email it gets the agenda in front of the agent for the third time.
  3. Restate Agenda. Once the sales associate is on the sales call, after the meet and greet, they should restate the agenda. This will be the fourth time the agent has heard or seen the agenda so they’ve given it thought, whether consciously or subconsciously. They’re mentally ready to talk about the agenda items unlike an agent who’s confronted with a “drive by” meeting or one where the agenda was never mentioned until the sales associate walked in the door.
  4. Email Afterwards. This is the time to put in writing next steps, whatever was agreed to and potential outcomes.
The above steps tap into the psychological principle known as “priming.” Knowing people’s thoughts and behaviors change because of what they are exposed to beforehand, it’s up to us to make sure they are in the right frame of mind before, during and after a sales call.

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