Keenan 411

Jim Keenan is a Senior Sales Executive, Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 Connector, an Entrepreneur still trying to get it right, and a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor for Vail Resorts. Husband to Big E and father to four great kids. In a nut shell, I'm a Sales Guy. Life is good!

Sales – Today, Tomorrow and Next Year

You can sell for today. There are plenty of opportunities to sell what your customer needs now. It’s easy and obvious.

Selling with tomorrow and next year in mind is different. It’s not so obvious.

To sell to the future requires you to know where your customer is going, what will be important to them and why.

Sell with today in mind and you’ll get the sale. But, when the next sale comes around you’ll have to start the sale all over again.

Sell with tomorrow in mind, and your customer will know when they will be buying again and why. They will see today’s sale as just one in many. They will understand today’s sale takes care of today’s problems and sets them up for fixing tomorrow’s problems as well.

Companies don’t stop changing, they aren’t static. So, why sell to them that way. Think about tomorrow.

March 3, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process, The Chase | Comments |

How Would You Sell A Toyota Today?

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 24: (FILE) The Sun shines...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Our second Collaborative Coaching post targets Toyota’s recent difficulties.

A reader asked; “How would you approach selling new Toyota’s given the recent news?”

What a great question. When companies are hit with recalls, and defective products that put peoples lives at risk, selling is the last thing most folks are thinking about. Yet, the selling must go on.

Think Tylenol, the Ford Escape and Firestone Tires.

Despite the news, and the hysteria, Toyota dealership are still open, and the sales guys still have a quota.

Understanding this, how do you sell a Toyota in this environment?

A couple of my suggestions:

  1. Educate – share the facts with prospects, break the problem down to exactly what it is, how often it happened, what Toyota is doing to fix it, how it’s been addressed with newer models and therefore not a problem, etc.  Give your prospects as much information as possible.  Don’t hold back.  The more info they have, the less the risk will appear.
  2. Other models- remember Toyota has a fleet of brands that are not defective and have incredible resale value, and are extremely reliable.  Remind your prospects why Toyota has become the number one car company in the world
  3. Embrace fans – despite the negative press, Toyota has a huge following and fan base.  Reach out to your fan base and offer special incentives for them to buy or thank them for being owners.  Give them free oil changes, discounts on required maintenance, etc.  Pull-out all the stops with your fans.  They will sell for you.
  4. Don’t over react – a number of people won’t buy a Toyota today because of the news.  But a lot of people will and are.  People still buy Fords, Firestone still sells tires and Tylenol is still given out by hospitals.  Treat it as business as usual, with the news being just one more objection to overcome.   Just don’t make it more than it needs to be.

Selling a Toyota is going to be harder, but it’s not going to be impossible.  Be open with the information, remember what makes Toyota good, listen to your prospects, reward your loyal fans, and don’t over react.   The sales will come.

What do you guys think?   How would you sell a Toyota today?

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February 23, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance, The Chase | Comments |

Work the Canvas

Sales is pretty simple. It’s about creating revenue. How the revenue is created isn’t so simple. Like an artist you have to work the canvas.

girl-stick-figure

Good sales people see things others don’t. They work the canvas, adding the right elements to the right places. Like an artist each line and stroke works on top of the last. Colors blend, shadows embellish and depth field are manipulated to create the work.

Like an artist, sales is about seeing how the different elements come together. It’s about seeing the subtleties. It’s the simple connection, between customer and product. It’s seeing the emotional components, the motivational influences and the subtle reactions to new information.

monet

In sales like art, you create a picture, it’s how you draw the picture that determines how well you work the canvas.

How do your work the canvas? It’s all about the subtleties you see.

What do you draw; stick figures or Monet’s?

February 14, 2010 | Filed under: Personal Development, Sales Process, The Chase | Comments |

I Don’t Care About Hospitals

I was in a customer meeting the other day when the customer asked about the financial benefits of our new technology. The account manager answered the question by confidently telling the story of how our technology enabled a hospital to reduce it’s discharge times from 4 1/2 hours to 30 minutes. It was a compelling story. By reducing the discharge time, the hospital saved money, increased room availability, and reduced employee time spent transitioning patients. It was an excellent example of what our technology can do.

The problem; our partner doesn’t sell to hospitals and they aren’t a hospital.

The partners response? “That’s a great story, but I don’t care about hospitals, our competitors do. That’s part of their business, it’s not part of mine. I don’t sell to hospitals. This continues to show me you don’t understand my business.”

Our partner was right. He wanted examples of how his business could benefit from our technology. He wanted to understand how we were going to help HIM meet the market demands HIS company is facing, not those of his competitors. He doesn’t care about hospitals, he doesn’t sell to them.

This happens far too often. A company has this killer case study, a great story of how their product made a huge impact on one of their customers. It’s the perfect story illustrating the value of the companies product. It spreads through the sales team like wildfire. Eventually, it becomes part of every sales persons “pitch.”

The problem is; it’s not one size fits all. It has the wow factor. It hits all the sales elements, but smart customers see right through it. It’s not relevant to their business.

This weeks Sales Smack asked the question, Is Sales on Autopilot. I think this is an example of yes, they are.

If your customer isn’t a hospital, don’t talk about hospitals. If your customer isn’t a bank, don’t talk about banks. If you customer isn’t a hotel, don’t talk about hotels. Know your customers business, and give them examples they can understand. Make your stories matter or just don’t tell them.

February 12, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process, The Chase, Uncategorized | Comments |

Sales Leaders; Got Your Coaching Hat On?

My friend Jen Ward wrote a post the other day about how to change behavior. It had this great quote in it;

“sales reps need to become comfortable with making others uncomfortable.”

I agree with her.

Someone also agreed with her and left this comment.

“This makes sense. I rarely ever push for a sale from a client, yet I routinely see companies who do a lower level of quality take sales away from me because they push the clients really hard. I’ve ended up with many clients who went with someone else to build their site and then a year later came back to me to fix what the first company did. Pretty much, all of my business comes from recommendations from previous clients or people I have already worked with.

I have a client today that is struggling with the decision to rebuild his 8 year old simplistic website (and poor artwork) with a well designed site able to handle all of the features he wants. Money doesn’t seem to be a factor. He is nervous with change. It’s summed up with “The unknown is scary”.

There are tons of “opportunities” in this comment. My coaching side just wants to take over. I can see a bunch of ways “Toff” could improve the way she sells.

What about you?

Based on the comment, how would you coach her?

February 6, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Leadership, Sales Process, Uncategorized | Comments |

Six More Weeks of Winter . . . I Think

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and the little guy saw his shadow. Therefore; it means we have 6 more weeks of winter. I think.

As a kid this made no sense to me. It was confusing as hell, actually. To me, the logic was backward. If the groundhog saw his shadow, it meant the sun was out. If the sun was out, it was warm. If it was warm, spring must be close.

From my point of view, being from Boston, it was cloudy and cold all winter and sunny and warm in the spring. Therefore, the idea that seeing his shadow (made possible by the sun) meant spring was further away was backward.

Selling is similar. Often what makes complete and logical sense to us, is the complete opposite of how the customer sees it. We need to make sure we understand how are customers are looking at the problem. Their point of view my draw very different conclusions.

Don’t be quick to assume your customer is following what you’re saying, they maybe just as confused as I am with Groundhogs Day.

Can anyone explain to me why if he sees his shadow, spring is further away? I still don’t get it.

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February 3, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service, Random, What I Think! | Comments |

Ask the RIGHT Questions

Questions matter in sales. Questions give us insight. They lead us to solutions. They give customers confidence of our capabilities. Questions are a valuable tool of sales.

If a Dr. only asks how do you feel and how long have you been feeling that way, she can’t provide the proper diagnosis. A mechanic can’t fix your car with questions like; What’s wrong with the car? How long has it been going on? How loud is the sound? To diagnose a problem requires deep, relevant understanding of the subject. Questions aren’t enough, you have to know WHAT questions to ask.

Sales is like being a Dr. or a Mechanic, it diagnoses problems. Asking a few superfluous, high-level questions isn’t enough. You need to know what you’re looking for.

Questions are a tool in the sales bag. Knowing how to use the tool is critical. It’s not enough to have it in your bag or use it once in awhile. It needs to be used effectively. We need to be experts in using questions.

Wielding the questions tool requires subject matter expertise, an idea of what your looking for, and the flexibility to ask new questions if you can’t find what you looking for. It requires openness to unanticipated answers, and the ability to probe.

Sales is the ability to solve problems. Like a Dr. or a Mechanic, Sales must first know what is wrong. Knowing what’s wrong takes asking the right questions, not just any question.

Customers are too smart to accept a weak diagnosis. They know when someone can solve their problems. Just because we offer a solution doesn’t mean it will fix their problems. We need to know what their real problems are and that comes from asking the right questions.

Ask the RIGHT questions. You’ll get the RIGHT answers. Then, you’ll know the RIGHT solution.

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January 20, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service, Sales Process, The Chase | Comments |

No One Likes To Admit They Don’t Know – Why You Should Love Sales People

We don’t know, what we don’t know and this is why good sales people are invaluable.

We buy things to be more productive, gain a competitive edge, play golf better, sell more stuff, serve customers better, or save money. We buy stuff to make our world better. The problem is we don’t always know what could make our world better. That is why sales people are so important. They help us know what we don’t know.

Selling to us is hard because we dig in. We operate from the idea that we already know it all. We are resistant to sales calls. We avoid sales people when they walk up to us. We tell them we are all set, before we let them talk. We build a giant wall, difficult for sales people to climb. We feel good about it. We feel like we are winning. But are we?

What is it worth to find a faster, cheaper way to make your widget. What’s it worth to make your sales team more productive? What’s it worth to get rid of that nasty slice? What’s it worth to gain on your competitor? There is always a better way, a better product, an innovative solution. Finding it is the difference between success and failure.

The bigger the wall you build, the harder to improve; to find faster, better, cheaper. Sales people know what you don’t know.

Lower the wall, make sales people spend more time focusing on your problems and less time getting to you. You will be the winner in the end.

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January 11, 2010 | Filed under: Random, Sales Process, The Chase | Comments |

No One is Coming

WaitingGreat sales people learned this a longtime ago. There is no hiding in sales. You can’t sit in a corner and wait to be bailed out or rescued.

Knowing no one is coming is empowering. It forces us to work a little harder. We become more creative. We build better relationships.

When no one is coming, we stop focusing on the problem and focus on solutions. When no one is coming, being idle is death.

To sales people, knowing no one is coming comes with the territory. They push, strive and fight for success.

Sales people often get a bad rap. Sometimes it’s deserved, but most the time it’s just because they are always moving, working to solve problems, and getting things done. This scares people, especially those who are waiting for someone to come.

In sales, no one is coming and there is no hiding. It’s just part of the gig.

What would you do different, if you knew no one was coming?

December 17, 2009 | Filed under: Business Performance, The Chase | Comments |

Sunday Morning Blog: The Sales Blog

I’m giving a little love today, to a solid, straight-up, sales blog. The Sales Blog by Anthony Iannarin is sales all the way. He hits topics square and lays out solid perspectives and ideas. The Sales Blog is a learning blog and that’s what makes it worth something.

Anthony asks questions as the end of many of his posts. I like that. You end up taking the post with you and that makes it more sticky.

Some good posts to check out:

Why You Fail

Sales Acumen vs. Business Acumen

Persistence vs. Respectful

If selling is what you do, then read The Sales Blog too. You’ll only get better.

Happy Sunday Morning Blog reading, enjoy your coffee.

December 13, 2009 | Filed under: Sales Process, Sunday Morning Blog, The Chase, Uncategorized | Comments |

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