Through a simple and straight forward presentation, we have outlined the importance of this concept, the rules one must follow, and some examples of efficient methods sales people use in changing the buyers very next action.

Urgency is not hard to achieve, though one must pay attention to not turn it into manipulation, for that will only cause a loss in respect and loyalty from the client.

As I have stated before, and yes I will continue even after you have had enough, buyer’s behavior has drastically changed in the past few years due to the amounts of information available at their fingertips and the increase in popularity of social networks. Therefore shifting the initial stages of the sales cycle in their hands.

According to this process, a strong sales opportunity lead would be one who:

- has an evident need that your company can satisfy

- has the authority to finance and approve the purchase

- has the budget to purchase your service or product

- has a specific timeline to which it attains when buying your product or service

Times have changed, and it has become harder and harder for a single lead to meet all the criteria imposed by the process. A strict use of BANT may cause sales reps to ignore valuable leads.

Though need, still remains an essential criteria because without it there would be no sale from the beginning; time, budget and authority have to be analyzed differently in order to prevent the prospect to establish a relationship with a competitor.

Why though? Because:

• most companies no longer budget for purchases in advance
• it is now common that 3 or more people are involved in the buying decision instead of 1
• time as budget is not set until the buyer has selected a supplier

The demand for alternative approaches is constantly increasing allowing the introduction of new guidelines such as:

FAINT (Finance, Authority, Impact, Need, Timing),

ACNE (Authority, Compelling Trigger Events, Need, Engagement) and,

IFISU (Issue, Fit, Impact, Sponsor, Urgency)

It is important to say that BANT is still a significant process in situations where the customer is already aware of what type of solution he is looking for and the budget he will allocate for the purchase. On the other hand though, BANT should not be followed in situations where the client may not recognize the problem or has not defined a specific budget or has not identified you as a possible solution.

Keep in mind that before jumping into a process, you have to analyze whether it is the best way to go based on the situation you and your prospect are in; otherwise you risk spending valuable time on leads that will eventually bring you down a slippery-slope.

How annoying is it when you naively sign up your email on a website not knowing that you will be constantly hammered by their latest, discounts, bonuses, sales, products, services, buy-now-or-else-you-will-loose-the-opportunity-of-a-lifetime-and-die-miserably emails?                                                                                                                                                           In a way, and a very nasty one, this is what marketers define as urgency. Fortunately though, there are other less invasive and obtrusive ways to create this emotion in buyers, helping you speed up the sales process and increase sales without being hated upon by your clients and future prospects.

I defined it as an emotion, because urgency is emotionally driven though it needs some sort of intellectual justification in order to fully attract, convince, and push the buyer to say the magic words: “ok, where do I sign?”. If the buyer is not already interested in your product, urgency will simply drive him in the opposite direction. Now you might be thinking, ok then what do I do?

Rule # 1: it is important that you don’t push a client into purchasing, but rather push him out of his state of procrastination. Make them understand that the more they wait to act upon their pain, the more it will cost them in the long run, money and resource wise.

Rule # 2: Buyers are smart and well informed, they can easily smell manipulation from far away, therefore urgency should always be genuine and truthful. If you’re not honest with your clients, you will quickly lose their loyalty and respect.

Rule # 3: Remind customers why it is important for them to act at this specific time. Though it might not be urgent for them, they must understand that not doing anything can have negative and expensive consequences.

Rule # 4: Time is money. Add a time-related incentive to drive action; an offer that will expire in a couple of weeks, an early price that provides a discount for whoever buys before a certain date and so on.

Now you might think, “great, and now what? How do I put all of this into action?” This is all easier said than done, but there are some tricks sales reps use to speed up the cycle and sign the client. We’ve asked a few of them and this is what we’ve gathered:

- Call all the people involved in the buying and get their approval, then ultimately call the    decision maker letting him know that he is the only one that has yet to sign, making everyone wait.

- Study your clients’ agenda by heart: comex, rush periods, budget dates, quarters, other planned projects, holidays etc. Doing so, you will always be one step ahead, knowing exactly what the buyer has planned.

- Use empathy, puppy eyes included. Ex. “ Please sign now, this would help me close my quarter…”

- Calculate an approximate cost of the wait for the buyer, telling him how much he is losing everyday if he doesn’t sign.

This one more of a gamble but it has been proved to work sometimes:                                 - Call the decision maker to tell him you want to arrange another long meeting with everyone who is involved in the process, to fully discuss if there are any obstacles in the signing. “No I don’t have the time, I’ll sign right away” is the answer you’ll want to hear.

As with every sale, understanding the clients’ needs is essential and fundamental when creating urgency. Focus on gathering as much insight as possible, because the more specifics you can draw, the better you will be able to customize a proposal that creates urgency by putting a solution within easy reach.

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Buying soap for example, is cheap, impulsive, there is not much risk, thought or planning involved and in most cases it delivers results fairly quickly. A B2B buying process on the other hand, is much more complex, methodical, expensive, risky, time consuming and planned. To make things even more complicated for sales reps, buyers are now adapting to the influence of the Internet causing a change in their initial decision process.

Since 2010, we have entered a phase where everything revolves around content marketing and the consumer has acquired more power than ever. 70% of the buyer’s decision process is done before meeting with a sales representative, due to the increased power to access, purchase and research whatever and whenever. Buyers have become more informed, educated, comfortable in making purchase decisions on their own and are willing to learn everything via Web.

B2B buyers feel the need to work within specific ecosystems and rely on network participations; taking their time to map out where to explore and how to explore rather than becoming aware of solutions.

Looking ahead what does all of this mean? That outbound selling is over and that only marketers are going to hold the speech? That all the selling work will be done through word of mouth ? Probably not.

While word of mouth is (as it has always been) a highly strong driver for buyers’ interests, the ol’ fashioned selling outbound actions, are and will still be critical for companies. Very few companies can proudly argue they only deal with inbound requests, right? The current issue is straightforward: as buyers have raised their purchasing IQ, it is urgent for sales teams to dramatically raise their IQ too !

For sales reps, this means putting much more effort in research when looking for prospects and try to place oneself in the buyer’s shoes: what is the number one pain of the client? What is the internal agenda he has to deal with? What is at stake on a strategic level?

Raising awareness of your product or differentiating from the competitors is one thing… but understanding the events and the hidden agenda of the buyer is a completely different thing that is acquiring more and more importance. On top of that, everyone knows that cold calling a decision maker and introducing your product straight away gives zero results.

Sales trigger alerts look like the definitive intelligence sales teams urgently need: they give turnkey starting conversations, are a major way to detect needs, they identify new budgets, seize an opportunity and take control of it.

Who can keep buying raw prospecting lists and ask their sales reps their quota of cold calls?

Who needs a badly equipped army that has no chance winning the battle?

Imagine when you have to buy a new pair of shoes (very often in my case). You browse around the store, you pick a pair (or a couple) to try and eventually choose the one that suits your needs better and of course feels the most comfortable (not always in my case..women!).

The same works for choosing the right method that respects your business and strategy in order to better satisfy your clients and increase your income.

The array of methods to chose from is numerous but like most things, there are a selection that have gained more esteem and relevance throughout the years.

The Miller Heiman, for complex sales cycles.

Solution Selling for a pain relief strategy.

Spin Selling to build rapport with clients and prospects.

Target Account Selling for direct, decisive opportunities.

Customer Centric for loyal, long-lasting relationships.

Challenger Selling to teach, tailor and take control of the sales cycle.

For more information on each specific method listed above, check out our slide deck on our Slide Share profile, and stay tuned for more!

Events can occur both internally and externally for a company and usually involve:

-change in executive staff

-changes in funding

-new product launches

-mergers and acquisitions

-social networking

-expansion/new locations

Though, of a broader category, dissatisfaction is considered to be one of the most powerful triggers for sale. Having access to the people who are dissatisfied and having access to the information that will help them raise their level of satisfaction is gold for a sales rep.

But how can these events have an effect on your sales?

Changes in executive staff for example open an opportunity to sell making it easier for the new management to change suppliers because they can say that a previously poor choice was someone else’s decision. On the other hand, new product launches create demand for supporting products and services that can fuel sales growth for the new product.

Being able to dig the right events is not an easy task to master, but the best way to start is definitely by focusing on companies that reflect your business and trying to think outside of the box. If you sell furniture for example, track the companies that are planning a relocation. If you are a wedding planner, engagement ring purchases would be great sales triggers; as well as hacker attacks if you work in an IT security company.

Other tips you may need:

1. show your clients that you can create a value for them early in the business

2. discover their hot buttons and why they should buy your product or service

3. always show interest in their issues and concern over their needs and wants

4. as soon as a trigger is identified, act upon it as quickly as possible

Moreover, sales trigger events are excellent drivers for selling because:

-they let you engage with more prospects

-they increase your pipeline

-they reduce the sales cycle

-they reduce the time you would normally spend surfing the internet for information

We at IKO are fascinated by the potential of sales triggers and can’t wait to show you our new exciting development… stay tuned!

More surprisingly though, is the social media boom, that is affecting and influencing the lives of millions of people. From teenagers to young adults, from professionals to celebrities, and even our parents; posting, liking, commenting, sharing, tweeting and so forth has become a daily routine.

Networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, allow individuals, brands and companies to endorse themselves as best they can, competing with one another for more “likes” and connections. This phenomenon has reached the sales business as well, inducing sales representatives to rely on social media to follow, acquire and nurture new clients and prospects.

Since, 50% of companies rely on sales reps to find information on clients, they must rely on the resourcefulness of the internet to retrieve such information. But where do they mostly look?

LinkedIn has opened new windows for sales people allowing for a greater client reach and notability. Leveraging on such networks allows sales representatives to follow their clients and keep constantly updated on their moves; in fact up to 25 client profiles are viewed every day.

Unfortunately though, social media can become extremely distractive, especially in work environments, and in some cases even addictive ( have a look at Marketo’s Social Sickness infographic). Office measures are constantly being put into place sometimes even prohibiting access to such networks.

Nonetheless, we are transitioning to an era where online presence is of essential importance both for clients and sales representative, allowing for benefits such as: shorter sales cycles, increase in conversion rates and cost reductions.

For more information, check out our ebook: “Crazy Sales Figures” available for download online.

An infographic is a visualisation of complicated data and information that is conveyed in an easy, smart and appealing way, through the use of images and graphics.

(Un)fortunately, nowadays we live in a world where technology plays a huge role in our daily lives; we are constantly bombarded with information, feeds, instasomethinggrams, notifications, alerts, tweets, pokes, likes and so on. This has huge effects on our attention span, making it harder and harder to pay attention and retain written information that exceeds the 140 character limit.

Only 1% of information gets through the brain
90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
65% of the population are visual learners

Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic
an average of 12% more than those who don’t

(source: diyblogger.net)

To make a long story short, and to prevent you from forgetting everything I just said, here is a list of the Top Sales Infographics of 2012:

1. Secrets of a Successful Sales Manager

   

2. The Anatomy of a Top Performing Salesperson

   

3. Email Marketing + Social Media

   

4. The Inbound Marketing Process

   

   The Evolution of a Salesperson

5. 

6. The Best Practices for Lead Response Management

   

7. Toolbox of the Small Business Marketing Cycle

   

   And finally, #8 is of course: Sale’s Figures and Actions

   

Being a sales rep, is not really what you might call a “walk in the park”, but it involves enduring research, numerous phone calls and even greater rejections. Prospects, are not an easy catch and it takes an average of 8.4 calls to reach one. Moreover, the representative has only 20 seconds to raise interest on the service or product he is endorsing, before hearing the familiar sound of a dead line.

While researching sales methods, I came across a quote by the author of an
article that said (referring to phone conversations):

“You must, however, smile and mean it. If you don’t feel like smiling, then don’t do any sales calling – do some paperwork instead until you cheer up. If you rarely cheer up then you should get out of selling, because unhappy people can’t sell”

True that, because tone and smile can build the trust between sales reps and prospects and lead to the 11% response rate of: “I’m interested, go on!” – Better defined as music for a representative’s ears.

Though, it is not that easy to hit a home-run, in fact 48% of responses are something along the line of: Please stop bothering, I’m not interest.

If you want to learn more on cold calling and maybe revaluate your approach, check out our new infographic ebook: “Crazy Sales Figures”

If not, smile and call me, maybe. 

The key to becoming a successful manager relies on their part, to understand the human nature. This understanding is referred to as emotional intelligence: the ability to relate to, communicate with and motivate the members of the team.

Therefore, what are the management styles to avoid?

There are several ways of defining the traits of a poor leader, and I have tried to sum them up into four different categories:

The Clone Coach

This type of manager, coaches every seller to be an exact copy of himself thinking that this is the best way for the team to achieve success. He does so though, by disregarding its teams experience, knowledge, personality and skills, making it hard for the sellers to outshine.

The Super-Seller/Pace-Setter

Typically, their strategy revolves around the motto: “you get the prospects, I will do the rest.” These managers tend to be selfish in the way that they try to sell more than anyone on the team, “setting the pace” for their subordinates. They care about their own performance and numbers, rather than the team’s overall results; basically, it’s all about them. Sellers on their team usually feel discontent and demoralized, for they can never reach the standards of their leader.

The Disciplinarian/Authoritarian

It’s “his way or the highway”. They feel more superior and dedicated to the job than the rest of their team. Though their style might work well in crisis situations, their disrespectful attitude creates a climate of fear and abuse leading to high staff turnovers.

Statistics prove that in 2012, 12% of sales reps left their position and 10% of managers were fired.

(eBook “Crazy Sales Figures”)

The Pal

Though this type of profile might be appreciated by sales representatives, it is not constructive for the overall performance of the team. The “pal manager”, is friends with the majority of the team because most probably he was once, one of them. He feels part of the “gang” and has confidence and trust in his people. Though, by acting as a friend, it makes it harder for sales reps to take them seriously and it can cause problems when they are required to act more authoritarian.

Fortunately, these are not the only managerial styles that have been adapted throughout the years. The one that exceeds them all though, and has been proven to be the most successful for both the leader and its team is:

The Coach/Participant

These managers, know what emotional intelligence means and rely on its benefits to sustain their team and its performance. They observe, critique and encourage their people, and at the same time they care about the employees growth, success and comfort in the work environment. This behaviour benefits employees because it increases their self-esteem and productivity. The coach, presents clear objectives to his team but nonetheless, is always open to suggestions and input from them.

Graph extracted from the Sales Effectiveness Study 2012 (executiveboard.com)

Outlining the different styles that are not helpful in a work environment, can help managers learn what behaviours are better to be avoided. If you fall under one of those categories, it is time for you to rethink your leadership strategies and adjust your scheme to include the well-being of your team as a priority. Respect, constructive criticism, good communication, openness and motivation are essential criteria managers should master and advocate in the work environment, and should always and foremost be taken into consideration.

To have a great understanding of sales reps’ motives and behaviours, you can read the infographics in the eBook “Crazy Sales Figures”.