Bulldog Marketing

Selling or Qualifying?

When I had a ‘real job’ I spent most of my career in Sales and Sales Management in the Telecommunications Industry, and not to brag, but I was quite successful. The strange thing is, I am basically an introvert, and the thought of asking people ‘For the Order’ petrifies me. Not really the typical profile of a successful sales person right? So how was I able to outsell all of the Hey Ya sales people, exceed my quota month after month, and forecast my deals with accuracy?

I am a really good qualifyier. I was good at asking the right questions, and trying to find every reason why a person WON’T buy. Most sales people don’t want to know if a person has reservations about moving forward, and only focus on why they would buy, but focusing on why someone wouldn’t and having the guts to ask them about it will allow you to spend your time with the right people. If I look at my sales statistics over the years, I was very bulldog like. I was really too lazy to run a bunch of appointments with prospects, but I was really good at sniffing out the organizations that had a genuine need and desire for what I was offering. If you feel like you are chasing your tail, and would like to be more productive with your time, here are some tips for you.

Selling to Law Firms

I received a comment asking me about selling to Law Firms, so I thought it would be fun to do a post about that. My first reaction to this question was Don’t even try, but seriously, selling to Law Firms is good business if you can get it, so here are some ideas for you. In general, I would treat a law firm just like selling to a large account with Multiple Decision Makers, and you need to cover your bases and meet with as many people as you can to determine if they are motivated enough to entertain the idea of buying from you.

1. You need to understand the structure of the firm as it relates to making decisions, and If possible, get the lay of the land from somebody who is currently selling something to your targeted Law Firm.
2. Build a relationship with as many partners as you can inside the firm, and take time to build strategic alliances with them. In general, most large firms are not a ‘slam dunk’ type of sale, so plan and forecast accordingly.
3. If a product that is geared toward infrastructure efficiency, you will need to sell to both the end users and the decision makers.
4. If your product is geared toward making Lawyers more efficient, they may be a bit resistant to change the way they do things. See if you can get one person inside the firm to use your product on a trial basis (neat pun, hunh!) and have them report the benefits of your product to other members of the firm.

If all this fails, here is something that I did at the beginning of my sales career selling telecommunications services.

I want to think about it

If you have been selling for awhile, unless you are selling valium, you have heard "I want to think about it" come out of your prospects mouth, typically at the big 'Closing Meeting'. For the most part, sales people have some pretty lame comebacks for this, such as," What is it that you want to think about, how much money or time you will save?" or the old alternative choice close applied to I want to think about it which is "Will you be done thinking about it on Tuesday or Thursday since I will be in the area and can come by and pick up the paperwork?"

As an independent professional, do you really understand Why a propect says that in the first place? Would you want to learn how to deal with it? You know the drill, read on!