LET PEOPLE BUY THE WAY THEY WANT TO BUY

By Ron S. La Vine President of Accelerated Sales Results Telesales Training and Sales Training, Inc.

I was on the phone today in front of class and had a great call. Again it was a 20+ minute call and here are the key details I remember. As an aside, I am a big believer in quality calls measured upon the results produced from the amount of talk time rather than a sheer number of dials. I was cold calling on a very well known and large publisher in Chicago. I called into the headquarters and nailed down the CEO, CIO and VP of IT Infrastructure and none of them were in.

This was okay since I was not prepared to speak with them yet until I had done more homework over the phone. Now most people in the class agreed that they would have left a voice mail and stopped right there.

I was qualifying for a very cool knowledge management and data retrieval tool called ISYS <www.isysusa.com which enables people to index, search and retrieve information from over 125 different types of data sources. The result is it gives people the ability to access knowledge from customers, research (internal data) and partners quickly and accurately (notice the benefit- results statement) right from their desktop PC. In fact I like this software so well I may get a desktop copy for myself.

Someone in class mentioned the search/retrieval engine might work well on a CD-ROM product if this company sold CD-ROM directories. So I used that idea to call in and find out if and where I could buy a CD-ROM directory. The operator said their company does not sell to the public and that they take other company's information and print directories for them.

My next question was "Where was the printing done or where was the operations department located?" The lady referred me to the Digital Media Center in a different city. Well, now I'm thinking I'm getting closer to an opportunity.

Working my way down from the President to the CIO of the Digital Media Division, I reached the Manager of IT who answered the phone. I asked for his permission to speak and he said he had some time. He had a thick accent so I needed to go slow and sometimes repeat myself to be sure we both understood what each other was saying.

I started off by asking how he currently accessed his customer's data. He explained that there was not a need to access their customer's data since it was provided to his company in bulk. He continued to say occasionally the data was provided in the wrong format and they had a programmer who had been there for 20 years whose job was to convert data from wrong formats to usable data formats.

Now I'm beginning to think, wait a minute there does not appear to be a need here and rather than assume that was the case I continued to probe by asking "How do you currently access your internal data?"

Here's the point of this conversation. He did not understand what I meant so I created a picture for him using words. This is all we have when working over the phone. I asked him "If you needed to find your (and I personalized the conversation by using his name so he could picture it) your personnel file how would they go about doing it?" "In other words, how do you find and access specific internal (rather than external) data such as your personnel file?"

All of a sudden he understood what I was saying and explained they did not have a real efficient method for getting to this type of internal data. I asked "If we could provide you with a better method for getting to your internal data would that be of value to you?" My point was to identify what was important to him as the buyer not what I wanted to sell as the seller. I wanted to help him buy the way that he wanted to buy, not the way I wanted to sell. People don't like to be sold they like to buy.

He replied that the solution would have to be able to access a variety of data formats and sit on a UNIX server. He also mentioned that the speed of retrieval time was very important. I listened to what he said and fed it back to him by saying "If we had a solution that would sit on a UNIX server, access a variety of your data formats and retrieve data faster than your current method would that be of value to you?"

His reply was "I would need to test it out to be sure." Next, I asked him if he had access to the web. I asked him to log onto the ISYS web site and sat quietly for a minute or two while he read the home page. Then I asked him based upon what he saw did this look like something that would work for him. And he said it would depend on the tool's capabilities.

At this point I knew I had a commitment for him to evaluate the software as a possible means of replacing or augmenting his current methods.

I asked if he had the authority to buy or did it need to go through the President or CIO first (and I dropped their names). He quickly replied he had the authority to buy. Does this mean he was telling the truth, I don't know? We'll need to find out on the next call.

I asked for his e-mail and street addresses and set up a Sales M.A.P. (mutually agreed upon process) and began asking for an agreement for a specific action step. I asked when would be a good time to follow up with him and suggested Monday. He replied Mondays were always busy and then he said he would prefer to learn more about the product first before agreeing to a specific phone appointment. Again he was telling me how he liked to buy.

Rather than push for a specific appointment, I stepped back and suggested that I email him more detailed information. I followed statement by offering to ship him (I use next-day service to enhance the impression of the receiver and the sender's importance) him a demo CD-ROM. Next I said I would follow up with a quick phone call to be sure he received the information. He agreed that would be fine. When we ended the call he was still at the web site and I ended up handing off a good opportunity.

Don't give up. If an opportunity does not appear in one place or the way you think it would, try looking at the situation from a different location (e.g. division vs. reseller) or direction (e.g. internal use vs. external use).

REPRINT PERMISSION Ron La Vine, MBA is president and founder of Accelerated Sales Results, Inc., a sales training firm located in Oak Park, CA. You can get a special report “41 sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” AND the free bimonthly Sales Tips for Selling Success eZine all by signing up at www.Accelerated-sales-results.com. If you would like information on Live Cold Calling Sales Training please call Ron at 818-991-6487 PST. © 2005 by Accelerated Sales Results, Inc.



LET PEOPLE BUY THE WAY THEY WANT TO BUY - To learn more about this author, visit Ron La Vine's Website.

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