Please stop wasting their time

It always amazes me when sales people are trying to win new business how many of them spend so much time selling to the wrong people on an account.

One of the biggest differences I see between the great and the average reps is how they allocate their time.

The average ones spend an enormous amount of time selling to the wrong people.

Just because someone has a certain title it doesn't mean they have the authority or influence to purchase from you.

There are many great time wasting strategies reps can use but one of the best would have to be spending time selling to someone who has limited influence.

I have seen this time and time again over the years. It is a complete waste of the sales reps time and your money if you are footing their wages bill.

Try a few of these questions to help work out who's who in the zoo:

• Pablo, if you were to purchase from us how would you go about making that decision?
• Could we set up a time now for me to meet with the other people who may be involved in deciding? How often (and when) do you get together?
• Julie, can I just ask you, what is your role in the decision making process?
• How did you organise to purchase from your current provider? Were you part of that process? Remind me again of why you went with them?
• What about Romeo, will he have some say on this or will he be influenced by you?
• How do we go about getting you set up with an account or organising a trial?
• Who else should I speak with about this?
• Why don't we organise a trial now?

At your next sales meeting ask your reps to explain to you how they know they are selling to the right person on the accounts they are chasing.

Quick checklist for your next sales meeting:

For 5 accounts your team are chasing ask them these beauties:

1. How do they know they are selling to the right person / people?
2. Who else have they met with on the account?
3. How much influence does the person they are selling to have?
4. Who else could have some involvement in making the decision to go with us?
5. Has the person they are selling to boss met you? Why not?
6. Why haven't they met other people on the account?
7. When will they present to the others who may be involved?
8. Why are they waiting for them to get back in touch with us?
9. What should we do next?

Leave your car keys and lap top with me as you leave today

When your reps give you that nonsense that they don't want to tread on the person they are selling to toes, politely ask them to leave their keys and lap top with you as they leave the building.

Give them the name of a good recruiter or your competitor’s details. This is a lame excuse for not being hungry enough for the business.

There are plenty of ways of dealing with this as I'm sure you have told them.

Posted in Sales; Tagged Sales, Sales Management; Posted 1 October 2009 by Steve Herzberg