I have been a quota carrying sales guy now for over 35 years. I started out as a film major but joined a corporation and became a programmer…and technology became my field… but how to make more money? I became a sales rep.

I will recount my adventures in technology — its been pretty interesting … and it all had bearing on my career. Apart from technology and sales, I’ll occasionally supplement with articles on on other topics such as music and even lawn care (I was known in my neighborhood as The Sod-father)

I’ll also talk about the “invisible hand” that guided me …

Let’s start with a first story: At Symantec in the mid 90’s, I was assigned a tech rep — lets call him Ray — and we had a massive territory as the enterprise sales team for the Midwest and Pacific regions. We travelled 3-5 days a week. Houston for our oil and gas prospects, then on to Arizona for McDonnell-Douglas Apache Helicopter, LA for McDonnell-Douglas passenger planes and Grumman and then Seattle for Boeing. It was a Wednesday night after three days of travel and we were deplaning, schlepping computers and luggage, and as we shuffled our way out onto a freezing jet way Ray says:

“Paul, There is only one thing worse than being Willy Loman…”

“What’s that Ray?”

“Being Willy Loman’s assistant..”

How true. Here we go!

Notes on Creating a Discussion Outline Proposal Creation

At Arthur Young there was an overall set of guidelines that explained the general process of going from specifics to a broader perspective:

• First, the Consultants would gather the facts
  • This was from interviews and documents. Key operational info would be determined.
• Second, the Managers would add the weasel words:(*)
  • that is, words or statements intentionally ambiguous or misleading (i.e., salesy)
  • usually where we added some hyperbole or increases / decreases such as “Increased by 10%”
• Thirdly, the Partner would take out the facts:
  • This sort of distilled process allowed us to talk at a strategic level, e.g., “we can increase sales by 10%” without getting lost in the weeds.
• The Discussion Outline I describe was often attached as an appendix.

* Did I say “weasel”? I meant “Mink”

But this has an important lesson for us: the promise of tomorrow is always there and can be a distraction. We think it will always be there … therein lies the trap. A focus on today prevents us from getting to tomorrow. Successful sales people are highly responsive. we are busy working on prospects that are active — But that often keeps us busy and we never get to the activities that are needed for developing a pipeline.

You have to make time to build pipeline: to work on the things that aren’t ready now but might be later. This is about the prospect’s timing as well as time management by the rep. In many reps thinking, the odds of winning a new prospect are much worse than the “sure things” you are working on now so they work everyday on today… that you’ll get to the other leads later: the Free Shrimp Tomorrow syndrome.

So, periodically, you need to look at the leads that are in your possession and start to assess their potential:

• First, i would try to sort out leads who could never buy: size, complexity, incompatibilities — identify early so they don’t clog your pipeline. Some reps hold on to everything — and you can see leads that reps have worked for years with no progress. Get real.

• Second, be honest about the time frame of a prospect. I used this rule to work my pipeline: A good sales person knows when a customer could buy, a great one can move it forward. (The first part is important for this discussion; the second part is more about forecasting.)

I would look at my deals and project their estimated close date based on the customer’s process, taking into account demos, tests, purchasing, legal review etc. Many reps get tripped up and focus on winning the presentation without understanding the entire process and timeline — when there is much work to do. Not knowing the timeline leads to “slipped deals”.

This is what i call: Spilling your candy in the lobby. She would have offered a discount that wouldn’t help us — but the customer would say: “we have to use the discounted pricing even thought it wasn’t in September because this is what we submitted to the board.” (Not to mention that she was unaware of the board approval requirement).

BONUS TIP: I always check on approval levels early in the cycle — helps with planning. Many reps operate linearly — one step after the other other. I attribute some of my success (especially on larger deals) by working on concurrent tasks. the goal was to shorten the sales cycle.. At some point, if i felt we have made progress, I’d suggest, “Based on how things are proceeding, is now a good time to submit our legal agreements so you can review?” This is a bit of a trial close. No matter what the answer, you “”win” — in the sense that your buyer will either give it a green light or raise reasons for not (in which case you can work on this now rather than being surprised at the end of the process).

I had a large deal — it was stalled — my sponsor said it was stuck in purchasing…so i headed down to the 5th floor to introduce myself (BTW: I didn’t ask my prospect for permission — I just headed down. in that sense, I was a bit aggressive.) what I learned was fascinating:

The goal for considering these timing issues is so that you can more accurately project when deals should be closed. Id put these deals on a virtual WhiteBoard that my tech rep and inside rep could see and wed use that to discuss what each of us had to do. This allowed us to work on big and small deals for each quarter.

The objective of this is to balance your time..

But what about leads that aren’t ready? you put in a folder, or put a call back reminder on your calendar. More shrimp for tomorrow. .. that you don’t get to. its sort of like catching a fish that isnt legal — you throw it back and hope it comes back when it is ready.

What are the odds of catching the same fish twice?

However you get leads, they will fall into one of two categories: In talking with a lead, you’ll identify some that wont ever buy — so you mark with notes as No Opportunity…and you’ll identify some that could benefit from your products/services but cant move now — for example, a contract. So you’ve talked with them, understand the fit and timing — now what?

I call these Future Prospects – and this is a major way to build pipeline for the future.

Since you qualified them, presumably they now know more about you. You should keep in touch: not “are you ready now?” but some special messaging that keeps your brand and value prop in front of them so that you have multiple touches. don’t send the same brochure and don’t use the same messaging you use to develop suspects. Focus on information the Future Prospect my find helpful and that helps drive awareness and urgency to act: share success stories about customers like them who have succeeded, ROI, reasons to migrate etc. Focus on benefits for your customers.

Size doesn’t matter — everyone wants a Jumbo Shrimp but selling to only big customers is deceiving: they need attention, require your time – but maybe they are buying all they can. Your pipeline building should include customer accounts that could buy more: share of wallet. Maybe they use a long time supplier but you are a back up, or maybe they are building a new product line and will grow – but now are using just a little of your product – but could they buy more? What is your share of their wallet? You need to know because it is most likely easier to build up an existing client than to win a new one . but if you look at sales numbers, you might go Bah. Peppers & Rogers called this Most Growable.

Retain your customers of course, but they advocated firing customers who cost you money (Below Zero)…I was never a fan of firing — but set pricing accordingly and your lower end will self selct out. Many businesses and reps look at the immediate order — not the potential.

So, in conclusion, keep the future in your current plans. Understanding timing gives you flexibility. You’ll have plenty of shrimp any day you want.

The old adage makes the point: you have two ears and one mouth: use in same proportion. You can’t learn if YOU are talking.
Listening is hard work. First, you have to get people talking. Second, you often will/can be the person who leads the discussion… but how? By asking questions.

So “talking” is part of listening. What comes first? It depends.

if someone is willing to talk, let them go…While they are speaking, Take notes of cadence, changes in tone, etc. and let them go until you get a chance to ask clarifying questions… to ask what I call “gap questions” — to seek missing detail.

If the reverse is true, say you are following up on their visit to your website, then I had a stock open ended question. I’d start by reminding them that “I am following up on your visit / call” —- establishes that you are just being responsive to them:

• “What prompted their visit/call ?” — what’s going on in Their business
  — why is this important?
  The goal early on is to get them talking about key aspects of their inquiry.
• don’t make it obvious you are qualifying: qualify first around motivation and business reason, urgency … you can get other specific details along the way.
• “how do you see this playing out?”
  Get them to verbalize their current vision. Verbalization brings their thoughts out into the open … hardens them. It’s an important psychological step in helping them commit… to themselves first of all. It helps them solidify their thinking.

So, your first efforts are “talking” — now we’re ready to switch roles.

Your next “talking” is now to build rapport and convey your role.

• “Thanks for that detail — based on what I’ve just heard we can help.”...or if you can’t, let them know: “We don’t do that…” Better to move on.
• That’s it. You may have some specific questions to answer for the prospect … get a few easy ones off the table… starts to build rapport.
• Ultimately, before you conclude the call, you want to focus on the key driver(s) — not minutiae. Make sure you understand and have the detail. This is an important feedback loop: to the prospect you are showing genuine interest and you are talking about their project –not yours.
• shift to: “ for next conversation, I’d like to include xxx from my team to hear the next discussion”..”who would you add?”
  Surface other influencers. Quietly, you are being presumptive about “the next meeting”
• close with “what’s your best next step and when?”

remember, it’s important to listen… but someone has to shape the dialogue.

Other Active Listening skills:

• Focus on the prospect – be attentive
• Listen for tone, energy, inflections
• Don’t rush to speak during a pause
• whenever the prospect starts talking STOP talking IMMEDIATELY — NO EXCEPTIONS — – even if you are mid sentence; the prospect is “thinking out loud” – if you talk you might miss something important — and there is nothing you can say that is more important than what the client has to say.
• When you do talk, don’t rush. Pause for reaction. Try to use same cadence as the prospect – it’s called mirroring – it’s human nature to work with people who are. Like themselves…think about it.
• Reflective listening helps: give the user feedback to get confirmation – but be careful because if you feedback word for word its mimicking and can get annoying – use it to summarize key points – in your words.

Every conversation should end with a next step. My good friend Ron Holm of the Track Selling Institute, calls it An act of Commitment”  — sharing info, a meeting, read your proposal, an introduction. Some next step. Track Selling is great on this – and earlier in my career I learned a lot from SPIN selling on this topic as well.

NOTE: This is make or break: if you don’t get a commitment to a next step, it will be hard to reconnect — this is where many leads go —

Alternative: make some suggestions and try and get the the client to talk about future steps: it’s called “coaching the witness”

• “what would you say to your boss about this sale?”
• “What’s your goal here in an ideal world?
• “What do you think the influencers will say?”

You are leading the discussion but its all customer talking.

Listening is not just you asking / they respond: its a feedback loop on anything they say: weather, co workers, concerns.

I’ve attached a list of “killer questions” I developed and used — that can be used early, are structured but not scripted, and in my experience creates a conversation.

Some final thoughts:

• Scripts: I can’t use a script … and in fact scripts fly in the face of listening: they are telling. But they can be a list of talking points: whatever, make it natural, make it you.
• Don’t use cliches, don’t use hyperbole, don’t use words you don’t know.
• “Don’t spill your candy in the lobby” When you give up something too early: discounts, concessions, before you get to a proper negotiating position.
• Finally, There is a condition that is somewhat embarrassing .. but it can happen to us all… where we get overly eager to tell the prospect “the can’t wait” info you want to share: it’s called PE: premature elaboration….patience is the only cure though there is a low cost sales aid ….

Conclusion: Remember if you are looking for a mutual win, you are a participant – not just an observer. Your role is not to just listen, but to be helpful in shaping the direction of the conversation: organizing, sharing some info, name dropping, making “what if” recommendations. If you know the market, your products/services, competition — you have a lot to offer…a meaningful conversation helps you understand the prospect’s needs and allows you to demonstrate your expertise in small bits.

Your list of Killer Questions

https://thestoryofselling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/closing-killer-questions-jan2023-master-1.doc