Back on May 9th, I posted part one of my "Write This Down!" series - really just a running list of helpful sayings and ideas that I share with sellers in my workshops. Today we add to the list. Enjoy and share.
The Opposite of yes isn't no. The opposite of yes is anything other than yes. Most sellers don't get this fact. They hear "we're waiting on our budget" or "we have a couple more proposals to look at" and they stop selling. They don't see these as the objections or brushoffs that they are and fail to qualify them further. Hence all the ambivalence and murkiness in your pipeline.
The opposite of selling isn't not selling. It's describing. This idea prompted the biggest response I've ever gotten to The Drift. Somewhere along the line we lost the connection between sales and actually selling stuff. The goal is to persuade and change the outcome. But sellers and those who support them seem completely focused on just endlessly describing stuff.
Don't take no from someone who can't also tell you yes. This ancient gem still shines. It's particularly poignant in our industry because of all the lower-level gatekeepers whose main purpose seems to be role-preservation. Sellers either don't know these bureaucrats can't green-light projects or are just too frightened of 'getting in trouble' to push any boundaries.
Promotional Message: If you could tell five thousand digital sales leaders and sellers about your product or service each week in a focused, exclusive environment, would you do it? Digital sellers have been anticipating, reading and sharing The Drift for more than 15 years. A provocative, POV-driven read, it's also a great vehicle for our underwriting sponsors. We're taking reservations for the second half of 2017, so if you're interested please contact Tamara Clarke to plan your campaign today.
Big decision makers want to make big decisions. I like to talk to sales teams about the client's floor of consideration. We think that by keeping the price minuscule and reassuring everyone that it's just a test we are making the customer more likely to act. But serious executives don't want to take political and business risks to spend $50-100K. Risk aversion only works with those who probably don't want to buy from you anyway.
Work backward from the cost of the unsolved problem. The core of the media sale is to stack up enough units of value - pre-rolls, banners, videos, full page takeovers, impressions, etc. - to justify a price tag. But it's not about that anymore. As I like to say, if you want to make a million dollars, go find a $20 million problem to solve. One of the crippling limitations of media thinking is that we never stop to consider what the unsolved problem - or the unrealized opportunity - is really worth.
Stop negotiating against yourself. Speaking of crippling downsides... Experience is a great teacher in our business. Unfortunately it tends to teach limitations. Show me 10 "experienced digital sellers" and I'll bet you that eight of them know exactly why every new idea won't work....why the customer won't pay that price....and why there's really, actually no way out.
Don't sell or manage to what's in the other person's head. Managers and sellers alike seem fixated on changing belief and getting others fully on board. We talk of evangelism and winning others over. But this just leads to endless cycles of guessing. Instead, focus on discrete behaviors. A client either agrees to recommend (that's a verb) a buy or not; a seller either books a call, or doesn't. The sooner you focus on the actions of others the sooner you'll be fully in touch with reality - and empowered to start changing it.
