When you can recognize the difference, you can turn one-off relationships into long-term clients and trusted advisors…

What people think they want vs what they need, right?

How could we possibly presume to know what our clients need, even above what they think they need and what they say they need?

We know because we ask – and we listen – DUH!

There are means needs and there are ends needs. Means needs surface in companies as problems that need to be solved. These problems can be either tactical or strategic, but if you’re focused on solving means needs, you’ll find yourself “closing deals” rather than “enrolling clients.”

If you go into your prospect’s office and accept what he or she has represented to be “the problem,” and you close the deal by solving the problem, then the door closes behind you when you leave. You’re going to have to open it again to get the next deal done, and that’s if someone else doesn’t get there before you to ask, “What’s next?” See, in this situation, with this mindset, your solution was a means to an end (or a step toward an outcome) of which you may not have even been aware.

Again, means needs are about solving tactical and strategic problems. Ends needs are about helping organizations achieve their missions and reach their goals. Now which would you rather your solution be associated with? The ends need, of course. And so would the client.

People are much more emotionally connected to their ends need (mission and goals) than their means need (the immediate problem) – and much more connected to you when you are helping them reach their ends need and achieve their outcomes. Demonstrate to them that you understand their outcome and provide a solution that helps them reach it, and you’re a partner. Close them on the first problem they were willing to reveal and you’re a vendor.

The first need that a prospect reveals is almost always a means need and hardly ever the only need for three reasons:

1. The prospect doesn’t know what the ends need is.

2. The prospect is not ready to reveal the ends need b/c you have not built enough trust.

3. You have not asked the right questions.

Your mission is to find out what the prospect really needs versus what he or she thinks and says the need is. Your mission is to discover the need and help the prospect achieve the mission. Your goal is to help the prospect achieve his or her goals.

Are you ready to Revolutionize Your Sales?

Joe

Let’s be honest, how many times does someone who knows you fairly well still say, “I didn’t know you did that?”

For whatever its worth, entreQuest has been around for more than nine years and my PARENTS are still trying to figure out what I do every day.

So what does this mean?

Possible several things:
1.      People don’t like you. (sorry loser)
2.      They don’t want to know what you do. (probably a bigger loser than #1)
3.      You have told them and they forgot. (you weren’t memorable)
4.      You have told them but they weren’t listening. (you weren’t engaging)
5.      You have told them in a way that wasn’t COMPLETELY clear. (you mumble)

Here is the reality – it doesn’t matter whether it’s #1, #4 or all of the above, your job in sales, business development or as the owner of a  business is to educate and communicate to your community.  The only to know you have done this successfully is if your business is growing via word-of-mouth or reputation based lead generation.

Ask any teacher, education and communication is not an event but a process.

So the question is, how are you educating your community on an on-going basis and not a one-time event?

At entreQuest, we look for a few things:
1.      How can you help them first? (try listening)
2.      How can you be more interested in them vs. the other way around? (try listening more)
3.      Use all forms of media and mediums: in-person, phone, email, social media, blogs, videos, SMS and anything else you can get our hands on. (keep listening but keep it interesting for them to read)

Past this, have patience with people that you have yet to do a GREAT job of educating.  Old studies would say it takes seven times to get your message across for people to buy.

All I know is whether its seven times or 70, communication is the response you get back.  So if people aren’t responding to you – re-read the above – 70 times!

Be YOUR best,

Joe

As sales professionals and leaders we are often tasked with giving presentations. I strongly recommend the Guy Kawasaki 10-20-30 rule whenever you use PowerPoint (or keynote)1.) Here is a link to Guy Kawasaki’s blog that explains it: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html (btw this is a great blog to follow) 2.) Here is a link to a video of Guy explaining his rule (less than 2 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQLdRk0ZiwWhat are other rules of thumb you have seen work well while using Powerpoint?
Keep Crushin’ it,
Jeremy

Duh – so we are clear what the answer is right?  You can’t wait for business to come to you… or pray for serendipity (which was a great movie btw).  But you do first need to know where you are and where you are going (according to Alice and Wonderland).

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to go…
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

HOW DO YOU GET SALES VISIBILITY?

1. You need clear and accurate data. Depending on your world, this may mean tracking how many contacts each of your sales people makes, how many presentations each gives, how many actual sales each makes, and how much revenue each generates.

2. Once you have all of this data gathered, you need a safe place for your team to store the information. Popular options include a spreadsheet, Outlook, salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com) or a CRM.

3. Finally, it is time to analyze your conversion rates in each stage of the sales process, so you not only understand how you got to where you are today, but also are able to discern where to focus in order to drive future sales through the roof.

When you and your team have mastered these three steps, you can say that your organization has sales visibility. Before you get too excited, however, realize that while having visibility is critical in knowing how you got to the present, it does not drive new, future business. To enroll new business at the rate your company deserves, you must understand and master sales predictability. In other words, you need to know how to forecast, accurately, what it takes to get the results you want. For example, let’s say that during the sales visibility exercise you started with 50 prospect leads. Here is what happened to those 50 prospects: • 30 turned into Raw prospects • 20 turned into SMART prospects • 15 turned into Proposal prospects • And you obtained 10 new clients

OK. So the information we now have is historical data, from which we can compute our conversion ratios from one stage to the next (from Raw to SMART, from SMART to Proposal, etc)

How are you tracking the generation of NEW business in your company?