In his famous book Wombat Selling, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson says ‘there’s no such thing as closing the sale!’ During a talk to leading insurance salespeople, Michael even offered $100,000 if some one could come on stage and close him.

Needless to say no one was able to and he kept his $100,000

So this made me think…

What is the real value a salesperson brings to an organisation and how might that be changing?

If the salesperson can’t close a sale then what is their role in the sales process?

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson also put forward the thought that a sales person’s role is to make enough ‘check moves’ so that the prospect can close themselves.

He describes a sales process made up of ‘check moves’.

A ‘check move’ is defined as ‘a customer contact of any kind.’

So following this process sales people need to have great follow through and discipline so that the ‘check moves’ are consistent and continuous.

But there is an issue..

Most prospects are incredibly busy these days and therefore don’t want to take multiple face to face visits from a sales person.

More and more ‘check moves’ are being done online which can be mechanised through the thoughtful use of auto responders.

This means that some of the value of salespeople is being transferred into online software and those increased costs must be paid for by the business.

Unless this value is recovered in sales the additional costs will mean a reduction in profitability.

I doubt whether any sales person would want a reduction in salary but it is clear that part of their function is being taken online where it is far more efficient and costs effective.

Do you have any live experiences on this?

How are you going about recovering the additional costs of developing your online presence?

When new technology is around it is easy to fall into the trap of buying the ‘bells and whistles’ without carefully analysing where the technology fits in your business and what it might be replacing.

Let’s take the example of a website

We all know that it is very important to have a website but what did you have in marketing before websites came along?

Where were you spending your marketing dollars before you decided to invest in your website?

Did you spend money on a business brochure which has now been replaced as an online brochure inside your website?

Have you simply doubled your marketing costs by having an online brochure as well as an offline brochure?

Why don’t you do a review and work out which marketing initiatives are bringing in the most inquiry and look to rationalise your marketing spend rather than simply continuing to add to it.

What is your story on this?

Have you found a better way to spend your marketing dollars in this area?

I haven’t met a business owner who hasn’t had this experience sometime in their life so if you’re feeling like this today then you’re not alone.

Thousands of business owners have felt like this and often for very different reasons.

Here’s a few examples you might relate to:

• Cash flow is just not flowing because customers won’t pay their accounts.
• Staff are leaving and you feel as though no one is left to help you.
• Technology is great except when it won’t work and you feel hostage to it.

So what’s the answer!

There is a well known saying ‘The night is always darkest just before the dawn,’ which is true for all of these circumstances.

If running a business was really easy then you’d probably find more people who were doing it.

Think about this:
When you’re half way up a mountain and feeling tired don’t look up. You’ll only feel discouraged at how far you’ve still got to go. Look back down the mountain and encourage yourself with what you’ve already achieved.

When you feel discouraged it’s time to look back at everything that you’ve achieved to date.

From experience I can tell you that it’s not until you have achieved a few things that you’ll feel discouraged and want to give up. In the early part of your business you’ll be so pumped and motivated that you’ll have no need to reflect.

It’s only when you have been on the road and achieving quite a lot does it seem as though everything is too hard and you want to give up.

So what’s your experience on this?

How hard is it to get a person to move from being a completely cold lead to a raving customer?

I don’t know about you but it seems to me that it is getting more and more difficult to convince people to buy quickly because they have so much choice and also there are so many marketing messages that people are exposed to today.

I have previously spoken about ‘two step’ versus ‘three step’ marketing and it is this longer process which means that as business owners we are faced with more ‘touches’ for potential customers before they are prepared to respond to one of our offers and buy.

Now you might be asking what are the seven touches?

Are you saying that every customer must have seven touches before they will buy?

Seven touches is the number that I use when thinking about how I’m going to bring a cold lead through the process to a raving customer.

I know that the touches can be different for different situations but the most important thing is that I’m thinking a significant number before I can expect any revenue.

Now let me ask you this. Could you justify seven ‘face to face’ meetings before getting a sale?

Think about how difficult it is to set up a face to face meeting when someone doesn’t want to meet you.

This is an expensive way to go from both a Time AND Money perspective.

So there has to be a better way!

If you think about it, the first few touches are much better being done in a digital format.

Customers can research information that you provide them in a non confrontational way.

No one wants to be ‘sold to’ and therefore engaging them digitally can have a far better effect of warming a customer than the awkward nature of a face to face meeting when the potential customer is just not ready to buy.

What’s your experience on this?

Have you noticed that there has been a major change in your own behaviour in the last decade?

Where was the first place you went to look if you needed something done around your house from a tradesperson ten years ago?

You ‘let your fingers do the walking’ didn’t you? The famous Yellow pages advertisement encouraged everyone to stop doing their research by walking around every where and save the time by looking up the Yellow Pages.

I believe this was the start of consumers researching more from information than doing it in person as had been the case in the past.

But let me ask you this: Who goes to the Yellow Pages as their first port of call now when thinking about research?

Most people just ‘Google It.’

Although they still ‘let their fingers do the walking’ consumers are looking for information and doing research much earlier in their buying process. One of the reasons is that done correctly it is much easier. So potential customers are likely to be truly researching and are not ready to respond to an advertisement or offer to buy.

This trend means that small business owners must get their heads around connecting with potential customers over a longer period of time. It is essential that you have the research information available in a digital format that you would have delivered personally in the past.

You must get used to the fact that when you meet a potential customer they know more about you than you know about them. They are likely to have done their research on you and know significantly more than you realise. They may even know more about your industry than you do simply by having more time than you to spend on the research.

What is your story on research? How are you doing it today?

I would be very interested in your opinion on this topic.