Now Is the Time To Focus On Prospecting And New Business Development
by Ron Ameln
Mike Weinberg is a very busy man these days. Weinberg, founder and president of The New Sales Coach, is crisscrossing the country with one mission: Help companies prospect and develop new business.
Despite the latest economic optimism, there is no shortage of clients for Weinberg.
“There are so many broken sales organizations out there today,” says Weinberg, who is also the author of a top-ranked book, “New Sales. Simplified.” “For years, businesses were so good at fulfilling demand because they had such a good strategy, the economy was good and customers just came to them.
“Things have changed now. It was like the tide went down and everyone was left standing naked. People who were good at reacting and serving clients found that they were not good at going out and getting new clients. No one ever showed them how.”
Weinberg’s job today is to go out and show businesses how to prospect for new business. Just as the title of his book explains, it’s not rocket science. But he believes there are some fundamental ideas businesses should start embracing.
Recently, SBM sat down with Weinberg to discuss sales and prospecting in this new economy.
SBM: Does the average business owner realize the prospecting system he is using is broken?
Weinberg: Most of them realize it is broken. Most don’t realize it is broken for some very simple reasons. Most underperforming sales organizations and sales leaders overcomplicate the sales process. It is time to simplify the process.
What are some of things businesses should be focused on to reel in new business?
Do you have a really good, targeted list? Do you have a good sales story? How much time are you spending actually pursuing new business?
The reason many businesses are failing to get new business is that they are spending very little time actually trying to get new business.
It seems like some businesses have the wrong types of individuals selling.
If I had a wish list to fix sales in most companies, I would first start with role definitions. Owners need to do a better job of understanding what the real sales roles are in an organization. Each organization needs a hunter, an account manager type and someone to service the account. In some organizations, owners expect one person to handle all of these roles. I think it is a fallacy to think one person can be good at all three or even find time to do all three.
What usually happens in that scenario is that the employee usually defaults to the areas he or she is more comfortable with or excel at, which typically is not prospecting. The thing that always fails is finding new customers.
It sounds like owners and CEOs need to make finding new business a priority.
It is not always the salesperson’s fault. Sometimes it is the owner that is trying to work so lean that the sales reps don’t have time to prospect. Do you want a salesperson or an operations person? Sometimes owners ask their sales teams to do administrative work or attend committee meetings. You can’t make your outbound call goals when you spend most of the day tracking down international shipments.
Companies spend a lot of time on techniques and strategies. That’s all great, but if companies don’t fix the time, culture and accountability for developing new business, things will never change.
The popularity of inbound marketing techniques, like blogging, social media and search engine optimization, has encouraged some companies to shift away from past outbound techniques like cold-calling and networking. Is this a good thing?
There are always salespeople who are always waiting. They are waiting for the new website, the new marketing program, the new brochures, etc. They are basically waiting for the lead. The whole inbound marketing craze today leads to this. Inbound marketing is great – don’t get me wrong. I get it. However, in most business-to-business sales applications, that is not enough. You still need to get out and hunt.
There is a trend today that says: All you need to do is blog and tweet and put out enough content, and people will come running to your door. That is just not true. All of the reactive salespeople that don’t want to make sales calls are buying into this.
So I guess you are a believer that cold-calling does still work?
It seems like everyone is saying cold-calling doesn’t work. The last thing I want struggling salespeople to hear is that they have permission to be less proactive. I can show you companies where it is working right now.
I don’t like to call it cold-calling because it has such a negative connotation. People tend to freak out. I call it proactive calling. It does work.
Not everyone gets a lead. Give me a good list of potential clients that look and feel like my best clients and I will do just fine. I will get in front of them, find their pain and show them I can help them. Many salespeople are failing today because they simply cannot use the phone. The phone is a great way to deliver your story.
What is the one question owners should ask themselves when it comes to sales?
If you don’t feel good about your job, you can’t sell. You can be a miserable person and do great accounting work. You can provide on-time, accurate financial statements and not have your heart into it. You can’t be a salesperson that hates his job and be great at sales.
You have to push people past resistance, fight hard, self-motivate, handle rejection, etc. You can’t do that if you hate your job.
The question owners should ask themselves: What kind of environment are you creating that is helping their salespeople sell?
New Business Development: Why Isn’t It Working?
Here are 16 common reasons salespeople fail at new business development. Which of these are hindering your success?
1. You haven’t had to prospect, don’t know how or haven’t seen it modeled well.
2. You spend too much time waiting – waiting on the company or waiting for new materials, clearer instructions or leads.
3. You allow yourself to become a prisoner of hope to a precious few deals and stop working the process to create new opportunities.
4. You can’t effectively tell the sales story.
5. You have done an awful job selecting and focusing on target accounts.
6. You are late to the party and end up playing an already-in-progress game.
7. You have become negative and pessimistic.
8. You either are faking your phone effort or could be much better on the phone.
9. You are not coming across as likable or are not adapting to your buyer’s style.
10. You are not conducting effective sales calls.
11. You baby-sit and overserve your existing accounts.
12. You are too busy playing good corporate citizen and helping everyone else.
13. You don’t own your own sales process and default to the buyer’s.
14. You don’t use your calendar well or protect your time.
15. You have stopped learning and growing.
16. You just aren’t built for prospecting and hunting for new business.
Source: “New Sales. Simplified.” by Mike Weinberg
Identifying Your Target Prospects
Weinberg encourages business owners to ask a series of “who” and “why” questions to help identify strategic targets when creating a target prospect list:
-Who are our best customers (by industry, size, business model, location, etc.)?
-Why did they initially become customers? Why do they still buy from us?
-Whom do we compete against in the marketplace?
-Why and when do they beat us? And why do prospects choose us over them?
-Who used to be our customers (said differently, who used to buy from us)?
-Why did we lose the business?
-Who almost became a customer but didn’t (deals where we came close but lost)?
-Who has referred business to us in the past?
-Who should be referring business to us?
Source: “New Sales. Simplified.” by Mike Weinberg
Submitted 10 years 277 days ago