Want to know how powerful story-telling really is. Check out the top-selling author and management guru, Tom Peters here.

According to the latest neuroscience, the normal, non-autistic, human brain organizes EVERYTHING into stories, [more...]]]> Having sat though many mind-numbing presentations, I found this post by Geoffrey James spot-on. If you want to see his original post, click here.

Want to know how powerful story-telling really is. Check out the top-selling author and management guru, Tom Peters here.

According to the latest neuroscience, the normal, non-autistic, human brain organizes EVERYTHING into stories, because that’s how we understand the meaning and context of everything around us. Because of this, the best sales presentations ALWAYS tell a story.

But how do you do that?  One way is to borrow some story telling from Hollywood and start each story with something interesting, introduce characters with whom the audience can relate, and then make sure you have a satisfying ending.

For sales presentations, that means following these three rules:

1. RULE #1: Starts with an “heart-stopper.” Every movie, TV show, or novel starts with something that captures your attention (i.e. captures your emotions) and holds your interest while you “get into” the story.  Without a “heart stopper,” the audience’s mind will wander.  Trust me.
2. RULE #2: Talk about the audience… not about you. The story connects emotions to the audience’s current situation so that that a decision becomes inevitable. You (or your firm) can play a “best supporting actor” role, but the main role is always the audience and what happens (or might happen) to them.
3. RULE #3: Ends with a “risk-remover” and a “close.” The risk-remover eliminates any remaining reluctance to make a decision.  The “close” pushes the audience over the edge and essentially forces them to make the decision, right now.

Here’s an example.SLIDE

• SLIDE: “$100 million”
• SCRIPT: (Pause for five seconds.) Yes, $100 million dollars. That’s what you lost last year. [This is the "heart stopper"]

• SLIDE: “Inventory Problems” [This introduces the characters and the plot.]
• SCRIPT: According to the research that I’ve conducted with your team, your companies inability to track inventory has resulted in the defection of three large customers and several smaller ones. The total amount of revenue from those accounts was on $20 million, but the reputation that you’ve gotten in the industry has lost you additional sales. In fact, $100 million is probably a conservative estimate.

• SLIDE: “Lost Market Share”
• SCRIPT: If the current trend continues, there’s no doubt that you will be losing marketing share to your competitors. This will allow them to apply economies of scale that your company will eventually be unable to match. Worst case, you could go into a downward spiral where you become successively less competitive.

• SLIDE: “Controlling Inventory”
• SCRIPT: The challenge with inventory control isn’t just getting costs under control; it’s turning your inventory into a competitive advantage. Here are some examples of companies that have not just managed to reduce their inventory costs, but used a shortened supply chain and just-in-time inventory to gain new customers….

• SLIDE: [Simple Table]
• SCRIPT: “Here is the topline of a spreadsheet that I’ve worked up with the help of Joe in accounting that shows how an inventory control solution can gradually get expenses in line and increase sales revenue. You’ll note that the bulk of the cost savings comes within three months of installation, but then there’s a follow-on effect of increased revenue.”

• SLIDE: “ROI” [this is the "risk remover"]
• SCRIPT: The most attractive element of this solution is that it virtually pays for itself within the first three months. Note that this ROI does not include the incremental revenue that you’ll be making in years 2 and 3.

• SLIDE: “Next Steps” [The close, of course]
• SCRIPT: As soon as we get the go-ahead, we can have this system installed within three weeks. I’ve already met with your technical guru to ensure that it’s fully compatible with your existing infrastructure and our engineers have pre-qualified your system for an easy install.

• SLIDE: Questions
• SCRIPT: I’m happy to answer any questions that you’ve got.

Needless to say, you’ll need to be plenty of data and reality behind the various points in the story.  And, for this to work in a sales situation, you’d have to meet one-on-one with many of the participants to get your ducks in a row, as they say.

Even so, this is the kind of presentation that’s going to create emotion and persuade the audience to make a decision.  And it’s certainly going to work better than the dull stuff that most people throw up on the screen.

Are you ready to tell stories in YOUR presentations?

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The winner is

We wish to offer a congratulations to the author. Oh yes, that was me.

What does SNAP stand for?

Let’s examine each of this in light of “frazzled buyers” – people so busy, they could not care less [more...]]]> In this blog article, we’d like to direct your attention to a new book by Jill Konrath entitled SNAP Selling – Speed Up Sales and Win More Sales with Today’s Frazzled Customers.

What does SNAP stand for?

• Simple
• iNvaluable
• Aligned
• Priority

Let’s examine each of this in light of “frazzled buyers” – people so busy, they could not care less about your products and services.

Simple – since they are so busy, you need to ensure your message is simple and quick to understand. Prospects don’t have time for lengthy discussions.

iNValuable – It’s no longer good enough to offer value. You have to be invaluable. Invaluable is someone so valuable, it cannot be priced. You neeed to ensure your offerings are perceived this way.

Aligned – What you are presented dovetails with what they are trying to do. How does your offerings align with buyers?

Priority – Nice to have won’t cut it. You have to be at the top of the “to-do” list.

We could share a lot more about this book – it’s an instant classic by one of the best. But why don’t you hop over to Amazon.com and buy your own copy?

This post was written by the Fearless Competitor, Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers, a lead generation company. Our President, Jeff Ogden, was featured in a previous book by the same author, Get Back to Work Faster. Find New Customers is also where you’ll find great content on B2B Marketing and you can learn new ways to drive sales leads using demand generation approaches.

Anneke Seley, who writes a popular blog on Sales 2.0, shared some interesting research that we also wish to share with the readers of the B2B Sales Lounge. You can jump over the the original post [more...]]]> “Just the facts, Maam.” Those immortal words by Joe Friday sum up our thoughts on blog posts. Just give us the facts.

Anneke Seley, who writes a popular blog on Sales 2.0, shared some interesting research that we also wish to share with the readers of the B2B Sales Lounge. You can jump over the the original post by visiting Findings from Phone Works Study.

As you read the statistics below, one thing is clear. The job of contacting prospects is tougher today that it has ever been. Quotas are way up and competition is increasing.  It takes up to 8 attempts to reach a prospect on average – and that’s in the BEST performing businesses. And email volume in growing over 10%  a year.

Here’s Anneke’s article:

Findings From Phone Works Inside Sales Metrics Surveys: How Do You Compare?

One thing seems clear to us is that companies who want to excel in inside sales will think long and hard about what is really needed, and they will invest in powerful weapons in this war like iSell by OneSource. iSell is a sales insight dashboard with Facelook-like simplicity – giving the inside salesperson the “military intelligence” to contact the right person and say the right words.

Process and metrics are the lifeblood of inside sales organizations. Leaders of phone/Web sales organizations — or their sales operations managers — typically measure conversions at every step of the sales cycle, in addition to average sales cycle length, average deal size and other more common metrics. Sales 2.0 companies are following their lead and putting increased focus on tracking and measuring their key performance indicators (KPIs) in all sales channels in order to predict and improve results at both team and individual levels.

But not every sales manager knows which metrics to track or how their productivity measurements compare against those of other companies. If you want to see what leading B2B companies in the San Francisco Bay Area are measuring, check out the latest inside sales (quota-carrying phone/Web sales) and lead generation (sales development/pipeline-building) metrics reports produced by Phone Works, based on surveys sponsored by the Bay Area Telebusiness Alliance (TBA).

Here are some highlights:

Inside Sales Survey

• The average annual quota for inside sales reps has increased dramatically in the past three years
• During the same time period, the percent of reps achieving quota has declined
• Inside sales reps achieving 75% or more of quota carry an annual average quota of more than $1 million
• Inside sales reps achieving 75% of quota or better close an average of 2 more deals per quarter, compared to all respondents

Sales Development Survey

• Companies that are achieving 100% of quota have a 6–8 attempt contact strategy to reach the prospect
• Average talk time has increased 18% in the past 3 years
• The number of qualified leads generated per week increased an average of 38% in the past 3 years
• Average daily volume of e-mails increased 31% in the past 3 years

Metrics will, of course, vary, depending on factors such as your market, your position in the market, your target audience, and your implementation of technology and process.

This post was created for OneSource by Find New Customers, a lead generation company helping businesses implement demand generation programs to drive sales leads. Find New Customers is also where you find great content on B2B Marketing, including highly acclaimed white papers on lead generation, sales and email marketing.

Today’s skittish buyers still value innovations that are pragmatic, exciting, and cost efficient.

Be prepared! Bring your new smart-selling attitude as you shift into high gear and start a new year with the courage to do some seriously smart selling.

Economic Challenges No Surprise, But Lead Quality Trumps Lead Quantity

What is pressuring sales leaders, and what actions are they taking in [more...]]]> A recent Aberdeen Group research paper, Sales Intelligence: The Secret to Sales Nirvana, points to some key findings that reveal how “best-in-class” sales organizations* achieve above-average results–even as budgets shrink and sales cycles stretch out.

Economic Challenges No Surprise, But Lead Quality Trumps Lead Quantity

What is pressuring sales leaders, and what actions are they taking in response?

Economic challenges and the increased knowledge of the competitive landscape were the top two pressures identified in the report—by 47% and 44% of respondents, respectively.

While the economic landscape is beyond the control of sales leaders, preparing reps for successful discussions with better informed prospects is a major focus for successful executives.  According to the survey, the emphasis on effectively overcoming budget objections and addressing cost-benefit concerns is a contributor to sales effectiveness–enabling reps to focus on fit and competitive advantage.

Three in four respondents—across the board—cite improvement of lead quality in the sales pipeline as their primary strategic action in response to economic and competitive pressures. With just over half of respondents citing it, database segmentation and analysis to identify profitable customers was the second most common action item designed to increase sales effectiveness.

Sales Leaders Cite Lengthening Cycles as Key Concern More Often Than Peers

One in four (27% of survey respondents) cited lengthening sales cycles as a primary business challenge; but nearly half (46%) of “best-in-class” organizations indicated this as a top-three pressure.

Why are these top flight organizations more concerned about longer sales cycles than their peers? The data suggest that these companies are proactively identifying a major drag to revenue generation and developing strategies—including the use of sales intelligence—better preparing reps and aligning their messaging with the business challenges of their prospects. These activities reduce the “getting to know you” phase of discussions, enabling sales reps to work the opportunity more effectively at converting prospects in a compressed sales cycle.

What Common Characteristics Are Hallmarks of Top Performers?

Three common characteristics mark best-in-class performers:

• 72% currently have a process for tracking prospect engagement
• 64% have a centralized repository of marketing and product information
• 51% currently have executive-level support for the use of third-party information providers within sales

Other Performance Keys

The report identified other critical considerations in driving sales effectiveness, including: consistent, repeatable prospect management and sales processes, attention to data management issues (e.g. centralizing information, unifying customer information) and the incorporation of sales intelligence–critical company and competitive insights—as part of the sales process.

Download a full copy of the report…

*Aberdeen’s criteria for “best-in-class” included year-over-year improvements in:

• Lead conversion rates
• Percentage of reps achieving quota
• Sales cycle time
• Time spent researching relevant company/contact information