6 Key Questions for Getting More Sales

Here are some questions that I found useful in asking organizations how they currently get business and win clients. Answering these questions will help you improve how you work on your business, and see things differently, while you are working in your business.

1. Describe the full effort to prospect (list every way you have of generating a prospect).
2. Describe the typical sales cycle to close a sale, from generating the lead through to a close.
3. How many contacts do you have to make to sell?
4. What is the length of the sales cycle from initial contact to close?
5. How many competitors are involved?
6. How many different people do you usually meet with to close a sale?

By answering these questions, you will be able to begin to determine how your clients buy and you will uncover some of the weaknesses that may exist in your ability to win business.

This is not negative.

This is a good way to start looking at how to win more effectively and efficiently. So, take the time to look at your answers - from a scientific point of view and you will be able to create a plan to work on the areas where you are most deficient.

Good Luck! Joe Murphy

http://www.josephbmurphy.com/

http://joemurphy180.blogspot.com/

Murphy's Law - On Selling

On Selling

Murphy's Law on Deal Pipeline

The number of deals in the pipeline will decrease proportionately to the time left in the quarter.

Murphy’s Law on Timing
If there is a worst possible time for the worst possible thing to happen, it will happen then.


Murphy's Law on Ways to Lose a Deal
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a deal can be lost, and you circumvent these, the fifth way will promptly emerge only to be discovered after you lost it.


Murphy's Law on Deal Strategy
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.


Murphy's Law on Product Weaknesses
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw. And the prospect always finds it first.


Murphy's Law on Closing the Deal
You will only discover you are not talking to the final decision maker - after - you have built a great relationship with the person who has no authority to purchase what-so-ever.



Murphy's Law on You Thought It Couldn't Get Worse
And you only find out that you are dealing with the person who has no authority at an expensive restaurant - with the President of your company - halfway through the meal.


Murphy's Law on Implementing What You Sold
The original technicians who designed the solution you sold are no longer around.


Murphy’s Law on Solution Implementation Problems
Problems stemming from the solution sold, bring new opportunities for add-on business.


Murphy's Law on the Correlation of Military Strategy and Sales Strategy
No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy; therefore so sales plan ever survives contact with the prospect.


Murphy's Law on Moving the Deal Forward
If your advance is going well, you are walking into an ambush.


Murphy's Law on Getting Management Support for Your Deal
The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.


Murphy's Law on Getting Technical Management Support
Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.


Murphy's Law on Getting Sales Advice
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.

Murphy's Law on Sales Meetings
A sales meeting is an event which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.



Copyright © 2007 Joseph B Murphy

Quiet Speed - by Joe Murphy

Slow Down - Don't Speed Up
I have read and reread the book titled "Secrets of a CEO Coach" to gain some of the key points of someone (the author) I really respect. Debra A Benton is the author and has a lot of great ideas anyone can implement.


One is this idea of "Quiet Speed." I fall into the habit of trying to do a lot. A lot means working hard. Working hard means doing a lot more of what you normally can accomplish. You pile stuff onto to your workload until you find it almost impossible to get things done.


Work Overload - What Winds Up Happening?
Simply, you speed up, to get your pile complete. When you speed up, you get harried. You talk faster. You become impatient. You become - often - curt and perhaps rude, when you talk to those around you. These people don't know you've picked up more work that you have to get done in one day than any normal human can do.


But the feeling you have boiling inside you is - Get out of my way, I have to get my work done, and why aren't you people getting me this information I need to complete my job, and why aren't you working as hard as some of the rest of us (especially me!).


What You Look Like
By looking "hasty", by talking fast, you appear nervous. By looking nervous you are stating "I am not important and I may not belong here."


You also appear harried, out of control. And the last thing a top executive, client or internal executive, wants to do is give someone who appears out of control, something to be done that is important.


What You Should Do
You have to harness your energy. You have to consciously SLOW DOWN. You have to pace yourself. Pace means becoming more deliberate in your actions. Create a list of all the things you have to do (on paper). Then break the list into sublists for each major item on the list. Each subtask is an activity that when complete, is one step closer to getting the major item on your list complete.


Sure, we've all heard about the list thing. Sure, you have. But, do you do it? Answer is: Either "no" or not as often or as well as I should.


So you have your list. But back to Quiet Speed. You must convey a look of being relaxed. Perhaps the list making will help. The appearance will help too. Because the more harried you are, the more you begin to miss and forget things. Then you become frenetic.


Frenetic is not a good thing to be labeled as being.


You want to exude poise. You want to appear confident. You want to appear memorable.


So, slow down. Work on Quiet Speed.


Thanks - Joe Murphy

An "Adequate Solution" - You Are The Difference by Joe Murphy

In making any proposal or presenting any solution, I believe all you need is an "Adequate Solution." An adequate solution does not mean an inferior solution, it means that you have a solution that meets the prospective client's needs.

You see, you - if you are pretty good at building relationships through your ability to communicate your skills, abilities, and qualifications - are the difference.

Clients, if you are talking to the right level of person, are looking for an acceptable and appropriate solution. Clients are not looking for the best solution or product leadership, they are looking for a Trusted Consultant. A Trusted Consultant is someone who knows how to get things done. This does not mean they do the work, but it does mean they bring the right people to the project to get it done, in the manner promised.

Your ability to communicate this, is your key to winning business. And when I say "communicate" - I am not necessarily stating that you have to "talk" about how good you are. It can be as simple as having a reputation in the field of your expertise. It can also be as simple as doing what you say you will do - like showing up on time for meetings.

I know this is an oversimplification - but I know those of you who are reading this "get it."

Remember, don't over complicate your solution, by trying to build the best, at the sacrifice of not establishing your reputation to deliver.




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Winning Business By Preparing & Sitting Where The Client Sits

This may sound a little trite. But I am telling you, a little meeting before the big client meeting is key. When you have project team members coming in from across the country, they all aren't thinking like you, or even thinking about the project.



I am a big advocate of a meeting before the meeting. It needs to be long enough so everyone understands the objective of the client meeting the next day. The objective is of course more than just a successful meeting, because that's too obvious. Any one can say, "The objective of the meeting is too have a good meeting." Duh.



The objective is to build confidence in the project team. The project team's perceived capabilities, experience and the ability to get along with the client could be great objectives, because those are the thing that lead to a successful meeting.



Discussing the objectives and getting agreement is job number one. The key leader must facilitate this discussion to get everyone thinking about this.



The second critical aspect is getting everyone to sit in the chairs of the client tomorrow and think about how would these objectives be proven. A good discussion should ensue hear.



Last, great preparation means again, sit in the chair of the client and ask the question, "What if the client asks you this?" When you get the people to respond to the question it forces their brains to work. It also gives you as a facilitator of the meeting whether your message has sunk through all the stuff they have been wrestling with that is unrelated to your meeting tomorrow.



There is a great quote; "Your statement makes you think. Your question makes me think." Not only that, it makes your mouth connect to your brain.



By the way, your preconceived answer could be usurped by their answer, because it may be even better than yours (surprise, surprise).

The most important fact here is - to meet. Meeting insures a better outcome. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Being casual, brings about casualties.

Good Luck!

A Secret - A Book By Ram Charan On Selling by Joe Murphy

Profitable Growth - a Book By Ram Charan

I picked up Ram Charan's book called Profitable Growth. As I was reading his points, it struck me that this book is about looking "what can be." It is a book about creating the future of a business.

I would not call the book powerful in any sort of way. (Sorry Ram, you are far smarter than I could ever be). But I would say, it's a book that sales and marketing professionals have been waiting for. It is a book about how to take risks to drive top line growth. Anyone who is not an accountant or an HR exec or contracts person will appreciate the fact that businesses spend far too much time with "how do eliminate this little expense here and there." I am a spendthrift, so don't get me wrong. But sometimes I think about how we spend money unwisely in one area and then in another area, like, hiring great sales professionals, we penny-pinch.

I have been working in sales, and business development practically all my life. Recently, over the past 7 years, I have been turning around sales organizations and building new revenue streams. Start-ups within companies is hard work. People are impatient - the people at the top. They go with great gusto, saying "Yes! We need more revenue. About ....hmmmm.... 90 days later, they go, "Where's the revenue? Look at this cost! Do you know how much would go to the bottom line?"

Ram Charan makes his case for growth. He has 10 "essential" tools (really appraches - and mindsets - not really tools like a spreadsheet or a spade - for you people who want "hard" and tangible things).

He talks about hitting singles and doubles, rather just trying to hit home runs every time. I think this is a great expression. Too often management is looking for the quick hit - a home run, a grand slam in some cases. But in reality, give me singles and doubles often enough and I will out score the company hell bent on the big hit - the home run. Why? Because often the supporting mechanisms inside the company cannot support the grand slam and the deal goes south and profitability is impacted. Give me a double and that is enough for the inner workings of the company to get ready and support this smaller endeavor. Once they know how to support this piece of work, they may be ready to hit the homer.

Anyway, get the book. It makes the case, in my point of view, for sales and marketing and how to drive more revenue by focusing peoples' attention, time, and money on growth, and how to do so, without jumping across the Grand Canyon in a single leap. And more importantly, it's from a true consultants' perspective, someone who gets paid a lot of money to advise the best and the brightest.

PS - if you don't know Ram, he is a consultant to the biggest and best companies in the world. His advice is sought after by many CEOs and top executives on how to build a business. Ram is self effacing, but serious. He travels about 350 days a year - helping companies see the obvious and frame situations for managers to understand what they have to do, rather than what they think they should be doing.

Best of luck! Visit my web site http://www.josephbmurphy.com/

Joe Murphy on Optimism

Optimism
Probably the most important thing you can do for yourself, your spouse, your familiy, friends and colleagues, is to be mentally fit. The best measure of "mental fitness" is how optimistic you are about life. Here are a few questions:

Just how enthusiastic about what is going on around you, are you?

How happy are you, most of the time?

Abraham Lincoln said it best when he said, (I paraphrase), "You are about as happy as you make your mind up to be."
What he means and what pschologists have found in research studies is this; "learn how to control your thinking no matter what happens."

You can control your reactions and responses by thinking differently. Here is a paper on Why Optimists Sell More (http://josephbmurphy.com/uploads/Why_Optimists_Make_More_-_CSS.pdf)
There are three differences in how certain people think. The first difference is that the optimist sees a setback as only temporary. The pessimist sees a setback or problem as permanent and lasting. The optimist sees an unfortunate event as only temporary. What you can do to control your thinking is to isolate the incident.

The second difference between is the optimist sees problems as specific. The pessimist sees problems as pervasive (affecting other things). This means that when things go wrong for the optimist, he or she looks at the event as an isolated incident. It is not connected from other things that are going on.

If something failed to happen or occur as planned and you interpret the situation to yourself as just an unfortunate event, something that "just happens," then you are reacting like an optimist.

The pessimist however, sees disappointments as being pervasive. To him they are indications that he is a failure in work, home, eating properly, etc - any number of unconnected areas.

Optimists have learned not to take mistakes or failures personally. This is the third difference between optimists and pessimists. The optimist sees events as external - caused by other things outside their control. Therefore, they don't beat themselves up. This may be hard for the responsibe person, who takes problems and tries to fix them. It was difficult for me, needless to say to accept that, "some things are just outside my control" AND "GET OVER IT!!"

But the pessimists interpret events as personal. If the optimist is cut off in traffic, instead of getting angry or upset, he will simply say something like, "I guess they are late for work." The pessimist will say, "Why are they doing this to me???" And then become frustrated and look for ways to "get back" at the drvier or take the event out on someone else in the office or at home, because they took it as a personal insult and feel bad about it. Am I talking to anyone I know here? Can you relate to this? Sure, we all can.

Here's a trick. "Allow the other driver to cut you off." Wave them into your lane and say "Good luck, I hope you make it." Or if someone says something rude, say to them or to yourself, "I understand how you feel, "I have had a similar feeling." Make sure you say it with no "edge" in it. By the way, when you say this, you will be surprised how the other person reacts! The tension goes away - immediatetly!! They even apologize!! And both you and the other party walk away feeling good (self-esteem intact).

The more optimistic you, and the more you practice allowing things to roll off your back, the more objective and unemotional you will become when facing the inevitable trials normal daily life. Keep your mind calm, clear and completely under your own control. Do not allow other people to give you your thoughts. Step back, and step outside yourself, to see the situation with a view from a balcony, like you are watching a play on a stage. This little mind trick helps remove the emotional energy that pulls you into an emotional event.

The more optimistic you are, the more mature you will become and you will exert a far greater sense of control and influence over your environment, and you will be far less likely to get angry, upset, or distracted.

Good Luck!