I will keep adding to this post as and when i gather more experience
Persistence said Mr. Mohandas Pai...... And he couldn't be more spot on! Every day is going to be a challenge and you would get ample number of days when you'd be left twiddling your thumbs all day for want of progress. The ability to hear a no and still not give up and keep trying is not easy. It takes a lot of effort to hear no after no after no and believe that you are still doing the right thing! If the shoulder droop or the voice quivers, the gatekeeper will figure it out in no time. So my first experience says.... whatever happens? Don't let it get to you? Come back again next day.. take stock of the situation... n start of afresh. Oh yeah n hope like hell that things work out!!
Coming next is a post on one of the lead generation channels. The DB way of doing it!
cheers
DBS
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
Spin Selling
A typical sales engagement is more like a mind game. Sucessful salesman is the one who can listen well... Pick up the key words.... Words that define the customers needs, feelings, mood or viewpoint. One approach to a sales call is to take it like a mind game. You are trying to pre-empt what the other person (in this case customer) is thinking. A useful tip would be never to hard sell. Also, hold your aces till the correct time comes. Build on the latent need of the customer. Build it till you feel that the iron is hot enough to strike. Believe me you will be very very effective. The trick lies in mastering this art. Simple mundane and hackneyed pitches can become a silver bullet if used at the right time.
Afterall isn't it what SPIN selling (Neil Rackham) is all about:
You start of by asking Situational questions, keep probing till you set the context right. Identify the painpoints by askin the Problem questions. Now you know that there is a need that exists, build on it.... by asking Inference questions... and seal the deal by asking Need-PayOff kind of questions. Lets take a simple sale as an example. Say placements committe of an IIM going for a pitch. Here is how u shud start.
Situational Questions: Don't jump the gun and start tom tomming about your campus!! Start asking Situational Questions.... So Sir, how often do you recruit from B-school campuses. What campuses do you go to? Do you go to XYZ colleges also? Whats the philosophy behind your hiring strategy? What kind of people are you looking for? Skill sets? How do you grade campuses? What criterion? Do you evaluate it often? Enough....
Problem Questions: Change gears!! Have you ever faced any problems, in terms of number of people joining? Slots? Quality of people? Skill set training issues? Lack of adjustement by the new joinees? Unclear expectation settings? Quickly make a mind map of the pain points!! You have to use them next? Do you ever feel inspite of your grading of campuses you are not getting the right quality?
Inference Questions: Have you looked at premier Indian campuses? Have you tried to have a detailed job description? Have you built a relationship with campus in terms of workshops? Have you sponsored any events? Have you earned campus eye balls? Have you gauzed student quality through competitions? Have you negotiated for slots? What reasons have people given? Have you considered campuses with XYZ qualities are these not better? Now you have him thinking? Boss i never tried this with their campus?
Need-Payoff: You have developed his need to increase the campuses to visit? Now use your pitch and go for the kill!! The only catch is that you need to be prepared with the questions well in advance!! All four types....SPIN.. I hope I clarified the concept!!
This ladies and gentlemen was the SPIN selling concept in a nutshell! A very successful selling strategy developed by Neil Rackham after loads of research!! Search about it and read more!! Till then DB signs off!!
Cheers
DBS
Afterall isn't it what SPIN selling (Neil Rackham) is all about:
You start of by asking Situational questions, keep probing till you set the context right. Identify the painpoints by askin the Problem questions. Now you know that there is a need that exists, build on it.... by asking Inference questions... and seal the deal by asking Need-PayOff kind of questions. Lets take a simple sale as an example. Say placements committe of an IIM going for a pitch. Here is how u shud start.
Situational Questions: Don't jump the gun and start tom tomming about your campus!! Start asking Situational Questions.... So Sir, how often do you recruit from B-school campuses. What campuses do you go to? Do you go to XYZ colleges also? Whats the philosophy behind your hiring strategy? What kind of people are you looking for? Skill sets? How do you grade campuses? What criterion? Do you evaluate it often? Enough....
Problem Questions: Change gears!! Have you ever faced any problems, in terms of number of people joining? Slots? Quality of people? Skill set training issues? Lack of adjustement by the new joinees? Unclear expectation settings? Quickly make a mind map of the pain points!! You have to use them next? Do you ever feel inspite of your grading of campuses you are not getting the right quality?
Inference Questions: Have you looked at premier Indian campuses? Have you tried to have a detailed job description? Have you built a relationship with campus in terms of workshops? Have you sponsored any events? Have you earned campus eye balls? Have you gauzed student quality through competitions? Have you negotiated for slots? What reasons have people given? Have you considered campuses with XYZ qualities are these not better? Now you have him thinking? Boss i never tried this with their campus?
Need-Payoff: You have developed his need to increase the campuses to visit? Now use your pitch and go for the kill!! The only catch is that you need to be prepared with the questions well in advance!! All four types....SPIN.. I hope I clarified the concept!!
This ladies and gentlemen was the SPIN selling concept in a nutshell! A very successful selling strategy developed by Neil Rackham after loads of research!! Search about it and read more!! Till then DB signs off!!
Cheers
DBS
Building Business Relationships
Well, now that DBS has officially entered the relationship business, its time to put some theory into practice. Here goes the first post on my sales blog. But what really is it that builds successful relationships?? Here is the DBS way of thinking, which partly came from his experience at IIM Kozhikode and partly through readings here and there. Bottom line is that there is no silver bullet which will get you there!!
But some ground rules do exist.
Rule 1: Set the targets! Prepare a network map for yourself. Say set a target that within the coming week/10 days, I am going to touch base and start a business relationship with X/Y/Z. Have a list of people ready. People whom you need to target.
Rule 2: Be visible. Now, if you are not visible in the first place, how will a relationship start? Simple, but holds true everywhere right? Be it a professional or a personal relationship, if the person is not visible, how will the conversation begin!!
Rule 3: Don’t be shy! It won’t lead you anywhere. So even if the correspondence starts off by writing an email to the person asking about what work is being done in his/her division or an innocuous question like. I have just joined and would like to learn how to do XYZ. Now, I know that your division does it. Please guide me to the requisite person who can help me attain that skill.
Rule 4: Be Well Prepared! Now when you do such a thing, make sure that you are well prepared and clear about what you want to do. Credibility is what drives relationships. Remember, you may interact with a person for long without meeting him/her. In these cases, it is the professionalism and the way you conduct yourself with that person that will matter the most. Make it a point to “give superior performance” any and every time you interact with anyone!
Rule 5: Tit for Tat: Now if the other person does not see how this relationship will profit him in short / long term, why should he/she be interested! So, always have a value proposition in mind before you start.
Rule 6: TOMR has to be present. Unless you have a top of the mind recall, how on earth do you expect to cash in on a relationship? Now, if the communication is infrequent, how do you intend to go ahead and get some work done? Hence, the communication must continue.
By the way, have you started to build relationships? Do you have a network map? Do you have a rolodex? Are you working on building new ones? Are the old relationships there? Do you nurture them? Answer these and you will know where you stand!Ladies and Gentlemen, the rules stop here for now, but the list of rules is only going to grow. Next up is going to be how to implement the strategy. Simple formulae which will help you build relationships. Keep a watch!
Cheers
DBS
But some ground rules do exist.
Rule 1: Set the targets! Prepare a network map for yourself. Say set a target that within the coming week/10 days, I am going to touch base and start a business relationship with X/Y/Z. Have a list of people ready. People whom you need to target.
Rule 2: Be visible. Now, if you are not visible in the first place, how will a relationship start? Simple, but holds true everywhere right? Be it a professional or a personal relationship, if the person is not visible, how will the conversation begin!!
Rule 3: Don’t be shy! It won’t lead you anywhere. So even if the correspondence starts off by writing an email to the person asking about what work is being done in his/her division or an innocuous question like. I have just joined and would like to learn how to do XYZ. Now, I know that your division does it. Please guide me to the requisite person who can help me attain that skill.
Rule 4: Be Well Prepared! Now when you do such a thing, make sure that you are well prepared and clear about what you want to do. Credibility is what drives relationships. Remember, you may interact with a person for long without meeting him/her. In these cases, it is the professionalism and the way you conduct yourself with that person that will matter the most. Make it a point to “give superior performance” any and every time you interact with anyone!
Rule 5: Tit for Tat: Now if the other person does not see how this relationship will profit him in short / long term, why should he/she be interested! So, always have a value proposition in mind before you start.
Rule 6: TOMR has to be present. Unless you have a top of the mind recall, how on earth do you expect to cash in on a relationship? Now, if the communication is infrequent, how do you intend to go ahead and get some work done? Hence, the communication must continue.
By the way, have you started to build relationships? Do you have a network map? Do you have a rolodex? Are you working on building new ones? Are the old relationships there? Do you nurture them? Answer these and you will know where you stand!Ladies and Gentlemen, the rules stop here for now, but the list of rules is only going to grow. Next up is going to be how to implement the strategy. Simple formulae which will help you build relationships. Keep a watch!
Cheers
DBS
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