| Nov.
2002
| Volume 2, Issue
5 Hawthorne Associates www.hawthornemedia.com (978) 745-4878 IN THIS ISSUE: 1. Industry Insights 2. Making Sales in a Tough Economy (opposite column) 3. NEW! 50 Tips for Email/Web Marketing 4. Join ISA Industry
Insights Everyone agrees that 2002 has been challenging. The goal has been to do better with less--far less money and fewer people. And in many cases the strategy has been to pull back and wait out the bad time. But the tough times continue and one can only pull back for so long. So what are the opportunities going forward? This is a great time for marketing and sales! With so many companies hunkered down there are fewer voices in the marketplace and there is less competition to get the ear of the buyer. It's a great time to do some direct marketing, direct selling or advertising, or to pitch your story (or better yet your client's story) to editors who are short-staffed and looking hard for good and interesting information for their readers. Bottom Line. The question is: how to make more sales on a smaller budget? What are the tools and techniques that can be employed to enhance the impact of every dollar you spend? In this newsletter we want to talk about both sales and marketing. On the marketing side we're happy to announce the release of our new paper, 50 Great Tips for Using E-Mail and Web Marketing Effectively.
In this
paper you will find: These 50 tips can be downloaded at no cost from our Website... Click here to download! However, marketing of most products and services cannot succeed without a good sales operation, and vice versa. So, we asked Don Weintraub, CEO of Rainmaker Associates, a sales consulting, training, and search firm focused on the training industry, to talk to us about ways to maintain and increase sales in this difficult time. His interview appears in the opposite column. Christine Sullivan President, Hawthorne Associates (978) 745-4878 Hawthorne Newsletter Archives:
Join
ISA
ISA--the association of learning suppliers. More than 140 companies are currently members of ISA, representing more than 10,000 employees and serving more than 50,000 clients. ISA may be reached by calling 877-533-4914, e-mail info@isaconnection.org or at www.isaconnection.org. I'm proud to be on its board and would be happy to talk directly with anyone interested. -- Christine Sullivan Hawthorne Associates has provided marketing and public relations services to companies in the training, learning and knowledge management industries for more than a decade. Find out how we can help your company by calling (978) 745-4878, emailing chris@hawthorneassociates.com or visiting our web site at www.hawthornemedia.com |
 Making
Sales in a Tough Economy Weintraub: I think in tough times it's more about opening than it is about closing. You really can't afford to lose when there are fewer opportunities and more competition. The opening is about establishing relationship and trust. Closing almost happens naturally if you have invested in the opening. You need to understand the buyer's needs, the risks the buyer is feeling, and how whatever they are purchasing will be of value to them personally as well as to the company as a whole. If you don't establish trust, credibility and value then all the closing techniques in the world will not work. What this means is that you have to understand the prospect's buying cycle and decision process and have built trust with the decision maker or makers. You need to have a good handle on your competition so that you are not only selling offensively but also defensively. You need to defeat your competition. Hawthorne: How would you describe buyers in this economy? Weintraub: In a tight economy people's tolerance for risk goes way down. So you need to look for ways to provide risk minimization and that varies from situation to situation. Examples of risk minimizing approaches include:
Hawthorne: How do you qualify leads quickly? Weintraub: All leads are not created equal and you need to have some decision criteria-a rating system-to evaluate these leads. Almost everyone can do this. Key decision criteria might include: readiness to buy from you; size of prospect company; where did the referral come from, is the lead in our target markets? Once you have the criteria, stick to it. But maintain your ability to make an exception when it is needed. The other critical question to ask about leads is "how do you keep score?" Is the scorecard based on activity or results? I would rather get two good leads a month than 200 leads a month and then have to find the two that are highly qualified. Hawthorne: What kind of person should do the lead qualification or screening? Weintraub: The person doing the screening must be someone your company trusts implicitly. He or she must have a good ear and know how to probe on the phone to do an initial assessment. Screening and qualifying leads requires a seasoned person with good judgment who understands both your company and what you are trying to accomplish in the marketplace. Hawthorne: Is it better to follow up by phone or e-mail or a combination? Weintraub: Do follow-up as much in person or by phone as possible because it is key to developing relationships and trust. When in doubt, always talk to the prospect. Hawthorne: How many follow-up calls is enough? Weintraub: Enough for whom? You always need to walk that fine line between being responsive and being annoying. What I would advise is "follow your instinct". You might say, "I am trying not to be a pest. You had expressed an interest in xxxxx. I am trying to be responsive. I have now contacted you x times and have not heard back. So at this point I will wait to hear from you. If you are interested please call me and we can talk further. If it is a lead but the person won't take your calls then it is probably not a lead. It's probably an inquiry." Hawthorne: How long should there be between sales communications? Weintraub: It depends on where you are in the process. Your job is to be responsive. I try to allow the buyer to drive the process. I say, "when do you need this information by". If they want materials, I ask their permission to do the follow-up to make sure they receive what they needed. I look for ways to keep in communication that are responsive to the buyer's timeline. Hawthorne: What advice would you give to a salesperson in the training/learning industry at this time-November 2002? Weintraub: Stop selling--start helping. And help your client measure ROL--Return on Learning. This is a critical notion because it is hard to mitigate risk if you cannot demonstrate return. Customers have reason to be fearful at this time. Their concerns are legitimate. Be sensitive to those because those concerns drive buying behavior. In the ideal world, what you are saying is let me help you confront those fears. Let me work with you to mitigate those risks. I've seen these conditions before. I can help you to succeed even in these trying times. This is about helping, not about selling. To summarize:
Donald Weintraub is founder and CEO of Rainmaker Associates, which is a sales effectiveness consulting, training and executive search firm specializing in the training industry. 978-465-1145 or e-mail rain1@tiac.net, www.rainmakerassoc.com.
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