When I started as a sales rep at Air2Web, being a salesperson with a fairly technical background, I immediately asked for a login into the software so I could start playing around and learning the software.  My boss told me that I would not receive, nor would I EVER receive a login into our software.

His reasoning?  If I started to go into the software, I would focus on HOW the software could do certain things and IF the software could do certain things in a certain way – rather than focusing my sales activities on finding the right customers and identifying their pain.

Granted, I had a sales engineer who would make sure that the things I was selling were actually possible in the software, but this tactic of my manager’s was a major stroke of genius.  In the 18 months that I was there, I was very focused on making sure I could find value for the customers.  I had enough of an understanding of what was possible in the software to make a lot of sales, but what I didn’t get concerned about was whether the way they wanted to do it was difficult or time-consuming, I only worried about selling on the basis of the value it brought the customer.

I believe that when a salesperson gets too deep into the workings of the software, he/she puts an imagined obstacle in front of themselves when they know that something the customer wants to do is not easy to do in the software, or doesn’t work 100% the way the customer is used to or accustomed to.  When I didn’t have a detailed understanding of how the software did certain things, I was forced to keep my sales conversations around what the software did for the customer in terms of their business improvement, and marketing goals, rather than focusing on how the software would accomplish their goals in detail.  Those details were handled by the sales engineer – and usually by that point, I had convinced the customer so much on the VALUE of the software, that the WAY it did it didn’t matter – even if it wasn’t exactly the way they would have wanted it.

It very easy for a salesperson to fall back on a demo, or discuss features, rather than to stay focused on the software big picture – which is the REAL reason that anyone will buy it.

This is the genius in never letting a salesperson log into the software.

I’ve recently gotten into answering posted questions on LinkedIn.  Its actually quite interesting to see some of the questions that people ask – many of them able to be answered with a simple Google search, but others are very thought provoking and I generally love to see a lot of insight from different points of view. 

The format on LinkedIn could be better in order to generate better banter back and forth – something more like Disqus comments – but nonetheless, I think generally its a good thing.

The other day there was a question posed about strategy for enterprise sales that I answered, and while I’m not going to re-post everyone’s answers, I thought that many of the answers to the question were thought provoking.

Here was the question:
What is the best way to sell enterprise software?
What do you think are the pros and cons of each of these methods:

1) Promoting Features the client will find advantageous
2) Devising Operational Solutions to solve a business problem
3) Advancing Strategic Enablers to change the way the client does business

Are there appropriate situations for using one method over the others? What alternate approaches might be helpful in facilitating software sales?

I intend to incorporate the answers into an article on my Software Sales Enablement column at http://greggnichols.com/s3blog. Thanks for your help.

This was my answer:

Gregg,

In selling enterprise software, the underlying technique should always be, “what’s in it for them?” By definition, a sales person needs to be nimble and adjust the strategy to the particular customer at hand. What’s their pain? What’s the reason they NEED your software?

Looking for a single strategy isn’t going to work. Selling enterprise software is not like selling widgets. Each prospect must be handled in a way that you understand why they need your software, understand the problem you are solving, and then construct a strategy that makes sense for that prospect.

In my experience, when you approach it as a consultative sale, you ultimately get a deeper relationship that lasts years and repeat sales. The prospect doesn’t feel “sold” and they honestly think that what you are bringing to them is something that is of value – and you aren’t trying to force on them features and products they don’t need.

The reason the customer may buy is often because of ROI, as Flyn suggests – but simply looking at the dollars may not bring in the entire picture. You need to understand the pain that the customer has that you solve. This may be a simplification of processes that bring efficiency to the company but don’t drive bottom line results immediately.

When you do this, you often get a customer for life. When you focus on doing the right thing for the customer and not solely on your quota, you will be amazed how much money will follow it. I have consistently crushed my quota with this method and my teams have consistently crushed quota with this method.

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This is a link to the entire thread:  http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/sales/sales-techniques/MAR_SLS_STC/285564-963883?browseIdx=1&sik=1217507874217&goback=%2Eama

This weekend, I was subjected to a horrible chick-flick.  To, be more accurate, it was a chick-documentary, but still not something that I would ever pick myself.  The documentary was “My Date With Drew.”  For those of you not familiar with this documentary, essentially its about a man who decides he is going to give himself 30 days to try to secure a single date with Drew Barrymore.

In his words, its a story about how a nobody can use networking, and six degrees of separation to get to an “untouchable” person like Drew Barrymore.  What the movie is REALLY about is how the main character will NEVER be successful in life. – or at least never be successful in sales.

Throughout the 30 days that he alotted for his task, he had several opportunities to ask for the sale.  He sat down with the writer of Charlie’s Angels that he got to through a connection.  Did he ask if this man would make Drew aware of the project?  NO!   He got a facial from the woman that gives Drew’s facials.  Did he ask her to give Drew a DVD or let her know about the project?  NO!   He met with Drew’s cousin.  Did he ask her to make a connection?  NO!  When he got into her movie premiere, he got to shake her hand and STILL could not bring himself to tell her about the project.

I was going MENTAL while watching this movie as he had at least 5 times to ask for the “sale” in his 30 days and he never did! 

He eventually got the date after about 90 days, because they set up a web site which took off virally and Drew found out about it through the internet buzz.  Esentially she found out about it by accident.

Here is someone who let the idea of his end game psych him out into just going for it.  Its the same for salespeople trying to sell to the “big elephant” account, or calling the CEO or CMO of a company.  You can’t let the celebrity around a person or the size of the account distract you from just asking for the sale.

So the three lessons that are evident in this chick-flick are:

1)  ASK FOR THE SALE!  Look for every opportunity to ask for the signature on the dotted line – and take every opportunity.  They usually know you want the sale, and will often stall it as long as you let them.

2) FORGET CELEBRITY:  People are people.  Forget that they are the CEO, the CMO, CTO, COO, VP of whatever – or that thay are phenominally successful.  They are people.  They need solutions and appreciate a good solution when one is presented to them – especially if it saves them money or time or gives them a competitive advantage. 

3) IMAGINED OBJECTIONS:  You must always focus on the solution you provide and understand that very often the obstacle that you think is there – is not really there.  The customer will create enough obstacles and objections for you – don’t create your own.  In this example, he almost let the fact that Drew got engaged detract him from his mission.  Understanding that his mission was not about becoming romantic with Drew – but about a common guy getting to an “untouchable,”  he got back on track.  Likewise, we as salespeople can’t let what we THINK are the obstacles get in our way – we need to move forward.  Drew was happy to help the project once she understood its mission.  If YOU honestly know that your product will help your customer, then you need to find a way to show that customer that the product solves their problems – forgetting what ”common knowledge” may speak.  This is actually a great topic for a whole post on its own…

Juff Thull posted a great article on Sales Self-Sabotage on Sales Pro Magazine.

The best point in the article is what he describes as the “Dangling Insult.”  He says:

“Here is a typical example, you may have observed this. A salesperson introduces their solution by saying, “We save companies like yours from wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost…” It sounds innocuous on the surface. Statements like this are standard sales-speak and are often true, but they also contain dangling insults. After all, if your salespeople tell a customer that she is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars, aren’t they also suggesting that she hasn’t been doing her job very well?”

What a perfect point.  It’s so easy to do and I know I’ve done it at times myself.  It’s especially difficult sometimes, because the people we sometimes encounter ARE doing very bad things to themselves.

Its a great read.

Which brings me to another question.  Sales Pro Magazine very often has some great articles on sales.  They publish a free on-line magazine every two months.  Why is this not a blog with articles posted as they arrive?  I don’t get it…

A few weekends ago, I saw a truck come and deliver cow manure to two of my neighbors.  It started me on a thought process about packaging and how really, anything can be sold, when it is packaged correctly.

Think about cow crap.  I have no idea how large this market is, but I have to imagine it is pretty darn big.  And people sign up year after year to willingly let someone deliver a truck load of cow crap, dump it in a big pile on their driveway, and then they take this stuff in wheelbarrow loads and spread it all over their yard.

I think in sales, its important to understand that the right message, the right pitch, and the right packaging of the product  can make the difference between phenomenal success and failure.  If someone said, “Hey, want to buy some of my cow crap and spread it on your lawn?” it would probably not sell as well, yet packaged as “fertilizer” it is suddenly a HUGE market.

This is NOT about selling someone something they don’t want or need.  In fact, the cow crap on your yard is EXCELLENT in terms of what it delivers as nutrients for the plants, the lawn, the flower garden, etc.  Buying and using cow crap is a GOOD thing.  Nobody is getting swindled here; however, in order to get the product out – you need to make sure that the packaging of the message is done correctly.

When I approach selling, I try to always look for the pain of that particular customer and craft a message and story around that pain.  This is not ingenuine.  In every company that I have worked for, I honestly believe in the product I am selling and believe that it will be a good thing for the prospect – but the key is to craft the right message that makes sense to them – that identifies why the product will solve THEIR problem.  Whenever I have lost faith in the product’s ability to do that – or in the direction of the company – that’s the time to move on.  I find that unless you believe it – its hard deep down to sell it.  At least it is for me – because I honestly want to bring the RIGHT solutions to my customers.