By Mark I LaRosa on December 10th, 2009
Up-selling, despite what some people believe, is not a sneaky or dishonest sales strategy. In fact is is an essential strategy for start-ups. I do, however, understand, how many people can see it this way.
At the bagel store near my house, a bagel costs $0.49. Yet, order that bagel with $0.03 worth of butter, and the bagel is suddenly $1.69. Why does the store do this? Because its great to advertise bagels that cost only $0.49, but who comes into the store and only orders 1 bagel with nothing on it? The upsell is the critical method of driving profit into the store.
It’s not a dishonest strategy, but if you sat there and really thought about what is going on, its kind of maddening. And if you listen to the entire process of people walking in and out of the store (which as a person who looks for sales techniques in anything, I do), you will hear the constant upsell. “Can I interest you in a coffee too? Perhaps some cheese with that taylor ham sandwich? Can I interest you in home fries?” The entire sales process is hinged on the upsell. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on December 4th, 2009
Its worth repeating my post from last December about the December Sales Problem.
December is a hard sales month for companies for several reasons: The month is really only 2.5 weeks long before your prospects shut down. Budgets are often used up. Vacations make it hard to get deals done. Prospects are more focused on their Holiday party then they are on your solution, etc. The list is long, and very intuitive why its hard to get sales done. However, as I’ve posted before, December can actually be an amazing month for sales.
But very often the biggest December sales problem is inside your own company… Its the sandbagging sales team. Get into the mind of a salesperson for a minute… Sales plans typically reset in January, and each salesperson is in one of two camps.
The first camp has already made quota, and wants to make quota next year – and even though they are probably in accelerated commissions right now – want to make sure they hit quota two years in a row – and set themselves up for accelerated commissions next year as well as any challenges and bonuses that may come along. In other words, they’ve already impressed you this year and in the “what have you done for me lately” mentality – they are already thinking about next year. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on October 13th, 2009
Recently, I replied to a HARO request for the top 5 lessons for a new sales rep. Happily, one of my items was selected for the article. (Yes, the article is referring to an idea from me despite the fact that my name is massacred <grin> ). The resulting list that author, Brandon Mendelson, compiled is actually quite good and I’m honored to be one of the items in his list. I decided to post my entire top 5 here and provide links to my old articles that explain them in more detail:
1) Nobody cares about your product: Prospects care about their own problems – not your product. The faster you find their problem (“their pain”) that you solve through your product, then the faster you will get to the sale.
2) Embrace the word “NO”. Don’t be afraid to ask for the deal. Typical new salespeople let deals fester because they are afraid of hearing the word no. I say, get to the no. Then you find out the real reason for the objection – and eventually turn it into a yes by negotiating. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on October 9th, 2009
You can draw sales lessons from everywhere in life. The reason for this is that most of sales is about the interaction of human beings with each other – about the acts of persuasion and communication. I write constantly about how everyday life teaches me valuable lessons about how to become a better salesperson and sales manager. First, I wrote about Sales Lessons in a chick flick. Then I wrote about Sales Lessons from my 7 year old. Then, sales lessons from my 2 year old. I also wrote recently about sales lessons from my colorblind brother.
My latest sales lesson came from my 6 year old son (which fantastically has provided me at least one post-worthy sales lesson from each of my children). My son is playing flag football this year, and while he told me all spring and summer that he was really looking forward to playing flag football again this year, once it came time to play, he was less than interested. He whined and complained for the first two weeks of practice, and not surprisingly gave a less than stellar performance on the field during the first game. After the first game, I tried to remind him how great he did last year. I made sure he got the proper rest, and the right breakfast before his second game. Yet, he was a goofball on the field, and in many ways really provided an embarrassing display of antics on the field. The fact that many of the moms were telling me how cute and funny he was did matter. It was getting me very angry that he wasn’t trying his best and doing what I knew he could do well. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on August 12th, 2009
I gave my “Sales 101 for entrepreneurs” lecture to the entrepreneurs at DreamIT Ventures in Philadelphia last week. If you aren’t familiar with them, its a TechStars / Y-Combinator style incubator that helps launch great companies on a shoe-string. It does so by providing a great environment and access to top notch mentors and experienced VC’s and entrepreneurs. I was honored to be one of their speakers this year.
During my presentation, one of the entreprenuers asked me a great question: What should I look for when I’m hiring a sales candidate?
My immediate response was, “The first and most important quality that I look for in a salesperson is that they have expensive hobbies.” Of course, this evoked quite a bit of laughter, but then I started to explain my rationale.
Most people will tell you that when you hire a salesperson, you should look for confidence, persuasiveness, an extensive rolodex, the persistence of a 2 year old , and intelligence. I say, yes all of those things are great (although I am not a believer in the rolodex-theory), but you are talking to salespeople. We are not normal. By nature, we are trained at the core to manipulate conversations, control the direction of conversations, get you to feel good about what we are saying, and convince you that the things you are looking for are not what you are looking for – but you are instead looking for the things that are good in us. Our job is to close you – to get the deal done. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on August 7th, 2009
Recently, I spoke to someone who had followed my advice about being completely truthful in the sales process, and was finding that he wasn’t getting as many sales from it as he thought. I started digging into his process, and instantly realized the problem.
Truthfulness does not mean “reveal everything at once” – nor does it mean that you don’t control what information you give at any time. You need truth in every step of the process, but that doesn’t mean that you have to show your entire hand from the get-go. You should be offering up information in snack-sizes and when it is required to move the process along. You should always be managing the process towards the end goal that you want – a close.
Think of it this way… Go back to your single days (or if you are single.. go back to last weekend), and imagine yourself in a bar and seeing an attractive person. You certainly don’t walk up to them and say, “I just saw you, had a mental fantasy about us together, and thought I would come over here and talk to you. I think we are likely quite compatible and would make very attractive children.” Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on July 29th, 2009
Yesterday, I met my brother at the gym early in the morning. After our workout, my brother asked me in helping him pick out the right tie for him to wear to work. (he had brought 4 to the gym with him). Why? My brother is colorblind. Not black and white only, but enough that getting himself dressed can present challenges.
I had forgotten this about my brother. I shared a VERY small bedroom with my brother for about 14 years before I left for college, and helping my brother with his clothing choices used to be a regular occurrence, but having not lived with him for so long, I forgot about it – and having him ask me about it reminded me of life in his eyes.
As I left the gym, I related the story in my mind to sales. (My wife will tell you that I relate EVERYTHING in my life to sales). The question I asked myself was… am I too wrapped up in the way that I see life and the deals that I’m working on that perhaps I’m not looking at the deals in the way that my prospects see them. Do I really understand and know the way that they see the world – so that I can better create a win-win scenario that will lead to a close? (It is interesting that this is the second time that a tie has caused me to blog about the prospect’s point of view.) Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on July 2nd, 2009
People that read QuotaCrush know that I am always talking about the need for transparency and honesty in the sales process. As I’ve said, when you do the right thing and when you are honest, sales happen for you. And the more honest you are, the more good karma comes back and leads to more sales.
A few weeks ago, I took a customer out to lunch since I was in town. This customer has been up on one of the software services for one my clients for about a month, and this was a great opportunity to get some feedback on the product, and talk about the implementation thus far.
At one point in the conversation, I paused and said to the customer, “So. how truthful was I in the sales process about what your post sales experience with our software would be?” He immediately replied, “Actually… very! You made some pretty bold statements in your sales process about what you guys could accomplish and I admit that I discounted some of what you said, but I’m certainly very pleased that you have come through on everything that you have promised.” Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on June 23rd, 2009
When I was in my first job out of college, I worked for a containerized shipping company and wrote code for automating the shipping port. On the successful launch of our software, the CEO of the company came to the port to see the operation. While reviewing the smooth motion of the trucks thru the port, he saw a trucker changing a tire and he was struggling with a lug nut. He made an off-hand comment, “you know… someone should fix that… there should be an easier way,” and then he continued on his tour.
Some managers heard this comment, and proceeded on a six month engineering study of lug nuts, and eventually came back to the CEO with an entire plan on new and improved lug nuts, and what the implementation plan and costs would be to equip the entire fleet of chassis with new lug nuts. These new lug nuts would reduce the amount of stress on drivers needing to change tires. Needless to say, these managers were quite proud of the work they had done. Read more...
By Mark I LaRosa on June 1st, 2009
One of the most important, yet difficult, lessons that a salesperson needs to learn is that nobody really cares about the product you sell.
Prospects care about their own problems, their own issues, their own pain. They don’t care about your product.
The only reason they are interested in your product at all is because it solves a particular problem of theirs, or makes their job easier, or saves them money, keeps their boss off their back, or some other selfish reason. You can think your product is as cool as hell, but people don’t buy something cool as hell, unless they understand how it helps them. Yes… your prospect will be thinking about his/her own issues while you talk about your product. If they can’t make a match… they will not buy no matter how cool your product is.
Think about your own purchases. Especially when you are spending large sums of money, you will always think about how if affect you, whether it be status, comfort, simplification of your life, etc. Your prospects will be thinking this way too. Read more...
