Do My Clients See Me as a Giant TimeSucker or as an Asset?

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who waste my time, know nothing about me or my interests and concerns and seem to take pride in doing all the talking.  Those who know me, joke that if they want me to read and respond to an email, it had better be less than two lines long and easy to read on my phone.  If a text rolls over to a 2 of 4, my eyes begin to bleed and my finger hovers over the "Clear All" button. Meetings with no clear objective and rehashing of topics with no decision in sight are cruel and unusual punishment and prohibited by the 8th Amendment of the Constitution.

Recently, I began to evaluate my own email, voicemail and meetings with Clients and Peers.  Was I becoming guilty of my biggest pet peeve? Was I preparing sufficiently for meetings and calls with Clients or was I just winging it and rambling on? Did I have valuable information that was relevant to my client and peers?

I am sorry to say that I was guilty about 50% of the time of being a TimeSucker.  I had not prepared ahead of time and felt I could wing it. As a result, I was finding it harder and harder to get meetings with top-level people and the objectives of the meeting were not being accomplished in the time allotment I was given.

I was finding that mid-level people were ok with minimal prep time and shooting the breeze, but that the C-Level people found it to be burdensome.  I started to think about how I could change my meetings and prep-time so that my meetings were more productive and brief.  Here is what I came up with:

1. Spend at least 30 minutes preparing for every 30 minute C-Level meeting. Think about what you want to accomplish and how you are going to bring it up.

2. Don't just talk about things that are on your mind.  Come with something that would be valuable to the person you are meeting with, regardless of whether it is something you sell or not. If you have read a good book that would be relevant to this person's interests and concerns, share it or better yet, bring a copy as a loaner.  If you happen to have highlighted it with portions you found interesting or your client would appreciate, all the better!

3. Hold firm to your calendar and the time limit you were allotted. Make sure and ask permission if you go over. Invitations from the client are the only reason you should go over time limit.

4. Have an agenda for meetings and include them on your Meeting Invitations.  Come prepared and try not to get distracted by other urgent issues that come up.  Table them and address them separately.

Personal Experience: In preparation for a meeting set up by a recruiter and with minimal information about where the meeting was headed, I made some guesses about what we were going to discuss and spent over 2 hours thinking and preparing for a discussion with a key partner's Owner and Business Manager.  I came with ideas about how to improve their business. I listed out 5 things that I felt could be accomplished and how.  The meeting was set for a lunch.  We had a vigorous conversation about each of the 5 points.  It ended up going an hour and 15 minutes.  I had an informal job offer as part of the discussion.  We set a follow up meeting for the next week, where we discussed more in detail the 5 points. Now I had a formal job offer.

While it was not my intent to find a new job, the opportunity to contribute and put my plan into action was irresistible. I was concerned about the partners business and spent time analyzing it and proposed some solutions.  Now I get to put it in action.  All for some prep-time and showing interest in my partner's business.

Think about what you could do for you client's business and the respect your would garner if you spent time thinking about how you could help your clients.    Are you a TimeSucker or an Asset?

Customer Service is Everything

My Wife and I decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out for our anniversary last week. We went to a great Steak place here in town. I made a reservation ahead of time (online) and mentioned it was for our anniversary in the notes section. From the moment we walked in, they called us by first names and congratulated us on our 21st anniversary. We were escorted to a table and asked if we preferred white or black napkins for our laps. Our hostess was courteous and prompt in taking our order once she realized we already knew what we wanted. The waitstaff frequently came by and made sure our drinks were filled without interrupting our conversation. When we were out of bread, they brought more. Our Steak was cooked as we requested. The Manager came by to make sure all was to our liking and congratulated us, by name, on our anniversary. When we mentioned we had time commitment, our desert was packed up and delivered to our table. The next day we received a thank you card from the restaurant.

Contrast that to the amount of times I have felt like I was actually bothering the person behind the fast-food counter when I dared to interrupt their obviously deep conversation with a co-worker about last night's monster-truck rally, only to have my order only slightly resemble what I requested. To top it off, I had to go back and ask for Ketchup, since the dispenser was empty.

Customer Service makes the difference and I have repeatedly stopped supporting establishments that made me feel like a burden.

Over the past year, I watched as my clients had to endure longer than accustomed delays in my ability to fulfill their requests, poor follow-up on post-sales issues and a general degradation in the personal attention I was able to give my clients.

I am not a wine 'em and dine'em expert. I do my share of entertaining, but I pride myself on EXECUTION and attention to detail, taking away the difficulties of dealing with large organizations. I make it a point to turn customer requests within 48 hours and to always, always thank them for their business.

I made attempts to help solve the internal issues that caused my clients pain, involving other departments and management, making suggestions and even changing the way I do business. In the end, I was told that "this is the way we have always run the business and we see no reason to change it."

When the organization you work for becomes a liability instead of an asset and begins to damage your hard-earned reputation, and you've made every effort to help resolve the internal quagmire that sometimes exists, it's time to declare your independence and state your grievances and finally sever ties.

I work too hard on my reputation and will not let inefficiency and apathy cause me or my clients prolonged grief.

Creativity and Security

Last month, in an effort to make contact with a "hard-to-reach" client, I packaged up a trac phone with a cryptic message to expect a call at 5 pm sharp the following Monday. I failed to note that the following Monday was President's day holiday. Whoops! No one but security at the Bank that day and a non-descript manila envelope tends to get attention when it has no return address and has electronics inside it.

By the time the target had returned from Holiday, security had full possession of my creative calling-card. There was no way I was going to make contact with him....especially after Homeland Security gets a call from the Bank where I sent it.

I received a call from the Bank's Head of Security shortly afterwards. After a brief interrogation, he sceptically began to believe my story. They tracked me down by way of the only number still in the phone call history.

Then I got the phone call I was wanting in the first place. The Client was laughing his head-off and asking me if I wanted a full-body cavity search with that phone.

While an occasional creative contact method may be required, make sure you think through the logistics and possible consequences first.

I have learned an important lesson this week. Note to Self!

Sometimes, Timing is Everything

Have you ever been on one of those Sales Calls where you were just "In the Zone"? Nothing could go wrong, no objection was to difficult, the right people were present, your presentation was perfect and the deal just kept getting bigger?

I was "In the Zone"! The room was full and there were more on the conference line from around the globe. We all shook hands and agreed to the follow up actions items (most of them were mine). I thought we had just landed one of the largest accounts in the Mountain States.

I went back to the (home) office and proceeded to make calls and bang out emails attaching reference customer contact info and setting up a test plan that just could not fail. I sent out White Papers and Case Studies. After all that work I put in a follow up call and sent a thank you card.

Days and then weeks went by with almost no response from this key account. When I finally made contact I got the cold-shoulder treatment and was told that they were just too busy with other projects right now and would not be able to take a look at my product until next year. :(

What a let down! A complete Crash and Burn! I had been sidelined, benched and then asked to leave the stadium.

I occasionally shot a note over and called the prospect, but never got more than a one sentence reply that he still did not have time to take another look.

Last week...the next year mark, I began the full-court press again, calling on key partners and contacts to get me back in to that key account. Success! We had a meeting. The partner however, kept warning me that the reception was going to be luke-warm at best and perhaps even frigid. I expected the worst.

When we arrived, we were escorted to a medium sized conference room and told to sit tight. There were 2-3 people already in the room. As we got settled, a few more showed up, then more and finally we ran out of chairs. We were asked to recap what we had discussed last time and give a basic overview of our solution for the new people. As soon as we got in to the meat of the presentation, more people filed in and we had standing room only. Questions were flying and we were challenged on a few statements asking for more information. The pace was fast and furious with people from all relevant areas of the company present. Along the way we figured out that the customer's pain had reached critical mass and timing was much better than last time. It had suddenly moved up the priority list of things to address.

I have since followed up as I always do with a definite plan and plan on making the call today to make sure we are still on track. More to follow........

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

I just had to share a recent conspiracy against me by my own internal management and partner team. Hopefully, you will either laugh hysterically (you sick and twisted freaks) or feel my pain.

We'd been working closely with a reseller to win over a large technology expansion for an existing customer. My relationship was not as strong as it should have been and I relied heavily on the reseller's relationship for updates, appointments and the final sale. We had been working closely wit them for over 6 months to try and overcome, technical, budgetary and relationship challenges. Along the way, the customer threatened to look elsewhere for a solution.

After 6 months of angst we drew near the end of a critical quarter of selling. I really wanted and needed the deal to meet some personal goals. The entire Executive Staff in my organization was involved ad pushing hard to win the deal and get it off the street. Customers communication was sporadic and always filtered through the reseller. I struggled to get an accurate idea of the customer's temperature and decision process. One day, we had the deal and the purchase order was being processed and the next, the CIO in Canada was asking them to revisit their choice in vendors. I was then assured that the PO was being cut and issued.

Three day before the appointed deadline, I received the dreaded email from my Area VP. "We've lost the deal! They've gone another direction!" As you can imagine, my heart dropped into my shorts. Within 2 minutes, I received another email from the reseller with the same message. I was now in a complete panic and my ire was rising against the customer and the reseller. I began to make desperate phone calls and send terse emails. No one would answer my inquiries. I felt like a pariah.

After a 2 hour panic, I get a voice-mail from the reseller. In it he admits to being in cahoots with the Area VP and playing a cruel joke on me and my associates...

Through this enlightening experience, I learned something. Don't rely on your resellers to maintain the only relationship with the customer. Be able to laugh at myself for my own reaction. Develop my own paths of communication and stay involved. And finally, find an excuse to be in touch with every customer.

Do Your Homework!

For over two years I've been making attempts to break in to a large and local Furniture retailer. Non of my usually successful methods seemed to be working. Then I came across the "IN". A local reseller/partner had this customer locked up. I started making it my mission to win over the partner. I shared contact information and collaborated on another project we had a mutual interest in. Then came the opportunity.

The Reseller invited me to take this prospect to lunch. I jumped on it! Before the meeting, the partner and I had brief but very valuable phone call. He shared the prospects attitude, buying-cycle, preferred method of doing business and most importantly; hos to make a good first impression.

This prospect likes to lead. They prefer to noodle on ideas first, make it their own idea, then come back to the vendors as if it was their idea all along.

Lunch was great, casual and we talked absolutely NO BUSINESS.

Afterwards, we headed back to their conference room. We sat their staring at one another for a few seconds and then I asked what they wanted me to cover. They told me. We did it, but in a very non-pushy (salesy) way. All through the discussion, they asked questions probed for more info and sought clarification. In the end, we casually suggested that when the time was right, they bring our product in for a test in their process, but that we would wait to hear back from them. I also told them that i would send a brief summary of our discussion within 24 hours as a refresher.

I did.

Not long after that meeting, the partner that had invited us in called me. He was literally ecstatic! He said that the prospect had called him into his office following the meeting and raved at how casual, productive and enjoyable the meeting had been. He also said, "That guy (me) was not your typical salesperson!" What a compliment!

In Summary:

Seek information about your prospects before an important meeting. Ask about:

1. Their personalities

2. Their interests

3. How they like to do business and with whom

4. Do they like to be lead or followed

5. Do they like formal Presentations or do they prefer a more free-flowing meeting

Successful Selling!!!

We Will Not Lose On Price

The Dreaded Statement: "We Won't Lose on Price"

Many of us have been through long and difficult sales efforts. A while back I was going through one of those nail-biters when I asked for management involvement to help close things out and provide air-cover to my efforts. Sometime customer just need to see a fresh face and know that there are other people that can support them in their efforts to be successful.

Negotiation is always a tricky business. It really should be classified as a science. It takes practice and finesse. It should always be viewed as a Win-Win.

On this occasion, I was hoping to breach an impasse with my client by bringing in Management to work out the final details on our negotiation and get some additional concessions from both sides to make it the Win-Win we all wanted. Unfortunately, I may have not been clear in my expectations. One of the first things out of my team's mouth as one of the objections was expressed by the customer was, ....."We will not lose on price!"

When this statement is made, you have lost a negotiation point. A very valuable point that should only be used once all other objections have been addressed. You have just coughed up margin and given away the farm. Major Feaux Paux!

Use the price as a negotiation point in conjunction with other benefits, services, reference requests, speaking engagements, follow-up product opportunities, long-term contracts and agreements and finally perceived value. It should be a balancing act and you should be able to assign and show value to your client for each of the items listed above before you settle on a price. Your competition may not be able to provide the same value or show it in a clear and concise manner. Before you commit to "Not lose on Price" make sure you are taking into account all the perceived value and monetizing it for your client. Don't play the price game! It is a Lose-Win at best and in some cases will be a lose-lose if the Client ends up settling for a cheaper solution.

I ended up having to eat an additional 10% off an already aggressive price, due to this little mistake. Even though my product was superior in reliability, references, support and performance, I lost out! None of those items mattered after that statement was made. We just committed to discount our perceived value away. :(