accidental salesperson Archives

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Who Are Non-Salespeople And Why Do They Matter?

November 30, 2012/in General Tips/by Bill Caskey

In the last few weeks, we’ve been working on the launch of an online program called The Accidental Salesperson. The reason we’re launching this is that we find more and more non-sales people are being asked to sell, negotiate, communicate and manage relationships that already exist.

In many ways, these people below can be THE most powerful people in the company because they are the talent that does the work…rather than merely sell the work.

You’ve heard the axiom, “It costs a lot less to sell to a current customer than it does to bring in a new customer?” Yet, when we looked around, we saw very little attention (skill training) for that group.

Who Is The Accidental Sales Person?

Here is a list of the types of occupations and functions that might qualify for ‘accidental’ status. Obviously, every company is different, however when you read the list, you’ll see some titles that will fall into that category nicely.

1. Entreprenuers.

They sell to bankers, and other vendors, as well as they are put into sales scenarios, infrequently. They need to have a method of communicating value, which they do all of the time.

2. Professional Services (Accountants, Engineers, Lawyers).

They didn’t use to need training in this realm, but they now do. They are all graded not just on the technical skills but also on their Business Development Skills. “You don’t bring in business, you might not make partner.”

3. Field Service People.

In many ways, these are the most important, customer-facing people in the company. They are the problem finders and solvers.

4. Account Managers.

These are the people that take care of the accounts once they’ve been sold. They are the ones that can sniff out new opportunities and are positioned perfectly to communicate value to customers. Also applies to Customer Service or Inside Sales People. Read more

How Do I Stay In Front of My Clients Without Pestering Them?

November 7, 2012/in Expert Positioning/by Bill Caskey

This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our program called The Accidental Salesperson. We thought we’d give you a peak inside our thinking when we answer client questions. (This is a transcription of spoken audio so forgive some of the clunkiness).

Q: What I know is that clients give me referrals and therefore I need to be in front of my clients, but I don’t make time to do it. How do I do so?

A: Well there are two things here. One is the making time and two is what I do with that time that I make.

I’m going to give you a couple of ideas.

If you really believe that you have something of enormous value for your clients and let’s say it’s July and tax season is over and as a CPA, you’re kind of back in the swing of things because you’ve taken the month of May off to just recharge. I think it’s OK to call people up and say,

“Look, we don’t really have any kind of imminent issue here but I was wondering if you would mind if I stop by sometime. I’ve got something I would like to show you.”

I think you should make a call where you’re actually going to be giving value.

You’re not giving a sales pitch. There’s no value in that. You’re stopping by. You’re either writing an article and this is where it gets to number two. You’re either writing content of some kind:

An article
A white paper
A case study
Or something where I, as the client, am interested in knowing it.

It could be how somebody does something. It could be new ways to save money on taxes. It could be updates from the IRS on things that I should be concerned about as a business owner or as a taxpayer.

You Must Think About An Expert Strategy

This gets back to being an expert and positioning yourself as an expert. In your profession, there are tons of things that you can do so you have a reason to go meet with them. The issue in a lot of this stuff is, “Do you have a good, compelling reason?” Stopping by to say, “Hey!” is probably not a good, compelling reason and that’s why we don’t do it. It’s also why we can’t make a phone call to bring ourselves to do it.

So the question is: “How are you going to bring value when you show up?”

That’s why I suggest some kind of an article, a white paper, a document. It could be something as simple as a website article that you print off and then you interpret in some way or you add your perspective to it. Don’t just send them a link to an “interesting article” you saw. That’s the coward’s way out. Add to it. Enhance it. Offer your perspective on it. That will differentiate you. Read more

Goal Setting for Accidental Salespeople

October 26, 2012/in Goal Setting/by Bill Caskey

This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our new program called The Accidental Salesperson. We thought you might like to hear the kinds of questions coming from non-traditional sales teams.

“I seem to set goals, but then do not hold myself accountable for achieving them.”

This has a lot of potential starting points here. Many times, the reason we don’t accomplish the goals we’ve set is not in the how-to. It starts in the, “Why did you put it as a goal?”

So, let’s say you set a goal of generating 10 new clients in 2013. And le’ts also say in past years, you’ve generated only 3 new clients. Then going from three to many more than that in one year is big. I’m wondering, “Well, how did you arrive at that?”

So I think the first question you have to ask on your goals is, “Are they realistic?” We’re not big fans of the whole, “Are they measurable? Are they achievable? Are they realistic?”

Just look in the mirror and ask yourself ,“You know what? I’ve only accomplished this once in the last 10 years, but I’m going forward again times two,” and if you really believe it, then that’s fine.

The second thing is I think sometimes we don’t flesh out the goal.

A lot of times, companies will come to us and say, “OK, we want to grow our business 25 percent next year.” We say OK or we say, “What’s that based on? What gives you the feeling like that’s achievable and possible?”

“Well, the market is expanding and the economy is getting better and we’ve added a new salesperson and we’ve got a new product…”

OK, fine. Then, sounds like it’s in your comfort zone. It’s not too far out of our comfort zone. The 25 percent is possible. Then the question is, “Well, how?” How are you going to do it?

Brian Tracy mentioned this a lot in his work. Tracy has some good and some not-so-good points. This is one good one. He says the most important part of a goal is how to.

So I have this goal of getting 10 clients. OK. How am I going to do that and what do I need to learn to do that? What new skills do I need to do that?

This is the thing that I would probably ask you: If your goals are right, then the question is the how-to. How, specifically, are you going to accomplish that and what skills do you need to accomplish that?

So it’s the how and the skills. Then there are probably two sides of the same coin. For example, if your goal is to make 10 calls a week to past clients, then again I’m also going under the belief that you’re not in front line sales so you also have other responsibilities.

That’s not all you’re doing. You’re delivering. You’re answering phones. You’re negotiating for companies, whatever role you play. Then sales is probably a secondary role.

“What skills are going to make me better? What skills are going to make me want to pick up that phone?” Because here’s what I know: Fear will stop you. Fear stops all of us from achieving our goals. It’s not so much the goal scares us. It’s the how-to that scares us. Read more

Are You An Accidental Salesperson?

September 10, 2012/1 Comment/in Expert Positioning/by Bill Caskey

In October, we plan to release an online course called The Accidental Salesperson which presumes that many people who are drafted into sales today really didn’t set out with sales at their goal. This can include engineers, subject matter experts, accountants, lawyers and even a lot of salespeople.

And yet, most of the training that teaches those people how to sell is old and antiquated and actually takes away the very power that a technical subject matter expert has.

For example…

One of the keys to a successful salesperson − which the accidental sales person has an enormous amount of − is expertise. Accidental salespeople who grew up in the technical world know how to solve problems and they probably know how to find problems, too. That’s not necessarily the case with a salesperson who might not have worked on a widget − built it, designed it or engineered it.

These accidental salespeople are being asked to either head up the sales process or be a vital cog in the wheel of the sales process. And if the accidental salesperson doesn’t know how to communicate the value to a prospect, they will be lost.

So if you’re an accidental salesperson, don’t look to the sales team to train you on how to sell. The last thing you want to look like is them, especially if they are using antiquated and old manipulative tactics to do their job.

Instead, seek out training that helps you understand:

How people make decisions
Why people buy
What are the typical problems that a customer has
How do they equate the problem they have with the money that you’re asking them for to fix it?

Figure out the answers to those questions and every sales person on your team will be asking you to go on calls with them because most of them cannot do that.