allhatter
10-05-2011, 06:42 PM
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When you’re thinking about the challenges of creating a business, sales might seem like one of the more straightforward tasks. You’re solid on the idea, product development is far enough along, and it feels like you can actually get some heads nodding to buy what you're selling. You slick back your hair, put on some presentable clothes, and commit Alec Baldwin’s entire Glengarry Glen Ross monologue to heart (play the video below if you haven't seen it before). Always be closing. Always. Be Closing.
Don’t get us wrong, we make our share of jokes about sales and our favorite sales movie. However, we also recognize that sales has a lot more to it than “getting to yes.” As a marketplace connecting great local brands with people around the country, we have to think about sales on not one, but two fronts – first, convincing businesses to partner with us and offer their products; second, selling our users on looking to us to discover and explore great specialty brands.
In this, I wanted to focus on the first – our business partners – as they’ve been our sales priority over the last month or so. We’ve had hundreds of conversations with dozens and dozens of businesses. Here are some key learnings we wanted to share with you.
1. Treat sales meetings as learning opportunities
No matter how much research and diligence you do about your customers and what they care about, there are always things that you don’t know. We had sales meetings with business owners coming from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences, who sell all kinds of products using a variety of different business models, as small as a single store to ones with a dozen satellites spread across the country. We learned something new from every meeting we had.
Leave behind everything you think you know, and put yourself into the owner's shoes. Even if they say something that’s wrong, it’ll help you better understand where they’re coming from. You can have the best pitch in the world, and it’s worth nothing if you don’t understand where your lead is coming from and what their beliefs and biases are. Get on the same page first.
We thought through every single detail in approaching our sales meetings and used our first few meetings to test different approaches. What was the most effective way to get a decisionmaker on the phone? How could we say just enough to get a manager’s interest to get a face-to-face? What features got owners excited about working with us? What were the questions that we’d most likely run into, and what were the most compelling answers for each?
We used sales meetings to learn more about the businesses we were selling. What were the economics at every step of the business? How did they make decisions around sourcing raw materials? What led them to distribute their products directly versus through brokers or intermediaries? What were some of the biggest issues they faced in their operations? How did they choose one shipping company over another? More often than not, we found business owners to be quite willing to discuss the details of their day-to-day. Obviously, you can’t ask these questions to just anyone (and some business owners are not as forthcoming), but when you sense a sales lead is open to talking about their business, it’s worth taking that opportunity to learn a few things yourself.
After every meeting, we recapped exactly what happened and discussed what we could have done better. We scrutinized how we presented ourselves, from our wording and demeanor to the clothes we wore. We even considered factors such as the day and time we got in touch with businesses. Monday mornings are bad – they’re getting caught up from the weekend and are busy getting ready for the rest of the week. Don’t call right before lunch – studies have shown judges are more likely to throw the book at a defendant right before lunchtime. If a federal judge can’t listen because they’re thinking about their sandwich, will your leads be able to?
2. Don’t put relationships at risk over a few extra bucks – build them for the long run
Though you can call them “leads” or “clients,” we do see the businesses we work with as true partners. We try to make that clear in everything we do and say to potential partners. We try to avoid the “hard sell” (except in cases where the business owner is clearly transactional and just needs to hear what we can offer them). Similarly, we believe in developing relationships for the long-term rather than pinching every penny from the start and playing hard ball in negotiations. This has paid off for us in a big way, and some of the biggest names we’ve partnered with have even asked to serve as our advisors. In fact, we’ve gone to them in confidence to learn the ins and outs of their vertical.
3. Listen to the customer
We try to listen to the problems of the businesses. When we started out, we prepared all kinds of materials that we felt we absolutely had to walk through. We soon learned that it was better to listen – what have they found difficult? What have they failed to do well? What keeps them up at night? We then could bring out materials and our thoughts when they have the biggest impact. The business hasn’t been able to design a good website? We pull out our mockups. They’re frustrated with dealing with UPS and calculating rates? We tell them about the process we designed and how it’ll free up their hands. It was about being prepared, and just listening. Sometimes we didn’t speak that much at all - they sold themselves.
Listening also helped us get ideas we might not have come up with. Many of our partners got really excited speaking to us, and had ideas for what they would like to see on the site. Some of these ideas were highly important, and only could come from someone who knew their space very, very well.* Others were less critical, and with limited resources, we couldn’t integrate them immediately, though we always put them into our roadmap. We then make the effort to tell them when we make the change on the site, so they know we’re listening to them and they’ve had an impact.
4. Aspire to sell them forever, not just the moment they sign
Getting to yes in a conversation is meaningless by itself. Honestly, we could cut down the length of our meetings by 80% and just “get agreement” for a store to work with us, and call it done. However, we don't want to be surprised when a large number of those “yes’s” didn’t pan out when we actually needed them to do something. We made an effort to not just get agreement “to work with us” – we worked to get a yes on our idea, our philosophy, and everything we were doing. We don’t feel like we’ve succeeded in creating a partner until we get them excited to work with us. Accomplish this, and you’ll never have a call or email ignored. You’ll never hear complaints about requests for data or meetings. Aspire to sell the lead forever, not just that moment.
5. Eat your own dogfood
We support our businesses in ways that go beyond our startup. If we’re in the mood for coffee or food, we will go out of our way to stop by one of our partners' stores.* If we're meeting with an advisor, we will insist on meeting at one of our partners' locations. We wouldn't tell our users something is great if we don't believe it and live it ourselves.
--
What have your sales experiences been like? Does our experience resonate with you? Does it conflict? Tweet us your thoughts at @MidtownRow.
Sign up for an invite at Midtown Row and get a $10.00 credit when we launch. Midtown Row is an online marketplace that makes it easy for you to discover and explore the best specialty brands from around the country. Visit our main blog to learn more about us and what to expect over the coming days!
More... (http://behindthescenes.midtownrow.com/for-a-startup-sales-is-about-more-than-just-g)
When you’re thinking about the challenges of creating a business, sales might seem like one of the more straightforward tasks. You’re solid on the idea, product development is far enough along, and it feels like you can actually get some heads nodding to buy what you're selling. You slick back your hair, put on some presentable clothes, and commit Alec Baldwin’s entire Glengarry Glen Ross monologue to heart (play the video below if you haven't seen it before). Always be closing. Always. Be Closing.
Don’t get us wrong, we make our share of jokes about sales and our favorite sales movie. However, we also recognize that sales has a lot more to it than “getting to yes.” As a marketplace connecting great local brands with people around the country, we have to think about sales on not one, but two fronts – first, convincing businesses to partner with us and offer their products; second, selling our users on looking to us to discover and explore great specialty brands.
In this, I wanted to focus on the first – our business partners – as they’ve been our sales priority over the last month or so. We’ve had hundreds of conversations with dozens and dozens of businesses. Here are some key learnings we wanted to share with you.
1. Treat sales meetings as learning opportunities
No matter how much research and diligence you do about your customers and what they care about, there are always things that you don’t know. We had sales meetings with business owners coming from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences, who sell all kinds of products using a variety of different business models, as small as a single store to ones with a dozen satellites spread across the country. We learned something new from every meeting we had.
Leave behind everything you think you know, and put yourself into the owner's shoes. Even if they say something that’s wrong, it’ll help you better understand where they’re coming from. You can have the best pitch in the world, and it’s worth nothing if you don’t understand where your lead is coming from and what their beliefs and biases are. Get on the same page first.
We thought through every single detail in approaching our sales meetings and used our first few meetings to test different approaches. What was the most effective way to get a decisionmaker on the phone? How could we say just enough to get a manager’s interest to get a face-to-face? What features got owners excited about working with us? What were the questions that we’d most likely run into, and what were the most compelling answers for each?
We used sales meetings to learn more about the businesses we were selling. What were the economics at every step of the business? How did they make decisions around sourcing raw materials? What led them to distribute their products directly versus through brokers or intermediaries? What were some of the biggest issues they faced in their operations? How did they choose one shipping company over another? More often than not, we found business owners to be quite willing to discuss the details of their day-to-day. Obviously, you can’t ask these questions to just anyone (and some business owners are not as forthcoming), but when you sense a sales lead is open to talking about their business, it’s worth taking that opportunity to learn a few things yourself.
After every meeting, we recapped exactly what happened and discussed what we could have done better. We scrutinized how we presented ourselves, from our wording and demeanor to the clothes we wore. We even considered factors such as the day and time we got in touch with businesses. Monday mornings are bad – they’re getting caught up from the weekend and are busy getting ready for the rest of the week. Don’t call right before lunch – studies have shown judges are more likely to throw the book at a defendant right before lunchtime. If a federal judge can’t listen because they’re thinking about their sandwich, will your leads be able to?
2. Don’t put relationships at risk over a few extra bucks – build them for the long run
Though you can call them “leads” or “clients,” we do see the businesses we work with as true partners. We try to make that clear in everything we do and say to potential partners. We try to avoid the “hard sell” (except in cases where the business owner is clearly transactional and just needs to hear what we can offer them). Similarly, we believe in developing relationships for the long-term rather than pinching every penny from the start and playing hard ball in negotiations. This has paid off for us in a big way, and some of the biggest names we’ve partnered with have even asked to serve as our advisors. In fact, we’ve gone to them in confidence to learn the ins and outs of their vertical.
3. Listen to the customer
We try to listen to the problems of the businesses. When we started out, we prepared all kinds of materials that we felt we absolutely had to walk through. We soon learned that it was better to listen – what have they found difficult? What have they failed to do well? What keeps them up at night? We then could bring out materials and our thoughts when they have the biggest impact. The business hasn’t been able to design a good website? We pull out our mockups. They’re frustrated with dealing with UPS and calculating rates? We tell them about the process we designed and how it’ll free up their hands. It was about being prepared, and just listening. Sometimes we didn’t speak that much at all - they sold themselves.
Listening also helped us get ideas we might not have come up with. Many of our partners got really excited speaking to us, and had ideas for what they would like to see on the site. Some of these ideas were highly important, and only could come from someone who knew their space very, very well.* Others were less critical, and with limited resources, we couldn’t integrate them immediately, though we always put them into our roadmap. We then make the effort to tell them when we make the change on the site, so they know we’re listening to them and they’ve had an impact.
4. Aspire to sell them forever, not just the moment they sign
Getting to yes in a conversation is meaningless by itself. Honestly, we could cut down the length of our meetings by 80% and just “get agreement” for a store to work with us, and call it done. However, we don't want to be surprised when a large number of those “yes’s” didn’t pan out when we actually needed them to do something. We made an effort to not just get agreement “to work with us” – we worked to get a yes on our idea, our philosophy, and everything we were doing. We don’t feel like we’ve succeeded in creating a partner until we get them excited to work with us. Accomplish this, and you’ll never have a call or email ignored. You’ll never hear complaints about requests for data or meetings. Aspire to sell the lead forever, not just that moment.
5. Eat your own dogfood
We support our businesses in ways that go beyond our startup. If we’re in the mood for coffee or food, we will go out of our way to stop by one of our partners' stores.* If we're meeting with an advisor, we will insist on meeting at one of our partners' locations. We wouldn't tell our users something is great if we don't believe it and live it ourselves.
--
What have your sales experiences been like? Does our experience resonate with you? Does it conflict? Tweet us your thoughts at @MidtownRow.
Sign up for an invite at Midtown Row and get a $10.00 credit when we launch. Midtown Row is an online marketplace that makes it easy for you to discover and explore the best specialty brands from around the country. Visit our main blog to learn more about us and what to expect over the coming days!
More... (http://behindthescenes.midtownrow.com/for-a-startup-sales-is-about-more-than-just-g)