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Reaching The Decision Maker...

12/27/2012

How to reach the decision maker… that’s the proverbial question of sales.

One technique I’ve used to reach decision makers is a targeted survey. The survey is comprised of only ten questions and the reward for completing the survey varies depending on revenue potential and size of the organization.

The goal is simple…

you want a response and obtain contact information from the targeted person
you want to send a follow-up message on how your product / solution alleviates problems addressed in the survey
you want to enter into deeper dialog and hopefully close a sale

I know what you’re thinking… but does it work?

Here’s just one example… and I have many

An auto titling company I was working with wanted to reach the executive suite of national auto lenders. I targeted ten institutions, but knew making a connection would be difficult as the titling company was small and unknown.

I designed a very focused survey and to be sure it was read the "subject line" and "opening paragraph" let recipient know they had a 1 in 10 chance to win a 64G iPhone 4S… there was only going to be 10 surveys sent to national lenders and each reply would be entered into a random drawing for the iPhone.

The survey received a 50% response rate and the auto titling company entered into high-level discussions with two national lenders.

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Courage... Do You Have It?

12/26/2012

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Do you have the courage to correct a wrong? What if the wrong involved your largest client?

This was the dilemma one of our regional managers faced.

Seems his boss, our VP of Sales and my direct report, inflated database processing fees to our largest client and the regional manager knew the client was beginning an audit. He felt there was going to be repercussions and decided to resign rather than address the situation.

When I heard of his resignation I asked to meet. He told me about the inflated fee's and stated he didn’t want to take the blame for loosing the account. My response was…

“I don’t care if you resign, but don’t do it until we both visit the client and address this problem head on. We must do the right thing and if we loose the account so be it… at least we had the moral strength to correct a wrong”. He said OK and arranged the meeting.

The meeting was tough and deservedly so. When it was my turn to speak I apologized on behalf of the company. I told them that, as COO, I had taken corrective action and this would never happen again… then I authorized:

$150,000 credit to be used on any of our products or services (this was double the amount they were overcharged)
Our new communication product at NO Charge for 6-months, all 7,000 of their sites. In addition I agreed to personally make the announcement at an upcoming state conference they were chairing

The client was very pleased... and I made the convention announcement.

Lessons Learned…

You need to have courage to do the right thing especially when things are difficult
If you take corrective action and address problems head-on positive things can happen

This was one of those occasions… we didn’t loose the client and we closed an order that day. After 6-months of free service we received a license fee order totaling $245K/year for those 7,000 sites.

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3 Things Learned From a Matterhorn Helicopter Ride...

12/22/2012

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A Little Background…

I was trying to strengthen my personal bond with some top Asia-Pacific distributors. Through many conversations I learned that while they felt my company produced leading products, they each felt undervalued by the company and prior regional sales manager.

I knew I had to do something fast to turn this around as they were actively evaluating replacement products.

Our European office was making plans for an upcoming Distributor Conference so I gave them a call. I asked if I could invite three key Asia-Pacific distributors to the conference and if they could participate in some meaningful way. Our European team loved the idea and my clients were stunned when I called with the invitation.

Now On To The Helicopter Ride....

During the conference there was four-hour period slated for European-only discussions, so we were going to have some free time. I had previously scouted the village of Zermatt hoping to find something fun to do and came upon a Swiss Helicopter Rescue station. I thought this would make for a fantastic bonding experience, but didn’t know if they took charter flights to the Matterhorn. It never hurts to ask and guess what, they said yes.

I told my group that we had to keep this quiet, as I would no doubt get in trouble for taking our biggest Asia-Pacific distributors on a helicopter joyride to the Matterhorn. While it seemed fantastic to me, I knew there could be repercussions from my company. I told each of them why I couldn’t expense the flight and they had to pay their own way, and most importantly they couldn’t tell any of our European colleagues about our excursion.

The flight couldn’t have gone better. We were in a bubble helicopter with a pilot who actually flew in one of the James Bond movies… and you guessed it, he laid the helicopter on its side while descending the Matterhorn, just like in the move… Talk about a bonding experience.

Oh, my clients had so much fun they couldn’t wait to tell everyone what I had arranged for them to do that afternoon… and yes I did get a reprimand from the CEO.

3 Things Learned From The Flight…

1.     Relationship Building: In order to build a brand promise that your customers can count on you must first have a good client relationship.

While my Asia-Pacific distributors felt our brand was strong, our company and previous sales manager treated them so poorly they were looking to drop our products entirely.

2.     Personal Bond is Crucial, especially when selling internationally: Many societies stress personal relationships in business. When firms operate globally, close ties are useful for overcoming time, distance, language, and cultural barriers.

By inviting our Asia-Pacific distributors to participate in the European Conference they understood the company and I valued them. This coupled with that helicopter ride was the foundation for my establishing a strong and lasting bond.

3.     Sometimes You Need to Take Risks: While I knew there could be repercussions from taking our biggest Asian-Pacific distributors on a helicopter joyride of the Matterhorn, I also knew I had to take a risk if I were to breakthrough and start building a personal relationship.

Risk Payoff… I didn’t loose one distributor and the Asia-Pacific region grew to an 85% market share. Oh, and the CEO sent me another letter... this time congratulating me on turning this region around.

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5 Things You Might Do to Build Trust

12/14/2012

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1.     Invest in Understanding: Why would a Company trust anything you tell them if you clearly don’t understand their business.

2.     Make Time for Face Time: You should do this, especially in the early days. We’ve all had email and texts we’ve taken the wrong way or misunderstood. Knowing the sender helps build the relationship. That’s best done in person – I once had international clients that had difficulty with English. If I hadn’t spent face time with them I could have taken many of their messages the wrong way.

3.     Honesty: We all know mistakes happen and that the World’s not entirely perfect. It’s what you do about the mistake that earns Trust and Respect.

4.     Education: Help your clients to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

5.     Pay it Forward: Don’t expect a client to trust you if you don’t demonstrate trust or respect for them.

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How Distribution Grew In Japan...

12/11/2012

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On my first trip to Japan the Executive Director of Nissho Electronics, our distributor, met me in the lobby of the Palace Hotel. He wanted to welcome me to Japan and take me to dinner.

Over dinner I was given my itinerary for the week. At quick glance I saw we weren’t spending much time together and no time was allocated to discuss how to expand distribution, but I wasn’t going to question him. Thought there must be a reason.

Here was my itinerary…
Day 1: Work with Logistics Team… “wear your Levis”
Day 2: Meetings with Customer Support & Hardware / Software Eng.
Day 3: Customer visits with sales team lead
Day 4: One hour meeting with Executive Director
Day 5: Wrap-up meetings with executive sales team

On Day 1 I unboxed and tested five computers… four of the five were DOA. Upon returning to the hotel I called our VP of Manufacturing to report what I found.

On Day 2 I heard more about poor quality and lack of timely responses to technical questions.

On Day 3 I visited current installations and made prospect calls with their number one sales person. He didn’t speak much English, but we understood the art of selling so we communicated.

On Day 4 the Executive Director asked what I learned…

Confirmed there were design issues and computers were becoming damaged in transit… manufacturing was expediting corrections.
Saw specific examples of additional quality problems and technical support issues… manufacturing and customer service has received details on what needs to be corrected..
Provided a hand drawn organization chart (with names & titles)… they don’t make these available to so he was impressed that I figured it out.
And last, I asked him to double his monthly orders “Japanese-style”.

On Day 5 my meeting with the executive sales team was delayed… seems the Executive Director doubled our monthly order that morning ($500,000) and sales team had been told to get selling!

Lessons Learned:

By taking time to get dirty I was able to learn first hand why they weren’t selling… it wasn’t them, it was our poor quality and customer service.
By listening and taking care of problems, before talking about increasing sales, I built trust… and with trust came rapid expansion and 65% of the Japanese market.

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An Example of Why Words Matter

12/10/2012

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After being put in charge to turnaround an “underperforming” Asian distribution channel, I was beginning the process of confirming meetings in multiple countries. This was my first visit and didn’t know what to expect, other than knowing this territory should be generating large revenues and it wasn’t.

Forgot to mention… this was my first international position.

I remember writing my message to the Executive Director of Nissho Electronics Corporation, our Japanese distributor. Japan had huge potential that wasn’t being reached.

It read…
“I’m planning my first visit to Japan and want to allocate enough time to be properly trained. When would be a good time for you and do you think five days is adequate?”

His answer was…
“We don’t call it Training we call it Orientation.”

I responded by saying…
“Do you think five days will provide enough time?”

His reply was simply…
“GOD I HOPE SO”

With this response I learned two important things:
1. Chose words wisely… they do matter (especially in Japan), and

2. I had a client unhappy about something

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Author

Bill Kliss has been teaching his perfected technique of opening doors to reach decision makers for 30-years. His cutting edge approach has increased sales wins for virtually all types of products and services.

In addition, Bill also hosts the Opening Doors Radio & Video Show Series. This is where Bill provides insight into opening doors to the C-suite by discussing proven selling techniques, and what some businesses are doing to accelerate business growth in today's economy.

Bill's also a dad who loves the blues and anything at or in the ocean.

Reaching The Decision Maker...

Courage... Do You Have It?

3 Things Learned From a Matterhorn Helicopter Ride...

5 Things You Might Do to Build Trust

How Distribution Grew In Japan...

An Example of Why Words Matter

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