When Customer says he has no requirement

A number of salesmen call me asking how to get into new accoounts. The conventional way of calling may not work quite often. One needs to to think creatively.

For example, one of our sales  Sales executives, Ramprasad was trying to get in touch with an HR executive called Amarnath from an Engineering Company called DMAL ( Name Changed) which was into Electronic Test Equipments. For quite a while he used to call him over phone. The only answer was: we do not have any requirement, we shall get in touch with you whenever we have a requirement. This went on for almost three months.

One day we decided to think differently. We sent a company brochure directly to the Managing Director ( bypassing Amarnath) called Parthasarathy. Within two days we got a call from Amarnath arranging a meeting with the MD. And they say rest is history. We were able to close the order in a two calls.Over the next two years we had a number of assignments from the client.

Moral of the story: When your propsects tell you there is no requirement it is an official response. We learnt that Amarnath per se had no authority to take any decisions. If you cannot get response through option A try option B. If not try option C.

If you have similar success stories, please do share with us.

For more details please refer "Contextual Selling" by the author at:  www.paradigm-info.com 

Contextual Selling

I am pleased to introduce my new book Contextual Selling: A New Sales Paradigm for the 21st Century. I have been into sales training since 1995. Till date more than 10,000 Managers and executives from 500+ companies have been benefitted by our programs.

Circa 2004 I asked myself a question : Is it possible to become an author? The thought was quite scary. Some of the negative thoughts which came to my mind were:
- Writing needs discipline. It is quite painful.
- I am travelling so much, I do not have the time.
- I do not have either the talent or flair for writing.
- Even otherwise there are enough books: be it the Strategic Selling by Miller Heiman, SPIN Selling by Dr. Neil Rackham ,1000 ways of closing a sale by Zig Ziglar etc. why waste energy?

Till 2005 nothing happened if anything happened it was a mere fluke! I could hardly write 18 pages in the entire 2004.
But then a miracle happened : I asked myself a different question? why not? Are these so called branded books like Strategic Selling, SPIN selling really that great?
Friends , the answer which came to my mind in 2005 was more insightful. There was no book which talked on Enterprise Sales from an Indian perspective most of the books had an American slant. Whereas books like You can win was more of motivational stories.
That one thought made the difference and Contextual Selling the first Indian Trademarked Sales Training program could see the light of the day on 11th June 2011.
Contents are available on our website.

For more details please refer "Contextual Selling" by the author at:  www.paradigm-info.com 

Selling by Hook or by Crook

This is one of the questions I am being posed by a number of sales executives.
Due to the management pressures, the executives understand that selling by whichever means is ok.
The strategy may work in the short-term but may backfire in the long term because:
1. Paradigm Shift from a Sellers' Market to a Buyers' market.- Today the customer calls the shots and are in a commanding position.
2. Customers are Knowledgeable: Thanks to internet, whether one buys a car or a TV, the customer has an updated information about competition, price etc which the salesman may not know himself.
3. Bad news spreads fast: If you sell to a customer what he did not want he may use Facebook, twitter etc. to voice his frustration. This may cause more damage vis-a-vis the sale you have made.
Now let us look at the management perspective:
The Sales Head has to give near accurate projections to manufacturing dept to produce the goods.
a. Due to price pressures the margins are low and the companies are resorting to JIT - Just In Time techniques to keep the inventory cost low.
b. To compensate for the reduced margins the company has to resort to more numbers to achieve
the revenue and profitability targets.
How does a salesman achieve his numbers in such a scenario?
Some of the useful techniques are:
1. Target the right segment. For example if you are selling a premium end product, you should not aspire to sell to all and sundry.
2. Use a Sales Funnel which is also called as a pipeline which works out for a backup plan. For example, if you have to close 5 orders per month, you should have at least 10 active cases in the funnel for which there should be a minimum of 20 good enquiries with you.
Let us remember your company does not expect you to sell to each and every prospect but want you to meet the targets.

For more details, please refer the article: All Business is not Good Business from my book:  "Contextual Selling" at:  www.paradigm-info.com 

Building Relationship

This is an experience I had on my sales call. The prospect is a software company and needed a program on Relationship Building

Scene I: The meeting started. I handed my business card. The executive said that he has not carried his business card. The brief was as follows:
The participants need to sell software products and services on the net to different geographies. The executives need to interact with virtual teams distributed in different countries. Different stages of selling be it generating leads, telecalling, order closing etc. were discussed.
I : What are the critical issues in selling?
Client: Of course it is Making reationship with others.
I: Why are you so keen on relationship as a subject?
Client: We are a process driven company. This is one of our important metric.
The meeting was over in 35 minutes.

Scene II: In the same company I happened to catch up with my old friend called Jaideep. We were meeting after almost 10 years. We had no business relationship still we exchanegd cards. ( I suppose with a mobile and email ID one can continue the relationship later), discussed about common friends, families and their well beings, career paths. Having travelled 20 KMS in the scorching summer heat, he offered me a glass of water, and at the end we had tea in the canteen.
While leaving I felt like being connected back with an old friend. It was indeed a meeting, an experience to cherish.

In the first instance the client categorically told the importance of relationship. For him what the vendor did was not quite significant.

Can relationships be built because they are a part of the required competency or a metric through a training program or is it because two human beings come together without any hidden agenda?


For more details please refer "Contextual Selling" by the author at:  www.paradigm-info.com 

Are canned Presentations Really Effective in Selling?

A sales executive called me over phone to get an appointment. The conversation went as follows:
Salesman: “Sir, Good Morning, my name is Prashant. I have a great product and would like to meet you 2 days later.”
I: “Good Morning, Prashant, can you tell me which company you are representing?”
Salesman: “Sir I represent an American MNC which makes top of the line products in different categories. We have operation in 120 countries across the world.”
I: “Can you tell me which company you are from”
Salesman: “ Sir, this will change the way you look at your life. More than the products, it will help you find a meaning in life. It can also help you earn few thousands more without much effort. And I will be able to explain you about the product and our company only after a meeting.”
I: “Are you from a MLM company where you would like me to make me a millionaire and that there was a truck driver who retired at the age of 37 after becoming the franchisee of your company?”
Salesman: “Sir you are absolutely right. How do you know that? I was about to say that.”
I: Mr. Prashant, I am quite delighted to hear the canned sales talk from you and thank you very much for making me a millionaire at the age of 37. Unfortunately I have crossed that age 10 years back. You are most welcome to meet me 2 days later However you will be the 26th person to whom I would be saying NO over the last six months for uttering the same old script.”
The guy hanged the phone and did not call me later.

Does this sound familiar? Is there any merit in salesmen making canned presentation? Most of my clients during the pre-training briefing insist that I should give the salesmen a standard script which should be produced verbatim for all the sales calls. When asked for the reason the Sales Manager used to invariably say, “It impresses the customer.”

This trend of a standard script was quite common with pharmaceutical companies. The logic was simple. A Medical Representative has to make at least 10 calls each day. And the product should be shown on a flipchart explaining the product benefits. This model was later accepted by even the non-pharma companies.

The reasons for the failure of a canned approach are:
The business has changed from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market. Today’s customers have more choices than earlier.
Customer anticipates what the salesman would say which makes the conversation
monotonous and boring.
Each customer is unique in terms of his attitude, behaviour, culture etc. Even the
same customer may display a different type of behaviour at different times. In the
morning he may have the energy to listen to you but in a immediate post-lunch
meeting, he may not have the same energy level. The attention span may get reduced
due to his work-pressure too.
The attention span of customers has come down thanks to computers, mobiles and PDAs .Hearing a familiar script produces anger and boredom in customers.

Why salesmen resort to canned presentations?

Management Pressure: It is assumed that the boss knows the best. And the sales team has been told that there is only one way of talking and so be it.
Low-self esteem of the salesman.
Locus of control: Due to poor self-esteem the salesman feels that the customer is all too powerful. Under such a paradigm he presumes that a canned speech may rescue him. This is termed as Premature Cognitive Commitment (PCC) by Ellen Langer, a renowned Psychologist at Harvard Business School. A belief in PCC makes the salesman focus more on the outcome (I want to get this order,) rather than the process. (Can I understand the concerns he has about me, my organization and the products before selling?)

The focus on the outcome leads to fatigue and exhaustion not only to the customer but also to the buyer because it is a mindless activity.

What is the paradigm shift the salesman should have to overcome this challenge?
To keep the customer engaged he should move from mindlessness to mindfulness. It is assumed that practice makes a man perfect but the truth is otherwise. It makes one mindless because whenever you perform an activity in a routine way, it moves out of your consciousness and becomes dull and boring.

So how do you manage to establish rapport with the customer without sounding artificial? It is quite simple. Greet him with a smile. It should be natural. An artificial smile may make the customer feel you belong to a Multi-Level Marketing company. Later give a brief introduction about your name and the company you represent. Rather than speaking about the entire range of products give a an overview and say, “ Are you aware of our company and the product range?” If he says NO then give some more inputs. If he says yes, then avoid the sales pitch. Now it is apt to make the purpose of your visit which can be either introducing a new product range or a new concept of problem solving.


This should not take more than 2-3 minutes. After that ask a few questions and start building on the conversation.

For more details please refer the book "Contextual Selling" by the author at:  www.paradigm-info.com