Alright. I just had a call with a sales guy trying to sell me on HIS services. He worked for a printing company and asked if we would want his company’s services for printing a FileMaker training manual. I told him thanks, but no thanks. We are a virtual company. We don’t use paper. (You’re welcome, Hippies!) We do our training online and create electronic documents.

Being a sales guy myself, I tried to turn the call around on him and sell him on our services to no avail. Oh well. But as I was being talked to by this guy I realized something… hold on a second. Did you hear what I just said? I was being talked to by this guy! The guy knew his script very well. But he just stuck to it. There was no friendly banter or trying to talk to me like I was a regular person. Just him spieling his spiel.

The Boiler Room

It reminded me of the scene from the movie Boiler Room. A sales guy calls Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi), who has recently evolved into a slick salesman. When this sales guy tries to sell Seth a newspaper subscription over the phone, Seth ends up giving the guy a lesson in sales. (Warning, some profanity in the clip.)

Now I did not have this type of conversation with my sales guy call, but it illustrates my point. So here’s a post that taps back into some of my acting training. Learn the script. Learn it inside and out. Then… let it go.

Learn The Script and Let It Go

We get phone calls from all sorts of people with various positions at companies in various industries. The difference with our products and services is that it fits a very specific need for very specific people. When somebody calls me to talk about his need, it can be completely different from the person that called me 30 minutes prior. So how do you handle so many variables? You learn your script and then get off of it. What does that mean exactly? How do you do that?

Well, one of my passions happens to be acting. When doing a scripted play you need to learn the script. The play follows that script so precisely that there are sound and lighting cues that happen because of a particular line that someone says. But, if that person forgets those lines, and it does not cue your line or the lights, there is a little improvisation that needs to happen based on your intimate knowledge of the play, scene, and character. This allows you to cover and get the play back on track should the dreaded brain freeze or technology failure happen.

This works in sales as well. Because of the randomness of situations that can come up during a call, you need to be prepared to go with the flow. Get the script on the track that you want, but staying in line with the overall theme of the call.

Then Improvise

While I lived in L.A. I became friends with an actor that has done some pretty amazing things on film. One time I asked him, “What is the most important thing you can do when going to set to shoot for the day?” He said, “Learn the script, and let it go. It is the only way to be free as an actor.” That really was an important acting lesson. It is true too in sales.

If you know your role, your company’s role to a “t”, you can sell to anyone who is willing to buy. Your improvisation skills take the conversation in many different directions… directions that other salespeople may not go. And this is what will set you apart from your competitors. Your ability to connect with the customer is what really makes your customer buy from you. This is what the customer will remember.

Buying your first car. It is something you dreamed about as a teenager. It should be a dream experience. You walk onto that car lot, see the shiny BRAND NEW cars under the heavenly glow of the lot lights, and envision yourself driving off the lot down an open road, cranking up your favorite song, and putting the pedal to the metal. But, it just doesn’t always work out that way does it?

My wife and I just bought our first car together. Now I gotta say we had a GREAT salesman. He did not try to “sell” us the car. He just gave us the keys to the cars we wanted to test and let us “sell” ourselves. That is the type of buying process we both like. Let us make our own decision. But when we started to talk to the finance guy… that’s when the deal got shady. And, since pricing is part of the sale, it changed my opinion of how well this situation was being handled.

I will get to how we are different from slick car salesmen, but if you don’t mind, I need to vent a little about this finance guy. He was trying to sell us all the “after sales” products. The extended warranty, ding damage protection, under body frame protection (We live in Illinois. In the winter they use a crazy salt solution that will corrode your frame.), gap insurance, and finally… data dots. Who’s ever heard of “data dots”? They’re basically a little jar of mayonnaise with some sort of encoded dots that they schmear… yes schmear… on the bottom of your car. If it ever gets stolen, the police have a “magic” wand they can wave over the invisible schmear and voilà! They can verify it’s your car. Whatever.

My wife and I lived in Chicago before we moved to Champaign. Never had a problem or had known anyone who had a car stolen. We talked about it and decided “No thanks.” When the finance guy started to add in the “after sales” products that we chose, he started tapping away on his keyboard, snickers, and says, “Don’t worry. This is working out in your favor.” I am thinking, “Yeah, right….” He then tells us that he re-figured our monthly payment and was able to make it cheaper by $5. Okay… And then he says, “You know? It’s late; it’s almost Christmas; I’ll go ahead and throw in the dots for free.” My wife and I were like, “Well, okay, I guess if they are ‘free’….” They next morning while going over all of our documentation, I saw that we were charged $256 for the dots.

Needless to say, I was livid. This guy just bold-faced lied to us. I called and left a message. No surprise he did not return my call that day. I called the next day, and went into the dealership to meet with my dealer to discuss the features of our car, and then talked to a “business manager” about my issue. He was even a little cloak and dagger about the issue. He would not give me specific answers about what might have happened, but did suggest that the finance guy cut the cost of my warranty and then charged me for the dots, essentially giving them to me for free. HA! Sorry buddy, charging me for something you said you were giving me for free is not “free.” The business manager said he would pass the note along to the guy and have him call me to explain. And then you know what happened? You guessed it… the guy never called.

Finally a week later, after 4 messages to the guy, giving him a chance to explain himself, I spoke with his boss. He acted like he was on my side, but I am sure the finance guy will not be reprimanded. I did get his boss to admit that the finance guy gets a $10 commission for selling the dots to customers. The boss said he is mailing me a check for the $256 dots. We’ll see if that happens.

The point is, I will never treat you or anyone that walks through our virtual doors like that. I do not like to be lied to. Therefore I will not do that to you. I know how it feels to have been slighted. That will never happen when you work with us. It really defines why we do business the way we do. We offer you a fixed price for a fixed scope of work. You know upfront what you will pay for the services that we will provide for you. And you know what? If you feel we did not provide the value of the deliverable at or above your expectations, we offer a money-back guarantee. We really do. We put it in writing on every one of our proposals.

You see, we like to be fair and want you to know that if you choose to work with us, we are committed to excellence and a wonderful partnership. And all you have to do is go through an experience like my wife and I did, to know you want to work with someone who understands and cares about your best interests. We go into every relationship with the thought of, “How can we make this beneficial for both of us?” I am not going to sneakily sell you something so I can get an extra $10 in my pocket. We are going to make sure that you are the one with the extra $$. So whadaya say? Give me a call and let’s talk about getting you what YOU need.

Oftentimes when you are in a sales position you do not always get a sale. It is just a fact of the numbers game. You may talk to someone for a half hour or even an hour, and the call ends with the potential customer saying “Thank you” and you never talk with them again. But with that “Thank You”, even though you did not get the sale, you have still done your job.

Wait wait wait… how did you do your job if you did not close the sale? How is getting a ‘thank you’ from someone helping out your pipeline? To me, it is pretty simple. The main purpose of your role as a salesman is to serve the consumer by sharing knowledge about your products/services and evaluating the choices available. In doing this, the customer’s answer may not always be a yes.

It all goes back to my first blog post, Leads Are Seeds. Basically, a lead comes in as an immature seed, and needs all the right combination of elements to help it flourish. The same goes with this type of situation. Someone knows what they want but may not know how or where to get it. I can’t tell you how many times someone has called and said customized databases are all new to them, they have no idea how to pursue this type of solution. My job as a salesman is to inform them of our services and way of business. Also I am educating them on how to get what they need from other sources if we are not a good fit for them.

A perfect example of this happened a couple of weeks ago. A woman called me to inquire about using FileMaker to help keep track of her clients. I needed to steer her in a different direction because of the size of her project. We typically will engage a customer when the project is at a minimum $5,000 level of development. We sell services that are below that threshold, but for coaching or training, not custom development. When this potential customer described her needs, I realized that we were not going to be a good fit. But, I did not think, “OK, time to get off the phone as fast as possible.”  No.  I was still listening to find out how I may best serve her by pointing her in the right direction. You see,  sometimes people go looking for a backhoe when all they really need is a shovel. (My new “Texas” analogy.)

What we do best here is develop custom databases for small to medium-sized businesses. Since we are not in the business of developing a solution that can be sold over and over again, our solutions come at a premium price. But there are ways for people to get an-off-the-shelf solution or a semi-customized solution for a lot less than our $5,000 threshold. And that is what I helped her do. I gave her some suggestions for places to look for independent developers in her area (Tennessee).

When all was said and done, I obviously did not get a sale. But what I did is just as important. I served her by sharing a little knowledge and pointing her in the right direction. The result is not yet felt in the pocketbook. But she was so happy that I helped her figure out a direction to go, that she said she would be mentioning to her other friends with businesses how helpful and knowledgeable we are. And that type of word-of-mouth advertising is the best possible kind. Plus, by trying to serve rather than sell, we might get business that we never would have had otherwise.

When I lived in Los Angeles, my apartment was about 20 minutes from 5 different world-famous poker rooms. I learned to play with some of the best and worst players there are. I was pretty good at it too, placing in the money in multiple tournaments and sustaining my bank roll with cash games.

But, enough bragging. The point is that I heightened my ability to read other folks in the hand. I could get inside their heads and know what cards they were holding. This obviously becomes very useful when you are trying to determine if you can beat them or not. It helps you decide when you should fold… or go all in!

With sales it usually is “all in” the whole way, because you want to close the deal. You are not going to fold. You rarely consider it, unless there is an unusual red flag out there. There are signs your potential customer gives off that let you know how he is approaching the sales process. It is a good skill to be able not only to read those signs but to counter them before they come into play.

The first sign of an early fold with a potential customer is the budget, or lack thereof. Like in poker, you may have a good hand and want to see how serious the other players are in playing that hand so you throw out a bet. Asking “What is your budget? Do you see spending at least $5K to get this project done?” can save you a lot of wasted effort if you find out the customer does not have the money required for the project. When I get answers like, “Well, we are a small company…” or “You know, in this economy, we are trying to spend as little as possible,” they are pretty obvious red flags the customer is not going to be a good fit. He is essentially saying he is going to fold his hand. While the project may be something he needs to do, it is truly not a priority or he just plain can’t afford it.

Something else that can be a sign of an early fold is when a company has a gatekeeper, someone who prevents your access to the actual decision maker. I usually try to flush this out early in the process. It can be a tremendous effort problem if you have to present the proposal to the gatekeeper without the decision maker, or have to present again because you realized later that the proper person was not present at the time of the proposal. Or worse, that the decision maker had a different idea in mind. If you can get the person to show his gatekeeper cards early enough, it will save you big in the end.

Now those are a couple examples of reading your lead for negative scenarios. Here a couple positive signs to look for:

• First is the obvious. When you speak with someone about his database needs and get a realistic response to what he is looking to spend on the project, it is a VERY good sign. This shows you that he has done his homework. He knows what it is going to take to get this project done and he is willing to spend the money necessary to do it. You know right away that this is going to be a fun hand because you have someone with equal chops and the right amount of chips to play.

• Something else to look out for is how well the potential customer knows his hand, i.e., how well does he know his current situation/need. When the customer knows he has two kings, (i.e., a good hand), and wants to play it, it is fun to lead the sales process. The customer brings all of his strengths and weaknesses, and has a clear vision of how you could help him make the situation better. These are the easiest conversations to have because you are both speaking the same language.

Ultimately MightyData wins when the customer wins in this version of poker. When the cards are lined up, there is really nothing you can do wrong, except misreading the cues your potential customer is giving you. It all comes down to if you want to play together. Sometimes you have to know when to walk away, but you never count the chips until the deal is done.

I will have been in my position at MightyData, as THE salesman or cleverly named Manager of First Impressions, for one year on July 5. It has been pointed out that I am the only team member that has not posted a blog, so it is time I get on it. I have learned a lot about our business, sales and FileMaker in the last year, but the one thing I find most valuable when talking to customers and colleagues is the use of the almighty METAPHOR.

There are a ton of them fit for the purpose of sales, and I will be referencing them from time to time. The one that came to mind when I first started making some traction with our customers was “leads are seeds.” Heck, it makes total sense when you think about the process of turning a lead into a bountiful blooming customer…plus, it rhymes!

I have to admit that I am not much of a gardener in the sense of planting a seed, but I’ve grown up in and around farmland most of my life, and the parallels between farming a crop and farming a lead are apparent. The crop that comes to mind when I think of farming a seed and turning it into a bountiful crop is corn. My neighborhood is literally surrounded by corn and bean fields, and actually used to be both before they laid streets and a power grid.

1. The Seed is Planted

In the example of corn, there is always an excitement when the farmers start planting. Summer is right around the corner! And when a lead calls in, is referred, or you make first contact, that same excitement exists. Dreams of what this lead may bring to your organization are hard to quash. You want this lead to turn into that 8-foot tall corn stalk that has 50 ears (I know that can’t really happen, but hey, this is a dream sequence) of corn sprouting out. Honestly though, you just have to wait and see if it will make it above ground first.

2. The Sprout

Once this lead has matured to a potential customer, there is a lot of care that needs to happen to make sure it can make it the rest of the way. Much like a farmer adding fertilizer and pesticides to the field to aid that little plant, you need to do your due diligence with the lead as well. You need to talk to your lead (some farmers do actually talk to their crops) and make sure you understand the situation clearly. This would be an information gathering step in the process. Talk to all key team members that have input and are part of the decision making process. If your lead feels that you are taking the time to get to know them fully, they will become a healthy enough lead when it comes time to harvest.

3. The Waiting Game

This is the part when all farmers and sales folks (see… I’m from the country) alike get a little anxious. Farmers are hoping that there is plenty of rain and sun, but not too much of either so that their crop grows as much as possible and yields as much as possible.

Salesfolks have similar worries. If too much time passes between the vetting and proposal stages or there is a lack of clear communication, you could lose the lead. If an outside voice pops-up and saturates the process too much, you could lose the deal. I would also compare it to “pest control”. Sometimes a person that has had nothing to do with the process comes in and makes demands that you had no idea were coming.

This can catch you off guard, and that is why I have learned time and again…flush out all decision makers as EARLY in the process as you can. If you wait too long, your crop will become overtaken by weeds and eaten by bugs and thus become non harvestable.

You might say, “Dave, corn takes 2-3 months to grow, can a lead really take that long to close?” And I will tell you “yes!” I have a lead that has been in our pipe for almost my entire time here. All leads have different germination periods. I have made gains with them but I am just waiting to start producing some ears of corn. Ten months of staying in touch means a lot to a lead. It shows you haven’t given up and you believe it will yield a great return.

4. The Harvest

Assuming you have vetted and properly cared for your lead, it is time to harvest. This is the point where a proposal would be presented and hopefully the hard work you put in translates to a payday. Now I have had a situation where I went to pull the husks back on an ear of corn, and an ugly little critter reared its head. The same has happened with a lead.

We had proposed to both the initial contact and the president of the company and they both agreed and thought the proposal was great. Just as we were waiting on the signed proposal, a mid level manager popped her head in and made demands that were not on the proposal. When we said no problem, we just need to adjust the price, they got upset and the deal was lost. This is a prime example of how simple but important the previous step is.

But hoping all went well, you present the proposal and you get a yes. Time to pop open a beer, or your beverage of choice, and celebrate for raising a successful lead! If you just think of your lead as an ear of corn or some basil in your herb garden, you will see the importance of caring for this lead like you do your plants. Give it a good mix of water, sunlight and fertilizer and you should be able to reap the benefits.

One of the benefits of a value approach is it helps both the customer and consultant qualify each other. I define qualifying as a dialog with the customer to determine if we (customer and consultant) should establish a business relationship. Through my study of value pricing I have learned to ask better questions in a professional manner to help the customer and myself decide. Many of these questions are part of the value quest.

Recently, I was visiting with a new customer who wanted a CRM solution for his two-person business. The customer was using a SaaS solution for $40 per month. He said this was too expensive. I could have taken expensive to mean he was paying more than he wanted. Instead, I inquired, “$40 per month does not seem like a large amount. Why do you think it is expensive?” It turns out he was barely using the SaaS solution, and therefore, thought he was wasting almost $500 per year.

Value pricing has helped me to learn to not accept the first answer at face value. It has also helped me learn to ask stronger, penetrating questions. His answer told me expensive was not a reflection of the value he wanted or the price he was willing to pay. It took further discussion to determine how he perceived the value of the solution. By not jumping to a conclusion, I discovered a truer perspective to help both the customer and myself qualify each other.