John LoGioco.com

Deal Closed - Sound The Sales Horn!

Deal closed! Sound the bell!

Using Twitter Before You Cold Call or Present

Mining Twitter before cold calling or presenting can help you close more deals and build instant rapport. Before a cold call or sales meeting simply locate your prospects’ twitter account.  This may take some searching but by now most people have one – especially in the technology, media and entertainment sectors.  Since Google is now indexing Twitter, try a search query for your prospect's name and "twitter."  You can also try LinkedIn but be aware that many people will not list their Twitter accounts there.  If by chance your prospect does not have a Twitter account then default to the company account.  Lastly you can try to search for the company by a relevant hash tag.  Once you find the Twitter account, look at the tweets to get an idea of what is on the mind of your prospect, but more importantly look at the links they are re-tweeting.  Critical information lies within these links on the very issues that your prospect is likely to find important.  For example, I was preparing to pitch a large publisher on our recommendation widget, which is cookie based.  Before the meeting I was doing my pre-meeting prep work and found my prospects' twitter account.  In reading the tweets it became obvious that this executive was wholly against cookie based technologies of any kind.  If I just stuck with browsing the tweets and not following the links this would have gone unnoticed.  But alas, it didn’t help in the end, as our cookie based structure scared the daylights out of this guy.  But I did curtail the pitch and adjust my words to avoid putting him on the defensive right from the start, and as a result established a better rapport with him which I am still building on to this day.

So once you have scanned the prospects' twitter account look to see if the company has an account and scan that too.  You will often discover what other partners the company is working with and who they just met with.  Often times, when a company has a good meeting with a prospective partner, they will immediately broadcast their newly found "warm and fuzzy" feelings over Twitter.  One month ago I was preparing to pitch a publisher on @outbrain and I noticed a tweet from their lead biz dev executive about a great meeting they just had with an outbrain competitor.  So on a last minute adjustment, I edited my pitch to counter this specific competitor.  This approach set the meeting off in a different direction and one that was favorable to outbrain.  It worked and we won the deal.

Finally run a search at search.twitter.com for the company hashtag.  For example if you wanted to see tweets that mention Facebook, you can search for the term #facebook on search.twitter.com.  This can be a gold mine of information to see what others are saying about the company and to get a feel for the important issues and needs of the people you will be communicating with.

These tips should take all of about 10 minutes, but don't leave them for last minute because more often than not, the information you will dig up is so valuable, you'll need to adjust your approach.

on cold calling

In this day with sales and business development folks working sites like LinkedIn, Facebook & personal email to break business, picking up the phone is still a great way to make deals happen.  Cold calling still works, now more than ever.  Here are some tips and observations on how to cold call and make big things happen from scratch.

Tip #1 - 9AM - 5PM: 

Your future clients are most likely at their desks and able to take a call from 8:30AM to 6:30PM.  This means that any task you are doing outside of trying to get in touch with your prospects can be classified as a distraction during these valuable hours.  So this means planning tasks like reporting, administration, and research outside of this valuable time period.  If you are not trying to get in touch with a valuable prospect, then you can be sure someone else is.  If it’s one of your competitors, you could be out. Since we are all buried in email most of the day, our phone rings less, much less in fact.  I would bet the frequency of phone calls has dropped several factors over the last 5 years.  So for some this is an opportunity to catch someone by voice.  

Tip #2 - Pre-Call Preparation: 

Before you call here are a few simple steps to prepare for when a warm body (prospect or gatekeeper) answers your call. The ultimate goal on a cold call is to establish a positive rapport with whoever answers and in most cases you have ~6 seconds to succeed or fail.  Therefore before you call visit the prospect’s web site.  Make sure you have an idea of what they do, their structure, their needs etc.  Also look at the “News” section on the site to see any recent breaking news or announcements.  Often you will discover possible synergies here that can add to your pitch.  Know where you are calling.  Look at the “Contact” page or the area code of the number you are calling.  Once you have the location check the weather report and the local news site.  These can be great little weapons in establishing a quick rapport with whoever picks up the phone.  Example – I was looking to get a meeting with a large media organization in California. Before I called I checked the local news sites and saw that some fires had been burning near the client.  So when I called, I mentioned this and in an instant had a robust conversation going. Rapport established. 

Step #3 - Love thy Gatekeeper: 

Most high-level executives still have someone answering their phone, even in the interactive space. However executive assistants now handle multiple executives so overall they are busier then they used to be.  However, since most BD/Sales folks use email as their primary method for prospecting, the number of incoming phone calls that gatekeepers answer on aggregate has dropped.  This is an opportunity.  These gatekeepers want to talk with someone and often times welcome a nice voice.  The trick here is to not treat them like a gatekeeper but like the prospect you are trying to reach.  If you ask for “Mr. Smith” and the gatekeeper has you on hold ask the gatekeeper how their day is going, or about the weather that you know is happening.  9 out of 10 times they are happy to respond and you can start building a rapport with the gatekeeper.  Many times after you establish a positive rapport with a gatekeeper they will say something like; “Hold on, let me grab Mr. Smith for you….” 

Step #4 - Thanking the Gatekeeper: 

Most sales people drop the gatekeeper like a rock when finally getting to the prospect.  This is a huge mistake.  The best thing you can do is send a thank you email or voice mail to the gatekeeper for helping you.  This small amount of outward appreciation will set you apart from the many others who call and never circle back.  In general gatekeepers don’t get that much praise, so a little love from you is most welcome.  So next time, when the prospect you worked hard to contact and meet goes cold, and you need to get re-connected, you call on the gatekeeper for help.  If you said “thank you” the gatekeeper has the power to get you back on the calendar and on track to closing the deal. 

Step #5 - Getting On The Calendar: 

The Gatekeeper often runs the calendar.  So for all the reasons just explained, if you have a good rapport with the gatekeeper you can use this to schedule a call or meeting on a calendar.  This is especially effective when your deal might stall or get sidelined and the prospect has gone cold.  Instead of becoming a pest with a steady stream of emails pick up the phone, talk to the gatekeeper and ask for help getting on the calendar. 

Step #6 - Prospects Who Answer: 

If you are lucky and get the prospect to answer their phone or get connected by the gatekeeper, you have ~4 seconds to start down a positive path.  For me, what works best is to introduce myself and ask if the prospect has a minute to chat with me.  This immediately gets the prospect into answering your question and if yes, into a loose agreement that you have a few seconds to speak.  The next few words should be your best elevator pitch custom fit for the prospect’s company.  In this short sentence you need to give the prospect one good reason why you deserve another minute on the phone or better yet a meeting.  Then *stop*.  Listen and hear the reaction.  A cold caller that does not know when to stop talking is in the wrong business.  If you cross that imaginary line of rambling, you are immediately thrown into the “used car salesman” bin and you are done.  Should this happen you have 2 seconds to dig yourself out.  The best solution is to say “I’m sorry, I just rambled, essentially I can deliver you “x,y and z” and would like the chance to explain in more detail how I can help.”  Then see what happens.  Often times the apology will get you back on track. 

Step #7 - Time Zones: 

If you have prospects in different time zones, plan your calls accordingly.  If you are based in New York, cold calling Eastern Standard Time prospects from 8:30AM to 11:30AM is best.  Then move to your Pacific Standard Time prospects who are just getting in or your Central/Mountain Time zones.  Stay away from 12Noon to 2PM.  This will give your prospects time to eat, digest a bit and have a coffee.  The worst time to try and break in on the phone is when someone is hungry or tired.  Lunch takes the hunger away, and if you call after 2PM your prospect will likely have just had a coffee and is ready for the afternoon – which includes a call from you!  Good luck, deals are out there for those who call and ask. 

The next post we will look at how to prepare for a meeting once you broke through by cold calling.

"Shortening Sales Cycles" continued from TechAviv CA

The TechAviv meetup at Stanford University last night sparked a conversation around how to shorten sales cycles.   Shahar Nechmad, founder - CEO of NuConomy put this question to the attendees.  I have been dealing with sales cycles for quite some time and would like to offer these observations on how to shorten sales cycles for founders like Shahar.  In NuConomy's case, as with most startups the goal is to get a smaller company's "stuff" onto a larger company's platform.  The "close" is identified as the moment the smaller company's "stuff" (read code, tags, API calls etc.) actually gets installed on the pages of the larger company's site.  The mistake most BD and sales people make is to think there is just one sales cycle.  This is simply not true.  Often there are multiple cycles that need to be overcome to win an account and truly shorten the time it takes to get your "stuff" integrated.  For technology sales, even if the product is free as is the case with many tech startups, there are often three distinct sales cycles that need to be identified. 

First is the sales cycle of getting buy-in from the senior business officials.  This process involves standard sales practices of setting meetings, giving presentations and creating a sense of urgency to act.  This is usually not where the delays come that cause sales cycles to extend unnecessarily. 

The second cycle often comes from selling senior ranking product folks who also need to be convinced to act from a platform perspective.  More and more companies are moving to an internal opt-in basis, as business units inside large companies can make their own choices on what to adopt or not.  That said, senior product folks need to "bless" the idea before individual business units can have the choice to opt in or not.  Working through this sales cycle requires a different set of selling points.  The mistake here is to use the same tactics and collateral with product folks as you might use on the senior business folks.  As a general rule, product folks must look out for the enterprise platform, so by nature they are in a more protective mode.  To answer these concerns, materials and pitches that deal with safety, security and stability will greatly shorten the evaluation period.

Third is the sales cycle of getting the actual programmer or developer to integrate the code on the page.  After senior officials and product leads say ok, the last step often lies with the developer.  Often times this is where startups lose control and watch months pass without getting installed or integrated.  It happens to all of us, without exception.  First, a sales or BD person must treat this sales cycle with the same care and attention as they do with the other constituents.  This is where big mistakes are made.  Sales and BD folks tend to think that once they get to the developer level they have the power to "tell" the developer how it's going to go.  This is a blunder that can cost you in months, not days from getting installed.  Second, developers do not want to be sold, and the thought of being contacted by a sales or BD person is most often sickening to them.  To avoid this find out asap the best way to communicate with the developer who may have your "stuff" on their list of todos.  Often times developers do not want to be called, but rather prefer only email.  If you find this out early, you can shorten the sales cycle without doubt.  Third, when you get emails from developers look at the time stamp on the emails.  Often times you will see email sent at off-hours.  This is a clue as to when is a good time to send an email that will be looked at and maybe replied to immediately.  Often times, a simple reminder or inquiry to the progress of an installation is enough for a developer to squeeze your code into the next item on the todo list.  Lastly, don't forget who helped you.  Once installed send a personal thank you to the technical team for installing your "stuff."  Usually there aren't a lot of thanks going around in the back offices of IT or R&D of a big company, so let them know you appreciate the effort.  It will go a long way when it comes time to expand the installation or get recommended to another business unit.

Although there can be three sales cycles within one deal, a sales or BD person does not have to follow the above order.  In fact, one can shorten a sales cycle drastically by starting the deal with a developer level contact or a product person.  These folks have the power to put a piece of code on a page, and this is the first step in proving your worth.  However, tread carefully as this approach does have its risks as senior business people don't like to play catch up so keep this in mind. 

Any other good suggestions please comment and I will post an update on further best practices for shortening sales cycles if warranted. 

Overall this is one of the biggest challenges for BD folks and startups in general and one that I quite enjoy working on.  This is actually a good panel topic for a future talk.  If you are interested in exploring ping me.

Thanks to Yaron Samid, founder of TechAviv for another great event. 

Fisherman & Startups

We had a most busy few weeks over at outbrain.  The market got wind that we closed our B round and we went public on the plans to generate revenue both for our company and network of publishers that range from small bloggers to major media companies.  Both of these events have been the result of great teamwork on behalf of everybody in the company, and with under 20 people everyone played a big role.  For my small piece in business development and in the near term where I will be looking to expand the business development team, there is an interesting observation that I wish to share, and that is the role of the fisherman in early stage startups.  I am not referring to the commonly known act of fishing for fish, but rather to the type of business development talents that are beneficial to startups.  Typically when you evaluate a sales/biz dev person's talents, the first task is to identify if they are a Hunter or Farmer.  In simple terms the Hunter is the consumate closer who is great at closing and hunting business but lacks in skills to grow and nurture accounts.  In contrast the Farmer type is not comfortable predominantly closing business and is better at nurturing exsiting accounts.  Great companies need both of these skill sets but for startups with limited resources neither the Hunter or the Farmer are ideal.  Why?  Because startups often need a closer and a nurturer in one.  Startups, especially those trying to get larger, more established companies to use their services need to close deals but also nurture those deals into strong accounts and references.  This requires a differnet skill set than the classic Hunter or Farmer, and is ideally found in the Fisherman.  The Fisherman is a mix between the Hunter and Farmer.  The Fisherman can hunt or "fish" for new business, but is also mindful to nurture the waters or accounts for future fish/business.  I first learned of this from Robert Kelly who pens a great description of the Fisherman;

"The Fisherman is a model of both patience and well-timed aggressiveness that we need to land new clients.  The fisherman also has the wisdom and respect to cultivate the fishing beds so as to always have a source of food (aka revenues)."   

Well said. The ability to aggressively close business when needed and to grow early wins into great accounts is key for startups.

Fish Where The Fish Are = Sell Where The Deals Can Be Had

Another key skill of the Fisherman is knowing where to fish to be successful.  This is critical in startups because the single biggest force working against business development efforts is chasing deals that do not bear fruit - or fishing where there are no fish.  Getting a prospect to a quick yes or NO, is the best way to ensure time spent is fishing where the fish are.

Releasing The Catch

Sometimes in fishing you have to know when to throw a fish back because it's either dangerous, too small or the wrong kind of fish.  This is the same in business development for startups as the wrong deals can eat into a startups's valulable and limited resources.  In technology, wrong deals that continue to be pursued/brought aboard and not released in time, can eat into a company's development cycles and hinder future growth.  The smart Fisherman knows when to keep a deal on board and when to throw it back.

There are more nuances here in this analogy but seeing that I am a Fisherman in real life both on and off the water, I'll keep the details to anyone who wants to ping me or challenge the thoughts.  In the meantime here's to fishing where the deals are and to tight lines and a fish box full of signed contracts!