The Web Conferencing Blog

The Champion Creed

"I am a champion.

I believe in myself.

I have the will to win.

I set high goals for myself.

I surround myself with winners.

I’m cool, positive and confident.

I have courage. I never give up.

I’m willing to pay the price of success.

I love the struggle and the competition.

I stay relaxed and in control at all times.

I focus all my energy on the job at hand.

I vividly imagine what victory will feel like.

I am a champion and I will win."

Recently, I came across this creed. Can't exactly remember where I saw it or who authored this version of "The Champion's Creed" but it certainly resonated with me. Can you imagine the power of positive thinking and visualization by saying this every day before you begin your work day? Absolutely powerful!!

In my own words, I would also like to add the following comments to The Champion's Creed:

Have a clear vision. See the opportunity and go after it relentlessly.
Have the courage to see things through the tough times.
See obstacles as only temporary.Love whatever it is that you do.
Always give your best.
Practice like a champion.
Play like a champion.
Live like a champion.

Thanks,

David Chao

The Web Conferencing Expert

"Do more than is expected of you."

"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."

This is one of my favorite quotes from Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich," so I thought I would type it out three times to be dramatic. I've read the book multiple times and each time I read it, it's just as inspiring as the first time.

Some truths are just timeless, this is one of them. "Do more than is expected of you." Simple, to the point and oh so true.

Sales is not an easy job and it's not for everyone. Many people get lured into sales because it can be lucrative and prestigious. Most people growing up don't say, "When I grow up I want to be a sales rep!" It just doesn't happen. Like anything else, sales is an occupation that follows the standard Bell Curve. A majority of the sales reps are average. Then there are a handful of exceptional sales reps to the right of the curve and of course a handful of sales reps that probably shouldn't be in sales to the left of the curve.

What's the difference between these three categories of sales reps? The best sales reps have that burning desire to succeed with hard work. They will do whatever it takes. They do more than what is expected of them. Some many disagree and say that factors like experience, business acumen, salesmanship are the real main differences. I contend that these things can be learned over time.

A strong, solid work ethic and the burning desire to succeed is not taught or learned. It only comes from within and when it's unleashed it cannot be denied.

Michael Phelps did not win 8 Gold Medal because he started swimming at an early age (experience) or knew the mechanics of the perfect stoke (knowledge) or had the best coach. He won 8 Gold Medals because he was willing to do anything to get those 8 Gold Medals, even if it meant spending up to eight hours per day in the pool. If other swimmers trained 8 hours a day, I suspect Michael Phelps would have trained 12-14 hours per day. "Do more than is expected of you."

Every sales rep wants to be the best. Wanting to be the best and wanting to succeed is far different than doing whatever it takes and doing more than what's expected to be the best. Saying, "I want to be the best," is easy. Backing it up with hard work is what separates the best sales reps from everyone else.

Ask yourself if you truly have that undeniable burning desire to be successful. Are you one that goes above and beyond? Do you do more than what is expected because you want get recognition for your efforts or do you do this because you know that there are no shortcuts and that the greatest rewards are always the ones you worked the hardest for? Be honest with yourself.

The good news is that if you are a top rep, an average sales rep or a not so great sales rep, you and you alone have the option to change you mindset, step up your game and get better with strong, consistent hard work. 

"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."
"Do more than is expected of you."

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Product Knowledge Again?

How many times have you heard people tell you, "You just need more product knowledge, then you'll start to close more business." All I ever hear is how important product knowledge is. Yes, product knowledge is important but how about teaching me how to use the product knowledge to close business. Most companies do not focus enough on fundamental sales training and development. Sad but true.

For now, forget about the product knowledge brain dump, the speeds and feeds pitch that you normally do with your prospects. The reality is that if you're doing this, 1) you are talking to the wrong person, typically a non-decision maker who has zero access to money, 2) you are talking about you and your product when you should be focused on the prospect, 3) you are boring your prospect.

Rule #1: Always start your prospecting/qualification calls with questions about THEM. Don't talk about you or your product. Break the ice and establish rapport by getting them to talk about something they are familiar and comfortable talking about, THEMSELVES!

Rule #2: Provide concrete example of how your product will impact their business. Will it improve productivity, performance? Will it streamline processes? Most importantly, how will they PROFIT by using your product?

Rule #3: Storytime. You need to tell stories. People remember stories. Provide examples or testimonials of how other customers have profited. Customer testimonials are never used enough! Get them to visualize how they could benefit by using your product. "Mr. Prospect, imagine if..."

Rule #4: Understand THEIR "perceived value," not yours, THEIRS. We already know they need it. We already know they should buy it. Get them to talk about how they would benefit, profit, etc. Make perceived value realized value and you got yourself a sale.

The reason why sales reps resort to product knowledge during sales engagement is because it's what they were taught to do. We are simply relying on what we already know and are comfortable talking about. Heard this before from a sales manager? "Just tell your prospect that we can do all these things  and they will automatically buy." Product knowledge and product capabilities often gets overused because they are the easiest things to mention for differentiation purposes.

The very best sales reps know that they can change the "playing field" in a variety of different ways. The very best sales reps can create differentiation that are multi-dimensional compared to one-dimensional, IE, product knowledge/product capabilities. Everyone already does this! Be different!

A few things that are critical to your sales success:

1. Profit: Companies want to make money, not save money. Show them how they can make more money and you got a deal.
2. Perceived value: What matters is what they think about you and your product. Your opinion does not matter. Again, your opinion does not matter.
3. Proof: Back up your statements with customer testimonials, success stories in PDF, references. Show a video testimonial!
4. Service: Are you reactive, proactive, responsive? Are you fostering customer satisfaction or customer loyalty via your service? Satisfaction is just that, just enough to get by and in most cases, it's never enough. If you get customer loyalty, you have a partner and someone that will want you to succeed as much as you have helped them succeed.
5. Engagement: No engagement = no interest = no deal. If you have not broken the ice and established rapport in 15 seconds, you've lost your window of opportunity.
6. Likability and Credibility: The first sale in any sale is yourself. If they won't buy you, they won't buy your product. Are you perceived as an expert, do you sound like you know what you are talking about? Are you likable and credible?

So we have come full circle. Yes, product knowledge is important. Yes, you need to know your product to sell your product, however, the lesson here is to focus on your customer and to demonstrate creative ways they can profit by leveraging your product. Don't be one-dimensional. Move outside your comfort zone and become multi-dimensional.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

I Believe I Can Do It!

The other day I was playing with my daughter who is 2.5 years old.  She was trying to climb up some metal ladder rungs so she could go down the slide. After one attempt she said, " Daddy, I can't do it." I walked over to her, smiled and said, "I believe I can do it." She repeated what I said and laughed. Though she might not know exactly what it means I know it translates to her as, "Try it again and you'll do it."

It amazes me how sales professionals try to grow their careers with intensive product knowledge, courses on selling skills and negotiation tips, business networking skills, presentation and communication skills yet there is little focus on SELF BELIEF. This is the core, the heart of the most successful people.

Quick Tips:

• Write down your personal goals and career goals and have a date of when you hope to accomplish them
• When you accomplish a goal, have a mini celebration for yourself
• Ask yourself why you believe in things or why you don't, understand your belief system
• Read "Think and Grow Rich" from Napolean Hill or "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.

Famous words from Napolean Hill, "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."

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Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Sales Strategies

In every sales engagement, you can take a variety of different approaches but in general they can be categorized as Direct, Indirect, Divisional, and Containment. Understanding the differences and when to use them will increase your win ratio dramatically.

The most common strategy is the Direct Strategy. It's the easiest because you simply try to overpower your competition by a 3 to 1 ratio, such as, product superiority, reputation, current customer base, etc. The crux with this strategy is that you need to objectively ask yourself, "Is my product clearly superior and if so, can I sustain its superiority?" Often times what you might think as superior is not the case in the eyes of the customer. The key is to understand that the customer's thoughts, ideas, perceptions of your product are what is critical, not yours. Typically, this is a features-based sales opportunity.

An Indirect Strategy is about changing the ground rules of the decision-making process and altering the buying criteria. A great way of using an Indirect Strategy is to get the customer to focus on the long-term not just on the immediate short-term. If you can broaden your customer's perspective on the scope of their needs and engage with the right decision makers, you'll win. An example is to not compare your product and the competition's one to one. If you do this, you are taking a Direct Strategy and unless you have a clear 3 to 1 advantage from your customer's perspective, you'll probably lose on price alone. With an Indirect Strategy you need to change the ground rules by demonstrating the importance of other things like training, technical support, financial stability, anything that gets the customer to think, "Yeah, that is important, I should have thought about that, I think I'm going to add that in." The more creative  differentiation you can create, the better.

The third strategy is the Divisional Strategy. It's the old, "Divide and Conquer," mentality. Just get your foot in the door and build from there. The key with this strategy is to accept that you are not trying to completely displace the competition. You simply want to peacefully co-exists with them by providing the customer with something that the competition cannot. It you deliver on that little something, you'll earn trust and credibility to grow the account. For some companies, this strategy is about becoming a niche player, having a narrow focus and excelling at it. When you think about Root Beer, you probably think about A&W Root Beer. A&W competes in the soda market against Coke and Pepsi, which represent the bulk of the market share. A&W is a small player in the soda market but they are #1 in the root beer niche. They will never come out with a competing cola product because that's a Direct Strategy and they do not have a clear 3:1 advantage. They cannot change the ground rules with an Indirect Strategy since soda is soda. With a Divisional Strategy, A&W captured a toe hold in the soda market and expanded their presence with a Cream Soda and Squirt, two other soda drinks that Coke and Pepsi do not focus on.

The fourth strategy is the Containment Strategy. The objective is to gain a "no decision" from the customer. A no decision is a win because you keep the competition from winning. Again, it's all about postponing a decision, not changing the buying decision as in the Indirect Strategy. Microsoft is one of the best at containment with their products. They will have a huge announcement stating that a newer operating system or a newer product with advanced capabilities will be launched in the future...normally in about 12-18 months. Their goal is to generate buzz, market awareness, and ultimately stale the customer from doing anything until they see the newer version or newer product. Microsoft Vista, Longhorn, even the XBOX 360 sound familiar?

Knowing when and how to maneuver a sales cycle with these four sales strategies is key. Adapting and being able to quickly change from one strategy to another is also important. Throughout the entire sales cycle be cognizant of your current standing, the competitive landscape, and if you are talking to the decision makers.

An excellent read is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

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Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

The 6th Sense...Sales Sense

In my sales career, I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the best sales reps. It's always interesting to examine the characteristics of the very top performers compared to the average performers. What is the secret formula? Is it product knowledge, sales experience, vertical market expertise, asking the "right" questions, or having a defined sales process? Perhaps a bit of all of them is important, however, I think the 6th Sense, Sales Sense, is the differentiator between the very top performers and everyone else.

What is Sales Sense?

Sales Sense is having a sense of SELF. Understand who you are, what's important to you, what your goals are personally and professionally. Having a sense of self is critical since the projection of yourself is what buyers see and feel.  Many people have often told me that people buy from people way before they buy a product, service, brand, or company.

Sales Sense is having a sense of OTHERS. Understand other people's feelings and listen to what they say as this will help you craft impactful value proposition statements and questions that draw out information as to what is truly important. Understanding how people think, process information, evaluate risk, and if they are in a position to buy. Often times, sales reps jump the gun and ask for the business much too soon, only getting a firm, "We are not ready yet." Having a sense of others enables the best sales reps to know when to close because they know that a "Yes," will follow. Realistically, any sales reps can trial close since it's not very hard to ask trial close questions, it's knowing to ask and knowing when all the right pieces are in place. You know this by having a sense of others.

Sales Sense is having a sense of SITUATION. This is all about paying attention to the little details and not overlooking anything. Everything the prospect says is for a reason so listen. It's your job to advance the sales process forward with subtle control...by asking questions. The more questions you ask, the more two way communication you get. Concentrate on the situation not how big your commission check will be if you close the deal. Focus on the situation, things you missed, potential risks, competition.

If you have Sales Sense, you will win your sales engagements and become a top sales performer.

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The Art of Listening

The other night I was watching the Will Smith movie, "Hitch." Will Smith plays a date Dr who promises any man that he can help woe any woman. Throughout the movie he provides some pretty clever dating tips. The one that stood out to me was when he said, "You need to listen. That way when it's your turn to talk, you'll have something interesting to say."

In sales, LISTENING is critical. Too many sales reps are so eager to talk, to get a turn to chime in, when in realty the best thing to do is ask thought provoking questions that draw out needs and motives and then sit back and LISTEN to what the customer has to say. If you can't master the art of active LISTENING, you'll never master sales.

Watching the movie got me thinking about common phrases and what they actually mean. For example, in a Classifieds Ad, when you hear "Must be self-motivated," that really means "must work your butt off with very little direction or guidance."  Sure there is some sarcasm here but you get my point. Then I thought about this across sales. Here are a few phrases I thought of:

• Not Interested = "You have said nothing of value."
• Not a Priority = "You have not shown me any reason that this should be a priority."
• Management Did Not Give the Go-Ahead =  Your fault for investing time and selling to a non-decision maker who could not effectively sell management on your behalf.
• Price is Too High = "You have not differentiated yourself, your company, your process or your product compared to your competition."
• Price Objection: an opportunity to demonstrate value, indicates buyer interest
• Lowest Price = Lowest Profit, Lowest Value

In my opinion, any question from the customer is a buying signal. It's the customer's way of saying, "Tell me more. Clarify this a bit more for me. Help me understand." The key is to LISTEN carefully and translate what they mean since everything the customer says is a clue in helping you unlock their needs and win the sale.

The most successful sales reps are those that can master the many complex components of a sale, one of the most important being LISTENING skills.

Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Top Secrets From Closers Who Practice WebEx Selling

Have you ever wondered how and why the top sales reps in your company are always the same reps? The list never seems to change, why is that? How do these guys consistently exceed their quota? How do they beat their peers and more importantly, how do they beat their competition?

Secret 1: Top Closers spend more time disqualifying their prospects than they do qualifying them. Time management is all a top closer has. While their competition is trying to qualify non-buyers, the top closers are trying to find and qualify buyers. They do not spend time pitching unqualified leads but focus their time on scheduling WebEx demos with decision makers.

Secret 2: Top Closers are not afraid to ask for the business. In fact, they ask multiple times, in different ways, throughout the sales process. When first speaking with a prospect, they will often ask things like, "When are you looking to make a decision on this?" And "Besides you, who else is involved in the decision-making process?" Also, during the presentation or close, they use trial closes to gauge how things are going and which direction they should take. The bottom line is that they expect to close the deal.

Secret 3: Top Closers ask the tough questions in the beginning -- questions regarding how the decision process works, who is involved, what the time frame is, and what and when the budget will be available. Most other sales reps are afraid to ask these questions for fear of making their prospect mad.

Secret 4: Top Closers are not afraid of "No's." In fact, they expect and are prepared for them. They understand that not everyone they speak with will buy from them. Top Closers also know that part of sales is timing and will file these unqualified prospects for a future mail merge blast.

Secret 5: Top Closers are prepared in advance for objections that prospects use to blow off 80% of the other sales reps who call them. Objections like, "We're not interested," or "Call me back another time," or "We have no need," are easily handled by the top closers because they use effective and prepared rebuttals that allow them to get past this initial resistance.

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Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

Do Commodity Products Exist?

Often times I hear people tell me, "David, my product is becoming a commodity. How can I win more deals when I am selling a commoditized product?" If you think this is the case, you are dead wrong. How has Toyota climbed to the #1 selling car manufacturer, out selling Ford and GM? What about Kleenex and Coca-Cola?

Differentiation is critical!

How do you explain Miller Beer capturing huge market share from Anheuser Busch? They differentiated themselves with what we know today as Miller "Lite" Beer. Whether it is differentiating through product capabilities, marketing, methodology, or strategy your customer must have the perception that you are different than the competition.

How is it that I have been a loyal Cingular customer for 8 years? In my eyes, Cingular differentiated itself from the other cell phone providers. Call it marketing, positioning, better sales, but to me, Cingular was absolutely different. Their monthly "rollover" minutes plan, 5-bar network reception, free in-network calls, no other company had these things that I found of value. Top it off with excellent customer service and Cingular has a life long customer.

The reality is that if you feel that you are selling a commodity product, it is because you fail to differentiate yourself, your product, and your company from the competition. Be different than every other sales reps that sells similar products. Instead of asking standard questions like, "Can you tell me a bit about your company. Have you heard of my company?" Do some research and learn about the company you want to sell to so you can ask intelligent, thought provoking and unique questions that the prospect has never heard.

Differentiation is critical!

Rather than focus on things that you and the competition both can do, focus on everything the competition cannot do and the risk of overlooking these critical components.

Differentiation is critical!

Rather than talk about price, be of value to your customer. Demonstrate your expertise and business acumen in understanding their business so that you can provide creative ideas to help them grow their business and generate revenue. Every single company out there is in business to make money, it is that capitalist way, it is why they are in business. Show your customers how they can generate revenue, increase profits, increase productivity, and you will win business every single time.

Have a positive attitude, exude confidence in yourself, your company, and your product and your prospects will realize that they are not buying a commoditized product.

Differentiation is critical!

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Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

How to Lower Your Overall Cost Per Lead

If you look at a typical sales force, leads are generated the old fashion way: cold calls. A few drawbacks of generating leads by cold calling: time consuming, low hit rate, lowers morale, and rejection. However, the grand daddy of them all is the overall high cost and low numbers produced from cold calling. As an example, if a sales rep's annual compensation is $100,000 a year, that means each work day, productive or not, equates to a $400 a day pay rate. Let's say a rep does 30 cold calls per day and generates just 5 solid leads from cold calling for the week. That means each call, or really each dial, cost $13.34 while the average cost per lead is a whopping $400! What happens in situations if the sales reps does not feel like cold calling, is working off a poor call list, or does not have time to cold call because of time spent servicing exisiting accounts? Sound familiar? What do you think will happen to the lead flow? Will there be enough active opportunities in the pipeline to generate closed business? Think the sales team will hit their numbers? Probably won't even come close.

Sales is a numbers game. If you disagree, ask yourself one simple question, "Would you want more leads or less leads?" You probably have a good idea of what your win ratio is and what your average deal size is. Put the numbers in the equation: (number of leads x win ratio x average deal size = revenue brought in) If you increase the number of leads, you increase the amount of revenue brought in. Simple numbers game.

One of the most cost effective ways to generate high quality leads is through online webinars. You can quickly broaden your reach, penetrate emerging markets, and capture the attention of an executive who happens to watch your event during his lunch break, never having to leave his office to hear you speak in person at a hotel conference room hundreds of miles away. Get in front of more decision makers, you'll close more business.

So here is how online webinars work...

Let's say you are a consulting firm that specializes in Sarbanes-Oxley and other Compliance-related issues. You plan to do an online webinar on "SOX and Risk Mitigation." You put together a PowerPoint presentation and include a few short video clips of customer testimonials and success stories. Then you begin actively promoting the event for about 4 weeks via your website, newsletter, partners/sponsors, banner ads, Google ads, email, direct mail, etc.

An executive sees your event and is intrigued with the topic and decides to enroll for the event. You capture pertinent contact information like name, email, phone number, company name, title and even ask some customized qualified questions. He presses submit. Boom, your first lead. You then track where the lead actually came from: Google Ads, corporate website, newsletter, referral, banner ad, email campaign, a mailer, and prioritize the lead based on his answers to your qualifying questions. If he is a C-level executive that runs a $1B company, he scores more points than a non-decision maker from a company that generates less than $1M in revenue. If you have this information, your sales team can follow up accordingly based on the "hottest" leads. You also can identify which marketing campaigns generated the greatest ROI. If more leads came from the newsletter than from the direct mail piece, perhaps more focus should be put on the newsletter since it produced better results. About now, you should get yourself in the mindset of thinking "cost effective, repeatable, measurable results." Replicate this process over and over with each event and you will always have leads.

As you can imagine, online webinars can quickly generate more prospects in a shorter time period than cold calling. The leads are pre-qualified, scored for follow up, and were generated at a lower average cost per lead compared to cold calling. For example, you target 10,000 potential prospects with a 2-3% enrollment rate which equals 200-300 registrants. There will be "no shows" but you now have 200-300 potential leads of people who filled out your enrollment form and provided their contact information for follow up. By spending around $10,000 annually for an online webinar solution with a trained Event Producer, your average cost per lead is only $20-$30!!!

You can improve those numbers by sending follow up "Thank You" letters or inviting the prospects to view a URL of the recorded online webinar. You could also post the online event on your corporate website for playback, while capturing contact information from a short registration page before the prospect views the recording. More leads and no added time or resources were needed.

Would you rather spend $400 per lead from 5 cold calls or $20-$30 per lead from 200-300 online webinar registrants?

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Thanks,
David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert