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How To Make Persistence Pay
10 Ways To Keep Going (And Going) To Close The Sale.
Reprinted from Welcome Business - 2002
by Karen Kroll
Nobody ever said running a small business would be easy. Sometimes, selling your stuff is just flat out tough. Customers may be firmly entrenched elsewhere; or they may not fully understand the benefits your product or service has to offer. Or, they may just not be quite to the point of spending the money. That’s when persistence can pay for an emerging business.
In 1995, Michael Hadley, president of Boston-based iCorps Technology, began courting a medical products company that seemed to be a good candidate for his firm’s technology consulting services. Two years later, he was still at it. Initially, price was an obstacle — iCorps’ hourly rate was more than double what the company had been paying for tech support.
After talking with different people at the company, however, Hadley learned that they were outgrowing the level of technical assistance their current vendor was providing. He kept in contact through phone calls, e-mails and mailings. Through the persistent process, Hadley says he remained confident that as the company’s product moved through the regulatory process and management’s need for a solid technical infrastructure increased, they would need his expertise. “We wanted to make sure that as they grew, our name would be first in their mind,” says Hadley.
His persistence paid off. iCorps began working with the company in 1997 in a relationship that continues today. Along the way, iCorps has grown to 41 people, and almost $5 million in revenue. “We try to follow the 3 R’s,” Hadley says. “We’re resilient, relentless and resourceful.”
Persistence often means the difference between closing a sale or going away empty-handed. “The top one percent of salespeople are those who keep calling on customers after they hear ‘no.’ They realize that you might have to get through a few no’s to get to a yes,” says Ron Karr, author of The Titan Principle: The Number One Secret to Sales Success, and president of Karr Associates, Inc., in Fort Lee, NJ.
At the same time, there are effective and not-so-effective ways to be persistent. You want to keep in mind the needs of your prospective customer and the other demands on his or her time, so that you avoid simply becoming a pest.
You also want to be intelligently persistent, saving your time and energy for situations where it can do the most good. It doesn’t make much sense to spend time calling on prospects that aren’t a good fit for your products or services, while ignoring higher-potential accounts. “Don’t bang your head against the wall when there is a door you can go through,” says Wayne Outlaw, president of a training and consulting firm, The Outlaw Group, Inc., in Mt. Pleasant, SC.
Persistence, intelligently and appropriately applied, can help you keep going and close sales. Here are 10 techniques you can use.
1. Recognize that the customer sets the sales cycle.
While you can put the process in motion and take steps to keep it moving, the customer ultimately decides when (and if) he or she will buy. Accepting this fact makes it easier to deal with rejection. It also explains why many successful salespeople view sales as a numbers game, and believe that if they just keep playing, they’ll get the results that they want.
Greg Nelson is vice president of sales with MessageClick, Inc., a New York firm that offers Internet-based messaging services. MessageClick has been growing at a huge monthly rate. Nelson adheres to the rule of thumb that says that less than five percent of all prospects are in a position to buy at any one time. “The other 95 percent are not no’s forever, they’re just no’s for now,” he says.
2. Develop a system for keeping in contact with prospects.
Whether it’s an old-fashioned tickler file or the latest in contact management software, you need some sort of device that reminds you to follow up and helps you do it.
3. Let prospective customers determine how frequently you contact them.
Ask when they would like to hear from you again. Then, take your cues both from what they say and how they say it. If a prospect sounds frazzled, and tells you that several projects that are key to her company making a purchase are behind schedule, it makes sense to wait a bit before calling back.
4. Set up a sales prospect aging system.
This lets you keep track of how each prospective client is progressing through the sales process, says Outlaw. For example, those in the zero-to-30-days category may be newer prospects with whom you’ve just begun working. Those in the 30-to-90- days category are likely to be “working prospects” with whom you’re following up and dealing more closely. Companies in the 90-to-120-days group may be those that you expect to close within the month.
“We try to follow the 3 R’s. We’re resilient, relentless and resourceful.”
— Michael Hadley, president of iCorps Technology
5. Sometimes you need to prepare for a long haul.
This is especially true when your product or service is complicated, and requires the buy-in of several different departments. Rick Siegris is chief executive officer of HealthShare Technology, Inc., an Acton, MA, company that sells software that analyzes patient data. HealthShare’s primary market is hospitals. “Our approach is that a lead is never totally dead. Things change; there’s new management, new priorities and new issues,” says Siegris.
That was the case with one university hospital whose business HealthShare had been seeking. When Siegris first talked with the company, management said it was happy with its current vendor. But HealthShare kept in contact, and eight months later received a call from the prospect, who had just learned that the other vendor was pulling the product.
Even though the hospital had an immediate need for HealthShare’s software, it still took months for the sale to close. The company had to convince various committees within the hospital that going with HealthShare made sense.
Siegris also had to complete an extensive request for proposal (RFP), and do several product demonstrations. In all, Siegris and his team spent more than a year pursuing the business.
6. Set an appropriate goal for each customer contact.
It’s easy to annoy a prospective customer by trying to move things along more quickly than he or she is comfortable with. Setting unrealistic goals and failing to meet them can be discouraging. Keeping a realistic time frame in mind helps you keep a more accurate perspective on how well you’re doing.
7. Vary your means of communication.
With so many different ways of staying in touch — such as meetings, phone calls, faxes, newsletters and e-mails — you can adjust your approach to respond to the preferences of your prospect.
E-mail is a quick, noninvasive way to keep in contact, and lets your customer respond at his or her convenience, if at all. Newsletters are a soft-sell means of letting prospects know what is going on with your firm or within your industry. A quick phone call lets you get a handle on how things are progressing on the customer’s side, but some customers may not want to be bothered with calls.
“Don’t bang your head against the wall when there is a door you can go through.”
— Wayne Outlaw, president of The Outlaw Group, Inc.
8. Use a little creativity.
Sometimes, taking a chance on the unexpected helps you capture the attention of someone you’ve been trying to reach. The Greenwood Inn is a 250-room hotel in Beaverton, OR. Every month, the sales staff identifies a handful of potential corporate clients who, for one reason or another, have declined to consider the Inn for their business meetings or conferences.
Instead of taking no for an answer, the company sends an anonymous gift basket, filled with different foods or locally made products, to the prospective clients. This continues every day for five days. The basket sent on the fifth day includes photos of the hotel, printed with the caption, “Come view the Greenwood Inn through new eyes.”
“We try to challenge our sales people to think of new, creative ways to approach customers,” says Bruce Fery, CEO with the Heathman Group, which manages the Greenwood Inn. The program has been in place for about two years and has helped the company land ten new accounts, says Fery.
Adversity Quotient by Paul G. Stoltz (John Wiley & Sons, $24.95) discusses an individual’s ability to persist through adverse situations. The book provides tools readers can use to measure and increase their own ability to persist. Call (800) 255-5572.
Knock Your Socks Off Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer and Ron Zemke (AMACOM, $17.95) offers tactics and guidance for dealing with today’s savvy, sophisticated and demanding customers. Call (800) 262-9699.
The Power to Get In: A Step-by-Step System to Get in Anyone’s Door by Michael Boylan (St. Martin's Press, $14.95) talks about using your Circle of Leverage to gain access to even the most difficult to reach business person. Call (800) 221-7945.
The Titan Principle: The Number One Secret to Sales Success by Ron Karr (Chandler House Press, $15.95) states that business will go to the individuals and organizations that provide their customers with what they need in the way that they want it. Call (800) 642-6657.
Tough Calls: Selling Strategies to Win Over Your Most Difficult Customers by Josh Gordon (AMACOM, $17.95) gives strategies for dealing with 21 varieties of difficult customers. These include the client who grinds you on price, the client who lies to you and the client who buys elsewhere because of company politics. Call (800) 262-9699.
Selling Power magazine includes stories on sales-building skills and motivation ($33 per year) Call (800) 752-7355 or visit www.sellingpower.com.
LetsTalkSelling.com ( www.letstalkselling.com ) offers sales tips and techniques from Timothy F. Bednarz. His firm, Bednarz Business Strategies, in Stevens Point, WI, provides sales and marketing training for small businesses.
TheSalesCoach.com: offers articles on selling and sales management, published by Galente & Company, a Brookhaven, NY-based sales training and positioning firm.
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9. Continually ask yourself, “How much of my time and attention is this prospect worth?”
Sometimes the potential business is too small to warrant pulling out all the stops. Other times, prospects find it hard to come right out and say no, even when they can’t or won’t say yes, and they leave you in limbo. In either of these cases, it makes sense to use easy, low-cost ways to remain in touch. For example, if you’re already producing a newsletter, you may want to add them to the mailing list.
10. Remember that nearly everyone who sells has a horror story or two.
When you’re discouraged and feel like you’re getting nowhere, it helps to keep in mind that others have had their share of tough calls.
When Bruce Spiro, vice president of sales with Los Angeles-based Simply Fresh Fruit, Inc., was first starting out, he met with a prospective customer who had a reputation for being extremely tough. In fact, the man never even looked up from his desk as Spiro entered his office. When Spiro handed the man his business card, he immediately tore it up and threw it in the garbage.
Remembering the prospect’s reputation, Spiro grabbed one of the prospect’s business cards, ripped it up, threw it in the wastebasket, and said, “Now, we’re even, and we can start over.” Spiro landed the account and the two became good friends.
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