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Which of the following statements describe you?
- Although you try to reel in the "big fish", too many of your customers are still "small fry."
- When you do summon the courage to make cold calls, you get trapped in "voice mail jail."
- You keep encountering the same objections and you don't have a ready response.
- Decision makers blow you off or ignore your attempts to make a connection.
- You haven't met your revenue growth goals and you need to produce results - yesterday.
- You realize that your current approach just isn't working -- and you're finally fed up enough to do something about it.
If you checked two or more statements above and
you're struggling to sell to the corporate market - whether you're a sales rep, business owner or independent
professional - you'll likely be interested in a proven sales system
that's helped thousands of sellers land large, profitable contracts
from well-known corporate accounts. Click to learn more.
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From out of the blue, I got a call from Todd. I hadn't talked him for a
while so it was fun to catch up. He used to work for a strategic
partner of mine, but now is an executive at a big, profitable and
growing company that sells to the government & education market.
Todd
wasn't calling just to chat. As a savvy marketer, he saw trouble on the
horizon. Over the past few years, his company had been steadily
acquiring its competitors. Now they're in the enviable position of
being the dominant player (>50% market share) in an otherwise
fragmented market. They literally set the benchmark against which all
other vendors are compared.
So what could possibly be going wrong?
Recently they'd lost several major contracts to small firms who
couldn't possibly offer the breadth and depth of services that
their customers wanted.
These
losses were virtually inconceivable! Their salespeople had deep,
longstanding relationships with key decision makers that went back for
20+ years. Plus they consistently received superior customer service
ratings. In short, there was no reason to assume that their business
with these accounts was in serious jeopardy until they heard the bad
news.
But
by then it was too late; contracts had already been signed. Suddenly
they were on the outside looking in. Even their key contacts in the
account were stunned - especially since they'd recommended
renewing the original agreement.
Yet when I heard the story, I wasn't surprised.
Long-term relationships can breed complacency and when that happens,
it's only a matter of time before you get the wake-up call.
In
this case, the winning seller realized that she couldn't beat the
entrenched incumbent in a head-to-head confrontation. So she changed
the game.
Prior
to launching her new strategy, regional offices had total
decision-making autonomy. Instead of trying to convert one office at a
time, she took the decision up one level – and out of the hands of the
traditional decision makers.
Then
she showed her new contact why different criteria were needed
to evaluate the various service providers. Of course, she
inserted some that played to her strength and changed the focus of
the discussion. It worked. She won the contract.
But the only way to prevent things like that from happening is to think negatively. Seriously. Think really negatively. Dark, black thoughts of all the things that could possibly go wrong.
Paranoia
is good for customer retention and growth. You must assume they're out
to get you at every turn. (They are, you know.) This requires serious
contingency planning. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is
to step into your competitors' shoes and plan an assault on your own
customer base.
The
first step is to do a situation analysis: Identify your strengths and
weaknesses. Assess yourself against competitors. Be painfully honest.
While the truth may hurt, losing your bread-and-butter customers hurts
much worse.
Then get sly like a fox. Think about how you'd steal the account away. Ask questions such as:
- What seeds of doubt could you plant about your company?
- How could you highlight your weaknesses?
- How could you change the game so you wouldn't have to compete head on?
- What could you do to sneak in under your radar screen?
- Who else might you get involved in the decision?
Doing
this in a group is even more fun. The collective intelligence of a team
of paranoid sellers uncovers far more weaknesses than one person could
find on his/her own. Once you have a clear picture of your
vulnerabilities, develop a plan to do something about them before you
lose the account.
If
you believe those positive thinking pundits all the times, you'll be
thinking happy thoughts but losing customers. That's crazy. Embrace the
power of negative thinking and you'll be much happier in the long run.
The advice of Napolean Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, sums it all up: "The
majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence
in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail."
P.S.
While this article focuses on protecting your customer base, you can
also emulate the winning seller's strategy of getting into big accounts
by going under the radar screen of the incumbent providers. Two lessons
in just one article - amazing!
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