Weaning yourself off big-firm sales habits

02-Feb-2012 - The sales and marketing methods that work for big firms rarely scale down to suit smaller operations. Malcolm Sleath of 12boxes looks at ways of ‘upping the hit rate’ for independents and small firms.

Question: I’m an independent consultant who used to work for large consulting firms and now offer specialist services mainly to SMEs. In my previous firms we tended to target potential clients, and arrange meetings at which we presented new ideas and approaches for addressing issues in their sector. After the first meeting we would establish interest, then go away and produce a slide deck. At the second meeting we would use that as a discussion framework with the client. In a high proportion of cases we would then write a proposal that we were pretty sure they were going to accept. I find this doesn’t work so well with my present client base. With most of them I am either too early or too late in addressing their need, they don’t seem to understand the basic proposition so quickly, and it takes too many approaches before I land a client. How do I up my hit rate?

Answer: I know from experience that it can take a while to wean independents off the sales approaches they were used to when working for major firms.

Bear in mind that when the model you have described worked, consultants were positioned differently in the minds of potential clients. Yes, clients made jokes about them, and sometimes expressed active resentment, but the mystique remained. Now customer buying habits have changed. If you are a business owner with a problem you can Google your way to finding out what kind of solutions are available.

The public mood has changed too. The success that consultants have had in penetrating the public sector means that many more people have experience of what they do and there is a much higher general awareness of what they charge. One indication that the climate has changed is the emphasis the MCA has felt compelled to place on pointing out that consultants deliver value for money.

So, while I would not go as far as to say that the model you have described is totally broken, I know from my work with consultants working in the markets that you used to address, that what happens now is not nearly as simple as you have described.

You talk about upping your hit rate on what you are doing now, but I don’t see that as the issue. It’s more about changing what you do so that potential clients deliver themselves to you at a point which is close enough to purchase for you to be engaged, but not so close that they are already running their fingers down the columns of a metaphorical Yellow Pages looking for people to talk to.

Why did your old firms find it effective to talk to people when they were not actively considering a purchase? Because when you get in early enough, you can more effectively shut out the competition.

But the cost of approaching people in person is high. In your old firms, I suspect that the ratio between the cost of sales and the return on investment was vastly different to the situation you find yourself in where you have a ‘time budget’ for sales and the rest of your time has to be engaged in delivering so that the family can go to the supermarket at the weekend. And, as you have found out, it is a numbers game. When seeking to ‘up their hit rate’ some people find that contracted out telemarketing works well. Others find that staged direct mail is effective. Not nearly as many as those with a vested interest would have you believe, use ‘new media’ to draw in potential clients.

But the underlying issue is not really about the medium, it’s about the buying process in the mind of the potential client. You need to think about where clients will be in the buying process and how you will relate to them when you pick them up.

Here’s my rough guide. In the short term you want to pick people up who are close to purchase. The cheapest way to do this is through networking and referrals. Buy yourself a book or go on a short course about how to use networking and referrals. In my experience Andy Lopata gives good value and has his feet on the ground.

But what do you say? It’s often a waste of time working out an elaborate elevator pitch because something that sums up everything, which you could say between floors, is likely to be incomprehensible to all but the initiated.

Find something to say that prompts a question because it’s how you answer the question that counts. In essence, you should be saying ‘It’s like this, isn’t it.’

You need to find a way of speaking to people (using whatever means is affordable and effective) which resonates with their current state of mind. For clues as to what this might be, take your mind off your solution for a moment, and think about what your clients are thinking and feeling at the point where they are aware of a problem but have not yet decided to address it.

Here’s an example of what I found worked with creative people who wanted to get better at sales:“You find yourself doing too much work for clients before you actually get paid – if you get paid!”

It’s not enough to resonate. For referrals to work, you have to be liked and trusted. In a networking group keep turning up, become a known regular, and spend your time listening to people, helping them connect, and putting them in touch with resources. When they ask what you do, as they will, give them something they can relate to: “I work with creative people who find themselves doing too much work with clients before they actually get paid – if they get paid!” See how that immediately prompts a question?

The point here is that you are not selling to the person you are talking to. You are enabling them to help you find people who need what you have to offer. Because you have helped them, they will want to help you.

The lead time for networking can vary from a few weeks to a few months, but for the time invested, it is extraordinarily cost effective – if you do it right.

Another way to speed up the referral process is to piggy back on existing trusted networks. Have a talk that you know addresses key issues for the clients you wish to attract and think of the places they congregate. Find out if there is a talks programme and offer it. If you can be referred to the organiser, even better.

In your talk, give some useful hints, but don’t give away the whole shop. If that talk is seen to be valuable, you will be invited to give it all over the place. In other words, someone who comes to one talk, will want you to give the same talk somewhere else.

Sometimes you don’t even have to give the talk. I’ve picked up business more than once in situations where someone else has been speaking. It’s what I have said afterwards when responding to people discussing the subject in small groups during the networking session that has resulted in the business! Cheeky eh? If nothing else, this is very good market research to find out what resonates with people.

In your question you talk about people you met who were ‘too early or too late’. Why not ask them for referrals too?

When you have gained some experience in networking and such, you will have a much clearer idea of what people are thinking and saying at the point where they don’t know about you, but you would like to talk to them.

That’s the time to start writing your blog, or putting helpful articles on your web site. Or, even writing articles for someone else…

Remember, what counts in the first place is when people feel that you understand where they are. What you have to offer is for later.

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Malcolm is the Founding Director of 12boxes Limited. 12boxes is a conversational approach to getting clients to recognise the real value of consulting and other high-value complex services. More information at www.12boxes.com/tc.

Contact Malcolm with your views, questions or suggestions at malcolm@12boxes.com or follow his on Twitter - twitter.com/malcolm12boxes.

© Malcolm Sleath 2012. All rights reserved.