Pink Buttons

One of the best development managers I worked with always used the phrase "pink button" to describe the inevitable customization that a prospective client wanted in a software solution. It was our code to label the one little enhancement that could swing a sale in our favor. Our working relationship was great because he understood that clients wanted to feel that they could count on our team to deliver the customization that would make the solution their own, and he trusted me to be able to parse the requests from a prospect into a project that was achievable and would also enhance our solution for other clients and prospects.

There are two major pitfalls to pink buttons - not enough and too much.

Not enough is straightforward - it's a take or leave it approach that tells the prospect that your team thinks they know more about their business or are simply unwilling to expend the resources to create a successful relationship.

But too much attention can be a problem as well. It's not enough to take requirements, especially from non-technical decision makers without thoroughly uncovering the need behind the request. Understanding the "why" is critical, because it often leads to more options on the "how" and that means fewer resources to deliver a solution and more opportunity for that solution to be valuable to similar prospects and clients.

Our approach was to take the request, break it down thoroughly and come up with the easiest way to give them a pink button. More often than not, that led to dialogue that built the relationship and made us a trusted partner.

Great Moments in Advertising Part 2

The Chrysler Superbowl Ad is a great example of pure sales - telling the true story that conveys who the company really is. This ad stands out for its authenticity. Add to that a good product and excellent execution and you have the ingredients for big wins.

Transactional Sales - The One Night Stand of Business Relationships

Everyone knows a guy who goes out to a bar and fearlessly hits on every single attractive woman in the place, generally using the same approach and dialogue with only minor tweaks. He is an annoying and shallow guy, but inevitably he ends up meeting someone almost every time he goes out.

No one would say this guy is building relationships, and yet if you think about the traditional sales approach of "it's a numbers game, you have to make lots of calls/visits/dials" it really is the same thing. The salesperson is told to engage in the exact same behavior - keep repeating the same pitch to enough people and you will win business.

And these same companies wonder why they don't build business relationships.

The choice is simple and mutually exclusive. You either hire people who care about their reputation and focus on long term relationships, or you hire people who only care about notching wins and will never build successful strategic long-term relationships.

Great Moments in Advertising

I love this commercial - take a great product, understand it's appeal to the client, and communicate that story honestly and effectively. Add a soundtrack from the greatest band of all time and some hilarious cameos and it is a fantastic example of what sales should be.

Sales Training - The Lowest Common Denominator

The cornerstone of pure sales is a quality I call "desire for benevolent influence"

Unfortunately because it is hard to quantify it doesn't go into the hiring process and there are a lot of salespeople out there that are lacking it.

Instead, most firms look for people that represent the stereotype of sales - people who are pushy, outspoken, or my personal favorite - "motivated by money"

Once companies have their sales force in place, they have to train them. Combine the large number of salespeople out there with the lack of a fundamental agreement on what makes a successful salesperson and you have a natural result; a large and diverse industry selling every kind of training for sales.

I have been exposed to a number of sales training programs and have found one common trait to all of them - they are built to reach the "lowest common denominator" and deliver tools so that anyone can fake empathy and influence. For the most part, they use themes that look a lot like these:

- How to convince people you care about them personally
- How to pretend to be just like your prospect
- Outward appearance is more important than substance
- Train yourself to ignore any message you don't want to receive

All of this is designed to take basically anyone and turn them into a bothersome "salesperson" who simply pushes ahead under the delusion that they can become a jedi master who can bend others to their will using advances selling techniques.

It's a bunch of crap.

I have made some very large sales in my career and I never convinced anyone, especially a large organization to do anything. I simply put in the time and work to thoroughly understand the story behind my company and what made them special and effectively communicated that story to people who I learned (again through time and effort) might have a need for those services.

If you want more successful sales, take the time to find people who understand this.

Selling is about communicating a story, and not everyone is a good storyteller. Teaching everyone in a room to sell is as pointless as trying to teach everyone in a room to be funny. Yes you can develop talent, but there has to be talent there to begin with. Otherwise you waste time and money training at the lowest common denominator and water down the talented while wasting time with the untalented.

Green Eggs and Ham

It's a common gimmick to hand out copies of Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs & Ham" in some sales training. As you may recall, Sam-I-Am represents the prototypical salesman - he is unruffled by any objection and refuses to take no for an answer. All the while, through trains and cars and boxes with foxes Sam-I-Am just plows ahead until finally his prospect yields. The story ends well, as it turns out conveniently that the unnamed prospect loves green eggs and ham and Sam-I-Am is the hero.

Unfortunately, "Green Eggs & Ham" is exactly the kind of take-no-prisoners sales approach that reinforces every negative stereotype of a salesperson. I actually participated in a sales training program with a global information technology firm where the bulk of the agenda was focused on consultative selling (being a pure salesperson who gains trust by serving as a valued source of information), but at the beginning of the day the familiar orange copies of Dr. Seuss's book were handed out to each participant.

As preposterous as it is to think you can build trust as an advisor while at the same time hammering people into submission, many organizations operate under this schizophrenic view. But for the pure salesperson, there is only one path - in order to be credible, you have to be willing to admit to a prospect the strengths and weaknesses of your solution and in order to be seen as a trusted advisor you have to be able to point out strengths in competing solutions that may at times make for a better fit.

Before anyone gets the idea that this about sacrificing dollars at the altar of integrity, let me give you a personal example of how this approach led to a sale of over $100 Million. I was representing a small software company to representatives of a Fortune 100 company that was seeking a strategic vendor that they could acquire. Early in the process as I met with the representatives who were tasked with finding the best vendor to meet this need. From our first conversation I gave them candid feedback on what I viewed as the major strengths and weaknesses of my company and several competitors. Over the course of a couple of months they came to view me as an honest broker in the process. I always maintained that the company I represented was the best fit, but I also acknowledged areas where I felt that other vendors they were considering had a strong offering.

Late in the process the choice came down to two firms, and I got a call from one of the people in charge of the selection process. He confided to me that he believed that we were the best fit but another colleague was leaning towards a competitor. He told me what he perceived as the weaknesses of the other firm and he asked me if I could provide any information supporting his position. I was able to give him honest and accurate information that led to a decision to sign on with my firm and within 6 months acquire the company.

While we may have won the business either way, the fact that I had built credibility as an honest source of information led to the opportunity to see inside the selection process and give information that was used to swing the deal in our favor. That would never have happened if I had followed the Sam-I-Am approach.

Benevolent Influence

There are a lot of approaches taken by companies to find good salespeople, and they tend to reflect a cartoonish view of what a salesperson is - often someone who is pushy and obnoxious, dresses well but pretentiously, and has a very white smile.

I have worked with successful business leaders who make otherwise sophisticated and nuanced judgements when it comes to talent acquisition only to see them predict success for the stereotypical salesperson that they would themselves avoid in any other business or social setting. For every other position on the team, these owners want to find someone who will contribute to the overall success of the business and the team dynamic. But when it comes to sales, the approach can be summed as "Wow, this guy won't stop talking! I bet he's great at pushing people into buying. Hire him immediately, and don't ever allow him into my office or the development area again."

Even at sophisticated sales driven organizations like the major brokerage and investment firms, there is no clear consensus on what the indicators are of a person who will be successful in sales. They simply hire a lot of people and throw them to the lions with little investment or support. Most fail, and the ones who succeed did so because they somehow managed to sell. End of story.

But there really is one clear trait that is always present in a pure salesperson. It is a desire to be a benevolent influence. Ask someone what their favorite restaurant is, and most people will ponder it for a moment and give you one or two names. But there are those people who will first ask something like "for what kind of experience? a celebration? romantic evening?". Next, they will tell you in great detail about a place they have been where they had a great experience, and it sounds just like what you are looking for... in fact, they may recall the name of the bar manager whose card they got while they were there and they will certainly get that to you... and of course, if you are going to be in that area you should definitely stop by such-and-such right around the corner for a quick drink afterwards, etc. etc.

That is the power of benevolent desire to influence someone's choices for their own well being. It is the trademark of the pure salesperson, and it includes all of the elements of a well constructed sales presentation:

1. Qualification / Assessment of need - in order to recommend a restaurant to you, I need to know what you are looking for - is it a place loud and crowded (a great scene) or quiet and romantic?
2. Personalization - I'm going to tell you not about the restaurant, but about the great time I had at the restaurant and why I think you will have a great time there too.
3. Connection / Action - I want to make sure you have a great time so I am going to leverage my contacts and put you in touch with someone there who can be sure that you are well taken care of. Incidentally, this allows me the opportunity to contact you later with this information and tell you again how much I hope you enjoy my recommendation.
4. Follow On - And because I want you to have a great time, and I want you to perceive me as an expert source of advice on where to go, I am going to suggest another place nearby that would also add to your enjoyment.

Not every successful salesperson is a benevolent influencer (unfortunately), but every benevolent influencer is a great salesperson, and the higher you go in size and complexity of sale the more important it is for that core value to be present.