MARLETING 337 CHAPTER 7 CALL OBJECTIVES 20 points (PRIMARY, MINIMUM, OPTIMISTIC) Your sales manager asked you to identify call objectives for your upcoming sales calls in Pima County

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MARLETING 337 CHAPTER 7 CALL OBJECTIVES 20 points (PRIMARY, MINIMUM, OPTIMISTIC) Your sales manager asked you to identify call objectives for your upcoming sales calls in Pima County. She wants you to focus on prospects identified on the CRM report and written information left by the previous sales representative. For each prospect you need to determine your primary objective, your minimum objective, and an optimistic objective and respond to any issues that might be mentioned by the previous sales representative. REP NOTES EXAMPLE 1. Antler Elementary School (K-5) – this school has been a customer for the past three years and their orders have varied between $8,000 and $11,000. They only use ABC Publishing product in grades 1 and 2. You have a confirmed appointment with the Principal and Reading Specialist. The Reading Specialist has been reluctant to add grades 3 through 5. What are your three objectives? How would you deal with the Reading Specialist’s reluctance to add more grades? 2. Butler Elementary (K-5) – I met the Reading Specialist at a trade show. They are a low performing school and every grade has students reading below grade level. She said that they are not particularly happy with their current program. You have a confirmed appointment. What are your three objectives? 3. Caddo Elementary (K-8) – I tried to see the Principal but the school secretary said he was not available. I left a catalog and product brochure and a note that I would stop the next time I was in the area. I know they have students reading below level and guess they could be a $60,000 account. This would be a cold call. What are your three objectives? How do you plan on getting past the school secretary? 4. Diamond Elementary School (K-5) – I called on the Principal last year and was told they have no money for new products. I saw an article in the newspaper that they received a $100,000 federal grant designed to improve reading scores at grades 1 – 5 ($20,000 for each grade). I tried to get an appointment with the Principal but he referred me to the Reading Specialists. The Reading Specialist said I should just stop by the next time I am in the area. What are your three objectives? If the Reading Specialist is not available what will you do? 5. Eldon Elementary (K – 3) – A teacher requested a sample of the product for his review. My plan is to hand deliver the sample directly to the teacher rather than just send him the product. There is no appointment but I did send an email indicating that I would drop off the product. He responded positively but said he is not the final decision maker. What are your three objectives? 6. Field Elementary School (K – 4) – this is a long term customer in a very small school (100 students) located in an upscale community. On the most recent statewide reading tests they only have 10 students reading below level. The Principal loves to talk and I spent over an hour on my last visit. You have a confirmed appointment. What are your three objectives? The previous Rep did not think there was any real potential to grow the business but the Principal’s wife is also a Principal in another school district and you have not been able to get an appointment to see her. What would you do? 7. Grant Elementary School (K – 5) – This school is currently trying out our reading program in two grades (this pilot program is at no cost to the school). This call is with the Principal and Reading Specialist and is a follow-up to a training I did with the two pilot teachers. My revenue potential is really low and could be close to $100,000 if they use our product at every grade level. During the last meeting I could not get a fix on who was actually going to make the decision. I also know that they are piloting a competitive product. What are your three objectives? ili < > ?? antoniogunemiZSRF ? S SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS CHAPTER ARE Why should salespeople plan their sales calls? What precall information is needed about the individual prospect and the prospect's organization? How can this information be obtained? What is involved in setting call objectives? I Should more than one objective be set for each call? How can appointments be made effectively and efficiently? Page 175 PROFILE "I believe that having a thorough understanding of a prospect or customer can be the difference between success and failure for a call or presentation. Mike Godsoe, Motio, Inc. ili ?? < > “I believe that having a thorough understanding of a prospect or customer can be the difference between success and failure for a call or presentation. Mike Godsoe, Motio, Inc. Courtesy of Mike Godsoe My name is Mike Godsoe and I graduated from Liberty University in 2011 with a BS and studied Professional Selling and Sales Management under Dr. Ken Brunson. The course gave me exposure to practical concepts and disciplines that I have used every day in my career in B2B technology sales. Lead management, precall planning, sales methodology, and selling to different personalities were all concepts I learned through the Professional Selling and Sales Management program. While selling enterprise software, I have needed to sell to multiple stakeholders who have different personality types and interests in the value that my software solutions offer. Having a formal education in sales during my undergrad years gave me a strong foundation to communicate value to each stakeholder and has helped me progress quickly in my career. Effective preparation has been an important part of my career progress from undergrad to now. There's no such thing as being too prepared for a call or presentation in sales. From my perspective, I am about to walk into a room full of buyers and ask them to give me a considerable amount of their budget to help them improve their business. They need to trust that I know what I'm doing and what I am telling them is true. As a representative of my company, if I look unprepared in the sales process, often the first experience a prospect has with a potential vendor, then they may feel uncomfortable about their experience after they sign on the dotted line. There were times when I created individual profiles of each member of the prospect's executive team and distributed it to my presentation team, so we knew how to communicate effectively. Sales is a competitive profession and the more information I can find about the individuals that lead a company, the better positioned I am to win. I believe that having a thorough understanding of a prospect or customer can be the difference between success and failure for a call or presentation. What does this client or prospect care about on a professional and personal level? What is happening in their business or in their industry that may create challenges in the business that I can help solve? I believe that the profession of sales is a profession of problem solving, so the more I know about the potential problems an individual, team, or entire company is facing, the better I can position my III < > ?? Q Sales is a competitive profession and the more information I can find about the individuals that lead a company, the better positioned I am to win. I believe that having a thorough understanding of a prospect or customer can be the difference between success and failure for a call or presentation. What does this client or prospect care about on a professional and personal level? What is happening in their business or in their industry that may create challenges in the business that I can help solve? I believe that the profession of sales is a profession of problem solving, so the more I know about the potential problems an individual, team, or entire company is facing, the better I can position my company as a solution. I have had customers who I discovered were experiencing business challenges during my precall planning, so I was able to modify my outreach to relational communication instead of transactional. While competitors were going in for the sale, precall planning helped me create a competitive edge by developing a relationship. Since precall planning can help create a competitive edge, I must choose reliable sources. Social media and information logged into the CRM are the first tools I use to find out information about a client or prospect; however, they are not the only tools. CRM data will help me get an understanding of how my company has engaged with a person in the past. Social media platforms can help identify the personal and professional interests that a person has and can help build immediate rapport with the client or prospect. Within the first few seconds of talking with a new client or prospect my goal is to make them like me, because they're more likely to continue engaging with someone they like than “one more sales rep." Precall research helps me build that rapport within the first few seconds of the call, and then allows me to shift into preplanned questions about their business that were developed from company research. When possible, I also ask the salespeople of partner companies who may have worked with my prospect. If the partner company is already doing business with my prospect, then they can offer invaluable insight into the personalities and politics that drive my prospect's organization. I believe that precall planning also needs to include research into competitors that may be talking to the same prospect. Most deals are not split between two vendors. One sales rep is going to get a high-five for bringing in the deal that became the quarterly press release, and the other rep is going to read that press release in their newsfeed. Planning before every call and presentation can help me win. A good source for competitive information is a few clients who left my competitor to use my products and services. I will ask them, “What do you believe we do better than our competitors?” It's a professional question, and clients will usually give a professional answer that is full of insight. I love being a professional caleanerson Lomnete every day for other people's trust Spending time researching my = < > ?? I Q A) WHY PLAN THE SALES CALL? Successful salespeople know that advance planning of the sales call is essential to achieve goals in selling. The salesperson should remember that the buyer's time is valuable. Without planning the sales call, a salesperson may cover material in which the buyer has no interest, strike off into areas that veer from what the buyer needs to hear, or provide a poor demonstration. However, with careful planning, the salesperson more likely will not only obtain commitment but also win the buyer's respect and confidence, as Building Partnerships 7.1 describes. Page 177 BUILDING Partnerships 7.1 PLANNING FOR YOUR SALES CALL PAYS OFF One day, years ago, my daughter, Jen, came in on a cold winter upper Minnesota day and asked me to make her a cup of hot cocoa. As I started to do so, I stopped to gaze at the ingredients on the back of the container of brand-name cocoa. I didn't want to put all of those unnatural ingredients into my daughter's cup of cocoa! So I spent all of that winter, and much of the next spring, perfecting my own cocoa mix. Understand that I was a meteorologist at the time and didn't know a lot about food manufacturing. But I did know what I liked, so I kept experimenting. I finally came up with a new, simple all-natural cocoa mix. My daughter, Jen, and my son, Mike, loved it. So did most of my friends who tried it. About six years ago, I had the audacity to reach out to Upper Lakes Foods, a local family-owned regional distributor, to see if I could pitch my hot cocoa product to them. The presentation was doomed from the beginning, but they could not have been nicer to me! In preparing the water for the dozen or so people who would be trying it, I filled the cups with water from the hot water dispenser, only to realize once I got into the room, that the water was NOT HOT! So when I went to mix it, it was cold, and the cocoa powder would not dissolve. It was a comedy of errors. Mind you, I was still making the mix in a church kitchen at that time and could never have made the quantity they needed. That is one example of how a meteorologist had no business trying to create a food company. iii Q ?? water from the hot water dispenser, only to realize once I got into the room, that the water was NOT HOT! So when I went to mix it, it was cold, and the cocoa powder would not dissolve. It was a comedy of errors. Mind you, I was still making the mix in a church kitchen at that time and could never have made the quantity they needed. That is one example of how a meteorologist had no business trying to create a food company. But, fast-forward to this week, and we had another chance. This time I made sure there was plenty of hot water, even bringing my own hot water dispenser. It was a hit, and we were just picked up by our first distributor! Upper Lakes Foods is a wonderful company. The minute you walk in the door, they treat you like family, and I could not be more proud to be joining their line of quality products. The moral of the story: Prepare, prepare, prepare before going into a sales presentation! Source: Dean Packingham, owner, Mike & Jen's, www.mikeandjens.com/. Used with permission. Salespeople should also remember the value of their own time. Proper planning helps them meet their call objectives efficiently and effectively. They then have more time to make additional calls, conduct research on customers, and complete other necessary tasks. The result is better territory management. (See Chapter 15 for more discussion of time and territory management.) Of course planning must fit into the salesperson's goals for the account. Some accounts have greater strategic importance and thus require more planning. (See Chapter 13 for a discussion of the types of relationships that a seller can have with a buyer and Chapter 15 about classifying accounts and prospects.) Accounts with which a firm is partnering obviously need the most planning, whereas smaller accounts may warrant less planning. Also, salespeople must not make planning an end in itself and a way to avoid actually making calls. Exhibit 7.1 shows how the concepts in this chapter are related. Gathering information about the prospect and firm Setting objectives for the call Making an appointment Exhibit 7.1 A Flow Diagram of the Planning Process = < > O Aa v OBTAINING PRECALL INFORMATION Often the difference between making and not making a sale depends on the amount of homework the salesperson does before making a call. The more information the salesperson has about the prospect, the higher the probability of meeting the prospect's needs and developing a long-term relationship. However, the salesperson must be aware of the costs involved in collecting information. At some point, the time and effort put into collecting information become greater than the benefits obtained. And of course, for some cold calls, there may be little if any precall information collected. < > ?? s q ? 3 Gathering information from individuals in the prospect's firm before making a call on the prospect is often a wise investment of time. Fuse/Getty Images Clearly a salesperson who has been calling regularly on a prospect or customer may not need to collect a lot of Page 178 additional information; notes from prior calls may be adequate to prepare for the sales call. The same holds true for a new salesperson if the previous one kept good records. But beware! In this fast-paced world, things are changing every day. Consider the following dialogue: SALESPERSON [walking up to the receptionist of one of his best customers]: Hi, Jim. I'm here to see Toby. I have some information I promised to share with her about our new manufacturing process. She was pretty excited about seeing it! RECEPTIONIST [looking tired]: Sorry, Jeff. Toby was transferred last week to our Toronto plant. Haven't you heard about our latest reorganization? Just went into effect two weeks ago. I'm still trying to figure it out. It seems that all our engineering people are moving to the Toronto site. The key: Don't assume that your knowledge about the account is automatically up-to-date. It is important to know about both the prospect as an individual and his or her firm. The sections that follow examine these areas more closely. Of course, the salesperson should keep in mind privacy concerns, as related in Chapter 2. LEARNING ABOUT THE PROSPECT AS AN INDIVIDUAL AND ABOUT THE PROSPECT'S ORGANIZATION Exhibit 7.2 lists information that salespeople might learn about a prospect or a customer, while Exhibit 7.3 lists information that can be learned about the customer's organization. Some of this can be discovered during the planning phase and some during relationship development. Exhibit 7.2 Information a Salesperson Can Learn about the Prospect/Customer as an Individual Page 179 iii < > ?? { G (1) LEARNING ABOUT THE PROSPECT AS AN INDIVIDUAL AND ABOUT THE PROSPECT'S ORGANIZATION Exhibit 7.2 lists information that salespeople might learn about a prospect or a customer, while Exhibit 7-3 lists information that can be learned about the customer's organization. Some of this can be discovered during the planning phase and some during relationship development. Exhibit 7.2 Information a Salesperson Can Learn about the Prospect/Customer as an Individual Page 179 ethics Personal (Some of This Information Can Be Confidential) • Name (including pronunciation). • Education. • Career aspirations. • Interests (such as hobbies) and disinterests. • Social style (driver or another category—see Chapter 5). Attitudes • Toward salespeople, your company, your product. Relationships • Formal reporting relationships. • Important reference groups and group norms. • Bonds that the prospect may have with other salespeople. Evaluation of Products/Services I- < > ?? 6 ? Attitudes • Toward salespeople, your company, your product. Relationships • Formal reporting relationships. • Important reference groups and group norms. • Bonds that the prospect may have with other salespeople. Evaluation of Products/Services • Product attributes that are important. • Product evaluation process (see Chapter 3 for details). Exhibit 7.3 Information a Salesperson Can Learn about the Prospect/Customer's Organization Demographics Type of organization (manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing). • Size; number of locations. • Products and services offered. • Financial position and its future. • Overall culture of the organization (risk averse, highest ethical standards, forward thinking, early adopter). The Prospect's Customers Types (consumers, retailers, wholesalers). • Benefits they seek from the prospect's products and services. The Prospect's Competitors • Who they are. ili < > ?? 6 q The Prospect's Customers Types (consumers, retailers, wholesalers). • Benefits they seek from the prospect's products and services. The Prospect's Competitors • Who they are. • How they differ in their business approaches. • Prospect's strategic position in the industry (dominant, strong, weak). Historical Buying Patterns • Amount purchased in the product category. • Sole supplier or multiple suppliers. Why? • Reason for buying from present suppliers. • Level of satisfaction with suppliers. • Reasons for any dissatisfaction with suppliers or products currently purchased. Current Buying Situation Type of buying process (new task, straight rebuy, or modified rebuy-see Chapter 3). • Strengths and weaknesses of potential competitors. People Involved in the Purchase Decision • How they fit into the formal and informal organizational structure. • Their roles in this decision (gatekeeper, influencer, or the like). • Who is most influential. • Any influent...