coaching coders on the terms and basics of direct sales
DESCRIPTION
Instinctually, we all do sell, in our personal and professional lives. You sold your merits to win your partner, date, or spouse. You sold yourself to get a job. All members of a technology startup are selling in a way, through hustle, and sheer will. But sales is a science and an art, and people can be coached. Some are better than others, but at least you should understand the basics, the vocabulary, the process, and what can work. Coders, in particular, have probably not held a position where they are paid a living wage to find and close deals - i.e., get a customer to pay you money. Coders may have participated in a deal, but it's dramatically different once you're in the game full-time. This presentation, which I offer as a conference call or in person style, outlines what I learned, as a computer science major and 'coder' before getting into direct sales several years ago. Even if you do not end up in a sales career, learning the language is helpful, and makes you credible with your management and sales colleagues. The knowledge can even position you to 'fake it til you make it' and earn a seat at the table, if you choose to switch careers. Good luck, and good selling. MarkTRANSCRIPT
Selling for Codersby Mark Milligan
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Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
Mission
Teach the basics of Tech Enterprise Sales no question is stupid goal to make you sell ‘smart’
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Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
About Mark MilliganDigital marketing software seller at IBM 15+ years direct sales experience 6 startups & IBM and Sybase/SAP CS degree / using Rails now From Virginia, moved to ATX August
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http://about.me/markmilligan
Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
Topics To Cover
Sales Terminology Prospect Pro-gress Close
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Why Sell?Money Flex schedule Meet new people Travel Support / scale your start-up
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Negatives to SellingGet measured - daily Chair kicked, fired Competitive - not a big team sport Emotional / drama Travel Lack of respect Not comfortable
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TerminologyAccounts ( Fortune500, Inc. ) Contacts ( Steve Smith, CIO ) Activities ( 4/5/13, Onsite demo ) Opportunities ( $500k, Widget abc, 8/1, 40%, Validated, S. Smith, R. Jones, TCO preso )
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Accounts
The company, government or non-profit you want to buy your product
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Contacts
People who are employed by the Account Get their title, email, phone, address
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Activities
Events involving your Contacts and Opportunities Email, phone call, conference call, meeting, proposal sent, demo, etc.
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Opportunities
The potential revenue from an Account buying your product THE MOST IMPORTANT DATA TO CAPTURE, UPDATE AND REPORT ON Opportunities make up your Pipeline
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Why Opportunities?
Lets you, investors measure revenue progress and success Easy, automated way to collect data Reality check versus where you think you should be
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Pipeline
All potential opportunities For a given period of time What’s my Q1, 1st Half, Full Year pipeline?
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Forecast
Opportunities you think will close For a given period of time What’s my Q1 or 1H forecast? And rank them with probability, or other types like solid, risk, stretch
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Sales StagesDescribes how qualified the opportunity is Lets you rank opportunities Shows progress or lack of progress for opportunities No standards for stages ( i.e., don’t get hung up on naming ; agree on a few )
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ToolsSaaS-based ( Salesforce.com, Netsuite ) On-premise software ( Oracle/Siebel, SalesLogix, Goldmine ) The old-fashion way: spreadsheet, or a database Buy a notebook
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Sign up at events.developerforce.com/signup
Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
Prospecting
It’s a numbers game - most leads or prospects, won’t lead to a sale ... NOW Warm ( marketing ) and cold ( target accounts ) Multiple attempts and regular Don’t take it personal
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Bad prospects for now
Going through re-org, merger New CIO Other project taking priority and resources PUT YOURSELF in their shoes
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Cold - Getting ContactsConference lists Google / LinkedIn searches, by job title, product & account ( VP IT, Hadoop, FortuneABC, Inc. ) Jigsaw, iProfile ( paid access ) Learn email structure ( first initial + last name, first name . last name ) Google HQ switchboard number
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Sign up at events.developerforce.com/signup
Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
Cold - Contact Methods
Email Phone / voice mail Mail ( brochure, t-shirt ) Social media ( LinkedIn ) - be careful
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Pro-gress
The deliberate process of moving opportunities down or out of the pipeline/funnel You can’t move a mountain by yourself The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
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Update v. Pro-gression
‘Waiting on IT Director to commit to nth demo’ v. ‘Invite his worker-bees to a local tech event’ ‘Cold call another LOB contact about same project’
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Types of BuyersEarly Adopter
This person sees major competitive advantage in buying a new technology
Everyone Else This person sees risk in a new technology; will only buy when other companies have bought the same product.
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Early Adopter
Can be a person or an Account If person, often someone w/ a personal agenda - to make a name for themselves Look for articles quoting them or speaking at conferences
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See MoresContact asks to ‘see more’ information about your product Often does not have authority to buy or approve Can be a sign the opportunity is not qualified DO NOT think that helping See Mores is pro-gressing
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Very Important Top Officer (VITO)
The top person who can make a decision/approve Keep it simple - they don’t do details or jargon -WHY? Talk business value ‘my software can save FortuneABC $3m / year’
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http://www.vitoselling.com/ Tony Perinello
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People Buy From People They Like
Cliche, but true Not just you, your company How to get liked?
Have EMPATHY Do what you say Earn trust
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DEMOs‘They want them’ oh See mores... They do check off a box / don’t close Get something in return
‘We’ll demo if the VP attends’ ‘If demo goes well, will you submit budget request’ USE AS A QUALIFYING EVENT
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Sales Teams
Inside Sales Direct Sales Pre-Sales Engineer Post-Sales Support
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Inside Sales
Cold call and respond to leads By phone and email If they get a live voice, try and get call / meeting for direct sales rep They fill the pipeline
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http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/11/the-trend-that-is-changing-sales/ !Harvard Business Review on Inside Sales growth
Copyright 2013-2014 Mark Milligan
Direct SalesYou get ‘face-time’ with Accounts and contacts Are tagged with pre-sales technical / product experts Your job is to pro-gress and close opportunities Good direct sellers also PROSPECT
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Pre-Sales
Make or break a company Experts on the product Present and demo Do Proof-of-Concepts...
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Proof-of-Concepts
Treat them like Demos - only if necessary Get something in return Limit scope - limit even more Necessary if competitive Use as qualifying events
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Partners
You get out what you put in Partners sell for sellers they like Empathy Can be icing on the cake
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Compensation
Base pay + Variable compensation Types of Comp Plans
Target incentive & % of quota Eat what you kill
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% of Quota
Quota is $1m revenue Target incentive if quota achieved = $100k Close $500k - rep gets $50k 500/1000=50% x $100k = $50k
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Eat What You Kill
Still have quota - to judge you 8% of every closed opportunity ( an example ) Close $500k - rep gets $40k $500k x 8% = $40k
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ClosingConvert an opportunity into a signed order and contract Cliche but true - most sellers do not ask for the order Lean In / Pressure - whatever you call it - most times, sellers have to push things along Understand the steps to close
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Example StepsYour formal quote Purchase order ( request ) PO approval Legal reviews/changes your license or usage agreement Point: Your buyer saying ‘Yes’ does not mean ‘Done deal’ anytime soon
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LingoGoose egg Sand bag What are you calling? Hope is not a strategy Sc$#wed the pooch Punt
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