Back to Basics in Selling

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>> Garrett: Hi, my name is Garrett Turando assumed spelling with Selling Power TV today we talk about a very important subject the basics of selling. We have a terrific expert, Brett Wallace assumed spelling he is the sales leader of New Business with Forrester Research, welcome Brett.

>> Brett: Thank you Garrett it's great to be here again.

>> Garrett: Tell me what are the basics of selling? There are so many people that say, I know the basics teach me the advanced stuff.

>> Brett: Well I like to refer to this as B to B, alright, a time to get back to the basics and I think a great quote that sums it up is said by Brian Tracy assumed spelling, "Sales is really the transfer of enthusiasm and energy across the prospect." It's really the transfer of ownership.

>> Garrett: Right

>> Brett: When I look at the basics I look at sales process wise, how are we spending our time, how are we getting the attention of power executives, how are we building vision and building value and building champions and how are we bargaining to advance that sale and close?

>> Garrett: So, let's talk about the sales process, what is the basic sales process that you follow at Forrester?

>> Brett: The basic sales process, I would say, goes back to the basics, attention, interest, decision, action. We try to align our sales process around milestone steps that really generate attention at the senior most level. At Forrester we are selling to a very senior buyer, typically in a VP or C level and we're also trying to sell a content service. So in our world we're trying to generate a lot of interest, understand and help that buyer understand where the benefit is and then generate action based on that.

>> Garrett: Okay, how do you engage the C level decision maker? How do you get their attention?

>> Brett: The way that we've looked at it is a very strategic action we've used companies like Basho Technologies, which really say, how are you getting access to power, how are you getting interest of senior level decision makers who may get 500 emails or so a day. What we're doing is we will essentially look at the major impact that business is going through in terms of technology or marketing and we'll generate short, concise, respectful messages whether they're email or voicemail.

>> Garrett: How many words?

>> Brett: We're talking 2 sentences, 3 sentences max, and we are showing them exactly what is the purpose, what is the benefit and then what is the request, and that's a very key component.

>> Garrett: If you were to sell me what would you send in the email?

>> Brett: Well I might say something, you know, based on the research I've done on your next sales 2 point 0 conference it's my understanding that you are launching a conference around the future of sales 2 point 0 and how professionals like myself can generate more new business.

>> Garrett: Okay

>> Brett: Based on that conference it's also my understanding that you're looking at distinguishing sales 2 point 0 from CRM in traditional technologies.

>> Garrett: Right

>> Brett: Well here at Forrester we've looked at that and we have a new book called Groundswell which came out this year that really looks at the future of sales 2 point 0 technologies and what does it mean for publishers of content and what does it mean for media organizations?

>> Garrett: What's your request?

>> Brett: My request is when's a good time to speak with you about how we can help support your business?

>> Garrett: First you start with the purpose, then benefit then the request it makes total sense.

>> Brett: It makes sense and it generates a lot of interest and it goes right to the action.

>> Garrett: Okay, now you're in the coaching role you hear sales people about their, you know, deal progress and you find out they missed one of the steps. Where do they drop the ball most making the request, right?

>> Brett: They absolutely do, they back down from asking for what they want. You know it's interesting I did a poll of my top players today via SurveyMonkey and I asked them, what is one piece of advice that you would give to other sales professionals in today's environment and they said, asking for what they want. In terms of the messaging some sales professionals can really cloud up they use a lot of powerful messaging and it's really unclear what they really want.

>> Garrett: Right

>> Brett: So I think asking in a succinct and respectful way, what do you want is it a referral, is it a meeting, is it an order.

>> Garrett: Right

>> Brett: Being clear about that and asking in an open-ended way resonates with buyers.

>> Garrett: Right

>> Brett: Selling is not so much about telling but about asking the right questions at the right time.

>> Brett: That's absolutely correct. And I also think it's a little bit about story telling because people remember stories and if there's a way that we can weave in food for thought on how we're helping other companies with our products and services whether it be sales 2 0 or other areas I think that's also an interesting way to weave in questions and some stories.

>> Garrett: So stories about their customers, story about how they helped the customer win?

>> Brett: It could be stories about their big customers; it could be stories about how we've helped peers of theirs. If we're talking to a Mitsui Bank how have we helped Bank of Tokyo or how have we helped other large banking organizations going through what Mitsui might be going through at this time.

>> Garrett: Give me the story of Forrester; give me your elevator pitch on how you package Forrester into a story.

>> Brett: Well Forrester is an interesting company; in 5 simple words our mission is to make leaders more successful in their roles that's very critical in today's world because uncertainly in our world drives the need for research.

>> Garrett: That's a claim, what's the story?

>> Brett: A great example would be a company along the lines of Prudential Insurance who's using us to really understand what is the future IT strategic plan on how they should be aligning to the business. They have an essentialized IT organization with many CIO's and they came on board as our client to really understand how can they build in Forrester's advice to set better strategic plans.

>> Garrett: Insight in this age translates into money.

>> Brett: That's absolutely correct.

>> Garrett: I want to thank you Brett. And tune in tomorrow Brett and I will discuss what is sales 2 point 0 and how can it help you win?

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