Of Silent Salespeople and Fleas in the Ear

6 tips against stagnating sales processes

Every salesperson knows the situation – we did everything right in the preliminary work. We generally exercise due diligence during new customer acquisition (here are the most important tips on this), set up our campaigns with existing customers in a coordinated manner, and stay consistently on the ball.

Nevertheless: nothing is moving forward. You follow up, and the responses are unspecific, lapidary statements like: No decision has been made yet. The boss is still thinking about it. Currently, we have to take care of trade fair XY.

Now it gets tricky. You do not want to alienate the customer and strain their nerves with constant follow-ups, but at the same time, you cannot risk losing them to a more active competitor. What to do?

Here are a few tips to accelerate such cases:

1. Get in touch anyway.

Do not worry and let them hear from you. In both new acquisition and follow-ups, the first email / the first meeting is rarely successful. In new acquisition via email, 80% of initial emails receive no response at all. And when following up on quotes, the first follow-up email leads to no reaction in just over 70% of cases. The second one then gives you a 30% chance of success. Conclusion: Those who give up too quickly lose! Be determined, let the customer know that you are serious. The prerequisite for this is that you qualify your leads well and therefore know that there is actually a need and you are not wasting the time invested.

2. Make it personal.

If you have inhibitions about asking via email yet again “Is there anything new?” then you have good reasons. Very few people like to be reminded of unfinished business. It gives them the feeling of being behind, of having missed something. You know from your own experience how unpleasant that can be – but it doesn’t have to be!

Because as soon as you build a personal connection, you trigger positive emotions every time you get in touch. The follow-up becomes a side issue, and the personal contact becomes the main content – that is a small but enormously important difference that we want to discuss using an example:

The most important contact person for your sales opportunity had postponed all decisions until after their return. You noted this date, as many of your colleagues do. What do you think most of them send for an email on that day?
Not like this: A standard template. Depending on how large the company is, this might even be sent by someone from the secretarial office who is not personally known to the customer. Then customers receive follow-up emails like this:

Dear Customer,
A few days ago, you received a quote from us.
We would be very pleased to receive a brief feedback.
For prompt processing, we ask you to check the appropriate answer:
_____ the quote is perfect, we are happy to order herewith.
_____ the quote meets our expectations. As soon as we know how this project will proceed, we will get back to you.
_____ unfortunately, the project will not take place. I will be happy to get back to you for future inquiries.
_____ the quote does not fit our requirements. You are welcome to contact me so that we can find a solution together.

Sincerely,
Company XY

Honestly: Would you like to reply to such an email? How would you feel: valued, well-advised, or treated like just another number? And as a salesperson, how do you see a customer to whom you send such an email? No – that’s no fun, we agree on that!

Therefore, get creative and make it personal. Take time to think about what this contact person likes to do, what you last talked about, and what might interest them.
Better like this: They put you off last time until after their sailing holiday? Great, there’s your hook:

Dear Mr. Mustermann,
We recently agreed to touch base again after your holiday. Did you have favorable winds and good weather? I would love to book a sailing trip myself right now, but before that, we should discuss the outstanding quote XY. Early afternoon on Wednesday or Thursday would be convenient for me; can I reach you at one of those times, say at 3 PM?

This way you create a good mood and present your counterpart with a choice – however, it is not about whether they want to speak with you, but when. This is a popular, well-known, yet very effective trick.

3. Use your silent salesperson!

Silent salespeople are valuable employees. They are always there, never become intrusive, do not lose patience even after the umpteenth consultation, never take a holiday, and cause no ongoing costs.

Who are they? In stationary retail, they appear in many ways: as displays, posters, menus, billboards… In the service sector, this role falls to the quote. It stays with the customer when the sales talk is over. It represents you until the purchase decision: Your quote can sell – if you only let it.

In many companies, the quote is a preliminary stage to the delivery note and invoice, which is true in the logic of ERP software. That’s why it looks exactly the same: article numbers, quantities, prices. Unfortunately, this does not do justice to the sales process and flagrantly neglects the phase in which the customer is with an open quote – they have a need, are ready to make a selection, and are considering the purchase of your product. Compared to a restaurant, they would be a guest studying the menu display of your establishment in the showcase with a growling stomach. Will the establishment solve their problem (hunger) and address their requirements (taste, preferences, etc.)?

As a host, it would be crystal clear to us how misplaced the list of ingredients is at this point: 1 slice of veal, 4 dried mushrooms, 55 g long-grain rice, 2 cl cream. Instead, it surely says: Tender veal schnitzel in fine mushroom cream with fragrant basmati.
After all, a restaurant guest is not a chef. Likewise, the customer who needs a software and/or hardware IT solution is not a computer scientist. In rare cases, this may coincide, but even then, they commission us with a solution that they cannot or do not want to produce themselves. And that is exactly why a quote in the IT industry deserves as much attention as a menu.

Design the following elements with due care:

• Item description: Most ERP programs allow for longer item descriptions. Use the text field, enter meaningful texts, and use designations that make it clear what task the respective component has or what problem it solves. You don’t have to be stingy with product praise here either: “reliable, award-winning, stable, solid, bestseller, etc.”
• Intro text: In an intro before the item list (and if that’s not possible, at least in a cover letter), address the customer’s requirements individually. Often it is enough to exchange a few words from the text module: “Here is your quote for the Student Residence XY: secure, stable, and legally compliant WiFi for residents and visitors. You require the following components:”

Afterwards, the item list looks much better.

4. Clothes don’t just make the man.

You should observe this both with your silent salesperson, the quote, and in the personal sales talk: At the end of the quote, the price must not stand there naked.

In human memory, the last thing mentioned always remains strongest. Therefore, be sure to follow the price mention with the benefit that the purchase will provide: “You are investing EUR XY now and will thus have a long-term secure, high-performance solution that makes guests happy and relieves the reception desk.” This way, the customer’s thoughts linger on the benefits, and the likelihood that you have to negotiate over the price decreases.

5. Put a flea in your customer’s ear.

Do you like to read, are you a film or video game fan? If so, you surely know the feeling of being completely immersed in a story and forgetting everything else around you. Good stories manage to grab us so much because the human brain does not distinguish between reality and fiction. The same physical reactions are triggered, the same feelings. You can use this circumstance if you get your customer to imagine they have already purchased:

“Let’s assume you were already operating the IACBOX. What would be the most important benefits/features for you?” Or more generally: “What would you appreciate most about it / use most frequently?”

This way, you not only find out what is most valuable to the customer about the offered product, but you also demonstrate it to them as clearly as possible.

We humans get used to conveniences quickly, and what we have once possessed, we do not like to give up again. In this way, you strengthen the desire to buy and increase your closing rate.

6. Never stand still.

You know the Chinese proverb that even the longest journey begins with the first step. But if the journey is to lead to a goal, it is at least as important that one step is always followed by the next. Otherwise, we stand still – which is obviously the case in a stagnating sales process. This can actually only be due to one of the following three factors:

The next step
1. is not defined.
2. is not time-limited.
3. must overcome an obstacle.

In cases 1 and 2, there are relatively simple solutions. Usually, it is omissions by the salesperson that caused the stagnation. Make sure to always have a next step ready, to name it precisely and understandably, and to fix it in time:

Define:

• “Mr. Müller, you will present our quote at the next management meeting. I look forward to the feedback.” (here you are already laying the foundation for fixing the date, see below).
• “Ms. Huber, so you will download our trial version and involve your technical team. Who is responsible for the test?” (here you are simultaneously deepening the customer contact).

Fix in time:

• “(By) when will the meeting take place? Please let me know right away how it went. I’ll be happy to call you.”
• “I will get back to you after the trial period.”

Do not be afraid to ask for an appointment and feedback; do not leave that to the whim of the counterpart. After all, you have provided a quote and addressed the customer’s wishes. Thus, it is absolutely legitimate for you to ask for feedback. If the customer remains vague and does not want to commit to a date, take charge: “You are not meeting until after the holiday season, so in autumn? I’ll be happy to get back to you in early September.” And then note September 1st as the date.

But is the whole thing worth the effort? If you have qualified your customers well, definitely. Because then you only provide quotes when there is actually a need. And then one step after another will bring you closer to your goal and catapult your closing rate to unimagined heights.

And what about case #3? That is the subject of another article, which you can find here.