Questions that Sell

by Paul Cherry

  In a recent LinkedIn Survey, 19% of respondents said health insurance was the primary driving factor in taking, leaving, or keeping a job. I am contacting you to share some ideas on how you can select and customize the most cost effective plan that will continue to attract and retain your top talent. What’s your availability Monday after 11:00 a.m. for me to give you a call?

  I am writing to you because I came across an article (see attached document) on ________ website. The article cited a study comparing the sales practices of various building-products manufacturers, and found that working through real-estate agents is proving to be especially effective.

  We are currently working with several building-products manufacturers who are trying this approach. As a result of our efforts, our clients are reporting on average a 15 percent increase in sales. I’d like to discuss their results with you. I’ll be visiting a client in your area next Thursday. How about I stop by your office around 10:00 a.m.?

  Email Templates

  Here are some templates to use in constructing your educational questions for email.

  I am writing to you because I recently read an article in __________ that I thought would be of interest to you. The article claimed __________. Is this something you are concerned about? If so, we have some answers for you.

  I have attached an article I thought would be informative for you. The article states, “__________.” I think that this [trend/legislation/demographic] provides an opportunity for your business. Are you interested in learning about some ideas that would take advantage of this opportunity? If so, you can reach me at __________ .

  CAN-SPAM and Email

  The federal CAN-SPAM Act imposes certain requirements that you need to observe for prospecting emails. Many people assume that these requirements only apply to bulk email campaigns, but in fact they apply to any commercial email. CAN-SPAM excludes what are known as “transactional or relationship” emails—for example, an email advising a current customer that their order has shipped—but if the primary intent of the email is to promote or sell something, the rules apply. Fortunately, those rules are fairly simple, and they won’t prevent you from sending the kinds of respectful, thoughtful emails we’ve described in this chapter.

  Here are the main requirements, according to the Federal Trade Commission. If you’re not sure your emails are in compliance, check with your marketing department:

  1.Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information—including the originating domain name and email address—must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.

  2.Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.

  3.Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.

  4.Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

  5.Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.

  6.Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least thirty days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within ten business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

  7.Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

  Some Final Considerations

  Here are some additional ways to make voice mail and email more effective:

  Don’t send generic messages. They won’t help you get business and will probably hurt you. Make sure your emails are specific, personable, and have a call to action.

  Don’t expect a reply. Most prospects won’t respond. That’s okay. The real value is that you’ve exposed them to your message, so your follow-up call will have some context. Go ahead and suggest that the prospect call you—it communicates that you believe in the value of what you sell—but let them know that if they don’t call you within a specified time frame, that you’ll take the initiative and call them.

  Be persistent. When prospecting, it takes an average of eight to ten touch points—some type of communication—to connect with a prospect. Most salespeople give up way before that. Be one of the few who sticks to a rigorous follow-up plan.

  Change your message when you follow up. The worst voice mails and emails are the “checking in” ones: “I’m following up on my previous message,” or “I’m just checking in to make sure you got my last email/ voice mail,” or “I thought I’d touch base again.” These add no value to the prospect. Instead, offer something new: a new story, a compelling question, a brief success story, a different reason to buy. After all, your previous attempt may have missed the mark. Focus on a new motivation or pain point.

  Use postal mail to stand out. Mail an article, handwrite some notes, or use a highlighter or a sticky note to demonstrate this information is specifically for the prospect. You’ll make a greater impact, and there’s much less chance an assistant will trash it. Then follow up with a phone call and an email.

  Engage assistants. If you are calling on C-suite executives—presidents, owners, CEOs or VPs, for example—many will have an executive assistant. Don’t view them as obstacles; view them as people who can amplify your message. They sit in on executive meetings, manage their bosses’ calendars, and understand the organization—in some cases, better than their bosses. Call on them and ask for their help. Give them the same respect you’d give their bosses.

  Think beyond nine to five. Many prospects look at their emails 24/7. You may be more likely to get a response off hours when the contact is catching up on emails, especially during the weekend. If you’re calling—especially a high-level decisionmaker—the best time to call is often before 8:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m.—when the receptionists are not screening calls and they’re not likely to be in meetings. Most automated systems have a directory and give out the extension that you can make note of when you try again.

  CHAPTER

  21

  Your Very Best Prospects

  Using Referral Questions to Build Your Own Pipeline

  DESPITE ALL THE new ideas floating around on how to find prospects—for example, social media, email blasting, Internet databases—referrals are still the most effective strategy. In fact, in a technology-enabled world, they’re more important than ever.

  Thin
k about it: Technology is supposed to keep us all connected, but it’s actually made it harder than ever to reach prospects. They don’t answer their phones. They don’t return our calls. They don’t respond to our emails.

  Technology has made outreach ridiculously cheap, but the result is that prospects are bombarded by sales and marketing folks trying to get their attention. Prospects tune these messages out. They’re more cynical, cautious, and distrustful than ever. With so many salespeople clamoring for their attention, they keep hearing the same pitch again and again. Even if there is some potential value buried in their inbox, buyers don’t have the time or energy to dig it out. Their biggest problem is how to manage the onslaught.

  That’s why trust is the number-one factor in doing business today. When a customer gives you the name of a colleague or friend, they’re entrusting you with something very precious: their own business relationships. They need to believe that you won’t make a fool of them, and that you won’t put those relationships in jeopardy in any way. Of course they must trust you to be professional and courteous. But that’s not enough. They also must trust that you will potentially add value to the person they’ve referred to you.

  Why Don’t Salespeople Ask for Referrals?

  Given the power of referrals, I’m always amazed at how few salespeople ask for them consistently.

  Too often salespeople wait for the perfect time to ask for referrals. It’s too early in the relationship. Or it’s too late. Or we just sent an invoice. Or we’re about to send an invoice. Or the account will be in better shape next month.

  Whether your focus is on managing accounts or prospecting, every salesperson should always be looking for new business. And that means always asking for referrals.

  The real problem isn’t timing. It’s fear.

  Salespeople are afraid that if they ask, the customer will say something like this: “No, I can’t think of anyone right now.” Or, “It’s a little early. Let’s wait and see how this project turns out.” Or, “I really don’t give out my contacts.” Or they’re afraid of what the customer isn’t saying, but might be thinking: “What if you harass or annoy my contacts and they come back and ask me why I gave them your name?” Or, “Are you kidding me? I would never recommend you.” Or, “If I give you other contacts and you get their business, then I’ll get less attention.”

  These anxieties really come down to fear of rejection. It’s hard enough to be rejected by a prospect. It’s far worse to think about rejection from an established customer. So your mind tends to catastrophize. You wonder if you’ve earned the right to ask for a referral. Or if you are doing a good enough job. Or if you’ll be seen as trying to exploit your current relationship. Or if the relationship isn’t as solid as you think.

  Ultimately, we hesitate to ask for referral when we don’t believe that we’re creating enough value.

  Imagine that your job is to go around handing out hundred-dollar bills. You’ve just given one to your customer. Would you feel awkward asking, “Do you know anyone else who could use a hundred bucks?” Would your customer hesitate to give you names? Of course not.

  Well, isn’t that what you’re doing when you ask for a referral? Presumably, you’ve created a lot more than a hundred dollars’ worth of value for your customer. So if you believe in your own value proposition, why wouldn’t you ask for a referral? And why wouldn’t your contact give you one?

  Some salespeople have the opposite problem. They think they’ve delivered so much value that they shouldn’t have to ask for a referral. “If I’m doing a good job, my work will speak for itself,” they tell themselves. “My customer will sing my praises and all I have to do is wait for the phone to ring.” But even when customers love you, that usually doesn’t happen. Nor should it. It’s not our customers’ job to drum up new business for us. We have to take the initiative and ask for referrals.

  How to Ask for a Referral

  Assuming you’ve established that you can deliver value, the ask goes something like this:

  “Who are two or three individuals that you admire and respect in your [company, department, division, engineering society, association, buyers co-op, church community, etc.] who might want to benefit from [increasing their sales, reducing costs, saving time, eliminating risks, gaining a competitive edge, or whatever benefit you deliver to your customers]?”

  It sounds simple enough. But there are two key elements to keep in mind:

  1.Narrow it down. Ask about specific groups or individuals within their network, and only ask for a few names at most. If you ask, “Is there anybody you can think of who can use our services?” your contacts have to work way too hard. They have to flip through their mental contact list looking for a fit. Most likely you’ll get, “I can’t think of anyone,” or “I’ll get back to you.”

  Instead, imagine a question like this: “XYZ Industries has been on my prospect list for a long time. I know you worked there at one time. Is there anyone there who might be willing to direct me to the right person to talk to?” This focused approach makes it easier for your customer to help you. She only needs to focus on XYZ Industries.

  Another benefit of a narrow focus is that it allows you to ask for referrals more than once. If you ask the “is there anyone you know” question over and over, your buyer will eventually get impatient. But not if you’re asking about XYZ Industries this month, the Chamber of Commerce next month, and ABC Corp the month after that.

  2.Don’t just ask about potential buyers. You’ll notice that I said “individuals that you admire or respect.” If you limit yourself to “buyers,” you increase the odds that your contact will draw a blank. Similarly, in the XYZ example, your customer doesn’t need to think of someone who might buy from you. Any contact will do. You can take it from there.

  When your customer gives you one or more names, use the questioning techniques we’ve discussed in earlier chapters to learn more. For example: “So what is it about Allison that you admire and respect?” Or, “Can you tell me something about Joe that I should know before I talk to him?” You get valuable insight into your customer’s relationship with this person. And you have a great icebreaker when you connect with Allison or Joe.

  Who to Ask

  There’s no reason to limit yourself to customers when you ask for a referral. You can also ask:

  Prospects who said no. Obviously, you can’t expect to get a referral from a prospect who’s blown you off. But if you’ve established some dialogue, only to learn that the timing isn’t right, or the budget isn’t there, or the fit isn’t good, the prospect may be willing to point you in a better direction. And there’s no harm in asking. You might say something like this: “I appreciate you being forthright with me and I’m sorry we can’t assist you at this time. So let me ask you—who are two or three individuals that you admire and respect who might benefit from . . . ?”

  Noncompeting companies. If you meet people in a related but noncompeting company—especially salespeople—they can be a rich source of referrals. For example, if you’re at an industry networking event, don’t limit yourself to looking for potential customers. Look for people who serve the same customers as you, but sell something different. Be prepared to give as well as get; if you want them to share their contacts, you’ll have to share yours. Otherwise the same rules apply: Be specific to make it easier for the other person to help you. For example: “Have you had any luck calling on Company _____________ ? Can you give me a name? I can’t get past the receptionist.”

  Family, friends, etc. Some salespeople are reluctant to mix business with family or friends. That’s understandable. But referrals are something different. You’re not asking your personal contacts to buy from you or even recommend you. You’re simply asking them to help you identify potential leads. These connections can be especially powerful because they’re outside of your business network, so they’re less likely to lead you to the “usual suspects.”

  Former customers and less-than-satisfied cu
stomers. Don’t rule out former customers, or even current customers where things haven’t always gone smoothly. As with prospects who’ve said no, they may recognize that what you sell may be a better fit for someone else.

  Mavens, gurus, and influencers. Sometimes your best referral source isn’t a customer or prospect, but someone who influences customers and prospects. For example, if there’s a professor who’s a recognized expert in your field, or a consultant who’s worked with the top companies in your industry, that’s a relationship you want to cultivate. Winning referrals from these sources is a long-term project because their reputation is their stock in trade. So they will be very judicious in whom they’re willing to refer. The key is showing that you really can create unique value for their constituencies—that you will be an asset to their reputation, not a liability. Often, the best way to approach them is to ask for their advice and counsel. To find them, ask existing customers: “Whose opinion do you respect?”

  Whether working with existing customers or other referral sources, be sure to reassure them if you sense any hesitation about giving you names. You might say, “I’ll simply see if I can help them out. If they’re all taken care of, I’ll be on my way.” And, of course, be sure to honor that promise. Word will get back.

  Approaching the Referral

  Ideally, your referral source will make an introduction for you. But you can’t always count on it. If you’re going in cold, your opening statement might go something like this:

  Salesperson: Hi, Allison. My name is _______ and I work for ______. Tom Higgins suggested I reach out to you. I’ve been working with Tom to help get his company’s products into international markets, and he thought you might see some benefit in a similar program.