Ed Sim, VC, is really “hitting some nails on the head” this month in his blog.  I saw another great post from him on selling IT to the financial services sector.  Ed isolated four strategies for selling IT to major financial institutions:

1. Enter through the CIO (if you are lucky enough to have a CIO as a board member or friend)
2. Come in through a larger partner (Ed notes this often takes more work than actually selling to the end client!)
3. Enter from the bottom up (offering free downloads and evaluation copies of software etc. to the “worker bees”, this takes time to build a “ground swell” of support)
4. Go to revenue generating groups with money and buying power (avoid the IT department and go in through business players)

I have had the greatest success with strategy #4.  In the financial services industry IT can be used for business advantage and so business executives are increasingly considering how technology can give them an edge.  Savvy CIO’s are also increasingly aware of the business impact and opportunity presented by any technology they consider purchasing.

As a result of these changes in customer buying patterns, technology companies are increasingly (if they have not already) adjusting their messaging and sales training to sell business solutions not technology products.

Which IT sales strategies have worked best for you in the past?  What shifts in buying patterns do you see today?

We spend a great deal of time honing our value propositions and marketing collateral so they project a positive image of our company. But all that can be undermined in 10 seconds if the sales person (or supporting team members) who turns up to the sales meeting looks scruffy and unprofessional.

(Research shows 67% of a first impression is made even before you open your mouth to speak and it takes 17 subsequent encounters to undo the effects of a negative first impression.)

So here are some tips from my friend Sharon Kornstein of Image Design LLC, an image consultant, on how to best package yourself:

Knowing your best colors and most flattering styles is important. Some of us look better in the cool colors – blues, reds and grays. Others look better in the earth tones – browns, greens and gold. It depends on your hair color and the undertones in your skin. But knowing what is most flattering on you is only half the equation. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what effect we’re wearing has on the people we come in contact with? Here’s a quick guide:

• Blue: Honesty, Trustworthiness, Organized.
• Gray: Powerful, Business-like, Serious.
• Brown: Friendly, Warm, Approachable.
• Black: Authoritative, Elegant, Assertive.
• Red: Exciting, Confident, Passionate.

Color is a significant component of what we present to the outside world, but other areas to consider when assessing your wardrobe are clothing styles, patterns and accessories.  Some tips to consider:

• Pinstripes do make you look taller and slimmer, providing they’re the right width for your body type.
• Darker colors worn as one part of an outfit make that part of the body seem smaller (note the popularity of black pants).
• Accessories should always be at the same level of dress or casualness as the outfit i.e. no rubber-soled shoes with a business suit, no short-sleeved dress shirts with a tie and no small dressy handbags in the office.
• Buy clothing in mix and match patterns to increase their functionality
  
• Remember that hair is an accessory, and if it’s long or fussy tone down everything else.
  
• Make sure your clothes fit and that they’re the right size. Clothing that’s too large will make your look heavier as will clothing that’s too small.
  
• Dress for the level where you want to be, not for where you currently are.

So if you want to fully package your offering in 2006 keep the messenger in mind too!

I saw this post from Ed Sim that succinctly sums up some basic principles for running sales meetings.

I want to point this post out because it was written from the buyer’s perspective.  Ed is a VC. His post is a set of guidelines to help technology firms when pitching to him for investment. However, the rules he sets out apply equally to when you are selling your technology to IT buyers.  I have paraphrased his rules below and added some of my own commentary.

Notice the repeated theme of engaging your prospect in a conversation not being a “talking head”.  Successful sales meetings should be discussions, with the prospect doing 70-80% of the talking.  If you leave a sales meeting having done most of the talking, then you will be lucky to ever from that prospect again.

Basic Guidelines for a Sales Meeting

1. Be flexible: have an agenda but listen to your audience and guide the conversation from their reactions
2. Have a well-honed elevator pitch (you usually need this to get the meeting in the first place)
3. The Slide Deck: make it short and sweet
4. Listen and ask questions: have a conversation!
5. The Demo: have proof that your solution works and have plans to deal with the inevitable glitches that occur with demos
6. Next steps: never forget to ask about the next steps, You cannot move a sale forward without next steps.
7. Pre-Meeting Research: research the individual and the firm before the meeting – so you can ask intelligent questions

Ed’s post is written by a buyer of technology who by his own account has experienced many poor sales presentations.  Follow the simple rules above and you can stand out from 80% of your competition.

How many emails did you get this week?  How many hand-written notes or letters did you receive?

I suspect most people have no idea what the answer is to question #1 since the number is so large.  I suspect the answer to question #2 is zero but no greater than one.

We are all grappling with breaking through the “marketing noise” today but as more and more of this noise moves into electronic media, like email and (yes) blogs, there is an opportunity opening up.  It’s the opportunity of old fashioned media like letters, note cards and faxes.

Here’s the story of purportedly the world’s greatest sales man from the Guerilla Marketing for Consultants blog.  The secret to the world’s greatest sales man was that he sent lots of postcards!  And here’s a recent success story from a small business owner who used hand-written notes to prospect, from the Duct Tape Marketing blog, he generated ten leads from twenty hand-written notes!

So if you want to break through the noise out there and connect with new people or keep-in-touch with existing contacts, it just might be time to pick up your old fountain pen…

There seems to be a fair bit of confusion on how to effectively run a sales call (meeting).  A couple of years ago my partner, John Orvos, introduced me to a very simple format for running sales meetings that I now use every time I am in front of a prospect.  The format is:

• Introduction
• Purpose
• Needs discovery

There a few stages after “needs discovery” to take you to the ultimate close but I usually find in selling complex solutions that these stages have to be tackled in subsequent meetings.  Therefore for the first meeting all I need to remember are the three points above.

Introduction
The introductory phase of the meeting should be pretty short with most prospects (at least in the North East corridor).  This section involves some small talk to warm up (two minutes literally in New York!) and a very brief reminder of what your company does and what your prospect does.  This section should be kept brief because it not that important.

Purpose
Once the initial introduction is complete you need to state the purpose for the meeting.  “As I understand it we are meeting today to discuss…XYZ…Is that correct?”  Usually the prospect will just say “Yes”

The reason stating the purpose of the meeting is important is that it naturally gives you control of the meeting. In ninety percent of meetings it will allow you to start asking questions rather than have the prospect bombard you with questions that are often designed to find weaknesses and risks in your offering.

Needs Discovery
Once you have taken control of the meeting you can naturally slip into asking questions to unearth the needs of the prospect.  The correct questions to ask are another large subject altogether. In fact, enough to fill a book! And The book on this subject is Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling. (I can cover some of the basics on these questions in a future post).

So the next time you go on a sales call remember to state the purpose for the meeting.  It will get you off the “back foot”…which those who play cricket know is a good thing.