All work & no play

Entrepreneur, August, 2002 by Mark Henricks

TARGETED MAILINGS AND RESEARCH ARE IN. CLIENT GOLF OUTINGS ARE OUT. IF YOU EXPECT TO SELL IN TODAY'S ECONOMY, YOU NEED TO STOP WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME.

For Chad McClennan, the only thing that's changed about selling is everything. Compared to a year or two ago, says the 35-year old. Chicago entrepreneur, leads are harder to get, and fewer turn into prospects. It takes more time to turn those prospects into customers, and, if they buy at all, it's usually for different reasons than in the past. He's paying his salespeople differently--while hiring more of them--and investing more in training, supervision and technology to support sales.

"We've changed organizationally and technically, and we've changed the sales process and compensation," says the president and CEO of The Customer Group, a 25-person customer service consulting firm. "And we're beginning to see results."

McClennan's sales experience reflects the changes sales experts and entrepreneurs have seen sweeping through selling in recent months. New developments have ranged from the emergence of savvier but less patient customers to the availability of more but sometimes less qualified candidates for sales jobs. Overriding everything is a profound change in the ability of many customers to buy in the manner and amount they used to.

"Our current and potential customers are saying to us 'Right now, we're not doing any business. We're waiting to see how our numbers are going to look,'" says Pat Cavanaugh, CEO of Cavanaugh, a 44-person promotional products firm in Pittsburgh. "It's a holding pattern."

Out With the Old

Though the recession may be behind us, its effects can still be felt. Clearly, selling in a recovery economy is not the same as selling during the thriving economy of a few years ago.

Things have changed, but entrepreneurs must still find new ways to sell. McClennan said his list of valid prospects doubled during the first three months of the year. Cavanaugh, 35, who was named the country's top salesman-CEO by a trade magazine last year, expects to continue a growth track that's increased sales 4,000 percent over the firm's past seven years.

How are they doing it? They're not doing what they did a while back. They're not wasting prospects' time with chitchat. They're not looking for easy, quick closes. They're not cold-calling. They're not selling solely on price. They're not just peddling products and services. And, above all, they're not waiting one minute for buyers to come to them.

"We were getting a lot of business through word-of-mouth," recalls McClennan, who started his company in 1999. "There was such a great demand for consulting services from businesses feeling the need to be competitive, but now supply outpaces the demand. So we're doing e-mail campaigns, we're doing targeted mailings. We never had to do that before."

Today, sales is heavy on marketing, customer insight and systematic selling, and light on taking orders, taking clients to lunch and taking breaks. "It's not as easy to get orders," says Atlanta sales consultant T.K. Kieran. "You must create demand instead of just fulfill demand."

What's in It for Me?

Creating and fulfilling demand these days starts with changing your sales strategy. It's not enough to be the cheapest, not enough to be newest, not enough to be fanciest, not enough to be an interesting idea. Customers are looking for solutions to problems, and those solutions have to relate to cutting costs or increasing profits.

"If it can't make you money or save you money, I wouldn't bother trying to sell it," says Blair Singer, a Zephyr Cove, Nevada, sales consultant and author of Sales Dogs (Warner). "Because that's where people are."

If salespeople present products and services in that light, they have to know how their customers generate sales and profits. And that's the second major shift in sales: Now salespeople must understand customers in a way that was optional a year or two ago. "People don't have the time to hear what you have to offer," says Cavanaugh. "People want to hear, 'Here are your needs, here's the solution.'"

To get insight into solutions, salespeople have to study customers thoroughly before they even meet them. Cavanaugh directs his people to scan company Web sites, read corporate annual reports, and talk to competitors in the industry so they can get a feel for prospects' issues. McClennan assigns employees to interrogate non-sales contacts in organizations where he hopes to get sales. "They ask questions about challenges they're facing today and what initiatives they have underway," he says.

The need for knowledge is exacerbated as customers seek greater oversight on spending, salespeople must sell to higher-level managers now more than ever before. Senior executives have less time to spend listening to salespeople, and it takes salespeople longer to get a chance to be listened to. That means every presentation is more valuable, and it's more important not to fumble it. "The first meeting you're in," says Cavanaugh, "you'd better have options for them."