This question has come up a number of times as sales reps consider changing jobs. Phrased differently you could ask:

Who owns prospects’ info, their digital data, the relationship?

Sales reps or employers?

Different questions that can be answered by an interesting sales strategy.  A strategy for remaining ethical and legal when reps change employers.

Before we unveil this strategy let’s set the stage.

The Scenario

If you sell, you will be changing employers. It’s not uncommon to change employers three to four times in two years, especially during these recessionary years. We have all become temps.

You’re hired because of your sales skills, and/or industry expertise and/or knowledge within a particular geographic territory.

However, you also bring relationships with prospects and their contact info. Many times you also bring:

• Size of the sale opportunity in dollars or units
• Insight into wants, needs & challenges
• Incumbent’s strengths & weaknesses

When you started work at your company you filled up their CRM with your prospect info. You input digitally (Outlook into CSV files) and manually (stacks of business cards) into their database.

Over the next few months you filled in more info to your original prospects and added new ones.

Now your firm’s CRM holds a mash-up of prospect info: some you seeded along with some you’ve added as a new employee.

The Warning Signs

It’s now six months or a year later. You’ve worked diligently and produced the expected results.

However, something’s not quite right.

Your firm has just let go the other two sales reps even though their numbers weren’t bad.

Executive management is skirting your direct questions about the company’s health and viability.

Suddenly your access is blocked to all records in the CRM that you didn’t bring in when you started. You can no longer see prospect data that was there before you, or that is now part of your expanded territory (remember the other two reps have been let go).

Getting Ready to Jump

The signals are there. It’s time to look for new employment – a more stable and trusting work place.

You begin looking quietly for your next landing pad. You check LinkedIn, contact industry-specific recruiters and industry friends, such as consultants, suppliers, and trusted competitors.

The Question is “Your Prospect Info, or Theirs?”

We’re talking about the information here – not the digital data sitting in your firm’s CRM. Of course you DO NOT export that data because it’s unethical and possibly illegal.

But the question is about the prospect info you started with prior to your current employment.

Who owns that info? Who owns the relationship?

When you leave your current employer, can you use that information at your next job?

Is there a way to ethically and legally use your wealth of contact info when you move on to a new job?

Social Media to the Rescue

The answer to these questions is social media.

When your prospects participate in social media, you get to go there with them – if they connect with you.

In social media databases your contacts maintain their own information (sometimes this is called crowdsourcing).

The answer to who owns your prospects’ contact info is – they do, your prospects.

However, once they give you access either through LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, etc. you now have an evergreen prospect database.

A prospect database that is not proprietary to your employer. A database that’s kept current without your effort, which is a huge plus.

Your Job @ Every Company You Work For

At last, here’s the sales strategy mentioned earlier.

Connect with every prospect and customer you meet through LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, etc.

You won’t connect with all of them. Some are not open networkers (LIONs in LikedIn) and some only give access to those they know well.

But this makes it even more important to reach out and make that first sales contact as soon as possible.  This is contact by phone, email, snail mail, and in person.

Once contacted, immediately request to connect via their social media of choice.

It’s part of your sales job to develop relationships. Participating and engaging prospects and customers in social media is part of that process.

Connecting with prospects via social media should be your primary sales goal from day one at your current employer.  Social media provides platforms for building relationships over time.

When the Time Comes

Now, when you realize its time to move on to another employer, you notify your network of prospects through social media.

And there they are, right with you.

In the end, sales reps own the relationships with prospects, while employers own the digital data in their databases.

Prospects’ information is owned by the prospects’ themselves. Social media provides the access to those they authorize.

In Summary: Your #1 Sales Job

Is to connect via social media with as many prospects as possible, as quickly as possible.

For the good of your company. For the good of your prospect relationships. For the good of your future.

In response to last week’s post, Your Biggest Sales Challenges in 2012, Bill indicated “If you can’t speed up the sales cycle, how do you win more when contracts are put out to bid?”

When the sales cycle can’t be shortened, the game is to win the bid competition. Here’s what we’ll take a look at:

• The Unwritten Rules of Bidding
• Don’t Get Stuck on Price
• Selling Value isn’t Enough
• In the Bidding Game, Proposals are the Moment of Truth
• Help Buyers Make Better Buys
• Writing Proposal Responses as Buyers’ Assistants

The Unwritten Rules of Bidding

Bid competitions have written and unwritten rules.

All bidders must follow buyers’ requirements in their Request for Proposal (RFP), or be threatened with disqualification for non compliance. These are the written rules of bid competitions.

However, there’s more to winning bids than being RFP compliant. There are unwritten rules of bid competitions. These rules are the true determinants to which bidders win contracts. Here are a few unwritten rules to keep in mind:

* Buyers’ buy on emotion and justify with fact (but show the facts too)

* Buyers question bidders’ claims (so include outside evidence)

* Buyers don’t have time to read every word (format content for skimming @ 700 words per minute)

* To buyers, the difference between bidders’ offerings appears small (contrary to what bidders think)

* Buyers have options: you, another bidder, or a no-decision to stay put (give compelling reasons to change)

* Price is important but often it’s decision criteria #3 (contrary to what bidders think)

* Many buyers seek the lowest-priced “qualified” bid (“qualified” could be the highest priced bid)

* Buyers compare pricing against competing bids – they don’t select bids at 1.5x – 2x market pricing

Don’t Get Stuck on Price

Price without value is meaningless.  As a decision criteria, price is typically weighted third or lower among the reasons for selecting a bidder. Bid competitions are won and lost on how well value is communicated in proposals.

Value is what buyers get for what they paid. The skill in writing proposals is to connect the impact on the buyer’s business your service will have. How will your proposed offering:

• Increase buyers’ firm’s revenue?
• Improve profitability?
• Enhance their brand reputation?

Selling Value isn’t Enough

In bid competitions informing buyers of competitive advantages or differentiators doesn’t win. Buyers are over-informed with bidders’ information. Tons of information doesn’t make it. If it did, whichever bidder submitted the most pages would win. Sometimes seems like that doesn’t it?

Successful bidders persuade buyers to take action, to select their proposal and receive the contract. Success comes when bidders present compelling business-case justifications. Persuasion in sales proposals  is all that counts. Here’s a quick 3 point checklist to see if your sales proposal is persuasive.

In the Bidding Game, Proposals are the Moment of Truth

Responding to a request for proposal (RFP) is the make, or break moment in the sales cycle.

Get it right and you’re in for the next step; signed contract or short-list presentations.

Getting it anything other than right isn’t worth contemplating. Think of all that lost time and effort, and now you’re out of the running until next time the contract goes out to bid. How many years away is that?

Help Buyers Make Better Buys

Change your point of view (POV). In bid competitions your wins increase when you change your POV from seller to buyer’s assistant.

Once your thinking from the buyers’ side, how can you help them?

Help them make better buys. A better buy is defined as:

• Good fit of scope to needs (not over ordering)
• Achieving desired outcomes (accomplishing what’s proposed)
• Ease of supplier management (easy to use, high visibility)
• Good value for spend (receiving fair value for investment)
• Spend within budget (disciplined financial management)

Better is Not “Best”

We can only help buyers make better buys with what we have access to, which is our service offering and knowledge of buyers’ situations, their opportunities, and the future (you can see into the future, right?)

Since we can’t know everything about a buyer’s Universe,  we can’t presume to know the best.

Therefore we help buyers make a better buy than they could without us.

Writing Proposal Responses as Buyers’ Assistants

When answering RFPs, first think what buyers must struggle with when deciding:

• 45,000 – 150,000 words to fall asleep over (from 3 – 10 proposals)
• A few hurried minutes to read proposals in their already overtaxed day
• Bidders’ self-congratulatory platitudes as “industry leader”, “second to none”, “most advanced”
• Comparing complex, detailed text responses from one proposal to the next, possibly for 10 or more proposals (numbers are easy, text not easy)

Get into your buyer’s shoes and then write your proposal from their perspective. Help them as if you were their assistant and write RFP responses that answer:

• What would buyers want to know about their future supplier?
• What will buyers get from their supplier for the price?
• How will buyers know they’ve got it?
• How easily & effectively can buyers find that in the proposal?
• How will buyers know if claims are true?

The secret sauce for writing winning proposal responses is describing how you will fix buyers’ pains, such as:

• Regulatory non-compliance
• Non-scheduled downtime
• Poor image in their marketplace

Proposal responses will be more persuasive when they describe how you will help buyers make gains, such as:

• Increased end-user productivity
• Higher employee morale & loyalty
• Protecting their business reputation

What’s Missing?

So, that was our answer in several parts and less than 800 words (thanks for commenting Bill, hope this helps).

• What have I missed?
• What do you do that raises your win rate?

Don’t be shy, share with a comment online.

Image by Håkan Dahlström

What do your customers think? What’s important? Challenging?

If you get these answers you sell more, so we ask customers.

But their answers don’t help. They’re simplistic, obvious, ambiguous. Their answers lack the detail to help you understand their needs. They lack insight to help you develop a solution for their problems.

This isn’t derogatory, it’s reality.

When you ask customers how you can help them, or what they need help with, you’re likely to be disappointed. Their answers are not enough – but they are a starting point.

Questioning is an art, not a science, which is why following a set list of questions fails.

You want actionable questions. Questions that will give you something to work from, a base into the consultative sales process (understanding first, then being understood).

I Wanted to Know So I Asked

Stick with me here as we’re moving from “asking good questions” to “helping me help you”.

I was hunting for ideas to research and write about in this blog.

So I asked a group of owners, executives and sales managers what their biggest challenge was for their sales team in 2012.

Their answers were…a starting point, which led to more questions.

I’m still looking for an answer to that original question. I’m still looking for what you want to read about.

But I’m closer to a workable answer because I’ve reframed a few original answers into more actionable questions.

Specifically, these actionable questions will get me closer to understanding what you want to read about regarding sales. But now I need your help.

What is Your Biggest Sales Challenge in 2012?

So now I’m asking you for the biggest sales challenges you face in 2012.

Tell me which one of the questions below you’d like an answer to and I’ll get started researching and writing about the top vote getter.

But pick from the list of questions below because they’re actionable ones. The resulting articles will hopefully be more specific and useful.

Please let me know your choice in a comment here.

 1) If you can’t speed up the sales cycle, how do you win more when contracts are put out to bid?

2) Why should customers’ buying cycle care about your sales cycle?

3) If customers can buy now, why don’t they?

4) What’s wrong with a long sales cycle?

5) How do I define my target profile? (what does my perfect customer look like?)

6) What are my new business development goals? How do I create them?

7) Where does social media fit in my new business development? Or is it the whole enchilada?

8) How can I identify the decision makers in the buying process?

9) How do I analyze what decision makers’ want?

10) How do I sell to Procurement’s agenda ?

11) How can I influence Procurement prior to the bid process?

Please let me know your choice in a comment here.

Original Answers Leading to Actionable Questions

The answers below spawned the list of actionable questions I’m asking you to choose from. These answers are presented here with permission.

Randall Martin, Vice President Sales and Marketing of Skyline Building Care felt his biggest sales challenge in 2012 is to:

“Decrease the number of days in the sales cycle”.

Dan Wachtler, President and CEO of IPSA International, Inc.  is facing this 2012 sales challenge:

“What should we know and how should we and shouldn’t we use social media given our demographics.”

Robert Beardsley, Regional Vice President, ABM Security Services is looking at the 2012 challenge of:

“The biggest challenge for any sales person in the service industry these next few years will continue to be the identification of the key decision makers.  There has been a huge shift in the decision making process from front line management to back office procurement. Procurement is now driving the bus while everyone else is more or less going along for the ride.”

Remember, please let me know your choice of your biggest 2012 sales challenge in a comment here.

Image by Kevin Dooley

Your personal brand helps you sell customers what they want and need. Your personal brand is:

• What you stand for
• How you want your customers to perceive you
• The promise you keep with customers

It’s this last definition, “the promise you keep with customers”, that’s the most important. During the sales cycle, which can be years, your personal brand communicates value as much as your offering. Pre-sale you, the sales rep, are the offering. So it’s crucial that your personal sales interactions align “what you do” with “what you say”. Then your personal brand becomes powerful and moves customers to:

• Trust you
• Listen to you
• Value what you say

It won’t matter what you say if your actions don’t match your promises.

Consider Service Quality Research for Your Personal Brand

Customers are drawn to and drool over high quality service. Being a high quality service is much like being a high quality sales rep, so why not use research on service quality to amp up your personal brand?

The fountainhead of research on service quality was first published in “Delivering Quality Service” (affiliate link), by Valerie Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman and Leonard Berry back in 1990.  While the research has progressed since then, this book is still the best source for understanding, and action. One of their findings was to identify the relative importance of 5 service quality dimensions.

In other words, if sales reps get these dimensions right, customers will hand over the keys to their sales receptiveness. Because they’ll have received high quality service, according to what’s important to them.

Here are their five service quality dimensions. Although I’ve added a sales spin to their uses, the five dimensions are from that research. Consider applying them to yourself when pursuing customers for sales – make them part of your personal brand.

#1 RELIABILITY – Just Do It.

Do what you say you’re going to do when you said you were going to do it.

Of the 5 service quality dimensions customers care about this one clocks in at 32%. That means you still must pay attention to the other dimensions BUT DO THE MOST HERE.

#2 RESPONSIVENESS – Do It Now.

Respond quickly, promptly, rapidly, immediately, instantly. Waiting a day to return a call or email doesn’t make it. Even if customers are chronically slow in getting back to you, responsiveness is 22% of their service quality assessment. And believe me, they are assessing you as a rep just as if you were a service.

Consider taking the 10-minute challenge on returning emails and voice messages.

#3 ASSURANCE – Know What Your Doing.

Sales reps, though not expected to be experts, must have a working knowledge of customers’ businesses and how their sales offering benefits those businesses. Why else would customers want to talk with you? Assurance is 19% of customers’ assessment – this matters to them.

#4 EMPATHY – Care about Customers as much as the Sale.

Customers can tell if sales reps are in it only for the commission – and they care. So even if the rep does their part flawlessly, they better make sure customers feel they care about more than making the sale. Empathy is 16% of customers’ assessment – no trivial consideration.

#5 TANGIBLES -  Look Sharp.

Even though this is the least important dimension, appearance matters. Just not as much as the other dimensions. I’m sure you all know of sales reps who focus more on looking good than being reliable or responsive. Look good but realize this dimension tallies only 11% of what’s important to customers.

In Summary – The 5 Takeaways

You are your sales brand. Why not be a high quality one? Consider polishing your sales’ interactions across these 5 service quality dimensions. Can’t hurt.

Customers buy solutions that help their companies survive and thrive. They also buy to make their own work day easier and less stressful.

This is the shadow side of customers – they buy for themselves too.

So help them buy. In sales proposals and presentations do more than you’re already doing. Go over the top and detail your implementation and on-going project management.

Do this in addition to how your solution helps their company but make this shadow side hyper-explicit and prominent.

Pitching Hyper-explicit Implementation & Project Management

The beauty of pitching to the shadow side is that it speaks to their companies’ benefits too.

You’re talking about how their company benefits, while knowing the individual is considering how it will personally impact them.

Although you may already being do this, stress it even more in sales proposals and face-to-face presentations – the shadow side of customers’ individual benefits.

Here’s How

This is what will help them sleep better at night. Point out the process, deliverables and methods. Consider the following:

Process Map

Show a simple map of who does what and when. Consider using a map with swim lanes that show when activities are interdependent on others (i.e. when customers’ legal dept must authorize contract changes, or procurement’s change of Statements of Work).

This can be done easily in Microsoft PowerPoint or Excel, or any draw program.

Frequent Status Reporting

Ask customers during discovery what their preferred reporting procedure is. Then make sure the following is detailed in your sales proposals and presentations.

* How they like to receive status updates (i.e. email, phone, web meeting, or in-person)

* How frequent? (i.e. daily, weekly, monthly)

* How in depth? (this will determine the length of time to plan/schedule, i.e. 15 minutes, 1/2 hour, 2 hours, etc.)

* What info they’d like to see? (i.e. schedule completion, cost variance, etc.)

Detailed Project Plan

Create a true project plan, one that has individual tasks underneath summary tasks, identifies owners, start / end dates, duration and other resources needed.

Consider using Microsoft’s Project, which is extremely powerful, or a gantt chart in Excel can work almost as well.

The length and detail of project plan is relative to the anxiety and concern of your customers. The more anxious they are, the more in-depth and detailed your plan should be.

Formal Progress Reviews

Similar to status reporting but these tend to be more quantitative, formal and include higher level customer participants. This shows you’ll be helping alleviate your customers’ on-going fears or concerns about what they’re receiving, and whether they made a good decision by choosing you.

Progress reviews often include:

* Completion of scheduled tasks (% on target)

* Variations to schedule (changes to plan and their rationale, etc.)

* Cost variations ( report overages even if they are unbillable, you don’t want to lose that good-will credit)

How Else Do You Soothe Customers’ Buying Fears?

This is not an exhaustive list but I’ve used all of these successfully many times. What have you used that’s produced the results you want?

Post up your comments here.