As the political landscape heats up here in the U.S., I am reminded about a classic sales mistake:  bashing the competition.

As I’m watching the election campaign heat up, I amazed at how many people feel the need to bash the competition in order to build themselves up.  Seriously, you can decide that a certain candidate is not the right choice - but I challenge anyone to find a candidate for president that wasn’t honestly thinking that they were not doing the right thing for the country – even if their method you oppose.  You may decide John McCain is the wrong choice, but regardless, he is a treasure to this country for his service and his drive in making this a better place.  Likewise, you can hate Obama’s need to raise taxes, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t trying to better our country in his own way.  I’m proud to call both men my countrymen – even if I do have an opinion as to who would do a better job.

Likewise, most companies out there are trying to solve problems for customers.  They may be doing it in a different way from you – but most honestly believe in their method and how it will help those customers.  Recognizing your customer’s strengths is key to making your own pitch something that resonates well with your customer.  You need to recognize that your customer often has a difficult choice about what product to select – perhaps putting their own job on the ilne for it.  So, if you can help them with a convincing argument why your product serves them better AND build the argument why the other product doesn’t fit – even though it TOO is a great product – then you are more likely to get the sale.

For example, in a simplistic approach if I were selling you apples and someone else were trying to sell you oranges, I could bash my competition and tell you that my apples are sweet and his oranges are citris, and that citris sucks and causes acid in your stomach.  Or the better pitch might be to say, “While oranges are indeed a great fruit and have amazing benefits like Vitamin C, I know that someone who is as on-the-go like you will appreciate the tremendous benefit that a fruit like an apple can bring such as portability (no need to peel it), cleanliness (no juice running down your arm), and the perfect balance of sweet and nutrition.”   Your prospect knows that you have pluses and minuses, and that your competition has pluses and minuses and when you point out the pluses in your competition, it adds significant credibility to your entire pitch.  Your prospect is going to go through this exercise of weighing the pluses and minuses after you leave – so you are helping him/her by going through it with him/her and planting just what you want them to think about you vs them is a perfect tactic to bring your product to the top.

Perhaps the candidates could try to do more of the same…

UPDATE:  I posted this in the morning and this John McCain ad came out hours later: 
John McCain, are you reading my blog? Well done!

Recently, my boss told me that “I needed to just talk to him straight – and didn’t need to sell him.”  My wife often asks me to stop “selling” her.

Is it possible that after selling for my entire career, that I don’t know how to conduct a transaction that doesn’t involve selling?  Are all of my conversations conducted using my sales skills?

Anyone else have this issue?

While it may seem obvious that you should never vomit on your prospects, its a very common move that sales people make.

No.. I’m not referring to actually spewing your chewed Shakeshack burger onto your customer – but spewing WAY too much information.  

The easiest thing to do in a sales call is to just talk and talk and talk.  Yet – this rarely leads to a sale.  When you are more focused on getting all of your points out, and less on what the customer wants to hear – you are essentially losing lots of opportunities to learn what the customer needs – and responding to that need.

One of my least favorite phrases that a salesperson says is, “Thats a great question and I’m going to answer that later in my presentation…”  This is the sign of a salesperson more concerned about getting all 27 of his points out rather than identifying the needs of THIS customer.  Sales meetings should be ways of identifying how and whether you can solve a problem that they have.  Your product may have hundreds of great things in it – but there may be one small feature which solves such a large pain that its enough to make the sale – and the rest is gravy.  You need to route out and identify that pain and then focus on that feature and identify how to solve that problem.  When the customer asks something, rather than tell them you will tell them about it later – take that opportunity to learn about why they are asking that question and find the problem they are trying to figure out if you solve.

Yes… this will derail your presentation – but you must know your product well enough to allow the customer to take you in any direction they want.  After all, the meeting is about THEM not you.  Take every opportunity to listen to them and close your mouth.  Avoid vomiting.

Another time when salespeople vomit is answering a question.  For example, “Does your product work internationally?”  Wow!  For a vomiter, this is a great chance to spew out 10 minutes on how great the product is internationally.  Whats the right answer?  “Why is that important to you?”  And then sit and learn some more.

I’ve been loving watching the Olympics this past week – which is new for me.  Usually, I’m fairly ho-hum on watching the Olympics, but this year I’ve really enjoyed it.  Not just the Americans, but everyone who is performing and trying their best.  In a discussion about the amazing run of golds by Michael Phelps, someone quoted a business book (they didn’t say which one) that had a quote:  “Words are words, excuses are excuses, but performance is reality”

This is VERY true in sales.  In the end, it doesn’t matter how many words you use, and how many excuses you may have for NOT selling, or getting that meeting, or closing that deal.  In the end, its all about your performance.

While this sounds harsh and cold, its the true reality.  Nobody gets paid, the lights don’t turn on, and the coffee doesn’t brew unless sales makes the deals.   We are the front line, and while it may seem heartless when a sales manager or COO or CEO says, “what have you done for me lately?”   Its the reality in running a business and its all about delivering results. 

If Phelps loses, while many may be disappointed, there are no real consequences.  We, on the front lines of our companies have real consequences from personal to corporate. 

Its all about performance.  It’s a tough place to be, but your company counts on you, and more importantly the employees of your company count on you.  And when you do perform…. you get the rewards.

I also answered this question recently on LinkedIn and thought it made sense to add to the blog.

What is the best way to sell enterprise software?

What do you think are the pros and cons of each of these methods:

1) Promoting Features the client will find advantageous
2) Devising Operational Solutions to solve a business problem
3) Advancing Strategic Enablers to change the way the client does business

Are there appropriate situations for using one method over the others? What alternate approaches might be helpful in facilitating software sales?

My Answer:

“What’s In It For Them” should be the core of any sales strategy.  If you don’t know why the customer needs the product or IF they need the product – you are doomed – or at least leaning dangerously towards an ingenuine sale.  You need to put yourself in their shoes, determine if this is a sale you should make, and then go forward.

I answered this question recently on LinkedIn and thought that my answer spoke directly to some of my recent posts – so I thought I would re-post it here:

See all the other answers here:  http://www.linkedin.com/answers/startups-small-businesses/business-plans/STR_BPL/291019-16177364?browseIdx=1&sik=1218161984007&goback=%2Eama

Wow… I have to say that I never expected to have so many people ask me about my post on not logging into the software.     My wife, in particular, lambasted me in promoting some sort of used car salesman technique as if I’m trying to pull something over on the customer.

I would NEVER promote selling a customer that doesn’t need your product.  I believe that you always sell the right solution to customers – always be genuine.  You first should identify if the customer needs the product.  If he/she does in your eyes, and you honestly feel that you can bring about an improvement in their life/business/etc.  then you can and should continue.

What I’m proposing from that point on, is a technique to get them to understand your point of view on how you can help them understand that best.  My technique is to sell to the value of the product rather that focusing on the features of your product in detail.  (and to be more clear on my never logging into the software post - what I was referring to was that salespeople that have deep understanding of their product can very easily fall back into the feature sale rather than the value sale.  If you have the luxury of using sales engineers to deal with details, then the salesperson is FORCED to sell on value because that is all they know in detail).   

Lets use an example of selling cars, since my wife brought it up…   If we had walked into the dealership and the first thing that we were shown was all the buttons and options on the audio/tv/DVD system, we would have gone running.  The interface is so complex and comprehensive, that it probably would scare most people away.  However, what we were sold on was the value of that system: entertaining the kids on long trips, multiple screens so less fighting because each kid can watch their own thing, an outlet for charging the portable gaming systems, integrated phone, navigation, etc.  Because we bought the value and saw how it could change our lives, we were not focusing on HOW to do it in the interface.  The fact that it is complex is just something we deal with because we want the value that it brings us… and honestly… after 3 months using the system, we have it down pat and its not really as complex as we originally thought.

I hope this clears it up a little more for anyone thinking that I was promoting some sort of ingenuine sale.

Yesterday, I got a call from my mentor.  He happened to be in the city, had a few hours between meetings, and he wanted to grab a cup of coffee.  As luck would have it, I was not too busy, and made the time to go sit down with him.  The experience was so energizing that it reminded me just how valuable having a mentor can be for a salesperson.

Salespeople, almost by definition, are very self-confident and egomaniacs.  You almost have to be – in order to deal with near constant rejection – and determine ways to overcome that rejection and/or move on from that rejection.  But because of that, it can be very difficult for a salesperson to step out of that mind-set, and learn and listen to those that may know more than him/her – or at least have more experience than him/her.

My mentor is someone that I actually hired into the company that I founded.  His role was to help me rebuild sales for our company post 9/11.  I didn’t think that we needed to hire anyone, but the VC’s were insistent that we do an executive search and find someone with serious turn-around experience to ensure that we would have success.  We instantly hit it off, and quickly we were making huge sales strides working on the accounts together.

I had been doing, in my eyes, very well in sales up until that point – with no sales training.  I also had been cultivating the accounts for years, and didn’t think that I needed anyone to help me push them over the finish line.  Its likely that I could have made those sales alone, but am I EVER greatful that the VC’s insisted on that hire.  The amount of REAL sales knowledge that I have gained through his insight is something that I never could have gained had I just  figured it out as I went along – as I had been.

The story here, is that I believe I am a natural salesperson.  I was able to sell my company idea to investors.  I was able to sell my product, from my small start-up, to huge corporations that based mission critical projects on it:  core delivery business, year 2000 migrations, etc.  However, my sales technique and strategy were never toned.  Once I melded my mind with the processes of a true professional life-time salesperson, I was able to truly accellerate and understand the value of sales.

Much of what I blog about are lessons that I heard from him and have embraced as my own and moved forward.  I email, talk, or meet with my mentor several times a year – and its very refreshing to get his perspective on challenges I am facing at that time – and to hear about his sales challenges and brainstorm together.

The message here is that while its in a salesperson’s nature to think he can solve everything himself, the fact is that it is very easy to get lost in that.  Look to your mentors, and if you don’t have one… get one..  Co-workers, former bosses, current bosses, relatives: anyone.  In weekly sales meetings, you should be discussing stalled accounts and getting peer and boss feedback on your strategies.  Its the way we all learn.  Resist the urge to be the ever important superstar salesperson that knows how to close everything and ask your mentor(s) for help.  You may be shocked at how much it revs up your sales.

My recent post The Genius Behind Never Logging Into The Software I Was Selling, has generated a great deal of off-line discussion.  I wish much of it was captured in the blog itself – so I’ll try to capture some of it and put it in here.

Certain individuals seemed to miss the point – somehow interpreting what I was saying as promoting a sale that was ingenuine.  In fact, I’m promoting just the opposite.  I’m promoting the fact that what you need to sell is the value of your software, and if YOU understand the value ABOVE the noise of how the software does it – then you will actually be better at finding the proper solution for the customer – and identifying IF they need it at all.

If you can sell the customer on WHY the software makes sense for them, and you’ve spent the time to understand how the software does that, then you can certainly will have an internal champion.  If the customer is “closed” in terms of value – then actually completing the close becomes much easier.  They become your internal sales tool, because THEY will look for ways to overcome the objections.

Here is what I mean:

Sales Scenario 1:  You go on your sales call and show the software and talk about how it can improve processes, and how its so easy to configure, etc.  You get to a screen that is more complicated than he is used to seeing – in fact – all the configuration possibilities scare the customer.  They are there because you are selling a generic product so that’s good – and you are proud of that.  Yet, it scares the customer because your potentially adding complexity they don’t have.  Now, you try to explain why it makes sense overall.  You try to make your case, but in the back of the customer’s mind, he is thinking about the software and how it may cause him pain to get running.

Sales Scenario 2:  You go on your sales call and talk about the value of the software.  What it has done for his/her industry… how it saves money… how it improves processes… testimonials… etc.   You take the time to understand his/her process as it stands today.   You build a trust that you KNOW the industry and that you understand the pain that they understand.  Then you start crafting a better process in his mind – which ultimately maps to your software – but you aren’t showing your software.  Perhaps a small screenshot here and there – but ultimately never logging into the software.

If you’ve done your job right in scenario 2, then the customer is sold ever before you get to log into the software.  You will know this is the case, when they start figuring out the configuration and workarounds of the software once they see it.  Why are they willing to live with workarounds?  Well, they bought into the VALUE.  They know that software can change – and if they are a good customer – you will often change it for them.

My proudest sale is one where I convinced a very large recognizable brand to use my software for their core business.  They were going to put software from the company that I started in front of their entire ability to generate revenue.  I’m proud of it because the first time they saw the software was when I was in final contract negotiations.  I sent my VP of Product Development to the tech team while I went to the CIO’s office to close the deal.  They NEVER saw the software short of screenshots.

They bought on VALUE.

Oh and by the way… the project was ENORMOUSLY successful