In this post I interview Kendra Lee, top selling IT sales rep, author of the best-selling book: Selling Against the Goal and prospect attraction specialist. Kendra is widely accepted for her expertise in using e-mail to attract new prospects and close more business. In this interview Kendra shares where she thinks the sales industry is heading and how sales reps can position themselves to sell more in the New Sales Economy.
CL: What does Sales 2.0 mean to you and how can sales reps benefit from it?
KL: To me Sales 2.0 means more tools to reach prospects, sell, and grow them. It brings improved productivity, high touch, and collaboration. It's all about knowledge and connection that helps you establish and develop trusted advisor relationships with clients and prospects alike. As you engage using Sales 2.0 you propel yourself and your business forward in ways you never imagined possible - until you see it exploding all around you and realize how successful its made you!
CL: You didn't have e-mail as a prospecting tool to become a sales leader at IBM, but you've used it to make KLA Group a top consulting and sales training organization in the high tech market place. Why is e-mail such an effective prospecting tool?
KL: Email wasn't around when I was selling at IBM, so I had to do all my prospecting using the phone, letters and faxes. I had to rely on prospects to call me if I didn't follow-up. It was so slow. Today, in just moments you can get a reply from a prospect and set up a meeting. We've had people email us after our Email PowerProspecting teleseminar and say things like, "I'd never reached this contact and he emailed me right back!" Of course, you need to have a compelling email that catches contacts' attention, but that's not difficult when you're using the latest email prospecting techniques.
CL: Where do you think the sales industry is heading and how will it affect sales reps today and in the future?
KL: We're seeing more remote selling and less travel, leveraging technology where in the past on-site meetings were required. While getting together in person is still highly valuable, it isn't always in the budget - or your prospect's schedule. Sellers need to be confident and adept at using technology to prospect, sell, and manage their clients.
They're discovering that you can establish and grow trusted advisor relationships using technology in lieu of golf outings and lunch. With great tools like www.gotomeeting.com for demos and desktop sharing, it's almost like you're right there. Sharing your LinkedIn profile and twittering helps your clients really get to know you, and feel connected. Of course, PDAs, texting and the phone keep us more in-touch than we were even a few years ago. Your clients like knowing they can reach you when they need you. It's really exciting what we can do with today's connection tools.
CL: What effect do you see social media having on the sales profession and how do you use social media to connect, create more opportunities, and increase your business in the New Sales Economy?
KL: Social media is amazing in the knowledge and connectedness it provides us. It expands our prospect attraction capabilities in a flash.Think about it. We can research our prospects on ZoomInfo.com or Jigsaw.com and in a flash know a tremendous amount about them including their email address to send a prospecting email. We can link on LinkedIn when we get a referral and find out what their references say about them, then tailor our initial discussions. We can share our LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, giving them insight into our capabilities, expertise, and references.
Then there's the whole ability to send prospect attraction emails to your network through any of the social media. The techniques you use for email prospecting work within the social networks, too. Our research has found that different types of people will respond to a social network email than an email in their in-box. This means you can reach more prospects using the same email sent from a different avenue.
There are a whole host of things I recommend to leverage social media in attracting prospects.
To name a few:
- Post events, new articles or links to blog posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & all the groups you belong to.
- Search for info about top prospects you're targeting.
- Regularly update what you're doing with clients in Linked In. You'd be surprised who reads it and how they respond asking to know more.
- If you're using Twitter, post valuable thoughts you have relevant to your target clients. Share what you hear or see with your prospects.
- Include your social media info in your email signature, inviting people in to get to know you.
CL: How will e-mail become increasingly important as a prospecting tool in the future as customers become more adept at screening sales reps?
KL: If you're a seller with a large territory, you need a way to be smart about your prospecting, reaching a larger group of people than traditional cold calling allows. You want those prospects who have a need to come to you instead of trying to find them in a huge list. That's where the term prospect attraction comes from - get them to come to you and ask for help.
Email prospecting allows you to send highly personalized and specific emails to micro-segments. When your email hits a triggering event with the promise of true results and feels personal to the contact, she'll reply. Contacts know you're a seller, but they won't care. You've hit on the issue that's driving them nuts and they'll respond. Bang! A new lead for you.
CL: Can you describe a success story on how a sales rep increased their income through using email prospecting effectively?
KL: Many sellers get frustrated when they can't reach prospects. They've tried cold calling and can't get traction. They secure referrals, but not enough to fill their pipeline. They want to use email, but are stumped at how to find email addresses, or give up because they never seem to get a reply.
One managed services provider was trying in vain to gain access to the owner of a construction company building a new office building. She'd done everything she could think of to reach him, but still got no reply to her calls. She'd even dropped in, but he wasn't around. We worked with her to re-craft her email, reduced the length, changed the wording, incorporated a hot triggering event with results to expect, added a bit of fun and some specific times to meet. The owner responded within the hour! They met the next day and ultimately closed a contract providing managed services to all the businesses in the new building.
Email is a very effective prospecting tool, but just like cold calling, it takes practice. There are specific techniques you want to use to increase your probability of a response. Additionally, you want to be able to leverage an effective email, so you have to know how to successfully apply it to micro-segments.
We have an IT business services client who recently ran a 3-part prospect attraction campaign into a segment of attorneys within a 100 mile radius of their office. They emailed only 50 people, limiting it to a number they felt their rep could follow-up with quickly. At the end of the 9-day campaign the seller had 7 new qualified leads in his funnel. Each lead had responded to them with interest. Cold calling was eliminated and the attorneys welcomed the rep's assistance!
Email prospecting works.
CL: What should sales reps do to brush up on their e-mail prospecting?
KL: People have gotten very aggressive about screening and deleting emails without ever opening them. In 3 seconds they've made a decision. More often than not, sellers hit the delete barrier. It's important to use the latest techniques combined with some of the tried and true to be really successful.
If this is an area you want to brush up on, sign up for our Email PowerProspecting audio conference on July 23, or buy the recording today. There are tons of tips, examples, and take-aways you can copy for your own.
CL: How can people connect with you if they would like to learn more?
KL: Definitely grab some of our many free prospecting and email resources and check out our on-going audio conferences.
Thanks Kendra - awesome stuff!
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Kendra Lee is a top IT seller, prospect attraction specialist, sales advisor and business owner who knows how to shorten time to revenue in innovative ways. She is author of the award winning book Selling Against the Goal and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group helps companies rapidly penetrate and sell to small and medium sized companies. Clients include Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Ingram Micro, and a numerous small and mid-size IT solution providers. To find out more about her, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.773.1285.
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