How can Business Partners / Channel Partners start prospecting? [Part 1 of 3]

Introduction

The unfortunate thing about being a Business Partner (BP) or the Channel Partner is that you often get overlooked by the manufacturer and the customer and end up being the 'middle man (or woman)' often trying to balance the two situations.  At the end - most of the time you know you have a better service by virtue of personalization and caring more for the customer as opposed to them being a 'number' treated by the larger companies.  Let me share some of my experiences while working at two BPs / Channel companies (one being The Herjavec Group).

So, when I began my career at these companies, here were some of my questions when I joined them:

• How can you create pipeline from scratch? Who and which company should I call?
• How do I introduce myself?   Where do I begin?
• I’m alone - where do I get the technical help and assistance from if the customer is interested?

I'll try to cover the first point for this posting --->>>

How can create pipeline from scratch?  Who and which company should I call?

When starting out - regardless of what the BPs / Channel Partnerssays - you really want to go after accounts you know you have a shot in.  Many BPs / Channel Partners decide that we are going to go after a certain industry / segment of accounts, etc.  That might be a great method from a strategy perspective, but ultimately - as a prospector that might not fit in with the prospect.  After all - the customers are not concerned with your credentials - they're more concerned on how they can achieve their objectives.  What you really want to do is go after the low hanging fruit first.

At the Herjavec Group - that was me going after accounts in Canada with over 1000 employees as the technology we had could only be afforded by companies of those sizes (so it was approx. 1000 employees equating to $300 Million of annual revenue in 2006-2008).  Try to identify your accounts first - there are many choices in the way you can do it: revenue size, employee count, industry specific, location specific, etc.

If your list has:

Many accounts… (>10+)	Few accounts (<10)
Try to select a handful of accounts, I generally start with 5 accounts and pick the accounts that interest you more over the others - as when it comes time to study them - you are ready.	No need to worry - having a few has it’s advantages over having too many, which is that you can now focus on these accounts rather than being at too many places - and spreading yourself too thin.

How do I introduce myself?  Where do I begin?

So the biggest question I had many years ago was that - do I introduce myself as the manufacturer or the business partner?  Please be careful here and check with the manufacturer if you can introuduce yourself as an extension of their team or not.  I know for a fact that IBM business partners are not allowed to introduce themselves as IBM as it falls outside IBM's jurisdictions.  However, there are some small niche manufacturers that don't have the length, breadth, and presence as IBM - so they maybe comfortable in you introducing yourself as an extension of their company.

If you find out that, the manufacturer doesn't allow you to use their name - don't worry.  Keep your introduction statement very short, try not to say, "Hello, this is  _(name)____ from _(business partner name)___ a premier business partner of _(manufacturer)____ and I wanted to get in touch with you regarding _(product name)_____, etc."  That's too wordy, keep it short and simple by saying, "Hello, this is _(name)____ calling to discuss __(and go straight into the solution)_. 

If the manufacturers allows you to introduce yourself as a manufacturer - then go ahead and begin your intro!  There are times it does help - as the corporate name of a larger company / manufacturer gives you some clout, but most of the time the customer really has no concern on who you are - but go ahead and experiment for yourself.  A word of caution: When you do introduce yourself as the manufacturer - it might get you in a little bit of trouble as if they were to check on you and don’t find you - they might not trust you enough to go ahead and do business with you.  And they can easily find you given the digital age we are in - and if they can’t find you - they might assume you’re not real!

The other thing I tend to do is be very upfront with them - if you found them on Linkedin - try and reference something about them from their profile and weave it in the conversation.  Once, I was researching an account and found a person that I really thought was the right fit - and I called him up with the following starter, “Hi _____, I came across your profile and it got me really intrigued to thinking that since you are involved with ______ and thought that you might be considering _____ as a future step towards your company’s overall growth”.  

When you start a conversation like that from a genuine standpoint, you start a meaningful relationship.  This is the relationship you take with you as you start to nurture the customer.  Also, while doing this they’ll notice that you are being genuine and will continue to talk with you.  Plus your approach - while not taken by many - will keep them more interested in the conversation.

Always make sure that you trust your gut instincts.  If you feel you are connecting to the person - you probably are, if you are not - call it out and make mention of it.  Feel free to say “I apologize, I may not be communicating the information properly on my end - I meant to say ____” - and finish the sentence in the most simplified terms.  Being genuine is what they’ll enjoy and appreciate you for - even if they have no way of taking your call forward - you never know they might not of a way to connect you to the right person / department.  

Good luck and always remember to try and keep the end goal in mind - which is to develop a connection with the customer!

Getting yourself upbeat when Cold-Calling!

Having a bad day in cold-calling / prospecting? Wishing to have a meaningful conversation with someone on how your product / services are helping them overcome challenges faced in their industry?  If you are going through one of those 'down' feelings' - you need a bit of 'time-out therapy'.  I call it 'time-out therapy' because it is a moment of pause to get you out of the cycle of having low energy levels and add a strong dose of feeling 'high'.  

Many of us don't realize that while we are focused and disciplined in our work - we lose that sense of contentment - the feeling that you are so happy and satisfied with everything around you, that you can't be more thankful for all the blessings that have bestowed upon you. Might sound crazy - but it works!  If you don’t believe reflect on this - when you are getting service, would you like to receive it from a grumpy expression or one that is beaming ear-to-ear with a smile?  Money is a big driver for salespeople - but we all subconsciously gravitate towards happiness more than money.  I know many will disagree with this statement - but I think suffice to say we all seek inner and outer happiness and probably a big way to achieve it is by money.

How to achieve the expression of happiness / contentment

There are several ways of doing this, here are a few:

• Music - music can lead us feeling happy or giving that high.  It’s kind of like being at a club on Saturday nights where everybody is happy and cheerful
• Go for a walk with someone - might sound bizarre, but going out for a walk with a friend and just talking (or sharing of energy) with each other helps out provided you each encourage one another.  Smokers really benefit from this as each time they go out they recharge themselves.
• Read / watch an interesting article - I always have something as a back-up to motivate me and keep me going, one of my most favorite pieces to watch is Napoleon Hill’s Laws of Success, here is a link to it in case you are interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS9c60wVNSA

Are all these methods the right ones?  No not really, try to find your own ones too.  

I hope I have helped you out in raising your spirits and joyfulness in cold-calling.  Enjoy the moment you are in and try to get back into the groove!

Growing an Effective Pipeline - WORK SMART!

Hi Folks - well it's been a while (actually nearly a year) since I last provided an update - I have been busy with a new job that I began at IBM and haven't had a chance to update my blog.  So, I'll start off on working to towards this:

Replenish your pipeline

It's all coming down to the last wire - it's the end of quarter and every sales rep is worried about how the quarter is going to end.  In the tough North American  economy which grows at a very slow pace sales growth is a hard thing to come by as you are focused on closing.  Too many of us forget to replenish our pipeline so we can ensure continuous sales growth for the future quarters.  

This is easier said than done - but why is that?  Well - a lot has to do with where you are in the economy.  Is your product what I call a mature product in a mature economy?  Or is it a cutting edge product in an emerging economy?  What do they mean?  

Mature vs. Emerging Economy

Well, mature economy is one that would be classified as a developed one averaging growth rates of approximately 1-3% per year whereas an emerging economy would be one that would be getting more than 5% growth per year.   Examples of a mature economy are Canada, United States, Japan, etc.  while an emerging economy would be Indonesia, China, India, etc.

Mature vs. Up-coming Product

What I would call a mature product is one that has a high percentage of saturation or market penetration - your growth for sales in these would be relatively low.  While a cutting edge product would experience higher growth.  Examples of a mature product would be selling cellphones an upcoming product would be a smartphone.  

Why is this important to know?

Well look at the table below -

New pipeline focus	Cutting edge product	Mature product
Emerging market	Low	Medium
Mature market	Medium	High

Once you know which territory you are calling into (mature or emerging) and the category of the product you are selling (cutting edge and mature) - you can then determine the percentage of time you need to devote on prospecting.  Keep this in mind and try to keep yourself focused.

Good luck and all the best in selling / prospecting!

Market Segmentation - Steps to take before Cold-Calling - Tip # 3

Most organizations (if not all) require the use of a CRM tool - be it for monitoring, organizing accounts, keeping notes, etc. I personal think it was the best creation since sliced bread and have used tools ranging from the ever popular Saleforce.com, Sugar CRM, Siebel, ACT!, Upshot.com (yes I am that old - this was probably one of the first CRM's in the early 2000's), Excel (yes some organizations are that archaic!), etc. The one thing I think all of them are missing is a feature to develop a hierarchy of an organization. So at a quick glance/view, you as the key account manager can quickly know where the person is on the chain of decision making, holding the purse strings, influence, etc. Until that gets invented (or may have but I don't know), I have created a formula of my own to help me manage my accounts.

Organizing your contact lists

This is especially great In complex sales as you tend to speak with multiple people and don't know the interrelationships (matrixed organization).  It gets hard to keep track of who reports to who in the hierarchy, and remembering names of the different people in the organization.  I’ve devised a simple technique that’s easy to implement and if looking at your CRM, you can easily identify who each person is.  I’ll give you an example (sorry for the editing):

	1 - CEO
2A - VP of IT	2B - VP of Sales	2C - VP of Marketing
3A - Director of IT	3B - Director of Sales	3C - Director of Marketing
4A - IT Manager	4B - Sales Manager	4C - Marketing Manager
5A - Systems Administrator	5B - Sales Rep	5C - Intern

The number is the hierarchy within the organization and the letter refers to the department they belong in.  It’s a very easy technique that helps in knowing how senior or junior a person is and the relationship in the hierarchy of the whole organization. I've not assigned a letter to a specific department, but you can implement them as you go - if you know of two people in the organization place these tags on them. I'll show you how I place them:

Name Athar Afzal  
Title: 3B - Director of Sales

Note: Always place it in the first part of the title and not their name. Name because if you sent them an email through your CRM it would show the tag. First part of the title as you read from left to right and it becomes easier to see it first.

Summary of Market Segmentation

I thoroughly enjoyed talking about the topic of the week on market segmentation. Yes, there is a lot of work to do before prospecting, but I believe there is great value in doing this to work less and achieve more. Look forward to comments!

Market Segmentation - Steps to take before Cold-Calling - Tip # 2

 How to find and make a targeted account list (FOR FREE!!)

When you begin to work on expanding your sales pipeline - the first sales technique to implement is to know who to call as this can save you a number of hours of calling and achieving nothing. There are a number of sources you can use to get your lists for free, but before you start - please make sure you have completed the previous tip of identifying your target market.  

Having mostly done B2B sales in Canada, I have retrieved my lists from sources relevant to the Canadian markets, here are a few I have used for the Toronto area:

• Top 1000 public companies - list of companies measured by revenue (you do have other options to try
• Top 350 private companies - look for companies that are 100% owned by one entity or family (ex. Jim Pattison Group, Home Hardware, etc.)
• Scotts Directory - free-trial on-line or you can obtain unlimited use at some Canadian local libraries, employment centers, or municipal business centers.

In addition, for international markets, try these:

• Wikipedia - list of companies listed by categories (ex: geographic regions, industries, etc.), narrow down from that list, or you can simply write "list of companies in __(state region/location)__"
• Linkedin - this link takes you to the 'search companies' tab, you can specify and it will show all the companies registered with linkedin throughout the world. On the left there is a deeper dive where you can narrow by other categories, these are the ones I like: 
• Location - you can be as broad as saying 'United States' to as narrow as a small city like 'Albany, New York, United States'.
• Industry - this is an easy one to select because it will be your target market - like healthcare, education, etc.
• Company Size - really important as are you selling in the SMB or enterprise space.

There are others, namely Jigsaw and Hoover's, which I shall write in a future blog.

General formula for calculating a size of a company

A rule of thumb I use is revenues by companies - typically for every $300MM in annual revenues there are approximately 1000 employees.  I find this to be the most useful statistic than the profit margin or amount of profit made.  You can of course do the math (proportional math? I forget the name) - so if a company claims they have 50 employees - they are probably $15MM in annual revenues.  

Market size is much larger than you think 

There are many other resources you can use to find companies, one thing I’ve always underestimated in any role is the scope of the market is larger than I initially estimated.  That’s probably due to the fact that the developers of products & services are usually not the salespeople (unless they are the founders) they are more the ‘technicians’, who have had experience in their field and made the product/service to overcome those challenges that come in their role.


Thanks - this week I will probably post one more blog - look forward to feedback!

Market Segmentation - Steps to take before Cold-Calling - Tip # 1

Hope everybody had a great weekend (or is having if you are in Canada!) and are pumped up for a great week ahead of opening up new doors of opportunities!  


This week the focus is slightly different than what I have been talking about - on best practices of cold-calling - this week the focus is how to go about preparing your target prospecting list. It’s a beneficial cold-calling technique I have learned that can enable you to do fewer dials for more meetings.  This is also a continuation of a previous blog I had written, which you can view here.

Facing a shrinking prospecting list?

What does this mean? Well - it is a phenomenon I call ‘constant refinement’, which means that as you start to go through your target list, identifying opportunities, it starts to become harder (by law of numbers) to keep finding more opportunities within the same list.  Say you start with a list of 1000 prospects to call, as you dig for the nuggets of gold and find them, the next nugget becomes harder to find as you have started to shrink your base of prospects. So you always have to be on the lookout for new accounts to target.

Let’s start - so the first part of your prospect list is to know who your target audience is.  

Identify your target market and familiarize yourself with it.

In other words - who is and who will be buying my product/service.  This is done by keeping an eye on the trends of your product/service in the marketplace.  What market does your product/service serve best with and are there up and coming new markets that might also benefit from your product/service?  

Find industries to target (low hanging fruit).

You can achieve this by finding out the easiest companies to sell your product / service to (low hanging fruit), then prioritize it to the next 'higher' hanging fruit, and so on.  This helps you as you can start to narrow the time spent learning about your product/service.  If you know have the answer, then start to study that particular industry, current events (news), customer case studies, etc.  


Its this preparation that’s very valuable as when you speak to your prospect, you can always include in your call “...would like to offer you the same as we’ve done with [XYZ customer - someone in their industry]...”.  This third party credibility is very helpful for establishing immediate trust.


Hope this is helpful to eveyone! Look forward to comments or questions.

3 things to do before you begin a cold-call

In starting out this blog, I want to share my experiences on how I've been successful in cold-calling, but please do take in to note that these methods work for me based on my past experience.  So, why am I publicizing this information if it won't benefit you?  Good question!  (if you are hopefully thinking that!).  In sales, we ultimately all strive close deals and get the sale, how we get to that point is irrelevant - everybody has their own methodology that is unique to them.  I will stress you should keep your natural style and incorporate anything that you feel will improve you.  It's a matter of getting the best out of you!


The following points are ones I incorporate in all my calls, also these are things that make cold-calling all the more enjoyable!


1. Start calling from the bottom up in the org chart - 


Anytime you start calling up a key or target account, don't try to go after the C-level executive, VP, Director, etc. positions.  The reason behind this is that they are already overwhelmed with information and it becomes difficult for them to determine "what makes you better than all the other people calling them?".  Instead try from the bottom as these are people, who have more time available, are not information overloaded, and MOST IMPORTANTLY know of a problem the company has but have no say to resolve it.  If they divulge this out to you, you can easily position yourself with a decision maker on how you can resolve their dilemma. 


2. Get to know the person -


Many times you call up a lead or a prospect only to determine they are not the right person for you to call up.  Don't despair!  You have a live person on the phone that works in the company you are trying to get your foot in the door with.  Here is an approach I take going forward:

• Be sincere (almost to the point of being innocent) and apologize saying you don't know how you thought that they would be the right person.  Apology is key as you are taking their time and sincerity makes you a down-to-earth "clean" person - and people love to help those salespeople over the aggressive unruly ones!
• Ask them what they do if they are not the right person - people love to talk about themselves, so take this as an opportunity of getting to know more about them.  They might also reveal challenges in their role and department - all valuable information to share as you speak to more people in the organization.
• Get guidance from them - be sincere and ask them if they might know of who takes care of this - they might be hesitant on sharing information about others, so ask them if they know the department that handles this.

3.  Move the conversation slow - 


Too many times I have observed people rushing through a conversation - if you do this - DON'T WORRY - it's normal!  The reason why this happens is that you are so energized when you are dialing (or dial for dollars as the saying goes) that your conversation is also at motor speed!  This is the point, you lower your energy and start the conversation slow.  


As you develop rapport with the person then start to increase the intensity and bring them to a higher-energized level.  You want to do this as higher energized people can make quicker and faster decisions than when you are lower - resulting in a scheduled follow-up meeting.  Remember when people are working they are laser focused on the task and when you called you just broke that!  Regardless of your schedule, don't be in a rush with the conversation, it's kind of like karma their position and title then move on to seeing it slow