The only thing you can accomplish is to lose a precious time chasing prospects who are not interested for your product, or they are not a fit for your products or services at all.

Many unsuccessful sales people spend their time with customers who are not even close to sales process and to buying, but poorly trained sales person still contact them regularly simply because they are in pipeline and they need to fill their day somehow. Talking to that kind of prospects is just a waste of your and their time.

When you are selling you need to differentiate and trigger events will make this possible. You will have tools to create the opportunity for you, and not just in the visible market where customers are actively looking for provider or supplier, but also in the invisible market – you put them in the market, you are making customers realize that they are on the market now. Without trigger events you can’t force customers to meet with you because you will be just one of many sales guys knocking on their door.

Here are two examples of trigger events:

• Your research shows some trigger events like hiring new 15-20 sales reps or changes in upper management levels: this clearly sends out messages that the company is in need of new office furniture or new computers with software, or maybe a new benefits plan for employees.
• Thousands of corporate turnarounds occur every year. You may have read about a few of them in your local newspaper, but that’s not enough. There are companies in a turnaround phase that affect sales in your area all the time. I suggest keeping abreast of the New York Times or other newspapers like that in your region. Their business page carries a number of turnaround events throughout the company along with web sites by the large accounting firms and graduate business colleges such as Wharton. Turnaround time means change time: new people, new products, new services, and new sales potential for you.

Customers will be positively shocked with your due diligence and fact-finding mission you accomplished with them. When you contact your prospects and on the first conversation you leave them with impression you know their situation very well — you care to help, and you can add value to them, trust me when I say you are much closer to signing a deal than anybody else.

After discovering trigger events, the next steps are to develop the customer’s perception of your unique value. What can you do for them? How your solution can actually create value to them?

Trigger events will give you the clue about the timing too.

More about Trigger Events here:

Selling in 21st Century

Hit or miss doesn’t work in selling

Get the book “Trigger Events”

Differentiate Prospects from Suspects is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

(Earlier this week my latest book Selling IS Better Than Sex became available on Kindle too - get your copy today!)

Did you know that 40% of sales forces will miss their quotas this year; four out of ten salespersons will lose their jobs this year; and over 25% of sales people do not sell enough to cover their cost?

If you are a novice sales rep, seasoned sales veteran or non-sales-savvy entrepreneur, looking for customers… YOU NEED TO READ “TRIGGER EVENTS”

Consider that salespeople require answers to these fundamental questions:

* How am I going to find my next customer?
* How can I differentiate prospects from suspects?
* Can I avoid the uncertainty and inefficiency of cold calling?
* How can I determine my customer’s needs and wants without assuming?
* How can I know if my customer is ready to buy?
* How can I get to presentation and closing faster?

You are not alone here. The issue of getting new customers is a problem in every industry. The problem is that many salespeople are trying to find answers to these questions through methods that were effective in the past but are not suited for today’s buyers – who are skeptical of businesses, resist being sold to and know how to use technology to gain advantages over salespeople.

The book “Trigger Events – How to Find Your Next Customer” is a perfect example of how a major shift can result from using something that’s right there in front of us – in this case, events that create buyer needs.  Get your Kindle copy today!

This book introduces a revolutionary sales paradigm that is fully grounded in today’s realities. It not only answers these fundamental questions (by the way, you can eliminate cold calling altogether) it provides a salesperson with a set of tools that creates the ability to appear in front of a customer with precise knowledge of the customers needs at exactly the time (or even before) the needs are realized by the customer.

All needs are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

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If you prefer printed version, get the soft-cover book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow! Price is only $17.95 and shipping costs are included in the price (North America only)!

Trigger Events also available on Kindle! is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Consequently, through unorganized, hit-or-miss methods, his cost of selling is high simply because his methods are not as efficient as they should be.

This does not mean you shouldn’t use your instincts and training well. But it does mean that your sales assumptions must be based in a finding of facts, not guesses.

Using the dart game in the sales profession can lead to failure. You have limited time on your sales call to a prospective buyer and your darts must hit their mark. It’s even more crucial when you use the phone for your sales prospecting activities: many telephone sales calls miss their mark as being off-the-shelf calls that aren’t developed with a specific buyer in mind. Dartboard selling is a quick way to go broke.

Top notch salespeople advise that 75% of a successful sale is due to the pre-flight work. You must make sure you know what direction you want to go in, and you have to ask precise questions that will lead you to confirm needs you recognized through trigger events. You must know what direction to fly before your takeoff.

Most sales people out there are making a huge mistake meeting (or talking over the phone) with their clients unprepared. They think it is enough to schedule the meeting and they will work their magic and close the deal. They will try to break the ice with the customer by talking about the stuff in his office. Then the next misstep is to ask a few questions and not even wait for the answers, but to start with the same old sales pitch.

This kind of salesperson knows all the answers and few features and benefits later they will ask for the business. After hearing few “No’s” from customer they may give up and leave the office with the promise of a follow up a few days later. Unfortunately, the down side is that the customer will probably never return their calls.

Big number of sales people doesn’t take the time to have a conversation with their customers, because they assume that every other customer is like all the others. You will discover that your previous assumptions in sales were fatal many times. Keep those times in the past. It was necessary for you to learn a lesson every salesperson needs to learn, and now is the time to grow and develop your skills and knowledge. You will do so in developing your knowledge about trigger events. It is time to replace assumptions with research.

When you start learning how to recognize trigger events, rather than trying to assume or guess at them, will not only enhance your professional sales career and knowledge, but will increase your sales savvy to what the customer needs.

It is mind-boggling to receive a sales telephone call and the caller spits out a menu of mechanical words. The customer isn’t even, it seems, invited to be part of the conversation. It’s all about the need of the seller. Now when you contact your customers with information collected from recognized trigger events, you will have right questions to ask them, and all you need to do is listen to their answers and reshape your presentation accordingly.

Start with understanding customer’s actual situation and have their needs on your mind, but also find the way to put them on the market by making them realize their yet uncovered needs.

I hope you realize how often you barked up the wrong tree in your prospecting activities, talking to companies without the real need, following up and leaving numerous messages to someone who doesn’t see the value in your product. It is time to move on. Of course, at one time when we were starting sales, we all may have wasted our time that way, calling people from the long list of unqualified prospects we got from our manager, simply because they were in our territory or vertical market.

Now you will have a very powerful tool to change your approach to selling.

You have to understand the positioning of the company, what are they needs, does not matter if they are hidden or visible to public eye.

You need to do this ahead of the first contact as part of your trigger events research. You have to know the customer’s situation better than perhaps they know it, because at the time of presentation of your product, you will have their needs on your mind and prepare your sales presentation accordingly to information you hold.

Think value. Give to the customer what they ask for; give them what they need and more, drive the conversation to the customer’s wants and needs.
Impress them with the depth of your understanding of their position on the market and recent events that can trigger buying process, and they will sign on dotted line.

Very often you can hear how selling is a form of art, how sales people need to be creative and use their imagination, but I am not agreeing with that – sales is more science than anything. Yes you can use imagination and creativity, but after using tools available to you. With the proper tools and techniques you’ll replace guesswork with success.

Even if your company does not have automated system to generate new leads for you, when you learn more about trigger events, you will be able to find your next customer by your own. This will send the message to your manager that you care about your job and you really want to develop your career further, without waiting for someone.

Becoming best in team is an achievable goal and your self-confidence is growing as you establish a competitive advantage towards your colleges and towards your competition.

You don’t need to use old sales excuses anymore, like “territory is too small”, “need more training”, “inadequate sales tools”, “marketing provides no leads”, “we are over priced” etc.

Numbers of sales people who lose their jobs or miss their quota each year are not really important to you anymore, because you are more confident that you know what you doing in your sales role and all thanks to getting new customers from trigger events.

Now you are becoming a real Sales Professional. And it is a good feeling having control over your sales career, isn’t it?

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Get the book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

Hit or miss doesn’t work in selling is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

So what does it all mean?

The 21st Century changes the rules of engagement. Business world is changing daily, and if you are not at least trying to keep up with the changes, you are becoming the dinosaur of sales. Read more about selling in 21st Century.

Did you know 4.0 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Opportunities are everywhere. You just need to know where to find them and you always need to be on the alert for them. Such Trigger Events can be a springboard for your selling career and you need to be prepared to act on them as soon as they are recognized.

By staying on top of your game, you’re always going to be a step ahead of the competition. And if a company has an immediate need then you can be first in line to assist with that. Added to that, if a business has already discovered that they have a requirement for something new, it makes your position a much sweeter one. They have already identified their need. All you must do, at this point, is demonstrate your ability to provide them with the best solution. A business has already moved into the transitional stage is certainly easier to approach than one that has not yet identified its need for change.

When businesses are making changes it means that they are already primed for shifting into a new gear. With this pre-knowledge and some further background research into the business, you could arrive well-armed to present a winning solution that can assist in building a better business. When a business is moving through a transitional phase they are almost always ready to take on new opportunities and to make positive changes. Be ready to help them!

As always, your research and understanding before approaching the client, is going to be the crucial in your presentation. This is what separates you from the rest of the competition. By taking the initiative in being first in line and having the greatest insight into their business, you have put yourself into a powerful position. Now it’s up to you to reveal your expertise and divulge the finest solution that will benefit their business in the most efficient way.

You could make it part of your daily routine to check your local news (aka “the Grapevine”) for new information on potential clients. Always be on the lookout for Trigger Events that can open the door to new sales and new clients. It could be the action-injection that your career needs.

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If you want to learn how to find new clients by using internal and external Trigger Events – get my book today!

Use Trigger Events To Sell More is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

IntroMojo provides you with all publicly available information about a sales target in a targeted and interactive format — in categories salespeople specifically need, like ‘what they talking about’, ‘stuff they like’, ‘how they can be reached’, and more.

IntroMojo helps to solve this problem by placing all available prospect information at the salesperson’s fingertips. There is nothing quite like it on the web. It’s clean, not intrusive and easy to understand. It could revolutionize the sales process.

Take a look at IntroMojo today and I will have an exclusive interview with IntroMojo guys later this week!

Introducing IntroMojo is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere), such as blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings.

Corporate blogs, by their very nature, are biased, though they can also offer a more honest and direct view than traditional communication channels. Nevertheless, they remain public relations tools.

The business blog can provide additional value by adding a level of credibility that is often unobtainable from a standard corporate site. Business blogs can interact with a target market on a more personal level while building link credibility that can ultimately be tied back to the corporate site.

Blogging among CEOs is becoming more popular, and more than 5% of the Fortune 500 companies blog externally. Market research done in the first half of 2006 indicated that 34% of large companies had established weblogs. Another 35% planned to do so by the end of 2006, thus bringing the total to nearly 70%.

Some points:

McDonald’s LincolnFry – a fake blog was discovered, and it generated lots of negative word of mouth and little participation. As in all fields of information there will be the worthless with the good, but that does not detract for the enormous use Blogs can provide for us in sales careers.

American Express’ billboard – a fake Blog poster told readers to check out a great Amex billboard that was found to be an Ogilvy employee; this violation of trust resulted in massive negative word of mouth which spread around the world.

So what to do?

To keep from getting lost in the internet blogs and to narrow the field down as to what will help your sales, use the different blog search engines like you would use normal search engines: simply key in the term and you will get the result.

Another way to strain the needed information from the blog forest is to note all the reviews of blogs that appear in daily newspapers, magazines and the publications like: trade publications, industry news, and the business sections of websites and print media.

To learn how to use other online resources in your search for Trigger Events, get my book today!

How to use blogs in your search for Trigger Events? is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Imagine that you will be having a baby in two weeks. While turning around in your home, what will you see? You are missing the crib, blankets, diapers and everything else that is needed for the new addition to your family. Won’t you need everything right away? You have an immediate need and must take care of it. This is a trigger event.

If we transfer this to a business environment, you will understand what trigger events means for any existing business. A trigger is a need to buy, an event that pushes you to buy the product right now. Not six months or a year down the road, but now.

This is true for the biggest corporations in the world and the small businesses oriented locally (70 percent of all U.S. businesses are so called mom-and-pop shops). The advantage of dealing with small businesses is that they are faster in reacting when an event is triggered and changes that create a need have happened.

Without the trigger you don’t really have a need to buy someone’s product now. Some studies show that companies with a trigger event buy 400 percent more often than ones without these kinds of events.

Many businesses are putting the cart before the horse, creating the product or service for which there is no market. They fail as suppliers because they take their customers wants and needs for granted, not surveying the market and not taking the necessary steps to understand why somebody is buying and who is on the market today.

Searching for trigger events is the first step forming three main keys of every sale that are:

1. Researching and qualifying your customers
2. Being in front of them
3. Being there when they are ready to buy — timing

To start the sales process you need to find out who could be in the market today, and then recognize your selected customer’s wants and needs. You need to have 360 degree view of your prospects.

What is their business situation, what are their business issues and challenges, pain problems, internal issues, changes, motivations? And then add yourself to the equation – how can I put customers in the market? How can I make customers realize that they are on the market with trigger events happening?

Keep following my blog, in my next posts I will talk more about internal and external trigger events and how to use them to find your next customer to sell more.

Remember: All needs are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

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Get the book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

Prospecting: Intro to Trigger Events is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Your mission as a sales person should be to find companies that have immediate wants and needs. This means that something happened or is happening to them – a move, a merger, new investors, etc. You have to look for any event that might create the opportunity for you, or better said you are looking for event that can trigger the sales for you.

It could be something internal or inside the company, like a new direction from management, a merger or an acquisition, rapid growth, or maybe a new product introduction. And it could mean the company is turning “Green” and needs new and different supplies and services.

It could be external or outside the company, like the new strategies of their competition or new legislation (Sarbanes- Oxley Act). Maybe even a natural disaster, which is a well-known external trigger for many customers.

Generally speaking, trigger events have effects inside the whole company. Suddenly new needs are recognized; previous decisions need to be revisited. Very often, management becomes aware of new priorities and changes the direction of the company.

Trigger events are extremely important when we are in the search mode, looking for our next customer, and when we need to identify our sales opportunities at a particular company from our target list.

Every company has something new happening. Maybe they improved or reintroduced their products or service. There could be new faces in the boardroom or on the sales floor. A new office may have opened up in the Midwest. A new vendor or strategic partner could have been added. Even new money or investor may come into the company.

Most important for a buyer is that the provider understands the buyer’s situation, needs and business.

Every change in the business environment causes a search for new suppliers or new service providers, and your main goal is to be in front of qualified buyers when they are ready to buy.

In these situations, I would say this is almost the perfect position for every sales person. You know there is something happening with the accounts from your list of targeted accounts and you know that as it happens – perfect timing is a key of success many times. This is equally true no matter if it is with small or large companies.

An example of the above is a situation where through your trigger event research you determine that your customer is planning to switch its ordering system to one of the new software solutions. So you know there is something going to happen. Whether the company is large or small, it can be perfect timing for you to be able to provide products and services to them using that kind of ordering/sales process.

How to use that information?

When you get the information related to a trigger event, you need to adjust your approach so the benefits of your products (or services) are closely related to the trigger event, and you are able to show your customers that you can create a value for them early in the buying process.

This is a good way to start working on the relationship and developing the customer’s perception of your value to them. This means when you speak with the decision maker and if you know exactly what this trigger event is about, you will be able to tailor your story and the benefits of your product in a way that sounds appealing and is related to the customers’ growth trigger event.

You need to adjust your presentation in the way to recognize that event and to present your offering in the most effective way.

Questions you will ask on your calls or meetings with prospects will be targeted towards their needs and you will be able to demonstrate your understanding of business situation. That should bring you step closer to get the deal done.

You definitely want to discover their hot buttons and why they could be on the market now for your products or services. Also you should find out why they are qualified now, at this particular moment, and why you should be very active with this prospect.

It is actually very simple – when you show your prospects that you actually care and you have done your homework and you know about trigger events happening inside their company (new CFO, merger and acquisition, bad 3rd quarter…) you also show them that you are interested about their issues, and most importantly concerned about their wants and needs.

You will create interest in their eyes because you are different then anyone else who contacts them who is simply trying to sell something without really understanding their needs.

When you know about different trigger events it will be much easier for you to ask questions that lead to uncovered customer’s needs and buying motives, and to put them in the market even if they feel there are not buying anything now.

If you try to make a sale without necessary information about your customers, you are just shooting blanks in the air, hoping to hit something. With full information about your prospects situation you will be able to sell easier, and that is the main purpose of this article (and my blog) – to help you to find your next customer in a much easier way for you, and yet maintain a professional, knowledgeable approach.

All needs are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

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Get the book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

What are trigger events and how to use them is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Let’s talk further about how to close the deal without discounting.

If you base your offer on your price only, there is a good chance that someone will have lower price than you, or you can end up in the bidding war that distracts from solutions. To avoid that, base your proposal in achieving more goals for your prospects, not just to save money, because every other salesperson will say exactly the same.

Customer wants to see the value not in your product; he wants to get the value from your solution to their business problem. They must perceive unique value from you. If they cannot differentiate you from the competition, there is no reason to buy from you.

Probably you can’t differentiate much with your product, I am sure you have some unique features, but your competition has them too. Customers today can easily substitute your product with the one from your competition and still be satisfied.

So how can you differentiate?
That’s where trigger events are coming to the game.

Trigger events can help you with recognizing needs and opening the door to have a meaningful conversation with customers who have events happening. Just to be different from the competition is not really important to your customers. What they would like to see is added value.

What creates customer value?
-    Skilled sales force
-    Sales process itself
-    Understanding their business situation today and adapting to their particular wants and needs

If you recognize customers’ needs and create the value for them, customers will move from initial meeting to a decision much easier. Communicating the value is a traditional view of selling, but in today’s world you can’t survive if you are not creating the value for the customer. And make customer realize that they are on the market.

Sales person needs to play a leading role to create the value for his customers. In each step of sales process sales person can create the value, but the most value can be created early in the process by helping customers to define their needs.

This is true especially in consultative sales where sales person can create the value recognizing customer needs with trigger events and helping them to define them better and deeper. Sales professional needs to create the specialized situation and put them on the market even they didn’t felt like that before he entered the picture.

If you are just selling your product – you are missing the point and you will die by price, as you lived by price. Customers are looking beyond the product; they are looking for the solution to their needs and your understanding of their business situation. Many times that should include help and advice too.

Different customers must be treated differently, what works for one customer may not work at all for another. Knowing about trigger events happening to your targeted prospect (and more different events is always better) you will have a very powerful tool to adjust your sales presentation to their needs, recovered with trigger events.

Concentrate on understanding your customers’ business issues, and show them how to solve more than one goal with your product, create a value for them and you will go home with the contract in your pocket, whatever the price is.

Let me repeat it here once more – if you don’t show the value you will definitely not win whatever your price is. Even if you have a lowest price on the market, it does not mean much to the prospect, because they don’t see the difference between your product and ones from the competition. And many buyers are buying from someone who had crafted a compelling solution to their needs, then comes understanding of their needs, and after that the financial part of the deal.

Your goal as sales professional is to create value through how you’re selling, not just through what you’re selling. To be a real sales professional ready for 21st century customers, here is no question you need to change your approach, but when and how?

How to win the deal without discounting is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer