Recently, The Kelsey Group posted an interesting article, Is the Sales Approach Part of the Yellow Pages’ Woes? In the article they site “the 2009 sales results definitely highlight the need for a sales approach revolution.” They go on to say, “if we take the time to listen to the needs of the small business, I think a different story of why directories are losing revenues might emerge.”

There were many excellent points mentioned in this article. One of the contributing factors to the sales rep’s struggle to take the time to listen to the needs of the small business may be not knowing what questions to ask (which we have observed first hand). This article may be able to offer some quick training tips.

When preparing to engage a business owner, a large percentage of sales reps prepare by looking at potential solutions to sell, as opposed to the best questions to ask to understand the needs of the business. Part of the problem, as The Kelsey Group refers to in their article, is that the culture of most yellow page companies has been to introduce new products and train the sales reps to be able to explain the features and benefits of the new products. This approach can lead to a “one size fits all” approach and poor results.

If yellow page companies (or any sales companies that sell SEM) are going to move to a more consultative type of sales call approach, they will need to learn how to ask the right questions. Ideally, these questions should be specific to each individual business owner; in a sense, being able to “speak the business owner’s language”. However, in the yellow page industry, part of the problem is the wide variety of businesses the average yellow page sales rep is required to call on. There are close to five thousand headings in an average yellow page directory. It would be difficult for anyone to be knowledgeable about all of these various types of businesses and industries.

A quick interesting side note, after conducting two separate sales training sessions in the US and in Europe (both sessions were conducted less than a month ago) and specifically discussing the importance of being able to speak the business owner’s language, participants in both groups asked the question, “What if the sales rep doesn’t know enough about the business to know what questions to ask?”

Great question. What if the yellow page companies decide to take The Kelsey Group’s advice and take the time to listen to the needs of the small business, but they don’t know what questions to ask? Here is some advice that sales reps can use that may help them ask questions that are specific to that type of business and also significant enough to create a desire on the business owner’s part to want to answer those questions.

First, put yourself in the business owner’s potential customer’s shoes. For example, let’s say that you are going to call on an auto glass company. You may not know all of the specifics needed to run an auto glass company, but you would be able to put yourself in the shoes of someone who just had a rock hit their windshield. If you were that person whose windshield had just been damaged and needed to choose an auto glass company…what factors would you care about when deciding which company to choose? What would be important to you? Here’s a quick list.

· Would mobile service be important vs. the need to go to them?
· Would speed be important, meaning how quickly can they respond?
· Would having all types of windshields in stock for any make or model car be important vs. the need to special order one?
· Would being able to take care of all of the insurance paperwork be a plus?
· If you didn’t want to go through your insurance company, would price matter, even the possibility of receiving some type of a discount for paying in cash?
· Would some type of a guarantee matter to you with respect to the quality of their work?
· Would their years of experience matter?

There are several reasons these questions are important to ask on a sales call. One reason is that it lets the business owner know the sales rep has a general knowledge and understanding of their business. This is extremely important in terms of helping the sales rep gain credibility early on in the sales call process and lowering the business owner’s guard. The more credibility the sales rep has with the business owner, the more likely the business owner will be to allow the sales rep the opportunity to conduct a further needs analysis.

This will also allow the sales rep the opportunity to gain the information needed to develop and recommend the right overall advertising solution and set the proper expectations (which also has a direct impact on renewal rates).

This is an important point and worth expanding upon. After observing thousands of sales calls over the years, the ability of the sales rep to be able to speak the business owner’s language has proven to be one of the keys to earning the right to ask deeper needs analysis questions. This means being given permission to ask questions to uncover, identify, and establish specific business needs and objectives. This is a much different sales interaction than just doing a features and benefits presentation on the latest and greatest product offer.

However, the example of an auto glass company might seem easy when it comes to putting yourself in the business owner’s customer’s shoes. What if you were about to call on a type of business where it’s a little more difficult to put yourself in their customer’s shoes? Let’s say for example a “Maritime Lawyer”? What do you know about this type of law or this type of business? Would you be able to come up with the same types of questions to earn creditability? If you are not able to develop any questions because you have never needed a Maritime Lawyer before and don’t have any idea what this type of lawyer does, this would be a good time to do a quick Google search. For example, go to Google and type in “What is Maritime Law?”. Within minutes you should be able to develop eight to ten specific and significant questions that will earn you enough credibility with the attorney to conduct a deeper needs analysis.

You can also type in “Tips for choosing a…”, or “Choosing the best (or right)…”, or “How to select the best (or right)…”. Any of these types of searches will give you a good idea of what people care about when it comes to choosing any specific type of business and help you to speak the business owner’s language. The good news for both sales managers and sales reps that are starting to panic and wondering, “How long will this type of preparation and planning take for every sales call”? Once the sales rep gets familiar with this type of preparation, it should only takes a matter of minutes. And the payoff is huge in terms of the impact this approach will have in improving the quality of the conversation.

Need more proof on why this approach is so important and what it has to do with selling SEM (or yellow pages, IYP, and SEM)? Let’s use an actual example. On a recent sales call to a garage door company, the following exchange took place:

Garage Door Owner: “Most of our business comes from word of mouth, so because of that, and the current economy, we are looking for ways to decrease our advertising budget this year.”

Sales Rep: “That’s no problem; in fact we may have some ideas that will help you invest your advertising dollars more effectively. If I could give you a quick example, one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you actually had to do with the economy. Are people keeping their garage doors longer and have you seen a shift in demand for new garage door sales to more garage door repair calls?”

Garage Door Owner: “We have, and from what I can tell, it appears to be that way with most of garage door companies right now. Why do you ask?”

Sales Rep: “The reason for my question is that, with respect to the repair side of the business, how important is speed and, if you don’t mind me asking, how quickly are you able to respond when someone has just had their spring break on their garage door and is now in need of a company who can respond fast?” (Note: this is the most common type of garage door problem as found out through some very quick research and speed was one of the top concerns).

Garage Door Owner: “We can usually respond within one to two hours in most cases.”

Sales Rep: “That’s pretty fast. Are you in a position to take on more of those types of immediate repair jobs right now?”

Garage Door Owner: “Sure, why do you want to know?”

Sales Rep: “I may be able to help you attract more of those types of garage door customers. As I had mentioned before, this is an example of one of the ways we may be able to help you spend your advertising dollars more effectively. Would you mind if we took just another few minutes to explore this side of your business? This could make a big difference in the type of response you’ll receive from your advertising program.”

At this point, the sales rep has earned the right to be able to ask more specific questions about all of the types of garage door work this company provides. Specifically, being able to find out the overall percentage of their business they want from new installations vs. repair, both now and in the future, how much business they want in residential vs. commercial, how far they would be willing to go for either type of job, their unique selling proposition, etc. By having a thorough understanding of the business owner’s business, the sales rep is able to suggest a customized solution that targets the types of customers the garage door company wants, the number of additional customers they can handle, and in the geographic areas they want to attract business. This ultimately led to an advertising program that included a print solution, an IYP solution, and a SEM solution, all developed to match their specific needs. The key to making this type of sale is first being able to put yourself in the business owner’s customer’s shoes!

Mike Centorani
Vice President of Training and Development
MatchCraft, Inc.
www.matchcraft.com