Since that time many other companies that sell SEM packages to small business owners have used the same strategy. The main emphasis for many of these companies has been speed. Call on as many businesses as you can, sign up as many as possible, and the more productive the sales force is the more successful the SEM reseller company will be.

Unfortunately, for many of the SEM reseller companies out there who have taken this approach, it hasn’t worked.  What many sales executives have left out of their formula for success…is customizing the conversation so that it addresses the small business owner’s needs.

Developing and maintaining a successful SEM campaign can be a complicated and time-consuming process; something that many small business owners just don’t have the time to do themselves. Many business owners know that their potential customers are increasingly going online to look for their products and services, and they know that they should be there when that happens, but they need someone who is willing to take the time needed to help them do it the right way.  Not just sell them a quick pre-packaged SEM program that may or may not have the right outcome for their business.

By taking a “land grab” approach, many SEM reseller companies have quickly signed up thousands of small business owners…only to have them cancel their programs immediately after their contract ended, sometimes even sooner. The churn rates for some SEM reseller companies are approaching and even exceeding 60%!

It’s one thing to convince a business owner to try SEM and buy a pre-packaged one-size-fits-all program. It’s another thing to take the time to truly understand what the business owner is trying to accomplish, to sell them a program that helps the business owner get the types of clicks and calls they want (not just any clicks). There is also an issue when it comes to the number of clicks and calls they can handle and want, to help them reach the types of customers they want from the geographic areas they service. By taking a more consultative approach, you will have a much greater chance of satisfying the customer…and keeping them!

So, do you still think it’s a land grab?

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

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

There are many sales reps who take the approach that, “I will get all of that information once I know they are interested in buying SEM.” Unfortunately, that’s backward thinking. Put yourself in that landscaper’s shoes.  Would you put your trust in someone who didn’t know anything about your company and give them some of your advertising dollars to try to promote your business online?

The other mistake that is often made by sales reps who take the same approach with every business is that when they do try to attempt to understand a business owner’s needs, they jump right in with very broad open end questions such as, “So, what are your business goals for this year?”

The problem with asking that question too early in the sales process is that the sales rep may not have earned the right to ask that question yet. The sales rep would be better off doing some quick research on the business and industry (by the way, this doesn’t take long if you know what you are looking for) and asking a much more specific and significant question early on to gain credibility and lower the business owner’s guard.

For example, what if the sales rep approached that same landscaper after looking at their web site, and doing some brief research on Google (such as typing “choosing a landscape contractor”) and after introducing themselves asked, “Mr. Landscaper, one of the reasons for my call today is that I wanted to ask you about your computerized design service…do you charge for that service or is it free?”

By the way, asking a very specific and significant close-ended question early on in the sales interaction will almost always get some type of response.  Don’t believe it…try it!

The response may sound like this. “No we don’t charge for the service, but I won’t leave the design with the client unless they do business with us. Why do you want to know?” The sales rep can then respond, “The reason for my question is that through some of my research I noticed a high volume of potential clients who are going online to look for a landscaper who offers computerized design and I may have a few ideas that may help you attract more of those types of clients.”

The point is, make it about their business…not yours…not yet. Sales reps won’t win many potential business owners over by starting the sales interaction with all kinds of features and benefits about how great their company is until the business owner knows that you have done your homework and understand their business and industry. Once that credibility is gained and the business owner’s guard has been lowered, then more open-ended questions can be asked. When the sales rep truly understands what the business owner is trying to accomplish, it creates a better opportunity to show how their unique SEM solution will make sense.

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

In 2009, it seems like there are more companies offering online advertising solutions than ever before. With the decline in print advertising, many companies that previously offered only traditional media (i.e, yellow pages, newspapers, direct mail, etc.), now offer an online solution as part of their advertising mix. In addition, many other “online only” companies have sprung up targeting small and medium-sized business owners.

Imagine being a small business owner today and being called on by all of these different companies claiming to have the best online ad solution for your business. Questions such as, “Should I hire an expert to help me promote my company online or should I try to do it myself,” and “If I try to do it myself, is it complicated, and how much of my time will it take?” As they go through these types of questions, the next question they might ask is, “How do I decide which company will do the best job for me?” And, “How much should I invest and how will I know if it’s working?”

Companies who sell online advertising to small and medium-sized businesses constantly balance the need for a high volume of sales and at the same time, making sure those sales are quality sales. But are they balancing both, and what is the definition of a quality sale (or as mentioned before…the right sale)?

There is an old saying in sales that goes, “You can sell anything to anyone once”. But the true measure of whether or not it was a quality sale, or the right sale, is if the person who bought that product or service would buy from you a
gain? This is the dilemma that seems to be happening in the world of selling online advertising today. Sales reps from all walks of life are flooding the marketplace making phone calls and knocking on doors to make as many online ad sales as they possibly can with their main focus and goal being high volume. There even seems to be a number that has been established within the “Reseller” community of online advertising that says, once you have achieved over 5000 sales, you are now considered to be successful.

There is little doubt that any online directory company achieving 5,000 or more advertisers is doing something right, but what if those sales were not made properly? One way to determine the quality of those sales and whether or not they were the right sales is to look at the percentage of those business owners who buy again when their contract comes up for renewal.

So, the question remains, how were those sales made? What did the sales rep say to make the sale? Was the business owner asked to “Give it a try and see if it works” based on an initial low investment and short-term trial? Were they guaranteed a specific number of clicks to their listing or to their website? Were they guaranteed specific placement on the major search engines like Google or Yahoo? What were the business owner’s expectations and how to they determine success? If they were promised a specific number of clicks and then received that number of clicks…regardless of the quality of those clicks?

Some sales managers do ask these questions. Others don’t and may not feel they have the time to ask those questions. There is another old saying that goes, “You only get one chance to make a good first impression”. Many business owners are confused when it comes to online advertising and don’t have the time to spend trying to figure it out or manage it themselves. That’s the reason why they would buy from an online company in the first place.  That doesn’t mean whoever gets to the business owner first always wins…especially in the long run.  It means, when your sales reps have the opportunity to sell online advertising to a business owner…don’t screw it up!  Just because they bought from you once doesn’t automatically mean they will buy from you again…and that’s the point.

Train them to make the right sale the first time.  The good part is that it doesn’t take that much more time to make the right sale, if any (once you know what you’re doing), but the short and long-term payoff is huge.

Making the right sale means the sales rep has taken the time to fully understand what the business owner is trying to accomplish.  For example, if they are talking to a plumber (I know I know…we always use plumbers as an example…stay with me on this point), the sales rep needs to know what type of plumbing work they are trying to go after.  A “plumber is not a plumber is not a plumber”.  Each is unique in some way.  It’s the sales rep’s job to find out how they are unique.   Are they mainly interested in residential repairs?  Is there a specific percentage of their business that comes from commercial accounts like restaurants or hotels, etc.? Do they offer any type of kitchen or bathroom remodeling? Do they offer a combination of all of these things?  Also, how many trucks do they have?  What areas do they cover?  How many more jobs can they handle in a day, or week, or month?  What is the average profit for each of these jobs?  If they bought an online advertising solution, what is their definition of success?  You get the idea.

All of these questions (and this is just a rough example to make a point), will have a dramatic impact on the type of online advertising recommendation that should be made to the business owner.  Getting a business owner clicks and calls is only part of it.  Making the right sale means you focus on helping the business owner attract the specific types of customers they want, the specific number of customers they can handle, etc.  Not just any clicks or calls you can get them…the right ones!

The online company (who has a solid online advertising solution) that can train (and reinforce) their sales reps to make every sale, the right sale, will be the company that will succeed in the future.

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