Or Part 2 of why people dodge sales calls.

No one is going to contact you about purchasing anything unless that person has a project in mind. The standard lead qualifiers – budget and timeline – need to be met. Without these key elements, you can call this person all you want, but there will be no sale. It will just be a waste of your time.

With that said, you must be wondering if marketing activities are a waste. They aren't. Those activities should be reaching new people, building awareness of your company's product and offerings. You are trying to find people who need what you sell. And often, you'll come across someone who is new who needs to buy something now. But more on this later.

Let's get back to how people need to have a project in mind when they call you to buy.

It really is as simple as that. Again, you can call phone numbers you get from a lead generation form, but if those individuals don't have a project, a budget and a timeline, the call is a waste of time.  

Prospects need to be enticed to have a conversation, similar to a girl at a bar by a potential suitor. There has to be a reason for conversation, and product features (or looks) will only go so far. From my experience, the best conversations in these situations have a strong non-committal aspect to them, or rather, an escape factor.

There always has to be a way for someone to leave right away if something goes bad – too much pressure, someone says something ridiculous, or someone does something unacceptable. There has to be a way to leave quickly, cleanly, and politely. No one likes to reject people on a first meeting. It feels weird and judgemental – and people generally don't like to think they are that way.

The same is true for prospects. If you want to talk to prospects, you need to remove the pressure.

There are 3 qualities that have to exist in the conversation and the medium where that conversation takes place for a successful prospect conversation:

• Escape path
• No expectations during the conversation
• Keeping it casual and conversational in tone

Like dating, these initial conversations are about getting to know someone and keeping it non-committal. The goal is to get to the date – not the phone number – so the more casual the better.

What are the 5 best ways to achieve this?

• Online chat. I love online chat and find it highly effective to generate solid leads. Even the word "chat" has a casual aspect to it. And if the conversation gets weird, you can always close the chat window. There have been many times that I have used chat to ask a few technical questions, only for the conversation to get too involved for chat, so I initiate a phone conversation. I'm sure others are similar. The conversation is about the prospect's needs – not a sales pitch. 

• Social media. I love Twitter and use it often for support and for questions during the very early stages of the sales process. It's very casual – notes are no more than 140 characters. It's quick, easy, and not very involved. And if you need more help – take it to email or phone. Same with Facebook. The beauty of social media is that it is very public – everyone can see your communication. This makes this all the more casual and keeps it "normal" – everyone can see a weird/pushy conversation, so they are typically avoided, and you can easily leave a conversation (ignore it or just get out and delete your thread). It meets all the criteria.

• Lead nurturing. Someone comes to your site to get a white paper. After a few weeks, you send him something else that may interest him. He reads it and wants more. And this continues for a while. He is an information junkie, but he may choose your product when ready to buy because you have given him so much free knowledge. Or he may refer your company and product to someone who is ready to buy. Nurturing a lead won't convince him to buy – he will only call when he wants to buy – but it will keep you at the top of his mind for that moment. 

• Sales call to talk about some related subject – NOT ABOUT BUYING PRODUCT. If you have experience with this working, let me know. I want to try this with a program, because I think it would work, at least it has with me in the past. Has a sales person ever called you – not to sell something, not to invite you to sales event, just to check-in and ask you what you thought about the products you purchased or a new announcement or something new happening? It's powerful. And it is multi-purposed: it's casual customer research (you are getting his opinion), it's a great way to keep in touch with customers (a reason to talk to them), and a great way to check in if someone will EVER buy. Yes – EVER buy. Just because someone downloads a bunch of white papers, there may be no project or budget in place. But you can confirm if it is nothing, or maybe something someday, or just customer insight. You can't lose!

• Trade shows. Yes, they may seem to be dying, but trade shows are fantastic places to meet prospects and get to know them. It's like a massive singles party – some are looking for a commitment, some just want a good time, some just like to watch people. It's the same for sales – some have a project, budget and timeline, some are just curious, and some just want to look around. It's all about conversations – and there may not be a sale there, but there is great awareness about what you sell for future reference and referrals. And yes – there is always an easy escape (always need to get a drink or food or run away), no expectations (the likelihood of selling anything on a show floor is slim), and casual – it's just knowledge sharing. 

If you want customers to contact you, you really need to meet 3 criteria – allow an escape, no expectations, and keep it casual. It's like dating – show you are a good conversationalist and could be a good friend, and that person will warm up to give you that date. Or for sales, give you a meeting for a sale if there is indeed an opportunity.

More on how to present your company to people to grab those opportunities in the next post. 

I was researching CMS options for a client. I asked my assistant to get a few white papers and brochures from a list of vendors I created, read through the materials to learn what each one offered, and then I’d work with him to create a feature matrix to compare the options and narrow down the list to 3-4 vendors. It was a fairly straightforward project.

Late one afternoon, I got a call from one of the vendors, asking for my assistant and wanting to discuss the white paper he downloaded. I said he was tied up and that this wasn’t his number – it was mine! Then I called him to find out what happened.

All he had to say: “I didn’t want sales to call me.”

He didn’t want to talk to sales (it was funny that he didn’t consider that I didn’t want these calls either). I didn’t want to talk to sales, either. We weren’t ready. But somehow, the companies he got content from weren’t convinced that we weren’t ready. They were tyring to make us ready, using the old model of sales guiding us through the sales process. But I didn’t want their help–I wanted to guide myself.

We have all heard the analogy before, but it is true – sales is like dating. A guy in a bar has the goal of getting a girl’s number and have her say yes to a date. It’s not just about getting the number, getting a number is easy. Anyone can collect a bunch of numbers without a lot of conversation. That doesn’t guarantee a date at all. It does guarantee a lot of potentially fake numbers.

Now a guy can have a conversation with a girl, build some rapport, find out what they have in common, buy the girl a drink and most likely – the guy will get a date. He has to show that he cares about who she is and what she’s all about just a little bit for her to definitely say yes.

I guess its about your goal. Is it the number or the date?

Back to sales…gating an asset and asking for a phone number doesn’t make a sale – it means you got a number. We wonder why these forms don’t perform sometimes; but if we go back to the dating analogy, offering a white paper after a form is like that “smooth talker” at a bar, who uses a bunch of pick-up lines and doesn’t seem to care who the girls are. And then he wonders why he constantly gets fake numbers! (As does the company that offers the white paper after a form, using them as a lead.)

Early in the process, most prospects aren’t looking to talk to sales. Sure, they may want a conversation, but most likely not. Today people want to research in silence and they will call when ready to buy.

I know it is hard for companies to hold back a little and let a customer get to know them. Letting a customer get to know your company doesn’t bring a phone number or a sale. It will – but not now. This is such a different paradigm for any lead generation team.

In the past without the Internet, prospects would realize that they had a need, and they would call a list of companies to have some conversations. Sales spent time helping people thru the pre-sales process, providing knowledge and information as needed. They typically helped the prospect figure out what he really wanted.

Today, people can do the research part online (most times coming to a company 60-90% through the sales process, at least according to Gartner). The challenge is that customers sometimes go too far in the research process to think, “I want THAT!” when in fact, they NEED something very different. But they avoid sales because, well, sales can be pushy.

And a pushy sales guy is like the grabby guy who tries to fondle the girl on date #1, when she clearly wants to go home. Icky!

Now that customers are doing this research and calling “when they are ready,” marketing and sales don’t feel that sales have as many contacts to call.

• First, sales always wants more people to call. Many times, they don’t call them, but they like having them around. It’s the thought that counts, I guess.

• Second, they have more targeted prospects if they wait until later in the process to get the lead – a better chance of a real “date,” or sale. If they wait a little, sometimes sales has people who are ready to dig into the details and be guided in the decision making process. Sure, they may be 50% through it, but they are ready – and it should go quickly.

Companies need to get beyond thinking that collecting a bunch of phone numbers or email addresses is an activity unto itself. It can be, but most of the numbers are typically trash – either fake or people who aren’t ready to do anything. A company is better off finding ways to get to know these prospects – find out what they are looking for, see if there is a way they can help them, and give them that info for free by posting it on the Web site and in PDFs.

Basically, get to know that girl in the bar buy her a drink.

And if the girl feels like there is a bit of a match, she will say yes to the date. Just like a prospects will say yes to call if it seems that the company can help them.

My next post will go into ways to make this happen. Stay tuned for more!