Always Be Closing

Cofounder, vice president, and general manager of Gap Wireless Inc., Glenn Poulos draws on his vast B2B sales experience to provide easily understandable and viable methods for selling to business clients. For decades, Poulos has successfully motivated purchasing agents in numerous industries to buy what he’s selling. He offers tips and strategies specifically geared to B2B salespeople.

“Never sit in the lobby.”

Buyers and other decision-makers don’t care about salespeople they consign to the lobby. If you find yourself sitting in somebody’s lobby for 20 or 30 minutes, or longer, realize that your client or potential client is treating you as they think of you: peripheral. Get up and leave. Find another prospect.

Attraction is not a choice.
Glenn Poulos

When you do land a meeting with buyers, have something new to tell them. Pay attention to your client, avoid interrupting, and notice what they are speaking of with the most pride. Praise that aspect of their company.

Develop a “winning sales presence” (WSP) to get the meetings you want.  WSP means making yourself and your products attractive to your buyers. Develop your professional presence; show your prospects your charisma and the merit of your offerings.

The ideal times to cold-call prospects are from eight to nine in the morning or from four to five in the afternoon.Thursday is the best day to prospect from your office.Make at least seven to eight cold calls to connect with a prospect.Closing a sale requires at least “five to seven follow-up” connections after your initial prospect meeting.

Sales leads go stale fast. Follow up a sales lead within the first three to five minutes after you first hear of it. Never wait longer than an hour. The first three minutes are the most essential component of your sales presentation. In medium-sized companies, generally, only six executives make purchasing decisions. Determine who they are.

Sales are won person-to-person.
Glenn Poulos

Advanced sales-communication technology has its virtues, but face-to-face communication proves far more effective than any technology. Emails and text messages just can’t provide the kind of useful clues about prospects and clients that a perceptive salesperson can glean in face-to-face meetings.

Say it three times.

The “power of three” dynamic reflects the long-confirmed finding that repeating a concept three times has a more lasting impact than making assertions once, twice, or four times. A classic version of the universal rule of three has special applicability in B2B sales: 

Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Tell ‘em what you told ‘em.Glenn Poulos

Typical B2B salespeople learn only enough about their products to sell them. This greed-based learning includes a more-than-adequate understanding of the capabilities and features of their products and services, but no more. However, they may think —erroneously — that they don’t need to be able to expound intelligently on every aspect of their offerings. 

Most B2B salespeople are too busy to become product experts. Nevertheless, you need sufficient knowledge of your goods or services to persuade prospects to buy them. Peruse your product line and take the time to gain at least a “cursory” understanding of every product. Consider each product through the prism of which offerings earn the most money for you. When you study each product or service in terms of its profit margin, that knowledge will inspire you to learn as much as you can.

Make Sales   

The more memorable you are, the more powerful your presentation, the better first impression you make, and the more impressive your Winning Sales Presence, then the more sales you’ll make and the more money you will earn.

Never sit when you meet B2B prospects. Meet them standing up, tall, and proud, no matter your height. Stay alert, focused, and in the present – someone determined and operating at 100%. Standing up boosts your power, presence, and charisma. Never waste your time sitting in a prospect’s lobby.   

Make and maintain eye contact when you meet your prospects. Dress conservatively, and practice proper grooming. Wear shined shoes, because people notice your shoes first. Make sure your wardrobe and personal presentation radiate professionalism.

Maintain positive body language. Address your prospects by name – and often.  Offer sincere, insightful compliments – but not too many.

Loving to talk is part of a salesperson’s makeup and for good reason. Potential buyers can’t learn what makes your products or services special unless you tell them. You need to be enthusiastic. However, never drone on and on. Sometimes, you need to be quiet or, at least, judicious about what you say to clients and how you say it. Never interrupt prospects. If they say something that resonates with you and connects to your offerings, wait until they have finished speaking before you connect their remarks to your products — no matter how impatient you become.

If you’re speaking as prospects listen for more than a minute, you’re probably “talking too much.” During a conversation with a prospect, talk no more than 10% of the duration of the conversation. If you worry that you’re talking too much, you almost surely are.

Be aware when it’s time to quit talking – and stop.

You never know when the other guys are gonna mess up and an opportunity [will come] your way.
Glenn Poulos

Keep your feet on the ground. Perhaps you can score with a non-client long-shot, but never make such prospects the focus of your sales plans. Instead of ignoring non-clients, meet them when you’re going to be near their offices anyway. Time is your most precious commodity. Never waste it.

Curses!

Glenn Poulos offers basic, oft-repeated advice in a rat-a-tat style. His guidance will likely best serve new, inexperienced B2B salespeople and those who’ve been selling for so long that they need a refresher course in the fundamentals. And it may be true that Poulos had more fun writing this book than you will reading it. The stopper is his persistent, unimaginative use of profanity. He curses either to celebrate himself or to emphasize a point as if he were an eighth grader. Even amid helpful sales advice, this drumbeat can get tiresome, especially from someone advising salespeople on how to be professional.