Breaking the great wall in China

By Sali Lu

With the closing of the Beijing Olympics, it is interesting to look more specifically into the current market in China, after a mention of the Eastern Asian hemisphere in the very first entry of our blog. The Olympics certainly highlighted China’s many economic and social achievements, helping overcome some of the misconceptions and fears about China’s growing might still held by many in the world. Furthermore, a recent Mercer survey found that more than 90% of multinational companies said China is important to their global strategies, with 52% calling it critical.

However, there are still the underlying concerns for companies when selling into China, these ranges from intellectual property issues, arranging a reliable network of distribution partners, up to certain infrastructure concerns. Problems always arise when companies do not take the timeout to evaluate the potential risks involved, what framework should you be using when assessing potential supply chain issues? If China is the place you want to break the wall, what should be part of your business planning process? With these questions in mind, a monitoring/control process and conducting an in-depth analysis of potential risks are just some of the essential.

If the company’s leadership is able to keep abreast of the country’s evolving regulatory environment, and risks are evaluated by management to help properly plan the new venture, there are certainly profitable business opportunities available as China continues to make actions towards a more open and liberal economy. A 5 year review by a number of organisations of its progress in 2006 indicated that majority saw reasonable and good improvement in China’s business environment since its engagement in the WTO in 2001. Now it’s been another 2 years down the road, breaking the wall in China is much easier with greater improvement in China’s economy, however, both positive and negative changes also involve new ways of risk management and new challenges facing any businesses wishing to give it a go at breaking the great wall.

 

Prospect Satisfaction Audit

By Rachel Poon

 

Strike Force Sales has found that often there is a disconnect between the emotional perspective of a sales rep and the reality which results in leads getting prematurely rejected by the sales team.  This is the prime reason that we developed the Prospect Satisfaction Audit which has been designed to add value to your lead generation campaigns and give you as a manager visibility into your sales pipeline.

 

This is also a useful tool to finding out how your brand is being received as well allowing you to delve deeper into why an opportunity was missed/generated.

 

Recently, we had provided a client with four appointments only to have him come back and let us know that he was very disappointed as our appointments were poorly qualified.  As a matter of service, we put the Prospect Satisfaction Audit to work. We discovered that out of the four appointments, two of the prospects were actually waiting for further contact from the sales rep in terms of proposals! Without the Prospect Satisfaction Audit, this client could have missed two opportunities for business.

 

The process is simple.  We have a standard questionnaire in which we use (can be customised if so desired), and have one of our most seasoned operators call to gain feedback from the prospect as well as provide your company with a professional follow up service on the appointments.

 

What you will receive is a true visibility from the perspective of the prospect of how your company was perceived during the meeting and to whether or not an opportunity really exists.

 

To find out more visit our website or call us on 1300 309 162

Use CRM as a profiling tool… not a contacts database

By Darren Cox

 

One of the principal challenges our clients face is the lack of visibility into their sales process and pipeline.

 

Many companies have implemented a Customer Relationship Management system, however they seem to be using it only as a contact database, rather than for what it’s meant for – a strategic sales and marketing tool for developing profiles of their prospect universe.

 

As a result, my team have been focusing heavily on asking qualifying questions that will add value to our clients and their sales/marketing strategy.

 

Our job as tele-prospectors is to ‘collect nos’ – it’s a huge part of what we do!

 

But, it’s those very ‘nos’ that are the ‘yes’’ of the future – as long as your database is populated with data intrinsic to developing and grooming a client relationship thru to completion.

 

As a result, managing data accuracy and input is vital to both our business, and our clients.

 

One of the questions we ask is: Can you please tell me three things that your current supplier can do better?

 

Such a question will elicit a number of answers – dependant upon the client, and campaign – however, the information received allows our clients to see where their competitors are letting their clients down. 

 

And of course, having this information to hand allows your sales and marketing departments to define a strategy to convert those nos to yes’ through a structured marketing and sales strategy dedicated to punching holes through your competitors weaknesses.

 

At Strike Force Sales, we look to fulfil the sales strategy of our clients by providing them with the tools they need to achieve, both now, and in the future, and combined with our ability to understand the “big picture” of our clients marketing and sales strategies, and our ability to accurately update and manage their CRM solution, we are able to create observable success.

 

 

 

59% of Businesses Fail the Test!

You might have seen all the media coverage of our recent survey all about the failure of sales process inside Australian businesses.
 
We are talking very basic stuff.
 
It is a fact that 59% of Australian businesses do not follow up web-generated sales enquiries within 7 days. Only 6% will pick up the phone to do so. And almost half of the auto-response emails promising follow up are never acted upon.
 
It speaks to a very basic issue within many businesses… do they have a sales team managed by a sales process… or do they have a whole bunch of order takers sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring?
 
Have a look at our white paper

Sales Process v Buying Process

Many people will agree with the proposition that sales is a process, but then proceed to manage a sale as if it is just a singular tactical opportunity.

They often lose sight of the reality that a sale process is always matched on the other side by a buying process.

This is particularly so with a smaller business such as a consulting service to the extent that a small or micro business is often hungry and wants to eat right now. It might decide to push for the chance to get an immediate feed regardless of the agenda on the side of the buyer.

Let me ask you a question – how many of the people who up until today have said ‘no’ to you have you maintained contact with?

Or, to put that question another way, is ‘No’ the end for you?

But think about the buying process. When working in a role within a larger business, how often have you engaged advisors only after getting to know them over a period of time? How often have you engaged someone who has persisted and persisted, who has refused to be shaken off your shoe?

At Strike Force Sales we have a rule in our own internal CRM that deletes all notes that include the word ‘no’ after six months. This is because we view a no as meaning: ‘Not now; you have not convinced me that you can offer me value right now.’

But business is highly dynamic – things change all the time, just ask Eddie Groves.

A lot of value can be gained by calling back old leads just to say hi and ask them how their project or business is going right now.

The axiom driving this is that people do business with people they trust. And trust builds over time.

If you ring people back every four to six months to ask them how it is going, then over time they build a sense of trust along with a general awareness of your skill, determination and application. There is a very good chance that you will move to the top of their list of talent when a need arises in their business.

The objective here is to encourage you to look on your appointments as more than just a chance to close business quickly. More than anything, they are a chance for you to extend your network, meet business leaders, and establish a beach head in their buying processes.

Then, over time, build a relationship and, sure enough, opportunities will arise.

Ever see a cow jump over the moon?

Did you know that only 6% of Australian companies (that is six percent – it is not a typo) pick up the phone and respond to a web generated sales enquiry with a phone call?

 

Did you know that those 6% take, on average, two days, 17 hours and 59 minutes to do so?

 

That means it takes, on average, 3959 minutes for an Australian business to follow up a web enquiry by phone (if they bother at all). It took Apollo 11 just 4526 minutes to fly to the moon.

Managing A Sales Force

A truly great sales force is an enormous asset for any business. After all, to mis-quote Mao Tse Tung somewhat, ‘All power comes from the barrel of revenue.’

Great sales people are high energy, high-impact, self-sufficient, super-beings. They get out there and leap from deal to deal. 

However, most sales people are not great – they are simply competent.

Here is the challenge in sales force management – you need great sales people, but can only find and hire competent ones.

So, the trick is, how do you make competent sales people great sales people?

The key is teamwork. You have to get them working as a team. And the thing that ties a team together is accountability – a great team is one where all the team members are accountable to each other and to the business as a whole. Accountability is not just about rooting out bludgers… it is more about pushing all the individuals in your team to achieve superior outcomes at a personal level.

One of the key aspects of any team is understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the team. Some are great closers, others great openers, some great at relationships and so on.

Take tele prospecting for example.

Tele prospecting – getting on the phone and making cold calls – is a hugely difficult job. It is not just taking all the ‘nos’ that is tough… it is actually understanding how to get past gatekeepers, how to deliver a pitch in just a few seconds and then how to manage all the objections and secure a positive outcome that is important.

Then, on top of that, you have to leave a positive brand impression behind… regardless of the answer you get… (remember, a no today has to become a yes tomorrow if you are to make your budget next year or the year after).

This is a very different skill set from, say, closing a sale.

Typically the people we view as great sales people are the ones who are great at closing… but these people are not necessarily great at opening.

Likewise, the people who make great tele prospectors are not necessarily great at closing.

In order to run a really great sales force you need to build a process that enables you to run, manage, motivate and reward a whole team of players, each of whom can hold down their highly specialised position.

Get professional tele prospectors to do the prospecting… and get professional closers to do nothing but close.

Email / Web Response Rates

In 2007 I started to research various suppliers in relation to building a new shed in the back yard.

As seemed only natural, I used the internet.

Looking back, I probably never expected a shed retailer to respond to my email. After all, what would blokes who build sheds be doing using the internet?

But I did expect Readymix, Australia’s market leading supplier of concrete, to respond; especially given the exacting detail required of me when filling out their ‘Request Quotation’ contact form on the company’s web site.

Eight months later I am still waiting for a response to my form.

The more I thought about it the more I realised my attitude to the shed retailers was also troubling.

I found the retailers I approached by searching on Google. I am an Adwords junkie… I always give preference to advertised links as I figure they are the ones most keen to win my business.

Therefore, I was selecting a subset of shed retailers that were web savvy enough to use Google Adwords.

But nonetheless I still never really expected a response to my emails.

In fact, thinking deeply about it I never really expect a response from emails that I send to the generic addresses published on web sites.

How often do you get responses (other than automated ‘we will be in touch soon’ emails) when you send an email or fill out a web form?

Why else would we feel frustrated when a company web site includes an email address or web form on the Contact Us page – but no phone number?

Surely, the reason I feel compelled to reach for the phone is that I instinctively know my chances of actually communicating with a prospective supplier are significantly enhanced compared with the internet.

Or is it that I have just been unlucky and, as a result, am unnecessarily jaundiced in my lack of faith in emails and web forms.

In this paper we will present conclusive statistical evidence that I am not Robinson Crusoe… It is in fact the case that Australian businesses are very poor at responding to and picking up the business knocking at their front door.

Selling into East Asia

The United States is a tough market right now.

But, as we all know, revenue is the lifeblood of any organisation. You can’t live without it.

The challenge now is how do you keep growing, or at least keep your head above water, when 50% or more of your entire marketplace suddenly dies.

Well, the good news is there is an entire planet out there… and one region in particular is experiencing spectacular growth.

East Asia, in particular but not exclusively China, is experiencing a transformational economic growth shift. There are hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of poverty and being transformed into modern, middle class consumers. There are more middle class Chinese then there are Americans – although granted they still don’t have quite the same spending power on a parity basis.

Still, the scope of the opportunities in the East Asian Hemisphere are enormous.

Of course, there are complexities… for a start, the market is split into dozens of small nations, each with their own culture, customs, legal and political frameworks and, more often than not, language.

And, when you look closer you find that what they all share in common is frequently the exact things that set them apart from the United States… things like their culture, their time zone and their way of doing business.

None the less, it seems clear to us, sitting here in Australia, that most of the world’s growth opportunities lie right here in this part of the world.

The companies who emerge the strongest from the current economic storm are going to be those firms who figure out how to tap into the opportunities now on the table in East Asia.

Still trying to figure it out

and I link it to Luke’s blog then it appears on Luke’s blog…