Let's Have a Party!

I’m just back from the USA where I’ve participated in a client’s business launch party in New York, and it reminded me of the importance of public holidays in the country in which you want to export. 

This week, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving – on a par with Christmas for the amount of preparation and food & drink consumed. Everybody was talking about their plans for that festive weekend. You couldn’t find many people intent on focussing exclusively on work around that time, as their thoughts were on finding the right turkey, calling family members or figuring out where to go with friends for the long weekend.

 

We were worried about the attendance (esp. so close after Hurricane Sandy), but it turns out that it was an excellent time to organise the launch party of the new business: lots of important folks turned up, all in festive mood and with a huge degree of empathy towards our team and brand. 

So next time you need to celebrate a company milestone, the anniversary of a business relationship, or the opening of a new office, look at the local calendar first, and choose a date in the week before a major public holiday. And as Elvis said, let’s have a party!

Norbert Sagnard

Deadly Sales Sins

So you’ve made some sales and exported some products. Your company is growing but perhaps not as fast as you would like. And it’s hard work to close those deals and build new markets. Why is it so hard?

Blame the economy, the competition, too much regulation. The sales team’s not working hard enough. The sales culture in the export markets is slow. The new version would help, if only it was finished ……. But could it be because your sales team (or you) are committing some deadly sins? Let’s see.

Are your team wasting time calling non-decision makers? Certainly, there are gate-keepers to be managed and, in the public sector, grade 5 managers play an important influencing role but do you really qualify who your team are spending their time with and why? They may be making their meeting or activity quotas but if they’re talking to the wrong people then so what?

Are your salespeople struggling with closing? Perhaps, but the chances are their problem is not closing. Their problem is wasting time trying to close deals that they should never have qualified into in the first place. Check your qualification process (and it is a process, not a one-off activity at the start of a sales cycle).

So, you’ve made a couple of great sales but finding it difficult to make more. Is your sales process consistent? Have you thoroughly analysed why you made those wins and why you’ve lost others? If you don’t try and document your process, you are doomed to re-invent the wheel each time. What a waste of effort.

What’s the fastest way to get rid of a salesperson? Ask for a proposal. And it is so easy to fall into this trap. It makes us feel busy, engaged, building a pipeline. Equally, there is a good chance we have been thrown a bone to stop us pestering someone, make up the numbers, give them reasons to turn us down. Again, this can be avoided through good qualification and dealing with decision-makers only.

And there are more sins. Do you have measurable sales goals & objectives? Are you getting sufficient customer referrals? Do you think that software (contact management, CRM) is the answer? If you want to know more, talk to me.

Happy Selling.

Geraldine Fusciardi

www.strategy-structure-sales.com

Olympic Selling Strategies

Olympics fever is here and my seven-year old daughter has decided she would like to be an Olympic gymnast.  As I started to explain the intense effort over multiple years, long hours of training, highly-regimented diet (i.e. no sweets) they have to endure, she listened politely, told me that she would do an extra hour of gymnastics on Saturdays and then ran off to happily draw a picture of herself and a gold medal.

Many companies take a similar attitude towards growing their export sales.  They dream of glory, put a little extra effort into sales (attend a conference or exhibition, send some mailshots, go on a trade mission, sign up a couple of partners) and then draw up beautiful spread-sheets showing all the extra sales they expect to reap.   If only it was that easy.

Winning consistently at sales requires similar dedication to winning at sports.  

First, you need to understand and research your chosen export markets before you set your targets.  Do I have the talent and when/where - given the competition and my capabilities - can I maximise my opportunity for winning (“the goal”)? 

Then, you need to create a strategy for achieving your goals (“the game plan”), structure your organisation to win those sales (“the training”) and, finally, you need to execute to win (“the medals”).  And this execution needs to be consistent and persistent – you don’t win with an odd bit of effort here and there.   

As my young daughter will no doubt find out over time, a little bit of extra gymnastics effort is never going to yield Olympic glory.   Don’t make the same mistake with your sales plans – either expanding here or abroad – or you’ll just waste your time (and money).

Geraldine Fusciardi

www.strategy-structure-sales.com

Chinese Patience

For the last few months, it seems that every other conversation I have is about exporting to China: 

Where do you start? Depends upon your product.  

Do I need local partners?  Yes.

Is it expensive? Can be – some of the larger cities have very high costs of living (especially if you want to live to western standards).

What about Intellectual Property rights?  Improving. 

……..

And the Silk Route is thriving - China is currently the world’s largest exporter and set to become the world’s largest importer in a few years according to Minister of Commerce Chen Deming.  Any technology company planning to become a major exporter must include China in their plans.

 InvestNI are organising another Trade Mission to China later this year that is generating a lot of interest.  And although the Republic has stolen a march on everyone by having Vice-President (and soon to be President) Xi Jinping visit last month with a view to increasing international trade (already sitting at €4.5bn pa between Ireland and China), the current visit underway by Liu Yandong, a member of the Chinese Politburo and considered to be the most powerful woman in China, is very positive for Northern Ireland.

I was recently at the Sir Bernard Crossland Lecture in Riddle Hall about “Building Business in Belfast, Bangalore and Bejiing”.  Based on this lecture and my own personal knowledge here are my top tips for conquering China:

1. Best to pitch your brand as an innovative one; Chinese entrepreneurs still regard the West as the bedrock of innovation. 
2. Select your launch location carefully. The regions with the best developed high-tech environments, and where you should first consider setting up an office or finding an experienced, well-connected local partner, are Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Shaanxi.  
3. Build Relationships slowly and seriously – focus on family, education, culture. 
4. Choose colours for your collateral/presentations carefully.  e.g. Green is a colour we associate with the environment, with spring, with Irishness but in China green is associated with exorcism or infidelity.  Red, Blue, Yellow or Black are pretty good in China (although, probably best not to use them all at the same time!).
5. While English is the recognised business language, do have a Chinese translation on the back of your business card.  Do hire interpreters during on-site intense negotiations.
6. Learn about Chinese business protocol  – punctuality, respect for age, dining etiquette, use of titles, giving gifts, conservative dress code.

And my top tip is Be Patient.  The Chinese live in the world’s oldest, continuous civilisation (c4000 years), their macro-economy operates to 5-year economic plans (the 12^th in modern history is just starting) and they resent the impatience of westerners to conclude business quickly.  They will use your impatience to their negotiating advantage, so take it slowly! 

My associate Norbert Sagnard has just added a new associate in Shanghai – Eurasia Consultis – who are now our local hi-tech commercialisation experts, ready to help your business set up locally with the right foundations.

Geraldine Fusciardi

www.strategy-structure-sales.com

Ideas for Selling Northern Ireland

Now, understand that I don’t mean to sell all six counties – I mean, who would buy them?  Only the Russians, the Arabs and the Chinese have any money these days and there’s not enough bling, natural resources (apart from beauty) or even, sadly, big industry to interest any of them in our little part of the world.    No, what I mean, is selling our products and services with a specific focus on our knowledge industry.    I was recently at IdeaFest at the NISP where about 80 of us were exploring ideas to make NI a start-up powerhouse for science and tech entrepreneurs.  Check out http://www.nisp.co.uk/?p=1913 for an overview.

Here are just some of the sales ideas that we discussed:

1.       The brightest and best need to be attracted into the knowledge economy as both entrepreneurs and professional sales people – we need to change the cultural middle-class focus from valuing doctors/dentists/lawyers above all others and get them to value careers in the job-creating knowledge sector.

2.       Put the market back into research on a regular global basis.  Research should not just be product-led (nor single-company driven).  We need to actively encourage ideas/innovation in market areas that have true global growth potential.  The only way we will know which areas is through regular Market Research on tracking trends around the world and actively encouraging entrepreneurs to develop ideas to meet the fastest growing opportunities (perhaps triggering “second-mover advantage” which many times can be better than “first mover advantage”). 

3.       Everyone needs to sell but not everyone can sell.  Let’s admit this.  Too often entrepreneurs attend a 3-5 day sales course and then everyone assumes (including themselves) they can now sell – not only locally but around the globe.  Would you employ someone to code for you on the basis of a one-week training course?

4.       Establish a Sales Academy to properly embed sales psychology, tools and processes, build exporting expertise, and raise the status of professional sales people. 

5.       Marketing and Sales needs to be more tightly linked in how companies operate and how they are supported – too often I see companies thinking and acting as if these are two entirely different activities (and the grants process only encourages such thinking).

6.       Clustering/Incubation needs to be supported at multiple locations across NI.  While Belfast should be the major hub, we need to encourage and support ideas throughout the north.

Finally, professional marketing and sales support should be on-going for high-growth companies – a combination of hands-on support, mentoring and structuring of their sales activity appropriately.   Once we have identified the high-growth companies then let’s ensure they are supported to achieve their potential.  Now, I would say that, wouldn’t I?  But let’s not forget that key measures of success for companies (and our economy) are sales and jobs, and the first drives the later!  

Geraldine Fusciardi

www.strategy-structure-sales.com

Leading NI economist tells us to get on our planes and export!

Well, you don’t have to own the plane to do this but exporting is exactly what we need to do to rebuild our economy. Now, this is not news to me – I’ve been preaching this message for a long time. But let’s give the weight of mightier minds than mine to the message.

At a recent breakfast meeting, organised by the Sales Institute of Ireland, Dr. Esmond Birnie, Chief Economist at PWC NI waxed lyrical about adapting to the “new normal” of the legacy of the financial crisis, dealing with structural adjustments and low growth in the developed economies and creating opportunities from the rise of Asia and, in particular, the BRIC countries.

And with the public sector contracting and NI’s over-dependence on it for both jobs and trade, selling locally is becoming harder and harder.

So the basic message is that the private sector needs to export more to these new growing markets (NI companies currently export only 3% of their products and services to BRIC economies). So get on a plane, find a well-connected taxi driver and cruise for business. Or alternatively, engage with local experts who’ll do some research to find the right markets, partners and channels for your business. And even help you close those first critical deals.

One final option is to stay at home, make no decisions for now and hope for “good times to return again”. But please remember that hope is not a strategy.

Geraldine Fusciardi
http://www.strategy-structure-sales.com/

Marketing is a Process. And it leads to higher sales.

Many technology companies identify marketers as being primarily concerned with tactical communication (e.g. “we need to change our logo”). If you think of Marketing as a process however, the sequential approach of performing thorough market research, of calculating and identifying the most profitable markets and segments and of developing a concerted plan to involve all relevant colleagues to ‘go-to-market’, is a sound business practise that is designed to reduce risk and save time. 

Many leading tech companies I deal with in Ireland seem to forgo this process, while in fact unconsciously they compress all these steps into a few days, often leading to conclusions and decisions that waste the R&D budgets (new products launched despite limited market appeal) or prevent repeatable sales (a first and only customer represented “a big market”), hence increasing the cost of sale. This can happen in hyped-up markets where the technology and its derived products can be copied fast (ever heard of Microsoft Hohm, killed off even before its proper launch? or of Google Buzz, pushed to market and promptly pulled back, only to be re-launched worldwide as Google+ ? The difference is that no NI company has a cash pile of $30 bn. and can afford such costly mistakes. So every time I try to help a company get more sales out of marketing, I follow a rigorous marketing process.

Whereas twenty years ago, I would devise five-year Marketing Plans for Telecoms companies, the increasing pace of change over the past decade forced me to narrow down to three-year, then eventually to one-year plans. You may argue, “what’s the point of spending time to prepare a document with such a limited shelf-life?” Well, writing a plan actually kicks off the Marketing process, and helps you reflect and ask where you really want to lead your business. Once the basis has been set, it’s easier, more flexible and useful to transform that plan into a rolling basis one-year document (reviewed every three to six months). That is enough to get colleagues across the company aligned on positioning, message, sales pitch, benefits and the value proposition brought to your customers.  

Norbert Sagnard

www.sagnard.biz

Who's afraid of the sales guy?

I’m petite and highly unlikely to personally inspire fear in anyone (except perhaps my husband!). However, what I am proposing for most companies and their employees is scary. I may look like I am selling software or hardware or mobile applications or outsourced services but what I am really selling is change. So be afraid, be very afraid!

Endless studies have been written about the psychology of change and its impact on sales (a simple Google search will turn up about 26m references). As well as change, prospects are also scared by:




Conflict. Decisions that colleagues or other departments oppose are simply too risky to pursue.
Work. If they think that your solution requires a lot more work on their part, they will not buy.
Failure. If you do not deliver, they will be held accountable for the bad choice.

And the bigger the company, the worse it gets (although they won’t necessarily always admit this!). And exporting makes the situation even scarier. Prospects then have fears about your ability to support them locally, fears about cultural misunderstandings and fears about solution fit to their local needs.

So, how can you minimise this fear?
1. Watch your language – avoid scary words that imply major change (transformation, radical, quantum, dramatic) both verbally and in writing and where possible, communicate in your prospect’s native language.
2. Improve on existing solutions - if appropriate, illustrate how your offering blends with and improves existing practice (small changes). Demonstrate an understanding of local norms.
3. Talk to more people – the more you are known within an organisation, the less scary what you are proposing will appear. This is especially important when your solution crosses departments – try convincing multiple department stakeholders of your value. Build some consensus. Link them with similar staff in your existing customer base.
4. Talk to senior staff – they are more likely to embrace change agendas, understand your value and have more influence on the final decision. By-passing middle management fears.
5. Map out the work-load – Be very clear what work will be required of your prospects and try very hard to actually minimise what they will have to do. Have a Plan B ready. Show how you will “hand-hold”. Build your solution with implementation effort in mind.
6. Build local partnerships – when exporting, this will help allay many prospect fears about your commitment to their country and minimise the potential for cultural misunderstandings.

However, inspiring fear in the gatekeepers of your prospects may not be a bad idea – make them afraid of not putting you through to their bosses.

Geraldine Fusciardi
http://www.strategy-structure-sales.com/