Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1515304
12 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2024 happened." But what's happening is you are mak- ing people aware of what you do and why you do it better. at's what leads to more customers. Matties: How do you define the sales process and how do you get people to follow it? Beaulieu: First, you warm up your leads. at's the marketing part of it. You do some content marketing, like newsletters, tech bulletins, and posts on social media, or strictly educational con- tent, like a book with I-Connect007 or technical paper. e salesperson can take comfort that it's not a cold call because it has been "warmed up" through marketing. Your book program, I would say, creates some pretty hot leads. e next part is the reach out. I'm finding that people hate to pick up the phone and talk to a potential customer, but that's what sales is. As we do great marketing, we also have to train the salesperson. For example, say we do a lead gen- eration project and then give those names to the salesperson, who comes back to us and com- plains that we didn't give them any phone num- bers. I want to say, "Well, why don't we make the call and eliminate your part altogether? It seems we're doing everything else anyway." erefore, the process is taking the lead and calling the person. ere's no way around it. But you take comfort that the person already knows who you are. at's because of market- ing. e customer feels that you're doing them a favor by selling them your product. at's how I train people. Don't go in there, hanging your head and saying, "Please, sir, can I have an order?" Go in feeling the strength of your product. Be confident that it fits the customer perfectly, and that you can sell it. en do that over and over again. Be prepared for your sales call, whether on the phone or in person. Have an agenda; know what you want and the steps to getting there. Along with that, know when to shut up and listen. Remember, the customer has been warmed up, so listen and find out what their problem is. How can you help them? If you lis- ten carefully, they will tell you what they need. en follow up, but be patient. e last step is to "sell" the potential customer to your own company. Make sure your com- pany understands what this customer brings and why they should work with this customer. Your company will be making the product, so they need to see that it's the right amount and type of business, and that it's synergistic to what you're building already because it pro- motes your brand. Matties: It seems like that last step should be done in the beginning because you don't want to waste your time on a company that doesn't fit. We've seen companies bring in the wrong business and pay dearly for that. Not just in resources, but in reputation as well. Beaulieu: Yes, that's true. ere is qualification in the marketing and planning phases as well. I was at a meeting once, and we were reviewing account plans, which are a qualification process because they include how much business will come from this customer per year. e person putting up the account plans said, "We're los- ing because it takes too long to quote. Our pro- cesses are slow." ey had three plans in a row, and the total available market for the year was $7,000. Planning exposes the priorities. Dan Beaulieu