ZINFI Technologies, Inc.

The only thing that is consistent in the competitive landscape of the global marketplace is that things are constantly changing. While supply and demand will constantly shift, the one thing that won’t ever change is the need to implement strategic selling techniques. Strategic selling is about learning to focus your formal and informal initiatives to gain new business in your prospective market.

While we have all read countless tips  for strategic selling initiatives, it’s interesting that most people forget the two main goals of any sales process. The first goal is simple: Get into the head of your customer. As a salesperson, you need to understand your target market inside and out. Goal number two is a bit harder: Create a sales strategy or recipe with a process that is always visible, logical and repeatable for continued success.

Keeping those two primary goals in mind, let’s take a look at five frequently overlooked strategic sales techniques that can greatly add to your sales game and help you improve your closing ratios:

Start with who you are and focus on what is right in front of you. Have you ever heard one of your parents say, “Don’t try to be something you are not”? The same mantra applies here. What most people tend to miss in strategic sales is that prospects are often closer than they think. By putting a foothold down in your real life, or spending time with your existing contacts on social media, you will often find that new sales are at your fingertips. Not only do people like to have a firm understanding of who you are, your existing network often knows much more than you think they do. Some of the best salespeople I have ever met are constantly connecting with other people to establish a firm identity, reputation and social network. Once that is established, climbing into new territory is much easier because you already have support.

Forget fancy industry terminology and focus on H2H (human-to-human) communication. The most attractive person in the world is a confident person. It can be incredibly hard to remain confident if you are throwing around big words or trying to impress people with fancy industry terminology and expertise. Often, like most things, the answer is as easy as KISS: Keep It Simple, Silly. Strategic selling is not about getting fancy—it is about creating a winning process. A winning sales process remembers that people follow people. Even more to the point, people follow CONFIDENT people.

Segment leads by deal size for maximum efficiency. While not all salespeople are good at cold calling or generating their own leads, all salespeople need to prioritize deals they have in their pipeline. One of the basic principles in sales is understanding the difference between the effort it takes to close a small deal versus a larger deal. Typically, the larger deal just takes more work. When hunting both “rabbits “(smaller sales) and “elephants” (larger sales), a strategic sales professional will learn to aim for a ratio of about 80% rabbits to 20% elephants. By focusing more time on the rabbits, salespeople can ensure they continuously meet their sales quotas.

Ask for the sale AND the referral. All sales start with one simple question: “Do you want to buy my product or service?” The truth is a lot of people actually forget this over time. However, another equally important principle people tend to forget is to go after the low-hanging fruit! “Do you know anyone else who may be interested in my product or service?” is an equally strategic sales question.

Engage prospects and clients for feedback. A strategic sale does not end when the sale does or does not close. A great strategic seller understands the importance of feedback. Not only does feedback help you find out why you lost a sale and what you could do differently next time, it can also alert you to another low-hanging prospect that may generate a sale. Quite often, retention is that new acquisition. By simply engaging your prospect or client, you can become aware of other products, services or add-ons that may turn out to be of interest.

A strategic sales initiative really is only as good to the extent that it is repeatable. While it can be tempting to get lost in the complex world of strategy, sometimes upping your closing ratios is as simple as remembering to apply steadfast, proven rules to your game. As we watch people get too complicated with diets or other plans for success, one by one we see that over the long haul, slow and steady wins the race. For more information on proven best practice sales and marketing techniques, please visit us at ZINFI.com.

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The only thing that is consistent in the competitive landscape of the global marketplace is that things are constantly changing. While supply and demand will constantly shift, the one thing that won’t ever change is the need to implement strategic selling techniques. Strategic selling is about learning to focus your formal and informal initiatives to gain new business in your prospective market.

While we have all read countless tips  for strategic selling initiatives, it’s interesting that most people forget the two main goals of any sales process. The first goal is simple: Get into the head of your customer. As a salesperson, you need to understand your target market inside and out. Goal number two is a bit harder: Create a sales strategy or recipe with a process that is always visible, logical and repeatable for continued success.

Keeping those two primary goals in mind, let’s take a look at five frequently overlooked strategic sales techniques that can greatly add to your sales game and help you improve your closing ratios:

* Start with who you are and focus on what is right in front of you. Have you ever heard one of your parents say, “Don’t try to be something you are not”? The same mantra applies here. What most people tend to miss in strategic sales is that prospects are often closer than they think. By putting a foothold down in your real life, or spending time with your existing contacts on social media, you will often find that new sales are at your fingertips. Not only do people like to have a firm understanding of who you are, your existing network often knows much more than you think they do. Some of the best salespeople I have ever met are constantly connecting with other people to establish a firm identity, reputation and social network. Once that is established, climbing into new territory is much easier because you already have support.

* Forget fancy industry terminology and focus on H2H (human-to-human) communication. The most attractive person in the world is a confident person. It can be incredibly hard to remain confident if you are throwing around big words or trying to impress people with fancy industry terminology and expertise. Often, like most things, the answer is as easy as KISS: Keep It Simple, Silly. Strategic selling is not about getting fancy—it is about creating a winning process. A winning sales process remembers that people follow people. Even more to the point, people follow CONFIDENT people.

* Segment leads by deal size for maximum efficiency. While not all salespeople are good at cold calling or generating their own leads, all salespeople need to prioritize deals they have in their pipeline. One of the basic principles in sales is understanding the difference between the effort it takes to close a small deal versus a larger deal. Typically, the larger deal just takes more work. When hunting both “rabbits “(smaller sales) and “elephants” (larger sales), a strategic sales professional will learn to aim for a ratio of about 80% rabbits to 20% elephants. By focusing more time on the rabbits, salespeople can ensure they continuously meet their sales quotas.

* Ask for the sale AND the referral. All sales start with one simple question: “Do you want to buy my product or service?” The truth is a lot of people actually forget this over time. However, another equally important principle people tend to forget is to go after the low-hanging fruit! “Do you know anyone else who may be interested in my product or service?” is an equally strategic sales question.

* Engage prospects and clients for feedback. A strategic sale does not end when the sale does or does not close. A great strategic seller understands the importance of feedback.

Over the last decade or so, a new category of software called partner relationship management software or PRM software has been evolving rapidly. What’s the primary driver behind this evolution? Organizations are recognizing the need to build a direct sales force that can increase their reach and drive sales at a lower cost. PRM software tends to address four basic areas of partner lifecycle management: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.

In this article, we will explore how to effectively manage incentive programs that are designed to enhance partner behavior and performance. As part of that discussion, we’ll examine the core requirements and capabilities of PRM software in more detail. But before we begin to specifically address incentive management, let’s talk a bit about channel management, and why it’s so complex. (For a more detailed discussion of the challenges of channel management, please refer to our on the topic.)

Challenges

At a high level, when a company is selling through an indirect reseller channel or a franchise network in multiple cities or even countries around the world, it will likely have to deal with various types of partners who sell into different segments and verticals, and these partners may have different sales philosophies. Some may sell a lot, some may sell a little and some are in between. Different organizations may have different sales requirements. Most importantly, the sales programs may also be changing on a quarterly basis. As an organization introduces new products, and as it acquires new companies and capabilities, it may have to drive sales by launching new programs designed to change behaviors and by offering rewards for specific behaviors. Just as employee incentives are critical in driving performance within the organization, partner incentives are an essential element in driving the performance of partners.

There are basically three types of incentive programs that companies need to manage:

Market development funds (MDF). These are funds that are given to a partner—usually based on their sales volume—to engage in additional marketing activities to generate demand.

Rebates. These are provided when a partner’s sales exceed a specified level: the higher the level of sales, the larger the rebate and the better the partner’s margin.

Sales rewards. These are typically given to individuals who achieve large sales volumes. The goal with these rewards is to ensure that each sales rep or technical rep is financially incentivized to drive adoption of certain products and solutions.

Interestingly, most vendors today still manage these incentives using email or Excel files or other types of tools, and they lack an automated infrastructure to drive the process. Because these tools are not integrated and not designed specifically for handling partner relationships, managing and measuring the ROI from incentive programs is a major challenge for many organizations—and that’s where PRM software can make a significant difference.

Solutions

How can PRM software solve this problem? It allows a vendor to significantly streamline activities associated with people, processes, programs and automation.

Programs: Channel programs tend to fall into the categories we discussed earlier: MDF, rebates and sales rewards. For these programs to be effective, they need to be closely aligned with sales and marketing objectives. For example, when a company launches a specific product, it may want to provide incentives of various types or levels simultaneously. They may offer development funds to a specific group of partners who are most capable of selling those products. In addition to MDF, they may give rebates to partners that sell at a certain level. They might also offer sale rewards to reps, who will likely have to learn how to sell a new product and may be motivated by financial incentives to do so. When managing incentives at these various levels, alignment of various programs is critical. That’s where PRM software comes in, giving vendors an easy way to quickly set up an incentive program, track it over time and improve it.

People: When we talk about incentives, we are not just talking about partners. Incentives may also be provided for internal sales people, channel account managers, distribution managers and other people from within the organization who are supporting a partner in their efforts to sell something new or sell specified products. In that case, an incentive management system should allow the vendor to set up sales incentives and track performance, not just for external entities like their channel partners, but also for their own internal personnel. Again, PRM software can help significantly.

Processes: When a channel program needs to be set up, typically it is done manually. Perhaps a campaign site is created, an email goes out and sales people may be given scripts to use as they reach out to educate partners. Good PRM software will allow you to automate and streamline these processes. For example, vendors can use the software to set up microsites with different channel programs and incentives programs, and it can accommodate strategies to drive these programs via sales kits and other sales enablement tools in an efficient, compact way. Once programs have been launched, PRM software can provide tracking tools to monitor adoption rates at a detailed level. How many partners are engaging in a specific program? How many have signed up for additional training? Have they set up demos of products and services? How effective are the programs in terms of sales? All of this can be measured and tracked over time so that organizations can see which programs are most effective.

Automation: When the goal is to streamline the management of incentives via programs, people and processes, automation is what makes it all happen. Automation can be a huge help to vendors who wish to track their relationships with their partner base in an integrated and efficient way. Automation allows them to run incentives programs across multiple countries, various types of partners, different segments and verticals, and organizations with different sales philosophies and changing sales requirements. With PRM software, companies can automate and keep track of these diverse and dynamic elements in a single online interface, thus reducing the labor costs involved in managing multiple programs simultaneously on the vendor side, as well as increasing the effectiveness of the programs and boosting ROI. The vendor can see at a glance which programs are working well and which are not, and then decide which programs to drop or continue.

These are just a few of the ways in which PRM software can significantly help vendors manage their incentive programs.

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Over the last decade or so, a new category of software called partner relationship management software or PRM software has been evolving rapidly. What’s the primary driver behind this evolution? Organizations are recognizing the need to build a direct sales force that can increase their reach and drive sales at a lower cost. PRM software tends to address four basic areas of partner lifecycle management: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.In this article, we will explore how to effectively manage incentive programs that are designed to enhance partner behavior and performance. As part of that discussion, we’ll examine the core requirements and capabilities of PRM software in more detail. But before we begin to specifically address incentive management, let’s talk a bit about channel management, and why it’s so complex. (For a more detailed discussion of the challenges of channel management, please refer to our on the topic.)ChallengesAt a high level, when a company is selling through an indirect reseller channel or a franchise network in multiple cities or even countries around the world, it will likely have to deal with various types of partners who sell into different segments and verticals, and these partners may have different sales philosophies. Some may sell a lot, some may sell a little and some are in between. Different organizations may have different sales requirements. Most importantly, the sales programs may also be changing on a quarterly basis. As an organization introduces new products, and as it acquires new companies and capabilities, it may have to drive sales by launching new programs designed to change behaviors and by offering rewards for specific behaviors. Just as employee incentives are critical in driving performance within the organization, partner incentives are an essential element in driving the performance of partners.There are basically three types of incentive programs that companies need to manage:* Market development funds (MDF). These are funds that are given to a partner—usually based on their sales volume—to engage in additional marketing activities to generate demand.*

Over the last decade or so, a new category of software called partner relationship management software or PRM software has been evolving rapidly. What’s the primary driver behind this evolution? Organizations are recognizing the need to build a direct sales force that can increase their reach and drive sales at a lower cost. PRM software tends to address four basic areas of partner lifecycle management: partner recruitment, partner engagement, partner enablement and partner management.

In this article, we will explore how to effectively manage incentive programs that are designed to enhance partner behavior and performance. As part of that discussion, we’ll examine the core requirements and capabilities of PRM software in more detail. But before we begin to specifically address incentive management, let’s talk a bit about channel management, and why it’s so complex. (For a more detailed discussion of the challenges of channel management, please refer to our on the topic.)

Challenges

At a high level, when a company is selling through an indirect reseller channel or a franchise network in multiple cities or even countries around the world, it will likely have to deal with various types of partners who sell into different segments and verticals, and these partners may have different sales philosophies. Some may sell a lot, some may sell a little and some are in between. Different organizations may have different sales requirements. Most importantly, the sales programs may also be changing on a quarterly basis. As an organization introduces new products, and as it acquires new companies and capabilities, it may have to drive sales by launching new programs designed to change behaviors and by offering rewards for specific behaviors. Just as employee incentives are critical in driving performance within the organization, partner incentives are an essential element in driving the performance of partners.

There are basically three types of incentive programs that companies need to manage:

* Market development funds (MDF). These are funds that are given to a partner—usually based on their sales volume—to engage in additional marketing activities to generate demand.

* Rebates. These are provided when a partner’s sales exceed a specified level: the higher the level of sales, the larger the rebate and the better the partner’s margin.

* Sales rewards. These are typically given to individuals who achieve large sales volumes. The goal with these rewards is to ensure that each sales rep or technical rep is financially incentivized to drive adoption of certain products and solutions.

Interestingly, most vendors today still manage these incentives using email or Excel files or other types of tools, and they lack an automated infrastructure to drive the process. Because these tools are not integrated and not designed specifically for handling partner relationships,

Why is multi-touch marketing important? Customers today live in a complex buying world. They now have the option to buy in traditional brick-and-mortar stores as well as online, by phone, via social media and more. Making it easy for the customer to make a purchase has been taken to the next level. While this is great news for most consumers, it requires a new thought process in the world of marketing. In order to reinforce their company’s brand and message, marketers are now required to reach out to consumers in a variety of different ways at the same time. While most marketers these days are aware that they will need to communicate across a variety of channels, many forget that for maximum effectiveness they should be doing it all at same time. Below are some of the most prominent reasons why multi-touch marketing is no longer optional for successful campaigns.

Your customers want a choice. In an age where digital marketing and integrated campaigns emphasize the importance of a good website, it is important to consider that your competitors are going to meet your prospects in a variety of different communication channels. Your website just isn’t enough. As a rule of thumb, you truly can’t afford not to be present in at least two spaces other than your website. While we all will spend time examining our organic and paid SEO, you should really consider that your website is just like the goal on a soccer field. While it is nice to have a goal to aim for, if you focus all of your efforts just on that you are leaving the rest of the field wide open. It’s is crucial to consider using complimentary methods of communication to get in front of your customers. If you don’t, someone else will….

Multi-touch marketing increases the ROI of your campaign. Let’s face it. We all want our campaigns to “stick” with our consumers. There are a million ways that we, as marketers, can increase the likelihood of this happening, but one way is constantly overlooked: Just try squeezing the bottle of glue. While a marketer’s first attempts at multi-touch marketing communication may be awkward or slightly ineffective, over time the skills will improve. The point is to keep trying. Going back to the analogy of a soccer field, you can’t score until you get in the game and start leveraging the efforts of multiple players on the field.  Any new attempt at multi-touch marketing is going to increase your chance of success by exploring a new channel for reaching potential customers, and that automatically ups your likelihood of better campaign ROI.

Buyers are naturally suspicious. Basic human psychology tells us that human beings like to minimize risk. The more familiar something is to them, the more likely they are to be less suspicious of it. While there is no “set” number of touches that ensures the conversion of a lead, we do know that multi-touch marketing is an easy way to help a prospect feel more familiar with a brand and its value proposition.

Gone are the days of 2D selling. Multi-touch marketing is now considered one of the most effective methods to increase brand awareness and ultimately bring in more sales. Over time and with practice, it’s a great way to find out which marketing techniques will ultimately yield the highest response. In a world where multi-touch marketing has become the norm, your next step may be to explore available tools and services to help you thrive and generate qualified leads of the highest value.

For more information on marketing automation or demand generation services, please visit us at ZINFI.com.

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Why is multi-touch marketing important? Customers today live in a complex buying world. They now have the option to buy in traditional brick-and-mortar stores as well as online, by phone, via social media and more. Making it easy for the customer to make a purchase has been taken to the next level. While this is great news for most consumers, it requires a new thought process in the world of marketing. In order to reinforce their company’s brand and message, marketers are now required to reach out to consumers in a variety of different ways at the same time. While most marketers these days are aware that they will need to communicate across a variety of channels, many forget that for maximum effectiveness they should be doing it all at same time. Below are some of the most prominent reasons why multi-touch marketing is no longer optional for successful campaigns.

* Your customers want a choice. In an age where digital marketing and integrated campaigns emphasize the importance of a good website, it is important to consider that your competitors are going to meet your prospects in a variety of different communication channels. Your website just isn’t enough. As a rule of thumb, you truly can’t afford not to be present in at least two spaces other than your website. While we all will spend time examining our organic and paid SEO, you should really consider that your website is just like the goal on a soccer field. While it is nice to have a goal to aim for, if you focus all of your efforts just on that you are leaving the rest of the field wide open. It’s is crucial to consider using complimentary methods of communication to get in front of your customers. If you don’t, someone else will….

* Multi-touch marketing increases the ROI of your campaign. Let’s face it. We all want our campaigns to “stick” with our consumers. There are a million ways that we, as marketers, can increase the likelihood of this happening, but one way is constantly overlooked: Just try squeezing the bottle of glue. While a marketer’s first attempts at multi-touch marketing communication may be awkward or slightly ineffective, over time the skills will improve. The point is to keep trying. Going back to the analogy of a soccer field, you can’t score until you get in the game and start leveraging the efforts of multiple players on the field.  Any new attempt at multi-touch marketing is going to increase your chance of success by exploring a new channel for reaching potential customers, and that automatically ups your likelihood of better campaign ROI.

* Buyers are naturally suspicious. Basic human psychology tells us that human beings like to minimize risk. The more familiar something is to them, the more likely they are to be less suspicious of it. While there is no “set” number of touches that ensures the conversion of a lead, we do know that multi-touch marketing is an easy way to help a prospect feel more familiar with a brand and its value proposition.

Gone are the days of 2D selling. Multi-touch marketing is now considered one of the most effective methods to increase brand awareness and ultimately bring in more sales. Over time and with practice, it’s a great way to find out which marketing techniques will ultimately yield the highest response. In a world where multi-touch marketing has become the norm, your next step may be to explore available tools and services to help you thrive and generate qualified leads of the highest value.

For more information on marketing automation or demand generation services, please visit us at ZINFI.com.