May 15, 2008 — 9:00am to 10:30am (Pacific Time)
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Sales Myth vs. Reality: 22 Truths about the Undone Deal |
presented by: Kristin Zhivago, Zhivago
Marketing Partners
Who should attend?
CEO, VPs/Directors of Marketing, VPs/Directors of Sales
What's it about?
Today's buyers aren't open-mouthed rubes who are just waiting for your salesperson to dazzle them with "features
and benefits." They are smart, sophisticated, in a hurry, and very, very knowledgeable. Half the time, they know
more about your product than your salesperson. But even if they didn't, they'd have the advantage - because they
know what they want.
What they want - and what they are really buying from you - are two types of experience: a buying experience and a using
experience. Before they even visit your website or talk to a salesperson, they have a vision - a "scenario" in mind for
these two experiences. How well your behavior (that of your website and that of your salesperson) matches that scenario
will determine if you make the sale - or not.
Kristin Zhivago coaches salespeople. Her experience listening to their calls has convinced her that salespeople waste 70%
of each call on non-helpful conversation. "They chat and push and 'inform' the customer instead of listening and responding.
They don't answer the questions the customer asks. They often say things that make the customer decide, 'I will never do
business with this guy!'" When this happens, does the customer let on? Nope. The customer lets the salesperson think the
sale is proceeding nicely - when he has absolutely no intention of buying. That same salesperson will come back to the
office boasting how he just made a sale, while the customer has gone back to his desk and is contacting the competition.
Buyers don't tell salespeople what they're really thinking, in the typical sales call. But there is a way to find out what
buyers want - and how they want to buy it from you - before you send another salesperson to meet with customers. There
is a way to get in sync with their buying process, to the point where you make it easy for them to say yes. Zhivago calls
it "the guided buy," and will teach you how to do it.
What will the class cover?
- 7 Salesperson Sales-Stoppers and how you can eliminate them
- 5 selling mistakes that software CEOs always make
- 5 questions you can ask current customers to transform your selling process from "blind pitching" to "the
guided buy"
- Why classic selling methods aren't working anymore
- What customers are buying from you: A buying experience and a using experience, and how you can optimize those experiences
- so they WANT to buy from you
- How you can identify their "experience expectations"
- Why their buying process is your "roadmap to revenue" - and how to build a buying process map for your product
- An example of a typical software buying process - from the buyer's perspective - and how you can avoid the pitfalls
How do you know if you need this class?
Ninety minutes with Kristin will help in several ways if you:
- You are working harder than ever for every sale - and each sale is becoming less profitable
- Your salespeople are certain that they've made a sale, when they haven't - and you can't figure out what's going wrong
- You are spending $$$ on getting leads, but you're not seeing the conversion rates you need to make money - customers
are dropping out of the funnel during the selling process
- Your competitors are succeeding where you aren't
- Your customers are coming to you ready to buy and your website (or your salesperson) still can't close the sale
- You believe you have a superior product but you can't convince customers
What will attendees receive?
In addition to a copy of the course slides, every paid registrant gets the following BONUS items:
- 90 minutes of free coaching from Kristin Zhivago - including a discussion about your website
- Evaluation of 3 recorded sales calls
What should you do ahead of time?
- Interview two of your salespeople - the most successful one and the least successful one. Ask them what happened
when they made the sale, and what happened when they didn't - see if they can tell you why.
- Read some of Kristin's blog articles at http://www.revenuejournal.com
Note: this information is not required.
About the instructor
Kristin Zhivago began her career as the first woman to sell machine shop tools for a Pratt & Whitney distributor in 1969. She’s been on the bleeding edge of the hottest markets ever since.
Zhivago founded Zhivago Marketing Partners, Inc. in Silicon Valley in 1979. Clients range from thriving young start-ups to
those in the Fortune 500, including Dow Jones, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson.
Kristin is an expert on the customer's buying process. Over the years, she has devised, tested, and perfected a marketing and selling method that works in all industries, for all types of products. She helps her clients understand buyer needs, and then meet those needs with their products, people, and processes. She teaches company owners and managers how to answer all buyer questions in a way that will make it easy for the buyer to say "yes."
Zhivago speaks and teaches frequently. She has spoken repeatedly for the American Electronics Association, the Business Marketing
Association, and MarketingSherpa's BtoB Lead Generation Summit; she has also presented at the American Marketing Association,
the Colorado Marcom Association, the IntelliQuest Brand Tech Forum, San Jose State University, the Software Entrepreneur’s
Forum, The SoftLetter Software Marketing and e-Commerce summits, New Media Expo and The Best of eMarketing conference.
Kristin is the editor of the Revenue Journal, a blog for company leaders. She published Marketing Technology, an ezine for
marketers, from 1991 to 2004. Her articles and monthly columns have appeared in numerous trade and business journals, including
MarketingSherpa's newsletters, BtoB magazine, Sales Advertising Marketing magazine, Business 2.0, SoftwareCEO.com, BtoB, Adweek's
Technology Marketing, and CMO magazine.
She is also the author of a business growth book, Rivers of Revenue.
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