B2B face to face selling

[LionelJohnson]

Hello Everyone,

I would love to hear people's experiences on approaching business shop fronts and introducing and selling your services. I know Ric Chapman has covered it in some detail in past newsletters and his book, but I wonder how many of us actually do this?

I am currently working on my sales strategy after transition from residential to business clients. Obviously, mailshots, flyers and other direct marketing can play a part, but just letting the clients come to you is not proactive enough. Selling B2B services takes a little more consideration and effort than B2C. Whereas my flyers worked before for residential clients (along with word of mouth and web presence) it's not direct enough for businesses. Cold calling is too easily refused and rejected. Community events, networking and handing out business cards are possibilities but not go getting enough to rely on.

The only real (and somewhat daunting) way of getting those business clients (and taking the most control over the marketing process) is by approaching them in person and making your pitch. This is taking the most responsibility for success and client generation. So, the way I look at it, we should not just aspire to be great techs, but also great salespeople, even if we are not naturally inclined to those skills.

As mentioned, I am working on my pitch (targetting small businesses) and so far I think the following steps should be included:

- Getting to a decision maker ASAP. Get past gatekeepers/front desk by asking for the manager by his/her first name (assumes familiarity, obviously names should be part of your research).

- Briefly introducing yourself to the manager/decision maker. Your name, business name, where it is based, and what you do, i.e. providing IT consultancy and support to small businesses. Introduction is no more than 20 seconds.

- Sitting down and making the pitch. Ask questions and find out what systems they are using. I.e. how many desktops, if there is a server, and so on, any problems they are currently dealing with, etc. (XP check, etc). Information is crucial for finding out what services / plans you can try to sell to them. You want your pitch to be as relevant and bespoke to fit them as possible.

- Make sure to mention and highlight your credentials and experience in an honest but favorable way.

- When making sales, be sensitive to their pay schedules. Don't insist upon payment upfront for every service/plan or on each call, if the business only pays on specific dates even if it's once a month. That being said, where possible do try to get a deposit upfront before undertaking agreed work. Legally viable and signed agreement forms and contracts are a must. There are usable documents for this purpose in the Technibble computer repair business kit.

- Even if the prospective client already has a support contract with a competitor, offer a free hour (or longer) of support / consultation for them to use so they can evaluate what you are offering. Let them know they can call you to redeem this freebie at any time (schedule permitting). Hand over promotional materials about your services and a professionally designed business card.

- If no services are sold at this time, make your closing statement by thanking them for their time and letting them know you would be happy to work with them in the future.

I will be refining and adding to the process, but I think these are the basic pointers of what should take place in a B2B face to face sales visit. Would love to hear any ideas / experiences.

Thank you.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Haven't really done it hard in a while. Just last week though...went somewhere with my wife....noticed a few mini-professional centers along one road we were on....and I recall saying out loud..."Now here's a place I gotta go do some 'Door to door' on soon!"

We're ready to go on another growth spurt...and I am going to employ this tactic.

I look at doing door to door to businesses this way. It's not very often you get an immediate sale. Because when you think about it, most businesses already have an IT person. What you want to do is get yourself in their minds...because over the next year or several...some of those businesses will get unhappy with their current IT guy and look for another one. Or...perhaps their IT guy will go out of business, or move, or take a corporate job or other full time job and not have the time to support them anymore. Now they're going to go find a new IT guy. Hopefully you'll come to mind. Maybe they kept your card. Maybe they'll remember "that guy that walked in last month".

Best thing to do is keep fresh in their minds. Next year...go to them again. The year after that...go again!

Keep introducing yourself, keep offering your services.

Drop off a booklet/binder/pamphlet (whatever you want to call it) with a few pages of your services. Don't bore them telling them about all your separate services...just that you're an IT guy that offers IT services to businesses.

Try to hand them a couple of extra business cards. More often than not, your pamphlet will get tossed...but if you hand a couple of extra biz cards...sometimes they'll keep one biz card "just in case". If you can hand one or two to a couple of different people there when you're there...better the chance!

Don't do some inventory there...you're sole purpose of this walk in is to introduce yourself, and get your name recognized, and your services known. You wait until you're called to do that first onsite/survey of things.

Door to door...or "face to face"....gives you an opportunity to sell YOU! This can be an advantage to some people....such as those of us that love to talk, that don't mind speaking in front of strangers. Or it could be a hindrance to some people...as we all know, some "IT guys" are socially challenged people. In those cases they're better off hiring a sales person to do door to door.

One thing to do...if you don't have any resources like "chambers" or "BNI" groups to find referrals...is pick a few businesses...and try to find someone that works there. If you're going after businesses in town...where your shop is...and perhaps you live there, chances are you know someone, or know someone that knows someone..that works at this business you're about to target. Do some homework! Find out! Ask...ask...and ask! Maybe a neighbor works there. Or the wife of a friend of yours. Or the husband of some lady that works at an existing client of yours. It can take time...weeks...months...a year...but always keep this stuff in the back of your mind, work it, and you'll be amazed at how it pays off.

 

[altrenda]

All good suggestions.
the key to this is persistence. Not being pushy or high pressure, but keep coming back if they are the type customer you want.

The saying is that 80% of sales are closed on the 5th call, but most people give up after 3.

 

[abaxter]

There are some who say that B2B purchasing isn't emotional. Wrong. If you're lucky enough to get some face time and do a sales pitch, they're thinking to themselves, "What does my boss think of this? Is this going to screw up the business? How will I look if this ends up going south?" If the guy who pulls the trigger on buying knows or believes that his job security is directly connected to the success or failure of whatever he's buying, you had better believe he's got all kinds of worries and emotions going on. Plan ahead of time for potential problems or worries, and have responses ready.

Think about it in terms of prospecting. If you're chasing a big account, do as much background research on the company as possible. Pin down what they do, if they specialize in an industry, that sort of thing. If you know who calls the shots within the company, research him if possible. (I think kids today call this "creeping" on social media.) Obviously don't go overboard, but do your homework on the company before you make the call.

The bigger the potential customer, the harder you're going to have to work. Like YeOldeStonecat said, it can take years.

 

[sethay]

YeOldStoneCat is right on. I think this is the best method of making commercial sales.

 

[jmatt]

Don't do some inventory there...you're sole purpose of this walk in is to introduce yourself, and get your name recognized, and your services known.

I thought the same thing; don't waste time with an inventory. If you get to have a conversation, try to find a pain point. "What's the biggest IT headache you have right now?"

Like you guys, I am about to embark on a B2B doorknocking campaign. I bought a list and have prepared the ground by sending out visually identifiable postcards for the past three months (and will continue to do so forever).

When I arrive, I'll pull out copies of the postcards and say "Perhaps you've seen our mailers?..."

I'm gonna cherry-pick the list and only hit companies with 30 to 80 employees. The plan is to visit them 3 or 4 times a year, hopefully.

You're not going to talk anyone into leaving an arrangement they are happy with. The goal is to be so persistently present that when the day comes they need service or become unhappy with their current IT arrangement, you are the first company they think about.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

. "What's the biggest IT headache you have right now?"

An excellent question to ask.

 

[tom11011]

I think the road to successful B2B is having a product or service that is in demand and then jumping off from there to sell other services in the future, that while are important, are more difficult to sell or more time consuming to explain. Your not really selling something, you are solving a business problem.

Here is a good example.

I wanted to replace a customer switch for long time and put in a Cisco. But there is nothing to justify that purchase by itself. What did work is wrapping that switch into a larger phone system project.

Other examples include selling managed pc services with the sale (or lease) of new pc's. It's the natural time to make the sale.

Or selling managed backup with the sale of a new hard drive.

To take it a step further, in my BNI networking group, I have the phone system seat. Even though phone systems represent only 5-10% of my sales, its a product/service that everyone can understand. My main bread and butter comes from selling server, storage, and virtualization. But I can't go into my networking meeting and explain that to my fellow networkers, its way over their heads and if they don't understand it, there's no hope of them explaining it to anyone else. But they do remember about phone system technology and sometimes a referral can come in for that, or at the very least "I know a guy that could maybe help" for other technologies.

To summarize, I think its wise to have a goto product, one that sells itself or has a bonified return on investment, then you are in a far better position to keep plugging away at making a sale for other harder to sell products and services because you have your foot in the door, they are happy with you, you can get a better audience, you can talk/email with the decision maker, etc.. that kind of thing.