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A Recipe for Selling a Product Globally from India

iSPIRT regularly organises Playbook roundtables to help startups succeed by learning from successful entrepreneurs. One of such roundtable was conducted at GS Lab in Pune on 10th Oct 2015.

This PlaybookRT was focused on Product startups (B2B) who are keen to sell to the global market. The PlaybookRT was facilitated by Samir Palnitkar, President of ShopSocially.com. Samir hosted a highly interactive Playbook Roundtable for Product Startups and shared his journey of building ShopSocially globally.

Being a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of industry experience, Samir’s passion is startups and new ideas. He is a founder of four successful startups which include I2P acquired by Lattice), Obongo (acquired by America Online), Ingot Systems (acquired by Synopsys) and AirTight Networks (category leader in secure, cloud WiFi). He is also an active early stage investor and advisor. His expertise includes social media, strategy, productization/execution, and business process setup.

Samir has authored two highly acclaimed books and he also holds 5 US patents.

In this highly intensive session, attended by over 12 Pune-based startups, Samir shared his insights on the strategies, techniques, team and the infrastructure required to sell a product effectively from India.

I was one of the attendees who were immensely benefited from this workshop. Here is a brief summary of the topics that we discussed.

Most of the early stage startups face following challenges:

  • How do we find customers?
  • How do we reach them?
  • Should I build a team abroad?
  • How much money do I need to a sales team abroad?

Samir not only shared how he solved this challenges but he also provided some actionable steps that can help to build a sustainable sales process.

Sales Process

Most organisations look at marketing and sales as two different departments, and most often there is little or no communication between these two. Samir strongly suggested to integrate these functions closely with each other for optimum results.

Since startups have tight budget, they tend to rely more on inbound marketing to generate the leads. Samir suggested to have a right mix of inbound & outbound marketing.

This is how it works at ShopSocially – Marketing team generates the leads through various channels, these leads and then filtered and after qualification, passed on the experienced Sales Executives who conduct a demo and close the deal. Finally, Customer Success team nurtures the clients and ensures minimum churn. Sales-Process

List Building

Samir shared some innovative ways to build the list of potential prospects. First step of building a list is to create buyer personas. We must know who is our target customer, which industry he belongs to?, what’s his title?, what’s his geographical location? how much is the revenue?, etc.

Once we identify the attributes of our potential customer, we can start hunting for the contacts. Sites like BuiltWith, Hoovers and Data.com can help you find the right fit based on the criteria you mention. Even if you get the website of the company, you can find out the contact details of your potential prospect. If you are short on time, you can outsource this activity and get someone to do it for you.

Key here is to find ways to consistently build the list and nurture it.   

Email Marketing Flow

Now, once we have our list in place, we need to contact them. It may sound like an easy thing to do but most companies get it wrong and end up spamming the email list.

Here are some of the tips –

  • Use text instead of large images in the email as most email clients block images.
  • Keep it short and to the point. Best to have maximum of 5 sentences.
  • Use only one link
  • Message should appear as a personal note rather than a marketing text
  • Send the email from an individual account instead of a generic email ID.

There are few bulk email software’s that can help you send automated emails at a predefined internal. For example, you can send 2nd mail automatically after 15 days and so on. With these tools, you can create an automated email marketing flow and send emails based on user behaviour.

Cold Calling Flow

So we have built the list and sent the emails. Now what? Should we start calling all of them now? Definitely not!

Cold calling random contacts does not help anymore. Once we send the first mail, we need to monitor the email opens, clicks and most importantly replies. If any of this action occurs, sales team should immediately call the contact.

This way the response rate will be much higher as client will be aware of the product and its offering.

Important things to keep in mind while making calls:

  • Create a short and precise calling script
  • Practice the script multiple times by doing mock calls
  • Track the response in a good CRM software

Setup A Meeting

Samir advised not to try selling your product during the first call itself. During this call, we should qualify the lead and setup a meeting to showcase the product. Depending on the product, it could be an online demo or an in-person meeting. This will be handled by a more experienced executive as discussed above.

Simplest way to setup a meeting is to use Google Calendar. You can quickly get the lead to accept the meeting after that call. Details of the meeting can be updated later.

Follow up & Closer

Once the meeting is over or demo is done, next step is to follow up. Based on the feedback you get from the meeting, you can setup a predefined follow up schedule.

Follow ups should be polite, non-intrusive and should not be spammy. You can share marketing collaterals like case studies, testimonials or webinar recording to make the decision making process simple.

Samir advised to create high quality marketing collaterals that have visual representation of your product. Once the prospect is in final stage of the funnel, you should aim for 10 to 30% closer rate. Focus should be on improving this close ratio.

Building A Right Team

To execute your plans, you need a good team. Based on the number of leads you can generate every month, reverse calculation can be done to estimate the number of resources you will need.

Samir suggested to use Linkedin and Employee Referrals to hire new employees. He strongly suggested to have mock sales calls with the candidate, no matter how experienced he is.

Its also important to design a good incentive plan to keep the sales executives motivated. Salary structure should have a fixed component and a variable commissioned component.

Tools & Infrastructure

In order to run the entire sales process smoothly, we must invest in a good infrastructure. Based on his years of experience, Samir recommended following tools:

  • Novanet for VOIP calling
  • Grandstream GXP-1400 – 2 line IP phones
  • Vonia headsets
  • Separate 2 Mbps Leased line for voice (for about 18 reps)
  • Separate Broadband Internet of 50 Mbps speed for data
  • Microtik Router to do traffic routing
  • Pardot software for email marketing
  • Suger CRM for lead tracking
  • ClearSlide for sharing presentations online

It was indeed a great learning experience for all the entrepreneurs who attended this PlaybookRT.

Guest Post by Harshal Katre founder at ProfitBooks – cloud accounting app designed for non-accountants. He loves everything about running a startup and often writes about it on the ProfitBooks blog.  

 

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How to move from “selling through my network” to “building a sales process”? #entrepreneurSales

MANHATTAN (2)Most every entrepreneur does things initially that don’t scale, and that’s okay to start. Pretty soon they realize that the things that made them successful enough to get initial sales and customers wont work for them to reach the next level at their startup.

One of the most frustrating things for the entrepreneur is when they run out of folks “in the network” who they can sell to. After having sold to their ex colleagues, friends, etc., their network dries up. No longer is it possible to sell via the network to sustain the growth.

That’s when they realize they have to build a sustainable sales process and organization to grow the business and increase revenues.

They then encounter 3 most frustrating things as they try to recruit sales people, define the sales process and grow their sales muscle.

1. How to hire the right sales people who are motivated by commissions alone? 

First, realize that the market tends to be fairly well balanced. It follows consistent demand and supply constraints. Most good sales people have many folks chasing them to work in their company, similar to good engineers. If you wont expect an engineer to work for stock options alone, then expecting a sales person to work for commission alone is something you should be able to relate to.

The problem I hear from many entrepreneurs is that they are unable to determine if the sales person would actually close any deals, so they are unwilling to make a commitment to the sales person. Well, that’s the chicken and egg problem for sure, which means that person who’s more in demand will not make the compromises. Most likely, you the entrepreneur will end up finding some small amount of money to pay as base salary to give the sales person a start to get going. The best sales people are smart about risk and reward. If they see the opportunity to make more money by forgoing their base salary but get a much higher commission, they will.

2. How do they share the details of the “sales process” that they have perfected with the nuances that make the new sales people successful quickly?

As an entrepreneur and the initial sales person, you understand the sales process for your product the best. You have likely sold to many potential prospects and have addressed many objections and handled the toughest questions. So, it is best for you to detail the steps of your sales process to on-board the new sales person. It is best if you do it in a 2 step method.

a) First you can tell – take the sales person through the steps in your sales process via examples. How you sold to the first 5 prospects is more important than how the ideal sales should happen. Take them through the detailed steps in the number of meetings, the different people you met and what questions came up at each stage.

b) Follow this up by showing them – go on the first 5-10 sales calls together so they can learn from your initial pitch, the questions, etc. Show them how you demo, how to position the product, handle pricing questions etc. This also helps you build a bond with the sales person so they can be honest with you later when it comes time to ask the difficult questions.

3. How can they determine if the sales person is on the right track?

Initially you have to be on all / most of the sales calls after you hire a new sales person. Hopefully you have hired someone ambitious and mature, so they will be able to then build a sales organization for you instead of you having to hire a new VP of sales above them. The Tell and Show approach works best for sales people, is my experience.

Use this time to determine and evaluate the sales person – are they able to build relationships with the prospects? Are they able to handle questions effectively? Are they following through on their commitments? Are they able to keep activity level high consistently?

The other thing you should do is to take your average sale cycle time – lets say that is 8 weeks from introduction to close. Double that and evaluate the sales persons ability to close deals in that time period. The reason is that the first cycle time is usually the period of extreme learning. It is rare to get a sales person that will shorten the sales cycle right away unless they come with connections in the industry who have the problem you set out to solve.

 

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A successful sales team recipe

As sales leaders, we all know that crafting a skilled, productive sales team is essential to our ultimate success; experts consider the keys to building a successful team a balance between art and science: a careful combination of skills, experience, education, and personality traits. New research, however, reinforces what we at ValueSelling Associates have long believed to be true: there’s a recipe for success we can all follow to develop a successful sales team.

salesOf course, the right leadership goes a long way in shaping our teams, and  a recent study from Software Advice supports that managers should seek to hire for certain fundamental skills, education, and experience. Following this recipe will yield success every time.

Education: Part of being a great salesperson is connecting with customers and knowing what they want. That means developing our writing, listening, and business acumen, all of which education can teach us. According to the study, 67% of sales industry employers involved in the study require candidates to have a degree in higher education, and the remaining 33% regard experience as an equal substitute to it.

Experience: Software Advice’s research indicates that 72% of employers look to hire folks with industry-specific sales experience. and if it’s technical or management experience, even better. We agree: the most successful sales professionals have a deep understanding of the customer’s business, that is built by working in the industry they serve.. Having knowledge and experience specific to customers’ needs and their industries enables us to better understand what specific issues they face, and how to best  communicate with them. That experience translates to the ability to deliver and communicate customer-specific value.

Skills: At the end of the day, it is critical that the sales rep knows what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  Sales is a communication process that is based on a number of different skills. Education and experience are great to build upon, but they won’t suffice alone. Our sales teams need the right expertise and abilities to actively listen and manage an effective sales call and conversation. Negotiation and presentations skills are among those critical for sustainable success in the sales profession.

Sales Process: Once you have the key ingredients, it’s important that they are mixed and blended properly. Every world-class organization has a well-documented and defined sales process.  Adherence to the sales process allows sales teams to leverage best practices, communicate with a common language, and productively allocate resources.

Building a world-class sales organization rarely happens by accident.

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“E” is for empathy

The last three business books I read were seemingly all different. “Wired to Care” by Dev Patnaik, “Nanovation” by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg and “Customer Centric Selling” by Michael Bosworth. The first was how humans are genetically designed to care for others, the second was the story behind how the Tata Nano was launched and the third was a book on more effective selling. But there was a common underlying theme to it all.

The theme was empathy. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines empathy as

“the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this”

All the books in various ways said this and I am paraphrasing here – in order to to create a compelling offering you need to understand your customer’s pain and create a solution for it.

This should be self-evident but unfortunately that is not what we find in reality. What we find too often is a situation where a company creates a product without fully understanding how it will solve a customer’s problem. Even if they have a legitimate product solving legitimate problems, they are so caught up in the gee-whizziness of their product that they stop listening to their customers.

This is a big problem. A company that has a valid solution for a defined problem can last for a while. It might even get some early adopters but it will have a hard time sustaining its momentum and will run out of steam unless it starts a dialog with its customers and is empathetic to their needs. This is because your mainstream customers, the ones that will sustain you, are not early adopters and need to develop trust before they do business with you. One of the surest ways of building trust is to make sure the customer feels that you feel their pain and understand their unique situation.

This is not rocket science. It can be easily instituted in an organization. Designing a consultative sales process around understanding a customer’s needs first is a great start. But the culture of making sure that every touch point with the customer listens more than talks starts at the top.