Too Big to Learn

A good friend of mine who works at a very large international financial analytic-software and equity-trading company asked me if I would come and speak with their junior sales force team. Although she was not in sales, her department and her responsibilities at the company interacted with the sales department. She shared with me that the junior sales team was doing well, but a competitive product had just come onto the market. Until now, the sales team had had very little competition, so asking for the business and asking for repeat business was not challenging. That game plan changed with the arrival of this competitive product. She knew that my expertise was in asking and thought it would be really beneficial if I could help the team focus their conversations at their sales meetings on the difference between the two products and to be more aggressive in asking for the clients' business.

She spoke with the head of sales who manages the junior sales team, and they agreed that it would be ideal if I could come in on Tuesday very early in the morning when they had their weekly round-up meetings. At these meetings, the team would go around the room and share their successes as well as their difficulty in getting a client to come to the meeting or in closing the sale. This meeting would be different. They wanted me to give them my “10 Tips for Sales Success.” Now quite honestly, I never had this type of list, but I'm very good at adapting everything I know about the world of asking and tailoring it to meet whatever the client needs. So after listening to their concerns, I created the 10 tips.

I came in that Tuesday morning and was escorted to a large conference room with huge windows that gave light. I loved it because it can be such a downer when you enter a windowless room. Everyone's energy falls to the floor because there is no light to keep them all awake and alert. Caffeine helps, but there is nothing like light to keep everyone focused and engaged. I sat down, and one by one they entered. Indeed, they were the “junior” sales force. Everyone there was fresh out of college and bursting with energy. I was more than good to go.

We went around the room with light introductions. I always ask people to share with me who they are, how long they have been in their present position, and, most important, what is the one thing they want me to answer before they leave. That helps me to shape the presentation. The last person to introduce himself was the head of sales. Now while he agreed to have me come in and help him with his team, I could sense he was not convinced that what I was about to say would help them. He kept mentioning in his introduction that while I had vast experience with nonprofits, this company was far different. I just love when someone in an authoritative role tries to set a tone that is not beneficial to anyone. Blame it on the lawyer in me, but I said to him that if he had not learned one thing new by the time he left this meeting, I would buy him dinner. Well that got his attention and refocused him to give me the benefit of the doubt. It even brought a few sneers from the sales team. I guess they knew something about him that I was about to find out. So I launched into my “10 Tips for Sales Success:”

1. Prioritize the client base.
   1. Use my master chart.
2. Ask the right questions:
   1. What problem do you need our company to solve?
   2. What do you know about our company?
   3. Whom do you know in our company?
   4. What value and efficiency do you see in our product?
   5. When you make an investment with us, as we hope you do, what is most important to you?
   6. Will you be making this important decision, or do we need to speak with others at your company?
   7. What are your expectations if you invest with us?
   8. Thinking ahead, how can we stay in touch with you while you make this important investment decision?
   9. Have you been disappointed with other major product investments, and what can we learn from those experiences?
3. Be a superior listener.
   1. Clients leave clues, and we miss every one of them.
4. Know when to bring in a specialist.
   1. You don't need to know every detail, and doing that sets up the next meeting.
5. Keep it simple and avoid confusion.
   1. Paper and computer screens can be your enemy.
6. ASK for the business.
   1. Why do you want this company as a client?
   2. What will it do for them?
   3. Why do you want their business now?
7. Don't drop them.
   1. The follow-up is where your fortune is made or disappears.
8. Everyone you encounter is a potential client or lead.
   1. In one short sentence share with everyone what you do.
   2. Ask if they are interested learning more.
   3. Ask if they know anyone who cannot function without your products.
   4. Keep it seamless and light, and ask with a sincere smile.
9. Fuel your networks.
   1. Be 90 percent interested in your network contacts, and make your communications only 10 percent about you.
   2. The happier you are, the more attractive you are.
10. Your every move must be organized, structured, and focused.

After I went through these points with stories to highlight each one, the sales team had fabulous questions such as “What if the client doesn't return my call?,” “How long do I hang in if they won't make a decision?,” and “How do I know which client is a priority, because it's not just based on how much they buy?” In the middle of answering their questions my good friend, the head of sales, interrupts and says, “Laura, we have 1,000-plus clients assigned to each of them. I'm sure this is more than the processes you're talking about.”

Clearly he did not know who he was dealing with. So I said to him “I can appreciate your concern, but I've handled 250,000 clients at a time. Would you and the team like to know how I did it while helping the company raise $300,000 million?”

Great ask, right? It stopped him dead in his tracks with a look of disbelief. I told him to go back to my first tip—prioritize your client base using my master chart. He said, “Sure, but what is this chart?” So I shared with him that I had created this chart, which listed my top clients along with my next-best clients. All the information is in a database, but the problem is that you have to pull up records one by one to see where your client is in the sales process. It's like fishing; you can pull up only one fish at a time. You can run reports that pull up mounds of data, but it's the activity that has been done and needs to be done that is the most important part in getting the sale. I told him, ”If you can run a report that shows only these fields, that's terrific, but if you can't, use the master chart. Then I showed him the chart above.

I warned him that it would appear so simple yet it works, and I shared the details of how his junior sales force could use this master chart. I said that in the first column you list your client's name and the company he represents. So many people list the company and forget the name of the person you need to deal with. The second column I call “history.” List the history of sales or specify that this is a first-time client. The point is to list something to stir your recollection of how the company is—or needs to be—an investor. It's not just to import an Excel spreadsheet of business activity.

Next, list the contacts you have made, including dates, and specify what you need to do. Dates are your ultimate friend when it comes to this master chart. It's one thing to say “I have to call my top 15 clients this week,” and it's another to visually see that this work has to be done this week. Otherwise, this week rolls into next week, and the next thing you know, you've called 3 of your 15 and it's almost the end of the month.

The fourth column is my personal favorite—ASK. What will you ask for? What is the amount, and when will you make the ask? Again, if you do not have the prospective date for your ask, time will roll by as it did with the contacts you needed to make. The fifth column is the follow-up to the ask, with dates. When you will call, drop by, send a text, send additional information, or bring your specialist to the next meeting? Finally, how will you keep the relationship going regardless of the answer? The answer could be that you never get an answer, so what will you do with dates? I reiterated that these would be their top prospective clients, so surely they did not want to drop these top prospects and clients and go on to someone else with just one go-around.

And then it happened. The head of sales turned to his staff and said, “We all have to be using this chart; in fact I'll make the template, tweak it a bit, and we can all put it on our shared drive.” Smiling away, he looked extremely satisfied. The junior sales team got their questions answered, and they walked away with a great new and simple tracking tool. I asked him why he liked it so much, given that this is a well-known and highly successful company. He said that they often get lost in all the new technology, and everyone has been spending too much time learning that technology through their computers but not spending the same quality time with clients. It became too transactional. I told him the best piece of advice I could give him and his team was the following: “These are the people making these decisions—or not making these important decisions. They will partner with you if they know, like, and trust you. That's it. Keep the emphasis on the relationship, keep it simple, stay organized, and watch your sales team fly.”

I ended the meeting asking him if I owed him dinner. He never answered, so I said I would gladly do it because I had learned as much as he and his team had. He said it wasn't necessary but that he would like his next tier of sales folks to have the same training. I never shared with him (though I was dying to tell him) that I had created a similar master chart 20 years ago at a nonprofit. I didn't tell him, because I feared he would have jumped to the conclusion that what works in nonprofits doesn't necessarily work in business. But one of my quests has been to show how both nonprofits and businesses can work and learn from each other. Mission accomplished!

I hope you can see throughout this story the organization, structure, and focus theme that I have emphasized many times. It simply does not matter what kind of ask you make, whether it is for a nonprofit, a business, or yourself. You should keep it structured, especially if there are a lot of people you need to ask. That is why I use the master chart whenever I need to organize a large group of potential investors or donors. It works even if you are planning a social event. The second thing that should tie things together is that, while I called it the “10 Tips for Sales Success” in this story, it is a reiteration and reinforcement of the “10 Characteristics of an Exceptional Asker” presented in Chapter 4. The tools, techniques, and lists I have shared with you in this book can be used for any ask, and I hope this story has emphasized that important piece of advice for you.

Pay Me What I'm Worth

Kristen loved her job as one of four HVAC mechanical engineers at a family-owned firm. She had been working there for the past two and one-half years with only a slight increase in salary. As a small business, this company did not have a formal policy as to when or how raises were given. Kristen thought it would be good if she asked her boss, Rodger, in mid-October whether she could have an end-of-year raise. She mentioned to Rodger that while she appreciated the vote of confidence he had given her by assigning her some of the top projects, she felt it was time that she received a larger salary increase at the end of the year. Rodger somewhat ignored her conversation and turned the conversation back to how lucky she was to be selected to work on the construction site for the refurbished chapel, the historic local bank, and the gymnasium at the nearby university. While Kristen knew that these were choice projects and that he could have assigned them to her co-workers, she walked away feeling empty from the conversation. Worse, she really didn't know whether Rodger had heard her ask for the raise or whether he was purposely avoiding her.

A few weeks went by, and Kristen had to put in overtime to meet the deadlines for these critical three projects. Working late, she noticed that none of her co-workers were putting in any extra time at work. Thinking about the amount of her overtime work, she felt that this would persuade Rodger to give her a raise. She knocked on his office door and had the following conversation:

Rodger: What's up, Kristen? You look like you have something on your mind.

Kristen: I do, Rodger; thanks for your time. Do you remember that I asked you for a raise a few weeks ago?

Rodger: A raise, hmmm, no I don't remember that at all.

Kristen: Well, I did. I said that while I appreciated being assigned the top three projects, I deserved to have a raise at the end of this year.

Rodger: Kristen, you have always gotten a raise at the end of the year.

Kristen: I know, but this year I want something much larger. After all, I have much more responsibility than my co-workers so I should be compensated for that.

Rodger: Well, you are. I could have given these projects to anyone, and I gave them to you. That's compensation right there. When they are done you have the pride and sense of accomplishment that you did it on behalf of the firm.

Kristen: You may not realize it, but I'm the only one here for the past two weeks putting in a lot of overtime to meet the clients' deadlines for these projects. That should be a very good reason why you would consider giving me a much larger raise than last year.

Rodger: Well Kristen, we all work at our own pace.

Kristen: Rodger, can we at least keep the door open for me to receive a larger raise, and I will come back to you mid-December so we can discuss this again?

Rodger: Sure; my door is always open.

By now Kristen is fuming, frustrated, and fatigued. Each day and night at work she is getting more and more resentful that she is working so hard and it is entirely likely she will not receive a larger salary increase at the end of the year. She resorted to the only way she knows to deal with stress—swim laps. Three times a week after work she went to her local YMCA and swam as many laps as she could to wash away her tension. One night as she was leaving, she ran into her friend Corey. He noticed that she looked distant and not her usual energetic self. After Kristen gave a brief rundown of her frustrations at work, he suggested that she do her research. He told her to find out what other professionals in her field with her experience were making in small firms and in comparable geographic locations. He said that he had been through a similar experience with his boss a few years ago, and while it took a few go-arounds, he got what he wanted and even a promotion in title.

With renewed energy and a clear path, Kristen began her research and started attending career and networking events so that she could get a better handle on the going rate for her line of work and her experience. She realized that despite the extra assignments and overtime, the real focus would be that professionals in her field with her experience, in small firms with compatible geographic areas, should be making on average $15,000 per year more than she was currently receiving. She then took out a piece of paper and wrote down a few things she anticipated Rodger would say when she asked for the raise again. Her list included:

1. If I gave you that much, I'd have to give everyone the same amount.
2. When I hired you, it was at a much higher rate than we could afford, so it's all evening out.
3. We didn't budget for it, so you will have to wait for next year to be considered for that size raise.
4. No one has ever received that amount at one time.
5. We are a small firm, and we can't give out raises that size.
6. I don't receive that kind of raise, just to put it in perspective.
7. Isn't being selected to work on the firm's most prestigious projects worth as much as you're asking?
8. Let's see how the firm does in the next quarter.
9. After these three clients, we don't have any big fish like them in the coming year so things will be tight.
10. Why don't we give you a few extra paid days over the holidays to compensate you for your work?

Not only did she make the list, but she had the answers if and when Rodger gave her one or more of these responses:

1. If I gave you that much, I have to give everyone the same amount.

   That would be the firm's choice. Right now we are only focusing on my request for $15,000. Let's get back to my request, shall we?

2. When I hired you, it was at a much higher rate than we could afford, so it's all evening out.

   I think we both know the reality is that without my work you would not have had the confidence to tell these three top clients that their projects would be completed on deadline. Otherwise, you would have given one or more of these projects to my co-workers. Shall we discuss my $15,000 salary increase for my work and expertise?

3. We didn't budget for it, so you will have to wait for next year to be considered for that size raise.

   I can appreciate the need for a budget; however, when we began this calendar year we did not factor in these three new clients. They have brought the firm a 35 percent increase in revenue over last year. We both agree that I more than deserve this $15,000 increase, which has greatly enriched the reputation of this firm—agreed?

4. No one has ever received that amount at one time.

   There is a first time for everything. Let's set the precedent right now, because having these three clients is an extraordinary and wonderful thing for the firm. Let's focus on the work and comparable compensation, OK?

5. We are a small firm, and we can't give out raises that size.

   It's not the size of the firm that is at issue. What is at issue is compensating me for my work. Would you not agree that the work I have been doing for these three clients has greatly raised the stature and reputation of this firm, locally and regionally?

6. I don't receive that kind of raise, just to put it in perspective.

   Many heads of firms take their compensation increases in other ways. I am not here to speculate how you should be compensated. I am here to discuss my particular situation, so let's get back to this issue, OK?

7. Isn't being selected to work on the firm's most prestigious projects worth as much as you're asking?

   I truly appreciate and I am very flattered that you selected me for these outstanding projects. That's such a vote of confidence. Now that the work is just about completed for all three and on their very strenuous deadlines, let's discuss my $15,000 raise to reward this great work, OK?

8. Let's see how the firm does in the next quarter.

   I have no doubt the firm will continue to attract even more great clients. In fact, I have a lead or two for us. It is important to me that I be rewarded for my present work at the present time, so let's see how we can make that happen right now, OK?

9. After these three clients, we don't have any big fish like them in the coming year so things will be tight.

   We were in the same exact position last year, and we got these three. I have some ideas how we can leverage our work for future clients. First, let's shore up the detail of my $15,000 raise and then strategize on how we can shape next year, OK?

10. Why don't we give you a few extra paid days over the holidays to compensate you for your work?

    A few paid days off would be lovely, but what I'm asking for is a $15,000 salary increase. If you care to give me both, I would be thrilled! But what I want, regardless of whether you give me a few paid days off, and what we need to resolve is my request for a $15,000 salary increase, so let's resolve that first, OK?

Kristen then scheduled a meeting with Rodger for the third week in December and told him the purpose of the meeting would be to circle back on their discussion about her raise. This time she laid out her research, showing him the salary surveys for a person with her experience in comparable geographic markets. Although he did not give a response that squarely fit one of the responses that Kristen had prepared, he did come pretty close when he said: “But we are a small firm, probably much smaller than what you are showing me here.” Prepared and ready to go Kristen said, “What really is at stake here is us working together as a team regardless of the size of our firm so that next year we can have three new major projects each quarter. My motivation to achieve this goal is directly tied to the satisfaction in knowing that I went the extra mile for the firm this past quarter and that the firm recognizes and rewards that effort. So can we agree that it would be mutually beneficial to the firm and to me to receive the $15,000 salary increase effective January 1?” Rodger said that he needed a few days to think about it carefully. Kristen, on the spot, set up a meeting for them exactly three days later.

Bingo! Wouldn't you agree that Kristen nailed it? This is such a contrast from where she first started just intimating but not even directly asking Rodger for the raise. So let's look at all the hidden gems we have in this story. First, it illustrates the importance of each step in the 5-Step Foolproof Method for Any Ask presented in Chapter 5. Kristen's first conversation with Rodger never mentioned how much of a raise she wanted or when she wanted it. She also did not do any preparation to anticipate what Rodger would say until she met with him mid-December. While we can't see Kristen's delivery in this written story, I'm sure you will agree that you can hear the difference in her confidence levels when she says,

Rodger, can we at least keep the door open for me to receive a larger raise? I will come back to you mid-December so we can discuss this again?

And

What really is really at stake here is us working together as a team regardless of the size of our firm so that next year we can have three new major projects each quarter. My motivation to achieve this goal is directly tied to my satisfaction in knowing that I went the extra mile for the firm this past quarter and that the firm recognizes and rewards that effort. So can we agree that it would be mutually beneficial to the firm and to me to receive the $15,000 salary increase effective January 1?

She followed step 4 by reiterating what she heard in Rodger's response: that the firm was small, implying that it should not be held to the same compensation standards as other firms. She recognized it and nicely put the emphasis back on her raise. Step 5, “Plan Your Next Move at the Ask,” was perfectly executed when she set up the time to meet three days after her ask meeting.

So there you have it—The ASK for Business with many of the concepts and tools I shared with you in previous chapters. Take a minute and think about an ask or the many asks you need to do for business. Run a check-off list to make sure you hit each characteristic to be that exceptional asker. Insert my 5-Step Foolproof Method for Any Ask into your particular situation, and please write down the responses you think you will hear. Then, like Kristen in our story, write what you will say back. It works, and it will work for you!