Part 1: DEAL Visibility or Awareness skills
by Walter J. McDonald
In this two-part article we will discuss essential machinery selling skills. Part 1 focuses on the skill set required to participate in a large percentage of the deals or potential sales in a machinery sales territory. Part 2 examines the skill set needed to close those deals in which you participate.
Deal visibility rate is the percent of deals you see that go down in your territory. The basic principle is the earlier you can identify and participate in a deal the greater your opportunity to establish a strong sales position. The earlier you are in on a deal, the more opportunity you have to build relationships with all purchase influencers and decision makers, identify purchase criteria, uncover fears and concerns, establish credibility, demonstrate how your products will solve problems, reduce operating cost and help the customer make more money.
If you arrive late, you will most likely not have opportunity to take any of these actions. If the sales rep arrives late on the deal, many just resort to price as their only available sales tool, a very, often unprofitable, weak position.
Strong Deal Visibility or Awareness Rate is the result of four personal selling skills and three dealer tech support capabilities:
PERSONAL SELLING SKILLS TO IMPROVE DEAL VISIBILITY
1. Market Segmentation and Analysis
Industrial capital equipment marketing is a lot simpler than consumer marketing. In the Industrial space, it is relatively easy to identify all potential customer market segments or vocations in a territory that have application for your equipment.
One market assessment tool used to determine the most attractive segments is Customer Segment Portfolio. This is a two-dimension chart illustrating Segment Attractiveness vs. Strength of Dealer Position in each market segment.
One axis on your chart is the Segment Attractiveness score. The other is the Strength of Dealer Position score.
Score each of these criteria 1-10 based on favorability to your position:
- Segment Attractiveness Criteria include overall market size, need for your products, level of competition, market penetration potential and strategic value of that segment.
- Strength of Dealer Position Criteria include current market share, experience with this type of customer, product support reputation, level of fit between industry application and your products, and your dealer reputation for reliability and dependability in this segment.
On the chart, “RC” or Residential Construction scored a 43 on Segment Attractiveness and 42 on Strength of Dealer Position. This means that the dealership is very strong in a very attractive industry,
“DC” or Demolition scored 16 on Attractiveness and only a 12 on Strength of Dealer Position.
Your priority market segments are those with the highest combined scores for Segment Attractiveness vs. Strength of Dealer Position. You want to focus your initial sales efforts on customers in the most attractive markets, in which your dealership has a strong position. If you determine where to best first focus your initial business development efforts, you will definitely increase your odds of long-term success.
Territory prospecting time is very valuable, so you want to be sure you are focusing on the highest probability customer types to get you started.
For a more detailed explanation of how to develop a Customer Segment Portfolio, see my Achieving Excellence in Dealer/Distributor Performance text, Chapter 20.
2. Territory Account Identification, Organization and Classification
Once priority market segments have been identified, develop a list of every account in those most attractive segments. Build mini account profiles: number of units, make and type, key contacts, phone numbers, and contact emails. Do five per day, every week.
It is important to note at this point that 90% of machinery dealer unit sales are to existing parts and service customers who perceive their dealer as their preferred vendor. These are accounts that purchase parts and service support at lease every 6 – 8 weeks.
Determine A/B/C/D/E contact priority for current dealer accounts based on unit size. A/B accounts merit personal visits, C/D/E can be handled by regular dealer email promotions, personal mailings, telephone and field product support personnel.
For additional help on A/B Account Growth Strategy see Steve Ross’ ground-breaking article in my Successful Key Account Management text, Chapter 12.
3. Prospecting and Market Assessment
In a recent Successful Selling Skills Workshop, I asked the participating machinery sales reps to estimate what percentage of their time each month was spent in four activities:
Sales Investment Time
Time spent on organizing yourself, your territory, resolving non-selling problems, staying current on product applications and financial package information.
Prospecting Time
Time spent identifying new leads.
Direct Selling Time
Time actually spent developing and closing a deal once a prospect has been identified.
Other Time
Time including all activities that can keep you very busy during the normal work day but have nothing to do with finding, selling or keeping customers.
Everyone in the class was shocked to see these average monthly results. No one expected their “other” dead time to be so large:
Sales Investment Time 11 6%
Prospecting Time 8 4%
Direct Selling Time 52 27%
Other Time (wasted, non-productive) 123 63%
Month Total 194 hours
If you don’t plan specific prospecting time and market assessment time each week it won’t happen! If you don’t have a weekly call plan, you can waste as much as 63% or more of your efforts.
Do you know your Time Value per Hour? Divide your Annual Sales Objective by 2,300 hours/year. If you Sales Target is $1.8 million your time is worth $783.00 per hour. Spend it wisely.
Ask me to send you our complimentary “Time and Territory Management Worksheet.” Walt@McDonaldGroupInc.com.
4. Territory Development Follow-up and Control
This is successful implementation. It requires great focus and discipline. You must pursue emerging sales opportunities to be there at the right time to establish a meaningful relationship with each influencer. A properly utilized CRM system can greatly assist in pursuing timely contact follow-up activities
DEALER TECH SUPPORT STRENGTHS
1. Website Visitor Identification
More than 90-95% of machinery customers will investigate a potential dealer’s website for product information before contacting a supplier. This is the exact time to capture “active interest” leads.
2. Regular Cadence of Dealer Email Promotions.
Research has demonstrated that dealer sales reps become 3 – 5 times more effective by means of the dealership conducting email promotions and capturing website activity for “active interest” leads. Customer number growth rate is 49% higher and dealer revenue growth rate is 123% higher for machinery dealers
3. Weekly Customer Satisfaction Mini-Surveys
Just by calling a few service repair order customers every week yields great benefits. Was the work done satisfactorily? Was the job completed on time? Were our people friendly and knowledgeable? Machinery dealers who conduct weekly or monthly surveys see customer number growth by 49% higher and dealer revenue growth rate is 123% more than similar dealers who do not monitor customer satisfaction levels.
For assistance setting up these Dealer Tech Support Programs, contact Debbie Frakes at WinsbyInc.com, dfrakes@winsbyinc.com, 312/401-8651.
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Deal visibility skills combined with dealer tech support strengths enable you to pursue the big deals, despite the challenges of managing a large geographic responsibility. The objective is to “see” as many deals as possible, early enough so you can achieve a profitable transaction. The stronger your deal visibility skills, the higher your participation rate.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss any aspect of this article: walt@mcdonaldgroupinc.com. PART 2 of this article, “Deal Closure Rate Skills,” will be in the next issue of our Newsletter.