Comments for Savage and Greene

Comment on How Your CRM is Secretly Driving You Crazy by Christine Hueber

Christine Hueber — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Excellent post, Shawn … looking forward to your next one!

Best,
Christine Hueber

Comment on Rating Prospects by Rating Prospects with CRM | Savage and Greene

Rating Prospects with CRM | Savage and Greene — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:26:45 +0000

[...] short rant, right? To see the whole thing, go to the article on rating prospects. This article here focuses on how to add that rating system to your [...]

Comment on How Your CRM is Secretly Driving You Crazy by Cecilia Pavao

Cecilia Pavao — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:43:16 +0000

Good article, Shawn, and I can relate to a couple of your points brought up. I work for a small dynamic company specializing in software development for the petroleum industry. I was assigned a project to find a CRM to assist them to manage their growing list of clients.

Most of what I found was definitely for larger companies and outside our budget. Colleagues, and connections through LinkedIn, assisted in narrowing it down to five. Comparing them was a blur as indeed they all looked alike and it was difficult to decipher one from another.
I presented the five I selected to our president along with their websites and it will be decided from there.

Looking forward to the next article, Shawn.

Comment on The Consultative Framework by savage

savage — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:20:12 +0000

Hi Jim. First I will gently say most of the premise of your comment is wrong, wrong, wrong! (Gotta work on my tact, eh?) Credibility, ability to address concerns and provide value…all of those are developed and demonstrated beginning WITH Set the Stage and then discovery.

You’re correct in that prospects at any level won’t answer salesy questions unless they have some reason to do that. Your question is about how that situation is generated. The answer lays backward in process or time: in prospecting.

Using cold calling as the example prospecting tool: When you reach someone and they are willing to hear you out, near the end of the call you must clearly and directly ASK for a sales opportunity. When prospects agree to that, they agree in large part because they’re open to exploring the business fit — they have some reason to do that. (By the way, it’s not necessary to fully know what that reason is, at this point.)

That agreement moves what’s happening with the prospect from prospecting into selling. That agreement lays a strong foundation for an effective sales conversation. That agreement opens the door for you to develop credibility, etc.

Comment on The Consultative Framework by Jim Glose

Jim Glose — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:14:16 +0000

Stage 2 of your framework: Discovery is directly proportional to one’s perceived credibility and value (resonance). A senior decision maker will answer no questions other than a couple of perfunctory replies unless they first feel the seller has 1. credibility, 2. is addressing a vital concern of theirs, and is 3. perceived to have some real value for what they want to talk about.
Question: what step needs to be accomplished prior to Discovery? and how does one go about doing that?

Comment on Is Your Networking Working? by Andreas

Andreas — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:44:03 +0000

Great post! I’ve often wondered two things about my networking efforts:
1. How long do I stick with an effort
2. How can I better measure the ROI than “gut feeling.”

Thank you for answering question #1 so simply as well as outlining a straight-forward way of assessing individual efforts.

I’m going to setup a Google Doc spreadsheet ASAP for this.

Comment on Looking for input? by savage

savage — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:31:32 +0000

Hi Tania – You are bringing up two things and I can help with both:

1) Dealing with prospects’ reactions on the phone.
2) Staying motivated during cold calling when the most enjoyable part (when you talk with potential clients) is down the road time-wise.

See “Prospects’ reaction, and motivation” in the Cold Calling section.

Comment on Looking for input? by Tania

Tania — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:29:21 +0000

I get motivated when I feel I am making a meaningful difference in the lives of others. I think this could hurt me because of how I may perceive the other person reaction on the phone. Any suggestions for people like me to remain motivated when cold calling?

Comment on How and Why to Say “I Don’t Know” by Ajeet Khurana

Ajeet Khurana — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:15:28 +0000

When you do not know, and hesitate in saying, “I don’t know,” one way to reduce your pain might be to go ahead and say, “I don’t know,” but also tell them something in a related area that might be helpful.