Sellers rarely think about choosing their clients… like a sailor on leave at the shore — we aren’t very picky. That’s a huge mistake.
Seth Godin
Table of Contents
Who is our client?
Imagine you have a store, and in the store, there’s a door and customers. If we try to keep customers by closing the exit, we would also be closing the entrance. The whole world is woven from opposites: without light, there is no shadow; without falls, there are no rises. How would we characterize business growth if we had no concept of its decline, if the business were always growing? Would we even worry about how a deal closes if deals were always closing? How would sellers behave in this case; would they be concerned about it?
In our lives, we often confuse symptoms with the causes of phenomena. When we see customers leaving the store without making a purchase, we close the doors. When we notice employees wasting time and browsing the internet during work hours, the employer cuts off their access to the network. Employees can no longer access important information, but the reason for their idleness remains unaddressed. When faced with customer objections during a sale, salespeople start to fight against these objections. Yes, once again, we have fighter salespeople. They imagine that if they can just overcome the objections, the customer will immediately buy their product.
Getting caught up in the thrill of wrestling as a process and enjoying the adrenaline rush, wrestlers often overlook the fact that it is extremely difficult to overcome objections from a client who doesn’t need the product at all. Real work with objections, or rather, the prevention of objections, begins at the client search stage. It’s hard to sell vodka to Muslims, and Christmas trees in February. If you try to do this, you will inevitably encounter objections, and they will be the toughest ones to overcome. No matter what techniques you use to handle them, you still won’t make the sale. The essence of White Sales is that with the right approach, there shouldn’t be any objections at all. If you sell with a clear understanding of who needs a specific product and why, you neutralize most of the potential objections that your client might have.
In the previous chapter, we focused on what exactly we are selling and how we can achieve economic profit from it. Now, we will discuss who needs what we are selling.
They are growing like mushrooms.
Mushrooms are something truly special: they are neither plants nor animals. To gather them, you need to know which areas are mushroom-friendly and which are not. Of course, you can simply follow the signs, but it’s much more useful to consider what mushrooms need for growth and reproduction. Unlike plants, mushrooms cannot exist independently. They, like animals, feed on the remains of other organisms. People often think that mushrooms need light, warmth, and moisture. Indeed, mushrooms often grow in places where these conditions are abundant. However, this is only because such locations provide enough food for mushrooms, which don’t really need light on their own.
The situation with finding clients is exactly the same. It’s very inefficient to wander through the forest, or rather the market, looking for clients. It’s much better to know the “mushroom” spots where clients are plentiful—just pick one and start a conversation!
In any case, your clients share something in common and have similar needs. There are business clubs where people with similar requirements can gather, and there are suppliers of what your clients need. For example, if your clients are banks, they require companies that supply and service ATMs. If your clients are television channels, they need agencies that sell their advertising time. If you sell something that is worth discussing with HR professionals, you can easily find contacts for HR directors through recruiting companies or HR clubs associated with chambers of commerce.
But before rushing out to search for mushrooms, people usually form an understanding of a few things in advance. Which mushrooms are edible and which are not. Should one expect a basket full of honey mushrooms, or is it still the season for boletus? What does a porcini mushroom look like, and what is a fly agaric? Yes, that beautiful, bright mushroom that catches your eye. A mushroom? Yes. But, unfortunately, it’s not edible. The same goes for finding clients: before you go looking for them, you need to know exactly what they look like.
Mushroom pickers can be divided into several categories depending on their experience:
- those who collect everything and anything;
- · those who collect only a few familiar edible mushrooms;
- · those who do not gather certain edible mushrooms, knowing about their “lack of convenience”: butter mushrooms need to be cleaned thoroughly, milk caps are too fragile, and honey mushrooms will crunch with sand;
- Those who go on a “quiet hunt” with a specific goal — to gather certain mushrooms of a particular size.
An exercise that salespeople must do is to describe their ideal client. An experienced salesperson wouldn’t even think about meeting with every potential buyer in a row. It’s like gathering every mushroom you come across in the forest; such behavior risks poisoning. The same happens in sales: there’s a risk of demotivating yourself by meeting people who have no need for your product at all. It’s very difficult to sell when “everyone around” is saying that your product or service is unwanted. A competent salesperson won’t rush at every “edible” client. They will consider how much time they will spend negotiating and closing the deal, how much time will go into coordinating delivery, paperwork, and other bureaucracy. If a more “accessible” buyer is available, they will prioritize the client who is more promising—both in terms of closing the deal and in terms of future sales development (additional sales, referrals, etc.). Naturally, a more “accessible” client will be someone with whom you have already built a personal relationship. After all, even if they don’t need what you’re selling right now, it may be useful to them in the future. As always, they will face the traditional (and not easy) choice: which salesperson to trust? You make that choice easier for them right now.
Elephant hunting
The “mushroom” model is very fruitful for modeling the client acquisition process. Take, for example, the size of a company. A large company, much like a big mushroom, is hard to reach. It requires a lot of effort to navigate the market to connect with the right people. In sales, there’s a saying: elephant hunters die of hunger. This highlights a common mistake that salespeople make: envisioning the perfect but unattainable client and spending an excessive amount of time chasing after them, or as such salespeople say, fighting for them. Yes, it’s a sweet dream to earn a lot of money right away by closing just one contract. Why sign small agreements for modest amounts when you can do everything at once? But unfortunately, large clients, in addition to being hard to reach, have other drawbacks as well.
Just like a giant mushroom, large companies can be infested. Corruption, bureaucracy, unsatisfactory decision-making speed, and a lack of people genuinely interested in the success of a deal—all of this makes big companies “inedible” for most sellers. In other words, even if a seller finds useful contacts among influential people in the organization, they may wait for years before a deal is finalized (if it ever happens). And considering that in the 21st century technology changes at a dizzying pace, an offer that a seller presented six months ago may no longer be relevant by the time the contract is signed. They have to start all over again.
The second significant drawback of working with a large client is the dependency on them. Just like mushroom pickers who find a big mushroom but have no more room in their basket, they decide to throw out the “uninteresting small ones” to make space for the big one. Or they carry it in their hand. But when both hands are occupied, they can’t pick any new mushrooms.
Sellers and selling companies that have struck a deal with a major client, who provides them with a steady cash flow, become accustomed to the new circumstances. They allow themselves to incur much larger expenses and inflate their staff. After all, servicing a large client requires new people and new equipment. Business plans are built around the revenue generated by the major client, and new, currently unprofitable ventures are launched. To optimize the company’s operations, the business portfolio is reviewed, and the company lets go of several smaller and less profitable clients. Over time, the company finds itself in a situation where losing the major client would mean serious problems, if not the closure of the entire business. For the organization, this means that it will do everything possible to retain its “elephant.” Ultimately, the situation will reach a point where it is willing to service the client at no profit or even at a loss, as losing the client would lead to even greater losses. Is such a business necessary?
Often, having a major client is the reason for a small firm’s existence. This is the “First and Most Important Client.” The firm doesn’t have to go through the stage of searching for clients or endure a period of financial hardship, and it seems that it can develop its infrastructure by relying on a guaranteed (even if temporary) cash flow. Many companies have emerged specifically to meet the unique needs of a large corporation. Just as many businesses barely existed until they found their “Most Important” client. However, it is extremely rare to find firms that have managed to survive after losing that client.
Any manager rationally allocates their efforts. If they have a client that brings in a lot of money and another client that brings in little or even none at all, or a client that is “promising,” the manager’s attention will naturally be focused on the most profitable client. The others will end up at the back of the line for attention, and promising areas for development will remain perpetually promising or “alternative.” It is indeed rational to invest efforts in increasing sales by 1% where that 1% represents significant money. There are very few companies that have managed to detach themselves from the umbilical cord of a key client, and that’s because there are also very few managers who have been able to focus on their future.
The third problem faced by sellers working with large clients is that it is nearly impossible to build a positive relationship with a major client by simply approaching them out of the blue. Large clients are wary of genuine relationships and tend to be cold towards the outside world. This is easy to understand: in large companies, there are not many employees who are truly concerned about the company’s performance. Additionally, large clients are constantly bombarded by “hunters” and “elephant chasers,” which over time leads them to develop an immunity to salespeople in general. They rightly do not want to waste time listening to stories about things they do not need. If 95% of meetings with salespeople yield no benefits, then the optimal behavior for the company would be to avoid meetings with salespeople altogether. This explains the issues with impenetrable secretaries, requests to send proposals via email, or to “meet after the holidays.”
Large companies diligently isolate themselves from any personal contacts, as almost none of their employees are capable of taking responsibility for the organization’s actions, making promises on its behalf, and being themselves rather than just a cog in the machine. And if they are a cog in the machine, then the attitude will be accordingly. This is why large companies love tenders so much. It seems so simple—making decisions based on proposals from anonymous envelopes. The most important thing is that the clerks organizing the tender, through procedures and mountains of paperwork, shield themselves from mistakes and diffuse responsibility. The result will be mechanical. Why did Company A win the tender? Because it offered something less expensive according to the specifications than the others. And where do the specifications come from? Approved by a committee.
It turns out that the selection is based on price criteria, which means that the supplier may not see any economic profit. This is often the case. Moreover, it frequently happens that the seller in such a situation is unable to sell their services or position themselves as a unique offering. All the advantages they have as knowledgeable individuals capable of helping make the right decision are cut off by the tender process. And this is quite justified, as 95% of sellers do indeed push their products, which companies definitely do not need.
In today’s world, the quality of a product can often only be assessed after it has been consumed. The tender process, in principle, does not provide the buyer with any insight into the reliability of the supplier or the potential success of future collaboration. A tender conducted among sellers of identical computer servers based on a specified set of requirements fails to reveal how competently they will be serviced, how quickly they will deliver, configure, or provide additional purchases, how responsive the supplier will be to phone calls, how open they will be, or whether they will genuinely care about their customers. Tenders stifle relationships and ultimately yield results that are either completely random or influenced by the personal interests of a particular procurement employee. The buyer themselves may not understand why one company was chosen out of hundreds, or whether that choice was optimal. As a result, they are unlikely to want to continue the relationship after the purchase, let alone recommend the supplier to others.
But there is good news, and there are two points to consider. The first is that a tender is poorly structured if its outcome is not known in advance. In most cases, the sale has already been made, trust has been established, and expectations have been formed even before the tender is completed. Therefore, if a seller is invited to participate in a tender, they should think about how much control they have over the course of this competition, whether they are merely a statistic, and whether the procurement specifications mention any unique features of their product or service that set them apart from the other competitors.
The second piece of news is that the world is changing. Large companies are going through and will continue to go through tough times. New technologies are stripping them of their economies of scale, while conservatism and the inability to quickly respond to a changing world are turning them into dinosaurs, doomed to extinction. Some businesses have long understood what this means, which is why they are gradually transforming into a network of smaller companies connected by contracts and long-term agreements. In this way, the parent company retains only ownership of the trademark, while everything else is outsourced. This phenomenon was described in the book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.”
Just 20 years ago, there were almost as many car manufacturers on the market as there were 50 years ago. However, recently their numbers have increased significantly. This trend is evident in almost every industry. The leaders are not only blending in with the crowd of smaller companies; to survive and remain flexible, they are forced to fundamentally change their business models. The further we move into the future, the less sellers will encounter large corporations and tenders. But it won’t be easy for buyers either: choosing from an ever-growing number of suppliers will become increasingly complex. Therefore, the only thing that can be offered to clients is attention and a good attitude towards them.
White sales are the sales of the future. In the future, there will be no place for tenders that create more fog instead of transparency and provoke behind-the-scenes games instead of openness. We need to prepare for this in advance, as quite a few clients are already living in this very future, but there is no one to serve them. The old approaches simply do not work with new companies.
My favorite size
The problem of finding clients doesn’t actually exist. Instead, there is an issue with the quality of handling potential clients. If your quality is low, then to achieve good (i.e., sufficient for business survival) sales figures, you need to have a lot of potential clients, manage a database of such clients, purchase CRM systems, and so on. At the same time, no salesperson can physically serve more than one client at a specific moment. So, it turns out that having more than one client at any given second is unnecessary for the salesperson. The presence of a second client waiting for a sale won’t increase sales; it will only add chaos, as you can’t pick multiple mushrooms at once.
The pursuit of a large number of potential clients is akin to the behavior of a woman who sleeps with a different man every day in hopes of getting pregnant by just one of them. Such behavior is condemned by society, and this tactic, of course, lacks any trace of love, relying solely on cold calculation. It is this attitude of salespeople—sifting through everyone indiscriminately—that makes this profession less respected than it deserves.
The flow of new clients is also hindered by the dissatisfaction of existing ones, who feel that the product was simply pushed on them and later realized it. The quality of a seller’s work should be evident not only in the sale itself but also in offering what the client truly needs.
It turns out that the issue of finding new clients should primarily be approached by reducing the need for new clients, or in other words, by improving the quality of the salesperson’s work. No magical knowledge or skills in mushroom hunting will be of any help if you can’t tell edible mushrooms from poisonous ones or if you go on a “quiet hunt” with a leaky basket.
And yet, new clients need to be sought. Most salespeople are engaged in this task. However, they approach it as a problem and, as a result, only exacerbate it. They envision the world as a fortress, with clients defending the structure behind its walls, while outside, the attacking salespeople bustle about. In reality, if you rise above the problem, soaring above the battlefield and fortifications, you can see that if the fortress is not attacked, the “besieged” will be happy to come out of it themselves. Every person is in search of something; everyone wants to acquire something. I am looking for a service station for my car. But for some reason, the service station sees this as a problem of finding clients. So why don’t I settle on the first offer I come across on the way?
In the market, we deal with asymmetric information: the buyer and the seller possess completely different knowledge about the product—much like buying a pig in a poke. What should be done to find clients? If you are a reputable supplier, you need to reduce this asymmetry; conversely, if you are unscrupulous, you should increase it. Considering that everyone believes in the good (or at least acceptable for the price) quality of their goods and services, it might be worth focusing on the issues of reducing the notorious asymmetry.
Business in networks
To attract clients, it’s important to work on reducing information asymmetry. This will help them choose you. Every buyer pays not only the price tag amount for their purchase but also transaction costs: the effort spent searching for the product and information about it, the price of risks associated with potential repairs, and poor post-purchase service. The more a client knows about how your product is made, what its cost structure is, what justifies its price, and the experiences of others who have already purchased it, the lower their transaction costs will be. Consequently, the economic cost of that purchase will be lower for them.
How can we reduce information asymmetry? The 21st century has given us a fantastic tool for this. Through social media, you can ensure that your potential clients or their acquaintances are aware of what you do and how you do it. Just share information about yourself. Don’t try to engage in “social media marketing” or “building a positive company image” — it doesn’t work. A Twitter account can be unpredictable in its effectiveness, and using it is no different from shamanism if your activity isn’t aimed at reducing information asymmetry. Don’t boast — over time, that becomes annoying. It’s better to show what you’re actually doing, as stories about the challenges you face and overcome can be inspiring. Don’t be afraid to talk about failures and setbacks as well. People can filter out a constant stream of positive information.
Funnel
Many sellers have encountered the concept of the sales funnel. It is believed that if 1 deal comes from 10 meetings, then to close 2 deals, you need to organize 20 meetings. To achieve that, you, in turn, need to make 200 phone calls. What a inhumane and mechanical approach! This method of working is comparable to fishing for fish and oysters with a trawl. This large fishing net is lowered to the bottom and dragged along, collecting everything living and non-living in its path. It’s a very effective way to catch fish. But it’s also a one-time deal: after the trawl passes, the bottom is left barren, with nothing left for the fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. It’s not just about catching fish; it’s about destroying the ecosystem.
The infamous sales funnel method is quite reminiscent of a fishing trawl. The issues of “getting past the secretary,” clients refusing meetings, negative attitudes towards salespeople as interlocutors, and so on—these are all just reactions to the actions of clever individuals using the sales funnel. The funnel is essentially poaching, an attempt to gain easy profits at the expense of everyone who comes after you.
Of course, sometimes this approach is strategically justified. If you are the bearer of a new idea or the producer of a new product, and you understand that within six months competitors will be breathing down your neck with a “copy-paste” flag in hand, your task in this situation is to quickly cover the entire market, focus on the 1-5% who agree, and close deals. The remaining 95% of the market, having said “no” once, will rationalize their position over time, come up with reasons for their refusal, and will meet your follower fully prepared. They have already thought it through and decided they don’t need it. But even if they haven’t considered justifying their refusal, they still belong to that 95% who said no, not the 5% who agreed. You have employed a “scorched earth” tactic, and it will be very difficult for anyone to work after you. In this situation, it will be easier for competitors to lure away a customer who already understands the value of the product from you than to try to attract a new one. Most followers will simply abandon the market, and those who remain are unlikely to become leaders unless they come up with something new before you do.
If we look at the work of a salesperson from the perspective of White Sales, the funnel is not a method at all. This approach is comparable to the frantic efforts of a struggling dentist who, in search of clients, goes out onto the street and asks every passerby to open their mouth, just in case there’s a cavity that needs filling. If you, as a salesperson, are truly ready to help your clients, they will come to you on their own; your intrusive behavior will only drive them away. Moreover, you will waste time not serving your existing customers, which could lead to additional referrals, but rather on fruitless attempts to find new ones.
In reality, the clients you find through the funnel won’t be those who actively sought out the seller’s services, but rather those who already had a clearly defined request, knew exactly what they wanted, and were about to pick up the phone to call a supplier when your call miraculously preempted their intentions. You weren’t selling there; you just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Of course, from your perspective, it seems like the “funnel” worked: you made 200 calls and found a client. But in reality, you weren’t even searching for them; you were just “trawling the market.” And naturally, someone responded. You could sell much more if those who would have said “no” over the phone had met you through someone’s recommendation.
The funnel method is very popular among “pick-up artists”—young men who are into the techniques of “one-night” dates. They seek out girls for casual relationships and operate in a similar way to a “trawler.” Two hundred approaches to random girls on the street yield one sexual encounter. It doesn’t matter that most girls are no longer inclined to meet people on the street. It doesn’t matter that the one who agrees is simply in a specific mood or has a different attitude towards casual relationships than most girls. Two hundred approaches can be made in a couple of days or, if you take it easy, in a week. “Pick-up artists” study pick-up techniques; they have an entire mythology based on NLP, body language, and amateur psychology. But the techniques don’t really make a difference here. It’s just ordinary statistics.
Pick-up artists get what they want—casual relationships. The same goes for sales: White sales are not “pick-up”; they are a lifelong marriage, a relationship with the client that is carefully built and maintained. You can’t establish that through a sales funnel.
Guard your honor from a young age.
A brand is not just a “trademark,” but also a set of expectations from your customers. People need to clearly understand what to expect from you; this makes it easier for them to choose you as a supplier and for you to work with non-core clients who have come to you for some reason. Every reputation holder benefits from it in one way or another, and if not, they should work on it.
It’s important for a dentist to have a reputation as a good dentist, not as a proctologist, even if they are a professional. A bully or a tough guy benefits from having a reputation as a strong fighter, as that kind of authority allows them to fight less often and get what they want without a struggle—people simply won’t want to mess with them. Similarly, a salesperson should focus on building a reputation not as a seller, but as a helper and consultant, someone who first solves people’s problems and only then receives compensation for it. Only with such a carefully protected reputation will people be drawn to the salesperson. By the way, it might be useful to take a lesson from dogs, which is social and called “wag your tail first.” Today, what matters is not so much what you do, but what you inspire others to do. A great example of this is a dog. It doesn’t think, “First, take me home, feed me, and clean me, and then I’ll wag my tail.” A dog gives its feelings first and only then receives what it needs in return. Moreover, the animal doesn’t force you to give it anything; you want to feed it or pet it yourself.
The formation of customer expectations, convenient for both you and them, also involves establishing standards. Everyone should know what you do, within what timeframe, and for what cost. Customers need to understand, based on your previous dealings with others, what they can expect from you and what they cannot. If customers know that your delivery time is, say, 5 days, they won’t have any questions or objections regarding that timeframe. Even before meeting with you, they will be aware of the timelines and, by agreeing to the meeting, will already consider them acceptable. Those who are not satisfied with such conditions will simply fall outside your scope.
The best thing you can do in the search for clients is to act in a way that encourages those who already know what to expect from you to get in touch. To increase the number of such people, the only thing you can do is to create a set of client expectations that is better than that of your competitors.
Don’t make promises, but keep them.
The worst thing you can do in the 21st century is to lie. Often, sellers, eager to close a deal, promise clients anything just to get them to sign the contract. But the reputation of a liar is the worst possible: why engage with someone whose information cannot be trusted and whose claims are costly to verify? By lying even once, you shut the door to communication with an entire market.
Social animals gather in herds precisely because this organization helps them escape from predators or, conversely, to attack their prey. In such structures, bad news spreads much faster than good news. The frantic scream of a monkey upon seeing a python will be its first reaction. A zebra that spots a lion will draw the attention of the herd, and they will all rush away. A wolf that misses its attack on a deer is unlikely to risk leading other wolves on a hunt—this failure will unfortunately affect its authority. Meanwhile, a monkey will not call its companions upon noticing a ripe bunch of bananas; instead, it will try to quietly enjoy the treat before the others arrive. A zebra will chew on a patch of lush grass without inviting those around to join in, while a wolf leader skillfully sinking its teeth into the throat of its prey will be seen as a matter of course. Similarly, people readily share negative experiences, warning others of danger, but prefer to keep positive experiences for themselves and close friends. The seller’s task is to encourage the spread of positive experiences rather than negative ones.
If you want to please the client, the best thing you can do is not to make any promises at all. The client will understand you when you say that a certain solution is beyond your authority or knowledge, and that you are genuinely interested in the deal and will do your best to satisfy the client, but you cannot promise anything. However, it’s important that after such statements, you stay in touch with the client and regularly update them on the progress. Then, if things don’t work out, you should honestly communicate that you did everything you could, but unfortunately, it didn’t succeed.
The absence of binding promises also gives you a certain freedom. And even if the client turns out to be dissatisfied for some reason, you can always remind them that you never promised what they were somehow expecting.
The same goes for your purely promotional messages. Don’t make grand promises about the product. If you claim it’s the best, you need to not only believe it but also be able to demonstrate why you think so. If you’re convinced that one of the product’s features allows it to perform a certain task, you should also have references to successful experiences using the product in that way. What’s the point of promising customers that the folding knives you sell can be used as a shovel? Yes, they can, and you’re not lying. But let’s be honest, how effective is your knife as a tool for digging trenches? The best thing you can do when promoting a product is to not reveal everything about it. Let the additional features and capabilities of your product be a pleasant surprise for the customer. Make it so that the product looks better after the purchase than it did before. Your main goal is for the customer to not just be tempted but to buy and not regret it. The worst thing that can happen for you is a social media post saying not to buy from your company (regardless of whether it’s due to poor service or low product quality). And the best outcome is also a social media post, but this time about how pleasantly surprised the customer was. Satisfied customers are the most reliable source of new clients for you.
Look where you have already found.
When we have clients, we start sorting them. People generally like to organize everything into categories, groups, and then analyze it. Especially when they have a lot of free time (from meetings and closing deals). And it turns out to be just like the joke about the man who went to the patent office with his invention for a shaving machine.
“Excuse me, but how did you manage that? After all, every face is unique!” asked the patent experts.
“Well, yes, the first time,” replied the inventor.
We start to think of our client as, for example, a 35-year-old man with a higher education and a category “B” driver’s license. From the perspective of this specific man, it looks like divination with coffee grounds—a sort of “average temperature in the hospital.” From the sellers’ point of view, it’s simply about increasing the likelihood of a sale when communicating with this particular segment. Sometimes our conclusions, even those based on deep analysis and complex calculations, do not align with real facts. For instance, based on statistics, our buyers are indeed those men. Consequently, we began targeting this category of people, engaging with fathers who come to pick up their children from kindergarten. In doing so, we overlook, for example, their sexual orientation. In reality, our product or service might have been purchased by members of some gay club, simply sharing information about it with each other. Often, the sellers create a portrait of the potential client based on their own ideas about the benefits, advantages, and methods of using the product. In this process, an old saying is forgotten: “I love strawberries with cream, but fish have different preferences, so when I go fishing, I take worms.”
A classic example of a marketing mistake is the story of Tefal’s promotion of non-stick frying pans. The manufacturer was convinced that these pans were purchased because they allow for cooking without oil. However, housewives still used oil when frying—it’s tastier, and the heat transfer from the pan’s surface to the food is better. They bought such cookware primarily because it is easy to clean. Tefal’s marketers had never heard of the concept of White Sales; otherwise, they would have immediately implemented the advice given in the chapter “What We Are Selling.” To understand who your customer is and where to find them, it’s enough to ask your existing customers. How did they learn about the product? What did they like? How do they plan to use it? What are their impressions, disappointments, and discoveries, etc.? It’s that simple.
We have already compared sales to mushroom picking. Of course, the best approach here is to cut the next mushroom close to the previous one. Mycelium or fungal networks are vast underground organisms that, in order to reproduce, release containers with spores—mushrooms—onto the surface. If we find one mushroom, it’s very likely that there will be a second and a third nearby. The same goes for finding customers: the social circle of someone who has already made a purchase from you surely includes other potential buyers of your product. There’s no need to stray too far.
Not where everyone is.
If you search for mushrooms where everyone else does, you might find that those well-known spots have already been picked clean before you arrive. The worst way to attract customers is to follow the same approach as everyone else. By drawing customers in the same way as others, you won’t stand out and will end up in an “arms race” with your competitors. An irritated customer will perceive this as an attack on them.
Look at the entire range of ways to attract customers, read books on the subject. And if you find any method that is considered reliable, proven, and effective, feel free to cross it off your list.
Our world is becoming increasingly flat—it’s getting harder to hide in the folds of the landscape. The asymmetry of information is decreasing. As a result, traditional customer attraction tools—advertising, propaganda, exhibitions, and “catchy” texts—are becoming less effective. At the same time, White Sales Tools are becoming more effective: recommendations, personalized communication, interest in the customer as an individual, and an understanding of the problems and needs of each person who walks into the store. The infamous problem of finding clients arises precisely because sellers and managers trained in old methods see their ineffectiveness in this new world. In reality, we just need to understand what kind of world we are in and which methods are worth using in it.
White sellers do not seek their customers through “cold calls.” White sellers do not distribute press releases. White sellers do not pay for advertising. White sellers do not give clients champagne for the New Year. These are all things that others do. Instead, White sellers do what others do not, and they gain the most important thing one can obtain—a client who is loyal even before the deal is made. Give champagne just because, not just for a holiday. This gift will be remembered better. Visit the client not before, but after the New Year, and you will find a relaxed person with whom you can enjoy a pleasant chat for a couple of hours, rather than a stressed-out individual in a pre-holiday rush. Don’t send out press releases; instead, befriend journalists so that they find it interesting to write about you and your business. Don’t call “cold” clients. Call based on recommendations.
Remember, if you do things “like everyone else,” you’ll get the same results as everyone else. But that’s not your goal; you need to be better than the rest. We recommend starting by being different. Yes, it might even mean being “different in a worse way” instead of “different in a better way.” But… if you don’t take a shot, you definitely won’t hit the target. Try, improvise, just don’t get lost among the others.
Look at most marketers: they constantly do what everyone else does. They all put up billboards, worry about press releases, come up with that “magical” sales pitch, and print product brochures and flyers. And then, of course, they wonder why the advertising didn’t work and the product went unnoticed. No, in their defense, they will say, “But it works somehow.” Although, in reality, it doesn’t. So don’t print and hand out flyers with “smiling mom, dad, and two kids”; instead, for example, ask promoters to pinch passersby on the backside.
Love your partners.
Sales company leaders often feel that finding a partner is easy. You just need to target a company that sells to the same categories of clients as you do and offer commissions for “upselling.” After all, it’s additional income—who would turn that down? For example, a company that organizes corporate events might think of proposing “collaboration” to a recruiting agency. These organizations have similar clientele and both interact with the HR departments of client companies.
In business-to-business communication, motivation plays the same role as it does in interactions with people. Motivating with money is foolish and ineffective. Often, one business (A) offers another (B) a “partnership” based on the idea that business B will sell the products or services of business A and receive a commission for it. Meanwhile, the offering party is puzzled as to why their proposal doesn’t attract colleagues from business B. After all, there are commissions involved! All that’s left is to offer the products/services of business A to every client of business B.
In reality, if the owners of Company B wanted to engage in any other business besides their own, they would have done so a long time ago. Moreover, the offer from Company A sounds something like this: “Guys, your craft is nonsense; you should focus on our business instead.” Every business invests time and resources primarily to sell itself. People believe in what they do, and importantly, they can earn more from their own product than from someone else’s. Yet, for some reason, “partners” appear who suggest that part of their time should be spent on their business: with lower returns now and a loss of market and competitive advantages in the future.
Therefore, a simple commission proposal almost never works. And even if it is accepted, there is a high likelihood that other factors come into play: tax optimization, changes in effective interest rates on loans, affiliation with a single holding company, meaning that we are not talking about a standard commission.
The client is valuable to the company along with their wallet. Businessmen will go to great lengths to empty the client’s wallet using their product and service, in which they truly excel and from which they earn a solid income. Business B will be ready to offer a more expensive package, additional options, better service, and so on. Only when their creativity runs out will the employees of Company B start thinking about what else to do, agreeing to share the contents of their client’s wallet with another business.
If you want someone’s business to become your sales channel, offer them your product/service in a way that shows how it specifically boosts their own sales, makes their customers more loyal to the company, and increases its value in the eyes of buyers. As for the commission? In this case, it might not even need to be paid.
Collaboration is possible when a partner is interested in having your product for their client. Banks are interested in ensuring that collateral is insured. Project organizations want clients to know who they can work with to realize their home project. Real estate agencies are interested in mortgage banks, and so on. A sales channel will only work when the intermediary’s business gains advantages for selling their own product, rather than yours. Therefore, conversations with potential partners should start not with commissions, but with how you and your product can help the partner.
If your partner is a professional intermediary, you shouldn’t focus on what makes your product interesting to the end client. Instead, you should consider why the intermediary would want to work with you. Money is not the primary or even the secondary argument here. The essence of what you are selling does not lie in your product itself. It lies in the working conditions, in the support you provide, in your ability to listen to and understand the intermediary, in recognizing their needs, in reliability, and ultimately, in human relationships. In this case, your client is the intermediary, not the end consumer of your product.
Stop the hunt.
Wild animals flee from hunters, while domestic animals do not run away from their owners. While most people try to identify the “haunt” of potential clients and catch them there, you should consider creating another equally comfortable “haunt” for them—one that is exclusively yours. Cows began living with humans because, by choosing one killer, they gained protection from all other predators. Yes, for humans, animal husbandry is more labor-intensive than hunting. However, the times of foraging and a nomadic lifestyle are long gone, and it is now harder to hunt a deer than to raise a cow. Hunters, especially elephant hunters, are starving today. I previously mentioned a classification of mushroom foragers, but I didn’t mention the very last, highest category—those who cultivate mushrooms.
Your potential clients share something in common. They have common problems, aspirations, and questions. The key employees of your corporate clients, those who make decisions, also have their own interests. This can be leveraged. Provide potential buyers with what they are looking for, and they will come to you. I always recommend to my clients to organize business clubs where topics of interest to the community members can be discussed. They will also be the ones speaking at club events: sharing their experiences, debating with colleagues, and listening to invited external speakers. This way, people will receive important information, exchange experiences, and make new connections.
However, when organizing such communities, two main mistakes are typically made. First, the sellers who set up the club start using it solely to promote their products, whether it’s a product or a service. They present topics that are interesting to sellers rather than to club members, engage in blatant promotion of their solutions, and as a result, they lose the most important thing—customer trust. Second, in an attempt to do “what’s best,” the organizers make participation in club meetings free of charge. To avoid the temptation of quickly recouping the money spent on organizing events and to prevent any of the invitees from thinking about “free cheese,” participation in the club should be made paid. It doesn’t have to be a large amount; just enough to cover the venue rental and coffee breaks. This way, the invitees will understand that they are not being profited from, but they are also not being paid for. Paid participation in the club also encourages rationality: participants tend to value what they receive for their money more than what they would receive as a gift.
Build a ladder.
A tiered product strategy can help in cultivating customers, as can the behavior of the salesperson if they aim to establish a reputation as a consultant. The essence of this strategy is that the company attracts customers for its more expensive products by promoting the cheaper ones. It is important not to confuse a tiered strategy with selling to existing customers. This is about becoming well-known and building the right reputation.
In the mid-1990s, Ratmir Timashev, then an assistant at Ohio State University, decided to take on a side job and open an online store selling computer components. He invited his friend and roommate, Andrey Baronov, who was a self-taught programmer and well-versed in Windows NT, to join him. During the process of creating the website, Andrey wrote a program that scanned for and revealed passwords in Windows NT, which he made available for free download, resulting in hundreds of downloads each week. Ratmir saw this as a unique business opportunity, but it took a lot of convincing to get Andrey on board with the idea of making money from the program. However, they weren’t quite sure what to do with it at that point, so they initially offered consulting services to Microsoft on how to protect Windows NT from hacking. The corporation looked down on them and stated that they did not negotiate with extortionists. Unfortunately, they had not yet come up with the idea of Google paying anyone who found a vulnerability.
What could be done? The partners created a more complex program that made some important tasks for system administrators easier, but this program, like the first one, revealed passwords. They began selling their development under a Shareware license (“try it, then pay”) for $20. To lend some respectability to their venture, they established a company called Aelita Software.
People continued to visit the website and download the free program, but gradually Ratmir and Andrey started earning money from the sales of its paid version.
One time, when they were in the same room, the phone rang. The person on the other end was asking Andrey how much their development would cost if it were paid for not by credit card, but as a corporate client, and paid in full upfront, without a trial period.
“Twenty dollars,” replied Andrei.
— I’m an IT manager at Bank of America, and we need to install this software on 20,000 computers.
— So, it’s 20 dollars for the installation on each one.
Ratmir barely managed to snatch the phone from his colleague and speak with the caller, finding out exactly what Bank of America needed and proposing a solution. Subsequently, it was successfully sold to large American corporations.
In 2004, Aelita Software was sold to Quest for $115 million, bringing its founders $8 million. Two talented entrepreneurs, without using external investments and relying on their own enthusiasm, built a successful business in just a couple of years, earning them millions in profit.
The story of Ratmir and Andrey is a brilliant illustration of a tiered product strategy. The essence of this strategy is that a company should have a product that it offers for free or for a relatively low price. The goal of these sales (or giveaways) is not so much to make money from this product, but to gain recognition. The product should be simple, convenient, and necessary. If you are focused solely on sales, this type of product could be certain kinds of consultations and seminars.
The second tier requires a slightly more complex product that is sold at a somewhat higher price. Customers for the second product come through a stream of recommendations from people who have already used the first-tier product. At the third tier, there is a product that is both available and in demand only among large corporate clients. Accordingly, they arrive already knowing that you have a solution that meets their needs and is in demand.
The idea of a tiered product strategy has been and continues to be used by many companies, allowing them to attract customers without spending on advertising and marketing activities.
Think like customers.
The third way to “grow” clients is through nurturing them. The success of any salesperson directly depends on whether their clients have money. Clients have money when their sales are increasing. Therefore, for a salesperson to be successful, they need to pay attention not just to their own clients, but to the clients of their clients. What does your typical client do? Can you find information about successful deals in their market? Who closed those deals? What amounts were paid? You should look for this information where your potential clients are thriving. On the other hand, salespeople should also keep an eye on their existing customers—monitor their market and news. This way, you can engage in conversations that are interesting and beneficial to your clients. By being informed, you can offer them intriguing ideas and valuable insights. Clients should feel that they are gaining value from you and that you are their ally.
Somewhere in the Urals, there is a bricklayer named Misha the Brick. A wonderful guy! Every year, he checks to see if the stoves he built are in good condition, even though he lives dozens of kilometers away. He doesn’t even try to “hold on” to his clients: he offers a lifetime warranty on the stoves, so his clients don’t foresee needing any others. He simply visits to check in, ask how things are going, and chat. This man genuinely loves his work and his clients. So, are there any chances of finding a similar job in the area “controlled” by Misha the Brick? No. Which bricklayer would be recommended? Misha. Why? Because everyone knows him (reputation) and he won’t run away (reputation again). Who will people turn to for stove repairs? The answer is clear.
Why is such a simple method of attracting customers hardly used by anyone? Who has ever received a call from a car dealership asking about their satisfaction with their chosen vehicle, and then inquiring who they particularly liked it for? Which contractors, who have done repairs or construction, regularly visit their clients and build a friendship with them? Unfortunately, it’s the opposite now—cut corners, steal some materials, and then deceive the next customer. But, as mentioned earlier, this approach is no longer effective. The most cunning and clever way to increase sales now is through genuine love for the customer and for one’s work.
Exhibitions are a waste of time.
Participation in specialized exhibitions and conferences is not effective. The time and money that a company spends on attending such events are wasted and do not serve the purpose of attracting clients. If you do decide to participate in exhibitions, it should only be those that are relevant to your clients. And, of course, this is only advisable if your competitors are not doing the same.
Let’s imagine an exhibition for some mythical puzzle. There are plenty of booths from manufacturers, dealers, and suppliers of this puzzle. Each of them believes that right here and now, they will land a super contract for large shipments of their puzzle. A magnificent booth has been set up for the exhibition, with girls in mini skirts smiling enticingly, and you’ve even brought a model of the production line where your puzzle is made. Naturally, visitors are walking around the exhibition, likely potential buyers of your puzzle. Some of them stop by your booth, nodding in agreement as you talk about the enhanced puzzliness of your product and exchanging business cards with you. You happily leave the exhibition with a stack of cards and enter their details into your CRM system, then start using the contacts as leads. A beautiful picture, right? However, the sales volume chart for the company doesn’t seem to show any noticeable spikes in sales in the days following the exhibition. The expected results are definitely delayed.
The organizers of the exhibition seem to be right. Outside of the exhibition, it’s so hard to find a relevant client and arrange a meeting with them. But the person who actually has the authority to make purchasing decisions for the puzzle business always has little time. Moreover, they have probably already solved their problems with the puzzle or are managing without it in their business. They are overwhelmed with work and have a multitude of other, more pressing concerns. Now the question is: why would this so-called “decision-maker” spend their business day attending a puzzle exhibition? Perhaps they don’t even realize they need this puzzle. Why would they go to this exhibition? Because they received an invitation? Ha! The best they might do is send some less busy (read: “less responsible”) employee to check it out: “You know, just go around, collect some price lists, and we’ll see.” In the end, you end up with a stack of business cards from people whose contacts you could have obtained without the exhibition, simply by calling the company’s office from the Yellow Pages. The effectiveness of leads generated at the event approaches zero. And by the way, you’ve also distracted your own employees.
What else is wrong with exhibitions? For puzzle-muzzle buyers, exhibitions are a unique opportunity to meet all their suppliers in one place. This means that the demand for the product among these people is already established,
Another problem is the audience at conferences and exhibitions. The issue is that you are spreading information about yourself and your products among competitors rather than clients. Looking for clients at a specialized conference is as rewarding as trying to find a mouse in a cat shelter. If you give a speech, you are merely indulging your ego. A useful speech will be enthusiastically received by competitors, while a useless one will go in one ear and out the other. By the way, most presentations are generally lacking in substance and serve only one purpose—public relations. The idea that having the head of a company listed on the conference agenda will somehow impact that company’s sales is quite questionable. Really?
Unlike exhibitions, potential clients don’t even make it to the conference. By the way, they don’t even send out invitations to them. However, it’s a fertile ground for those who want to sell you something. For them, the conference is a “haunt” of company executives with whom they can meet, discuss business (that interests them), and negotiate selling you their products. In other words, listen closely: they are offering you the chance to pay money to find yourself in the spotlight of dozens of savvy salespeople. What a great deal!
Who do you think you will meet at trade shows besides “representatives of potential clients”? The same eager sellers: representatives from business publications looking for subscribers, recruiting and staffing agencies, software developers and IT solution providers for businesses, suppliers of spare parts for your puzzle, and so on. In short, everyone who wants to profit from you, rather than those from whom you could profit.
There’s another category of exhibition visitors — the curious onlookers. This includes the proper curious ones, like educational institutions, as well as just regular curious people — those who are “simply interested.” They are the ones who create a crowd at the exhibition; it’s for them that you hired girls in bikinis and occupied an entire “block” of exhibition space.
When are exhibitions useful? Of course, there is a benefit to these events. Especially if the format of the exhibition is not “seller-client,” but “supplier-reseller” (the so-called Trade Fair), and if the exhibition is international. Such events save time and money for business representatives who are looking for suppliers of goods for their trading business. If Ukraine, for example, were a world leader in the production of lard, an exhibition of its producers would be very beneficial for foreign buyers of this product for retail chains around the world. However, 90% of the exhibitions here are dedicated to how someone is trying to showcase their lard to Ukrainian clients, which is quite the opposite.
Participation in exhibitions can also serve as a kind of response to “blackmail” in the “war” between competitors. It’s important to understand that if you have a very strong competitor and your participation in the exhibition will receive significant media coverage, then you shouldn’t hesitate to invest in such PR. This applies to international auto shows, CeBIT, and similar events. However, it’s also essential to weigh the costs against the potential revenues. For instance, if regular participation in an exhibition accounts for 0.01% of your sales volume and the cost of participation is 10,000 Euros, then it makes sense to participate only if your sales exceed 100,000,000 Euros during the relevant period.
Instead of spending money on participating in exhibitions and conferences to attract new clients, consider whether it might be better to invest that amount in improving the experience of your existing clients. This could lead to a more dynamic flow of referrals than a prepaid opportunity to get lost among others like you.
Chapter Summary
Main ideas
· Stop fighting. Remember how the character from the cartoon “Little Racoon” became friends with the one who sits in the pond.
- Understand what unites your clients.
- Don’t look for clients in the same places and ways that others do.
- Elephant hunters are dying of hunger.
- · Do not participate in tenders whose outcomes are unclear to you.
- · Don’t chase after clients. You won’t be able to meet with two of them at the same time anyway. In this case, choose quality over quantity.
- To make it easier for the client to make a purchase, reduce their decision-making costs.
- “Sales funnel” is poaching.
- Meet customer expectations and build a reputation that suits you.
- “Cold calls” are more harmful than beneficial.
- Partners are not interested in money. They are interested in their own sales.
- · Stop chasing after clients. Make it so that clients gather around you on their own.
- · Take a look at the product line. Is it structured in a way that the cheaper products attract customers to the more expensive ones?
- Don’t rely on exhibitions.
Exercises
- – Draw a portrait of your ideal client. Sort your potential clients based on how closely they match this ideal. Start working with those who are the closest to it.
- – Think about what determines the success of your key clients’ businesses. Can you help them in any way? Create a plan.
Where to start?
· Take a look at the portfolio of existing clients. Identify common characteristics. Don’t limit yourself to obvious ones like belonging to the same industry. Consider other companies with similar traits.
· Ask your clients where they heard about you. If it was a recommendation, spend more time communicating with the source, and they will recommend you again.
– If you prohibit yourself from making “cold calls,” what other methods do you have left for finding clients? Describe them. Create an action plan.