给希望销售产品或服务的IT开发公司的一些方便提示. "
(... he said, in a long winded title. Oh look, I'm an IT Sales and Marketing Consultant, and you can reach me on hello@davefrancisconsulting.com )
(I'll get to the squirrel later. Bear with me. )
好吧. 现在 we've got past the long winded introduction.... statistically, if you're in the UK IT indus试一试 and work in Software Development, you're probably a member of a small company of less than 20 staff.
This means you're unlikely to have a dedicated Sales team.
Matter of fact, 你很可能是公司的老板或创始人，想在晚上找时间推销你的产品或服务. In between reading Peppa Pig to your children and 试一试ing not to miss Masterchef.
一个不可避免的事实是，销售你的产品或服务需要时间，也需要专业知识. 销售, basically, a horrible brush with reality, and as well as taking up your Peppa Pig time, it also requires a rhino like thick skin. (Perhaps too many animal references there.)
尝试销售软件的挫败感可能会让你甚至放弃尝试, or even writing software with a direct commercial application in the first place. 您可能最终会为某人编写软件，然后他们将时间和精力卖给他们自己的客户. "Less profit".
相信我，无论是我还是其他人都不能给你成功销售的秘方. but I can give you some handy hints and tips about what not to do. And here we go.
Don't contact the CTO
If you're a CTO, IT Director, IT Manager or anyone in IT.... 不 试一试 and contact other CTO's or IT contacts via Linkedin, email or any other medium to attempt to sell software.
为什么 ? 好吧. Remember how busy you are ? So are they.
Whilst you triumphantly click on "send", 给另一家公司“负责软件的家伙”写了一封令人费解的技术性电子邮件, bear in mind that you've just made his busy life even busier.
After you've clicked on "send", 当邮件到达时，他会点击“删除”，甚至“阻止发件人”或“标记为垃圾邮件”.
Just as you do with all the "sales" mails you receive. And "requests for co-operation" and "SEO service" mails. You've probably even got mail filters set up.
So have they.
Let me use an analogy. It's like people sitting in traffic, complaining about the amount of traffic, when they themselves are part of the traffic.
Yes, it's "software". 您可能已经联系了他们，因为他们所做的工作是您理解的“IT部门处理软件”的一部分。. 但.....
So who do you contact ?
Who actually buys software ?
Let's stop thinking "technical" and start thinking "commercial".
Your software product presumably has a commercial use. 否则你一开始写的时候可能有点错.
(Actually, let me sidestep a second. 如果你写了一些只有技术人员才能理解的东西, 你要么用非技术术语解释它，要么在技术或开发者论坛上宣传它，这样它就会被注意到.... not by sending out a mail.)
All software has some kind of use. He said, wearing his "obvious" hat. 公司会从你那里购买它，因为它要么解决了他们的问题，要么给他们机会用它来制造 钱.
然而
现在 you run into an unexpected twist.
虽然您可能已经确定了公司中谁会试图推销您的软件，但令人惊讶的是 ! - "it's not quite that simple".
让我们假设营销经理对你的人工智能插件非常满意，因为它可以让他们的团队轻松识别合作伙伴组织. 他对它垂涎三尺，想马上给你付款.
Purchasing anything in a company doesn't work like that. 市场经理必须与首席财务官和首席技术官就采购事宜进行协商, most likely. The CFO will look down his beaky nose at the appropriate spreadsheets, contact the Finance Controller, agree on quarterly spend, 那么首席技术官就必须参与进来，他会一直检查你系统的发条，看看它是否可以通过Zapier连接到办公室的水壶/猫/ CRM系统/任何东西上.
然后他们会在会议中四处走动——最终——找到新的话题来讨论, like user acceptance, 为新用户提供适当的培训方案，可能还会提供一些十大网博靠谱平台《澳门十大正规赌博娱乐平台》或《十大网博靠谱平台》的内容.
At the same time, Other Priorities are bubbling to the surface, like the IoT toaster for the office kitchen.
现在. Here comes the squirrel analogy.
Think like a squirrel
Unless you live near a nuclear power plant, 今天早上，你可能没有拉开窗帘，看到你的花园埋满了及膝深的松鼠尸体.
为什么 ?
Because squirrels are very successful in what they do. 好吧, granted, they have no road sense. I never worked out the "Tufty Squirrel club" road safety campaign, by the way.
Apart from having a notable lack of expertise in crossing busy roads, squirrels have it all worked out. 它们能很好地利用时间和可用资源——它们能得到最简单的食物, they 不 waste time 试一试ing to get to impossible to reach food sources, they're adaptable, resourceful and what they can't immediately eat, they bury, remember where they've buried it, and come back in times of need.
Translated
- Go for the easy wins
- Don't waste your time on impossible goals
- Try different approaches and think creatively
- Bury your nuts for winter.
Sorry about the last point, I painted myself into a corner.
Sales, as I mentioned, is a horrible exercise in reality. It's great to be enthusiastic. It's bad to be over enthusiastic.
It's also bad to think "I've not got through to someone in fifteen attempts, I'll 试一试 again and sixteen maaaay be the lucky number, 毕竟, "persistence". "
You'll most likely persistently fail. Bury that particular nut for later and go off looking for easier ones to eat. If you're not short of data, 试一试 someone else.
Getting "90% of the way there" is meaningless. This is a binary exercise. You either get 100% of the way there or ching, no sale. The fact is that some companies or contacts can't be pushed that final 10%, or will even engage in "what if ? " exercises where they'll push you right up to price negotiation stage, 看看他们将来能从你或像你这样的人那里得到多少潜在的折扣.
It's frustrating. It's horrible. It's demoralising. 现在 you know why Sales people get paid such a lot of 钱.
现在.....
How do you approach potential customers ?
The more astute amongst you will perhaps realise that you are, 事实上, reading am advert for my brilliant, insightful yet tantalisingly inexpensive services. (hello@davefrancisconsulting.com by the way.)你可能已经被哄骗了，以为这篇有趣的文章是为了启迪你而写的.
And I've not even mentioned "leverage your elevator pitch with a Call To Action" yet.
不. I'm selling myself to you. You've not realised it yet.
Point One - language. I'm speaking to you in Plain English. This is, 事实上, how most people talk to each other. I read some hilarious piece on Linkedin about "How to use C level language" once. Written by some kind of self appointed Sales Guru, 它的工作原理是假设“C级联系人都说一种特殊的语言”，你可以利用这一事实来“利用”你的销售优势.
I got the impression that, when the office was empty, 所有的老板都摘下了他们的人形面具，露出了爬行动物的头，所有的老板都发出嘶嘶声. 好吧. Who can tell ? Seems a bit unlikely.
Speak normally. 每一个人, for God Knows What Reason, 收到无数相同的邮件，有人认为说胡言乱语是聪明的或“专业的”. 我曾经工作过的一位销售顾问使用了如此华丽而做作的英语，以至于他为自己赢得了这个绰号, "The Riddler". He was so "professional" that no one in the office, or presumably outside it, could understand what he was saying.
Point Two- brevity. We all have busy lives. Keep it short. Keep it to the point. Don't go off on tangents about squirrels, ideally.
A great tool to force the conditions of brevity on you is.... Linkedin connection requests. 300个字符的限制将确保你的初次联系简短而切中要害. "Could we send you some information..... " etc etc.
How do you find the relevant contacts ? A great tool is Apollo. Apollo是一个联系人数据库——类似Zoom Info，但便宜得多——它可以让你找到潜在的感兴趣的联系人，为你的销售活动. It connects to Linkedin, and Hubspot, a free CRM tool. It's not expensive and I do encourage you to have a look at it.
Point Three - 不 "sell".
(Oh God, he's gone all "guru" now, it was bad enough with the animal references...)
现在. Here's a difficult concept. "People 不 like being "sold" to." Note the quotes.
When novice salemen get going, a weird thing happens. 他们以20世纪50年代美国真空吸尘器推销员的形象示人，咄咄逼人, to close deals, to take command of a conversation and to "sell".
This probably worked great for vacuum cleaner sales in the 1950's. Except you're not selling vacuum cleaners to bored housewives. 您正在向知识渊博的人出售昂贵的软件解决方案，并限制他们可以购买什么和何时购买. 从来没有人花4万英镑买一个软件解决方案，然后回去告诉老板.
您正在做的是与潜在感兴趣的人进行对话，讨论您的软件如何能够潜在地 provide a solution to a problem they might have.
If they 不 have a problem or you 不 have a solution, move on and find someone who does have a problem. It's that simple.
Actually, you may be a fit and they 不 realise it. Which brings us to the final point....
"There is no percentage in educating a fool"
To quote Mark Twain. 可能.
There is another Great Sales Myth which comes under the term of "objection handling". Client says "T'aint so." They're wrong. You use Words of Wise Sales Wisdom to correct their erroneous thinking. Ching, sale.
So theory has it.
This presupposes you're dealing with normal, 理性的, 不以自我为中心的人，当面对突出的事实时，他们准备改变自己的观点. I 不 know if you've seen the internet recently, but this rarely happens. You can do so much to gently persuade people that 事实上, you might be correct and they may be "less so", but beyond a certain point, you have to ask yourself, “如果我让他们自生自弃，去找一个更容易接受的人，会不会更好? ?"
Again, the All Purpose Squirrel Analogy.
Conclusions - and contact details
好吧, as ever, I hope you found this useful - and amusing. (在IT销售行业工作了20年之后，你往往会在绝对必要的情况下培养出幽默感.)
总而言之:小型it企业要开始销售自己的软件并不容易. Hopefully some of the tips above give you if not a solution, then a better overview of what's involved.
这里是插头:如果你需要专业的帮助和建议，如何开始向世界销售你的产品或服务, 试一试 hello@davefrancisconsulting.com .
If you want to know anything more about squirrels, here's the link. ;-)
