Jed (a hypothetical salesperson) keeps getting what sound like positive buying signals with his prospecting calls. Somehow, though, he’s not getting very far.

“People tell me to call back in two months, four months, six months, when they will be looking at this problem” he says, perplexed. “When I call back, I get people telling me how glad they are that I called … but my close ratio is low, and my sales cycles are way too long. What’s going on?”

In response, I would give Jed the following advice.

“Jed, when you cold call someone in an attempt to sell them something, you’re interrupting that person’s day. The dominant instinct is always going to be for that person to find any reason to get off the phone and get back to what they were doing before you interrupted them.

“Your goal has to be to maintain your poise and get past that first fifteen to thirty seconds of the initial call … which is always going to be a little bumpy.

“BUT — the reason you’re riding out those first fifteen to thirty seconds is not so you can try to turn the person into a short term prospect on the spot!

“Actually, you’re trying to discover if this person has experienced a Trigger Event. If there has been such an event you want to find out what it was and when it happened. The Trigger Event could have taken place quite a while ago, it could have happened only recently, or it could still be on the horizon.

“These Trigger Events typically fall into one of three categories:

1. Bad Experience: The buyer has a bad experience with a product/service, with people, or with a provider. For instance, there may have been a product/service change that creates dissatisfaction.
2. Change / Transition: The buyer has a change or transition in people, places, or priorities. For instance, there may have been a change in the buyer at an account.
3. Awareness: The buyer becomes aware of the need to change for legal, risk-avoidance, or economic reasons. For instance: The person may have a new understanding that buying from someone like you is less risky than continuing to buy the existing solution.

“During the first minute of your call, use the opportunity to understand which of the following three buying modes the buyer is in:

“Status Quo: The buyer is completely happy with what he or she currently has. There has not been a Trigger Event in the recent past, but there may be one on the horizon. You may think this person is a waste of time and may want to move on to the next person on your list. Actually, if this person has money, authority, and influence, this is a great long-term opportunity. A strategy for this type of call is to start the relationship building process. I would also suggest that you check back in on a monthly basis to see if a Trigger Event has recently happened.

“Searching For Alternatives: This person is unhappy with what he or she has, has spoken to several suppliers, and probably already has a favorite. A Trigger Event took place a while ago, and they’ve already taken action on it. You may think that this is a short-term opportunity … because the buyer is actively talking to a number of potential suppliers. This is in fact probably a medium term opportunity … because it is highly likely this buyer already has a first choice! Selling to buyers under these conditions typically results in a lower close ratio and a longer sales cycle – exactly the problem that you are experiencing. A strategy for this type of call is to position yourself as the buyer’s number-two choice — so you get called first if the buyer’s current favorite falters. You should check back every other week to see where you stand.

“Window of Dissatisfaction: A Trigger Event has recently taken place and this buyer knows that what they are currently using is no longer sufficient, but has not done anything about it yet. Because they tell you to call back in two months, four months, or six months you make a note to do that and move on to the next person on your list. Wrong answer! This is actually a short term opportunity, because the buyer is not talking to your competition — yet. When you call back a few months later, even if you call a few weeks early thinking it will give you and edge, it’s very likely they will already be talking to your competition. The strategy for this type of call is to identify the business opportunity and pursue it immediately — with as much happening on this initial call as possible and future contact taking place in the very near future. You must find a way to push a little bit and learn more about the Trigger Event, then try to set a near-term course of action.

“As it stands, Jed, you are focusing on those people who are already talking to your competition … and missing the biggest opportunities: those buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction, who recently experienced a Trigger Event and have not started talking to your competition. That’s why your numbers are as bad as they are; that’s also why your sales cycles are so long.

“Jed, you need to do a better job of ‘staying on your feet’ for the first thirty seconds or so of the call — long enough to ask a couple of questions that will help you learn whether the person has:

• Not experienced a Trigger Event in a long time
• Experienced a Trigger Event a while ago and already doing something about it
• Recently experienced a Trigger Event and has done nothing about it –– yet

“Once you learn if, and when, a buyer has experienced a Trigger Event you can apply the appropriate strategy. When you do that, and focus FIRST on those people in the Window of Dissatisfaction, who recently experienced a Trigger Event and have done nothing about it yet, you will have a much higher close ratio … and you’ll have much shorter sales cycles!”

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with a resource over at Customer Think titled Seeing Through the ‘Window of Discontent’.

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 2,700 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

This week’s winner of a no-charge webinar for 20 people is Steve Duncan. Since I don’t contact the winners, if you know Steve Duncan let him know he has won a custom webinar on Trigger Events for 20 people and that you would like to be one of the twenty participants. He has until 5:00PM Mountain time on Friday July 11th to collect his prize.

If you want to chance to win in the future you need to subscribe to the Trigger Event blog via email.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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A continuation on the theme of selective perception, how Trigger Events change what we see, and how you can create a Trigger Event that will help you close more sales…

No matter what you sell or who you are selling to, buyers are always in one of three buying modes. Most salespeople are quite familiar with two of them:

• Status Quo – “We believe what we have is sufficient, and we see no reason to change, so we’ll keep buying from our current supplier.”
• Searching for Alternatives – “We know what we have is no longer sufficient and have started talking to several other suppliers.”

In between these two, however, lies the buying mode with the greatest opportunity, namely the …

• Window of Dissatisfaction: “We know what we have is no longer sufficient, and we’ve put doing something about it on our ‘to do’ list, but we haven’t found the time to start searching for alternatives.”

In other words … When you find a decision maker after they realize what they have is no longer sufficient but before they have started the process of searching for alternatives, you have found them in the Window of Dissatisfaction!

When you start ‘seeing’ the Window of Dissatisfaction, you’ve got the beginnings of a competitive edge – an unfair advantage that will help you close more sales, shorten your sales cycles, and increase your average deal size.

One way to create a Trigger Event that will help you ‘see’ the Window of Dissatisfaction, is a simple form of customer analysis. Take a few moments to reflect on the new customers you acquired in the last year. Jot down their names. Now break your list down a little further by putting a check mark next to those names where you:

• Enjoyed a short sales cycle,
• Found it very easy to make the sale,
• Sold at a higher-than-average price, and
• Ended up with a core, loyal customer who really saw eye-to-eye with you – and was willing and eager to sing your praises to other people?

In all likelihood, you got to those with three or more check marks next to their names when they were in a Window of Dissatisfaction, your product or service resonated with the buyer’s selective perception, and they ‘saw’ value in what you sell.

The Trigger Event of doing this customer analysis will put the Window of Dissatisfaction on your mental ‘radar screen’! Once you ‘see’ a Window of Dissatisfaction, and relate it to your own best customers, you will start noticing them everywhere.

So take a look at your new best customers … and soon you will close more sales by seeing the Window of Dissatisfaction everywhere.

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with you two resources:

1. Over at CopyBlogger.com James Chartrand from Men With Pens expands on my previous post on Trigger Events and selective perception
2. Joseph Provenzano expands on James’ article even more over at CanIHaveThatWith!

Funny how when you write a post on selective perception and how Trigger Events change what you ‘see’, you start seeing similar posts show up everywhere!

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 2,300 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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Have you ever noticed that as soon as you buy a new car you see it all over the road?

When women get pregnant, suddenly they start seeing other pregnant women everywhere. When couples give birth of to their first child, they stop noticing pregnant women and now start seeing babies around every corner. This is called selective perception. We tend to see the things that reinforce what we believe, or the things we can relate to. The rest we usually disregard.

The Trigger Events we experience change what we see. Every time we experience a Trigger Event a new version of selective perception is created. We begin to notice things that were always there. We just did not ‘see’ them.

Why is this important? By focusing your marketing on those who recently experienced a Trigger Event ( aka Trigger Event Marketing) you can use the words, visuals, or scenarios, that are highly likely to resonate with them. In sales, that means saying the words that will capture your prospects attention. In marketing, that means using the words or visuals that will make your advertising jump out of the page and get noticed by those readers who recently experience a Trigger Event and are most likely to become your customers.

The next time you are crafting a message, harness the power of Trigger Event Marketing to focus on the audience that recently experienced a Trigger Event. Remember to use a call to action so that when they see it, they will take that most important step to becoming your customer – phoning you.

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with you an article by Frank Filippo, of Dow Jones’ Factiva SalesWorks, called Sales Triggers for Advantage. In his article Frank shares his thoughts on the different types of Trigger Events you can find in the news.

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 2,000 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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One of the biggest challenges in sales is to get your foot in the door and have that first meeting.

To make that challenge less daunting I have partnered with Jill Konrath and three other thought leaders on the teleseminar series Get Your Foot In The Door, that starts this Thursday.

The Get Your Foot In The Door series brings together the following thought leaders:

• Selling to Big Companies expert Jill Konrath
• Cold calling expert Leslie Buterin
• Trigger Event expert Craig Elias
• Lead Generation expert Marguerite McLeod-Fleming
• Communications expert Mark Bowden

Sign up for each teleseminar individually. Or, for the best value, sign up for the entire series. All programs are recorded, so if you miss the event or want to listen to it again, you’ll be able to. You’ll be sent a link to download the audio after the session.

Individual teleseminars are $79

Save $117 by registering for all 4 Get Your Foot In The Door teleseminars

As a strong supporter of Jill’s work, and a speaker in the series, I am giving away 1 hour of my Trigger Event expertise to everyone who registers for the Get Your Foot In The Door series via the link Jill has created for me.

See all the details here.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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In previous posts – Back on Track … Finally! & What’s The Big Deal About Trigger Events – I described how to increase close ratios, shorten sales cycles, and increase margins by getting to buyers when they are in the ‘Window of Dissatisfaction’ and the three types of Trigger Event’s that put buyers into the Window of Dissatisfaction.

In this post I will describe how to identify specific Trigger Events for the products/services that you sell. This can be done by doing a specific form of sales analysis.

Use Google to search for the term sales analysis – by using quotes around the words “sales analysis” when you search – and you’ll find around 3,000,000 pages on sales analysis. If you believe that when you lose the business you don’t want to lose the lesson and you use Google to search for the term “lost sales analysis” you will find around 1,750 pages on lost sales analysis.

I am looking to replicate my successes, therefore I want to better understand what it is that makes me win business. To do this I conduct a Won Sales Analysis. Here is what I find amazing, if you use Google to search for the term “won sales analysis” you’ll find, on last check, only around 50 pages that talk about how to capture more customers by analyzing the business that you have already won.

The Trigger Event method of Won Sales Analysis identifies the Trigger Events that resulted in getting new customers, when these Trigger Events happened, what made the customer choose you over your competition, and how you can close more sales in the future.

If you want to use the Trigger Event method of Won Sales Analysis you’ll find the Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) version of this tool at http://www.wonsalesanalysis.com.

Contact me if you want an explanation any of the aspects of the tool so you can use it to enhance your selling efforts.

Other Trigger Event Resources to Consider

I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This time I want to share with you a blog post by Don Dodge called “Is your product a vitamin or painkiller?“. In this post Don shares his thoughts on what catalyst or event causes your prospects to actively seek your product or solution”

I encourage you to get together with others and brainstorm on ways to capitalize on Trigger Events to outsell your competition. Contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging Trigger Events that you want to share with the over 1,500 entrepreneurs, business leaders, and sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to this blog.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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In the search for resources that provide different perspectives on ‘Trigger Events’ I discovered the the work of R.J. Rummel. In chapter 15 of “Understanding Conflict and War Vol. 1: The Dynamic Psychological Field“, R.J. Rummel does a great job explaining some of the science behind ‘Trigger Events’. See section 15.4 for the details on ‘Trigger Events’.

In this work R.J. understands and discusses the significance of routine. Consider RJ’s perspective of a routine as the buying pattern that customers and prospects are already in – buying from their current supplier.

In Figure 15.1 you can see how ‘Trigger Events’ cause expectations continuously rise. Notice how a rise in expectations change a person’s routine. Consider this change in routine as a potential change in suppliers.

RJ’s work relates to the sales of products or services in the following ways:

1. A seemingly small ‘Trigger Event’ can lead to a large selling opportunity
2. Buyers can change routines when expectations grow beyond performance
3. Even though a ‘Trigger Event’ creates a compelling reason to change routines the perceived risk of tipping the apple cart can prevent people from changing their routine.

Please contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging ‘Trigger Events‘ – aka selling triggers – that you want to share.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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After finally getting the SHiFT blog back up and running last week I had a number of phone calls and emails about two things:

1. When is your next free teleseminar on Trigger Events
2. Why does the email I get have links to past events.

1) The next free trigger event sales seminar “Six Ways to Outsell Your Competition” is Monday December 10th @ 10:00AM Pacific, 11:00AM Mountain, 1:00 Eastern. The registration link for this seminar can be found at http://sixways.eventbrite.com.

2) When the Feedblitz service send out notification of updates it automatically included links to previous posts under the heading of “Most Recent Articles”. Any reference to teleseminars in this section of the notices send out via Feedblitz will be from events that have probably already happened because they were posted several weeks ago.

Trigger Event Resources to Consider

Each week I scour the Internet searching for ideas, resources, articles, and success stories about leveraging Trigger Events to outsell the competition. This week the best resource I found is the article Identify The Compelling Event, By Gene Meskill

Please contact me when you have ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging ‘Trigger Events‘ – aka selling triggers – that you want to share.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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After spending several weeks trying to make a certain forum system work with Windows Live Writer or ecto I finally gave up and had my technical expert Mark Edwards replace the forum system.

Thanks to Mark I can now use an offline blogging tool to generate blog posts while I am offline, publish them once I get back online, AND have a forum system at the same time.

David’s comment back on October 9th is very valid. David is talking about when a customer has an internal crisis and moves beyond the Window of Dissatisfaction and into the buying mode of Searching For Alternatives.

• Window of Dissatisfaction: A Window of Dissatisfaction occurs after a buyer experiences an initial Trigger Event and realizes that their current solution no longer meets their needs but before they start the process of searching for alternative solutions.
• Searching for Alternatives: Searching for Alternatives is when a buyer experiences a series of Trigger Events and now realizes that their current solution no longer meets their needs and is actively searching for alternative solutions

The table below describes the differences in the types of customers you get depending on which buying mode they are in when you get to them.

David is partly correct when he says getting to customers who have experienced a Trigger-Event results in more demanding customers.

The secret to leveraging Trigger Events is to get to buyers right after their first Trigger Event – The one that shifts them from Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction. If you miss the Window of Dissatisfaction buyers very often experience a second Trigger Event or a series of additional Trigger Events and now they enter the buying mode of Searching for Alternatives and they are much more likely to become the kind of demanding customers David refers to.

Trigger Resources To Consider

“How To Strategically Use The News To Identify & Create New Business Opportunities”

Please contact me when you have any ideas, resources, or success stories about leveraging ‘Trigger Events‘ – aka selling triggers – that you want to share.

Have an eventful week!

Craig

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Each week I endeavour to combine my own expertise about trigger events with other ideas, resource, and success stories I learn of. Since this is the first week for almost 800 new readers I will cover the basics about Buying Modes, Trigger Events, the impact of Trigger Events and a share a resource I became aware of this past week over at Sales2.com.

Research shows that the average sales person is five times more likely to make a sale when they have the right timing.

Buying Modes
To master timing you need to understand that, no matter what you sell or to whom, buyers are always in one of three Buying Modes:

1. Status Quo: Status Quo is when a buyer perceives the product or service they are currently using meets, or exceeds, their needs.
2. Window of Dissatisfaction: A Window of Dissatisfaction occurs after a buyer realizes that their current solution no longer meets their needs but before they start the process of searching for alternative solutions.
3. Searching for Alternatives: Searching for Alternatives is when a buyer realizes their current solution no longer meets their needs and is actively searching for alternative solutions.

Timing – getting in front of the right buyers at exactly the right time – is getting in front of buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction before your competition. By being first with these motivated buyers you will sell more, sell sooner, and sell at a higher price.

Trigger Events
Buyers typically move from the buying mode of Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction because of a trigger event, or a series of trigger events – aka selling triggers. Knowing when trigger events happen is one way to make timing happen.

Trigger events that shift buyers from Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction fall into one of three different categories:

1. Bad Experience: A buyer has a bad experience with their current supplier, e.g. the company, its products/services, or its people.
2. Transition: A change or transition within a buyer’s environment, e.g. a change in legislation, management’s priorities, or the buyer who purchases your products or services.
3. Awareness: Buyers, through word of mouth, become aware there is a better way.

Trigger Events and Prices
It is important to understand the impact that trigger events have on prices. As a rule, buyers pay for perceived value and a buyer’s perception of value shifts as trigger events move them from one buying mode to another.

When a buyer is in the Status Quo mode, their perception of value is the difference between their current solution and your proposed solution. Because their perception of their current solution is so high, their perception of the difference in value between their current solution and your proposed solution is not enough to motivate them to buy from you. By trying to sell to buyers in Status Quo you are likely to spend a lot of time selling with little or no chance of actually making a sale.

When a trigger event happens that causes a buyer to believe that their current solution no longer meets their needs, they move into the Window of Dissatisfaction, and their perception of the value of their current solution is reduced. Now their perception of the difference between the value of their current solution and your proposed solution increases to the point where you are much more likely to make a sale. By selling to buyers who are in the Window of Dissatisfaction, not only are you more likely to make a sale, you are also likely to have a shorter sales cycle, and when you win the business it’s likely to be at a much higher price.

If they are not intercepted by a savvy sales person, another trigger event or a series of trigger events will cause a buyer to become so dissatisfied with their current solution that they pass through the Window of Dissatisfaction and start Searching for Alternatives. Now a buyer’s perception of the value of your proposed solution is reduced to the difference between your proposed solution and the solution proposed by your nearest competitor. By trying to sell to buyers who are Searching for Alternatives you are less likely to make the sale and IF you win the business, you are likely to have a much longer sales cycle and a much lower price.

Other resources to consider

• http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2007/08/b2b_leaders_pulling_trigger.html

Please contact me when you have any ideas, resources, or success stories on how to leverage trigger events – aka selling triggers – you want to share.

Have an EVENTFUL week!

Craig

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Welcome to the first notice of SHiFT, a resource for entrepreneurs and sales people leveraging ‘Trigger Events’ to outsell their competition.

To share ideas, resources, and success stories with members of the LinkedIn group SHiFT, I will post them here so you can be automatically notified via feedblitz – http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=45203.

You can participate in the discussions by:

1. Commenting on the posts provided
2. Providing links to other blogs that discuss trigger events
3. Emailing me ideas, resources, success stories or questions you would like to see discussed.

Below is information on the free training by Jill Konrath being held this Thursday at 1:00PM Eastern.

In this session Jill will discuss “Why leveraging triggering events is the quickest way to land new clients.”

Jill is one of the few sales experts I know who truly understands ‘Trigger Events’. Jill usually charges $79.00 for this event but you can register for free by participating in the teleseminar she is giving for The Result Source at http://sellingtobigcompanies.eventbrite.com/.

I personally have registered to hear what Jill has to say.

You can join our LinkedIn group, SHiFT, by using the following link: http://www.ShiftNetworking.com

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