Avidian Wins Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Award

Prophet receives prestigious 4 Star Rating from PC World

Prophet wins Best Outlook-Based CRM Solution

This section covers the following:

Prequalifying
Other Qualifying Questions
Anchoring a Sale
Establishing Credibility and Intent

Prequalifying
We've identified the most valuable prequalifying questions to ask a lead. Early in your first conversation begin asking these questions.

1. What problems and consequences are you having?
People who call into Avidian are calling in for a reason. They have a need you might be able to solve. What is it? If you're cold calling you want to talk to people who acknowledge a problem you can help with. Ask them. "What problem are you having?" If there isn't a problem there isn't interest in Prophet today.

Typical Problems:

• "We need to share our sales information."
• "We need better sales reports."
• "We need to manage our leads better."
• "We need better sales projections."
• "Outlook can't do all the things we need."

2. Do you use Outlook now?
Prophet is an add-in to Outlook. Nearly all of our sales come from people who want to stay in Outlook rather than switch to another database like ACT or Goldmine. They want to enhance Outlook. It's best to talk to people committed to staying in Outlook.

3. Do you have a lot of leads you’re working with?
Companies with a lot of leads are busy. If they're busy with lots of sales they're contact management and sales management is important. Problems becomes critical and they need to solve it. Companies with leads have a higher motivation to solve the problem and are the best leads to talk to.

4. Are you actively searching for CRM software now?
A company in the market for a solution now will have a higher level of interest in Prophet and be more likely to buy. Ask if they have been searching for a solution. How long have they been searching? Some companies spend a year or two actively searching for a solution.

5. Is your tech person involved?
IT people are often involved in the software process. They can even be decision makers. It's important to know if an IT person is a factor in the buying center. If there is an IT person or isn't an IT person a sale can happen either way. However, you want to involve the IT person quickly if there is one because they are part of the buying center.

6. Have you reviewed our website?
We've found that people who have purchase have reviewed the website. They've seen the product, features and even the tutorials. We have a high percentage of single users who purchase from the website without ever talking to a sales rep. If someone has already been to the website they are more likely to buy.

7. Is this a priority for your company now?
Implementing a new CRM tool is a lot of work. It has to be a priority in the company. Ask if its a priority. It's best to spend time with people who make it a priority.

Remembering the Prequalifying Questions
Here are a couple of different ways you can memorize the qualifying questions.

NO SHIRT

• Need to manage deal flow / sales opportunities?
• Outlook users now?
• Searching for a sales software?
• Have key pains that Prophet can solve?
• Initiative within company to improve sales
• Reviewed our website extensively?
• Tech guy involved?

Prequalifying Sentence

This sentence associates the keywords of the prequalifying questions to help you remember all seven of them. Each keyword in the sentence represents one of the prequalifying questions.

"What IT PROBLEM in OUTLOOK LEADS you to SEARCHING AVIDIAN.com as a PRIORITY?"

IT. Is your tech person involved?
PROBLEM. What problems and consequences are you having?
OUTLOOK. Do you use Outlook now?
LEADS. Do you have a lot of leads you’re working with?
SEARCH. Are you actively searching for CRM software now?
AVIDIAN.COM. Have you reviewed our website?
PRIORITY. Is this a priority for your company now?

Other Qualifying Questions

Here are other prequalifying questions you can ask that will help you determine if you wan to invest your time in the sales opportunity.

Prequalifying
How many sales people do you have?
What industry are you in?
How many years have you been in business?
Are you an Outlook user now?
Are you searching for a CRM tool now?
Current Contact Software Used?
Budget for New System?
Name of IT Person Involved?

Anchoring
Biggest Problems related to Contact Management, SFA and CRM?
Negative Consequences of these problems
Do the consequences affect a lot of people?

Prophet Features
Outlook Integration Important?
Contact Management Important?
Sharing Data Important?
Reporting Important?
Opportunity Management Important?
Sales Projections Important?
Sales Performance Important?

IT
Server Machine
Windows 2000 or higher
Pentium 233 or higher
512 MB RAM Recommended
Minimum 400 MB of available hard drive
Drive Space (1G or more recommended)

Client Machine
Windows 2000 or XP Operating System
Pentium 233 or higher
256 MB RAM Recommended
400 MB of available hard drive space
Drive Space (500Megs or more recommended)

Microsoft Exchange
Exchange 5.5 Prophet Server WILL work - lose sharing opportunities, calendar and tasks
Exchange 2000. Fully supported
Exchange 2003 Fully supported

Operating System
Windows 98. Prophet Server DOES NOT work
NT 4.0 Prophet Server DOES NOT work
SBS(Small Business Server) Prophet Server DOES NOT work
Windows 2000 Pro. Fully supported
Win XP Pro. Fully supported
Win 2000 Server. Fully supported

Other
Windows Terminal Server. Not Supported
Citrix Metaframes? Not Supported
Outlook installed on the Server computer?

Anchoring a Sale
Read about how to anchor a sale.

“Anchoring a sale” means a sales person builds a strong foundation with a prospect for changing a current situation. When you've anchored a sale, you've learned the fundamental issues motivating a buyer to work with you in a sales relationship.

It’s understanding that: “Today’s Problems Affect Performance”.

1. Today. Understand the prospect’s current situation. Ask questions to help you learn about what the lead is working with.
2. Problems. Identifying problems surrounding the prospects product. What problems do they know about or acknowledge. It's hard for people to understand exactly what they're problems are. Often they can't tell you.
3. Affect. What affect are the problems having on the prospect’s business? Are the problems affecting the company?
4. Performance. What are the negative impacts on performance because of the problems? What are the consequences?

Is a Sale Anchored?

Here are the questions to ask yourself to determine if you've anchored a sale.

1. I know the prospect’s situation today.
2. The prospect is having problems.
3. The problems are having a great affect on the business.
4. Performance is being negatively impacted because of the problems.

A. Example of an Anchored Sale

1. Today. A uniform retailer has 23 sales people using Outlook or paper-based contact management.
2. Problems. There’s no sharing of sales data. There are no sales reports. Management can’t predict sales volume. Sales people are putting out fires and not focusing on sales.
3. Affect. Revenues are up and down. There’s a hiring freeze. No pay raises have been given for the past two years.
4. Performance. Sacred cows are running the sales team. Sales people aren’t learning. New tools to help the selling process aren’t being developed. Animosity building between sales and management.

Today’s Problems Affect Performance!

B. Benefits of Anchoring a Sale

1. Anchoring the sale gives an indication of a good investment. An anchored sale is more likely to close. It’s a better investment.

2. An anchored sale builds a sales path to follow. Features, benefits and advantages can be targeted to best meet the needs and wants of the prospect.

3. Anchoring a sale creates a rapport with the prospect. It’s a good topic of conversation and a good way to get to know the prospect.

4. It shows you care about the prospect’s needs and wants. Empathy and listening to problems is a primary character trait of top sales people.

5. Anchored sales create reliable projections. If a sale is properly anchored and worth the investment, it’s easier to track through the sales process.

C. Probing Questions for Anchoring a Sales

Today

1. Tell me about your sales process today. How does it work?
2. Why do you have the number of sales people you do?
3. What sort of things are you doing to improve sales?

Problem

1. Tell me about the problems you’re having with your sales?
2. How does your contact management software affect you?
3. What management problems are you having personally?
4. What management problems are you having as a team?

Affect

1. How are people handling these problems?
2. How’s the atmosphere in the sales team?
3. How consistent are your sales volumes?
4. How’s your turnover of sales people?

Performance

1. How’s the sales team’s performance given these problems?
2. With sales being down, how are things affected?
3. Sales could be better. How are things affected?
4. What sort of things are helping your sales team perform better?

Establish Credibility and Intent
Here's some guidelines for establishing credibility and intent.

1. Your personal credibility.

Establish a personal position statement that you can easily say and one that will have impact. Not only must you be knowledgeable and competent when it comes to helping prospective buyers, but even more important, your prospects must perceive you as a competent professional. If you appear to be disorganized or unsure of what you are doing and where you are going, you will lose credibility with your prospects. On the other hand, if you appear to be confident, knowledgeable and in control, buyers will perceive you as such and will is that much more willing to work with you.

"I'm Bill Wheeler with Avidian Technologies. I'm a business development consultant with Avidian Technologies. My job is to help potential users of Avidian Prophet understand the benefits of using Propohet and how it can help increase sales revenue."

2. Avidian Technologies' credibility.
Establish a company position statement. You must establish your company's credentials. Your sales prospects will have a number of questions about the company. Their concerns will cover the quality of the product, and delivery of promised services, as well as the overall reputation and financial stability of the company.

"Avidian Technologies is a premier provider of Outlook-based software solutions."

How Do We Establish Company Credibility?

Testimonials - see Testimonials at Avidian.com

Customer List - see Client List at Avidian.com

Printed Articles - See Press Releases at Avidian.com

Word-of-Mouth - referrals from friends and associates

Awards - see Press Releases at Avidian.com

3. Product Credibility

Products, like company and people, have credibility. Creating a solid product identity that clearly states the features, benefits, pricing and integration of Avidian Prophet is an important component in sales.

How do we establish product credibility?

Product Collateral Material
Compare Prophet to ACT 6
Fact Sheet
FAQ
Prophet Server Edition
Prophet Server Datasheet
Start Right Training
User Guide

Testimonials - see Testimonials at Avidian.com

Customer List - see Client List at Avidian.com

Printed Articles - See Press Releases at Avidian.com

Word-of-Mouth - referrals from friends and associates

4. Intent

Your prospects have no idea what will happen during your presentation. They are especially concerned about when you are going to ask them to buy. By developing an effective intent statement, you will defuse much of their anxiety.

Your intent statement should provide full disclosure and cover many of your prospects unasked questions, including:

• How long they can expect the presentation to last
• What will actually take place during the presentation?
• Whether or not they will, in fact, be asked to become a customer today
• If there are strings attached to the free offer

"I'm Bill Wheeler with Avidian Technologies. We provide Outlook-based software. Could I have a few minutes of your time to discuss your current contact management system that affects your sales revenue?"