Starting a Billion Dollar Company

Transcription

1 Craig Elias Starting a Billion Dollar Company Craig Elias Founder Of InnerSell Creator of Trigger-Based Selling Chief Catalyst, Selling, Inc. 20 years as a top sales performer WorldCom: #1 within 6 months Created InnerSell Entered global Billion Dollar Idea contest Collected 1,000,000 prize Silicon Valley s 40 hottest Dow Jones 50 most promising Expert in the art and science of timing Dadpreneur Press Coverage Today Extrovert? If you will do what most will not do for just the next few years, you can do what they cannot do for the rest of your life Wade Cook Where could you be in 10 years? Objectives Provide insights Make the complicated simple InnerSell Get you to take action 1

2 InnerSell An ebay for sales leads Market place for information Helps sales people find outside solutions for customers Add value to customers Differentiate themselves Become customers Go To person Get called first when buyers want what they sell Market Size Calculations Number of B2B sales professionals in NA (1) Number of opportunities / sales professional / year (2) Average opportunity size (2), (3) Potential North American Impact Employment contract allows collecting finder's fees (2) Currently not in a referral program. I.e. Breakfast club (2) Prefer percent of lead as payment (2) Potential sales professionals Opportunity overlap Close ratio Viable North American Impact 3,000, ,119 2,621,694,600,000 78% 68% 68% 1,082,016 50% 25% 236,392,958,693 Corporate Referral Refer To Friend Nothing Currently do with leads (2) 31.66% 39.36% 28.98% Supplier revenue 74,842,010,722 93,044,268,541 68,506,679,429 Average finder's fee Market Potential 7% 4,795,467,560 (1) US & Canadian census (2) InnerSell survey of sales professionals (3) InnerSell survey of supplier contacts VP or higher REAL Market Size Refer To Friend 93,044 Viable Lead Value (Millions) Nothing 68,506 Go To Market Strategy Provide a platform for formal and informal groups to exchange prequalified B2B sales leads that connect motivated buyers to trusted sellers, at the right time! Corporate Referral 74,842 Collecting a 11.7% finders fee on viable leads that target sales professionals currently do nothing with creates a market size of 8 Billion Open Innovative Sales People Innovative Businesses Innovative Consultants No Affiliation No Infrastructure Markets Groups Chambers Industry Associations Trade Associations Some Affiliation Limited Infrastructure Enterprises Cross Division Cross Channel Cross Partner Tight Affiliation Some Infrastructure Groups Business Learnings 2

3 Keys To Entrepreneurship 1. Make a difference Liberate and inspire people from all walks of life to create and commercialize new ideas 2. Be passionate Help small companies to outsell big companies 3. Have faith Stockdale paradox 4. Persevere Success is not measured by what you accomplish. It is measured by the opposition you encounter and the courage with which you maintain your struggle against the odds Jerry Frenz Craig s Four P s The four P s of real world sales and marketing Position Press Propagation Partnerships The Entrepreneur Investor Must Haves Must have Passionfor the business Commitment towards making it happen. E.g. They, friends and family have already invested Knowledge / Expertise and relationships in the market they are going to penetrate The Product/Service Must have A large potential market - Solution to a problem that exists in multiple markets Timing no one is doing this yet so there is the opportunity to be first to market Credibility a significant amount of market research validates the story being told The Business Must have dealt with two of the following three risks Market A pilot or beta version must have proven market interest Technology The current product / service works or it needs little improvement Management The management team must have proven entrepreneurial success 3

4 Life is About Relationships Personal Learnings Who knows you, likes you, trusts you... and wants to see you succeed Not what you do, it s how you do it Act with integrity Treat others with respect Have No Regrets 10 Years Later Making the BIG Decisions Make the BIG decisions with your heart Do what is right Not what is easy, or What is popular Based on love not fear Build relationships with those who will like you for who you really are Dadpreneur Becoming an Entrepreneur 4

5 Entrepreneur Profile Take risks Act in spite of their fears Those who act may make many mistakes but to not act is the greatest mistake of all. Have a target Tell others what it is Getting Started "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - St Francis of Assisi { } Two Minute Pitch Summary Entrepreneur Passion, commitment, knowledge Product/Service BIG opportunity, timing, credibility Be smart Be brave Be first The Business Market, technology, management Taking Action What is the one thing you will do differently from today forward? Go out and make today the best day of your life... Everyday. 5

6 How to be First with Motivated Buyers By Craig Elias, Founder and Chief Catalyst, SHiFT Selling, Inc. Research shows that you are five times more likely to make a sale when you have the right timing are first with motivated buyers. Read on if you want to master timing and repeatedly get in front of motivated buyers before your competition. Timing and Buying Modes To be first with motivated buyers 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 believes 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 is getting in front of buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction before your competition. By being first with these motivated buyers not only will you sell more, you will sell sooner, and sell at a higher price. Trigger-Based Selling SM Trigger-Based Selling is one way to master timing and repeatedly get in front of motivated buyers before your competition. 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 (triggers). Trigger-Based Selling is about identifying, finding, and creating the triggers that cause buyers to enter the Window of Dissatisfaction and then getting to these motivated buyers before your competition. Triggers that shift buyers from Status Quo into the Window of Dissatisfaction fall into one of three different categories: 1. 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 buyers environment, e.g. a change in legislation, management s priorities, or the buyer who purchases your products or services. 3. Awareness: Buyers become aware there is a better way. Trigger-Based Selling and Prices It s important to understand the impact that triggers have on prices. As a rule, buyers pay for perceived value and a buyer s perception of value shifts as triggers move buyers 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 and a buyer believes 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 the buyer s 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 being first with 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. Copyright Page 1 of 2 Phone: Toll Free: Skype: Craig.Elias Web:

7 If they are not intercepted by a savvy sales person, another trigger or a series of triggers 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 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. The REAL Value of Trigger-Based Selling The REAL value of Trigger-Based Selling is you spend more time selling to buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction. This is where you are most likely to find core, loyal buyers who will represent 80% of your profits those appreciative buyers who are more likely to provide you with a reference and that most treasured thing in sales referrals. If you miss the Window of Dissatisfaction and try selling to buyers while they are already Searching for Alternatives, you are more likely to get peripheral, disloyal, price sensitive buyers who will represent 20% of your profits and 80% of your headaches! Finding the Triggers Every day buyers in your target market experience triggers that put them in the Window of Dissatisfaction. Being first with buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction requires you to identify what triggers put buyers into the Window of Dissatisfaction and develop ways to learn about these triggers before your competition. One way to get to motivated buyers before your competition is to have them to call you first when the triggers happen. To do this you need to spend time on relationship-building activities and become a buyer s Emotional Favorite aka Go to person. A buyer s Emotional Favorite is the person a buyer knows, likes, trusts, and most importantly, wants to see succeed! This is the person a buyer believes has earned their business and actually deserves it. The Emotional Favorite is the first person a buyer is most likely to contact first when a trigger causes them to shift from the Status Quo to the Window of Dissatisfaction. Creating the Triggers As long as a buyer s perception of the performance of their current solution meets or exceeds their expectations, they will remain in the Status Quo buying mode and you are unlikely to make a sale. To create motivated buyers you need to create dissatisfaction with their current solution. But how can you create dissatisfaction with a buyer s current solution when you can t impact its performance? The answer is to raise a buyer s expectations beyond their current solution. This will trigger the buyer to enter into the Window of Dissatisfaction and increase the likelihood that you will make a sale. Conclusion Success in sales is seldom an accident. It s the result of focusing on the opportunities where you have timing are first with motivated buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction and developing strategies to repeatedly make timing happen. Trigger-Based Selling capitalizes on timing by identifying, finding, and creating the triggers that put buyers in the Window of Dissatisfaction and repeatedly gets you in front of these motivated buyers before your competition. About the Author Craig Elias is the man behind a modern revolution in sales strategies. For almost 20 years, Craig s timing strategies have made him a top sales performer at EVERY company that has hired him - including WorldCom where he was named the #1 salesperson within six months of joining the company. Craig s strategies won him a 1,000,000 prize in a global Billion-Dollar Idea pitch competition and have resulted in coverage on NBC news, in The New York Times, Sales and Marketing magazine, Business 2.0, The Wall Street Journal, along with earning his last company the distinction as one of Dow Jones 50 most promising companies in North America. Call or use this link ( when you want to contact Craig and learn how Trigger-Based Selling, or Craig s other timing strategies, can transform your sales and marketing efforts by putting you in front of motivated buyers before your competition. Copyright Page 2 of 2 Phone: Toll Free: Skype: Craig.Elias Web: