12 May 2007
The "tip of the week" serie getting bigger, we are now trying to separate it in various categories for you to search more easily.
We start with "tips" or articles related with Sales.
Check out some additional tips on Sales & Marketing more specifically geared towards the hospitality industry here.
Enjoy
Dealing Effectively With The Competition
December 2007
by Dave Kahle
While the writer's remarks about competition cannot always apply to South East Asia, we find that the approach in the last paragraphs explaining how to present the advantages of your product / offer are very usable and should help you out
"This would be a great business if it weren't for the competition! "
Unfortunately, the existence of the competition impacts every industry, every business and every sales position. What the competition does or does not do can make a dramatic impact upon a company and a salesperson. That impact can range from squeezing you to the point where you go out of business on one extreme, to creating tremendous opportunities for growth and profits on the other. The competition and their potential impact on your business is a fact of life. No matter how hard you wish, you are not going to be able to make the competition go away.
While we can't change the competition, we certainly are responsible for our attitudes and behaviors toward the competition. What we say and how we act about the competition can have a daily bearing on our bottom lines. An appropriate attitude and set of practices for dealing with the competition should be an essential part of every salesperson’s repertoire.
This article is an attempt to describe some of the salient parts of that mindset.
1. Respect the competition.
Speaking badly about the competition, looking down on them, finding fault with them and generally disparaging them are all common behaviors that I see frequently among the companies with whom I work.
It is easy enough to understand why that is. In sales meetings we are constantly told how our products stack up against the competition, what makes our service superior, why our people are more experienced and more knowledgeable than theirs, etc.
In my position as a consultant and sales educator, I am uniquely positioned to test the truth of these positions. I've occasionally worked with a company, for example, and then a few years later found myself involved with one of their competitors. Or, I may have two or more competitors in one of my seminars. This unique position has allowed me the opportunity to make observations about these kinds of claims.
One of the observations I have made is this: There is usually some degree of truth in the details of these elements. Your hot new product may have several features that your competitor's does not have, for example. However, in the big picture, your competitor offers a sound business option to your customers. While your new product contains some features that you competitor's does not, his product probably contains some features that yours does not. And while you claim your service to be superior, so does he. And your people are probably not more experienced and knowledgeable than his. From the 10,000 foot high perspective, if your competitors were as flawed as you think they are, they wouldn't be in business, and your customers wouldn't be buying from them.
In all likelihood, your competition is made up of educated, committed people who are trying just as hard as you are to be a viable option to your customers, to conduct their businesses with integrity just like you, and who strive to do a good job and to provide for their families through the fruits of their labors, just like you.
So, bury those attitudes of superiority, and cast off that disdain for the competition. If your customers didn’t think they presented a viable option, they wouldn't be buying from them.
2. Don't believe everything you hear.
We occasionally hear comments from our customers with complaints about the competition or stories of how they messed up on some project. This, of course, contributes to our natural tendency toward smugness by confirming our views.
Let's take all of that with a healthy degree of skepticism. Understand that the people who share that information with us are typically those customers with whom we have the best relationship – those that we consider our friends. What we see as confidential information about the competition's weaknesses may just be the natural human inclination to tell us what they believe we want to hear. Our friends want to find common ground with us. And our animosity toward the competition provides potentially productive soil to plow.
It's been my observation that many of those customers who are reporting on the flaws in the competition to you, are reporting on your flaws to them.
Don't view everything you hear as 100% accurate.
3. Don't speak badly about the competition – ever.
Disparaging the competition, speaking badly about the company or the individual salespeople – using little innuendos and side comments – all of this says more about us to our customers than it does about the competitors to whom we are referring. It reveals us as small minded, petty, smug and far more interested in ourselves than we are in our customers.
This is something I learned the hard way, in one of the most embarrassing incidents in my tenure as a salesperson.
I was selling a piece of capital equipment, representing a product line that was 35% more expensive than the competition. However, the additional cost was justified in a far superior product. The competition had been experiencing a problem with one component of their system – the batteries easily worked loose and disconnected. They solved that problem by using a rubber band to provide additional tension on the battery and keep it from jiggling loose.
I pointed that out to my potential customer – asking them how comfortable they felt with a product that was held together with a rubber band. My customer's response?
"Do you know what I don't like about you? " she asked. I was floored and speechless. "You are so negative about your competitors. " I turned beet red, stammered an apology and retreated quickly. That incident has stuck with me for decades.
At this point there is a question which naturally occurs. If I don't want to speak badly about the competition, how do I present the advantages of my offer relative to the other guy's?
Here are four options:
I believe this approach to be the most effective in the long term, because it focuses on the customer, not the competitor.
If you have done an accurate, detailed job of understanding the full nature of your customer's situation, and have presented a solution that precisely meets the customer's requirements, what difference does it make who the competition is, or what the competition does?
The issue is not the competition; it is your ability to meet the customer’s needs. Your mindset, from the beginning, is not a bit focused on the competition, but rather is 100% targeted to completely understanding the customer's requirements. The conversation is not about how you compare to the competition, but rather how you meet the customer's needs.
Obviously, this approach is not for every selling situation. It requires a commitment on the part of the salesperson to spend time with the customer in order to fully understand his needs. It assumes that you have the ability to shape an offer that meets the customer's needs. And, it requires a more professional self-image on the part of the salesperson, who sees himself/herself as a "consultant" to the customer. If your routine is limited to asking for the technical specifications and then quoting prices, this approach is going to be outside of your reach.
In the long run, however, it provides the ultimate response to the competitor's presence in your accounts.
It is more effective and more professional to speak in general terms about the class of competitor than it is to speak specifically about a particular company or person.
For example, if you want to make the point that you favorably compare to X company (that national competitor), say something like this: "Generally, large national companies are more concerned about their own financial performance than they are the needs of the local customers. Since we're local and family owned, we highly value every customer, and that translates itself into more personal and responsive service." Notice, you didn't talk about the competitor, you talked about "national companies" – a general class of competition.
This "generalizing " the references to the competition provides you a means of pointing out your distinctiveness without being negative about your specific competitors.
It is far more effective to put questions in the customer's mind that he/she should ask about the competition, than it is for you to make statements about the competition. Remember, your comments are always suspect, because the customer knows that you have a vested interest in persuading him one way or the other. His observations, however, have far more validity to the customer than anything you are going to say.
Understanding that, this practice seeks to help the customer make his own observations by providing the questions that the customer should ask.
For example, don't say, "Y Company is a small local company that doesn't have the systems or technology to support you in the long run." Instead, say, "One of the questions you should ask of every vendor is this, 'What technology and systems do you have in place to assure that you will be able to support us for the long run?' "
This is a commonly used technique to point out the differences between your offer and your competitors' in a detailed and professional way. Imagine a chart, with the salient features of your offer down the first row, and across the top your company's name, followed by "Option A, " "Option B, " etc. with the options being your competitors.
Then use a check mark to indicate the inclusion of that feature in each company's offering.
This can be a highly effective way to point out the differences between your offer and the competitors. In addition to the detail that it presents, the document itself is often prepared by your company, not by you personally. That means that you are one step removed from being the source of this information. The problem with this approach is of course, that the source of the information is your company, and you are always suspect.
Regardless of which one or combination of these approaches work for you, the discipline to deal with the competition in a professional manner is one of the hallmarks of the best salespeople. Every salesperson should think through and decide on an approach that fits you.
Build Sales Relationships: Consultative Questioning
January 28, 2008
(A commentary)
By Jeff Schmitt
I got my first sales job out of college. Naturally, I picked up a book to prepare. At the time, I thought it was like a bible. It was clear and compelling, packed with ways to rack up sales through psychology and control.
I marched into orientation, ready to close like a champion. That's when my real learning began. My manager opened training with a startling insight:
"Want to be successful in sales? Keep your mouth shut and your ears open." His approach contradicted everything I read: He stressed dialogue instead of dominance and questioning in place of presenting. And he always customized his approach based on what the other party shared. In his world, sales was not a game of breaking down a prospect's barriers. It was a means to identify a solution and determine whether forging a partnership had value to either party.
Francis Bacon once wrote, "A prudent question is one half of wisdom." Bacon would've been a successful salesperson. Like an attorney, a salesperson must ask open-ended questions and gather knowledge before presenting a compelling case.
This consultative approach yields a variety of benefits:
Click here for some examples of consultative questions and contexts where you can use them. You can even print and give out this handy PDF to your sales team.
Additionally, here are some more secrets for using consultative questioning to your advantage:
According to Anthony Robbins, "Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." Consultative questioning gets these answers. They will not only tell you what a prospect needs, but how they need it. They are the tools to help you understand where a prospect is—and how to help them get where they need to go.
Consistent coaching can make your salespeople winners
by Hal Becker
January 2008
This article's concept is so simple and has so much common sense attached to it.
But, unfortunately, most people or managers of a sales organization will say, "Hey, Hal is dead-on here, and I know it will work, so I will start to do this when I have a little more time."
Even when the time comes and you do implement this, in most cases after a couple of weeks, sales managers will gravitate to their old way of doing business.
So, let me get right to the point: If you do this straight-forward and simple concept and stay consistent - yes, I said consistent - in 120 days you will see at least a 9 percent increase in sales. That is guaranteed, and it will happen to you and your organization, regardless of your product or service.
Here is the first question I must ask you before we begin to explore an area of management that will change the way you interact with your sales force. Are you a practice coach or a reactive manager?
In other words, are you letting your day run you, or are you in charge of your business day and the team?
From this moment on, remember that your job is to be a coach, and that responsibility is very clear, which is to take your salespeople to higher levels of performance.
You are not in the sales game any longer, which means that you are not selling anymore or taking over sales calls to help save the day. You are the coach, and the coach is on the sidelines watching and instructing, not jumping in and making plays - period!
Let's explore the two areas that you will focus on now, and then for the rest of your career as a sales manager or a leader of a team of salespeople.
HABITS
This is where the action is, or as we say in sales, "in the field." The field can be a showroom at a car dealership or the many desks of a call center that has inside salespeople. It can be the retail floor space at a furniture store or the office of a prospect, if your salespeople go out to make business-to-business calls. In other words, "the field" is where salespeople interact with the customer.
This is where you work with the salesperson and observe his or her behavior, personality, selling skills (or lack thereof), and product and competitive knowledge. The key word here is observe. You cannot talk and try to correct a salesperson in the field. This is where you get to provide necessary feedback to help the person grow and develop proper selling habits.
The time observed can be 15 minutes or a couple of hours. You don't need to spend all day with each salesperson. In fact, the more times each month that you are with each salesperson, the more you will notice different skills in different situations with a variety of personality types.
NUMBERS
This goes hand in hand with "field time" and why these two areas must connect with each other. By being in the field, you get to witness firsthand the different personality types and their individual skill level. Now, you get to look at performance.
This is accomplished by doing "one on ones." These cover individual numbers on what salespeople are supposed to do each and every day.
The key difference here is not to just have a monthly sales meeting after the month ends but to meet salespeople during the month to monitor their sales targets.
The three areas you want to look at each and every week are very basic:
As far as I am concerned, this is all that is important. I can see whether they have been working by looking at their calendars and seeing what appointments they have had. I also can see what appointments they have coming up for the following week to monitor that they are continuing to work.
By continually checking their prospect list, you can see what prospects have closed, what is pending and what new ones have been added.
This one-on-one time is not going to be once in a while or when sales are down. This must happen all the time, like a workout program or anything else you want to maintain. The minute you digress from this simple action plan, you will notice your sales slipping again and the probable turnover of salespeople on your team.
So don't forget to be a proactive coach rather than a reactive manager!
Do You Have the Right Talent?
January 08, 2008
Derek Gatehouse, author of "The Perfect Salesforce," summarizes, and lends some insight, into his book. (A commentary)
By Derek Gatehouse
Want to hire a top producing salesperson for your company? Sure, everyone does. In all my management and consulting years I've never been mandated to hire average salespeople.
But hiring top producing salespeople on a regular basis—those individuals who consistently sell at least four times more than their average counterparts—is perhaps one of the greatest challenges in business. In one chapter of The Perfect Salesforce, we look at the first of the six best practices used by the world's best sales teams to overcome this challenge.
A Display of Talent
We have already established that selling is a natural born talent. The next logical question then is which talents do we look for? What are the natural ingredients of a top seller? When I set out to answer this question so many years ago I quickly came to the problematic realization that the answer depends on the type of sale you are hiring for. There isn't one ideal recipe for a top producer because there isn't just one sale type—there are many. Haven't we all experienced the frustration and bewilderment of hiring someone we knew to be a top producer, only to watch as he or she flounders in the new sales position? Well the first secret is to understand that different sale types require very different talent sets.
Some salespeople for example love to prospect. Other salespeople hate it. Some salespeople love serving the same clients for years and years. Others need to win over new people all the time. There are those salespeople who excel at the long-term sale, where many meetings are needed to assemble many pieces of a solution with many participants from different departments—they love to orchestrate all of this. Then there are those who prefer the shorter sales cycle, which typically means many more sales, or "victories," per period.
Some salespeople thrive on selling "concepts," where others simply can't do it, excelling instead with the consistency of unchanging product features and benefits. Some people love to convince others; they thrill to the challenge of converting others to their way of seeing things. Others thrive on fulfilling (or surpassing) the predetermined needs of their clients, and simply cannot sway other people's opinions—they're too empathetic. They make great servicers, but terrible closers.
Remember, if hiring a top salesperson was as easy as finding a known top producer and then training them to sell your product or service, well&hellipeveryone would just be doing that. The fact is, with so many different combinations of the above sale characteristics, selling your product or service can be a completely different job than selling another product or service, thereby requiring a completely different set of talents.
Finding Your Star
The following is a typical job ad for hiring salespeople. It was distilled from dozens of newspapers and career Web site ads (ads that read so similarly that I started to think they had all been copied from the same source), and it denotes the common characteristics being sought for most sales jobs today:
A self starter with strong communication skills; able to work independently but also a team player; aggressive and highly motivated. Several years sales experience, preferably in our industry, with a post secondary degree.
While interviewing for these qualities may not seem particularly illogical, there are two flaws. First, the typical job interview does absolutely nothing to uncover whether your candidates truly possess the talents you are looking for (which we address in chapter five). The second flaw is with the identification of the talents themselves. Self starter, communication skills, team player, highly motivated—these "qualities" are not nearly specific enough. It is probably accurate to say that we would want to hire these qualities for all of the different sales jobs—perhaps for any job at all! You need to be far more precise in naming the talents you seek. You must learn how to hire people that are naturally "wired" for your exact sale type.
Type-Casting
Over the course of 25 years, I have identified and refined 10 different selling talents. After you read their definitions, you may realize that you have several different sale types within your organization—each requiring different talents—that are currently being executed by the same salespeople. This usually explains why you have salespeople that seem to always sell the same few products or services, and rarely sell others.
The first six deal with how people are hard-wired in terms of work ethic, tolerance levels, ability to influence and aptitude for abstract communication and thinking. One person's idea of "working hard" can often put another person to sleep. Some people's idea of fun on the job can be hell to others. Top salespeople all influence other people very well, but their specific communication abilities vary greatly. We can all think of someone for instance who is very persuasive, but not particularly articulate.
These first six are must-haves—your candidates must possess the exact needed arrangement of all six. Talents seven through ten however are more preference than talent, and with these you have some leeway. This will be explained when you learn the talent-based interview process in chapter five.
In the meantime, here's a glimpse from the book:
Talent 5. Need: Create versus Established
A client of ours is a partner in a construction company specializing in commercial ventilation systems. They have a good reputation and they bid on, and win, many commercial installation jobs.
A few years ago this company took on a new "product." They felt that annual maintenance contracts for commercial building ventilation systems (not unlike an annual maintenance contract for a home furnace or central air conditioning) would be a relevant addition to their offerings. And they were right. But from a "need" point of view, these two sales jobs are completely different.
When the salesperson tries to illustrate why her company is the best choice for the construction side of the business, the need is known. That is, we already know that there is a building project going on. Without having to ask, we know there is the need for a ventilation system. The prospect does not have to use my client’s company necessarily, but they do have to have a ventilation system. The need has already been established before the sale even begins. But this is not true for the maintenance side of the business. Although there may be tremendous value to purchasing a maintenance contract, it is not essential. The need must first be created.
It is of course very common to have related product lines like this—it's just good business. But in this example, the two sale types are very different for the salespeople, and certain things must be structured accordingly. This is why you have heard me say that you may well have several different sale types in one company—requiring different talents—and why many of you have had experiences where your salespeople just don’t do well with certain products or services that you feel are such "natural companions" to your core products.
Some salespeople do very poorly when it comes to creating the need but excel when the need is already established. Others thrive on the challenge of creating need. We must appreciate that when the need has not yet been established, the sale has a whole extra step. You can't even begin the "selling process" until there is need.
Nice guys may finish last in life, but they can win in sales
by Hal Becker
January 2008
This might sound nuts, but good guys do finish last, and this kind of outcome will make a nice income for the patient and sincere salesperson. We are going to look at the game plan that will guarantee a salesperson very consistent sales and the bonuses or commissions that will follow.
It is basic, full of common sense and nothing that you have not heard before. The key to this program is: Will you follow it? And that means all the time.
Here is my seven-point plan for you to always be at the top:
Do not think about how much money you will make on the sale. The customer will know whether this is about the sale and not helping him or her solve issues or situations. This will keep you honest, fair and, above all, a professional salesperson who is doing the right thing - always.
If my wife or daughter heard me use the word patient, they would hit me upside my head and say, "Are you kidding?"
I am not the most patient person at home, but in business, this is a must. Sometimes, you cannot affect the customer's buying cycle or the timing that the customer is considering for the purchase of your product or service.
This is so important for a salesperson. The first "no" is not necessarily the end of that sale. It might take multiple rejections or the "back burner" comments to push you off. Your job is to stay in touch until the potential sale has played itself out, one way or the other.
One of the three most important ingredients that make up a professional salesperson is empathy.
So here is a test for you, and most of you will NOT pass!
You check your voice mail, and you have two messages. They both say the same thing: "Please call me. I need to talk to you."
You do not know what the call is about or what the issue is. The first voice mail is your smallest client, and the second one is your largest client.
Whom are you going to call first? Most people answer the largest. Now, look at what you have done. You decided which client is more important to you and not what might be important to them!
This needs no other explanation than doing your job and doing this all the time.
Quit talking so much, and find out what the customer wants, not what you think the customer might need. Questions are the basis for a sales call - period! This is where the action is, and you naturally should make sure you are with the key decision-maker. You should be well-versed in what questions to ask and why!
This is like any athletic workout. The more consistent you are in your approach, the better the results.
You must have a game plan and then stick to it. This is not just once in a while or when sales are strong, but all the time.
The key is the number of sales calls made to new customers and existing ones in the long run.
An organized person is a sales rep who is it at the top of his or her game. Use your planner, PDA or whatever you use to keep your day compact and focused. You should be in charge of your day and not your day in charge of you.
Now remember, you don't want to finish first, so take your time and go for the coveted last-place position, and watch your sales numbers be at the top of the leader board.
Reflection on Old School Selling
by Dr. Rick Johnson
December 2007
How time flies. I remember back in the 1970’s and 1980’s when professional selling was easy and a whole lot of fun. We were Lone Wolfs back then. We controlled everything, we were professionals, and we owned a patch of dirt. All we had to do to maintain ownership was to produce sales. We had our tools, a company car, trunk files, brochures, samples and a calendar/card file. We even carried roles of dimes so we could make those mandatory calls twice a day to the office by pulling into a rest area or going in a local restaurant to use the pay phone. (Do we still have pay phones?) As time passed, some of us even got car phones. Sure, we did call reports and had sales meetings, but make no mistake, we were pros. We owned that patch of dirt and most of the customers who were on it. If we chose to leave for greener pastures, most of our customers went with us. We had respect. Everything focused on relationships. I even remember my first sales training seminar, "Needs Satisfaction Selling." I was a rookie and having the time of my life. In fact, being a rookie was part of my strategy (although back then I didn't know I had a strategy) to develop relationships, especially with new accounts:
"Mr. Customer, I'm kind of new at this. I'm learning a lot. Can you help me understand some things about your business?"
I called myself a rookie well past my fifth anniversary as a sales representative. Most purchasing agents felt sorry for me. They wanted to help. They wanted to teach. And, what better way to begin a relationship than to be the recipient of advice and counsel?
That's what relationship selling was all about. It worked. Cocktail lunches, ball games, golf, fishing trips and visits to a hunting lodge were all part of our repertoire. These were tools of the trade, relationship builders.
Getting to know your customer as a person, that's what it was all about. He became your friend. To do that, you couldn't spend most of your time talking about features and benefits or doing little product demos. No, you asked questions, questions about them, and then you shut up and listened. Another tidbit of advice from a mentor that stuck with me through the years emphasized that very thought:
"If you spend one hour with a customer and you talk for 45 minutes making a presentation about features and benefits, your company and God knows what else and the customer only talks for 15 minutes, you're a dead man. You'll walk out of there and your customer is going to think you're a loser, no matter how good your pitch was. But, listen to me, son, if you spend an hour with that customer, you ask a few questions and let him talk for 45 minutes about himself, the sale is 75% made. You'll walk away and the customer will think you are the greatest thing since peanut butter. You made a great sales call. How can he not think that when he spent 45 minutes telling you all about himself?You alone have the control."
Change is the Only Guarantee in Life
Things have changed in the last 20-30 years. We have gone through an evolutionary process in the world of professional sales. We cannot be Lone Wolves anymore. We cannot control every piece of data, every contact with our customer, or be in command of the total customer relationship. To succeed and grow as a professional in sales today we cannot afford to "own" the account. Buyers are more sophisticated today. Selling is more complex. It isn't good enough to just have product knowledge. We must have industry knowledge, market knowledge and, more importantly, we have to understand our customers' customers. To excel in sales today we have to educate our customers and help them make money. We must become total solution providers.
Words of Wisdom
Everyone needs a mentor to become really good in sales. Sure, I treated my customers and potential customers as mentors. It made them feel good and it helped me build that relationship that was key to success in the 70's and 80's. But, we all have one or two special individuals in our lives that make a difference in our success as sales representatives: a former boss, colleague or professor, someone who turns the light on in our head and keeps it burning.
Those of us who have been successful in sales could probably write a book on lessons learned from our mentors. But, there are generally a few comments that stick with us for a lifetime. When it comes to relationship selling, two have stuck with me over the past 30 years:
"Establish a relationship with your customer, Rick. Build his trust, gain his respect and he'll tell you how to do business with him."
Times Have Changed
Today’s professional sales people understand that. Times have changed. Consolidations continue to occur. Purchasing is a profession. Customers are smarter. They gain more market power everyday. Success today depends on an architecture aligned with customers' needs and profit opportunities.
Relationships Still Matter
The more you develop your relationships throughout the customer’s organization, the easier it is to become or remain supplier of choice. Ultimately, any company is simply a collection of individuals, each with his own interests, motivations and biases. Key players are the people who heavily influence the buying decision or heavily influence those who make the buying decision. They obviously deserve special consideration. Keep in mind that informal relationships within your customer’s organization may be more important than the formal reporting structure. For example, the receptionist or the repairman that plays golf with the owner may be key players that can contribute to your success. Sales representatives are successful today because they gain the majority of their targeted customers business. They manage the relationship and continuously build relationship equity
A ,strong>positive mental attitude or a constructive and optimistic way of looking at yourself, your work, and your management goes hand-an-hand with being successful no matter what company you work for, no matter what industry you are in. A positive mental attitude is the key ingredient necessary to create relationship equity with your customers. Developing this attitude of unshakable self-confidence and enthusiasm, no matter what is going on around you is your passport to becoming successful.
Snap Out of a Selling Slump
December 17, 2007
By Colleen Francis
Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with skills developed from years of experience, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.
Sales people who have a poor start at the beginning of a year, often find themselves struggling for the rest of the year to catch up. The good news is, whatever you're experiencing, we've all been there at least once. The bad news is, most of us don't know exactly how to snap out of a slump, and start making sales.
First, don't panic! If you're in panic mode, you can't be creative, and creativity is exactly what you need right now. Besides, prospects can smell desperation in sales people. If you panic, your prospects will sense that you're desperate, and they'll avoid you. Just take a deep breath, stay calm and focus on what needs to be done.
Next, don't get down on yourself. Think about a time in your past when you were in a similar situation, and how you were able to climb out if it. Focus on that positive experience, instead of focusing on the negative.
Third, don't get angry. Anger will be misinterpreted by your clients, peers and managers as being emotional or out of control. Whenever you find yourself becoming angry, try to be as honest as possible, and focus on solutions and options—not on laying blame.
Last but most definitely not least, don't quit! The worst thing you can do during a slump is to stop trying. The Chicago White Sox were on the verge of a 90-year slump before winning the World Series last year. Yet during that entire period, their team motto stayed the same: "Win, or die trying." Guess it paid off for them in the end.
To help you snap out of a slump and get back on track for the New Year, try some of the following tips:
Slumps are almost always caused by not having enough qualified buyers in the pipeline—in other words, not enough prospecting. If you find yourself in a slump, start by looking internally, not externally. Remember that the slump is your slump, not someone else's. Be strong enough to realize this, and take corrective action.
Having a slump is not the end of the world, so long as it's short, temporary and you know what to do about it.
Know what motivates you. Be disciplined—it's the one thing that separates the best from the mediocre—and stay focused on those activities that you know will pull you out of the slump. And remember to keep it all in perspective.
You are responsible for your slump, and only you can change it. But you can change it, and once you accept the fact that you can reverse your fortune, you'll already be on the road to recovery.
Think a Lot
January 2008
by Dave Kahle
It's a difficult year for a lot of salespeople. The world is changing rapidly, and every new headline contains information that seems to impact business in a significant way. The competition is more active, customers are more discriminating, and nobody has enough time.
There was a time, just a few years ago, when it was easier. You could work hard for awhile, and then you could relax and enjoy the fruits of your labors. You would reach a point where life became easy, your customers were buying from you consistently, and you had your job figured out.
That's no longer advisable. Pressures are growing on your company to reduce their costs and become more productive. The bottom line is this: You, personally, must become far more productive than you've ever been expected to be in the past. Today's performance, no matter how good, will not be sufficient tomorrow.
Easier said than done. How do you go about dramatically increasing your results? My suggestion: THINK A LOT.
I'm not suggesting that you spend your time daydreaming. Nor am I encouraging you to ponder the meaning of the universe, do a crossword puzzle or memorize the birth dates of all your relatives. All of those exercises would represent ways to think a lot, but they are not the kind of thinking I'm advocating.
Rather, I'm encouraging you to invest your greatest single resource, your mind, in focusing your mental energy on specific portions of your job. That means thinking about certain things, thinking in certain ways, and doing a lot of it.
It's easy to do your job by mindlessly going through the motions. You see the customers with whom you are comfortable, quote the products they ask you about, grumble about the paperwork, and complain about price competition.
That's easy. Unfortunately, it's also a prescription for eventual failure. The world is changing too rapidly today to do your job "mindlessly." Your customers are changing, products and vendors are changing and adapting, and new competitors and technologies are springing up. If you go through your job mindlessly, you'll soon be outdated and ineffectual.
So on one hand, you have the need to improve your productivity to keep up with the pressures on your company, and, on the other, you have the temptation to get into a rut, and go about your job "mindlessly."
The most effective strategy to battle these double temptations is to "Think A Lot". What should you think about? Here are three of the most important things.
Ask yourself a series of questions about your customers. As you develop the answers, write them down in your account folders, and repeat the process a few months later. Here are some questions to get you thinking:
Thinking about these questions keeps you constantly close to the changing conditions in your accounts, keeps you insulated from the tendency to get "mindless," and provides you with a method to uncover lucrative opportunities within each account.
Your face–to–face contact with your customer is the one part of your job that sets you apart from everyone else in your company. It is that aspect of what you do by which you bring value to your company.
If you honestly think about it, you'll probably observe that everything else you do can be done by other people in your company. Someone else can accept orders, train end users, check on back-orders, etc. The only thing you do that no one else in your company does is call on your customers face–to–face. So, your eyeball–to–eyeball interactions with your customers are probably the most important part of your job.
Yet, most observers estimate that the average salesperson spends only about 30% of his time face–to–face with his customers.
Put those two facts together, and you have the sobering conclusion that you spend very little of your time doing that thing that is the most important aspect of your job.
That being the case, doesn't it stand to reason that you ought to invest some time and energy planning for those rare moments when you're face-to-face with your customers?
Ask yourself these questions, and think about the answers, before every sales call:
Going through this disciplined approach to "thinking about your sales calls" will be the single most effective thing you can do to improve your productivity.
First, commit yourself to the challenge of continuous improvement. Be discontent with the level of proficiency you have obtained. Be discontent with your results. Think about everything you do and examine ways to improve and wring more value out of it.
Challenge and question everything you do. Is this the best way to write up a quote? Should you be visiting this account, or would the other one hold more potential? Should you really be spending your time promoting this product, or is another one more important? Should you really be lunching with this customer or should you invest that time in another? Is this the best way to file your old quotes, keep track of customer contacts, and file product literature?
It was during one of these introspective "continuous improvement" thinking sessions, that I developed one of the strategies that proved most effective for me. Early in my tenure as a distribution salesperson, my manager told me that most salespeople don't make it a point to present a product or product line at each sales call. So he encouraged me to always have a product or product line to present on every sales call. I thought he knew more than I did, so I followed his advice.
And then the thought occurred to me, as I was questioning everything that I did, that if it was a good idea to present one product, it may be twice as good an idea to offer two or more. By doing so, I could multiply the number of sales presentations I made in roughly the same amount of face–to–face sales time. It was a way of improving the quality of my sales time by increasing the quantity of sales presentations. From then on, I made it a point to have several items or products to present on every sales call, and dramatically improved my results. That's just one example.
Got the idea? Never rest. Be discontent with every aspect of your job in order to provide the stimulation to improve on it. Question everything. Think a lot.
It will be your key to continuous, life-long improvement.
Best Practices: Seeks opportunities to be coached and mentored
By Dave Kahle
There is, in the world of professional salespeople, a significant group of salespeople who cringe at the prospect of someone working with them, and who shun every such opportunity. These salespeople are more comfortable in anonymity. They want to exist under the radar screen of those who could help them improve. I believe that they understand, somewhere deep within their psyche, that they are far from the best at their jobs, and they realize that someone working with them will quickly see their deficiencies. To hang onto their job, they avoid exposure at all costs.
Fortunately, that's not the mind set of the sales masters. They believe just the opposite – that there is always something to learn from someone else, and that people who can coach and mentor them are to be sought after and nurtured.
That's why this is a best practice – a consistent effort of the best salespeople. They seek opportunities to be coached and mentored.
Coaching, in all professions and walks of life, is a growing phenomenon. It's easy enough to understand. As the demand for productivity grows and the pressures to do more, be more, and accomplish more mount, thoughtful and serious people understand that someone else can often see things in their performance that they can not see themselves. That's why Tiger Woods has a swing coach, for example.
It is why even those who are at the top of their profession need an outside observer to detect their flaws and unintentional lapses from time to time. The greatest athletics would not attain the height of their achievement without their coaches. So true of the world class performers in any endeavor. Actors, musicians, athletes, CEOs, and yes, even salespeople, can attain higher levels of achievement and performance by availing themselves of a coach.
There is not one field of human endeavor where the practitioner can't be helped by a coach.
The best salespeople understand that, and continually seek out opportunities to be coached and mentored. It's one of the characteristics of the best.
Regularly and methodically invests in personal and professional development
By Dave Kahle, from his website
Only one out of every twenty salespeople has invested $20.00 or more of their own money on their improvement in the last twelve months.
Amazing, isn't it? In a world that demands ever–improving productivity, the overwhelming majority of salespeople are content with their personal status quo. That is not true, of course, of other professions. That's why teachers have in–services, doctors go to conferences, nurses have on–going training, ministers and social workers attend workshops, etc. Members of every other profession in the world understand that continuously improving yourself is one of the characteristics of a professional. If you are going to be in the game, you have to play by the rules. And continuous development is an expectation for every professional.
The sales masters understand that. That's one of the things that make them the masters – the top five percent of salespeople. And that's why this practice is one of the "best."
One of the things that I have appreciated about the sales profession is the fact that you are never as good as you could be. No matter how competent you may think you are, there is always room for improvement. The best salespeople understand that, and continually and methodically invest in their own improvement.
They read the electronic newsletters, they subscribe to the magazines, they regularly buy a sales or personal improvement book, they attend the seminars, they solicit input from their managers, and they dialogue with their colleagues, constantly searching for another good idea.
They understand this basic truth about sales: Your behavior is what brings you your results. Improve your behavior, and you improve your results. Improve your results and you become more confident and more competent, more valuable to your companies and a better provider for your families.
One of the best salespeople who calls on me happened to mention, just in passing, that he was attending his monthly "master mind" meeting that night. It is a group of salespeople who get together regularly to discuss issues, trade ideas, and support and encourage each other. Of course. The best salespeople continually search out ways to improve. This is just another example.
What is so compelling about this best practice is that it is so easily attainable. Everyone can decide, right now, to begin to invest in their own development. Within ten minutes of reading this, everyone can be subscribed to a sales Ezine, or have purchased a book online.
All it takes is the will to make the decision.
Alas, only 1 out of 20 will. That's why this is a practice of only the best.
Best Sales Practice: Has a system for selling any product or service that we present.
By Dave Kahle
The best salespeople are systematic in their approach to their job, while mediocre salespeople are haphazard. That's one of the reasons why they are the best.
Last month I discussed the concept that sophisticated routine work is best accomplished by implementing effective systems. That rule doesn't just apply to sales, it is a rule that can be applied to every area of human endeavor. From surgeons to ministers to fishermen to house painters, the routine and sophisticated aspects of their jobs are best addressed with systems.
A system is a complex assemblage of processes, practices and tools that all interact in order to accomplish a specific goal.
Let's assume that there is a best way to sell every combination of products/services to specific markets. In other words, if you are selling carpeting to independent retail stores, there is a best way to do that. If you are selling the same product to contractors, there is a best, though somewhat different, way to do that.
One more definition, let's call that unique combination of products to markets the selling "situation." In my example, above, selling carpeting to contractors is one situation, while selling it to retail stores is another.
Every selling situation, if it occurs routinely, is best handled by designing an effective system, and then forever improving on the design and implementation of that system.
The best sales companies design sales systems for every situation. In my practice, I have honestly worked with very few, less than a handful of companies, who had familiarity with the concept of a sales system, much less a well-designed and effectively implemented one.
So, it often falls on the individual salesperson to design the appropriate system. This is what the best salespeople do. They don't just "go out there and do something." When presented with a product or service to sell, they ask and answer questions which lead to the development of a system. This is a really condensed version of the "system-building questions" I recommend:
Answer these questions, in writing, and you have the beginning of a system. Now, by working your system, you'll be far more effective than the salespeople and "go out and making something happen." Thoughtful preparation trumps random action every day of the week.
That's why this is a best practice of the best salespeople.
Best Sales Practice: Maintains good records about customers by using an 'account profile' and 'personal profiles' for every account
By Dave Kahle, from his website
It is the Information Age. And that means that wise and effective sales people collect, store and use good information about their customers and prospects. That information provides the salesperson with a competitive advantage, is invaluable for planning for the best use of his sales time, and allows him to be much more effective in his sales calls.
In this day of CRM systems and hand–held devices that make information management so easy, it's a wonder that I even have to mention this. But the sad truth is that there are still sales forces that don't use any kind of automation tool for salespeople. And, even in those who do have some kind of electronic system for information management, a considerable portion of the sales force doesn't comply with the company's directions for collecting information.
These salespeople realize that information – particularly information about the specific opportunities within an account and the quantifiable potential of every account – brings with it some accountability. If account X has this much potential, for example, what are you doing to acquire it?
And it is that accountability that frightens the information–leery salesperson.
But not the sales masters. They understand that specific, useful information about every account – the kind that you would collect and put into an account profile – is valuable, not only for the salesperson, but also for his/her company. They welcome the accountability that rises out of information, as they understand that it helps keep them sharp and focused.
And even in companies that do not have a system–wide electronic approach to information management, the best salespeople create their own tools, and discipline themselves to rigorously use them.
That's why this is a practice of the best.
"Why Price is always an issue OR Are you guilty of projecting your attitudes onto the customers?"
by Dave Kahle
I just received an email from a frustrated salesperson. His problem? He found it extremely difficult to "pick up the phone and call a prospect". Ruminating in the email, he shared this thought: “I think part of my problem is I don't like telemarketers. I always thought to myself, ‘If I want something, I'll call you. Leave me alone!’"
It is easy for us, on the outside, to see the root of his problem. He doesn't like telemarketers. He projected that attitude onto his customers, assuming that they thought just like him. Since he didn't like telemarketers, his customers must not like them either. So, he didn't want to be seen as a telemarketer because, after all, his customers don't like telemarketers.
The source of his problem is inside him -- his attitude -- not anything that the customers did or did not do.
Yesterday we had a bit of an issue with a customer of ours, who wanted us to not charge for one of their managers who attended an entire two-day sales training seminar. In the customer's mind, since the manager had a different title than most of the participants, he should be free. Three weeks ago, that same customer called and wanted us to discount the fee for sending two people to one of our open-enrollment seminars. As we looked back on previous conversations with this client, we concluded that almost every conversation was about some request for a discount.
Interestingly, one of the major training issues that the CEO asked us to address was how to get away from having to be the low price. I suspect there is a connection between the attitude of the client, and the problems of the CEO.
In both of these cases, the individual's behavior was an expression of a deeper attitude and set of values. The frustrated salesperson had identified the issue: He didn't like telemarketers. The discount-requesting client hadn't yet seen the obvious source of his behavior – a deeper value which held that nothing is worth the price – that everything can be discounted. The subconscious thinking goes like this: If nothing I buy is worth the price, then that must be true for my customers as well.
These deep-set values turn into attitudes, and the attitudes express themselves in innumerable ways. And one of the most important of these expressions is the habit that we all have of projecting our values onto our customers.
Since we don't like telemarketers, we subconsciously project that attitude onto our customers, and can’t bring ourselves to make cold calls. Since we think nothing is worth the stated price, we subconsciously project that attitude onto our customers, and find ourselves constantly discounting.
The source of our difficulties is not the customer – it is us!
Here's the way this works:
The most common expression of this process that I see revolves around the common complaint – "Why do I always have to be the low price?"
Before you start blaming the customers for holding out for a lower price, ask yourself what you might have done to instill that idea in them. Reflect on your attitude and your values and see if the root of the problem isn't there.
If for example, you…
you probably have a deep-seated value which holds buying cheaper is a higher value than investing in value. And since that's what you believe, you find it difficult to expect anything other than that behavior from your customers.
I often respond to a salesperson who asks, "Why do I always have to be the low price" by asking this question, “If I'm one of your customers, why should I pay more to buy it from you?”
The overwhelming majority of the time, the response I get is silence. They can think of no reason someone would pay more to buy it from them. They see no added value to their company's offering. And, since they don't believe that they have added value, they certainly can't convince their customers of something they don't personally believe.
The root of the problem of having to be the low price is, then, very commonly, inside the belief system of the salesperson.
I've found it to be very difficult for someone to rise above their beliefs unless they first challenge and modify those beliefs. I suppose that's why, in a whole different arena, it's impossible to reason with a terrorist. Their actions are entirely consistent with their beliefs. They won't modify their actions until they change their beliefs.
I don’t mean to suggest that the actions of a salesperson in dealing with price issues is in the same league as the actions of a terrorist. But the principle that your beliefs influence your actions is the same.
Change your beliefs, and you'll change your actions. Change your actions, and you'll see different reactions on the part of the customer.
That brings us to this point: How do you change your beliefs? While I don't propose to have the final word on this, I have made some observations over the years. Here are two suggestions:
Buy positive books and read them. Buy positive CDs and listen to them. Find a local group and join it. Attend seminars. Surround yourself with intelligent, thoughtful people who can challenge you. As long as you don't stretch your thinking to take in new ideas, you'll be forever locked within the confines of your legacy beliefs.
The first thing that every cult attempts to do is separate its members from others who think differently. Whether it be fundamentalists like Jim Jones or extremists like Osama Bin Ladin, other ideas are thought to be a threat. That's because, thoughtful people will, upon exposure to other good ideas, accept some of them and change their beliefs. Since changed beliefs equals changed behavior, you can't control someone who has access to other ideas.
For us, the opposite is true as well. If you want to break away from beliefs which hinder you, you must expose yourself to other ideas.
Break out of your routines. Rub shoulders with new people. Take in new and positive ideas. You'll find that new and different ideas inevitably nudge you to modify your beliefs.
As you challenge your own beliefs, you may find that some of them are irrational and based on incidents or information which is incorrect.
If that's the case, then the belief which resulted from those incorrect pieces of information must also be in error. You can reason yourself to different beliefs.
So many salespeople lament the customer's actions without realizing the root cause of the problem may very well be the salesperson's attitudes and beliefs. Before you next complain about price issues, look inward to see if you are part of the problem.
A question/answer session by Dave Kahle
Q. How do you sell when you don't have all the tools you should have?
A. I'm not sure there is a salesperson on the planet who thinks he has all the tools necessary to do the job. Here's a list of some of the tools salespeople would like to have:
This is by no means a complete list. I just arbitrarily stopped adding items to the list. I could probably double the number of items on it if I really tried.
By now, I hope you are getting the picture. I don't know of any company that has everything on the list. So, there is probably no salesperson alive who doesn't wish he/she had some tools that are just not available. The challenge is to sell what you have with the tools that you do have.
That doesn't mean that you stop asking for additional tools, or that you neglect to inform your management about something you think would be helpful to you. Your input is often the seed that later germinates into an effective tool for the entire sales force.
However, don't make that the reason why you don't perform up to your potential. You can spend too much time belaboring what you don't have to the detriment of your sales performance.
Keep it in perspective, let your management know when you think you need something, but sell what you have with the tools you have. If it were easy, they wouldn't need you
Creating Exceptional Referrals
When to ask for a customer referral -- and what you should ask.
From: Inc.com
Receiving a high percentage of business from customer and prospect referrals is an enviable characteristic of exceptional sales professionals. Yes, I also included prospect referrals. It is easy to understand how salespeople will get quality referrals from satisfied customers, but let's also look at how to get referrals from satisfied prospects.
One of the most important conversations we can have is the referral conversation, but most salespeople pay little attention to it and miss valuable opportunities. If they do ask for a referral, they most often simply ask for a name. "Do you know anyone else who would be interested in our solution?" or worse, "Do you know anyone else thinking of buying one of these?".
Let's consider the exceptional approach and make sure we understand "when" to ask for the referral and "what" to ask for. The "when," in the case of a customer, is right after you've delivered your product, service, or solution and your customer has experienced the value they were expecting. At this point, your customer should be pleased in terms of value delivery awareness. The "when" for a prospect is at the point in your diagnosis when you recognize they aren't experiencing the issues your solution is designed to resolve and you've suggested that they may not require your solution.
These questions do not ask the customer to take a risk. Instead, you are asking them for a factual observation. You're not asking them to qualify and pre-sell the referral, you're simply asking if they know of someone who has the symptoms. When they provide the referral, it's our job to determine if the symptoms exist and if they require attention via our solution.
In our research, we've found the process and skills of exceptional sales professionals are quite similar to those of a doctor. Using that analogy, would you refer a friend to a doctor whom you felt did a very thorough and professional diagnosis, even if you didn't require any subsequent surgery? Perhaps. If you have been employing the diagnostic process, your customers will be more willing to share names since they aren't concerned that their colleagues will be subjected to hard sales pitches. These names will also have a much higher probability of being viable prospects.
Your customers will refer you because they received exceptional value through your solution. Your prospects will refer you because they've received exceptional value through substance and style of your communications. Both will yield exceptional referrals.
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Let Me Think About 3 Ways to Handle a Classic Objection by Jim Domanski
What would selling be like without a daily dose of "Let me think about it?"
Probably a whole lot easier and a whole lot less frustrating. But since the objection isn’t going to go away any time soon perhaps now is a good time to look at some ways to tackle it.
Is it Real?
When a prospect says "let me think about it", is he or she telling the truth? Let’s face it, some prospects toss out this classic objection because they simply want to get rid of you. They say it, not because they mean it, but because it is a polite method of getting you off the line. The trouble is, if you are not savvy to this brush off, you can waste a lot of time and energy following up with e-mails and phone calls.
On the other hand, some prospects really DO need time to think about it. Some need time to ponder their options while others like to simply digest the information to ensure that they do not make a snap decision. The trouble here is that if you are a cynical sales rep who has heard the objection time and time again, you may not take the prospect seriously and fail to follow up and hence, lose the opportunity.
So how do you tackle this devilish objection? Here are three approaches.
I love this one particularly if you are dealing with a prospect over the phone. Here’s how it works: when they tell you they want to think about it, say nothing.
That’s all there is to it. Just wait patiently.
Silence over the telephone creates a vacuum and most people get uncomfortable with the silence. After two or three or four seconds, most people feel the compelling need to fill the void with words.
You will be absolutely amazed at how well this technique works as long as you can discipline yourself to hold your tongue for a few seconds.
Typically, the client will elaborate on the “let me think about it” objection and this often uncovers the real objection. For example, they might explain that they have to speak to their boss or their partner. Suddenly you discover another player in the game. They may reveal that they are looking at other proposals and now you know you are in a competitive situation. Or they may simply not be interested at all. In any event, you have more information upon which to base your next step.
Another approach is to grant them the time but put a time limit on their pondering. It looks something like this:
Prospect: "Well, let me think about it."
Rep: "I understand completely, Mr. Thomas. A decision like this needs some time. And what I would like to recommend is that I give you a call next week to get your thoughts and to determine the next steps. How does Wednesday at 8:45 look on your calendar?"
If the prospect accepts the recommendation the objection is probably legitimate. The client needs time for whatever reason. You know this because she has agreed to a specific time and date. It shows commitment. Again, the key is to not only get a follow up date but also a specific time.
This approach is very non-threatening and is perfect for prospects who legitimately want more time. They will appreciate your courtesy and understanding. That’s why you deliberately empathize with the prospect by saying you “understand.” These types of prospects don’t like being cajoled or pressured. If you push too hard, they will say no to your offer because they don’t like you and your ‘aggressive’ approach. Your offer could be extremely valuable and well priced but these prospects value trust and relationship more.
If the prospect balks at your first suggestion, try another date and time and see if they positively respond. If they balk again, ask when would be a good time and date. If they cannot make a commitment chances are they are brushing you off and your time is probably better spent elsewhere.
I borrowed this approach from sales trainer Brian Jeffrey (visit: www.salesforcetraining.com ). His approach is to first empathize with the prospect and then to go on and question to determine if the objection is legitimate or a smokescreen.
Prospect: "Hmmmm. Let me think about it."
Rep: "I understand completely. If I were in your shoes I’d want to think about it as well."
"May I ask what concerns you still have?"Or
"May I ask what’s causing you to hesitate?" or
"May I ask what questions I’ve left unanswered?" or
"May I ask what your final decision will be based on?"
Needless to say, this type of probing gets the prospect to open up and to help you determine if the objection is real or otherwise.
Summary
The next time a prospect says he would like to think about it, think about one of these three approaches. Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Best Practice Sales Practice: Routinely makes powerful persuasive presentations
BY Dave Kahle
In my first professional sales position, I spent six full weeks in sales training before I was released to go out into my territory. Sales training was defined as memorizing two five-page, single-spaced sales presentations, presenting them to the sales training class, critiquing the video-taped playback of the presentation, and then doing it all again – for six weeks! At the end of those six weeks, every one of us could give those two presentations masterfully.
While the use of prewritten, memorized sales presentations still continues today, it's only rarely used in the business-to-business selling environment. It may be that today's frantic pace of new product development makes the time it takes to memorize a sales presentation seem less valuable. Or it may be that today's salesperson is more sophisticated and able to adjust the sales presentation to the needs of each individual customer. While memorized presentations may be a vestige of years gone by, that in no way reduces the need to make a well designed, practiced sales presentation. The ability to routinely make powerful, persuasive sales presentations, regardless of the customer or product, is one of the practices of the best.
The world is full of salespeople who take a casual attitude toward a sales presentation. Some think that they know the product so well that their superior product knowledge will ooze out during the presentation, impressing the customer into buying. Others do not put in the necessary preparation and practice time, and, in an attempt to cover their lack of confidence, focus on those parts of the presentation with which they feel most comfortable. Still others feel that their ability to improvise will eventually lead them to a persuasive presentation.
The truth is that there is no shortcut to a persuasive presentation. It begins with studying the customer as well as the product or service. It takes preparation to decide which of the customer's issues to address, and which specific features of your offer to emphasize. It takes time to organize the facts and features into a cohesive presentation. It takes time to build in interactive elements, and to gather the right samples and documents. And it takes time to practice (yes, practice) the presentation before you actually make it. A persuasive presentation begins with methodical preparation.
Maybe that's why so few salespeople give this aspect of their job the attention that it deserves. And maybe that's why routinely making powerful and persuasive presentations is a practice of the very best.
Another no-nonsense article by Dave Kahle
Q. I am an inside salesperson who does most of my selling over the phone and via fax. How can I be more effective and persuasive when I may never even meet my customers?
A. This is a great question, and one which I suspect thousands of readers would share.
Selling over the phone is always more difficult than selling in person. Generally, however, most of the principles that apply to face-to-face selling also apply to selling over the phone. They are just more difficult to apply.
Ultimately, it's up to you to creatively figure out how to apply some of these principles. To help you think creatively, let me share a couple examples that illustrate ways others have used the principles.
Many of you are unfamiliar with the term "deeper in the cone." This is a phrase I use, based on research done many years ago that concluded that the more senses to which you appeal, the more powerful is your presentation.
Generally speaking, such prescriptions for sales success are dishonest at worst, and superficial at best.
So, I'm taking exception to the assumptions that under gird this question. There are no "catch phrases" that make you seem honest or competent. These are qualities of character — attitudes that you project. In order to project honesty, you must first be honest. In order to project confidence, you must first be competent. Product knowledge and market pricing have nothing to do with it.
If experience teaches anything, it's that you can always improve
BY Hal Becker, taken from the website bizjournals
In almost every profession, the longer someone does something, the better he or she gets.
Experience has always been the best teacher. We all learn from our successes and failures. Our professional expertise is a lifelong journey, and that is what builds us to who we are in our occupation.
I love using the physician or surgeon as an example.
Would you want to be operated on by an experienced surgeon or someone who has never performed the procedure before or maybe just a few times in his or her career?
Would you want a new internist to examine you in an annual physical or a doctor who has done this before and seen the condition you might have in other patients?
There is nothing like experience. But in the case of doctors, pilots, athletes, lawyers and numerous other professions, experience is the greatest teacher.
I think there are a multitude of factors that keep salespeople from improving their selling skills or taking their career to a higher level.
You really cannot point to just one area. Success is not just a single area that you can isolate.
The factors that impede salespeople are as follows:
Factor 1: Learning product knowledge and selling skills only when first hired.
Many companies provide some sales training when sales reps are new and then let them go on their merry way. Then companies might conduct a company meeting here and there and fit in a little bit of sales training at the meeting. Most times, companies focus on product training - which is NOT sales training.
Factor 2: Managers ignore experienced salespeople and work with new ones.
Sales managers seem to work with the new reps and, as time goes on, let the ones who have been around for a while go on their own.
Then the managers wonder why sales are off or why the reps are not making quota.
Factor 3: Complacent and happy with performance.
So many salespeople get to a certain level and then get comfortable. That is where they keep their game. They have given up trying to better themselves and stopped listening to ways to make their selling skills better.
Factor 4: No personal learning curve and just bad habits.
Most salespeople do nothing to move their skill level into a new direction. They do not read books, take seminars or basically do anything that would help them be better salespeople.
So what is the answer? Beats me! It is a combination of taking your game to a higher level, finding that desire inside of you and just wanting to be the best in your profession.
Hey look, why do you think that the greatest golfer in the world, Tiger Woods, would change his swing not once but twice in the past couple of years?
He wants to keep improving and to be the best golfer in the world.
Hey, if I had the answer, I would not be writing this article from a hotel room somewhere in the southern part of the United States.
Instead, I would be on my own island in the Pacific or Caribbean laughing while sipping on a tropical drink with a personal servant saying, "Hey, Hal, you are the man - you figured it all out."
This article is not meant to be motivational or maybe even demotivating. In fact, it is to get you to try something new and then stay with it. That "something new" is called a learning curve and a consistent approach to improving your game - not next week but forever!
Success is a journey and not a destination, so keep trying to take yourself to a higher level of performance, and watch your income grow, see your confidence increase and just celebrate knowing that you are trying to go through life to be the best.
Taken from Dave Kahle website
Q. What is the best way to deal with a customer who only wants to hear lower prices?
A. First, let me question the accuracy of your interpretation. There are very few customers who only want lower prices. One of the reasons why we hear "lower prices" from many customers is that we haven't given them a reason to spend more. Are you really convinced that the customer doesn't care about anything except lower prices? Before I can answer the question, you need to answer these:
Have you talked with the customer about your value-added distinctiveness — what your company, your product, or your service brings to the relationship other than price? In other words, have you shared the reasons why he should spend a little more to buy it from you?
Have you dug deeply into the needs and interests of this customer, and discovered nothing — no problem to solve, no goal with which you could assist — upon which you can build a creative solution?
Have you met all the other decision makers and influencers in that account and done both of the above with them?
Have you trained the customer to push for lower prices by making price the primary subject of your conversation?
Have you trained the customer to push for lower prices by reducing your price sometime in the past when the customer has requested it?
Have you trained the customer to hold out for lower prices by responding to his "giving you the last look?"
If you responded to the first three questions with "yes" and to the last three with "no," then I'll accept your conclusion that the customer just wants to hear about lower prices. If that's not the case, then before you can conclude that the customer is only interested in lower prices, you need to attend to the tactics discussed above.
Now, let's say that you have done all the things represented by the first three questions, and not done any that are inherent in the last three questions, then you have a right to your conclusion. This customer is really and truly only interested in lower prices.
I'd suggest you have a frank talk with him. Explain that you'll do your best to provide the lowest price possible. In order to take costs out of the transaction, you can no longer afford to call on him in person. Ask him to email you his specifications, and you'll respond that way.
Or, better yet, turn the account over to a proactive inside salesperson who can deal with him exclusively by the phone, and then you invest your time in your other customers.
Sell YOU With Your Small Talk. (Yes You Can.) by W. Paul Barton
Want to build a relationship — sell yourself for a job — get ahead — make a sale?
Your "small talk" is crucial.
Everyday conversation can make or break you in personal relationships and in the business world. Sadly, most people don't realize how important small talk is, nor do they try to do better.
That's a shame, because anyone can easily develop great small talk skills.
Just how important is small talk?
A Stanford University School of Business study showed its impact on business success. It tracked MBA's 10 years after graduation, and found grade point averages had no bearing on their success — but conversation did. Most successful were those who could make conversation with anyone — from strangers, to secretaries, to bosses to customers.
Small talk impacts your success in "personal" relationships because it can shape how others see you in terms of intelligence and confidence. People tend to see good conversationalists as more intelligent and confident.
Other research — to find the characteristics of the ideal person — has shown confidence and intelligence are the most important factors for about 60% of respondents.
Despite the importance of small talk, most people don't do it well. Shyness is one reason. Others range from not knowing how to start a conversation to not having anything to say.
But all it really takes to be good at small talk is a simple strategy.
And you reply, "Oh, I went to Boston University, myself. What was your major?"
Wrong follow–up question! The prospect "volunteered" information important to him (football scholarship). You should have "adapted"… following up with something like, "Oh, what position did you play?" This could lead to a whole series of questions, increasingly "engaging" the prospect.
When you successfully apply this simple strategy, you create "rapport" — a feeling of trust and liking. This can cause others to think of you in positive ways:
Clearly, small talk is crucial to you. You owe it to yourself to do it well.
Best Practice #29: Understands the science of making good first impressions, and uses specific techniques to get the relationship off to a good start.
Another article by Dave Kahle
In a recent seminar, one of the salespeople asked if I thought that creating relationships with people wasn't just a natural ability. You either had it, or you didn't. I replied that building relationships with prospects and customers was a competency, just like planning and preparing, asking questions, making a presentation, etc. While it helps if you have some natural ability to start with, there are practices that are proven to promote rapport and relationship, and that the dedicated salesperson learns these practices and develops them into habits. Anyone can learn to do a better job of building positive business relationships.That is particularly true in one aspect of building relationships — creating a positive first impression. On many of these issues, there has evolved an understanding of a set of practices that are proven to produce certain results. Not only do we have the wisdom of all those who have gone before us, but we increasingly have research to support some of our observations.I just read some research that looked at the behaviors of a salesperson that, from the customer's point of view, evoked a feeling of trust in them in their first impression. What were they?
It's not the purpose of this article to list all the proven practices for making a positive first impression. It is, however, the purpose to make the point that there are proven practices that anyone can learn and master. Anyone can learn to use those practices and become adept at creating positive first impressions.That's why the best excel at this. They understand the science of making good first impressions, and uses specific techniques to get the relationship off to a good start.To learn more about this best practice,
Best Practice #33: Uses an effective system for making appointments.
Another article by Dave Kahle
All routine, sophisticated work is most effectively accomplished by implementing a system. That's one of the observations I've made in my 20+ years of experience in consulting. It doesn't matter what area of work we are considering. For example, cleaning teeth, paving a road, painting a house, laying carpet, creating your income tax returns, etc., are all routine, sophisticated jobs that are best accomplished systematically.
The job of the professional salesperson is crammed with such tasks — sophisticated tasks which we need to do over and over again. Making appointments is one such undertaking.
A system is composed, in its simplest expression, of processes, practices and tools. Processes are the step–by–step series of events that eventually lead to a goal. Practices are the behaviors which are part of the process, and tools are the specific things we use to accomplish the process.
So, for example, when it comes to making appointments, the process may look like this:
I'm not suggesting that this is the only process you could use. I am suggesting, however, that you create a similar process, designed for the specifics of your business.
There are certain key practices that make up this process. You can improve the end results of your process by improving the practices you use along the way. For example, the phone call that you make to the prospect asking for the appointment is a key behavior. You ought to concentrate on implementing that behavior ever better. Focus on each of these practices, and work on forever improving them.
Finally, you'll need a good set of tools. Your pre–call touch, for example, is a tool. As is the script that you use, the letter that you may send, etc. Like your approach to practices, your approach is to forever refine these tools.
That's what it means to have a system that you use to make appointments. This is what the best do.
For Salespeople: How to Get Up When You Are Down
by Dave Kahle
I've been pondering an email I recently received. In it, the young salesperson described his most pressing challenge: The sales roller coaster. When things go well, he's up, emotionally, and when things don't go well, he's down. The swings from up to down were wearing on him. His real question is one every salesperson must confront and successfully resolve: How do I manage myself to keep my emotions up and my energy high?
I've often thought that this is a fundamental challenge for a salesperson. It's one thing to focus on closing the sale, and presenting to a sufficient number of prospects, and other such tasks, but the real heart of the issue is managing yourself so that you can do these things.
If you are depressed and listless, it doesn't matter how good you are at your selling skills. You won't have the energy to apply yourself. Managing yourself is the first challenge.
The depth of this challenge is unique to the profession of sales. In most other jobs, you know what to do, where to go, and when to do it. Not so in sales, where all these decisions are yours to make. Thus, you have the option of not being at your first call at 8:00 if you choose not to. And you have the option of taking a two-hour lunch, and being done at 3 PM. At least for awhile, till someone catches up with you.
If you have a positive attitude, an optimistic mindset, and are "up" emotionally, all these decisions are a lot easier to make than if you are dragging around in a state of depression.
I know about this, because I am given to depression. I'm a type A, high energy guy. But, I have the tendency, when things aren't going my way, to become depressed. Let me illustrate.
In one of my sales jobs, I encountered a slow down in the amount of projects I had going -- just a lull in the usual feverish level of activity to which I was accustomed. I became depressed.
You know, there is a cycle to depression. For me, it went like this. Since I didn't have as much to do, I became depressed. Since I was depressed, I wasn't nearly as active as I had been. Since I wasn't as active, I didn't create much new activity. Which meant I had even less to do. Which meant I became more depressed. Which lead me to even less activity. See the cycle?
It doesn't take long to become almost paralyzed. That's what happened to me. I became so depressed that I couldn't leave the house.
In my case, it took the intervention of a wise sales manager to lift me out of my depression and get me back to work.
But not everyone has that option. And not everyone becomes that depressed. But, on a day-to-day basis, the impact of being "down" can be lethal to your success. So, every salesperson has to formulate an effective answer to the question, "How do you get yourself back up when you are down?"
Let me propose two options.
Our thoughts lead to our attitudes. Our attitudes lead to our actions. Our actions lead to our results. It sounds so simple, and in one sense, it is. To manage ourselves effectively, all we have to do is control our thoughts. Probably the greatest principle of self-improvement is this: You can choose your thoughts.
There certainly is nothing new about that observation. Solomon, writing centuries before Christ, said "As a man thinks in heart so is he." The Apostle Paul wrote, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The relationship between thoughts, actions and results has been recognized probably since the dawn of mankind.
The problem is, of course, actually doing it.
One of the best business books of the 20th century was called "Learned Optimism" by Dr. Martin Seligman. In it, he describes his lifework. As a research psychologist, Dr. Seligman began by studying helplessness in dogs. In an early experiment, he put dogs into a cage from which they could not escape, and subjected them to mild shocks. After some effort at escape, the dogs would give up trying and lay down. Later, he put them into a cage from which they could easily escape, and subjected them to the same mild shocks. The dogs would just lie down and give up. Surprisingly, they did not attempt to remove themselves from the irritant. They had learned helplessness and hopelessness.
In subsequent experiments, Dr. Seligman found a similar behavior in human beings. Put into a room and subjected to irritating noises from which they could not escape, they soon learned to give up. When put into a room with a mechanism that would turn off the noise, they still didn't try. They had learned helplessness and hopelessness.
From this beginning, Dr. Seligman continued to formulate a thesis he calls "learned optimism." It says, basically, that human beings learn to have either a pessimistic or an optimistic outlook. Dr. Seligman's book contains a self-assessment to measure the degree of pessimism or optimism of the reader.
Dr. Seligman's thesis arises from the way people explain negative events to themselves. When something negative happens, as it eventually will, the way you explain it to yourself determines your pessimistic/optimistic attitude. There are three components of this "explanatory style."
The first component is the degree to which you believe the event will be permanent. Pessimists believe negative events will be permanent, while optimists believe that they will be temporary.
The second component is pervasiveness. Pessimists believe the causes of negative events are universal, affecting everything they do. Optimists believe them to be specific, and limited to the individual circumstances.
The third component is personal. Pessimists believe that negative events are caused by themselves. Optimists believe that the world is at fault.
Here's how this behavioral perspective works in the everyday life of a salesperson.
Let's say you visit one of your large accounts, and your main contact announces that the vice-president for operations has signed a prime vendor agreement with your largest competitor, and that all of your business will be moved to that competitor within the next 30 days. That's a negative event.
As you drive away from the account, you think to yourself, "I blew it here. I should have seen it coming. I'm never going to learn this job. I'll blow the next one too. I mismanage them all."
Now, that's a pessimistic explanation of the event. Notice that you have explained it in a way that is personal, "I blew it." Your explanation is also permanent, "I'm never going to learn to do this job," and pervasive, "I mismanage them all."
Now stop a minute, and analyze how you feel as a result of this explanation. Probably defeated, dejected, depressed, and passive. These are not the kinds of feelings you need to energize you to make your next sales call.
Let's revisit the situation, this time offering optimistic explanations. The same event occurs -- you receive bad news from your best account. As you drive away, you think to yourself, "They really made a bad mistake this time. It's a good thing the contract is only for a year. That gives me time to work to get it back. I'm glad it was only this account and no others."
That's an optimistic explanation because your explanations were not personal, permanent, or pervasive. How do you feel about your future as a result of this explanation? Probably energized and hopeful.
See the difference? The event was the same. The only difference was the way you explained it to yourself. One set of explanations was optimistic, leading to energy and hope, while the other was pessimistic, leading to dejection and passivity.
Dr. Seligman has isolated optimistic behavior as one of the characteristics of successful people. Using various techniques he's developed, he predicted elections by analyzing each candidate's explanatory style. The most optimistic candidates often win elections.
The implications for you are awesome. If you can improve your explanatory style, and make it more optimistic, you'll create more positive energy and hope for yourself, no matter how difficult or negative the circumstances with which you must deal.
Learned optimism can be one of your most powerful self-management techniques. It's based on this powerful principle: Your thoughts influence your feelings and your actions, and you can choose your thoughts.
Learning to control and choose your thoughts is a learned skill, just like listening and closing. Every salesperson needs to gain some mastery over this essential competency.
Not only do our thoughts lead to our actions, but our actions can create emotions, and those emotions can lead to our thoughts. Try this. Start laughing. No particular reason, just start laughing. Force yourself to laugh. Force yourself to laugh uproariously. Force yourself to laugh for a few minutes. When you'e finally done, note how you feel. If you're typical, you'll feel pretty good. The laughter generated the feeling. And, since you feel good, you're more likely to generate positive thoughts.
We can create feelings by acting, whether or not we feel like it. I'm told that marriage counselors will sometimes advise their patients to act like you are madly in love with your spouse for a few weeks. More often than not, they come back and report a deeper bond with their spouse. The action led to the feeling.
When it comes to sales, the same principle will work for us. By all means, act. Do something, anything, but get yourself out of your lethargy by acting. As you begin to do something, that action will stimulate you to feel better, which will stimulate you to think more positively, which will stimulate you to more positive action, which will stimulate you to more positive thoughts, etc. It's a cycle. Exactly the opposite of the depression cycle. Use this cycle to your benefit.
Learning to manage yourself is one of the core competencies of an effective, professional salesperson. And, I suppose, of a mature human being in any realm. The sooner you gain this competency, the more successful you will be.
This is one of those practices that truly distinguish the committed, professional salespeople from those who aren't that interested.
That's because it takes time and effort to become well prepared at anything, much less objections. Those who are serious and committed put in the time to prepare themselves, while those who aren't, don't.
To keep it simple, let's define an objection this way: You make an offer to a customer or prospect which calls for him to commit to some action, and the customer replies with something other than "yes."
So, for example, you say something like this to the customer: "Want to get together next Tuesday?" and the customer says, "That's not going to work." Or, maybe you say, "Shall we go ahead with the project?" and the customer says, "No."
Both of these are examples of "something other than Yes" — or, in other words, objections.
Being well prepared to handle them means two things: One, you are prepared, behaviorally, to handle the person, and, two, you are prepared, intellectually, to handle the idea expressed. In my seminars, I like to simplify this to: Handle the person, and then handle the idea.
Being prepared behaviorally means that you, through your behavior, regularly take the tension out of the situation, empathize with the customer, and probe for a deeper layer of meaning. Our natural response, when we hear an objection is either to become flustered, or to become aggressive and argumentative. Neither one is effective.
Instead, we need to make the customer feel comfortable, and then understand the reason behind the objection. This is a simple to understand, three-step process. I don't have time to go into it here, but the process is amply described in a number of my other works.
Once we've made the customer feel comfortable (handling the person), then we move onto preparing intellectually or, handling the idea. A year ago, I came across some research that indicated that if you were prepared to handle the five most common objections you hear, that you will be prepared to handle about 90 percent of the your customer's negative comments. In other words, 90 percent of the objections you hear will invariably sort themselves into five classifications. Prepare for those five, and you'll be equipped to respond to almost anything.
Preparing for those five objections takes several steps:
When you have created a one-page document with each of these pieces on it for the five most common objections you'll hear, and you've reviewed this work and have it in the top of your mind, ready to refer to when necessary, you are prepared to handle objections.
An article by Dave Kahle - while written with the United States in mind, we believe that those rules can be applied everywhere in the world - they show your respect towards your client and build a stronger relationship
QUESTION:
"I'm new to sales and to business in general. I don't want to make a "manners" or "etiquette" mistake that could cause problems. Are there any special rules for business etiquette that I should know about?"
ANSWER:
That's a question that I have rarely heard. But, good question, nonetheless. As new generations of salespeople come into the profession, the culture changes somewhat, and some of the old rules pass on. Every now and then, it's a good idea to refresh some of the basic rules of business etiquette.
The fundamental rule is to think about the customer, and put yourself in his shoes. How would you want to be treated? Here are some specific applications:
That's a good list to get started. Good luck.
Taken form the website www.managesmarter.com a short and interesting article on how to do follow-up in sales
February 23, 2007
By C.J. Hayden
Meeting new people in person is still one of the best ways to market your services. If you do a good job at this, you will quickly end up with a desk drawer filled with business cards. But then what do you do with them?
Timely and consistent follow-up is the key to successful marketing. Meeting someone once is rarely enough to bring you business—repeated contacts are what do the trick. You always want to follow up with prospective customers, of course, but you should also follow up with potential referral sources.
A good referral source is someone who interacts with your desired customers on a regular basis. For example, as a business coach who works with many start-ups, I look for referrals from accountants, attorneys, career counselors and people who teach small business classes.
There are three avenues you might choose to follow up with people you have met: by phone, by mail, or in person. Let's look at the uses of each one.
With prospective customers, you can phone them to see how interested they are in what you do and try to set up a meeting. The meeting might be in person or by phone, depending on the nature of your business. You can mail them a marketing letter, or a brochure with a personal note. You could also call or write to refer them to your Web site or invite them to your next presentation.
The most effective way to contact prospects is usually call-mail-call. Call first to develop interest, and if you can't reach them to set up a meeting on the first try, send them something by mail or e-mail. Then call again to see if they are ready to take the next step.
If someone is a potential referral source rather than a prospect, your best approach is to establish a reciprocal relationship. You might call to begin getting acquainted, exchange information about yourselves by mail, or arrange to meet in person to find out more about each other's work.
It is completely appropriate to call another business person you have met and say, "I think we might be serving the same type of customers; could we get to know each other better so maybe we could exchange referrals?" Another easy and friendly way to follow up with anyone you meet is to send a handwritten "nice to meet you" note with only your card enclosed.
Be careful when making contact by fax or e-mail. Many people are offended by faxes or e-mail messages that are essentially generic marketing letters. It's more advisable to use these media as tools to communicate more personally with people you have already opened a dialogue with. If you choose to fax or e-mail someone who isn't expecting to hear from you, be sure to personalize what you write for each prospect.
After your initial contact, think of ways to keep in touch on a regular basis. Call to see how people are doing, or to tell them what's new with you. Send a note with a clipping or cartoon, or e-mail a link to an interesting Web site. Don't forward jokes or inspirational stories, though, unless you know for sure the recipient will appreciate them.
To follow up in person, schedule lunch or coffee, or invite your contacts to an upcoming event you plan to attend. Once you have a large follow-up list, consider a regular newsletter, ezine, or postcard mailing.
To manage your follow-up activities, you need a contact management system. When your list is short, you can use a notebook or 3 x 5 cards. You will quickly outgrow a manual system, however. By the time you reach 200 contacts or so, you'll be ready to graduate to a computerized system designed for contact management, such as Microsoft Outlook or ACT!
However you choose to keep track of your contacts, the important thing is to stay organized. Always have one central place where you record who you meet, what contact you have had so far, and when it will be time to follow up next.
If a business card you have collected doesn't belong to a prospective customer or referral source, throw it away. There's no point in keeping the card of someone you don't plan to follow up with.
What Salespeople Can Learn From American Idol
by Dave Kahle
We've all squirmed uncomfortably watching some absolutely talentless candidate audition for American Idol. After they are told by the judges that they have no talent, they either fall into tearful disappointment, or defiantly challenge the motivation, intelligence or integrity of the judges.
As we've watched, feeling really embarrassed for them, my wife and I would look at each other and ask:
"Didn't anyone tell them?"
"Didn't their parents or their family tell them that they had no singing talent?"
"How could their friends have allowed them to go on thinking that they were a singer?"
"How could they have so deluded themselves?"
The painful truth is that their subjective view of themselves clashed horribly with the objective truth disseminated by the judges. The clamor of those two forces slamming together resulted in an embarrassing life-changing moment, vie