Customer engagement is a hot topic.  Thousands of articles present their “secret decoder rings” about customer engagement.  Sales and marketing people get into serious conversations about customer engagement.  Lots of it is good stuff, but I always wonder, “What’s all the fuss about?”

Somehow, there seem to me to be a couple of fundamentals to customer engagement:

• Get the customers to talk about themselves, what they do, and what they want to do.
• Talk to customers about what they want to talk about.

People like talking about themselves and what they do.  They like to have an audience that is genuinely interested in them.  They listen to things they are interested in.

If it’s so easy, why is it so difficult for sales people to do?  I think there are a bunch of reasons:

• The same rules apply to us, we like talking about ourselves, we like talking about what we do.  What makes it worse, is that we’ve been professionally trained to do this, so the urge to pitch, present our products, talk about our solutions overwhelms us.  We take over the conversation and put our mouths into autopilot.
• We’re goal directed and focused on winning deals.  Part of what makes sales people great is the overwhelming desire to win–to close the deal.  Point us to a customer, we’ll charge ahead, 200mph (330+kph for some of you).  We want to achieve our goals.
• We’re time pressured, we have more to get done than we have time to do it.  We jump to action, trying to move deals aggressively through the funnel.  The talk button gets pushed, and we go.

Focusing on what the customer is interested in and talking to them about that is the secret to customer engagement.  When we let the customer talk about their issues and goals, when they can tell us their problems, when we probe to understand how these issues impact them, we engage them.  Think about when someone has done this with you.  Suddenly you think, “Here’s a person interested in me and what I have to say,”  “Here’s someone that really wants to understand my point of view,”  “Here’s someone who is telling me things I am interested about–that can help me.” 

Things change when we’ve engaged the customer.  We get into conversations where we are really listening to each other.  The relationship deepens, trust levels go up.   

Engaging the customer makes our job of selling much easier.  First, the customer has laid out a road map for us–they’ve told us what they are trying to do, what alternatives they are considering, how they will make the decision.  All we have to do is respond to what they’ve said, demonstrating our solution is superior to all other alternatives.

Engaging the customer isn’t really that difficult, it’s putting them first, being interested in them and what concerns them, and encouraging them to talk about it.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Since when did sales come down to the fine art of improving your quarterly performance?  To improving your quota by that 4% margin of victory. Since when did we start looking back (on the worst sales year of 3 generations) to decide whether we were getting the right results. Since when did we fool ourselves [...]

Strange. “Selling is like life which is like selling.” Bold — Yes, I know…. And oh so very exciting… (grinding teeth sound) And so, when the vast editing team here at SalesBloggers.com decided to ask us to write about Sales Metaphors in the grand month of June, I had to resist the urge to throw [...]

In the marketplace, most salespersons have heard the plethora of sales metaphors. For example many years ago, I heard someone make this statement about my father:  “Hoagy could sell ice to an Eskimo.” Being under the age of 6, my concrete brain could not figure out this conceptual sales metaphor about why an Eskimo would [...]

Ask any business owner to sales professional how busy they are and you will receive usually in great detail what is happening in their corner of the world.  From non-communicative potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) to demanding sales managers to all those other family and friend commitments, the average sales person does appear to have a [...]

Asking the right question starts the sales process and helps to achieve this goal of  How do you sell more? Yet far too many sales people focus on asking the wrong questions or asking the same questions that everyone else has asked.

Before traveling into the why, one important word in the first paragraph is “asking” or better yet ask.  Many people believe they know the meaning of the words. Yet, I have discovered this I know that already (IKTA) creates confusion.

Webster’s New World Dictionary indicates the ask is an Anglo Saxon word of ascian.  Its first definition is

• “to use words in seeking the answer to (a question); inquire about. The first intent of this word is further understanding of an existing question.”

What this suggests if you do not know the existing question, you will have trouble asking. How many times in the buying/selling process do sales professionals fail to do their research (think homework)?  This keeps them from being able to seek the real answers from their potential customers (a.k.a. prospects).

Now returning to the question at hand, “How do you sell more?”  What would happen if you asked yourself this question “How can I help my customers buy more?”  Does restating this query provide a different perspective?  Would your behaviors be a little to dramatically different?

Years ago, there was a small little book called the QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller.  Even though this book addressed personal accountability, the author presents three (3) guidelines to better understand the question behind the question.

The first guideline is to begin with the word What or How.  Questions starting with Why, When and Who fail because the focus is on someone else or something else and not on you, your decisions or your behaviors.  After all to achieve the goal to increase sales begins with you, the decisions you make and the behaviors you demonstrate. How many times have we heard “When is the economy going to get better?” or similar such statements as the reason for not selling more?

Next, remove any of these words, they, them, we or you.  Your QBQ needs to have the letter I.  Are you beginning to see a pattern here? For sales is all about personal accountability, doing what you need to do to get to where you want to be. So what does personal accountability mean?  The definition I use is from Innermetrix Attribute Index and it is:

“The ability to be responsible for the consequences of one’s own decisions and actions; taking responsibility for these decisions, and not shifting focus for blame or poor performance somewhere else or on others. This derives from an internal responsibility to one’s self to be accountable and this internal willingness to own up will tend to be exhibited outside in one one’s actions.”

Personal accountability is directly connected to your decision making process and begins from the inside. If the goal is to how to sell more, personal accountability is a definite talent.  How many times have you heard sales people blame the customer, the competition even their own organization before they look at their own actions? Sales Coaching Tip: What I have discovered is many engaged in selling do not have a strong talent or strength when it comes to personal accountability.

Finally, the third step is to focus on action. Until action is taken, no change happens. Of course as Alan Deutschman in his book Change or Die revealed that only 1 out of 10 people will change.  This statistic is confirmed by ongoing sales research that suggests over 50% of all sales leads are left hanging on the vine and 10-20% of all sales people earn 90-80% of the sales. There is a lot of failed personal accountability within this profession.

Another book that I truly enjoy is the Questions that Sell by Paul Cherry.  He provides a very simple process to move the “how two sell” more along.

Spin Selling Fieldbook is another great resource to help any sales professional sell more. The vignettes that Rackham provides are real examples to help apply the practical advice he offers.

There are many other books that help sales professionals learn to create better asking questions when engaging with their potential customers (a.k.a. qualified prospects). And if you do not like books, you can peruse blogs such as this one to the numerous websites devoted to “how to sell more.”  Bottom line is when salespersons learn to ask better questions of themselves then they will realize their goals be it to increase sales, receive more referrals or just getting more clients.

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I have the fortune of being on advisory teams for a number of technology firms in the San Francisco and Boston areas and I have a very distinct memory of when I learned the power of different perspectives.

One of the companies I’m an advisor for is VendorRate.com – They take the risk out of buying technology. One day Rick, the CEO, and I had this conversation about selling and disco balls. When the conversation started my first thought was what do disco balls have to do with selling?

It turns out that whenever Rick explained his business everyone saw the problem he solved from a different perspective -  their own. Rick is a very savvy entrepreneur and quickly figured out that once the customer has their own perspective on the problem he solves or the solution he provides the sale is half way there.

Every day sales professionals get to make a choice – Right or Rich. Let me explain. I know a sales trainer who has a hyphenated first name and when people first hear her name they often assume that it’s her last name that is hyphenated. She would rather be right than rich and if you make the mistake of just calling her by the first part of her hyphenated first name – thinking the last name is hyphenated – she’ll stop you in your tracks and make sure you know that you made a mistake and that it’s her first name that is hyphenated.

She could just let it go and be happy making the sale – being rich. But she chooses to be right and as a result regularly alienates the prospect which causes her to lose the sale and more importantly ruin the potential to build what could be a fruitful long-term relationship.

So the next time you have a prospect that sees your solution from a perspective different than the one you have – SHUT UP! The customer has already been sold! If you try to fix their perspective all you do is alienate them and reduce the likelihood they will become your customer.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Here’s a different perspective for you: I think that a successful sales career is based less on your ability to get people to say “Yes” and more on your ability to get to “No” faster and more often.

Unless you want to be the kind manipulative salesperson that everyone loves to hate, you can’t really “get” someone else to say yes.  If you were one of those types, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article to begin with.  Those kind of mouth-breathing bottom feeders are not typically the kind to hang out here, trying to become a better caliber of salesperson.  They’re more likely to spend their time on “yellow-highlighter” pages, learning the latest mind-control sales tips.

If you’re here, reading posts by the likes of Skip Anderson and Tibor Shanto and Cindy King (and all the other incredible minds that hang out here on the SBU), I’m guessing it’s because you want to be the kind of salespeson that’s admired and respected by your employers, peers and customers.  If that’s true, you have to become a master of getting people to say “No” as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Why?  Because in most cases the alternative to “No” is not “Yes”; it’s one of the 1001 variations of “Maybe” that prospects  learn in “Sales Avoidance” class.

We all know that getting to “Yes” is the ultimate goal in a sales situation.  ”Yes” is what pays the bills.  ”Yes” is what makes all the “No”s worthwhile.  ”Yes” is what we dream of at night.  ”Yes” is every salesperson’s favorite word, no doubt about it.  It’s just that hearing it is such an infrequent occurence, compared to the number of times we hear “No”, that we sometimes fall into the trap of believing that “Maybe” is a good substitute.

Hear this: “Maybe” is not your friend.  In fact, “Maybe”, left unchecked, will kill your career.  ”Maybe” will keep you guessing indefinitely and chasing opportunities that have the same likelihood of converting to sales as my chances of winning on American Idol.

You know what I’m talking about: you make your presentation and the prospect says, “Thanks for your time…We need to think it over,” and off you go, thinking you’ve actually got a shot.  You call in a few days to “follow up” and the prospect says they are still thinking things over.  You call back after a few more days, and you get voicemail.  You leave a message, it never gets returned, and you just keep up the illusion, all the while telling your manager that you’ve got a “really good feeling” about this one.  Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if the prospect had just said “No”?

Of course it would.  It would have freed you up to go after all the other thousands of prospects out there who actually want to buy your product from you.  It would have prevented all that frustrating wheel-spinning.  It would have made you a better saleperson because it would have caused you to analyze what you could have done differently to improve your chances at getting a “Yes” next time out.

Want to be a better salesperson?  Stop obsessing about “Yes” and never, under any circumstances, settle for “Maybe”.  Instead, become a master of getting to “No” better, faster and more frequently.  Because believe me, the more times you here “No”, the closer you are to hearing “Yes”.

And if you want to become a master of getting to “No”, check out my blog over the coming week.  I’m going to be posting a series called “5 Ways To Get the 2nd Best Answer”, all about mastering the art of “No”.  Come on over and learn to love the sound of “No”!

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I love working with sales people.  We’re focused, high energy, action, and results oriented.  Most of us are pretty good communicators, so it’s fun to talk to other sales people.  Whenever I get into a discussion with a group of sales people, one thing is really clear:  As sales people, we have a compelling need to sell!

This need to sell drives us.  We spend hours prospecting, trying to find new opportunities.  We spend hours working on deals, trying to beat our competitors, seeking to get the customer to choose us.  We spend hours convincing resources in our own companies to support our efforts to sell to the customer.  This “need to sell” focuses us during all our waking hours, and probably causes a few nightmares, while we are asleep.

This is a problem, though. Regardless how strong or compelling our need to sell is, until we find a customer with a compelling need to buy, our efforts are wasted.  This simple change in perspective, provides profound improvements in results.  Not only do we connect with customers where they are at, focusing on their needs, but we focus ourselves on higher quality opportunities.

Focusing on your customers’ needs to buy is the fastest, most reliable way to satisfy your need to sell!

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Cross-cultural selling has unique challenges.  And selling to people in a culture that is not your own is never an easy task. International sales professionals rely on a series of different skills.

One of the first cross-cultural skills you pick up in international sales is learning how to look for different perspectives other than your own.

Wondering why this is one of the first skills you pick up?

Different Perspectives Impact Business Basics

It all starts with the basics of doing business.  Cultural differences create different perspectives across some of the most fundamental business basics.  Here are two examples.

Benefits

When selling the same product or service in different countries, you’ll often need to change your sales and marketing materials.  Different people see your product differently and what they like about it may be something unexpected.  Before you can sell anything to a different culture you need to find out the benefits a different culture sees in what you are selling.

An American hotel close to a popular tourist location realized their hotel was full of German tourists some years and not others.  This German clientele obviously followed a different pattern. They responded to different benefits offered by staying at this hotel.  The hotel eventually found out why. The Germans didn’t come to see the local attractions everyone else came to see. Instead they came to go bone fishing nearby.  But they only came as a second choice. They came when the weather was not optimal in their favorite location for bone fishing.  Once the hotel figured this out they were able to market to this particular clientele and brought in more sales consistently each year.

Needs

Cultural differences also bring about different needs.  This can impact all aspects of your business.  And it’s worth taking the time to understand different perspectives to uncover different needs which can also open the door to different business opportunities.

There are a few stories of how washing machine manufacturers adapted and improved their machines to provide for the different needs of different cultures.  They found this out when learning of the challenges faced when their clients in India tried washing thin saris in their machines without success. And also when they realized rural Chinese people were using washing machines to wash potatoes.  In both cases listening to and understanding the different market perspectives led to product improvements and new market opportunities.

Different Perspectives Change The Sale

It’s easy to see from the examples above how different cultural perspectives can change the basics of doing business.  But different perspectives continue to impact the sale throughout the whole sales process.  Here are some of the main areas where different perspectives impact the sale:

Approach

Different cultures require a different sales approach. Some people need to establish a relationship in a certain way. The decision makers do not always have the same job function in different countries.

Timing

Different cultures have different perspectives on when things should be done. North Americans like to get straight to the point, but other cultures need more time.  Timing also comes into play with trust building and credibility building.

Expectations

Different cultures can have different expectations on just about every portion of the sales process. These differences in expectations can crop up unexpectedly and can easily jeopardize your sales success.

What Can You Do?

The most important thing to do is to have a clear understanding of what your basic business objectives are and the very basic framework within which you must navigate in.  Always keep this at the back of your mind.  It’s not always easy to identify how you can adapt your basic business objectives to fit into different cultural framework.  The simpler the framework the easier it will be to adapt to different cultures.

Next, you need to open up to different perspectives, different people, and different cultures.  This is one of the basic international skills. You simply need to develop strong listening skills to pick up any differences in perspectives

And finally remember, in all sales and particularly in international sales, it’s about creating the right connection with real people.  You’ll do well if throughout the whole sales process you try to understand and connect emphatically with your clients. You may start off with different perspectives but strong people skills will help you to connect with people and bring in the sales.

What about you? Do you have any stories to share about how different perspectives impact the international sale? If so, please share them in the comments below.

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