The first six(6) months of 2010 are gone never to return. Maybe some of you right now are wiping your hand across your forward muttering some beneficial or not so beneficial words under your breath.  For some the results (achieving sales targets) have been better than 2009 and for others worse.  This ending begs the [...]

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 [...]

The K-16 educational experience is comprised of many learning objectives. Unfortunately many of them are not connected to the real world.  As a former educator, adjunct faculty member and sales manager, I personally witnessed the poor listening skills of so many people.

In sales, the lack of active listening skills is a prerequisite for sales failure (inability to increase sales).  With so many salespersons believing that by talking they can “close the sales” with this potential customers (a.k.a. prospects), the opportunities for those who are great communicators are endless. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  If you are telling, you ain’t selling. David Herdlinger)

For example, how often have you said to yourself or heard others say “I thought they said no?” The key word here is thought.  The use of the word is really a presumption on the part of the salesperson.

One time I remember asking one of my sales coaching clients this question “Did your decision maker actually say No?”  The response was “Well, he did not use the No word, but I could tell he was saying no.”

Then I asked the obvious next question “How could you tell?”  Well, the response was “he did not say Yes.” Sales Training Coaching Tip: The word Yes has no emotional marketing value. Consequently, the only person who wants to hear Yes is You.

Great! A potential lost sale because the salesperson was looking for Yes and he did not clarify what was happening within the conversation.  Sales Training Coaching Tip: The word No in sales does not necessarily mean “I do not want to buy your products or services” unless of course your potential client actually tells you “I do not want to buy your products or services.”

How many times does our inability to clarify communication creates potential negative feedback and throw us off our selling game?  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  There is a definite relationship between effective communication, emotional intelligence (EQ) and sales success.

Recently, I gave a presentation on some quick tips to optimize a website so that small business owners would not be taken advantage by Internet marketing experts who are phonies and frauds preying on the lack of knowledge about search engine optimization (SEO).  After the presentation, I sent an email thank you to the group and suggested if they were interested to visit my blog on sales.

I receive the following email from one of the attendees:  “No, Thank You!”  Since this person had personally thanked me on the way out, I was genuinely confused by this response.  For me, the No along with exclamation suggested the opposite of what had transpired several hours earlier.  Instead of taking the No for No, I sent a proactive communication asking for clarification.

She replied with the following “You said ‘thank you’…I replied ‘No, thank You!’ ”   In other words, there was a pregnant pause between the No and the thank you.  Again, this could have been a case of “I thought they said No!”

When salespersons incorporate a proven sales process, this helps to separate the real No’s from the pretend or presumptive No’s.  In some cases, selling is attempted before marketing is completed.  When this happens, a No may mean not now because I do not know you well enough.  Sales Training Coaching Tip: The goal of marketing is two fold:

1. To make a friend
2. To be asked back for that coveted one on one appointment

In the selling phase of the sales process, there are many opportunities to uncover all of the potential Nos. This is called seeking or finding objections or obstacles.  Here you want to bring all reasons not to buy to the surface. Failure to do so may have you crashing your sales ship on the reef and keeping you away from landing on the sales beach. This may be another reason why you “thought they said No.”

Here are five quick tips to help you have CLEAR communications:

#1: Clarity – Listen for clarity to separate the tangible from the intangibles and the “knowns” from the unknowns.

#2: Legitimize – You must listen to legitimize the real issues. Many times perceived problems are symptoms in disguise.

#3: Emotions – You must listen for emotions. Here is where the verbal words and the non-verbal gestures along with the syntax (speed pitch, volume and emphasis) are very important.

#4: Agreement – You must listen for agreement to find common ground from which you can build ongoing trust.

#5: Retention: You must listen for retention because the information that you are receiving is critical to your sales success. In many cases, the facts that you are receiving have Bern heard by others, but they simply failed to listen. Active listening is all about truly hearing and then remembering what the other person has just said.

(Source: Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales Success, page 60, published with permission)

If you have ever have experienced “I thought they said No,” then maybe you may need to reassess your communication skills and your overall sales process.  Remember “No” may mean not now and may also suggest you have failed in securing your marketing goal to make a friend.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I realize that the title of this post makes a bold claim. Normally, anyone who guarantees that a system works is a fool. Nevertheless, I stand by my claim: if you’ll implement this simple, 2-step process, I will personally guarantee you success in your quest to sell more.

Before I get to the 2 steps, though, I want to warn you up front that you’re probably not going to like it. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’re going to hate it. I won’t be at all surprised if some you call me names or question my intelligence, and I’m willing to forgive you in advance. Whatever you say or think about me won’t change a thing, because this is the only process that’s guaranteed to work every time.

Another warning: just beacuse this process is simple doesn’t make it easy. I’ll tell you right now that it’s not easy. In fact, it’s really, really hard. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you’re looking for easy, you’re in the wrong industry. Go look for work as an accountant or engineer; sales isn’t for you. If you’re willing to do the work of following this process, though, the rewards can be truly great.

Are you ready? OK, then; here it is.

The Simple, 2-Step Process to Selling More is:

1. Try.
2. Repeat step 1 until you get the desired result.

That’s it. Nothing fancy or complicated. No additional education or certification required. Just try, and when what you’re doing doesn’t work the way you think it should, try something else. Stop looking for Magic Bullets and Secret Formulas. The secret to selling more isn’t in the latest fad sales book or the Guru of the Week’s training class; it’s in you. You’re willingness to keep trying until you find what works for you is the biggest secret to sales success.

Here’s the truth about sales: while the fundamentals of a good sales process are the same everywhere you go, the devil is in the details, the subtle differences that make the combination of you, the product you sell and the company that you represent unique. The sum of those three variables dictates what works and what doesn’t in any given market.

The good news is that there is a place where the three intersect and sales happen; the bad news is that no one can tell you where that place is. You have to find it on your own. The other bad news is that you only have control over one of the variables: you. And so you have to experiment. If you’re working from a solid foundation of character and a commitment to the selling process, you’re starting from a good place; the rest is just experimentation.

Let’s break this down a little more. To start with, every sales process has to include some kind of prospecting, right? But who can say how that prospecting should be conducted in your unique situation? There is no one answer; what effective prospecting looks like for you is going to be different than what it looks like for me. So what do you do? You go try something. Maybe it’s telemarketing. Maybe it’s door-to-door canvassing. Maybe it’s starting conversations at a Chamber mixer. Just try something, and if it doesn’t work, try something else. Same goes for qualifying, presenting and conversion.

The fact is that nobody can tell you what’s going to work for you; you have to find out on your own. You have to be willing to try. And if you’re willing to follow this 2-step process for the rest of your career, I GUARANTEE that you’ll sell more.

Popularity: 1% [?]

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.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Engaging with new customers has always reminded me of a fine musician approaching an new piece of music or composition, there is a delicate balance of forces, energies and expectations.  Add to that the fact that these emanate from and impact multiple participants in the process, the musician, the composer and the audience.

Playing the role of the musician is the sales professional.  He has to balance his knowledge of the market, product and selling with the fact that he does not want to push the prospect or over sell.  As a result a great challenge a rep has is to first master each of the above, if he is weak in any of the above, the balance cannot be achieved and you have a bad engagement and sale.  Often this is the case, some reps have strong product knowledge, but lack basic sales skills, which alienates the buyer, and causes the engagement to either go bad, or the sale to take much longer than it should.  We always tell sales people and sales leaders that sales is a lot like music in that you need to master the basics, just eight notes, before you can be great.  Even Charlie Parker and Ian Anderson had to learn those before they could wail and improvise like they do.

Even after the musician/seller has honed his skills, for both a never ending process, they need to sit down and learn each piece, interpret it with in the confines of the composer’s original, and then set out a plan.  The plan needs then to be executed, and reviewed, and revised, and repeated. 

The other big thing that links good musicians and good sales professionals is practice, practice and more practice.  This is one of the real things that separate great sales people, their willingness, in fact need to practice, get better and not rest on their laurels.  Always adding to their repertoire, i.e. new prospects – new clients – new genres.

Playing the role of the composer is the company and sales organization.  They like the composer have specific vision and expectations from the music, read product, and the sales person.  Consider revenue targets, market share, company image/reputation, and more.  While these might be easily communicated, but alas, unless you play the piece yourself, it is always open to interpretation, by the musician and the audience.  Short of doing it doing/playing it themselves, they need to ensure that there is a proper and evolving sales process in place, clearly documented, a sheet music, so that improvisation is limited to those things that add to the sale rather than detract from it.

Finally the role of the audience is left to the buyer, looking to be entertained, but not always clear on what they want.  Even when they know which music the want to or need to hear, they have choice, sometimes too much choice, which may lead to confusion or just a resignation to stick to what they know: the status quo.

So as the lights dim, the excitement builds as the sales professional takes the stage and begins the process of creating the balance, the dynamic tension that when performed properly not only entertains, but draws the audience in, involves them in a shared vision with the player and the composer.  When the balance is struck, the crescendo leads to an equally great experience for all three participants.  You know, on a good night Frank Zappa could have sold me anything.

Popularity: 24% [?]

When we propose post topics for the group, a lot of things look good when you first put them up for consideration, even after review. But as time passes you wonder why the topic was selected, and so it is for me with the question of “What next after CRM?”  The reason for is that it implies that CRM has been a success and it is time for the next “latest and greatest”.

I guess if you are interpreting the question as “CRM, what a bust, another empty promise”. In that case I guess the question may read “well we tried that, what a debacle, what’s next after CRM?”  Then I am with you. An alternative would be to interpret CRM as a culture, a way of doing business rather than just as a software application, fully focusing on the client and proactively manages the relationship. If that is you, you are in the minority, for most in sales, when you say CRM; it conjures up the thought and image of the software application. For me that frames the real question: “should we be looking forward past CRM, or look to things that predate CRM the application?”

The challenge with CRM (the application), is that it is an enabler, nothing more. It enables companies to do primarily two things, first to manage and execute their sales process; second gain greater insight and awareness of the clients and market.  As such it presupposes that the organization has a sales process in place, a sales process that is aligned with the rest of the organization; and that it is truly customer driven, (we mean beyond the nicely framed mission statement hanging in reception where few employees but all visitors can soak it up), that is everything the company does is to ensure client satisfaction, as clients are THE source of revenue, the life line.

A few years back I wrote a piece called CRM: Culture or Technology http://www.sellbetter.ca/content/view/30/110/, discussing the fact that you can throw all the technology you want at something, but if it is not part of the corporate culture, it will fail.  In fact at the time over 50% of all CRM application implementations were failing.  I haven’t seen stats lately, but based on what I see in the market there has been little improvement, and at times the improvement has been as a result of diminished expectations vs. improved roll outs.  So if you have not dealt with the human side of the equation, the related technology will be limited by the sales organization’s vision of the client experience, and enable that much.

When it comes to sales process, you need to have one to be able to support both the buyers’ and your organizations objectives.  If you are selling anything more involved than pizza slices in a food court, you would likely benefit from a process; if you are selling anything involved, you can’t succeed if you do not have a fully document, evolving sales process.  It is likely that the process will not be linear, but a number of parallel courses of action intersecting and connecting through a set of rules driven by circumstances and required steps.  This is where CRM (the app) can pay off, by enabling an organization to manage and execute these many actions, but again, if you don’t have a process to begin with, not much to manage and enable.

Sadly many organizations roll out a CRM (the app) to over come some perceived problems, looking for “automation” to help them; as a result the app first masks the problem, and then amplifies them when the problems persist, money has been spent, and there is no improvement in the day to day activities of the sales team, and over all results.  I met with a prospect and asked him if they have a defined sales process. “sure, we have Salesforce.com”, he said with great pride.

I am not sure why we need to look at what comes after CRM, when CRM has yet to fully arrive.  I will say that I am of the opinion that while it may be easy to blame the application vendors, I think the fault lays with the sales organizations themselves.  Somehow they believe that technology solves everything, all while they keep reminding their teams that “people buy from people”, you would think that they would equal focus and funding on the culture, support and people side as they do on the technology side.

So what’s after CRM, I suppose in a cynical moment I may look for CRM 2.0, hell it worked for the web, and seems to be doing wonders for sales, just look at all the stuff we are seeing about Sales 2.0, I can’t wait for Sales 3.0, I know I am ready for at least 3.1.20.  Perhaps we should be looking at what should come before CRM; once we have that licked, we can turn to thinking after.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Selling to consumers in a retail setting can be challenging (I know, all selling can be challenging). In retail, we have little control over our prospects. They can exit our store at any time. We don’t have offices or desks or conference rooms to anchor our interaction. We typically don’t have any privacy with our prospect as we might in their office or in our office. They often have children or other family members with them when they need individual attention, or don’t have a family member with them in order to move ahead with a purchase.

But we have several collaborative selling devices available to us in retail that can aid our selling in the retail sector. Use of these devices can increase customer engagement and increase our sales effectiveness. Here are three of my favorite retail selling techniques that use collaboration to its best advantage.

1. The Turn-Over.

Sellers of big ticket retail items can benefit from having a system in place so you can turn-over your prospect to another sales representative (or sales manager) if things are not progressing appropriately. A turn over can be particularly helpful in one call close sales situations.

Let’s imagine you sell boats and watercraft, and a couple comes to your store. You spend an hour with them discussing their needs and desires and looking at a product that interests them, but then progress seems to stall. You haven’t been able to develop the rapport that you want, and the relationship between you and your shoppers seems to lack energy.

It’s time to bring someone new into the relationship! Prospects with different personalities sometimes have preferences for salespeople with certain personalities, and your personality may not be the right one for this couple on this day. So bring on “the turn-over!” Here’s how to execute one.

Excuse yourself from your couple and fetch another sales representative or your sales manager. Quickly tell them you want to do a turn-over. Bring him or her back to your prospects and introduce everyone. Then, summarize the action so far: “Megan, this is Linda and Tony, and they’ve been looking at the XRT-100. They really like its [insert feature or specification here], and they have some good friends who have an XRT-90 which they purchased about five years ago. We’ve talked about the [insert feature here] and the [insert feature here] and aren’t sure they would use them.”

Continue the summary until Megan has a very clear picture of what’s going on, and then be quiet. Megan should now take the lead and start asking questions of the couple to either clarify or confirm the information you just shared with Megan and then move ahead with the selling process. You hang out with Megan and the couple for a few minutes while quietly observing. Then, you quietly slip out of the picture. Megan is now the primary sales representative for Linda and Tony and you are free to move on.

Turn-overs need to be a part of the company culture and guidelines in place so everyone knows how to initiate one and how to step into one. It needs to be practiced like any element of selling.

When Linda and Tony buy, you split the commission. Since half commission from a buying customer is better than full commission from a non-buying customer, everyone comes out a winner when a successful turn over is executed.

2. Team Selling

In police work they have “good cop / bad cop.” In selling, we have “team selling.”

“Good cop / bad cop” is used to manipulate a suspect through intimidation and fear, and then removal of that intimidation and fear to achieve the desired result. Although some companies use team selling in a similar manner (to intimidate), team selling can be used in a more comfortable and ethical manner to help move the sales process forward.

Team selling is most effective not when you use it to gang up against your prospect and close the sale through intimidation, but when two salespeople bring different strengths to the table. These strengths might be contrasting personality types, contrasting knowledge, contrasting experience, or something else.

Although the team selling concept can be introduced to your shoppers at the outset of the sales interaction, it’s usually more effective if you wait until some level of trust and rapport exists between an initial salesperson and the prospect. It’s even better to wait until some progress is made at identifying the prospects’ needs and desires.

Here’s a team selling scenario: It’s a slow Tuesday morning at the car lot until prospect Ben enters the store. You greet Ben and introduce yourself. Within a few minutes, Ben feels some level of comfort with you and he’s explaining why he’s there and what he needs.

To begin team selling, you excuse yourself and retrieve the other team member. You bring Rachel into the conversation and introduce him to Ben by saying, “Ben, this is Rachel, and she also has an interest in hybrid vehicles, so she’s going to join us as we chat if you don’t mind.” Rachel and Ben shake hands, Rachel shares some niceties, and if Ben seems amenable to the situation, you have now successfully initiated a team selling initiative.

You selected Rachel for some asset that you yourself don’t possess. It might be her analytical nature, her knowledge, or her killer body, but team selling works best when each team member offers distinct advantages to the conversation.

You and Rachel split the commission for the sale.

3. The Product Expert.

John and Danielle enter your furniture store. You learn that they are looking for a pair of recliners for their new cabin. As you get into the sales interaction, you excuse yourself and bring Charles into the conversation like this:

“Charles, this is Danielle and this is John, and they’re looking for a pair of recliners for their new cabin they purchased on Lake Whisper by Big Falls. Charles and Danielle, I wanted you to meet Charles because nobody knows more about recliners than he does.”

You and Charles continue selling together. Consumers love experts, and the more specialized the expert, the greater the likelihood this will influence your shopper’s decision.

You and Charles split your commission for the sale.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Do you find yourself giving 40% discounts in the second week of March, in July? if the answer is yes, then it is time to succumb to the current economic state and surrender. If not, what are you doing to keep sales alive?

If it is too late and you are forced to drop price to adjust for a faulty sales process and sales plan, then it is time to retool. To succeed this year and the next, things are going to have to change. The problems many face financially will tempt us to enlist in price gouging as a means to maintaining sales, but it is the worst procedure in any process. The budgeting process most executives will instruct their employees to undertake this year will not involve getting finding products on the cheap. The buying process that wise executives will enlist their subordinates in during this year will not change. They will look for solutions to problems and ways to improve the bottom line.

This  is the time to look at how you present your value. If the company you are working for does not have a strong story board for you to follow, if they focus on features, functions, and price, then it is time to take matters into your own hands. Call some of those customers you sold to last year and get  some referencable quotes. Write some great copy that talks about results. If you are not a great writer, talk to the wordsmiths in your company and have them help.

The simple fact is that for the rest of 2009, more than ever in the history in sales, the most compelling story wins. You will have to back it up with facts and customer experiences, but if you cannot start the telling and get people drawn in, you will be part of the bad news.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Sales Process Model

During the late 90s and early 00s I made my living improving sales processes. I lived and breathed process maps, metrics, re-engineering workshops and implementation plans.

So what I’m going to say may sound a little sacreligious – but over the years I’ve come to believe that sales processes just aren’t that important.

Now don’t get me wrong, they’re not unimportant. Qualification helps you focus your resources and time on your highest priorities. Good forecasting keeps your investors happy and helps you know when you need to take action to remedy problems. Review processes give managers a forum to coach and improve the skillss of their team. And for new salespeople, a solid process can help guide them throught the basics of making a sale before the key stages become embedded in their brains.

But at best, achieving excellence in sales processes will make you efficient. It will make sure you don’t waste time & resources, that you don’t bog down your sales team in admin, and that you get useful information to track progress and to manage the team.

But what will really drive up your sales? It’s the actions your salespeople take when directly interacting with your customers. It’s their skills, their technique, and most importantly, their mindset during those interactions. Give me a genuine and skillful salesperson over an excellent sales process anyday.

So for almost any company, given a choice of where to invest management time or resources for improvement: invest them in improving the capabilities of your team rather than in sales processes.

Popularity: 9% [?]