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Sales and Sales Training Thoughts
September 2008 Posts
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What are your beliefs and how are you empowered or disempowered by them?
Do you believe the economy is affecting your business? Do you believe that your closing rate will always be 1 sale out of 5 leads? Do you believe the other departments are not as supportive they could be, or that accounts receivable is chasing customers away? On the other hand, do you believe you always find business no matter what? Do you believe that other people in the company go out of their way for you or go above and beyond when it comes to your customers? Do you believe you will always be one of the top salespeople no matter what?
Whatever your beliefs are, you want to make sure they don't defeat you or limit you. Start by questioning your negative beliefs. Do you know with 100% certainty that they are true? If you question and really challenge these beliefs and you are convinced one or more are true, you need to find a solution. Start every morning with a sheet of paper and pen and write down 20 solutions to your problem.
Positive beliefs are usually a good thing but just make sure they don't make you complacent. If they do, you need to find a solution to this. If they cause you to rest on your laurels, you must find a way to keep yourself motivated. Use the same 20 idea method.
The bottom line: Look at your beliefs and how they affect you and your business. Challenge all negative beliefs, and even the positive beliefs that cause you to get lazy or over confident.
John Chapin www.completeselling.com
Customer feedback is very important. Many unhappy customers will not say anything, they will simply stop doing business with you, that's why it is critical to find out what kind of job they feel you are doing.
You can do this in several ways. First, you can ask. Questions along the lines of, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you with our service." or, "Is there anything that you think we could do to serve you better?", are questions that can go a long way and help you to begin to get some feedback. You can also send out, or hand deliver thorough surveys. These are obviously better than one or two questions however, you may not get the high response rate you will with the questions.
The bottom line: Do what you need to do to find out how customers feel about you, your company, and your product and take that feedback to heart. Also, when you make changes, let your customers know what you are doing and ask for even more feedback on the improvements.
Look, sales training is always important, but it's particularly important in a down economy. Why? Because, you are going to have less prospects, so you have to do better with the ones you have.
Let's say on a typical day of cold calling you get 10 prospects, whereas in a bad economy you get 3. Now if you close 1 out of 10, you'll get one sale a day in the good economy and 1 sale every 3 1/3 days in a bad economy.
If you get some sales training and get to a point where you close 3 out of 10, now when the bad economy comes along, you'll barely be affected. At the same time, if you get really good and get to the point where you can close 4 out of 10, now when a bad economy comes along you'll be ahead of where you would have been in a good economy!
The bottom line: Never stop getting better at selling. Simply through getting better at sales, some salespeople have actually increased sales when the economy is down. Plus, when the good economy comes back, and it will, your sales and income will explode!
Okay, this is a bit of a continuation of yesterday. Yesterday we spoke about the new idea that cold calling is a waste of time and why you shouldn't be doing it any more. See yesterday's post for details.
Today we will talk about the "new, magic formula technique for selling" that some gurus have been talking about lately. In a nutshell, this new approach involves teaming up with the prospect or customer, angling in from their point of view, shifting power and instead of pushing product and going for the close, you’re supposed to pull information from your prospects and customers to find out what they really want. Once you know what they want, you then present the solution. Sounds great doesn’t it? And in reality, it is. The only problem with this approach is that it isn’t new. The most successful people on the planet for the past 40 or 50 years have known this method and used it. And it is in fact, the way to sell. Yet, this “new” approach resonates with a lot of salespeople who sell the wrong way.
One example of this type of salesperson can be found in a testimonial on the web for the “new approach”. In this testimonial, this salesperson, who has been in sales for 15 years, described his previous style as “old school, in-your-face, buy now, buy now, buy now, completely focused on numbers and closing.”
The truth is, if that’s your idea of selling, in other words, beating up the prospect and hammering out call after call, and closing until your blue in the face, whether the prospect needs your product or not, then this “new” approach to selling will be “new” and if you use it, it will dramatically help your sales career. Why? Because that “old school” approach he mentioned is the wrong approach, while focusing on what the prospect really needs and how you can help, is the right approach.
The bottom line on the “new” way to sell, which has always been the only way to sell successfully over the long haul: Here’s how to be extremely successful in sales, and in life for that matter, and never cold call again: Be honest and straight forward with prospects and customers. Have more of an interest in helping others than you do in making a commission. Do more than anyone else could ever expect of you. Treat your prospects and customers like the special and valuable people they are. And build strong, long-term relationships in which your prospects and customers become your good friends.
That is the short of it. If you can do what is spelled out in the above paragraph, you will be a success in sales and life, and those people you deal with will send their family, friends, doctor, clergyman, auto mechanic, lawyer, and everyone else they know your way to do business with you.
You see even the person with the lowest IQ on the planet has a built in lie detector. People inherently know your intention and they know when you are more focused on making a sale than in helping them. Thus, the first place to start selling is with your mindset and what you are focused on. Take a sincere interest in the other person and in helping that person. You may be able to help, you may not, either way, be honest and give your best effort. All anyone wants is your full attention and full effort, and they want to feel important, they want to know that they matter, and finally, they want to feel as if you care about them.
Take care of your prospects and customers, and they will take care of you!
How great would it be if you never had to cold call again? Great, right?
Lately there have been a few people out there who are saying that cold calling is a waste of time and you no longer should be doing it. Sounds great. In fact, if you have the means and the circumstances to implement other ways of getting leads, other than cold calling, have at it. But before you start, let's look at the situation and the alternatives.
First, if you cold call, then cold calling is probably the accepted norm in your industry. Who knows, the number of cold calls you make may even be one of the criteria you are judged on. Second, this also means you have a manager and upper level management that believe in cold calling. Third, it also means you are required to get your own leads and you don't have a telemarketing department or other marketing structure in place to get leads for you.
That being said, if you decide not to cold call, you're going to be called to task almost immediately. When you are, saying something such as, "Cold calling doesn't work. I'm sending out e-mails and faxes instead." isn't going to fly. Why? First, cold calling does work. Granted, it's probably the most difficult of all sales tasks and the most time consuming, but it does get results. Second, you're telling your manager, who knows that he knows better than you, that you know better than him. Good luck. Third, if your alternative to cold calling requires any money, it's coming out of your pocket.
On another note, some of these people touting no cold calling ideas also mention the way things should be. They say things such as, "companies should have telemarketers in place that get you qualified leads", or "there should be a marketing campaign in place to get the salespeople leads." Okay, they have a good point however, you're not dealing with the way things should be, you're dealing with the way they are, and if you work in a company that does not have these alternatives in place already, good luck changing the corporate culture. It's not going to happen unless you own the business.
Taking all of the above into consideration, there are some good ideas out there on alternatives to cold calling and again, cold calling can be a difficult way to get leads, although it is still effective. So what should you do? If you decide you want to try some of these other methods, try them on your time. You don't want to start sending out faxes in the middle of the day with your manager glaring at you. Another idea, IF YOU ARE AN ESTABLISHED PRODUCER AND YOUR MANAGER LIKES YOU, is to talk to your manager about some of the new "non-cold calling" ideas and tell him you'd just like to try a few and see what happens. Also, you can incorporate a method already accepted by the cold calling establishment, which is to hire someone to cold call for you.
The bottom line: Take all ideas into consideration when it comes to cold calling alternatives, as there are some good ones out there. Just make sure you do it according to the rules of your company and your manager. Again, start with some ideas on your own time, or talk to your manager if you are well established and liked. Two other quick notes, start to implement one or two ideas at a time, don't stop cold calling cold turkey and using only alternative methods until you see results. Second, it's always better to work smarter than harder, at the same time, don't expect your work load to go from 20 hours of cold calling to 20 minutes spent on alternative methods. Regardless of what these alternatives promise, you still must be willing to work hard and put in the hours.
I just got something in the mail from IBM, it said: STOP selling what you have. START selling what they need.
Well, duh!
Okay, most salespeople should know that, but I guess a lot don't, and IBM put it in pretty simple terms. You want to focus on what the prospect wants and how you can help. Put that person ahead of you and your commission. In other words, if you take care of your prospects and customers, your paycheck will take care of itself. It's almost like the old proverb about chasing happiness. If you chase it, it eludes you, but if you partake in the activities that make you happy and simply get busy living, happiness will follow.
Bottom line: In order to sell more and make a ton of money, focus on the prospect's needs and not on the money. If you chase the needs of the prospect, the money will chase after you.
In today's sales training idea we'll talk about what to do when you find out you just lost a sale. Why? Well, because someone just called me and said, "I lost a big sale I was sure I was going to get. What should I do?"
Okay, here's what to do:
1) Find out if it's a done deal. Did the prospect already sign a contract?
2) Do you still have a shot? Quick question to ask: "Ms. Prospect, is there anything I can do to still get the business?" If she says "yes", find out what.
3) Find out WHY and get competitive information. Find out why you lost. This works best if you get in front of the person who made the decision and if you get there soon after the news. In other words, you don't want to get the information from the secretary. She won't have all the details as to why you lost and she won't have the emotional reasons to open up to you. The decision maker may feel bad and thus, will be that much more open to telling you specifically why you lost and to give you actual, documented competitive information such as proposals.
4) If it is a done deal, thank the prospect for the opportunity and ask that the door be open in the future.
5) Send a "Thank You" Note.
6) Stay in touch and continue to keep your name in front of the prospect.
7) Get back to work. Use this as motivation to work harder and get more sales.
The bottom line: When you find out you lost the sale, find out if there is still something you can do to save it. If you can, do it! Learn what you can from the situation and finally, get fired up and go get other business.
Okay, you have all your sales training, you have your great product, and your great support system in place. You have everything you need for huge sales numbers... or don't you? Is there something that's slowing you down?
Is Accounts Receivable ticking off customers? Is your Installation Department not installing equipment properly, leaving a mess when they leave, or giving the customer attitude? Is service not responding or not fixing the problem until the fifth trip on average? In other words, what areas of your business may be preventing sales?
Here's an example from my previous life when I was selling bank equipment. One day a Senior VP from my second largest bank called to tell me that he could not get service on one of his ATMs. When he called for service, they told him there was an outstanding invoice for $239 and before they could send someone out to fix the machine, they needed to Fed. Ex. a check overnight, and they needed to call back with the tracking number. There are a few problems here but the first is that the bill was for an OPTIONAL service contract on new equipment they installed but equipment they didn't typically carry service on, they paid as they went. Second, this bank was doing $500,000+ in business a year with us. Third, the bill was only 32 days old. Forth, they had 42 ATMs, they were paying us over $100,000 in service contracts per year, and this was a multi-billion dollar bank that they were holding hostage for an OPTIONAL $239. By the way, this was 5 years ago, WAY before the current banking crisis just in case anyone is thinking about that.
This was when I found out why God gave me two ears, because that VP only left me with one. Well, the situation got straightened out, but, when something similar happened again, they went to the competition, for service and ATMs. They apologized profusely to me for the move but, said they wouldn't be continually treated like that by any company.
Where are your weaknesses? Is it in messages that don't get returned on time or at all? Is it something as seemingly small as a bad receptionist, the first person most people come into contact with from your company?
The bottom line: we all have these issues somewhere that are preventing or slowing sales. Find out where yours are, and find a solution.
Sales training rarely focuses on time management and how to get things done quickly and efficiently yet, as salespeople that can sometimes be one of our biggest challenges. On that note, we'll discuss a couple of quick and easy ideas to get the most done in the time you have.
1) Make of list of the items you have to get accomplished. Preferably, do this the night before.
2) Prioritize your list, most important to least important.
3) Use the 80/20 rule. Work on the 20 percent of tasks that will yield 80 percent of your results.
4) Start with your most important task and work on that task until it is 100 percent complete, or until you can no longer work on it.
5) Make sure you are only working on the critical tasks which you need to work on, delegate the others.
There it is in a nut shell. Probably the most important is to do the number one task and to stick with a task until it is done.
Sales training can give us all the ideas on WHAT to do, but it's still up to us to follow through and execute. That's the only way we'll increase our sales and become a top salesperson. So how about you? Are you doing what needs to be done to become a top salesperson or is something stopping you?
Several years back I heard a story about New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe. After his rookie season, he drove back home to Washington and along the way he called Hall-of-Fame quarterback Troy Aikman to talk to him about what it really means to have tons of success in the NFL, the celebrity status, etc. Drew's conclusion? I don't want that. From that moment on, I knew that the New England Patriots football team was in trouble as long as Drew Bledsoe was calling signals. We all know the rest of the story, Drew had sporadic success, bounced around to a few different teams, then faded off into relative obscurity. Now some of you may be saying, "Well wait. Drew was just one part of a big team." That's true, and to that end I present you with none other than... Tom Brady.
Tom Brady showed what you can do when you're not afraid of success. You see the team was there, the quarterback, which is a far more important position than any other on the team, was not. When Tom stepped in, unless you've been in a cave for 7 years, you know that the Patriots have gone on to become one of the most successful teams in NFL history. Some would argue the most successful.
Do you suffer from fear of success... or failure? If you find that you simply cannot get yourself to do what you need to do on a consistent basis, even though you seem to have plenty of time, this may be a root cause.
What can you do? First, recognize it. Many times this alone can turn the tables. Realize that the only way you're going to live a successful life is to do what must be done and act in spite of this fear.
Second, act, which is just what we alluded to above. When you act and continue to act, that will become a habit and the fear will go away.
Third, face other fears and conquer them. Do you have a fear of heights? Go skydiving. A fear of snakes, go to the pet store and conquer it. Conquering these fears will increase self esteem and confidence and you'll roll right over your other fears too.
Fourth, if nothing else seems to be working, seek the help of a psychologist to remove these blocks.
The bottom line: Decide what you want and go after it. If something prevents you from going after it, or is slowing you down, face that obstacle head on and conquer it.
When it comes to sales training, most discussions about body language are WAY overrated. The truth is, unless it’s extreme, or several other indicators are present, body language usually means very little in the sales process. Crossed arms don’t necessarily mean someone’s closed off to your sales proposal. On the other hand, if they have a scowl on their face in addition to the crossed arms, it may mean they’re closed.
I’m sure you’ve heard of crossed legs, crossed ankles, and different arm positions meaning different things but again, most of these are not big indicators of how close you are, or aren't, to the sale. If body language means something, it is usually obvious because you will also hear it in the person’s voice and see it on her face.
What is a big sales indicator? The eyes. You can tell a lot from someone’s eyes. If someone is looking you in the eye, he is usually being straight-forward with you. If he isn’t, then he isn’t, being straight forward that is. If people are with you, you will see it in their eyes, if not, you will see that too.
The bottom line: Don’t worry about body language on your sales calls, instead, focus on the eyes. The eyes are a much better indicator than body language when it comes to figuring out how things are going and where you’re at in the sales process.
Okay, I thought of another great example of sales follow up, so we’re on this theme for today too.
A few years back I signed up for a gym membership. The woman who signed me up asked me for referrals afterwards. I mentioned my sister to her and said that I would talk to my sister and get back to her. She asked my sister’s name and what town she was in and I told her.
Later that evening my sister called me and told me that the woman from the gym had called her and she had signed up. The woman had looked up my sister’s phone number and called her. In other words, she didn’t wait for me to talk to my sister and get back to her, she got proactive and made the call herself and got the sale. I later found out that this woman led the country in sales for a major health club chain. She was so successful they had her do sales training at the annual corporate events.
The bottom line: You need to chase business. Sales training can give you the how-to, but you need to develop the drive within yourself. You need to be proactive and go after sales. You don’t wait for other people, situations, or circumstances, you get after it and make things happen yourself.
The other day I was having a tire on my car repaired and I had about 45 minutes to kill, so I went across the street to Vitamin Shoppe. I’m a sucker for that place. Anyway, a personal trainer (Andrea Mandella) was in there demonstrating some products. She called me over to sample a couple of products and we got into a discussion about my workout program. I told her I needed to tweak a few areas and asked for a business card. We spoke for a few more minutes, I signed up for a raffle (name and phone number) and was on my way.
The next day my phone rang, it was Andrea. She told me who she was, and then went right into a series of sales questions to get me to the close: What day are you working out next? What time? Do you know where Gold’s Gym is? Okay, come in tomorrow at 10 and we’ll get you a week pass. Oh, and what body part are you working? Okay, get ready for a great chest workout. I’ll see you tomorrow.
First, I had told her I’d call her, but she got proactive and called me. Second, she assumed the sale and went right into the closing questions with confidence.
When you have a sales lead, follow up. Now that may sound obvious but, do you have any idea how many salespeople in the above scenario either would have waited for the person to call them or, never would have followed up, even if they were supposed to? The number is high.
Sometimes it’s easy to follow up, as in the example above, sometimes it’s a little more involved. In any case, have a system for follow up and be proactive.
Remember that big, or critical sale that you made? It may have been a huge dollar amount or it may have been that account that you finally broke into. Either way, it was a highlight in your sales career and it made you feel great. Question: What are you doing to keep the sales experience fresh in your mind?
My sister (Jean Marie, one of the contributing authors to Sales Encyclopedia) was in a sales meeting yesterday. Once every two months they focus completely on sales training. The sales trainer asked her manager about a major sale he had made and if he had any mementos around to remember it by. He didn't, and I have to admit, I don't either.
The good news is, it doesn't have to be complicated. It can be a magnet, a stuffed animal, anything, but it should have something on it specific to that sale, even if you have to stick something on, and it needs to be somewhere where you'll see it, A LOT, like on your desk or somewhere in your car.
The bottom line: When you make a big sale, get a memento of some kind, personalize it, and have it in front of you in your work environment. To take it a step further, if you can put yourself back in that sales situation and remember what it felt like, it will help to keep you positively motivated. In the best case scenario, you will remember what you heard, saw, felt, smelled, etc. The more senses you can involve, the better.
On Friday I called the car dealership where I placed a deposit on a car, but did not buy it, to find out where my deposit is. They've had it for 3 weeks. I got voice mail so figured I'd call back this week.
Well today, Monday, my cell phone rang. It was Brad from the car dealership. He said that he saw I had called in last week and was just following up to make sure everything went well. So far, good sales follow-up. I told him that I called to see where my deposit was and that I got voice mail and decided to call back this week. I then asked if he could get me answer to which he responded, "Um, who was your salesperson?" I told him and he said, "Oh, okay, I'll have him get back to you."
Now I'm not a big betting man, but I am occasionally, and I'll bet you on this one that I don't hear back from him AT ALL. If you want to bet, I'll put a deadline on it, say Wednesday at noon, but believe me, that call's not coming in. I'll end up having to call back.
The bottom line: On the surface, Brad's call looks like great customer service. Let's face it, there is probably only a problem 5-10% of the time, if that. If there's no problem, the customer thinks, "Wow, wasn't that nice that they called to follow up." So they're good 90-95% of the time, but how about the times that there IS a problem, like in my case? What Brad should have done is gotten an answer himself or, made sure the salesperson followed up. In other words, he should chase the issue PERSONALLY and make 100% sure I have an answer.
Right now some of you are thinking, "Well, maybe Brad is chasing the salesperson to make sure the issue is followed up on", to which I say, "Believe me, my phone's not ringing!" I'll let you know if it does. Don't hold your breath and don't bet me on it. :I
Another quick note, car sales training tends to carry a lot of gimmicks: hand on top during a hand shake, take a credit card number, get them to commit to letting you buy a car at the auction, etc. If you're in the car business, stay away from these. They give you a bad name. Focus on truly helping the other person and don't try to gain control, or "win" at the other person's expense, if you do, your sales career will be short lived.
Most sales training already pounds us over the head that dropping your price should be a last resort when trying to get a prospect to buy. You always want to build value to justify the higher price. That being said, there are times when you may drop the price a bit to make the sale. So when do you drop and by how much?
Yesterday I called my local pizza establishment to order some pizza. When the person came back with a price of $37+, which seemed high, I said, "How much! Can you break that down for me?" She then said, "Let me see if I can do any better." Slight pause, "How about $33?" Huh? Do you mean they can give a discount if someone balks at the price? That the initial price isn't a standard, set price?
Okay, selling in our businesses maybe different than the local pizza shop but one of the same results occurred: I lost trust thinking they were overcharging me to begin with.
The bottom line: Don't play price games with people. Don't go in 25% high so you can budge on price. Instead, give people your best price up front and be honest about it. When you go in high under the premise that you can always drop your price, you're coming from a position of weakness, not good. If you go in 25% high and then drop it, the prospect will most likely think that you were trying to take advantage of her, again, not good. Have a set pricing structure and build the value necessary to equal that price. As a last resort, if you need to budge a little, that's fine, people expect there to be some sort of wiggle room. Just make sure it's a nominal amount, not anything close to 25, 20, 15, or even 10%.
Okay, all politically correct sales training will tell you to ALWAYS tell the truth. Also, if you know me, you know I'm very big on telling the truth to sales prospects and customers. At the same time, I recently had a salesperson tell me the truth about something and it seemed so ridiculous to me, I thought he had to be lying and frankly, it greatly damaged any trust he had established.
This happened when I was out buying a car. A salesperson at one of the dealerships showed me the list price on a car, the selling price, and then said, "We're actually losing money on this car." That simply sounded ludicous to me. I couldn't believe he would actually think that I would buy that. The truth is: I didn't, and I left and didn't go back.
I later found out that if a dealership has a car for a really long time, say a year, they will sometimes sell a car at a loss to get rid of it as it costs them money each day they have it around. When it's been with them for a year, they say the car had a "birthday" with them. I now know of one dealership that sold a Hummer at an $8,000 loss after they had it on their showroom floor over 300 days.
The bottom line: If something sounds like too much of a stretch, keep it to yourself unless you're required by law to disclose it. If you have to disclose it, explain it well. All the dealer had to do was show me the original sales price and the deep discount, he didn't have to throw in the part about "losing money." To which my first thought was, "Why would a car dealership ever sell a car at a loss unless the thing was a complete piece of junk and really not worth the money anyway." My second thought? "This guy's lying to me. I'm outta here."
Okay, this is a bit more than most sales training usually covers however, making positive change is required in order to have a successful sales career.
Recently I got more organized and more into time management. What a pain in the butt!
Like most things that are new, and good for us, whether it's new sales skills, a better way to run our business, or changes in our personal life, there are usually some growing pains and to keep the change can be difficult.
To keep the change, focus on WHY you are doing it. Also, focus on the end result. Finally, use any leverage you can to get yourself to stick to the new plan for 21 to 30 days. If you can get yourself to stick to the change for that amount of time, it will become a habit and thus part of the NEW you, and you will feel new strength and empowerment.
Happy Memorial Day! Did you spend time with friends and family today? Did you spend time out of the office? If so, good.
Sometimes no sales training is a good thing. Yesm there are times when the best thing we can do for our sales careers is nothing, or something other than work or sales. You must have balance in your life to be truly happy and to be most productive in sales. It's simple, if your personal life is in shambles, your work life is going to suffer. That's also true with your health and the other key areas of your life.
I think holidays are subtle reminders that we sometimes need to take a break from sales and work, and focus on family and other things and yet, make sure you're doing your best at work too.
The point: Have balance in your life, work when you're at work, play when you're at play, spend time on all the key areas of your life. Enough time in all areas but not too much in any.
