Successful Salespeople are Like Children
As sales professionals, we should be curious like a four-year-old. Most times we are not. When we are not curious, we are often dismissed, at least mentally while demonstrating the good points about our products and services. We do this by talking too much. When we do ask questions, most of them are of a basic nature: “How is it going?” or “What can we do to earn your business?”
Why do children ask so many questions? Any parent knows curiosity and a desire to learn to play a big part in their questions. Children’s favorite questions begin with why. Their curiosity about the world around them helps to build concepts, skills, vocabulary, and an understanding of the unknown. Curiosity is a fundamental part of how they learn.
As a salesperson, can you place a value on building your concepts, skills, vocabulary, and understanding of the unknown? Ask entrepreneurs why they decided to start their business. Ask newly-placed executives why they chose the position and company. Ask decision makers why they prefer this but not that. Ask successful businesses what makes them successful. Ask troubled businesses what they see as a challenge.
Before you make your next call, consider your customer or prospect. Make a list of five why questions. Pay attention to the answers. The worst-case scenario is it will be somewhat better than just another sales call. The best-case scenario is discovering what takes you to your next level of success.
Find the business equivalent to the following questions posed by children: Why do cats have fur? Why is the sky blue? Why is there a Leap Year? Why does cutting onions make us cry? Why do we drive on a parkway but park on a driveway?
Embrace Your Youth.
Be Curious!
Ready or Not, 2018 is Underway!
We are already a month into 2018, a new year. For those of us in sales and management, our numbers revert to zero. Have they come to you with a higher quota this year? Did they give you a stretch goal? Did they offer you anything to help you make this new number, or just tell you to go get it? If you are a salesperson or a manager, you have eleven months left to make your goal. The clock is ticking!
Tom Brady, whom many are calling the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), has a new show on Facebook Tom vs.Time. It chronicles how he, as a 40-year-old, prepared for this season. The footage shows how he trains to be the best. He has been successfully playing football for most of his life. He has won five NFL championship rings and plays for a sixth this Sunday. He is still getting coached. He is still pro-actively training every day. Even with his experience, expertise, and success, Tom Brady believes he can improve.
If we are having a conversation and you tell me your team is experienced and does not need training, I am cringing. Why do people think if they have experienced salespeople there is no need to improve? Would you choose to see a doctor with 15-20 years of experience who believes he or she has nothing new to learn?
For a salesperson to achieve greatness, they must take stock of what they do well and areas they can improve. A salesperson must be open to change and develop an intentional plan for improvement. Training makes weak salespeople stronger and strong salespeople great.
Sales Concepts offers individual public programs, customized group training, and a two-year continuing program consisting of 12 different courses. Let us help your team become the GOAT sales force at your company.
“Good is the enemy of great.”
The Toughest Objection You Will Ever Encounter.
We are often asked one unsettling question from students in our programs. What is the toughest objection for salespeople to overcome? Even though you may have presented the perfect solution to your customer, sometimes they still throw objections at you!
What is the toughest objection a salesperson encounters? Could it be one of the following?
- We don’t have the budget.
- Your price is too high.
- We need time to think about it.
- We are already working with vendor X.
- Company Y has this same solution for less money.
- There is too much going on now to make a change.
- We are doing great now, they don’t really see the need.
- Our team does not see the return on investment.
Which one do you think is the hardest objection to handle? If we could hear your thoughts, each of you would have a different answer. Why? The hardest objection to handle is the one you believe to be true yourself! If you believe an objection is true, then you will struggle to convince your prospects or customers otherwise. So, look at this list. Add to it. Then, rank the objections from the most difficult to the easiest. Focus on why the difficult ones are the most difficult. Work first to overcome the objections for yourself, then you will be better prepared to address the concerns and perceived risks of your customers.
Are you curious?
Curiosity is quite possibly the number one trait one must possess to be successful at selling. We have recently interviewed approximately 200 people who applied for an inside sales position with our company and have so far only hired one. We are truly disappointed in the candidates. All seem to believe selling is a telling business.
On the phone or in person the candidates talk and talk about their qualifications in glowing terms. Few, if any, ask thoughtful questions. Sometimes we even ask them to sell us something, most tell us about the item, but few ask what we intend to do with it.
Salespeople must be curious. This is a necessary trait for success in sales. How can you help a prospect become a customer if you don’t understand their needs and expectations? In our training, we emphasize asking open-ended questions that can’t be answered with a single word or sentence. We believe when trying to help someone purchase your products and services you need to ask thoughtful and insightful questions. If you don’t know exactly what a prospect wants or needs, ask! Ask more than one way to ensure you fully understand. Your questions should reveal your prospect’s story.
Only after you fully understand their situation can you help them paint a visual mental picture of your solution benefiting them. You’ll have a much better chance of winning business if your prospects visualize themselves using your solution, and like what they see. Questions help you paint the picture. Questions come from curiosity. Curiosity comes from truly caring about your customers and what they are trying to do. Selling is tough.
Selling when you aren’t curious is nearly impossible.
To be successful in sales be curious and paint mental word pictures. You’ll close more business.
Selling is not telling, so stop telling!
Be curious, ask questions. Win more business!
Successful Salespeople are Different
If you think it’s expensive to hire a successful sales person,
try hiring a mediocre one.
Here are some ways successful salespeople are different from mediocre ones.
- Successful salespeople ask questions.
Mediocre salespeople make statements. - Successful salespeople are naturally curious and care about customers and prospects.
Mediocre salespeople are myopic and self-centered. - Successful salespeople are persistent.
Mediocre salespeople are easily discouraged. - Successful salespeople understand and fulfill needs.
Mediocre salespeople assume what customers need. - Successful salespeople read, study and constantly learn about selling.
Mediocre salespeople know it all. - Successful salespeople have a strategy.
Mediocre salespeople wing it. - Successful salespeople have a system for tracking prospects like SalesTalk.
Mediocre salespeople don’t. - Successful salespeople are open to feedback.
Mediocre salespeople are defensive. - Successful salespeople are humble.
Mediocre salespeople have big egos. - Successful salespeople have a strategy.
Mediocre salespeople wing it. - Successful salespeople acknowledge and learn from mistakes.
Mediocre salespeople blame others. - Successful salespeople apologize when they are wrong.
Mediocre salespeople are never wrong. - Successful salespeople find customers for the products and services their company currently has.
Mediocre salespeople complain about what their company lacks. - Successful salespeople are seldom satisfied.
Mediocre salespeople rest on their laurels. - Successful salespeople set proper priorities and invest their time wisely.
Mediocre salespeople watch the clock. - Successful salespeople spend company money as if it were their own.
Mediocre salespeople spend their company’s money in ways they wouldn’t spend their own. - Successful salespeople make their numbers and are consistently over quota.
Mediocre salespeople blame market conditions or the economy for coming up short. - Successful salespeople actively listen.
Mediocre salespeople are easily distracted. - Successful salespeople have an ownership mentality.
Mediocre salespeople see selling as a job, not a career. - Successful salespeople enjoy what they do.
Mediocre salespeople don’t.
We hope you enjoyed our list. Please let us know if you think of one we missed. We’d love to hear from you.
