As a sales manager are you winning small battles, but losing the war?
You have established a track record of innovation, creativity, and strong motivation. Does your sales team develop realistic game plans toward effective business development? Many companies use warfare to illustrate how selling efforts are analogous to strategic sales battles.
Virtually every military expert says that air superiority is vital to success. It has great strategic value. They also say that ground warfare (boots on the ground) is ultimately where the battle is won. It is not a matter of one being more important than the other; it is the combination that insures a successful campaign.
In listening to many sales managers, we see the air aspect more than fully covered. The need is identified. A motivating theme is conceived and executed that drives home the overall objective for the team to achieve. Marketing and Operations support the plan. As with an air assault, many areas are adequately covered. To borrow a phrase, Executive and Sales Management provide the “Shock and Awe” (in a good way). However, the need for a strong force on the ground is also acute. It is the tactical aspect that comes into play.
Effective leaders continually assess if their troops are well armed and well armored? They know if their troops really understand who the insurgents (competitors) are and how they operate in this ever changing and competitive environment. They know what their troops need to know and do to protect and build upon the ground (customer’s business) they’ve fought so hard to capture. These questions need to be asked of each and every ground troop you have. The answers will vary, unfortunately, with each, as one-size capability does not fit all. Some may be troopers, infantrymen, rangers, snipers, or gunners. Everyone is different and everyone has different needs.
By identifying each person’s strengths and weaknesses you can build a personal training program for each member of your team encompassing and complementing your overall direction. It seems impossible to have 100% of one’s sales team executing the team’s game plan 100% effectively; however, you can dramatically improve both percentages whatever they may currently be.
The result: The ground you’ve won is secured and provides a base to capture more. Sometimes it takes allies or external forces to help sharpen the skills of your troops and elevate their capabilities so that as a unit they are more effective. At Sales Concepts, we endeavor to be your ally when it comes to training your troops. Please contact us should your team be in need of reinforcement.
Let Them Eat Worms!
You wouldn’t fish with a strawberry would you?
The following is a poignant message from one of our training consultants, Beth Bressan, that we should all remember.
During a recent trip to Florida to visit my son, we decided to go fishing. We got a boat; set up all of our gear, and headed out for the day. My son baited his hook with a worm. I reached into my lunch box and pulled out a strawberry which I put onto my hook. My son glanced over and gave me one of those looks only a teenager can give his (hopeless) mother and rolled his eyes asking, “What exactly are you doing?” I replied that I thought the fish would prefer to eat strawberries than worms – I certainly do. He gave a heavy sigh and replied “Mom, you’ve got to give them what they want, not what you’d prefer.”
As I thought about this exchange, I realized that his advice was not only true of fishing, but also true of selling. We too often think about our needs, —which products we need to sell, how to reach our quota, etc. — rather than the needs of the customer. What, in fact, does your customer need? Your customer needs your credibility but may or may not really need the product or service you want to sell. Your customers value what will minimize their risks and what will best meet your customers’ applications.
It has been determined by customer research that there is a four minute phenomenon-—the time in which it takes for you to make an impression on a customer. (I’ve had dates where that was a four second phenomenon, but that’s another story). To make the best impression possible be pro-active in your approach to discovering what your customer needs and wants. Actively listen to both the verbal and non-verbal clues and clarify by paraphrasing what you think your customer said.
We hear all too often about being customer-focused or, as the new buzz word calls it, “customer-centric”. The origin of the word “customer” derives in part from the Latin “sui” or “suus” meaning “oneself”. No wonder my customers don’t want my strawberries — my customers want what they are accustomed to and if you plan on selling to them, give them worms if that is what they want.
What’s your selling handicap?
When you ask people about their golf handicaps, what they say may depend quite a bit on who’s asking and when the next outing is. Sometimes golfers brag about their handicaps as scratch, or a low single digit number when they want to impress someone. However, if they’re about to play, their handicap can range well into the double digits. This gives them a better chance to take home a few bucks in a friendly wager.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a handicap system to determine the ability of a salesperson? Employers would love that. (Shameless plug here: At Sales Concepts we do have some tools to help.) If only there could be an objective way to determine the sales handicap. The sales handicap would reflect how well a salesperson: closes, overcomes objections, services accounts, finds new customers, and understands the buying process and personnel involved in the decision to purchase a product or service.
One way to lower your golf handicap is to take lessons. An instructor helps you understand that you’ll need to close the face of the club upon impact to cure your slice. You learn to use the correct club for a 100-yard shot to the green from the rough versus the same distance from the fairway. Improving your game can simply be a matter of using the right technique or club to lower your handicap. Improving your game is a constant journey. Professional golfers are always tinkering with different strokes, working with coaches, and taking lessons to keep them winning tournaments.
Just as golfers of all skill levels practice and take lessons to improve their game, we as salespeople need to practice and take lessons to improve our selling skills. Just like professional golfers (seasoned, as well as those less experienced) we need to continuously improve our abilities to win business. Resting on our laurels only puts rust on our selling skills. We need to refresh our sales game by practicing the fundamentals that made us successful in the first place. Anything less puts us way down the list in terms of wins.
Hopefully you are continuously reviewing and improving your selling skills. What books have you read lately about your craft? What web sites do you visit? What do you listen to in your car? Who do you follow on the Internet? Do you need to get out to the “driving range” and brush up? Avoid bad habits. Make sure you are keeping ahead of your competitors on the playing field. We stand ready to help.
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. ~The Cold Call
A trendy opinion is that with all of the social media available, cold-calling is no longer necessary or effective. At Sales Concepts, we vehemently disagree.
Now, that is not to say that we don’t value all that the Internet has to offer. Our belief is that the Internet and social media have, forever and irreversibly, changed the way we communicate. To that point, we offer a course entitled Selling in the Digital Age to ensure that sales people make the most of the resources available on the Internet. We are saying that social media should be used in addition to cold calling, not in place of it. Sales people who choose not to cold call do so at their own peril.
How many cold calls do you make a day, a week? Tasks can be broken down into two categories based on their importance and urgency. Everything you have to do can be judged by these two criteria. When faced with a task, ask yourself: “How important is this?” and “How urgent is this?” Instinctively you focus on tasks that are important and urgent. It is fairly easy to shuffle unimportant and non-urgent tasks to the bottom of the priority list. Where most sales people tend to get into trouble is with urgent tasks that are not important. Many times we work on these tasks to procrastinate from doing something that is less fun or glamorous while the important but non-urgent tasks languish quietly in the background. Cold calling is an important task. It does not seem all that urgent unless you make it so. Our advice is to set appointments with yourself. For instance, this Thursday afternoon between 2 PM and 4 PM I am going to call new prospects. Look at your schedule, determine what works for you. Do what you must to make yourself accountable.
Now that you are making cold calls, you will inevitably run into voice mail. Many people in today’s world think that leaving voice mail messages for prospects is a waste of time. After our last email on forecasting we had a customer jokingly call us to let us know that leaving voice mails is a waste of time if the customer does not return your call. Thanks Jimmy S. That was funny. All kidding aside, leaving voice mail is far from a waste of time and may ironically be one of the best uses of it. Look at it as a free advertisement! You’ve already made the call, why not leave a message? The problem with voice mail is that it usually takes a while to work. We live in an instant gratification world, and when our calls are not returned after one or two messages we quit.
You are going to have an awfully cold winter if you walk into the forest with an axe to chop down a tree for firewood and swing at the tree one or two times and say “Oh well, this doesn’t work. This is a waste of time.” Our research indicates that on average you have to leave eight voice mail messages to get a return call. Once you do get a return call after that many messages, the prospect feels a certain amount of remorse for not returning your calls sooner, and usually, will at least allow you a fair shot at their business. There are some who will shout “Stop calling me!” but they are few and far between. The new customers you win are worth one or two resisting a bit. So confirm that appointment with yourself, make the calls and sooner rather than later you will be able to yell “Timber!”
A very wise man once said, “If I knew that I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first six sharpening my axe.” If you would like more help with cold calling and prospecting attend one of our upcoming Prospecting or Persuasive Sales courses this November.
6 Key Elements of Closing The Sale – Part 2
In our previous message, we discussed how the closing of a deal is the culmination of events over time, not the answer to a magical well-placed “Are you ready to buy?” type question. Six elements must be present before a sale occurs. The order does not necessarily matter. It does not matter whether you proactively do something to close, or if your customer unwittingly does them for you. They just have to happen for a sale to be made.
The six key elements of closing a sale are:
- Prospect accepts your value proposition.
- Your solution has to address relevant specific needs of the customer.
- The economic buyer must be involved and be in favor of your solution.
- A consensus must exist among the key players within the customer’s organization.
- Your solution must be understood.
- Customer has to visualize your solution in use and like what they see.
We covered the first three in our previous message so let’s look at the final three this time.
A consensus must exist among the key players within the customer’s organization. Although we say that the economic buyer has the power to say yes without permission, this person usually seeks the input of others. Therefore, you must make sure to find out who these influencers are and make sure that they are on board early in the process. If not, you stand a great chance of having your sale delayed at best and lost at worst. So, what can you do? Ask questions about their buying process. Find out who else is involved. Understand what their roles are. Be able to answer the question for them: “What’s in it for me?” Demonstrate this at every level throughout the organization. Check for understanding and commitment.
This leads nicely to our next point which is that everyone must understand your solution and validate its importance. You have to get moved to the top of the priority list. The more people that understand how your solution benefits them personally, the better chance you have of becoming the top priority. Be sure to explain how your solution impacts prospects in their terms. Your solution may have an incredible return on investment over a three year period. However, if the customer is worried about cash flow over the next three months, your presentation will fall on deaf ears if you get a chance to deliver it at all.
The final component to closing a sale is that prospects must be able to visualize themselves benefiting from your solution. Car dealers know this all too well. That’s why they try to get you to test drive the car. That way the prospect starts to paint that picture. In sales, you are an artist! It is your job to paint a vivid picture for your prospects so they see themselves using and benefiting from your solution. Be sure to work this into the dialog. Without it, your message will lack enthusiasm and passion.
Send your people to any of our upcoming Persuasive Sales courses for more help with this process.
6 Key Elements of Closing the Sale
At Sales Concepts, we deal with literally hundreds of sales managers throughout the year. The topic foremost on their mind is that of closing the sale. Seldom does a day pass without us hearing sales managers say that they want their people to do a better job of closing. I even had one sales manager say to me when I was speaking with him, “Okay, this sounds good; let me hear your best closing technique.” The problem is that a technique doesn’t work when your customer knows it’s a technique! We believe that closing is a state of mind present throughout the entire sales process. It is not some event or gimmick that happens at the end. Closing is a process in and of itself. Six things must happen before a sale occurs. The order does not necessarily matter. It does not matter whether you proactively do something to close or if your customer unwittingly does them for you. They just have to happen for a sale to be made.
The six key elements of closing a sale are:
- Prospect accepts your value proposition.
- Your solution has to address relevant specific needs of the customer.
- The economic buyer must be involved and be in favor of your solution.
- A consensus must exist among the key players within the customer’s organization.
- Your solution must be understood.
- Customer has to visualize your solution in use and like what they see.
We’ll take a look at the first three this week and the next three in our next message.
When customers buy from you, they are essentially trading their capital for your products, services or solutions. They are telling you that what you are selling is worth more to them than the price you are asking. Value, in other words is what makes it worth the price. In order for customers to buy from you, they must feel you provide them with enough value to “make the trade”. No value? No sale.
Your solution has to address specific needs of the customer. You may have a long list of reasons why customers should buy from you, however if you don’t address their key concerns or needs, it does not matter. To make the sale, you have to understand exactly why the customer wants what you have from the customer’s point of view.
We define the economic buyer as the person who can say “Yes” without anyone else’s permission. We understand with large, capital intensive sales in corporate environments, a committee may be involved in approving buying decisions. However, every committee has a top dog. Your job is to make sure this person is on board. Without him or her in favor of your proposal, your order just gets shuffled to the bottom of the priority list.
I trust you have found these tips to be helpful. We cover them in great detail in our Persuasive Sales course. Several of these classes are scheduled this fall all around the United States. Please let me know if you would like to send any of your people or attend yourself. Till next time, when we review the final three elements of the closing process.
