Cause and effect

A failure to prospect results in a failure to develop your pipeline. A failure to develop your pipeline obviously results in low sales. Yet, how many sales professionals hover over their current leads while forgetting to add new ones to the process?

Meanwhile, a failure to uncover needs/wants/goals results in a failure to understand your customer. A failure to understand your customer obviously results in cookie-cutter, blah presentations. Yet, how many sales professionals jump to a product dump?

Cause and effect.

Adrian Savage has a great post on “Consequences” that reminds us to take ownership of our results by focusing on the incremental changes we make to our habits and routines.

Avoiding price challenges

I’ve addressed my principles for handling price issues previously, but I thought I’d share three tactics I follow when faced with immediate price issues. Read the full post

The power of let’s

Lori Richardson keeps things in perspective for us today. It highlights the power of using the word “let’s” (as in, “let’s solve this problem together”) versus the phrase, “what you need to do is…”

Sales managers are well known for sending the troops to do things that they can’t or won’t do themselves. Consultants are famous for this as well. It’s a “here’s your problem…now, good luck with that” mindset. In reality, it’s the execution, not the philosophy that matters most. A great plain poorly executed is actually a poor plan.

Ages ago I posted and linked about sales managers selling. If our jobs are about results, how hard are we working to “own” those results?

Specific Things You Can Control

I posted back in March to Focus on things you can control. Here are five specific things you can control that should dominate your mind. These aren’t my original thoughts, they are excerpted from Michael Boylan’s The Power to Get In.

Your confidence level in the product, service, proposal, or idea you have to offer. Do you realize how many sales professionals still try to wing it on pure logic and product features? You’ve not only got to know your product or service cold, you’ve got to know how it specifically helps a buyer. Specifically. Then, you’ve got to be absolutely sold, on a very personal level, that what you offer provides tremendous value–even over and above the cost of the product itself.

Your confidence level in yourself. It’s a shame this one has to be listed. Any given day, any given moment, you’ve got to be able to walk in and talk with any individual with unwavering confidence in yourself. We’re not talking arrogance here, but confidence. You’ve got all the talent you need, all the knowledge and training. Now go act like it, don’ t just think it. You can be kind, caring, compassionate, friendly and understanding…and still be a competitive bulldog. You can be a “people-person” and still be someone people don’t play games with. Believe in yourself.

The naturalness of your approach. Can’t overemphasize this one. Win people over. Be excited to see them. Build connections on legitimate grounds. Smile and be ready to help and serve, not sell. Adapt your approach to the personalities of the people you encounter. Be real. You control whether you’re stiff and boring, or alive and engaging. You can be scripted, or natural. You own it.

The level within each organization’s hierarchy at which you choose to enter. Of course, we all say “aim high.” But really, for most salespeople out there, you simply need to aim high enough. Not every sale requires the CEO’s “buy-in” or “endorsement” to be more of a sure thing. But you need the nod of key influencers with enough clout to carry your proposal through to a “yes.” You decide who you contact first.

The specific strategy you develop to get in the door–and how you execute that strategy. I’ve long felt that, yes, you need to ask the right questions in the right way to develop sales opportunities, but first, you’ve got to get the ball rolling. How you start the process determines if you can even get to the questioning/interviewing at all. You’ve got to get in front of someone first! And again, you can control this!

Impact

The difference between “impact on” and “impacted by” is everything.

Those who are successful in sales have an impact on others: within their own companies, on their managers, on their colleagues, on their customers and prospects. They seize control of their results by making an impact. They take ownership of their numbers.

Those who are not successful are impacted by everything: moods, headaches, family issues, compensation plans, training materials, marketing materials, sideline hobbies, someone at corporate speaking condescendingly to them, a customer railing on them, higher gas prices, you name it. They self-handicap their way through life, always armed with new excuses for why tomorrow’s sales are going to be lower than expected.

Steer clear of the “impacted by” folks. And obviously don’t ever be one. It’s the fastest way to be labeled with a red “X” in your company as one who will be managed out.

You’ve got to be great to be good

If you’re going to be good at this sales thing, you’ve got to be great at at least two things.

Now, here’s the rub. I can’t tell you what those two things are. Actually, I could. I could jot down a comprehensive list of things to choose from, but it’s the same list you’ve seen in a thousand different places: work hard, build rapport, ask great questions, know your product and company cold, follow through on all the details, ask for the business, blah blah blah.

My emphasis here is actually on the word “great.” To be good at sales, you need to have mastered at least a couple of traits and/or habits. Mastered, we’re talking.

The reality is, most salespeople fail (the links take you to others’ reasons why). You and I both know plenty of failing sales professionals. You and I both know their commitment levels, their skills, their attitudes. And sure, sometimes their sales culture stinks.

And we know some who are great. With them, you can easily point to two or more traits or skills or habits that they are superior at: finding hidden opportunities, staying competitive and assertive, doggedly persistent, amazing inquisitiveness, self-disciplined on a scary level, focused at all times when “on the clock,” not to mention the specific sales skills they’ve mastered.

You can’t “mediocre” your way to sales success. You certainly can’t 40-hour your way to the top 10% of your company. You can’t simply be “consistent” or “nice” or “always available.” You’ll get worked-over by those competing sales professionals who demand more of themselves, and get what they want.

The questions you should be asking yourself are: What am I really doing now that holds me back? What can I start doing today to rise above mediocrity? If your goal is to at least be good, be great first.

Your industry is boring

Do you realize how boring your industry has become? Probably not. You deal with it every day. You dream up seemingly innovative ways to sell your products or services. Your differences with competitors are clear to you.

Problem is, your customers likely don’t see it. You and your competitors are virtually identical. There’s only the slightest of superficial differentiation. Rarely enough to justify switching. That’s why they stay with you or with them. It’s why you’re not closing even more deals.

My suggestion: push the envelope. If you can influence the fulfillment of your product (how it’s packaged, delivered, or serviced), do so radically. If you can’t influence it, change the playing field in buyers’ eyes. Change the way your products are perceived by customers by changing how they evaluate their current service and how they approach the problems they think they’re solving with your products and services.

Focus all of your communcation, from beginning to end during the sales process, on changing how your industry is seen. Re-position everything so that you are carrying the flag for the industry into the new wave of doing things.

Now, not every buyer wants to work with a revolutionary. Not everyone will want to try something new. But the newness piques curiosity initially. It gets the ball rolling. Momentum has to start somewhere.

I’ve suggested previously that you should carry a “You want this” attitude about how you sell. Go shake things up. Speak confidently about your new, innovative, cutting-edge look at the future of your business and industry, and people will begin to follow.

Capacity over Destiny

I’m not big on destiny. I don’t think people are destined for things in life. Some may be born in more favorable circumstances, but destiny is a reach. Capacity is another story. It’s not as sexy or mesmerizing as destiny, but it packs a more responsible punch.

We’re all born with the capacity for greatness. You’ve got talents and traits that make you capable of the highest levels of success in your personal and business lives. We all do. The talents are as varied as we are in appearance. You would do well to focus more on the ideal that you are capable of greatness, over than the notion that you’re destined for greatness. Read the full post

Best practices in sales training?

Okay so last fall, Best Practices, LLC, published their benchmark study on sales training design and administration. The study surveyed 36 companies across multiple industries to determine how they move internal sales associates as well as new hires through their sales training program to drive consistency and ultimately increase revenue.

The complete research findings will run you $1,195, but you can get an excerpt for free here. The free version is a six-page PDF that’s four pages of advertisements to become a “member.” Read the full post

Disciplined pricing habits

The conversation over how to quote and when to quote can easily be summarized. I keep things simple by following these disciplines in face-to-face selling:

Don’t quote a price on your service until you understand the customer’s situation completely and it plays to your strengths.

Don’t quote a price on your product until/unless you know you can back it up with better service (that’s easily validated by existing customers) and with better support, and these things matter to the customer.

You want to avoid, as far as possible, the quote-and-run, show-up-and-throw-up, spray-and-pray tactics employed by, even today in 2006, most sales professionals.

Steer clear of prospects wanting immediate, up-front pricing, or find ways to screen them out earlier in the process. And sprint towards anyone wanting to honestly evaluate the strengths and advantages of similar competitors.

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