Selling Tips

I get a ton of emails from people seeking insight or asking me to solve sales dilemmas. Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life and, most important, your sales thought process right now:

Jeffrey, I’m interested in your insight and guidance. I think selling is the best job in the world, but there’s one aspect I’m struggle with. It’s the feeling of being out of control, and being the master of my own destiny. I tend to work on more complex deals that have large decision making groups, and therefore can be quite a long cycle. I used to sell smaller deals where I could track progress more meaningfully, but now I find myself doing 1 x $ 1M deals rather than 10 x $ 100k deals where the risk was spread. Any tips on how to stay sane while waiting for big decisions? How do I regain and maintain a feeling that I’m in control of my results? Best regards, Paul

Paul, Managing your time is not the answer. Prioritizing your accounts in the order that they are likely to close is a better way to view the process. But there are several elements involved, and several decisions you have to make:

1: Why would you give up your bread and butter and just shoot for the moon?

Instead, allocate half your time to sure money and half your time to the big prize. This will leave you in control of your short-term destiny, and allow you to mark a clearer path toward the bigger deal.

2: All committees have a daddy. The person that leads the committee, or even the person that he or she reports to, are the two people that you should be establishing relationships with because they control the outcome. If you simply go in and make a presentation to a committee, they’ll be forever lost in the shuffle of indecision, proposals, and fighting price with competitors (three of the worst, if not dumbest, elements in making a large sale).

3: Direct contact is not an option. Stop emailing people and waiting for replies. Phone numbers, cell phone numbers, early morning coffee, late afternoon casual conversations, gathering personal data, and sending important business information will help establish you as a resource, rather than being looked at as a vendor. 

3.5: Your level of frustration is only a symptom. Your problem is you haven’t identified the real decision maker, how the decision will be made, and what the real motive is to purchase. Until you know those three things, your frustration will most likely fall into poverty. Not good. Best regards, Jeffrey 

Jeffrey,My name is John and I am a house call veterinarian in Syracuse,NY. I have read several of your books and I love your iPhone app! I am having some difficulty growing my business and I KNOW youare the perfect person to help me! 

I have been in business for just over four years. Things are steady and stable, but we are not growing the way I know we could and shouldbe. In fact, SOMEHOW, it seems that regardless of our marketingefforts, referrals, etc. we ALWAYS come out JUST AHEAD of being behindin the financial department. It drives me crazy as everybody we meettells us how great we are and what an unusual and helpful service weprovide, yet we are STILL booking no more than one week ahead at a time. I have tried practically EVERY type of advertising (newspaper, TV,radio, billboards, handouts/fliers) with no great outcome. We are a luxury service (and prefer it that way). We have run outof great ideas to try that won’t cost a ton of money. Please help! John

John, Before you let your business go to the dogs, you might want to try less advertising and more promotion. 

Begin with your Facebook business page. Post stories and videos of your existing customers and their experiences with you. Tag the customer and tag the photo. Your customer will begin to send that story to all of their friends. Also start a YouTube channel. Make sure all the videos are posted there as well – with all the appropriate tags. Without taking advantage of business social media, especially Facebook, your doomed to waiting for response. 

The second thing you have to do is contact every existing customer and talk to them about why they use you. Capture all of those reasons and begin to use them in all of your messaging and promotions. 

Third, start a weekly email magazine that features one of your customers every week. 

Fourth, subscribe to Ace of Sales. Every time you have a customer, take a photo of their pet and using the Ace of Sales email program, include a photo of their pet along when you send them a thank you note for their business.

With all the promotion that you do, you will begin to have positive word-of-mouth messages and positive internet messages sent out about you and ultimately sent back to you. Advertising alone will not get you the response that you need in today’s world. You have to dedicate the time and the resources to social media promotion and other forms of proactive outreach. You have all the assets you need to succeed in your business, you just haven’t utilized them in the proper way. 

EyesOnSales.com

Fortune 1000 companies as clients are what I like to call “premium accounts” because they’re typically larger and allow you the opportunity to sell more of what you sell as well as increase revenue more efficiently than with smaller accounts. But, getting a Fortune 1000 company as a client is no easy feat. The decision makers we would typically deal with inside these premium companies are bombarded by salespeople on a regular basis and, as a result, practice tight screening tactics to prevent you from getting through. While cold-calling techniques can be very effective in some cases, if you’re both persistent and patient, there is another way!

You’re probably familiar with networking as a technique to try to get into high-level companies, but I would guess your networking strategy is typical of most entrepreneurs. If so, you attend networking events and work with referral partners by simply asking “who do you know that I could talk to who might benefit from the products and services I offer?” Now, instead of this approach, try company-specific networking.

Here’s how it works. Create a spreadsheet of your top 10 most desirable premium accounts. The headings across the top of each column should read as follows: Company name; contact name; mailing address; email address; phone number and notes.

Next, complete as much of the information on the spreadsheet that you already have, company name being the most obvious, but also include information such as mailing address and phone number, if you have it. Whatever information you don’t have, leave blank.

OK. Here’s where it gets interesting.

Now, email your best referrals partners and contacts and attach the desired premium accounts spreadsheet you’ve just completed. Send the email to one referral partner at a time, rather than an email blast, to keep it more personal. The body of the email you send to your contacts should read something like this:

Hi (referral partner name)! I’m on a quest for some new premium accounts and I’m hoping you can help me.

Attached you will find a spreadsheet of my top 10 most desired accounts. I have completed the information I already have, and am hoping you will have some additional information that I am missing, such as the appropriate contact name at each company. I prefer to speak directly with (title of your decision maker), however, would greatly appreciate having the contact information of anyone you know inside each organization so that I may get my foot in the door.

In exchange for your help with this project, I would be happy to do the same for you.

Thanks in advance for your help!

You may also consider offering a Starbucks gift card, of a nominal amount, as a thank you for any information that is provided by each of your referral partners.

Also, notice the offer at the end of the email that you would be happy to do the same for each of your referral partners. By offering to do the same for your referral partner, you increase your chances for success in getting your spreadsheet back with some of the additional information. You’ll be happy to know that the people who receive your email will be thrilled to help because they understand the effectiveness of a company specific networking strategy and will be able to implement the same strategy for their own businesses.

Once you’ve compiled the remaining information on the spreadsheet you were initially lacking, you now have the information you need to get your foot in the door with each of your premium accounts. Now, instead of cold calling, you should have a contact name at each company. If the contact at each desired premium account given by your referral partners is your typical decision maker, great! All you have to do now is call the person to whom you’ve been referred and use the name of your referral partner as a reference.

If the person you have been referred to is not your typical decision maker, you still have the “in” you need.

Begin the search for your desired contact within each desired premium account by calling the contact you were given by your referral partner, and use your referral partner’s name as a reference. Next, simply ask the person you’ve been referred to who at their company would be the appropriate person for you to speak with based on the products and services you provide. Take it from there to schedule a meeting with the desired contact and start the sales process to eventually close the deal.

Try this technique today and finally get your foot in the door at those premium accounts you’ve been dying to land!

EyesOnSales.com

Sales Question:

“How should I handle the “Now is not a good time” response? One of my colleagues suggested I reply with “What will be different in a week/month from now?” But is that the best rebuttal to use?”

Answer:

The number one reason a prospect will say “Now is not a good time” is because the salesperson’s opener (what they said after “Hello, my name is…”) invoked this type of response. In short, the salespersons opening value statement was anything but and failed to accomplish it’s first objective, which is to pique interest in those precious first few seconds of a sales call.

Hot or Cold

And this response isn’t just a product of cold calling either.

I’ve seen plenty of salespeople get the same blow-off / stall on warm calls as well (Warm calls = when a prospect raises their hand)

An example of a warm call would be when a salesperson is calling a lead that was generated via their website after a prospect requested information or a proposal and the salesperson calls and says something like:

“I’m calling to see if you had any questions”

or

“I’m following up on your proposal request” and they still hear “now is not a good time”

No matter the type of sales call, the “Now is not a good time” blow-off / stall has EVERYTHING to do with how the sales person approached the prospect and very LITTLE to do with the temperature of the sales lead.

The Solution

The “What will be different in a week/month?” rebuttal is argumentative in my book and all though its better than saying “ok” and hanging up, its a flawed solution because it doesn’t address / fix the real problem that caused the “now’s not a good time” response.

If you want to eliminate or at the very least drastically reduce the amount of times your prospects use this stall tactic on you, you’ll need to re-word the opening value statement so that they will want to actually hear what it is that you have to offer by piquing their interest in the first few seconds of the call.

Do that and watch how the “now’s not a good time” stall becomes a thing of the past.

Example:

Which call would pique your interest more:

Option 1: “I’m following up on your request for pricing…”

Or…

Option 2: “I understand you’re curious about what type of results you could expect from our online B2B phone skills improvement workshops as well as what the initial investment might be and if any incentives are currently available…”

If you want to get better results, you have to stop using old, flawed sales tactics and start using new ones that make logical sense. Hope this helps.

EyesOnSales.com

It’s Saturday night around 6pm. Early dinner for Jessica, Gabrielle, and me.

We’re sitting in Carrabba’sItalian Grill in Charlotte. We’ve been customers at this location for as long as it has been there. Seen several managers come and go, seen hundreds of servers come and go.

This particular visit was pivotal because it may have been our last. Their 10-year consistency has been compromised at least three ways:1. New bread – lower quality.2. New croutons – lower quality. 3. New espresso – lower quality. They used to serve the best espresso in the city (Illy). But it seems corporate decided to remove all the machines and substitute with a lesser (cheaper) brand.

Same price. Lower quality. More profit. Not good for anyone but them. 

And they’re not bragging about their new low quality. I guess they figured no one would notice. I was disappointed. Not angry or anything, I just had an expectation when we entered the restaurant that wasn’t met when we were served.

The manager happened by. I asked him about the sudden reduction in quality. He smiled, hemmed, hawed, and looked embarrassed that we “caught” them. He, of course, blamed it on “corporate.” I asked him for an email address to voice my concern. He promised he would return with it. Never did. 

As the manager walked by our table a second time, we heard him say, “Another aggravated customer.” He was referring to some people waiting to be seated. Did nothing about it. Sad.

REALITY: When a customer is aggravated, complaining, or angry, there’s a REASON. If you’re smart enough, empathetic enough, and willing enough, you can discover the reason, help the customer, resolve the issue, and prevent the same thing from happening again.

STOP READING AND START THINKING: I’m not just writing about Carrabba’s. I’m writing about YOU. You have customers that complain, don’t you? How do you receive the concern or the complaint?How is a complaint handled? What do you do about it? How do you turn it into a WOW?

Here’s what it is – and what it isn’t:

• It’s an opportunity, NOT an aggravation.
• It’s an opportunity, NOT a problem.
• It’s an opportunity, NOT a complaint.
• It’s a chance for WOW, NOT an angry customer.
• It’s a chance for management to convert to leadership.
• It’s a chance to get a positive post on Facebook. 
• It’s a chance for the customer to “tweet” their pleasure.
• It’s a chance to create a loyal customer.
• It’s a chance to generate positive word-of-mouth advertising.
• It’s an opportunity to prevent this situation from reoccurring.

GRIPE REALITY: Defensive response is the normal first reaction…

• Blaming others.
• Blaming circumstances.
• Telling the customer how to talk. (“I’d appreciate if you’d calm down” rather than try to find the reason they’re angry.) Condescending comments by “customer service” people makes a mad customer more mad. 
• Don’t defend it. No one cares about the reason or the excuse. 

If you really want aggravation, complaints, and anger to diminish, here are the elements you must possess and execute:

• Attitude of acceptance.
• Attitude of reception.
• Attitude that’s willing to listen with the intent to understand.
• Attitude of taking responsibility.
• Resilience of manager or leader.
• Ability to respond in a friendly, pleasant manner.
• Challenge yourselfnot to make an excuse, blame someone, blame something, or make some snide remark.
• Challenge yourselfto promote positive internal communication.
• Genuine gratefulness to help and serve.

LOYALTY REALITY: Every aggravation, complaint, concern, discussion, or question posed by a customer is a huge, FREE, opportunity to improve your business by a factor of WOW – and for little or no money.

And a bit more reality: when managers and employees turn over at a high rate, it’s not the “nature of the business,” it’s the cheapness and policies of the home office. When you try to milk a nickel to save a penny, when you sacrifice quality just to increase profits, you lose employees, customers, goodwill and reputation. 

Me? I’ll go away with a little bit of noise – others will just go away.

EyesOnSales.com

It’s obvious that all marketing managers would like to grow their marketing database. The challenge with this is that the database is continuously losing names, due to spam complaints, unsubscribes, and hard and soft bounces. BUT there are some straightforward tactics you can do to conquer these obstacles.

In Store: If you have retail stores, your in-store staff should be trained to collect email address – in a friendly way. Most retailers see higher lifetime value for customers who buy offline and online. So incentivize appropriately and capture the email address at the retail point of sale. This same principle carries to trade shows and other events. Remember, if you’re asking for somebody to handwrite their email address, have them complete it twice!

Sign-up Forms On Your Website: Make email collection a priority by including prominent sign-up opportunities throughout your website. Remember that most visitors are on your site to browse and learn more about your company and products. No one should leave your site without leaving behind their email address.

Customer Service Calls: Don’t forget about your call center. Your customer may call in for customer service or look to complete a transaction via telephone. Train the call center with a short speech about the benefits of having their email address and get them to capture it right there on the spot.

Referral Programs: Do you have a referral program? If not, this is a must-have. Referral programs not only grow your email marketing database, but also lead to immediate revenue and customer acquisition. Acquiring new subscribers through the social networks of your best customers is one of the best ways to build your list with quality individuals.

Social Media: As an email marketer, you’ve probably been required to promote your company’s Facebook fan page. It’s a great idea, and it’s time that your social media counterpart reciprocates with kindness. In addition to featuring your email registration prominently on your fan page, you can also ask them to periodically post an appeal to sign up, whether out of the goodness of their hearts or in return for a special promotion or discount.

I also think visual-based social media can definitely help your company grow its email list. You need to make it as easy as possible for your customers to subscribe to your email marketing programs. Design great images and post them on all social media channels that link to your sign-up form. Pinterest is becoming larger and larger each and every day, an excellent way to capture emails on Pinterest is to design a great info graphic about your product and then link it back to your sign up form page. To increase the number of new opt-ins, create a “Promotions” board on Pinterest and consider including a targeted incentive offer to sign-up.  Let’s face it; the majority of potential new customers take pleasure in seeing a discount or promotion when they are thinking of using a new service or buying a new product. Create eye catching images that include a promo will definitely lure customers to visit your webpage to purchase from you and sign-up for future offers.

Try out the above tops and watch you list grow this year! 

Anything else you do to grow your list? Feel free to share your ideas!

EyesOnSales.com

Many sales people and their managers feel that a good sales person is one who is moving forward. This is fine, so long as you don’t move so fast that you miss or pass opportunities along the way.

Remembering that your buyers are moving at just a fast a pace, and are dealing with many of the same realities you are, namely greater demands on their time and resources, less people and resources to get things done; leaving them, like you, having to fit 16 hours of work into a 10-hour workday. Behind the eight ball, before the day even starts.  And it’s in that environment, that we as sellers are trying place and raise our offering on an already jammed agenda or ‘to do’ list.

To succeed in getting and climbing that list, you will need to employ at least two things, first, creativeness, to stand apart from other (lots of other) sales people; the second is persistence.  These two are not the only things you’ll need to succeed, but they are two core components that go hand-in-hand.  While many sellers can score well on the creative part, many also fall short on the persistence side.

Persistent is different from stalking, and that is the fear for many, they don’t want to seem as though they are stalking someone, fearing an injunction order will be issued against them.  While I don’t want to see an injunction either, I do believe that many can go further than they are now without risk, but greater success.

For example, it has been shown that most sellers will abandon a lead after three attempts; while most buyers will require 4 to 7 touch points before the engage, some will say even more.  A clear recipe for failure, just as the buyer is getting warmed up, you disappear. Then your competitor comes along, connects with the client on their second call, 5th touch point from the client’s perspective (3 from you + 2 from the competitor); you just set them up, don’t do that!  Unless you are persistent and make it a habit to plan at least six touch points with each lead before you put them back for more nurturing and future contact, you are working for the competition.

The touch points can be any combination of things, e-mail, phone, voice mail, snail mail, text, or get creative, send a video on a jump stick, greeting card on a delivered pizza, keep it clean, and the sky is the limit.  Just touch them with something more meaningful than a Facebook ‘Like’, “no Virginia, a tweet is not a touch-point.”  Oh yes, those six touch points are in the course of two weeks, 10 business days, not over six months.

I know for some that much contact in such a short time may seem a bit much, but remember, engaging with a buyer, a specially a Status Quo buyer, involves more focus and effort.

One reason I am given for not being persistent, goes something like this: “I don’t want to bug them, I wouldn’t like if that approach was used on me.”  Which is fine, except the buyer is not you, and since selling is about the buyer, let’s start looking at things from their perspective. To start with, talk to people in your company who do what your target does, and talk to them about what would make a seller stand out for them, you’ll be surprised how different roles see things differently.  Ask how many times and the type of touch points they respond to, and then adapt.

One more thing, people say they wouldn’t like the level of persistence I describe, but when asked about certain discretionary or course of business purchases, they discover that they do end up buying from the persistent seller, assuming all other things were more or less equal.

EyesOnSales.com

In an inbound marketing world, is there still need to call people? This is the current question on many sellers minds and one that deserves some ongoing discussion.

Of all the ways we have seen people actually talking to prospects, it most often is in a combination of the following:

1. Simple web research
2. LinkedIn or other warm connection
3. Have data and knowledge of your prospect’s world
4. Use of  the telephone

Let’s dive into each of these and see what the trends are.

Simple, quick, web-based research is extremely important when you are calling prospects. The worst calls you can receive (or emails, for that matter) are when you feel like a name on a list, or a number in someone’s dialing log. I don’t want to be someone’s 24th “talk-to” – I want to be contacted by people who can add value to the work that I do, or who can add value to my life or community.  Most likely you feel the same way, and more importantly, so do your prospective customers.

This means that you need to do research, but don’t get stuck in research mode – a “one minute” rule can work well. When you see someone on a list, go quickly to their website to do a one-minute overview.  Note what it is that their company does and what their title is. A look at someone’s website gives you an idea of company size, professionalism, strategy, and often mission, vision, and values. You can immediately see if they are public or private, if they use video, social media, and how current and relevant they are.

One minute goes quickly – but in our strategy, just jot a note on paper or on Evernote, going down a list of companies you are looking up. If you have a CRM system, do research first, going through 20-30 companies and jotting down your “one minute impression” of their digital footprint. Now you have something to talk about when you connect.

Next, do a LinkedIn search and see if you are connected to this prospect or someone at their company. To be good at this, first get well-connected on LinkedIn and have a paid account to really benefit from all of LinkedIn’s research tools. If you are skeptical, upgrade your LinkedIn account for a trial period, such as 3 months, and see how it helps you connect to those you don’t know.  Be proactive when you upgrade – it will do you no use if you don’t experiment and use it. Last week a client wanted to connect to someone at a large, privately held corporation. I typed in the company name and found that I had 42 connections to people who work there or who had recently left. The breadth of connections I could make to get to our desired contact surprised even me. By using a strong or weak link, you can connect easier to someone you do not know. This makes your call a warm call and not a cold call. It totally transforms your approach and people are much more likely to talk with you. (also note what NOT to do on LinkedIn here from a previous post.)

Have data and understanding about their industry to leverage in your call on why it would be good to speak further. Remember that conversations are not about you telling a prospect all the features and benefits of your products. Those days are SO over, folks. You are simply working to show enough value initially through insightful observations that pertain to their world to get permission for a longer conversation. That’s the “sale”. Stop trying to purge all of your pitch in a 60 second voice mail. Instead leave an 18 second one that causes interest.

Next, pick up the phone and make some calls to people. We do this every day, and regularly reach people we are trying to connect with. It is not always easy, but through various strategies we are successful. If nothing else, you can leave a brief, simple, branded voice mail that let’s someone know you are looking to connect with them.

The phone is just one tool in your toolbox. Use an inbound strategy (we use Hubspot) – just don’t think that the phone is obsolete. It isn’t.  You still need to talk directly with people  to see if what you offer is a good fit to solve their business issues.  We are making warm calls, and in some cases cold calls. Why do we get through?

The reason you can still reach some prospects by phone is because you can clearly convey a valuable reason for them to speak with you.

Example: A marketing executive  prospect works for an electric utility. A client has a patented technology that helps electric utilities increase revenues in a revenue-flat period when some utilities ratings are actually being downgraded.  There is great benefit for any visionary leader in a utility to see what this technology is about because at the very least, some ideas around growing revenues may happen. At most, the two could partner for great benefit. When presented this way, we nearly always get a return call or an e-mail telling us when to call or an alternative way to connect.

Many salespeople have call reluctance and so they don’t use the phone much anymore. This is a big mistake, as there are a glut of e-mail messages  – but by using voice mail and e-mail together you improve your results

Other Ways to Connect:

Think multi-faceted strategy when working to connect with prospective customers.  In some tech marketplaces sales reps are texting prospects – almost always once rapport is established. Prospects are getting calls on their cell phones. No matter what strategy you use, show value immediately, respect your prospect’s time, and make it easy to follow-up.  Always set a next action.

How are you connecting with your prospects? Are you connecting? Post your tips and ideas as comments. We’ll create a follow-up post and give attribution to those who offer sound ideas.

EyesOnSales.com

It is all too easy to let other people distract you from being amazing.

Let me tell you how I really learned that lesson all over again a few days ago.

As a popular speaker, I have the unique and wonderful opportunity to speak all over the world to big companies, business organizations, and non-profits.  Like much of what you read here on my blog, the discussion is an unconventional one.  I talk about pain and fear and how uncommon strategy is often the key to outrageous feats of high-performance.

There are always a tremendous number of people who are inspired by the passionate discussion. Many of these people come up to me after the keynote, shake my hand, and tell me how moving the keynote was for them.  No matter how many different places I speak, I am always genuinely excited that I can make a difference.  Heck, that people pay me to help them.

On the other hand, there are always a few people in the audience who are skeptics.  They leave snarky comments about how the material was too philosophical and did not provide them “seven steps to overnight business success”.  They will commonly say things like “I did not come here for a motivational discussion, I just want the facts”.

Those few people always bother me.

They bother me a lot.  I wish I could tell you that I didn’t care about those handful of people.  But I do.  As irrational as it sounds, I am bothered.

Personally, I want to be the best.  I really have a desire to make a difference.  For every five minutes that I stand on stage, I spend one to two hours rehearsing a keynote.  It is a lot of work and emotional investment.

That’s not all.  I have hired a few of the best public speaking coaches in the world to help me get better at what I do.  I don’t just practice and plan, I pay thousands of dollars per hour for these coaches to refine my style and help me better connect with the audience.

But it only takes one jerk in the front row to throw me off my game.

Last week I spoke in front of about 80 senior executives in Washington DC about my insights around creating edgy conversations.  Like what you read here I attempt to disrupt traditional philosophies of success with a new set of unconventional strategies that senior executive need to employ on a daily basis.

A new set of attitudes and world views.

Attending the event was a very special woman.  ”Kim” found my blog on the web and wrote to me about how some of the articles I had written gave her the strength to rise beyond the tragedy in her life.

“Kim” is an officer in the United States Armed Forces.  While serving in Iraq, thousands of miles from her family, she was woken from sleep with a shocking phone call.  Her son had shot himself.  In a haze, she rushed home from halfway around the world  to be with her family.  He died in her arms hours after she arrived.

Shortly after this horrific tragedy,  ”Kim” read my article about how people hurt.  Still reeling from such a tragedy, she reached out to me in gratitude for an encouraging article.  Over a few e-mails, we struck up a friendship.  And when she found out that I was speaking close-by, she bought a ticket and came to the event.

Humbled, I was excited to meet “Kim” and even more excited to think that I might have been able to make a difference for someone going through such a hard time.

But things quickly unraveled.

A few minutes into my keynote, I became distracted by a jerk in the front row.  And not just anybody either.  It was a sales guru and published author sitting with a few friends of his — right up in the front row.  Every time I mentioned something unconventional like love or “being a giver“, he would smirk and roll his eyes.  And it didn’t stop there.  Several times throughout my keynote, he would take his notepad and pen, scribble a note on it, fold it a time or two, and pass it to his friends sitting beside him.  Of course, his friends would read the note,  look at me, smirk, scribble a note back, and pass back the piece of paper.

Completely distracting and disrespectful behavior.  Here I was talking about emotional pain and how miserable I felt despite making millions of dollars and these guys (who should know better) thought it was all a joke.

Throughout the keynote, I could see the emotional impact of my keynote.  Many in attendance dabbed at the corner of their eyes when I talked about pain and frustration and fear.  They were shaking their heads up and down in agreement.  They were leaning forward in their seats, looking eye to eye with me.

But the only thing I could think about was the jerk in the front row.

It was maddening.

It threw me off my game.  I forgot all about the people who were really important.  In the heat of the moment all that was going through my head was anger at that guy in the front row who was making fun of me.

When my keynote was done almost two hours after I started speaking, I stepped down from the stage and headed to the back of the room looking for a cold drink of orange juice.  Exhausted.  Frustrated.

I turned as I felt a hand on my arm.  ”I am Kim,” she said. “Thank you for making a difference.”  I gave her a long hug.  Before she left, “Kim” handed me a tiny Moleskin notebook with a picture of a sunset on the cover.  ”Kim” told me that was her son’s favorite picture.  Underneath the picture was the following phrase “He has chosen us as people to be the source of joy and output of love.”  She wanted me to have it.  To remember what making a difference really means.

I gave “Kim” another hug and she left to go back to her business.  I stood there thinking.  I had just been taught a valuable lesson.

There is always a jerk in the front row.

That’s true for all of us.  No matter how hard you work, no matter how many trainers or coaches or therapist you pay for, it is easy to be distracted and discouraged by the cruelty of others.

Sadly, I had completely forgotten about what really mattered.  I had forgotten about “Kim”.  I had forgotten about everyone else in the audience. All that I could see was that jerk sitting in the front row.

Instead of helping the people who wanted to be helped, I selfishly thought only of how disrespectful I was being treated.

“It is a valuable lesson to remember.  Help those who want to be helped.  Resist the urge to win over the cynics.  Be willing to be vulnerable.  Care deeply.”

Don’t let the jerks in the front row distract you from helping everyone else in the room.

Making a difference is just too important to be sidetracked by one or two people.

EyesOnSales.com

In days gone by, whenever anyone mentioned “knowledge,” there would be an immediate assumption that they were going to discuss “product knowledge” That is understandable; even today, 80 percent of all training budgets are spent (invested?) on teaching sales teams all there is to know about the “product range.” 

The reality is that product knowledge is no longer a differentiator. It is a very basic requirement of all successful frontline sales professionals. In other words, it’s part of the entrance exam — not a higher qualification. 

Today, knowledge really is power, and that means …

• Industry knowledge 
• Sector knowledge 
• Competitive knowledge 
• Company knowledge 
• Business knowledge (acumen) 

As the discussions and debates continue regarding the future of professional selling, one fact is very clear. The relevance of a salesperson in the “buying process” — yes, we have moved away from the “sales process” — is becoming increasingly diminished. This is quite simply because buyers, who are more self-educated than ever, are entering the cycle so much later. 

Do You Speak the Customer’s Language? 

The realization that buyers are already “super-busy and frazzled” — as illustrated by Jill Konrath in her last book SNAP Selling — is obvious. But it is not the main reason why buyers will not entertain us as readily as they once did. 

The fact is they simply don’t need to deal with us. That’s why Konrath argues that our interactions with buyers need to be wholly relevant. 

“Wholly relevant” means using our knowledge — our complete knowledge — to justify our right to be part of a customer’s purchasing process. 

As we move up the food chain, our ability to use different “languages” becomes increasingly important. We have to become commercially “multi-lingual” because C-level executives, for example, rarely use the same language as members of an information technology team. And both groups naturally have different sets of buying criteria. 

In the very near future, having the right attitude, a broad range of sales skills, and familiarity with internal consultative sales processes will not guarantee our survival. The key will be the extent of our “commercial bandwidth” — and that means our knowledge. 

EyesOnSales.com

Earning a prospect’s or customer’s respect is something that top sales people consistently manage to achieve. But earning that respect can be difficult and is difficult for many sales people.

However, when you achieve that goal, the likelihood of capturing a sale from that prospect increases substantially.

Here are 5 ways you can earn a prospect’s respect and start increasing your sales.

Respect their time

Every person you call upon is busy, just like you are. Demonstrate that you respect their time by asking, “Is this still a good time to talk?” or “We scheduled 60 minutes for today’s meeting; does that still work for you?”

You can also achieve this by limiting the amount of time you spend on social chit-chat or rapport-building conversation. You may want to spend time talking about non-sales related stuff, but there’s a strong likelihood that your prospect wants to get down to business.

Call or show up on time

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet, I’m constantly surprised how many times a customer or prospect says, “Thanks for calling on time.” Surprisingly, many sales people fail to connect with prospects when they say they will.

A participant in one of my sales training workshops said, “But being 5 minutes late isn’t a big deal. Besides, all kinds of things can cause me to be late.” He went on to list every excuse and possible reason he would arrive late at a scheduled appointment.

Your excuses don’t matter. If you say you’re going to show up or call someone at a specific time, then do it.

Offer a solution that is relevant

You may have the best solution in the world but if you don’t show your prospect exactly how they will benefit from it, you will struggle to capture the sale.

On the opposite side of the coin, If you attempt to sell your prospect something this is not relevant to his or her business or a problem they are facing, you automatically lose respect and credibility.

This is where proper research and/or effective discovery comes into play.

Before you start making suggestions or talking about your product, service or solution, make sure you have a comprehensive understanding of their situation, their problem, and the payoff of correcting or solving that issue(s).

Avoid pitching

Decision makers are subjected to countless sales pitches by sales people who are desperate to sell them their product or service.

Unfortunately, most pitches are a one-way presentation and they do little to compel or motivate someone to take action.

A more effective approach is to engage your prospect in a conversation. People don’t want to listen to a sales pitch; they want to know how your product, service or solution is going to help them solve a particular problem.

You need to have your presentation ready and well-rehearsed. But…and this is a big but…you also need to throw it away just before you walk into your prospect’s office. I mean this figuratively, of course. 

Use that presentation to outline the key points of your solution and how the prospect will benefit. But, more importantly use it to open up a dialogue and create a two-way conversation with your prospect.

Turn down the sale

The other day I was meeting with a new prospect who had contacted me about conducting a sales training workshop for his sales team. As he explained his situation, I realized that training was not the right solution. 

Although I could have created and delivered a program that would satisfy him I knew it wasn’t the appropriate approach to take so I said, “Robert, I don’t think training is going to solve your problem and here’s why…”

I directed him to a colleague whom I felt could help him solve the actual problem rather than the problem he perceived he had. Before I left his office, he said, “I really appreciate your suggestion. Once I get this sorted out I will definitely call you and we’ll do some training that works for out team.”

Sometimes it makes sense to turn away business even if your solution or offering may solve part of their problem. If your product or service doesn’t solve the ENTIRE problem, you run the risk of winning the initial business but losing future opportunities.

Business people remember sales people who go out of their way to ensure that they receive the best solution, even if it isn’t the sales person’s product or service.

Earning a prospect’s trust is easy IF you use the right approach. Implement these five strategies into your routine and I guarantee that you will notice a difference in your results.

EyesOnSales.com