The Equation For Sales Success

The equation for sales success is not rocket science and will certainly not receive the same acclaim as Einstein’s equation E=MC2 (energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared).  However, the equation for sales success can deliver some pretty amazing results.  Here is the equation, the formula that every salesperson has been waiting for since the beginning of time:  S=(EQ+PS)x(P+CE).  So what does it mean and how can you use it to increase your sales?  Let me first explain the equation and then describe the significance of each element.

Success equals effective questioning plus problem solving multiplied by planning plus consistent effort.  There you have it!  Understanding it and applying the equation will change your sales career and increase your income forever.  The equation must be applied exactly as it is written.  It is precise, that’s what makes it so powerful.  Let me discuss each element.

EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING (EQ):  Plain and simple, salespeople talk too much.  They believe that telling is selling; nothing could be further from the truth.  One of the keys to selling is discovering the needs, wants and the desires of the prospect.  This can only happen through effective question.  There is no opportunity for a sale unless you discover a need.  Needs are uncovered through questioning.  Relationships are built through questioning.  Find the need and you are in a position to make a sale.  Built rapport with the prospect through questioning and you are in a better position to making the sale.  Reveal and resolve their concerns about your solution and you should make the sale.  Nothing else you can do will replace effective questioning at the beginning of a sales opportunity.


PROBLEM SOLVING (PS):  As I mentioned, if there is no need or problem, there is no sales opportunity.  Likewise, if you don’t solve the problem or meet the need there is no sale.  Your ability to solve the prospects problem or meet their need is the pure essence of selling.  Too many salespeople find themselves presenting their products and services to a perceived or assumed need, never knowing for sure because they never asked.  Remember, the order of the elements of the equation are critical; find the problem through effective questioning first and then solve the problem.  Sometimes the solution will not involve your product, so give the prospect an honest recommendation and move on.  You will gain credibility for your honesty and will be respected when future opportunities come along.

PLANNING (P):  Very few things of any significance have ever occurred without first planning.  Sure, there have been some great discoveries or successes that happened by accident or some other event.  However, those successes were the result of planning even though the subsequent result was not anticipated.  Games are won in sports and armies are victorious in war, as the result of planning.  Planning suggests preparation and without preparation you can only dream of success.  Planning every minute of the day in addition to every sales encounter will ensure your success.  Failure to plan will guarantee your failure.  Don’t wing it; plan it.  Planning takes just a small amount of time but will save you time and effort ten fold.

CONSISTENT EFFORT (CE):  Be committed, selling is a full time occupation requiring five days a week and a minimum of eight hours a day.  Selling isn’t for the weak or timid, or those not willing to give a hundred and ten percent.  Salespeople need to be engaged constantly to find success.  True salesmanship is not just a job but also a lifestyle.  The ultimate rewards of satisfaction and wealth come to those who consistently apply their skills and knowledge in solving the needs of others.  The great sales practitioners realize that the next new sale comes on the heals of the last one.  Take a vacation, rejuvenate the sole and rest your weary bones, but not during the sales day.  Likewise, when you schedule your vacation, rest from your sales labors.  Clear your head and prepare yourself for the next round of consistent daily sales effort.

Selling Requires that You Just Do It!

In the world of sales there are those who think about it and talk about it and then there are those who just do it.  Admittedly, there are many principles and skills, that when applied correctly, will produce excellent results.  Many salespeople commit themselves to the study and philosophy as well as the psychology of selling.  However, study as they may, it is the doing of sales that produces success.  In sales, nothing happens until the salesperson does something.  They may know what to do, how to do and when to do, but until they actually do something, nothing is the ultimate result.

When my children were young, they had their chores to do around the house and the yard.  They received an allowance for doing their chores.  They didn’t, however, always comply willingly and happily to their assigned tasks.  As parents we were continually reminding them of what need to be done and that it should have been done days ago.  The standard answer we would hear was, “I know, I know, you don’t need to tell me.”  I would remind them that the solution to getting their chores done was not in knowing what needed to be done, but rather in doing what they knew! 

Selling is a lot like doing chores.  We may know what needs to be done, but a sales is never made until we take control of our knowledge and “JUST DO IT.”  How long will you know what needs to be done before you just do it?  Doing it is not nearly as entertaining as talking about it and thinking about it.  What is “It”?  “It” is those things that should be done but never seem to get done.  “It” is every one of the dreaded sales activities that never seem to be done or at least done on time.  Think of all the sales that you would close if you would just do “It”.  Here is a list of some of the more critical “Its” that salespeople should pay more attention to doing and not just thinking and talking about them.

1. Plan your day every day.  Make a list of what needs to be done and “just do it.”
2. Follow your plan.  Having determined what needs to be done, commit to doing it.
3. Prospect every day.  Finding new opportunities for the sale of your products and services is the life-blood of success.  Don’t rationalize, just do it.
4. Follow-up every day.  You may not like to do it, but do it anyway.  Poor follow-up is the number one reason for poor sales results.  Just do it.
5. Search for and resolve the prospect’s concerns.  Some sales are closed due to extreme need and concerns are over shadowed by urgency.  More sales are lost because you don’t resolve concerns than are closed due to urgency.  Resolve concerns.  Just do it.
6. Track the progress of each prospect.  Use an effective “prospect data system”.  Don’t believe you can remember every detail relating to every prospect.  You can’t!  Just do it.
7. Set daily performance and activity goals.  Don’t settle for just doing your best.  You’ll never know what your best is unless you set goals.  Just do it.
8. Write out a game plan for closing every opportunity you find.  Don’t wing it believing you are so good you don’t need to plan and prepare.  No one is that good.  Just do it.
9. Learn something new each day to improve your sales performance and then apply it.  Never settle for wishing you were better.  Do something about it today.
10.  Every day assess your strengths and weaknesses.  Identify those things you do well and do them regularly.  Openly and honestly admit your weaknesses and seek to turn them into strengths through practice and application.  Don’t just think about it, do it.

Are YOUR Salespeople Professionals?

When I think of a professional, my mind is instantly drawn to doctors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, musician, architects, athletes or any other occupation that requires extensive education, training and specific practice of skills and knowledge prior to engaging in a particular trade. Additionally, professionals are typically rewarded with a high level of financial compensation and universal respect. Respect comes from the understanding of the price they have paid in time, effort and financial investment to achieve their specific skills. The dictionary describes a professional as “a person engaged or qualified in a profession: professionals such as lawyers and doctors. A person engaged in a specified activity, esp. a sport or branch of the performing arts, as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. A person competent or skilled in a particular activity, having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully, such as a highly competent surgeon.”

When we hire salespeople we think in terms of hiring the very best; someone who can get the job done. We are looking for professionals who can bring profitable sales to our company. Management is dependant upon their salespeople to drive the success of their company. Success begins with the sale. If nothing is sold, nothing is produced. Simply stated, management is held captive by their sales force. However, they have hired professional salespeople so they shouldn’t be a concerned, or should they? Professionals by definition are qualified, competent, skilled, having the ability and knowledge to do something successfully. Professionals are educated and trained in medical schools, dental schools, law schools, business schools, music schools, etc., but I’m totally unaware of the existence of a sales school designed for the specific purpose of teaching, training practicing and qualifying individuals for the profession of selling.

Several months ago many of the salespeople we train at The Business Performance Group qualified for a sales incentive trip to Peru. While there we visited a tiny elementary school in an isolated Indian village in the jungle along the banks of the mighty Amazon River. We participated in a cultural exchange with these children. “What do you want to become when you grow up?” was one of the questions we asked each of the children. Many responded that they wanted to become teachers. Others wanted to become doctors or nurses. A few thought a farmer would be a noble profession. Interestingly, no one said they wanted to be a salesperson. Quite frankly, even in this country I have never met anyone who told me they wanted to specifically pursue a career in selling. Many people study business, accounting, marketing, management, but not sales. Isn’t it interesting that selling is not a profession where people study and practice specific skills and knowledge prior to engaging in the trade.

How many people would consult with a doctor who didn’t have a degree from a qualified medical school? How many people would engage an attorney who had never attended, let alone graduated from law school. How many people would trust their finances to someone who was not certified in the field of finance? And yet, business owners and executives running both large and small companies put the financial success of their businesses in the hands of men and women who have no formal training in the knowledge and application of the skills necessary to achieve sales success. Theses executives assume that someone who claims to be salesperson can actually produce the sales necessary to achieve profitability. When these salespeople fall short of the task, there are plenty of excuses. Do any of these statements sound familiar? The market is down. It just takes a while to learn the market. People just aren’t buying now. I’m doing my best. I don’t have the right sales tools. The company sales goals are unrealistic. Our prices are too high. We don’t have what the customer is looking for. The competition is selling at a loss – and the list goes on.

Are owners and executives in a “no win” situation? Absolutely not! Here is the answer plain and simple in terms that everyone should be able to understand. TRAIN YOUR SALESPEOPLE. Training is not a cost; it is an investment. Why train your salespeople? Training is the only way you can guarantee that your salespeople will gain the skills, knowledge, experience and practice necessary to become the professionals you expect. There is no school to teach salespeople their profession. It doesn’t exist at a college or institutional level. It should, but it doesn’t. Wouldn’t you just love to have a salesperson that was classroom educated, trained by experienced professionals, coached in the trenches of the trade and certified to exceed their peers in performance and profit? Those salespeople who have experienced some degree of training have attended a few seminars and read a books or two during their career. Think about it for a moment. Does a few days of sales training really compare to four years of medical school, internships and residency? Does it equal a college degree, three years of law school, internships and clerking for judges? Does a few days of training measure up to the years of training and practice necessary to become a professional musician or an athlete? Sales training, to be successful, should be consistent and long-term. If management will make this level of investment in their salespeople they will receive a more lucrative return on their investment than any other area within their business. Trained professional salespeople do not hold corporate profits captive.

Here are five suggestions for business owners and executives who want to grow their profits through sales:

1. Analyze the performance of all of your salespeople. Eliminate those who shouldn’t be in sales and then train the rest.
2. Sales training is very specific to the skills and principles of selling. Don’t confuse sales training with product training.
3. Sales training is not “hit and miss”. It is a specific program of principles and skills centered on daily activity and focused effort.
4. Doctors and lawyers spend years training and practicing for their careers. To become a sales professional also takes years of consistent training and effort.
5. If you don’t make the investment in training your salespeople who will? People don’t learn sales in school, it is an education you must provide. If you will make the investment in your salespeople, you will absolutely receive the reward.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T AFRAID?

This question was raised by Haw, one of the little people in Spencer Johnson’s classic parable, Who Moved My Cheese. For salespeople everywhere let me pose the question to you, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Fear is one of the greatest roadblocks to sales success. Edmund Burke a British statesman said of fear, “No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” There are many varieties of fear and you are familiar with most of them. Salespeople deal with these fears every day. The fear of failing, the fear of looking foolish, the fear of working on your own and even the fear of success are all known factors that impact your ability to be successful in sales.

You will never achieve your highest level of sales success until you are willing to take a risk. I’m not talking about being reckless in your activities. I’m talking about taking calculated risks like moving out of your comfort zone and doing those things that have proven successful even though you might feel uncomfortable at first. You must be willing to create a habit of doing those things you fear most until you systematically over come your fears. There is nothing wrong with being afraid; we all have our fears. But, once you have formed the habit of standing up to fear, it will lose its power over you. To quote Albert Gray, “The common denominator of success, the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” I believe this statement encompasses overcoming your fears. Those salespeople who are successful have risen above their fears unlike those who are unsuccessful.

I remember vividly my greatest sales fear. I had just completed graduate school and was working as a salesperson in my first “real” sales job with the M.A. Hanna Company in Cleveland, Ohio. At that time, Hanna was the world’s second largest producer and marketer of iron ore for the steel industry. My sales territory was North America and I was responsible for the sale of iron ore to the fourteen integrated steel mills in the United States and Canada. My degree was in International Business not steel making, so naturally I felt a little intimidated working in an industry where I had zero experience. My boss had given me a copy of the book The Making, Shaping and Treating of Steel, published by US Steel, hoping to give me the technical knowledge I so desperately needed. If you understood everything within the covers of that huge book, you would have the knowledge equivalent to a Master Degree in metallurgy.

With that lengthy introduction, my fear was making phone calls. I needed to make frequent contact with the executives responsible for purchasing the millions of tons of iron ore that was consumed annually in the gigantic blast furnaces throughout North America. I would pick up the phone with great fear and intimidation only to hang up before I had completed dialing the number. I would try again as large drops of perspiration would bead up on my forehead and then cancel the call before the phone was answered. I can’t explain how frightened I was to talk to those men who were typically twice my age having a wealth of knowledge and me, still green behind the ears. I would get these huge perspiration stains under my armpits that would go down to my waste and run around the back of my shirt. I would sit and stare at the phone mentally making the call and imagining what to say and what the responses might be. I find myself reliving that pain and fear just by thinking and talking about it. For months I struggled silently with my fear and then one day I decided to meet it head-on. I decided that those experienced and wise men, just like me, got up every morning and put their pants on one leg at a time. Just like me, there was a time in their lives when they too, didn’t know a lot about the steel industry. Slowly I overcame my fear of calling and talking to my customers and prospects.

I mention that experience early in my sales career for two reasons. First, I have empathy for any salesperson that experiences fear and second, because I know first hand how real and paralyzing fear can be in the mind and body of a salesperson. One of the side effects of fear is a lack of belief or self worth. You believe that others are more qualified than you or they are better suited for success than you. When you doubt your abilities you are defeated before you even begin. In William Shakespeare’s play, Measure for Measure he is quoted as saying, “Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” Here are five things you can do to eliminate the effects of fear in your sales career:

You are not alone. Understand that everyone has fears, not just you.

Meet your fears “head-on”. Deal with them directly and immediately.

Believe in yourself. You have talents and abilities that are of worth. Your abilities may be different than someone else but different has nothing to do with value; value yourself.

Act as if you weren’t afraid. Develop an attitude of optimism that will restrain your fears.

Think beyond your fears. Visualize those things you would do if you weren’t afraid.

What would I do differently in sales if you weren’t afraid? I would talk to everyone about my products and services. I would get up early and work hard and smart each day. I would set goals for success believing that I could achieve them. I would ask for the opportunity to do business with everyone I met, believing they would say yes. I would welcome rejection for the opportunity it would present to resolve concerns. I would thank my lucky stars every day for the privilege of being a salesperson.