Sales & Marketing Tip Of The Week

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2011-09-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

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Honesty And Integrity Must Be Practiced In Sales

2011-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Successful sales people are at peace with themselves and with their customers. The peace they feel comes from their belief in their products and services and the honest and straightforward approach they have taken with their customers. When you feel right it is much easier to act right and when you act right, you do right. The world is full of salespeople who don’t believe in their products and are willing to say whatever it takes to make the sale. They willingly accept money based on hollow promises, knowing in their hearts that the product is incapable of doing what it was purchased to do. Others will say and do those things that “hook” the buyer, eliminating other options in order to deliberately lock buyers into their product with total disregard for the implications that will ultimately come to plaque the customer. It almost seems as though they live by the creed, “all is fair, as long as you make the sale”.

Selling is not a short-term proposition. Successful salespeople are always thinking long-term. Short-term relationships are built on lies and deception while lasting sales relationships are anchored firmly on a foundation of honesty and trust. Of course, there are salespeople who have enjoyed phenomenal success through deceptive practices. However, their success is not lasting nor is it satisfying. Many will eventually be discovered and others will leave sales and move on to other careers. In both cases, their success and careers are hollow, void of personal satisfaction, having left a trail of unfulfilled promises and expectations.

If you want to find the true joy and success that can be experienced in a sales career, you must not only be honest with yourself but with your customers as well. There are no degrees of honesty, either you are honest or you aren’t. In the classic tale written by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he wrote a chapter titled “You Can’t Pray A Lie”. Huck was troubled with his life, the way he was living and the things he had done. He finally decided to seek peace for his aching soul. Here are Huck’s words as written by Mark Twain:

“It made me shiver. And I about made up my mind to pray and see if I couldn't try to quit being the kind of a boy I was and be better. So I kneeled down. But the words wouldn't come. Why wouldn't they? It warn't no use to try and hide it from Him. Nor from ME, neither. I knowed very well why they wouldn't come. It was because my heart warn't right; it was because I warn't square; it was because I was playing double. I was letting ON to give up sin, but away inside of me I was holding on to the biggest one of all. I was trying to make my mouth SAY I would do the right thing and the clean thing and go and write to that [slave's] owner and tell where he was; but deep down in me I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can't pray a lie — I found that out.”

As salespeople, we represent our employers, our industry, our profession, our friends, our families and ourselves. Just as Doctors subscribe to the Hippocratic Oath, swearing to practice medicine ethically, so must salespeople for the sake of all those people who’s lives they influence, be honest, forthright and ethical in all of their practices. You will find internal peace and satisfaction while at the same time, rebuilding the image of the greatest profession in the world.

There Is No Magic Bullet Or Secret Formula To Increasing Sales

2011-06-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why do other salespeople sell more than I do?” There may be many reasons, but one of them is not because they have found a magic bullet or secret formula. However, if they are selling more than you, there is definitely a reason. I wish I could tell you that sales superstars know something that you don’t, or have discovered a sales secret known only to a few, but that isn’t the case. The plain and simple truth is this: if you did what they do, you would have the same results. And, what they do is not a secret, you can do it too.

I recently sat in on two sales presentations. I love to subject myself to salespeople to critique them and to stay in touch with the current level of performance in the sales profession. The first salesperson asked one question of me and then jumped right into his “pitch.” He was pretty good at telling me his story, but he had absolutely no idea about what my company does and no real understanding as to whether I needed his product. The second salesperson jumped right into the presentation without even asking my name. When I later asked him about his approach, he suggested that since I must have been very busy, he didn’t want to waste any time building rapport or assessing needs and thought that it would be better to just get right to the point.

Let me share 5 things that successful salespeople do, which you could also do to increase your sales. These five things are not secret or magic. In fact, they are probably things that you know, but just don’t do because you don’t understand how powerful they are in closing the sale.

1. You should be closing the sale from the first moment the prospect first sets eyes on you. Your appearance is the first impression you make with the prospect. If you don’t have the look of a person they want to buy from, they probably won’t buy from you. Dress the part of a successful salesperson, act the part of a successful salesperson, speak the part of a successful salesperson and become a successful salesperson.

2. The most important person in the world of selling is the customer. Treat them as if they are. Don’t put yourself above them and don’t focus on yourself. They may act polite, but they really don’t care about you. They care about themselves, their problems and what you can do for them. When you focus on the customer, you are literally closing the sale.

3. Diagnosing the customer’s needs, I believe, is even more important to the process of closing a sale than just flat out asking for the sale. People buy from people they believe, like and trust. Diagnosing needs, builds trust and confidence better than anything else you can do. Your prospects and customers will want to buy from you because you have gone where no other salesperson has ever ventured. You have discovered the core of their needs. For that reason alone, you have made the sale.

4. Honesty is not typically expected from a salesperson. It should be the most important character trait of every person that sells, but sadly it isn’t. Your honest and straightforward approach, hiding nothing from the prospective buyer, is one of the best methods to close a sale. Honesty does not have degrees. You are either honest or you are not. Dishonesty will eventually lead to your failure as a salesperson. Your reputation will precede you. So remember, people buy from people they believe, like and trust.

5. See the people. Spend time with your prospects and customers. Sales are not made in the office. Sales are made in the presence of buyers. Get out of your office and be among the people you are selling to. They want to see that you care enough to spend time with them. Romance your prospects and customers by delivering new news and repeating to them things you have previously shared. Selling takes place when you create a dialogue and you need to be with your prospects to have a dialogue. I’m not talking about bothering buyers with the two most worthless questions a salesperson can ask, i.e., “Have you made up your mind yet and do you have any questions?” Take them meaningful information and personally assist them in the decision making process.

There is no magic bullet or secret formula used by the world’s best salespeople. The difference is that they do the things that both you and they know and even though you know those things, you choose not to do them. You can quote me on this: “Successful salespeople do what they know, whereas, less successful sales people know, but don’t do.” The world of successful salespeople is characterized by doing, not just knowing.

Patience And Persistence Are Keys To Sales Success

2011-06-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

We live in the “instant gratification” era. It has been categorized by cold cereal, instant mashed potatoes, microwave popcorn, energy bars, anything microwaveable, watching movies at home “on demand”, email, texting, and the internet just to name a few. This generation suffers greatly when they have to wait for anything. Young people demand the life-style that their parents enjoy, immediately upon leaving home. Instant gratification is also characterized by the size of consumer debt in the United States, nearly $2.4 trillion dollars as of March 2011. Average credit card debt per household is nearly $15,000. Buy now, pay later, seems to be the theme of this generation. There are a plethora of college degrees, which can be obtained over the Internet. Some of these degrees require no learning at all and a payment of just $240. For an additional $100 you can graduate Magna cum laude. This attitude of instant gratification has carried over into the world of employment, particularly selling.

The typical salesperson is not willing to prepare properly for a career in selling. They are looking for a career field that takes no preparation and will provide them a large income. They are unwilling to educate and prepare themselves to properly enter the job market. Many of these people want a salary that will guarantee them a wage as opposed to a commission that guarantees they earn the money they receive. I have interviewed salespeople who have asked for a substantial salary up front and then said that they would prove through their performance that they were worth the high salary. When I have countered with, “You perform first and then I will pay you the high salary”, they suddenly became less interested in the opportunity. The Chinese have a saying that refers to participating in sex before marriage, which translated means, “board the train first, and then buy your ticket.” Too often, the people of this instant gratification generation want all of the rewards and benefits without spending the time to prepare to earn them.

The typical salesperson will make just three attempts to complete a sale before they quit and move on. They lack the skills, patience and the persistence to complete all the sales that they could be making. Statistically we know that it takes between five and seven contacts with a prospective buyer before they feel comfortable buying from you. Without the belief and trust that you can deliver on your promises, the prospect will typically not purchase. The majority of salespeople want the sale now. They have been programed for instant gratification. They are unwilling to spend the time to romance the sale through building trust. They walk away from the sale because they don’t exhibit the patience necessary to complete the selling process. I was talking to a business owner the other day that told me he was ready to make a purchase from a salesperson that had been calling on him. He was sold on the product from the time the salesperson first approached him. The business owner told me that even though he was ready to make the purchase, he wanted the salesperson to earn the sale. In order to earn the sale, he needed to spend the time necessary with the business owner. Once he felt the salesperson had spent enough time, the owner would give him the purchase order.

Selling is a process. Every salesperson needs to learn and understand the process necessary to sell their products and services. There are no shortcuts! Each step of the process must be followed. Be patient and don’t try to rush the process. If you push, you may lose the opportunity. If you are not persistent, you may walk away too soon, leaving an easy sale for your competition. Selling is the process of discovering the needs of your prospect and then systematically providing the solution to their needs. To even be given the opportunity to discover their needs, you must demonstrate that you care about them, and are willing to do all that is necessary to earn their business. You must earn the right to present your product or service to them by thoroughly understanding the depth and breadth of their needs. The privilege of selling to them comes from spending the time to develop a relationship of belief and trust. Every phase of the sales process requires time. There is no such thing as “instant gratification” in the selling process.

Customers Want Excellent Service Regardless Of What They May Say

2011-05-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

You have heard the oft’ quoted statement that customers can choose two of three options; price, quality or service when they make a purchase. The majority of buyers will pick price and quality. The least chosen combination is quality and service. Given the three options I would always choose quality and service. Sure, I am interested in price, but at the end of the day, if you pay too little for something, it is probably incapable to doing what you purchased it to do. Then, the money you spent, even though you may have purchased the item for an incredibly low price, may be totally wasted.

Purchasing a product for the lowest price on the planet has no value if the product is not available when you need it. I have seen people pay ten times what a product was worth just to have it available when it was needed. If you pay too little, you might be better off not purchasing at all. The product quality may not meet your expectations or it may not be available when you need it. As a salesperson you have a solemn responsibility to diagnose and understand what the customer truly needs. I can promise you this, “If the customer isn’t happy, there is no way in the world that you will be happy”.

John Ruskin, the British essayist and social thinker said this about focusing too much on purchasing for the lowest price:

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too little.

When you pay too much, you lose a little money…that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot…it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.
And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.”

When all is said and done, your customer will have a far greater memory and emotional attachment based on the service that you provided than either quality or price. Again, the customer may tell you that price is the most important of the three elements of a purchase, but service is what they really want and expect. Let me share a couple of personal examples with you.

Last week I drove to Phoenix to visit my grandchildren and to conduct some business. The cruise control on my car was not working and by the time I arrived in Phoenix, my leg was somewhat stiff. The next day I drove over to the Audi dealer in Chandler, just a mile or so from my daughter’s home. As I approached the dealership I could see the new car showroom, but not the service department. I parked my car and went inside to ask directions to the service department. When I asked one of the salespeople directions to the service department, he said to follow him and he would take me there. He could have given me directions, but he jumped in a golf cart and led me their. That is what I call service.

When I arrived at the service department, there was a service technician waiting for me to get out of the car to take care of my needs. After explaining the situation, he suggested that it would be well for a mechanic to test drive my car. In less than one minute the mechanic and I were on the freeway testing the cruise control. He told me that he was almost positive that the clutch sensor for the cruise control was bad and within fifteen minutes he had the new part installed and I was on my way. This dealership and service department could write the book on excellent customer service.

My second example of extraordinary customer service involves Discount Tire Company. I’ve been buying my tires from them since 1992. I purchased new tires before my Phoenix road trip. The tires are not a common size and were shipped from the distributor in Dallas. The day after returning from Phoenix, I noticed the tire pressure sensor flashing on my dashboard. I was near the Discount Tire Store, so I immediately headed in that direction. I no sooner pulled up in front of the store with my engine still running when one of their sales people greeted me and asked how he could help me. I explained the situation and he instantly checked the pressure in all of my tires to determine if I had low air pressure or a faulty sensor. He found the tire that was leaking air and within just a few minutes had the tire off my car for repair.

After about ten minutes, the technician came into the waiting room carrying my tire (not a good sign). He said he had good news and bad news. The good news was that I had free replacement coverage on the tire and the bad news was the six-inch long half inch diameter piece of steel protruding through my tire had damaged it beyond repair. He told me that he had already done a search to find a replacement tire (I’m thinking Dallas and four days). The technician jumped in his truck, picked up the tire at the local Michelin distributor and within twenty-minutes I was on my way.

Service is the only thing salespeople offer that is purely emotional. We sell the product, but we provide the service. Memory is deeply rooted in emotional experiences, so when we provide great service, we are creating strong emotions and memories in the minds of our customers. It is those emotions that generate repeat sales, referrals and letters of recommendation. You can offer quality, price or service. Even the best company and salesperson can only provide two of the three. Trust me on this; the very best combination is quality and service.

How Good Are Your Sales Skills And Techniques?

2011-05-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

If you really want to improve your sales skills and increase your income, conduct a self-evaluation. Most salespeople go through their entire career doing the same thing over and over again, not really knowing the value of their performance. They may actually be better than they thought, or believe they are good when they are not. The evaluation process is similar to going to the doctor. The doctor will give you an examination, a series of tests and procedures that will indicate with fairly precise accuracy, your physical well-being. When was the last time you conducted a personal sales examination? If you don’t know your condition, how will you ever improve? And that, my fellow salespeople is the point of this article. If you don’t know your sales well-being, then how will you know if you need to improve, and if so, what to improve on.

Make a point every day to perform a personal diagnostic evaluation. Evaluate every aspect of your activities and your performance in each area of the sales process. Begin with the basics and then move through the more difficult and complicated activities. Don’t skip any steps or activities. Make a list of all the activities and skills you use in your daily schedule. Once you have completed your list, give yourself a grade for each area. Any level of performance less than an “A,” should be scheduled for an evaluation. Be honest with yourself. If an area needs improvement, make a note and then think of things you can do to improve. Be specific and write down each suggestion for immediate and future reference. Make notes of those things you do very well and commit to doing them more often if needed.

Self-improvement is a constant evaluation of what works and what doesn’t and then doing those things consistently that will improve your performance. Outline exactly what needs to be accomplished in order to achieve the desired result. Remember, nothing is impossible even though it may seem difficult. Committing yourself to a regular program of improvement will be the best guarantee you could possibly have against unemployment. Excellent salespeople are in constant demand, even in challenging economic conditions. You will be able to write your own ticket for success. Companies are constantly looking for top talent and will make a hiring decision when the right salesperson comes along. Guaranteed employment is one of the perks for top performing salespeople. They are recession proof, age proof, and performance proof.

Know your strengths and your weaknesses as well as those areas where you have passion to improve. After a few short weeks, you will sense improvement that will motivate you to be consistent in your efforts. The day will come when your improved skills will enable sales to become easier and more natural. A regular routine of self-evaluation and improvement focus will be your answer to enhanced performance, improved attitude and greater wealth.

It’s What You Do With Knowledge That Counts

2011-05-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

At the conclusion of each of my workshops, I always make this statement:

“The principles and skills you have learned today are valuable and correct. I hope that you have not only been richly fed, but have had a fire lit within your soul. Nothing we have discussed and learned today will make any difference in your life and sales career unless you take action. The only thing that really matters is what you are going to do with the knowledge you have gained today. If you take action and change your behaviors, then the time we have spent is worthwhile. If you do nothing, then you would have been better off going to a movie. The only value derived from knowledge is found in its application. Take the knowledge you have gained today, apply it in your sales activities and I will guarantee that you will enjoy greater sales success. I’ve done my part; the rest is up to you. What you choose to do with this information will influence your career in either a positive or negative manner. The choice is yours. Thank you for your patience, your participation and your willingness to improve yourselves.”

I’m reminded of the story told about Socrates as he demonstrated to a student the importance of desire in learning. The story alleges that Socrates took the student to a fountain where he held his head under water. The student struggled with all his might to free himself for a breath of air. When he finally broke free and raised his head, gasping to take in a life saving breath, Socrates replied. “When your desire to learn is as great as your desire to breathe, then you will become a great student.”

In sales, there is no shortage of great knowledge and learning. The world is full of great fundamentalist teachers and practitioners. Sales training is a seven billion dollar per year industry. Salespeople are learning daily. Where the world falls short, is with salespeople who are willing to take action and apply the principles and skills they have learned. People tend to gravitate to their comfort zones and only do those things they feel comfortable in doing; those things they have always done. Regardless of how much they have learned, there will be no change in their performance until they take action. Taking action on things learned brings about the birth of change. Knowledge and action are inseparable in bringing about change. One cannot exist without the other and together they can bring about great success.

Find the desire and motivation to gain knowledge and then take action by putting your new knowledge into practice. Knowledge and action; there is no substitute for these two principles on the road to sales success. The more action you take, the more you will come to understand this principle. Learn and apply, isn’t that the way we learned in Kindergarten? It is also the way we learn in sales. “Take the knowledge you have gained today, apply it in your sales activities and I will guarantee that you will enjoy greater personal sales success. I’ve done my part; the rest is up to you. What you choose to do with this information will influence your career in either a positive or negative manner. The choice is yours. Thank you for your patience, your participation and your willingness to improve yourselves.”

A New Approach For Increasing Your Sales

2011-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

This sales article is directed primarily to those who sell products and services to businesses. There are two main avenues to increasing your sales. First, find more customers to buy your products. Second, encourage your current customers to buy more. In the first case, there is no guarantee that your sales will increase. You may have more customers, but they may not buy more. In the second case, if your customers buy more, you will sell more. How do you get them to buy more? They can increase their inventories or they can sell more to their customers. I believe that if your customers thought they could sell more, they would already be doing it.

Several years ago I had a client who was responsible for finding new agents to sell their financial services products. He was doing an excellent job in signing up agents to represent them. Every month he added dozens of new agents. Month after month, the number of agents increased dramatically and every month, sales remained about the same. All his efforts to recruit new agents were having a negligible effect on sales. We changed our focus. Think about it. What good is a customer that doesn’t buy? We put our focus on teaching the agents how to effectively sell the financial products. Sales started to go through the roof. Teaching your customers how to sell may possibly be the best thing you can do to increase your sales. When they sell more, you sell more!

Several weeks ago, I shared the concept of teaching customers how to sell, with one of my clients. For him, bringing on new dealers is a slow and deliberate process. We wanted to see his sales increase in the near term, but new dealers were a long-term proposition. The only option was to generate more sales with the current dealers. My client went to work teaching his current dealers how to sell. They were very open-minded and willing to learn. As they learned, they applied the techniques and skills they had been taught. One salesperson closed a sale he had been working on for a couple of years and stated that it was due to a sales principle he had just learned to apply correctly. My client will probably double his sales this year from teaching his customers how to improve their sales. They in turn, will remain loyal customers due to the impact the sales training has had on their sales performance and their subsequent commission checks.

I remember the oft-told saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. You can have the same impact on your customers. Find a way to help them do the one thing that will have a profound impact on their bottom line profits. Teach them how to sell. We have been implementing a training program for the past couple of years at the Business Performance Group. It is called “Client Development.” The Client Development program was developed and written with the express purpose of teaching customers how to improve their sales. If you want to double your sales this year, teach your customers how to improve their sales. Bye the way, my client who taught his agents how to improve their sales, was rewarded by being made a partner in the financial services company.

Sales Training Can Be The Difference Between Success Or Failure

2011-04-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Every day I have the opportunity to interview salespeople to determine whether I want to spend time training them in the knowledge and skills of selling. I don’t want to waste their employer’s money if the salespeople are not committed to improving their skills, allowing them to produce more profit for their employer. I feel a deep commitment to produce a fabulous return on a business owner’s investment in sales training. I’m confident in the programs taught and trained at the Business Performance Group and I need to feel just as confident in the salespeople I work with.

I’m looking for a positive attitude and a desire to improve their situation. I’m looking for a person that wants more out of life and one that is willing to pay the price required for success. I’m looking for a salesperson who knows they can improve and is willing to work hard and apply new methods of achieving success. I’m looking for salespeople who have dreams and goals, people who want more out of life than they ever imagined possible. I’m looking for salespeople who are willing to move beyond their comfort zone and take a risk in doing things they have never done before in order to achieve their dreams. What are you willing to do in order to achieve your own dreams and goals?

I was speaking with a business owner the other day who asked me what he should do with his salespeople if after I interviewed them, I decided not to train them. My answer was simple and straightforward. I told him that I didn’t care what he did with them, that was his decision. Personally, I wouldn’t keep a salesperson who didn’t want to improve, unless I was satisfied with his or her performance. At that point I would have to decide if someone else could do better and if I was willing to sacrifice what I could achieve with someone else for what I was getting with my current salespeople. I believe that a salesperson who is given the opportunity to improve their performance, should capitalize on that opportunity. By not striving for improvement, they are telling their employer that they don’t care about the success of the company.

The world is full of mediocrity. It can be found in every facet of the workplace. Selling is no exception. Sales training is a seven billion dollar per year industry and yet most salespeople don’t take the initiative to improve their performance. I was talking to a good friend of mine who is a physician. He told me that he spends more than ten hours each week, learning and improving his skills to remain on the cutting edge, no pun intended, of his profession. Professionals in all areas spend time improving their skills to be at the top of their game. Many professions require a certain number of continuing education credits each year to maintain their accreditation or license to practice. What are you doing to improve your performance and to stay on top of your sales game?

Imagine what you could accomplish in the field of sales if you spent ten hours each week, learning and improving your skills. Most salespeople have no idea how good they can actually be at selling. When the economy is strong they have decent sales results and when the economy is struggling, like it has been for the past three years, their sales are down. They rationalize their performance based on the economy. I wouldn’t want my surgeon rationalizing my recovery just because he didn’t know the latest procedures and medical techniques. Salespeople, get your selves trained. Business owners, get your salespeople trained. In the past three years there have been many companies who have flourished while their competitors have closed their doors. The companies that have flourished trained their salespeople and the ones who closed their doors didn’t. Sales training is not a cost, but rather, an investment in the success of your company. It is not too late to begin. Those companies who provide programs for their salespeople will always out perform those that don’t and in this economy it might be the difference between achieving more success than you ever dreamed possible, or shutting your doors for the last time.

The Rewards of Sales Success

2011-04-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

You might think I’m sick and demented, but I’m sitting on the beach South of Cancun on the Mayan Riviera writing my sales article for this week. The Caribbean Ocean is crystal clear with a light blue and turquois color. The coral sand is shimmering white and the consistency of flour. The waiters, patrolling the beach, make sure I don’t go wanting for my favorite beverage. Life is great. To quote my good friend Marshal, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

The week we will spend on the Mayan Riviera is an incentive trip for 23 of my clients, wives, significant others and employees. They have all worked hard, created excessive profits for their employers and earned this trip as a reward for their performance. I must admit, it is a bit distractive to take in this magnificent beauty and try to make sense of my thoughts while pounding the keys of my laptop.

Through his efforts to learn and practice improved sales skills, Jon from Robert Love Heating and Air Conditioning increased his performance by 151% over his previous years average. He told me the experience was life changing as he not only increased his income, raised his standard of living, but made some significant changes in his personal life. All of the principles that Jon learned can be applied in every aspect of his life. He has learned that when the correct principles are applied, he can accomplish.

Scott, with Wheeler Machinery, was reassigned to a different sales division within the company. In addition to learning a new product and service, he was enrolled in a year long sales training and coaching program. His was an ominous challenge to learn and apply both product knowledge as well as perfecting his sales skills. Scott was given a goal based on what his predecessors had achieved. After one year of training and coaching, Scott’s performance was 191% of his benchmark. He is enjoying this fabulous week with his wife and two daughters.

The temptation to jump up, run across the powdery beach and dive into the water is almost more than I can stand. That will be my reward when I complete this article.

Robert has spent his career in operations for the Halverson Company. Most of his time has been in the field, managing projects and people. After a career of hard physical labor, he was given the opportunity to manage the department and to generate sales. This past year he has learned that selling, even though it is vastly different from operations, is hard work. He was benchmarked against the performance of another employee who had been selling steel fabrication work for several years. Robert did not see results for several months, although he became a student of sales, learning and applying the principles and skills he was learning. He completed his first year with a 189% increase over his benchmark. His life will never be the same having learned new skills and demonstrating that through effort and discipline he can achieve more than he ever dreamed possible in his new career. Robert and his wife are enjoying a dream vacation all because of his outstanding performance. By the way, in the first three months of the new sales year, Robert has already achieved 70% of his new goal that was set at five times his previous goal.

Jon, Scott and Robert are my heroes. They have demonstrated what we have seen time and time again. When you work hard at applying the correct principles and skills of selling, you can accomplish goals that others can only dream of.

I’m enjoying a fabulous day on the beach with my wife, employees and clients. We all work hard and then we play hard. To say it is worth it, is an understatement. Sales is the greatest career in the world. It doesn’t get any better than this. I’ve got to run, I can’t resist the turquois water any longer.

10 Sales Myths

2011-04-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Since most salespeople do not have a formal education in selling, other than the schooling of experience and mentoring, they become fair game to believing myths, urban legends and partial truths. I have listed ten common myths accompanied by the true sales principles. In most cases, the myth and the truth are not far apart. However, the results of applying the true principle versus the myth are miles apart. Apply the true principles and enjoy a significant increase in your sales performance.

1. It is good to either be the first salesperson or the last to talk to a prospect. Some salespeople think that by being either the first thing on the prospect’s mind or the last thing on their mind gives them an advantage. It doesn’t really matter. The key to making a sale is to discover what the prospect really needs and then help them to achieve it. Build rapport and trust and then demonstrate that you really understand their needs. Present the right solution based on your knowledge and experience with a vast base of happy customers. This will put you in the best position to make the sale.

2. The key to sales success is found in hard work. Working hard is important to sales success, but you must be working hard doing the right things. If you aren’t doing what needs to be done, it doesn’t matter how hard you work. The most successful salespeople know their sales process and they work hard doing only those things that will bring them closer to making the sale. Just as motion is not necessarily progress, neither is working hard the solution to more sales. Working hard at doing the right things is the key to sales success.

3. Practice makes perfect. All of my early life, I believed that practice made perfect. Practice makes permanent! If you practice religiously doing something incorrectly, you will become extremely good at doing something incorrectly. If you want to become perfect at something, you must practice doing that thing perfectly. Repeat after me, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Learn the correct sales principles and skills and then commit yourself to practicing them perfectly.

4. The one who speaks the most wins the sale. Nothing could be further from the truth. Telling is not selling and will never be the answer to more sales. The salesperson that engages the prospect and learns all they can about the needs, wants, desires, ambitions and dreams of the prospect will learn enough to make the sales. They key to selling is found in listening. The person who listens the most will know what to do in order to make the sale. You can’t talk and listen at the same time. If you can only do one, make it listening. Your sales will increase dramatically.

5. Getting thru the presentation without any objections is good. There is an ill-conceived notion that if the prospect doesn’t verbalize an objection or concern, then there must not be any. Not true! People don’t buy if they have concerns or objections and just because they don’t express them doesn’t mean they don’t have them. Objections and concerns are good. This is a sign of interest. Give the prospect an opportunity to express their concerns. Get them all out on the table so they can be understood and resolved. Talk about them. Resolve them and then make the sale. Ask the prospect to tell you their concerns. Ask the question, “Besides that, is there anything else?” Keep asking until they tell you there are no more concerns. The resolution of concerns creates a dialogue, and the dialogue is critical to closing the sale.

6. The customer is always right. Guess what? The customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is very wrong. However, the customer will always be the customer and if you don’t treat them right, no matter how wrong they may be, you will never make the sale. Lead them and guide them to the right conclusion through diplomatic questioning. Never forget, without a customer, you are out of business.

7. Sell the prospect what they tell you they want. This one sounds good, but sounding good has nothing to do with the truth. A customer will never be happy if you sell them what they want. You will lose future opportunities to sell to them and you will lose potential referrals if you sell them what they want. The subtlety here is to sell them what they need. Very often the prospect will tell you what they want which isn’t what they need. After realizing that what you sold them is not what they needed, they will be unhappy and blame you completely. After all, you are the one who sold them. The prospect doesn’t care that you sold them what they asked for if it doesn’t solve their problem. Sell the prospect what they need or you will wish you had.

8. Telling is selling. Selling is the process of understanding the needs of the prospect and then helping them to achieve those needs. Listening is selling. By the way, listening is much more difficult than talking and delivers a more profitable result.

9. Great products sell themselves. I would be willing to venture that there are more incredible products that never gained approval from the buying public than there are incredible products that we all buy and use. Why? Great products don’t sell themselves; salespeople sell them. I don’t care how wonderful, unique or perfectly engineered your product might be. If you don’t present it as a solution to someone’s needs, they probably won’t buy it. From a salesperson’s point of view, it is an absolute advantage to have the best product or service within your industry. However, if you don’t sell it, no one will buy it.

10. The same salesperson can’t sell effectively in different industries. Every business wants to believe that their product is unique and special. Because of this thought, they believe a salesperson must be specialized with years of experience in an industry to be successful. Don’t flatter yourself with this narrow band of thought. Selling is Selling and the same principles apply regardless of product or industry. Selling is comprised of 40% sales skills, 40% attitude and 20% product knowledge. A salesperson that has excellent skills and a great attitude is capable of selling any product or service.

The Four Plagues Of Sales Success

2011-03-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

The other day I was teaching a group of seasoned salespeople a handful of basic, core principles that will make even the best salesperson better and when applied, make an average salesperson excellent. As I began the workshop, I asked the question, “What are you trying to accomplish as a salesperson?” All of their answers were in the ballpark. We agreed on this definition: “The purpose of a salesperson is to bring profitable sales to the company;” simple, yet profound. We then discussed several reasons why salespeople were not as successful as they could be. I’m going to list a few reasons we discussed accompanied by my thoughts relating to each one. These reasons may seem similar to the ones that plague you and my responses may be a solution to your own sales dilemma.

1. Not enough time: There will never be enough time in a day. There will be constant challenges for the time you have and emergencies will endlessly raise their ugly heads. The only way to deal with time is to begin your day with a plan. Plan to be on time for work and leave after completing a full day. Make a written plan of all the things that must be done, along with all the things you would like to get done during the day. Prioritize and then determine how much time you will spend achieving each item on your list. Remember, the number one “time waster” in the world is spending more time on a task than it deserves. Now, move each item to a time frame. Block out as much time as each task requires. Move from one task to the next throughout the day, maintaining a constant vigilance against the ever-present distractions that will throw you off track. Don’t take the complacent attitude that you are too busy to plan. Planning takes work and application and will improve the effective use of your time by a minimum of twenty percent. Once you have made your plan, do everything within your power to avoid distractions and strive to stay on course.

2. Don’t have enough prospects: Make prospecting a major part of your daily activity. Even during the busiest day, dealing with all the detail and drama of selling, make sure that you still spend even fifteen minutes prospecting. Stay in the habit of daily prospecting. The definition of prospecting is to engage yourself in those activities that will allow you to discover profitable sales opportunities. The most effective source of prospecting centers on your current and past customers. To be effective you must know their business as if it were your own. Look for opportunities to solve problems through the use of your products or services. If there are no current sales opportunities with current or past customers, ask them for referrals. Also, make sure that you have a current letter of recommendation from each customer that can be used to influence other prospects.

3. There are too many distractions throughout the course of the day: Guess what? There will always be distractions. You can avoid the majority of them through the daily practice of planning and scheduling your day. You must make a constant effort to stay focused on the achievement of your daily plan. Success doesn’t just happen, and luck is not a component of the success process. Planning and then following the plan is the main ingredient of success. The perfectly executed day, void of any distraction is about as rare as a colorless, flawless diamond. Be vigilant, constantly on alert for those distractions that will move you off course.

4. I’m really busy but not making much progress: Probably the most common words spoken by a salesperson refer to always being busy. That may be true, but busy has nothing to do with profitable. The solution is to set goals. Sales goals must be realistic, challenging and achievable. Every sales goal must be time and date specific and should have a list of activities that, when completed, will result in the achievement of the goal. You can monitor your performance by the completion of the goal activities. If you are not doing the activities, you are not making progress and if you are not making progress you will not achieve your goals no matter how busy you are.

Now that you understand the four plagues of sales success, you can apply the solutions and enjoy even greater success. Remember, it is not what you know, but rather what you do with knowledge that makes a difference.

True Salesmanship Is Focusing On The Prospect, Not Yourself

2011-03-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to understand the other person’s point of view and see things from his eyes as well as from your own.

Action springs out of what we fundamentally desire and the best piece of advice which can be given to would-be persuaders, whether in business, in home, in school, in politics, is: first, discover in the other person an eager want. The person that can do this has the whole world on his side. The person who cannot, walks a lonely path.

If you want someone to do something, give him or her what they want. They don’t care what you want; their only concern is achieving their wants and desires. When you go fishing, you bait the hook with what the fish wants, don’t you. The fish couldn’t care less what you want to put on the hook; it only cares what it wants to eat. If you want to catch fish, bait the hook to suit the fish. Dealing with people is exactly the same. People are only interested in what they want. They don’t care what you or I want. The only way in the world to influence another person is to find out what they want and then show them how to get it.

Everything you or I have ever done in our lives was done for just one reason; we wanted to do it. You might be thinking that you were forced to do something. It might seem that way, but you chose to do one thing to avoid another. In other words, even though your choices might have been limited, you wanted to do one thing instead of another. In the world of sales, when you put your efforts into trying to persuade someone to do something, you should stop and ask yourself this question. “How can I make this person want to do it?” Finding a “want “ or a “need” in the other person is much easier and more successful in the world of selling than trying to cause someone to do something you want. No one cares what you want! People only care about one thing and that is, what they want. When you promote your agenda, it is similar to pushing a rope on a flat surface, which can be frustrating and ineffective. Discovering what the other person needs and wants is like pulling a rope, which is easier and more effective.

Every day millions of salespeople are pounding the pavement, tired, discouraged and underpaid. Why? Because they are thinking of just one thing – what they want. They don’t understand this one fundamental truth. Prospects are only interested in one thing and that one thing is what they want. They don’t care that a salesperson wants to make a sale in order to pay the mortgage, put food on the table, gas in the car or to put shoes on their children’s feet. People don’t want to be sold, but they do want to solve their problems. If salespeople can help other people see how their products and services can solve problems, then they don’t need to sell, people will want to buy.

Salespeople might struggle their entire career trying to persuade prospects to buy when all they need to do is understand the prospect’s problems and needs and then show them how the product or service will solve their problem. Once they see your product as a solution, they will gladly buy. It is all in your approach, just like moving a rope along a flat surface. You can try to push it, similar to focusing on your own needs by trying to sell someone something, or you can pull the rope, which is analogous to focusing on the needs of the prospect and showing them how your product will solve their problem. Instead of struggling through your sales career by focusing on yourself, take the easier and more successful approach of focusing on the other person and solving their problems. When the prospect is happy, you are both happy and you will be able to pay the mortgage, put food on the table, gas in the car, put shoes on your children’s feet and build a strong financial future.

Romancing The Sale

2011-03-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

Several years ago as I left the office of one of my clients, I hollered back into his office, “Don’t forget to romance this week.” His administrative assistant turned to me and said, “How do I enroll in your training program?”

Romancing the sales has proven to be one of the most effective selling principles applied by my clients. The number one reason that salespeople aren’t as successful as they could be is due to the lack of professional skills. Just to verify this point, how many of you have a degree in sales? The number two reason for lack of sales success is due to poor follow-up. Most salespeople don’t know when to follow-up or what to do if they follow-up. Either they follow-up too often and bother the prospect or they don’t follow-up often enough and lose the sale to the competition. Further, very few sales people understand the principle of romancing the sale which is very similar to the courting process leading to marriage.

Let me explain the process of romancing and then leave you with several lists of items that will be helpful as you embrace this most essential element of the sales process. Romancing is different that following up with a prospect. It has a much deeper meaning that focuses on the relationship between you and the buyer. Romancing takes only a few minutes and should not exceed three minutes with the prospect unless they invite you to stay longer. Romancing is best when it involves a personal contact, but can also be effective if your sales process only involves phone contact due to time and distance constraints. Romancing always involves the leaving of a physical gift of knowledge or benefit. When romancing by phone, send the gift of knowledge or benefit via fax or email and then discuss it briefly with the prospect over the phone. The romance is planned and schedule by you but is typically not a formally scheduled contact between you and the prospect. It is presented as a “drop in” to leave the prospect some information that will help them make the proper buying decision.

5 Reasons to romance:

1. People buy from people they believe, like and trust (BLT).

2. Your competitors don’t romance.

3. Romancing creates the opportunity for dialogue and dialogue promotes sales.

4. Romancing promotes understanding.

5. It is the most successful means of building a relationship with the buyer.

10 Things romancing can achieve

1. The average business –to-business sale requires seven contacts before the sale is closed. Romancing provides those contacts.

2. To build trust, you need to delve below the surface where most sales people never venture. Romancing allows the forum to learn what your competitors will never know.

3. Romancing involves bringing gifts of knowledge to help the prospect make informed decisions.

4. Romancing puts you in the middle of the decision making process

5. When you are walking your prospects through their concerns and resolving their questions, that means your competition isn’t.

6. Romancing allows you to assume the role of assistant buyer or partner in making the buying decision.

7. Romancing confirms your commitment and concern for the buyer’s well being.

8. Romancing puts you on the inside while most salespeople wait patiently on the outside for a decision.

9. Everyone likes to be romanced so your prospects will like you.

10. If you don’t make the current sale, you are well positioned to make the next one because you have the “buyer’s ear.”

How often should you romance?

1. If the purchase is to be made within 30 days, romance 2 times each week.

2. If the purchase is to be made within 2 months romance every week until the last 30 days and then romance 2 times each week.

3. If the purchase is to be made within 12 months, romance 1 time per month until the next to last month and then romance 1 time each week until the last month and then romance 2 times each week.

The types of gifts you should leave with your prospect when romancing:

1. A list of high profile customers you have done business with.

2. Company brochures and cut sheets.

3. Letters of recommendation.

4. Industry articles that promote your products and services.

5. Information about your company and affiliates.

6. Pictures and success stories

7. Videos of products, uses, applications, demonstrations, etc.

8. Hard copy of monthly newsletter.

9. Company honors and recognition, press releases.

10. A list of high profile sales of your products and services.

11. Any information relating to the buyers hobbies or interests.

12. Referrals or introductions that can benefit your prospects business.

Every Salesperson Can Learn A Lesson From Bill Porter

2011-03-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

In one of my sales training workshops, I ask my clients to list the most difficult products and services to sell. Often, those that comment refer to their own product as the most difficult product to sell. Admittedly, after hearing of some of their products and services, I tend to agree with them. I silently express thanks that I sell training; after all, I could be selling something really difficult. I then conclude the thought by asking the question, “is the product impossible to sell or just difficult”?

Several years ago I was introduced to the story of Bill Porter in a segment of the popular news program 20/20. He was a door-to-door sales person working in Portland, Oregon. After hearing Bill’s story, I made a firm resolve in my life that nothing was impossible and that I would forever be grateful for my life with all it’s unique challenges and obstacles.
When introducing the segment on Bill Porter’s life, ABC’s 20/20 host Hugh Downs said, “This is a simple story about a simply remarkable man.” Born with cerebral palsy, Bill was told by many that he was unemployable. With the continual support of a dedicated mother and the indomitable spirit that is his trademark, Bill Porter has supported himself for decades selling household products door to door for the Watkins Company. While the people on his route didn’t always need what Bill was selling, they grew to understand that we all need people like Bill Porter in the world.

In her book, Ten Things I Learned From Bill Porter, Shelly Brady who worked with Bill for more than twenty years, writes about ten specific character traits that guided Bill Porter’s selling career. These ten characteristics should become a foundation for every salesperson. With all the physical advantages we enjoy in our sales careers, applying these ten characteristics should allow each of us to achieve greater success than we ever imagined possible. Here they are with my own annotation.

1. Follow your passion. When you follow your passion you can’t help but be successful. Passion is contagious! Develop a passion for selling, for your products, for your company and for your customers. Passion has the ability to overcome every challenge.

2. It doesn’t matter how you got here, only where you are going. We must have direction in our lives to achieve the full expectation of our careers. We all need to spend more time focused on achieving success and less time talking about it and thinking about it.

3. Mother knows best. How can you argue with that principle? When you do the right things (our mothers would never lead us astray), you get the right results.

4. Persistence pays off. While recounting some of his more than five hundred regular customers, Bill Porter identified thirty-four of them that told him after his first visit to never come back.

5. Don’t take no for an answer. An astonishing 84% of all people who eventually say “yes” to a sale said “no” before they said yes.

6. Know your limits and reach beyond them. The problem with most salespeople is that they have no idea what they are capable of achieving. They have never reached far enough to know the power that lies within.

7. Be a team player. There are two meanings to this simple principle. The first, no salesperson can be successful alone. It is through the support of every employee of the company that allows you to have the success you enjoy. Second, be part of the buyer’s team. Become a partner with the buyer to help them achieve their objectives.

8. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. When you find those things that are successful in your sales process, apply them consistently. Write down your success stories so you will remember them and make them a regular pattern in your life.

9. There are no obstacles. The human character and will to achieve demonstrate a pattern throughout history that nothing is impossible. When we focus on a thing that seem impossible, we soon discover a way to make it possible. Selling is difficult but it is not impossible.

10. Live your values. We all need to sell within ourselves. We can’t be someone else and expect to be our best. To truly be your very best at selling you must have integrity in all you do and say.

Bill Porter graduated from high school at the age of 22, having to first go through a special school for the disabled, even though his disabilities were physical, not mental. Rather than receive disability assistance from the state, he sought a job and eventually was hired by the Watkins Company as a 100% commissioned salesman. He took on a territory no one wanted in order to close the deal. Bill went on to become the top producing salesman at the Watkins Company in Portland, then the Northwest and ultimately for the entire United States. If Bill Porter could achieve that level of performance with all of his physical challenges, what might each of us accomplish in our sales careers if we consistently apply the same ten principles he practiced?

Let Salespeople Sell

2011-03-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

Management makes a big mistake when they interfere with a salespersons ability to sell. One of the biggest errors a company makes is to promote their top producing salesperson from selling to managing. It is very seldom true that the best salesperson makes the best sales manager. They might possibly make a great sales manager, but so might someone else who is not a top producer. You lose a big book of sales with the hope of stimulating the performance of the other salespeople. It rarely works as planned. The typical end result is reduced overall sales, disappointment in the performance of the sales manager and a sales team that is frustrated with the unreasonable demands of a mediocre manager.

Another common mistake made by management is to require top sales performers to get involved in other, non-sales related tasks and assignments. One of my clients asked their top salesperson to handle all of the company’s IT and computer issues. It so happened that he was the most qualified person within the company to handle those issues, but at what cost to the company. They were looking to save money by not hiring an IT Technician or to bring in a consultant. An IT professional hired full time might cost the company a minimum of $80,000 and they would only need his services twenty-five percent of the time. To hire a consultant might cost $85.00 dollars per hour for five hundred hours per year at an annual cost of $42,500.00 per year. Facing those two possibilities, management is looking to save a big chunk of change by assigning the task to someone within the company. Let’s take a look at what it is really costing the company to take their top sales person out of the sales arena.

The numbers I’m using may not be accurate for your company, but use the formula and substitute your own numbers. Let’s assume that the salesperson to whom you have assigned other duties is selling $1.5 million to total sales. The margin on sales is 23%, making the gross margin $345,000.00 dollars. Assuming the salesperson is spending twenty-five percent of his time solving computer issues, we can reduce the total sales and gross margin by twenty-five percent or $86,250.00. This calculation assumes that the salesperson, turned computer technician, can solve problems as quickly as the professional. In reality, it may take the salesperson a lot longer to do the work of an IT professional. It will never make financial sense to take salespeople out of the sales arena. The lost sales and profit is far greater than their contribution in other areas.

At The Business Performance Group, we deal with the salesperson, sales manager dilemma every day. Do you promote great performance? Do you provide training “in house” because we have been raised in a culture that suggests that “you should never hire someone to do something you are perfectly capable of doing”? The best salespeople are not always the best trainers and managers. You must consider what you really want to achieve and evaluate what it will actually cost you. If you are looking for ways to reward a top salesperson, it may be to leave them in sales and to allow them to write their own paycheck in the form of commissions. As far as sales management is concerned, selecting someone who is a great manager of people, with skills in the area of goals, accountability and achievement may be the best choice. Very few sales managers know how to teach and train sales and even fewer actually do it. Hire a qualified professional sales trainer to work with your salespeople. They will produce far better results on a consistent basis, day in and day out. The investment will be less than the cost of doing it within and the return on your investment will be far greater. In fact, the difference in cost and the subsequent increased results between in-house training and hiring a part-time sales trainer, will pay for the training many times over. Let salespeople sell, that is what they are best at and that is where you will find your greatest profitability.

What Is This Thing We Call Selling?

2011-02-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

In a meeting last week with a group of business executives, we discussed the definition of sales. It was very interesting to hear their perspectives and to help them realize the true meaning of selling. I later shared this definition of selling with a new student of mine who is committed to learning the principles and skills of salesmanship. Simply stated, “selling is helping the prospect understand their true needs and then helping them achieve those needs.” The actual process is more complicated and detailed, but the meaning is basic and simple. Selling is not about what the salesperson wants for him or her self. It is not about what your company wants. It is one hundred percent about discovering what is best for the prospective customer and then working to help them achieve it.

Along the way, you want to make a profit for your employer. After all, the only reason a company is in business is to generate a profit. Without a profit, companies cease to exist. It is the process of creating profitable sales that allow companies to provide a wide variety of employment opportunities. Production, distribution, finance, management, marketing, legal counsel, human resources, customer service, sales, and many other positions exist because companies generate a profit from the sale of their products and services. The responsibilities of selling do not fall only on the shoulders of salespeople. Every employee within a company should consider themselves a salesperson because every word, act or deed becomes part of the process of persuading the prospective customer to engage your company to discern and satisfy their needs.

In order to be successful at selling, your must focus on what the customer needs and not what you want, even though helping the customer will allow you to achieve what you want. The focus of selling must be on the customer. The customer doesn’t care what you want. The customer is not concerned in the least about your company. They are only interested in one thing: solving their needs. Let me tell you about a sales experience I had the other day. This experience reconfirmed the need for sales training and the commitment I made eleven years ago to improving the financial performance of my client companies, one salesperson at a time.

After several phone contacts from a salesperson representing a company that I was familiar with, I finally conceded to meet with him. The salesperson was enthusiastic and persistent so I decided to spend a few minutes with him. Because of my busy schedule, we established a broad time frame in which I would stop by his office. When I arrived, I was greeted by staff members and then introduced to the salesperson. I received a welcoming handshake, but was not called by name. As we sat down at the conference table, the salesperson immediately pulled out a product-pricing sheet, handed it to me and began talking about the services his company had to offer. He went into great detail describing exactly what was offered in each package and made a recommendation as to which package he thought would be best for me. I could tell that he was very focused on selling me one of his service packages and he wasn’t going to let the pressure off until I committed to his desires.

Let’s step back for a minute and evaluate this situation. He didn’t call me by name, or spend one second to build even the slightest amount of rapport with me. I asked him a few questions but he never showed any personal interest in me. Further, the only question he asked about my company was the number of employees I had. That was it! It was very obvious from his presentation that he knew nothing about my business, my needs, customers, or objectives. He was only focused on telling me about his product and why I should buy it. I felt like I was in a doctor’s office being told to take a prescription and to report to the hospital for surgery without once being examined to determine my illness. There was no introduction to company or self. There was no building of rapport or common interests. There was no diagnosis of my needs. There was no understanding of my business and customers. There was no resolution of concerns or objections. There was, however, disappointment that I didn’t buy after several attempts of telling me why I needed his product. He gave me his card, accompanied with the promise that he would be in touch.

Selling is a process focused on the needs of the prospective customer. In a very simple and abbreviated fashion this is what should have happened:

1. Greet the prospect with a warm smile a firm handshake and call him by name.

2. Spend a few minutes to build rapport and demonstrate genuine interest in the prospect.

3. Ask questions that will allow you to diagnose the needs, wants and desires of the prospect. Focus on what is important to them.

4. Present your product or service as a solution to their specific needs. If your product is not the right solution, make a recommendation for a better solution and then pack up and leave.

5. If your product or service meets their need, resolve any concerns they may have.

6. If the prospect has not already asked you, ask for the business.

7. If the prospect is not ready to purchase, set the agenda and discuss the next steps.

8. Romance the sales and help the prospect feel comfortable with the solution you have mutually discussed. Build value and close the sale if appropriate.

Remember, people buy from people they believe, like and trust. One of the best ways of building that type of relationship is to understand their needs and to help them meet those needs. And finally, telling isn’t selling. People don’t want to be sold, they want to buy and they will buy from you when you discover their needs and provide a solution to those needs. You won’t make every sale, no one does, but you will make far more sales by following the steps of this sales process than any other way.

Selling Is A Process

2011-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Just as making a cake requires following a recipe to get the perfect result, selling successfully also requires that you follow a recipe or a process. The process dictates what needs to be done while at the same time determines the result. Several years ago when I lived in Ohio, our neighborhood decided to have a summer street party. Games were planned for the children and activities were organized for the adults. The food committee had previously circulated a recipe for lasagna to those neighbors who had volunteered to make the main dish. The recipe had been written with exactness with the expectation that ten people could make the same main course without variation. That was a real eye opener. The food was delicious, but did not resemble coming from a common recipe. It looked different and tasted different. We had ten different lasagna dishes all from the same recipe. The recipe was not followed with exactness and order.

Why would I recite this incident relating to selling and its process? Too often salespeople look at their efforts and activity as isolated events with no common thread. They are reinventing the sales process with each new sales opportunity. These salespeople start all over again with the closing of each new sale. They don’t know how to follow a pattern of success based on each proceeding sales situation. The secret to achieving more profitable sales is to develop a sales process and repeat it each time. Experiment with it and fine-tune the process until you achieve the exact result you are seeking. Then, by following the process with each new sales opportunity, you will be maximizing the result and those results will become highly predictable. Here is a list of activities that should become part of your sales process, your recipe for sales success.

1. Plan and schedule your time and activities every day. Begin by making a list of those things that must be done today. Then determine other activities that should be done. Once you have made the list, schedule a time to do each activity.

2. Prospect every day. Look for new sales opportunities in every situation. You will find them with current customers, past customers, past prospects, current prospects, leads, referrals, introductions, etc. Sales opportunities are all around you if you will just pay attention. Set a goal for the number of new prospects you will find each day.

3. Meet with prospects every day. The key to being successful at selling is centered on “see the people.” If you were to meet with and tell four or five people each day about your products and services, you couldn’t help but be successful.

4. Follow-up with your prospects every day. The number one cause for poor sales results is lack of follow-up! When you plan and schedule your day, plan and schedule who you will follow-up with that day.

5. Identify which prospects you can close each day. You may not close a sale every day, but you will at least be aware of each of your prospects and be planning when the sale will be completed.

6. Ask for and receive no less than one new referral each day. Receiving referrals is the difference between average and excellent salespeople. Make the process of asking for referrals part of your daily sales process without fail. If you knew that for every two referrals you asked for and received that you would close one sale, how many referrals would you ask for each day?

7. Review your sales process and activity every day. Know where you stand and what is needed to get to where you want to be. Estimate your success for the day and week and month. Work towards the achievement of your goals and get excited about your success.

8. Review the status of every prospect every day. Even if you won’t be doing anything with a particular prospect every day, review their status and make sure you have a detailed plan for turning each prospect into a customer.

Selling doesn’t just happen because you are a salesperson. The act of selling is a process of doing the right activities in the right order at the right time. Closing a sale is the result of following a process even if you are unaware that the events followed a process. As you follow the recipe for sales success you will achieve success; more success than you ever imagined.

How To Make This Year Your Best Sales Year Ever

2011-02-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ever salesperson has made the silent declaration that this year will be the best sales year ever. You hope and you wish and you think about it and talk about it, you might even think about it a little bit more. You have a great day one day and the next day turns into a disaster. After a few weeks you can’t possibly believe that anything will be different, so you consul yourself by believing that your past results are about as good as anyone could expect–considering the circumstances, whatever they may be. You have rationalized (rational lies) your results instead of truly calculating what efforts are necessary to achieve your goal.

Let me share with you my approach to making this year the best sales year ever. There are several steps that must be followed to turn your dream into a reality. You have already tried your approach with less than satisfactory results, so open you mind to a different method. Here are the steps:

1. Review your historical sales by month and by customer. Come to an understanding of what you have done and what it took to achieve those results.

2. Based on your prior sales results, set a goal that could be achieved this year if you were able to reach the average of the top six sales months of the past year, each month of this New Year. You have achieved those results six times in the past, so you ought to be able to do it again.

3. Evaluate the lowest performing six months of the past year. How much more would you have needed to sell to raise those results to the average of the best six months of last year? Is it humanly possible to achieve that kind of an increase? Would it have taken just one more sale, or two or even three?

4. Take a few minutes and evaluate the amount of effort you put into your sales last year. Did you prospect effectively? Were you asking for referrals and introductions to prospective buyers? Did you assess the needs of the prospects as well as you know how? Was your focus on solving the prospect’s needs? Did you follow-up effectively? Did you resolve all of the prospect’s concerns? Think about your sales process and how well you performed each step of the process. If you believe that you could have done better, then determine by way of a percentage, how much better you could have performed.

5. Make an honest evaluation of the amount of time you spent last year focused on selling and following your sales process. National statistics reveal that the average salesperson spends only about 4-5 hours each day working their sales process. The rest of the time they are busy, but not selling. Could you spend more time this year actually selling than you did last year?

6. What did you sell last year? Do your have products or services that could have been sold but you didn’t focus on them? Did you sell the easy items, the low priced items; those things you felt most comfortable selling? Sometimes it doesn’t take any more time to sell multiple items than single items. As an example, if you are focused on selling parts, maybe you could also offer service.

7. Evaluate your historical balance between finding new customers and servicing existing customers. Are you spending too little or too much time with either group? Remember, you lose existing customers if you don’t spend time with them and you will soon wonder where all your sales have gone if you don’t develop new customers. Are you getting all the business possible with your existing customers? How much more business could you discover if you just spent the time and asked the right questions.

8. Top salespeople are not born that way. Selling is not a genetic trait. Like most other professions, the skills and knowledge are learned. “Get your self some learning.” Read books, listen to CD’s, enroll in sales training programs and improve your skills. A Doctor will study and train for ten to twelve years and then spend an average of ten hours each week learning new techniques just to stay current with their profession. Attorney’s, Accountants, Professors, Engineers and every other professional person spend years in college to qualify themselves in their profession. How much training and education do you have to qualify you for a career in sales? Let me say it again–educate your self in the field of selling. To be great, takes more than experience, it takes knowledge applied correctly. You will never be the best salesperson you can be, until you have studied and practiced those things that the best salespeople know and do.

Make this year your best sales year ever. Follow the steps I have listed and commit yourself to them. They are simple, yet basic principles that will allow you to achieve a level of success that you never thought possible. By breaking down each aspect of your sales process and activity, you can clearly identify those things that will produce the results that have escaped your grasp until now. The only thing standing in the way of realizing your best sales year ever, is you.

My Wife Hates Salespeople

2011-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

That fact alone makes my life complicated. We have been married for the most wonderful, incredibly happy 39 years of our lives. Four of those years I was a student and for thirty-five years I have been a salesperson. When I act like a salesperson, Peggy suffers tinges of regret. When I ask her what it is exactly that she hates about salespeople she said, “When they try to sell me something!” Risking bringing emotions to the surface, I asked her what she meant by that. She continued, “You know, when they try to make me buy something I don’t want!” I know this is true because I recognize those same feelings when I try to persuade her to watch a movie or go to a restaurant that I want to go to, knowing that she really doesn’t want to. Peggy will often bristle and tell me to quit trying to sell her.

When you really take the time to think about it, my wife isn’t any different from any other person in the world in one respect. She doesn’t want to be sold. She loves to buy, and she truly respects people who help her discover what is best for her, but she doesn’t want people telling her what to do if they don’t know what she needs or wants. Salespeople can learn a great lesson from Peggy’s experience. First, build a relationship with the prospective buyer by letting them know that you care enough about them to understand their needs and wants. Second, after learning their needs and wants, help them find that specific need or want. Third, once they have discovered what they are looking for, give them the opportunity to buy it without feeling the pressure of being sold.

When Peggy and I go shopping, it is truly an adventure. Throughout the process, she is critiquing the salespeople, and I am taking mental notes of her interaction with them. When they do their job properly, she will tell me the sales associate was great. When they try to sell her, she will tell me that she really doesn’t like that salesperson. She has made a mental and verbal distinction between good and bad salespeople and even calls them by different names. Being referred to, as an associate is good and being called a salesperson is bad. We all have different names for the good and the bad of any profession and Peggy has certainly found her names for the sales profession. Here are five suggestions that if followed, will earn the respect of buyers and will generate the income that only the best in our profession of selling will ever realize.

1. People buy from people they believe, like and trust.

2. People don’t want to be sold; they want to buy.

3. Discover the other person’s needs, wants and desires.

4. Do everything within your power to help them acquire those desires.

5. Give them the opportunity to buy without feeling the pressure of being sold.

Don't Believe For One Moment That Your Salespeople Are Even Close to Being the Best They Can Become

2011-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

As business owners we have been gradually lulled into believing that the performance of our salespeople is satisfactory. After all, if our sales people could do better, they would. Wouldn’t they? Salespeople come and go, some staying longer than others, some better than others. We tend to judge current and future performance based on past results. Bottom line, I’ve never met a business owner who truly understood the potential for sales of his products or services. In good years, salespeople are busy taking orders and in bad years they are complaining that no one can sell in the current market. In reality, the salespeople had nothing to do with the level of sales of the product in either the best sales year or the worst sales year. In both cases they were just taking orders.

There is a formula for sales growth and increased profitability. Unfortunately, business profits are held captive by mediocre salespeople and by management that naively believes the excuses offered by their sales department. You can’t really blame either side. The salespeople don’t know that they can sell more and management has never seen evidence that performance could be better. Management has been conditioned by the sales performance they see day in and day out and believe they are getting all there is to get. I’ve never met a salesperson that couldn’t double their sales within twelve months. I’ve known some salespeople who doubled their sales every year for several years in a row. Here is the three-step formula.

Desire: No person will ever change their level of performance unless they have a compelling desire to do so. They’ve “gotta wanna” do it. There must be some external situation that causes them to take an internal evaluation of their situation, which in turn causes a desire for change. We often refer to this as internal motivation. We want something different than our current situation and the purpose has enough meaning in our soul that we are willing to do whatever is necessary to bring that situation to fruition.

Belief: You must believe that you can achieve that internal desire. You must believe in your ability to do the things necessary to acquire the desired result. You must be able to objectively review what you have achieved in the past, consider what others have done and then visualize yourself reaching that new level of accomplishment. Every salesperson has experienced a best month ever. If you achieved it once, why can’t you do it again? If you achieved that level which represents your best month ever for six out of twelve months, you would probably double your sales for the year. If you don’t believe, you will never take action. Looking at what you have done in the past can help you believe what you can do in the future.

Education: Top salespeople are educated in selling. Unfortunately there are not a lot of top salespeople. Maybe 5% of all the salespeople in the world fit into this category. Most salespeople are totally uneducated in selling and worse than being uneducated; they don’t believe it would make a difference in their performance. These average, mediocre salespeople look around at other salespeople who are just like them and see no need to do anything different. After all, they are like every other salesperson out there. Management is just as much to blame. If they believed that sales education would make a difference, they would require it. If management had the slightest clue as to the profits their companies could generate from trained salespeople, they would make sales training a requirement for employment! Salespeople do what they do because they have always done it that way and that is what they have seen other salespeople do. As an industry, we have perpetuated poor habits and practices. Doing the same thing over and over again makes permanent, it doesn’t make perfect. Doing the right things over and over again makes perfect. There are too few salespeople consistently doing the right things. There is no investment that a company can make, that will generate a larger potential bottom-line profit than training salespeople. Make this year the year that you take action as a salesperson or management and get your salespeople trained.

We Have All Been Given A Great Gift - TIME

2011-01-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

Everything we do in life relates to both time and activity. We have a choice every day regarding these two precious gifts. Time comes with birth and requires no effort, whereas, activity is born of knowledge and belief. Time continues regardless of what we do, but we do have a choice as to how we use our time. Activity is truly a function of what we believe and our willingness to take action on those beliefs. You might be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with sales?” It has everything to do with sales. These two elements, time and activity, combined with knowledge comprise the three raw elements of sales performance. How well are you using these basic materials in your sales career?

Time is a continuum without beginning or end. It just keeps moving and we have a choice every day how we use our time. We can use it for value or we can use it for waste. Time doesn’t care, but we should. Time is a gift given to each of us. With this gift of time, we can create wealth. However, wealth is created as a result of the activities with which we engage ourselves. In his core teachings, Stephen Covey introduced the four quadrants of time. Everything we do in our lives falls into these four quadrants. They are described as “important and urgent”, “important and not urgent”, “not important and urgent” and “not important and not urgent”. Most people spend their lives working in the quadrant labeled important and urgent. These people are doing important things, however, they are under extreme pressure to get things done now because they are urgent. Your best effort will never be achieved working in this quadrant. This quadrant of time represents perfectly the statement, “Too much to do and too little time to do it”.

The most successful people and particularly salespeople spend the majority of their lives in the quadrant labeled “important but not urgent”. This is where your best efforts are achieved. This is where you have time to deal with emergencies and unplanned events. This is where you can actually work on the achievement of your long-term goals and feel as though you have control of your life. This quadrant of time will free you of stress, which is damaging to both your health and your sales performance. If you want to manage both time and activity in your life in order to reap the maximum reward, live and work in the quadrant labeled “important but not urgent”. Here are a few ideas to help you focus your time and activity into this quadrant.

1. Plan what you want to accomplish every day

2. Schedule time for each activity

3. Determine how much time you will spend on each activity

4. Take action, don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today

5. Prioritize events in your life

6. Consider the value of your time and commit to using it wisely

7. Set goals to keep you focused on the important things in your life

8. Find purpose in your life and then live to achieve your purpose

9. Resist the natural temptation to be lazy

Take time to ponder and enjoy your new level of achievement

Dare To Dream, Risk Failure, Challenge “The Norm” And Overcome Mediocrity

2011-01-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

By definition and experience, most salespeople are average. Salespeople are average, not by genetics or design, but by nature. They are lazy, lack adventure and are most comfortable “blending in” without making waves or bringing attention to themselves. Most salespeople have no idea what they are capable of achieving and therefore, achieve far less in their careers than they are capable of achieving. Salespeople go through life reacting to their circumstances instead of taking a proactive approach to achieve the circumstances they want. Salespeople are passive because they don’t understand that they have the right to choose for themselves what they want in life. They lack vision beyond their own situation.

In order to reach beyond your current condition you must believe that there is something better and you must have a burning desire to achieve it. It doesn’t matter what “IT” is so long as it is beyond your current circumstances. The human spirit grows by reaching beyond your current situation. Believing that there is something more in life and your willingness to take the efforts to achieve it, are essential to discovering your true capacity. A great journey begins with the first step. Once you believe, you must take action. When you take action, you are moving outside of your comfort zone and for the first time in your life, you will experience the exhilarating feeling of achieving something new, different, exciting and rewarding.

My father was a great role model. He not only led by example, but challenged me to dream and reach beyond my own experience and circumstance. He believed in me and encouraged me constantly to reach for the stars. I believed him when he said, “There is nothing in life that you can’t achieve if you want it badly enough and are willing to spend the time and effort necessary to achieve it.” So, what do you want to achieve as a salesperson and what actions are you willing to take to achieve it? Determining what you want in life is paramount to achieving it. Overcoming mediocrity begins with setting goals. Here is a list of the ten steps of goal setting that will allow you to achieve your dreams, reach beyond your current situation and fulfill your true destiny.

Step #1: Choose goals that excite you. Nothing is so motivating as a goal that unleashes passion. Too often salespeople take a passive approach to goal setting and find themselves pursuing goals that they don’t really care about. Once you have selected your goal find a picture. We are all visual and nothing is so convincing as a picture. Psychologists tell us that a picture is worth a thousand words. Find a picture that represents the achievement of your goal and look at it daily.

Step #2: Determine if the goal you have selected is one that is of value to you and your personal success. Review the positive aspects of achieving your goal and then evaluate the negative aspects of reaching your goal. Then take the opposite view and review the positive aspects of not pursuing that goal and then evaluate the negative aspects of not achieving the goal. You want to make sure that the goal has value before you commit time and effort towards its achievement.

Step #3: Once you have determined that the goal is in harmony with your objectives and you are committed to the time and effort to achieve it, write a positive, present tense affirmation relating to the achievement of the goal. Write down the names of those people that inspire you and would be proud of your achievement. Write down the names of a few people that might not believe you could reach your goal and focus on proving them wrong. Finally, tell those that you are close to about your goal and give them periodic updates on your progress.

Step #4: Without a “time frame” for completion, a goal is just a wish. Determine a realistic completion date and work towards completing the goal by that date. Remember, Someday is not a real day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc, but never Someday. Someday is another word for never.

Step #5: Goals must be achievable, realistic and challenging. It is far better to aim a little bit lower and achieve the goal than to aim too high and fall short, even if in both cases the same result is achieved. In the first case you were successful. In the latter, you failed even though the results were the same. Don’t program your mind for failure. Once the goal has been achieved, set a super goal. A super goal represents that “little bit more” you can achieve after having reached your goal.

Step #6: Lack of determining the steps necessary to achieve a goal is the major reason for failure. You have all heard that the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The same is true with achieving goals. Once you have determined your goal, break it into small steps. Give each step a time frame and then move forward one step at a time until you have achieved your goal.

Step #7: Just because you have set a goal doesn’t mean you are capable of achieving it without the proper training or education. Make learning and training part of the goal achievement process. Consult those who have previously accomplished your goal or something similar. Take advantage of the knowledge and wisdom of others to achieve your goals.

Step #8: Plan time each day for the achievement of your goals. Too often people become so focused on the day-to-day urgencies associated with their employment that they forget to plan time to accomplish the specific steps of their goals. Without proper daily planning you will never find the time to reach your goals.

Step #9: Create a structure of accountability relating to your goal. It is not good enough to just be accountable to yourself. Involve family, friends, co-workers and anyone else you feel comfortable with in the steps and achievement of your goals. You will find strength and courage when you involve others. A definition of courage is “doing what you say you will do even when the emotions of the moment are past”.

Step #10: Goals are achieved mentally before they are ever achieved physically. The world of sports is a very good analogy for winning first in your mind and then on the field of play. Envision yourself achieving your goal and then your physical actions will follow. In the Law of Success, Napoleon Hill’s first book, he describes the insight he gained from his research into the power of goal setting. He said, “Any definite chief aim that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there with determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences the physical action of the body toward the attainment of the purpose”.

Sometimes the Best Sales Advice is the Same Advice

2011-01-05T00:00:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I worked for an organization that was very goal focused. At the beginning of each year we would anxiously await the new corporate goals and eagerly focus our efforts on their achievement. One year we received four goals very broad in scope. There were many avenues of potential achievement within each of the goals. As a team we worked hard all year long in pursuit of the four goals. With the arrival of the New Year we were again anxious to learn of our new goals. As we sat in silent anticipation, I heard an unexpected declaration for our goals: “We will continue with the same goals as last year until substantial progress has be reached!” We had made great strides in our performance, but sometimes continuing to make progress on excellent goals is more effective than coming up with new ones. I feel the same way about writing new sales advice to begin this new sales year. The article I wrote the first week of January last year is as meaningful now as it was then. We all need to read it again and apply the principles this year, just as we did last year and continue, “until substantial progress has been reached!”

Making This Sales Year Better Than Last

With the arrival of the New Year you might ask yourself, “What will be different this year in my sales from last?” To that question may I appropriately answer with the response, “Nothing!” unless you are willing to make some changes in your life. One year will pretty much mirror the last unless you alter your activities and performance. Many salespeople choose a career in sales because it provides an easy income with little preparation, minimal discipline and maximum workplace freedom. Let me make a few suggestions of some changes that will dramatically improve your sales during this New Year.

Decide What You Want – The majority of all people in this world have no idea what they really want in life. They get up every morning, they do “stuff” and they go to bed at night. Their actions are dictated by the demands of the current situation. They are much like a leaf in the wind. They go where the wind blows taking no effort to direct their course. What do you want to achieve this year in sales? What amount of money do you want to earn? What things do you want to buy? Where do you want to vacation? Don’t just settle for whatever happens, you decide what you want and then do what it takes to achieve it. You have the right to want something and you have the ability to achieve it. It may not be easy, but you have the potential to achieve your dreams. I love this saying. I wish I knew its origin. “Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass.” Commit that saying to memory and live each day to fulfill its meaning.

Become Goal Oriented and Goal Focused

Having decided what you want in your life, set a goal to achieve it. Goals are specific objectives you want to achieve. Goals must be time specific. Goals must be broken down into detailed steps of action that culminate in the achievement of the goal. Goals must be something that you want and are willing to put forth the required time and effort. It is through the achievement of goals that individuals become great and experience all of the joy and satisfaction that life has to offer. Salespeople become successful through the regular establishment and achievement of goals. Goal setting is the only way you can monitor your activities and calculate your success. Goal setting allows you to keep score while motivating you when times are tough.

Develop A Plan – Success does not come as the result of a series of random events, but as the result of executing the steps of a specifically designed set of actions. Developing and following a plan of action will keep you focused on doing the right activities at the right time for the right reason in the specified amount of time to achieve the right result. Sales success is not found in just being busy or in doing a lot of stuff. Sales success always begins with a plan and concludes with properly executing the plan. One of my favorite quotes, attributed to Lavelle Edwards, the legendary football coach at BYU says, “If you see a man on top of a mountain, he didn’t just fall there.” Successful salespeople are successful because they have a plan and by following their plan they find success. Nothing is quite so motivating as achieving a well thought out plan.

Plan, Schedule and Manage Your Time – Nothing in this world has greater value than time. Time is the mother of all success and ultimately of all life. Your ability to control your time is your ability to achieve success. Selling is nothing more than a well-orchestrated performance involving time, activity and money. If you cannot effectively manage your time you will never achieve sales success. Several years ago I was working with a Dentist trying to improve the profitability of his practice. He was having difficulty paying his bills and had questioned his decision to become a Dentist based on his financial return. One of the key elements I evaluated was his use of time relating to the number of patients he saw each day. He was regularly seeing eight patients per day. There was time to see more but he didn’t want to rush or feel the stress of a larger patient load. After conducting an in depth evaluation of his practice and looking specifically at time, activity and money, I concluded that by seeing just one more patient each day he could increase his “bottom line income” by three thousand dollars per month. You can’t create more time but you can do a much better job in planning, scheduling and managing the time you do have. I have clients that have increased their income ten times by achieving more with the same amount of time.

Take Action – Nothing happens until you do something. You must become physically engaged if you want to have sales success. Sales increases do not happen because you think about it and talk about it. Increases happen as the result of doing something about it. What actions should you be taking? Here are just a few ideas that all successful salespeople implement daily.

1. Get up early

2. Be to work on time

3. Prospect

4. Be in front of decision makers

5. Prepare quotes or proposals

6. Ask for referrals

7. Look for additional opportunities with existing customers

8. Plan and schedule your time

9. Believe in yourself

10. Be passionate about selling

Be resolute in incorporating these changes into your daily activities and this year will be the most successful year of your life.

Why Salespeople Don’t Close Every Sale

2010-12-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

It is possible to close every sales opportunity, but it typically never happens. Even when a salesperson does everything right, the buyer is still the one in control. They have the ultimate and final word and because of that, sometimes a sale is not made that should have been closed. Here are ten principles that will help every salesperson close more sales if the buyer is willing and possibly even close every sale.

1. Selling is a process. To be successful at selling you must realize that selling is a process and not just doing a lot of stuff. The correct process should include:

a) identifying qualified prospects

b) building rapport

c) discovering the need

d) presenting your product or service as a solution to that need

e) resolving concerns and objections

f) closing the sale.

2. All sales activity should fit within your personal philosophy and style. You need to sell within yourself and your own beliefs. It is true that you must follow the process, however, every person has his or her own style and personality. Be true to your own style. This is a form of social integrity that will make you more believable to your prospect.

3. Develop a game plan for each sales opportunity. Don’t just wing it. Determine exactly what you believe will need to be done to successfully close the sale and then do it. Every winning sports team follows a game plan and it is no different in selling. Your game plan will include the specific ways in which you deal with each step of the sales process.

4. Focus on the needs of the buyer. Selling is not about you, your company or the product. It is one hundred percent about the buyer and meeting his or her needs. Place your attention on what is important to them and help them achieve it.

5. Romance the sale. Selling is very similar to the courting process. Statistics have shown that the average person requires between five and seven contacts before they feel comfortable enough to buy from you. Romance, romance and romance even more, to increase the reality of making the sale.

6. Demonstrate the value of the product or service in meeting the specific needs of the prospect. Show them how others have benefitted from the product. Share testimonials of happy satisfied customers to support your claims. Let your current and past customers sell your product or service for you.

7. In your presentation and subsequent romance visits, create a dialogue with the prospect, discussing how your product will meet their specific needs. When the two of you are discussing the features and benefits of your product in terms of meeting a specific need, they are more likely to draw the conclusion that your product will be the solution to their problem.

8. Telling isn’t selling. Find every opportunity to ask questions that will encourage the prospect to reveal the information that you might otherwise tell them. Hearing themselves talk about the product and its benefits is more convincing than hearing the same thing from the mouth of a salesperson.

9. Avoid asking the two most worthless questions in the world, which are: “Have you made up your mind yet?” and “Do you have any questions?” You need to know the answers to these questions, but the best way to receive the answer is to share additional valuable information about your product. As you discuss the information, the prospect will naturally share their progress in the decision making process.

Always ask for referrals. Let a prospect know that referrals are the method you use to grow your business. Ask them this question: “If the time ever comes that you become a happy satisfied customer, would you be willing to give me referrals or introductions to people you know who could use my products or services?”

Establish Focus And Direction In Your Life

2010-12-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

You have frequently heard the statement, “the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line.” That statement is also true with regards to pursuing a career in sales. The “straight line effect” is a function of establishing focus and direction in your life. Focus is not the process of developing a one-track mind intent on doing just one thing at the expense of everything else in the shortest time possible. Rather, focus is an undeviating coarse of action, over time, that will ultimately lead to the achievement of your objective.

Focus requires that you are traveling in the right direction to achieve your objective and once your direction has been established, focus will allow you to more narrowly define your course. Focus becomes an unwavering beacon or sentinel to keep you on course amidst the many distractions of life. An analysis of most people’s lives would indicate that they travel through life without direction doing those things that seem appropriate at the time. They choose between events and opportunities that arise from their wanderings instead of determining a course of action ahead of time. Instead of focusing on what they want to achieve in life, they are content to deal with the unguided events of a life without direction. For these people, life is like a leaf blowing in the wind. The leaf goes wherever the wind blows, without the ability to determine its own direction or fate.

Salespeople have the ability to choose their own level of success by establishing direction and focus within their sales activities. Daily effort focused on your anticipate results will allow you to experience regular progress toward your objectives. Being busy and just doing “stuff” are only excuses for not applying a focused approach to the achievement of your dreams. When you are focused, you are aware of the impact that time, activity and money have on reaching your goals. When you are focused, you can look beyond distractions and obstacles that ensnare those without a definite purpose.

Here is a list of ten benefits of establishing focus in your sales career.

1. You will bee firm and resolute in your actions.

2. You will make correct choices and stick with them.

3. You won’t waste motion and will align all your effort to reach your objectives.

4. You will decide the type of lifestyle you want to live and then sell to make it happen.

5. You won’t be misguided by random events.

6. Your sales activities will become a means to an end.

7. You’ll focus your activities on what you want to achieve and won’t alter your course of action.

8. You’ll experience greater happiness in your day-to-day activities.

9. You will find purpose in your life.

You will achieve more success than you ever thought possible.

For Salespeople, Christmas Should Be A Time Of Giving

2010-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

There are many gifts you can give your prospects and clients at this time of year. Here is a list of just a few:

1. A listening ear

2. Great Service, beyond expectation

3. The perfect solution to their problem

4. Time

5. Knowledge

6. A sincere compliment

7. A referral

8. Friendship

9. A tangible gift, a token of your appreciation

10. A smile

Here is my gift to you. Share it with everyone you meet during this special season. I first read this story entitled “The Christmas Local”, told by Aleene Sanders in the December issue of the Amtrak magazine almost twenty-five years ago while traveling from Washington DC to New York City.

We never considered the wail of the old steam locomotive mournful, as I’ve heard some people say. The passage of the trains behind our house was often the only contact we had with others for days at a time. My brother and I were thrilled by the roaring engine, the clicking wheels and the shrill melodies of the whistle. At the first sound we would rush out back to wave wildly to the crewmembers or even try to outrun the engine as it slowed for the dirt road crossing a quarter mile away. We felt as though the trainmen were our friends, although we never got a chance to talk to them. They often tossed us the funny papers from distant cities or bags of hard candy or black liquorice whips

It was a hard winter for us. Dad’s little temporary job played out. A bout of the flu left him weak and coughing for a month, unable to cut trees from across the tracks and split them into firewood. Probably the hardest thing of all for him was breaking the news to us that there would be no Christmas gifts this year. My brother and I took the news in stride. We had discussed the possibility privately many times.

The day before Christmas dawned cold and frosty. Mother had us stay in our warm beds until mid morning. She then dressed quickly and went to our depleting woodpile. When she returned, we could see tears on her face as she built the fire. We stayed close to the stove all day to keep warm. Nearing sundown we heard the Local Train whistling its return trip. It was sounding short, sharp blasts so insistent that we all grabbed coats and hurried outside. Looking down the tracks at the slowly approaching train, we saw an amazing sight! The head brakeman was dancing on the high mound of coal on the tender car. With each hopping step, he kicked off great lumps of precious fuel. The black nuggets and chunks littered the right of way as far down the tracks as we could see.

The fireman leaned far out the window of the engine to drop down a big brown paper package carefully wrapped with heavy twine. The rear brakeman jumped from the caboose and thrust a large cardboard box into Dad’s hands and then he and the conductor shouted “Merry Christmas”. Excited and delighted, we helped our parents gather plenty of coal for the night, leaving the rest to be picked up by morning light. Later that evening when we had warmed and settled a little, Dad took out his pocketknife and cut the cord on the box. Apples, oranges, Christmas candy and nuts greeted our wondering gaze. The brown paper bundle yielded a dear little sleepy-eyed baby doll, a toy truck, crayons, coloring books and a game of checkers. Along with the toys was a scribbled note, “We noticed your woodpile was getting low. Keep warm. Merry Christmas!”

Later, while we happily clutched our unexpected gifts, Dad opened the Bible and read aloud the wonderful story of the first Christmas in Bethlehem. Together we thanked God for the gift of the Savior and for the generous railroad men He had sent our way.

Am I Selling As Well As I Can

2010-12-08T00:00:00.000-08:00

No one will ever reach perfection and the history of the world has clearly proven that point. If you are one of those salespeople who believes they are doing their best and there is no room for improvement, your are just kidding yourself. In reality, you have probably become complacent, lazy, delusional, bored, lost your focus, or become infinitely wealthy. There is nothing you do that cannot be improved upon, even if the degree of improvement is insignificantly small. Watching the Olympics is a lesson in the psychology of the human spirit. There are no limits to one’s ability and every record is just waiting to broken, even if by only one thousandth of a second.

You can become better in every aspect of your sales process. Have you ever made a consistent effort to improve your performance? I see salespeople every day reaching new sales targets they never imagined possible. Why, because they understand their sales process and then looked for areas of improvement. Selling is simple in theory and yet complex in application because no two sales opportunities are exactly the same. However, in its simplest form, selling is comprised of four main categories: Prospecting, Presenting, Romancing and Closing. Within each of these broad catagories, every salesperson can find areas for improvement. Here are just a few ideas to cause your mind to ponder ways you can sharpen your sales skills.

Prospecting: Are you taking advantage of your bucket of happy satisfied customers? They can provide three different types of opportunities. First, you can find additional opportunities with them. Second, you can ask for and receive referrals to other prospects. Finally, you can ask for and receive a letter of recommendation that endorses you as a qualified supplier.

Presenting: Are you assessing the true needs of the prospect before you begin to tell them about your product of service? To begin to sell before you assess the needs of the prospect is like putting the cart before the horse. Do you spend the majority of the time talking, or do you ask the questions that will cause the prospect to reveal their pain. Salespeople should spend the majority of the time listening to the prospect.

Romancing: This is a subtle way of following up with a specific purpose without offending and asking the two most worthless questions pertaining to sales, i.e. “Do you have any questions?” and “Have you made a decision yet?” Romancing provides an opportunity to provide additional information necessary to make the sale. It is also an excellent tool for building and strengthening the relationship. Romancing affords you the opportunity to be with the prospect when they make their decision.

Closing: Do you evaluate each sales opportunity whether it is won or lost? Identifying those things done well in addition to recognizing those things that could have been done better will raise you to the next level of performance. Closing the sale is a process and to be successful, you need to perfect your process and then follow it regularly. If your sales closing ratio is not where it should be, discover areas of improvement and implement them.

Every salesperson can improve their performance and until you have become perfect, continue to evaluate, modify and refine your process. Set achievement goals each month and challenge yourself to reach and exceed them. You will never know how good you can possibly become until you make an effort to do just a little bit more each day.

Salespeople Need To Measure Their Performance

2010-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Establishing goals provides a measurement tool for your sales performance. When you are held accountable to yourself or others for reporting your activities you will not just reach your goals, you will exceed them. Thomas S. Monson is often quoted relating to performance. He said, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.” No statement could be more applicable to salespeople.

To be successful at selling you must establish a system of accountability. Hold yourself accountable for performance on a daily and weekly basis. Strive to increase your efforts from one day to the next and to improve your results each week. By doing this you can take corrective action as well as reinforce your positive performance 52 times each year. Common sales practices separate personal performance from accountability. Nothing could be further from the truth. There cannot be a separation of the principle assign & report. They are one and the same – inseparable. To set a sales goal without reporting on the performance is to imply that there is no value or importance to achieving the goal. If you are not going to establish a pattern of reporting your performance, then don’t waste your time setting goals. Reporting establishes the value and importance of the goal. You can’t have one without the other. The number one reason for lack of sales performance is due to setting goals without establishing a procedure for daily and weekly reporting.

Create a structure of accountability relating to your goals. Discuss your accountability plan with your supervisor. It is not good enough to just be accountable to yourself. You might also consider involving family, friends, co-workers and anyone else you feel comfortable with discussing the steps and achievement of your goals. You will find strength and courage when you involve others. It requires courage to hold yourself accountable. My favorite, yet simple definition of courage is “doing what you say you will do even when the emotions of the moment are past.”

Here are five benefits of measuring your performance through applying the principle of Assign & Report in your sales activities.

The importance of achieving your goal will be firmly fixed in your mind.
You will focus intently on doing those activities that will allow you to reach your goal.
Knowing that you will be reporting your performance will inspire you to not fail. No one likes to report failure.
You will feel empowered through a heightened sense of achievement that comes from the power of sharing your success.
You will be driven to perform beyond your goals because it feels so good to communicate that increased success to others.

Remember, sales success is nothing more than the establishment, achievement and reporting the performance of worthwhile goals. You will never achieve your true potential until you measure your performance through goal setting and then hold yourself accountable for your activities. Applying the principle of Assign & Report will become one of the most important reasons for your increased sales success.

You Are The Face Of Your Product

2010-11-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Salespeople are the face of their products and services as well as the voice of their company. You are possibly the first thing that the customer sees and the last thing they hear regarding your company and products. Ask yourself this question, “Do my words and actions represent my products and company in a true and honest manner?” Here are five ideas that will help you convey the right message.

1. Dress Appropriately – Long before you ever open your mouth, the prospect is evaluating you. They are making judgments concerning your product based on your personal appearance. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Fortunately or unfortunately, that first impression is often based on appearance. Since you are the face of your products, spend the necessary time to package yourself in an appealing manner. People judge a book by its cover and products by their packaging. Wrap yourself appropriately to represent both product and company.

2. Be Honest – Integrity in both your words and actions is far more important than you may imagine. People are generally trusting in nature, but once scorned, you may never earn back the trust. You bear the burden of truth and trust regarding your products, services and the company. In a sense, you are an outward expression of every employee, of every product, of every asset and every image one might have relating to your company. The buck stops here – with you – you are it! Whatever you say or do or act is the company. You can’t minimize your influence and neither will the customer. Be true, factual and honest in all your dealings with your customers and prospects. Every employee and family that depends on the sale of the products and services of the company would want you to represent them with honesty and integrity.

3. Under Promise and Over Deliver – You have all heard someone talk about a great movie they have seen or a fabulous restaurant where they have eaten. They talked it up to the point that you felt compelled to go and then based on all they said, you were under impressed with the result. In the sales process you can create a similar over inflated expectation with an under inflated experience. Leave some of the excitement for an unexpected surprise. Allow the customer the opportunity to discover unexpected features and benefits. When you deliver what the customer expects you are only doing your job. When you provide something beyond their expectation you are a hero. The world of sales needs more heroes.

4. Focus On Their Needs – Selling really isn’t about you, it is all about the customer. People need to feel important and you can provide that opportunity through your words and actions. When the customer feels good about you, they are subconsciously feeling positive about your company and products. The very best way to create a favorable attitude with a customer is to focus your attention on them by helping them solve their problems. After all, in their mind, they are the most important person in the entire world. Treat them that way and they will reciprocate by accepting your product and company as the very best.

5. Become A Boy Scout Of Sales – The Boy Scout Law states that a Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. I can’t think of any of those characteristics that wouldn’t apply to a salesperson. You are the face and the voice of your company. If you personally personified all of those traits, in the mind of your customers and contacts, you would represent the greatest company in the world, while providing the very best products and services available in the market place. Work diligently to incorporate the twelve principles of the scout law into your sales culture and you will experience greater sales success through a loyal customer base. I can’t think of a company that wouldn’t want to be represented by the face and voice of a boy scout.

Reciprocity, The Most Powerful Principle of Selling

2010-11-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

The principle of reciprocity is basic to the foundation of sales relationships. It is basic to all human relationships. This principle defines the human desire to want to give something back when something is received. This compelling need is strongest when something is given without the expectation of receiving something in return. The strongest and longest lasting inter-personal relationships are based on the principle of reciprocity.

The “Golden Rule”, a basic principle of Christian theology and practiced by other religions and cultures throughout the world says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This principle suggests doing something for someone else, something that you would like, regardless of what their actions may be. Leonard T. Hobhouse, a liberal politician and professor at Oxford and London Universities in the late eighteenth century said, “Reciprocity is the vital principle of society”. Richard Thurnwald, one of the most renowned social anthropologists of the modern era taught, “The principle of reciprocity is the basis on which the entire social and ethical life of civilization rests.” The French sociologist, Marcel Mauss, in his short book entitled The Gift, stated, “Reciprocity is the human rock on which societies are built.”

What are you doing to incorporate this basic and powerful principle into your sales process? Salespeople should always be looking for specific ways to incorporate this principle in their sales activities. Doing something for someone else has a universal acceptance and will become one of the most powerful actions you will ever employ in your sales career. One of my sales training and coaching clients, Jamie Earl with Holland Equipment, shared this experience with me.

“I recently spoke with Tim, my Business Performance Group Sales Coach in our training session, about doing things for our customers that helps them out; in other words, giving something that benefits them. I’m not just talking about taking them to lunch to benefit them by making their bellies full. I mean doing something that honestly either makes their day easier or helps them with their business. I recently had the opportunity to do this with one of my customers.”

“I grew up in a farming and ranching community. Well, as it turns out, I have a customer that runs a few cattle on the side. He is the one that orders their “wear parts” and up to that point, he was cordial with me but was buying his edges elsewhere. As it turned out, I happened to call him on the day he was going to do some branding and tagging, but he needed some help. He couldn’t do it by himself and I offered to help him. I spent about half a day with him out on the ranch with some of the other guys he works with and we had a lot of fun. It was amazing what that little act of kindness turned into. He has since been extremely happy to see me whenever I come into the shop and is willing to send any business he can my direction. It hasn’t been a lot of business yet, but we have forged a friendship that I feel will last a lifetime.”

Jamie
Holland Equipment

This example is the perfect embodiment of the principle of reciprocity. It doesn’t matter what you do to help someone, what matters is that you do it. And when you do, they will reciprocate in some form or fashion. At the heart of selling is the principle of helping others to achieve what they need. When you succeed in helping them, they will respond by helping you achieve your objective, which is to earn an income. When you apply this principle two things will happen. First, you will experience greater personal satisfaction in your profession and second, you will be more financially successful.

Ten Things You Can Do To Sell Yourself

2010-11-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

People buy from people they Believe, Like and Trust. Even in a challenging economy, all things being equal, you would choose to purchase from the person with whom you had the best relationship. Quite frankly, people buy based on relationships even when others are offering a lower price. When you develop trust between yourself and the buyer and they know that they can count on you delivering the value they expect, they will buy from you. It is truly amazing, the number of sales made as the result of social interaction. A day on the golf course is worth days of prospecting. Building relationships is the most effective method of creating long-term sales opportunities. Now, if all these statements are true, and I honestly believe they are, you should be selling yourself long before you open your mouth to sell your products or services.

Here are ten things you can do to sell yourself, thus creating the most successful environment for sales.

Focus your attention on the other person. Selling is all about the buyer and yet salespeople attempt to put the focus on themselves. The buyer believes they are the most important person in the world and in the world of sales, they are. Talk about them and their interests. Listen intently and ask for their perspective. Put them on stage and let them perform. Give them the opportunity to shine. As a salesperson, your time to shine will come with the closing of the sales. This is their time to be in the limelight.
Make the other person feel important. The best method of allowing someone to feel important is to provide for them an opportunity to talk about themselves. Encourage them to talk about those things that are of interest to them. Don’t upstage their performance. There are many things you could say to put yourself in focus, don’t. Listen, encourage and enjoy the excitement they have discovered in talking about themselves.
Learn something about the other person that you can sincerely relate to. The key work here is sincere. People have the ability to sense sincerity. Don’t sabotage your success by coming across as phony. When you have discovered something you can relate to, share your feelings without over shadowing the other person.
Be relaxed and have a sense of humor. The inclusion of humor in personal interaction is a natural and extremely effective method of breaking down barriers. Be yourself, natural, open and friendly. There is a time to be more serious, but humor draws souls together.
Smile – Never underestimate the power of a smile. Smiling is a human emotion that can break down even the most formidable social barriers. In his book, How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling, Frank Bettger encouraged his readers to smile for thirty days to prove the powerful effect of a smile on sales performance. It works! Do it!
Be honest and genuine. Honesty is the foundation of trust and people buy from those people they trust. The world has too many salespeople who have abused the trust of others. There is no long-term sales success without honesty. If you can’t be honest, do yourself and the rest of us a favor and favor and get out of the sales profession.
Call people buy their first name. The majority of all people prefer to be addressed on a first name basis. If you are uneasy calling someone by their first name, ask for their permission. You will be amazed at the positive responses you will receive. Your first name is the most important sound in the whole world. Use first names and feel the warmth and acceptance of others.
Create an atmosphere of caring. This principle has been demonstrated in the advertising of a major greeting card company: “When you care enough to send the very best.” People are drawn to those who demonstrate a sense of caring. When you truly care about a prospect and their situation as much as they do, you have raised your level of relationship. Caring is felt and appreciated by everyone.
Never talk down to people. This behavior is unacceptable and demeaning. Accept people for who and what they are. Treat them with respect as a person and for the title and responsibilities they bear. Talking down to people is an attempt to elevate you at the expense of someone else. In the process of building relationships, you should always strive to elevate others.
Look for ways to help others. There is no stronger bond in the world than that created through helping others. When we help someone, that act or deed does not just become a memory; its effect is burned into the soul. As salespeople, your motto should be to find ways to help others achieve their objectives through the sales of your products and services. If your products are not the solution, look for other ways to help them.

Effective Salespeople Speak FOUR Languages

2010-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Selling encompasses the art of communication. The better you communicate, the more successful you will be in your sales career. Communications is comprised of actions, words, appearance, sounds, moods, attitudes, voice, expressions and listening. Another major aspect of communications involves personality. There are thirty-two major personality traits that are simplified into four personality types. To better understand and learn their significance to communications, they are typically categorized as red, yellow, white and blue. Each of these colors represents a group of traits referred to as a personality type. Each personality type communicates in its own unique language. It is the understanding of and speaking the language of personality types that will significantly improve the success of a salesperson.

To simplify these four languages and to help develop your ability to speak them fluently, I’m going to refer to them by different names and suggest some recognition factors so you will know which language to speak. For each personality type I will also give you some key points for communicating with them.

1. Lion – Driver – Red: Recognition Factors

Entrepreneurial Spirit, Sense of Urgency
Independent & Decisive, Motivated & Persistent
Concerned with Results, Takes Action
Enjoys Challenges, Willing to take Risks
Does not get bogged down with Details
Very Demanding, Dominating, Controlling
Lacks Diplomacy and Tact, Stubborn
Keeps feelings and Emotions Private

How to Communicate with the Lion:

Be Professional, Be on Time, Be Formal and Businesslike
Be Direct, To the Point, Bottom Line, Don’t waste time
Don’t sell relationships, Don’t be emotional
Don’t tell them, make it their idea, don’t argue
Be efficient and disciplined, Focus on time, money and results
Don’t pressure them, Results are the only thing that matters

2. Monkey – Expressive – Yellow: Recognition Factors

Creative, Artistic, High Energy, Outgoing, Innovative
Stimulating and Motivating, fun to work with
Excellent communication skills, Personable
Flexible on Rules and Regulations, disorganized
Unrealistic, Impractical, Needs Direction
Easily side tracked, Relies on hunches
Opinionated without facts, Emotional

How to Communicate with the Monkey

Be informal and personal, Focus on relationships
Be entertaining and fast moving
Get them to talk about themselves
Use stories, examples and personal anecdotes
Sell the sizzle not the steak, Use pictures
Avoid criticism or high pressure
They are impulsive, Keep it simple
They buy when it feels right

3. Owl – Analytical – White: Recognition Factors

Hard Worker, Organized and Systematic
Good at Follow through, planning and research
Follows all the rules, Serious, Detail oriented
Lacks enthusiasm, Overly Cautious, Lacks Urgency
Poor communications and humor, Needs structure
Greets you formally without enthusiasm
Shows little emotion, Analyzes before speaking
Takes lots of notes, Wants facts and figures
Not programmed to make decisions

How To Communicate With The Owl

Be formal and well organized, Be Prepared
Place emphasis on actions not words, Be deliberate
Don’t Rush, Allow them to ask questions
Give detailed answers, Maintain arm’s length distance
Keep humor to a minimum, Avoid idle conversation
Avoid Physical Touch, Trust comes from respect
Provide solid tangible factual evidence, No opinions
Facts and figures are king, Don’t rush decisions

4. Dog – Amiable – Blue: Recognition Factors

Low-keyed, Likable and Caring, Good Team Member
Loves Structure, Cooperative, Good Listener
Makes Friends Easily, Mediator, Dependable
Diplomatic, Tactful, Patient, Organized
Excellent at creating processes and procedures
Greets you warmly, Interested in you as a person
Not a risk taker, Avoids conflict, Does not like change
Easy going, Want to please, People oriented

How to communicate with the dog

Will decide quickly whether to trust you
Be casual and down to earth, Be sincere and honest
Focus on them not your achievements
Speak softly and slowly, Maintain good eye contact
Ask question about them and family, Listen actively
Give emotional support, Establish a personal relationship
They will readily accept your opinion
Don’t debate facts, figures or details
They need personal assurances

Speaking the language of personality types could very easily become the most significant reason for your increased sales performance. People like to deal with and associate with people like themselves. As you communicate with others in their native personality language, you will discover greater insights, develop more relationships, uncover and solve more needs and sell more of your products and services than you ever imagined possible. By the way, if our paths should ever cross, my native language is DOG.

Discovering The Common Denominator of Success

2010-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

He had been brought up on the popular belief that the secret of success was hard work, but he had seen so many people work hard without succeeding and so many people succeed without working hard that he had become convinced that hard work was not the real secret even though in most cases it might be one of the requirements. And so he set out on a voyage of discovery which carried him through the biographies of successful people and all sorts of dissertations on success until he finally reached the conclusion that the secret he was trying to discover lay not only in just what people did, but also in what made them do it.

The things that failures don't like to do are the very things that you and other human beings, including successful people, naturally don't like to do. Have you have wondered why it seems that most successful people like to do the things that unsuccessful people don't like to do? They don't! So why do successful people do them? Because they know that by doing the things they don't like to do, they can accomplish the things they want to achieve. Successful people have developed a purpose strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don't like to do in order to accomplish their purpose. Habits are paramount in understanding the common denominator of success. Every single qualification for success is acquired through habit. People form habits and habits form futures. If you do not deliberately form good habits, then unconsciously you will form bad ones. You are the product of your habits.

Resolutions or decision are worthless until you have formed the habit of making and keeping them. As you focus your efforts on keeping your personal commitments each day, the time will come when you will wake up one morning a different person in a different world. The resolution or decision has become a habit and the decision doesn't need to be made any more. The reason for seeming like a different person living in a different world lies in the fact that for the first time in your life, you have become master of yourself, and master of your likes and dislikes through surrendering to your purpose. In the final analysis, your future is not going to depend on economic conditions or outside influences or circumstances in which you have no control. Your future is going to depend on the strength of your purpose in life.

Let me share the story of a young man who discovered this principle. Bob had a definite purpose in life and it was definitely a sentimental and emotional purpose. He wanted his son to go through college without having to work his way through as he had done. He wanted to avoid for his little girl the hardships, which his own sister had to face in her childhood. Bob wanted his wife and the mother of his children to enjoy the luxuries and comforts, and even the necessities, which had been denied his own mother. To achieve this end, he was willing to commit to forming the habits of doing things he didn't like to do in order to accomplish his purpose. Bob realized that the more he was willing to do for his wife and children, the more he could actually do for himself. He had surrendered himself to his purpose and by so doing, was able to achieve his desires.

For as long as you live, don't ever forget that while you may succeed beyond your wildest dreams, you will never succeed beyond the purpose to which you are willing to surrender. Furthermore, your surrender will not be complete until you have formed the habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do.

“The common denominator of success–the secret of success of every person who has ever been successful–lies in the fact that they formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.”

– Albert E. N. Gray

Enjoying The Fruits Of Sales Success

2010-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

I’m in Hawaii this week with thirty-seven of my clients and staff, all of whom have earned a ten day luxury vacation because they reached their sales goals. My clients generated $2.5 million dollars in new profit margin that represents about $10 million more in sales than they generated the year before. For every dollar their employers spent on training, they got back $27 dollars in new profit margin. Training should never be considered a cost, but rather an investment that will generate a great return.

We have spent the past several days on the beaches, and the mountains of Kauai having the time of our lives. With several more days until we return, I’m just going to savor the rewards of a job well done. At the same time, I’m going to ponder the reasons they are tasting the sweet joy found only through sales success. I don’t measure success in terms of money earned, but rather, the true enjoyment found in using that money for those things that will provide joy and happiness. All the hard work and focused effort during the past twelve months has been worth it.

Each salesperson with their spouse traveling with us this week has achieved greater success this past year through goals setting. They have realized increased performance through daily planning and organization. They have consistently and effectively used the hours of each day to proactively accomplish their own agenda instead of reactively dealing with the shallow demands of others. They have prioritized their own activities, and tactfully assessed the needs and demands of customers and management. These clients comprehend the four quadrants of time and work diligently to focus specifically on those things that are important but not urgent, giving them the peace of mind that quietly and firmly spells success.

These clients enjoying ten days in paradise, spent time each day and each week finding new opportunities. They effectively assess prospect’s needs and present the very best solutions. These salespeople know how to “romance the sale.” They constantly provide materials that will help in the decision making process. They understand the value in “being there” when the purchasing decision is made allowing their influence to become part of the decision making process. These salespeople effectively monitor customer satisfaction and engage their “happy satisfied customers” in the referral process through introductions and letters of recommendation. The sales training and coaching clients of The Business Performance Groups, who are enjoying the fruits of their labors while vacationing in Hawaii this week, are professionals in every sense of the word. Their commission checks and life style are proof positive.

Here are just a few of the rewards enjoyed by our sales people in Kauai this week: Gorgeous waterfalls, the majesty of Waimea Canyon, miles of pristine beaches, crystal clear turquoise water, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, Na Pali Coast at sunset, swinging from a rope and dropping into a deep pond at the base of Kipu Falls, hiking mountain trails to discover beautiful sights beyond description, soaking up rays on white sand beaches, cooling off with shave ice, savoring the juicy taste of an Hawaiian BBQ, breath taking sunsets and sunrises over the beautiful Pacific Ocean and the satisfaction of knowing that this fabulous vacation and many more in the future are the result of their skills and consistent sales effort.

Have I Ever Told You How Much I Love A Career In Sales?

2010-10-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

I was reminiscing the other day about my sales career. For the first twenty-five years I earned a very lucrative salary, which was complimented with annual performance bonuses, stock options and a generous travel budget. When I started my own company, all of that changed and my compensation effectively became a commission. The biggest concern with the change in my compensation plan came from my wife. She wanted security and I wanted the freedom of an unlimited income. She actually made the comment, “Why don’t you get a real job.” I asked her what she meant by that, and her explanation was, “You know, when a company deposits money in our checking account every two weeks and we just know it will be there!”

What she didn’t understand was that the security of an income rested with me and not the company. Every day there are those companies that promise a salary, but go out of business or let salaried employees go. Commissioned salespeople that really perform, on the other hand, are less likely to lose their jobs. It has been many years since my wife verbalized her concerns about “real jobs” and commission income. In fact, when she wants to purchase something outside of our regular household budget, she will say to me, “make another sale so we can purchase such and such.” She really gets it. Salespeople can have whatever they want; all they need to do is sell more.

This past week I have trained five workshops dealing with the principles and skills that make salespeople successful. These are the very principles and skills that provide salespeople with an unlimited income, the skills that allow salespeople to enjoy the finer things of life. These are the principles and skills that when applied, enable salespeople to have their best sales month ever. Top sales performers enjoy an income that is in the top 5% of all wage earners. In one of the workshops last week we had six sales people who achieved their best sales month ever! Each of those salespeople sold more than 300% of their prior twelve-month average. One of those people even had their territory cut in half and still managed to have his best month ever.

This week we will be traveling to Hawaii for ten days with thirty-seven of our clients and staff. They have all earned a luxury vacation on the island of Kauai through achieving their sales goals for the past twelve months. What have they done to enable them to reach their goals? They have put into practice the principles and skills of selling. Some of these principles and skills deal with time management, visualizing success, how to close the sale and ask for more, prospecting and referrals. They have learned to use sales tools such as goal sheets, prospect data sheets, ten most wanted lists, bucket of happy satisfied customers and have determined what is humanly possible. They have learned how to speak the language of personality types allowing them to communicate effectively and to sell to each of the four different personalities. They don’t just know about personalities, they speak the language. They have learned how to dress for sales success and how to diagnose needs and how to resolve concerns. They know how to identify the four sales qualifiers and how to use their existing customers to facilitate closing more sales with their prospects. These salespeople who will enjoy an all expense paid luxury vacation as a reward for their sales performance are all enjoying a significant increase in their income. On average they have doubled their income.

Have I told you recently how much I love my career in sales? You too can find greater joy in sales when you learn and apply the correct principles and skills. Read, study, educate yourself and enjoy partaking of the fruits of the greatest and oldest profession in the world.

Time Management - An Essential Principle For Sales Success

2010-10-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Life, its all about time. Here are some truths about time that you might not have considered lately: There is never enough time. You can’t save time. You can’t stop, freeze, delay, slow it down, speed it up, or alter time in any way. You can’t make time. Time is money. The truth of the matter is this – there is only one thing in the entire world that you can do with time and that is to manage it. Learn to do it well.

For some people, time is too short. For others it moves too quickly. There are those who claim time just drags on day after day. I’ve heard some people complain that there is never enough time and we all know people who have too much time on their hands. I’ve made an interesting observation over the years. Successful people always have just enough time, but unsuccessful people never have enough time.

Time is a continuum. It exists and moves forward without the influence of man. We have absolutely no control over time; to quote the words of the song, Old Man River, “it just keeps moving along”. We talk about time in terms of time zones, time frames, time outs, good times, bad times, time to arrive and time to leave. Some familiar times are: time to get up, time to go to bed, time to go to work, time to eat, summer time, spring time, etc. Even the Bible talks about time in Ecclesiastes:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Successful people in all walks of life have learned how to manage their time. To be successful in the world of selling, you too, must learn how to manage your time. For those salespeople who don’t effectively manage their time, time will manage them. Time has no idea what you want to do with your time, so when you let time manage you, the results will be a disaster. Here are a few simple rules for managing your time.

Decide what you want to accomplish with your time.
Plan a specific time to do those things you have decided to accomplish.
Determine before you begin, how much time you are going to spend on each thing you have planned to accomplish with your time.
There will always be enough time if you manage it wisely and never enough time if you squander it.
Time doesn’t care what you do with it or how you use it. You can use it for value or waste.
Time is continually moving and if you don’t move with it will pass you by. Remember, time continues to move even when you don’t.
With time, there is no “time out.” For every second of your life, it is “time in.”
No one knows how much time they have until their time has come to an end. For those who use their time wisely, all the time they have is enough. For those who waste their time, their time is too short.
For those who live life successfully, by any definition, it can be said that they effectively managed their time.
In the entire world, there has never been, and never will be, a successful salesperson who didn’t effectively manage their time.

Successful salespeople manage their time consistently and daily. They have calculated the value of their time in both dollars as well as social value. Think of time as money or social activity falling from the sky. You can catch as much or as little as you chose. It is up to you. What are you willing to do with your time. Are you willing to learn and apply correct principles of management to get the most out of your time or will you just let it pass you by?

A Career In Sales Will Change Your Life

2010-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Forty-two years ago I decided I wanted to pursue a career in business. Selling was not really on my radar. My vision was putting deals together and making things happen. I took business classes, accounting classes, advertising classes, management classes, marketing classes and even classes dealing with importing and exporting. I enrolled in every class I could conceive of that would educate me in business. Strangely though, I didn’t take any sales classes. It has been a long time, but I don’t think there were any sales classes offered. My career in business turned out to be a career that involved selling in addition to management and business. A career in sales changed my life and it has changed the lives of countless millions of other people as well. Let me tell you the stories of three people who either chose, or fell into a career in sales. I have changed their names to protect their privacy, but the circumstances and details are real.

I met Bob for the first time when he was about twenty-four years old. He had enrolled in a community college to study business and prior to enrolling in college had worked construction. Bob was recently married and after taking a break from his studies, accepted a sales job that paid $12 per hour or about $25,000 per year. Like most salespeople, Bob had no sales training, but he was good with people and tried to do what he thought was best in bringing sales to the company. After Bob’s first year of selling, I started to teach and train him in the principles and skills of salesmanship. In Bob’s second year of sales he earned a commission of $48,000. Bob continued to study, learn and apply his skills and in his third year he earned $92,000. Bob had a great fourth year in the sales arena with an income of $184,000. He has truly enjoyed the fruits of his labors and has provided for his family admirably. There are very few young men, twenty- eight years of age making that kind of income. A career in sales has changed Bob’s life forever.

Let me tell you about Sally. Her story is an emotional one for me, one that could only have come about through a career in sales. Sally was a single parent, raising three children and struggling to put food on the table when I first met her. Her life and that of her family was one of constant challenges and a feeling just accepting the bad situation that life had dealt her. Many people assisted her and at the same time pitied her and suggested that she would never rise above he dismal situation. Last year as Sally applied the new skills she was learning as part of her sales training program, she achieved a benchmark that others said she would never reach and one the she never thought possible. Sally earned more that $50,000. This month she will earn more than $10,000 and should have a total income in excess of $75,000 for the year. With tears in her eyes she confided with me that she was now in a position to reach out and help others financially. Only a career in sales has the ability to change a person’s financial situation as dramatically as Sally’s.

Mike had lived a challenging life, complicated by some of the demons of addiction. His employment, family, and self-esteem were all affected. At one point he was homeless, family-less and penniless. He eventually found the personal strength and the support of others to piece his life together. He found a sales job, conquered his demons, reached out to his children and discovered happiness again in his life. After working with Mike and helping him perfect his natural ability through establishing certain skills and procedures, he more than tripled his income. In just a few short years, a career in sales allowed Mike to pull himself from nothing, to a stable and happy life with an annual income in the mid six figures. One of my favorite expressions comes from Don King, the famous boxing promoter. He would often say, “Only in America”. To Mike, I would like to say, “Only in America and only through a career is sales.”

To all of you looking to improve your financial and career situations let me say this: Anyone can enjoy the same success shared by Bob, Sally and Mike. A career in sales provides greater potential with less risk than most any other opportunity. Selling isn’t easy, but if you will work hard, smart and receive the proper training, there is no limit to what you can achieve financially in a relatively short period of time.

The Power Of A Personal Performance Interview

2010-09-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Several years ago during the early days of my professional sales career, I was exposed to what I believed at the time, to be a very novel and progressive aspect of employee management. As part of a very formal management activity, I met with my direct supervisor in an annual goal setting and performance evaluation. The tool was an official booklet that provided an outline for the establishment of goals for the coming year. It also included a template for the reporting of the prior years performance, bench marked against the goals that were established for that year.

As I participated in my first annual performance evaluation, I marveled at the ultimate power and simplicity of the process. Imagine, actually setting goals and performance targets and then being held accountable for the results! How truly profound this principle was and yet, so easily implemented. There was no guesswork to the expectations of my performance. It was clearly defined and written so I knew, as well as management, the expectation of my performance. I was held accountable for a very specific result and would sit in front of my supervisor in twelve months time and report my achievements.

I was very familiar with the concept of accountability. When I was in my youth, my father would give me a list of jobs to be completed in our yard the beginning of each week, and each evening when he returned home from work, I would report on my progress and accomplishments. I tried to never disappoint him and to live up to his expectations. I honestly believe that my father planted weeds just to provide work for me. Then there was the three hundred foot driveway that required shoveling after each snowstorm in order to drive the car up the hill to the house. I believe the driveway was strategically engineered just to teach me how to work. Every year at the beginning of the winter season I was ceremoniously presented a brand new snow shovel to replace the one that was totally warn out by the end of the previous snow season. There was a standing winter rule at our house: the family car was never to be parked on the street at the bottom of the driveway.

Accountability is the discipline of setting goals and then reporting progress on those goals. Assign and report is a principle so profound and powerful, that very little in this world would be achieved without its application. And yet, the principle is only half applied at best, by most companies and managers. Accountability is simple and yet basic in concept, but formidable in application. Let me explain how this principle has been taught and applied with all of our clients at The Business Performance Group.

1. At the beginning of our sales training and coaching program we set goals with each client. The goal setting is a collaborative effort between the business owner or sales executive, the salesperson and the sales coach.

2. All goals are broken down into monthly and then weekly increments.

3. Each week the sales coach, working closely with each salesperson, determines the expectation for the coming week and then gives the salesperson the opportunity to report on their performance for the prior week. Fifty-two times each year the salesperson has a performance target and fifty-two times each year the salesperson reports their performance.

4. Each week the sales coach teaches and trains the salesperson how to apply the specific principles and skills necessary to achieve the goals for the week.

5. In addition to reporting their performance against the weekly goals, each salesperson is asked the following four questions designed to keep themselves focused on achievement:
a. What did you do well this past week relating to your sales activities?
b. What could you have done better in pursuit of your sales goals?
c. What single activity do you want to focus on this coming week for improvement?
d. What will you need to do to implement the planned improvement?

At the beginning of my sales career I was impressed with the power of an annual performance review. The skills of goal setting and regular accountability were principles that I had learned in my youth, but had not previously considered pertinent to sales achievement. I have since discovered the concept of “assign and report” to be so profound and basic to success, that I can truly say that to not apply the principle in your business, puts you squarely on the road to failure. In my youth I was taught the discipline of assign and report and in my business I apply its powerful application fifty-two times each year with the salespeople I train. I challenge you to do the same.

Six-Step Process For Receiving Sales Referrals

2010-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

The very best next source for new sales is with an existing customer. That existing customer can also produce the second best source of new sales and that is through referrals. A referral from a happy, satisfied customer will keep you from consuming large amounts of time making cold calls. Cold calls can produce sales, but not at the same time and effort ratio of referrals. I have listed below, the six-step referral process we teach all of our clients at The Business Performance Group. It takes time, requires precision, and cannot be short cut if you are going to use it to your ultimate sales success. Every aspect of this system works in concert with every other step of the process. Use this system with my blessing to achieve your ultimate sales success.

Step 1: Make a written list of every happy and satisfied customer you have ever sold to. Visit with each one of them either in person or on the phone and ask them if they would be willing to help you. Explain that the way you make your income and support your family is by selling products and services to companies like theirs. Explain the way you grow your sales is through a referral system, and that all of your satisfied customers participate in the system.

Step 2: Explain that the system is simple, non-threatening and very successful. It is based on sending a letter to the people they will refer to you. This letter will introduce you, your company and products to them. It will be brief, only a couple of paragraphs. In your letter, you will ask for a few minutes of their time and mention that you will call to schedule an appointment within a couple of days. (If they are local, schedule a personal visit. If they are out of the area, tell them you will schedule a convenient time to talk on the phone.)

Step 3: At the bottom of your letter of introduction will be a short note from your satisfied customer recommending you to them. You will write the note of recommendation and show it to your satisfied customer and ask them if they like it. If not, have them make changes. An example of the note might say something like this:

Bob,
I have been working with (your name) for some time. He has provided us with excellent products and service. He has been a real joy to work with and has benefited our company greatly. When (your name) calls, do yourself and me a favor and schedule a few minutes to meet with him. It will be one of the most profitable meetings you will have had in some time.
Personal regards,
(Referrer’s name)

Step 4: Ask your satisfied customer for the names of five people they know personally, who might have need for the products and services you sell. These people need to be in a position of authority to make a purchasing decision, or at least influence the decision.

Step 5: Make a list of referrals, with their name, title, company, phone number, address, and email address. Send the introduction letter and follow up within a couple of days of the time you believe they will receive it. If you let too much time go by without following up with a phone call, your success will drop off dramatically.

Step 6: When you meet with, or present your products and services to the new prospect that has been referred to you using this system, mention to them that the way they were referred to you is part of a system. Tell them the system is very successful, and is the process you use to grow your book of business. Ask the new prospect if they would be willing to give you referrals if and when they become a satisfied customer. They will typically say yes. Don’t bring the subject up again until they become a satisfied customer. When that time comes, remind them of their prior commitment and ask for five referrals and start the process all over again.

If you are disciplined using this system, within a few months it will become your most effective source of new customers and your sales will have improved significantly.

The Ten Steps Of Successful Goal Setting

2010-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Setting a goal is easy. Anyone can decide they want to do something and set a goal. However, all goals are not the same, and most goals are never achieved. When it comes to goals and achievement, most salespeople don’t correctly use this powerful principle to their advantage. Let me take a few moments and outline ten basic steps of goal setting. The proper application of this principle will dramatically improve your sales success.

Step #1: Choose goals that excite you. Nothing is so motivating as a goal that unleashes passion. Too often salespeople take a passive approach to goal setting and find themselves pursuing goals that they don’t really care about. Once you have selected your goal find a picture. We are all visual and nothing is so convincing as a picture. Psychologists tell us that a picture is worth a thousand words. Find a picture that represents the achievement of your goal and look at it daily.

Step #2: Determine if the goal you have selected is one that is of value to you and your personal success. Review the positive aspects of achieving your goal and then evaluate the negative aspects of reaching your goal. Then take the opposite view and review the positive aspects of not pursuing that goal and then evaluate the negative aspects of not achieving the goal. You want to make sure that the goal has value before you commit time and effort towards its achievement.

Step #3: Once you have determined that the goal is in harmony with your objectives and you are committed to the time and effort to achieve it, write a positive, present tense affirmation relating to the achievement of the goal. Write down the names of those people that inspire you and would be proud of your achievement. Write down the names of a few people that might not believe you could reach your goal and focus on proving them wrong. Finally, tell those that you are close to about your goal and give them periodic updates on your progress.

Step #4: Without a “time frame” for completion, a goal is just a wish. Determine a realistic completion date and work towards completing the goal by that date. Remember, Someday is not a real day. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc, but never Someday. Someday is another word for never.

Step #5: Goals must be achievable, realistic and challenging. It is far better to aim a little bit lower and achieve the goal than to aim too high and fall short, even if in both cases the same result is achieved. In the first case you were successful. In the latter, you failed even though the results were the same. Don’t program your mind for failure. Once the goal has been achieved, set a super goal. A super goal represents that “little bit more” you can achieve after having reached your goal.

Step #6: Lack of determining the steps necessary to achieve a goal is the major reason for failure. You have all heard that the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The same is true with achieving goals. Once you have determined your goal, break it into small steps. Give each step a time frame and then move forward one step at a time until you have achieved your goal.

Step #7: Just because you have set a goal doesn’t mean you are capable of achieving it without the proper training or education. Make learning and training part of the goal achievement process. Consult those who have previously accomplished your goal or something similar. Take advantage of the knowledge and wisdom of others to achieve your goals.

Step #8: Plan time each day for the achievement of your goals. Too often people become so focused on the day-to-day urgencies associated with their employment that they forget to plan time to accomplish the specific steps of their goals. Without proper daily planning you will never find the time to reach your goals.

Step #9: Create a structure of accountability relating to your goal. It is not good enough to just be accountable to yourself. Involve family, friends, co-workers and anyone else you feel comfortable with in the steps and achievement of your goals. You will find strength and courage when you involve others. A definition of courage is “doing what you say you will do even when the emotions of the moment are past.”

Step #10: Goals are achieved mentally before they are ever achieved physically. The world of sports is a very good analogy for winning first in your mind and then on the field of play. Envision yourself achieving your goal and then your physical actions will follow. In the Law of Success, Napoleon Hill’s first book, he describes the insight he gained from his research into the power of goal setting. He said, “Any definite chief aim that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there with determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences the physical action of the body toward the attainment of the purpose”.

People Don't Buy If They Have Unresolved Concerns

2010-09-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Some salespeople talk fast. Others never stop talking. Still, there are those who talk fast and never stop talking. There is an ill founded notion that if you talk fast and talk longer, that you will discourage others from asking questions or bringing up issues you would rather not discuss. Then there are those salespeople who will conclude their presentation without asking for questions, believing that if they can avoid the appearance of a concern, then there must not be any.

There is no victory in avoiding questions or ignoring a prospect’s concerns. If a sale is to be made, concerns must be resolved. We all heard the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi proclaim, in regards to the new national health care bill, “We must pass it so we know what is in it.” For most Americans, that comment fell short of answering their concerns. In fact, the majority of Americans were offended because Government would buy a product with unresolved concerns and the people would not. Concerns must be resolved or the prospect will not buy and if for some reason they do, they will want their concerns resolved after the sale or they will end up dissatisfied and will either return the product or share their negative feelings with everyone they meet.

Here are two very effective methods for revealing the prospects true concerns and then resolving them:

1. Ask for the prospects buy-in with every point you make during your presentation. As you describe a feature or benefit, ask the prospect for their opinion. Ask them to describe the value of each point that you present. Ask them to share their perspective relating to the values and benefits to their situation. When you ask for their perspective you will know if your solution is on the right track and you will be receiving their approval or disapproval as you move forward in your presentation. Through effective questioning during your presentation you will draw out their hot points, their concerns and their objections. You will be in the “driver’s seat” allowing you to determine the final direction of your presentation.

Remember this key principle: The presentation you make to any prospect is the solution to their needs, wants and desires which were discovered in the assessment phase of your presentation. Always present your product or service as a specific solution to a need. Presenting a product or service without focusing on a specific need is a waste of your time and theirs. The typical parting response to that type of a presentation sounds like this. “Well, thanks for your time, I’ll contact you if I ever have a need for your product.” And you would probably say, “Thanks for your time and I’ll be in touch.” This is pure wasted time and effort added to a stagnant bucket of hopeless opportunities.

2. When you complete your presentation which, as I previously mentioned is a solution to a need, want or desire that the prospect has revealed to you, ask them to share with you any concerns they have with your solution to their problem. Encourage them by suggesting concerns you have heard from others, or by bringing up points that typically are more difficult to understand. Once they raise a concern, place it on a “mental shelf” in your mind and ask the question, “besides that, is there anything else?” Keep asking for other concerns until the prospect finally suggests that they don’t have any other concerns or objections. Having placed each concern on a mental shelf in your mind, you can now reach up, pull each one down individually and go to work resolving their concerns. (By-the-way, the last concern they mention is probably the one of most importance to them). As you resolve each concern, move on to the next.

An important element of resolving the prospect’s concerns is developing a dialogue with them. They express their concerns and then you discuss a resolution. As the dialogue develops you both gain greater insight into each other’s needs and solutions. You become comfortable discussing a broad spectrum of possible solutions and you gain greater insight into the prospects situation as they come to appreciate your depth and breadth of understanding. The prospect will respect your perspectives and you will have empathy for their position. This is the nature of true salesmanship.

When you avoid concerns, you are literally avoiding the opportunity of make a sale. Practice these two methods of revealing and resolving a prospect’s concerns and watch your closing ration improve and your sales success soar.

You Can Determine Your Own Level Of Sales Success

2010-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

There is a small segment of the sales population that we might consider over achievers. There is another similar sized group that we might consider under achievers, relating to their sales performance. The world needs more of the former and fewer of the latter. In the middle, lie the majority of all salespeople, safely protected from their mediocre performance due to the shear size of their majority status. Day in and day out they pursue their average status through their complacent attitudes and uninspiring actions. They are doing the best they can do based on their training and belief. They have never performed any better, they don’t believe improvement is possible and they don’t understand what all the fuss is about. After all, they are performing at the same level as most of their peers. These salespeople don’t even know enough to know that they are capable of far greater success than they have ever achieved.

Let me give you the formula for breaking free from the dominant complacency that holds you captive from achieving your true potential. First of all, memorize the following phrase: “Whatever I vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon, will inevitably come to pass”. You must change your paradigms. Your paradigms are your beliefs, attitudes, values and experiences whose combined influence determines your actions. Let go of all your beliefs that hold you captive to your current performance. Open your mind to the reality that you are capable of doing far more than you have ever achieved before. Here are five ideas that will help you achieve the full measure of your potential:

1. Don’t measure your abilities by what others have accomplished. The only limit to your achievement is your imagination. If you can imagine or visualize something, then you should be able to find a way to achieve it. Your dreams and visions of sales success are not dictated by, or influenced by the achievement of someone else. Focus on what you want, not the plateaus reached by others.

2. To achieve your true potential you will need to focus intently on your dream and work harder than you have ever worked before. Raise your threshold of pain by doing something you don’t like to do every day. You will never achieve your best sales effort until you have reached beyond your comfort zone. Sales success is not easy; if it were, everyone would be successful. Think beyond what you have ever achieved, believing that you can reach it, and only then will you be able to escape the natural barriers that have restricted your performance in the past.

3. No one has ever reached beyond mediocrity without a consistent effort. Doing your best for just one day is not an indication of your best overall performance. Your best effort is the result of a consistent, day-by-day improvement and commitment to achieving your goals. The more days you work to improve, the greater your improvement will become.

4. Think outside the box. You won’t discover your true sales ability by doing what you have always done. Be creative in your approach to success. Just because no one else has done something doesn’t mean it won’t be successful. Your fresh approach and enthusiasm may be the only difference between the success you are seeking and the performance you have typically delivered. Your actions don’t need to be radically different from past performance. Sometimes only very small changes are needed to produce significantly better results.

5. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. If you had the ability to see clearly the end result of what you could achieve in your sales career, you wouldn’t delay in taking action. Well, you can see the end result. Dream, believe, imagine and then take action. You will never deviate from your current path, if you don’t commit to doing something you have never done before. It is totally up to you. Your sales success has nothing to do with the success of others. The determining factor of reaching the full measure of your sales performance boils down to one simple question: What are you willing to do?

Let Your Personal Values Determine Your Sales Goals

2010-08-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

I learned this lesson the hard way, and it has taken me as many years to recover from the devastating results as it took me to create the problem. When I began my professional sales career thirty-five years ago this past June, I had absolutely no comprehension of the relationship between personal values and achievement goals. I naively believed that as long as my activities were legal, honest and moral that they were fair game for achieving my goals. I truly believed that success would be achieved through working tirelessly and consistently in pursuit of my sales objectives. This mode of thinking isn’t wrong, but it isn’t complete. After years of chasing my dreams and goals, I finally gained the perspective that was missing in my life. I wish with all my heart that I would have discovered it sooner, but I’m thankful that I at least discovered it.

My great discovery centers on this one absolute truth: “True success can only be achieved when your personal values and your day-to-day activities, while in pursuit of your goals, are in harmony with each other”. It doesn’t matter what your personal values are, but what does matter is that your values and your goals “speak the same language.” When the two are going in divergent directions, neither one will achieve its full measure of success. You will either sacrifice the one at the expense of the other or you will achieve the one and neglect the other. There is only one way to achieve the integrity of your values while at the same time reaching the pinnacle of success. Find absolute harmony between your values and goals.

That harmony will actually create a synergy between your values and your goals concluding in a result far greater than the sum of the individual elements. To put this principle into effect you must first clearly decide what is of most importance in your life. Ask yourself the question, “what do I value most” and then explain why. Think in terms of how you would spend your life if you knew you only had eight months to live. Now, having determined what you value most and how you would spend your time if you had just a few short months to live, set goals that will be in harmony with those feelings. We have all heard the story of the executive that spent his entire career climbing the proverbial ladder of success only to find that when he finally reached the top rung of the ladder, it was leaning against the wrong wall. He had spent his career in pursuit of those things that ultimately were not of great value to him.

I spent more than seventeen years of my life and career traveling away from home three to four days each week. I earned a great income and never needed to balance my checkbook. There was plenty of money for a fine home, automobiles, vacations, social events and the finer things in life. During that same period of time my four children were born, and ushered through childhood by their mother in the absence of their father who was travelling away from home three and four days each week in pursuit of wealth and position. I found myself remodeling our home to more closely resemble a Marriott hotel room. I was short of patience with the children when I was home and found it hard to relate to their needs and demands because I was so focused on me. My values were family centered but my life was career focused. As successful as I was in my sales career, I had derailed the relationship with my wife and children in the process.

I will forever be grateful that I finally discovered the truth about goals and values. For the past eighteen years I have pursued my goals and discovered a totally new level of success. How? By aligning my values and goals in one harmonious day-by-day consistently focused effort. I have discovered a hidden power that comes through the synergistic result of placing your values and goals on the same horizon. You don’t ever need to sacrifice achievement for values. In fact, your achievements will be infinitely greater when they are aligned with you values. Your values will be magnified when they become synonymous with your goals. The total package of sales success is found where goals, in harmony with personal values, intersect with consistent and effective effort.

If this philosophical perspective helps you put your sales career in balance, please let me know.

Successful Salespeople Understand and Implement Excellent Customer Service

2010-08-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

I believe that excellent customer service is centered on a salesperson’s understanding of what the customer truly needs and then continues through the process of helping them achieve those needs. Too often salespeople become so excited with the prospect of making a sale that they focus on what the customer wants instead of what they need. The eventual result is a customer that is unhappy and blames the salesperson for not selling them what they needed. It may be tempting to move quickly in providing the customer with what they want, but it will eventually come back to haunt you and potentially eliminate any hope of future sales. Take the time to understand the need and then make a recommendation for the correct solution.

Excellent customer service requires that you help the customer understand the relationship between price, quality and service. In challenging economic times, customers tend to focus more on low price than quality and service. No one wants to pay more than they should for any product or service, but paying too little may cause them to compromise on quality and service. Ask probing questions to help you truly understand which of the three components of the value equation are of most importance to the customer. If the customer needs the best quality but they tell you they need the lowest possible price, you will be blamed if you honor their price demands but compromise on quality and service. The old adage, “you get what you pay for” is still true. It is impossible to receive the lowest price and get the best quality and or the best service. It can’t be done! You may get the lowest price, but it will be delivered after all the higher paying customers have received their products. It is not uncommon for someone paying the lowest price to receive a product of lesser quality than they expected.

Who among you, needing major surgery would seek out the lowest priced surgeon with whom to trust with your life? Which of you suffering a life-threatening illness would postpone treatment in order to save a few dollars on your medical bill? Salespeople need to ask the questions necessary to encourage the customer to reveal their true perspectives relating to price, quality and service. Have you ever purchased a product for a low price that wasn’t delivered on time, and you end up having it shipped “over-night” at a shipping premium just to get it when you needed it? You need to know which is more important, price or delivery. Make it a point to have these discussions with your customer. If you don’t, you may believe that you have met the customer’s expectations, when in reality they are not happy with you, the product, or their decision to purchase from your company.

Unfortunately, we live in a world that emphasizes the negative instead of proclaiming the positive. If you don’t meet the customer’s expectations, you run the risk of them publishing their feelings somewhere on the “web” telling the world not to purchase your products or services. To avoid this unwelcomed attention, there are two things you must do as part of your sales process.

1. Ask probing questions to truly understand the customer’s expectations in these four critical areas:

a. Needs versus wants
b. The importance of lowest price
c. Quality expectations
d. Service and delivery needs

2. At the conclusion of the sales, after the customer has received the product or service, conduct a survey to ensure their utmost satisfaction. If they are not satisfied to their original expectation, fix it. Resolve every concern and make them totally happy.

Your customer expects quality service and occasionally talks about it with others. But miss the mark on their expectations and they will share their dissatisfaction with everyone they meet. Let me share a personal example relating to the importance of customer service. I decided to sell my iphone 3GS on E-bay so I could buy the new model. Within just a few hours of my listing, more than two hundred phones just like mine were listed on E-bay in addition to the hundreds of iphones already posted. I started the bidding at one dollar and also gave a “buy now” option. In what seemed an almost unbelievable stroke of luck, a young man from New York accepted my “buy now” offer within just a couple of hours of my listing. When I contacted him relating to the shipping of the phone, I asked him what influenced him to purchase my phone from all the others posted on E-bay. In addition to my professional listing, he said that it was because of the number of sales I had made on E-bay while maintaining a 100% customer satisfaction rating. Don’t ever underestimate the value of customer satisfaction. Remember the principles of understanding the customer’s true needs, followed by a satisfaction interview after the sale and you too will be rewarded for your excellent customer service.

Customer Service Does Not Go Unnoticed

2010-08-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

We live in a remarkable time in the history of the world. The technology and standard of living enjoyed by developed countries truly boggles the imagination. The accessibility of knowledge, information, entertainment and communication through the World Wide Web is beyond imagination. Because of this information and technology revolution, there is very little that happens in the world that those of the world don’t know about. Almost any event can be described as the “shot heard ‘round the world”. The phrase is found in the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" and describes the impact of the battle at Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19, 1775 that ushered in the American Revolutionary War.

We are experiencing a communications revolution that has been ushered in through a literal explosion of technology. Computers and smart phones make knowledge, information and communications just a mere thought away. With this long introduction, I want to emphasize the importance of customer service, both from an “excellent customer service is the right thing to do” and “if you don’t provide excellent customer service the whole world will hear about it” point of view. Recently I wrote an article about a salesperson’s bucket of opportunity. In that article I said that your bucket of opportunity is filled with every sale you have ever made. Every act of customer service, quality, attention to detail, kindness, patience, on time delivery, customer satisfaction and every other sales detail appreciated by your customers goes into the bucket. Once these actions and details go into the bucket, they will stay there until you draw them out. What will you draw from your bucket of opportunity?

Three of the most valuable commodities a sales person could every dream of are:

Additional sales to your customers
Referrals to new potential customers
Letters of recommendation.

The following is a customer service story I pieced together from a recent posting on facebook. I followed up with the parties involved and extracted the entire incredible event. The story involves a young mother of two small children who was grocery shopping at Fry’s Food Stores late on a Saturday evening and the Front End Manager of Fry’s. The following statements are from the original facebook postings and subsequent emails and conversation that were shared by the persons involved.

First posting on Fry’s facebook: "Hey Fry's - Had an awful experience trying to redeem a competitor's coupon at your Ray and Mtn. Park location tonight. Fresh & Easy email coupons that were sent to their email list. I tried to use one tonight and was told you don't accept printed coupons because anyone could copy it. Funny, I can print coupons off your website! Why the double standard? The worst part was the humiliation heaped on me by Assistant Front End Manager (name withheld), for trying to redeem the legit coupon and returning some of the items I was going to purchase to meet the coupon's terms ($10 off $50). Someone who tells a customer "I can't read your mind!" and "I'm only talking to you the way you're talking to me." shouldn't have Manager anywhere on his nametag. He was so rude other shoppers followed me out to my car to tell me I shouldn't have been treated that way.  There are several grocery stores in this area and I thought Fry's believed in customer service. Guess I was wrong."

Fry’s Face Book response: "Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns and please accept our sincere apologies for this experience. We constantly emphasize friendly, courteous customer service is what our customers are to receive when shopping with us. The coupon you described should have been accepted. If you would privately provide us with your contact information by emailing frys.vip.department@frysfood.com we'd like the opportunity to help resolve this situation. Also, the store manager and assistant store manager have been notified and invite you to speak to them directly. Thanks again and we look forward to speaking with you."

Personal email sent to Fry’s to further explain poor customer service: "Hi there. First of all I would like to thank you for responding so quickly to my Face Book post. Since it was Saturday night when the incident occurred I felt it was my only course of action. Second, I would like to explain more fully what happened on Saturday night. The employee, (name withheld), obviously did not see anything wrong with the way he spoke to me, because as I was writing down his name (shaking as I did it - seriously in shock that a grocery store "manager" would talk to a customer this way) he was volunteering his manager and assistant manager's names to me and told me to feel free to contact them.   

After (name withheld) refused my Fresh & Easy coupon I asked him to explain why he wouldn't take it. He couldn't give me a clear explanation that fit with the coupon policy that I know Fry's has (I'm not a huge “couponer”, but I know general policies of the stores I shop). So I continued to ask him to clarify why you would accept a printable manufacturer coupon and not a printable competitor coupon. He just continued to say "I can't accept that, anyone could have copied it". After a few minutes of no explanation I finally said that I would need to return some of the items I had purchased (the entire order had already been scanned when the incident occurred) and he said that was fine, just to let him know what I wanted returned.   

Without any prompting from me, he took several bags out of my cart and took them over to a different register. I went through the bags that were still in my cart and pulled out everything I wanted returned. He picked up those items and took them to the other register as well. He began to scan the items in the bags (that he had removed from my cart) to return them and I told him I didn't want those items returned and that's when he very shortly (and loudly) said to me "I'm not a mind reader!" Startled, I said "Excuse me?! I didn't take those items out of my cart, you did." He then continued by saying "I'm only talking to you the way you're talking to me." At that point I just stopped talking. I pulled out a pen and pad of paper and wrote down his name. Then he volunteered his manager and assistant manager's names for me to write down as well. I waited for him to finish returning the items, I paid him and I left.  

As I was getting into my car to unload the items another car drove up alongside mine. A woman rolled down her window and told me she had seen everything that happened and she couldn't believe an employee was treating a customer that way. She also mentioned she might say something to the manager the next time she was in the store. I was visibly shaken and emotional then. I hate to admit this, (I will so you understand how upset I was) but I cried once I got into the parking lot. (name withheld) actions affected not only me, but all those who witnessed the incident. I have no idea what your policies are regarding reprimanding employees, but I feel action should be taken so (name withheld) is aware there is no gray area when it comes to being respectful of customers. I don't care that he didn't take my coupon - I still would have shopped at your store as I do every other Saturday night around 9 pm - but I do care that I was treated in such a disrespectful manner.  
Thank you for the chance to explain what happened. Feel free to forward this on to his manager.

  Thanks"

Response to customer from Fry’s corporate office: "I really appreciate that you again took time to write regarding your very unfortunate incident. I am sorry about that because I am sure you would like to erase it from your mind. You undoubtedly have been a customer of ours for some time, and I am thankful that you took the time to communicate what happened to you. Our expectation of our employee’s service levels is exactly what you would expect, not what you saw on the night in question.

I spoke with our assistant manager this morning regarding your poor service experience and he was as upset as we all are at the treatment you received. He assured me the matter would be addressed. So often incidents like this are never communicated to us and the result is we lose a customer forever rather than giving us the opportunity to restore your confidence in our organization. I know this is only a small thing, but I would like to give you credit for the $10 you should have received at the store as well as an additional $15 for your trouble. I can do this by adding it directly to your VIP card so you do not have to stop and talk to anyone else about this. The manager and assistant manager would like the opportunity to apologize in person but I will leave that up to you.

I did just leave a voice mail for you. I do not have your name in our database so if you want to send me your VIP card number or give me a call I can get this taken care of immediately. Thank you again for taking the time to write and allowing us the opportunity to make this up to you. As you requested, I did include the store manager on this e-mail. I did remove your personal information in case you did not want it shared. I look forward to talking to you soon."

There are three things that salespeople and management can learn from this unfortunate customer service event:

Poor customer service is akin to the shot heard ‘round the world.
The only reason businesses stay in business is due to their customers and don’t ever forget it!
If you are ever faced with a poor customer service situation, handle it in a manner similar to Fry’s Food Stores. They did an excellent job in their response to a bad situation.

Successful Salespeople Utilize Their “Bucket of Opportunity”

2010-07-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

There are lots of buckets; rice bucket, honey bucket, bucket list, ice bucket, backhoe bucket, bucket of crud from the cartoon Beetle Bailey and one that every salesperson should draw from daily, their bucket of opportunity. A salesperson’s bucket of opportunity is one of the most important buckets in the world. It contains your future sales, commissions, prosperity and success. And yet, so few salespeople ever draw from it or even know what it is, where to find it and alas, how to use it. Every salesperson has their own bucket of opportunity, but they don’t know how to fill it or how to drink from it. The bucket remains a mystery and a waste for most salespeople.

In the next few moments I will explain the use of a salesperson’s bucket of opportunity by explaining how to fill it and then how to draw three extremely valuable properties from it.

First of all, your bucket of opportunity is filled with every sale you have ever made. Whether you know it or not, every sale goes into your bucket. Every act of customer service, quality, attention to detail, kindness, patience, on time delivery, customer satisfaction and every other sales detail appreciated by your customers goes into the bucket. Once these actions and details go into the bucket, they will stay there until you draw them out. However, they come out of the bucket in three distinct forms. They all have equal value and when combined they contain an almost magical synergy. Here are the three properties found in your bucket:

1. Additional sales opportunities with your customers: The very best source of new sales is with an existing, happy satisfied customer. Make sure that you treat your customers well, so they will be both happy and satisfied when you pull them from your bucket. You have a relationship with these current and past customers. Therefore, you have a built in advantage in selling additional products and services to them. They know, like and trust you. Just like the famous commercials for the Larry H. Miller Automotive Group says, “You know this guy”, which implies a trusted relationship in addition to a quality product and customer centered service. Take advantage of that relationship between you and your customers in your bucket of opportunity. Again, the bucket contains your very best next sales opportunity, bar none!
2. Letters of recommendation: If you have ever read a great letter of recommendation or endorsement of a product or service, it came from someone’s bucket of opportunity. There are more letters in that bucket than a typical salesperson could ever use. Trust me on this one, letters sell! However, most letters of recommendation remain untouched in a salesperson’s bucket. They don’t realize they are there so they never pull them out and use them. Don’t flatter yourselves, you are not the best salespeople out there. It is not even a contest. The very best salespeople in the whole world are happy satisfied customers who tell others prospective customers to buy your products and services. Don’t waste the power of a letter of recommendation by leaving it in your bucket.
3. Referrals are the third property found in your bucket of opportunity. If existing and past customers represent the very best source of new sales, referrals from these customers are the next best source of new sales. Most people respond favorably to the idea of referrals. Restaurant referrals, movie referrals, vacation referrals, etc. are part of the human experience. People trust people that they have a relationship with. If your customer was happy and satisfied with you, your product and service, it stands to reason that they would be willing to give you a referral to someone they know. With the referral comes the relationship. People by people first, thus the value in transferring relationships through referrals. Referral sales close at a much higher rate than other forms of prospecting. In many cases, referrals can close at a rate greater than 50%. Referral sales also close much more quickly. A referral opportunity will typically close in half the time it takes to close any other prospecting opportunity. The prospect trusts you and believes you based on the recommendation of someone that they know and respect.

If you will take advantage of the properties found in your bucket of opportunity, you will come away with a new sale, a letter of recommendation, or a referral. If you are lucky, you might come away with two or maybe all three properties. The only way you can walk away empty-handed is to ignore the value of your bucket of opportunity. Begin today by making a list of your current and past, happy satisfied customers and begin calling on them. Continually fill your bucket through making your customers happy and then draw new opportunities each day from your bucket.

10 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Salespeople

2010-07-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I’ll sit back and ponder my experiences in the world of business from a sales perspective. During these moments of reflection my mind is flooded with memories of the good times and the bad. Sometimes I catch myself smiling as I ponder experiences that were so incredible I find it hard to believe they were real. The pictures of other memories are painfully real, but they are similarly my own. What would have been different then, knowing what I know now, is a constant theme of these occasional moments as my mind drifts through scenes of the past. Another recurring theme focuses on the skills and knowledge of past business leaders I had the privilege of associating with. Here are ten key points that I have learned about salespeople during the course of my truly incredible business career.

1. It’s all about the money. Salespeople should be your highest paid employees. Don’t implement any policies or procedures that will limit a salesperson’s income. Several years ago I literally ran into a close friend of mine at an intersection near my parents home while on vacation. As Tom jumped from his car and I from mine, we embraced, not having seen each other since graduate school. I asked Tom what brought him to town and he replied that he was on an unofficial extended vacation. The president of Bell Helicopter, the company Tom worked for had implemented a new policy limiting the commissions earned by its salespeople. One of the salespeople had earned more commission income the prior year than the president, so he put a cap on the number of helicopter a salesperson could sell before commissions would no longer be paid. Tom had reached his limit by July so there was no incentive to continue working to sell any more helicopters. Thus, the unofficial extended vacation. I worked with a company a few years ago that paid its salespeople a declining commission on their sales. They were paid a 20% commission on the first $500,000 in sales, a 15% commission on the next $200,000 in sales and everything beyond that was paid a 10% commission. No salesperson ever sold more than $500,000 dollars. Why would they work harder to sell more and be paid less? So they didn’t.

2. Salespeople don’t know what they are capable of achieving. Find ways to open the minds of your salespeople to truly comprehend what is humanly possible. I’m often reminded of my clients who have been working hard and making a decent income long before I came on the scene. These are good, hard working salespeople who know that the harder they work the more successful they will become and the more income they will earn. Matt was a classic example of this scenario. He was considered the best salesperson in the company, earning around $100,000 in commissions the prior year. He wasn’t too sure it was possible to sell much more or to increase his commission income. Twelve months later, to his amazement, Matt took home more than three times what he had earned the prior year. We see it every day. Salespeople believing they are doing all that can be done, then discovering what is humanly possible and achieving more than they ever imagined.

3. If you don’t train them, who will. They don’t come all trained and ready to go! There are only a handful of colleges or universities that offer a degree or any significant training in sales. Most sales skills are learned through on the job experience and mentoring. There is no guarantee that this experience is teaching correct principles and skills. In fact, from analyzing the performance of typical salespeople, this form of learning only perpetuates poor skills and bad habits. Take responsibility for training your salespeople to become the professionals you expect them to be. You wouldn’t go to a doctor or use the services of an attorney who didn’t have a formal and accredited education and degree, would you? The best investment you will ever make in your company will be the training of your salespeople. Seriously, if you don’t train them, who will?

4. Like any other employee, if you want results, hold them accountable. Salespeople should monitor their performance each day and be held accountable to report their performance on a weekly basis. The following statement should become an absolute and unwavering principle adopted by every business executive: “Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates".

5. Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. There is a direct correlation between what a salesperson is capable of earning and the performance of that salesperson. Provide your salespeople the opportunity to earn a great income, without limitations and you will receive unlimited performance. As business owners you make major investments in equipment, technology and services. Why not make a major investment in the people responsible for selling your products and services.

6. High Salaries vs. incentive income. Salaries motivate employees to come to work. Incentive compensation motivates employees to work at their highest level of performance. In other words, if you want to experience the greatest return on your employee investment, pay them a commission. Pay for what you receive, not for what you want. Salespeople want to be paid for performance. That is the only way they feel they can be compensated fairly.

7. Goals are the foundation of performance. All salespeople should establish and work towards the achievement of goals. Goals are a measurement of activity and success. Goals allow people to stretch beyond their normal reach. Setting and achieving measurable, challenging and achievable goals is the single most important activity salespeople can pursue.

8. Praise is a far better motivator than criticism. Several years ago I worked for one of the largest international companies in the world. The president of our division, in a report to the board of directors, mentioned that his management style was based on healthy doses of intimidation and embarrassment. He was brutal to his employees and never took the time to focus on the positives of their performance. I came into the office one day with a client at about 11:00 am. The president of the company noticed me coming into the building and contacted my boss with the instruction to fire me on the spot along with the person I was with. I had been meeting with the client since 7:00 am reviewing the details of a major sales agreement and had then return to the office with the client to finalize our agreement. I had just concluded a fifty million dollar agreement and the president of the company, who ruled by intimidation and embarrassment, could only think of firing me because he thought I was late for work.

9. There are so few truly good salespeople in the world, structure their activities so they can spend all of their time doing what they do best. Don’t burden salespeople with task and responsibilities that keep them from the sales arena. Allow them the time and freedom to do what they do best. Keep them in front of customers and prospects looking for new opportunities to sell your products and services.

10. Nothing else happens until a sale is made. You can have the best “mouse trap” in the world, but until someone buys it, you are no better off than the company that has the worst “mouse trap” in the world. Always be grateful for the performance of your salespeople. Treat them with dignity and respect. This will motivate them to do even better. Without sales, there is no need for any other function in the company. Teach them, train them; hold them accountable for their performance and you will find the success you are seeking.

The Three Pillars of Sales Success

2010-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

You control your own destiny and don’t let anyone tell you differently. Don’t believe for one minute that you don’t have the power to achieve and become those things that you want. To think or act otherwise is just an excuse to justify your situational mediocre performance. To quote Cherie Carter-Scott, “Ordinary people believe only in the possible. Extraordinary people visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible. And by visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible”. As salespeople we tend to see opportunity and success in terms of past performance influenced by our peers and their uninspired performance. We often think in these terms: “If no one has excelled, then it must not be reasonable to expect that anyone truly can”. Let me describe three pillars of success, that when put in proper perspective and applied, will change your sales career.

Belief: Belief is the foundation of all we do. Human nature suggests that we believe what we can see clearly. Missouri proudly displays the motto on their license plates, “The Show Me State”. Unfortunately, our beliefs are deeply rooted in our culture and past experiences. When you don’t believe you won’t take action and action is a fundamental measurement of success. You need to take time to discover what you believe is possible and then challenge yourself to do it. You can control your world by reprogramming the way you think. By changing your operating system you can discover the truth about your beliefs and then alter those beliefs to achieve what you want. Napoleon Hill through his great insight into human perspective said, “Any definite chief aim that is deliberately fixed in the mind and held there with determination to realize it, finally saturates the entire subconscious mind until it automatically influences the physical action of the body toward the attainment of the purpose”. Belief is the key pillar for all sales success.

Attitude: You can change your direction and condition in life by changing your attitudes about your situation. As you rewrite your attitudes you are programming yourself for greater success in life. You will discover that your attitude has a far greater influence on your success than your aptitude. Average people have achieved phenomenal feats due to their positive mental attitude. “A person’s life is truly what his thoughts make of it.” Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, referring to this statement said, “This is one of the greatest laws in the universe. Fervently do I wish I had discovered it as a very young man”. There is a wonderful quote about attitude that I would like to share with you.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.” –Author Unknown

ACTIVITY: Daily activity is the outward expression of your beliefs and attitudes. If you don’t believe you won’t take action. Activity is the vehicle of achievement and that vehicle is powered by belief. The average person spends only half of the available time pursuing their beliefs. They neglect to plan and schedule meaningful activities that will lead to their success. This lack of planning diminishes both attitude and belief and thus creates a welcome host to the debilitating cancer we call complacency. You should plan and schedule activities each day that will lead you steadily closer to the achievement of those things you believe you can accomplish. You must monitor your progress daily to avoid the illusion of progress shrouded in the mirage of inactivity. If you can’t measure your activity, there is a very strong likelihood that there isn’t any. Put together a plan of action to achieve your beliefs and work on it daily. By taking action, you will discover what so few people have ever experienced – “The power that lies within”.

Become A Doctor of Sales

2010-07-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

A sales person is a problem solver. Diagnosing the prospect leads to solving problems and problem solving leads to sales. Doctors diagnose, treat and cure. They want to find the root cause of a condition instead of just treating the symptoms. No principle could be truer in the world of selling, but so seldom practiced. Salespeople must learn to diagnose, prescribe and cure the pain of their customers and prospects. Doctors are trustworthy and believable. Their main focus is to relieve pain and suffering and then, to promote wellness. Selling is not an event, but rather a process built on trust. Just as in medicine, your customers and prospects deserve a thorough diagnosis accompanied with the best prescription for a cure.

As salespeople, you wear the title of doctor of sales. You need to put your focus on the patient. Your responsibility is to properly diagnose their need and then prescribe the proper cure. Contrary to the actions of most salespeople, your focus is not to make a sale, but rather, to solve their problem with your products and services. If you are unable to provide the proper care and treatment, you must do the same thing a doctor would do. You must refer your prospect or customer to a specialist who can better care for their particular situation. You may lose the opportunity to make a sale, but you will forever have their trust and respect. When the prospect has a future need, they will contact you because of your integrity.

You must earn the trust and respect of your prospects. If you take a selfish position and try to force fit your product to meet their need, you will lose their respect. When you put the focus on them and not yourself, they will reward you with the sale. If you put the focus on the sale they will lose respect for you and look else where for a solution to their need. You need to reprogram your sales approach to the customer or prospect, not your pocketbook. Just as animals can sense fear, customers can sense motive. Once again, let me make it clear. Selling is all about solving the customer’s needs with the right solution, not about making a sale. The sale will come naturally as a result of taking care of the customer. The hidden advantage of this approach is trust and loyalty. The best way to find success in selling is to build a loyal customer base. A loyal customer base is established through focusing on the customer’s needs and presenting the very best solution, even if it means a referral to a more appropriate solution. When you suddenly realize that you are willing to sacrifice making a sale of your own product in order to provide the best solution for your customer, then you will be on the path to becoming a truly successful salesperson.

Here are five points to follow on the path to becoming a doctor of sales:

Change your focus. Become more interested in helping your customer and prospect solve their needs than in making a sale. The sale will naturally follow, once you have cured their pain.
Never prescribe before you have diagnosed. Understanding their pain (needs) is the first and most important thing you can do if your desire is to truly help your customers and prospects.
When you understand their pain, prescribe the correct solution. Never prescribe your product or service if it is not the best solution. Making a sale will never justify prescribing an incorrect solution.
Refer your customer or prospect to a specialist if their specific need is beyond the ability of your products and services. In the world of medicine, a referral to a specialist has become a common practice in caring for the needs of the patient.
Truly care about the individuals and companies you work with. When they know how much you care, they will naturally reward you with their business.

Finding Hidden Opportunities Will Dramatically Increase Your Sales Results

2010-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Many salespeople wait patiently at their desks for the phone to ring so they can write sales orders with existing and new customers. When the phone rings they are all about getting the order and if need be, jumping through hoops to satisfy the customer and demonstrate their customer centered service. Until the phone rings they are busy doing stuff, but then they go into “super customer service mode” attempting to capitalize on every whim of the customer. In today’s economy the phone isn’t necessarily ringing off the hook and when the phone does ring are you discovering all that the customer needs? Let me make a broad assumption and suggest that average salespeople typically do not discover all of the customer’s needs whether they are answering the phone or calling on the customer in person. Salespeople miss out on sales opportunities every day because their minds are shrouded in the fog of mediocrity. They are so intent on meeting the customer’s immediate needs that they fail to realize the bigger picture. The thing the customer needs may only be one element of the grand scheme. Salespeople become so narrowly focused in fulfilling that one thing, that they overlook other opportunities that may represent far greater potential and profit.

Seek understanding by asking question. What do you want to understand? You want to understand how that particular need fits into the bigger picture represented by the what, where, who, why, when and how of their company. What the customer tells you may be just the tip of the iceberg of their needs. Ask questions to learn how to better meet the customer’s requirements and remember to ask permission to ask questions. Asking permission is a courtesy that will put the customer in a “question answering” frame of mind. Seeking to understand the bigger picture will also convey to the customer that you are interested in them and want to help to the fullest degree.

Let me share with you a fun little story about a young salesman who turned a small customer need into a much larger sale.

A young salesman landed a new job with a large “everything under one roof” department store. The hiring manager indicated that at the end of his first day he would personally evaluate the salesman’s performance. The young man’s first day on the job was rough but he got through it and subsequently found himself sitting in the manager’s office for his first day’s performance review.

The manager asked the young man how many sales he had made and he replied, only one. Somewhat surprised by his answer, the manager responded that the average salesperson for the store usually made between twenty or thirty sales in a typical day. The manager then asked the young man the dollar value of the sale. He responded that the sale totaled $101,237.64. The manager responded by saying “What in the world did you sell”? The young man responded by saying that he first sold the customer a small fishing hook, followed by a medium sized fishing hook, which was followed by an even larger fishing hook. The young man continued by saying that he then sold the customer a new fishing rod. After asking the customer where he planned to go fishing, the young man suggested to the customer that he might need a new boat, so he took the customer down to the boat department and sold him a 29 foot Catalina twin engine fishing boat.

With this, the customer suggested that he didn’t think his Honda Civic would be able to pull the boat, so the young man took his customer out to the automotive department and sold him a Chevy Tahoe to pull the boat. The manager in total amazement said, “A guy comes in to buy a fishing hook and you sold him a boat and a Chevy Tahoe?” The young man replied, “No. He came in the store to buy some Excedrin Migraine for his wife and I said, well, your weekend is shot, you might just as well go fishing!”

This is an entertaining story, but it also suggest that salespeople might be missing out on some serious sales opportunities by not asking question to discover the full scope of the customer’s needs. Think to yourself these questions. “Do I know all I can about this customer and his or her needs? Do I know as much as they know, combined with my own knowledge and experience so I can provide solutions to satisfy the whole opportunity?” Make these principles part of your sales skills and watch you income increase, while at the same time, taking better care of meeting your customer’s needs.

Sales “Super Stars” See the End From The Beginning

2010-06-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Very few people would go on a vacation without first planning and scheduling their time, activities and transportation. You wouldn’t start out hoping you would arrive at your destination without any preparation. You would put together a detailed plan, that when followed, would allow you to arrive as planned and scheduled. Successful salespeople know from the beginning what effort and activity will achieve the result they expect. It is simply a matter of following a preconceived plan. There is no guesswork; only a matter of achieving what has already been planned. Goal setting will allow you to see the end from the beginning.

Anyone can set a goal, but goal achievement requires a plan and a schedule. The tool that will allow salespeople to achieve their goals is a monthly goal sheet. This sheet represents a thirty-day road map detailing the course, activity and effort necessary to achieve your sales objectives. A sales goal is far more than just a number. It is a number supported by time, activity and specific direction. A monthly goal sheet is a map containing all the specific information necessary to achieve your sales objective. Here is a list of the elements of a goal sheet describing how each part will lead you to greater sales success.

1. Set the goal. Determine what you want to achieve and write down the number. It can be written in terms of total sales dollars, profit, number of customers or any other unit that would describe achievement. If you can’t write it, then you can’t achieve it.

2. Determine the time frame. Your objective is to achieve a certain result within a specific period of time. A calendar month is a typical period of time. A goal without a time period established for achievement is merely a wish. Using the terms, “as soon as I can” or “someday” are simply an excuse for lack of achievement.

3. Every goal must have specific steps leading to the desired achievement. Without the establishment of steps, time and effort will be spent doing things that are not necessary to the achievement of the goal. A monthly sales goal needs to focus specifically on those accounts or prospects that can conceivably contribute to reaching the goal. Think in terms of those opportunities that have a fifty percent chance of closing for the month. List each of those opportunities on your goal sheet.

4. Once you have listed the specific opportunities you plan to close for the month, list the value of each of those opportunities. Since you have listed those sales opportunities that have a fifty percent chance of closing, your opportunities will need to be twice the value of your goal. In other words, every opportunity on your goal sheet will not close. If you don’t have enough total opportunities listed, you will fall short of reaching your goal.

5. Divide your goal into four weeks. By assessing where you stand each week you will be able to better determine the effort necessary to reach the monthly goal. You will also be able to make adjustments to your effort and achievement as the days and weeks progress instead of waiting until the end of the month when there is not time left to react. By setting a goal for each week’s efforts and then tracking each week’s results, you will know where you stand and what needs to be done to successfully reach your monthly goal.

6. Prospecting to find more opportunities will allow you to reach your goal. If your total opportunities projected for the month are less than twice the amount listed as your monthly goal, then you need to prospect to find more opportunities. Finding more opportunity with an existing customer is the best and quickest method of building your pipeline. The next best method is receiving referrals from happy, satisfied customers.

7. A picture is worth a thousand words. Most people are visual, so create a picture that represents your progress in reaching your monthly goal. A graph, chart or even a picture of a thermometer, calibrated to show your sales progress, will create the excitement to move you forward when your motivation is low.

8. Review and update your goal sheet every day and then take the appropriate actions. Make contact with those opportunities listed on your goal sheet and record your success daily. Your daily concentrated focus will create the effort necessary to achieve your goals.

There is nothing you can do as a salesperson to influence your sales success more than to establish the practice of using a monthly goal sheet. If you would like a copy of the goal sheet template my clients have been successfully using for years, send me an email and I will send you a copy in pdf format. I can be reached at the following email address: tim (at) bpgutah (dot) com

Patience Is A Characteristic Of All Successful Salespeople

2010-06-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

As the proverb states, “Patience is a virtue” and everyone could stand to use a bit more in their sales process. Never lose sight of the principle that people don’t want to be sold they want the opportunity of maintaining personal control of the buying process. Buyers want the purchasing moment to be their decision, not someone coercing them to move beyond their comfort zone. Use patience in all aspects of the sales process to build sincerity and trust with the buyer. Here are ten ways to apply the principle of patience in the sales process.

1. Meet with the prospect according to their schedule. Don’t try to force a time to meet with them. Be positive in your approach but avoid being pushy. Be patient. “All good things come to he who waits.” – Proverb

2. Building rapport. Be patient and learn something about your prospect. Let them tell their story. People like to talk about themselves. Don’t rush to present your products. “He that can have patience can have what he will.” – Benjamin Franklin

3. Diagnosing the prospects needs is an essential part of the sales process. Make sure you take ample time to discover their true needs. Don’t rush to solve problems before you know exactly what they are. Be Patient. “Patience is a virtue.” – Proverb

4. Resolving Concerns is another area in which to exercise patience. Don’t skip this step of the sales process. Be patient and get all their concerns “out on the table.” There is no victory in rushing through your presentation in hopes of concluding without revealing the prospect’s concerns. Be Patient, reveal each concern all and then work to resolve them. “Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine

5. Your prospects will place a value on patience. They are paying attention to the interest you place in dealing with their concerns. Time has value and they recognize the value you place on time. Be patient. “Patience and fortitude conquer all things” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. The difference between making a sale and losing the sale could very easily boil down to the degree of patience you show in dealing with the prospect. Don’t rush to judgment, it creates the feeling of focusing on you rather than focusing on the prospect. “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Tolstoy

7. People don’t want to be sold; they want to buy. If you rush through the sales process you may lose the sale, wasting all the time you have previously invested. When you rush to a conclusion the prospect feels like you are pushing them. Relax, be patient. Help them to arrive at the buying conclusion and allow them to buy instead of feeling like they are being sold. “The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” – Arnold H. Glasgow

8. Discuss the features and then dwell on the benefits. Be patient as you invite them to reveal the benefits of your offering to their unique situation. Let them sell themselves. This takes patience. “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

9. In the sales process it is easier and faster to tell, tell, tell. However, telling isn’t selling. Take time to ask the questions that when answered by your prospect, will reveal the information you otherwise would have told them. Patiently drawing answers from your prospect will create belief and deeper understanding. Be patient and they will see from their own perspective, the value in your products. “Patience will achieve more than force.” – Edmund Burke

10. Don’t rush to close. There is a definite correlation between time, sincerity and honesty. People don’t want to be “hustled” and rushing to the close has the feeling of being hustled. Give them time to ponder and make the buying decision on their time schedule. Always ask for the business, but don’t rush the prospect to a hasty decision. Be patient and you will become more trustworthy. Remember, people buy from people they believe, like and trust. “One minute of patience, ten years of peace” – Greek Proverb

Honesty Should Be The Only Policy For Salespeople

2010-06-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

I asked my wife Peggy what I should write about this week. Without blinking an eye she said honesty. “Salespeople only tell you what you want to hear,” she said. “They’ll promise you everything and deliver nothing,” she continued. I ‘m getting the feeling that my wife doesn’t like salespeople. However, I know she does. She has several friends at the stores where she shops at The Gateway, and I also know she likes me. Somewhere in her life’s experience she has had some negative experiences with salespeople and the experiences have been significant enough that she would suggest I write about honesty in selling.

I have a client company who a few years ago developed and marketed a new and innovative product. They have done an excellent job introducing this product to the industry and have captured a large part of their competition’s market share. One of their competitors sent a letter to those customers purchasing this new and innovative product telling them that it presented a health risk and would damage the equipment used to apply the product. Every time this competitor heard that a company using this product was having a problem with their equipment, they would immediately put the blame on the new and innovative product sold by my client. Over a period of time, my client lost sales due to the negative information spread throughout the industry.

The competition was spreading lies. In every instance, it was demonstrated and proven that the problems with equipment had nothing to do with my client’s product and further, that the product did not provide any more of a health risk than the competitor’s own product. The dishonesty of the competitor ultimately came back to hurt them and not my customer. In fact, it must have been embarrassing for the competition to eventually introduce a similar product and then suggest that it did not cause any of the problems they had openly broadcast about my client’s product. The dishonest words of the competitor damaged their own reputation with their own customers and others within the market.

Here are five ideas that will help you be honest in your dealings with customers. Remember, people buy from people they believe, like and trust. Your sales career hangs in the balance between honesty and dishonesty.

1. Treat your customer’s situation as though it were your own. What would you do and how would act if you were your own customer? Tell them the reality of the situation and not what you think they want to hear.

2. If you don’t know the answer to a question, admit that you don’t know instead of fabricating an answer that may not be true. If you don’t know, tell them you will find the answer and get back to them. There is no shame in not knowing, but it is dishonest to pretend that you know the answer when you don’t.

3. It is just as dishonest to avoid telling the truth, as it is to openly say something that is not true. If you compromise honesty with a customer, it will only hurt you. You risk compromising trust with your customer. It is much more difficult to regain credibility than to maintain it.

4. Never speak negatively about your competition. The competition may deserve it, but don’t be the one to talk about it. Remember the famous line spoken in Walt Disney’s classic movie, Bambi. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

5. Discover what your prospect or customer needs. Once you know their needs you can focus on solving their problems or meeting their needs. If your product is not the best solution, tell them. Help them achieve a solution whether it involves your product or your competition’s. You will be rewarded with future business by helping them meet their needs and for your honesty in recommending the best overall solution.

Be honest in all of your dealings with customers and prospects. Build relationships on a solid foundation of integrity and honesty. The relationship will allow you to enjoy the most coveted of all sales postures, repeat sales. Your very best next sale will come from an existing customer. However, if you are not honest in your dealings with them, you can kiss that recurring sale good-bye. How do you want to be known within your industry?

In The World Of Sales, When All Things Appear Equal, The Difference Is You

2010-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

There is more than one satisfactory solution to a prospects needs. Many products are equally good and several competitor companies can have stellar reputations. Guarantees and warranties can be similar and service is frequently over-stated. Every Salesperson offers the lowest price, the best quality, excellent service and the perfect solution. With everyone looking the same, the only difference in the sales equation is you. Let me take a few minutes and talk about five principles that will set you apart from your competition.

Listen to your prospect. Most salespeople tell, thinking that telling is selling. If you will take the time to listen to what the prospect is telling you, you will know what is important to them. Once you know what is important to them, you can tailor your presentation to their needs.
Understand their situation. Know precisely what they need to solve their problem. Ask insightful and probing questions. Don’t just respond to the first need they present to you. Discover the whole picture so you know how the solution to this specific need fits with the big picture.
Treat your prospect’s company as if it were your own. What would you do? What would be the best solution to their problem from your perspective? Help them assess the relationship between price, quality, and service. Evaluate all possible solutions and make sure you present the most viable solution. If your product is not the best solution, make a recommendation and move on. They will respect you for your honesty and probably give you an opportunity to solve future needs.
Through effective questioning, seek to understand the prospects position relating to price and quality. Very often the prospect becomes so focused on price that they sacrifice value. Lowest price in most cases is not lowest cost. Price is what the prospect pays for the product and cost is their total investment using that product. A salesperson can offer the lowest cost to the customer and yet, have the highest initial price. Make sure you understand what they need and they understand what you are offering.
There is service and then there is real service. Real service involves you, the salesperson. It requires your involvement with the customer to insure they are happy and satisfied with their decision to purchase from you. No one else is responsible for your customer, only you. The buck stops here. Others may be involved, but the happiness of your customer rests on your shoulders. When they know that you care, they will be around for a long time.

The difference between you and every other salesperson is not price, quality or service, it is you. The difference is found in your ability to solve their problems and your sincere concern for their situation. The customer knows if you care about them and caring makes all the difference in the world. When all things are equal, it is the salesperson that makes difference. Apply these five principles and enjoy the difference.

Salespeople Control Their Own Financial Destiny

2010-05-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thirty-four years ago when I joined the ranks of professional salespeople, I was convinced that the harder I worked the more successful I would be. I was also convinced that the more successful I was at selling, the wealthier I would become. However, there was one small problem–I was paid a salary with the hope of a share of profits. I remember vividly meeting with my boss, reminding him of my excellent performance and then asking for a raise (one that I thought would have come naturally as a result of my performance). It was at that moment I realized for the very first time, as long as I was paid a salary, my boss controlled my financial destiny, not me. A career as a commissioned salesperson is the only career where you have complete control of your earned income.

This past week I was reading the book Driven, the autobiography of Larry H. Miller. He was explaining the possible reason for his ninety-hour workweek for most of his career. He suggested that in part, it might have been the fact that he had no college degree to fall back on, so working long hard hours was the only way he could control his destiny. If he always excelled at his work, he would be the last person standing in difficult employment times. He wanted to provide for his family and hard work and long hours seemed to be his only alternative.

Let me identify five principles that will allow you to control your destiny and contribute to your financial success as a commissioned salesperson. Commit yourself to these principles and pay the price necessary to achieve financial success.

TIME AND EFFORT: A commitment to give your sales career the appropriate time and effort is critical. I’ve seen too many salespeople over the course of my career that were unwilling to put in the time. Since most salespeople aren’t monitored, they take advantage of the freedom of their position and don’t work a full eight-hour day selling. Very few salespeople are willing to work as hard as they are able every hour of every day. Time and effort are essential components for success. Get yourself a time management tool and use it effectively every day. Plan what you are going to do each day. Prioritize the activities you have planned so the important things always get done. Determine how much time you are going to spend on each activity. Move each activity into a time frame or a block of time to ensure that you are working on the right activities at the right time. If you don’t plan and schedule an activity, it is very likely that you will never do it. Once you have determined what to do, you must determine how much time to spend and when to do it. The best way to work hard is to challenge yourself to do more and then to do better each day.
SET GOALS: Successful people didn’t stumble upon success, they set goals that led them to success. Goals should become a part of everything you do in selling. Set a goal for the number of each activity you want to achieve within a certain amount of time. Set a goal for the sales dollars you want to generate each day, week and month. Set a goal for the number of new prospects you want to contact within a specific period of time. Always be thinking in terms of numbers and time. Everything you do in sales can be reduced to goals and all goals can be reduced to numbers and time. Salespeople who set goals don’t waste time because they realize the value of their time. Goals can be a salesperson’s best friend. Consistently focusing on the achievement of goals will guarantee that you will be working at your optimum level. Goal setting creates the focus required to do your best effort. I encourage all of my clients to use a monthly goal sheet that identifies where they believe their sales will come from, giving them the focus necessary to achieve their goals.
EDUCATE YOURSELF IN SALES: No one ever achieved their best without first being educated in that thing. Larry Miller admittedly did not have a college education. He spent a total of six weeks at the University of Utah before deciding he was not programmed for college. However, there was never a smarter more educated man in the fields he pursued than Larry Miller. He learned, but not in the classroom. His education far exceeded what he would have learned in college. He gained an education the hard way, with ninety-hour workweeks teaching himself those things he needed to know to be successful. He learned that knowledge was essential for succeeding in any endeavor. It is not essential for a person to have a college degree to be successful in sales. However, it is essential that you gain the specific knowledge that will allow you to be successful. Knowledge applied correctly is the key to success in any profession and it is never more true than in selling.
LEARN HOW TO FOCUS: Developing the ability to maintain a razor sharp focus on your objectives is an absolutely critical element in controlling your destiny. You must be able to determine precisely those things you want to achieve and then be able to determine how to achieve them. The ability to stay on task or to compartmentalize is necessary for achievement. You don’t have to work on something from beginning to end in order to be successful. You need to be focused, however. Knowing where you are in relation to where you want to be and how you are going to get there are critical. When you can clearly see where you want to go, then you can work on the means to get you there. Referring to the life of Larry Miller, I honestly believe he was focused on not failing, so he turned to something he was familiar with, automobiles. He learned to identify every part in the parts department of the dealership where he worked in Denver. He focused on gaining knowledge of automobile parts because that would make him indispensable and give him security. In another chapter of his book he talked about getting out of debt and living within his means. That particular focus allowed him to save the money he eventually used as a down payment for his first dealership. Had he not focused on saving, he never would have been able to exercise the opportunity to purchase an automobile dealership.
FIND BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE: It is possible to control your destiny without achieving balance in your life, but you will pay a high price. Years ago when I worked for the M.A. Hanna Company in Cleveland, Ohio, my boss Fred Heller encouraged me to find balance in my life. He insisted that I always take my family on vacations, spend quality time with my wife and children and he promised me that the company would rarely, if ever, require me to be out of town on weekends. He assured me that a balanced life would be more productive and rewarding. He knew that if my life was in balance then I would be a more profitable employee and he would be a more successful Senior Vice President of Sales. I’ve never forgotten that lesson and it has served me well for the past thirty-four years. One of the themes of the book Driven, is finding balance in your life. As much as Larry Miller achieved in his life, it came at a price because of his lack of balance. Could he have achieved the same level of success with a more balanced life? I don’t know and neither did he. Finding balance in your sales career is totally up to you. You will be richer in so many more ways through achieving balance than by not. The reward is definitely worth the effort. Don’t ever use finding balance in your life as an excuse for not managing your time and effort. Finding balance in your life requires that you manage your time and effort. You will only find balance in your life when you set goals. Finding balance in your life requires that you educate yourself because education is a form of freedom and freedom is essential to a balanced life. Learning to focus on important things is the essence of finding balance in your life.

The Similarities Between The 1980 U.S. Hockey Team and Sales Success

2010-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Coach Herb Brooks as depicted in the movie Miracle was speaking to the members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team as they were assembled for their first practice session in preparation for the Olympic games. They were gathered in a room watching film of the Soviet team. Coach Brooks said, speaking of the Soviet hockey team,

“Forty-two games in the last three months, forty-two wins. Their main weapon, intimidation. They know they are going to win and so do their opponents…. I know there is a way to stay with this team. You don’t defend them, you attack them. You take their game and you shove it right back in their face. The team that is finally willing to do this, is the team that has a chance to put them down. The NHL won’t change their game, we will. The rest of the world is afraid of them. Boys, we won’t be. No one has ever worked hard enough to skate with the Soviet Team for an entire game. Gentlemen, we are going to work hard enough!”

How does this hockey story relate to sales? There are a few of similarities, and certainly a few lessons that we can all learn.

First of all, no one and I mean no one gave the U.S. Hockey Team a chance in the world at beating the Soviet team. Remember, the Soviet team was a professional team and the U.S. Team was made up of college players, none of who had any NFL experience. This team did not have the talent of the Soviet team, but they had desire and the willingness to work hard enough to win. In the world of sales, skills are very important for achieving success. However, desire and attitude are just as important. The combination of skills and attitude presents a winning combination.

Second, they were not afraid. They believed in themselves and their ability to perform in the heat of battle because they had prepared. They believed in their coach and they believed in their own abilities. Many teams who faced the powerful Soviet hockey machine were defeated before they even set foot on the ice. They didn’t believe they could win and they were paralyzed by fear. If you are to be successful at selling, you must believe in your ability to be successful and be willing to stand up to your fears. Once you stand face to face with your sales fears, they will no longer have power over you.

Third, they believed that victory would be found in a solid offense and not in just defending their goal. They knew they would have to take the game to the Soviet team if they were to win. Selling is not an easy career. It requires hard work and preparation to be successful. Successful salespeople work hard at finding opportunities to sell their products and services; they don’t just wait for the phone to ring. Become proactive. Create the opportunities you need to be successful.

Fourth, they knew that preparation and practice was the key to victory. As coach Brooks said, “No one has ever worked hard enough to skate with the Soviet team for an entire game; gentlemen, we are going to work hard enough!” Most salespeople have never worked hard enough at selling to really know what they are capable of achieving. Until you have pushed yourself to the boundaries of your capabilities, you will never know how good you can possibly be. Work hard enough to achieve your true potential.

Fifth, Coach Brooks had a plan; a specific plan based on what he believed was necessary to beat the Soviet team. It wasn’t enough to just practice and work hard. They needed to work hard and follow a plan. As history has recorded, the perfect execution of a well-crafted plan allowed the U.S. Hockey Team to defeat the most powerful team in the world of hockey. The typical salesperson spends their day doing “stuff.” They do whatever seems appropriate for the moment. They have never considered the value of developing a winning game plan to ensure their sales success. There is nothing wrong, and everything right, in preparing a specific plan to achieve the success you desire with a specific prospect. The world of selling has reached the professional ranks. You are in the big leagues. In this league, winging it is out, and planning is the law of the land.

To summarize the five principles taught by Coach Brooks to his young hockey players as they relate to selling, you must believe in yourself and have a positive attitude. Don’t be afraid, but rather, stand up to your fears and defeat them. Be proactive. A strong offense is often the best defense. Create the situation you desire, don’t wait for it to come to you. Preparation is critical for success. Study, learn, practice and apply the principles and skills of selling. Don’t just wing it. Develop a plan for your sales success and follow it.

Educate Yourself In The Field Of Sales

2010-05-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

I was deeply moved this past week as I attended the University of Utah Class of 2010 commencement exercises. I was there to honor my daughter-in-law who received her degree in social work. It was a touching moment as President Michael Young acknowledged the extreme effort and sacrifice made by both the graduates and their families. He expressed his belief that the world will be a far better place for the contributions to be made by these exemplary young men and women. President Young was clear in his brief comments that the great hope for this generation and the world lies in the education of its inhabitants.

The advancement of science, humanities, medicine, law, engineering, business, and all other educational disciplines does not happen without learning. Knowledge applied correctly is the root element of advancements in civilization. Knowledge correctly applied, combined with experience, is the foundation for all success. As I pondered the magnitude of more than seven thousands new college graduates seeking to add their strength to our economic society, I felt confident and saw a glimmer of hope for our future.

There was one glaring omission, in my mind, as I witnessed the pomp and ceremony of this commencement celebration. With all the honors and degrees conferred on the graduates, no one received a degree in sales. Not one graduating student was recognized for his or her educational achievements in the discipline of selling. Recognizing that the bright hope for our future lies in education, what does the lack of trained salespeople mean for the commerce of this nation? Just because sales degrees are not offered at a college or university level does not mean an education in selling is any less important than any other field of study. It just means that a sales education and training will need to be acquired through other venues. The fact that a sales education is not found on the college campus makes it even more critical to find an education from other sources.

In the United States, sales training is a seven billion dollar a year industry. There are unlimited seminars, tapes, CD’s, DVD’s, and books available to anyone looking for knowledge. Most of the material contains some value and any person willing to read and listen will certainly come away with additional knowledge. Remember, knowledge is not the complete answer, it is knowledge applied correctly. The way we learn and the way we achieve is accomplished through a process referred to as “spaced repetition”. Spaced repetition is comprised of leaning and doing consistently over a period time. Spaced repetition is improved dramatically when combined with a mentor or coach who will fine tune performance and hold you accountable. Most of the training available in the world of selling does not involve spaced repetition, coaching or accountability.

Here are five ideas that will help you achieve your quest for an education in the field of sales. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

Commit yourself to learning in the same degree you would if you were going to college. Read, study, attend class, question your instructor, practice in the laboratory, grade your performance and understanding, spend the time necessary to perfect your skills.
Find yourself a coach, someone who will teach you the practical application of those things you have learned through reading the best books and listening to the best knowledge. Remember, knowledge applied correctly, combined with experience is the foundation for all success.
Find someone who will hold you accountable not only for knowledge, but for your daily application of the things you have learned. You need to be critiqued and graded for your performance in order to know where you stand. Once you know where you stand, you can strive to improve.
Be consistent. Create a habit of consistent performance and daily activity. Form the habit of doing daily, those activities necessary for sales success. There is no short cut for experience.
Never quit learning and correctly applying those things you have learned. Discover new applications for the core principles of salesmanship you have mastered. Your expertise will be built one sale at a time. Let each selling experience build knowledge.

Success in all fields of endeavor is built firmly on knowledge, application and experience. Don’t short change your current situation or rob yourself of future achievements. Educate yourself in the field of sales. You won’t find it in the curriculum of most colleges and universities; nevertheless, an education in selling can be achieved. When you have achieved that education, your world and that of your employer, as President Michael Young expressed, will be a far better place.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

2010-05-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest challenges that each person faces in this life is the challenge of “finding themselves.” Everyone has had thoughts about which roads to pursue in life and what might have been different had you traveled one road instead of another. Many college students struggle with which career to pursue or discovering their talents. Many salespeople wrestle with making a career out of sales and if so, which company and what products to associate themselves with. Most salespeople think in terms of finding an employment home rather than building security through their efforts. They total miss the point by thinking the employer is there to take care of them, instead of understanding that they create their own security through their performance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies in front of us, pales in significance when compared to what lies within us.” Most salespeople have no concept of what they are capable of achieving. They tend to think in terms of what their employer can offer them. At the heart of the issue is the question, “what can you offer yourself?” The greatest difference between salespeople is not the companies they work for or the products they offer. The difference is found within the person. Do you even have a clue as to what you are capable of achieving in your selling career? You know what you have done in the past and you know what others have done. But do you have any idea of the power that lies within your soul? Have you ever stretched far enough to know the power that lies within yourself?

As I began working with salespeople I forced myself to use restraint in expressing what I believed they were capable of achieving. If I came right out and told them, they wouldn’t believe me and would give up trying before we even began. I met with a salesperson today that I trained a few years ago. He was making a very comfortable six-figure income when we started working together. He is making today more than three times the income he was earning when we began. I don’t believe this salesperson, in his wildest dreams, ever believed he could earn that kind of income. What made the difference? It was not just one thing. There is no magic bullet. There were several things, working together that made the difference. Let me list a few principles that he applied that will also work for you.

1. Don’t allow yourself to be tied to your past. Regardless of what you have achieved in the past, you can always do better. Many salespeople fail to reach their true potential because they naively believe they have achieved their best.
2. Don’t succumb to the deadly cancer of apathy. Never accept the status quo. Work and think outside the box. Look for ways to improve your performance every day. There is nothing in this life that cannot be improved upon, even you.
3. Many people over estimate others and under estimate themselves. Reach deep inside yourself and discover you true potential. If someone else has achieved greatness, so can you. The average person has no realistic idea of what they are capable of doing.
4. Human nature naturally directs our thinking to the “negative” instead of the positive. People tend to view life in terms of what they can’t achieve as opposed to what they can achieve. Set your focus on turning “impossibles” into “possibles”.
5. Don’t allow yourself to be frozen by fear. Fear is a form of ignorance. When you begin to gain an understanding of your inner strength you will learn to stand firm in the face of fear. Once you have stood face to face with your fears, they will no longer have power over you.
6. Remember, “successful people are not without their problems; they’re simply people who’ve learned how to solve their problems.” – Robert Seashore
7. Develop a positive attitude. The only thing in this life that you have total and complete control of is your attitude. Successful salespeople have developed an “I Can” attitude.
8. If you are to truly discover the “power within”, you must develop an overpowering desire to succeed. Waiting for opportunities to happen is the legacy of all average performers. Creating your own opportunities is how successful people live their lives.
9. Find a purpose in your life that is so strong and so compelling that you would move both heaven and earth to preserve it. It is that purpose that we sustain you through difficult and challenging times.
10. Take responsibility for your actions and own the results of your efforts. No one else can fulfill your destiny and no one else can walk the lonely road of success in your footsteps. Success is a lonely road because so few people find it and when found, so very few are willing to walk it.

The greatest joy you will experience in your sales career, will come at that moment when you discover a glimpse, ever so small, of what you are truly capable of achieving. When you have tasted just a drop of the sweet nectar of your inner strength and long for more, then you will be on the road to achieving your true potential. The saddest epitaph of life is never achieving the full nature of your creation.

Sales Make "The World Go ‘Round"

2010-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I participated in a company golf outing. In my foursome was the Vice President of Operations. We knew each other fairly well and so while we hit the ball around the golf course we chided each other with the age-old question, which is more important operations or sales? Let me present the same question to you. There is no argument that both sales and operations are important. One can’t exist without the other. A company can have the finest product in the world, but without sales, the company will not exist. Likewise, a company can have the best salespeople in the industry, but without a product to sell, the company will cease to exist.

I have a friend who told me he was going to start a service related business. He wanted me to give him a few pointers on how to sell his services. I told him I would be happy to help him in any way I could. I waited several weeks and never heard from him. When he finally called back he told me he was still working on his marketing materials and putting the final touches on his products. I didn’t hear from him for several more weeks and when he finally contacted me he told me that even though he had finished all the marketing materials and product refinements, he had decided to redo everything because he just wasn’t happy with the results. To make a long story short, he never launched his business because he never got around to selling his services. In reality, he could have gone out and sold his product and after making the sale he could have fine-tuned the delivery of his services. The failure of his company was not the product; it was the lack of sales effort.

I was with a client today who told me that he had made a sales call to a company that had never heard of his company. My client is the regional service provider for a national company. One of the users of this national product had no knowledge that my client was the regional service provider! My client may possibly be the best-kept secret in town. No other company currently provides the level of service of my client. No one! But there are still prospective customers who are unaware of the services my client has to offer. What good does it do to have the top service technicians in the country if no one knows you exist? The answer to maximizing the utilization of their service technicians is an improved sales effort.

There is a great line from the movie, Field of Dreams that states, “If you build it, they will come.” Ask yourself the question, “If they don’t know you built it, why will they come?” The answer is, they won’t! My first job after graduate school was selling iron ore to steel mills in North America. I didn’t know anything about iron ore or the steel industry when I first started. However, during the first six months of my sales career, before I had even seen an iron ore pellet, I sold millions of dollars worth of product. Once I gained knowledge of the product I was selling, my sales increased dramatically. The point is this: I didn’t need to have a great amount of knowledge about the product to make sales. I did, however, need to find the opportunities and then I could call on technical people within my company to help with the technical details until my knowledge was sufficient.

My company mined iron ore and produced high-grade iron ore pellets. Other companies around the world did the same thing. Steel mills purchased iron ore pellets from companies they knew, based on the quality of the product they produced. If a steel mill was unaware that my company sold iron ore, then they would obviously buy from someone else. If the customer doesn’t know you exist, there is no reason to believe they will purchase your product. We reached a point in the sales of iron ore that we had outsold our ability to produce. What did we do? We expanded our operations. We grew the company by increasing our sales. We didn’t spend hundreds of millions of dollars to expand our operations in hopes of selling more. We drove the growth and expansion of the company through sales.

Sales makes the world go ‘round. You sell it and your company will find a way to source it or produce it. Your future and the success of your employer depend on your ability to sell the products and services of your company. There are times when the company may increase their inventory or production believing that the salespeople will sell more. However, if management doesn’t have that belief, they won’t be willing to make the financial investment in inventory. The salesperson’s performance, or the belief that they will perform, is the driving force of our economy. The real heroes in business are the ones who sell the products and services. Without sales, nothing else happens!

Selling Is A Process, Not An Event

2010-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

I am a practicing salesperson. I apply the principles and skills I write about each day in my quest for increased sales. I’ve learned many things pertaining to selling during my career. First of all, selling is hard work and you must work hard at it every day to be successful. Second, there is a lot to learn if you want to be good at your trade and you’ll never quit learning if you want to be great at selling. Third, to be successful at sales, you’ve got to embrace the attitude of serving others and finding solutions to their problems. Fourth, there will always be competition. You must find a way to set yourself and your solution apart from the rest. The fifth thing that I have learned about selling, and maybe this is the most important: making a sale is not an event but rather the result of a finely tuned and crafted process.

Closing a sale generally does not happen because you did a certain thing. Closing the sale typically happens because you did several things well, in the right order and at the right time. I have read ninety-nine ways to close a sale and don’t apply any of those ways by themselves to closing a sale. Some of the listed ways have their roots in a particular principle or skill, but by themselves, are generally not that successful. However, if you apply the principles associated with sales success, the closing of the sale becomes the logical conclusion of all that has preceded it. In these challenging economic times, where people seem to be holding tight to what resources they have, you must demonstrate exceptional skills and work harder than ever before to excel at selling. Every sales situation will be slightly different and you must establish a game plan for each opportunity. With this introduction, let me give you an example of applying principles to a process that will culminate in a sale.

Here are a couple of principles to begin with. Your very next best sale will come from a happy, satisfied customer and referrals are the next best source of sales after that. Spend time with current customers to find new opportunities. Every day spend time courting these customers that you have served well with the expectation of finding new opportunities to sell your products or services. Once you have discovered a new opportunity keep in mind the next principle: people don’t want to be sold, they want to buy. So don’t just jump right in and start selling to the opportunity you have discovered. Next principle: ask effective questions to reveal the depth and breadth of their need. Get it all out on the table so you totally understand the need and so they know that you understand.

The next principle to apply in your sales process is to present your product or service as a solution to your prospect’s need. To effectively accomplish this step of the sales process you need to implement the principle of dialogue. Invite the prospect to discuss with you the merits of your solution through dialogue. Invite them to respond to each point that you make. Allow the dialogue to flow based on their responses to your benefits. Present features as needed, but remember the next principle; benefits sell. Through practice, you will realize that all objections have been uncovered through the process of dialogue. You have now worked through another principle; people don’t buy if they have unresolved concerns. You may not be able to resolve every concern at this point, but you now know what they are and can work to resolve them immediately or over time.

The sale is not closed yet, but you are getting close. Some prospects may ask you for the sale at this point while others will need to be gently nudged. In the process of dealing with their objections, ask for the sale if you can satisfactorily resolve their remaining concerns. This principle makes the “closing of the sale” the logical conclusion of all the steps and principles that have led you to this point. This is a simple example but it reveals the process associated with selling. Selling is an emotional process of one step or principle followed by another and yet another, all leading to the logical final step of deciding to buy your product. Now, I don’t want to suggest that a salesperson will make every sale. They won’t. However, you will make more sales by applying the correct principles in your sales process than by just doing a lot of “stuff.”

There are still other principles that can be applied as needed. They might include effective follow-up that incorporates the correct timing and presenting physical gifts of knowledge, emotion, endorsements and specific benefits. Other principles might include presenting to all decision makers, not just one; setting the agenda as part of each contact; making the buying decision easy and simple through providing as much of the physical effort as possible; providing demos or site visits where appropriate; asking for referrals based on the excellent buying experience you have provided them; and the list goes on. Put together your own process for selling, through applying the proper principles and your sales will definitely increase.

These are challenging times for salespeople. Waiting for customers and prospects to place an order with you will not work in this market. You must be proactive and practice excellent skills based on time tested and proven principles of communications and relationships in order to achieve success. There are enough sales out there to keep the skilled salespeople happy and wealthy.

Twenty Principles That Comprise The Foundation For Sales Success

2010-04-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Several years ago while driving from Jacksonville Florida to Orlando with my boss, he explained to me why he was the world’s greatest salesperson. He said it boiled down to one thing, just one thing. He was born with the “gift of gab.” I couldn’t believe my ears and yet he was dead serious. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m not challenging the fact that he was born with the gift of gab. What I am challenging is his statement that the gift of gab is the secret to sales success. I’m going to give you a list of twenty principles that I believe comprise the foundation of sales excellence. Salespeople that effectively apply these principles are far and away the best salespeople in the world. Bye-the-way, the gift of gab is not one of them.

1. PEOPLE BUY THE SALESPERSON FIRST. Sell yourself and the sale of your product will come much easier.

2. PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE THEY BELIEVE, LIKE AND TRUST (BLT). Given the choice, all things being equal, you will always purchase from someone with whom you have a relationship.

3. EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-UP (ROMANCING THE SALE) GREATLY IMPROVES YOUR CLOSING RATIO. Being in front of the prospect as often as possible will help them make the right decision.

4. PEOPLE DON’T BUY IF THEY HAVE UNRESOLVED CONCERNS ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT. Get all concerns out on the table and work to resolve each one.

5. TELLING ISN’T SELLING. Knowing what your product can do has very little impact in making a sale.

6. PROBLEM SOLVING IS BASIC TO EFFECTIVE SELLING. People typically make a purchase in order to solve a problem. No problem, no sale.

7. UNDERSTANDING THE PROSPECT’S NEEDS THROUGH EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING IS CRITICAL TO THE SALES PROCESS. Give the prospect the opportunity to explain their specific needs before you tell them about your products.

8. PRESENT YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AS A SOLUTION TO THE PROSPECT’S NEEDS. Don’t discuss your products and services until you understand the specific needs of the prospect.

9. APPLY THE PRINCIPLE OF EFFECTIVE LISTENING. You will never truly understand the prospects needs, wants and desires unless you ask effective questions and then listen intently to the answers.

10. UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE NEEDS BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS. Solving a single problem before all the problems have been revealed will limit your understanding of the total situation.

11. LEARN TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE YOUR TIME EACH DAY. The majority of sales people spend less than half their time effectively working their sales process.

12. SCHEDULE TIME EACH DAY TO FIND NEW OPPORTUNITIES. Opportunities can be found with existing customers as well as finding totally new prospects.

13. ASK FOR REFERRALS. The majority of all sales opportunities never reach the point of solicitation. Referrals close at a much higher ratio than cold calling or bidding.

14. KNOW YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. A prospects confidence can increase by as much as 75% when the sales person knows their products.

15. KNOW YOUR COMPETITION. The sales arena is similar to guerilla warfare. If you don’t know your competition you will be beaten on every front.

16. SELL THE BENEFITS OVER THE FEATURES. People are only interested in what the product will do for them (WIIFM). The features will come as needed.

17. CAPTURE YOUR PROSPECT’S ATTENTION. Most people are busy, unfocussed, have short attention spans and want to get to the point. Use a prop of some sort to capture their attention and cause them to want to know more.

18. ALWAYS SET THE AGENDA. Never leave an appointment without first setting the agenda for what will happen next and when.

19. KEEP SCORE AND HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE. Nothing is more critical to success than goal setting. Set daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals. Develop a game plan for the achievement of your goals and then hold yourself accountable.

20. DRESS FOR SUCCESS. The very first impression you make is visual. If your customer or prospect is turned off because of your appearance, nothing you can say will over come that first negative impression.

This list of twenty principles is not inclusive. It does, however, provide a foundation for many more principles and skills that can improve your overall sales performance. In my sales training program I cover more than one hundred and twenty different principles and skills. Some are more important than others and the application of every principle and skill is not necessary to make each sale. The important concept is to understand that effective selling is not just opening your mouth and letting the words fly. Selling is comprised of the application of very specific principles and skills. Use these twenty principles to shore up your sales foundation, allowing you to enjoy even greater sales success.

Positive Thinking Combined With Positive Actions Leads To Positive Results

2010-04-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

I’m not a prognosticator, but I have a feeling salespeople will be talking about the recession that began in the year two thousand and eight for a long time. Times are tough and sales are too. It’s not like in the good old days when all you needed was more time to write the orders.

When I was very young, I remember my grandfather talking about the great depression. I was obviously too young to understand much of what he was talking about, but I did have a sense of the struggles he went through to support his family. When I would complain about toys or things I wanted as a child, my father would often mention the things he went without when he was young during those great depression years. That was twenty-five years after the stock market crash and it was still a topic of discussion. Guess what? Eighty-one years later and we are still talking about it.

People discuss the great depression and ponder the depth and breadth of the current economic condition in reference to all that is bad and uncomfortable. However, let your sales competitors worry about it while you do something about it. Don’t become paralyzed by all the negative aspects of the current market; become energized by all that still remains positive. Several years ago I read a poem about a little red rooster and an old black hen that explains the current sales environment with the attitude and approach you should take. The poem is titled, Now Let’s All Get Down To Work.

Said the Little Red Rooster, “Believe me, things are tough,
    Seems that worms are scarcer and I can’t find enough;
What’s become of all those fat ones is a mystery to me;
    There were thousands through that rainy spell, but now where can they be?”

Then the Old Black Hen who heard him, didn’t grumble or complain—
    She had gone through lots of dry spells, she had lived through floods and rain.
So she flew up on the grindstone, and she gave her claws a whet,
    As she said, “I’ve never seen the time when there weren’t worms to get.”

She picked a new and undug spot; the earth was hard and firm.
    The Little Rooster jeered, “New Ground! That’s no place for worms.”
The Old Black Hen just spread her feet—she dug both fast and free.
    “I must go to the worms,” she said, “The worms won’t come to me.”

The Rooster vainly spent his day through habit, by the ways
    Where fat round worms had passed in squads, back in the rainy days.
When nightfall found him supper less, he growled in accents rough,
    “I’m hungry as a fowl can be. Conditions sure are tough.”

He turned then to the Old Black Hen, and said, “It’s worse with you.
    For you’re not only hungry, but must be tired, too.
I rested while I watched for worms, so I feel fairly perk
    But how are you, without worms too, and after all that work?”

The Old Black Hen hopped to her perch and dropped her eyes to sleep,
    And murmured in a drowsy tone, “Young man, hear this and weep,
I’m full of worms and happy, for I’ve eaten like a pig.
    The worms were there as always—but boy, I had to dig!”

Here are ten solid principles and ideas that salespeople can apply to increase their sales in today’s challenging market.

Change your thinking. Believe that your sales can increase even when the market is declining.
Work harder than you have ever worked before. Difficult times require extreme effort.
Put in the time. Plan and schedule a full eight-hour sales day. That means eight hours finding and developing sales opportunities.
Set very specific daily, weekly and monthly goals with activities directly focused on achieving those goals.
Define your sales process and focus only on those activities that will generate sales. You don’t have time to do “stuff”.
Do not error in believing that you are getting one hundred percent of your current customers business. Make contacts at all levels and within all departments, groups, and subsidiaries to be certain that you are not leaving anything for your competitors.
Make a habit of telling everyone you meet what you do for a living. If they need your product or service then sell them. If they don’t, then ask for their help in introducing you to those who may need your products.
Contact every company or individual who has purchased from your company in the past ten years.
Ask every current customer for leads and referrals. Define for them precisely what you are looking for in a lead or referral. Everyone knows someone; don’t take “no” for an answer.
Review your performance and success daily and recommit yourself each day to following your plan, regardless of how difficult it may be. Remember, a challenging economy requires rising to the challenge.

Sales Success Is Found In Doing The Small “Stuff”

2010-03-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

The salesperson that sells twice as much is not twice as smart and does not necessarily work twice as hard as everyone else. During the most recent Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, there were competitions won by a mere one thousandth of a second and others by as little as one hundredth of a point. Horse races have been won by a nose, football games by an inch and basketball games by a shot. The difference between victory and defeat, in some instances, seems almost too small to measure and yet those small measures define both the victorious and the defeated. Selling is similarly defined by small actions. In fact, the difference between success and failure in selling could be as small and seemingly insignificant as a word spoken or a thought not acted upon.

Over the course of a thirty-four year sales career I have experienced and witnessed many small things that have made the difference between success and mediocrity in selling. Many of these things were not apparent at the time, but over time crystallized in my understanding. As I coach and train salespeople each day, this truth is reconfirmed; it is not the big things that make a difference, but the successive application of small, almost insignificant activities building upon each other that become the reason for outstanding sales performance. Let me share a few of my discoveries in hopes of improving your individual results.

• Most sales are closed at the end of the month. Salespeople typically have goals or quotas for the month, but they never seem to make progress towards the achievement of the quota until their awareness has been stimulated by the rapidly approaching last few days of the month. Imagine the sales that would be made if you worked as hard every day of the month as you work the last week of the month. Many of my clients reach their monthly goal well before the end of the month and then spend the last week or so working to achieve their super goal. They may not be working any harder than their peers, but they are more consistent in their efforts and by striving to reach their goal early, they can spend the last week of the month exceeding their goal, not just trying desperately to reach it.

• In my experience I have discovered that most salespeople have no idea of what they are capable of achieving. They tend to over estimate the ability of others and under estimate themselves. A person’s belief in themselves and their own ability is a major factor in their success. You truly can achieve that which you believe. A few years ago I was working with a salesperson and we were setting goals for his achievement. We reviewed his numbers from the prior year and then discussed what might be done in the current year. He cautioned me that one of his sales months was an anomaly and should not be considered when establishing his new goals. He said that during this particular month, sales that should have closed in the prior month combined with sales that he expected to close the next month had all come at once. Therefore, in one month he had the results of three months all together. He wanted that abnormally high month to be eliminated from his average. I told him that if he had that kind of a result previously he could have it again, and I held him accountable to do it again. He told me it would be impossible but we worked together to achieve it. During that year, this salesperson exceeded the sales of that extraordinary month on four different occasions. The following year, every month exceeded what he sold in that month he considered an anomaly. Believe in yourself.

• Have you ever considered the power of making one more sales contact a day? That would be an additional five contacts a week, twenty-one contacts per month, and two hundred and fifty-two contacts a year. It may seem insignificant, but two hundred and fifty-two more contacts could amount to fifty more sales, assuming your closing ratio was twenty percent. What about asking for one referral a day? Referrals typically close at about fifty percent. You could make two more sales each week if you just asked for a referral each day. What about your use of time? Studies have shown that the average salesperson spends fifty percent of their time working on sales and the balance doing other “stuff.” If you were more focused in your efforts, without spending any more time on the job, you could potentially double your sales.

It is the small things that make a difference. Things like working hard each day to achieve your goals, instead of waiting till the last few days of the month. Believing in yourself and your own abilities allows you to reach levels of performance that you only believed others could achieve. Don’t sell yourself short. If you have achieved something once, you can do it again. Never forget the cumulative power of making just one more contact each day, or asking for a referral, or using more of your time focused on selling instead of just doing stuff. You don’t have to be twice as smart or work twice as hard to double your sales, you just have to pay attention to the small things.

Why Are Some Salespeople So Lucky?

2010-03-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

When it comes to sales, I don’t believe in luck. I don’t believe there is such a thing as a successful salesperson that doesn’t consistently follow a set of principles and skills. Luck is nothing more than “working smart to position yourself to find those opportunities that others are hopelessly waiting to fall in their laps”. I honestly believe even when it seems someone has stumbled across a lucrative situation, there was some effort or planning that positioned them to be in the right place at the right time. What may appear on the surface to be luck, when properly analyzed, is very predictable.

Two of my clients were talking to each other during one of the breaks at our monthly workshop a few months ago. One of them was totally shocked at the number of referrals the other had received during the past month. These referrals amounted to more than half his sales for the month. He expressed his feelings by saying, “I wish I had your same luck in getting referrals. I don’t get that many referrals in a whole year.” I coach both of these salespeople so I know the inside story. The salesperson that believes the other is lucky to get referrals doesn’t make any effort or work a plan to receive them. He just hopes someone will drop him an occasional lead or referral. The salesperson that receives half of his sales through referrals has a specific plan and works hard each day at implementing his plan. He sets a goal for the number of referrals he wants to receive each day and each week. What may seem like luck is actually the result of diligently working the steps of a well-executed referral strategy.

I was talking to a client today about ways to increase their sales this year over last. He suggested that if he just kept doing what he was doing, maybe he would be lucky enough this year to exceed last year’s sales. He then said if he were really lucky he might stumble across and sell a few larger accounts. That is illogical thinking as far as I’m concerned. We talked about current customers, the size of the market, the ideal customer profile, and the available time to produce more sales. We concurred that it takes almost as much time to find and sell a small customer as it does a large customer. We put together a plan identifying who the large potential customers are, what their needs might be; strategized how to create interest, and which of their current customers might provide an introduction. As my client works this marketing plan, he will be amazed how “lucky” he will be this year at landing some very large accounts, and in the process, exceeding last year’s sales.

Here are five things that every salesperson can do to increase their “luck.”

1. PLAN YOUR DAY: When you plan your sales activities and follow that plan, you will be amazed at your increased “luck.”

2. SET DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY AND ANNUAL GOALS: When you are working with a specific result in mind, the energy and focus you put into your activities will generate more “luck” than you can imagine.

3. WORK HARD AND BE CONSISTENT: These are difficult economic times and people are holding tight to their limited financial resources. They are still spending, but are more carefully focused on their potential return. The opportunities are still there, but you must put forth more effort and do it consistently.

4. WORK SMART: Write a game plan for your prospecting activities and then follow the plan. Don’t spend time continually doing things that don’t bring the highest degree of success. Once you find an opportunity, make a game plan for what will be required to earn the sale. Don’t “wing it”, plan it.

5. HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE: “Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates."

In the world of sales you can be as “lucky” as you are willing to plan, set goals, work consistently hard, work smart and hold yourself accountable. You have total control over your “luck”. In fact, by applying the five steps listed above, you will find “luck” is actually very predictable.

Please Don’t Call Me A Salesperson

2010-03-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

You can call me an account representative, you can call me a customer service manager, you can call me a territory manager, you can call me a solutions specialist, you can call me a sales executive, you can call me anything you want, but don’t call me a “salesperson.” I am absolutely amazed at the names people come up with to avoid using the title of “salesperson.” The length that someone will go to eliminate the title of salesperson when describing what they do, has almost become comical. I sense that there are those working in the field of sales that suffer great embarrassment to be called a salesperson.

Selling is the world’s oldest profession. I don’t care what product or service people represent, it needs to be sold before it can be delivered. Selling has been around since the beginning of time. Just like any other occupation, there are those who are honest and honorable and then there are those who are dishonest, incapable and everything in between. I challenge you to think of any profession that doesn’t have its scoundrels and misfits. The world of selling is no different. However, we tend to receive more criticism than other professions, probably due to the number of salespeople in the world. We are more visible and represent a larger proportion of the workforce. People deal with salespeople every day and have more opportunity to experience unprofessional behavior.

Another compelling reason for the negativity associated with salespeople might stem from the lack of professional training available to those in the industry. Sales training is a seven billion dollar a year industry, but most salespeople have never been trained to the degree of other professionals. A doctor will study for as many as ten years before practicing his trade. An attorney will study seven to eight years before representing a client. Salespeople just open their mouths and they believe they are qualified to sell a product or service. They may receive some training along the way, but they never enter the profession with any semblance of the training and skills of other professional. Sales programs are not generally offered at the college level and some people are looking for what they consider an easy entry into the work force. They often choose sales because it doesn’t require years of formal education.

Several years ago I attended my twentieth year high school reunion. In high school I excelled scholastically, socially and athletically. I was recognized as someone who would achieve great success in life. I really enjoyed catching up with many of my friends at the reunion and sharing stories of the “good old high school days” as well as the past twenty years that had come and gone so quickly. Everyone was anxious to learn what we had achieved in our lives and for some it was a pleasant surprise. However, I don’t think anyone shocked the group quite like I did when I introduced myself as a salesperson. Actually, I saw a look of sadness and disappointment fall upon the faces of many. Now, I had attended the top rated business graduate school in the nation, was earning a lucrative six figure income, participated in executive management with men twice my age, traveled regularly on the corporate jet, and dealt with senior executives in my industry on a daily basis. However, when I introduced myself as a salesperson, I know there were those who pictured me standing on a street corner holding a cardboard sign.

Selling is an honorable profession. Doctors diagnose illnesses and then seek to cure them while providing comfort for their patients. Attorneys provide legal solutions to their client’s problems giving them peace of mind. Salespeople discover the needs wants and desires of their customers and then help them achieve their needs. Salespeople are much like doctors and lawyers in discovering problems and providing solutions. I can’t think of a more satisfying profession than sales. Salespeople can make a significant difference in the lives of their customers and can be the source of great satisfaction, not only for their customers, but for themselves as well.

I’m proud to be a salesperson. I tell everyone what I do and always refer to myself as a salesperson. You can call me anything you want, but I will always be a salesperson.

How Effectively Do You Move Prospects Through Your Sales Pipeline?

2010-03-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

There are are two major problems that salespeople have with their sales pipeline. The first is having too few prospects to reach the level of sales you desire and the second is having more prospects in your pipeline than you can possibly follow-up with in a reasonable amount of time. The first can be resolved with consistent hard work and the second, through better focus and more effective follow-up. Successful salespeople have developed a plan of action for closing each prospect. The key to success in selling is found in what you do after you identify the opportunity.

The number one reason salespeople don’t make more sales is poor follow-up. You can find all the prospects or opportunities in the world, but if you don’t do the appropriate follow-up, they may never know enough about you, your company and product to make a decision.

Your sales pipeline is not a holding tank; it is similar to a production line. Once a prospect makes it into the pipeline, the objective is to move them through the sales process. Think of the process as a production line, where certain things are added and formed; where individual components are added upon and turned into a finished product. The sales pipeline works exactly the same way. You are taking an opportunity or an interested prospect and turning them into a sale. The mere fact that you have found an opportunity does not mean they will eventually become a sale. They need to be processed or manufactured into a sale. That is the difference between an order taker and a salesperson. When someone takes an order, they don’t need to do anything to process or manufacture the opportunity. It is already complete, nothing more needs to be done except filling out the order. Salespeople have the responsibility of finding the opportunity and then turning that opportunity into a sale. The process involves the following steps:

1. Building trust in you and your company
2. Understanding the specific needs of the prospect
3. Presenting the best solution for their needs
4. Demonstrating that your solution is exactly what they need
5. Resolving their concerns

I refer to these five steps as “romancing the sale.” The word romancing has a much deeper meaning than following up. Romancing suggests a sort of personal action, not just showing up. It takes the specific action of romancing to process a prospect from an opportunity to a customer. It is the act of romancing that manufactures the raw opportunity of a prospect into the finished product of a customer. The better you romance, the better the finished product. Think for a moment about the characteristics of your very best customer. What made them your very best customer? There could be several reasons, but I would be willing to wager that building trust in you and your company, understanding their needs, presenting the best solution to their needs, demonstrating that solution and resolving their concerns were all responsible for them becoming your best customers.

Selling doesn’t happen just because you find an opportunity. Selling is the result of processing that opportunity as it travels along the production line of the sales process. With the exception of the prospects that already know what they need, to solve their problems, the salesperson must personally move them through the sales processing pipeline in order to make the sale.

Consider the sales opportunities you have found that never resulted in a sale. Did you move them through your pipeline by applying the five steps of the process, or did you just put them at the beginning of your pipeline and hoped eventually they would come out the other end as a sale? Selling takes effort and it far exceeds the initial activity of finding the opportunity. If you don’t move the prospect through the pipeline by effectively romancing the sale, your success will be limited. Sales success is in direct proportion to your personal effort in preparing your prospect through romancing.

You will know when you are romancing effectively when the prospect:

• Asks questions when you stop by.
• Thanks you for the valuable information you have shared with them.
• Discusses the value of your offering.
• Begins to negotiate.
• Asks how quickly the product can be delivered.

Overcoming Sales Discouragement

2010-03-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

There is only one other person that hears the word “NO” more often that a salesperson and that is a toddler; that is just the nature of sales. Everyone does not need your product or service and the process of finding those who do, suggests that you will find many who aren’t. When all is said and done, selling is a numbers game and the more people you contact, the more people you will find who are interested in your offering. Conversely, the more people you will find who are not interested. Through applying superior selling skills you can increase the number of people who will purchase from you, but the majority of all people contacted will tell you “no”.

When someone tells you “no”, don’t take it personally. They are not being personal in their declaration. They don’t hate you or wish you any harm; they just don’t perceive a need for your product or service at that moment. Remember, the “no” response is not necessarily a forever “no”, it is just a “no” for now. You should approach selling with the attitude that ninety percent of all people will tell you “no”. A study was conducted among buyers that indicated the majority of all people who purchased a product or service said “no” before they eventually said yes. With this bit of background, I’m going to discuss how to overcome the discouragement experienced by all salespeople at different times during their sales career.

For a salesperson, discouragement is a disease, a type of psychological cancer, eating away at all the positive feelings that have come from prior success. It can be cured, but requires a very specific and consistent treatment. The very nature of sales with all of the influences of the world having a potential impact on another person’s decision to make a purchase, contribute to the cyclical nature of the occupation. Knowing that a salesperson can have the best sales month of their career followed by their worst month can be a valid reason for discouragement. Successive poor sales months can create an emotional downward spiral that can be difficult to turn around. Working hard with little to show for it is a breeding ground for discouragement.

Here are ten proven methods to overcome discouragement and get back on top of your sales game.

Find perspective in your life. There are so many things far worse in life than having a bad sales month. In the long-term, bad months are averaged out with great sales months. Remember, life has a way of balancing its self out and your sales will also.
Focus on your previous successes. If you have been successful in the past, you can be successful in the future. Identify those things that you were doing when you found success and focus on doing those things again. If you can do something once, you can do it again. I’ve never seen a salesperson that was unable to achieve previous records and even surpass them.
Visualize your future success. You can achieve those things you can perceive. Picture your success in your mind and then follow a path that will lead you to it. Post pictures that represent your success. Look at them often and feel the good feeling that achieving your success will bring.
Believe in yourself. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will either. You can do it. You’ve triumphed before and you can do it again. Look inwardly and know that you have the inner strength to accomplish more than you have ever achieved previously. Discover the power within and then take action.
Focus on helping your prospects and customers solve their problems. Sometimes you become so absorbed in your sales activities that you become lost in yourself. You will find clarity of purpose in your own life as you reach out and help others. When you solve a customer or prospects problems you are on the road to solving your own.
Give yourself a reward for success. Sales success can be a long-term proposition. The road can be bumpy and discouraging. In a long journey you stop and rest along the way and each time you begin again, you feel rejuvenated. Give yourself small rewards along the path to achieving your sales success and you will stave off discouragement. It will become a constant reminder that you are making steady progress.
Change your attitude. There are many things that happen in life where you have absolutely no control; however, you have total control over your attitude. Don’t allow yourself to be pulled into that devilish caldron of discouragement. Before you let it paralyze your performance, change your attitude and move forward, always focusing on your goals.
Focus intently on your performance goals. Nothing gives more direction in life than personal goals. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. Lack of definitive written goals with an associated picture is one of the major causes of discouragement. You do a lot of work but discover you are going in circles because you are not moving towards a goal.
Look for and find balance in your life. Enjoy your life by doing many things that are not work related. Find your passions and spoil yourself in their pursuit. A balanced life is a happy life, making it much more difficult to become discouraged. A change of pace is often as satisfying as a rest. You will discover greater happiness and success in sales when your life is in balance.
Focus on the significant purposes in your life. Remember, selling is a vehicle to get you to where you really want to be. Success is inspired and driven by those compelling purposes you have established in your life. Never lose sight of your purpose. Even in the darkest moments of discouragement and despair, you will find strength and light by focusing on your purpose. It might be your spouse or children, a parent or dreams; whatever your purpose might be, it will lead you out of discouragement.

Never forget your passion for selling. Sure, there will be challenging days along with the great ones, but focus on the great and the challenging times will fade away. Every occupation has its challenges and discouragement and selling is no different. However, no other occupation will ever be as satisfying and rewarding as sales.

I'm Crushed! My son Doesn't Want To Be A Salesperson

2010-02-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have always dreamed of my son following in my footsteps, but it does not look promising to say the least. I would never force my children to do anything they did not want to do, but rather, provide the example and let them choose for themselves. As a young pre-school toddler he was a jet setter traveling great distances to visit grandparents and other relatives, on a salesperson’s income. He loved Disneyworld, Hilton Head, Hawaii, Niagara Falls, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington DC on a salesperson’s income. Among his friends, he was the first to have video games, bicycles, remote controlled cars, a VCR and his own stereo, all on a salesperson’s income. As a young adult he has marveled at the beauty of Hong Kong, hiked the fabled Inca trail at Machu Picchu, fished for piranha on the Amazon River while exploring its rain forests, experienced the exotic culture of Thailand, climbed the Pyramids of the Yucatan, sailed the turquoise waters of the Caribbean and soaked in the golden rays on Hawaii’s perfect beaches, all on a salesperson’s income.

Salespeople at the top of their field enjoy a paycheck in the top five percent of all wage earners. Top salespeople can earn an income greater than Doctors, Lawyers, CPA’s, and Businessmen. I work with many salespeople who are earning six figure incomes who have yet to celebrated their thirtieth birthday. They own their homes, drive late model automobiles, save for their children’s education and travel to the finest tourist destinations in the world. A career in sales provides an amazing life style. Salespeople don’t have to ask for a raise, they create their own. Work harder, smarter, focus more intently on your sales process and watch your wealth increase. Excellent salespeople are never unemployed; they make their own opportunities. Any business owner or corporate president would gladly hire a salesperson that has demonstrated the ability to create wealth for his or her employer. Excellent salespeople are always in demand whether the economy is up or down. They call the shots and can write their own ticket while making demands that others can only dream of.

I was talking to a salesperson the other day who told me what a joy it was to be able to attend his children’s school programs, sporting events, take his wife to lunch in the middle of the day, and to be able to arrive at the office a little bit late on occasion or leave a little early, as needed, to accommodate family situations. He was not abusing his responsibilities or taking advantage of his employer. This privilege was earned because of his outstanding performance and financial contribution to the company. People who perform, call the shots. The story is told of a baseball player who had a batting average of 187. He was paid the league minimum of three hundred thousand dollars a year and was wishing he were paid more. Following a game where he struck out three times, he met with the team owner and asked for a raise. The words hard barely left his lips when the owner told him not to let the door hit his rear on his way out of the office. That same day, another player who was also making the league minimum wage met with the owner about his income and to discuss a new contract. His batting average was 327 and he had just made three hits out of four “at bats” in his last game. He asked the owner for five million dollars per year and walked out of the office with a four-year contract worth more than twenty-five million dollars including bonuses. Top salespeople, just like top athletes call the shots and write their own ticket to financial success.

Pay a salesperson a commission on their gross profit sales and you can be guaranteed that they are worth every penny you pay them. The more they sell, the greater the profit they bring to the business and the greater the commissions they earn for themselves. Salespeople create wealth not only for themselves, but also for the companies that employee them. Nothing in this world happens until a sale is made. Once the sale is completed, a product is manufactured or a service is rendered. The sale of products and services makes the world go ‘round.

I’m crushed that my son has not caught the vision of what he could become if he chose to follow in my footsteps. My next best hope is that he will become a business owner who will hire and train excellent salespeople who will create wealth for themselves and his company.

A Great Relationship Makes Selling Easier

2010-02-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

There are four levels of relationships that sellers have with buyers. Consider the level of relationship you have with those you attempt to sell. The first level of relationship is the Vendor. A vendor is anyone who has a product or service to sell. The second level of relationship is a Preferred Vendor. This is someone who has been specifically invited to offer his or her product or service. The third level of relationship is the Assistant Buyer, defined as someone who has the ear of the buyer and is invited to make recommendations regarding the products or services to be purchased. The fourth and most sought after level of selling relationship is the Partner. A partner works side by side with the buyer to write the specifications for the products and services being purchased and is part of the buying decision. The partner will typically make the sale unless their product is not the right solution.

Consider the following exercise to improve the relationship level you have with your customers and prospects. Identify the one customer with which you have the best relationship. Then evaluate everyone else against your best customer relationship. Give each customer and prospect a ranking of one through ten. Then put together a strategy that will allow you to develop a “ten” relationship with each customer and prospect. In preparing your plan to improve the relationship with each of your customers and prospects you might consider including some of the following ideas:

1. Understand the depth and breadth of the buyers responsibilities

2. Know the difficulties and challenges of the buyer

3. Become familiar with their likes, dislikes, hobbies, interests and family

4. Spend productive time with them

5. Find subtle ways to teach and train them to know and do their job better.

6. Become their confidant

7. Compliment them and be their cheer leader

8. Truly care about their success and be a part of it.

It is possible to make a sale when you don’t have a great relationship with the buyer. However, making the sale takes a lot more work and a lot more time. Let me share an example of what I mean.

A few years ago I was building a deck on my cabin. My sister came up to help me put down the deck boards. I gave her a drill and a box of three inch deck screws, showed her how to line up the boards, and drive the screw thru the deck board into the joist. After a couple of attempts she was doing just fine. I went around to the other side of the cabin and continued screwing down my deck boards. About ten minutes later my sister came over to me and said she was unable to drive the screws as quickly as I had shown her and wanted to know what she was doing wrong. I walked back over to where she was working and she showed me the screw that took her five minutes to drive into the deck. I told her I had no idea why it took her so long and then picked up her drill to drive a screw into the deck board and see for myself. As I picked up her drill I noticed that the thumb lever for the drill was in the reverse position. Without saying a word, and without her noticing, I put the drill in the forward position and drove a screw into the deck in about two seconds. She couldn’t believe it and mumbled that it must be a “guy” thing. Then I told her the drill had been in reverse and said that I had never known anyone who had ever driven a three-inch deck screw into a deck with the drill in reverse. Hard work, perseverance and determination were responsible for her success.

Yes, you can make a sale if you don’t have a great relationship with the buyer, but it is about as difficult as driving a three-inch deck screw with the drill in reverse. Making a sale to a prospect that you have a partnership relationship with is like driving a three-inch deck screw with the drill in forward (quick, easy, efficient). Other degrees of sales relationships might resemble driving a screw by hand. It can be done, but requires more effort, can be painful, and takes more time than using a drill in the forward position.

If you want to make more sales with less effort, build the relationship first. Once you have developed the relationship the sale will come with much less effort. Simple rule: put the time and effort into the relationship. Too often, salespeople forget the relationship and only put time and effort into making the sale. The proper tool for effective selling is building the relationship. Hammering a prospect to buy your product is not effective selling. To go back to the analogy of driving a three-inch deck screw; first spend the time to put your drill in the forward position and driving the screw will be quick, easy and efficient.