Successful Salespeople Have Found Balance In Their Lives

I was watching a television commercial not too long ago sponsored by a major food processor that said, “Happy cows produce more milk.” The commercial talked about their California dairy herds being happy and content as the reason they produced a superior product. I believe anyone who is happy and content will produce a superior result. Many years ago, thirty-four years ago this Spring to be exact, I learned the importance of finding balance in my life, a balance that allowed me to experience happiness and contentment while generating superior sales success.

I had just joined the M.A. Hanna Company as a junior sales executive. After being welcomed to the Hanna family, my boss Fred Heller sat me down and shared with me some of the wisdom that he had gained from twenty years in the sales arena. However, the wisdom that he shared with me was not so much about sales as it was about life. Fred explained that I would be doing a lot of traveling and that he didn’t want a day to pass by without me speaking to my wife and children on the phone if I were away from home. The phone call would be paid by the company and should never be neglected. He then asked me to show him again pictures of my wife and children.

Fred mentioned that weekend travel was not the general policy of the company but there might be an occasion when I would be required to be away from home over a weekend. In the event weekend travel became necessary, my wife was to travel with me. The company would pay for her travel expenses and also for house sitting and the care of the children. He emphasized the importance of family and maintaining a good family relationship. Fred talked about my generous vacation benefit and the option of taking money in lieu of time. He strongly suggested that I never take the money but spend my vacation time enjoying life with my wife and children. He then went on and explained that my success would directly impact his own success as the senior vice president of sales and marketing. Fred boldly stated that when things go well at home they would also go well at work. What Fred was really saying was, when your life is in balance you will be a more successful salesperson and your life will be happy and content.

At The Business Performance Group we teach our clients to find balance in their lives. This balance is one of the reasons our clients experience significant performance increases. As I learned many years ago from Fred Heller, successful salespeople have found and live balanced lives. We break life into nine categories:

1) Family & Spouse
2) Mental & Intellectual
3) Employment & Career
4) Physical & Health
5) Financial & Estate
6) Personal & Recreational
7) Community & World
8) Cultural & Social and finally
9) Spiritual & Emotional.

These nine categories comprise all of the areas of life. We need to find balance within each category to enable us to enjoy the success we are seeking in our sales careers.

In an attempt to create a visual representation of our “wheel of life’s balance”, draw a six-inch diameter circle with nine lines, equally spaced, running from the center of the circle to the outer rim. These lines represent the spokes of the wheel. Label each line or spoke of the wheel with the name of one of the categories of the nine categories of life. Now, individually evaluate each category by placing a dot along the line representing your level of satisfaction with that particular category. Think to yourself, “How happy and satisfied am I with what I am doing as compared to what I want to be doing within this area of my life”. Working from the center of the wheel would be zero satisfaction and the outer edge of the wheel would be a ten level of satisfaction. Satisfaction is a relative term relating to you and is not something you compare to someone else. For example, I could rate myself a ten in “community & world” even though I am not actively involved, if being actively involved in my community is not something that I want to do. In other words, I am very satisfied with doing nothing. If I am thirty pounds over weight and I don’t exercise and I really want to be in shape but am doing nothing about it, I might rate myself a one or a two in terms of my personal satisfaction with that spoke of the wheel.

Once you have evaluated yourself in each of the nine categories by placing a dot along the line of each spoke of the wheel, connect the dots. Your wheel my have some flat spots. It might look like a star with peaks and valleys. It might be perfectly round but very small. Your wheel might even be as big and round as the template you drew of the wheel of life’s balance. This picture will give you an understanding of the areas of your life that need improvement. By faithfully working to improve your level of personal satisfaction in all nine areas you will discover balance in your life. This balance will allow you to be more successful in your sales career and to find happiness and contentment in your life.

Happy salespeople produce more sales!!

HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED SELLING YOURSELF AS NUMBER TWO?

Part of successful selling involves knowing what battles not to fight. This includes not only knowing your prospects but also your competitor’s strengths compared to your own and understanding your weaknesses as well as those of your competitors. In every sales situation you have a choice. You can walk away with nothing or with a sale. But instead of walking away with nothing, have you ever consider selling yourself as the number two supplier? The Prospect may agree to allowing you to be number two and at the same time tell you that you probably won’t get any business from them because they are totally happy with number one. That’s OK; things have a way of changing over time.

If I were a quarterback on a college football team I would have not problem sitting in the number two position. I know I’m going to see plenty of action and may possibly become number one. When you are number two you have a lot of positive things working in your favor. The competition can knock number one out of the game. Number one might self-destruct. You can improve your skills and become number one. If your prospect is totally happy with their number one supplier, don’t waste your time and energy trying to convince them that you should be number one. It just won’t happen. Ask to become their number two supplier. Tell them that you realize you may never do any business with them because they are so totally satisfied with number one, but you would still like to be number two.

Being number two carries all of the same privileges and rights, as does number one. You can have access to their people and facilities, while developing relationships with management. The only difference is they currently are not buying from you, yet. Becoming number two creates no threat or obligation to the buyer. If they are totally satisfied with the performance of their number one supplier they will continue to buy from them. Take a moment and think about the psychology of the buying situation. The buyer selects a vendor or maybe even a couple of vendors to supply their particular needs. When it is time to purchase they contact their chosen supplier. If the quality is not satisfactory they may complain but they continue to purchase because, after all, that is their chosen supplier. If shipments are late, they may complain but they continue to purchase because they are the supplier. Get the picture. If you have a number one supplier you will tolerate situations that are not completely to your liking because it is easier to deal with a known entity than to go through all the hassle of changing suppliers.

When a buyer has a number two supplier, even though they say they are totally happy with number one and will probably never buy from you, expect a call when number one doesn’t meet their expectations. It is easy for the buy to change suppliers now, because they know you and trust you. You have been calling on them and selling your ability to meet their needs. The buyer is not faced with finding another source or dealing with credibility and quality issues. To use a quote from a local advertising campaign, “After all, you know this guy”. The customer knows you and trusts you as you have been meeting with them, learning their operations, building trust and selling them on your ability to provide the right product when the opportunity presents itself. The time has now come for you to step to the plate of opportunity and take a long hard swing at becoming a regular supplier to your customer. You have been elevated from number two to their number one supplier.

Pick your battles. Know your strengths as well as the competition. Know what the customer wants. Be patient and position yourself as number two when the battle for number one is not worth the fight. Never leave a sales situation empty handed. You will either be competing for the number one position or you can walk away with number two solidly tucked away just waiting for number one to lose his position. There is more than one way to win the game of sales and positioning yourself as number two never fails at eventually landing the sale, it just takes patience.

A MAJOR PART OF SELLING IS EDUCATING THE PROSPECT

Have you ever considered the fact that your prospect would already be your customer if they understood the value of your product in solving their problem? Another way of looking at the same question might be expressed this way. If they knew they had a problem they would already be your customer. Never assume that a prospective customer is solving their problem with the right solution or even recognizes that they have a problem. One of the most important things that salespeople can do to increase their sales is to educate the prospect. Here are six steps that will bring focus to the principle and skill of educating your prospects.

Step Number One: Assessing – Selling begins with asking questions. Even if a prospect tells you what they want, you need to ask questions to determine if what they want is really what they need. If you don’t sell them what they need, regardless of what they want, you will end up taking the blame when they figure out that what they wanted was not what they needed. You can’t ask too many questions if the questions are focused on diagnosing the problem. Always ask permission to ask questions. Once the buyer grants permission, you can ask any question, within reason, and the buyer will answer it. Properly assessing the needs of the prospect is an extremely effective method of building rapport. When the buyer knows that you truly understand their needs they will trust you enough to purchase from you.

Step Number Two: Presenting – When presenting solutions to your prospect’s needs, don’t forget the emotion. Tell stories and relate examples of companies similar to their own whose problems have been successfully solved using your products. Relate their situation to what your current prospects have experienced. Give them hope that your solution will work for them because it has worked effectively for others. Presenting the successes of other companies facing similar situations is part of the education process. Generally people don’t buy unless they feel confident that the product will solve their problems or meet their objectives. Telling the stories of others who have successfully used the product is a very effective way of creating belief and establishing trust.

Step Number Three: Third party endorsements – Will Rogers, the popular humorist of the forties once said, “If you want your story heard far and wide, let someone else tell it.” This is true for salespeople. When a happy, satisfied customer tells your story to a current prospect it is ten times more compelling. The happy, satisfied customer has nothing to gain by their endorsement, so it is perceived as true. Until you build trust and confidence with your prospect, there will always be some doubt in their minds regarding your integrity. Third party endorsements come with integrity. Signed letters, phone calls or personal endorsements from past customers, not only educate but persuade far better than can a salesperson.

Step Number Four: Demonstrations – How many times have you heard or read something that you thought to yourself, “That is unbelievable!” Because the situation or event was beyond your experience and understanding, you didn’t believe it was true. Some prospects will have a difficult time accepting your claims and solutions. Give them a demonstration. Let them see for themselves. Some people just don’t get it until they can actually see it. Show them how it works. Let them see what it can do for them. Real-life experience is a great educator. Selling is all about education, so show them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a demonstration is worth a million words. You can tell, tell, tell, but for some people they must see it to believe.

Step Number Five: The Test Drive – The ultimate form of the demonstration is to put the prospect behind the wheel and “test drive” your solution. There is nothing quite so convincing as letting your prospect take your solution for a “spin”. When they do it, they believe it. When they have experienced personally what you have told them and what your prospects have told them and what you have demonstrated, then they will believe you. Personal experience is the purest form of education.

Step Number Six: Feel the Good Feeling – All sales are emotional. Never forget the emotional aspect of selling. Emotion creates a learning experience that will last forever. Remind the buyer of the demonstration and the test drive each time you follow-up with them, whether before and after the sale is made. Each time they feel the emotional rush associated with your solution, they will be resold over and over again. The emotion will continually sell you as a problem solver, and educator, and a trusted partner.

Would You Like To Close Every Sale?

Have you ever thought about what it would take for you to close every sale? What would you need to know or need to do to make it happen? In the world of fantasy there are the infamous magic mirrors, magic wands, the magic lamp with a genie or even the crystal ball. If you had any of these magic tools you would know everything necessary to close a sale. Recently I went on a year long quest to find a crystal ball. I chose the crystal ball because it seemed more durable than a wand or a mirror and less frightening than a lamp with its genie. I figured using the crystal ball would be more discrete than a genie flying out of a lamp.

The thought of being able to look into my crystal ball and see exactly what I needed to know and do in order to make a sale absolutely excited me. No more rejections and the frustration of not reaching my goals. No more “maybes” or “call me in six months.” With my crystal ball I will make every sale because I will know the answers to every concern or objection. I will know the prospects budget and ability to pay. I will know their time frame for needing and ordering the product. There won’t be any confusion as to the decision-maker; I will only be talking to those people who can make decisions. My crystal ball will narrowly focus on the specific needs of the prospect making sure that I am solving the real problem.

In my quest for just the right crystal ball I searched the finest stores. I surfed the web and I conducted hours of relentless research. I didn’t want mixed signals or cloudy answers so I was looking for the perfect crystal ball without flaws or blemishes. If I was going to trust my sales success on a crystal ball, I wanted to know that I was using the best. Having traveled the world searching high and low for my crystal ball, I finally discovered exactly what I was looking for, halfway around the world in Beijing China. It came with a finely crafted cherry wood stand lined with red silk. The crystal possessed perfect clarity and brightness. I knew that this crystal ball would illuminate the answers necessary to make every sale.

When I returned from China, still excited about my great find, I started to formulate the different questions I would ask my crystal ball. I focused on what I would need to know to close every sale. I made a list of about two-dozen questions that would reveal every possible answer. Questions dealing with needs, wants, desires, decision maker, competition, pricing, budget, volume, time frame, concerns, objections, etc. These questions were then committed to memory so I would know exactly what to look for in my mystical crystal ball. As I prepared for my next presentation, realizing that my prospect didn’t stand a chance, I rehearsed my questions and planned my strategy using my crystal ball. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that I didn’t really need my treasured crystal ball at all. The information I was hoping to learn through my crystal ball could have just as easily been revealed through asking the prospect directly those same questions I had formulated to ask my crystal ball.

All of my research and travel to find a crystal ball was for naught. I had the answer to increased sales all along. It was effective questioning. Questions are the answer for more sales. Through questioning I can encourage my prospects to reveal all of the information and answers necessary to close the sale. Most salespeople never ask enough questions to be as effective as they could. I’m reminded of the game I played with my friends in junior high school, twenty questions. We could generally discover the answer within the twenty-question limit. Our prospects don’t limit the number of questions we can ask. Ask every meaningful question you can think of to solve the mystery of the sale.

Remember,
QUESTIONS ARE THE ANSWER!

Writing Your Success Stories Increase Sales

Several years ago when I began my sales training and coaching career I took a critical self-evaluation to determine what experience and insight I could offer salespeople.  I was very aware of the saying, “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”  I was confident that I was one of those who “can” do the job, but had never really thought much about those things I had done that accounted for my sales success.  For several months I rummaged around in the depths of my memory rediscovering specific sales successes and identifying those principles and skills responsible for the success.

I was absolutely amazed by all of the successful thing I had done in my sales career and the principles and skills I had applied to create those successes.  The one thing that was most revealing was the fact that many of those activities that had proven to be the most successful had not been applied for some time.  In fact, many of those skills that I remembered as being the cause of my success had, for many years, fallen into the pit of complacency.  I was now feeling somewhat embarrassed that I had discovered and applied so many successful skills only to have discontinued using them.  In my quest for continual improvement I had neglected to consistently apply the very principles that had contributed to my success.  Admittedly, success had gone to my head and I became lazy, believing that I could short cut the pathway to success.

During this period of rediscovering the principles and skills behind my sales success, I wished on many occasions that I had kept a written record of my sales successes.  It would have been very convenient to go to my own personal sales bible and find the solution to a particularly challenging sales situation.  Had I written them down, I am convinced I would not have forgotten or become complacent with those success producing principles and skills.

As part of my sales training and coaching program, I encourage each salesperson to write a success story each month.  This success story details a particular principle or skill that they have applied which has contributed to closing a sale or completing a successful selling month.  The act of writing down the details of the success secures it in their mind allowing them to have a better understanding of the reason they were successful and reminds them to apply those skills in future sales opportunities.  Success breeds success, but only if you are aware of what caused the success.  Salespeople don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel of success; they just need to continually do those things that create success.  There are always new things to learn, but not at the expense of those things that have already proven to be successful.  The following excerpts from a few of my client’s success stories should provide a good example of the value of writing your own stories of success.

Example #1:

I followed up with my customer and asked some questions about his experience with our product and how it worked compared to our competitors.  He spent the next 5 minutes telling me how much he loved it and how well it worked.  Then I asked him if he would be willing to answer some of my questions and let me type up a letter of recommendation according to how he answered my questions.  I told him that I would then e-mail a copy of the letter to him and then he could edit anything he needed to and send it to me signed on his letterhead.  He said that he would love to do that.  

Now I have a signed letter from a happy satisfied customer to use so that he can help me make my next sale.

Example #2:

I am convinced that the willingness to offer a personal interest in the customer's needs, along with a meaningful solution to a complex problem is what won the business for me.  Thanks, Tim Huffaker, and BPG for training me on how to win business on something other than price.

 
Example #3

I have noticed that my sales have increased overall due to the fact that I am building personal relationships with my customers that allow me to gain their trust.  When I go to visit them, they are more willing now to tell me what they like and don’t like about their processes and what they think would make them better.  I am able to help them out by giving them suggestions for equipment that I can provide for them to “ease their pain”.

Four Absolutely Essential Tools For Sales Success

Let me introduce you to four absolutely essential tools for sales success.  These tools are not necessarily unique and may already be used by a few salespeople to some degree.  The power of these four tools is found not only in their simplicity, but also in their synergy.  When used together with each of your prospects, you will enjoy a new level of sales success.  

Tool Number One:  Ten Most Wanted

The FBI Ten Most Wanted list arose from a conversation held in late 1949, during a game of Hearts between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, and William Kinsey Hutchinson, International News Service Editor-in-Chief, who were discussing ways to promote capture of the FBI's "toughest guys". This discussion turned into a published article, which received so much positive publicity that on March 14, 1950, the FBI officially announced the list to increase law enforcement's ability to capture dangerous fugitives.  The current average time a fugitive spends on the Ten Most Wanted List before they are captured is about 314 days.

Create a Ten Most Wanted List detailing those prospects that you want most to be your customers.  Post the list where you can see it daily.  The power of the list is to create a powerful focus that will compel you to take action and focus your effort on making the sale.  The Ten Most Wanted List is reserved for those companies that might not otherwise be part of your daily prospecting.  As you review the list daily, you will discover the power and energy to move the prospects from your Ten Most Wanted List to your new customer list.  Just as with the FBI, the amount of time required to land one of your most wanted accounts will be greatly reduced.  When you close a sale with one of your ten most wanted prospects, add another in its place.  

Tool Number Two:  Monthly Goal Sheet

Any one can set a goal but very few people know how to achieve goals.  Salespeople set goals regularly or have goals set for them by their managers.  Goals are a way of measuring performance.  Unfortunately most salespeople just do a lot of “stuff” hoping to reach their goals.  A Monthly Goal Sheet is a profoundly simple but an incredibly powerful sales tool.  There are a few principles necessary for setting goals.  

Principle #1: Set a date for completion.  

Principle #2: Be clear about what you want to accomplish.  

Principle #3: Goals must be realistic and achievable.  

Principle #4: Goals must be a stretch or challenging.

A Monthly Goal Sheet identifies the month and the goal defined in dollars or other units of measurement determined by your industry or employer.  A Monthly Goal Sheet should list every prospect you believe you can close within the month.  List the value of each potential sale.  Break your monthly goal into weekly goals and then track your sales performance by week compared to your weekly goal.  Create a visual or picture of your performance compared to your goal.  An example would be a thermometer.  Calibrate it based on your goal and then color it in based on your sales as the month progresses.  When you can see a picture of your sales compared to your goal you will be motivated to increase your effort to stay on track with your goal.  The power of the Monthly Goal Sheet is to identify where you believe your goal will come from.  You can then focus your efforts on those specific prospects.

Tool Number Three:  Bucket of Satisfied Customers

The number one source of new sales is from happy satisfied customers.  Salespeople are very good at writing orders with their customers but fail at discovering all the opportunities available.  A satisfied customer needs to be romanced, always looking for new opportunities within their organization.  Any happy satisfied customer will be good for either a new opportunity or a referral.  Referrals have a higher closing ratio than any other opportunity other than existing customers.  Referrals also close in a much shorter time frame than other forms of prospecting.  A happy satisfied customer can be a continual source of new opportunities if you will only ask.

Create a list of your twelve best customers.  Identify them by company name, contact person, address, phone number and sales volume.  On this list identify the date you plan to contact them to discover any new opportunities and to ask for referrals.  List the date of the actual contact and post your results for that customer.  This list of happy satisfied customers is your bucket of opportunity.  Track your customers and the new opportunities they will provide you.

Tool Number Four:  Prospect Data Sheet

There are many versions of this specific tool; they are often referred to as client or prospect management programs.  Most people have access to these programs but don’t use them effectively.  There are paper versions as well as software applications.  The value of the Prospect Data Sheet is found in their effective use.  If you do not keep track of the specific details of each prospect you will never sell as effectively as you could.  A Prospect Data Sheet should keep track of every detail of your sales process.  The more you know about your prospect and the more you do, the more you will sell.

A Prospect Data Sheet, whether it is digital or paper should include the following details:

1. Company name, address, phone numbers, email, website and fax

2. Names, titles, positions, decision makers, influencers, best time to contact, etc.

3. Needs, budget, time frame, and ultimate decision maker

4. Name of referrer, source of lead or networking group

5. Current situation, supplier, pricing, volumes, etc.

6. Hot points, concerns and objections.

7. Brief game plan of what you will do to earn the sale.

8. Comparative analysis of the competition including your strengths and weaknesses.

9. Detail account of each contact with the prospect including dates and times and a scheduled date for each future follow-up.

10. A brief description of why you won or lost the sale.

The power and synergy of these four tools effectively used in your sales process will increase your sales beyond your wildest expectations.  If you truly want a different result in your sales results, do something different.  If you want an improved result, do something right that you haven’t done before.  

 

Connect the Dots Between the Need and the Solution through Dialogue

The difference between victory and defeat can be measured in increments so small that no one would believe it could make a difference. A horse race is won by a nose. A baseball game won by just one hit. A basketball game won by a last second shot. A football game won by just one catch. Yet, those small differences typically determine the outcome. Water is flowing at thirty-three degrees and is solid at thirty-two. A five gallon bucket of water poured from ten feet onto your head will make you wet, but a five gallon block of ice dropped from the same elevation will kill you. Just one degree in temperature is the difference between wet and dead. In sales as in life, it is not the big things that make the difference; it is the small things.

What I’m going to share with you today is just that, a small thing. This thing is so small that most salespeople miss it and those that get it right don’t even know what they are doing that is right. This simple, yet profound principle is extremely simple and everyone can do it. However, most salespeople assume that they are applying this principle, when in reality they are not. This principle is similar to connecting the dots in a “paint by number” painting. In selling you must connect the dots to be infinitely successful. The dots that we want to connect are the dots between the prospects NEEDS and the salesperson’s SOLUTION. The principle you apply to accomplish this activity is called THE DIALOGUE.

I learned this principle the hard way many years ago as a young salesperson. There were times when I clearly identified the prospect’s need through effective questioning and then was skilled and sometimes lucky enough the present the solution with bold clarity. I had the perfect product to meet the needs of the prospect at the right time and the right price and with the right level of customer service. My skills combined with the stars aligning perfectly, gave me the upper hand only to be utterly shocked at losing the sale to an inferior solution. Why? I asked myself. Everything was pointing my direction. I shouldn’t have lost the sale, but I did. This same situation happened more than once, until I analyzed carefully what I was doing. The answer to losing these sales was simple and yet profound. I wasn’t connecting the dots. What dots you ask? The dots between the need and the solution.

I was assuming that the prospect could clearly see how my solution would specifically solve their need. Sometimes they draw the connection, but don’t bet on it. The right solution can be presented without the prospect seeing the connection to solving the need. The salesperson needs to connect the dots by creating a DIALOGUE. The dialogue is that one-degree of activity that can make the difference between winning and losing a sale. You must specifically discuss with the prospect and ask for their input and response to each detail of the solution and how it will solve each element of the need. In the process, the prospect will share more information and together you will fine tune and tweak the solution. During the course of your dialogue you will go deeper into the discovery of the need and the solution than any other salesperson has gone. You will gain the trust and confidence of the prospect through your combined understanding of the need and the solution. They will respect your insight and chose to work with you because you were willing to discuss with them the specific details of solving their problem.

Dialogue is a simple, yet profound principle. We have all seen this principle played out in the movies. It goes something like this: The man is in love with the woman and she is likewise, madly in love with him. Circumstances are such that neither is able to tell the other of their feelings. They eventually go their separate ways living a life of shallow relationships always longing for the love that past them by.

Don’t let sales pass you by. Don’t be longing for the sale that got away. Connect the dots between needs and solutions with a dialogue. Until you and the prospect have discussed specifically how your solution will solve each aspect of their need, you will neither have the understanding nor the relationship necessary to make the sale.

It Is Time To Change Your Activities and Increase Your Sales

Over the past year every salesperson, regardless of product, company, experience or success has been impacted by the changing economy. While the majority of salespeople have floundered, some have flourished. Spencer Johnson in his classic parable, Who Moved My Cheese, has presented to the world a new understanding for dealing with change. In our current economy, no story could be of greater impact on salespeople than this simple fable involving four little characters and their approach to change. As Dr. Johnson relates, change is universal since we are all confronted with change. The only variable to change is how we deal with it. Nothing could be so profound for salespeople than the way this story deals with change. I believe that those who have found success, in spite of the failing economy, have applied the principles discovered in the charmingly written and exceedingly simple story, Who Moved My Cheese.

Nothing is more revealing of a salesperson’s skills and abilities than their individual performance. There is no doubt that sales results are influenced by the strength of the economy or of a salesperson’s specific market niche. In a booming market even a novice salesperson is capable of delivering a strong performance. As quickly as the phone is answered, a salesperson can write an order. About the only skill needed is the ability to pick up the phone and then deliver what the customer has ordered. Most business owners have no idea how poorly trained their salespeople are until the market begins to soften and selling skills are actually required to make a sale.

A few years ago I called on the president of large window manufacturing company. We talked about the necessity of sales training to improve the performance of his salespeople. He was in total agreement in principle but when it came right down to enrolling his people in our training program he declined. He looked at me and said that he knew his people needed training. He even went so far as to say that they were pretty lousy salespeople. However, the building market was so strong that even though he salespeople were in need of improvement, they were selling every window the company could produce. Their production facility was working three shifts per day, seven days per week. There was no way they could produce any more windows. Training the salespeople would only increase lead times and cause their customers to be unhappy.

I mentioned the example of salespeople and their performance in both strong and weak markets because the weak market requires a change on the part of the salesperson if they are going to continue to produce stellar results. As in the story of Who Moved My Cheese, Hem would go to cheese station C every morning, even after all the cheese was gone, hoping that it would be there. Hah, on the other hand, spent each day wandering through the maze looking for new cheese. He realized that since the cheese was no longer in cheese station C he needed to find another source. Meanwhile, Hem would get up every morning and do what he had always done, go to cheese station C expecting to find cheese but none was to be found. He was unwilling to change, to do something different in his quest for cheese.

For every salesperson within the sound of my voice, the cheese in cheese station C is gone and it is not coming back. If you want cheese you are going to have to quit doing those activities you have done in the past and do something different. You are going to have to go out into the maze and look for new cheese. In other words, in this current economic market you will not be successful doing what you have done in the past. These challenging economic conditions require different activities to achieve the results of the past. Here are five areas of focus that will help you find new cheese and increase your sales beyond your wildest dreams:

1. Get up early every morning and work smart and hard at selling. Don’t believe for one minute that just because the economy is worse than it has been in twenty-five years that your sales can’t be your best ever. Believe in yourself and then work to make it happen. You will need to work harder than you have ever worked before.

2. Review your sales process and then follow it diligently. Don’t become complacent. Prospect every day. Find new opportunities to tell your story. Present solutions to problems and prepare quotes for the sale of your products or services. Follow-up with each opportunity, resolve concerns and ask for the business.

3. Focus your activities on the very best potential opportunities. Remember, current customers present the best opportunity for new sales, repeat sales and referrals. Look beyond your current product base and discover potential niche markets for your products or discover new products that could complement your current product lines. Think outside the box.

4. Set goals for your daily, weekly and monthly activity. Establish activity goals as well as performance goals. Set goals for the number of calls, appointments, follow-ups and quotes you will make. When you are doing the right things on a daily basis you will finish the month with the right results. Keep a monthly goal sheet that identifies those customers and prospects that will allow you to reach your goal. Setting a goal without identifying where the goal will come from is a waste of time.

5. Ask everyone you contact for referrals. Let them know that receiving referrals is the way you make your living. Everyone knows someone they could refer you to. Demonstrate that you are working hard to provide the service and products they need. When the prospect or customers is satisfied with your performance they will gladly give you referrals if you ask. Never let a day go by without asking for and receiving at least one referral.

In Our Own Way We Are All Salespeople

Some people are “peddlers” some are “influencers”, others “politicians” and then there are just those that “want their own way.”  Call it what you will, we are all salespeople.  We are all trying to influence others for either our benefit or theirs.  We call this form of persuasion, selling.  I made a great sale this weekend.  I persuaded my wife to watch a football game with me.  She wanted to watch a reality show entitled “The Messiest House In America” and I wanted to watch the San Francisco 49ers.  She made a sale too.  She sold me on doing yard work that I was hoping to put off until Spring.  We are all salespeople and we sell every day of our lives.

The principle of selling in not to force someone to do something they don’t want to do, but rather, to discover a need or want, some situation that they don’t want and then help them solve the problem through finding a correct solution.  In its truest definition, selling is a profession of trust much like a doctor, dentist, attorney, accountant, mechanic, priest, parent, husband or wife.  Salespeople have many different names and titles but the objective is always the same; helping people that believe, like and trust you solve problems through persuasion.  Abuse the trust, however, and a salesperson is the most loathed person on the face of the earth.

Selling is a position of trust, and that trust should never be taken for granted.  Salespeople should always be mindful of the responsibility they have to those people they are influencing.  Think of the consequences of persuading an individual to do something that is not in their best interest.  It could cost them time, money, reputation, self-esteem or even their life.  You may never know the ultimate consequence of your influence, so make sure it is honest and not self-serving.

The highest form of selling involves selflessness and integrity.  It is putting the needs of the prospect or buyer ahead of your own.  It is focusing on providing the correct solution to a problem or need even if it means a reduced benefit to you.  In the original version of the movie, Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle, while asking little boys and girls what they wanted for Christmas, was recommending to parents that they purchase certain Christmas items at a competing department store because the ones carried at Macy’s, the department store where he was working, carried either an inferior or too costly version.  When management got word of this, they decided to fire him.  However, the news media picked up on the story and praised Kris Kringle for his integrity.  The publicity drove even more people to Macy’s Department Store for their Christmas shopping.

In the purest form of salesmanship, if you will put the best interest of the customer first, you will never go wrong.  In fact, you will succeed beyond your wildest dreams.  When your customers experience the selfless service and expertise you offer them, they will tell others and before long, you will have more referrals than you can possible handle.  People buy from people they believe, like and trust.  When you become that person, you will outsell all others.  Remember, selling is a position of trusted influence.  Never, never, never forget the personal responsibility and integrity that accompanies your role of salesperson.

Twenty Questions Every Sales Manager Should Consider Regarding Their Salespeople

1. Do all of your salespeople plan the effective use of their time each workday in 30-minute increments?

When salespeople don’t plan their days they will never accomplish all that could be done. They will spend their time doing urgent tasks instead of focusing on important activities that will increase their sales. When time is planned in 30-minute increments, achievement increases because there is focus on doing the important things as efficiently as possible.

2. Do all of your salespeople keep their sales pipeline full with qualified prospects?

The more opportunities a sales person has in their pipeline the more sales they will close. Selling is a numbers game. If they don’t have a full pipeline, they are probably not planning time each day to find new opportunities.

3. Do all of your salespeople know their sales call to close ratio?

Selling is a process. The results of a salesperson’s activities are in direct correlation to knowing and following their sales process. It is really as simple as: contacts to appointments, appointments to quotes, quotes to follow-ups, follow-ups to closes. If a salesperson knew that for every twenty people they contacted that they would eventually make one sale and that one sale would generate a certain commission, then that salesperson would religiously follow their sales process.

4. Do all of your salespeople spend their time only with qualified prospects?

It is important for salespeople to be able to qualify their prospects as quickly as possible. Using effective questioning techniques will allow them to quickly assess the opportunity. Selling is a numbers game. The more qualified prospects in a salesperson’s pipeline, the more sales they will make.

5. Do all of your salespeople obtain a steady stream of referrals by following a customer referral dialogue?

The most effective means of finding new business is through doing more business with existing customers. The second most effective way of finding new business is through referrals from existing customers. Every current customer should be providing referrals on a regular basis. A system for receiving referrals and turning them into sales is a skill every salesperson should practice regularly.

6. Do all of your salespeople never complain that your product prices are too high?

Professional salespeople sell themselves first, reputation of the company second, product third, and price fourth. The customer thinks that price is the most important factor only because poor salespeople over time have focused on price. Ask a customer how important low price was to them when they didn’t receive their shipment on time. People buy from people they believe, like and trust. Sell yourself first. There is no loyalty in price.

7. Do all of your salespeople exceed their sales goals on a consistent basis?

Too many managers hold salespeople accountable for performance without teaching them how to reach that level of performance. Even when goals are established, if system of accountability has not been established and regularly followed, goals will not be achieved. Most managers are focused on the goal and not the daily steps required to achieve the goal. Monitor the steps and the goal will be achieved.

8. Do all of your salespeople conduct follow-ups at the right time and never use the two deadly questions?

Selling is a process not an event. National statistics suggest that it takes between 5-7 contacts to build the trust to persuade someone to purchase from you. Eighty-four percent of people say no before they say yes. The follow-up is where salespeople turn the no into a yes. By-the-way, the two most deadly questions are: Have you made up your mind yet? Do you have any questions?

9. Do all of your salespeople look forward to your sales meetings?

Most meetings are to long, lack direction, fail in achievement, don’t involve every individual and tend to be negative. Solution – Time specific agenda that incorporates the principle of Assign and Report. Give everyone a chance to tell a success story. Take action, don’t just talk about and think about issues. Resolve and move on.

10. Do all of your salespeople follow a personal development plan that helps them to achieve continual improvement?

Most salespeople have no idea what it takes to become a professional salesperson. They do what they think is right or what they have seen others do. I wouldn’t want to go to a doctor who just did what he thought was right without any study or practice in the field of medicine. Professional salespeople have studied the principles and skills associated with sales and look for improvements on a daily basis. Even after receiving a medical degree, the average doctor spends on average eleven hours each week improving their knowledge and skills.

11. Do all of your salespeople implement all the good ideas they learn from sales education seminars you send them to?

Salespeople are not just born; they are well trained and highly motivated. They are motivated because they understand the relationship between skills, effort, time and money.

12. Do all of your salespeople spend two hours per week building strategies with the sales manager on a 1 to 1 basis?

To be successful at anything there must be a system of accountability. To hold salespeople accountable for their performance on a weekly basis and to teach and train them to perform better at their trade on a weekly basis is a formula that will deliver sales success. Corrective action can be taken 52 times each year if needed.

13. Do all of your salespeople arrive at appointments well prepared with a scripted presentation?

Most salespeople just wing it. Since most of them have never prepared for a career in sales they don’t understand the importance of preparing for each sales opportunity. They show up and then they throw-up on the prospect by telling the prospect everything they can think of about their product or service without first assessing the prospects needs.

14. Do all of your salespeople look the part of a well-groomed sales professional?

The first impression a salesperson makes is their appearance. If a salesperson looks the part it will go a long ways towards their success. The first reality is perception. Salespeople should dress one level above their audience.

15. Do all of your salespeople remain excited about their work, and your company’s products?

It is much easier to sell a product that you believe in. It is also easier to remain motivated when you believe in the company. Both of these variables are influenced by a salesperson’s income and compensation. If the company provides a good working environment and the salesperson believes in the company’s ability to deliver the product or service, then with the proper training and management the sales person should be able to earn an income that will cause them to be excited about their job.

16. Do all of your salespeople practice effective listening skills and don’t over communicate?

No skill is more important than listen. Telling is not selling. In communications, the most important thing a salesperson can do is to effectively determine the need or pain of the prospect. If salespeople don’t know how to listen they will never discover the pain. The sale is the prescription for removing the prospect’s pain.

17. Do all of your salespeople have long-lasting relationships with their customers and prospects?

People buy from people they believe, like and trust. Selling is based on relationships and relationships are built over time. When they discover the needs of the prospect and work to find the proper solution to their needs, the relationship will strengthen providing the trust necessary to make the sale.

18. Do all of your salespeople take responsibility for their own performance without excuses?

If salespeople don’t take responsibility for their performance then whether they are successful of a failure, it won’t make any difference to them. They do what they do without any personal obligation. They will never achieve the success of those who are responsible for their performance. These salespeople always have an excuse for their poor performance.

19. Do all of your sales people have a regular diet of sales skills books and other material about building sales relationships?

No one is born with the gift of salesmanship. It is a learned skill just like Law, Medicine, Accounting, Carpentry, etc. Those salespeople who have learned the principles and skills of sales will outsell all others four fold.

20. Do all of your salespeople perform at the highest rate of return on your investment in them?

Most salespeople have no concept of their potential nor do they understand the investment that management makes in them. The biggest single cost in a salesperson that doesn’t perform like they should is the cost of lost opportunity. If you want to make the most of your salespeople train them and hold them accountable on a weekly basis for their performance.

To Be Successful At Selling You Must Have The Prospect’s Trust

While listening to the news the other night the question was asked, “Why do people watch one newscast over another?”  The answer, “Trust.”  I believe the answer is both true and profound.  People listen to and believe those people they trust.  Selling is very similar to a newscast; in both cases, people are persuaded by and believe the words of people they trust!  In a sales coaching session today, one of my clients, somewhat discouraged with her closing ratio asked, “What more can I do to increase my sales.  I find the opportunities.  I discover, uncover and remove the pain.  I prepare and deliver a quote and yet, I experience a lot of indecision and hesitancy on behalf of the decision makers.”  In total frustration she pleaded, “What am I doing wrong?”

I don’t think she was doing anything wrong in her sales process as far as she was going.  What she was doing wrong was what she wasn’t doing.  She wasn’t building trust with her prospect.  Far too often I find salespeople doing exactly as this client.  They do everything right up through the step of delivering the quote.  Once the quote is presented, they believe their job is completed and the next step is to wait for the prospect to respond.  Either they like the quote or they don’t.  If they like it, you get the order and if they don’t, well you know how that goes.

The sale really begins once the quote has been presented and yet, many salespeople believe presenting the quote is the end of the process.  People buy from people they BELIEVE, LIKE and TRUST.  There are many people offering similar products as solutions to similar problems with similar pricing.  Why does one salesperson win the sale and why do the others lose the sale.  You might be thinking to yourself, “That’s easy, the difference is price.”  Well, it is only price if you let it be price.  I’ve seen too many situations where the prospect purchased the same or similar product and paid more for it from one sales person than was offered by others.  The decision to purchase is not always price.  I was talking to one of my clients who told me he quoted the lowest price and didn’t get the order.  He was totally frustrated and claimed he had no idea anymore what it took to land a sale.  I encouraged him to ask the prospect why he lost the sale and the answer was, “I didn’t believe you would be able to deliver it to me on time.  You talked about how busy you were and I didn’t want to risk not receiving the product when I needed it.”

When you spend the time to build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospect, you will close those opportunities that seem to hang in limbo, and you will make sales without becoming the low priced, thinnest margin seller.  How do you build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST?  Romance the sale.  As I met with my client this afternoon I asked her if she was romancing the sale.  She knows better and admitted that she had become complacent.  She had fallen back into the bad habit of presenting the quote and then waiting for a decision.  That approach encourages the buyer to line up all the quotes and then pick the lowest price.  Salespeople need to spend time with the prospect in order to build the trust necessary for them to feel comfortable buying from you.  Ask yourself, “Do you want the buyer making the purchasing decision in your absence, or worst yet, in the presence of one of your competitors?

Romancing the sale allows the sales person to have multiple contacts with the decision maker.  Romancing the sale provides the perfect opportunity to present additional information to help convince the decision maker of the value of your offering.  Romancing is the vehicle by which salespeople build BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with their prospects.  Why do people watch one newscast versus another?  Trust.  Why do people buy from one salesperson versus another?  Trust.  Why was my client not closing as many sales as she should have been?  Lack of trust.  What will she be doing on a regular basis beginning today?  Romancing every prospect and building BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with each one of them.  She won’t make every sale, no one ever does.  But I can promise you, just as I promised her, your sales will improve dramatically when you spend the time to develop BELIEF, LIKE and TRUST with your prospects.

SALESPEOPLE MUST KEEP SCORE TO WIN AT SELLING

Keeping score is found in the core of human existence. From the beginning of time man has found some means of counting, tracking, monitoring and numbering everything within the human realm. In the world of sports it’s the score and the time that makes the difference between a winning team and a losing one. Selling is no different. Every salesperson, every sales manager, every business owner and every executive is counting; in other words, keeping score of sales performance. It’s natural and normal and something we all do. Who sold the most, what were the margin dollars, how many returns did we have, what’s the commission percentage, it’s all about keeping score.

I’ve never heard a sales manager say, “I’m not interested in how much our people sell, I’m just happy that our salespeople like their jobs.” There is only one thing that matters, profit! Now I’m not suggesting that profit comes at the expense of honesty, integrity, and the customer’s best interest. At the end of the day, what difference does it make how much the sales people love their jobs or how hard they work if they are not generating a profit. A company that doesn’t make a profit doesn’t “make it”. If the company doesn’t make it then no one makes it. Sales people must keep score of the sales they make as well as all the activities that leads up to making the sale. This is where most sales people fail. They only keep track of the sale, oblivious to all the activity necessary in making the sale.

By nature, selling is dynamic. It involves multiple activities consuming varying amounts of time and generates differing amounts of money. These three variables, activity, time and money are the core components of the sales equation. At best, salespeople and management are tracking sales, but they never seem to pay attention to the elements of the sales process, or in other words, those activities that directly lead to the completion of a sale. In its simplest form, how many people does a salesperson need to speak to in order to find one person interested in hearing what the salesperson has to offer? To how many people does a salesperson need to tell his story before he finds one prospect willing to purchase his product or service? How many times does a salesperson need to follow-up with a prospect before they feel comfortable enough to make a purchase?

Selling is not an event, selling is a process. When the correct process is followed with precision, then a certain number of sales will be made. Salespeople and management are all tuned in to tracking sales, but they are not in touch with the process leading up to making the sale. What would it mean to you if you knew with a certainty that you needed to contact fifty people to schedule five appointments and make a total of twenty-five follow-up visits in order to make one sale, which would generate a commission of one thousand dollars for you? Would you make fifty contacts? Would you schedule five appointments? Would you make twenty-five follow-up visits? I believe you would if you knew for sure that those activities would produce a thousand dollar commission.

Now, what if you knew that it would take a total of twenty hours of combined sales time to accomplish all of those activities. Therefore, a thousand dollar commission could be earned in twenty hours having accomplished all of the required activities comprising your sales process. If you worked a forty-hour week you could earn two thousand dollars per week, or four thousand dollars every two weeks, or eight thousand dollars per month. If you didn’t take lunch during the month, but just grabbed a bite to eat while continuing your sales activities, you could earn an additional thousand dollars each month. If you arrived at work an hour early each day of the month you could earn another thousand dollars a month. Time is money and the more time you spend following the steps of your sales process, the more money you could earn.

Unfortunately, most salespeople just do a lot of “stuff” not really keeping track of which activities are necessary to make a sale or how many of each activity is required to close a sale or the time they spend doing the various activities. They only count their sales at the end of the month. Sales happen as the result of following a process, whether you realize it or not. Understanding exactly what it takes to make a sale is the most important thing a salesperson can know! Successful selling is the result of diligently following a process and knowing how much time is required to complete the process.

Knowing your sales score each day of the month is critical to reaching your sales goals. If athletes don’t know what the score is at any moment in time, and if they don’t know how much time remains in the game, they will never feel the urgency to take heroic action to make a last minute score to win the game. I’ve worked with salespeople, who in the last few remaining moments of the month closed a sale that put them over their goal, while their associates, not knowing where they stood in relation to their goal, had called it a day, hours earlier. Successful salespeople, those salespeople who always reach their goals, understand these principles and keep score of all the activities associated with their sales process and know how much time they must invest to make each sale. They also know precisely how much money they will earn for their efforts. They regularly give themselves raises by increasing their activity and the time they spend in the sales arena.

Successful Salespeople Are Note Takers

I used to believe that I could remember everything. I'm confident that I did remember more when I was younger than I do now, but even then I couldn't remember it all. Have you ever had one of those "million dollar ideas" only to forget the details that made it so profound a few days later? We all experience those absolutely clairvoyant moments believing that we will remember the genius of our own thoughts never bothering to writing them down. Well, that's what napkins are for. I can't tell you the number of profitable business and personal ideas I have sketched out on the back of a napkin.

For salespeople to be successful, they must be able to remember facts, details, thoughts and actions relating to their customers and prospects. Write it down! If you don't write it down you will surely forget it, or at least the important details. Don't take a chance on a slip of the memory, it could mean the difference between landing a big sale or losing the opportunity of a lifetime. I remember years ago designing my mountain cabin on a napkin. The ideas just started flowing and instead of risking my ability to remember, I just started sketching, front, back, inside the fold and on several additional napkins.

Salespeople are problem solvers and you'll never know when or where the solution to a customer's problem will come into your mind. It could be any time and any place, so be prepared. Most cell phones or PDA's have the ability for note taking. Some even have the ability to record verbal notes. If that isn't convenient then carry a few 3x5 cards in your pocket. I frequently find myself making notes on the back of business cards so I can remember those flashes of wisdom that come when least expected. If you carry a day planner of some sort, you can always record your thoughts on the notes pages of your binder.

Another very important time for note taking is during a presentation. Remember, the most important part of any presentation is discovery; the fact finding phase that must precede the solution phase. Always take notes! Note taking during the discovery phase of the presentation will allow you to ask clarifying questions about the things your prospect has said. The notes become a resource for future evaluation and problem solving. Asking permission to take notes is an act of courtesy and a subtle reminder to them that you are paying attention to what they are saying and that their words are important to you. You are building their trust in your ability to solve their problems when they see you taking notes.

Note taking will keep your prospects honest. In future meetings they might say or present arguments different than stated in earlier meetings. You can pull out your notes and remind them of their prior statements or position, again reminding them that you know the facts and are not an easy target for manipulation. You will gain their respect from your thoroughness to detail. Through effective note taking and reviewing your notes prior to future conversations, you will demonstrate your photographic memory to your prospects. A key mind for facts and detail will give you the upper hand in every negotiation.

In Sales You’ve “Gotta Wanna”

Looking back over my 33 year sales career I’ve pondered many times the thought, “is there is just one principle or skill that would significantly influence one’s sales success?”  I’m convinced that there is no “magic bullet”, something so unique and different that if a sales person were to happen upon it that they would become the greatest sales person in the world.  Sales success is built upon the correct application of many different principles and skills.  However, is there possibly just one thing that by itself might have a profound influence upon a salesperson’s success?  After many years of training salespeople and having spent a career in sales myself, I believe that for someone to be successful at selling they must want to be successful at selling.  They’ve “gotta wanna” be successful.  If they have the desire then every other principle and skill can be built upon that foundation.

I believe that for someone to “gotta wanna” be successful in sales they must apply a self-evaluation built on five key principles.  These five principles will validate whether you are willing to do those things that will allow you to become successful.  Here are the five principles and I will discuss each one briefly:  Understanding, Belief, Vision, Desire and Purpose.

Understanding:  Most people pursue a career in sales without preparation and knowledge.  They believe that selling is simply telling someone about a product or service and hoping that they will buy.  Selling is a professional career just like medicine, law, accounting and business, requiring training in order to properly achieve the desired result.  Selling is a service industry where the desired result of all your activity is to solve a problem with the best possible solution.  Selling is an honorable career that requires education and training to be successful.  Selling is difficult and is not a career to be taken lightly, believing that you can be successful just because you call yourself a salesperson.  A career in sales can provide a significant income for those who prepare themselves.

Belief:  To be successful at sales you must believe that you can be successful.  Selling is not something you do until something better comes along.  Sales is a career choice that can provide a wonderful standard of living for you and your family.  Just as with any other professional career, if you study and train to become competent you can become a leader in your field.  Becoming a top sales person does not happen by chance, it is the result of hard work and preparation.  Salespeople can earn incomes that are greater than those of doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, businessmen, etc.  Don’t hope that selling will provide a satisfying career, believe that it will.

Vision:  If you can see it you can achieve it.  You must be able to visualize your sales success in order to achieve it.  Identify the top salespeople in your industry.  Watch what they do and then visualize yourself doing what they do.  Look for patterns of success and then apply those patterns to your own activities.  Picture in your mind the success you want to achieve in life and then imagine the joy and satisfaction you will receive.  Now, visualize doing those activities in sales that will bring you the success you desire.  Catch a vision of what your life can become as you work, study and apply the principles and skills of selling.

Desire:  What do you really want in your life?  If you want to be financially stable, to enjoy the finer thing in life, to have the time, money and freedom to choose, then a career in sales is a good choice.  Your desire cannot be passive, it must be a burning desire!  You must be willing to work hard, sacrifice, and do those things that average salespeople are not willing to do.  Selling cannot be something that you have just fallen into, a job that is convenient for now.  If you are selling because you think it is easy and convenient, you will fail. Forty years ago I met a young man who was practicing dentistry in Taiwan.  I ask him where he had studied and what he had done to prepare himself for a career in dentistry.  His response was, “My father practiced dentistry and when he died I inherited the equipment so now I’m practicing dentistry.”  As a dentist, he was about as prepared as most sales people.  To be successful at selling you must have a desire to enjoy the finer things in life.

Purpose:  Of all the principles that I have discussed as indicators of whether you have the ability to be successful in selling, nothing is more important than “purpose”.  Purpose is the thing that will keep you going when times are tough.  Purpose will sustain you through discouragement and adversity.  When you have a purpose so strong and compelling in your life that you will not quit but continue in the face of all the struggles inherent in a sales career, then you will find success.  Without a purpose to keep you focused on what you really want in your life, the negative experiences you will encounter may cause you to doubt your decision to choose a career in sales.  Your doubts will grow and soon you will abandon a selling career that could have provided financial freedom.

The Ten Principles That Separate Top Sales Performers From The Rest

Have you ever paused and pondered why some salespeople are so much better than others, or why someone in your organization or industry is recognized as the top salesperson? What makes the difference? What are the defining characteristics that make one person better or worse than another in the sales arena? Why aren’t you at the top of the performance ladder instead of someone else? I know the answer and in the next few minutes I’m going to tell you. I’m going to make it simple, and discuss sales success in plain terms that you can understand. I’m going to present the answer to sales success in the form of ten basic, time-tested and proven principles that have made the difference between sales superstars and typical average salespeople. Now, to further clarify these ten principles, it is not just in knowing these principles that makes the difference. They must be applied diligently and consistently – that is what the top sales performers do. I don’t want you to mumble to yourself, “I know that.” Knowing doesn’t make any difference in your sales performance. Consistently doing, using and applying these principles is the only way you will become a top performer because that is what top performers do.

Principle #1 - Desire: You’ve got to want it so badly that you will do whatever is legal, honest and moral to achieve success. Top sales performers have a desire to succeed that is so compelling that they will even do those things they don’t like to do because they know that those are the very things that will allow them to succeed. You must have a purpose in your life that will drive you to do those things when your motivation is low and discouragement is high. Your purpose needs to be greater that the pain of sales activities.

Principle #2 – Knowledge: Many people enter into the field of sales thinking it something they can do to earn a living believing they don’t need to train, study, or learn. After all, who attends college to learn sales - business or marketing maybe, but not sales. You might think that selling is easy; all you need to do is just declare yourself a salesperson and then go out and sell. Nothing could be further from the truth. The very best salespeople have prepared themselves to be the best. They have studied, practiced, roll played, rehearsed and sacrificed to earn top honors. Successful salespeople have invested years of hard work to earn the title of top sales professional. Top performers know their products and can answer questions and concerns directly, or know where to find the answers. Top salespeople are full of knowledge, not “b.s.”

Principle #3 – Time Management: Most salespeople never have the time or the organization to be able to do those things that will allow them to be successful. Sales success doesn’t just happen because you get up in the morning or because you hope it will happen. Sales success is the result of planning and scheduling to do those things that will bring you success. Sales success for those top sales professionals is the result of following a game plan designed to give you victory on the playing field of sales when other, less successful sales people believe all they need to do is just “show up”. Top sales performers plan, schedule and perform meaningful sales activities during each thirty-minute increment of time in their sales day.

Principle #4 – Dress For Success: If you want to be a top sales performer you must dress like one. When you dress for success you will develop an attitude of success. It is very difficult to focus on selling if you are thinking about your appearance. Your whole demeanor will change when you dress appropriately for your audience. Your prospect will pay greater attention when your dress and grooming suggests that you know what you are talking about. You should dress for your audience, which means you may present yourself differently to each prospect based on their industry and market. Top salespeople have the look of success.

Principle #5 – Hard Work: Plain and simple, selling is hard work if you are going to be a top income earner. There is a common perception that salespeople have a pretty easy job. They are gone all the time, no one ever knows where they are, and sales just happen. Successful salespeople work hard every minute of every hour of every day. They work hard at doing the right things. Successful salespeople never arrive at a point when they don’t have to work hard. The harder they work the more money they make and they don’t stop working just because they have made a few bucks. Successful salespeople don’t just fall into sales or get lucky. What you might think is luck is the result of hard work and consistent daily effort.

Principle #6 – Consistency: The consistent erosion of the Earth from the mighty Colorado River formed the Grand Canyon. It wasn’t eroding the Earth occasionally; it was a consistent daily effort over a long period of time. Too often salespeople find a great opportunity only to squander it due to lack of consistent follow-up. Top sales performers are consistent in every aspect of the sales process. They value each opportunity as a potential sale and believe that through applying the correct principles on a regular basis they will have success. Day in and day out successful sales people religiously follow their sales process, knowing they will realize the reward they seek.

Principle #7 – Attitude: I can’t think of a profession wrought with more rejection and potential discouragement than sales. Eighty-four percent of all people who eventually purchase your product or service said “no” before they said “yes”. People don’t want to be sold, and no one has the time to hear about or to do anything different. If you don’t approach selling with a positive, “I can be successful” attitude, you will be eaten alive by the challenges associated with selling. Top sales professional experience the same challenges as every other sales person. The defining difference is found in their attitude, their belief that regardless of the challenging circumstances, they will be successful. They know that in sales there are only two things they can control, activity and attitude. If they work hard and maintain a positive attitude, they will find the success that eludes the average salesperson.

Principle #8 – Rapport Building: Those sales professionals that are top income earners know that people buy from people they believe, like and trust. They know that sales success is ultimately the result of strong lasting relationships. The most successful salespeople know that a relationship built today will generate continuous sales, while a sale made without building a relationship will be lost in the storm of competition. They cultivate the sales opportunity, building a solid foundation of friendship and trust that will withstand the constant buffeting of the winds of price.

Principle #9 – Problem Solving: The very best and most successful salespeople realize that selling in nothing more than finding a problem and then presenting their product or service as a solution to the problem. There are impulsive buyers, but the majority of all people who purchase, are making that purchase to solve a problem or to meet a need. Without a need there is virtually no opportunity for a sale. Focus your attention on discovering what the buyer needs and then do all within your power to help him achieve what he needs. To effectively solve problems you must ask probing questions and then listen effectively. Selling is the process of discovering needs and presenting solutions, not blindly telling someone that they should buy your product.

Principle #10 – Caring: The crowning principle embodied by all successful sales people is caring more about meeting the needs of the customer than in making the sale. When you are willing to lose the sale in the process of helping the customer achieve their purpose, then you have reached that level of professionalism that will propel you to the success that other salespeople find only in their dreams. Your sales activities should be totally focused on providing the right solution for the customer without any thought given to your own income. When you care that much, you will ultimately be rewarded ten fold. Selling is not about you; it is all about the customer.

The Ten Steps Of Successful Goal Setting

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 as 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.”

Management Has Three Choices In This Challenging Economy

The current economic environment is difficult.  It is more challenging for some industries and less challenging for others.  However, every business has been affected in one way or another.  Every business has been presented with three choices; the culminating result of the choice you make will surely mark the difference between the success or failure of your company.  This may come as sobering news, but it is better to understand the impact of your choice at the beginning, than to wish you had chosen better informed after the fact.

Each week I write about sales and this week will be no different.  However, one of the three choices management will make in these challenging economic times involves sales.  I will address that choice in a moment.  These are the three choices that every company will ultimately choose from as they face the challenges of the current economy:

CHOICE #1:  Do nothing – business as usual.  Continue as before and turn a blind eye to what is taking place in the economy.  Hope against hope that what you are experiencing is not real and things will be the way they used to be when you awake in the morning.  Maybe everyone else is over reacting believing that changes need to be made when in reality, the current market is under rated.

CHOICE #2:  Accept that you are truly experiencing unusual times and it is time to pull in your spending and reduce your overheads.  Cut back in all areas, reduce all budgets, eliminate all waste, and let everyone go that is not adding value to the bottom line.  Eliminate those salespeople who are not producing and make due with the rest.  You believe that if “lady luck” smiles in your direction you will have cut deep enough to ride this one out.  All indicators suggest that this strategy would be akin to being set adrift in the ocean and realizing that you will never be able to make it to shore, you take a deep breath, sink into the water and hope that you can hold your breath until someone can drain the ocean to prevent your drowning.

CHOICE #3:  Believe in your heart of hearts that even though the economy is worse than you have ever seen, that you do have the ability to turn you business around and even perform more profitably than before the economic crises.  With that belief you will focus all of your resources and energy on increasing your sales revenue, bringing more profit into the business and looking for ways to improve overall costs.  Never in the history of your company have sales been more important to your survival.  Your salespeople need to be at the top of their game in order to find every profitable sales opportunity instead of waiting for someone to walk in the door ready to place an order.  In today’s market, people are not walking in the door.  However, people have not quit buying either.

To survive the current market you must be proactive.  If you had ten sales people last year, you need fifteen well-trained, highly motivated, proactive “selling machines” this year.  Most salespeople do well in good times and poorly in challenging times. Why?  Simple!  Most salespeople are order takers, taking credit for sales that your company would make even if they didn’t have salespeople.  In good times you need someone to answer the phone and write up the order.  In challenging times salespeople will tell you that the sales are not to be had.  Nothing is further from the truth.  Sales opportunities are still there.  There are plenty of sales to be made. They just require digging to find them and your salespeople don’t know how to dig.

This dilemma reminds me of Yellowstone bears in the early 60’s.  They became lazy and complacent in their search for food.  It was too easy to eat from the hands of the tourists or to just graze for food in the dump at the local campground.  They didn’t need to hunt or dig for food, they just went where food was handed to them.  A whole generation of bears no longer knew how to feed themselves in the wild.  They depended on handouts.  Salespeople have become like Yellowstone bears of the past.  They can make a sale (write and order) if a customer walks in the door, or makes a phone call or hands them the order, but they don’t know how to find the sale if it is not in clear view.

TRAIN YOUR SALES PEOPLE TO SELL!!   Don’t be satisfied with their excuses that the market will not support past performance.  Therefore, as a company, you’ll just have to accept whatever they can get.  Think about it.  Has your market become so small due to the current economic situation that if you had one hundred percent of the market you wouldn’t have enough?  There is still so much opportunity in this current market that if you increased your market share a few percentage points, you wouldn’t be able to handle all the business.  How can you expect your salespeople to do something they haven’t done in the past, just because the current economy requires it?   If they didn’t know how to sell when the market was strong, they still don’t know how to sell in today’s challenging market.  The market has changed but your salespeople haven’t.  

To increase sales you have to do something different than you have been doing in the past.  Train your salespeople to do what you now need them to do.  They need to be proactively finding new opportunities and closing at a higher ratio.  They need to be accessing needs, presenting solutions and becoming part of the answer that prospective customers are so urgently seeking.  Don’t expect the phone to ring, and don’t wait for someone to walk in the door placing a large order.  It won’t happen.  As difficult and challenging as the current economy is, there is still all the business your company can handle if you have well-trained, proactive salespeople who are working harder that they have in the past.  Don’t accept any excuses from your sales department.  There is no reason your sales can’t be better this year than last.  Increased sales can be a reality if you apply the correct formula discussed in choice #3.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

Successful Sales People Never Quit

One of my favorite, yet simple and profound quotes dealing with success states: “Success is not found in never falling, but rather in rising every time you fall.” There is no such person, as a salesperson who has never failed in his attempt to make a sale. Several years ago I was working with a group of people new to the world of sales. They had never sold before, yet they were anxious to learn and try their new skills. I told them that selling was a process and through applying the correct principles consistently, they would eventually improve their sales success and become the recipients of an excellent income. I reminded them that they would fall, but to just get up, dust your self off and continue. After the first day, one of the young men approached me and told me he was through. He couldn’t take the rejection and having fallen, was unwilling to pick himself up and move on. He told me, “sales is not my cup of tea.” I’ve often wondered what became of that young man, and “if falling and not getting up” became a pattern in his life.

If you only knew the trials and failures experienced by some of the greatest men and women of our generation and generations past, who despite troubling circumstances beyond anything we might ever encounter, chose to rise each time they stumbled and fell. Thomas Edison was one of those men.

Thomas Edison devoted ten years and all of his money to developing the nickel alkaline storage battery at a time when he was almost penniless. Through that period of time, his record and film production company was supporting the storage battery effort. Then one night the terrifying cry of "Fire!" echoed through the film plant. Spontaneous combustion had ignited some chemicals. Within moments, all of the packing compounds, celluloid for records, film, and other flammable goods had gone up in flames. Fire companies from eight towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the water pressure so low that the fire hoses had no effect. Edison was sixty-seven years old, no age to begin anew. His daughter was frantic, wondering if he was safe, if his spirit was broken, how he would handle a crisis such as this at his age. She saw him running toward her. He spoke first. He said, "Where's your mother? Go get her and tell her to get her friends. They'll never see another fire like this as long as they live. At five-thirty the next morning, with the fire barely under control, he called his employees together and announced, "We're rebuilding. One man was told to lease all the machine shops in the area, another to obtain a wrecking crane from the Erie Railroad Company. Then, almost as an after thought, Edison added, "Oh, by the way. Anybody know where we can get some money?"

Virtually everything we now recognize as a Thomas Edison contribution to our lives came after that disaster. "Success is not found in never falling, but rather in rising every time you fall.” The world of selling provides one of the greatest opportunities for building character while at the same time providing one of the greatest opportunities to create wealth. Selling is not easy; it never was and never will be. However, no career will ever be as rewarding as a career in sales. One of my favorite poems speaks about discouragement, failure, perseverance and ultimately, success.

When things go wrong as they sometimes will.
When the road you’re trudging seems all up hill.
When funds are low and the debts are high.
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit.
Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As every one of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint on the clouds of doubt.
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems so far
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worst that
YOU MUST NOT QUIT.

-Author Unknown

Turn failure and discouragement into success by not giving in to falling, but committing yourself to rising every time you fall. In his masterfully written essay, The Greatest Salesman In The World, Og Mandino reveals the sales wisdom of the ages through a set of scrolls. In the scroll marked III he reveals the ancient principle of persistence: I will persist until I succeed.” Scroll 3 starts with these important words. We learned growing up that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. This is especially important in sales. As we all know, it is not easy to close every sales presentation we give. We must understand that every potential sale is a new and exciting opportunity to succeed again. This is important for us to realize so we do not give up if we happen to lose the sale. There is always another opportunity. “If I persist, if I continue to try, if I continue to charge forward, I will succeed.”

The third scroll also says that “the prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning…success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner.” This statement lets us know that if we give up in the beginning, we may never truly realize success. It is vital that we persist through the hard times and we will find the success that we have been looking for. We might not always know what exactly lies ahead for us, but we will never know if we don’t keep moving forward.

“I will not allow yesterday’s success to lull me into today’s complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure. I will forget the happenings of the day that is gone, whether they were good or bad, and greet the new sun with confidence that this will be the best day of my life.” Too often, even if we are doing well in life, we get into patterns of behavior that keep us from moving forward toward greater success. We allow ourselves to think that we are at a place where we cannot possible improve, even though we know that constant improvement is the only way to truly realize success!