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.