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”.