The LuxMob Info Tags

Remember those school exercises that started “Compare
and contrast….yada yada yada”. Well, here’s an exercise to
get your sales brains moving.

There are major differences between how you sell in a
Regular Sales Call versus at a Trade Show. In other words,
just because you can sell well, doesn’t mean you can sell
well in the trade show environment.

I’ve identified five major areas which cause concern for
professional sales staff who have booth duty. This has
nothing to do with the ability of the sales person, only that
they often have to do a 180 to accommodate their concerns.

Above all this - note that many trade shows are not hard sell
arenas but are marketing venues. If you make a sale, it’s
probably because of hard work before the show. The
purpose of a show is to advance the sales process, so plan
where the show fits into your sales cycle, and pass these
tips along to your sales staff.

Face-to-Face Time

Regular Sales Call -
You set the schedule. You and the prospect determine the
time necessary for you to explain and/or sell. It may be 30
minutes, an hour, a half-day or more, but you have control of
the presentation.

Trade Show -
Unless you’ve made appointments prior to the show, or the
prospect puts you on its short list of exhibits to visit, you’re
lucky to get three minutes on the show floor. Why? Time is
short, and you’re either an unknown or well-known.

Location

Regular Sales Call -
You may be lucky and have the prospect in your office or
factory. Or, you’re on his turf. Or in a favorite restaurant. In
any case, it’s a familiar surrounding and you feel
comfortable.

Trade Show -
Now you’re on neutral turf. You have your company’s image
around you - name badges, signs, brochures, handouts,
give-aways, etc. Should be good news - you’re in control.
Until the visitor leaves your booth and walks over to your
competitor. (Remember, that’s the essence of a trade show
- competitors coming together to build an industry.)

Who Initiates Contact?

Regular Sales Call -
Generally, you make the first contact, so you know the
prospect’s major details - name, address, how you can
solve his problem, time frame for the sale - maybe you’ve
even toted up your commission. And if the prospects calls
you first? Great, the sales cycle is moved along even faster.

Trade Show -
Oops, here comes a stranger. With a name you don’t know,
a company you’ve probably never heard of - or if you have,
probably not that department. Now your people skills come
into play. It’s faster and more professional than a cocktail
party, more demanding than an interview and more tiring
because you repeat it all day.

Prospect Information

Regular Sales Call -
In today’s fast changing sales environment, you have good
intelligence about your prospect. You can use the
buzzwords - enterprise, cybercorp, partnering - and you can
probably adapt your sales competencies to the prospect’s
requirements.

Trade Show -
Remember, unless you’ve set up appointments with
prospects or clients, you’ve probably got a stranger standing
in front of you. Now, not only your sales competencies come
into play but your knowledge and understanding of your
industry and marketplace are challenged.

Time and Money

Regular Sales Call -

The internet has allowed companies to reduce drastically
the initial intelligence gathering costs and time frame. Make
sales proactive, not reactive. It still costs money. It still takes
time. And it’s still face-to-face.

Trade Show -
The key is follow-up. You can’t swipe a card, shake a hand
and wait for the prospect to call. People attend shows
because they’re in the same industry as you, and stopped at
your exhibit because they’re interested in your product.
Trade shows advance the sales cycle. This is a great
opportunity - don’t blow it!

When you understand that you make a 180 from your
regular job and comfort zone. then you will be more effective
at trade shows.

Julia O’Connor - Speaker, Author, Consultant - writes about
practical aspects of trade shows. As president of Trade
Show Training, inc,, now celebrating its 10th year, she
works with companies in a variety of industries to improve
their bottom line and marketing opportunities at trade
shows.

Julia is an expert in the psychology of the trade show
environment, and uses this expertise in sales training and
management seminars.

Executive Overview

Long before coaching became a recognized niche of and by itself, there was a long-standing belief in many sales organizations that coaching of employees was a fundamental management responsibility. Moreover, every professional sales trainer you spoke to, every textbook you read and every sales manager who had several years of experience would verify that coaching was a fundamental cog on the sales manager success wheel. But what has happened since?

Days of Yore

In the early years of my sales career it was a mandate from upper management to managers throughout their respective organizations to learn coaching skills and employ them regularly. It was a requirement that they share the wealth of experience and knowledge gained with those throughout their respective teams. In many cases, the ability to be an effective coach was an item in their own evaluation and used as a determining factor in promotion. As a by-product incredible loyalty to sales managers became a hallmark of sales teams where the managers themselves took an active and participative role in sales team skill set development.

The issue today, as I see it, is many sales managers who are baby boomers, Gen X and Y have not been exposed to the skills of coaching. The result oftentimes is a group or an entire sales organization functioning at less than peak performance. Additionally, sales people are left unclear how their performance is being evaluated. Little wonder sales force turnover is a reality among sales organizations.

One of the benchmarks in stabilizing a sales organization is for the sales managers to employ a set of coaching skills of their own. The problem of course is where can they get such training and coaching. The truth is every successful sales manager has learned the hard way - mostly by trial and error, often at the expense of sales effectiveness and productivity. Today’s sales manager may be of the mentality that all their role requires is to supervise sales team members based on a process. (The fact of the matter is that sales managers do not really manage sales, they really are supervising the activities of their sales team members so that sales are generated by the sales people themselves.) For several years coaching in this area has tended to be ensuring a methodical step-by-step approach was taken by sales team members so that the sales results could be achieved.

In my experience, the most significant difference in coaching a sales manager for personal improvement and enhanced performance is a combination of process and content coaching. Let me explain the difference between process and content from a sales managers point of view.

Process Defined

Webster defines process as the series of actions, operations, or motions involved in the accomplishment of an end. In the case of sales management, coaching a sales manager effectively must have a clearly identified starting point, which is a sales plan. A superb sales management coach knows this well in advance of any engagement because it offers a template from which to function during coaching sessions. Within the plan are the goals, objectives and activities of the sales team the sales manager will supervise. In other words, a clearly defined set of actions, operations and motions will guide the sales manager so that the goals themselves can be achieved. Without a sales plan or template of expectations, each will find it difficult to measure accomplishment because the “what to do” has not been established.

Similarly, a sales manager needs to have a process with their sales team members based on the individual business plans. If a mutually agreed upon business plan is generated by a sales person, then completion of objectives is the step by step monitoring the sales manager takes with each rep. The key here is that a formal and written “game” plan be developed from which the sale rep can follow and function and the sales manager can observe progress against each objective the sales person lists. This is the “what” will be done.

Content Defined

Webster’s definition of content is all that is contained in something; everything inside, the main substance or meaning. Here the coach can work with the sales manager in implementing the plan by providing the “how to do it”. Skill building opportunities are within the content portion of sales management coaching while working through certain personnel activities that the sales manager undertakes with his/her sales team on a continuous basis. The goal is to optimize and maximize the sales forces’ skill set to deliver the greatest sales and revenue for the group as a whole. The coach can provide valuable insight for the sales manager in how to approach, prepare and implement strategies and tactics not just for the customers and prospects, but also for the individuals within the sales group.

Encapsulated in the content portion is coaching where the coach assists the sales manager in completion of each objective. The coach may assist in determining if the sales manager can execute the objective alone because of successful prior experience or if other assistance is required. In the later case, this can be accomplished through role-playing exercises built on real world scenarios the sales manager is currently facing with the sales team. If so the coach can model the skills that will be used by the sales manager so that in the future they can perform on his or her own.

No matter what tactic, technique or strategy agreed upon by the coach and sales manager, the sales manager must be aware that accomplishing the objective is more vital than how well it was done. Simply stated this means substance over style. Once this is accomplished a sales manager can call on the sales management coach to develop a more effective style- one where communications is bridged in a more pleasing way. Every encounter between a sales manager and a sales person calls for a defined method of communication where the sales manager determines which management style to use based on the need to communicate with each rep in order to effect the needed behavioral changes. Just as everyone is different, so will be the sales management style employed with each team member to improve his or her personal performance depending on the matter at hand. This is a definite superior sales management skill, one that can be developed in coordination with a superior sales management coach.

The coaching then a sales manager coach does is at two levels - the process (sales plan) and the content (skill building, or how to do it). The how to do it part may take role playing, where the sales management coach acts the part of the sales manager while the sales manager takes on the role of sales person. Then the roles get reversed. A few attempts set in an educational and trial and error framework make the enhancing of the style portion of objective completion possible. The sales management coach gives supportive encouraging feedback in these sessions to build sales manager self esteem. Otherwise the sales manager will never feel comfortable enough to try for them self and will be constantly asking the sales management coach for assistance for the same task. The style portion of coaching, the how to do it, will bear fruit when the sales manager becomes more confident in their ability to communicate effectively with sales team members. The sales managers need to be equally effective with their sales staff in the area of content coaching too and that’s a huge differentiator when it comes to being an average sales manager and a superior one.

The Caveat

The sales manager must be a confidant individual and able to coach a sales person during role-playing sessions. The worst scenario happens when the sales manager intentionally avoids assisting the sales person. Certainly this is not the positive behavior change sales management coaching intends to improve. The salesperson must see the sales manager as interested in helping to be able to do things for themselves. The intention naturally is that with time and practice the skill set of the sales person is enhanced resulting in more effectiveness in the customer setting. Where the effectiveness increases so will individual sales person productivity. Where productivity increases, so will sales, margins and profits.

Human Capital Investment

Key: the sales manager must make an investment in the sales staff. This investment will vary based on the experience, capability and competency of each sales team member. The real issue at stake is in coaching each and every one of them depends on individual needs. It is the function of the sales manager coach to assist the sales manager in understanding which style to employ with each sales person and under what conditions. Frankly, each is situationally dependent just as every person on this planet is different.

While some would argue that the sales person modifies their style in communication with the sales manager, I would maintain that is the responsibility of the sales manager to determine which communication and management style to use with the intention of effecting the needed behavioral changes.
The professional sales manager coach can help identify which area, if not both process and content need assistance. If it is in the area of process, the sales manager coach can lead the coachee through a series of steps that ensures process gets developed and the sales manager is comfortable implementing said process.

If it is determined assistance is required in the area of content, then the coach can work toward improving the sales manager skills so those in turn can be successfully employed with sales team members.

Crucial in coaching sales managers is the degree of trust and confidence that is built and maintained between coach and coachee. Having spent one-half of my career in corporate America in various sales management capacities, I believe that a sales manager will pay particular close attention and take the counsel of their coach when they recognize the coach has the years of experience in a sales management role. Once the coaches’ credentials are established, trust and confidence get developed.

A sales manager will need to know that the sales management coach has walked the walk and talked the talk. After the sales manager acknowledges the coach has the experience base and can provide objective feedback significant improvements can take place. The reason, simply put, is respect. Personally, I know of no other word that determines the success of a coach and coachee relationship better than respect. In the case of the sales manager being coached, that respect given to the sales manager coach comes from having ‘walked the walk and talked the talk’. And sales managers pick up on that very quickly. They have a keen sense of awareness and intuitive instinct that they call upon when evaluating another into their world. Net: it is best to have an experienced sales management coach in both process and content or the engagement could unravel very quickly.

The Bottom Line

Whereas in most other areas of the coaching profession advanced degrees and certifications are required for acknowledgement within the coaching community, sales management coaching pedigrees are built by having been in the trenches as a successful sales manager oneself. A superb sales management coach has ‘been there, done that’ and their experience is without question the most significant factor in the coaches’ ability to move the coachee to higher levels of personal effectiveness with their sales team members.

The sales management coach therefore can assist the sales manager on two levels. Getting the “what to do” formulated (the process) and then guiding the sales manager through the steps of the “how to do it” (content) with finesse. The result is an effective sales manager who understands the individuals in the sales team so well that the appropriate management style and proper technique are used under any one of a myriad of different situations that may arise as a by-product of making the enterprise revenue goals.

Don McNamara is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and is President of Heritage Associates, Inc. http://www.heritage-associates.net

Heritage Associates is a full service sales management consulting, training and coaching company. Don also speaks and writes on the art and science of superior sales management and top sales performance. He is the author of “Visionary Sales Leadership.”

With over 30 years sales experience from the field level to executive sales management, in his career he has been an individual contributor, corporate sales training manager, regional manager, national sales manager and vice president of sales. Don is a member of the Institute of Management Consultants, where he serves as Professional Development Chair for the southern California chapter, and the National Speakers Association.

For a free e-newsletter contact Don McNamara at djmcn@heritage-associates.net or by phone (949) 230-4363.

“How come you charge so much?” Kinda feels like a kick to the stomach, huh? This is a classic “objection” during a sales conversation with a prospective customer, and it’s no fun at all.

Customer objections can be painful and intimidating to deal with. And it doesn’t have to be about price. It could be about anything: “Do you really know what you are doing?” “Does this thing really work?” “How do I know you’ll follow through?”

Wish you never had to hear them again? You don’t.

Sacred spiritual traditions, like the High Holy Days and the month-long fasting of Ramadan, are meant to not only leave you empty, but to drain you of all of your certainty. In the center of deep spiritual practice, you are left with many sincere questions in your heart.

Who am I? What is the silent, longing call that I hear in the middle of the night? Where do I really owe my allegiance? What is my heart crying out for? Profound questions that, when approached sincerely, can transform your life. When the time comes for these questions, you have to let go of your beliefs. If you don’t, they become your prison.

The asking of these questions, dropping all of your defenses about what is right or wrong, what you want or don’t want, is the doorway to freedom. You are no longer trying to force an outcome, but merely seeking the truth.
How you ask the questions in your heart is critical. Are you a journalist, sniffing for scandal, sure you will find the dirt? Or are you a true seeker, allowing yourself to love the questions, because you love the truth more than anything?

A customer only raises objections when they feel at risk. At risk of losing money. At risk of losing time. At risk of looking foolish. At risk of any number of things.

Instead of answers, bring sincere, delighted questions to your prospect, devoid of any attachment to what the answers might be. Be curious and in love to learn more about what they are facing, their hopes and fears and desires in their situation. If you do this, they will feel seen. They will safe.

And they will never object. If they are the very best kind of prospects, they will have questions of their own. That’s what you want, someone who cares enough to question you, so the two of you can form a true collaboration, whether you are selling a simple product that brings more enjoyment to their life, or if you are providing complicated, custom services that transform huge organizations.

Questions: After connection, it’s the second step in a successful sales conversation.

What questions are you asking, and what’s the most important one? Practical steps below in Keys to the Questioning

Keys to Questions

• When you start out a conversation with a prospect, start by asking lots of questions. You want to find out all about their situation. If you help people in pain to feel better, then ask all the questions you can: has this happened before? How did it happen? Have you had it a long time? What’s the pain like? How do you normally deal with the pain.

And, go beyond treating them like a problem. Find the place in your heart that cares about them, and ask larger questions: Tell me about how this pain is affecting your life, your work, your relationships.

• When do you stop asking questions? When you can fully see the future they want, and you can see how what you do can get them there, or how what you do is not right for them at all.

• At this point of clarity, you need to ask the most important question: the pivot question. Some people think that the pivot question shifts the focus from the prospect to you and your business. Not true. The pivot question shifts the focus from the present situation your prospect is facing, to the future where this problem is resolved.

“I can sure see how troubling this pain has been for you- it sounds miserable! (pivot ->) What brought you to talk to me about this? How did you see what I do fitting in with what you want to do about your pain?”

The pivot is an important step, because it elicits an invitation from your prospect that gives you permission to talk about how your business works, and how you can help them. Without that invitation and permission, you are trespassing. With the invitation, you are collaborating.

• They will naturally have questions, too, because they will want to see the same future you are seeing. In general, they will want to be clear on exactly what it looks like to work with you, how much it costs, what exactly their commitment is, and how long it takes.

Questions are second nature to your heart, and the key to a successful sale.

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How money, marketing and sales can deepen your heart, heal the world, and still add to your bottom line. He has helped hundreds of people in small business succeed without losing their heart, through integrating1500 years of spiritual tradition with down-to-earth business practices. Get his free workbook, Getting to the Core of Your Business, online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

A conversation:

The Salesperson: “I don’t cold callI want to build relationships.”

Wendy: “Huh?”

Recently I’ve had a number of conversations with sales professionals and entrepreneurs who tell me they do not cold call because they want to build relationships with prospects.

I’m confused.

Who says the two are mutually exclusive?

Every relationship whether business or personal begins somewhere. Everyone whom you currently know, your significant other, your colleagues at work, your friends, or your neighbors were unknown to you at one time. Then, somehow, you met and over time formed a relationship. It takes time.

In sales there are many ways to contact and reach out to new prospects. There’s direct mail, networking, referrals, trade shows, the internet, public speaking and writing articles. And yes, there is calling prospects on the telephone. These are all ways to introduce yourself, your company and your product or service to potential customers.

The telephone introduction is incredibly direct, easy, efficient and inexpensive. First you target your market and then you introduce yourself to the decision-maker. That’s one of the reasons I prefer the term “introductory calling” to “cold calling.” The call is an introduction. It is not a sale or a relationship.

However you initially meet a prospect, after that introduction, you still must take all of the necessary steps to build a relationship. With every prospect that you encounter, however you first encounter them, at some point you will have to pick up the telephone and call them. If at that point you do not represent yourself effectively and articulately, you will not move to the next step. This means that even if you are calling a prospect who did not originate with a phone call, you will need to do all of the same preparation that you would do if that prospect were a total stranger and you were calling for the first time! You would still have to determine how you want to represent yourself, what points you want to make and what is the goal of your conversation.

Every sale has a cycle with four steps. The cycle could be longer or shorter depending on the product or service, the market and/or your skill level, but you must go through every step of your sales cycle. Most sales cycles go something like this: The first step is always the introduction. This could be a phone call, it could be a letter or an e-mail, but somehow the prospect must become aware of you. Usually the next step is a meeting (or sometimes a series of meetings) or an extended conversation (or a series of conversations.) You personally introduce yourself and whatever you are selling to your prospect and you learn more about the prospect company. From there, if all goes well, you move to the proposal step. This proposal can be verbal and as simple as explaining your services and fees or it could be a more complex written proposal. The last step of this particular cycle is the close, when your prospect accepts your proposal. This process could happen in a dayor it could take a year, but however long it takes you will never skip any of the steps.

The mistake most people make is in not understanding the steps of the sales cycle and that you must pass through each step to get to the next. The introductory call does not lead directly to the close. What that introductory call does is easily and quickly get you directly in front of your prospect to begin your sales cycle. You will still have to put in all of the work to show your prospect how you can help. And you will still have to put in all of the work to build a relationship with that prospect.

Many people do a lot of time-consuming, expensive things to first meet prospects so that they can later follow up with a phone call. My suggestion: Simply call. It saves time and it saves money.

© 2004 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. She is the author of Cold Calling for Women and the recently released Cold Calling College. Get her free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com.

Here are seven additional factors to consider as you define the parameters that produce success in your company’s sales job. If you are a salesperson, you can also benefit from considering these questions, as they can help you identify target prospects and further refine your sales approach.

9. Administration

• Which sales job functions require attention to detail? (Examples include making accurate forecasts, providing timely updates to the corporate CRM system, analyzing customer records to determine sales strategies, and ensuring regulatory compliance.)

Some companies have support personnel that perform administrative tasks on their salespeople’s behalf. Other companies expect their salespeople to deal with a certain amount of administration. If a tolerance for process, detail and administration is necessary for success in your company’s sales job, some amount of Tolerance for Administration is desirable in your salespeople.

10. Communication

• How important are verbal and written communication skills to sales success in your company?
• Are your salespeople required to make presentations?

• Are they required to compose letters or proposals?

Sales roles that rely heavily on high quality verbal and written communications require salespeople that have healthy doses of the attributes Communication Skills and Reasoning Ability.

11. Pre-Sales Support

• What support resources are available to help your salespeople manage specific steps of the sales cycle?
• How effective must your salespeople be when managing these resources?

The availability of support resources has a significant impact on the attributes required for sales success. If your salespeople have access to quality internal (employed by your company) or external (employed by suppliers or partners) technical resources, they don’t need to invest a lot of time learning technical details. This frees them to focus more time and energy on prospecting and opportunity qualification. By the same token, if your company employs technical writers who can assist salespeople with large proposals and bid responses, there may be less need for your salespeople to have strong Communication Skills.

12. Post-Sales Support

• Are your salespeople expected to provide technical or operational support to customers, or do other personnel provide this support?

If your salespeople are required to deliver post-sales support, it would be desirable for them to have a lower Sales Drive, be less Competitive, and have a higher Service Drive.

13. Training

• What kinds of training does your company provide to salespeople?
• How much training does your company provide?

Companies that provide a lot of training may have the luxury of being able to hire inexperienced sales candidates and “train them up from scratch”. This is extremely valuable in markets where highly qualified sales candidates are scarce and/or prohibitively expensive. However, if your company is going to employ this approach, you should seek candidates with strong Learning Rates.

14. Sales Manager’s Style

• What are your sales managers’ styles?
• Do they lean in the direction of being Field Generals (who prefer selling to coaching) or Administrators (who excel at mentoring and administrative duties)?

The desired levels of the attributes Sales Drive, Service Drive, Assertiveness, Competitiveness, Independence and Tolerance for Administration will differ based upon each sales manager’s style.

15. Career Path

• What is the career path for your sales position?
• From small ticket item sales to big ticket item sales?
• From sales to management?

If your sales team is a source of candidates for other positions in your company, you may want to consider whether your salespeople and sales candidates have the attributes required to be successful in those other positions. Why? Because the attributes required to succeed in those other positions may not be the same as the attributes required for sales success!

Consider this example: Most small ticket item sales cycles are shorter than big ticket item sales cycles. Per Question #7, the desired amount of Sales Drive differs based upon the frequency of opportunities for presentation and persuasion. A successful salesperson in small ticket item sales is likely to have a strong Sales Drive. Will they become frustrated by the reduction in opportunities to present and persuade that could result from a “promotion” to big ticket item sales?

Similarly, the attributes required to be an effective manager are often quite different from the attributes required to be an effective salesperson. Success in management can require more attention to detail and the willingness to delegate and mentor. These requirements impact the target ranges for the attributes of Sales Drive, Service Drive, Assertiveness, Competitiveness, Independence and Tolerance for Administration.

If you keep the fifteen questions discussed in this two-part article in mind, you will be able to more accurately define the parameters that will lead to success in YOUR company’s sales job(s).

Copyright 2005 — Alan Rigg

Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don’t Perform and What to Do About It. His company, 80/20 Sales Performance, helps business owners, executives, and managers DOUBLE sales by implementing The Right Formula for building top-performing sales teams. For more information and more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020salesperformance.com.

When you sell on eBay, it’s important to know how to take
advantage of the kinds of markets you encounter in the different
seasons. As a rule, the summer months are slow and the winter
period is fast, but there’s more to it than that.

It Depends What You’re Selling.

Your sales won’t necessarily be slower in the summer than in
winter - they might just be different. If you’re selling sports
equipment, for example, you’ll probably find that surfing gear
sells in summer while skiing gear sells in winter. You should
make sure you are aware of any seasonal variations there will be
in your particular market, and plan in advance to take advantage
of them.

Selling in Peak Season.

The holiday season is eBay’s peak, and the best time to be
selling on eBay - the December rush is relatively short, but if
you play it right then you could make half your year’s profit
over those few days.

In the holidays, people are looking for presents, and eBay run
more advertising than usual targeted towards buyers, not
sellers. Target your auctions more towards new users than
experienced ones, writing easy-to-understand descriptions. If
you have any items that are in demand, try listing some at
auction and some with high But it Now prices, to see what works
best.

The chances are you’ll be surprised when the Buy it Now auctions
go almost instantly and the auctions rack up bids like nobody’s
business. It is important to remember, however, that most of
these buyers will only buy from you once.

Selling Off-peak.

For the rest of the year, the market is far slower. Don’t worry
though - you can still make money. It’s a little like being a
stockbroker: you can make money whether the market is good or
bad, if you know what you’re doing.

Remember that your target market is a little more ‘expert’:
you’re mostly selling to people who know what they’re buying,
and know what they want to pay. Cater to this by providing a
service suitable for these customers. Show that you know what
you’re selling and sell things consistently and you’ll have
people coming back again and again.

Here’s one extra tip that you might try. If you know of items
that have a consistent value, it might be worth buying up as
many as you can cheaply in the summer, storing them for half a
year, and selling them during the winter rush. If you’re willing
to give over a little space for storage, you can make a lot of
profit for little effort. After all, you don’t even have to take
the items out of the packaging the last seller put them in.

Selling high-tech products and services is much more difficult than selling most other products and services: Truth, or just a popular myth?

Selling anything that is not a known commodity can be difficult. However, most of the difficulty is created by salespeople themselves. Here are some of the reasons why high-tech Sales seems so difficult - and how the typical selling process just reinforces that myth.

1. Most salespeople are unable to describe their product or service clearly and briefly enough.

Most people take 20 to 30 seconds to decide whether they want what the salesperson is selling. Prospects get frustrated and annoyed at the salesperson who doesn’t communicate with immediate clarity.

An effective prospecting offer should ideally be about 45 words. It takes many top salespeople about 2 hours to design an effective and concise prospecting offer. Most salespeople don’t even know where to start.

2. Pressing prospects for an appointment before they are ready to buy greatly reduces the probability of ever getting the sale.

Most salespeople believe that they should convince any prospect that has an apparent need for their products and services to buy. However, most prospects are not ready to buy the first time that the salesperson calls. Driven by the mistaken belief that they should be able to convince the prospect, the salesperson presses for an appointment.

The best route to ultimate success is to call each prospect every 3 to 4 weeks until they are ready to specify or buy your type of product or service - limiting each prospecting call to a maximum of 45 seconds.

3. Premature selling efforts leave a lasting negative impression, and dramatically reduce the odds of ever doing business with that prospect.

‘Forced’ appointments and communications result in closed sales less than 14 percent of the time. When feeling pressured, prospects who don’t commit to doing business on the first visit are even less likely to ever buy- then, the probability of ever getting the sale drops to 5 percent.

4. Most high-tech salespeople first approach a prospective customer at the end-user level in the organizations that they sell to.

Most line managers don’t have the authority to buy - they are ‘influencers’ who recommend. They usually don’t have access to the funds, either.

The top 1% of the salespeople we studied usually initiate their sales process at the Vice President level. That requires a specifically tailored approach.

5. High-Tech salespeople are fascinated with the features and benefits of their products and services.

Most prospects only want to know what your products and services can do for them. If they determine that what you have is what they want, they will want to know how your particular product works - the features. Most salespeople honestly - and mistakenly - believe that prospects need to be educated before they can make an intelligent decision.

6. Most high-tech salespeople focus on concrete product specifications and ignore their prospects’ two primary motivators - trust and respect.

In High-Tech sales, a common mistake is to deal with prospects on the basis of specifications, good presentations, logical arguments, convincing documentation, and factual economic justifications. Most prospects - including engineers and senior managers - have different motives. Their first priority is to deal with a salesperson that they fully trust and respect.

Only the top 1% of the salespeople know how to establish that kind of relationship in the first half hour of meeting their prospects - and to continuously reinforce it.

7. Most high-tech salespeople acknowledge that they are weak closers.

Salespeople assume that with enough education and information, prospects will logically determine that their product/service is valuable and worth buying. The top 1% of salespeople close a sale after the prospect has effectively closed himself. Starting with agreements made during the initial prospecting call, they arrive at dozens of mutual commitments throughout the sales process. The sum of those commitments is a closed sale - with absolutely no pressure on either party.

High-tech salespeople who are strong on product knowledge and weak on the 1-to-1 sales process help perpetuate the myth that high-tech Sales is Difficult. The truth is that selling high-tech products and services is easy, when an effective selling process is utilized with each and every individual involved in the buying decision.

High Probability Selling has trained salespeople in 76 different industries, including many types of high-tech products. I have personally managed sales staffs for several hardware and software companies. I have personally closed many millions of dollars in high-tech sales, including semiconductor production equipment, circuit board assembly equipment, electronic display hardware, technical information services, and manufacturing systems software.

©Jacques Werth, High Probability® Selling - All rights reserved.

Jacques Werth, author of “High Probability Selling,” is an internationally respected Sales Trainer and Sales Consultant. HPS graduates are excelling as Top Producers in over 70 industries. Visit http://www.highprobsell.com to read more articles, preview the book, and learn more about High Probability Selling.

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Value Based Pricing, Not Price Cutting

The oldest tactic in the world to get a sale moving is to cut the price.

And it does work…but the question is, “At what cost, and can you live with the bargain?”

In the past three years it has taken longer and longer for your prospects to make up their minds, and for you to close a sale.
And one typical salesperson’s response to people not buying-for whatever the reason-is to say, “Would you buy if… ?”
The “if” of course, is always some variant of, “…if the price was lower?”

It’s the number-one classic response from sales people and owners of entrepreneurial companies who want to stimulate the buy. It certainly was the question asked by every sales manager I’ve ever worked for. Entrepreneurs and executives feel that end-of-quarter pressure to “make the numbers” and almost automatically start playing the tumbling price game.

In many industries, it’s become an institution to give away all the profits In fact, we have even trained customers to expect it that end-of-period discounting, and many won’t even consider buying without it.

The trouble is, people today are not ‘not buying’ because your price is too high.

They can afford your product at its current price. The reason many companies aren’t buying is so they can conserve their cash and because they don’t see a sufficiently compelling value to say “YES” and part with that cash right now.

Cutting your prices won’t help. Since high price is not the problem, lower prices won’t lead to new sales and when it does, the effect on your profits can be devastating. Follow these numbers:

Let’s say you sell a product for $100. (Or $100,000, the concept is the same.) Your cost is $70. That means your product carries a thirty percent margin-your profit is $30. Now, to make a sale, you feel “forced” to cut your price by twenty percent, leaving your new selling price at $80.

All things being equal, your profit is now $10 instead of $30. That means a 20% price reduction cost you 66% of your profits.
TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR PROFITS for a 20% price reduction!
Cut your price much more and your profit quickly goes to zero. Or lower.

But that’s not even the worst of it.
Once you lower prices, they tend to stay low. That $100 widget you just sold for $80… Well, sorry to say, but it’s now an $80 widget.

And worse than that: your competitors will almost definitely lower their prices, and you, my friend, are in a price war.
To win in this scenario, you need deep pockets to sustain a losing position for the duration.

So for these three reasons-depressed profit margins, permanently lowered prices, and the devastation of a price war-it’s a bad idea to lower your prices to buy business-regardless of the economic climate.

What can you do instead?

Here’s an interesting example. One of my clients-a software company-had a hot prospect who didn’t want to pay for maintenance. They felt that 18% per year was just too expensive, and wanted to pay for support ad hoc instead.

My client knew this was a bad idea. Customers without maintenance contracts typically become your worst customers. Why? Because they know it’s going to cost them to pick up the phone for support, so they try not to. Thus, then they don’t get the right level of service. They don’t know how to use the product. They don’t get the results they want.

And even though it’s their fault for skimping, they point the finger at you and badmouth your company.

On my advice, my client offered the prospect a four year non-cancelable contract, and gave them the first year for free. Now really, this is a discount. It just doesn’t look like one. It’s a 25 percent reduction in total purchase price, but it doesn’t affect the selling price today or tomorrow.

Plus, my client locked in that customer for four full years, during which time they expect to sell them additional products and services.

Conclusion: Price cutting is the “lazy man’s” response when it’s hard to make sales. Unfortunately, this doesn’t boost sales, it merely results in drastically lowered profits on the sales that do get made. Often the results are permanently reduced prices and margins, and a price war, which has disastrous results on all players, except very deep-pocketed ones. There are other approaches that not only maintain price levels, but even support higher ones.

Paul Lemberg helps people and their companies succeed faster and more profitably than they ever thought possible. Over the past 14 years, he has transformed more than 200 companies and is currently President of Quantum Growth Coaching, Inc., the world’s first Business Coaching Franchise built to systematically create more profits and more life for entrepreneurs… Guaranteed. More articles by Paul can be found at http://www.marketingsuccessdaily.com

The importance of establishing rapport with the customer.

Establishing rapport with a customer has to be earned and must be approached as a very integral part of the sales process.

In order to get a customer and yourself to relate on a real one to one basis, involves two things!

First, you will have to be aware and be there! Second you must understand that there are two different stages that will occur during this process.

A-Be there-what does that mean?

• Most people don’t really listen to another person as they talk. Generally they are so busy formulating their next answer or statement that they couldn’t possibly really listen.

• If this sounds like you, being there means shut up and listen!

B-What is the first or initial stage?

• Generally you have just a few minutes to establish yourself in the customers mind as someone they want to deal with.

• When in doubt it is best to first ask questions that will draw them out and talk about themselves.

• It is also always safe to appear as a professional-I don’t mean stoic or dry, but someone who knows what they are doing and talks and looks the part.

C-Other stages

• As time goes on, through conversation and questions they will have, you will either establish your ability or not.

• Be aware that they will probably be measuring you for a while. The good news is that at some point, if you have been successful at establishing rapport-they will relax and you can both concentrate on finding or selling the home.

What else can help me develop rapport?

• By trying to understand different personality types and then by saying and asking the right questions.

• If you have good rapport (get on the same wave length as the customer) then the selling is basically over, now it’s just a matter of finding the right home or filling out the listing papers.

What about different personalities

• Since this is not a book on psychiatry, for now just understand two main types.

• There are introverted and extroverted people.

• You know the type. Think about three people you know that fit each classification.

What about body Language and speech patterns?

• If they talk fast or slow, try to mimic their speech patterns.

• If they talk loud or soft, do the same. Are they leaning forward or backward?

• Needless to say, there are lots of books written on this subject. Just be aware that it is an important factor-especially when you’re sitting in a conference room or at someone’s home discussing a $400,000 deal.

Developing rapport is a skill that can be learned and improved upon.

• We all have experienced a salesperson that sold us something and yet we didn’t feel like we were being sold. The reason is he or she, made you feel comfortable to where you trusted them.

How do we develop rapport?

• Use your eyes and ears and ask questions. To explain

• Use the eyes:

• Look at their dress-their car-their personal possessions and I mean really look at them and decipher what that tells you about them.

• Use the ears:

• Listen to what they say and ask questions to get to the bottom of their real MOTIVATION!

Now during all this conversation, there will probably be one or two things you’ll discover that you have in common with them. (Family, geographical areas, fishing, etc)
When you come across common ground, let them know you’re familiarity and then take a minute to discuss it with them.

What is the Goal?

• Once they accept you as one of them you’re in position to really have a great experience in the sale as you’re now working together then as a team–you’re no longer the salesman you’re now in an advisory position.

• Remember, the customer either will or will not allow you to enter his world. If you understand this and really work hard to become empathetic with him/her, you can gain a position of trust. In most cases, you will actually see them relax (body language) when this happens you’re on the way.

• To illustrate this have you ever given a speech and noticed that as you finally connected with an audience member they will nod in approval. These things may all seem trite but they aren’t.

In closing, if you can earn a customers trust, selling a product or service is much easier and the experience can be enoyable for everyone involved.
Always remember that a Win/Win is the best situation.

Past Marketing Director for CBS network-Fender music division, covering National and International markets. Sales manager and Vice President for IMC-distributors of AKAI. President, Studiommaster, worlwide company in the recording industry. Basically, I have a strong International marketing and business background. Most recent Sales Manager for Coldwell Banker Schmitt Real estate Florida Keys. And owner of Florida Real Estate Network-an information website for people relocating to Florida at http://www.flarren.com.

I recently began doing training in the banking industry. Across the board, successful bankers close between 2% and 6% of the prospects they call on, starting from their first prospecting call.

Not only are those numbers abysmal, they are considered normal. In other words, bankers are expected to fail at least 94% of their time. The insurance industry has the same odds.

In general, every industry closes less than 10% of the prospects they call (first call to close), with over 90% falling in the 7% category. And, since there is no scientific way of knowing which prospects fall into the 7%, we continue running after all ‘hot’ prospects until they disappear. And then we make excuses for those we lost while having no earthly idea why we actually lost them.

Basically, we are out of control; the only control we seem to have is over product pitch and our ability to chase seemingly hot prospects.

While I’m being a bit harsh, these are the realities that are built into the system of selling. Sellers expect failure and work to overcome it.

Why is it ok to have such a low closing ratio? Why have we built failure into the sales system? Why do we accept a 90% plus failure rate - and hire an over-abundance of sales people to make up the difference? Why do we continue to teach sellers the same-old same-old techniques that continue getting them the same-old ratios? And why is it ok to have an entire profession that wastes over 90% of their time?

Because we don’t know any better.

THE PROBLEM WITH SALES

For millennia we have based sales on our need to sell that which we get paid to sell. We have watched buyers disappear and go into some quiet, silent space that remains hidden from us while they … while they do what?

Where do they go when we leave them? Why don’t they call us back when it’s so obvious they have a problem that our product can solve!

We have had this long standing belief that we can fix problems, that our products are the necessary solution, and that we know what a prospect needs (based on what we can see from our vantage point outside of the prospect’s environment.

But do we know? How do we know for sure? How can we ever know what another person needs in order to solve their problem? How can we know what a group or a team or a company needs? Just because we can see the problem, and just because our product could solve the problem, doesn’t mean the buyer needs it, or is ready to buy it, or doesn’t have other choices.

Or wants to leave the problem the way it is.

What makes us think we have the answer?

Let’s take a good look at what we’re doing here:

1. We enter our prospect’s status quo with a solution, and as a result become a solution looking for a problem.

2. Our calls, our questions, our communications - marketing, advertising, pitches and presentations, needs analyses - are all biased, and constructed around getting our product sold, even though we profess to be mindful of buyer’s needs.

3. All of our conversations are based on different ways to encourage a prospect to understand their need for our product.

4. We assume that if the prospect has a problem in the area our product solves, that they need us to supply them with our solution.

5. We assume that because there is a need, that the prospect just has to be made to understand that they will save time/money or whatever if they use our product - and of course it’s our job to get the prospect to understand they have a problem that we can fix.

What is going on? Until or unless a buyer can recognize, align, and manage their own internal variables - their culture, if you will - they will do nothing. And we are left waiting in a void with nothing but guesses to make sense of what seems to us to be an obvious decision.

BUYING FACILITATION: A WAY TO SUPPORT THE BUYING SYSTEM

I’m here to tell you that there is a way to support the buyer on her side of the equation. Rather than sell, we can actually help buyers make buying decisions without selling anything. Not only that, we can close 50% of the prospects that show up, 12% - 15% of the prospects we solicit, and close the sales in the normal time frame.

But to do that, we must stop selling. In the mid 80’s Larry Wilson wrote a book called Stop Selling, Start Partnering. Even then he knew that sales wasn’t the answer. While he didn’t have a model to teach us how to do that, his ideas were sound and refreshing. But being the egotistical lot that we are, we assumed that what we had to do was partner in order to sell.

I’m going to make a different assertion: I’m going to suggest that we truly STOP SELLING and help people buy instead (and after all, selling and buying are two different activities).

Selling doesn’t work: it doesn’t get us anywhere; we never know when our buyers are going to come back - or even if they will; and we continue trying to add bells and whistles to the same basic process, hoping to get different results.

These are the realities that are built into the system of selling. We actually expect failure and work from there to overcome it.

Take a look at Buying Facilitation. It will give you skills to help you help buyers make purchasing decisions based on their own buying criteria. It’s a systems view of the buying process; a sequencing system of facilitating decisions. It’s got nothing to do with selling, and everything to do with solving problems within a system so the system can remain congruent and not disrupted.

Sales is antiquated. It’s very possible than better than a 10% success rate. It’s very possible indeed - but it won’t be by selling.

Sharon Drew Morgen is the author of New York Times bestseller Selling with Integrity. She is the visionary and thought leader behind a wholly original sales model based on the systems of how people change and decide. She has taught this system to 13,000 people in the fields of sales, customer service, negotiating, coaching, and change management. Sharon Drew is a keynote speaker and decision strategist, helping companies change their internal practices to embrace collaborative decision making, ethics, values, and integrity. She can be reached at 512-457-0246 and http://www.sharondrewmorgen.com and http://www.newsalesparadigm.com