Intelligent Conversations

The 7 devastating sales mistakes: #1 - The right people

Introduction to the 7 devastating sales mistakes

Year End Closing Tactics

First, all of these suggestions assume you have a “closable” opportunity.  That means you’ve established trust and rapport, you’ve explored all of the issues and have identified six to eight (6-8) compelling reasons for the prospect to take action, you understand the consequences (from the prospect’s point of view and in their words) of NOT taking action, you have qualified the opportunity (that means you understand their budget, their timeline, their decision making process, who your competition is, etc.), and they have agreed to make a decision.  If you cannot say yes to all of these conditions, you do not have a closable opportunity and these tactics will not work.

 

1.       Tap unused budgets – if you are selling to larger organizations, chances are pretty good that they have budgets they have not used in 2009.  For example, did they cut back on the number of trade shows they attended?  Are there unspent marketing dollars available?  Do they have money set aside for new office furniture they never purchased?  Be creative and explore all potential funding sources that may be available.  In larger organizations, their budgets are typically “use it or lose it” and can often be used to start a project.

2.       Start now, bill in 2010 – if they have not budgeted for your product or service in 2009, you can get them committed by starting in December with the understanding that you will not bill them until January.  Why not position it as a “head start” and get their commitment before the end of the year?

3.       Bill now, start in 2010 – maybe they have unused budgets, but they don’t have the other resources available to get started (people on their team, etc.).  Can you get the signature now, invoice it and then start it in January?

4.       Be persistent – make extra calls, ask follow up questions, keep the conversation going, and focus like a laser on your closable opportunities.  The sales person who can push through the initial resistance they encounter by asking for their commitment and finding creative ways for them to get started, will usually get the order.  Don’t give up.

5.       Last tip – DON’T discount.  Carefully monitor the temptation your sales people will face to offer last-minute discounts to close the deal and get it on the books this year.  It sends the wrong message to your clients and will reduce the lifetime value of these customers.

Follow this advice and you can still close some opportunities this year.  And staying in front of your closable opportunities can only help you.  Even if they don’t buy in December, you’ll enter the new year with a stronger pipeline.  Good luck and good selling!

Be Grateful for Tough Objections

My youngest daughter is learning how to read and everything clicked this week.  It’s really gratifying to see her reading increasingly challenging books with greater comfort and ease.  Over the past few weeks I’ve sat with her as she struggled to make sense of which letters (or combinations of letters) make which sounds.  And how certain sounds combined to make words and how words combine to make sentences.  As she’d sound out challenging words I’d offer helpful hints like “you’re getting warmer….nope, now you’re getting colder….try again, what sound does T make...that’s right, now put it together….” 

How do you view the objections you get from prospective clients?  How do you feel when you get a really tough objection?  Do you get mad?  Frustrated?  Impatient?  Angry?  Irritated?  What goes through your mind when you encounter severe price resistance?  Does it make sense?

Instead of getting frustrated or losing your composure, what would happen if you were truly grateful for the helpful clues your prospect is giving you?  Why not view their objections as an opportunity to discover whether you’re “getting warmer” or if you’re “getting colder?”  Can you use the valuable information they are giving you to understand the underlying context and make sense of what their objections really mean?  Can you piece it all together like words combine to make a sentence?

We often lead our clients through an exercise where we have their sales people start tracking their most common objections and interruptions.  As the sales team begins sharing this information, we find there are typically about eight to ten (8-10) primary objections they might encounter.  We then have them brainstorm five (5) different responses or follow up questions to ask for each issue raised.  All of this information goes into a grid they can keep handy and review as needed.

Knowing how they are going to respond in advance helps these sales people stay present, focused and “in the moment” when a prospect raises an objection or asks a tough question.  And staying in the moment allows them to really listen – not just to the objection, but to the issues that are driving the objection in the first place.  Being equipped with the knowledge required to meet the initial objection enables them to ask the key follow up questions that drill down to the important issues.  It often takes three or four (3-4) follow up questions to really get to the heart of the matter.

Have you documented your most common objections and prepared multiple responses to each?  If you’re a sales manager, can you run this exercise at your next team meeting?  What would happen to your sales productivity if you shifted the way you view objections?  How much would your income increase if you saw objections as helpful hints that will lead you to the sale rather than frustrating delays you need to overcome?  What can you do this week to begin to change your attitude toward objections?

Investing in Your Professional Development

The average auto mechanic in America earns a median income of $38,000 and spends approximately $120 per month on new tools.  In total, they typically own about $15,000 worth of tools to perform their job of repairing cars (Source: Autorepairadvisors.com).

The average sales person in America earns a median income of $68,000 (Source: Salary.com) and yet most sales people are reluctant to spend as little as $20 on a sales book, let alone invest in sales training or a professional development program (unless of course their company is paying the bill). 

Note that I said “most sales people.”  In our experience, it’s easy to spot top performing sales professionals – they’re the ones reading two books at a time, listening to audio books or sales tapes in their car, and signing up for workshops or on-going sales training programs.

Let’s assume that you are a top performer or aspire to be one – what should you look for in a sales development program?

· Seminars/Workshops – these types of events can be highly effective and produce a short term improvement, but without sustained follow up the benefits quickly evaporate.  A workshop (and we host them from time to time) can be a great way to jump start a new sales team or refocus and re-energize an existing team.  But understand that this approach will have a short term impact and is often more edu-tainment than true sales training.

· Reinforcement – have you ever read the same book or watched the same movie more than once?  If so, you probably noticed things the second (or third) time that you didn’t pick up the first time.  Having the opportunity to review sales development material a second or third time has the same impact.  This reinforcement training provides the opportunity for additional clarity and real world application.  Consistent review combined with the opportunity to put new ideas into action is where true change takes place.

· Ownership – the more you practice and perform your sales techniques (from making prospecting calls, to opening questions, to handling objections, to qualifying budgets, to presenting solutions) the more natural they become.  You probably didn’t need to think about checking your blind spot when making a lane change on the way to work this morning.  It was automatic.  Ownership happens when you don’t have to consciously think about what you are doing or what you’re going to do next.  It takes time, effort, continuous learning, and the right lessons from failure to get to this stage.

If you would like information on the type of program that can move you up this learning continuum, please contact us about the Intelligent Sales Circle™ and our Sales Development track.  But only call if you’re truly a top performer who is willing to invest at least as much as an Auto Mechanic spends on tools every month (actually, a little more).

Why sales people need training

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Sales Management – Toughest Job in the World

It’s difficult to imagine a position that can have a greater impact on the growth of a company.  And yet it’s one of the most overlooked and least understood positions in the business world.  Sales managers are in a tough spot.  They’re stuck in the middle between high-maintenance sales people and highly demanding senior executives.  When their team is successful, they rightly point the spot light on the sales people.  When the team struggles, they often take the blame and shield their team.

Here are some of the reasons good sales managers are hard to find (and keep):

• Sales Managers need to have mastered all of the things they ask their sales team to do, from making cold calls, to generating referrals, to holding great meetings, to closing deals.  If they have not sold in the past they generally have a tremendous credibility issue to overcome.

• Sales Managers need to have “board room presence” so that when they share their results and update senior managers, they can quickly highlight the most important issues without getting bogged down in the details.  I once saw a sales manager try to update senior management by going line-by-line through a 1,100 row spreadsheet showing all the opportunities in their pipeline – it was like watching a car crash!

• Sales Managers need to be master motivators.  They need to understand each personality on their team and know which buttons to push to get the best results.  It’s different for every sales person and a great manager understands this and knows how to adjust their approach accordingly.

• Sales Managers understand that growing the team is their responsibility.  Every quarter they can look back and say “Yes, we’re asking better questions, getting better appointments, looking at better opportunities, retaining better clients, hiring better people for our team, and we’re getting better results.”

• Sales Managers know that they can be friendly with the people on the sales team, but they can’t be friends.  They maintain the separation necessary to hold people accountable and have mastered redirecting a sales person’s focus to engage them in the right behaviors and activities.

• Sales Managers know that the hiring decisions they make will have long-term consequences.  They understand that they need to recruit constantly and are effective at getting A-players (sales superstars) on their team.  They know the cost of a sales hiring mistake is too high and they’ve built systems to help avoid them.

The trouble is, there’s nowhere for Sales Managers to go to learn, maintain or upgrade these important skills.  They have no place to turn when they get stuck, need to sharpen their saw, or just want to talk with a peer group that can understand their unique challenges.  This month we’ve launched the Intelligent Sales Circle™, which includes a Sales Leadership track.  If you have or are a sales manager who is looking for ways to improve, please contact us and ask for more information.

Is your sales team ready for the economy to bounce back?

"Talent alone won't make you a success.  Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready.  The most important question is: Are you ready?"     - Johnny Carson

When companies and consumers begin spending money again (and they will spend again), you could be in a significant windfall.  You may even have some record breaking revenue months if - and it's a big if - you have your sales team doing all the right things even while companies and consumers aren't spending money.

We are at the beginning of an enormous opportunity to seize business as the economy gathers strength.  There may never be a better time to grab market share!  Are you ready?  Right now you can:

• Learn the ten (10) requirements for having and continuing to have record-breaking months as the economy bounces back.
• Download these requirements by going to intelligentconversations.com/bounce
• Contact us for a free thirty (30) minute executive briefing to find out the seven (7) challenges that may be holding your sales team back and what you can do about it.

We are Intelligent Conversations, the leading sales force development firm in Southeastern Wisconsin.  We specialize in maximizing the sales growth and profitability of companies.  

The decision you make and actions you take today will determine whether or not you are ready for the bounce - Are you ready?  intelligentconversations.com/bounce

Sales professionals needed!

I’m speaking at Sales Club in Waukesha next Thursday, 9/3 (http://www.waukesha.org/develop.asp?ID=Develop-Sales_Club) and am looking for 5-7 brave souls to participate in a quick self-evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses as a sales person.  First you will evaluate yourself by completing a brief survey I’ll send to you, and then I’ll run you through a more formal evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses using our proprietary Sales Snapshot Report™.   I’ll share the results of this report with you (a $300 value) as my way of saying “thank you” for participating.  The purpose of this is to get a sense of how self-aware sales people are of both their strengths AND their hidden weaknesses that can neutralize those strengths.

To participate you must:

• Currently be in a sales position (no consultants, marketing people, sales managers, etc.) 
• Consider yourself a “top performer”
• Allow me to share the results of this experiment during my presentation at Sales Club on 9/3 (I will only share the results, no personal  information will be share
• Be willing to invest up to an hour of your time to complete the survey and online assessment 

Again, you will receive a FREE Sales Snapshot Report for participating in this exercise.  Not only will this report give you new insights into your strengths and weaknesses as a sales person – it will also help you be more effective and make more money (if you take action to address the issues identified).

If you qualify and would like to participate, please e-mail me at mike@intelligentconversations.com.  Thank you!

Are you committed to sales success?

Sales success is something every sales person is striving for.  But in an environment where the resistance to buy is higher, decisions take longer, and the competition is fierce,  the goal of achieving sales success can be elusive – which can lead even the most level-headed sales person to reach for ideas, tactics and techniques that will not serve them.

There is a tremendous amount of sales training material available.  If you are the type of person who believes in continuous learning and are always looking for ways to improve your skills or gain an edge, you’ve probably already purchased many of these books, tapes, DVDs and other programs.  Have you ever purchased a sales program that sounded great when you bought it but once you received it you discovered you are not able to implement the ideas and tactics it recommended?

Before you spend another penny on a sales training program (whether it’s your money or your company’s money), make sure it is based on these four principles that will provide an infallible road to your professional development and sales success. 

Know your strengths.  If you’re serious about improving as a sales professional, it pays to have a detailed understanding of your strengths and the skills you’ve developed.  Many sales training programs take a “one-size-fits-all” approach.  What would happen to your results if the program you used was designed to help you build on your strengths (rather than just assume everyone is starting at the same place)?

Understand your weaknesses.  Half of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at.  What weaknesses are holding you back?  More importantly, do you have any hidden weaknesses that can neutralize your strengths?  Do these weaknesses get in the way when you try new sales moves or tactics?  What would happen to your results if you could have a sales training program tailored to help you address your specific weaknesses?

Blended learning delivers better results.   Getting new information into your brain multiple ways will help you increase results.  Repetition is critical to learning and it is even more powerful when you receive the same information in a visual setting, reinforced with audio, and then reinforced again with live learning.  What would happen to your results if you had access to a training program designed to deliver information in a blended learning environment?

Ownership.  Nobody else is responsible for the results you produce.  It’s up to you and only you.  The decisions you make today will have a profound impact on the results you produce tomorrow.  Are you doing everything you can to improve your skills and upgrade your sales knowledge?  Do you want to improve your results and are you willing to do whatever it takes to get better?  What would happen to your sales results if you really took ownership of your destiny and made the commitment to build on your strengths and address your weaknesses once and for all?

Now that you know these four bedrock principles, take ownership of them and apply them when you make the decision to be committed to sales success.