The Age-Old Problem in Selling is…

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The age-old problem in selling is: how do you get in front of a customer’s needs?

If your product is one which you can ‘manufacture’ the need for, then you might be able to cold call from a phone book and say the right things that brings awareness to the customer’s problem.

But if you’re in a business like most of us where the prospect actually must have some kind of a presenting need or pain, then you calling from the phone book will be a colossal waste of time.

I’m not like some of my colleagues who say that cold calling is a total waste of effort and energy, however I do think there are some things we can get out of a cold call that might be slightly different.

prospect sortingNo Longer a Seller. Forever A Sorter.

I prefer to look at this whole process of prospecting as a sorting mechanism.

I am sorting the people who will never do anything with me – from the people who don’t have a need right now but might soon – from the people who I just happened to call it the right time and they have an immediate issue.

So the first order of business is to change your mindset from one of a seller to one of a sorter. Once you do that, then you will need to determine what the categories are into which you will sort suspects and prospects. I like to look at this as a bucket scenario. Read more

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. And Playing Not to Lose.

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I couldn’t help but think over the past two weekends of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament how often a team that is ahead by 15 to 20 points will begin playing not to lose the game – and watch their lead dwindle in the final moments.

MICHIGAN VS KANSAS - Playing Not to LoseSometimes, teams ahead by 20 points lose the game because they can never find the rhythm once they decide to go into a slowdown mode. Michigan defeating Kansas is one such example. Kansas was up by 15-20 points consistently in the second half. But they began ‘looking at the clock’ and lost their mojo. And were unable to find it.

They eventually lost.

Another example of a lead that dwindled but the team held on was Wichita State vs. Ohio State. In that game, the same thing occurred. Wichita State had a commanding lead but went into a ‘slowdown offense’ instead of continuing to do the things that got them that lead in the first place.

I’ve also watched the countless high school games where a big lead dwindles because the team ahead stops the fast-break, the good passing, always being a threat to score and great movement.

So what is this playing-not-to-lose-mentality that overtakes us?

And does it ever happen in sales? Actually, I think playing not to lose catches us in several areas: Read more

My Last Game?

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You’ve heard of sports figures who retire from the game and then within months decide to UNretire. Let’s be very clear up front that I am not one of those sports figures and haven’t been for years.

But a few years ago I decided that the game of basketball had passed this old body by. I played tons in my younger years but after meniscus surgery, I decided that it was time to hang up the Cons (Converse – you’ve probably never heard that saying before – which testifies to my age).

This past weekend I was invited to play in an alumni basketball game at the college I played at 35 years ago.

bill caskey - my last game - blogI was the youngest alum that played – by 17 years – and so was a little worried about my ability to compete. The first time up the floor I realized I had no ability to compete.

But that didn’t stop me from having a great time playing the game I love. Once basketball gets into your blood, it really is hard to give it up. Let me be clear, you can never totally give it up.

So for an hour on Saturday afternoon I was back in my element. Up and down the floor, passing to guys who were much younger than me, who could actually do something with the basketball. And actually hitting a 20-footer in the fourth quarter (my only basket of the game). Yes, I was exhausted, not having played in years. (And, by the way, who lengthened the court when I wasn’t looking?)

I’m happy to report I didn’t get hurt and even though I was beat that night I actually wasn’t that sore the next day.

So was it my last game?

Prior to playing, I told the former coach who was there that this was probably the last time I would run up and down the court.

But now I’m not so sure. Read more

Are You An Accidental Salesperson?

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We recently released an online course called The Accidental Salesperson which presumes that many people who are drafted into sales today really didn’t set out with sales at their goal.  This can include engineers, subject matter experts, accountants, lawyers and even a lot of sales people.

And yet, most of the training that teaches those people how to sell is old and antiquated and actually takes away the very power that a technical subject matter expert has.

For example, one of the keys to a successful sales person − which the accidental sales person has an enormous amount of − is expertise.

Accidental salespeople who grew up in the technical world know how to solve problems and they probably know how to find problems, too.  That’s not necessarily the case with a sales person who might not have worked on a widget − built it, designed it or engineered it. Read more

Getting Ready For the Next Recession

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Getting ready for the next recession. It’s coming. Maybe not for a few years, but now’s the time to get ready. Remember how you felt when it hit you like a ton of bricks in 2009? Don’t EVER EVER let that happen to you again.

Make a list of the top 10 things you need to do (in your business) to get ready.

  1. More customers? Check.
  2. More alliances? Check.
  3. More money in your bank account? Check.
  4. Refer this blog post to your tribe? Check. (Ooops. Got carried way, there)

How Do I Handle A Customer Who Wants To Cut Back on Budget?

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This is from a Q&A call our team recently did in our program called The Accidental Salesperson. As we were transcribing this, we thought we’d give you a peak inside our thinking when we answer client questions.  (This is a transcription of spoken audio so forgive some of the clunkiness).

Q: My biggest problem is getting more budget from clients who are constantly looking for ways to cut back.

A: Here’s my general answer to this: When you are in a business where there is a confined space called budget, in other words, the company actually creates a budget and they literally cannot go beyond it, then the contractor has an amount that they need to work with and they’re unlikely to borrow from one bucket to put into another bucket although they can. Whenever you have a hard and fast budget, then you really don’t have a lot of movement there.

Usually Budgets are Arbitrary and Random

But I find that more often than not, budgets are arrived at by an arbitrary and random means. In other words, one arbitrary means is we have $25,000 in our training budget this year. If I were to say, “Well, why do you have $25,000?” They would say, “Well we had $22,500 last year and we did a cost of living adjustment. We’d like to spend a little more.”

Well, OK. So why did you have $22,500? What’s the foundation for the $25,000? The fact that there was a cost of living adjustment from last year’s $22,500 makes no sense. Read more

Curiosity Can Kill The Cat AND Make You Wealthy.

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“Millions saw the apple fall, but only Newton asked why.”~Bernard Baruch

Are you, by nature, a curious person?

Having worked with thousands of sales people–and hundreds of managers–I honestly believe it is a pre-requisite to income success to be curious. Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.

  • When someone says to you that they have mastered something–or they are experiencing success in a field that you, too, would like to have success–do you sit them down and pepper them (nicely) with questions?
  • When you’ve learned that someone has figured out a way to get to the CEO, do you stop them in their tracks and invite them to dinner?
  • When you’re at a sales meeting, and you learn one of your associates has figured out how to find the pain of the customer better, do you handcuff them until they tell you EXACTLY how they did it?

You probably don’t. And I’m not sure why that is.  Is it because we’ll feel stupid? Is it because we wouldn’t want to puff up the other person? Is it because we’d rather do it the hard way, learning it on our own, rather than the easy way–learning from someone who’s done it?

So the next time you hear of someone who has been successful at something, call them up, congratulate them, and invite them to tell you EXACTLY how they did it.

 It will make you rich.

How To Handle Cost / Price Objections as a Non Salesperson

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This is from a Question & Answer call our team recently did in our program called The Accidental Salesperson. As we were transcribing this, we thought we’d give you a peak inside our thinking when we answer client questions.  (This is a transcription of spoken audio so forgive some of the clunkiness).

Q: “We are in a service industry and our biggest sales problem is overcoming cost objections.”

A: All objections are not created equal. The essence of an objection is that the prospect doesn’t believe that there’s any pain to not changing, or, there’s any pain to not choosing you.

So if I hear cost / price objections, you must conclude you’ve done a lousy job in two places in the sales cycle.

Sales Problem 1. Identifying The Problem

I’ve done a lousy job identifying the problem and attaching a cost to the problem they have. Or number two, I’ve done a lousy job of distinguishing myself against the other possible solutions that they have.

For example, we get asked to work with a company where we’re not the only option. They could go outside and work with other trainers and coaches like us, or, they can try to do it themselves.

There’s nothing that says they have to go out and hire trainers. The fact is that some companies can do it themselves. At least they could be marginally effective at it.

One Competitor Is Them Doing It Themselves

So my competitor is not necessarily the guy down the street who does similar things to what we do. My competitor also is them doing it themselves. Well, there is a perspective that people have that if I do it myself, it’s cheaper. Some of you are in business. I know a little bit about some of your business. You have that in your business, too.

I can either hire a realtor to go out looking for more commercial space or I can do it myself. But for certain solutions, doing it yourself is not a good idea.

First, it takes a lot of time. And often, people don’t put high enough value on their time like they should. If they only added up the time they spent doing things they weren’t good at, where it takes them five times longer to do it, they would realize quickly that hiring a professional is a much cheaper alternative.

So when I hear you say you can’t overcome cost objections, I would suggest that it’s probably because you haven’t done a good job upfront of nailing down the cost of the problem.

What’s The Cost of the Problem?

Once you have that, then the question is, “What kind of dollars are you willing to throw at the problem?” and if you can’t have a good, lively, honest discussion about that, then you’re probably going to get the objection that your prices are too high.

This goes for technical people who are doing add-on sales at a project. We work with a lot of CPAs, few of whom are natural salespeople. They’ve been trained to be a CPA and they’re very good at it. They were not trained to learn how to sell and market and manage the relationship. Read more