Brooke’s Sales SheBang Conference Video

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How Adults–And Sales People–Learn (And Achieve)

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Not an especially sexy topic but one that every sales manager/ceo/leader should understand as we look to change results–and change behavior. (And for your extreme achievers, knowing how you learn might not be a bad idea).

In our sales training practice, we get asked in to companies to solve sales problems. That’s just what we do.

Every Sales Problem is a Behavioral Problem

But every sales problem (can’t get to the right person; can’t sell a premium price; can’t overcome the objections; can’t close; can’t prospect) all have to do with “behavioral issues.” And for behavior to change, you must understand how adults learn (to change their behavior).

Here are our findings:

  1. Relevancy. If you’re teaching someone, it had better be relevant to them. Ever sat in an all day training/presentation and been able to predict at 8:30am that it would be a total waste? Of course. It’s a waste because the teacher/facilitator never helped it be relevant. And it’s so easy for sales curriculum to be relevant. Just ask the learner, “What do you want to work on? What’s important to you?” Why is that question seldom asked?
  2. Problem-Focused. Every new piece of content you give to a sales person (or to yourself) had better solve a problem. And it’s more useful if there is a connection between the problem to be solved and the pain of the learner. How to do that? (OK, Sales Leaders here it goes- ASK! Yep, it’s that simple. Ask your team what they’re struggling with–and PRESTO, they’ll tell you.) Make sure that every core piece of curriculum you teach solves a problem.
  3. Technical. What I mean by this is that it has to be very tactical, technical and detailed. If you were teaching me how to post a blog, you wouldn’t just say, “Go get a blog and write.” There’s a lot more to it than that. Yet, when we’re teaching someone, we skip the details. Don’t skip the details. The learning is ALL IN THE DETAILS. When you’re coaching someone how to overcome prospect objections, don’t give them several one liners to combat it. Go through, in detail, how you would deliver the reaction–try out new words based on their personality.
  4. Attack The Real Resistance. This is a well-kept secret. It’s where most real income growth comes. It’s in the attention that should be focused on the thinking behind the actions–not just the actions. Sales is a thinking game. We call it the Inner Game–the emotional and mental constructs we’ve set up that limit our success. Unless you change an adults thinking behind the behavior, you will get only moderate change. (One example of this is our belief that the prospect should sell you. That’s a VERY different way of thinking. Yet, when you get that right, the words follow very easily.)
  5. Reinforcement. This is the #1 law of learning–the mother of all laws. Yes, Tiger Woods probably gets damn sick of practicing 6′ putts. But he knows that he’s made millions on 6′ putts. You probably don’t hear Roger Federer say to his coach “No, don’t need to practice that drop shot anymore. I got that one down.” You don’t hear that because great performers never stop practicing. What about you? How many hours have you practiced your Upfront Agreement in the last month? How many hours have you spent role-playing the handling of objections? How many hours have you spent practicing the asking questions in a way that allows the prospect to actually tell you the truth? (Here’s an idea no one will like: Spend less time making cold calls to people who don’t want to talk to you–and spend more time in the practice facility working on your game).

So now you have some idea of how adults (you) learn. If you’re a sales leader, keep this article next to you as you do your next sales meeting. If you’re spending all of your time on ‘Funnel Activity’ you’re wasting time. Work on these thing above–and you’ll be amazed at the invigoration of your team.

Adults do change behavior. We do have it in us. But stale PowerPoints don’t do it.

A Great Example of Accountability

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Cold-Calling

My friend Dan runs a restaurant equipment company. As you can imagine, they’ve gone through some tough times recently and he has had to lay off several people in his firm.

But his heart really broke when he had to lay off Marvin, a 26-year employee who had battled prostate cancer and other illness over the last few years. But there was just no place in the company for Marvin anymore. A few days after he let Marvin go, he got a phone call—Marvin asking to schedule some time with him sometime in the next couple of days. Dan agreed, and Marvin came in with a proposition.

Let Me Make Cold Calls

At that meeting, Marvin talked about his tremendous commitment to the company and how he loved the business and knew a lot of customers. He wanted to cold call past clients, inactive clients and new prospects to see if they were interested in buying equipment. But there was a catch.

Marvin didn’t want any money for it; all he wanted was the commission that came from the sales if he made any.

Now think about this. Marvin is a guy who’s never been in sales, never made one cold call, never went on one appointment, but willing to work for performance only.

Sitting around tonight complaining about the economy and how you’re going to have to bail out the at-leasters, think about Marvin. If we had three million Marvins, we just might not have the unemployment problem.

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Pharma Reps-Change Or You Might Become Expendable.

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I work with a fair number of pharma reps–and I must tell you–there are changes you’ll have to make in order to be of value to your clients.

Here’s an idea: Instead of moving into the sales process operating from a place of “how do I get the Doc to prescribe my drug?” – move into the relationship from a place of, “what can I do in order to help the Doc solve a problem?” Do you see the difference? You should. Because you bring value the second way. Doing it the old way–how do I get him to prescribe?–you set yourself up for lies and reluctance. And you bring no value. Plus, you’re like every other pharma rep that shows up. That’s not in your best interest.

The Doc’s Problems
Think about how tough it is to be in the medical profession today: Regulations, annoying/slow insurance companies, staff issues, long hours, less money….and all the other stuff that comes with the profession. Then he has you to deal with–and all others like you. Why don’t you step back and think about how you can solve his problems by you doing what you do.

First make a list of the problems, then next to that, list out how you can help him. I don’t expect you to help in all of these areas, but maybe you could help him by being more of a resource for him and his patients. Maybe you could help him by providing some training for his staff in a certain disease state area. You are creative–so you come up with how to help him solve problems.

Then, the next time you show up, tell him what you’re up to. Tell him that your intent for the new year is to be more of a problem-finder and solver than you have in the past. See what happens.

Too Much Certainty Kills Curiosity – and Costs You Money!

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Last month I was giving a sales training seminar, and one of the participants voiced his opinion on how he does something in the sales process. He was actually saying all the right things, but the “way” he said it turned other people in the room off a little.

I got to thinking about what he said and was curious about why that had such an effect on people, I determined that certainty kills curiosity.

Whenever I hear someone say, “This is how I do it and it’s always worked,” they almost certainly have killed themselves off from being curious about other ways to do it better. You’ve heard the saying, “only fools are positive.” To me, that is exactly what happens when you are so sure of yourself that you are not open to other ways to improve your results.

As you think about your sales approach to prospects and clients, be careful that you don’t “have all of the answers and don’t need more input,” because you may be cutting yourself off from one easy tactic that can monumentally affect your business.

 

Calling On The CEO. I Know I Need To. But How?

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A study recently conducted by www.siriusdecisions.com in conjunction with the H.H. Gregg School of Sales at Ball State University, revealed (not surprisingly) that sales people, when calling on CEOs, are ill prepared.

And the CEOs don’t like it.

The report says 82% of the CEOs experience sales people who have not done their homework.

So Now What?
Good information. But if you’re a sales professional who “should be” calling on higher level contacts, exactly how do you do your research? The report didn’t talk about that, (most reports don’t tell you how to solve the problem) but I will.

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Web Research. I suggest you go to the company website but don’t just take what they say. Remember, a website is a brochure. Not too many websites talk about the pain the company is experiencing–and that, after all, is what you’re looking for. You can get a “lay of the land” of the businesses they’re in–and some of their objectives.
  2. Blog Research. What I’m doing more and more is going to blog.google.com and search there. Search on terms like “trends in the industry” or “company by name,” or even the contact himself/herself. You can get a lot of good information that way. And much of it is unfiltered by the company.
  3. Zoominfo.com This is a great site to learn more about the person you’re calling on–where he went to school–where she last worked–how he came up through the ranks. It gives you a sense of who this person is and how they have experienced the world. All great stuff if you’re going to be having a conversation with them.

The Bottom Line
Be careful that you don’t do so much research that you fail to ask questions because you think you know it all. I’ve seen that happen. Nothing is more annoying (not even an unprepared sales person) than one who thinks they have the answers before they ask the questions.

Get serious about your pursuit of the CEO’s pain and dreams. Then you can position your solution in a way that is meaningful for him.