“How Can I Regain Control of a Sales Process That’s Out of Control?”

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I got this question from one of my clients last week. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is a common problem for sales professionals–especially in complex (long) selling cycles.

Let’s start at the top. You are in sales to solve problems. The solving of your customer’s problems will pay you GOBS of money (more money than merely ‘selling them stuff’ will). You must recall that there is a natural order to life in sales.

Problem. The Process. Then Product.

When you begin a process, the customer problem should be at the top of the agenda. Every time you meet with your prospect, you start with “can we review the pain?” (Maybe not those exact words, but you get the idea).

The reader’s conundrum comes later in the sales process when things drag down–momentum gets lost. Here’s the revelation: The velocity is lost because the original problem has worked it’s way down the priority list. It’s nowhere on an agenda. It’s not top of mind anymore.

In fact, I’ve seen sales processes that get bogged down–and when I ask the seller, ‘when’s the last time your reviewed the customer’s problem?’ they say, “not since the first call.”

Hmmmmm. Something odd going on here.

The main reason you’re going through all of this work is not even talked about anymore???!!! Lesson: You must keep going back to the original reason–the primary purpose of the sale. Revisit the pain, often.

They Won’t. You Must.

But the prospect won’t do this on his/her own. You’ve got to do it. So that was my answer–unglamorous as it was. No cool, one-liner. I didn’t even resurrect the late 60’s sales move of, “if I could show you a way, would you buy today?” Just plain talk about what’s really happening.

==We’re going to be doing more ‘ask the coach’ in our blog. So fire up your fingers and pose your toughest challenge (or email us).

How’d You Get To Be A Star?

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Recently the NYTimes Magazine ran a piece written by the Freakonomics guys, Dubner and Levitt. The article was titled, A Star Is Born. Get it and read it. It provides a wonderful look into the traits of high achievers. No reason to go into a lot of detail here–only to say that everything in the piece applies to you and I in business–and is more profound than most ‘how to’ books.

As sales coaches, we are constantly on the lookout for information that helps propel the high achievers–and at the same time–watching for data that suggests what might get in the way.

My lesson from the article is that talent is not all it appears to be–something a person is born with naturally. Jordan isn’t Jordan and Gretzky isn’t Gretzky without a lot of grueling work. They might have been on the team without hard work–but they wouldn’t be icons without it. A lot of pratice. A lot of coaching. And a lot of goal setting. All the things we teach everyday.

If your results aren’t where you think they could be, then maybe you aren’t committed. (I ask myself that everyday since I believe that what shows up in our life is exactly what we are committed to). Dubner and Levitt will tell you that you haven’t practiced enough, haven’t worked hard enough, haven’t set the right goals, haven’t gotten enough coaching and feedback.

Read the article and give me some feedback. Anxious to hear what your perspective was.

The Missing Link in Sales Training (shhhh….it’s a secret)

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We get asked often, “How are you different than other sales trainers?” Good question. My answer includes the Missing Link in Sales Training. For 18 years we’ve kept it a secret. Now it’s time to share. Here’s the answer: 

Most sales training programs focus on two aspects of the sale’s process: saying and doing. Traditional sales training teaches us what to say and what to do. If you need more sales, make more calls. If you’re not closing enough business, try the Pending Event Close. The problem with these approaches is that they miss the one fundamental element that will exponentially increase the return on sales training investments.

That fundamental element is training sales people to THINK differently. Most sales trainers have it backwards. They teach the words and behaviors first (or only). The flaw here is that if the rep’s thinking is obscured, no word, behavior or process will ever work.

Example.
You as CEO or sales manager say: “Our sales people need to get in front of more CEO’s at our prospects.” You tell them to do it (behavior) and you give them some tips on what to say.
Problem: YOUR SALES PEOPLE ARE FRIGHTENED TO CALL CEO’S. THEY ARE INTIMIDATED. THEY FEEL INADEQUATE.

Your sales training program had better work on that problem first. For a sales training program to be successful, its content must be heavy with thought- changing strategies.

If you change how you think, the words and behaviors take care of themselves.

Modern Sales Training–What’s Smoke? What’s Real?

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Since we train business sales organzations, I thought I’d devote one post to the notion of sales training. (This applies not just to the sales team, but to the technical team, the executive team and the customer service team. All need good training).

I realize a lot of sales managers (VPs of Sales and the like) read this blog. And I also know many of you are looking for ways to train your people. Moreover, I know we aren’t the right sales training company for everyone, so I thought I’d give you some hints on what to look for when you get ready to invest in your people.

–1  Is the sales problem clearly identified? Great question…seldom answered. Because no one wants to look deeper at the real issue. Here’s a tip. When you identify a problem–say, not enough prospecting activity, then look in two places for the cause: a) the mechanical and b) the conceptual.

The mechanical is ‘I don’t know how to do it’ and usually gets back to lack of skills. The ‘conceptual’ means ‘I don’t have the capacity to do it,’ meaning too much fear…poor inner game…lousy self concept. Every sales problem has a ‘conceptual’ component to it. I know many of you hard-hitters think this is psycho-babble. Sorry, but it’s not.

–2   Reinforcement. If you’re going to train, you have to reinforce. You can do this through meetings and phone calls, or, better, you can do it through technology–podcasts, blogs and video blogs. In your business it may be difficult to introduce a topic through the PC, but you can surely reinforce it. I just set up a podcasting service for one of our clients who wanted to get our content out to their large, remote sales force. Podcasting is easy.

–3   Measurement. Inspect what you expect. Most sales programs have very little measurement. We’re sometimes guilty of that as well. Your return on investment will be higher if you inspect behavior and measure results. You can’t just look at how sales training impacts revenue. You have to look at the soft inputs, too. Things like: Are your people having better conversations? Are your people more confident? Is your team discarding prospects from the funnel if they aren’t real? Those are clues too.

If you’re a sales leader, take heed. Some of your competition is using training and professional development as a hiring point. Are you investing in your people? If done properly, investing in sales training will pay back 300-1000% as an ROI. Where else can you get a return like that? Take these three tips and implement them in your world. Or, call me and I’ll walk you through how to do it.

“Safety is the final danger…”

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–RUMI

Every day, a sales professional is faced with danger–not physical danger–emotional danger. Think about it. Fear of rejction. Fear of loss of deals. Fear of non-acceptance. You can discount these feelings, but that only serves to make them more paralyzing.

So what? How do you change? Move through them.

We’ve always taught that the way “out of your comfort zone” is to move through the danger. But, that sounds scary. It can be but only if you fail to reconstruct reality.

The reality is that these kinds of dangers won’t kill you. They WILL make you stronger. So how does one reconstruct reality? Simple. Each of these dangers has one thing in common. Do you know what it is?

It has to do with the orientation of your reality. In all of these cases, the dangers are all ME oriented. We are all so concerned with how “we” look, how “we” will be thought of that we get consumed with fear.

No mention is made of the real issue and that is ‘how does our fear affect our prospect?’ A true sales professional is able to ‘set the ego aside’ long enough to do what’s right FOR THEIR PROSPECT. Begin a list (yes, another list). On that list, write down how your fear affects your ability to solve the prospect’s problem.

When you take yourself OUT of the equation, you’re left with a “you orientation.” And that, friends is the way to move past your fear and expand your comfort zone.

Easy? Yes. Simple? No. But it’s a start. RUMI was right–safety is a danger. When you feel the fear, you have a choice–shrink to safety–or reconstruct reality to allow you the power to move through it.

Rule #23 – Know Upfront…

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Have an upfront understanding prior to a sales call.

I’ve been called on by a lot of sales people over the years. And few–very few–ever tell me what the call is going to look like. They never send an agenda upfront–they never tell me the process they’ll use–they never tell me what the outcome could be.

Shame…shame…shame….

If you are in professional sales–and make face to face calls on prospects, Rule #23 says, always have an upfront agreement prior to the call. What that means is have a conversation with your prospect on the phone talking about the topics of conversation for the meeting–maybe some of the questions you’ll ask–and maybe what the potential outcomes are (we meet again, we abort the process). Have a “process” agenda.

We always speak the line, “I respect your time,” yet when it comes down to it, very few of us respect our prospect’s time by sharing an agenda for the call, upfront. Do it and watch the level of truthfulness soar.

Are Your Canaries Still Breathing?

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You know the story of how canaries were used in coal mines–miners would take the birds down because their metabolism was sensitive to poisonous fumes. If the canary died, that was a leading indicator of danger for the miners.

As an advanced sales professional, you have to have your own set of canaries to serve as indicators for what’s happening to you in the sales process. The best indicators are words used by both you and your prospects. Here are three phrases that are warning signs your sales process is in trouble.

[1] “This is a done deal.” Typicalliy this is spoken by you when descibring the deal to your manager. As a sales coach, when I hear a person say this, I know the deal is in trouble. If you feel a deal is a “done deal,” then you will get sloppy. Usually, this sloppiness happens at exactly the wrong time in the process. If you find yourself saying this–or your people say it to you—beware. The deal is about to unravel.

[2] “That was a very good presentation.”  Usually spoken by a propsect after a lame presentation. You don’t want your presentations to be “good,” you want them to move people to “action.” When I hear I did a “good job” I know I fell short. If you hear that, say to the prospect, “I’m not sure I hit the mark. What didn’t you like about it?”

[3] “He just needs a little more information.”  Usually spoken by a sales person after the prospect has asked for more stuff. I have some bad news…there is never enough stuff (info) to share. If you’re hoping to fill up the belief gap (that gap that must be filled before a prospect will believe you have the right solution and act on it) with information, you’re dreaming. More information never sold anyone. What sells people is the pain they experience by not getting what you have. IF you can’t communicate that, then you’ll keep believing that information is what’s lacking.

These are just a few indicators that your sales process is messed up. I coach people that it’s better to do something about these indicators when you hear them, than to have your head in the sand.

Habits To Break

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Since the name of this blog is called Advanced Selling Strategies, I can think of no better post than to coach you a bit on “habits to break.” I see these habits so ingrained that you may not even think they are ‘bad.’ But they are.

[1]  Talking Excessively. I know–this doesn’t sound very advanced–but it’s simple. Just shut up and stop convincing people of how much you know. Let your buyer work a little bit. They will.

[2]  Presenting Before You Know The Problem. It’s hard isn’t it? Every fiber in your body is screaming to present your knowledge. But if you do it too quickly, they won’t have a chance to *make the connection* between what you have and what they need.

[3]  Doing Something Without an Agreement.  What that means is if someone asks you, as a sales person, to give them a price or give them a demo, slow down. Don’t do it unless you have a fairly good understanding of what will happen next. You control the process so never do anything without a clear agreement.

[4]  Having a Meeting Without an Agenda.  I see this mistake made even by seasoned pros. Always have an agenda on a first call. You can send it to them in advance, or you can bring it with you. But have one. It helps you. It helps them. Stop winging it.

[5]  Saving The Money Discussion for the End. In the sales process, talk about money early–right after the prospect admits his problems to you. You bring it up. But always do it in the context of the cost of the problem to be fixed. There are two sides to the economics discussion–the cost of the problem, and the cost of the solution. Cover both. Don’t let your buyer talk about the *price* side only.

One Great Question

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Sometimes a client will ask a question that I don’t know how to answer. I had just such a situation last week, which prompted me to write this and add an Audio.

“What is The Ideal Sales Process?”

As long as I’d been in training I don’t think I’d thought about that–from the very beginning (in the marketing stage). So I went into the studio and recorded this Advanced Lesson.

Download IdealSalesProcss11khz.mp3  (Dnload Time: :03 Secs./Listening Time: Approx 12 Mins)