Indicators There is Something Wrong With Your Business Life

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We’re producing a program called The Elite Seller on November 9-10 in Indianapolis. This is a post I did for our Faculty Resource Blog site. Thought it had appropriateness for all subscribers to this as well.

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Thoreau said “most men live lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with their song still in them.” Do you feel like you’re sleep-walking through life—doing the same thing over and over? If so, you are not at your creative best.

So “how do I know this is appropriate for me” is a relevant question. We’ve assembled this list of conditions that you might find yourself in. If you check more than 7 of these 14, then The Elite Seller Retreat is appropriate.

__  I have been doing the same thing in the same way for so long it seems like I’m in a rut. I feel like I could be leveraging my talents better.
__  I watch other people have a lot of success in my field, and I wonder “what do they know that I don’t know?”
__  The training I’ve attended leaves me cold and unmotivated. I feel like I could teach it better than the instructor.
__  I’m already working a lot of hours—I would like a way to be more effective in that time. I don’t want to work longer.
__  I feel like the prospect doesn’t get my value. Sometimes I feel like my message leaves them cold and unmotivated to take action. Therefore, selling cycles last too long—and it keeps me from calling on other prospects.
__   Even though I have a lot of experience in sales, my confidence sometimes slips back to where it was years ago.
__  I’m sometimes bored with my job. And occasionally I have this feeling of emptiness. Like what I do isn’t full of meaning and joy.
__  I feel like although my company supports me, I don’t always feel there are mentors inside the firm to take me to the next level.
__  I feel like I don’t have a good plan for my higher success. I sometimes feel like I just go “do” everyday without a good sense that I’m making progress on my personal goals.
__  It’s been years since I’ve worked ON myself and ON my business. Consequently, I’ve been  “doing” and not “thinking intelligently” about whether I’m doing the right things.
__  I feel like those around me are making progress and are using the latest tools and technology. I sometimes feel like  … I’m back in the stone age.
__  I sometimes wonder if my goals are big enough—meaningful enough—or achievable. And therefore I never know if I’m following the right path to get them accomplished.
__  I feel like the game of sales is changing around me—and I’m not sure I’m prepared for it. Not even sure if I’m using the latest sales strategy to acquire and keep customers.
__  I feel like for as long as I’ve been in the business, that prospects should be chasing me. But they aren’t. And I don’t know why.

Take a look again through those. These have come from actual people who have engaged us over the years with the intent of solving those exact problems. Hope this helps to decide if you have enough reason to come to the event.

It’s Never Price!!

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In my observation of sales people, I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone falls on a continuum between highly skilled professional and poorly trained amateur. The people at the latter end of that scale are not bad people–they are just badly trained.

And nowhere does it become more apparent than when the sales person talks about the customer’s perception of “price.” If you want to move even one notch up the scale toward the highly skilled professional then, come to your own conclusion that if you’re talking about price with a customer you’re talking about the wrong topic.

It is never the price.

It is ALWAYS the perception the customer has about your value in relation to the price–but it’s never the price. Not only is it ‘never the price,’ but the words you will use to defend the price are irrelevant.

I could sit here for hours and give you all the clever moves and tactics upfront and in the eleventh hour negotiation process that will help you get out of that price mode, but if your “mind about price” is not right, then the words will never matter.

So I suggest the one thing you do over the coming weekend is get your mind straight about the price of your product/service. And get even more clear about the problem you solve for your customer rather than the price he pays to solve it. Dissect the value you bring the customer with the purchase of your solution–and forget about “justifying price.”

“How Do I Start The Sales Process?”

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Question From Blog Reader:

I’m assuming that you mean: “how do I start the process so that I can control it all the way through?” That’s a better question. In this post, I give you several components of how to handle the very first call.

Read more

Your Prospect is Not Your Enemy!

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We really waste a lot of energy sometimes, don’t we? In a profession that relies on our mind to do the heavy lifting, we certainly fail to think about things in the right way. One example of that is “who we see as the enemy. Read more

Use Your Best Prospect As Your Standard

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We’ve all had that great prospect–the one that invites you in to his office, tells you all about the issues he has, expresses hope that you can help him, pays you what you ask, and faxes in the PO. Wouldn’t it be great if they were all like that. We’ll call that the IDEAL PROSPECT.

I want you to think back to that prospect (it’s irrelevant whether it was last week or last decade). Because as of today, that becomes your standard to which all other prospects are held.

The reason is simple: Most sales professionals have very weak standards when it comes to prospects. We let ’em get away with lying to us, we let them skate the important answers, and we keep calling them back, chasing them like we were pirahnas. In selling, the way I see it, that’s mechanically wrong.

It’s wrong because the person with the solution is the one that should be in control. (That would be you.) And if the prospect isn’t behaving correctly, it’s either bcause he really isn’t a prospect at all. Or, it’s because you haven’t helped him become a good prospect.

So if you find yourself doing the chasing (instead of them chasing you), then you have to raise your standards. And the way you do that is to remember that IDEAL PROSPECT.

What do you do if you’re in front of a prospect who is not behaving correctly? Call him on it.

Say: “Mr. Johnson, usually at this point in the conversation, we’re talking about your problems and we’re discussing solutions. But in this process, all we’re talking about is how great your company is doing without a service like mine. So, it appears that we’re at the end of our dialogue, unless I’m missing something.”

Remember, you are not manipulating him–or trying to make him say something you want him to say. You are simply calling the game on him, and letting him know that he’s not a prospect because he’s not acting like one. And then you proceed to tell him exactly how most prospects act at this time.

This keeps you strong and in control by raising the standard of how ALL of your prospects should act. If they don’t act that way, move on.

“Desperation” is Not a (Good) Strategy

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I  had a call yesterday from a client who was struggling to get first appointments. I asked him to role play what the phone conversation sounded like…and it was obvious what was happening.

Even though he was saying the right words (“Not sure I can help”, “I’d like to inqure to see if we can be of any value”) there was an *undertone* of desperation. The prospect has a sixth sense that picks up on that. So my coaching advice was simple: rather than work on the words you say–work on the thoughts you think.

He was relieved when we finished the call. His new attitude was one of “discernment and skepticism.” He said he was going to enter each phone call with a discerning attitude–being a little stodgy with his time, not chasing people to see him, and acting from a place of curiosity–rather than certainty.

Attitude changes your words and the tone with which you say the words. And that’s what leads to more appointments.

Who’s Approval Are You Waiting For?

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Malcolm Fleschner (www.sellingpower.com) just wrote a nice piece in the latest issue. He quoted us extensively in it. Thought you’d get a kick out of reading it. Who Loves Ya’ Baby?

One of the issues he brings up is the idea of “calling the game.” When someone is lying to you, you must call it out–or else it’s you who is out of integrity. I don’t talk about that much in Same Game New Rules, but it’s a fact. Every time you have a feeling (that you’re being misled by your customer) and you fail to call him on it, you lose self-esteem.

Now, there are ways to call it and ways NOT to call it. I prefer the very soft, simple approach we might call,”Broaching The Subject.”  You say, “John, a couple of things don’t jibe with me. Can I bring it up then you react to it?”

I like that approach because there is no pressure. You aren’t accusing him/her of lying. You make it an “I” message. “It’s just me not having understood something.”

By “broaching the subject”, you send a signal that you are listening intently to what he’s saying. And that you take this whole thing seriously. When you’re getting misled, you have to call it–and not worry about the approval (or lack thereof).

Hope that helps with the courage to take a stand and demand the truth.

Come to think of it…we just did a podcast on the topic of truth as well. 

Money, Money MONEY!!!

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by Bryan Neale

Question:  What did your parents teach you when it comes to talking about money with others?

Answer: “Don’t talk about money with others. Don’t ask them how much they make. Don’t ask them how much they paid for their house. Don’t ask them how much money they save. Just don’t talk about money.”

Now flash forward to your current role as sales professional. Suddenly your parent’s insistence that money is a taboo, private matter is suddenly getting in the way of you closing deals. You don’t like talking about the money. You avoid it and hope they don’t ask. You put pricing on the last page of the proposal. You don’t talk about it at all before sending them your quote and they fall out of their chair when they get your pricing.

So what’s going on here? Unfortunately many sales professionals suffer from ATTAM: Aversion to talk about money. If you’re one of them, you’re likely losing deals and opportunities because of it. So what to do about it:

Here are a few ideas:
1-Accept It: It’s the way you’re wired. You’ll need to face the fact that you don’t like discussing money before you can fix it.

2-Share Your Uncomfortableness With Your Prospect: Just be real and tell your prospects how you feel. “We need to talk about the money and I find that’s not always a comfortable subject.”

3-Make Yourself Talk About It: Make it mandatory to talk about the money before you leave the call. If you leave without it, call ‘em back and tell them you need to meet again. Don’t ever send pricing without talking about it first.

4-Relax: Money’s just money. It has no REAL value. It’s nothing more than a piece of paper or a computer screen with numbers. We humans are the one’s who put the emotion into it.

The best sales professionals put the Moose on the Table when it comes to talking money. It has to happen. Just realize that it may be counterintuitive to how you’re hard-wired. The good thing is, you can always change your thinking. And when you do, watch the money in your life grow exponentially.

Caskey Video Blog: The Fundamental Shift

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In our last newsletter, we hinted that soon we have our newsletters enabled with multimedia. Well we are at Caskey, as an Easter treat for our loyal readers are giving you a preview of our video-blog. What is a video blog, well like a blog a video blog is a individual discussing a certain subject, usually in form of a brief essay. A video blog is like that but instead of using either text or html we are using web video to discuss a certain topic.

The subject of our first video blog, is a brief introduction to the concept of “THE FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT” , a term we use extensively in our sales training. This short video is presented by Bill Caskey. We hope you enjoy it.

 

  Click here to download FlashPlayer

  This video blog is best seen on a broadband connection