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Stop Trying to Get Customers to Make a Decision

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This is the third in a series of seven articles outlining the need for NEW RULES in your selling efforts. In this article, we’ll look at the Dynamic of Decisions.

Remember the good ole’ days when you were trained to ask the customer, “Who makes the buying decision on this?” (Or, some version of that.)

Well, that implied something very obvious – but wrong.

That implied that it was THEM (or someone at their company) making the decision, not you.

We also used elaborate metaphors like the Fox, the Champion, the Sponsor, the Hen (OK, maybe not the hen).

Then we would pull out the org chart and have them tell us who would be involved in the decision. And we’d get lied to. (You forgot that part, didn’t you?)

This process must change.

Today, you must alter the “Dynamic of Decision.” Changing this dynamic enables you to reap enormous rewards and stop wasting time with non-qualified prospects. Read more

Too Much Eagerness. Bad for Customers. Bad for You.

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Last week, I had a coaching session with one of my clients who is a pretty talented business development person. I say ‘talented’ because she has all of the raw materials: enthusiasm, energy, work ethic, and decent communication skills.

Then, last week she relayed a deal that her company is working on. As she described the situation, a couple of things caught my attention. She proceeded to tell me how important this deal was to her company and how excited she was and how desperate some of her teammates are about landing this deal. (I suspect the desperation came directly from the sales force, but that’s a different matter).

After she reviewed the situation I asked her if she noticed anything about how she described the deal. She said she didn’t. But I did.

What I noticed was the underlying theme of neediness and awestruck-ness about this deal. It’s that “this-one-would-be-a-huge-feather-in-our-cap-if-we got-it” attitude. But that kind of thinking, to me, assures she won’t get it.

It’s Bad for Your Internal Team

Since one of the strategies with this prospect was a presentation meeting where she was to bring her engineers to discuss the deal with the customer, it becomes even more vital that their (engineer) minds are right when in contact with customer.

Anytime you give those people ample reason to be scared they’ll take it. Feeling pressure and stress is no way to go through a presentation like this. And the more magnitude and burden you put on the situation, the less likely you will be to care/focus on what the customer wants.

This is part of that overall misguided myth that the more excited we are about getting a deal, the more excited the prospect is about giving it to us. I know we were all taught that-and really want to believe it. But in my experience, it’s the cause of more lost deals than won deals.

It’s Bad for Your Customer

More importantly, anything that takes your eye off of the customer’s problems and goals creates a block for you – and they’ll feel it. Feeling that pressure to perform is one of the most common mistakes made in business development /sales. In coping with that pressure, you take the attention off of them and put it right on yourself. Read more

The Happy Secret To Better Work by Shawn Archor

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“If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average.” (Shawn Achor)

Lately, I’ve been “refueling” my brain at work with TED.com videos. I just watched an intriguing video on positive thinking and simple ways to train your brain to think happy thoughts. 🙂

Our Caskey philosophy is that if you want to change your results, you MUST change your thinking (your Inner Game).  I’m 100% positive this video will inspire you to take a step back and focus on the power of your Inner Game.

Video Summary:

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

Your Inner Game

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Do you pay attention? Thought so. We all pay attention–(unless we don’t.) But if we do, we learn things. And our income proves it.

And do you pay attention to your inner game….how you’re thinking?

In this episode, Bill Caskey illustrates a real-life example on the concept of Buyer vs. Seller. Brooke Green reflects on a deal she lost, what went wrong, and what she should have done. Bryan Neale and Bill Caskey answer a question from a viewer.