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Sales Methodology? Sales Process? Sales Philosophy!

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Lots have been written, some tediously so, about Sales Process and Sales Methodology.  It will make your eyes glaze over. So in this article, I want to clarify what each of these is (in my opinion) and also share a third, more important area of growth for sales driven companies: Sales Philosophy.

Just for clarity, here are my definitions:

Sales Process

It’s the sequence of events that characterize how a customer makes his/her way through from Awareness to Comprehension to Conviction to Action. It is usually discussed in a step-by-step way.

An example: 1) Entry Point, which is how a sales person begins the discussion with a prospect. 2) Needs Assessment, where the sales person asks a series of questions about the customer’s state or circumstance. 3) Education, where the sales person educates the customer as to how similar companies are solving their problem. 4) Alternatives, where the sales person brings a set of alternatives on how he/she might solve the presenting problem. 5) The decision, where the customer makes a decision on moving forward.

Obviously, these will vary a lot depending on your structure, culture, and goals.

Sales Methodology

This is more of an over-arching template, usually branded like Rackham’s SpinSelling, Konrath’s SNAP Selling or Miller-Heiman’s Conceptual Selling. It’s typically the “skill set” portion of selling. How to ask questions, how to position your product in the eyes of the customer, how to frame the value. “How To” is the meme of methodology.

Sales Philosophy

A totally missed and misunderstood element. This deals with the mentality of the seller. How one thinks about one’s self, one’s value, one’s expertise, one’s process, one’s customers, one’s follow up, one’s role in the sales process…etc,

My belief, after 26 years of training teams and coaching people is that a sound philosophy trumps process and methodology every time.

Why? 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)

Setbacks Have Great Lessons In Them

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Obstacles and roadblocks…we all have them. You’ve heard the saying, “Kites rise against the wind, not with it.”

And yet, we do all we can to avoid setbacks. Not saying you should look for failure, but it’s just a big universal feedback mechanism that should signal that you may be off track.  Use it as such.

Price Resistance Might Have Nothing To Do With Price

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How you present things is how people see things.

A few weeks ago, a sales person came into our office and was pitching a new water system. They talked about the features and benefits of their offer, but NEVER asked me any questions about what I wanted.  And then I told them the price was too high.

If you’ve ever had a prospect say your price was too high, it could’ve been you forgot to ask the right questions.

Fatal Mistakes in B2B Sales and How to Avoid Them Series – We Listen With Our Motor Running

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*This is a part of The Whale Hunters’ guest blog series for three weeks on “Fatal Mistakes in B2B Sales and How to Avoid Them.” To read some of the blogs for the series, you can visit: http://blog.thewhalehunters.com/

In this video, Bill Caskey discusses one fatal mistake he notices salespeople do. With his experience as an Indianapolis sales trainer, Bill addresses a few ways for salespeople to avoid this one mistake.

-Mentioned in this video…-
The Advanced Selling Podcast: Every week, Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale, upload a new podcast for sales people all over the planet. Eventually, we’ll be bringing over all the episodes but it’s not quite at the top of our priority list yet.

So, until then, go to www.AdvancedSellingPodcast.com and you can download–or listen to them all.

Sales Action And Running Prospect Meetings

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Whiteboard Wednesday returns to its roots this week with Bill (who’s actually in front of a whiteboard) discussing how to handle a sales call when there are many of them and only one of you. He gives you a simple technique that few use that will help you begin on the same page.

And Bryan Neale rants a little bit about his fat wallet (except for there’s no money in it….only receipts). The essence of this rant has to do with taking action.

Read more

What Happens When The Prospect Tries To Derail You?

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In this episode, sales trainer Brooke Green relays a story of how she – the actual sales chick – almost allowed the prospect to drag her off track in a big sales cycle. She’ll share with you sales lessons she learned, how she righted the ship and what she did to get the sales process back on track.

Also, Bryan Neale shares with you his sales-God-meditation thoughts about the topic of ‘market abundance’ and how that impacts your sales attitude.
You won’t want to miss this.

And Bill? He’s relegated once more to the mere “introducer” role, a role he doesn’t seem happy about.

Read more

Interview An Expert

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Interview an expert.

That’s right, purchase a $100 piece of equipment that you can record on the phone (or do it by SKYPE…it’s free)

  • And ask them questions about the industry you’re in.
  • Ask them about their vision for the future.
  • Ask them what they see as trends in your business.

Then, put it on your channel.

By interviewing experts, you re-classify yourself as an expert.

-B. Caskey

Skills For Your Future

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What are the skills that you will need to excel? Not just survive but excel? You should be doing this exercise once a year because skills change. It used to be that sales people did not need to know how to write, so copywriting skills were optional. Not anymore.

What other skills are required for your future business that you’re a little weak on? Now, go to youtube and search on those skills with the key word “tutorial” after. Then, spend 5 hours on each of the skills you identify. Watch what happens.

-B. Caskey