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Get Real….REALLY

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I was watching a sales training infomercial at 5:30 AM yesterday and have to share. First, I must commend the author for recognizing the need for sales training to be part of the ever-growing infomercial programming found on cable TV and local access channels. With all of the get-rich-no-money-down-don’t-have-to-sell-anything-systems floating around your boob tube in the wee hours of the morning, it’s nice to find one that actually has some real application.

HOWEVER

The content in this infomercial was so FAKE I almost threw my TV down my laundry chute. Enough already.  SALESPEOPLE……….LISTEN TO ME…………..

STOP BEING FAKE!

There is an epidemic of manipulative phrases, slick-tongued words and bullet-proof closing moves plaguing today’s sales trainers and amateur salespeople. I don’t get it. Sales training hasn’t evolved for 25 years.  We seem to be stuck in the same old…..”gotta ask for the business” …..”always be closing” ……mode that our grandparents invented. Maybe we should go back to rotary phones and typewriters while we’re at it.

Look: Let’s all agree that if we were all just real – just who we are – and if we all just tried to help our prospects and get out of the way when we realize we can’t help….we’d all sell A LOT more stuff and make a lot more money.

Get Real….REALLY…..be yourself. ….no one wants to buy from a fake.

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

Blog Authors

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We love to hear from our readers. If you’d like to contact our authors privately to suggest story ideas or critique their writing, here is their information:

Bill Caskey: mailto:[email protected]

Bill is a sales development leader and experimenter. His ideas about selling are convictions about life, money and meaning. He has coached sales professionals and executives for over 20 years. And his philosophies and strategies have fueled explosive growth in sales and profits for clients.  Click here to learn more about Bill Caskey.

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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.

THE TRUTH SETS YOU FREE

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I got a call from one of my professional services clients, who said an 18-year client said he needed to check other vendors–said the price was getting too high.

Wow! Not an easy call to get–and he asked me what I would do. Here it goes:

Acknowledge the truth. You can’t MAKE HIM NOT CHECK them out, can you? Of course not. So go have a meeting and say this:  “Mr. Client, I want to acknowledge your thoughts about looking elsewhere. That may be a good idea. After 18 years of a relationship, sometimes people grow weary — the relationship goes stale — nothing new — just the same old service. So I would encourage you to look elsewhere. It will be healthy.”

Then, follow that up with: “But I do have one question. Is it really the money (which he told him it was) or is it something different–like service or value or something we missed?” Then, I would suggest a brainstorming session with their senior managers to see how, or if, there is a way to reduce the fees. There may not be. But you at least have to be open to it.

Maybe they’re right. Maybe your fees have crept up too quickly. Maybe they aren’t getting as much value. But you can’t know that until you have an “exploratory meeting” at their site. You cannot be defensive at this meeting. It is a meeting based on finding the truth.

Go into it with high intent–really wanting to help the customer solve the problem. NOT trying to ‘keep the business.’ By surrendering you get stronger.

When Will They Learn Not To Close?

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What is there about health clubs that turns nice, normal people into hammering sales people. I visited a local (new) health club this weekend. I’d had it with rain, cold and snow and their interference with my health. Rachel was my “tour guide” (a.k.a. pressure sales person).

I know that she wanted to care about my well-being–that she was interested in me as a person–yet when a prospect walked in the door (me), all of that care went out the window, in favor of the health club sales training she had received. She wouldn’t tell me the price until she gave me the tour. (And she wouldn’t give me the tour until I filled out the paper work with 5 other sales people looking over my shoulder.)

She had to tell me all about the features of the equipment. She never let me ask any questions, for fear that I would take back control. After 10 minutes, she put the close on me: “Mr. Caskey, if you sign up today, I can knock $100 off the upfront fee” (she never told me what that fee was.)

As I looked around and saw one person working out — which told me their sales process wasn’t working too well (it was a Saturday morning at 9:00–prime time for a health club), I had a question: Why do they treat people that way? Do they really think they’re calling on bozos? Do they not think we know what they’re trying to do? She lost me and a lifetime value, perhaps in the thousands of my dollars.

If they paid me to come in for a day and work with them…I would have told them a) find out why the person walked in the door, b) offer me a drink, a coffee or something so I feel part of the family, c) tell me the price upfront so that I can spend the tour justifying the price, (rather than spend the tour wondering how she’s going to close me) and d) give me a weekend pass (or even a week- remember there was no one there so the week pass costs them nothing). With the pass, I can get to know the staff, get comfortable with the radios and tvs and equipment.

If I owned the club, I would even throw in a free hour of personal training (invest small money to make big money). Why is this so tough? It’s not. They make it that way. Everyone lost. I lost because I still don’t have a place to work out. And they lost because they didn’t get my money (and a new member, who can refer them to hundreds of others). They just don’t understand the economics. Have you had similar experiences?