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Episode #364: Mental Myths in the Sales Process

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootThere’s only truly one thing you can control in the sales process— yourself. In today’s Mailbag Monday episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale dive into a question from Rocky about how to show up and be helpful in the sales process.

Do you regularly check in with yourself to think about your inner game?

Do you truly have pure intent when talking with clients and prospects?

What myths do you have in your mind that aren’t actually real at all?

In this episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan share strategies for inserting yourself into the sales process while maintaining clean intent. They give you language-based tools to help you know the words to use to truly be intentionally helpful to your prospects. After all, you can’t control other people or what they think… you can only control you. Show up as your best self every single time and watch the world shift around you.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Episode #363: Margin: Secrets Of The Pro’s

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootHave you noticed that some sales people just seem like they “get it” more than others?  In today’s episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale explore what the top 5% do that make them stand out and have greater success than their peers.

What are they doing differently than everyone else?

Why are people afraid to ask those at the top for their advice?

In this episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan dive into ways you can up your selling game, including tips for the tiny tweaks that make a big impact. The great news: the differences aren’t major. True sales pros know the growth is at the margin.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Episode #362: Sales Assets – More Than Just Numbers

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootAre you utilizing all of your assets in your sales process? In today’s Mailbag Monday episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale explore a question from Chelsea about how to use your talents to strengthen your impact when opening doors in sales.

Do you have characteristics of your personality that you ignore when working your sales process?

Do you utilize your personal interests, skills and things you love to do to help you connect with others?

In this episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan give you techniques you can use to insert more human elements into your process. They help you focus on the things you love to do outside of sales and put them into use in your sales career. If you’ve ever thought to yourself “What if they don’t like the real me?”, this episode is for you. The world needs more of the “real” person in every sales situation, and Bill and Bryan will tell you just how to do it in this episode.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

Episode #361: “I Don’t Have Time For That!”

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootDo you struggle knowing what to prioritize first on your to-do list? In this episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale help you focus on working big to small on your list of priorities.

Do you find yourself saying “I don’t have time to do that”?

Can you (and the rest of your team) state your overall company sales philosophy?

In today’s episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan share specific things you should be doing to help focus your efforts on the things that matter most. Learn to identify the big rocks you should start with and how to prioritize your time for most important outcomes.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

#352: Cardone Zone comes to The Advanced Selling Podcast

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Grant Cardone

How can we have people buy from us when they don’t even know we exist? Veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale go to the source today for the answer to that question (and many others). Grant Cardone, author of The 10X Zone, If You’re Not First, You’re Last and Sell or Be Sold, is the epitome of hustle and an expert salesman.

Do you want to know Grant’s secrets for success?

Are you curious why Grant believes salespeople are needed now more than ever?

In today’s episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bryan and Grant dive deep into why salespeople have a unique opportunity in the new era of digital selling. Learn from the best of the best— hear a few stories, have a lot of laughs and get re-engergized about your career in sales from this thought leader and legendary salesman.

3 Videos That Will Radically Shift Your Client Positioning and Results

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As you begin to think about 2016, I want you to consider three things to commit to next year.

I want you to create…yes I said “create”…3 videos for the expressed purpose of landing new clients.

How can videos help me land clients? Well….are you ever in for a surprise! Let me start with a blanket statement. OK, it’s my opinion….but a statement it is.

Video will help you tell your story, compel people to seek you out, and help you position yourself properly prior to client contact. 

VIDEO 1

Last week, I was in a coaching session with two sales leaders and their lead generation person. In the conversation, I found that they’re asking prospects to fill out a form on the web, then hit SUBMIT. Then, their lead person emails them back to set up a call. Read more

Working Under Load. The Secret To Your Success.

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Charles Poliquin is a weight-lifting coach. He’s the guy your trainer looks to for advice on proper technique, cadences and exercises. He was on Tim Ferriss’s podcast (Click Here To Listen) last week and he said something I thought was fascinating. Simple, but fascinating.

IncreaseStrength-UnderLoad

He said if you really want to increase your strength, you must spend more time “under load.”

In his world, under load means to stress the muscle throughout the entire weight bearing exercise. In other words, do the reps slow, stopping at the top and bottom for a few seconds. So instead of doing 20 curls in 35 seconds, you do 20 in 2 minutes.

More time under load = more strength.

In our world, “under load” leads to strength as well. Read more

One Hour of Goal Setting

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As part of my sales training for my clients, we hold monthly telephone calls with small groups of sales people. On those calls, we talk about deals they struggle with, opportunities they see and tactics on how to land those prospects.

On a recent call, I was asked about goal setting. Specifically, “How much time should we spend in goal setting activities?”

GoalVSwish

My answer surprised them. I suggested that for every hour they spend setting goals, they should spend 20 hours planning them out. 20 hours!!!??!

The idea with “goal planning” is to give yourself a roadmap of EXACTLY how you will accomplish the goal.

Doubling Your Business

Let’s say you have a goal to double your business in the next year. Pretty awesome goal I’d say! But before you hit the streets to accomplish it, write it out on a piece of paper, place it in front of you and set aside 4 hours for Goal Planning. Read more

Selling Isn’t Meant To Be A Struggle

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51pCTMwjjLL._SX355_BO1,204,203,200_One of my favorite books of all time was a 60-pager written by Stuart Wilde called, “Life Was Never Meant to be a Struggle.”

In this book, he addresses how life demands effort, but not struggle. As he defines it, “struggle is effort, laced with negative emotion.”

In sales, we struggle a lot, don’t we? Struggle to get an appointment. Struggle to get to the right person. Struggle to position our product in the best possible light. Struggle to close the sale.

But, should we feel ‘struggle?’ I don’t think so.

Life-Not-Struggle

In markets that are abundant, you should be on the lookout for “ideal fit” between your customer’s pain and aspirations, and your solution. If there is no ideal fit, then you must move on.

Traditionalists among you will say, “No, Bill, you must be persistent and press hard to make the sale.”

Really? Is that really what you think? Sounds like struggle to me.

Instead….

1. Be clear about the value you bring. How can you determine an “ideal fit” if you aren’t quite sure of the value you bring and what problems it will solve for the customer? Bullet-list the elements of your value so you can become clearer about it.

Another bulleted list you should make is the characterization of your ideal client. Do they have money? Are they interested in growth? Do they look outside for help? Do they respect your ideas?

These two lists should be the filters that you shoot prospects through to see if you should spend one more minute with them.

2. Align behavior with purpose.  If you struggle in a component of the sales process, say lead generation, then you aren’t looking at it correctly. I had a mentor who said, “If you’re feeling pressure, you’re doing something wrong.” This is why I say, “align with purpose.” This means to state what your purpose is in your profession.

If it’s to make a lot of money for yourself, then you aren’t operating from a place of High Intent. Every thing that happens to you in the sales process will be seen as a threat to your core purpose.

But if your purpose is to be a hero to your target audience…or to serve them exquisitely…or to solve the biggest problems they have, then you are “on purpose” and in sync with what they want. You both want the same ting.

And when you are on purpose, prospecting behavior will never be a struggle. 

3. Take the pressure off early. Tell the customer upfront that it’s OK if this is not a fit. Why would you have any other point of view than that? If it’s not a fit in his/her eyes, are you going to continue to hang around? No, of course not.

But by saying it…out loud…you separate yourself from the hundreds of amateurs who have come before you.

When you apply pressure, you are not in-disposable. Your are DISPOSABLE.And if you are disposable (or feel like you are), you will struggle in the profession.

Let me know how you do at implementing these three simple ideas!