How To Handle Those Who Always Disagree With You.

Posted on October 15, 2016 by admin

HOW TO HANDLE THOSE WHO ALWAYS DISAGREE WITH YOU.

There will always be those who disagree with you. Vigorously.

No matter how much evidence points to the logic of your decision or how many facts bolster your ideals, there will always be those who challenge your intentions and make your dreams seem small.

These people are all around you.

In your town. In your church. In your work.

People who don’t understand you. They don’t “get you”.

And so when they hear you speak of your ambitions, they just think you’re a loser. They don’t trust you or like you (or want to change that).

Ultimately, everything they say is negative.

That will break you down if you let it.

At first, it will just bother you. And then it will annoy you. And frustrate you. Anger you. And completely sidetracked you.

There is no easy way to get used to being treated unfairly. It’s not fun at work or at home, at the gym or in your place of worship. Nowhere. At any time.

It’s just not something you’re wired to respond well to.

What can help you is to understand that these people will always exist.

There is nothing you can do to win them all over.

It will never happen.

And that’s not because you’re a bad person or that you can’t articulate your dreams well enough.

Frankly, it’s not about you at all. It’s about them. That’s just what they do. They hate.

You’ll never understand it. And they will never change.

What can empower you is to understand that nothing you can do will convince all the haters to love you.

So save your energy. Stop trying.

Live your life on your terms. Let the haters say what they will . Just do what you do.

Stand tall. Be amazing. Ignore everything else. Game on.

Are you ready?

via How To Handle Those Who Always Disagree With You. | Edgy Conversations.

Customers for life

Posted on October 10, 2016 by admin

The most successful companies place great value on developing lifetime relationships with their customers. In today’s competitive marketplace, they’re aware that their customers are aggressively prospected and their loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Customer-focused companies recognise that relationship building and follow-on service are critical components for promoting both customer retention and revenue growth.

Today we have access to innovative tools, such as the Internet, cellphones, faxes and voicemail, all designed to enhance our ability to communicate. Nevertheless, even with all of these technological tools at our disposal, the alarming number of dissatisfied customers, lost sales and failed relationships all reflect the fact that none of us are as effective at communicating as we would like to believe.

Temperament understanding helps to foster effective communication. Research in the field of human psychology indicates people are born into one of four primary behavioral styles; aggressive, expressive, passive or analytical. Each of these four temperament styles requires a unique approach and communication strategy.

For example, if you are working with the impatient, aggressive style, they want a quick fix and a bottom-line solution. Under pressure they can be ill-tempered and quick to anger. Give them options so you don’t threaten their need for control. Don’t waste their time with chitchat; stick to business.

Meanwhile, at the other extreme, the stress-prone analytical style requires more information and is interested in every detail. Their cautious and analytical nature makes them susceptible to buyer’s remorse. Be sensitive to their need for reassurance and guarantees. Once you learn how to identify each of the four primary behavioral styles, you will be able to work more effectively with all of your customers.

Communicate effectively

Recognise the importance of nonverbal communication and learn to “listen with your eyes.” It might surprise you to know that research indicates over 70% of our communication is perceived nonverbally. In fact, studies show that body language has a much greater impact and reliability than the spoken word.

Create a favorable first impression and build rapport quickly by using open body language. In addition to smiling and making good eye contact, you should show the palms of your hands, keep your arms unfolded and your legs uncrossed. You can develop harmony by “matching and mirroring” your customer’s body language gestures. Matching and mirroring is unconscious mimicry. It’s a way of subconsciously telling another that you like them and agree with them.

Improve your active listening skills. To develop and encourage conversation, use open-ended questions to probe the meaning behind your prospect’s statements. Occasionally repeat your prospect’s words verbatim. By restating his or her key words or phrases you not only clarify communication, but also build rapport. Keep your attention focused on what your customer is saying and avoid the temptation to interrupt, argue or dominate the conversation.

Little things make a big difference

Rendering quality customer service is both a responsibility and an opportunity. Often salespeople view customer service as an administrative burden that takes them away from making a sale. The truth is that customer service provides opportunities for cross-selling, up-selling and generating quality referrals.

Customers describe quality customer service in terms of attention to detail and responsiveness. Customer satisfaction surveys consistently point to the fact that the little things make a big difference. Not surprisingly, the top two customer complaints with regards to customer service are unreturned phone calls and a failure to keep promises and commitments. Make an effort to see yourself through your customer’s eyes. True customer service is meeting and surpassing your customer’s expectations.

Successful salespeople “go the extra mile” when providing service and turn the customers they serve into advocates to help them promote their business. Your referrals and follow on business are in direct proportion to the quality and quantity of service you render on a daily basis. Want more referrals? Improve your service!

Here are five powerful customer service tips.

Under-promise and over-deliver. Develop a reputation for reliability; never make a promise that you can’t keep. Your word is your bond.

Pay attention to the small things. Get in the habit of returning phone calls, emails and other correspondence quickly. Follow up, follow up, follow up.

Stay in contact and keep good records. Take the time to jot down notes from meetings and phone calls making certain to record all relevant information. Maintain a written record of service. This is especially helpful when clients are reassigned to a new sales rep. Setup a suspense system to track important contact dates such as client review calls and birthdays. Consider sending a personal note or an article of interest every six months.

Give your customers a promotional gift. Consider sending them a letter opener, coffee mug or a calendar with your picture and contact information.

Establish a feedback system to monitor how your customers perceive the quality and quantity of the service you provide. Service is not defined by what you think it is, but rather how your customers perceive its value. When it comes to customer service, perception is reality.

Progressive companies emphasise commitment to customer service from the top down by establishing training standards and continuously monitoring customer satisfaction. Companies that fail to implement an effective customer service programme actually do a disservice to their customers and unknowingly, leave the backdoor open to their competitors. If you do it right – sales and service will blend seamlessly.

Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make Managing Remote Sales Teams

Posted on September 30, 2016 by admin

Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make Managing Remote Sales Teams

Remote sales offices are established typically with the single purpose of growing new markets and revenue sources for the company. Anything that hinders that mission is by definition hindering company growth and impeding efforts to grow revenues.With that in mind I have put together a list of common mistakes I have seen repeated many times so you can at least recognize and correct them or at best avoid them.

Mistake 1: Not enough support resources. This mistake is almost always preceded in a sales meeting by the phrase “You sell it and we will figure out how to deliver it/get you the resources to get it done.”As an employee in this situation a giant flashing light and klaxon should go off in your head warning you of the impending danger. Negotiate for specific technical resources with timeline commitments before you accept the position or ask and understand how your sales efforts will be supported. If it does not pass the smell test in explanation, you should never expect it to pass the smell test in execution.As a company, you risk damaging your reputation, losing customers, destroying your remote sales teams integrity in the market, and doing irreparable damage to the remote teams morale by failing to execute all post sales responsibilities.If a company cannot truly support a remote sales team that is going to need company resources to deliver the products and services they are selling, the company is better off not opening/closing that field location and terminating/relocating that sales resource to a market the company can support with certainty.You cannot fight a war to win revenues without establishing clear lines of support.

Mistake 2: Treating every office the way you treat the home office sales team. Remote offices are almost always setup to expand the corporate empire based on the success of the home office. It is a massive mistake to manage a new office in a new remote city the same way you manage your home office sales team.In your home city it is likely that your company has established a certain momentum aiding ongoing sales efforts. This momentum is often a compilation of several factors including having an established local brand, a number of years in business, culture, established customer base, local references, local advertising and publicity, tradition, and typically, local ownership ties.It is a fundamental mistake to set across the board sales targets and objectives for the sales teams facing radically different established momentum. This is not a matter of simply waiting for a new market sales resource to ramp up, it requires a fundamental change in how you attack that market. S

Mistake 3: Not understanding the unique requirements of new markets or of markets in different stages of development and managing them all the same.

In establishing a remote office, a company is typically:

Expanding into a new market where their services have not been offered before.

Opening a remote office around a key client.

Opening a remote office to manage some existing accounts with hopes for growth.

Making a tactical decision to rapidly expand, block a competitor, arrive in a market ahead of a competitor or grab a key location.

The strategy for every office needs to be unique to its individual market situation. Even McDonalds, with world wide name recognition and a reputation for producing a consistent product makes adjustments to their menu and process based on the unique qualities of the market they are entering.

In a new territory where there is no name recognition, I focus on territory planning, earning core anchor accounts that can be used as references, and deploying heavy support resources to make sure the first few engagements are successful ones to make sure the first few steps in a new market are solid ones as we begin to build our name. That is radically different than my market approach with the home office.

Match management focus to individual market needs to establish remote offices in new territories.

Mistake 4: Expecting remote office staff to be able to generate the same volume of reports/ admin/paperwork as the home office.

Where there are sales professionals there is paperwork. Expense reports, pipeline reports, call reports, travel logs, presentations, proposals, RFPs, etc.

While there may be a standard procedure for preparing and completing necessary paperwork don’t automatically assume that what works for the home office is even necessary or will work for smaller remote offices. In many cases there are additional official or unofficial support resources that assist in keeping the sales machine running in the home office. Burdening a remote office with excessive admin requirements can destroy morale and limit their time/ability to do what the office was established to do, sell.

Mistake 5: Micro manage remote resources.

In retrospect, I probably should have put this one first because this has been the death of so many remote sales organizations and the HQ based managers that are tasked with managing them. Micro management has no place in managing remote sales teams.

Yes, the remote sales team is going to be out of the daily purview of management but that does not mean there needs to be any extra controls put in place to make sure they are doing their job.

In fact, there should be far fewer controls on them than there are on the sales team at HQ. If you want the specifics of why, send me an email and I will break it down for you. Pick four or five metrics preferably built into existing sales reporting tools to use to manage your sales team.

It makes no sense to try and manage where the remote sales team is and what they are doing every minute of the day. If your sales team is making their numbers legally and ethically, who cares where they are.

If some team members are not making their numbers, use activity metrics and their call ratios as a comparison to determine where/why they are struggling.

—

I have managed remote offices, opened remote offices and carved up new territories and can tell you from personal experience that there seems to be a tendency to treat remote sales offices as somehow of lesser importance than HQ. Perhaps that is because of the revenue disparity between the established home office and the developing remote office or the lack of daily interaction, I am not sure.

Remote offices are your growth strategy. Remote teams should get at least the same amount of attention as the home office sales staff, but in truth I think that a remote office team needs more ongoing attention to run at its peak.

We nurture babies more than adults. We tend to the needs of puppies more than the adult dogs they become. We pay more attention to young plants than we do old established trees they grow to be. That same methodology should be applied to growing and managing remote offices.

Crafting an Elevator Pitch

Posted on September 28, 2016 by admin

You’ve just bumped into a former client at the airport. After exchanging pleasantries, he asks you what your new company does.

You open your mouth, and then pause. Where on earth do you start? Then, as you try to organize your thoughts, his flight is called, and he’s on his way.

If you’d been better prepared, you’re sure that he’d have stayed long enough to schedule a meeting.

This is one situation where it helps to have an “elevator pitch.” This is a short, pre-prepared speech that explains what your organization does, clearly and succinctly.

In this article, we’ll explore situations where these are useful, and we’ll look at how to craft an effective elevator pitch.

About the Technique

An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that you use to spark interest in what your organization does. You can also use elevator pitches to create interest in a project, idea, or product – or in yourself. A good elevator pitch should last no longer than a short elevator ride of 20 to 30 seconds, hence the name.

Elevator pitches should be interesting, memorable, and succinct. They also need to explain what makes you – or your organization, product, or idea – unique.

When to use an Elevator Pitch

Some people think that elevator pitches are only useful for salespeople who need to pitch their products and services. But you can also use an elevator pitch in other situations.

For example, you can use one to introduce your organization to potential clients or customers. You could use them in your organization to sell a new idea to your CEO, or to tell people about the change initiative that you’re leading. You can even craft one to tell people what you do for a living.

Creating an Elevator Pitch

It can take some time to get an elevator pitch right. You’ll likely go through several versions before finding one that is compelling, and that sounds natural in conversation.

Follow these steps to create a great pitch, but bear in mind that you’ll need to vary your approach depending on what your pitch is about.

1. Identify Your Goal

Start by thinking about the objective of your pitch.

For instance, do you want to tell potential clients about your organization? Do you have a great new product idea that you want to pitch to an executive? Or do you want a simple and engaging speech to explain what you do for a living?

2. Explain What You Do

Start your pitch by describing what your organization does. Focus on the problems that you solve and how you help people. If you can, add information or a statistic that shows the value in what you do.

Ask yourself this question as you start writing: what do you want your audience to remember most about you?

Keep in mind that your elevator pitch should excite you first; after all, if you don’t get excited about what you’re saying, neither will your audience. Your pitch should bring a smile to your face and quicken your heartbeat. People may not remember everything that you say, but they will likely remember your enthusiasm.

Example:

Imagine that you’re creating an elevator pitch that describes what your company does. You plan to use it at networking events. You could say, “My company writes mobile device applications for other businesses.” But that’s not very memorable!

A better explanation would be, “My company develops mobile applications that businesses use to train their staff remotely. This results in a big increase in efficiency for an organization’s managers.”

That’s much more interesting, and shows the value that you provide to these organizations.

3. Communicate Your USP

Your elevator pitch also needs to communicate your unique selling proposition, or USP.

Identify what makes you, your organization, or your idea, unique. You’ll want to communicate your USP after you’ve talked about what you do.

Example:

To highlight what makes your company unique, you could say, “We use a novel approach because unlike most other developers, we visit each organization to find out exactly what people need. Although this takes a bit more time, it means that on average, 95 percent of our clients are happy with the first beta version of their app.”

4. Engage With a Question

After you communicate your USP, you need to engage your audience. To do this, prepare open-ended questions (questions that can’t be answered with a “yes” or “no” answer) to involve them in the conversation.

Make sure that you’re able to answer any questions that he or she may have.

Example:

You might ask “So, how does your organization handle the training of new people?”

5. Put it all Together

When you’ve completed each section of your pitch, put it all together.

Then, read it aloud and use a stopwatch to time how long it takes. Your elevator pitch should be no longer than 20 – 30 seconds. Otherwise you risk losing the person’s interest, or monopolizing the conversation.

Then, try to cut out anything doesn’t absolutely need to be there. Remember, your pitch needs to be snappy and compelling, so the shorter it is, the better!

Example:

Here’s how your elevator pitch could come together:

“My company develops mobile applications that businesses use to train their staff remotely. This means that senior managers can spend time on other important tasks.

“Unlike other similar companies, we visit each organization to find out exactly what people need. This means that, on average, 95 percent of our clients are happy with the first version of their app.

“So, how does your organization handle the training of new people?”

6. Practice

Like anything else, practice makes perfect. Remember, how you say it is just as important as what you say. If you don’t practice, it’s likely that you’ll talk too fast, sound unnatural, or forget important elements of your pitch.

Set a goal to practice your pitch regularly. The more you practice, the more natural your pitch will become. You want it to sound like a smooth conversation, not an aggressive sales pitch.

Make sure that you’re aware of your body language as you talk, which conveys just as much information to the listener as your words do. Practice in front of a mirror or, better yet, in front of colleagues until the pitch feels natural.

As you get used to delivering your pitch, it’s fine to vary it a little – the idea is that it doesn’t sound too formulaic or like it’s pre-prepared, even though it is!

Tip 1:

You may want to keep small take-away items with you, which you can give to people after you’ve delivered your pitch. For example, these could be business cards or brochures that talk about your product idea or business.

Tip 2:

Remember to tailor your elevator pitch for different audiences, if appropriate.

Key Points

An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech that you can use to spark interest in what your organization does. You can also use one to create interest in a project, idea, or product.

An elevator pitch needs to be succinct, while conveying important information.

To craft a great pitch, follow these steps.

Identify your goal.

Explain what you do.

Communicate your USP.

Engage with a question.

Put it all together.

Practice.

Try to keep a business card or other take-away item with you, which helps the other person remember you and your message. And cut out any information that doesn’t absolutely need to be there.

How to Help Remote Salespeople Sell Better

Posted on September 20, 2016 by admin

How to Help Remote Salespeople Sell Better

More and more people are working from home these days, and this includes salespeople. There are definite advantages to having salespeople manage a territory and work from their home. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with some serious disadvantages. One of the biggest is the general lack of situational knowledge that is gained by working with a group of people in a single place.

When everyone is working together in the same location, there are far more opportunities for conversation, formal and informal. There is an exchange of knowledge that isn’t easy to replicate when someone is working at an outpost. Sales organizations are going to have to do a better job of helping salespeople who are working from home.

Here are three ideas.

Share Tribal Knowledge

One of the biggest challenges of not being connected to the home office is the general lack of tribal knowledge. Salespeople working from home aren’t included in the communication that only occurs face-to-face, and they are missing a lot of context when they do receive information. We can try to keep salespeople updated with intranets and email, but it isn’t the same. It doesn’t feel the same, it’s one directional, and it doesn’t have the same result.

To improve this, you have to find ways to share tribal knowledge. You have to make time for more formal and informal communication, including webinars and small group meetings where the kinds of conversations that can happen face-to-face happen virtually. Video helps tremendously. So does dedicating time to just share what’s going on in the business.

Who are we competing against most often? What are they selling? Who has the hot hand on the sales team and why? What’s changing out there and what are we doing about it? These conversations aren’t part of the sales meeting we usually hold, but they need to be.

More Time at the Office

It’s hard to be disconnected. The longer you are disconnected, the more you feel that you are out of touch. The more frequently you can bring the salespeople from the outposts back to galactic headquarters, the better. The more often they can walk the halls, interact with their team, and spend time interacting with the rest of the company, the more they will feel connected to them.

Some salespeople almost never visit the rest of their team. Some only see the home office every year. This is too long to go without having real, face-to-face visits and communication with the rest of their team—and especially their sales managers.

Virtual Ride-a-longs

In the old days, we transferred a lot of knowledge to the sales force by riding along with them on sales calls. This seems to have been all but abandoned. Now there is no transfer of knowledge. There are no curbside sales meetings after the sale call. There’s no informal sharing of information and feedback. Is it any wonder we aren’t doing well as we might be?

If your people make sales calls from home, you need to do a virtual ride-a-long. Listen to those phone conversations. If they are making virtual presentations, join those presentations and ensure that salesperson gets the feedback they need. Have the curbside sales meeting over the telephone or video. And make the opportunity to go and ride-a-long on real face-to-face sales calls, too.

Spend time transferring the knowledge and the feedback you would share if your salesperson worked down the hall, and help your remote sales force sell better.

Questions

What are the disadvantages of working remotely?

What does it cost the company to NOT have the salesperson working with their team?

What are your best ideas for helping transfer situational knowledge to remote sales people?

How do you ensure that your remote sales force is connected to the rest of the company?

Making a Great First Impression

Posted on September 7, 2016 by admin

It takes just a quick glance, maybe three seconds, for someone to evaluate you when you meet for the first time. In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed.

With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person’s impression of you is formed. These first impression can be nearly impossible to reverse or undo, making those first encounters extremely important, for they set the tone for all the relationships that follows.

So, whether they are in your career or social life, it’s important to know how to create a good first impression. This article provides some useful tips to help you do this.

Be on Time

Someone you are meeting for the first time is not interested in your “good excuse” for running late. Plan to arrive a few minutes early. And allow flexibility for possible delays in traffic or taking a wrong turn. Arriving early is much better that arriving late, hands down, and is the first step in creating a great first impression.

Be Yourself, Be at Ease

If you are feeling uncomfortable and on edge, this can make the other person ill at ease and that’s a sure way to create the wrong impression. If you are calm and confident, so the other person will feel more at ease, and so have a solid foundation for making that first impression a good one. See our section on relaxation techniques to find out how to calm that adrenaline!

Present Yourself Appropriately

Of course physical appearance matters. The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you and your appearance is usually the first clue he or she has to go on.

But it certainly does not mean you need to look like a model to create a strong and positive first impression. (Unless you are interviewing with your local model agency, of course!)

No. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so the “picture” you first present says much about you to the person you are meeting. Is your appearance saying the right things to help create the right first impression?

Start with the way you dress. What is the appropriate dress for the meeting or occasion? In a business setting, what is the appropriate business attire? Suit, blazer, casual? And ask yourself what the person you’ll be meeting is likely to wear – if your contact is in advertising or the music industry, a pinstripe business suit may not strike the right note!

For business and social meetings, appropriate dress also varies between countries and cultures, so it’s something that you should pay particular attention to when in an unfamiliar setting or country. Make sure you know the traditions and norms.

And what about your grooming? Clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for most business and social occasions. A good haircut or shave. Clean and tidy clothes. Neat and tidy make up. Make sure your grooming is appropriate and helps make you feel “the part”.

Appropriate dressing and grooming help make a good first impression and also help you feel “the part,” and so feel more calm and confident. Add all of this up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression.

A Word About Individuality

The good news is you can usually create a good impression without total conformity or losing your individuality. Yes, to make a good first impression you do need to “fit in” to some degree. But it all goes back to being appropriate for the situation. If in a business setting, wear appropriate business attire. If at a formal evening social event, wear appropriate evening attire. And express your individuality appropriately within that context.

A Winning Smile!

As the saying goes, “Smile and the world smiles too.” So there’s nothing like a smile to create a good first impression. A warm and confident smile will put both you and the other person at ease. So smiling is a winner when it comes to great first impressions. But don’t go overboard with this – people who take this too far can seem insincere and smarmy, or can be seen to be “lightweights”.

Be Open and Confident

When it comes to making the first impression, body language as well as appearance speaks much louder than words.

Use your body language to project appropriate confidence and self-assurance. Stand tall, smile (of course), make eye contact, greet with a firm handshake. All of this will help you project confidence and encourage both you and the other person to feel better at ease.

Almost everyone gets a little nervous when meeting someone for the first time, which can lead to nervous habits or sweaty palms. By being aware of your nervous habits, you can try to keep them in check. And controlling a nervous jitter or a nervous laugh will give you confidence and help the other person feel at ease. Again, see our section on relaxation techniques for help with this.

Small Talk Goes a Long Way

Conversations are based on verbal give and take. It may help you to prepare questions you have for the person you are meeting for the first time beforehand. Or, take a few minutes to learn something about the person you meet for the first time before you get together. For instance, does he play golf? Does she work with a local charitable foundation?

Is there anything that you know of that you have in common with the person you are meeting? If so, this can be a great way to open the conversation and to keep it flowing.

Be Positive

Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile.

Be Courteous and Attentive

It goes without saying that good manners and polite, attentive and courteous behavior help make a good first impression. In fact, anything less can ruin the one chance you have at making that first impression. So be on your best behavior!

One modern manner worth mentioning is “turn off your mobile phone.” What first impression will you create if you are already speaking to someone other than the person you are meeting for the first time? Your new acquaintance deserves 100 percent of your attention. Anything less and you’ll create a less than good first impression.

Key Points

You have just a few seconds to make a good first impression and it’s almost impossible ever to change it. So it’s worth giving each new encounter your best shot.

Much of what you need to do to make a good impression is common sense. But with a little extra thought and preparation, you can hone your intuitive style and make every first impression not just good but great.

Taking Control of the Sales Process

Posted on June 10, 2014 by admin

Taking Control of the Sales Process

Sometimes it takes a massive change to produce better sales results. It might take a major overhaul of what you do and how you’re doing it. But sometimes small changes can have a major impact on your sales results. You might be doing most everything right, but something relatively minor causes serious problems, like losing control of the sales process and extending your sales cycle time.

Here are two small changes that can give you back control over your sales process, shorten your sales cycle time, and allow you to create more value throughout the process.

Linking Commitments to Commitments

Sales managers and sales leaders complain about persistently long sales cycles. They have a sales process—even if isn’t given the attention it deserves. Reducing the cycle time would help them produce better results, and it would help their clients to realize the value that they create sooner too.

One simple change can make all the difference in the world. Here it is: never leave a sales interaction without scheduling the next sales interaction.

By never leaving a sales call without another commitment for some activity that advances the sales, you link commitment to commitment and more the sales process along. This little change alone can squeeze weeks out of the sales process, normally those weeks that you spend trying to get your dream client to return your calls, respond to your voicemail message, or return your email messages.

Choosing the Right Medium

Some people insist on emailing pricing to their dream clients. But by emailing their pricing, they lose control of the sales process. Once your prospect has your emailed pricing and proposal, they can make their decision without you. If they have concerns, they can resolve them to their satisfaction—but not to yours.

Email is a poor medium for delivering pricing and proposals, unless your business is seriously transactional, and even then you’d gain an advantage by choosing a more effective medium. Email is also a poor medium for negotiations. It’s more effective to speak face-to-face or by telephone to talk through issues than it is to send revision after revision back and forth with no real dialogue.

The nature and outcome of the interaction drives the choice of medium, not what’s easiest. Maintaining control of the sales process means choosing what’s most effective, not what seems to be most efficient. In fact, the effective choice is the most efficient choice—it’s the one that most quickly gets you the outcome you want.

Questions

Have you ever made small changes to realize a dramatic improvement?

Can one seemingly minor mistake have outsized repercussions?

How do you recognize the blind spots or mistakes you might be making?

Do you ever leave a sales interaction without scheduling your next sales interaction?

Do you ever choose a medium that might not be the very best choice for the outcome you want?

On Being Young and In Sales

Posted on June 3, 2014 by admin

On Being Young and In Sales

Tom writes: “I am 25 years old and sometimes feel as though I am not perceived as a peer to the business owners to whom I sell. Do you have any tips to combat this?”

Yes.

I started working in sales when I was 19 years old. I never thought of myself as being in sales at that time, but I was making cold calls, making sales calls, and making deals.

I wasn’t officially in sales until I was 24 years old and a mentor forced by to become an Account Executive by threatening to fire me if I didn’t leave an operational role and go outside full time. I was young. I looked young, and I wore my long hair in a ponytail. I also wore a nice suit every day. Of course, that was Los Angeles, so I didn’t look out of place at all there.

I did, however, when I came back to Columbus. Then I was 25, still looked young, and was now selling major, multi-million dollar deals.

Here’s my advice.

Be Respectful and Learn

The reason the business owners you call on don’t look at you as a peer is because you aren’t yet their peer. That’s okay, too.

The business owners you are calling on are likely entrepreneurs. They’ve taken risks. They’ve built businesses. They have a profit and loss statement and balance sheet for which they alone are responsible. They have a depth of knowledge and experience you likely haven’t acquired.

What I found worked when I was young was my insatiable curiosity to learn from people that knew more than me. Since they had experiences I hadn’t had, I asked endless questions to better understand their business and to learn from them. The more I asked for an education, the more I received one.

After some time, I knew something about a lot of different business, and I gained an understanding of how businesses generally work. Later, when I called on business similar to the ones who were tutoring me, I knew how their business worked and the questions to ask to open opportunities.

So start by being respectful of what they know, and be genuinely curious. You’ll be surprised how much people enjoy teaching you everything they know about their business.

Become a Subject Matter Expert

The other thing that I did that helped me combat my youthful appearance (and the ignorance that accompanied it) was to become a subject matter expert.

My clients knew their business, but they didn’t know mine. I sold temporary staffing, so I started to study employment. I started to read all the labor market releases. I researched legislative changes that would impact my client’s businesses. I started to develop ideas as to how I could add value by helping them see around corners, identifying areas of concern and making plans long before they were necessary.

I discovered that by having subject matter expertise, my clients and dream clients began to think of me as a business partner, as a member of their management team, as something more than just another vendor.

You don’t have to be perceived as a peer by your clients. You don’t have to be their equal right now. They’re older, and they have more experience. But you can—and should—be more than their equal when it comes to your subject matter expertise. Instead of trying to be a peer, try instead to be the member of their management team. Be someone they trust to own the outcomes that you can produce for them.

And as a final note, don’t worry about the whole “being young” thing. I promise that will pass much faster than you can imagine.

Questions

Why is being young sometimes a disadvantage in sales?

Do you have to be considered a peer or equal to sell effectively?

What should you do to be something more than equal in your subject matter?

How do you make yourself more valuable when you lack experience and situational knowledge?

Consistent Effort is the Key to Better Sales Results

Posted on May 31, 2014 by admin

Consistent Effort is the Key to Better Sales Results

One of the primary reasons salespeople produce sporadic results is because their actions are equally sporadic. Their effort isn’t consistent enough to produce the results they want—or need. It’s zero effort for a long time, and then it’s time to play catch up. But that doesn’t work.

You can’t go long periods without prospecting and then prospect like crazy. You can’t make up for lost time and cram to get results. Building a pipeline doesn’t lend itself to sporadic activity. To build your pipeline, you need consistent effort over a long period of time. Anything less gives you wavy results—it if it gives you anything at all.

You build a pipeline through consistent prospecting.

You can’t follow your sale process for a little while and then abandon doing what you know to be effective in hopes of succeeding by taking some easier actions. There are all kinds of occasions to fall out of your sales process, especially when what you are seeing means you have to get creative. But not following the sales process means poor results, longer sales cycles, and lost opportunities.

You win sales opportunities by consistently following your sales process, by making it your standard operating procedure.

Speaking of prospecting, nurturing is another area we can produce an inconsistent effort. If you only make a call every 90 days, you aren’t nurturing the relationships you need—you’re neglecting them.

You only open the relationships with a frequent and consistent effort to create value.

It’s easy to ask for the commitments you need when it feels like the answer will be in the affirmative, and it’s easy not to when you fear the answer will be no. By failing to ask for what you really need, you go without information that you need to create and win an opportunity. You also go without the access to stakeholders that you need. Then, you’re surprised to learn that you lost an opportunity for which you are perfect.

By consistently asking for the commitments you need, you improve the likelihood of winning the opportunities you create.

None of this is true for sales alone. It’s true in whatever your endeavor, for whatever result it is you hope to achieve. Consistency is the key. It’s the daily stacking up of your efforts, brick upon brick, which ultimately produces results.

Questions

What do you do most consistently? How are your results in that area of your life?

What do you do only sporadically? How are your results different?

What do you need to commit to doing more consistently to produce the results you want?

What do you need to stop doing so consistently to produce the results you’re after?

What We Can’t Measure

Posted on May 7, 2014 by admin

What We Can’t Measure

Did you create value during that sales call? How much value exactly? What was your dream client’s perception of the value that you created?

Did you influence the buying process? Did you create trust? How much trust?

Does your dream client like you? Are you more likable than your competitors? What is the depth of your relationship? Is it as strong as it should be? What metric are you using to determine the strength of your individual relationship?

Did you uncover your prospective client’s real motivations? Is the worldview they described really their view, or is it the company line? Is the buying criteria they described what will really be used to make the decision? Or is it really a price decision with the criteria serving to justify a lower price later?

This list could continue on interminably.

The world is ruled by invisible forces. Most of what effects our lives, including the outcome of a sales opportunity, can’t be seen. We can measure much, but what we can glean from those measurements doesn’t often reveal anything we can rely on with anything that resembles a scientific certitude.

Keep Your Processes and Methodologies

But none of this is to suggest that you shouldn’t follow a sales process and good sales methodologies. It doesn’t mean that generalizations and patterns aren’t valuable. There are many generalizations worth capturing and implementing. In fact, much of what we do in life is following patterns that work (or worked at some time).

If your dream client agrees to take the next step with you, then there is some good, even if less than scientific, evidence that you created value during a your sales interaction. If you are denied that future appointment, there is some evidence that you might not have crated value.

We capture this agreement to advance as proof positive that enough value was created. Scientific? No. Close enough for rock-n-roll? Absolutely.

If you ask for and obtain the information you need to help your dream client, then there is some good evidence that you have established some level of trust. If you are denied the information you need, then there may be some evidence that your dream client doesn’t trust you with the information–or they don’t trust you to do anything worthwhile with the information.

When you acquire information, it likely means you can close some gate in your sales process. Does this mean your dream client trusts you like their oldest friend? Well, not necessarily, but nor must it. It means that, as far as your sales process is concerned, you’ve earned enough to move forward.

We can’t measure most of what’s really important. But the questions at the beginning of the post, difficult as they are to answer, are the important questions. The best we can do is capture and measure some outcomes that give us some evidence that what we are doing is working–and what we are doing that isn’t.

Questions

Because something is difficult to measure does that make it unimportant?

What are the important factors that lead to a sale that can’t be measured?

What do we measure instead?

How do we align what we can measure with what we can’t measure?

Salesboard

Record, Share and Compare your success

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On Being Young and In Sales

Consistent Effort is the Key to Better Sales Results

What We Can’t Measure