Selling the value of what you do in business is one of the most challenging areas for most people. There is so much to consider:

• Who is my target market?
• What is the proposition that I am offering?
• How do I get meetings with busy business people?
• I’m an Account Manager and I’m looking for ways to sell higher and deeper into organisations
• How do I break through the ‘SMADD’ disease that clients and prospects have – that’s Sales Message Attention Defecit Disorder!
• How do I get more referrals?
• How do prove our worth to an organisation so we don’t have to compete on price?
• How do I get clients to value what we have done for them and stop switching suppliers?

The good news is that I am about to share with you 3 core components of value that you can use in your business to help you with these business challenges and more. The best news is that very few sales people and businesses operate successfully proving 1 level of value, let alone 3.

Let me introduce you to the ‘Sales Bullseye’:

Value Hypothesis –

The value hypothesis is the outer ring of value. This is when you are on the outside of an organisation trying to get in or are breaking in to new divisions, or trying to create a new project within an existing client. Here you must use research to determine whether you can probably derive some benefit for them. You don’t know for sure yet because you do not know enough about the organisation or the particular business initiative or business pain that the company is facing. This is not to be confused with an ‘elevator pitch’ which can come across as a trite generalisation of what you do. This is a very specific hypothesis of what value you can specifically add  to that organisation. An example could go like this:

“John, you should be capable of reducing your stock holding of your entire widget range  by 60% through the ability to use our demand forecasting software to know precisely what inventory is required to within a 10% tolerance rate. This will require an investment of £320,000. Which could  be returned within 11 months. We recently implemented a similar solution at Major Corp PLC  who achieved  a 70% reduction and payback within 9 months.”

A t the very early stages of a discussion this is only a hypothesis because you do not know enough about their business and without the right kind of conversation, at the right level, and therefore validation it is only a value hypothesis. You  will rarely  win business selling on a value hypothesis! It is only the start of the process and without the questioning and investigating skills needed to get validation from the client and prospect then it will never be a true value proposition.

Value proposition –

This is where your Client or prospect, is describing  how their business operates, where the dysfunction and costs reside and what their vision is for an alternative way of doing things.  This is what you use to map your capabilities against with your value proposition.

Executives in large organisations give  feedback  that few, if any proposals, make them sit up and go “Wow, I really love what these guys are proposing” and very few if any actually propose anything. More they are no more than page after page of price lists and capability statements. Rarely is there a personalised story that tells the names of stakeholders, the challenges they face, the goals they own and an overview of how those tasks and goals will be affected by a new solution. They want  specifics of the value hypothesis turned into the reality of what can and will happen specific to their business.  Asked why they feel they rarely see this type of value proposition executives answered that salespeople are too intent on getting their message across without asking the questions needed to identify the core basis of a value proposition.

Value Statement –

The value statement is the single most important part of the whole process and yet very few people do it. An opportunity in your marketplace?

One of the core principles of sales has always been trust.  People don’t buy from people they like, they buy from people they trust. One of the greatest ways to build long lasting trust and credibility is to show you have delivered on what you have said you would. This is even more important when selling to large organisations because research shows that senior executives generally get involved at the project scope phase (value hypothesis) and post project review (value statement). The value statement is simply proving the value of what you said you would achieve:

“John, we said we might be able to  reduce your stock holding of your entire widget range  by 60%  and infact now the system has been live 3 months we have seen a reduction of 75% with a prediction  tolerance of 7% . Your  investment of £320,000 is on track for full payback in 9 months and not the  11 months we originally planned.”

If you can continually prove the value of what you have done then your credibility will go through the roof. In effect, you are closing the sales loop.

So my challenge to you then is “How well do you rate on the three stages of the value bullseye?”

Let me know you are alive and have a point of view by leaving a comment below, and share your experiences here too

I was just reading the book ’10 steps to sales success’ which you can check out here .

In it I was reminded of an old Zig Ziglar sales objections handling line that has stood the test of time well and still stands strong today as a great way of getting some one to think when they throw an unwarranted price objection at you. Remember, value, value, value…………

“Our company made the decision to explain a higher price once rather than justify poor service and quality several times.”  “You only cry once when you pay a higher price.”

Stuck with sales objections?

We invite you to gain instant access to the most comprehensive Sales Objections Home Study Course Here: SALES OBJECTIONS Or click the image below

Have a look at the home study course and never get stuck with sales objections again.

One of the passions i have is hunting down old hard to find sales and business information. This sales training video is absolutely a must see.  It is from one of the greatest ever sales trainers, called Elmer Wheeler.

You may have not heard of Elmer, but i can guarantee you have heard of some of his phrases, which you will see in this sales training video. He was instrumental in introducing the following phrases into the English language:

“Don’t Sell the Steak; Sell the Sizzle.”
“Don’t Write: Telegraph.”
“Say it with Flowers.”
“Don’t Ask If, Ask Which.”

Now let’s watch the Sales Training Video

The sales training video is  a bit corny at the beginning so you may want to start watching at about 6 minutes. It might seem old and out of date but this guy was a genius of his time and there is not 1 sales person alive today who could could not learn from his work.

[FLOWPLAYER=http://salesdnaltd.com/blog/wp-content/videos/MantoMan1947.flv,480,360]

Let me know what you think about the Sales Training Video on the comments below!

selling value in sales

In a volatile business environment, sales has to adapt.  It is not just reaction to change that we need, it is anticipation of change. That means that a variety of thinking skills are needed:

• The ability to analyse what is happening to customers and what it means for their suppliers,
• The ability to create new scenarios and solutions for them,
• The ability to reflect and learn from failure and consolidate on success.

Whenever do we get time to think about selling value in sales?

When times are hard, the pressure is on to do, do, do.  But if you are doing the wrong things, that only upsets customers more.  Sales management in the 21^st century is a great deal about leading and coaching the professional development in salespeople that customers admire.

Productivity is always important, but efficiency comes after effective courses of action have been identified.

Has the sales function adapted effectively to commoditisation, globalisation and recession as fast as our counterparts in purchasing?  Supply chain management has become a sophisticated science.   The purchasing profession has increased its strategic value over the past twenty years.

Meanwhile, sales has been pulled in two directions.

At one end of the spectrum, highly qualified account managers forge strategic plans with major customers, and are supported by cross-functional  international teams.  At the other end, tele-sales or even streamlined customer portals provide the low-touch, easy-to-use access to commodity purchases.  Although some companies still seem reluctant to embrace low-touch channels, they must be an option for customers.  Then, of course, there are the exceptions to all general rules.  Solution and commodity purchases can co-exist in the same customer, creating challenges for consistency of approach.  Also, customers can and will change.

Individual customers are not static and the mix of customers cannot be static.  The first step may be to analyse today, but tomorrow needs movement.  Even in recession, when the focus of time investment is on customer retention, there must be some investment in customer acquisition.

The initiative to develop customers showing signs of growth is also valuable. I can remember in the recession of the 1980s doing an awful lot of cold calling.  Of course, it was better than expecting customers to call me.  But not surprisingly, it was an awful lot more successful when I started trawling the business news, looking for companies who were moving, merging, winning contracts or changing senior managers.

From small scale prospecting to large scale account planning, success depends on providing value to customers when they find themselves doing something differently. Alternatives are always considered in the face of change.

Forget those smooth lines on revenue growth charts and start looking at scenarios for chunks of change.  Anticipating change leads to more productively targeted activity.  Analysis, imagination and reflection are building blocks that contribute a great deal to the effectiveness of Sales DNA. They need both space and time in everyone’s schedule which will result in a greater incidence of selling value in sales.

A note from Peter O’Donoghue about our guest blogger – Beth Rogers

Beth is a leading sales academic and author of the book ‘Rethinking Sales Management’ which you can get from amazon. Beth is also the programme manager for the MA in Sales Management at Portsmouth University – The premier European postgraduate degree for Sales Managers. Beth adds an amazing breadth of experience and expertise to the blog and I thank her personally for contributing. Why not connect with Beth and learn more about sales through her linkedin  page – here

Do you sometimes struggle to remember to follow up with important prospects and existing customers and clients because you just get too over whelmed?

It’s natural. We all do it no matter how well planned out our time is.

The reality is we all let sales and marketing activities go through the cracks because we are too busy, get distracted or just plain forget. There was research done (artributed to many organisations) in the 90′s,  that showed  most people will buy after 7 ‘touches’. More recent research has indicated that with the proliferation of marketing messages and marketing channels available today, that could be more like 12-20 touches.

An effective way to keep ahead of the pack and on top of your game is to leverage technology to work smarter and not harder. One of the best ways of doing this is by using what is referred to as ‘drip marketing’ software.

Using a drip marketing software like pinpoint tools will give you the edge to systemise your sales and marketing with your potential clients and customers.

An overview of Pinpoint Drip Marketing Software:

Manage your drip marketing here

You can develop as many presaved marketing and sales plans as you require. They can incorporate any number of future activities such as telephone calls, emails, letters or project tasks.

One of the most creative ways of utilising this software is to leverage the future dates option. This allows you to choose a future date when an activity will happen. This can be a final decision on a project, a visit to a client premises, a seminar – well, there are no limits.

Once you set that future date, you work backwards from that date to plan a series of activities that will be automatically scheduled at the click of  a button.

If you struggle to keep on top  of your sales and marketing activities then definately check out what this software can do for you. Have a look at pinpoints site – Here If you are going to buy the software, which is great value at $149 use the following code PO477 for a 20% discount.

Let me know how you get on.

Handling Sales Meetings

The blogger and author Geoffrey James  recently posted this  article  about sales meetings:

-  6 Ways to Really Irritate a Customer

which I thought I would share with you because it has some great lessons on sales training for any business to business salesperson.

Sales Meetings Tips

My personal favourites are:

1) Don’t do an information dump and

2)  Don’t show up and throw up.

For me these two tend to work hand in hand. If anyone ever came to me and opened up the laptop and uttered that phrase:

“I’m just going to tell you all about us”

The meeting would have an abrupt ending.

When I run sales training courses, I work with the delegates to put a meeting structure in place that always focuses on the client first by asking questions. Only after understanding their needs are any possible solutions fed back – if appropriate.

Top Sales Meetings Tips

My two top sales meetings tips would be:

1. Always ask how much time the other person has – even if you agreed a time before hand it is very likely that things have changed.
2. Always ask if it is possible to achieve your desired outcome at every beginning of sales meetings. This way you can work the meeting according to the response. For instance you might say “Gill, at the end of the meeting we should know enough to make a decision on rolling out the pilot project. Is that OK?”. Gill might say OK but she might also say “Sorry. No can do. I need My Vice Presidents rubber stamp on this. I had expected him to be here today but he was called away”. That’s not a problem for you now because now you can set the goal as rescheduling a meeting with the VP for next week. It’s better to agree this at the beginning of the meeting rather getting to the end and asking for something that was never on the cards

Read Geoffreys article(s) on sales meetings, you will like it and it will increase your effectiveness and ability to handle sales meetings.

The stories should give insights into your culture, your values and what it is you stand for. The most effective stories will entertain, engage and draw your audience to you. In sales, they will make you stand head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. They will motivate your prospective customers and clients to desire to buy from you rather than you hard selling to them.

If you want to see the power of a brilliantly crafted story then pay full attention to this video. It is stunning in every way.

Oh, what it would be like to have the skills and craft to deliver a sales presentation with this sincerity and power:

Anyone thirsty????

How To Sell: A project plan to structure your time

This is a fantastic one page project plan to get you thinking about the key reason and actions needed to make any sales strategy work.

My Goal: The most important part of the process where you clearly articulate the reasons why you are undertaking the sales project. What will it do for you? What are your objectives?

Resources I need: A fantastic way to get you thinking about what and who you will need to call on to make this sales project a success.

Resources I have: Never forget to be aware of all of the existing resources you have  and how you can include them. Databases, relationships with potential referrers, marketing materials – these are just some of the resources you might have available to you.  You might even have sales training available to you!!

Priority: Once you have made a list of the action points required you can prioritise them according to your own rating system. This could be  A – D or 1 – 5 e.t.c.

Time: Depending on your way of working you can use this for two elements. Firstly is the actual time you think it might take in minutes or hours and/or the second is the date by which it will be achieved.

Who: Are you going to do it ot can you delegate it or outsource it?

Action Plan: The actual items that make up the overall sales strategy. For instance if the Project is New Business Generation by a Targeted Calling Campaign, some of these could be:

• Acquire list
• Clean list
• Develop reason to call
• Develop powerful reference points to use in opening statements

Result/ Outcome: Once this part has finished what will success look like? What will have happened?

Purpose: This is the reason you are doing this in the first place. What will these actions help you achieve. Psychology shows us that one of the single biggest reasons we fail to do things is because we don’t have a strong enough reason why. Sometimes we just lose sight of that reason.

You can download the sales project plan by clicking the link above the document.

If you use this to structure your sales projects and activities I know you will sell more and be more effective.

The interesting part of the conversation for me was when the business owner was telling me that he had spent days in the library recently learning the art of garden design, perfecting his skills and investing his time in becoming a better garden designer.

My rather pointed question to him was:

“With all that time in the library recently, how many sales or small business marketing books did you read?”

The answer was exactly what I had already guessed:

“Well, ……. none”

The good news is that i could see a light bulb going off in his mind that gave me hope that his next trip to the library would be for some different reading material.

The thing is you can be the best garden designer, or any business, in your area but if no one knows about you then you will struggle.  If you can’t afford to bring in outside help then you must invest in yourself and learn about sales and marketing. Even if you can afford outside help then you should still invest in your sales and marketing education because no one will ever be able to take charge of your businesses future like you. No one will ever be able to market your business as well as you can.

Your key action point is to invest inyourself and increase your sales literacy.

• Get down the library and devour anything and everything you can on sales and marketing.
• You can get some great books on line. I recommend buying this Marketing Book (CLICK HERE)
  

Take as much pride and effort in learning how to sell and market your business as you do in becoming the best you can at what you do.

For years sales training has been training on the development of the features and benefits of your product and service as a core skill in sales. This is absolutely right because you have to know how your products add value to the other person and their company.

The culmination of the developement of the features and benefits list was the ultmimate ‘elevator pitch’, the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The principal behind the USP in sales is that it is the one biggest attribute of your company, product or service that above all else defines why a company should do business with you.

USP in sales example

The classic example quoted everywhere is that of Dominos Pizza. This was something like:

“Hot, fresh, Pizza, delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or its free”

Tom Monaghan, the founder of Dominos cites that one USP alone as a major part in projecting them from almost closure to the worldwide organisation they are today.

Very often, in my sales consulting and sales training I find that the very fact that sales staff can articulate the top three benefits of doing business with their company is enough for them to stand head and shoulders above the competition.

In the information age that we are in, most prospective customers or clients have a wealth of information at their finger tips and very often know as much as many sales people about the products/services or Industry.

That is why you should not be focusing on the USP but the CVP.

USP in Sales : The CVP

The CVP is the Customer Value Proposition.

Let’s face it, with a few exceptions, most clients don’t care about what you can do for then other than what you can do for them that will help them win more business. They want to know how you can help them with their value proposition. Yes, I know you may think you supply admin support or some traditionally ‘dull’ service that t everyone needs like printing, but in reality you are not.

What you are providing is a way for that client to win more business and be more profitable. This can be through greater efficiency leading to greater price competitiveness or more revenue to spend on marketing or an increased level of service.

When you are out and about in your role as a professional salesperson start to think not of your USP in sales but your CVP,  you will find doors opening far more easier for you.

]]> http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/sales-training-tip-forget-the-usp-get-with-the-cvp/feed/ 5 http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/what-do-your-customers-want-why-not-ask-them/ http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/what-do-your-customers-want-why-not-ask-them/#comments Tue, 12 May 2009 07:51:48 +0000 Sales DNA http://www.salesdnaltd.com/blog/?p=293 2009 and beyond will see fantastic companies flourish. Companies that have great relationships with their customers will continue to grow, take market share and even make market share that did not exist before.

Where are you in this process? If you are not at the top of your game yet then don’t panic. Some focused activity and attention will enable you provide your customers what they really want. But do you know what that is?

Verry often when undertaking a sales consulting project the company is not quite sure what their customers want. When we discuss this and the company sees the importance of this knowledge for their business they immediately think of a brainstorming session, a strategy review and a trends analysis. Whilst these are all excellent ideas there is something else you should be doing first.

Ask your customers and prospective customers!

We very often spend hours trying to figure out what our customers want yet overlook the most obvious solution which is to just ask them. Below are some of the best questions you can use on a regular basis:

• What characteristics do you look for in a successful supplier relationship?

• What am I or my company not doing that we could be doing to serve you better?

• What is the one thing we would have to do to lose your business?

• What are the three most important criteria you look for when investing in our types of products and services?

• Wo are your man customers and what are you trying to accomplish with them?

• Whats your biggest turnoff when dealing with salespeople?

• If you were running our company, what would you do differently?

• What could we do to make life easier for you?

• What have other suppliers done that really impressed you in the sales process?

This is a fantastic list of questions to get you started which were largely influenced by barry Faber and mostly blatantly borrowed!

Make this your task for the next few months. Engage with your customers and find out what they want. Why guess?

One of the first things I tell delegates on my sales training is that if they are ever in a training and someone stands up and says their way is the only way to do it, then run a mile. Training should be about providing options, different approaches and giving the delegates the confidence to try out differenet ways to see what is right for them.

To help me stay current I spend a lot of my time reading other peoples blogs and news sites. I thought it only right, that I should share with you the top resources that I use. They are not ranked in any particulat order. Rather, just how they come.

Karl Goldfield —–   An extremely likeable, tech savvy US blogger and Consultant.

Alen Majer — A Canadian  author and blogger.

Ian Brodie —  A UK based blogger and consultant.. His writings are insightful and very aware of the latest trends and issues.

Jill Konrath — An extremely active blogger with focus on selling to big companies. Regular reports and webinars.

Shift Selling — More of an interactive competetion with a monthly sals prize. An interesting read.

Mark Hunter — A well maintained and regularly posted blog from  aUS Trainer. Great for sales skills.

Steve Marinez — Steves skills are in systemising the sales process. Some fascinating articles.

Skip Anderson - A fantastic resource focusing on sellng to consumers rather than B2B.

Wendy Weiss — The self proclaimed ‘Queen Of Cold Calling’

Mike Brooks — Mr Inside Sales – Focusing on selling over the phone

Forums and Community Sites:

Sales Practice — An online community and forum with posts and advice on all things sales

Sales Management 2.0 - Helping Sales Professionals become top managers.

I will add to this as time goes on and would really welcome your input if you have any sites to recommend.

It’s funny but as a sales trainer and consultant it’s very rare that I wear a tie anymore. And do you know what I don’t miss them one iota!

I was reading through a classic sales ‘text book’ from the early 1990′s recently and was caught by the Way that the advise has dated so much in just ten years. I won’t give the name of the book because it was once regarded as the best sales texts books available and it would not be right.

The suggestions when it came to dress were:

‘Mens suits should be solid blue or gray, pinstripe or chalk stripe or modest gray plaid. Wool or polyester that looks like wool, is preffered. The darker the suit, the more authority it carries, although black is funeral. Men’s shirts and ties are important. Generaly, shirts should be white or pale blue or have mdest stripes………The ages of the salesman and the customer he is facing will affect the choice of dress. For salesman, considerbly younger than his customer, particularly buyers over the age forty eight, it is advisable that the salesman adopt the high – authority pattern of a dark suit along with a white shirt.’

Wow!

What detailed and specific advice. What happens to buyers at the age of 48? Is there some well known  ‘professional buyer menopause’ stage that kicks in?

Do you think that is true in today’s modern business world?

Personally I don’t but I would love to hear your thoughts. Personally I think that you have to dress appropriately for the circumstances. And if you are in a sales situation you should take the time to find out the perspective of the person and company you are going to see.

Thinking like this is still quite prevalent.  I was at an event recently and chatting away to someone who said:

“This event seems to be better than the last one I went to in London. It was full of scruffy gits, who couldn’t dress properly and not one of them was wearing a suit!”

Beware of taking a short sighted attitude like this in todays modern business arena. Some of the most wealthy, dynamic, forward thinking business people I know would never dreamof wearing a tie, never mind  a suit. Some you wouldn’t get out of their flip-flops!  However, if you were selling to this guy (he was a Sales Director) you would never get anywhere without a suit as a minimum. It’s not right because we all like to believe we are judged on the value we bring rather than appearances, but it still happens.

My own personal philosophy was very much moulded in my teens and in particular one instance when I went to buy a car. WhenI was 19, I was fortunate to be in a position to go and buy a brand new Volkswagen Golf through the family business. Although I was technically a University student at the time this was to be a ‘company car’. The problem was I  dressed like a student. And not a very good one at that!

I remember walking through a few showrooms where the salespeople just ignored me as if I was not even there. Yes, I looked scruffy but I as good as had a cheque for £15,000 in my pocket to spend.  I never really found any one to take an interest in me and had to force myself upon a salesperson after I got fed up of looking around garages. I will always remember that lesson.

Be careful who you judge!

If you are in sales then dress appropriately. If in doubt you can’t go wrong with dressing smartly or one way of putting it is  to dress how the people who advise your potential client dress i.e their bank manager and accountant.

One of the worst experiences at the hands of a so called professional sales person happened recently in a Portsmouth car dealership. See if you think they need sales training

“Can I help you sir?” Dave asked (name changed to protect the not so innocent)

I explained that I was just looking at the new Audi as I may be changing in anything up to 6 months and was interested in the new range. I was stood admiring one of the new range at the time.

“Come over to the desk Sir” as he led me to the far corner of the dealership where he proceeded to look straight into his computer. He made no eye contact with me at all as he asked “name, postcode, telephone number, email address”. Dave was so concerned with getting my details so that he could put me on the database that he made no effort to build rapport, ask me any questions and the worst sin of all – he took me away from the product. A product that I liked the look of, the more time I was examining it.

What happened next was comical for me but bad news for the car dealership owners. Dave went straight into a sales pitch that went something like this:

“Well I have great news for you. We don’t need to, you understand, because we have sold our quota this year but we are running some amazing deals if you are prepared to commit to buying something today.”

I inwardly chuckled. I had told Dave no more than 5 minutes ago that I was looking to change in about 6 months time and here he was, without doing anything to earn the right, he was running an old school sales tactic by me to close me down. Whats more he had not taken the time or interest to ask me any questions, match the car to my lifestyle or my needs, wants and likes. He had made zero effort to increase the urgency to buy now.

Dave explained that they were having a push for sales and if I was prepared to give him a commitment that day then there were some amazing, unbeatable offers available. Again I chuckled inwardly. I asked Dave what the offers were and he replied with:

“The thing is, I need to go and see my sales manager and he is a bit of a bulldog. I need you to do something for me and give me as much commitment to me as you can so I can get you the best deal from him”

I politely thanked Dave and explained that only 5 minutes ago I had told him that I was just looking, my buying cycle was planned to be around 6 months and that the little gold band on my left hand absolutely meant that I don’t decide to spend £32,000 on the spot!. However, if he would just give me the price of this absolutely fantastic offer that was too good to be true then I could be on my way and start to think about it. If it was too good an offer I would be back within the week. If it wasn’t I would keep in touch and would potentially buy from them in 6 months time.

Dave couldn’t find his manager to get the prices so he did the first and only smart thing he had done all day. He took me out for a test drive. All the way during the test drive Dave was telling me “I really want to sell you a car today”. He didn’t have to tell me, it was clear from every single thing he did. He had no real interest in what I wanted.

At one point Dave asked me what I did to which I replied “I run a sales training company in West Sussex ” . He smiled a big grin and said “I have done well, haven’t I? You only came in for 5 minutes and I have managed to keep you around for about twenty.”
I was beginning to feel sorry for Dave because the more time I spent with him the less likely it was that I would buy the car from him. The car was selling itself and I am more than aware that I can source it from hundreds of different sources via the internet. Local businesses have to understand that they have to put a huge effort into developing long term relationships. Would I recommend this dealership to anyone – plainly not!
It’s not all Dave’s fault though. He has probably never had any decent sales training that would show him the error of his ways. I am not taking all responsibility away from Dave. Any self respecting sales professional must understand that they are responsible for their own development. I am willing to wager that Dave has not read many sales books, does not listen to many sales programs as he drives to work in his company Audi. And what about the good old fashion skills of people reading, body language and behavioural flexibility?

We got back from the test drive and I was convinced about the car but far from convinced about the car salesman. The whole experience turned from comical to annoying and frustrating when we got back to the Audi dealership.

Dave – “ So what do I have to do to make you buy a car today?”

Me – “Just give me the unbelievable, fantastic, can’t be beaten price and let m go away and think about it. If it is so unbelievable then I will be back soon.”

Dave – “No you don’t understand. You have to give me some commitment so that I can go and argue with my boss that you are proper punter and not just a time waster.”

Me – “No Dave, that’s not how it works. I came in for a brochure as I was going to buy in about 6 months. You said you have a deal that’s too good to be true. Give me that price so I can go!”

This went on for about 5 minutes at which point I got up to go. Dave said that as I would not give him any commitment then the price would be the sticker price with no discount. By this time I couldn’t care.
I have had a few emails from Dave since. He is obviously oblivious to the fact that he enraged me towards the end with his terrible attempts at selling me a car and increasing the urgency of the ‘deal’. It is unlikely that me or anyone I know will ever buy a car from that dealership.

I bet Dave was chatting to his Sales Manger a few days later when they got to my name in his sales prospects list. “Oh, him. He was just a tyre kicker!”

Dave and his Portsmouth/Southampton dealership could really do with some decent sales training .

The following article was first published in my Sales Newsletter. You should subscribe here — Sales Newsletter

Last year I was in the process of selling my House and had invited a number of Estate Agents around to show me why they should be get my business.The process was an eye opener and one that left me totally unimpressed with some of the Agents I met. They were there to sell me on the benefits of why I should place my house on the market with them yet they could not even sell themselves. One Agent even delighted in telling me:

“Oh no, I’m not a salesman. I try to show them the house and stay out of the way”

Considering he was asking for a significant chunk of my money to sell my house, this was not what I wanted to hear.

One Agent did a reasonable job of asking me some good sales questions as she walked around my house. She was at the top of the list of my choices even after she had told me her fee was 1.5%. The cheapest agent was asking 0.75%.

I asked the Agent a question I usually ask anyone that I am considering doing business with and there does not appear to be a clear choice:

“Why should I choose You as My Estate Agent?”

I was hoping she would substantiate her high fee with something like:

• We have a completely new marketing system which means that we have been proven to get 30% more viewings than other agents in the critical first 2 weeks.

• We understand choosing an Agent can be difficult and that there is a level of risk involved – usually with you. Therefore we guarantee that if we do not sell your house at the price we recommend within 60 days then we will charge no commission.

• Here is an independent report that shows the average time taken to sell a house in your area with other Agents, is 85 days and our companies average time is 42 days. The benefit to you is that we are proven to sell faster and at the full market value – guaranteed.

What happened next was the Agent taking a sharp intake of breath, pulling a few tortured facial expressions, hesitating for about a minute and then replying:

“Oh, OK then. I can do it at 1%”

That was not what I wanted either! I wanted her to impress me and instill confidence in me that she was the best choice available. I wasn’t looking for a discount – yet!. At that point she went from the top of the list to the bottom.
The whole point of that personal tale was to get you thinking. -

“How would I answer that Question?”

That question is the basis of success in any business and in any sales position.

I regularly teach Sales Training Courses where the delegates would be looking for me to give them the magic words to say on their cold calls, telephone conversations and sales meetings. I’m afraid that those magic words that will guarantee you the business every time do not exist. All too often it is not the individuals fault as they have never been shown what the benefits of doing business with their company are.

Sales Success is built off the back of hard work and preparation. My top Tips for success are:

• Draw up a features and benefits list of your business and of every product and service you offer. Yes, I know this is sales 101 but do you really do it in your business? Concentrate on the benefits to your prospective customer/client. Learn to live a ‘day in their shoes’. Talk about them – Not You. This is one of the single most important processes in any company because once this has been undertaken it can be used for the basis of all of your marketing materials and sales presentations.

• Use the following aids to assist you — Link every feature with the phrase “which means that” i.e. Sales DNA offer an unconditional guarantee on our sales training (feature) which means that if at any time you do not feel you are getting a significant return on your investment then we will refund all of your investment. This means (a variation) that there is absolutely no risk to you at all.

• Get one person in your organisation to play devils advocate. It is their job to play a potential customer and ask “So What?. What does it mean to me?” to every benefit offered. The tougher they are the better the results!

• Try starting every sentence with “You benefit from…………” rather than I / We.

• Document the results of this process and ensure that every new member of staff knows as well as they know your product and service details. The simple act of doing this has proven to make new starters more effective in up to half the time it has taken sales employees prior to this being introduced.

• Make sure that you make this a continuous process and that all members of your company are involved.

• Make it part of your company culture that everyone can answer “Why should I use You?”. Every member of staff should be able to articulate this and should be asked regularly to make sure that everyone knows.

• Once you get so good at this that they become second nature be careful not to over do it! When you get good at this the natural human tendency is to tell every prospective client or customer every fantastic benefit you have to offer. Don’t! Limit it to the main 2-4 benefits that are relevant to the person. People can’t process more than this and the benefits start to lose their impact.

• If you are having trouble developing some fantastic, client focused answers then why not do something radical. Ask your existing clients why they continue to do business with you. The answers may surprise you.

Many marketing consultants and marketing text books advocate the development of a USP. That is a unique feature of your product, service or company that no one else has to offer. I think these are fantastic when done well but are hard to develop in many businesses.

In my experience with my sales consulting and sales training the very fact that you and your staff can articulate what it is you do and why they should use you is probably the best USP you can ever develop. I guarantee your competitors aren’t that great at it!

Jo went about scouring the local suppliers and the Internet and came across three blacksmiths/gate manufacturers who seemed to be capable of making the gates. We exchanged a few emails with our potential suppliers as well as pictures of how we wanted the gates to look.

Supplier 1: They came back with a price of around £1,200

Supplier 2: They came back with a price of £650

Supplier 3: Called us on the phone, arranged to come and visit the house to find out what exactly we needed and then quoted £300.

We were initially surprised by the large price differences and logically you would think we immediately decided to go with Supplier 3.

Not so!

After a momentary pleasant surprise, Jo began to question Suppliers 3 ability to make the gates. She had doubts about the quality of the product and the ability of the company to do a good job and is considering one of the other options. At the moment it is far from likely that we will buy from Supplier 3.

Now we have looked into the situation a bit more we can guess at some of the reasons for the price difference:

• The cheapest supplier visited site, asked questions and found out we were having the front wall rebuilt therefore the gate fixings could be built straight into the wall. Also we did not really require installation as our builders could easily do that.
• They had a better manufacturing process and made more gates thereby allowing the cost saving to be passed on to their clients

The points that you can learn from this are:

• If you are significantly cheaper than the rest of the market it may be a disadvantage to you rather than a benefit. Human nature makes us question why there is a big price difference between suppliers.

• If you do have a rational, logical reason that you can offer significantly reduced prices compared to your competition then make sure you tell everyone you deal with — in every communication they have with you.

• Don’t assume that price is the determining factor. It very rarely is.

If you or your sales team is convinced that it is all about the price then maybe its time to think about sales training!