How effective are you in managing your time in your sales prospecting and sales effectiveness?

Here’s a great look at some new an innovative ways to develop cold (or more rightly warm?) calling Opening lines.

That’s one of the things that most salespeople on our sales training want to know is

I am not a big believer in the old style tips and tricks for ‘fighting’ your way through gatekeepers and have used a more personal yet professional aproach in my training for a long time.

Getting around gatekeepers

Recently a contact of mine Shaun Gisbourne showed me a really good blog post written by some sales pro’s and a gatekeeper. Have a read – it makes sense!

http://thesaleswars.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/the-wisdom-of-the-gatekeeper/

Now you have read that be careful what you get upto when trying to manipulate or use tactics to get around gatekeepers. Many of my clients have been both salespeople and gatekeepers and they devise some ingenious ways to find out if you lie to them.

Some scenarios with gatekeepers

One group of telesales salespeople we trained made up a ficticious Director to use on unprepared callers. Any time someone rang up asking:

“Who is in charge of xxxxxxxxxxxxxx?”

They would tell them this Director and put them through to his voicemail. Yes, they went that far by creating a voicemail for that ficticious person. Anytime someone then rang up asking for Mr ficticious director they would just say:

“he is on another call – would you like to hold?”

They also told me that they would very often get  unprofessional salespeople ringing in and trying to get away with old style tactics, such as:

“I spoke to mr ficticious director last week and he asked that i call him today”

This usually resulted in an extremely short phone call!

So the next time you are thinking of ‘playing the game’ with a gatekeeper, remember the tale of these two blog posts.

Oh, incidentally, if you want to know how to bypass gatekeepers altogether and get direct access to your prospective client than come on one of our sales training courses because that is what we specialise in.

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????

If you sell to the 21 – 39 age group then a recent study by the Zandl Group might give you some interesting perspectives on what you need to focus on.

Do It Yourself Culture:

Consumers are increasingly adopting a do-it-yourself mentality to save money. This can be seen in shifts in:

• Cooking v Eating Out
• Bringing their own lunches to work
• Making coffee at home V Starbucks
• Doing their own home repairs V Bringing experts
• Seeking out cheaper, more underground, original entertainment venues

Online Barter:

Consumers are looking to the following sites for financial relief.

• Craigslist to sell/buy/barter
• Ebay to sell/buy/barter
• Paperbackswap.com to exchange books
• Couchsurfing.com for free accommodation – worldwide

Stay in touch  with the trends if you want your business to be a success for 2010 and beyond……… if you don’t know where to start then try http://www.trendhunter.com/

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.

Don't discount your sales prices

When times are tough, the temptation is to consider dropping your prices. Don’t!

If you drop your prices you are only adding to your own difficulties. The table above shows the impact small changes in the price you sell at can have on your business.

Print it out from the screen or download it here

1. Shows no fear: Never ‘pushy’ and does not resolve to hard sell. No signs of weakness and vulnerability to rejection. The master sales closer is confident and relaxed, and lets the conversation take its own course and move at its own pace. He wants the prospect to buy but understands the pace that needs to be at.

2. Not selling just for the commission: Profound genuine belief in the value of what he is selling. Matching the right people to the right product/service.

3. Never gets down on herself/himself: Knows how to control his inner critic. May use errors to improve but never as a stick to beat himself with.

4. Very Organised and straightforward in asking for action: “Here’s how we will get started”

5. Understands the prospect has doubts, fears and the temptation to avoid confrontation too: A master sales closer understands their job is to close sales more than anything else. Knows the prospect wants him to be firm, convinced, and reassuring to help the prospect act rather than avoid/postpone a decision.

6. Immune to rejection: Never taking questions, objections or refusal personally.

8. Avoid all negative influences and distractions: Committed and focused on the objective

9. Master closers are competitive yet remarkably stress free: A master sales closer competes with himself and his goals, records but rarely competes against others.

10. They celebrate success: Without guilt!

Learn more sales techniques in my blog.

Remember these sales closing techniques and be a master sales closer!

If you are having difficulty putting together a logical and emotional reason why your potential customer or client should use you then look at the quality of the questions you asked initially.

It may not be the definitive list of questions to ask but I guarantee you, that if  you have managed to get the answers to all of the following questions then you are well on your way to a sale.

• What is the customers/clients  situation?

• What is the customer’s perspective on the situation?

• What is the customer doing? Why?

• What does the customer want to do? Why?

• What are the customers perceived or stated needs?

• What are the unstated or unrecognised needs?

• What are the customer’s problems and the priority of each?

• Where do these problems have the biggest impact?

• What are the customers buying criteria?

• What does the customer like and dislike?

• What has the customer already said no and yes to?

• What is the customers decision process?

• Who are your competitors? What are your comparative strengths and where do you rank?

• What are the customer’s time frames?

• What should the ideal solution contain?

• What can you present to build your credibility

To help I have set out a few things for you to consider if you are designing your own mini sales training sessions.

If you don’t think this applies to you remember that everyone that buys from us is human and processes information in the same way!  Therefore —-   Think -

“How can I use this Information to make  my sales presentations better?”

Information V Learning:

• Reading for themselves is Information and is passive.
• Finding out for themselves is Learning.
• Drawing from their own experience is Learning.
• Research and feed back to you and the team/group is Learning.

Your natural tendency may be to present information passively i.e by providing handouts or reading out to the group. See if you can find ways to make this a learning experience as this will aid memory and recall. By turning the learning into a ‘whole’ brain experience, connections will be made in the brain that will ensure recall.

Critical information should be repeated by the ‘learners’ so that it is remembered and that it can create an association in the brain or a ‘hook to hang itself on’. This is why good training (and selling) will draw out associations that are meaningful to the participants i.e how it will relate to their jobs/life. What would be even better is get the participants to actively work this out and vocalise for themselves what the learning will mean for them. This is so powerful because they will form more powerful associations than you will ever be able to create.

Honey and Mumfords Four Learning Styles:

Honey and Mumford developed a model of 4 main styles of learning.

The Activist: They like to learn through doing. They are proactive and often have short attention spans and will get frustrated by long periods of ‘passive’ learning. To engage the activist consider exercises that involve action.

The Pragmatist: They like to know the ‘why’ of learning. Learning has to be immediately apparent or interest is quickly lost. If you cant spell that out at the beginning for any reason then let then know that it will be coming and then debrief by getting them to draw direct relevancy to themselves.

The Reflector: As the name implies they like to evaluate what they are learning. This can be just a few minutes down time or may even be a day or two.  Their opinion is rarely given instant as they need to think it through, so if you want to encourage their participation give sufficient advance warning.

The theorist: Generally the analysts of the audience who want to know – who, why, what, when – and love the option of checking out the facts for themselves. They thrive on further references, reading lists, and facts and figures. Rarely can you give too much information. Without bogging down your session with way too much information make sure you provide the theorists with handouts and the certainty that they can go away with enough supporting material.

A very similar model developed by Bernice McCarthy is a great way of structuring your verbal communications to appeal to different learning styles. It is called the 4Mat system and breaks down learning styles into people who need to know predominantly 1 of ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘How’ and ‘If’.

For example:

What:

The next session will look at why prospective clients say No to our initial responses on the telephone and will develop 5 key areas that will increase our ability to make connections with our target clients.

Why:

The reason we are holding this session is that, based on our trials of this these approaches, we have been able to prove that each one of you will be able to increase your appointment making rate by 25% by following these principles.

How:

We will achieve this by using the three target clients you have brought with you and a series of role plays. This will allow group learning and the sharing of your experiences directly relevant to your company.

If:

Once you have acquired this knowledge and skills for the initial first contact we are sure there are many ways it will make your job easier and increase your sales such as – face to face meetings and dealing with difficult situations.

One of the most significant factors in the success of any sales training or refreshers you do is the design. Design for impact, retention and use and your sales success is guaranteed.If we can help in any way just give us a call on 0845 6434165.

Sales Training

If you own a SPAR retailer consider a Subway franchise. If you are a huge department store, how about adding an old fashioned  gents hair cutting and shoe shine shop.

Maybe this is a step too far though?

If you are determined to set yourself up to fail I have drawn up the 7 key things you should say to yourself on a daily basis to ensure that you speed up your failure as soon as possible. Might as well get it over and done with right?

1. I can’t…………………….
2. I musn’t………………….
3. I haven’t got a chance.
4. It’s no use………………
5. The world is going to the dogs…..
6. There’s no point trying…….
7. You just can’t win…………..

Why not vote for the one that you think will help you fail the quickest?

Power Of Mind In Sales Training

It may come as a surprise to you but your own worst enemy in a negotiation is yourself. Some people seem to spend hours seeking out the magic words that will help them win in any negotiation yet fail to look to see what they or their employees are doing wrong.

Two recent personal experiences highlight this fantastically well:

The hunt for my perfect lights:

Imagine how excited I was when I found out that the one of the only 2 sellers of the lights that I wanted for my new office were about a 10 minutes drive from my home. I rushed down there and recited my list to the chap on the counter -

“I will have 2 of the powered track, 4 of the light fittings, 4 of the special fixings, please”

After a few minutes of scribbling on a piece of paper he quoted me a price which I was expecting (based on the advertised R.R.P. ) but then added:

“But that’s before your 25% discount”

Hmmm. Thank You, I thought. That equated to about £100 which I was more than happy to take yet was not expecting.

In this store there is a real need for some retail sales training rather than negotiation training. If this one member of staff was to do this twice per day for 200 working days then he has just instantly lost his company £40,000 in lost profit. That’s just from one member of staff in one location.

This chap had just negotiated against himself.

The Perfect Fish and Chips:

One of the great things about living in England is the fantastic fish and chips we have. My local chip shop happens to be very good and as a naughty treat we use them every couple of months. The last time I went there there was a large sign up over the counter which read:

“Due to the rising food prices we have decided to reward our customers by reducing the cost of our chips by 30p.” That equates to about a 20% drop in price of one of their one and only products.

Was this a wise marketing move?

Absolutely not!

The shop owner had just negotiated against himself. When he is reviewing his profits at the end of the year and is blaming the economic downturn, the credit crunch and everything else going for his terrible year will he be right? Absolutely not!

You don’t always need sales or negotiation training if you can take control of your worst negotiating enemy – yourself.

I found long ago that traditional powerpoint presenations and sales training does more to kill off the key things I promote than anything else. It is rigid, linear and down right boring!

Don’t fall into these traps with your presenations:

He is a great big ball of energy that only knows fun and has quickly become part of the family — with all the emotional attachment that goes with it.

Apart from teaching me a few things about communications skills the search and purchase of Pemba has been an introduction to some superb business practices – most noticeable by my vet.

See if you can spot their skill from our tale of acquiring a suitable pet doctor!

We were looking for a vet and asked around the local community and some family and friends. One name kept popping up and as my wife had used them for her cats when she was growing up we decided to give them a try.

They were about 20 minutes drive away so before we went I drove past our local vet to see what they might be like.

I never found out.

The outside was tatty and dirty and just left me thinking that if they were prepared to let their business premises get like this then what care would they give my young puppy. Who by thgis stage we were a little attached to!

We arrived at the recommended vets a little apprehensive as this was Pemba’s first time out of the house and we were still training him to be responsive to us. We walked into a beautifully clean building with immaculately dressed sales/customer service staff (I deliberately didn’t use the term receptionists as I firmly believe everyone in a company is in sales).

We were shown into the vet’s office where we were greeted by a kind, cheerily faced male vet who warmly introduced himself to us. He told us all about his own black Labradors and how he adores them.

The vet then did a thorough health check, produced a detailed report on his first few months and gave us some free food, free wormer and invited us to call in (without an appointment) at least 1 per month to get Pemba used to the place. On these visits, the nurse would weigh him and make a fuss of him and get him comfortable in the unusual surroundings. We were also invited to a puppy party where he could socialize with other puppies.

The charge for all of this — Zero, free, nothing!! Up to this point the vet had made no sales out of us and there was no hard sell.

We took Pemba to his first puppy party and he came back with a goody bag including treats and a soft toy – all free.

My wife and I are quite attached to Pemba and our buying decisions where he is concerned have a large amount of emotion attached. He is now part of the family’.

Who do you think will be his vet for the rest of his life?

Of course. Our nice vet who looked after us.

Look out for part 2 where I will demonstrate the fantastic business practices behind this canny vets operations.

Remember – come back for part 2.

To be honest I wasn’t sure of the point of the rant and what he was taking offence to. The post was this one on persuasion .

The post was a quick quote from Dale Carnegie about human nature. The rant took offense to the terms ‘Influence, persuasion and convincing’ and essentially (I guess) tried to make the point that no one like to be sold to – they like to buy.

I would like to open this up to debate, especially to the sales training, sales consultancy and sales coaching industry.

My take on this is:

· I am a proud sales professional and would never, ever feel uncomfortable telling people this.

· I am a consumer and a business to business buyer and I love being sold to. Although there is an argument that it is only people in the sales training arena love to be sold to. What do you think?

· I love it when I see someone professionally show interest in me, ask me timely relevant questions and show/tell/demonstrate relevant features, benefits and outcomes that I was unsure of or better still did not know of. If they get me to visualise it then superb!

· I am grateful when someone points out that I may not know exactly what is right for me and then demonstrates why

· I am aware of bad practice and can detect BS a mile away. Sometimes I may even buy from bad salespeople but it is on my terms and only ever is it a one off transaction.

· I hold a high level education and have an MBA specializing in Buyer behavior and can argue the semantics of certain words with many of the ‘sales specialists’ around. I do not, however, lose sight of the fact that many of the people that go through my sales training are young, have never been on a sales training program before, have very little awareness of open questions, could not draw up a one page feature and benefits list on their products and services and are looking for the sales skills needed to help them sell. They would be cheated if I stood up and told them that it’s simple -

"Go back to the company and create an environment where people want to buy but don’t sell to them."

That’s best left to sales consulting with the company itself.

I am an avid user of ‘PULL’ marketing and sales techniques such as social media, information giving, blogs and video but that doesn’t make me lose sight of the fact that people do like to be sold to regardless of the words we use to make it fit with our 2008 conscience.

Selling in 2008 is about transparency, information, guarantees of quality to reduce buyer risk, follow through, integrity and honesty. Don’t lose sight of the fact that the people who attend our training courses need us to mould them and shape them in the best way possible. Don’t blind them with semantics.

Give them the platform to be the very best professional salespeople they possibly can be.

Your comments would be appreciated…………

I spent my last weekend at an Entreprenurial Get together of 500 people who had gathered to see some amazing guest speakers.

One of the highlights for me was Duncan Bannatyne. He spoke for an hour and then held an open microphone question and answer session.

Duncans speach was superb. I have to say he was not the most “polished speaker” you are likely to encounter but his talk was based on his real life experiences and his humour shone through. This just made the talk seem so much more natural.

One of the things that really struck me was that Duncan could not really say how he had done any of his huge successes any more than “Just do It” (or was that Nike?). He truly believes that anyone can emulate his success yet can’t really describe how to do it.

I guess that’s the mark of a true entrepreneur. Strong belief in himself and an attitude that it is can be doen. Just get on and do it!

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!

The very first thing I do is remind myself and them of one of my favourite sayings from Dale Carnegie:

“There is only one way…to get anybody to do anything….And that is by making the other person want to do it”

That should be the basis of all ethical negotiation and influence training.