Archive for February, 2015
Seven Habits of Highly Resilient People
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on February 27, 2015
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
– Nelson Mandela
Success is seldom a straight road; it almost always involves many detours and dead ends. It takes tenacity and determination to keep going, but those that do will eventually reach their destination. For example, Thomas Edison failed over 1000 times but continued on despite being ridiculed by the media and those around him. What is it about those that refuse to quit long after most would have given up that makes them different? There are a number of attributes that consistently stand out amongst those who tenaciously follow their own path in life.
Have a highly developed sense of self
People who are able to develop a strong sense of who they are and what matters to them are much better able to resist external influences that will keep many people from reaching their potential. They are able to draw strength from within and therefore less likely to be influenced by what others think of them. This strong inner strength helps them deflect criticism, alienation, ridicule and other factors that everyone who forges their own path, inevitably faces. While they do make strong connections with others they have powerful internal filters that allows them to block out and ignore information they don’t find useful or of benefit to them. They are internally driven and believe that they are the best person to know and decide what is best for them.
Look for a positive take away from every situation
When things don’t go according to plan, resilient people look for the learning in the situation and the lesson they can take away. They don’t view failure as final, rather a necessary learning step that will take them further along the path. Instead of taking setbacks personally, they are seen as an inevitable part of the learning process and mentally prepare themselves to deal with them. Resilient people do not lose the lesson when they fail to achieve their objectives. They are mentally prepared for setbacks and expect the goals that they set will require a lot of time effort and therefore lose little enthusiasm or confidence when things don’t go according to plan.
Take a long term view
Resilient people are prepared for the long haul, fully realizing that anything worth achieving will be difficult and will take a great deal of time, effort and persistence. Despite not seeing any immediate results of their efforts, they are keenly aware that what their lives will look like in the future will be determined by their efforts today. Their strong sense of the future motivates them to take action even when they see no immediate benefit and don’t feel very motivated in the moment.
Have highly developed sense of purpose
Whether it is a belief in a higher power, a strong sense of purpose, or a great sense of humor, resilient people have sources of strength they can rely on to get them through difficult situations. This decreases their sense to belong and rely upon others for motivation. They see their lives beyond the everyday routine and strongly feel the need to follow their own vision. Their motivation is intrinsic and they cannot be easily dissuaded from their chosen path by others.
Don’t get frightened by uncomfortable thoughts or not having the answers
Most people believe that not knowing how to do something and not being able to, are one and the same thing. Highly resilient people don’t let not knowing how to do something stop them. They believe that they will find a way. They have faith in their ability to overcome whatever obstacles are in their path. Expecting to find new situations uncomfortable and difficult, they are willing to accept this as part of the process.
Selective in whom they look to for guidance and inspiration
Highly resilient people don’t suffer fools. It’s not that they never look to others for guidance and direction, it’s that they are very selective in who they chose to follow. They look for mentorship in people who have achieved greatly and whom they admire. Once they have found the people they chose to follow, they soak up all the information, guidance and inspiration they can by reading their books and listening to their spoken messages for insight.
Find healthy ways to recharge and nurture themselves
Resilient people are no less susceptible to pressures and life’s stressors than anyone else, but they have developed healthy coping mechanisms they know can be counted on. Whether it is meditation, exercise or an all-encompassing hobby, they have proven methods that allow them to recharge their energy and get back into pursuing their passion. Personal growth and development for them is not a passing interest or flavor of the month, it is a way of life.
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community Blog by Harvey Deutschendorf on February 9, 2015.
Do You Talk To Your Prospects and Clients or Do You Talk At Them?
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on February 24, 2015
Knowledge should be one of the most powerful tools in our toolbox. Knowing how to use specialized industry vocabularies should also be one of our basic and power tools. In reality, for many of us, knowledge and specialized lingo are powerful—in costing us business.
Naturally a great many new salespeople are tempted to try to impress prospects and clients by demonstrating their product knowledge and slinging their newly learned industry vocabulary around. They tend to oversell, answer questions no prospect has ever had, dazzle with words the prospect and client may not be familiar with. They talk about the fine points of their product or service; discuss how their service or product will impact ROI; how best to onboard new employees or products or services; how their product or service creates a new paradigm to address the prospect’s issues or needs; and the list goes on.
Impact ROI? I see, you mean whether or not it makes me more money than it costs. Onboarding new employees or products or services? I get it, you mean purchasing and integrating a new product or service or hiring and orienting a new employee. Creating a new paradigm to address issues or needs? You mean a different way of dealing with the problem, right?
You can say ROI, onboarding, or paradigm, or you could just talk to your prospect. Some say that if you want credibility with your prospects and clients you have to speak their language. I don’t have a problem with that in the least—if you’re actually speaking your prospect’s language. But how many prospects actually talk about onboarding a new product or service or creating a new paradigm to address an issue or problem? And there’s certainly something to be said about just talking to the prospect in plain English.
And very often new sellers butcher their newly acquired vocabulary and confound and frustrate their prospects with their enthusiastic demonstration of their knowledge of the minutiae of their product or service. Many lose more sales than they capture because of their lack of discipline and their need to impress.
Unfortunately I’ve noticed over the past three years that this desire to impress isn’t confined to new sellers. I consistently run across experienced sellers who should know better that are making the same rookie mistakes. The only real difference between these experienced sellers and new salespeople is experienced sellers tend to have a better grasp of the industry lingo.
In the current tough selling environment even experienced sellers are falling into the trap of trying to oversell and to impress with their knowledge and ‘deep’ understanding of the prospect’s issues. We tend to pull out all the stops and often end up losing our discipline and the prospect’s attention. We try to force the sale.
Rather than creating new clients, we end up alienating them. Whether you’re a relatively new seller bursting with enthusiasm and wanting to impress your prospects or an experienced seller feeling the pressure to produce, you need to step back and relax. Giving in to the pressure to oversell and force the sale is self defeating. Address your prospect’s needs and leave the unnecessary demonstration of knowledge and the impressive vocabulary at the office.
This article was originally posted to the Sales and Sales Management Blog by Paul McCord on January 27, 2014.
Words To Avoid During Your Sales Presentation
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on February 19, 2015
Needless to say, It’s essential that sales professionals are comfortable in their roles, but when comfort turns into complacency language barriers can start to appear.
In sales training what to say to customers and how to say it is covered extensively. These keystone skills are the backbone of any sales career and every good salesperson knows that they need to be constantly sharpened in order to remain effective.
Communication is the sales expert’s main tool. In negotiations a good communicator can make the difference between a non-sale and hearing the words “sold”. When following that age-old advice “ABC – Always Be Closing”, the only way this is possible is by being able to freely and naturally talk to clients and customers.
Becoming too comfortable can be just as much of an issue as being too uptight however, as complacent language has been found to be one of the biggest complaints among customers. Here are the most mis-used words in sales pitches which can turn-off clients in an instant.
Obviously
“Obviously” sounds vague at best and patronizing at worst. If you have to explain something, it probably wasn’t obvious to the client. Dissect your pitch and find out where your explanations could be clearer. If you are using this word just to fill up your sentences, don’t. It’s a messy way to use your speech and off-putting to customers.
No problem at all
If you find yourself using this tired old phrase fairly often, it’s probably because you feel obliged towards your customers for the job you are carrying out for them. Sales jobs can be challenging and some clients can demand more than others, but in their opinion, what you are doing for them is a part of your job so naturally, it isn’t (or shouldn’t be) a problem. Try to limit this phrase to once a conversation towards the end. Remember: The more you use it, the less genuine it sounds.
To be honest
Either you’re lying now or you were lying before. Your entire conversation should be genuine and pointing out that you’re being honest only makes you sound dishonest. Honestly.
Erm
“Erm”, “Umm” and “Ahh…” are all noises a client hates to hear. Filling up the spaces in your pitch with background thinking noises sounds unprofessional and can be very off-putting. The worst thing is the more you say it, the less you realize how prevalent it is in conversation. Practice confidence skills in telephone and one two one conversational situations and learn that short, snappy sentences and silent pauses sound so much better than a long thread of unbroken speech.
Basically
A lot of the things said in a sales pitch might be simple for the salesperson to understand, but especially in cold calling this might be the first time the customer or client has heard of anything like what you’re proposing. “Basically” is often used wrongly in place of more helpful terms like “in other words” or “to put it another way” by well-meaning sales professionals. Unfortunately the word itself can sound like quite a put-down, especially when twinned with a confident attitude and pushy manner. Your customers are not stupid, so don’t treat them as such!
All of these words and phrases can easily be substituted and omitted from sales pitches and conversations, so there really is no excuse to be breaking the rules laid out here. All salespeople should be enthusiastic about providing the best services to their clients and this relationship starts from the very first phone call.
Cut these know-it-all phrases out and see what a difference it makes to your sales figures!
Sales Management Coaching – The Power of Questions
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on February 16, 2015
Asking questions is an underpinning of successful selling. The notion – ask, listen, and then talk is a powerful principle in the science of successful selling. Asking questions is also an underpinning of successful interactions between salespeople and their sales managers.
Consider this; Effective coaching is not so much about teaching people, as it is about helping them to learn – that’s why top coaches ask more than tell. The problem is too many times when coaching, managers do it the other way around. They don’t ask enough questions and they talk more than the sales rep.
Given all that we thought it would be a good idea to provide some specific questions that could be used to get the sales coaching session on the right track. While there are no silver bullets, here is a starter list of 11 questions that could be used when coaching after a sales call.
- How do you think the call went?
- What do you think was the customer’s major walk-away from the call?
- What specific piece of value did the customer gain from the call?
- How did we differentiate ourselves from the competition?
- If you could do the call again what would you consider doing differently?
- What happen that you did not anticipate – how could you have prepared differently?
- Which part of the call didn’t go so well? How would you improve on it?
- What did you plan to do that you didn’t do – why?
- Who did the most talking?
- Did you leave the call with one of the advances you planned?
- What did you learn from the sales call that will impact your future sales calls on this customer?
Obviously the sales coaching questions that you would use would depend on the specific sales rep and the type of sales call. So your list of questions would be unique for each call. However, when coaching it is always a good idea to plan some coaching questions before the sales call and then modify the list as the sales call progresses.
This article was originally posted to the Sales Training Connection by Janet Spirer on February 6, 2015.
Salespeople Have to Invest Their Own Money in Their Own Sales Success
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on February 13, 2015
How much are you investing in your own sales success?
Take a second and add up how much of your own money that you invested in 2014 in your own sales education. How many dollars (or Euros or whatever currency you use) of your own money did you spend to learn something new about sales that could improve your performance and enhance your sales skills? How many sales books did you purchase (and actually read?) Did you hire a sales coach? Attend a sales conference? Or take an online class to learn more about how to sell to your customers?
If the total amount that you invested in your own sales success doesn’t equal 1% of your total compensation in 2014, then you have to ask yourself a single, difficult question: ‘Am I really serious about my sales career?’
How Much Are You Prepared to Invest?
In working with thousands of salespeople over the course of my work, what I’ve witnessed is that the most successful salespeople are continually challenging themselves by expanding the boundaries of their knowledge about sales, sales skills and their customers. Through my own informal research what I have found is that the most consistently successful sales reps are those who invest their own money in their continuing sales education, with top performers routinely investing 1% or more of their total pay in self-improvement
Too many salespeople seem content to wait for their employers to provide some sales training a few times a year. They think that it is solely their employer’s responsibility to train them to master their craft. Unfortunately, that is a losing strategy. By its very nature, sales is an entrepreneurial profession. It rewards those who take risks and those who have the discipline to constantly work on self-improvement.
For example, would you invest $17.95 per month for the chance to boost your commissions by 20%? Or, to earn an additional $1,000 in 2015? Of course, you would. $17.95 to earn $1,000? It’s a no-brainer. $17.95 is nothing. It’s the price of three fancy coffees from your favorite coffee house. It’s about $.60 per day.
What is significant about $17.95? $17.95 is roughly the average price of a sales book purchased on Amazon. There are dozens of extremely useful books on sales published every year that offer new insights and strategies for becoming a better salesperson. Would you set aside one hour per week to read one sales book per month if you could learn new strategies and techniques that you could put to use in your selling to help you win more orders and earn more money? Of course you would. Which raises the question: why aren’t you?
Would You Sacrifice One Hour of TV Watching?
Which leads us to another important question about investing in your future: What are you prepared to sacrifice in order to succeed? Would you be willing to forego watching The Bachelor, or any other completely forgettable TV show for that matter, to give yourself an additional 60 minutes of free time each week to read a sales book (if it would increase your chances of earning more money?)
Take the first step. Turn off your TV and invest some time to explore the universe of free sales resources available for sales people that can help boost your career. Read a few sales blogs everyday, attend free sales skills webinars once per month, watch YouTube videos about sales, listen to a weekly sales podcast (there are hundreds) or download and read an eBook, about sales. Through your research identify two or three sales experts who you feel will challenge you to look at your selling from a different perspective and who will challenge you to break out of your mold and try something new. Investigate their available paid resources like sales books, online classes, mastermind groups and sales coaches.
Then commit your time and money to put some skin in the game. Start small. Buy a sales book and read it. Or download the audio version and listen to it in your car. Put your own time and money at risk and I guarantee that you’ll instantly be more committed to wringing the maximum value out of that investment. Because if you won’t invest $17.95 every month to boost your sales and your commissions, then you’re not really serious about succeeding in sales.
This article originally appeared in the Sales Fix Blog on February 9, 2015.
Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Better Listener
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on February 10, 2015
“It can be stated, with practically no qualification,” Ralph G. Nichols and Leonard A. Stevens write in a 1957 HBR article, “That people in general do not know how to listen. They have ears that hear very well, but seldom have they acquired the necessary aural skills which would allow those ears to be used effectively for what is called listening.” In a study of thousands of students and hundreds of businesspeople, they found that most retained only half of what they heard — and this immediately after they’d heard it. Six months later, most people only retained 25%.
In this, I suspect the world has not changed much since 1957. So I dug into HBR’s archives for our best advice on the imperfect art of listening. Here’s what I found.
It all starts with actually caring what other people have to say, argues Christine Riordan, Provost and professor of management at the University of Kentucky. Listening with empathy consists of three specific sets of behaviors. First, there’s the actual intake of information — recognizing the verbal and nonverbal cues the other person is emitting. Then there’s processing, which is where we make sense of what the other person is saying. Finally, there’s responding. This is where you validate what they’ve said — and note that validating doesn’t mean you have to agree with it — by nodding, playing back what you heard, or otherwise acknowledging that you’re picking up what they’re putting down.
To help you stay focused on the most salient points of what someone else is saying, take notes as you listen. Ram Charan offers a tip he saw work especially well for Larry Bossidy when he was CEO of Honeywell. Bossidy would draw a vertical line down the page of his notebook and write general notes to the left, while keeping track of the most valuable nuggets on the right. This helped train his brain to listen intently and zero in on what’s most important.
Recognize your defaults. Are you gregarious and outgoing — a real extrovert? Then you have many wonderful qualities, but listening well may not be one of them. It’s tough to listen when you’re the one who does most of the talking. Or are you super-conscientious, your smartphone always in hand and your calendar always uber-scheduled? Again … listening is hard when you’re distracted by a screen, or rushing to your next meeting. Knowing yourself is a key part of being a good listener (and one of just many good tips in Sara Stibitz’s piece).
Pay attention when your mind wanders to figure out what’s stopping you from listening. This piece of wisdom comes from Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins, executive coaches and co-authors of Own the Room. When your attention flags, is it because you’re starting to plan your response to their comments? Or have you started listening to your own inner critic, instead of what they’re saying? But you can’t really listen fully at the same time you’re thinking about something else. When you notice something has blocked you from listening, simply make a note of it — don’t belabor it, or you’re just not-listening for even longer! — and shift your attention back to what the other person is saying.
Nichols and Stevens point out another factor that can stop us from listening: our own emotions. Feelings fog up a conversation. When you notice you’re having an emotional reaction, withhold evaluation and, with your judgment thus suspended, embark on a hunt for evidence that proves your own position wrong. “If we make up our minds to seek out the ideas that might prove us wrong, as well as those that might prove us right” – which human beings tend to do without making a conscious effort – “we are less in danger of missing what people have to say.”
When someone is upset or venting, a lot of us “listen” by sharing our own experiences (note: that is actually just talking). Or we try to fix the problem. (Note: that is also talking.) Or, perhaps because we’ve been told, “Don’t try to fix it, just listen!” so many times, we clam up and say nothing, which doesn’t result in the speaker really feeling heard. So the best way to listen when someone is venting is to ask questions, writes Mark Goulston, a psychiatrist and author of Just Listen. Help them get all that anger and frustration out into the open, where they can start to make sense of it on their own. Pose questions like, “What are you most angry about?” and “What are you really worried about?” They’ll feel heard, and you’ll get to the root of the problem.
As Nichols and Stevens point out, the basic problem with listening is that we can all think faster than we talk. The human mouth plods along at 125 words per minute, while a neuron can fire about 200 times a second. (This helps to illustrate why it’s crucial to slow down difficult conversations.) So give your brain something else to do while you listen: note the key points that are coming up in the conversation, actively look for nonverbal cues, ask yourself what the speaker might be intentionally not saying, or weigh the evidence being presented.
“The effectiveness of the spoken word hinges not so much on how people talk as on how they listen,” Nichols and Steven write. Many decades later, that’s still true. You can’t necessarily turn the people around you into better speakers. But we can all make ourselves better listeners.
This article was originally posted to the Harvard Business Review blog by Sara Green on February 6, 2015.
Five Tips for Running Efficient Meetings
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on February 6, 2015
Your time is precious, and so is that of your clients, collaborators, colleagues, and professional contacts. When you call a meeting, you want to give invitees the confidence that you are maximizing your time together and will produce great results.
The leadership development consultancy Dale Carnegie Training offers the following advice on how to run an efficient meeting that satisfies your goals and those of everyone in attendance. Use these five tips to make the most of your time.
Set clear goals
When you invite people to a meeting, you must communicate the purpose clearly so attendees come prepared to tackle the task at hand. Make sure everyone is on the same page about why you are meeting and what you intend to accomplish. When you set clear expectations, it’s easier to keep the conversation on track and within the allotted time.
Limit how many people you invite
You know the old saying: Too many cooks in the kitchen ruin the soup. Don’t invite too many people to your meeting. Every person should be able to add value in a meaningful way- not compete to be heard.
Limit distractions from technology
Limiting use of technology in the meeting room shows respect for all attendees. Everyone has dedicated time to meet and must be fully present. It’s not only counterproductive to check your phone, but it’s also poor etiquette. “Consider creating a policy where attendees silence their phones and stow them away during meetings,” Augustine writes.
Don’t Meet Over Meals
Lunch meetings might be commonplace, but how time efficient are they? If you are on a tight schedule, meeting over a meal is not wise planning. If your meeting happens to coincide with a mealtime then plan for it and schedule a separate time for eating.
Sum up before you part ways
Make sure to budget time in your meeting for a summary. You do not want people leaving your meeting without clear next steps or action items. Before you disperse, make sure everyone is clear on the outcomes of the meeting and assignments to be completed.
Companies with a Formal Sales Process Generate More Revenue
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on February 3, 2015
How well is your company managing its sales pipeline? Research conducted by Vantage Point Performance and the Sales Management Association revealed that 44% of executives think their organization is ineffective at managing theirs. (The survey included 62 B2B companies, 39% of which have revenue greater than $1 billion and 37% of which have revenue greater than $250 million.) This statistic is discouraging because there is a direct correlation between effective pipeline management and strong revenue growth.
In our survey of B2B companies, executives were asked to rate their company’s year-over-year change in revenue on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing “drastically decreased revenue” and 7 representing “drastically increased revenue.” Executives were also asked to rate their company’s effectiveness in managing the sales pipeline. On average, companies that reported having ineffective pipeline management had an average growth rate of 4.6; companies with effective pipeline management had an average growth rate of 5.3, a 15% increase. Even more interestingly, companies that mastered three specific pipeline practices saw 28% higher revenue growth.
What did these top companies do to achieve such a high level of success? Here are the three best practices that these all-star sales forces have in common, as well as ways to implement them in your company.
Clearly define the sales process. Pipeline management includes how the sales pipeline is designed, how it is measured, and how it is used to drive sales rep performance. However, at its most basic level, the sales pipeline is merely a representation of a company’s sales process. We discovered that sales forces were most effective at managing their sales pipelines if they had invested time in defining a credible, formalized sales process. In fact, there was an 18% difference in revenue growth between companies that defined a formal sales process and companies that didn’t.
So what does it mean to have a formal sales process? For starters, it means having clearly defined stages and milestones that are universally understood by your salespeople. Your sales team shouldn’t have to guess where a particular deal stands or how they should be managing deals in each stage. In addition, your sales process should align with how your customers move through their buying process. Too many sales teams use generic sales processes, and consequently get generic sales performance. Invest the time in developing a unique process for your team, and make sure that they understand how to use it.
Spend at least three hours a month on pipeline management. In addition to having a solid process in place, our research revealed the importance of dedicating enough time and resources to carrying it out well. Companies in our survey that spent at least three hours per month managing each rep’s sales pipeline saw 11% greater revenue growth than those that spent fewer than three hours per month. But success doesn’t just depend on the amount of time that’s spent on pipeline management – how the time is spent is just as important.
Many sales forces believe they are spending a lot of time managing their pipelines when in reality they’re spending a lot of time creating forecasts. If your pipeline management discussions revolve around close dates, probabilities, and deal sizes, then you are forecasting. Period. If, however, you spend your time discussing the overall health of your sellers’ pipelines and how they can shepherd more deals to successful closure, then you are managing your pipeline in a productive way. The primary focus of a pipeline meeting should be to help reps develop a game plan to move deals forward, not just scrubbing CRM data and forecasting revenue.
Train sales managers on pipeline management. Our research also revealed that 61% of executives admit their sales managers have not been adequately trained in pipeline management strategies and techniques. This begs the question, “How can we expect our sales managers to do something well when we haven’t prepared them to do it?” Companies that had trained their sales managers to manage their pipelines saw their revenue grow 9% faster than those that didn’t. But not just any training will do. Sales managers need targeted training to address specific pipeline management challenges.
Most pipeline training that sales managers receive is limited to how they log in to their CRM tool and generate reports. What they really need is training in how to make better pipeline management decisions. For instance, sales managers need to know how to determine the ideal pipeline size for each rep. They need to know at what point in the sales process their actions have the biggest impact. And they need to know how to structure pipeline meetings so they enable coaching rather than inspection. Even these few skills can have a significant impact on sales force performance.
Ultimately, pipeline management is a critical activity for all sales forces, and better pipeline management can make a huge difference in sales performance. Our research shows that there are no secrets to realizing this increased performance — you must define your sales process, commit to good pipeline management, and enable your managers to carry it out. If you integrate these best practices into your sales force, you can expect to nail your forecasts, hit your quotas, and see your sales reps succeed beyond what you thought possible.
This article was originally posted to the HBR Blog by Jason Jordan and Robert Kelly on January 21, 2015.
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