Archive for category SALES BEST PRACTICES
Seven Psychological Triggers That Will Put Your Sales Goal in Reach
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on November 25, 2015
Few things are more frustrating for a salesperson than an invisible wall. You can have a great track record, a way with words, a dapper appearance, and a charming personality — but that will only take you so far. The best, most well-rounded salespeople have mastered a non-physical, or relational, side of the game. There’s a deep psychology to sales, and your success depends on your ability to understand the “how” and “why” of your clients’ decisions.
Activating the following psychological sales triggers will send you down the right path and enable you to quickly build deeper, more effective rapport with your current and prospective clients:
- Personalize your story. You want your story to help clients connect their desire for a product to an emotion. Someone who feels something about a product is much more likely to purchase than someone who merely knows about it. A good way to accomplish this is to add personal anecdotes to your pitch. For example, if your client works in the medical field, start your story with the phrase, “In commonly working with medical practitioners, this is what I’ve found.” In doing this, you’re creating a personal connection with your client and opening the door for an emotional response.
- Tailor your reason. Every client has different reasons for wanting something. Displaying one overarching utility of your product is an insufficient tactic. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to effective sales. To properly apply this trigger, you need to know the specific hobbies and interests of your clients. Are you speaking to someone who prioritizes family values or someone who loves work more than anything else? Leverage that knowledge to tailor the appeal of your product and kick-start each client’s motivation.
- Spark curiosity. Once the client hears your story and begins to feel the need to acquire your product, you must give those positive feelings a viable destination. In other words, you need to ignite a spark of curiosity that causes him to visualize how he’ll apply your product to his life. When cultivating this curiosity, it’s important to share the right amount of information. If you under-share, your client will leave the meeting with too vague of an idea and possibly lose interest. But don’t over-share because you’ll run out of things to talk about at the closing meeting. Finding the correct balance will lead your clients to leave the initial meeting feeling understood and eagerly awaiting the next one.
- Be specific. Everyone who works in sales knows that most clients naturally distrust salespeople. That’s why it’s so important to provide clients with something concrete rather than a general sales pitch. By giving specifics, you step outside the salesperson box and become an educator — a much more trusted figure. Again, this is why it’s vital to study your clients as individuals. Handing everyone an 800-page manual that covers all your products just won’t cut it. Add specific twists and turns to your pitch that cater directly to each client’s personality and interests.
- Express expertise. Another way to build trust and depart from sales stereotypes is to present yourself as an expert in your field or as someone who has direct access to authority figures. My former business partner Scott was a renowned expert in wealth management, while my expertise was in life insurance. When we were in business together, I made sure to connect my clients from the financial industry with Scott to use his knowledge as a selling point. I told my clients that I was excited to introduce them to Scott, and I was sure to tell them what qualified him as an expert in their field. By leveraging Scott’s authority, I was not only asserting myself as someone who could meet their needs, but I was also sparking curiosity by creating excitement around a meeting with him.
- Emphasize scarcity. Scarcity is an age-old sales tactic. Consumers are commonly told to hurry up and buy something before it’s too late. But scarcity doesn’t always have to refer to quantity; it can also mean a limited-time offer or a temporary bonus. In suggesting that your product is scarce, you’re urging clients to move your offering to the top of their priority list and give it their full attention. Scarcity is a powerful tool, but be careful how you use it. Yes, you want your client to feel a sense of urgency about buying your product, but don’t use this trigger to manipulate them into making decisions that aren’t right for them. When you use scarcity to mislead and fluster clients, you risk losing the ability to sell to them in the future.
- Consider legacy. Getting your clients to think about legacy means helping them look at the big picture while maintaining attention on the current sale at hand. How you focus on legacy depends on your audience. If your client is a business, communicate how your product will help it move toward its long-term goals and better express its core values. If your client is an individual, speak directly to his personal goals.
Don’t just be a general salesperson who delivers general sales pitches. Be a human who seeks personal connections while selling a product. These tailored connections are the key to the psychological side of sales. Becoming a reliable, relatable salesperson will help you knock down that pesky invisible wall.
This article was originally posted to the Sales & Marketing Management Blog by Ben Newman on September 25, 2015.
The Art of Listening: Establishing Trust Without Saying a Thing
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on November 2, 2015
It’s Buyer Psychology…
Ask a client what they want, and they’ll tell you “expertise; credentials; someone who’ll meet my needs.” Ask them what their needs are, and they’ll tell you. But ask really successful salespeople (or honest clients with experience in buying), and they’ll tell you how it really works. Clients only ask for credentials and expertise because they’re not really sure what else to do. In truth, they’d rather get in range with expertise, and then decide based on their trust in the seller. Clients will tell you their needs because they think they’re supposed to, and because they’re afraid if they don’t, you’ll take advantage of them. But if you can engage them in honest discussion, they’ll admit their uncertainties and discuss, engage in, and evolve their views of what their needs are.
It all depends on why you’re listening.
If you’re listening to hear an answer to a predetermined question, then you will hear the “canned” definitions of needs that clients have prepared for you. You’ll hear their request for credentials and expertise at face value, and not hear the undertone in the question, or in the bored way they listen to your answer. Because what clients really want to talk about is what everyone wants to talk about: Themselves. When someone says, “Tell me about yourself,” they’re just being polite – whether it’s on a date, at a social event, or in a sales call. The right answer is not to tell them about your vast experience with other clients – it is to get them talking about themselves. And to listen as they do so.
The Quality Of Listening
The usual form of listening is conditioned by sales models looking for answers and by flawed views of buyer psychology focused on surface dialogue. What is required is a different quality of listening. The main reason for listening to prospects is to allow the prospect to be heard. Really heard. As in, actually being paid attention to by another human being.
This kind of listening is listening for the sake of listening. Listening to understand, period. No strings attached. No links back to your product. No refined problem statements. Because that’s what people in relationships, at their best, really do. They listen because they want to know what the other person thinks about whatever the other person is interested in talking about. This kind of listening validates other people. It connects us to them. It provides meaning. And, among other things, it sets the stage for sellers and buyers to interact – if that is the right thing to happen next.
Authors Bill Brooks and Tom Travesano, in You’re Working Too Hard To Make The Sale, note that people greatly prefer to buy what they need from those who understand what it is that they want. Read that over again, carefully. People prefer to buy what they need (stuff they’re going to buy anyway), from those who understand them on the basis of what they want (things in life they’d love to have – wishes, hopes, desires). You don’t even have to give them what they want; it’s enough to understand them.
To bring it full circle back to listening: Relationships are the context for successful selling. Relationships are based on trust; they predispose us to engage in qualitatively different kinds of sales conversations. And listening – unrestricted, unbounded, listening for its own sake – is the way we develop such relationships. And therein lies the paradox. The most powerful way to sell depends on unlinking listening from selling – and instead, just listening. Listening not as a step in a sales process, and not as a search for answers to questions. Listening not as a means to an end, but as an end in itself. The point of listening is not what you hear, but the act of listening itself.
Making It Work
Here are 5 tips to listening this way. Number five is the most powerful.
- Ditch the distractions. You cannot multitask undiscovered. Being multitasked feels insulting. Close the door. Face away from the window. Blank the computer screen. Turn the iPhone over. Now, pay attention.
- Use your whole body. Lean toward the speaker – even on the phone. Use facial expressions. Use hands and arms, shake your head, and use “non-verbal” verbalisms. This improves your listening – and indicates you are listening.
- Keep it about them – not you. Use open-ended, not closed, questions. Let them tell their own story – don’t use them as foils for your hypotheses.
- Acknowledge frequently. Paraphrase their data, empathize with their emotions. Make sure you are hearing both correctly; make sure they know you are.
- Think out loud. The biggest obstacle to listening is your own thinking. Be courageous – postpone your thinking until they’re done talking. Be willing to think out loud – with the client. Doing so role-models collaboration and transparency, and that reinforces trust. I hear you. I value you. I respond to you, with no hidden agenda. I trust you. You can trust me.
That’s the message of listening.
This article was originally posted to the Trusted Advisor Blog by Charles H. Green on September 28, 2015.
Two Simple Steps to Making CRM Implementation a Breeze
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on August 17, 2015
CRM implementation can be difficult on managers and executives. In fact, if you’ve ever brought in any kind of new software, system, or process for your team to use on a daily basis, you know all about those difficulties. It’s likely you received some pushback.
Perhaps you heard things like:
- “But we’re used to this process, and it works well.”
- “Ugh… it’s just going to be one more system to manage.”
- “How is yet another software program going to make us more efficient?”
Once you start implementing a CRM, you may experience this same kind of pushback. And it’s understandable, we’re all creatures of habit. Once we get accustomed to things happening a certain way, we like them to stay that way! And the way your team does their daily work is no exception.
And let’s not forget about you! Transitioning from one way of doing things to an entirely new way can be difficult for the boss, too. Not knowing exactly how things will go, how people will react, or what to expect from a new system can make implementing a new CRM a little nerve-wracking.
Lucky for you, your CRM implementation process doesn’t have to be one that frustrates you or your team. Follow these two steps, and your team will be smooth-sailing in no time.
First: choose the right CRM.
This may seem obvious, but the system you choose will ultimately dictate how your company and team benefit from using a CRM. If you choose the right system for your company’s needs, you will certainly reap great benefits—a reduced workload for you and your team members, the need for only one system to access any information you need, simplification of the entire sales process, and a great way to begin optimizing your revenue cycle.
However, if you happen to choose a CRM that is not the best fit for you, unfortunately, there will be consequences. You may find that the system actually makes work more difficult for you, or that it lacks capabilities and features you need. If that happens, you can count on your sales team trying to work around the system. (And who could blame them?)
Team members trying to work around the system can result in:
- Your “investment” actually wasting money.
- Data you want recorded in the system being recorded elsewhere, creating multiple versions of records.
- Your sales team working inefficiently because of the time wasted figuring out how to work around the new CRM.
- Some of your leads and deals falling through the cracks because of a poorly managed sales pipeline.
Here are a couple tips to help you choose the CRM that will best fit your company. These will help you avoid the mess and the headaches that come with choosing the wrong CRM.
Specifically identify what you want to use a CRM for. Think about where your business is currently, and where you want to be. Then, identify what it’s going to take to get there. Do you need to better manage your contacts and their interactions with you? Does your sales team need more time for phone calls and closing deals? Maybe you need to have a better way to manage your pipeline. Or, perhaps you need to hone in on things your sales team needs to improve on, so sales can become a more efficient and productive department. Whatever the reasons are, you need to have them clearly identified so you’ll know what to look for in a CRM.
Now, compare each CRM system to those needs. When looking at a CRM system, compare its capabilities to the list of reasons you need a CRM. In order to be a useful CRM for your company, the core functions must align with your needs.
The core functions or focus of any given CRM can be broken into three categories: contact management, sales force automation (SFA), and sales performance management (SPM).
A CRM built for contact management is designed to focus on tracking and storing your contacts’ information (not a shocker!). CRMs made for SFA focus on automating redundant tasks and pipeline management. And CRMs for SPM give you reporting capabilities that let you track and manage your sales team’s activities so you can further better your sales department.
Knowing the core functions of a CRM will help you choose one that will align with your goals and set your company up for success. A system that isn’t designed to meet your needs will just drag your business down.
Second: train to use the CRM.
Once you have chosen the perfect CRM for your company, you absolutely need to be trained to use it. Even if the CRM boasts about an easy-to-use interface and seems user-friendly enough, it’s worth the time to train your team. If you don’t, your sales team will end up frustrated, and it will interfere with the sales process. Here’s why.
Without training, your team has to fumble around a CRM, trying to figure out how to perform basic functions in the software—never mind the more complex things. If your team is spending their time teaching themselves how to use the system, they’re spending less time with your leads, potentially causing you to lose out on sales and deals. Inevitably, your sales people will come across something they can’t teach themselves how to do, and they may even find it takes longer to do their work because they don’t know how to use the CRM properly. And once your team reaches that point, they’ll figure out a way to work around the CRM, which wastes time and money.
If you want your team to use your new CRM confidently and work more efficiently, you have to train them. Here are three ways to do it.
Attend training sessions. Some CRM companies offer live online training sessions you can register for, in order to teach you how to use the CRM. At one of these sessions, a CRM expert will walk your team through anything and everything the software can do.
Watch video demonstrations. Many companies have videos on their websites that give step-by-step instructions on how to use certain features within their CRM. And because videos allow the user to pause and rewind, your team members can learn at their own pace.
Have a reseller teach you in-person. Many CRM companies partner with resellers to provide their customers with specific services. Resellers work outside the CRM company, but have gone through extensive training for a particular CRM. If you’re looking for personalized training (and have the budget for it), bringing a reseller into your organization gives you and your team access to one-on-one coaching.
Prepare yourself for success. CRM implementation takes work. But, if you take the time to find the right CRM for your company and make sure you train your team, you’ll not only set your team up for success, but you’ll foster an environment of efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community blog by David Mackey on July 2, 2015.
Who is the Real Decision Maker? Find Out or Lose the Sale
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on August 11, 2015
The prospect tells you, “I only need one more approval and the order is yours.”
For joy, for joy — the order is mine! — Eh, eh, eh — don’t celebrate too soon. The one last person needed to approve, is the real decision maker. The boss. The guy you were supposed to be talking to in the first place. The one person who can say “no,” and there’s no possibility of reversing it. Rut-row.
Throw some water on yourself, pal. This sale hangs by a thread — and what are you doing about it? Going home and bragging “it’s in the bag,” or saying over and over — “I hope I get it, I hope I get it?” Neither will work.
Here’s what to do: The words “I only need one more approval and the order is yours” must trigger your response to the prospect — “Great, when do we all meet?”
Get the prospect to agree to let you attend the final decision meeting.
If you’re not present when the last decision is made — odds are you will lose the final battle of the sales war without being able to fire one bullet. Try this: (In a non-sales, friendly way), say to the prospect, “I’m an expert at what I do, and, Mr. Jones, you’re an expert at what you do. Surely as you discuss our service, questions about productivity and profitability will arise. I’m sure you agree that the right information needs to be presented so that the most intelligent decision can be made, true? (You need get a commitment). And questions might arise about our service. I’d like to be there to answer questions about my expertise so you can make a decision that’s in the best interest of your business.”
If the prospect (customer) agrees to the meeting, he or she considers you a resource, a partner. They trust you. If they don’t agree to let you in the meeting — they just consider you a salesperson.
When others need to “final approve” the deal, besides learning to know the buying process better, you must take these five action steps or the sale is in jeopardy…
- Get the prospect’s personal approval. “Mr. Prospect, if it was just you, and you didn’t need to confer with anyone else, would you buy?” (The prospect will almost always say yes). Then ask, “Does this mean you’ll recommend our service to the others?” Get the prospect to endorse you and your service to the others, but don’t let him (or anyone) make your pitch for you.
- Get on the prospect’s team. Begin to talk in terms of “we,” “us,” and “the team.” By getting on the prospect’s team, you can get the prospect on your side of the sale.
- Arrange a meeting with all decider’s. Do it any (ethical) way you have to.
- Know the prime decider in advance. “Tell me a little bit about the others.” (Write down every characteristic). Try to get the personality traits of the other deciders.
- Make your entire presentation again. You only have to do this if you want to make the sale. Otherwise just leave it to the prospect. He thinks he can handle it on his own, and will try his best to convince you of that.
If you think you can get around these five steps, think again. (It’s obvious you’re looking for shortcuts or you would have known the buying process in the first place.)
If you make the mistake of letting your prospect become a salesperson on your behalf (goes to the boss or group instead of you), you will lose. Most every time.
Here’s 2.5 ounces of prevention (for next time):
- Qualify the decision maker as the “only” by asking a seemingly innocent question at the beginning of your presentation — “Is there anyone else you work with (confer with, bounce things off of) on decisions (situations) like this?” The object is to find out if anyone else is involved in the decision BEFORE you make your presentation.
- Prevent the situation from occurring by saying in your initial presentation: “If you’re interested in our ——-, when we’re finished, would it be possible to meet the CEO and chat about it?”
2.5 The most powerful qualifying question you can ask is (AND IT MUST BE ASKED EXACTLY THIS WAY): “Bill, how will this decision be made?” Bill will give you an answer. AND YOU FOLLOW UP WITH THE QUESTION: “Then what?” And Bill will begin to give you the saga about how the decision is really made. You ask “then what?” four or five times and PRESTO! you’ll have the name of the real decision maker.
The number of sales you make will be in direct proportion to the number of actual decision-makers you sit in front of. The problem with the lesser successful salespeople is they are sitting in front of someone who has to ask their mommy or daddy if they can buy it or not.
Real salespeople sit in front of real decision-makers. How real are you?
This article was originally posted to the Eye on Sales blog by Jeffrey Gitomer on May 26, 2015.
The Six Main Components Which Create Sales Excellence
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on August 3, 2015
Excellence is a word that is bandied about so much these days that it can often lose its meaning or its differentiation. The dictionary defines it as ‘being exceptional, being superior in some way, achieving extreme merit, preeminence or distinction’. When we use the term, we commonly confuse it with something that is just better or an improvement of some sort. However, for something or someone to be given the accolade of ‘excellence’, we have to be more than just better; we need to identify the qualities that deserve the term, or we are in danger of diminishing the stand-out qualities that are required to receive the honor.
To achieve excellence in sales, we need to lay the foundations that support and enable the results we need to achieve. Here, we’ll discuss just six key components that create excellence in salespeople and make them stand out from the crowd. The first three are classed as intra-personal skills (internally-focused) and the others are interpersonal (externally-focused). Each one will assist in the development of quality and stature.
Develop a Full Range of Skills & Attributes
The top salespeople we have encountered take their own personal development very seriously. They create and implement a development plan for themselves that include seeking out training and coaching opportunities, reading, listening to and watching subject matter experts, update their product knowledge, develop their industry knowledge and plan their career progression in such a way that it enhances opportunities at every step.
Also, they see how new technologies their own company and competitors are producing add value to the industry, learning how these advancements affect and add value from their customers’ perspectives.
Accept Change As The Norm & Embrace It For Progressing Salesmanship
Great value-creators recognize that they must build a clear and flexible path through the changes their customers and industry must go through. They understand that their products and services must be instrumental in driving those changes. This requires the mindset to be adaptable to whatever circumstances the customer may throw at them.
Become Future-Focused
The high-quality salesperson will recognize the lesson that past teaches. Grab hold of the opportunities the present offers and develop the foresight to apply those learning’s to the future. In other words, they see the only things they really have control over are those future opportunities.
By recognizing the future is a blank slate ready to be written upon, the great salesperson doesn’t harbor resentment over what has occurred, but treats it as a school to learn how to build resilience and elasticity in their future plans.
Understand The Customer’s Business As Well As The Customer Does
Yes, it takes time, diligence, effort and guile, but it differentiates the haves from the have-nots in terms of knowledge and partnership abilities. Treating your customer’s business like your own means you build trust, and with that come the openness and exposure that allows you access to the inner sanctum. By having the attitude of curiosity, great salespeople build reasons for customers to develop close business relationships with them, hence reducing the emphasis on price that might let in competitive offerings.
Be Passionate About Service & Business Results
Passion is a chosen response when you feel enthusiastic and engaged with a project or task. Great salespeople choose this emotion wisely and use it to drive their actions and responses.
Having a passion for something engages you like nothing else does. Without it, you lack the inspiration or drive to concentrate on excellence or quality responses. Having passion separates you from the masses who allow the ‘that’ll-do’ attitude to affect their diligence. Having passion for business results helps you build value in the customer’s eyes as they recognize the impact your intensity and desire for improvement has on their business
Build Relationships Throughout The Customer’s Business
High-quality salespeople recognize the value of building many strong relationships throughout their accounts. This allows them to build business acumen and confidence when dealing with various people at differing levels. They see the value of discussing financials with the accounts team, talking strategies with the sales management team and highlighting technological advancements with the product-development team.
This allows a clear understanding of the shared needs and unique concerns of each component that makes up the customer’s decision-making teams, and allows trust to be engendered throughout the purchase experience.
Each of these components need to synergize together to create an overall impression of professionalism so that the salesperson is seen as a major asset to the customer’s business rather than just another supplier who blends in with the competition.
It takes time to determine which of these components are best developed and utilized with every account; but they offer a differential that will set you apart in many customer’s eyes as someone who is indispensable to their future journey.
This article was originally posted to the MTD Sales Training Specialists blog by Sean McPheat on July 2, 2015.
Do Your Questions Differentiate You?
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on July 29, 2015
Critical thinking gets customers out of their box. During my graduate work in training and development, I had the good fortune of taking a psychology class. Toward the middle of the semester, the professor asked me if I would assist him in reviewing more than 20 years of research relating to the way people communicate. At first I was somewhat reluctant. It sounded like a lot of work, and I really didn’t have the time. Then I realized that he had been very helpful to me and very insightful when it came to the material he presented in class, and now he needed my help. So I signed on to help. Most of the material I reviewed talked about open and closed questions.
The goal is to differentiate and brand yourself, gather key information, and move your existing relationships forward. Chances are that the customer views what they are selling as somewhat similar to what the competition is providing.
There are probably few products offered in today’s market that are remarkably different from the competition and that offer significant difference. As a matter of fact, the customer probably assumes that both you and the people you compete against will provide relatively the same thing. Therefore, you are being viewed as the same as the competition, almost like a commodity. Of course you want to establish a strong business relationship, separate yourself, stand out, and become a significant partner in the customer’s practice. To make that occur, you need to engage in relevant dialogue.
During my analysis of 20 years of research on the way people communicate, I came across several interesting articles and studies that made me think a little differently about questions, how they are presented, and the way salespeople ask them to build and develop relationships. These studies focused on the fact that too many recital questions were being used.
A recital question is a question that is asked of individuals that gets them to recite what they already know. Educator Meredith Gall suggested that recital questions get someone to recall information that requires little to- no thinking.
When a customer answers a recital question, he/she recites something they already know and probably have already been asked before in previous conversations. Think of all of the questions that were asked prior to reading this. Do your questions fall under the category of recital? If so, is it possible that you might be boring your customer’s, because you are forcing them to go over the same ground they have been going over with everyone else?
How many salespeople do you think your customer sees in a day? One salesperson? Two salespeople? Could your customer see as many as 10 salespeople per day? For argument’s sake, why don’t we settle on five salespeople a day? That is 25 a week, 100 per month, and more than 1,000 sales calls and conversations per year. The customer hears the same question hundreds of times and gives the same answer.
What makes a better question?
My research suggests changing from a recital question to a dialogue question. Dialogue questions stimulate a complex thinking process involving a longer exchange that solicits opinion and thought, not just a correct answer.
When calling on customers, you want to engage them in dialogue. Your goal is to get them talking at least 70 percent of the time. Most important, when you ask a dialogue question, you create the possibility of change. And change leads to new thinking. Your goal is to craft a question that gets the customer to stop, reflect and respond with a new answer.
This article was originally posted to the Sales & Marketing Management Blog by Charles Brennan Jr. on June 15, 2015.
Three Ways to Ensure Price Isn’t the Main Criteria for Decision Making
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on July 5, 2015
Many salespeople believe that their customer base revolves around the concept of price. That is, price is the be-all and end-all of their decision-making process. Certainly, if they listen to what many of their prospects say, you can understand the reasoning.
Expressions like: “You’ll have to do something with your price before we can even consider this” or “What’s the best deal you can offer me?” or “You competitor offered 25% off list price. How far can you go?” are designed to make the sales person feel they have to concentrate on price before the sale can be advanced in any way.
Actually, you can make sure that price isn’t the main criteria for decision-making in the customer’s mind by building on these three components:
Make sure you know the value of your products and services and how they link to the customer’s business situation. This is the key to creating value and is at the heart of selling with integrity and credibility. A salesperson must understand the departments that are most affected by the solution, and the financial impact of his solution on various departments within the entire company.
Understanding the customer’s critical issues, dissatisfactions, and frustrations, plus recognizing the business opportunities that arise from them, takes research, time, commitment, and dedicated work. But it is definitely worth it.
If you’re able to find out information prior to the visit or on previous visits before you start talking about prices, then you build opportunities for you and the prospect to select other, more credible, ways of achieving their goals and objectives.
Make sure you can help the customer calculate the cost of not using your solution. Before you can offer a remedy, you must be able to firmly establish the results of not using or buying your solution. You must help the customer identify physical symptoms of his problem and show him that multiple departments are suffering. Remember, if there is no pain associated with the current situation, you’ll find it difficult to move the prospect out of their comfort zone and make the decision to change.
Pain is the most basic human motivator for change. It is the natural defense mechanism that tells people that if they don’t change and deal with a problem, they will face consequences. And of course, change itself is painful. Therefore, change will not occur until an individual or company recognizes that the pain of change is less than the pain of staying the same.
Tell the prospect the impact of your solution over those of your closest competitors. Make these figures specific. This is where you should be able to pre-empt all but the most irrational objections. If you can get the customer to recognize that your product will provide a specific financial impact, such as cutting the cost of a critical process or increasing desired revenues, they will realize that your premium pricing makes solid business sense. You get them to identify how the benefits outweigh the costs incurred, especially if they see a competitor’s offer as offering more value to you.
When you quantify the impact of your solution, it will quickly become obvious to your customer that your solution, at your price, makes for a solid business decision. If that is clear to them, it solves the challenge of them having ‘buyer’s remorse’ and helps them persuade other decision-makers who might have a say in the final decision.
Try these three ideas out before the prospect talks specifically about price. It will build the value of choice before their mind goes to think about commoditizing your product.
This article was originally posted to the MTD Sales Training Specialists blog by Sean McPheat on February 9, 2015.
Six Steps to Building a Powerful Lead Referral System
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on July 3, 2015
If word-of-mouth is the best way to get new customers then referrals must be a close second. The problem with word-of-mouth advertising is you need a huge network of people who are talking about your products or services. Good Luck with that!
If a prospect does not let their friends know they are looking to buy then the chances of word of mouth advertising working are very slim. On the other hand if you know how to create a great referral network it can mean the difference between no leads and a steady supply of high quality, qualified warm leads.
The Six Steps to Building a Referral System
- Your current customer must be very happy with you and be willing to tell others. Look at your repeat or long time customers first.
- You must frame the referral in the right way. Asking people to hand out your business cards will not work and is only going to make your printer happy.
- You need to position the referral so your clients see the connection as a way to help their friends and associates.
- You must be willing to pick up the phone and ask the new prospect for a meeting.
- You must work your referral program constantly.
- You must follow-up with the person who provided the lead and “if appropriate” give them a gift or at least a thank you card for their help.
The Key is Step three – Position the Referral. Unfortunately, most sales people ask their clients if they could give them the name of three or four friends, relatives or associates that they could contact and “name drop” that you are the person who provides the product or service to them. This method is not very successful and won’t do much to build your business.
On the other hand if you position the referral properly you can almost be guaranteed a steady stream of quality referrals. The key is to think about it in terms of ‘what’s in it for them’. If they help someone it will reflect positively on them. The danger on the other hand is what happens if it doesn’t go well. It will hurt their reputation.
Let me give you an example of how it would work for a company that designs website.
Sales Person – “(Tom) we re-designed your website and according to your feedback on the objectives you wanted to accomplish we have doubled your traffic, added the social media functions you were looking for and created a site that you could edit simply without the need to call someone every time you wanted to make a change or update.”
- Would that be a fair assessment?
- Do you feel we have delivered a quality website within the target budget?
- Has the new website resulted in an increase in business?
If the client is in agreement with your points then it is time to move to the request for a referral.
Sales Person – “I am happy we have been able to help you grow your business and appreciate your confidence in (your company). Tom, I am sure you have an associate that has mentioned they need to upgrade their website in order to generate more business. I would be more than happy to approach them and schedule a chat about their current challenges and what opportunities are available to them.”
Regardless of your product or service, you must create a powerful positioning statement before you ask for a referral. You will be amazed at how well this type of request will work and I guarantee if you use it properly you will be generating more, better quality leads for your business.
This article was originally posted to the Sales Compass Blog by Robert J. Weese on March 3, 2015
Five Practical Tips to Build a Better Network
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on April 27, 2015
For many businesses to continue to grow and thrive, it takes more than just excellent products and services. It takes building awareness and a loyal customer base. It also requires patience and resilience to make it through the difficult times. And it takes building a community of partners, contacts and allies for continued success.
There is no substitute for a great network, even as our definition of what makes a network becomes more elastic as our preferred ways of connecting and sharing information evolve over time and in response to new technology (Twitter follower? Facebook Friend? LinkedIn Connection?). Here are our five favorite tips for networking better this year to help you build that community.
Attend Events Across Industries – If you are looking to build a network in your local business community, don’t limit yourself to events related to your specific business type or industry. You want to broaden your potential network as much as possible and open your business to as many relevant customers as possible. Look for events in industries that are complementary to your type of business, or that also target the same type of customer as you based on geography or demographics. You’ll be more likely to find businesses willing to cooperate and work together, since you are not in direct competition with each other. More importantly, you never know whom your new contacts will know and this is the key to networking. There is enormous unknown potential in every new relationship.
Share Your Story and Listen to Theirs – All business owners and entrepreneurs have at least one thing in common: the courage to take that big risk for something they believe will be successful. Take the time to share your founder story with other business owners and learn about what motivated them to start their business. You may learn that you have a lot in common–similar challenges, suppliers, even customers. Exchanging stories is the first step to building a relationship that can help your business grow.
Reinforce an Offline Connection Online, and Vice Versa – Any time that you meet a new contact at a networking event, conference, or even the coffee shop, make sure to also connect with that person online. Reaching out via LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook is a great way to thank the person for their time and remind them of a few points from your conversation. The same advice works for online contacts: if you’ve made a new connection through LinkedIn, make the effort to have a phone call or meet in person to explore how you can work together to make each other’s businesses grow. Bonus tip: Make sure your company’s online presence is memorable and professional. Put your logo on your LinkedIn profile, company Facebook page, or Twitter page for a consistent look online.
Always Be Prepared – Make sure that every interaction is productive by being prepared. Have a stack of updated business cards with you at all times, and keep flyers or postcards with your latest offers or promotions handy as well. These critical marketing materials can be made quickly and affordably online with an online business card maker, so there’s no excuse for being unprepared. Even as our social and professional lives move more and more online, business cards are here to stay. So challenge yourself to share twice as many cards as you did last time. It’s also easy to stay on top of your online presence. Prepare yourself before releasing a new product, service, or offer to your customers. Usually when a business does something new, customers can have a fair amount of questions and feedback. Grab a friend or two to man the phones at your business or saddle up on your Facebook messages page to help handle the rush of comments. Releasing new products should get people excited about your business, not get you too stressed out.
Set Up a Next Step – It’s easy to lose momentum after a networking event; they can be overwhelming at times. But all these events can be worthless if you don’t make plans to communicate after the event is over. Make sure you can gather as many business cards as you hand out, and reach out to these people soon after the event closes. Stay on the top of their minds. Set a date in their calendar, whether it’s for tomorrow or two months from now. All of your networking efforts can be worthless if you don’t follow through. You can’t always depend on the other party to set up the next steps. Take control of the situation and make a name for your business.
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community Blog by Dena Enos on April 2, 2015.
The Sales Process Is Not A One Way Street!
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on April 24, 2015
Our thinking and visualizations of our sales processes, deal strategies, funnels, and pipelines often cause us to do the wrong things. It’s because we have a “one way street” mentality as we think of our deal strategies. Things progress–top to bottom, left to right (or right to left in certain parts of the world).
We prospect, qualify, discover, demonstrate, propose, close, implement. Everything moves in one direction, we’re always moving forward—-except when we don’t.
The other day, I was reviewing a critical deal. You guessed it, it was large and critical to the quarter end. The sales person had it moving from the proposing to closing stages of their sales process, but the deal had been stalled for some months. The sales person was insistent that it would close when projected.
In reviewing the deal, the sales person had been using the sales process. She’d been working on the deal for about 6 months, was executing the process step by step moving it through the stages until it reached its current point and it stopped. She was trying to move it forward, but it just wasn’t working.
As we examined things, we started seeing there had been a major management restructuring, with new management at a couple of levels above the decision-maker. This brought on a shift in corporate priorities, and as a result other projects were being cancelled.
I asked, “Is the deal still a priority, is it a real deal? Should we re-qualify it? Given all the changes just above the decision-maker, do we need to reassess the whole thing? Should this be in the closing stages of our pipeline?”
That’s when I started seeing the nervous glances among the team. They had worked hard to get the deal to this place. They needed to close the deal. They tried hard to argue, “We’ve followed our sales process, and we’ve done everything we needed to do to get it to the closing stage of the process. So we just need to push it forward.” They were trying as hard as they could to push the deal through, but it just wasn’t happening.
We agreed they would go back and explore the urgency of the deal with the customer, particularly given the changes. They also found a way to meet with some of the new corporate executives.
They learned, there was some interest in the project, but it wasn’t a high priority and the funding for the project was being diverted. With some of the shifts in the corporate strategies, the needs and requirements for this project were changing. The good news was they were changing in a way that made the deal both bigger and made my client a much better fit.
As we examined all the information the team had gotten, we realized we needed to start the sales process all over again. While much of the work they had done would probably be very valuable, things had changed.
The team needed to re-qualify the deal, and then go through all the sales process again. All based on the changes that had occurred within the customer.
While the team intuitively knew all of this, they were blinded thinking things only go one way in the pipeline or in our sales process. We always move forward.
Ideally, we do, but the sales process and the pipeline is a two way street. Sometimes things go back to the beginning of the sales process, sometimes they pop back to the top of the funnel.
Not recognizing this means we are fooling ourselves and our managers in the expectations we set in our pipelines. Not recognizing this means we are not aligned with the customer and where they are with their buying process. As a result, we aren’t creating the value we should–in fact may be doing all the wrong things.
The team moved the deal back to the top of the pipeline. They changed the projected close date–actually they left it open, since they needed to re-qualify the whole deal. They started developing strategies to start the whole process all over again. While it was disappointing, without doing this, they would have continued doing the wrong things with the customer and have been setting the wrong expectations for their own management. They would have been wasting their and everyone else’s time.
We all have deals like that. Deals we’ve worked hard on. We’ve brought them to a certain place, but they stop. Things change, we need to reassess, restart and go through our process yet again. Perhaps we are a little smarter from having gone through it once before. Perhaps we can accelerate the buying process, based on that knowledge, but we have to go back re-qualify, rediscover, re-demonstrate, re-propose and close again on the “new deal.”
Don’t think of your sales process or pipeline as a one way street. Things can and should move backwards. Denying it doesn’t help anything.
This article was originally posted to the Partners in Excellence Blog by David Brock on March 30, 2015.
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