Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

I am on LinkedIn.  If you are in sales, you should be too.  It is a great resource for information and a great way to link in with friends, clients and prospects.  In the "sales playbook" group I am in, someone posted the question,  "What is your best question on a sales call?" In other words, "What is your money question?"  This was my answer:  In the comment box, I told them, "I teach people to identify the single most common objection they get from a prospect when it is time for the prospect to make a decision.  Once they identify the most common objection, they must make sure that, during the qualifying step in the sales process, they ask a question about that objection. For most, if not all of our clients, they really aren't buying something that they already don't have or use.  As sales people, we are fact stealing / attempting to take the business from someone else."

Usually the reason for not getting a new piece of business is because the prospect chose to stay with the current relationship - there wasn't a compelling reason to make a change to work with someone new.  And so, to answer the question that was posted, the best question to ask in selling has to be one that deals with competition, especially the incumbent.  The question might sound something like, "How will you go about telling your current relationship that you are going to make a change and you will no longer be doing business with them?"

I promise you this is where the rubber meets the road.

If you think about a sales process being like a baseball diamond, you would ask this question somewhere between 2nd and 3rd instead of finding out when you are sliding headfirst into home hoping to score another run.

Success in selling isn't always about a new strategy or technique.  Often success has to do with how well you plan and then how well you execute.  That isn't to say that you should overspend your time planning.  In the words of General Patton:  "A well-thought out plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed tomorrow." But! You must have a plan.  In the world of sales and sales development that we live in at Anthony Cole Training Group, success in selling starts with your own personal success formula.

This isn't complicated.  It is simple math. The challenge is that you, as an individual, or you as a BIG you - COMPANY YOU - have to be committed to collecting data.  The data that you collect has to be focused on sales activity (effort) and sales efficiency (effectiveness).  This is easy to do, but not so easy to implement, execute and then coach.

You start by identifying personal goals that require freedom of time and freedom of choice. In other words, having a goal to "be happy" is a nice goal, but I'm not sure I can translate that to a financial requirement.  Unless you decide that "being happy" means spending time on your houseboat in Lake Cumberland. Then, you need freedom of time and that freedom requires that you improve your sales effort and/or effectiveness.  (I know I'm getting a little off here, but stay with me...)  From personal goals, you then have to figure out what kind of money or income is required to satisfy that goal or those goals.  From there, you then have to figure out how, in your sales world, you can generate the money you need to make the choices you want to make in order to achieve your personal objectives. This is where your success formula now becomes a math problem.  I won't do that here, but I will provide a link for you to download a template for personal goals and success formula calculations: Personal Goals Work Sheet, 12 Month Goal Worksheet & Success Formula.

The key to using the success formula isn't in the exercise itself.  That will just get you started. From there, you MUST begin to understand the science in your sales business.  As Grant Cardone states in his article, Increase Sales with Simple Math, "If you just know basic math, you will ensure your success no matter what is happening around you."  In other words, what are the numbers that really make your business work? What is your conversion ratio from one step in your sales process to the next step?  If you don't currently know this, you have to begin to know this.  You do this by tracking activity.

Let's pause here a second because I KNOW what you are thinking.  You are thinking CALL SHEETS.  And you are thinking that CALL SHEETS are BULL SHEETS, if you know what I'm implying.

Call sheets are not bullsheets, unless you fabricate the data and/or never use the data to gain insight into your business.  Data is powerful but only if used to gain insight as to what is really going on in your business. Gathering data, reviewing data, and then analyzing your effort and your performance could be the single most important things you do over the next 12 months to improve your success in selling.  And here is one more thing I'd ask you to do.  Go to our website and complete the sales achievement grader.  It will help you get started on the path of better understanding your sales business.

Often when I ask a sales manager or executive "how are your sales results year to date?", I get a reply that falls into the category of 'stack ranking'.  Success Factors assessment company will tell you that stack ranking for sales performance, sales activity, sales pipeline and the like is important and meaningful. But, and this is a big BUT, only if it is put into perspective of the expected outcomes and you gain insight from the data that you are looking at.

In other words, when a prospective new sales hire tells me that they are the top sales person in their district in year over year growth, that doesn't tell me much.  If everyone else in the country is having a terrible year, then being number one means you are the best of the worst.  So this comparison of being 'top of the heap' certainly is not going to predict any sales success for my company.

I looked up an old coach of mine from my freshman football year in college.  I happened to find out that he spent several years at a university on the east coast, recently retired as the head coach and is now an administrator in the athletic department.  In his bio, it said that he ranked 2nd all-time in games coached and 2nd all-time in wins.  I did the math.  The teams averaged 3.2 wins a season.  This is a team that has perennially struggled to field winning teams, so it is more of a reflection on the school's great commitment to academics rather than athletics.  And by the way, the coach was and still is, I'm sure, a great guy.

But the point is this - top of the heap in selling only is significant if, in fact, you are comparing yourself to the right heap.  Being the best of the not-so-good really doesn't mean much.

Here is the standard that I suggest for all of our clients:  Your highest and best.  When you look in the mirror at the end of 2010, can you say that your results as a sales professional represent your highest and best?

 

I may be driving you crazy with my approach to covering the 10 Solutions for Successful Selling by going from #7 - Budget: Getting Time, Money and Resource to Solve Problems and then skipping to #10, 8 Steps to Closing More Business.  Now, I'm on #4.  Ironically, it is called First Things First but is numbered #4. Trust me.

Steven Covey wrote a book years ago called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This post is not about the book but about habit #3:  First Things First. Habit #3 is about doing, in priority, those activities and behaviors that are consistent with your objectives and goals.  

I was with John J. Young, President and CEO of the Freestore FoodBank here in Cincinnati.  My wife, Linda, and I were visiting to discuss an upcoming project and to discuss how we might be of more help to the objectives of the organization.  

In John's discussion with us, he said something that struck me as powerful to their cause and important in almost any endeavor.  He said, "The help starts with food."  I apologize, John, if I don't get it exactly right, but that is what I heard.  I'll let John explain to you what it means in his world, but to me it meant a couple of things:

1. Basic fundamentals: They are called basic and fundamentals for a reason. Everything has a starting point. You have to identify that starting point.  You have to master that starting point.  You must execute that starting point every time if you expect to reach your expected objectives.
2. Basic needs:  There are maybe only a couple of things more basic than food.  Air and water.  That's about it.  You might want to add faith, but I would suggest that is a little higher on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  You have to take care of the basic needs if you are going to grow, prosper and succeed.

I can't help myself when I get into conversations like this, read a book, watch a movie. My mind, at some point, automatically shifts to "How does this pertain to selling?"  

1. Basic fundamentals in selling:  You have to understand your priorities in sales.  It isn't paperwork, time management, continuing education, training or meetings.  You cannot succeed without doing those things, but they are not the priority to your success. There is only 1 'A' priority and that is prospecting.
2. Basic needs:  You need(s) to call people, you need(s) to see people.  Until you do that, nothing else happens.  There isn't paper to push or anything to report in a meeting.  The job in selling is prospecting.  It is why selling is so damn hard and why sales people, good sales people, make so much damn money.

The #4 sales solution of First Things First is prospecting.  Carve out 10% of your time each and every day to call on people to tell your story.  Feed your business every day; the rest will take care of itself.

Comments welcomed.  I know that we have a lot of wisdom out there in our followership.  I'd ask you to take just a minute and write to the rest of us how you manage to make sure that, day in and day out, you feed your business.

Thanks

Sales have a tendency to sink in the summer.  This is either by design or by default.  The reason doesn't matter, the root cause does.  Professional sales people either decide to take the summer off (design), or they decide that summer isn't a good time to sell (default).

Our family keeps a houseboat in Lake Cumberland, Kentucky.  In the summer, we are on the boat a great deal of time - design.  In the late fall and winter months, we are there for two reasons:

1. Long weekend get-away
2. Make sure the boat stays afloat

What I've learned about boating and consistent results of any kind is that you have to do maintenance.  

• If you fail to maintain your sales activity, your future sales will slump. If you fail to maintain proper fluid in your on-boat inverter batteries, then you will fail to have electrical power when you turn off your generator.  Not a good thing.  
• If you fail to check your pipeline and maintain a free flowing stream of prospects, then sooner or later all the good ones will have been sold and you will be left with dead prospects that will give you a false sense of security about your future sales.  If you fail to check your intake pipe on your generator, then when you use your thrusters to turn into your slip and your generator cuts out because there is a fish in the pipe, then you will lose power and you will have a false sense of security about entering your slip without mishap.

It's August and summer is at a close.  If your sales have slumped and your prospecting is slumped, you can count on continued poor sales.  The good news is that, if you take action now, you can have an impact on the 4th quarter of the year and certainly put yourself in a great position to start out the 1st quarter of 2011. But that isn't the message here.

The message is consistency.  You are much better off staying the course throughout the year, no matter what is going on around you. The same thing holds true for the boat and me.  If I stay on top of the cleaning and the maintenance, then any problem that comes up is usually easier to address, correct and move on.  If I fail to execute the fundamentals of maintenance, then when something major happens, I can normally count on a disaster. Like maybe a water leak that causes a boat to sink because the bilge pumps haven't been checked regularly.  Oops.

Sales people typically want to know how to do three things better:

1. See more people
2. Manage their time
3. Close more business

When we are working with sales professionals during our sales training workshops, closing is one of the last things we get to. Not because effective closing techniques aren't important to every sales process, but because it isn't as important as the sales steps leading to the close.  However, I've decided that, as I was posting the 10 solutions for successful selling, I'd pop "8 Steps for More Effective Closing" in up front so that, with those deals you have in your pipeline today, you might have a slight edge in closing those deals with this information.

Years ago, I was taught that 'the close' is an affirmation of the conversations you've already had with the prospect - or at least that's the theory. The theory runs aground, so to speak, if your qualifying steps weren't as strong as they needed to be and if your set up for the closing wasn't as strong as it needed to be. Let's do a quick recap of what should have happened prior to showing up for the close:

1. A relationship, based on confidence and trust, should have been developed  (check out a brief Seth Godin Blog)
2. You should have identified motivation / compelling reason for your prospect to take action.
3. The prospect should have told you that they wanted to fix a problem or they realize a currently unrealized benefit
4. You and the prospect should have agreed to an investment of time, money and resources
5. You and the prospect should have agreed to a decision making process that included:
   • You would supply a solution that fits their specifications
   • You would supply this solution within their budget
   • You would be prepared to answer all of their questions
   • They would be prepared to make a decision- yes or no.
6. You would have sent an 'as we agreed to' letter
7. You would have followed up the 'as we agreed to' letter with a phone call confirming the contents of the letter.

If, in fact, you have done these 6 things, then your close should be an affirmation of everything that you've already agreed to. If you haven't executed on these 6 items then, well, you are in trouble at time of close.

Here are 8 steps for more effective closing:

1. Be prepared to be dazzling (10 presentation skills you MUST execute)
2. You review why you are there to present
   • There is a problem that needs to be solved
   • There is an agreed to investment to solve the problem
   • There will be a decision today to either solve the problem or not solve the problem (Tell you yes or no)
3. You place your 3 page presentation in front of the prospect:
   • Page 1 - cover sheet
   • Page 2 - list of problems identified in closing process
   • Page 3 - bulleted list of solutions to problems
4. You ask the prospect which problem they want to discuss first
5. You provide the solution and answer all of their questions
6. You ask, "On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 you love it, 1 you hate it, how do you feel about the solution I've just presented?"  If it is 7 or better, you are in good shape, but the prospect does not have all of the information they need.  You now have to ask them "What information do you need to get to a 10?"
7. You proceed through each solution the same way
8. When you finish all of your solutions you ask the question, "What would you like to do now?"

If you have done all of your work the right way, you will get a decision. The challenge here is two-fold:

1. Did you do all the right stuff?
2. Are you okay with hearing "No, I don't want to do business with you?"

Executing the right stuff and being okay with hearing "no" are two of the things that make selling so damn hard.

 

Sales success is not dependent on people liking you but rather effective communication.  Effective communication is the key to building confidence and trust with a new prospect to whom you plan on selling your products and solutions. Your ability to do this effectively will create the foundation for your long term relationship and determine how much you sell, how quickly you sell and the pricing you can establish.

A Minneapolis couple decided to go to Florida to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Because of hectic schedules, it was difficult to coordinate their travel schedules. So, the husband left Minnesota and flew to Florida on Thursday, with his wife flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel. There was a computer in his room, so he decided to send an email to his wife. However, he accidentally left out one letter in her email address, and without realizing his error, sent the email. Meanwhile, somewhere in Houston , a widow had just returned home from her husband's funeral. He was a minister who was called home to glory following a heart attack. The widow decided to check her email expecting messages from relatives and friends. After reading the first message, she screamed and fainted. The widow's son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and saw the computer screen which read

To: My Loving Wife

Subject: I've Arrived

Date: October 16, 2009

I know you're surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I've just arrived and have been checked into my room. I've seen that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then!!!! Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was. P. S. Sure is hot down here!!!!

*****

The lessons:

1.  Certainly the lesson from the email is to be in front of the right people.  Communicating your message to the wrong person is a formula for disaster as it relates to your sales success.  The prospect may not faint but certainly your business success will suffer.  Call at the highest level in the organization where the decision to buy your product is made.  Once you start too 'low' in an organization, it is very hard to work your way up into the corner office where the decision will eventually be made.

2.  Do sweat the small stuff in your communication. The smallest infraction, omission or change in words can make a big difference in how your message is received.  When making phone calls and you are talking with your intended contact and you are about to deliver your value proposition or what we call your unique sales approach (usa), there is a big difference between saying, 'Can I tell you why I called?' and 'Let me tell you why I called'.

3.  Saying the wrong thing to the wrong person can cause disaster. When you are attempting to qualify a prospect, it is essential that you ask the right questions, the right way at the right time. Time and time again, sales people have been taught to ask 'open ended' questions, and time and time again, while role-playing, I witness seasoned professionals asking yes or no questions.  Normally, the content is correct (right question), but asked the wrong way (closed ended).  

What is the most important thing that you have learned about effective communication in your career? 

What is the biggest communication mistake you've made and would instruct others to avoid at all costs?

If you could do one thing better to more quickly establish trust and confidence with new contacts, what would it be?

 

ps.  Thank you, Pam, for sending that email.

Getting Time, Money and Resource to Solve Problems

I am starting with #7 in my series of sales solutions for improved sales results because I have a story to tell. The # 7 Sales Solution is - Budget - Getting an investment budget of Time, Money and Resources to fix a problem or realize a desired outcome. At Anthony Cole Training in our Effective Selling System, we call this the TMR (Time, Money, Resources) step.  

In 1989, my wife Linda and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We had moved from Dallas in 1987 to Cincinnati to be closer to family. We left very good jobs with above average incomes behind and I entered the world of life insurance sales under the tutelage of my good friend, David Zimmerman. I was on a financing plan, which meant that I was barely making above minimum wage, and Linda was still getting her sales foundation built with an office furniture company, Ramsey Business Interiors. All this said to get to my point about money. At that time, money was tight and so our anniversary celebration was going to be a 'thrifty' one. We were both running hard with our jobs, raising Anthony and life in general, so neither of us had planned in any detail what we would do to celebrate our 2 years of marital bliss. We drove over to the Tri-County Mall area and settled on Kentucky Fried Chicken and a movie. Dinner cost about $8.

In May of this past year, we took a trip to celebrate what has become known in our family as 'myrtle bliss'. For 25 years, we have not taken a trip of any sort by ourselves for longer than 5 days. I had planned a trip to the Florida Keys for 8 wonderful days. The first night, we were in Key Largo and went to Breezer's Grill. I ordered a glass of wine as did Linda. $8 dollars a glass.

Here's my point for selling. As David Kurlan points out in his on-line assessment for sales people, there is a 'buy cycle' that sales people possess. Not just some of them, but all of them. It is the way we buy stuff. 23 years ago, I bought an $8 dinner because of my buy cycle.  Today, I spend multiples of $8 dollars because of my buy cycle and my beliefs about money. You see my buy cycle is this:  If I want or need something, I buy it. I do not have a tendency to shop for best price, compare or educate myself beyond any reasonable levels other than to make sure that the product is going to last, the company will stay in business and they have some sort of support and guarentees if something goes wrong with the product. My belief about money is that it is a necessary resource that allows me freedom of time and freedom to choose. If I want more freedom, I will go about making more money. (Thank you, Tim Mackey)

What you need to know here is that you as a sales person have a buy cycle and belief about money, and it does influence how you sell.  Marketing guru, Seth Godin, insists that value is the focus. Just because your clients tell you that you need to lower your prices that doesn't make it so. BUT, if your sales person agrees (their belief about money) with a client or prospect or client, then that sales person will be challenged to make the sale and protect margin.

Now understand that this may serve you well as a consumer but will kill you in selling. The coaching point here is that you have to have this discussion prior to presenting. You must know what a lot of money is to the prospect. You must know how they make these kinds of money decisions. You must know who else is involved in making money decisions of this size. You must know if they are committed to investing the time, money and effort required to solve any problems that you've uncovered. If you want to close more business, more quickly at higher margins, you MUST understand Sales Solution #7 and you MUST execute the must I've outlined in this post.

To find out more about buy cycle, record collection and how to sell more business more quickly at higher margins, go to these links:

Anthony Cole Training Resources

Sales Person Assessments

It's Never About Money

It's About Value Not Price

Sales activity is as difficult for me as it is for any sales person. I have lots of reasons/ excuses to NOT make the prospecting calls that would eventually lead to sales success. I need inspection of my activity, accountability to standards and coaching of behaviors just like all of the sales managers and sales people we work with, coach and mentor. The keys to successfully executing   sales  activity and executing your plan consistently are: 1. Understand that prospecting is THE job sales people get paid for. If you are challenged with this, you might want to look at Tom Redmond's information at: Redmond Group Inc. Tom's call reluctance assessment may help you identify some root problems with consistent prospecting activity and successful conversion of prospecting efforts. 2. Having goals that you are committed to and create passion. Starting with lots of goals and then focusing on the few critical ones will help create the required desire and commitment. 3. Creating a plan of execution for those sales activities required to make sales 4. Establishing a plan of accountability and inspection - Verne Harnish's concept of 'huddles' is perfect. 5. Gaining insight from the data you collect in your huddles - you should frequently look at your actual activity against goal as well as your actual conversion ratios against projected. This insight will help you determine if your results are due to effort or execution. Today I traveled to Cleveland. Before I left, I decided that I would get my prospecting activity done. I made a list of 20 people that I was going to talk to and I proceeded to make calls via my bluetooth enabled truck. I managed to talk to 3 people from the 12 that I dialed and have appointments with all three. But the most important lesson here isn't the conversion of effort to appointments: it is the effort that was made. I did not allow myself to use excuses this week for not doing the prospecting activity required for me to be successful. That was today.