My observation of salespeople is that they desperately want to live at the value end of the equation but when push comes to shove, they tend to slide over to the price side to push deals across the finish line.

4 Key Differences

Seth Godin calls discounting price the “race to the bottom.” He has said it is a race you can’t win and that it is a race you don’t want to win. Here are four keys to having success selling value and staying out of the race to the bottom:

1. You must have table pounding conviction in the value that you and your firm provide. You can’t think it might be true. You must know it.
2. You must remember that value it is never meant to be communicated. It is meant to be demonstrated. Said differently, you can’t be going around talking about value and telling prospects how good you and your company might be. You must demonstrate it by having conversations with your prospects that your competition is not having. Remember, if you must tell people how good you are, there is a chance you are not all that good!
3. You must be willing to walk away when your prospect makes it clear that their buying decision is going to come down to price. I have a name for prospects like that – I call them “nonbelievers.” They do not believe in, nor do they have any appreciation for the value you bring to the table. Why spend a ton of time with nonbelievers?
4. Finally, none of the above will work unless you prospect with the appropriate intensity. You must take a “Seven Eleven” approach to hunting, meaning you are always open and working to fill the top of the funnel. It is hard to walk away from an opportunity if you don’t have another opportunity to walk towards.

And no offense to Walmart by the way. It is a fine place to shop. Just don’t try to sell like they do. It is hard to “out Walmart” Walmart!

 

These three qualifying questions will help salespeople sort all of their new business opportunities into two piles. Over on the left is a pile of opportunities that they want to go after. They believe they've got a good shot at winning the business because they are in their niche and in their market, so in the sweet spot. And over here on the right is another pile of opportunities. These opportunities are opportunities that they should walk on by. They're good folks, good men, good women, good businesses, but they are unlikely to leave the provider they're using today and move the business to their firm. 

The problem is of course, weak pipelines make cowards of us all. If there's not much or anything in their pipeline, then salespeople will be content to talk and work with whatever comes their way. It is the equivalent of going grocery shopping when hungry, everything looks good and almost everything makes its way into the shopping cart. So, let's start by looking at these three qualifying questions that will help engage more of the right prospects.  

3 Questions to Ask if You Want to Engage with the Right Prospects

Question #1: Do I want to win this business? 

The question every salesperson must ask themselves is, do I want to win that deal? Do I want that business? Do I want this firm or these people as a client or a customer? Are they going to be easy to work with? Are they going to be loyal to me? Are they going to be a believer in our value proposition? Are they going to have the wandering eye when every other firm offers a cheaper option? Do I want the privilege of working with them? 

That is one of the best things about a career in sales. You get to pick your clients.

 Question #2: Can I win this business?

The answer to this question is largely a function of whether or not the incumbent relationship is breakable. A salesperson must consider, can I win it? They can't win unless there are two things present at the same time. The prospect has a problem, a challenge, an issue that they have to fix. They’ve got to be in front of a company or an individual that has a problem that they absolutely have to fix. They're not kicking the tires. It has become a priority that they have to fix. 

And secondly, they have to be able to leave the incumbent provider. They have to be able, at the end of the sales process, to do what some would consider to be very tough. Does the problem hurt that much or would they rather live with it? The prospect always wants to avoid that difficult conversation of calling Mary or Matt at the current provider and saying, you're done. We're moving over here to another company. A salesperson can't win the business unless they have a prospect with a problem they have to fix. And they're willing to say, Bye-Bye to the incumbent.  

Question #3: How do I win this business?  

Question 3 is a matter of sales methodology and sales strategy. When a prospect says to a salesperson, “I've enjoyed our conversation. I'd love to see you put into writing what you think you can do for us.” That request might be fine, but let’s discuss the evolution of an opportunity. The prospect must have a compelling problem that must be fixed and be willing to leave their current provider. Two steps in the sales process.  But a salesperson must find out if they have the capacity to deal with it – meaning do they have the time, money and resources to take action.  And then a salesperson must make darn sure they are in front of the decision makers and if not, how and when can they meet with them. The how about engaging with prospects is the great pipeline cleaner.  Strong salespeople know that the best time to lose a prospect is today. There are more steps to this stage-based sales process, more than can be covered today.

Bonus Questions:

Another unwritten rule is that salespeople must get very good at talking their prospect’s love language. Their love language revolves around the problems they're having and the potential you have to solve them. What are the future growth opportunities that they might see? That's what they think about all the time. Any executive, any owner of a company, the men and women who put their sweat equity into building something - they're concerned about a lot of things. But at the top of their list are the problems and the things that threaten their business today. And as they look down the horizon around the corner into the next quarter or the next fiscal year, what are the potential opportunities that they would like to seize or take advantage of? These are the questions that will help you engage with prospects. 

In summary, all salespeople are going to lose deals they probably should have won. But there's one thing that is inexcusable and that is not being properly prepared for a sales conversation. That is not a matter of skill, that is a matter of discipline and being accountable and making the decision to pre-call. One way to engage with more of the right prospects is to have a prospect scorecard. A prospect scorecard will put a little bit of logic and methodology to the process.

 

 

 

 

The traditional perspective on cross-selling, if we were in discussion at a training session, would likely involve me asking the participants why we should engage in it. Common responses would revolve around increasing sales, driving market penetration, and enhancing customer loyalty to fend off competition. While these reasons may hold some truth, let’s shift the focus to this question: where is the emphasis placed?

The traditional rationale centers on the benefits to the company – more sales, increased market share, and customer retention. However, there’s a notable absence of consideration for the customer. This observation holds true in our experiences at Anthony Cole Training Group, where, despite our 30 years of engagement in this conversation nationwide, rarely does anyone express that cross-selling and up-selling strategies should occur because they genuinely are in the client’s best interest.

As sales leader, you should lead the charge to adopt an approach that will foster comfort for you and your team and also elevate the quality of the relationships you have built with your customers over time. To achieve this, we must entertain the possibility that the most compelling reason to broach the topic of relationship expansion with a client is the potential benefit to their best interests. It could be that your client is struggling with a problem they need assistance in solving. Here are ten keys to helping your team with client expansion, a much better term for cross-selling or up-selling:

1. Remember the focus is on the client, not you or your company
2. Take a consultative approach
3. Demonstrate empathy
4. Be curious and ask the right questions (takes practice)
5. Engage in active listening
6. Ask if they need your help
7. Be their guide
8. Make it your goal to take care of the whole client
9. Focus on stewardship instead of selling
10. Guide them to make sound decisions

You will encounter doubt and skepticism, no doubt. Your salespeople will likely think but not share the following:

• If I ask for other business, they might think I’m greedy
• I’ll ask for other business after I’ve proven I can do a good job for them
• I’ve already asked them - they said they aren’t interested
• I can’t ask for other business because it might jeopardize my current relationship
• They already have a relationship with someone else that does that for them

If your team truly believes that they are stewards for their clients, many of these objections fall away. After all, by its very definition, stewardship is the job of taking care of something that has been entrusted to you. We will often coach salespeople to “think like the CEO” and ask CEO-like questions. Understanding the bigger picture that the prospect is operating from is always additive. A consultative approach to this will involve asking questions about growth goals of the company or retirement goals for the individual. What is keeping them up at night or getting in their way of reaching their plans? Understanding the environment and industry your prospect or client is operating in is essential. Remember the word “entrusted”.  As you reflect on your team’s success or challenges in the areas of cross-selling and up-selling strategies, have they earned the trust and operated as a steward for their clients? Let’s eradicate the term cross-selling and focus on relationship expansion and serving the whole customer.

 

 

As we work with companies across the country and this topic is introduced, what’s interesting is the resistance that we often receive. The pushback typically comes in a number of different variations. One reason that we will hear is, “Hey I'm a veteran. I've got 20 years of experience. I've been down this road before. I know what I'm doing.” Another excuse we hear is “Listen, I'm really busy. I have a lot going on. I have a lot of calls I need to make. I don't have time for this.”  Other salespeople will say, “I'm just going to wing it. I will rise to the occasion.” And that last one makes me chuckle, and my answer is respectfully, you will not rise to the occasion. Here's what you're going to do. You're going to sink to the level of your preparation, which in your case, might be none or very little.

Sure, there are many things that a salesperson has to do well to be effective and drive consistent results year after year. You have to know your stuff, and you need to be charismatic, and be able to connect with people. You need to build relationships. You need to sell consultatively. You need to be asking all the tough questions. All of that is true. But most importantly, for your prospect or client’s sake, is that you've got to be prepared. It must matter to you enough that you will not think of a sales call as just a sales call. It must matter enough to you that you are at the top of your game every time you roll out into the field and you roll up to a prospect. You're not going to rise to your level of the moment, you're not going to rise to the occasion. That's the athlete in college telling the coach, "Put me in, and I'll show you what I can do." And the coach saying, "Why don't you show me what you can do in practice, and then I will put you in." That's the role of an effective sales leader and coach.

Let's dive right into this best practice of pre-call preparation. Are you or your team doing this or not? And if you're doing it, how well is it going? What is the current status of pre-call planning? Is it something you do all the time? Is it something you do only when you have the time? Is it having the intended effect of increasing your confidence as you go on the call and increasing the effectiveness of your questions while you're on the call?

Let's talk about combustion points. A combustion point, loosely defined, is any opportunity in the delivery of a company's products or services where something can go wrong. There are many things that can go wrong on a sales call. And the purpose of pre-call planning is to engineer out those combustion points. It is designed to not only minimize them, but also to give you a much greater sense of confidence so you can go into that call and get done what you need to get done. We would define that as being very consultative in your approach, asking lots of robust, fierce questions, and being a great listener. And if you don't pre-call plan for that, it is very likely that when the heat's on and it matters the most, you're just going to defer to whatever is known, whatever is comfortable, and whatever is easy. And for most salespeople, what is known and what is comfortable and what is easy, is to talk. They talk way too much.

A good ratio might be 80/20. 80% of the time it should be the prospect talking and 20% of the time it should be you talking. And your 20% of the time talking should be spent asking the questions that then get your prospect to spend 80% of the time talking. That's how it should work. Imagine a sign over your prospect's head that is flashing, wait, wait. And that is an acronym for “Why Am I Talking?”  

If you are convinced that your team needs a structure for pre-call planning, you can download a free worksheet HERE!

 

 

 

One of my most treasured memories of my younger days was buying and trading baseball cards. Perhaps I am being a bit too nostalgic, but those days were good days, and growing up in Cincinnati during the 1970’s I was a huge fan of the Cincinnati Reds and the Big Red Machine.

I particularly remember studying the back of each baseball card because it told the story of each player. And I can still recall the quote “everybody plays to the back of their baseball card” which is a reminder that year over year statistics can be used to forecast future performance.

In our business, one of the greatest sales challenges that most companies face is how to properly gain insight from sales data. Some companies just chase a bunch of data without any regard for the story that the data tells. Other companies struggle when they launch sales coaching without any data at all which means they are simply guessing on both whether their people can improve and what it will take to cause that improvement.

Pull-Through Rate

All of that leads us to what we call the “pull-through rate.” Let’s start with not getting this confused with your hit ratio or close ratio. Both a hit ratio or a close ratio are computed in the same way by dividing the number of wins by the number of presentations or pitches. This sales data insight means a company that delivers 100 presentations and wins 30 new clients has a hit ratio of 30%.

What is Pull-Through Rate?

A pull-through rate is a different sales data insight altogether. It is calculated by comparing the relationship between first-time or initial sales calls and the number of wins. For example, a salesperson who has 200 first-time sales appointments and who winds up with 30 new clients has a pull-through rate of 15%. For years Anthony Cole Training Group has taught that most prospects are not qualified to do business with you and the numbers across the country support that conclusion. In fact, our own pull-through analysis supports that conclusion as our pull-through rate runs around 20%. Nearly 80% of all the firms we have initial conversations with never become a client of our firm.

Pull-Through Rate Example

Finally, one of the most interesting parts of the pull-through sales data insight is that it allows your sales team to “dollarize” each sales call. For example, if your average sale is $50,000…and your pull-through rate is 15% then every time your team goes on that first initial call, they are in theory making $7,500 every single time they run a sales call.

Conclusion

I still have my baseball cards (at least the ones my mom did not throw away). And the back of each card still has the statistics that tell a story. What does the back of your salesperson’s card look like? Do you like the story it is telling you?