Are thou always remembering to follow the Rules of Engagement? Learn why it's important by watching our new series with Chief Growth Officer Mark Trinkle. Today, Mark will discuss Commandment #9 of the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Hello, this is Mark Trinkle, and believe it or not, we have made our way to commandment number nine, the 9th in our 10th installment of our series that we have called The 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment number nine for today is Thou Shalt Always Remember to Follow the Rules of Engagement.

I don't know whether you have seen Top Gun, the original or the sequel that came out, Top Gun Maverick. It captivated the nation. Seemingly, it captivated me. It was a great story. That was actually a movie you could invite your whole family to watch. And if you watched that movie, whether it was the original or the second one, particularly the original, you know the trouble that that Maverick, Lieutenant Mitchell got into when he, when he flew below the hard deck, that altitude level at which it was no longer safe to carry on the competition.

And the problem was he violated Top Gun's Rules of Engagement. Salespeople do the same thing. Actually, they don't violate rules of engagement, quite frankly. Most of the time they don't even have rules of engagement. They just chase prospects. They don't have a standard of what they're looking for. They don't need a prospect to qualify for them. What's interesting is that those salespeople spend a lot of their time trying to argue that they would be a great fit for their prospect. They spend very little, if any time, trying to investigate whether or not that prospect would be a good fit for them. There are three qualifying questions that as a salesperson, you need to ask of yourself when you're deciding whether or not to chase a deal. Number one is, do I wanna win this business? Well, I get to decide. That's one of the great parts about being in sales.

You and I get to decide who we do business with. Do you want to do business with them? The second question you should ask is, can you win the business? If there's a budget, can you meet the budget for the deal? If there is an incumbent provider, can you dislodge that incumbent provider? It's a question of whether or not their current relationship is breakable. Number three, the third question you should ask is, well, how do I win this business? And that's a matter of sales strategy. You know, our coaches and training group receive a lot of calls during the week from salespeople that are frustrated about a variety of things. But the number one thing that prompts them to call in is that they're working on a deal and it's stuck. It's not moving. It's been in the pipeline for a while. Maybe the prospect has gone radio silent.

And here is my concluding thought for you. You know what? Those deals that are stuck in the pipeline, they were always destined to get stuck. They were never qualified. And who's to blame?

The salesperson who worked it, who either didn't follow or didn't have any rules of engagement? Thou shall always remember to follow rules of engagement. Have a great day.

Are you following the Ten Commandments of Sales Success? Find out by watching our new series with Chief Growth Officer Mark Trinkle. Today, Mark will discuss Commandment #8: Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value.

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Good day everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer with Anthony Cole Training Group. We’re going to continue to march forward in our series, the 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment #8 is Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Now, remember this right from the get-go. If you don’t add value at the beginning of your sales process or your sales cycle, it’s going to be really hard to defend that at the end. So let’s get that straight. You’ve gotta add it at the beginning to defend it or sell based upon it at the end. Maybe this screen is summarizing some things that you’ve heard recently about price or about rate?

Maybe you’ve heard, “Hey, your rate or your price is too high.” Maybe you heard a prospect say, “Well, you know what, I’ve got better terms from you.” Fill in the blank. Maybe you’ve heard your prospects say, “Hey, I’m gonna look around at some other options.” Maybe they’ve come back to you. Your prospect has come back to you and they said, “Hey, what would it look like if you took your proposal and you did X, Y, or Z?”

Now, look, there are three immutable truths about a prospect and their mentality and their strategy for asking you for a rate or a price reduction. Number one, the first immutable truth. It doesn’t cost him anything to ask, right? I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? They might hear no. Number two, your attitude and how you respond to your prospect when they do make that ask is going to set the tone for all future negotiations. And number three, if you don’t move the conversation with your prospect away from rate and towards value, then you are always going to be negotiating on rate or on price.

Now, if you want to be strong at this, if you want to get it right and you want your response to be as effective as it can be for things, you gotta be assertive. You gotta be able to assert your value. You have to know what that value is. You cannot be scared. Number two, you better be really good at asking questions and listening. That was one of the other commandments in this series, by the way. Number three, I alluded to it at the top of this video. You’ve got to be introducing value all throughout the sales process. There must be something unique. You have to stand out from the competition. You better be teaching your prospect not what to think, but how to think. And number four, you had best be really good at negotiating. That’s it for this commandment, Thou Shalt Always Remember to Add Value. Have a great day.

Thou shalt always remember to ask questions and listen. This commandment is critical if you truly want to be a great salesperson. This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #7 now! 

Hello everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer for Anthony Cole Training Group, and today we have worked our way to number seven in our 10 part series that we've called The 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Commandment number seven is Thou shalt always remember to ask questions and listen. In fact, I want you to get really good at asking questions and listening. And here's why. One of the key marks of difference between average salespeople and great salespeople is that great salespeople have figured this commandment out, and they understand that for them to be great, then they need to be great at asking questions and listening. Now, by listening, I mean listening with the intention to understand, as opposed to listening with the intent to interrupt the Art and Science of Asking Questions is critical. You might say, "Well, Mark, that's kind of obvious, isn't it?" 

Well, I don't know how obvious it is. Sometimes the concerning thing about obvious things is at the end of the day, they're not that obvious. But we do know that we ask questions to get information. We know that open-ended questions are the type of questions we want to ask, because those open-ended questions foster and promote dialogue. And while it's okay to open a conversation with easy questions, you make your money by asking the harder questions, the difficult questions, the questions that might be inconvenient, the questions that might be uncomfortable for you, and quite frankly, some questions that you maybe don't want to hear the answer to, but you absolutely need to hear the answer to those questions. Let me leave you with this. The light bulb really went off for me when I heard one of our clients say that great salespeople have this lasting impact or this lingering effect on their prospects.

What he meant by that was that they're so good in the meeting that the prospect can't stop thinking about that conversation, that discussion, even after that salesperson has left. How good are you at getting your prospects to the point where they can't stop thinking about the conversation they had with you? Here's what we know. People, prospects, they can ignore you. They might not reply to your voicemail. They might not respond to your email. They can ignore you, but they cannot ignore, they cannot escape their own thoughts. Do what you can to make sure that they keep thinking about that conversation even days after you've left them. Have a great day.

Thou shout always tailor your message for resonance! Does your prospect have a problem that they have to fix? And are you speaking their love language? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #6 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

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Thou shalt never present without making sure your prospect is committed to making a decision. Are you certain you're getting the decision-maker to a point of clarity? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #5 now! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Transcript:

Good day everyone. This is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer for Anthony Cole Training Group. Today it is my privilege to bring you our fifth commandment of a 10-part series that we are calling the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. The fifth commandment is: Thou shalt never present without making sure your prospect is committing to making a decision.

Now, there are a couple of different parts to this. I'm going to assume for today's commandment that you are in front of the decision maker. If you're not, then your sales results are gonna be wildly erratic. You're certainly gonna lose a fair amount of the time. So, again, I'm assuming... and it's dangerous to assume, but I'm assuming that you are in front of the actual decision maker and that you've checked off all the boxes, that you've met with everybody who has a say in making the decision for your presentation.

The second part of this is that you've got to be certain. You've got to be certain that you are getting them to the point of great clarity so that they will make a decision. So, the secret to getting decisions from decision makers is no doubt they have to be fully qualified for the compelling issues. At least compelling enough to them that they'll make a change. You've gotta know why they're gonna make a change. You've gotta know what the problems are. You've gotta know how the problems are impacting them. You need to dollarize or monetize that, and understand what those problems are costing. You've gotta be certain that the prospect has the capacity to invest the appropriate or required amount of time, money, and resources. I mean, you've gotta know that the problem hurts so much that they're willing to go through the process.

They need to understand your process. What are you going to require of them? There has to be complete clarity. I'm gonna call it "beautiful clarity" on the decision-making process. You know that they will make a decision. That's what you're actually closing your prospects on. Don't worry about them picking you, or favoring you, instead focus your time, efforts, and energy on making certain that they are clear, that you are expecting them to make a decision, and that they will commit to making a decision.

I'll end with this. You should close a hundred percent of your qualified business opportunities, but by that I mean sometimes you're gonna get a no. And that's okay. But you know what your greatest frustration should be? That you spent an appreciable amount of time, you went through your sales process, you got your team involved, and you delivered a proposal or a presentation, and they didn't answer with yes or no. They answered with that dreaded TIA. "I need to think it over."

You can do something about that as long as you're willing to plant your feet and walk your prospect through your expectation that they will make a decision, that yes is great, but, but no is OK. Get your prospect to commit to making a decision. Have a great day.