SMA stands for Severe Mental Anguish. Is this something that your salespeople are uncovering in their prospects? This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Watch Commandment #4 now! 

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Today we will discuss the fourth commandment of the 10 Commandments for Sales Success. Today's commandment is, thou shalt always remember that a prospect without severe mental anguish is actually not a prospect at all. Now, we use the acronym SMA for Severe Mental Anguish. If you don't have pain, then you don't have a prospect. I'm not saying you don't have somebody that might not eventually be a prospect, but you don't have a prospect today. Maybe you've got someone that you should build a relationship with. You should continue to drip on and nurture that relationship. But let me tell you for the last time what you don't have. You don't have somebody that you ought to be presenting to without a doubt. 

Listen, at some point in your conversations with your prospect (and while we are huge fans of you asking open-ended questions, because those facilitate conversation) there is one close-ended question that you should feel comfortable asking, and that is simply, "Hey, Mr./Mrs. Prospect, do you have to solve this problem? Is your problem just a problem? Or is it a priority that you have to fix? Not one you'd kind of like to fix. Do you have to fix that problem? Is it a top-of-the-pile kind of problem? Is it something maybe you can just wait on while you deal with other priorities?" You need to know that. And of course, it's not that easy. In our track record as a company of over 30 years of working with salespeople and sales organizations, we know that there's always something that gets in the way of salespeople asking that question.

And the answer is, typically, they're either afraid, or they have a really low pipeline, and they're just thankful that they've even got the chance to deliver a presentation. Now, I'm going to guess that in your organization, you don't make much money, if any, delivering presentations to prospects who aren't qualified or even deemed worthy of receiving them. Remember, at the end of the sales process, just like at the end of this road in the beautiful countryside here, your prospect has a decision to make. They can either make a change and deal with the problem, or they can decide, you know what? I'm gonna turn my car to the right. No change from me. We're gonna continue to deal with the status quo.

Here's my last question as I close, when do you want to know their answer to that question? Have a great day, everybody. Take good care.

Get out of the cold-calling business! Share this video with your people who might struggle with getting introductions. This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Today we dive into Commandment #3! 

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Hello, this is Mark Trinkle, Chief Growth Officer with Anthony Cole Training Group, and today I am bringing you commandment #3 in our 10 part series that we are calling the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Now, if you've been following along, you might remember that commandment number one was thou shout always do a pre-call plan, and commandment number two is thou shout always be prospecting.  Commandment number three for today is thou shout always remember to ask for introductions.

I'm sure the most hated part of selling universally is having to make cold calls. And ideally, you'd like to get to the point in your career where you have been able to get out of the cold calling business. Listen, we know cold calls don't work. Here are a couple stats for you. One statistic is the average success rate of a cold call landing you a new piece of business. It has been estimated to be 0.03%, not 3%, not 0.3%, but 0.03%. And several graduate business schools have conducted studies where they've surveyed the C-suite, and the most striking number to me is the number 80%. About 80% of C-suite executives when surveyed said, if they don't know you, if they weren't expecting your call, if no one has referred or introduced you to them, 80% said they're not coming to the phone. They're not calling you back, and they're not replying to your email.

So we use the term introduction instead of referral. And, it's more than just a subtlety. A referral is, "Hey Bob, why don't you call Mary? She runs a business on the other side of town that I think would be a good fit for you. " And introduction, by contrast, is where you have asked someone (a center of influence, a business associate,  or a client) to actually introduce you so that when you call your prospect, they're going to know exactly who you are.

And it's really pretty simple. It's very straightforward. You want the person introducing you to tell the target, your prospect, four things.

1. "I would like to introduce you to Mark from X, Y, Z company, and you should take his call."

2. "Mark is a good person."

3. "He's done great work for me, and his firm is very reputable."

4. "After you've spoken with Dan, if it does not make sense to continue the conversation, it's okay to say no. If now is not the right time for you and your company to move forward, I know he would understand and appreciate that a lot."

Now, number four is important, okay? That is a pressure relief valve. It helps the person that you're calling to understand if they're not interested, if your message doesn't resonate, they can simply get off the phone and tell you they're not interested. And it should also be a pressure relief valve for you, and a reminder that you are not there to sell anything and that you can be a good listener. And if your message doesn't resonate, you'll happily move on down the road. That's it for commandment number three. Have a great day selling.

Do you ever hear that your salespeople don't have enough time to prospect? Share this video with your people who might struggle with consistent prospecting. This video is a part of our new series with Mark Trinkle: The 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Today we dive into number two-Thou Shalt Always Be Prospecting.

Transcript:

Welcome to today's message, which is the second in a 10 part series on the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Today we are looking at the second commandment, and as you can see from the screen, the second commandment is Thou Shalt Always Be Prospecting. Now, I know you probably don't land in the office in the morning, necessarily fired up to prospect, but it's kind of like being a kid and eating your vegetables. And I can remember when I told my mom and dad, "Mom, Dad, I don't like vegetables." And their answer was (and you probably know where I'm going), "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it. You have to eat 'em." I think that's the same with prospecting every day. And here's the real danger.

You don't have to prospect on any given day. You can take a day off. You can probably take a week off. Heck, you can probably take two weeks off and you won't notice any concern right away or any danger right away. But down the road, your pipeline is bound to take a hit. Great prospectors prospect just enough each day, each week, each month to continue to put flow into the top of that pipeline.

One more thing about prospecting before I let you go... don't tell me you don't have time. You can tell me a lot of things, but don't tell me you don't have time. That's a myth. Our good friend Bigfoot is on the screen here to remind us that is a myth and here's why. If I ask you to go call a hundred different people, to make a hundred dials, our math tells us you're probably gonna talk to 10 people.

Now, I'm gonna try to trick you. I'm gonna ask you, "How much time will it take you to not talk to 90 people?" One more time. "How much time will it take you to not talk to 90 people?" And of the 10 people that you will talk to, my guess is you'll probably have short conversations with some of them. You might even set a few appointments with some others, but it's just not going to take much time out of your day.

You can add up the time and then you have to decide for yourself. Do you not have the time or do you not have the drive and the ambition to get after it?

Have a great day and as always, thank you so much for listening!

Watch all of the Commandments Here

Are your salespeople following the first commandment of sales success? Our new video series with Mark Trinkle introduces the 10 Commandments of Sales Success. Today we start with number one- Pre-Call Preparation.

Watch all of the Commandments Here

I know you have heard it before.  You know, the line that goes like this “if you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten.”  As a coach, the most development I have seen in salespeople comes when they alone decide enough is enough which leads them to make changes.  And sometimes those changes are hard to make.

While there are many aspects that I love about my job, here are three in no particular order: 

1. I have the privilege of working with some incredible companies and some incredible people across the United States.
2. I have the privilege of working alongside a team at Anthony Cole Training Group whose talent is only eclipsed by the quality of their character.
3. I have the privilege of sitting in a front row seat that allows me to coach and watch some of the best salespeople in the world.

 Today’s blog is about #3.

My sense is there are numerous articles and blogs on what great salespeople do…so today I want to flip that coin over and talk about what great salespeople never do.  Perhaps they used to do those things, but at some point, in their sales career they drew a line in the sand and said no more. And those things became habits. They became the habits of sales greatness.

Here are four things great salespeople never do: 

1. They never show up unprepared and simply “wing it” on a sales call. They execute a precall plan where they identify the questions they are going to ask the prospect as well as they questions the prospect may ask them. They tailor the call for resonance by making sure they are talking about issues that are likely to be important to the prospect.
2. They never blame anyone or anything for their lack of success. They don’t blame the economy, the competition, or the marketing department.  They own the outcomes they create.  By the way, that is my preferred definition of the word accountability – owning the outcome that you created.
3. They never compromise the value they bring to the table. They know the value of their firm and they know the value that they bring to the table.  And if the prospect doesn’t see or appreciate that value, then the salesperson simply moves on.
4. They never (and I mean never ever) stop prospecting. It does not matter if they are crushing it or if they are struggling, they keep networking and they keep hunting for new business.  They keep hunting because they know that weak pipelines make cowards of us all.  They know that it is hard to move on to better qualified opportunities if they don’t have those already in the pipeline.

As a salesperson, what are you doing that you should stop doing?  Who knows, you might be just one bad habit away from sales greatness.