How many times have you been on a sales call and known that something was wrong but lacked the sales courage to do anything about it? As a sales manager or leader, how often have you identified this problem with your salespeople?

Red flags in selling include:

• The decision maker isn't there.
• The prospect isn't giving you all the information; they are holding back.
• They have a problem they really don't need to fix.
• They aren't going to undo their current relationship.
• They don't have the money or resources to invest in fixing the problem.

The Cost of Ignoring Red Flags

Most salespeople ignore the red flag and hope that it will go away. Think about the short- and long-term consequences of ignoring the fact that your prospect has not yet decided to change their current, problematic situation.

Certainly, the problem for you as the salesperson is that by ignoring the fact that the prospect can't or won't change the relationship, you will end up doing a lot of work and putting money in someone else's pocket. This is not good for you or your company. It takes time away from prospects who are ready, willing, and able to change. It also takes time away from existing clients who need additional services from you—and from your family.

As a sales leader, your company ends up supporting a sales prospect that has zero return on investment because the salesperson is not courageous enough to address a particular red flag in the selling process.

Salespeople will often think or say, "I think they will buy from me. They really liked what I had to say and enjoyed the presentation." It is a sales leader's job to challenge that thinking with questions, get underneath the red flags, and determine what should be done differently.

There are many reasons salespeople shy away from red flags in selling. In the Objective Management Group sales evaluation, two common weaknesses among salespeople are fear of rejection and the need for approval. Both of these weaknesses can send a salesperson back to the office before they ask the tough questions—even while they are replaying the sales call in their heads and thinking about what they should have asked.

How to Address a Red Flag During a Sales Call

If salespeople are going to sell more and become more productive and effective in their sales efforts, they must first have the sales courage to call out a "Red Flag" when they see it, hear it, or sense it. Their gut usually tells them when something is amiss.

Salespeople must have the courage to speak up and say, "If you don't mind, there is something I'd like to address. Is that okay?"

Once you recognize the red flag and develop the courage to address it, you won't have to worry about what to say. The right words will come to you. Just remember to be assertive, not aggressive. Stay clinically detached, nurture your comments, and don't be afraid to walk away from the prospect if a mutual understanding and agreement cannot be reached.

4 Questions to Ask Yourself to Address Red Flags in Selling

1. What was a recent red flag you encountered in selling?
   Think of something you knew would take the sale sideways or compromise your ability to close the deal, but you ignored it, hoping you could find a way to handle it later—or that it would simply go away and resolve itself.

2. What did you want to say or do but back off from because you lacked the courage?

3. What can you do—and what must you do—about it now?
   What questions should you ask?

4. How will you handle similar situations in the future?

The next time you see, hear, or sense a red flag, do not ignore it and hope the situation improves. Pause, trust your instincts, and ask the question you may be afraid to ask. You might lose an opportunity that was never truly qualified, but you will protect your time, your pipeline, and your ability to focus on prospects who are ready, willing, and able to buy. That is not walking away from a sale. It is selling with courage.

“Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” I am confident that at some point in your sales or sales management career, you have heard this expression about emotional selling. As I read Seth Godin's post “In the Mood,” it reminded me of this fundamental sales principle. The short version: Music doesn't teach us how to fall in love; it just creates the emotion of falling in love, being in love, or looking for love. In other words, music, books, theater and movies sell emotion, or the “sizzle.”

So how does this relate to selling? How does it relate to why a salesperson's prospects fail to become qualified buyers, and why their qualified buyers fail to become clients? They likely showed them exactly what the prospect needed to see, or told them exactly what they needed to hear to solve a problem that they have. Emotional selling is more than explaining and telling; it is about creating a feeling. It is about uncovering how much something means to a buyer, and what the impact will be if they do or do not fix the problem. And yes, that means emotionally, financially, and intellectually. If a salesperson does not appeal to the potential buyer on each of these three levels, their likelihood of selling the deal decreases. More importantly, without the skill of emotional selling, a salesperson will not become a true and trusted business advisor.

A great book that will help you and your salespeople refine skills in storytelling and emotional selling is Story Selling for Financial Advisors. This book will help you understand how to more effectively motivate prospects to take action.

Here is my take on the four most important things to do to get people to take action, by appealing to their emotion. As a sales leader, this is a great topic and practice session for an upcoming sales meeting with your team.

The 4 Keys to Emotional Selling

1. Accurately identify the real problem or benefit. The initial problem that someone describes to you, or the “need” that is being expressed, isn't typically real. A salesperson must ask great questions to peel back the layers to uncover the real motivation.

2. Once you identify what is real, you must ask, “What happens if you don't fix the problem or realize this benefit?” You must get your prospect to describe an outcome in detail. Find out how it will affect their job, career, ability to drive growth, capture market share, etc. What is the impact on a professional and personal level?

3. Then, top producers ask if “not realizing the benefit” is a compelling enough reason to invest time, money, or resources to take action. Take yourself out of the picture. In other words, your salespeople should not try to sell themselves, your company, or your products at this time. The most important decision that the prospect has to make is: will they take action to fix it?

4. Once that important decision is made, the questions and positioning of why you and your company begin. Emotional selling, when done well, uncovers the why. Why someone must fix the problem or take advantage of an opportunity, on a visceral level. Once that is determined, where and how becomes important.

Selling the sizzle, or emotional selling, is all about asking the right questions so that the prospect falls in love with the sizzle of buying.

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Most sales leaders do not have the training or background to know specifically what makes their best salespeople so good at what they do and vice versa with their lower producers. A sales force evaluation goes beyond a simple skills assessment. It gives you measurable insights into the strengths, weaknesses, and hidden potential of your sales team.

At Anthony Cole Training Group, we help banks, insurance agencies, and financial institutions identify the factors that drive performance so you can make smarter decisions about coaching, training, and hiring. Here are the dirty dozen of sales success gleaned over 30+ years:

#1: Desire to Succeed
#2: Commitment to Succeed
#3: Positive Outlook
#4: Takes Responsibility
#5: Consistently Prospects
#6: Sets Quality Appointments
#7: Asks Quality Questions
#8: Supportive Beliefs
#9: No Need for Approval
#10: Builds Trust & Confidence
#11: Gets Decisions
#12: Gets Commitment

#1 Sales Skill: Desire to Succeed

Those salespeople with a strong desire for success have goals. They have them in writing, with due dates. They are also motivated by money. Money is not the endgame, but they certainly want the freedom that money provides. They have consistency in their effort and in their performance. They are passionate about sales success, and they hate losing even more than they love winning. You’ll find them to be highly self-motivated, with a driving urge to become the very best. They consistently meet or exceed expectations, and they inspire others with their passion.

#2 Sales Skill: Commitment to Succeed

Commitment is described as WIT-doing whatever it takes to succeed despite discomfort, real obstacles and challenges. Those who are committed are winners. They win at almost everything they do. What separates the winners from the rest is that they do what the non-winners won’t. They are willing to take risks. They will put themselves in high-risk situations with prospects and clients to do the right thing for them. They are willing to force a No from a prospect in order to get a decision so they can move on or to help the prospect understand that they might be making a mistake.

#3 Sales Skill: Positive Outlook

Having a positive outlook in sales has very little to do with whether a salesperson is looking at life through rose-colored glasses. Outlook is the ongoing perception of how a person views themselves, their company, and the condition of the marketplace. Salespeople with a positive outlook can move beyond rejection when somebody tells them No because they understand it is not personal. They realize it can be an indication that maybe they haven’t done the job they should have done to answer all the questions to help the prospect arrive at a decision that’s mutually beneficial. Salespeople with a strong outlook do not make excuses and they are focused on executing an effective sales process.

#4 Sales Skill: Takes Responsibility

Those who are highly successful as salespeople take responsibility and ownership of their results. They don’t blame others. They don’t blame the company or the prospect. They don’t blame their past and they know that it’s up to them. They recognize that the only things that they can control are their activity and their behavior and that it is ok to fail. Those who take responsibility don’t play psychological games or say a lot of “Yeah, buts”. They do the behavior they need to do at the appropriate times, which, in selling, is prospecting, day in and day out. They learn from their behaviors and their challenges. They accept challenges, and they certainly don’t try to rationalize when they fail to succeed either in a sale or in their overall results.

#5 Sales Skill: Consistently Prospects

Consistency is the key to success in selling, and that starts with consistent sales activity. Highly successful salespeople have enough prospects with the right revenue value in their pipeline. They don’t suffer ups and downs because they consistently get introductions from their clients and centers of influence. It’s part of their sales process. Highly successful salespeople who are consistently prospecting never complain about not having enough people to call on. They don’t complain about a lack of leads because they leverage networking activities. They consistently meet and exceed sales activity goals because they make prospecting their number one priority.

#6 Sales Skill: Sets Quality Appointments

Top salespeople have quality, first-time appointments, and when they do, over 75% of those turn into qualified leads. A qualified lead is someone who has a compelling reason to act, will invest time, money, and resources, will leave the incumbent, and is the decision maker. When salespeople aren’t converting a high percentage of first-time appointments to qualified prospects, then they’re likely not getting quality first-time appointments. Highly successful salespeople have an effective, differentiating phone approach. Due to this approach, they do not waste time on unqualified appointments.

#7 Sales Skill: Asks Quality Questions

Great salespeople are masterful at asking questions. They ask questions to get people to emote rather than just share their intel. The right questions get people personally involved and help them discover their issues for themselves, so that salespeople don’t have to tell them. This helps prospects arrive at a compelling reason to take action. The right set of open-ended questions helps uncover the budget, the timing, and the decision-making process of any prospect. Prospects do the talking and skilled salespeople are masterful at asking “Could it be…?” and “Suppose…?” questions.

#8 Sales Skill: Has Supportive Beliefs

Napoleon Hill stated in his book, Think and Grow Rich, that what you think about comes about. People who are successful in selling have supportive thinking. They understand that it is OK to hear No; it’s not the end of the world. They understand that it’s OK to fail. Failure is never final. They also know that it is OK to ask tough questions if it will help the prospect solve a problem. They understand that they have rights as a salesperson and they also have a supportive buy cycle. In other words, the way they buy things supports the way they have to sell things. They make quick decisions about personal purchases when they find what they want. They establish goals for what they want. They sell value and close business based on value, not just tell people about the value of the product that they have.

#9 Sales Skill: Has No Need for Approval

Salespeople who don't have a need for approval move on even when they get a No or when they face disappointment. Even when they get answers they don’t like, they move on. They work to get prospects to tell them No so that they know they have a qualified prospect and the sales process can begin. This lack of need for approval helps them bring things to closure. They certainly don’t accept any wishy-washy statements or comments or answers to questions. They will confront the prospect when they are unclear about the information they are getting. They get really good up-front contracts and know what’s supposed to happen next. They get their personal need to be liked and approved outside of sales.

#10 Sales Skill: Builds Trust & Confidence

Highly successful salespeople know how to develop trust and confidence on the very first call. They help prospects relax and connect with their prospects very quickly. Something other than “How about this weather?” or “Do you like to fish?” They immediately gain a comfort level. The speech pattern of a highly successful salesperson who can establish trust and confidence is smooth and confident. They know when and why they don’t have rapport. When something isn’t comfortable in a meeting, the salesperson discusses it with the prospect. This demonstrates confidence and trust. They deal with problems upfront. They establish good, clear, specific next steps, which also build rapport and trust.

#11 Sales Skill: Gets Decisions

Weak salespeople with long sales cycles will tell you that they can’t control the prospect’s buying process. Strong salespeople will tell you that they influence the decision criteria used by the prospect to make their decision, and this helps influence the decision-making process. Highly successful salespeople always know where they stand by asking the right questions about timeline, the process, and the incumbent. They always know what will happen next in the sales process. What allows them to do this is their consistency and persistence around qualifying for the investment of time, money, and resources. They know who the money decision-maker is and they know when a prospect will begin to write a check to them.

#12 Sales Skill: Gets Commitment

Because strong salespeople influence the decision-making process, they get commitments. When they get ready to present, they have already agreed with the prospect that they will hear Yes or No. They get decisions. They always follow the process in the sales system. That process includes sending an “as we agreed to” email, which identifies, “Here are the items that we have agreed to, and when we present our solution, we’re going to meet these criteria.” Strong salespeople follow the “as we agreed to” letter with a phone call to confirm that everything in the letter was accurate and true. They begin meetings with a review of all the terms and conditions, and they confirm and gain confirmation on the “agreed to” outcome of the presentation meeting. They don’t roll over when they get a No. They don’t take stalls or put-offs. They always present to decision-makers. But more importantly, they eliminate objections, stalls, and questions before presenting. And once they present, they get a decision.

How different are your salespeople in the marketplace? Are they unique enough to break through a very crowded marketplace?

As a sales leader, part of your role is helping your salespeople create a selling approach that stands out. Differentiating in sales is not just about having a better product or knowing more about your business. It is about giving people a reason to stop, listen and want to know more.

I recently started reading Seth Godin's Purple Cow again, and early in the book he tells a story about driving his family through France. Mile after mile, farm after farm, they saw brown cows. At first, the cows were interesting, but after a while, nobody stopped to look at them anymore.

And that is the question for you and your sales team: Do you look, act and sound like everybody else? Are you another brown cow?

What does your sales approach sound like?

Nobody wants to listen to another pitch, another presentation or another salesperson who sounds exactly like everyone else. The response is usually, "I've seen it before. I've heard it before. I'm not interested."

Your salespeople may be smart. They may know their business. They may be interesting and great to talk to. But if the impression in the marketplace is that they are just another brown cow, no one is going to stop the car.

The goal is to become remarkable, and remarkable simply means worth remarking on. You know you may be onto something when a prospect responds with, "Tell me more about that," "How do you do that?" or even, "That's me. We have that problem." Those reactions are very different from someone simply sitting through another sales presentation.

Be brave with your approach

In order to move from brown cow to purple cow, you have to be willing to be a little brave. You have to redesign your approach in a way that might make you slightly uncomfortable.

For example, when you call someone, try simply saying your name and then stop talking.

"Hi, this is Tony Cole."

And then be quiet.

Most salespeople immediately follow their name with a pitch. They tell the prospect who they are, what company they are with and why they are calling. Instead, create a little curiosity and then say, "Well, let me ask you a question."

That does not sound like the normal sales call. The prospect is used to hearing, "Let me tell you about..." You are asking instead, and that small difference can change the entire conversation.

Brown cow thinking vs. purple cow thinking

Brown cow thinking sounds like this: "This is what I know. This is what I do. This is how I do it. Do you want some?"

That is how a lot of selling still happens.

Purple cow thinking is different. You might say, "What we do is not for everybody. We work with a very specific group of organizations, and not everybody qualifies."

Now the conversation changes. Instead of trying to push the prospect toward you, you are creating a situation where they may start explaining why they should stay in the conversation. That is a very different selling dynamic.

Would someone stop and listen?

So here is the question worth asking: If someone heard one of your salespeople talking to a prospect about what they do, would they stop and listen? Would they interrupt and ask a question? Would they want to hear more, or would they keep walking because they have heard it all before?

Differentiating in sales requires your salespeople to be willing to rethink how they show up in the marketplace. Be brave with your approach, say something different, ask a better question and create enough curiosity that the prospect wants to continue the conversation.

Go be the purple cow.

A Tribute to Stephen Covey

Stephen Covey had a significant impact on my life and millions of other lives as well. I have read many of his books:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families

• First Things First

• Principle-Centered Leadership

And this book, written by his son, Stephen M.R. Covey:

• The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything

The first book I read was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Clearly a landmark book for Stephen, and a book that changed millions of lives. The most important concept I took from that book was "start with the end in mind." This is a common idea among many thought leaders in the area of self-improvement, productivity, and effectiveness. Decide what you want the outcome to be, then build the plan, the steps, and the path to get you there. As I think about Stephen, that book, and our success, I can clearly and easily state that this one concept has helped us succeed on many levels.

First Things First is all about priorities. Priorities get done; everything else is just talk. We often talk about priorities in our training sessions for both salespeople and sales managers. For salespeople, the only "A" priority is prospecting. It always has been, always will be. For sales managers, it's coaching. It is the priority that, when well executed, maximizes the people talent in which all companies invest. Nothing else has the same return.

The SPEED of Trust, written by Stephen's son Stephen, impressed me so much and, once again, it is a simple truth with big impact. Think about the relationships you have or hope to have with prospects, sales candidates, internal partners, and your sales team. The speed at which you develop a trusting relationship impacts any outcome you hope to have. Trust is established by focusing on the other person first. When preparing to conduct a coaching session or a performance management meeting, think about how the meeting might go if you start with "seek to understand" rather than "let me tell you..."

We lost a great business icon with the loss of Stephen Covey, the maker of small, efficient, and highly effective tools for our daily business and personal use. His books and the concepts they teach will continue to help us become the best versions of ourselves.

7 Sales Tips Inspired by Stephen Covey

Here are 7 sales tips inspired by reading Stephen's books:

Sales Tip 1: Be Proactive

Take initiative in life by recognizing that your decisions, and how they align with your life's principles, are the determining factor in your effectiveness. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.

Sales Tip 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. Create a mission statement for where you want your career to take you.

Sales Tip 3: Put First Things First

Prioritize, plan, and execute your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, and whether they propel you toward your goals and enrich the roles and relationships outlined in Sales tip 2.

Sales Tip 4: Think Win-Win

Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding that a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term solution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.

Sales Tip 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Use empathic listening and probing questions to genuinely understand a person, which typically will compel them to reciprocate with an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem-solving.

Sales Tip 6: Synergize

Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork in order to achieve goals that no one person could have accomplished alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people by encouraging their meaningful contribution and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.

Sales Tip 7: Sharpen the Saw

Balance and renew your resources, energy, and health to create a sustainable, long-term, effective lifestyle. This emphasizes exercise for physical renewal, as well as, for many, prayer, meditation, yoga, and good reading for mental renewal. It also includes service to society for community building and support.

What sales tips would you contribute to this list? As a sales leader, focusing on self-improvement issues like this makes for a great team discussion.