The two most important skills that a salesperson must master are becoming good at asking questions and becoming good at listening which are advanced selling skills.

We have identified four traits that all great relationship selling salespeople have in common. In part 1 of this blog series, we will discuss the first most critical trait, curiosity. 

Great salespeople are like diamonds in your collection and similar to diamonds, they have characteristics that make them shine. We all know the four Cs of diamonds are cut, color, clarity, and carat so what are the characteristics that great salespeople possess? In my role as a sales coach, I get an up-close and personal look at some of the greatest salespeople in the world. Some are young while some are older. Some are extroverted while others are more introverted. Some are extrinsically motivated, and some are intrinsically motivated. In short, salespeople come in all shapes and sizes.

But I have been able to identify four traits that the great relationship selling salespeople have in common:

1. Curiosity
2. Confidence
3. Courage
4. Charisma

Today, I want to start with the curiosity trait. Great salespeople tend to be naturally and intellectually curious in their conversations with prospects. Now if you have read this blog before, you understand I believe the two most important skills that a salesperson must master are becoming good at asking questions and becoming good at listening and these are advanced selling skills. The problem with listening is that too many salespeople simply listen with the desire to interrupt as opposed to listening to understand.

This is where great salespeople really shine. In their pre-call plan, they create questions that are tailored for resonance, meaning the questions speak the prospect’s love language. These questions are questions that invite discussion around the things that matter most to the prospect, the essence of relationship selling. And because the salesperson is “intellectually curious”, most of those questions start with why, when, how, what or when, which we know are “journalism questions.”

And that’s not all. Salespeople who are curious also rely on industry intelligence to make sure the questions they ask are both intelligent and that those questions resonate. One resource that thousands of firms around the world rely on to help in this research area is IBISWorld which can provide salespeople with real-time industry-specific knowledge. This allows salespeople to avoid having to tell their prospects how smart they are – they simply ask questions that allow the prospect to self-discover that the salesperson is knowledgeable about the prospect’s industry. As one of my mentors taught me years ago, great salespeople ask what weak salespeople prefer to tell.

So how curious are you when you speak to your prospects? Are your questions tailored for resonance? Let us know. We are curious about your skills!

When developing a salesperson’s advanced selling skills, it's important to focus on not only what the prospect says but also what the prospect doesn’t say.

As many of you know, I am a music aficionado…and as such, I would be remiss if I did not note the passing a few weeks ago of the singer Meat Loaf at 74 years of age. Born with the name Marvin Lee Aday, Meat Loaf sold more than 65 million albums worldwide.

He also has something to teach us in terms of mastering advanced sales techniques around the topic of having clarity with the prospects in our pipeline. Go ahead and sing along with me:

And all I can do is keep on telling you
I want you
I need you
There ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad
Cause two out of three ain't bad

Now while the name of that song is “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”, we can also refer to this as “The Dance of the Prospect.” Maybe it brings to mind a recent deal you chased. You know, the one you were sure you were going to win right up until the moment that you lost. I doubt you will disagree with me when I say that prospects can be quite elusive and quite vague when you meet with them.

When we are working to develop a salesperson’s advanced selling skills, we focus on not only what the prospect says but also what the prospect doesn’t say. Here is what they often say and all of this is enticing bait for salespeople:

• We have heard good things about your company
• We are open to new ideas
• We think you might be able to help us
• We would love to see in writing what you could do for us

That is your prospect saying, “and all I can do is keep on telling you…I want you…I need you”. But what you might need to consider is what they are not telling you, which is “there ain’t no way I’m ever gonna love you.”

But hey – for all you salespeople…don’t be sad. After all, two out of three ain’t bad.

With the past couple of years working remotely, many of your bankers’ skills are rusty and they may not be using the tech tools they should be. During these times, they must be better than ever before at reaching out and communicating effectively and consistently.

Here are 3 keys to evaluating the right banking sales training program that will help your relationship managers adjust to the new selling environment.

It’s no surprise that, with continuing pandemic issues and concerns, many clients and prospects are avoiding our bank lobbies. And why not, with online access to almost everything? So how will your salespeople continue to build relationships and keep your best customers? With the past couple of years working remotely, many of your bankers’ skills are rusty and they may not be using the tech tools they should be. During these times, they must be proficient, actually, they must be better than ever before at reaching out and communicating effectively and consistently. This is key for most banks to sustain and build relationships, grow loans, and achieve higher net interest margins.

Here are 3 key ideas to make sure that your banking sales training is helping your relationship managers adjust to this new normal, and increasingly remote selling environment:

1. Make certain that your bank is focused on helping your salespeople blend the value of human touch with digital assistance. According to a recent Banking Exchange article, this is the new frontier in customer engagement. So, what does that mean? They must be able to assist customers and prospects in navigating these digital options and provide a holistic, consultative approach. Because of our new “anywhere economy,” our customers expect the ability to conduct all their business remotely and on any device. Think about your own experiences with digital platforms – you might love the convenience but often need that human interaction to make the experience successful. I am working with a new platform for prospecting called ZoomInfo Intent. The system helps to understand what companies are searching for keywords that describe our services, which could be very helpful but I have encountered the need to have human help along the way. This is your relationship manager’s greatest opportunity – to be ready to ask the questions to help more fully understand and serve the client. They must be adept at answering the question at hand and comfortably probing further to more fully understand the goals of the client. How good are your people at doing this?
   
   
2. Speaking of prospecting… There are so many different tools to be explored to connect and build relationships virtually but it is harder. The second key to your banking sales training is to make certain that your salespeople are proficient at using the tech tools to connect. Some may want to avoid this but today, there is no choice. Calling is still a prospecting option but with so many people working remotely, you must have cell phones to connect with any consistency. Here are some of the “must-haves” in prospecting now:
   • Regular outreach and activity on LinkedIn every day
   • Industry research and pre-call planning tool like IBISWorld
   • ZoomInfo or a similar tool to gather company and contact data of your target
   • HubSpot or similar marketing platform to identify lead activity on your website
   • Strong and effective use of video email – take a look at OneMob as a tool
   • Networking opportunities with target audiences – conferences are back in person
   • A strong and compelling value statement to share
   • A system to consistently ask for introductions (not referrals) from your clients and COIs
     
     
3. The third key is understanding The Will to Sell of your sales team. Do your bankers have the desire, commitment, outlook, and motivation to sell despite the challenges? Do they take responsibility for their actions and outcomes? Let’s face it, many industries have been affected by the pandemic; some have suffered and others have thrived. What does your bank need to do differently within its own culture to adapt, grow, and achieve 2.0 ROA and NIM over 5? Your client-facing salespeople are key and they must be highly skilled. There is a blueprint for elite performance and science to selling – the 21 cores sales competencies, identified by the industry-leading sales evaluation company, Objective Management Group.
   
   
   Make certain that you know why your top performers are so successful and how your sales team stacks up against the other banks. Make sure that your banking sales training is focused on helping your bankers be stronger at the 21 core sales competencies listed above. When mastered, these skills will help your lenders and relationship managers differentiate from fintech firms and other banks and position their value so that they can hold pricing steady when your competitors are dropping their rates.

One of the biggest challenges in sales is outplaying your competition, especially if that competition currently has the business.

When you are playing against the incumbent relationship make sure you ask the following question: “Who wins a tie?”

If you are a football fan, you will clearly know what I’m talking about when I mention the Overtime Rule in the NFL. What the NFL’s Overtime Rule boils down to is:

• If the game ends in a tie after regulation time, then an overtime period will be played.
• The official flips a coin, and whoever wins the toss decides if they want to be on offense or defense.
• If the team that has the first possession in overtime scores a touchdown the game is over, the scoring team wins.

This is what happened in the Chiefs vs Bills Divisional Playoff game Sunday, and the Bills lost. This is also what happened in the Chiefs vs Patriots AFC Championship game three years ago, and the Chiefs lost.

What does this have to do with selling and losing to the competition? Everything.

It almost never fails. Of the over 2 million salespeople tested by the Objective Management Group Sales Force Evaluation, 90% of the top 7% of all salespeople take responsibility for their outcomes. They don’t play the blame game. When you ask them why they didn’t get a sale, close an opportunity, or hit their quota, their answer will start with “I”.

Based on the research we’ve done over the last 25 years using the OMG tool, we know that at least 66% of the non-elite salespeople (93% of all salespeople evaluated) blame either the competition, the economy, or their company for lack of results or failure to close an opportunity.

It sounds something like this when a deal doesn’t close: “What happened?” “The incumbent came in and matched our price and kept the deal.”

Translation – I lost the toss of the coin, the other team got the last look, and they got the deal across the goal line and won.

What happens when we are in competition and it’s our own client that is shopping the market: “What happened? They looked at a competitor, told me what they were offering, we sharpened our pencil a little, and got the deal.”

Translation – I won the coin toss, saw what the competitor was doing, altered our original proposal, and won the deal.

When we win the toss, we don’t complain about a prospect shopping and picking us. When we don’t win the toss and don’t win the deal, we complain that the prospect wasn’t honest with us, used us to get a better deal, or the competition simply won on price.

You can’t have it both ways. I assure you that if the Buffalo Bills had won the toss and won the game no one in Buffalo would be complaining about the Overtime Rule.

The best way to deal with the overtime coin toss is to avoid getting there. When you are in competition against the incumbent make sure you ask 100% of the time the following question: “Who wins a tie?”

The answer will help you determine if you should risk a loss by going into overtime against an incumbent relationship that has already won the toss.

To improve your outbound selling success, you must have a process that you strictly follow and regularly improve upon, be a continual learner, and focus on building relationships.

If you are a sales leader or a salesperson in need of an outbound sales strategy, here are our 7 steps to improve your success.

Most of the companies and salespeople we work with must do outbound lead generation and relationship building and many do not have the luxury of filling their sales pipeline with inbound leads. Like most things, if you have a plan and stick to the plan, outbound selling will be more effective. If you are a sales leader or a salesperson in need of an outbound sales strategy, here are our 7 steps to improve your success:

1. Know and Focus on Your Target: If you are familiar with the 80/20 Rule, you know that the majority of your revenue comes from about 20% of your clients. Spend time defining their profile and determining how to go about finding and reaching more of them. You may have several profiles, for example, we work with both Banks and Insurance firms. In my outbound sales efforts, however, I must focus and put on one of my profile hats. If I am looking to increase my outbound lead generation with banks, I need to think about where bank CEOs hang out, what they read, what are their biggest problems, and what my message to them will be. LinkedIn, Google, associations, competitors are all great resources to help you put your best prospect hat on. This is not a one-time event of course; you should always be gathering industry information about your Target.
2. Do Your Research: Think about all the irrelevant emails that you receive and dedicate yourself to not being one of those. There is a place for mass emails, but for now, I am speaking of one-to-one outbound lead gen. Once you have determined that a particular company is worthy of outreach, find out everything you can about them. If you have a resource like HubSpot, you can see other connections within the company. If you utilize ZoomInfo, you can pull down contact information and even org charts to help customize your outbound sales efforts.
3. Customize Your Outreach: We are not big proponents of systematic emails – you will have a greater chance of being noticed if you customize your email or call with something you know is on your prospect’s mind. I do outbound calling on bank and insurance associations and every single time, before I reach out, I visit their websites and see what is new and what events they are working on. It takes time, but it makes my message more relevant. If you are working within an industry, you can use information you have learned from one company for another. I religiously read our industry newsletters and our competitor’s marketing messages to my target as it helps me be smarter and more relevant with my outbound sales outreach.
4. Don’t Expect a Response: So, we all know that our increasingly virtual world has increased the likeliness of being ignored. Yesterday I sent out 11 custom email outreaches. I heard back from 1. I will do a call follow-up to all 11 today and send out 11 more. Then in a couple of weeks, I will reach out again, further refining my message. There are some prospects that never respond which may mean they are not a prospect, or at least not right now. Your outbound sales strategy has to include being resilient and persistent. Let’s face it, you have to prove your way in the door, find a connection, some reason for that person to engage with you. Don’t expect a response but be thrilled if you get one.
5. Respond Quickly and Efficiently: Maybe this goes without saying, but your level of enthusiasm and timeliness of response is critical but don’t go overboard and send them everything you have! Answer their question and maybe offer one additional helpful suggestion – what has worked for others is always good. This is a conversation, not a sales pitch so find out how to help. If that is always your goal, to help your prospect solve a problem they have, your outbound sales strategy will be effective.
6. Be Excellent with the Details: I try my best to minimize the back and forth needed and try to anticipate what the prospect will need. Make it as easy as possible on them once they are engaged. Be the resource they think, Wow that was a great experience and I got what I needed. Deliver what you say you will and remember the adage: don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Give them more than they asked for.
7. Don’t Forget to Thank Them, Follow up and Build the Relationship: Seems obvious right but think of your outbound lead generation strategy as a pipeline to others. Thank them, ask them for feedback, ask them if you can help in any other way. If you feel confident that they were/are very pleased, ask them for a testimonial, or a Google review, or an introduction to another company. If a salesperson really understands your business, provides an excellent solution, is easy and efficient to work with, wouldn’t you want to help them build their business?

To improve your outbound selling success, have a process, follow and improve the process, be a continual learner, have some fun along the way and remember, these are relationships we are building. Relationships take time and genuine and ongoing interest to develop trust and longevity.