SELLING FOR LIFE

Unless you have been on another planet you have heard about the power of every vote in the upcoming electon.  Enough "one's" stay home and think their vote doesn't matter and it can change the outcome.

Think about the power of one more when it comes to selling.

• 1 more phone call a day is over 250 calls a year!
• 1 more sales call each week is 50 more appointments!
• 1 more referral or introduction a week means 50 fewer cold calls!
• 1 hour each week enhancing your brand with social media.

Selling is a slight edge business and one more can make all the difference.

About 3 months ago my friends talked me into getting back to my golf game that I had left behind almost 4 years ago.  Based upon performance so far I should have left it there.  But the truth is I am having fun spending time with my friends and enjoying golf (a little) again. I still want to get better though so I decided to take a look, not at my score, but at the key factors for success.  Fairways and greens hit, number of putts per round, penalty shots and 3 putt greens.  Any golfer would tell you these are the "drivers" of your score.  Without any detail let's just say I have found the justification for my lousy scores so far.  But here's the good news: by looking at each category I get an indication of where I need work to improve my overall result.

How many of you simply look at your results but don't have enough data to know where to look?  It's easy to recognize that results are not what you would like them to be but in the absence of the details, what do you do to fix it?

What are your fairways and greens?  What are your conversion ratios? What do you need to work on?

Figure out what you need to track and then commit to recording it and assessing your performance.  If you want to shoot lower scores, hit more fairways and greens. 

If you want to sell more, make more calls, set more meetings and pay attention to the key drivers for your sales success.

“To qualify or to disqualify, that is the question” No disrespect intended to William Shakespeare, but I don’t know if he ever had to sell.

The word qualify has several meanings but if you ask most salespeople I believe they would tell you it means going through a process that identifies a problem, the money to fix it, decision making and the motivation to make a change.

There are lots of reasons when we follow this process we still fail to get the business.

• We might be uncomfortable asking the types of questions we really need to be asking.

• Our buying cycle might be causing us to give the prospect too much information and allowing for “think it over’s."

• We might just be looking to “pad the pipeline” until a really good opportunity comes along.
  

• Our own record collection about qualifying for something.  No one wants to be disqualified.

What if we take a new approach and look to disqualify a prospect instead?  We want to disqualify prospects so we can eliminate those who waste our time and won’t buy anyway.  The way to do it is by asking questions.

Too often I hear from salespeople that the prospect is asking all the questions, trying to qualify or disqualify us.

Think about this:

• When we ask questions, the prospect will talk. 

• If we don’t ask questions, the prospect will ask us questions.

• If the prospect asks us questions, we will answer them.

• If we start talking, they get all of our information, ideas and solutions. 

• Once they have all our information without paying for it they don’t need us anymore.

• This is a good deal for the prospect and a lousy deal for us.

 What would happen if our process were geared more towards disqualifying the prospect and finding out earlier in the process to avoid giving away our time and expertise without getting paid for it.

Disqualifying a prospect could be exactly what your business needs for a boost in sales.

“To sell more or not to sell more, that is the question”

Well it's early August and in spite of the temperatures we know that Labor Day and back to school are just around the corner.  Hopefully you have been able to enjoy some time with friends and family.  I don't know about you but sometimes it takes a while to get the sales motor started after taking some time off.  As the late John Savage was fond of saying, "Anyone who would rather work than play, has never really played."  John would also say it's time to take a deep breath and get your second wind to finish out the year with extraordinary results.

As you begin the "second half" think about these ideas to help you finish strong.

1. Review your personal goals.  Do your activities reflect your commitment?

2. Do you follow an ideal week calendar?  In other words do you block out times for specific sales activities such as calling for appointments, asking for introductions and working "on" your business?

3. Do you set aside 15 minutes before you begin the day to prioritize what has to get done and when you will do it?

4.  Do you have someone you are accountable to, not just for your results but your behaviors?

Not an all inclusive list to be sure but some ideas that I hope will help.  Even though it's still "smokin hot" take a deep breath, get your second wind and let's go!

So many salespeople we work with believe that prospects have to like (approve of) them in order to get their business.  The problem of course is that they will do things that cause them have a sales process that does not produce consistent results.  Answer these three questions to see if you might have a Need for Approval.

1.  Do you find yourself reluctant to close a prospect who is giving you the "think it over" response and has been leading you on?

2.  Do you become uncomfortable when you need to ask a tough question?

3.  Does your fear of rejection keep you from going for the no?

Dave Kurlan, founder and CEO of Objective Management Group identifies these symptoms as "need for approval" and it is a serious weaknesses.  Dave says, "You can begin by changing the record that says you "need prospects to like you" to one that says you'll get their respect." It doesn't matter what your prospects think about you or what they say about you. What really matters is that you find a way to solve their problem and get them to do business with you"

Change your tune, and as the song says R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are as happy as they've decided to be."  It's about choosing.  You decide everyday what your attitude will be. 

Success in sales requires the combination of good technique, the right attitude and the execution of the right behaviors.  Of all of these attitude is the most important. 

As the saying goes, attitude not aptitude determines your altitude.

Everyday you start with the opportunity to choose happy or unhappy.  Choose happiness and see what it does for you!

Last week I was on a flight that had to make an emergency landing.  The pilot go on the PA and said, "there is a problem with the landing gear and I THINK it's stuck in the down position".  Not very reassuring.  

When talking with a client or a prospect avoid the "I THINK" when answering a question.   My guess is that they won't find that very reassuring either.

If you were asked to describe your closing skills how would you respond? Good, excellent or extraordinary?

Here are the top 10 skills of extraordinary closers.  There are really only 9 but who ever has a top 9 list?  So I added one at the bottom, let’s see how many you can check off.

10.  They get prospects to agree to make a decision.  Yes and no are both decisions, think it over is not.

9.    They don’t make inappropriate quotes or presentations.  They only present when the buyer has agreed there is a problem they have to fix and will give them a Y/N answer after they see the solution.

8.    They get to decision makers.  Need I say more?

7.    They attempt to close.  I know it sounds crazy but have you ever hesitated to ask for the business?

6.    They have closing urgency.  They know allowing the process to drag on only invites competition and lowers the probability of making the sale.

5.    They won’t accept put offs.  Any questions?

4.    They have a personal buying cycle that supports a shorter, more efficient, selling cycle.

3.    They have no need for approval.  They will not allow being “liked” to get in the way of saying or doing the right thing for the prospect.

2.     They control their emotions and stay focused on the problem.

1.     They know when it’s over and time to move on.

So, how did you do?  If you got all ten, great!  If not think about which one would have the greatest impact on your success today and start there.

I am driving out of the rental car facility in Houston and like most places where you rent cars they have speed bumps. Now I know everyone knows why.

They want you to proceed with caution, avoid accidents and get out of the place safely.

It got me thinking that maybe we should have some speed bumps for our sales process. What happens when we go too fast?

We don't listen effectively, we don't allow for moments of silence in the conversation and we risk missing important information from the prospect.
 What's the consequence? Too many lost opportunities, too many inappropriate quotes and continually failing to reach our goals.
 Consider putting these speed bumps in place for more sales.

1. Plan your call in advance. Think about how you will begin the call and then how you will transition into the business part of your discussion.

2. Expect some "speed bumps" from your prospect, you know those questions that you wish they didn't ask but they do anyway. Think about how your answer when they bring them up.

3. Ask great open-ended questions to get them to do more of the talking so you can do more of the listening.

4. When there isn't a compelling issue that they are having, put the car in park and get out.  There is always another one to "test drive".

Drive safely out there.