strategy

But You’re In Sales

Standard

You took that call, not knowing the client was sent an email offer by marketing or what it said but you’re in Sales, so you recognized that what’s important was that there’s interest so you fueled that fire and said “Yes, we’ve had a lot of calls about this! Let me make sure I know which one you are talking about…tell me what it reads…”

You personally didn’t screw up the client’s proof or was the one who didn’t call to arrange that installation but you’re in Sales, so you knew that owning the problem was critical and called that unhappy customer back and said “I am so sorry.  I own this, let me fix this problem right now…”

You knew there was a sales shortfall this month and you saw the silly contest poster to “Close the most sales over the next 24 hours!”  but you’re in Sales,  so you focused on solving customer problems and didn’t pitch and dump and spew and pound out phone calls just to hit that low hanging unloyal fruit opportunity and close the deal because heck, you’re not gonna leave a trail of garbage like that. 

Stuff happens.  And most of us;  be we actual sales people, marketers, trainers, leaders or even business owners sell all day long and know nothing ever, ever goes to plan.  But we’re in Sales, so we take our noble profession seriously and apply accordingly. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Stop Being So Selfish

Standard

 

It doesn’t make you a bad person.

You’ve got a job to do.  You’ve got to feed the kids and pay the bills.  And you have to hit your quota.

But, you have to just stop it.

It doesn’t become you and it’s certainly not helping you. 

Stop being so selfish. 

Ask any sales rep just before they dial the phone, or walk in the prospect’s door or start that client webinar, “What’s your objective?” and I’ll guarantee that 99.996% will say something about themselves.

“I’m calling to let her know we have some specials and more to offer on…”

“I’m looking to try and get an appointment with purchasing…”

“I want to discover in this meeting what they are doing next year as far as initiatives go…”

It’s all about you isn’t it.

Don’t lie.  I’ve been there too.   I’ve sold door to door, on the phone and in the C-suite.  You and I both know if we had to answer that question about objectives on the fly, we’d most likely blurt out something about what we want because that is what’s in our head.

Selfish objectives don’t work.   

There is a big difference when you call on a client with the sole objective of making them feel valued vs.  introducing that new sales and service program.  The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.    

There is a big difference when you open that door with the objective of taking something off the prospects plate vs. letting them know what you and your company can do.   The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.

There is a big difference when your objective is to surprise and delight a prospect vs. to show what you’ve learned about their company.  The customer experience is far better and it leads to more sales.

Today, when I call out to a training client or step out on to the sales floor to coach, my crystal clear conscious objective to “make the customer happy” or “this sales rep will walk away with something they can use today” is a heck of a lot more effective than in the old days when I’d call out to see how we are doing or coached on the floor so I could teach em’ some stuff.

 

So take a stab at being more selfless when you think of your objectives.  Selfish doesn’t make you a bad person; it just makes you a bad sales rep.

 

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

What Gets Your Attention?

Standard

Everyone’s a little smarter now about sales I suspect.

In the old days it used to be all about pounding out phone calls, or having a killer discount or overcoming tough objections.  But we know especially now, what the real challenge is;

It’s about getting attention.  It’s about standing out a wee bit against a worldwide online bevy of competition.  It’s about getting that customer to even notice you’ve changed or have something that might help them.  It’s about grabbing “eye time” with an email or a first page Google ranking or getting one real minute (or maybe two if you are lucky), of a prospect’s face time or phone time. 

That’s the real challenge.   It’s not the “selling” that’s tough once you get attention necessarily; it’s getting the attention (however brief) that you need to even start the sales process.  

So how do you do it?  How do you grab attention?

You don’t have to go far or deep to figure that out.   Look around; your attention is piqued all day.

  • You looked at that hot pastrami sandwich and fries for lunch because yes, you saw the line of people and everyone else was getting it.
  • You noticed the safety poster outside the restroom because it had changed.
  • You made a mental note to dig up that old sales training because you saw someone just like you, using it successfully.
  • You listened and moved closer to that group talking because they were laughing and having a good time.
  • You scribbled a note about getting that book on personal finance cuz heck, the guest on the radio was an expert.

So attention getting isn’t so much about features and benefits and special offers.  It’s talking about, structuring and extending your sales and marketing approaches around simple things that get your attention every day.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

You Need A Fan Club

Standard

You do.   I kid you not. 

You need a real fan club with people who sing your praises, who will talk about you behind your back and in front of your face.   You need a fan club of people who will write gloriously about you, who will make audio recordings of how much they love you and even on occasion, a video exclaiming how much you mean to them.

Yep.  You gotta have a fan club.  You my friend, need “Groupies”. 

Here’s why.

If you sell stuff like custom printing, financial tools, marketing products or most anything else where your opinion matters, then you need fans.  Why?  Because credibility matters more than ever.  

In this over whelmed, data spewing, low trust environment clients and prospects live in today, your influence, opinion, intelligence and skill will have more to say about a customer buying products in this space than ever before. You need your personal fan club at your fingertips to help you sell yourself. 

You need credibility because when you sell this stuff, you are more important.  Credibility keeps the sale alive and moving.  What you do, what you say, what you know and how you sell is a bigger influencer to the client’s buying decision process here than when you are selling for example,  ink cartridges or packing tape.  

  • Imagine a DVD you leave with a prospect that is just testimonials about you and your work
  • Imagine the link to YouTube you send that has one of your happy customers praising you and your skills.
  • Imagine a customer testimonial reference list complete with phone numbers printed on the back of your business card.

 

 Imagine. 

Get started today building your fan club.    Ask for and collect testimonials.  Collect great examples of the work you have done and package them up.  Get started and build the tools online and offline to advertise you to prospective fans. 

Do it well and you’ll get more customers.   Heck,  if you’re not careful you might get a van full of Groupies following you around where ever you go!

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

The Beginning Sticks

Standard

The four brothers will be together again next week.  It’s been a while.

One’s flying in from New Zealand, another GreyHounding it from Manhattan and the third, well he’s local just like me.   And though we are all in our 40’s now, we’ll act like a bunch of 9 year olds (as we always do) when we get together at Mom’s house.

Because in the beginning, that’s what we did.  And the beginning really sticks.  Being all roughly two years apart, it was those middle school years, it was then that we truly bonded and for lack of a better word; brothered .

So sure our kids will be in tow and our wives and significant others will share in the fun next week but without doubt the youngest, most hyperactive and colossally immature crew will be the four of us.

We’ll settle into a hilariously silly game that will drive my 77 year old mother crazy (as she doth protest too much yelling “Knock it off!” whilst stifling chuckles).  Foam coasters will Frisbee around the living room chair to chair as we see how long we can play catch without dropping a coaster or worse, getting caught by Mom in the act of throwing them. 

And yes, we’ll try to hold the laughter in like giggling 4th graders every time it flies just out of her sight (or better yet, just behind her head as she walks back and forth from the kitchen).  Couch pillows will tumble, table lamps will teeter and spouses will hang their heads in embarrassment as we four being much older now, risk grave injury diving off that recliner to make the incredible catch to keep the game alive.

Because that’s how we were in the beginning, and getting together so many years later, it’s no use, we are going back- the beginning sticks.

**

You won’t think I’ll go from flying coasters to flying planes but I will.

Sullenberger landed that plane in the Hudson and he called upon all that training, all the experience and all stuff from the very beginning, from his “earliest days” he said, to land that plane the best he could.   He even called it “primacy”, those times in the beginning.  He did later what he knew from earlier, much earlier, because the beginning sticks.

Those flight attendants didn’t call out the emergency announcements they were most recently were trained on at US Air but rather,  they shouted out the ones they learned years and years ago when they first started out with another airline.  They did later what they knew from earlier, much earlier, because the beginning sticks. 

**

You won’t think I’ll go from coasters to cockpits to some counsel but I will. 

The beginning sticks.  It sticks no matter if it’s about something as ordinary as how 4 brothers bonded with their Mother in a living room, or if it’s about the extraordinary first days of training of a pilot and crew.   The beginning sticks and therefore it matters. 

The beginning sticks is a reminder of how important those first instructions are to help a child hold a bat or how to start that diary or how to deal with the loss of a pet.   The beginning sticks translates to business too and is a reminder of how important your new hire classes are, your on boarding programs are, your mentoring is or those first few initial team meetings or even those early team outings are.

It’s just a plain ol’ reminder about how sticky the beginning is of just about anything important.  

Don’t look past the beginning.  Prepare for it.  Do it right or do it fun.  Or do it both right and fun.  Because how ever you do it, it’ll stick.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Why Your Network Stinks

Standard

Have a lot of followers on Twitter?  Nice.   A gazillion friends on Facebook? Cool.  500+ LinkedIn connections?  I’m happy for you.

Sometimes that don’t mean nothin’ though.

Marlene, one very talented trainer on the West Coast, reminded those of us gathered for workshops last week about the real value of a good network. 

A real network, Marlene taught us, is about how you compliment each other and how you leverage what is different about you.   A real network isn’t about how many of you there are or worse, about how many of you there are that are just like you all connected.

Marlene made us publicly identify the unique skills of our in-room “network” and record them in a literal (and of course, metaphorical) little black book allowing each of us to walk out with a networking gem.

“Use this book” she said “to tap into the help you need when you need it from your network.”

Thanks Marlene.  I think we sometimes forget that

  • A real network aligns you the sales expert with Jimmy the time management guru because one day you’ll both need each other when you finally decide to go chase that dream together.

 

  • A real network aligns you the online marketing savant with Sandy the offline marketing pro when that prospect you share just wants to grow the heck out of her business and yes she’s still got brick and mortar on Main Street. 

 

  • A real network aligns you the call center supervisor with Art the field sales manager when Art needs to beef up his team’s phone skills and you need to start dabbling in feet on the street.

 

Networks need to work.  And while amassing lots of fans who like you (and too often are like you), seems to be the focus for so many of us today, the better approach should be asking how does this connection fill the gaps that each of us have.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

3 Crazy Causation Theories

Standard

There is that “correlation not causation” perspective that people talk about.   I ran across it most recently last week reading something, somewhere, about Diet Coke. 

Some article talked about a reputable study a couple of years ago suggesting that you, the Diet Coke drinker, were by some large and scary percentage,  more likely to become obese if you drank Diet Coke vs. someone who did not drink Diet Coke. 

Good Times.  I love Diet Coke. 

Thankfully the article reminded us that the study was flawed because what you really had a hard time discerning was if those people who were becoming or were already obese, had decided to start drinking Diet Coke while “obesing” vs. the other way around so to speak.  Hence though there may be a “correlation” between Diet Coke and obesity, there is not necessarily, “causation” from Diet Coke to obesity.

There is a lot of that crazy “causation” stuff out there in the sales world too. 

Crazy Causation Theory # 1:  Successful salespeople have the best accounts; they don’t make half the calls or presentations you do, but are still raking in the most dough.

Ah….yes…I had the worst sales territory in the world back in my day.  I was insanely jealous of my fellow sales reps that had the best accounts or territory. 

So yes dear colleague of today, you are right; the successful reps often don’t make nearly as many calls as you do and they do have the best accounts.  Truth is though; their phone rings more often and their inboxes fill up faster than yours does.  When they do call out, they are more effective than you.  More often than not, these successful reps artfully cultivate customers, drive referrals through them and in essence, have and continue to deliver greater experiences to their clients thereby creating a misperception to the rest of us about what exactly causes what. 

Hats off to you Jack Barry in 1994, you’re territory was the best, but now I know you weren’t lucky; rather, you made it so. 

Crazy Causation Theory #2; The more calls or offers you make, the more sales you’ll get.

Nope, not in this business.  That adage in sales that  “It’s all a numbers game” is a horrible lie.  Never believe it.  Many of you reading this are you are working with a finite list of existing customers or prospects, or of calls coming into you; which you usually cannot control.

Pounding out calls or making 5 offers/closes on every incoming/outgoing call to a finite universe doesn’t make the sales; quality contacts do.  In Outbound calling, it’s even more dangerous.  Pound out some self serving, rapid fire voicemails or live monologues to your assigned clients hoping to the sales gods above that you caught the customer exactly when they have a need and you’ll put yourself in a worse position 6 weeks later or 6 months later when you try and sell them something else.   Customers want help, not pitches and power dialing.

If you have the world as your territory and the yellow pages as your lead source; yes indeed, it is all a numbers game then.  For a while.  Make as many calls and offers as you want.  And have fun with that as you’ll last about 6 months before you can’t wait to quit.  No worries, your boss already a replacement ready to backfill you who has the same false belief.

Crazy Causation Theory #3:   The harder you work, the more successful you will be.  

That ain’t true in sales.  It may be true for cemetery workers (been there, worked hard despite my co-workers’ slacker cries to “slow down!”).  It may be true for grocery baggers (worked hard there too and loved the job) and forklift operators (worked hard and proudly with no incidents thank you), but it is not true in sales.  Working hard just is not enough. 

Working hard will only get you so far; here is what else you need:

  • Acting skills: ( Be a story teller & have the ability to make your 41st  performance today look and sound like your first)
  • Thirst for knowledge and self learning. (Pssst… the webpage functionality just changed 5 minutes ago and your product offer is now outdated.  Do you really want to wait for the memo or the training on that? )
  • Mental Positivity.  If you close 15 % of your leads /opportunities then you are a ROCK STAR though that means the other 85% reject you.  Working harder doesn’t help you here.
  • Sales Skills; Have no idea where you are in the sales process or what a good question is vs. a bad one?  Good luck working hard here while you are in the dark.
  • Help:  Few sales stars work in a vacuum. They are not afraid to ask for help, seek guidance and even demand coaching.

 

There.  Now go chill and have a Diet Coke.  No causation there to worry about.

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

You Wouldn’t Think…

Standard

You wouldn’t think you’d get farther by doing things that feel weird or counterintuitive to sales, but you will.

  • You wouldn’t think you’d get farther by asking “Can you help me?” vs. “Can you tell me?” but you will.  People like to help people more than they like to serve people.

 

  • You wouldn’t think you’d get farther by fumbling your voicemail message than by delivering it perfectly, but you will.  People like real imperfect people more than real perfect people.

 

  • You wouldn’t think you’d get farther by not trying to close on every call vs. saying “Let me walk away and think about this” but you will.  People like people who listen and think more than they like people who just listen and solve.

 

  • You wouldn’t think you’d get farther by saying “Thank you for your business” vs. “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” but you will.  People more than ever; remember being appreciated rather than the check to see if their wallet was still open.

 

  • You wouldn’t think you’d get farther having a catalogue, a brochure or a handwritten letter in your tool belt vs. just landing pages, links and emails, but you will.  People like to do more than just surf sometimes; people also like to swim.

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

A New Sales Model

Standard

Have a new sales model for you.  Don’t fall asleep just yet, you should care about this.  It’s simple but different.   Different is good.  

A sales model for our purposes here is the process or the steps you take to make a sale.   The process you trust, the process you live by.   Sales models are important; they are a roadmap so to speak, of how to do what you want to do, which is of course, to grow the business.  

You use sales models all the time.  Want to go out on a date with someone?  Here is an age old popular model to get that done.

Prepare / Search / Impress / Close

First you go and Prepare (look sharp, take a shower that day (you can do it!) then go Search ( scope out the lounge, the beach, the bake sale – whatever) then Impress ( sound wicked funny/ smart/ nice and get your favorite pick up lines ready like “Excuse me do you have a tissue? I was just listening to Susan Boyle on my IPod“) and finally the Close (“I have a hankering to watch The Notebook again, would you like to join me?”)

Traditional Sales models have been around forever too.  A typical sales model is something like:

Rapport /Discovery / Present / Close.

That is to develop a connection, ask good questions, make a product offer and then close the sale.  You get it. 

I don’t much like the traditional sales models.  Not for us.  Not for anyone really, but especially not for us. 

Here is a new sales model

Time / Trust / Create Need / Discover / Advocate / Close / Support 

Looks complicated?  It’s not.  Don’t worry about the last 4 here (discovery, advocate, close, support), those are traditional and something to detail another day.  Just think about the first 3; Time, Trust & Create Need, those are the “New” in this sales model versus traditional ones.  

The New Sales Model is front loaded like never before.  It needs to be. 

The very beginning of any sales process has been underwritten and underplayed for 50 years.  Getting attention, earning the right to talk with or market to folks wasn’t like then what it is today.  It’s different now; how you really start or really begin is the most important part of the sales process.  Do that well, superbly well and the rest of the sales process is easy.   That’s why we need to change the traditional model.

Dig up any sales training or sales models from today or yesteryear and you’ll find almost nothing on getting salespeople to see TIME as a critical commodity that must be purchased from the prospect before anything happens.

Search Google and look for all the TRUST training and theory out there for sales forces of the world; you’ll find some for sure, but mostly you’ll find a lot of superficial blather about “building rapport” or “forming relationships”.  Used to be a hearty handshake or some smart product knowledge or “my office is down the street” was trust enough to get the sales process started.  No more.  Nobody’s company has that kind of infallibility anymore.   It’s take a lot more and a lot different now to earn the Trust you need today.

Instead of CREATE NEED help, you’ll find a gazillion sales theories and courseware around “finding needs” or “finding pain points”.  It’s as if the prospects and customers of the world are walking about “injured”, “lost” or “clueless” about themselves anxiously waiting for a company or sales rep to come in diagnose and prescribe medication to fix the pain.   I don’t think so. 

Sales Theory in large part is not keeping up with the times.    Much else is different in the marketplace than when some of the biggies rolled out their iconic sales models (companies like Wilson Learning, Dale Carnegie, Huthwaite and the like).  What’s changed?

    Everybody has gotten smarter; your customers in a couple of clicks can get a lot more info and now need a sales rep to be smarter than them in different places, in more Trusted places.

    It’s harder to be unique.  Companies are changing and entering new spaces but consumers still have lots of choices (more than ever) for a provider.  It’s like Malcolm Gladwell in his book Blink who said essentially that “if given too many choices, then nothing happens”.   Create Need my friends.

    Used to be you could be assured your customer “listened” to you, now they are in control.  Their Time and attention is precious and they know it- YOU know it.   Marketing is changing radically to respect this; Salespeople need to too.

This model is your map to better success.    This model needs our attention, our rallying around, our design and planning around.

Old sales models are for old companies and old sales reps in old marketplaces.   Don’t believe for a minute we are old.  Nope, we’re new, brand new.   We have to be. 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark

Want more fodder for thinking about the new model?   Take note..

  • Seth Godin gets totally the “time” piece of the model; so read his book Permission Marketing. 
  • Gitomer and Steven Covey Jr. (the son, not that father) get the “trust” piece fairly well so have a gander at Trust by Gitomer and Speed of Trust by Covey Jr. 
  • Lastly go here  http://www.icrinc.com/web/videoportfolio.php  Scroll down to Easton Bell Sports who essentially base their sales philosophy on “creating need”.  Love it 

Forest Quandaries

Standard

“If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound?”

I get the riddle, I really do.  But I honestly don’t care much about the darned tree and if it makes even so much as a peep.

I do have some things in that forest I do care about though.  You should too. 

  • If you completely rebrand yourself but there is no one there to notice, does it really make a difference?  Think hard about inviting more people into the forest.

 

  • If you spend hours learning about a product but no customer ever asks you a question about it, will you ever sell anything? Grab some stump and tell somebody what you know in an interesting way.  

 

  • If you spend time to get smarter or stronger but never feel a bit stretched or sore, will you ever be either smarter or stronger?  Lift some heavier deadwood.

 

  • If you want to live in the best tree in the forest but never have a plan to find it, will you ever be so lucky to stumble upon it?  Get a knife and carve out a plan.

 

  • If you post a blog in the forest and there is no one there to read it, does it really matter?  Write something so interesting that people care to hike in once in a while. 

 

Till next time,

Grow The Business.

Mark