For the past 15 years we have helped companies hire stronger sales staff. Inside, outside, techies, specialist, marketing coordinators, professional, low tech, B2B, in home, financial experts, channel directors, vertical liaisons, and just about every thing else you might think of. What we’ve learned is that most companies (most means more than half) seem to believe the sales department is the same animal as the rest of the departments that make up a company. Therefore they use the same paradigms, processes and systems to hire sales as they do the rest of the company.
Let’s look at the big picture and first define the ‘Traditional Hiring Model”. Step 1 - Place an ad. Step 2 – Wade through piles of resumes. Step 3 – Interview the top candidates. Step 4 – Sell the offer to the top candidate, and Step 5 – Hope and pray.
As you can guess there are many many challenges with this process and that is why the average tenure of a sales pro is 18 months at one company. Sure the numbers are skewed a bit because that stat includes all the knuckle-heads that should never be in sales to begin with. However, this doesn’t change the fact that hiring mistakes in your sales department cost 3 times the annual average compensation of your average sales person.
Here are a couple of trade secrets to assist in improving your hiring process. Step 1 – First decide what exactly you are looking for. Skill sets, what markets the salesperson will be calling on, the position of the company in which the sales person will be calling on, the length of your average sales cycle, the pressure and accountability you will put on the sales person, the dollar amount of your average sale, just to name a few of the categories that can help to define your criteria. Additionally, it would be good to know is this a pure hunter role, a farmer, an ambassador, or a fisherman. Which means how much time is the salesperson required to spend developing new business verses growing and maintaining accounts. And are they required to go find the business or are potential customer knocking down your door. In short – Define the attributes of your successful candidate.
Resumes are a problem. They point is I review hundreds every week and I’ve never seen a bad one. They are usually written by a third party who has had very little real world experience with the candidate. Resumes tell you two things; A) the work history and industries the candidate should be familiar with. Which if read into a little further can give you insight to the parallels they may share with your markets. And B) A pattern to determine the natural up and down cycle of your potential candidate. If you see the person has changed jobs in the past typically in the first quarter then you should expect that every year about that time they will be a bit antsy. Therefore, you can head off the problem at the pass and spend ‘motivation’ time in the previous quarter.
The interview; Salespeople are typically pretty good at first impressions. That is what they do remember. Don’t judge your interview by this. Stop trying to sell your company and start making the sales person sell you. I don’t mean, ‘Here, sell me this pencil’. I mean turn the interview into an audition! Provide the same hardnosed environment that your prospects will give your new salesperson. It’s a busy world out there. Give the a few stalls and put offs! Tell them you not sure they can make it. Listen for questions, watch for uneasiness, see how early you can get them to start talking about themselves and see how they perform. This will give you great insight to their secret selling styles and you will find out what excuses you will expect to hear 90 days later if you hire them.
After the offer: So you have a new hire now what? Do you send them out to the field with your ‘best people’? Is it your sales manager’s job to do OTJ training? Have a prepared training program. If they need specific product knowledge give them time lines and test. Don’t send them into the field with any other sales person. One, it’s distracting to the current salesperson. Two they will pick up the bad habits of the good salespeople. And three they will not ramp up as fast. Do measure their activity and hold them accountable to every goal you set and they agreed to when they accepted the job. DO NOT accept any excesses!
Here’s what we do; Identify, Attract, Interview, Screen, Interview, Test the Test, Interview, Screen, Test, Interview and then we provide Success Conditioning with tracking tools for accountability. If you don’t have time to do all of this please contact us.
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Monday, August 22, 2005
Wha'd you say?
In the profession of sales, a razor sharp mind is a definite advantage. A main component of a razor sharp mind is memory. Names, events, places, and contact information certainly top the list of things to remember.
Do you know the business model of your prospective client or customer? What about the process of how invoices are paid? Communication style and conversations are also key in penetrating the account.
There are four basic memory techniques. I’ll do my best to outline them for you here.
Pegging – is an effective technique that will assist in remembering a list of things of one word items or concepts. We frequently think of a peg as something to hang objects on, like a coat hook. Your place of residence holds many pegs. Most rooms have at least five easy pegs. Let’s build an imaginary kitchen. Stand in the kitchen and pan right ‘till you complete a circle. In front of you is the sink, to the right is the dishwasher, then the kitchen table, and around the room we go. Next we find the refrigerator and then the microwave. As you need to remember items for a presentation or main points of a sales meeting agenda, use your kitchen pegs. You can also attach the agenda items in the order of your kitchen appliances. Then while in the meeting, you can stick to the agenda by mentally turning around in your kitchen. You can use each room of your residence as a checklist to create more pegs for a longer list.
Repetition- Repeat, repeat, repeat! For example, take a simple list of ‘things to do’ or better yet, a list of grocery items; milk, eggs bread, cheese, grits, bacon, eggs, cheese burgers, and cereal. Your visualization here is key. Repeat the objects in order and in reverse order 13 times and you will have it in your brain as long as you need it.
Association- Here we associate the item with another more memorable item. This technique is especially effective with names. Chris sounds like kiss. Roger – dodger.
Sherry is merry. Association can also be used in a visual sense. What do you see when you are introduced? How is this name or concept associated with something more familiar to you? In effect we associate something new to something old because it is easy to make the transition in our mind.
Stacking- By far the most powerful and effective technique. However, it also requires the most effort to implement. Let’s pretend we were going to ask a specific set of questions. First we need to identify the questions. Here are some that may help to find a compelling reason to do business. Can you tell me more about the situation? How long has this been a problem? What have you done to fix it? Did it work? How much has it cost you? Have you given up trying to fix it? What in the personal impact of this situation? Here we have seven solid questions that will help us determine if the prospective client is a suspect or prospect. Let’s build a stack for these questions so that we remember them in the heat of battle when we are likely to become emotional and forget the next question.
Chattering teeth represent question 1- tell me more. Spinning Clock represents question 2- how long has it been a problem. Purple and yellow-stripped pipe wrench represents question 3- what have you done to fix it. Greasy work glove represents question 4- did it work, etc. The key to using the stacking technique is the vivid colors and the action placed upon the object that represents the idea, item, or concept.
Memory is a muscle of the mind and like any muscle, the more exercise it gets, the better it functions. Try a few of these techniques and let me know how they work for you…if you remember to.
Good Selling,
Rocky LaGrone
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Do you know the business model of your prospective client or customer? What about the process of how invoices are paid? Communication style and conversations are also key in penetrating the account.
There are four basic memory techniques. I’ll do my best to outline them for you here.
Pegging – is an effective technique that will assist in remembering a list of things of one word items or concepts. We frequently think of a peg as something to hang objects on, like a coat hook. Your place of residence holds many pegs. Most rooms have at least five easy pegs. Let’s build an imaginary kitchen. Stand in the kitchen and pan right ‘till you complete a circle. In front of you is the sink, to the right is the dishwasher, then the kitchen table, and around the room we go. Next we find the refrigerator and then the microwave. As you need to remember items for a presentation or main points of a sales meeting agenda, use your kitchen pegs. You can also attach the agenda items in the order of your kitchen appliances. Then while in the meeting, you can stick to the agenda by mentally turning around in your kitchen. You can use each room of your residence as a checklist to create more pegs for a longer list.
Repetition- Repeat, repeat, repeat! For example, take a simple list of ‘things to do’ or better yet, a list of grocery items; milk, eggs bread, cheese, grits, bacon, eggs, cheese burgers, and cereal. Your visualization here is key. Repeat the objects in order and in reverse order 13 times and you will have it in your brain as long as you need it.
Association- Here we associate the item with another more memorable item. This technique is especially effective with names. Chris sounds like kiss. Roger – dodger.
Sherry is merry. Association can also be used in a visual sense. What do you see when you are introduced? How is this name or concept associated with something more familiar to you? In effect we associate something new to something old because it is easy to make the transition in our mind.
Stacking- By far the most powerful and effective technique. However, it also requires the most effort to implement. Let’s pretend we were going to ask a specific set of questions. First we need to identify the questions. Here are some that may help to find a compelling reason to do business. Can you tell me more about the situation? How long has this been a problem? What have you done to fix it? Did it work? How much has it cost you? Have you given up trying to fix it? What in the personal impact of this situation? Here we have seven solid questions that will help us determine if the prospective client is a suspect or prospect. Let’s build a stack for these questions so that we remember them in the heat of battle when we are likely to become emotional and forget the next question.
Chattering teeth represent question 1- tell me more. Spinning Clock represents question 2- how long has it been a problem. Purple and yellow-stripped pipe wrench represents question 3- what have you done to fix it. Greasy work glove represents question 4- did it work, etc. The key to using the stacking technique is the vivid colors and the action placed upon the object that represents the idea, item, or concept.
Memory is a muscle of the mind and like any muscle, the more exercise it gets, the better it functions. Try a few of these techniques and let me know how they work for you…if you remember to.
Good Selling,
Rocky LaGrone
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Psychic Rewards
Yesterday was one of those days that comes together as a day to remember. I'm going to share with you 4 events that took place and I have to premise it with this: It's not about me! While the message may come from me and may look like I'm double-jointed patting myself on the back, it really is not about me. This blog is a tribute to my clients success and what they shared with me. Kudos to these and all my clients for having the guts to use the tools, principles and the system! Of course I will change the names to protect the guilty and the innocent!
In my first training session we reviewed material from the last session. (Duh! Isn't that what trainers are supposed to do? Yes Of course!) Anyway, in the previous session we discussed prospecting and cold calling. John had been trying to get to a particular prospect in a very large corporation. This prospect was at the"C" level and very insulated. John, used one of the techniques we had discussed in the previous prospecting session and viola! He got to the prospect, got a 5 minute phone conversation, then a meeting the following week and they expect to sign the contract this Friday. Congratulations John!
My next meeting was with a client to assist in hiring a new sales perosn. After 45 minutes the interview was over and my client looked at me and said, "“I can't believe you were able to expose so many weaknessess and show me what I would find out a few months down the road. I can't believe that I even let this process go this far. I can't believe I set the bar set so low that I would consider this candidate to be on our team. You just saved me $40K. I simply smiled and said, I'm happy I could help.
My next training session was outstanding as well. Not because I'm the greatest sales trainer in the world, (I have a long way to go) because the group is relatively young. Ok, I'll define that for you... early 20's to early 30's, most being their first sales job. Anyway, Judy came up to me after the program and said, "Rocky, I just wanted to let you know that before your training program started in March, I was ranked number 18 of over 200 in the eastern division, (from Maine to Florida) and now I am #1 and have been for the last two weeks. Great job Judy for having the courage to try new things and live through the discomfort of change. Go girl!
Then I get home about 7 pm and upon checking e-mail I receive a thank you from a client that I've been working with for a few years... more off than on. As a matter of fact I've been trying to schedule a meeting with them since March. Anyway the message went something like this, "Thanks dude, we've been sooo busy I don't have time to do training. But I wanted you to know, I took your advice set the trap. Two weeks ago I went to Three Rivers Canada and ordered a 40 foot Doral! I get it next March it's cost is over $300k. Thanks for your lesson on traps and money! Business is great!"
The psychic reward from the profession of sales is incredible! I would encourage everyone to apply the principle in Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich; Help others get what they want first and you will get what you want. However, I think this principle can be trace back to the best sales trainer that ever walked the earth, around the year 30 AD.
Figure out how to help someone today and every day and it will come back to you 10 fold. But don't help with that in mind! This is one fundamental principle that separates true sales professionals from the amatures that give the rest of us a bad name. If you are selling something that will help people and you have their best interest in mind, this truely is one of the secret ingredients to having more people buy more of you stuff!
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
In my first training session we reviewed material from the last session. (Duh! Isn't that what trainers are supposed to do? Yes Of course!) Anyway, in the previous session we discussed prospecting and cold calling. John had been trying to get to a particular prospect in a very large corporation. This prospect was at the"C" level and very insulated. John, used one of the techniques we had discussed in the previous prospecting session and viola! He got to the prospect, got a 5 minute phone conversation, then a meeting the following week and they expect to sign the contract this Friday. Congratulations John!
My next meeting was with a client to assist in hiring a new sales perosn. After 45 minutes the interview was over and my client looked at me and said, "“I can't believe you were able to expose so many weaknessess and show me what I would find out a few months down the road. I can't believe that I even let this process go this far. I can't believe I set the bar set so low that I would consider this candidate to be on our team. You just saved me $40K. I simply smiled and said, I'm happy I could help.
My next training session was outstanding as well. Not because I'm the greatest sales trainer in the world, (I have a long way to go) because the group is relatively young. Ok, I'll define that for you... early 20's to early 30's, most being their first sales job. Anyway, Judy came up to me after the program and said, "Rocky, I just wanted to let you know that before your training program started in March, I was ranked number 18 of over 200 in the eastern division, (from Maine to Florida) and now I am #1 and have been for the last two weeks. Great job Judy for having the courage to try new things and live through the discomfort of change. Go girl!
Then I get home about 7 pm and upon checking e-mail I receive a thank you from a client that I've been working with for a few years... more off than on. As a matter of fact I've been trying to schedule a meeting with them since March. Anyway the message went something like this, "Thanks dude, we've been sooo busy I don't have time to do training. But I wanted you to know, I took your advice set the trap. Two weeks ago I went to Three Rivers Canada and ordered a 40 foot Doral! I get it next March it's cost is over $300k. Thanks for your lesson on traps and money! Business is great!"
The psychic reward from the profession of sales is incredible! I would encourage everyone to apply the principle in Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich; Help others get what they want first and you will get what you want. However, I think this principle can be trace back to the best sales trainer that ever walked the earth, around the year 30 AD.
Figure out how to help someone today and every day and it will come back to you 10 fold. But don't help with that in mind! This is one fundamental principle that separates true sales professionals from the amatures that give the rest of us a bad name. If you are selling something that will help people and you have their best interest in mind, this truely is one of the secret ingredients to having more people buy more of you stuff!
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Sales Manager Responsibilities
Sales Managers have one of the toughest jobs in the world! I know that because I’ve worked with hundreds and I was one long enough to know. Why? You have management driving you like a dog, you have fewer resources than most other department heads, none of the other departments are cooperative, sales departments are dumped on like no other, you deal with primadonna’s, weaklings, self proclaimed studs, whiners, complainers, excuses, and you typically close more that 80% of the business yourself.
So I hope to impart some help for those of you that reside between a rock and a hard place. Sales management can be a great place if you have equality between authority and responsibility. However if this equilibrium is out of kilter one degrees you are trapped in a world of funk.
So what’s a Sales Manager to do? Focus on 5 areas to develop your team!
1. Accountability – Easier said than done I know. However, while it’s imperative to keep you job and move up the corporate ladder you have to hit the numbers. An easier way to hit the numbers than just pounding on your team is to tap into personal motivation. Help each team member define exciting personal goals that create commitment and desire. Then assist each individual in seeing how the company can be a personal vehicle to achieve their personal goals. Build a covenant to hold each person to the fundamental activities that produce results bringing them closer to their own personal goals. Once that is accomplished we have a true partnership. Let’s face it, it may not be everyone goal to work for the company forever, so let’s find out what they want, help them get it and as long as you help them they help you.
2. Coaching – Jimmy Johnson the great coach previously of the NFL said, ‘A coaches job is to help others perform at a higher level than they can by themselves.’ A coach is required to get people out of their comfort zone. Coaches find a way to keep the team inspired. Sometimes it’s tough love, sometimes it’s encouragement, sometimes it keeping the focus clear! A coach is like the leader of an orchestra. He knows how every instrument is played and what each part is supposed to be. Then he brings it all together for an awesome and exquisite performance.
3. Motivation – In a perfect world sales people are motivated. But this aint no perfect world and salespeople deal with more rejection and negativity than any other profession. So it’s critical that the Sales Manager be sensitive to each team member, their interactions with each other, their personal life and what is really going on under the surface. Sales people are motivated by many different things just as any other group. Believe it or not most sales people are not as money motivated as everyone on the outside may think. I have found that competition and recognition are bigger motivators. And then of course FREE time off is always good too.
4. Pre and Post Briefing- One of the most important things a sales manager can do is to help the sales person learn the right lesson form each selling situation. Often we draw conclusions from events that seem logical. However we all know that many of those conclusions are incorrect and then salespeople make the same mistake over and over again. Another problem is changing to quickly. Most salespeople are creative and continue to change something due to an event. Instead let’s look at patterns and define the root cause of the outcome. Instead of asking typical questions that get you typical answers define the fundamental issue and focus on that. Keep a log of what events take place with each sales person and look at a 30, 60, & 90 day pattern. This will work on the right end of the problem and it is usually between the ears.
Just like sighting in a rifle. Most shooters when sighting in will make adjustments after each shot. However, the more experience shooter will fire three shots, triangulate the center and adjust from there.
When pre and post briefing ask questions that will define the cause in two categories: A) Conceptual or B) Technical. A conceptual issue means they salesperson knew what to do, but didn’t because of some discomfort. A technical issue is based on the fact that the salesperson just didn’t know what they were supposed to. Now we have a lesson to apply to the next selling situation.
5. Building a Stronger Team – This means to always be looking for stronger salespeople to add to the staff. The problem here is like most departments. The manger gets emotionally involved and it becomes difficult to graduate non productive or mediocre sales reps. Sales recruiting is a must. Then we have to be able to determine the difference between those who not only can sell, but will. The only way to truly be effective with the first 4 responsibilities is to never be held hostage. The only way to never be held hostage is to always have a bench or a goto guy. Then this brings up the on boarding issue, ramp up and training. Too much to put into this blog for sure. However I will promise to discuss it next.
So I hope this had been a least a little insightful for all of the sales managers out there who are in the middle of the battle. Keep you head down, stop accepting excuses, take responsibility for growing you team and work smart, not hard.
Good Selling,
Rocky
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
So I hope to impart some help for those of you that reside between a rock and a hard place. Sales management can be a great place if you have equality between authority and responsibility. However if this equilibrium is out of kilter one degrees you are trapped in a world of funk.
So what’s a Sales Manager to do? Focus on 5 areas to develop your team!
1. Accountability – Easier said than done I know. However, while it’s imperative to keep you job and move up the corporate ladder you have to hit the numbers. An easier way to hit the numbers than just pounding on your team is to tap into personal motivation. Help each team member define exciting personal goals that create commitment and desire. Then assist each individual in seeing how the company can be a personal vehicle to achieve their personal goals. Build a covenant to hold each person to the fundamental activities that produce results bringing them closer to their own personal goals. Once that is accomplished we have a true partnership. Let’s face it, it may not be everyone goal to work for the company forever, so let’s find out what they want, help them get it and as long as you help them they help you.
2. Coaching – Jimmy Johnson the great coach previously of the NFL said, ‘A coaches job is to help others perform at a higher level than they can by themselves.’ A coach is required to get people out of their comfort zone. Coaches find a way to keep the team inspired. Sometimes it’s tough love, sometimes it’s encouragement, sometimes it keeping the focus clear! A coach is like the leader of an orchestra. He knows how every instrument is played and what each part is supposed to be. Then he brings it all together for an awesome and exquisite performance.
3. Motivation – In a perfect world sales people are motivated. But this aint no perfect world and salespeople deal with more rejection and negativity than any other profession. So it’s critical that the Sales Manager be sensitive to each team member, their interactions with each other, their personal life and what is really going on under the surface. Sales people are motivated by many different things just as any other group. Believe it or not most sales people are not as money motivated as everyone on the outside may think. I have found that competition and recognition are bigger motivators. And then of course FREE time off is always good too.
4. Pre and Post Briefing- One of the most important things a sales manager can do is to help the sales person learn the right lesson form each selling situation. Often we draw conclusions from events that seem logical. However we all know that many of those conclusions are incorrect and then salespeople make the same mistake over and over again. Another problem is changing to quickly. Most salespeople are creative and continue to change something due to an event. Instead let’s look at patterns and define the root cause of the outcome. Instead of asking typical questions that get you typical answers define the fundamental issue and focus on that. Keep a log of what events take place with each sales person and look at a 30, 60, & 90 day pattern. This will work on the right end of the problem and it is usually between the ears.
Just like sighting in a rifle. Most shooters when sighting in will make adjustments after each shot. However, the more experience shooter will fire three shots, triangulate the center and adjust from there.
When pre and post briefing ask questions that will define the cause in two categories: A) Conceptual or B) Technical. A conceptual issue means they salesperson knew what to do, but didn’t because of some discomfort. A technical issue is based on the fact that the salesperson just didn’t know what they were supposed to. Now we have a lesson to apply to the next selling situation.
5. Building a Stronger Team – This means to always be looking for stronger salespeople to add to the staff. The problem here is like most departments. The manger gets emotionally involved and it becomes difficult to graduate non productive or mediocre sales reps. Sales recruiting is a must. Then we have to be able to determine the difference between those who not only can sell, but will. The only way to truly be effective with the first 4 responsibilities is to never be held hostage. The only way to never be held hostage is to always have a bench or a goto guy. Then this brings up the on boarding issue, ramp up and training. Too much to put into this blog for sure. However I will promise to discuss it next.
So I hope this had been a least a little insightful for all of the sales managers out there who are in the middle of the battle. Keep you head down, stop accepting excuses, take responsibility for growing you team and work smart, not hard.
Good Selling,
Rocky
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Value Equation
One of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners is; 'My people don't even know what our value proposition is!' While that may be a problem that is usually a symptom not the problem. The problem is no one has take the time to discuss the companies unique selling proposition. We all have competition and competition is good. You may have heard the 'ol saying, "I don't want No competition I want weak competition.
So here is an exercise for you. Write down the problems that your product or service solves. Then write down the problems that your competition solves. Are they similar? What points of difference can you find that may help your future clients more effectively? Make a list of the differences and then turn those into questions. Now when you're in a selling situation use those questions to find out if the things you think are important are really important to your prospects. Never assume! Ask! Often it is important for the prospect to hear themselves talk it through and this allow you to use your listening skills. You can't effectively tell a potential client you have value beyond your competition, they must discover it for themselves. Help them discover by asking questions.
When we look at value, often what has value to you does not have value to your potential clients.
When we don't get the business due to 'price' what they said is, they don't see the value.
If you don't ask you won't know. Take two minutes now and complete the exercise. When you have your list of questions, learn how to ask them in many different styles. Forget the old open ended, closed ended traditional sales techniques. Your prospect are on to that and it makes you look like a sales person and raises their defenses. Ask questions in an assumptive way. Example. When (your competition) came in last month for a review of how they re helping you make money and what you could do to make more, what did that sound like?
A wise man once told me that every time you ask a question and get the answer, " don't know".
You just earned more respect, and created more value.
Stop selling, start asking more questions and create value beyond you product!
So here is an exercise for you. Write down the problems that your product or service solves. Then write down the problems that your competition solves. Are they similar? What points of difference can you find that may help your future clients more effectively? Make a list of the differences and then turn those into questions. Now when you're in a selling situation use those questions to find out if the things you think are important are really important to your prospects. Never assume! Ask! Often it is important for the prospect to hear themselves talk it through and this allow you to use your listening skills. You can't effectively tell a potential client you have value beyond your competition, they must discover it for themselves. Help them discover by asking questions.
When we look at value, often what has value to you does not have value to your potential clients.
When we don't get the business due to 'price' what they said is, they don't see the value.
If you don't ask you won't know. Take two minutes now and complete the exercise. When you have your list of questions, learn how to ask them in many different styles. Forget the old open ended, closed ended traditional sales techniques. Your prospect are on to that and it makes you look like a sales person and raises their defenses. Ask questions in an assumptive way. Example. When (your competition) came in last month for a review of how they re helping you make money and what you could do to make more, what did that sound like?
A wise man once told me that every time you ask a question and get the answer, " don't know".
You just earned more respect, and created more value.
Stop selling, start asking more questions and create value beyond you product!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Between the Ears
Q. What makes some sales people more successful than others.
A. Very interesting question and one the will conjure up a lot of debate. I’ll give you my take and stir the pot.
The biggest challenge is between the ears!
In the April Field and Stream issue there was an article that addresses competitive shooting that maps over exactly to what I’ve seen in the sales training world for the last 15 years. I’ll paraphrase. Research shows that a shooters heartbeat can go from a normal 78 to an extreme 180 when a target appears. (Ever feel your heart race in a sales situation?) The article further identifies three very distinct attributes that make the difference in champions and first losers (second place). 1) Champions are so confident they are borderline arrogant. 2. Champions never expect to do anything but WIN! They visualize themselves successful. And 3. They practice to the point of automation. They eat breath and sleep their skill so much that when the target appears the instinctively do the right thing to create success.
Additionally, I believe that Desire, Commitment, Personal Responsibility and Outlook determine the slight edge difference between outstanding achievers and at leasters.
Successful salespeople consistently execute the hard things in sales that others don’t. The have the humility to prepare and the confidence to pull it off.
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
A. Very interesting question and one the will conjure up a lot of debate. I’ll give you my take and stir the pot.
The biggest challenge is between the ears!
In the April Field and Stream issue there was an article that addresses competitive shooting that maps over exactly to what I’ve seen in the sales training world for the last 15 years. I’ll paraphrase. Research shows that a shooters heartbeat can go from a normal 78 to an extreme 180 when a target appears. (Ever feel your heart race in a sales situation?) The article further identifies three very distinct attributes that make the difference in champions and first losers (second place). 1) Champions are so confident they are borderline arrogant. 2. Champions never expect to do anything but WIN! They visualize themselves successful. And 3. They practice to the point of automation. They eat breath and sleep their skill so much that when the target appears the instinctively do the right thing to create success.
Additionally, I believe that Desire, Commitment, Personal Responsibility and Outlook determine the slight edge difference between outstanding achievers and at leasters.
Successful salespeople consistently execute the hard things in sales that others don’t. The have the humility to prepare and the confidence to pull it off.
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
You Stew
Imagine if you will, that you are in a foreign land but didn’t realize you were there until you were there. You don’t know the language, the culture, the signs, the unspoken language. You could flip someone off unknowingly and become one of those ‘heads on a stick’.
Imagine again, if you will, that you are in this foreign land and you start telling everyone what to do. How to get from here to there in the shortest route, how to save time and effort, how to harvest information, new ideas, change, and happier lives. How long would it be before you were introduced to the boiling pot of ‘you stew’.
Isn’t that what most sales people do? Before ever learning the culture, the language, the unspoken language, they tell, and think that is sales. They say I and me and they close their minds to openness and learning. How can you ever learn if you don’t listen. Listen with intent to understand. Listen with out assuming. Listen between the lines with intent to be understood. Listen to learn how to present ideas the way they want them presented, so that the ideas to use your service and products are the ideas of the foreigners.
Listening is the alternative to ‘you stew’!
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Imagine again, if you will, that you are in this foreign land and you start telling everyone what to do. How to get from here to there in the shortest route, how to save time and effort, how to harvest information, new ideas, change, and happier lives. How long would it be before you were introduced to the boiling pot of ‘you stew’.
Isn’t that what most sales people do? Before ever learning the culture, the language, the unspoken language, they tell, and think that is sales. They say I and me and they close their minds to openness and learning. How can you ever learn if you don’t listen. Listen with intent to understand. Listen with out assuming. Listen between the lines with intent to be understood. Listen to learn how to present ideas the way they want them presented, so that the ideas to use your service and products are the ideas of the foreigners.
Listening is the alternative to ‘you stew’!
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Stuck
I’m stuck. My manager says ‘sell’ but the developers can’t keep deadlines. How can I sell when they can’t complete what we sell now?
This is a common challenge. Here are some questions that come to mind. How long has it been this way? What has management done to fix the problem? What is the normal turnaround time? How does that compare to your competitors?
DELETE the ABOVE! Look at the real problem. You’re not gonna like this but, the problem is between your ears! For some reason you’ve mistaken your role in the company. You’ve given merit to the inner sanctum BS of what, why and how much the developers do or don’t do.
You were hired for SALES! Sales is introductions, relationships, finding companies/people who need your stuff. You’re not management. You don’t run the developers.
STOP making excuses. Get more appointments, get $ upfront, get contracts and the company will have more to invest in internal resources.
If you don’t believe in your company, how can you expect your prospects to believe? Stop spending your grey matter on things you can’t control. Focus on being the best salesperson you can. If you can’t, resign and find something you believe in soooooo much, the conviction exudes from your pours. Or get out of sales and stop giving real salespeople a bad wrap.
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
This is a common challenge. Here are some questions that come to mind. How long has it been this way? What has management done to fix the problem? What is the normal turnaround time? How does that compare to your competitors?
DELETE the ABOVE! Look at the real problem. You’re not gonna like this but, the problem is between your ears! For some reason you’ve mistaken your role in the company. You’ve given merit to the inner sanctum BS of what, why and how much the developers do or don’t do.
You were hired for SALES! Sales is introductions, relationships, finding companies/people who need your stuff. You’re not management. You don’t run the developers.
STOP making excuses. Get more appointments, get $ upfront, get contracts and the company will have more to invest in internal resources.
If you don’t believe in your company, how can you expect your prospects to believe? Stop spending your grey matter on things you can’t control. Focus on being the best salesperson you can. If you can’t, resign and find something you believe in soooooo much, the conviction exudes from your pours. Or get out of sales and stop giving real salespeople a bad wrap.
For more information about sales development goto www.thetrainingroup.com
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Top Ten Rules of Prospecting
Top Ten Prospecting Rules
What’s a four letter word that salespeople hate most? Prospecting! I know it’s not four letters but all the other four letter words are taken. Prospecting Prospecting Prospecting. These are the three most important words in sales. While this is one of the most dreaded activities in sales, it is by far the one activity that can not be overlooked, shaded, procrastinated, ignored, put on the back burner, hidden, obstructed or forgotten.
So here are the Top 10 Prospecting tips.
Do it and do it some more. Like Nike’s motto just do it. When we dread it and find excuses not to do it we pay later. You know a weak pipeline is no pipeline at all. Sometimes we make excuses not to do it because we aren’t in the moon, our mind set is not right or we just plain don’t feel like it’s effective.
What’s a four letter word that salespeople hate most? Prospecting! I know it’s not four letters but all the other four letter words are taken. Prospecting Prospecting Prospecting. These are the three most important words in sales. While this is one of the most dreaded activities in sales, it is by far the one activity that can not be overlooked, shaded, procrastinated, ignored, put on the back burner, hidden, obstructed or forgotten.
So here are the Top 10 Prospecting tips.
Do it and do it some more. Like Nike’s motto just do it. When we dread it and find excuses not to do it we pay later. You know a weak pipeline is no pipeline at all. Sometimes we make excuses not to do it because we aren’t in the moon, our mind set is not right or we just plain don’t feel like it’s effective.
Attitude is 90% of everything. Results are a direct relation to attitude! Don’t fall into the trap of procrastinating and waiting for our attitude to get better before we begin. Attitude affects behavior and behavior effects attitude. Is it the chicken or the egg? It doesn’t really matter because without either we don’t eat.
Never let them see you coming. A lot of salespeople will leave messages, send e-mails and continually come up with excuses that are disguised as efforts they call prospecting. I’ll send some mail before I call, if they are interested they will call back, I sent several e-mails and left messages but they haven’t called back. Your goal is contact not activity. Stats tell us that to reach a decision maker it takes on average 5-7 attempts. Never leave a message until you made 7 attempts. Different times of the day, different days, ask the gatekeeper for more info, but never leave a typical sales message. If you look like a salesperson, act like a salesperson, smell like a salesperson, and sound like a salesperson, then you get treated like a salesperson!
Give the prospect a reason to get back to you. If you call and leave a message of who you are, your company, and what you’re calling about the success rate of contact is usually less that adequate. It’s more effective to leave a little to the imagination and use curiosity as the reason to get back to you. Be creative!
The wrong focus. Stats tell us that 70-80% of the time we will get put off, shrugged off, stalled, and objected to. That is a lot of negativity we have to deal with and it’s way too much pressure to deal with all the time. Change you goal. Instead of saying I’m gonna get 2 meetings, say I’m gonna get 20 no’s today. This will give you a positive way of achieving your goals and along the way a few are bound to say yes!
Schedule prospecting time. If prospecting is the most important activity then get your schedule out and put at least one hour a day in your book for prospecting. Don’t let anything get in your way and don’t make excuses not to do it. If you schedule prospecting and treat it as important as the million dollar meeting you will have more million dollar meetings.
Prospect Consistently. Don’t wait for one day of the week to prospect. Don’t let the anxiety build and deal with the feelings of guild and pressure to make all your calls for last week in one day. Three interesting things that happen when we prospect daily. A) We get better at it and B) We put karma in our favor and C) One day of the week we will be in the ZONE. The Midis touch…everything we touch turns to gold.
Set Traps. Traps are things we put in place to force us to do what we either don’t like doing or forget to do. Chances are you checked you alarm this morning so that you’d wake up on time. No alarm = Late. Make the lack of prospecting more painful than just the lack of prospecting. One lady we work with set the trap to come in 30 minuets early one day a week if her prospecting goals aren’t met the previous week. She hates getting up early. If you don’t meet or exceed your prospecting goals take your office nemesis to lunch, wash your bosses car at the office, give $50 to your favorite charity.
Use different strategies. The phone gets old in a hurry. A lot of civic organizations are always looking for someone to give a 5 minute talk on some subject you are an expert at. Relate your services and products to the economics and get visible. Don’t just join a networking group, get on the board. Mix up your prospecting activities and they won’t be mundane.
Get your clients to prospect for you. Become a referral animal. Let’s face it we have at least 50% more success prospecting when we are introduced. The most common reason salespeople don’t get referrals is because they don’t ask. Start asking. However it you buy into Emerson’s Law of Compensation, [you know ebb and flow, every action has a reaction, give and take. (It’s a long and difficult read but worth it.)] The best way to get referrals is to give them first!
Take a moment review the top 10 and make a commitment to implementing one a week for the next 12 weeks. Then you will have more appointments, more 2nd meeting s and more money in the pipeline. Start with number 6 because as you get busier you’ll put off prospecting!
In the immortal words of Larry the Cable Guy…. GET’er DONE!
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