If you or one of your selling staff where pulled over by a police officer and arrested for being a selling professional, would there be enough evidence to convict you or the others?
The purpose of selling is meant to create relationships. Selling requires building trust and asking provocative questions that instill dialogue to gain customer understanding. So why then are there so many floundering, failing and simply annoying many. Too many selling professionals today fail to do the required homework to have any intellectual discussion. It is criminally negligent to not conduct the necessary detective work and discover information to assist conversation.
In two recent and hellacious examples one seller was an SEO firm seeking to assist me my web efforts. However he knew nothing of my Google ranking. In the other, one sales professional did not get past hello because of the rote script she was reading from. This folly conveys ignorance and most of all laziness. Selling requires research and knowledge before engaging conversation. Anything less results in rejection.
Before you pick up the phone to say hello, make certain that the actions you take can convict you of being a professional, ethical and knowledgeable selling professional.
Quote of the day
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge. – Benjamin Disraeli
The current recession has selling professionals and their management seeking alternatives to increase sales. One issue that continually arises is selling to the C Suite. There is a belief that if selling professionals increase their abilities to corporate executives both closure and sales revenues will increase. That may or may not be true.
The first item to consider with attempting selling products and services to corporate executives is whether the individual occupying the office is truly the buyer. Many selling professionals get fooled into believing that title encourages the sale. While CEO’s are responsible for a myriad of activities their main priority is a focus on customer acquisition and retention as well as a return to stakeholders. It is simply impossible to be involved in every vendor decision, and it is considered micromanagement. Take some time to understand your true buyer before wasting time.
Selling professionals by nature are tactical and invariably spend time with those that might influence but do not make decisions. However the approach for selling to decision makers in the C Suite must be more strategic. Before embarking on cold calling and using rote sales principles, take the time to prepare. Selling professionals must adequately prepare before calling an executive. I suggest reading current versions of The Wall Street Journal to comprehend environmental (i.e. economic, political, technological, etc) issues as well as competitive pressures. In addition, reading the organizations annual report is essential for understanding the firm’s strategy and industry acceptance. Finally a quick review of corporate, industry and other competitive issues enables a representative to have articulate conversations with senior executives.
Upon completion of preliminary reading, selling professionals must establish a strategic corporate profile in order to better comprehend the corporate structure and align products and services you offer with the prospective organization. The strategic profile removes the tactical issues of product sales and creates a better ability to create long-term relationships. Executives will trust the ability to be more consultative. Formulating a corporate strategy creates provocative questions related to objectives and measurements for success, which are the conversations that senior executives desire. Dialogue focuses on organizational results and benefits to the customer, not product/service facts. Executives desire to hear about output and results.
Finally strategic selling professionals do not visit the C Suite with rote tactics of cold calling etc. While a myriad of books, audios and other materials exist suggesting such, executives are met through referral and networking. Individuals invest in those they know and trust. This requires selling professionals to shift direction and gain better momentum with strategic ideology. It simply requires change.
We are currently in a sea of rapid change and momentum. Recessions also enable organizations to develop innovative techniques. Now is the time to be a market leader and create techniques that allow innovation and renewal. Shifting to a new sales direction will take some time but as comfort returns, the organization will gain speed and velocity. The results will be worth it!
There are 7 techniques you can use daily to assist you preparation efforts. Get the 7 Secrets to Sales Preparation by emailing me today. Ask about our Free 30 Minutes “Sales Acceleration Coaching Clinic”!
Drew Stevens PhD is one of the worlds leading experts in sales and sales skills. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. With over 25 years of sales experience and business leader, Dr. Drew has extensive experience in assisting both entrepreneurs and selling professionals to experience higher efficiency and effectiveness. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness offering tips and techniques that immediately improve selling performance.
With over 27 years in the field of selling, Stevens Consulting Group has encountered numerous selling myths. Many are so focused on closing sales but fail to avoid many of the trappings of ridiculous behavior. As I have stated in many of my posts 92% of professionals lack a process in which to conduct relationships that affect business. So many fail to follow two things 1) good advice (and there is a LOT of poor advice nowadays) and 2) proper education. If there were good advice to help you close sales gaps would you be interested? Then here are seven of the top 25 selling errors.
1. Price
During our reach into the Millennium, advantages to selling decrease as consumers use the Internet to gain accessibility to competitors, inventory and other vital tools. The information endows the client to strengthen their negotiable position. Price negotiation now succumbs to value. Customers today desire value. Value is the benefit the client receives from a selling professionals business. Value is a competitive differentiator as clients discern the answer to the vital question, “What’s in it for me?” Clients only do business with those they trust. Forget the price equation and only sell on value.
2. Anyone can do it
Sales professionals are much like a general on the battlefield, an athletic coach at a game, or a chess player at a tournament: they are always thinking ahead, strategizing to determine their next move. Selling requires a desire to create relationships and a willingness to absorb useful research and articulate the results to a client. Not many have the patience and persistence that selling requires. The skills needed for selling (especially technical sales) are not found in many. Talent is innate and cannot be taught.
3. Sales people make good managers
There is a ridiculous notion that since selling professionals manage territories and relationships the transfer of skills rationalizes promotion to management. Not true. Research illustrates that selling professionals desire individual achievement. They enjoy the entrepreneurial ability to call upon clients, meander in their territory and create their own luck. Managing staff requires oversight, reports, and motivation and oftentimes reprimands, shunning results. Simply put, the best selling professionals don’t make the best managers.
4. High Motivation is Required
Many aspects of selling require technical conversations. Engineering sales professionals require a pragmatic approach meshed with analytical presentations. Every organization from non-profit to government requires selling to offset expenses. Each firm maintains a variety of cultural standards, some aggressive and loud while others peaceful and cautious. The talent of the professional emulates the organizational culture. High motivation is applicable dependent on the organization. And not all individuals are required to be gregarious.
5. CRM Rules
Technology for technology sake is ridiculous. Numerous software and Internet applications assist speed and workplace efficiency. However, many individuals tend to use technology to augment human interaction. Relationships control selling situations. CRM or Customer Relationship Management assists pipeline management. Sellers control relationships with dialogue, language, and discussion not electronic software. Applications must be used to help the relationship not become a substitute for it.
6. Internet increases selling effectiveness
The most important part of any business owner is to prepare for each and appointment. The successful professional will always know the client or even the prospect. The Internet is most accessible and enables spontaneous information. Selling professionals might discover useful competitive and industry information that aids the client. However the Internet, like CRM, is not meant to augment the business relationship. Electronic mail and the Internet will aid immediacy of required customer content but it will never substitute for positive relationship building. And forget those social networks, they do little to build business.
7. One must always be closing
Building business is about relationships. The discussion with prospects should always be about value, not about fees, or prescriptive programs. If the discussion is not about value, then you or your people have surrendered control of the discussion, and the result will never be on the terms you would prefer. When the discussion is on value and the prospect is convinced of the wisdom of a relationship with you, fees are academic. When business is closed it is based on the adulation of the relationship. Stop worrying about the number of widgets and start worrying about the number of relationships.
There are 25 Myths of Selling to aid in your sales success email me today and I will send an ebook with the others. Ask about our Free 30 Minutes “Sales Acceleration Coaching Clinic”.
Drew Stevens PhD is one of the worlds leading experts in sales and sales skills. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. With over 25 years of sales experience and business leader, Dr. Drew has extensive experience in assisting both entrepreneurs and selling professionals to experience higher efficiency and effectiveness. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness offering tips and techniques that immediately improve selling performance.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, Certainly I can! Then get busy and find out how to do it! – Theodore Roosevelt
Weekly Thought
Many contemplate things they want to do in life, yet seemingly procrastinate and discover methods not to advance. The comfort zone stops us from taking risks, taking advantage and creating action in our lives. Think about this, if King, Christ, John Paul, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Theresa, et al did not take risks where would we all be. The mind and the body can do anything you want it to do if programmed correctly. Stop sitting in the stands being a spectator. If you desire action, you need to get into the field of play!
There are 7 techniques to stop your limiting beliefs and create action. If you want action then emai me today for a FREE Tip Sheet.
Ask about our Free 30 Minutes “Sales Acceleration Coaching Clinic” to help you gain immediate sales result or enroll in our Selling on the Run Telecoaching Series.
Drew Stevens PhD is one of the worlds leading experts in sales and sales skills. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. With over 25 years of sales experience and business leader, Dr. Drew has extensive experience in assisting both entrepreneurs and selling professionals to experience higher efficiency and effectiveness. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness offering tips and techniques that immediately improve selling performance.
Quote of the Day
“You look at any large organization and I mean the biggies, and they all started with a guy with an idea, doing it well.” Irvine Robbins
Thought of the Day
In order for a new idea to manifest three concepts are in play 1) risk, 2) removal from the comfort zone and 3) action. Inertia manifests and dampens creativity. Movement and moxie create innovation.
Best Practice
When you stare into the abyss you create fiction. If there is true desire and commitment now is the time to take action. Stop living in your past. Make those dreams become reality. Your idea, your creativity, your actions might be the next great idea to society.
The New Year is only twenty days away and already the anxiety and excitement is building. As many seek refuge from the negativity of the media, others look ahead to new beginnings. We are moving toward a pre boom economy and selling professionals and managers will need to be more efficient and more productive next year. Here are some of the areas that will be affected:
1. Lead Generation – The issue of lead generation has increased in the last two years. Technology has helped gather leads but the conversion factor has not increased. Selling professionals and marketing departments must collaborate for better target market optimization. Simply, put leads must be converted and there will be increased attention to close more business.
2. Customer Service – As reported many times in my columns 45% of every client interaction involves customer service. My research illustrates that customer service has decreased in many organizations. Since customer-to-customer influences have become vital to success, it is increasingly important that selling professionals focus more on their most vital asset- the client.
3. Better Hiring – The days of placing butts in seats to fill a void are gone. Sales managers must find talent that will become immediately productive. The use of On Boarding programs and the discovery of proper talent will be an imperative focus for sales managers. More pressure will be placed on finding the right people in the right positions to help increase margins.
4. Preparation – The last five years have provided significant tools and technology to sales professionals. From CRM systems to better search methodology in Google, selling professionals are more prepared then ever. Or are they? Customers have access to as much information as their sales professional. It is vital that all sellers be prepared for EVERY client interaction. Reading annual reports, watching the news and having a prepared list of value questions will aid every call. Sales people must have more information then their client.
5. Value – We are in a knowledge economy. Selling professionals must stop providing information to clients and provide value. Selling professionals must convert the information that have into knowledge that the client can immediately use to be more competitive, innovative, etc.
6. Process – 92% of selling professionals (and this includes entrepreneurs) do not have a process to build relationships and close business. 2010 will be the year of increased productivity, it is necessary for sellers to gain the knowledge necessary to build trust and close business more efficiently. Sales professionals must be better prepared and better educated. The days of “anyone can sell” have ended.
7. Training – Gone are the days of sitting in a classroom for 8 hours expecting a return on investment. Managers and business professionals do not have the time and frankly event based training fails. Selling is a process therefore sales training will alter to a more succinct process oriented approach. Secondly, with the movement of selling as a profession, companies will remove themselves from education and desire that individuals take ownership of their profession.
Innovative concepts begin during times of dramatic change. 2010 will provide interesting opportunities to the selling community not experienced since the 1980’s. The year will be challenging yet exciting, those ahead of the curve will thrive. Innovation occurs at the beginning of the curve, competition at the end. First mover advantage is always easier.
If you seek more efficiency in your career and want to discover the 12 Secrets to Sales Effectiveness I will send you a free report. Contact me today!
Drew Stevens PhD is one of the worlds leading experts in sales and sales skills. Dr. Drew is the author of the best seller Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible – 12 Strategies for Ultimate Success. With over 25 years of sales experience and business leader, Dr. Drew has extensive experience in assisting both entrepreneurs and selling professionals to experience higher efficiency and effectiveness. He is created the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness with Dr. Drew.
When you’re really trying to make serious change, you don’t want people to get caught up in emotion because change isn’t emotion. Because change isn’t emotion. Its real work and organization and strategy.. that’s just the truth of it. I mean, you pull people in with inspiration, but then you have to roll up your sleeves and you’ve got to make sacrifices and you have got to have structure.
Michelle Obama
Thought of the Day
One of the issues that constantly weights on those that sell is a lack of process. Simply put selling professionals are too tactical. 92% of most professionals do not have a process, do not prepare their calls, do not understand the value of rapport and consequently screw up their closing ratios. There is value in education and learning to be better at your craft. I am floored by the immense amount of free advice available yet individuals do not take advantage. There is not shortcut to selling.
Best Practice of the Day
Take some time this holiday season to renew, to review and to improve. Stop the feeling of victimization of not making sales and learn about something that can assist you. If you use this one thing everyday for a month you will be 50% better.
There are 12 techniques you can use daily to assist you sales efforts. If you seek a quick 12 step tip sheet for selling efficiency email me today. And ask about our Free 30 Minutes “Sales Acceleration Coaching Clinic”.
Drew Stevens PhD works with organizations to dramatically accelerate revenue. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness with Dr. Drew. To gain a free 30 Minute Coaching Session or to request Secrets of Ultimate Business Success contact Dr. Drew today get the proper prescription for your success.
As I completed one of my annual readings, I was reminded of the need develop bonds with those of influence. “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill speaks of the power of the mastermind and the need to have strong alliances that aid business success. As I completed this it reminded me of a recurring issue in selling- networking.
Selling professionals and successful entrepreneurs are not isolated. Review any successful person and numerous others always surround them. They do not live in a vacuum and understand the need for constant connectivity to assist them in building their respective businesses. Look at others in your organization or other successful individuals, do you notice similar?
One of the most valuable components of marketing is branding. Moreover, to help manifest the brand, organizations and individuals needs to help that brand proliferate by having others create buzz. Sellers and entrepreneurs use similar means with the depth of their networks. They assist in driving business by meeting new people, opening doors unknown to them and lessening labor.
Here are some questions to help you review your network:
1. Who is in your network?
2. How often do you communicate with them?
3. Are they a person of influence?
4. Can they assist you?
While many sales professionals buy lists and comb phone directories, a network of influential individuals can eliminate time, reduce stress and save hordes of money. I know of one company where the mandate is to knock on doors for new business. That is a lot of rejection and wasted time. Would not a proper network aid this effort? To grow business you must emulate others that are successful at it. So what might you do?
1. Begin to attend networking groups where you can meet individuals. Do not be taken in by the folly of groups where members simply want to sell you something. Attend functions where you can build alliances but do not be a wallflower you must actively participate.
2. Use your existing network to help you expand. Tell your network
your value proposition. Ask that they introduce you to others that might require your value.
3. You need to review your current network. I learned long ago that a person is a sum of all parts and if your network is not influential you just might need to
purge. Yes, eliminate those that do not aid you or waste time. There is a cliché if you want to be a millionaire you have to affiliate with them. Is your network pushing you to newer heights?
4. Beware of the folly of social media and individuals that are Lions, Tigers, Bears, Cats, Dogs and Sheep. It is not quantity but
quality. Does it matter that someone has 15,659 followers if there are not decision makers in the queue.
5. Spend useful time with useful people. Purge associations, charities
In addition, other time consuming organizations. Spend useful time with those that can affect your business.
6. Avoid the baseball card theory. Collecting business cards is not a lead generation system. What you do with the cards after is. Many people believe business cards are gold bullion. If you do not follow-up, you have is manure.
7. Networks need to be catered. You must remain actively involved and nurture the individuals as they say out of sight out of mind. A gentleman recently lost a significant piece of business when he failed to follow up with his network connection.
There are 7 techniques you can use daily to assist you sales efforts. If you seek a additional alternatives to building your network email me today. And ask about our Free 30 Minutes “Sales Acceleration Coaching Clinic”.
Drew Stevens PhD works with organizations to dramatically accelerate revenue. Dr. Drew is the author of six books including Split Second Selling and the soon to be released Ultimate Business Bible. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness with Dr. Drew. To gain a free 30 Minute Coaching Session or to request Secrets of Ultimate Business Success contact Dr. Drew today get the proper prescription for your success.
If you’ve been struggling to
close enough sales and you’d like
a major breakthrough, then I’d like
to invite you to take advantage
of a special, “Split Second Selling” personal, 1-on-1 coaching
session where we will work
together to…
=> Create a crystal clear vision
for the sales success you desire
(we’ll set targets for prospecting
activities, and ‘close ratios’ that
will give you the lifestyle you
desire)
=> Uncover hidden challenges
that may be sabotaging your
sales success (we’ll pinpoint
specific areas that cause
breakdowns in the sales
process so you can make
immediate changes)
=> Leave this session renewed,
re-energized, and inspired to
break your personal sales
records and enjoy a great
income.
If you’d like to take advantage
of this very special, very limited,
and totally FREE 30 minute
“Split Second Selling” coaching
session, click reply and answer
the questions below…
1. How long have you had your
current sales position?
2. What kind of product/service do
you sell?
3. What are your sales commission
goals for the next 12 months?
4. What were your sales commissions
from the last 12 months? (ballpark)
5. What do you see as the major
challenges holding you back from
selling as much as you want?
6. On a scale of 0-10, how important
is it for you to overcome your
challenges and achieve your sales
and lifestyle goals today?
7. Full Name
8. Email Address
9. Phone #
10. Time Zone
Check off the areas you’d like to work on…
__ Finding a Great Prospect List
__ Prospecting
__ Assessing Needs
__ Presenting Your Offer
__ Overcoming Objections
__ Closing the Sale
__ Getting Referrals & Up-Selling
__ Other
Since we’re making this offer
for the first time right now and
we don’t know how intense the
response will be, we can’t
guarantee a coaching session
for everyone.
We’ll take as many people
as we can and then start a
waiting list. You can expect to
get contacted by our team to
schedule your session within
the next 3 business days.
If you don’t hear from us,
it means we’ve received more
requests than we can handle
right now and if something opens
up we’ll get in touch with you
at a later time.
Again, to take advantage
of this offer, simply email me
and answer the questions
listed above.
Warmest Regards,
Dr. Drew
PS: The sooner you send us your
answers, the more likely you are to
get a session. Click reply now.
If you want to know what gets the doctor steamed about buffoonery in organizations, then listen to Dr. Drew prescribe cures for organizational malice. Dr. Drew knows that investments in vital assets are key but not everyone else has a similar attitude. If you want the cure, then listen to the doctor tell it like it is.
RSS Feed
