Selling for Life

Excuse Me?

When you don't make the sale, who is to blame?  Is it the economy?  Is it your competition?  Is it your company?  Or could it be you?  Good salespeople know that when they don"t get the sale it is no ones fault but theirs.  Usually there was something they missed in the execution of their sales process.  

Stop making/accepting excuses for your lack of results.  Look at the effectiveness of your sales process.

• Do you have an effective process for moving opportunities from suspect to prospect to customer?
• Are you preparing for every call with a pre-call plan? 
• Do you ask quality questions that help the prospect uncover issues that are compelling enough to solve?
• Do you know when and why to walk away?
• Are you always asking for introductions so you have a "next"?

Control the one thing you can.  You!

 

Thank You Steve!

I received this from a friend today and thought it appropriate to share with all of you.  Great advice and inspiration for us all.

STEVE JOBS 1955-2011

Steve Jobs was the Thomas Edison of our time. Just as the light bulb changed the way we looked at things so did the innovations that Steve imagined and produced. He was of the world's greatest marketers. We will miss him.

In his own words he expresses his philosophy of death elegantly:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

The world has lost one of the great visionaries in history. Yet he continues on as in inspiration to all of us that seek innovation, perfection and success. Our condolences to his family and the folks at Apple Corporation, and all who admired him.


Robert Fleming
CEO
eMarketing Association

Get Into The Habit

Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.

When you fall short of a goal do you ask yourself why?  Could it be that you have not developed the habits that provide the mental discipline to achieve them?

All of the successful salespeople I know have three things in common: They are goal setters. They know where they want to go and check their compass regularly to assess how they are doing.     They build a success formula with the right habits that provide the mental discipline to get there.

    1.  They are goal setters.  They know where they want to go and check their compass regularly to assess how they are doing.

    2.  They build a success formula with the right habits that provide the mental discipline to get there.

     3.  They execute on the behavior.

I think once you set your destination what is most crucial to getting there is forming the right habits.

Here are 5 habits I have seen from good salespeople.

1. They are always asking for introductions.  You cannot have too many people to talk to.
2. They prepare in advance for every call.  Professionals rehearse before the game, the concert or the performance.  Remember it might be their first time to see you even though you have done “this” before.
3. They prepare to ask great questions that create dialogue.  Think of the interviewers you have watched and observe how asking great questions gets the other person talking.
4. They stick to their sales process, getting commitment from the decision makers.  How many times do you hear think it over, we’ll get back to you etc?
5. Prospecting is job 1.  Whether it is face to face, on the phone, e-mail or sales 2.0.  Prospecting happens every day.

Suppose Aristotle was right, being excellent is a habit and it takes 21 days to form one, maybe even less if your desire and commitment are strong.  What are you waiting for? 

 

 

 

 

 

It's A Slight Edge

I have observed that the difference between highly successful sales people and those that do ok is generally not that great.  It is usually an effort issue.  This Sunday is the 212th day of the year.  I was reminded by a friend of the 212 movie produced and distributed by Simple Truths and thought it appropriate to share with others.  We are all so close to realizing our dreams.  If you really knew how close you are would you put forth the extra effort to get there?  I hope you enjoy it.

Pitch or Process? You Decide.

In the world of Sales 2.0  things have changed a lot.  Blogs, Tweets, Face book, Linked-In, People Maps and the list goes on and on.  Buyers are accessing information differently and becoming more difficult to get in front of.  What are you doing to adjust?  It’s time to upgrade our sales practice to 2011.

Many of us are familiar with the term “pitch” as it relates to selling.  You know, the process of getting in front of as many people as possible to tell our story in hopes of finding enough who will say yes.  A lot of you listening to this probably began your sales career as I did by learning sales scripts and going out and talking to everyone who would listen.  We didn’t really focus on how qualified they were, just whether or not we could get in front of them.

With the barriers to good prospects a tough as ever it has become more difficult to gain access by asking for 15 minutes to make our pitch.  People will take time to meet if there is a compelling reason to do so.  An effective sales process helps you not only gain access but also filter out those that don’t meet your criteria to eventually hear your solution. 

If all you have to sell is one or two products, then maybe the sales pitch approach can be effective for you.  However if your potential customer has access to many other salespeople and products then what are you going to do to make sure you get a chance to present your solution.

 

Sales Pitch – tell everyone about what you have to offer.

Sales Process – ask questions to see if they even qualify for an initial meeting.

Sales Pitch – discussion of money and decision making usually take place after a favorable response to what we have shown them.

Sales Process – only those who have demonstrated they have the time money and resources and are in a position to make a decision get to see our solution. 

Sales Pitch – presenting to lots of people who don’t qualify.

Sales Process – presenting only to decision makers that are committed to implementing a solution to their problem, hopefully with us. 

While there is no right or wrong approach I hope you will ask yourself this question.  

Are my sales results allowing me to accomplish all the goals I have set for myself?

 If not it could time to examine the effectiveness of your process.

 

Reading the Cue Cards

Recently I went to a performance at The Second City in Chicago and watched a skit about a guy, who was already a little nervous, going on his first date.  It began fairly well (he had questions written down on cue cards) until his responses started to have nothing to do with what she said.  Instead of just listening he continued to search through his cards looking for the right response.  As you might imagine it was great comedy, but the date didn't go to well.

 Do you do this on sales calls?  Do you find yourself locked into a strategy no matter what the prospect says.  Are you thinking ahead to what YOU want to talk about next and not listening?  Are you preparing questions based upon what you think you know?  If you want your sales calls to go better then consider this:

1. It makes sense to plan for a  sales call.

2. Sometimes the plan goes out the window, listen and be ready to adjust.

3. There are no cue cards for sales calls.  Follow the prospects lead.

Make sure and do a de-brief after every call.  Write down what you have learned and practice, practice, practice.

 

Change Your Words

You often hear people say "it's not what you say but how you say it"  While in some cases I am sure that applies, when I watched this video I couldn't help but wonder the impact on our conversations and communication if we chose our words differently.  I want to thank Joan Donofrio for sending this along to me.  I hope you will take the 60 seconds necessary to watch it.  Change Your Words

Can You Sell It?

A week ago if you had asked me what being an architect and selling have in common i would probably have said, almost nothing That was until I spent 90 minutes on the Chicago River listening to a docet from CAF telling me about the history of many of the buildings along our route. Learning about the history, the design and the architects was really interesting and I thought how creative these people are. Then our docet said something that really got my attention. He talked about all the great designs that had never been built. "You not only have to provide a great solution (design) you must be a great salesman". In other words there were some gifted architects, but their names were not on these buildings because they couldn't sell their idea. How many times have you had a great solution (design) but couldn't sell it? Could it be that we spend so much time on the design and then become dependent on it to make the sale? Do you spend as much time qualifying the prospect as you do in working on the solution? How about pre-call planning? How about dealing with the competition? All the great buildings you see are there because someone sold their idea. Make sure you can sell yours.

Getting the Nod

It used to be that the expression "getting the nod" meant you had been picked, you won.  The other day I saw a t-shirt that said, "I'm going to nod and act like I'm listening."  When you are meeting with a prospect or a client and they are getting the nod from you, what does it mean?  What if you are getting the nod from them?  Think about it.  How many times have you left a meeting and when someone asked you how it went you respond, "there was a lot of head nodding going on, I think it went well."  What if they were wearing the t-shirt!  Salespeople talk too much and mistake head nodding from the prospect as some form of acceptance and agreement.  Prepare for your sales calls with great questions and then listen!  Make sure you're not "getting the nod."

Catching the Daylight

In the summer when you fly from Seattle to Anchorage in the late evening an interesting thing happens. You depart in darkness and in about two hours you catch the daylight. Now every flight that leaves SEA-TAC Airport at that hour is traveling in excess of 500 miles per hour, yet only those with the correct compass heading will catch the daylight that soon. What is your sales compass heading? Even if your flying fast, working hard, it will take a lot longer to catch your daylight if you're compass is pointed in another direction. Instead of calling more people, flying fast, call more of the right people, different compass heading. Instead of working hard to make something that isn't and opportunity into one, find prospects who need and want your help to fix a problem. Fly fast, work hard, but make sure you are headed in the right direction and catch the daylight.