Softer Side of Selling

Sales Skill: Creating An Unfair Advantage

September 13, 2021 By Don Crawford

OK, Crawford, what are you doing here? I thought great salespeople were always honorable. Yep, but there are advantages you have over your competitor they don’t have. So those I consider an unfair advantage because others can’t have them. And they give you a leg up when competing for business. Let’s look at how you create an unfair advantage.

An unfair advantage benefits the competitor

What’s Your Unfair Advantage?
Image from Pizabay

First Unfair Advantage Is You!

Only the business you work for has you. So what, you may ask. The competitors have salespeople too. Yes, but they are not you. The knowledge, skill and experience you bring to the prospect is unique. How well you know the benefits of your product or service to the prospect is an advantage. Do you have the selling skills to convince your prospect your solution is perfect? Can you demonstrate experience where you have solved the same or very similar problem for a customer? Great salespeople have the skills to be a personal advantage to the prospect….

Selling Skill: Avoiding The Price Objection

September 6, 2021 By Don Crawford

Price is the monetary value of the product or service we sell. It represents what our customer is willing to pay for the solution to the problem they are trying to solve. When the price is higher than the value the customer expects then we get the price objection.

For most products, the marketplace sets the price a customer will pay to exchange their money for the good or service you are selling. For mass-marketed consumer products, competition limits the price for a product. But for unique one-of-a-kind solutions, the value of the benefit of solving a problem drives the price. When we understand the value/benefit relationship we don’t get the price objection.

Guy holds onto his money when he objects to your price

Avoid The Price Objection
To Get The Money
Image from Pixabay

Should You Move On?

What’s a salesperson to do when they get to the close and the customer thinks the price is too high to pay? Or the customer says: “I can get this for less money from your competitor.”

One approach could be to pack up your brief case and thank the customer for their time and move on. Then look for their reaction. If they are happy to see you go, move on to the next prospect. But if they are uneasy that you are pulling out, it’s probably a strong signal they want to work with you but need help in justifying the price. Great salespeople are strong enough to walk away from a bad deal….

Characteristics Of Great Salespeople

August 30, 2021 By Don Crawford

Read the literature today about the characteristics of great salespeople and you will find common traits. And they are different today than those of past generations of great salespeople. Take my dad, the most influential salesperson in my life. He got in his car every Monday morning and headed out to see customers. When he got his customer’s office they would usually see him. No appointment necessary. Maybe he would bring donuts or take a customer to lunch. His tech was the phone on his desk and a Remington typewriter. His research came from his customers, his fellow salespeople and maybe a printed business directory. And my grandfather, another great salesperson used exactly the same tools. But now times are really different as are the characteristics of great salespeople.

Great Salespeople Share Characteristics
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

Great Salespeople Put The Buyer First

This “putting the buyer first” characteristic of great salespeople is eternal. Both my dad and grandfather had it. But today we do it a bit differently. We have multiple tools to understand the needs of the buyer. By learning about the burdensome business issues the buyer has we have empathy with them. Great salespeople are successful because they put the buyer’s needs first. And we work hard to satisfy those needs with our product or service. Today we are more thought leaders and consultants for the buyer. We connect with buyers and other influencers using the skill of engaging and relevant storytelling. We build rapport and mutual trust between ourselves and the buyer’s team. For generations first among the characteristics of great salespeople has been the skill to put the needs of the buyer above their own….

Sales Skill: Build Trust

August 23, 2021 By Don Crawford

So you have done the research on a prospect. Determined they would be a good customer worth pursuing. Fought your way past the gatekeepers. And now you have a meeting with the decision maker. What’s the most important sales skill you need to have perfected for this meeting? Great salespeople know that getting the prospect to trust them is paramount to eventually closing the deal.

First Build Trust
Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay

What Is Trust?

Trust is developing the relationship where the prospect has confidence in you. When the prospect knows you have their best interest in mind, they will cooperate with you. And you need their cooperation to get answers to your questions. Those answers will lead you to the perfect proposal to win the business….

Use The Key Sales Performance Indicators

August 13, 2021 By Don Crawford

There you are great salesperson, hanging out with your sales buddies at the end of the month. Everyone has a good sales story to tell about how they landed the big one. But how many of you actually track your Key Sales Performance Indicators? Those are the metrics which tell you how good you are as a salesperson. Let’s look at the most important ones.

Key sales performance indicators keep salespeople focused and improving

Use The Key Sales Performance Indicators
Image From Pixabay

Sales Revenue

Of course this is the most important sales performance indicator. After all the dollars created from your sales help fund all the functions of the business. If you aren’t producing sales revenue it’s hard for the business to continue to operate. Or as my salesman father always said: “Nothing happens until someone sells something.” Do you set reasonable sales revenue goals for yourself? Do you check how you are performing against those goals?…

Sales Skill: Understanding Buyer Stress

June 28, 2021 By Don Crawford

Life in the US is looking like it’s returning to normal. Restaurants are opening, movie theaters, too. Travel for business and pleasure is picking up. People seem a bit more relaxed as the social restrictions are lifted. So that’s all great. But did you hear about the container ship blocking the Suez Canal? How about all those companies with supply chains spread over the world? Ships are in short supply and there are not enough containers. Demand is up but the capability to supply product is in trouble. And there is buyer stress all over the place. What’s a great salesperson to do?

Manage Buyer Stress
Image from Pixabay

Be Customer Focused

Great salespeople put the customer first. They are always in communication with the customer to understand their needs and problems. Some customers are going gangbusters. The demand for their products is high but the challenge is getting the material needed to meet the demand. Be honest. Buyers need salespeople with integrity. Someone they can trust. If you can’t meet the demand tell them then help them find another source. Or maybe an alternate product. Or offer to change the mode of shipment. Perhaps you are a supplier to retail stores. Be listening to your customers about product demand. Then pass the information on to operations so they can shift product mix. By being customer focused you reduce buyer stress….

The Salesperson And The Commencement Address

June 21, 2021 By Don Crawford

My wife and I recently attended the graduation of our oldest grandchild. Listening to the speeches I was struck by how a commencement address reflects on the life of a great salesperson. The messages congratulating the students on their success in high school and encouraging words about the future outline what every great salesperson believes.

Commencement speeches will motivate salespeople too.

Salespeople Learn From A Commencement Address
Image by AdrianMedia from Pixabay

Students, faculty and administration all had similar message. “We survived and indeed thrived COVID-19. And it formed the character of all who lived this unique high school experience.” Great salespeople too have overcome the challenges of the pandemic. So think about the common commencement address themes: vision, passion, humor, kindness, and continue learning. And, of course, to acknowledge and honor achievement….

Sales Skill: Getting to “NO”!

June 14, 2021 By Don Crawford

What you, great salesperson, are shocked that a sales skill is getting to “no”! Think about it. Do you win every sales pursuit? Do you want to convert every prospect to a customer? And aren’t you the one advising those new salespeople that selling is a numbers game? So the sooner you get all those “no’s” out of the way, the quicker you get to “yes”. There are three times in the course of getting the order when getting to “no” is important: Qualifying, Confirming and Presenting.

Go For The “NO”
Image from Pixabay

Qualifying: Looking For The “No”

Great salespeople know they have a qualified prospect when they have rapport with the decision maker, they have a problem you can solve and the budget is there. Any one of these is absent, then you don’t have a qualified prospect. So great salespeople ask good open-ended questions to qualify the prospect. If you can’t build trust and comfort with a prospect, chances are you won’t get good answers. Better to move on. When the prospect doesn’t have a problem they want you to help solve. Time to look for another prospect. No sense waiting to the close to find out they can’t afford your product or service. Get to the budget “no” quickly. Now you see that in the qualifying process getting to “no” quickly saves time.

Confirming

When great salespeople ask good open-ended questions, they hope for answers to lead them toward the successful conclusion of the sale. But we don’t often hear it right. So we ask confirming questions. These questions validate to the prospect we are listening. Confirming questions also help salespeople better understand the prospects mind. In short sales pursuits a confirming question can lead to the close: “If I can get it in blue, would you buy it?” Getting a “no” here gives the salesperson a chance to go on selling by asking other questions about color and other product features. In long sales cycles the “no” along the way offers insight in what it takes to get the “yes”.

Looking For “No” In The Closing Presentation

Now, Crawford, you’ve really lost it! Why put all the work into qualifying a prospect only to hope for “no” in the closing. Good question. Great salespeople are deaf to “no” during the closing presentation. It’s not they don’t hear the word but they interpret it as: “I have a question.” “No” is often an objection. In other words, an appeal for a clarification. So salespeople can find out the reason behind the “no” and go on selling.

The favorite outcome at the end of a sales pursuit is the “yes”. But the least favorite is not “no”; it’s: “I want to think it over.” The salesperson lives in limbo waiting for the prospect to think about it. And most times : “I want to think over” is a polite way for the customer to say “no” without hurting the salesperson’s feelings. Better to have the prospect agree at the beginning of the presentation to tell you “no” if they aren’t going to buy from you. But great salespeople work hard to get the “yes” and they understand the value of “no”.

What You Can Do Right Now Getting To “NO”!

Understand “no” is not personal
Realize “no” is a time saver for you
Treat “no” as an appeal for more information

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Thirteen, Getting The Order, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales encouragement, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

Sales Skill: Successful Selling Behaviors

June 4, 2021 By Don Crawford

Ok so “selling behaviors” might not register with you, great salesperson. Maybe it’s an archaic term. So how about selling tasks or selling activities or just stuff we do to close more sales. Whatever you want to call it these are the things we do every day over and over to become the best salesperson we can be. In the last post I encouraged salespeople to focus on behavior and not be preoccupied with attitude. So what are the successful selling behaviors?

Successful Selling Behaviors Win
Image From Pixabay

In all aspects of life, we do the same things over and over and over again. In the kitchen, we cook, eat, clean up and do it all over again. A fisherman baits his hook, casts into the water, trolls the bait, hooks the fish, reels it in lifts the fish into the boat with his net. Then does it all over again. Salespeople prospect, qualify, close, follow up, ask for referrals and do it multiple times a day. And they pause periodically to measure how they are doing….

Sales Skill: Focus on Behavior

May 31, 2021 By Don Crawford

I’ll bet you have heard more than one motivational speaker talk about positive mental attitude and how important it is in the quest for success in sales. While enjoying your work and being optimistic is important, successful salespeople focus on behavior. That is, the daily level of activity accomplished. It is behavior—not attitude—that makes all the difference in performance.

How many calls did you make to prospects?
How many follow-up calls did you make to customers?
How many referrals did you request?

Forget attitude—focus on behavior

Your Attitude Doesn’t Have to be Sparkly

Nobody’s attitude can be 100% every day. There are days when we feel a little “down,” and that’s okay. I remember reading a biography of Babe Ruth, the star baseball player. He said on days he didn’t feel well he had to play harder to make up for it. The Babe was one to focus on behavior. We control our level of activity. We aren’t always with our best attitude.

Surprise Yourself

If you focus on what you do—not how you feel—you’ll find that at the end of the month, you will have accomplished a lot on the days when you were “down” as well as the days when you were “up.” You may not tackle the task list with the same enthusiasm when you are having an “off” day. But great salespeople focus on behavior. And at the end of the day have achieved a lot.

Focus On Behavior

And tasks done well will affect your attitude. I remember one blustery, rainy day when I worked in Chicago. The weather forecast wasn’t going to get much better and the traffic conditions were terrible. I left with plenty of time to get to the first meeting with a new potential customer. They had invited several of us competitors to a pre-bid meeting for a new project. By the time I got to the company I was a few minutes late. Walking through the driving rain from my car to the office I must have looked like a drowned rat. The receptionist said I was the first to arrive, took my wet coat and hat and invited me to wait in the conference room. In a few minutes the purchaser arrived. We chatted for a few minutes over steaming mugs of coffee.

One by one the other invitees called to regret not being able to get to the meeting. As a result, the purchaser and I discussed the project, I got the details for which to prepare a proposal. Then he gave me the budget he had in mind for the project and said since I was committed enough to show up, assuming I could meet the budget we would get the business. For a day which started with a poor attitude doing the necessary behavior resulted in success and a wonderful change in attitude.

What You Can Do Right Now To Focus On Behavior

Don’t be preoccupied with your attitude.
Do the necessary behavior!
Enjoy the success for a job well done

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Three, Being a Great Salesperson, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales encouragement, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford