Softer Side of Selling

Have you ever found yourself in a competitive commodity selling environment where your competitor (Brand X) offers inferior quality and/or service or a cheaper price for what your customer is buying?

Here are a few thoughts

Never knock the competition. It will only sound like sour grapes. Instead, tell your prospect about your product or service, using examples of how your customers have benefited from it.

When successful commodity selling is based on differentiation between the companies selling the commodity more than on price. What additional benefits do you offer compared to your competitor?

Here’s a favorite commodity selling story of mine

When I was the branch manager for a safety products company we had a foundry customer who ordered the same pallet load of safety supplies every week. On Thursday the buyer would call and place an order for the long list of items needed Monday. Lynn, the inside sales rep, who handled him would enter the order and make sure it shipped on time. Then one day Lynn suggested to the buyer the that he didn’t need to call each week to place the same order if he would issue a blanket order to cover a period of time. She agreed to hold the price for the period of the blanket order. This saved him time and cemented a long term relationship. The buyer only called when the typical order needed to be changed.

Point out how your commodity offer is the same

Find out what your prospect likes most about the competing product. If your product is comparable or better, point out your commodity product’s features and benefits. You can say, “That is a good feature of Brand X. I’m glad you brought that up. Our customers tell us that’s one of the features they like about our product, too.” This assures the buyer that your product can be seamlessly substituted for the current one. Offer a sample to prove compatibility.

Point out how your commodity offer is different

Find out what they like the least about your competitor, too! If you know about a competitor’s weakness, in commodity selling you do not want to tell your prospect directly. Help the prospect discover it by asking how it will affect your prospect. It might sound like this:

You:                “Mr. Prospect, when they told you about the limitations of their limited warranty, what was your reaction?”

Prospect:       “They never told me!”

You:                “Is the warranty important to you?”

Result:           The prospect begins to poke holes in the competition for you.

Commodity Selling Questions to Think About

• How can you help your prospect understand that your competitors are inferior without “bashing” them?
• Why is it important not to bad-mouth your competitors?
• In what ways does your company or you offer unique services to support the commodity selling process?

What You Can Do Right Now

• Research your competitors and know their strengths and weaknesses of the commodity product and perhaps most importanat their organization.
• Evaluate your own commodity selling strategy and make a list of the strengths and weaknesses compared to each of your competitors.
• Begin asking questions of your customers to highlight your competitors’ weaknesses compared to your strenghts.

 

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter 23, The Competition, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

 

 

Every now and then, selling done right pays off in unexpected ways. Here is a favorite customer success story.

I attended a “meet-and-greet” for subcontractors sponsored by a Midwest construction company bidding on a contract in Maryland some years ago. At the event I met with the buying team for my scope. My company was invited to bid on the project but unfortunately the contractor wasn’t awarded the work. So no order for my company.

Persistence Pays Off

I continued to stay in contact with this contractor’s buying team who was located in a distant city by email and phone for several years. Soon there was an opportunity for work on a different and larger project in the Midwest, far outside our traditional service area but for products we were expert at. Based on the relationship and continued contact over the years along with the qualification to do the work, happily we were awarded a very large contract spanning multiple years. Now that’s great customer success story.

What I Learned

Continue to build relationships even when orders don’t fall your way. With each sales call remind the customer of what uniquely qualifies you to be awarded their business. Look for new opportunities to solve a problem for them. Be persistent and you will develop a whole catalog of customer success stories.

To learn how you too can have many customer success stories, read Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

 

Dreaded objection! It’s part of the selling process. Learning to handle objections is key to becoming the best sales person you can be.

So here it is time to close the deal. You have invested time and sweat into preparing the proposal to solve the prospects problem. All through the selling process you have gotten feedback clues that you understand the problem, the customer wants to solve the problem, has the money to buy your solution and most importantly you have built a relationship with the one who will sign on the dotted line. Now it is your big day.

Even if you have a well organized presentation…

You have confidently laid out your solution and asked the confirming questions about each point. Feeling like the king of the hill you get to the end of your presentation and ask for the order. Silence! The prospect leans back in his chair, steeples his fingers, frowns a bit, then says: “I don’t think so.” The dreaded objection!

Your heart skips a beat, you feel dizzy, panic starts to set in then you remember: “this is my presentation. I’m in control here.” Recognizing the opportunity for the prospect to explain his objection, you ask: “What did I miss?” (or other appropriate question to evoke a response.) The prospect lays it out for you. Then you need to be sure it is a real serious deal-killing objection or just a “smoke screen” which hides the true concern. You ask: “if I can allay your concern, will we have a deal?” Hopefully at this point he says yes and you can ask open ended and confirming questions to get to the heart of the objection. Now you have defined the dreaded objection and confirmed it is real. Address the concern.

Dreaded Objections are not to be feared…

They are usually a just question that needs to be cleared up in the prospects mind. Once you have addressed the concern, get confirmation from the prospect that the dreaded objection has been overcome. Then ask for the order.

Thank the prospect who has just become a customer. And take care of the paper work.

For more on dealing with objections read Chapter Thirteen, Getting the Order, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

 

Fundamental selling behaviors and activities are what great sales processes are built on. Like Einstein’s theory of relativity, they connect all elements of the process to yield the desired result.

Fundamental Selling Survives Over Time

For those who remember the Bob Dylan song from mid last century “Times They Are A Changin’” will no doubt wonder whether the disruptive forces of change in today’s business were what Dyan was singing about. (For those who don’t know the song, Google it.)

Change has always been present. Small changes, large changes and monumental changes are the history of the world and affect how we have done business since one man first exchanged something of value to get a product from another. But the fundamental selling components of an effective sales process have held true through the millennia.

Use Technology to Support Fundamental Selling

We may live a world where technology is evolving at a breakneck pace. Perhaps faster than we can keep up. Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and incredible amounts of Data are all impacting the way we do business. Still fundamental selling works: the purpose of a business is to make a profit. We do that by providing a product or service that fills a need for which customers are willing to pay. We win orders when we provide better value than our competitors.

Better value is based on knowing what problem the customer has and what it is costing his business. The best salespeople have customers who like and trust them and are in a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship. The high performers plan each sales call. They understand the customer’s need and find out what they are willing to spend. Great sales people deal with decision makers. These are the fundamental selling components which form an effective selling process.

Available technology can help great sales people be more efficient. Communications tools make it easier to stay in touch with a customer. Customer relationship management systems track the sales process. Now we can FaceTime with customers without having to visit them. Proposals and documents can be available on line. Experts from all over can be brought together in a videoconference.

Fundamental Selling is Key to Success

But what ever way technology disrupts the way we traditionally have interacted with prospects and customers, a tried and true sales process based on fundamental selling performed well over and over is what will grow a sales territory, a business or an industry.

To learn more about the fundamental selling process see Chapter Eight, The Six Step Sales Process, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club!

“See” you next week.

Good Selling!
Don Crawford

 

So you think practicing your sales skills is a waste of time? Interesting, since most star sales people practice all the time. Like people in other walks of life, champion sales people consider practice essential.

Practice Makes Successful Sales People

As soon as the first game of his comeback had ended, the basketball super star Michael Jordan said, “I need more practice.” Basketball’s greatest player, perhaps in history, and his first thought is about practice.

Once, after holing a 50-yard pitch shot, golfing star Jack Nicklaus said, tongue in cheek, “It’s interesting…the more I practice, the luckier I get!”

It’s amazing! The world’s greatest athletes seem preoccupied with practice.

Top Performing Sales People Practice All the Time

Star sales people practice their craft just like professional athletes do. They do not leave anything to chance. They rehearse, they study, they read, they role-play…they practice. Continue to practice your craft so that when you go out in the field you are ready to play your best!

Think about these questions:

• What do you do to prepare for your meetings with prospects?
• How much research did you do before you went to see your last prospect?
• Have you found that you are more successful in your bid for new business if you role-play the meeting with a team member before you meet with a prospect?
• What was the last book you read to improve your sales ability?

Each chapter in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling ends with exercises to boost your sales performance. Star performing sales people practice all the time. Do the hard work to make selling look easy. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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The art of sales prospecting is a “state of mind.” The best prospectors are always looking for new opportunities. Always have your antenna up. Prospects are everywhere!

Prospecting – The Art Of Finding New Business

Our oldest daughter is a Disney Vacation Planner and a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant. It’s a joy to be out and about with her. She picks the longest line at the grocery store check out so she can chat with others as she waits. I’m amazed when she walks away from the store with a new prospect or two!

How about you:

• When you go out for an appointment, walk into the office on either side of your destination.
• If you’re on the golf course and don’t want to appear pushy, just say, “Joe, I have an idea I want to bounce off you. Now is not the time or place, but I’ll call you next week to discuss it.”
• When speaking to a civic or professional organization, ask for a “Yes” or a “No” at the end. Tell the audience, “A ‘Yes’ means that you would like to schedule an appointment to discuss how I might be able to help you.”
• Tell your new client that if they are pleased with the service you provide, you are going to ask for three or four referrals.

Sales prospecting is a never-ending part of your daily routine, not a hit-or-miss thing. Keep doing it.

Start now:

• Make a list of current and past clients to ask for referrals.
• Ask about others within the same company who might need your product or service. Maybe another branch office is in need of your product or service.
• Review your social and civic organizations’ member lists and find two people you would like to get to know better or to learn more about their business. Then call them and invite them to lunch.
• Join a resource and referral network.

To learn more secrets about sales prospecting read the first part of Chapter Eight, The Six-Step Sales Process, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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Most buying decisions are made emotionally and one of the strongest emotions known to man is pain. People will go to great lengths to alleviate or avoid pain, including paying top dollar.

Successful professional salespeople master the art of getting the prospect to open up and reveal not only needs, but real pain.

Finding the Pain

Neil Rackman’s SPIN selling technique can help you get your prospect’s pain on the table early in the interview. SPIN stands for:

• Situation
• Problem
• Implications
• Needs

SPIN Selling

When using SPIN selling:

1. Ask only enough Situation questions to know what’s going on. Have the prospect describe the situation as it exists and use words to paint you a picture.
2. Get the prospect to define the Problem and identify dissatisfactions that lead to pain.
3. Determine the Implications of the problem. How does the problem affect the prospect?
4. When the problem is solved, what is the Needs payoff, that is, what is the desired outcome?

Listen carefully. Make sure you get all the pain out on the table so you can craft a solution using your products or services.

Getting Results

The key to the sales interview is the salesperson’s ability to ask the disturbing questions in a natural, non-threatening manner. When you finish the sales meeting, you should know:

• How long has the prospect had this pain?
• What happened the last time the prospect tried to solve/cure it?
• What is it costing the prospect to have this pain?
• How much is the prospect willing to budget to get rid of the pain?

Remember, no pain…no change!

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Ten, Finding the Pain, in Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales help, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you next week.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

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