Softer Side of Selling

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Sales Skills: Growing Your Sales

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Great salespeople are always looking for ways to increase their customer base. Right now during this pandemic, you might be scrambling to deal with the effect on your current customers. And think you are too busy fighting fires to look for new customers. But then why would this time be any different? More intense maybe but great salespeople are always looking to find new customers. So slow down, take a breath and think about ways to grow your sales.

Look at the four ways to increase your sales

Grow Your Sales In These Four Areas

Where Do New Customers Come From?

Check out the graphic on this post. Growing your sales can only come from four sources. 1. Selling more of an existing product to an existing customer. This might be a challenge during this time of economic uncertainty when your customer might be struggling when demand for their product is falling. Or maybe one of your competitors is faltering in serving their customers and you can move in. …

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Focus On The Buyer’s Problem Or Need

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So there you are great salesperson. You have a collection of products and services to sell. All presented in living color on a well-designed website and in a beautiful printed catalog. Off you go to meet with the buyer proud of what you have to offer. But more importantly armed with the tools to understand the buyer’s problem or need.

When seller's ask about buyer's needs or problems and listen well, they are prepared to win the order

Great Salespeople Focus On The Buyer’s Problem Or Need
Image from Pixabay

Buyers Don’t Care What You Are Selling

Don’t believe this statement? Think about your own experience. Here’s one from my past. I needed a new lawn mower. I went to the local dealer and was met with the most enthusiastic salesperson. He wanted me to try the new 48” mower with power drive. I had a small yard I could cut in 20 minutes with a small electric mower. So since the salesperson didn’t take the time to understand my problem or need, I moved on to the next dealer….

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Sales Skills: All Buying Decisions Are Emotional

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“Yeah, right!” You’re thinking this is a bunch of hooey: “all buying decisions are emotional.” “My customers give a lot of thought about what they buy from me.” Or “It’s how I present the opportunity to prospects that convinces them to buy.” Or “When the price and benefits align, that’s when the customer buys.” These are all true statements. But think back to the beginning of a successful sales event. Didn’t you first have to earn the respect of the prospect. Wasn’t your first encounter all about building rapport; getting them to like you enough to be comfortable answering your tough questions? Great salespeople know prospects don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

*A NOTE ABOUT SELLING DURING A PANDEMIC

All Buying Decisions Are Emotional

Even Remotely Great Salespeople Connect Emotionally
Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

All Buying Decisions Are Emotional

Yes, that’s true. It took a while for my “engineering mind” to understand it. But think about it. For consumer products marketing works hard to make an emotional attachment to a brand. I like Coca Cola. The real one made with sugar and sold in glass bottles. Now my ability to taste is not particularly well developed so I couldn’t discriminate between Coke or Pepsi in a blind taste test. In fact all colas taste pretty much the same to me. But I only buy Coca Cola made with sugar in glass bottles. This is emotional attachment to the brand is it not? Ever bought a home or a car? Didn’t how you felt about the vehicle or house tip the decision? True after you made the selection, then the rational mind cataloged all the reasons it was a good decision. Still wondering whether all buying decisions are emotional?…

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Sales Skills: Agile and Adaptive

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Wow, what a challenge for great agile and adaptive salespeople today! Here we are in most places still working from home. Some regions are slowly opening businesses for customers. But health and safety of employees and customers is paramount. Other businesses are on the brink of collapse. Yet many businesses survive and some even thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know the challenge of disruption is not new. Great salespeople have always been agile and adaptive whether the change was gradual over time or catastrophic.

Great Salespeople are expert at dealing with disruption in sales

Rise To The Challenge Of Dealing With Disruption In Sales
Image by Vektor Kunst from Pixabay

What Makes A Salesperson Agile?

Great salespeople are always on the lookout for new opportunities. The fundamental skill making salespeople agile is asking good questions to understand customers and prospects. Agile salespeople are interested in the hopes and dreams of their customers. They use open ended questions to determine the wants and needs of their customers. Having good information about the customer or prospect, the agile salesperson learns how to be responsive to their needs. And finding out there is no problem they can solve is just as important. Then agile salespeople move on to another more promising opportunity….

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Sales Skills: Prospecting For New Business

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For the next several months my blog will focus on the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge that makes a great salesperson. I believe that these are fundamental qualities of a great salesperson. Prospecting for new business is important to success in selling. Great salespeople know there are several skills involved in prospecting: getting the attention of the prospect, checking the level of interest or need and setting the first meeting.

Great Salespeople are always asking what's next and then prospecting to find it

Prospecting For New Business Answers The Question Of What’s Next
Image From Pixabay

When Are Salespeople Prospecting for New Business?

The short answer is: “all the time.” The best source of new business is by getting referrals from your best customers. A referral can be to a colleague in a different business or within the customer’s own company. Great salespeople keep their antennae up for potential opportunities. When casual conversation at a social event strikes an interest, the great salesperson says something like: “I’m interested in knowing more about this. But now is not the time. Might I call you to schedule a time to meet?” Read something interesting in a trade magazine, on-line, or in the paper? Make the call to see who the best person is to talk with about the opportunity. Great salespeople keep the prospecting pipeline filled….

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Sales Skills: How You Ask Good Questions

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For the next several months my blog will focus on the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge that makes a great salesperson. I believe that these are fundamental qualities of a great salesperson. Asking good questions and actively listen to the answers is the key to controlling every sales situation. Great salespeople are aware how they ask good questions is as important as the questions themselves.

How salespeople ask good questions is as important as the question itself

How You Ask The Question Is Important
Image from Pixabay

Selling Is Not An Inquisition

Remember you are not there to interrogate the prospect. The goal is to develop a mutually beneficial long-term relationship. How you ask good questions determines the quality of the answer. When you act like the “bad cop” interrogating a suspect you may get the information you seek. But you are not likely to get an order or a long-term relationship….

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Sales Skills: Asking Good Questions

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For the next several months my blog will focus on the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge that makes a great salesperson. I believe that these are fundamental qualities of a great salesperson. Asking good questions and actively listen to the answers is the key to controlling every sales situation. Great salespeople are very good communicators. They use this skill to connect with prospects and customers, gain their respect and understand opportunities to win business.

Great salespeople ask good questions and listen more than speak.

Great Salespeople Encourage Prospects To Speak
Image From Pixabay

Asking Good Questions Is Fundamental

Great salespeople ask good questions throughout the sales process. During the prospecting phase asking good questions eliminates those prospects who are not good candidates. In the rapport phase salespeople ask questions to build a relationship with the buyer. Asking good questions finds out the urgent problems and the implication of those problems. By continuing to ask good questions the salesperson confirms what they have learned during the sales process. Listening to the answers will tell the great salesperson what next question to ask on the way to closing the deal.

Listening Is The Key to Sales Success

I have often heard it said: “God gave you two ears and one mouth. Listen twice as much as you speak.” Great salespeople are very good at active listening. They ask open-ended questions designed to keep the prospect talking. These questions keep the prospect talking and the salesperson listening. Open-ended questions typically begin with “what,” “when,” “where,” “how,” “what if” and sometimes “why.” The skillful salesperson crafts open-ended questions to keep the prospect talking on topic:

  • What would cause you to change your fire extinguisher service company?
  • When you achieve 85% productivity, what would that look like for your division?
  • Where is there a problem in your delivery system?
  • What if there was a way to reduce inventory costs?
  • Why do you think your advertising isn’t effective?
  • How would you evaluate a sales trainer for your team?
  • Great salespeople have lists of open-ended questions to use at each step in the sales process.

Reversing Questions Keep Control Of The Conversation

Crafty buyers will often respond by asking questions themselves. What’s a salesperson to do? If it is appropriate to answer the question at this time do it. But if you are still digging for more information you need to get control of the conversation again. Great salespeople are skilled at using the “reversing” technique. This is simply answering a question with a question. It is something we do naturally every day. A colleague asks: “How are you today?” You respond: “Fine. How are you?” See how easy this is to get the other person back into the speaking mode. Maybe a buyer asks: “Are you able to deliver on Tuesday?” To reverse a seller might say: “Why is it important to have Tuesday delivery?” Of course having been in active listening mode a great salesperson might be ready to close asking: “If we deliver on Tuesday, would you place the order with me?”

Closed-Ended Questions Offer Clarity

Closed-ended questions (like one immediately above) are a tool great salespeople use to confirm they heard what the prospect said. Suppose you are confirming a meeting. You might ask: “Is Tuesday at 10 am still a good time to meet?” A simple “yes” from the prospect is all you really need. Active listening involves getting answers and giving feedback on what you heard. Great salespeople summarize a conversation then ask closed-ended questions like: “Is that correct?” or “Are we in agreement?” Notice, closed-ended questions typically begin with a verb.

Questions Nurture Customer Relationships

The goal of every sales pursuit is to develop a mutually beneficial long-term relationship between you and the buyer. Asking good questions nurtures the relationship. My mentor Jim Wilson puts it this way:

“Don’t be afraid to ask your customers how you are doing. You may find out some very valuable information—like why they keep using your services or products, or that they are unhappy with something that you need to fix ASAP. Here are a few questions to ask good customers:

  • How did your company originally select us as a supplier? (This reinforces their decision.)
  • What do you like best about dealing with us? (What to keep doing.)
  • If you could change anything to improve our relationship, what would it be? (Fix the problems immediately!)
  • How can our company increase marketshare? (Good customers are eager to help and like to be asked for advice.)
  • How does our company stack up against the competition? (You need to know this.)
  • What other products or services should we provide? (Create a pre-sold condition.)
  • If you were the CEO of our company, how would you go about holding on to good customers like yourself? (They’ll tell you.)”

Great salespeople know open-ended questions are the workhorses of active listening.

Asking Good Questions Keeps The Sales Conversation Moving

Your goal is to get the order. At some point in a presentation you will ask for feedback. When the customer gives a “soft” answer be prepared to ask for an explanation. When you hear non-committal words like, “perhaps”, “sounds good so far”, “we’re leaning toward using you”, etc., it is imperative to ask good follow-up questions. Great salespeople ask the buyer what they mean by the comment. Listen for what is needed to convince them to buy.

What You Can Do Right Now To Be Asking Good Questions

  • Commit to listening more that talking
  • For each sales conversation prepare a list of open-ended questions
  • Practice “Reversing” to keep the buyer talking
  • Listen for key words in the buyer’s answers to setup your next question

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Nine, Building Rapport, 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 Skills: Goal Achieving

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For the next several months my blog will focus on the attitudes, behaviors and knowledge that makes a great salesperson. I believe that these are fundamental qualities of a great salesperson. Here is a lyric from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific”:

“You gotta have a dream
If you don’t have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?”

These few lines explain why great salespeople know goal setting and goal achieving is fundamental to success. I have a simple plan. If you use it I can guarantee you will achieve your dream:

  1. Decide what you want to achieve Set your goal(s).
  2. Determine what it will take to reach that goal. Make a plan.
  3. Dedicate yourself to achieving the goal without distraction. Do the hard work.

Let’s look at each step.

Great salespeople set and achieve realistic goals

Great Salespeople Set And Achieve Realistic Goals Image From Pixabay

 

Goal Setting

Selling is a numbers game. Great salespeople know the way to achieve the ultimate goal is to set and achieve activity-based goals. They have written goals and intermediate objectives. Activity-based goals are targets set on goal achieving actions the salesperson has control over. Great salespeople track their performance. They know which activities pay off and how many times they need to do them to be successful.

For example: Working backwards from the number of orders desired per month to meet the bookings goal, use the closing ratio to determine the number of prospects to pitch. When the closing ratio is 50% and the number of orders per month is 20 then the great salesperson knows to have 40 prospects in the que at all times. By tracking their activities, they know they need 3 prospect meetings to find a qualified prospect; then they have to average 120 prospect meetings a month. Again tracking the effort it takes to get a prospect meeting, the great salesperson knows they need to dial the phone 10 times to schedule a prospect meeting. So the activity objective which sets up success at all other intermediate goals is consistently dialing the phone 120 times per month.

Make A Plan

General Eisenhower said when asked about the value of battle plan: “In planning for battle I have found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Great salespeople value the planning knowing that once the sales pursuit starts they must be nimble enough to react to the customer’s feedback. In making the plan for aggressive and consistent activity, only focus on those activities you have control over. Here are some the activities which great salespeople do consistently:

  • Prospect every day
  • Plan each sales conversation
  • Ask good questions
  • Qualify relentlessly
  • Ask for referrals
  • Give referrals
  • Follow a proven selling process
  • Follow up
  • Show gratitude
  • Learn and practice new skills

Not only do you need a long-term plan for career success but there are activity plans for each day and each sales conversation. While planning is important it should be simple and an effective use of time. Invest the time at the end of each day to review activities and achievements. Plan the next days activities. Each morning begin with optimistic expectation and diligently perform each activity.

Goal Achieving

The third step is the most difficult in reaching your goal. To focus on doing the goal achieving activities to the exclusion of all else. My mentor, Jim Wilson puts it this way: When you’re working, stay focused!

  • Idle conversation with coworkers doesn’t pay the bills.
  • Casual Friday doesn’t mean “relax your sales commitment.”
  • The day before a holiday can be a great time to generate leads and close business.
  • Prospects are everywhere! Let people know what you do.
  • Don’t spend too much time with nonqualified prospects. Close the file and move on.
  • Increase your activity level during focused selling time.

When I sold for a small manufacturing business my primary goal was to close enough deals so everyone got a paycheck. During one annual review my boss told me many of the employees didn’t think I was very friendly. So I set a goal of spending an hour or two in engineering and manufacturing each week just chatting with the folk there. Initially I thought this was an invasion of selling time but I soon found out there was valuable insight to be gained from these conversations which improved my sales performance.

Sales Time Management

There are only so many hours each week when customers and prospects are available. During that time great salespeople are committed to goal achieving activities. Non-selling activities are saved for when customers are not available. As an outside salesman I tracked my “selling time” each week. I measured the time spent face-to-face with customers and prospects, the time spent in other communication with them like phone calls and emails and travel time to meet with customers and prospects. My goal was for these goal achieving activities to be at least 60% of the work week. I saved planning, reviewing, report writing and communication with my colleagues for non-selling time. Great salespeople monitor how they spend their goal achieving time.

Make Timely Decisions

Great salespeople are decisive. They gather what facts they need to make a decision then move on it. Soon they know whether it was a good or poor decision then make corrections. The reason salespeople fail to achieve goals is they are timid deciders. When you make good decisions your customers will too. It’s all part of being dedicated to success without being distracted.

What You Can Do Right Now About Goal Setting And Achieving

  • Set your long-term goal. The one that defines for you whether you are a success.
  • Plan the daily activities which will lead to the success of the long-term goal.
  • Use your “selling time” wisely.
  • Be decisive. Make the plan, do the activity, evaluate the result and do it over and over again every day.

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Eighteen, Setting Your Goals, 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

 

Selling And Volunteer Fundraising: Answering Objections

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I’m blogging about the similarities between professional selling and volunteer fundraising. Professional selling and volunteer fundraising have similar processes. Previous blog posts on volunteer fundraising and selling covered the importance of getting a meeting, preparing for the meeting, how to handle the first meeting and asking for the donation. Just as when a professional salesperson asks for the order, fundraisers are likely to hear questions from the donor. Successful fundraisers are expert at answering objections.

Both Selling And Fundraising Are About Getting People To Part With Their Money

Salespeople and Fundraisers Are Skilled At Asking People For Money

What Is An Objection?

In fundraising, like in selling, objections are reasons the customer or donor is not yet ready to commit. Objections are valuable because once they are cleared the donor is closer to giving the asked for gift. Successful fundraisers like great salespeople know valid objections are the way donors or customers mask their concerns. So welcome objections as one more step to achieving the goal….

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Selling And Volunteer Fundraising: Asking For The Donation

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I’m looking at the similarities between professional selling and volunteer fundraising. Professional selling and volunteer fundraising have similar processes. In both cases getting a meeting is the most important step. During the first meeting the successful fundraiser finds out the passion the donor would have for the program and puts the donor at ease by not asking for the donation. The follow up meeting is where the fundraiser presents the project and asks for the donation.

Both Selling And Fundraising Are About Getting People To Part With Their Money

Salespeople and Fundraisers Are Skilled At Asking People For Money

The Setup

At the first meeting the successful fundraiser learned about the donor. Their interest in the program, the passion they have for supporting it and since you are having the second meeting their willingness to donate. Yes, money is important. That’s the purpose of fundraising. But to be successful the fundraiser needs to follow the process. By confirming the donor’s need-fulfillment, the successful fundraiser can with confidence ask for the donation….

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