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Secrets Of The Softer Side Of Selling Takes A Vacation

07/03/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

We all need time off to relax and reflect. So this blog is on vacation until August 13, 2021. But that doesn’t mean you have to stop benefitting from improving your selling skills. Here we focus on the fundamentals of good professional selling.

Secrets Of The Softer Sid e Of Selling Will Be Back Soon
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

There are about 150 posts in the blog to choose from.

Here is a sample:

So great salesperson, make the investment in yourself. Add one new skill a week to your sales “toolbox” and watch your sales success increase!

To learn more sales secrets read Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. “See” you after a break.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

Sales Skill: Understanding Buyer Stress

06/28/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

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….

Sales Skill: Getting to “NO”!

06/14/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

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: Focus on Behavior

05/31/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

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

Sales Skill: Preparation, Practice and Performance

05/17/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Hey there great salesperson, I know you are successful because you understand and use the 3-P approach to every sales call: Preparation, Practice and Performance. The 3-P approach gives salespeople the edge over the competition and leads to the sale. Whether it’s a one-call-close or a long sales cycle, use the 3-P’s at each customer contact.

Great salespeople do the 3-P's: Prepare, Practice, Perform

Use The 3-P’s To Be Awesome!
Image from Pixabay

Preparation

Closing the sale begins at the beginning. And that’s doing the research about the industry, the company and the person you will be meeting. Decision makers want to know you have done the research. What problems would their company have which you have solved for others? How does the prospect make buying decisions? Who is the decision maker and what drives them? These are some of the basic questions to be answered in doing research before the sales meeting….

Sales Skill: Achieving Goals

04/11/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

As great salespeople we are all achieving goals. How do we go about it? We focus on the most important task at the time. That important task is determined by the immediate goals we have for achieving the long-term goals. So we plan goal achieving activities. Next we perform them. Then we check to see whether we are achieving goals.

Great Salespeople Are Expert At Achieving Goals
Image from Pixabay

Achieving Goals Starts With A Vision

Pick a future time: 3 years, 5 years, 10 years. Where do you want to be personally and professionally then? This “vision” you have for the future is the basis for setting your goals. Great salespeople know goals must be realistic and measurable. You may want to double your sales in 3 years. If so you can measure current sales volume against previous to see the growth. If the market size is adequate for achieving your goal then it is realistic. As long as you know how to do it….

Sales Skill: Cold Calling

04/05/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Well great salespeople I’ve been doing cold calling lately. Since the pandemic hit I’ve been working with our local Small Business Development Center. When a new program to help small manufacturing businesses was offered, I agreed to recruit companies for the initial cohort. So here I am again doing sales calls to create interest in the Innovation Commercialization Assistance Program for Existing Enterprises. I’m a sales professional who relies on the fundamentals of good selling. I’ll tell you how I prepared for this new challenge.

Be Happy! Make Cold Calls!
Image From Pixabay

What Is Cold Calling?

Great salespeople have lists of prospects matching their current best customers. They have done some research about the person they are about to call. There is a purpose to the cold call. Then they dial the phone. For the salesperson it’s part of their days work. For the person you are calling, it’s intrusive. I know the person who answers the phone is not sitting around idly waiting for my call. No when they pick up the phone and realize it’s a “cold call” they usually feel ambushed. That person on the other end of the phone wants to escape from this call as politely as possible. And you great salesperson, want to achieve your purpose for calling….

Sales Skill: Laser Focus on Selling Activities

03/29/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople know they have to maximize the time spent on selling activities. The salesperson’s primary job is to close sales. Any activity that interferes with selling needs to be either minimized or eliminated. Great salespeople are laser focused on prospecting, qualifying, closing and following up.

great salespeople focus on selling activities

Always Focus On Selling Activities
Image from Pixabay

Discipline Is The Key

First set goals for selling activities time and other stuff time. My goal was to devote 60% of my week to activities which resulted in sales. I measured the time I spent in meetings with prospects, other contacts with prospects (email, phone, text, etc.) and travel time to prospects offices. At the end of each week I evaluated my selling time. When it was less than 60% I refocused my selling activities for the next week. Great salespeople are passionate about focusing on selling activities….

Sales Skill: Choose The Right Word

03/14/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople always choose the right word. The words we use when speaking with prospects and customers determine the outcome of the sales pursuit. It’s not only the meaning of the words we use but the emotional effect on the buyer. Think about and carefully choose the words you use to improve sales.

Sales people choose the right word to win a sale.

Great Sales People Choose The Right Word
Image from Pixabay

Proposal vs. Quote

Are you after a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship? Sounds a lot like marriage. Do we “quote” to the one we love or “propose?” A quote is just a document with a list of items and prices. A proposal includes all the information a great salesperson has learned about the buyer and their situation. It is a summary of the conversations between the salesperson and buyer. A proposal demonstrates the salesperson’s interest in the buyer. A “quote” says: “here are my prices.”…

Sales Skill: Buyer Listening Style

03/07/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Your buyer has a preferred listening style. And you do too. Great salespeople know how to determine the buyer listening style. Then they use that style to make it easy for the buyer to understand the message. In a previous post, Fundamental Communication Styles, the four basic styles in which people communicate. In this post I focus on how best to present information so the buyer understands it.

Everybody has a preferred listening style

Know The Buyer Listening Style
Image From Pixabay

The Buyer Listening Style

Many studies have shown each of us has a preferred listening (or learning) style. Some of us prefer listening and speaking. We are known as auditory learners. When we learn from illustrations, graphs, written words, we are visual listeners. We learn best by seeing the information. Sometimes we learn best by actually touching or experiencing the information. Then we are kinesthetic or tactile learners. Kinesthetics learn best by doing. Great salespeople know when they present to buyers in the way they learn best they are more likely to favor us….

Salestools

Refresh yourself on selling process:

Need to work on communication techniques?

Is it time to review your goals?

Maybe better time management?

Be Customer Focused

Qualifying: Looking For The “No”

Confirming

Looking For “No” In The Closing Presentation

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

Your Attitude Doesn’t Have to be Sparkly

Surprise Yourself

Focus On Behavior

What You Can Do Right Now To Focus On Behavior

Preparation

Achieving Goals Starts With A Vision

What Is Cold Calling?

Discipline Is The Key

Proposal vs. Quote

The Buyer Listening Style

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