Selling

Sales Skill: The Telephone

01/21/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople know the telephone is a time-tested tool for virtual selling. Even before the COVID pandemic changed the way “road warriors” had to sell, the telephone was the primary tool for salespeople. So now rather than the black phone with pushbutton dialing of years gone by you now have a mobile device. As powerful as these small digital devices are the telephone feature is still a practical sales tool.

Great Salespeople Master The Telephone Skill

The Telephone Is The Oldest Virtual Meeting Tool

Sure there are many ways to virtually contact prospects: direct mail, email, video chats to name a few. But for the great salesperson, the telephone is still the most powerful. And simple to use. Telephone conversations are real time dialogs. You can hear the nuances in the voice. And react to your prospects comments immediately. The phone is a salesperson’s most valuable tool because phone conversations move the qualification and sales process along quickly. You can create interest and desire real time using a phone. Often a successful phone conversation is the beginning of a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship….

Sales Skills: Your Selling Tools Inventory

01/07/2021 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Well, it’s here. 2021 has begun. Are you ready? One way to check is to look at your selling tools inventory. Every one of us great salespeople have a particular skill set we use in each sales pursuit. So take a few minutes to think back over the successes in selling during the past year. What did you do well? What skills need improvement? And most importantly what skills don’t you have?

Great Salespeople Take A Sales Skill Inventory
Image by Claire Dela Cruz from Pixabay

The Successful Selling Process

Great salespeople have a sales process which is proven and repeatable. Here’s mine: first I need to get prospects to like me enough to answer my questions. I call that building “rapport”. Next I want to find out whether they have a significant problem I can solve. That’s the “pain” step. Now I want to know if they have the “budget” to solve the problem. Throughout all of the sales pursuit I want to be dealing with the “decision maker.” When I’m sure I’m dealing with the decision maker and have determined they have a problem they want to solve and can commit funds to do it, I “ask for the order”!…

Time To Celebrate And Share Your Gifts

12/17/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Today, December 17, is the day each year I celebrate and share the happiness of another birthday with family and friends. This and every other day I remember the gifts of knowledge and experience from my long career in sales. Each week I look back on the triumphs and challenges of that career. I choose one bit of knowledge or experience to share with you.

The Best Gifts Are The Ones You Give Because They Are Golden

The Best Gifts Are The Ones You Give
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Why I Blog

I had a very rewarding 45-year career in sales. While I don’t own an island or even a beach house, I earned more than enough to raise a family and now have a comfortable retirement. The most valuable asset from 45 years of professional selling is the wisdom I gained.

During my career in sales I always sold technically complex products business to business. I know each sales opportunity is unique and each great salesperson has a particular style. But the fundamentals of good professional selling are applied every time we win an order. So in my blog I focus on the fundamental activities, behaviors and knowledge of great salesmanship….

Sales Skill: Learning From Past Lessons

12/10/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

To say 2020 was a different year is an understatement. But great salespeople have always used past lessons to prepare for the future. This past year presented many new lessons. We learned to work in an environment with a pandemic virus. We learned to help customers pivot because of the pandemic. And we found new opportunities. Great salespeople use past lessons finding a way to overcome adversity.

Great salespeople learn from past lessons.

What Are The Lessons You Learned This Year?
Image from Pixabay

The Big Lesson

For most of us life changed in March 2020. Some states shut down “non-essential” businesses. Companies sent employees home to work. Consumer income dropped dramatically. Business purchasing models changed. Sales processes were revamped to meet the changing environment.

We learned to work from home. Instead of meeting in a business setting we watched each other in small squares on laptop screens. We adapted and survived or maybe even thrived during this time. Because not every business was affected the same. Some pivoted to making facial coverings, some distilleries made hand sanitizer, hospitals preserved space for the sickest COVID infected patients. We great salespeople were creative in our approach to business in this disruptive period relying on the experience of past lessons….

Understand The Buying Ecosystem

10/30/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople know understanding the buying ecosystem of their customers is key to closing deals. They use their asking and listening skills to find out all the players on the prospect’s team and how their roles affect the buying decision. Then they craft the sales presentation to appeal to the problem in terms of how it affects each member of the buying ecosystem.

Understanding the buyer ecosystem is paramount to winning the order

Who Is In Your Buying Ecosystem?
Image from Pixabay

What Is The Buying Ecosystem?

The term comes from biology: an ecosystem is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in a specific environment. Great salespeople know there are various interests in the solution to any problem. Each of those interests has a role in deciding whether to purchase your solution. So the buying ecosystem is composed of all those people who participate in deciding what to buy. In large corporate purchases the buying ecosystem has members from many departments. In family decision making the ecosystem is smaller but no less important….

Sales Skill: Finding The Budget

10/22/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople know finding the budget is a key piece to winning the order. Price is the monetary value we place on the product or service we sell. It is important to know what our customer is willing to pay for the solution to the problem they are trying to solve. Once you, great salesperson, understand the problem the customer has then get on about finding the budget.

Finding the budget is a key to sales success

Great Salespeople Have The Courage To Find The Budget
Image From Pixabay

Talking About Money

How do you feel about money? Great salespeople are well within their comfort zone discussing the budget with the customer. They understand the value of their solution to the customer’s problem. And they have the skill to lead the discussion. My mentor, Jim Wilson, would say to a prospect: “At some point we are going to need to talk about money. Why not do it now?” A more sophisticated approach is the one Neil Rackham describes as SPIN Selling. We all know it is better to understand the customer’s budget early in the sales process….

Sales Skill: Dream Big Then Plan To Be Successful

10/15/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople have a vision of their future. Call it a dream if you want. And they know how to make dreams come true. It’s not enough to dream. You must plan to realize your dreams. Muhammad Ali one of the greatest boxers of all time and a pretty good philosopher too put it this way: “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

Great salespeople not only dream big but they diligently plan to achieve those dreams.

Dream Big – Plan To Succeed
Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

The Best Salespeople Plan

What Muhammad Ali meant is you must plan and do all the preparatory work before the first contact with a prospect to be successful. Preparing is the key to winning. Great salespeople plan the month, the week, the day and each sales call. In each salesperson’s sales funnel there are prospects at various stages of the buying process. Near the top are those who have just begun thinking about a purchase and at the bottom are the few who are now ready to buy. Great salespeople plan to be successful all along the sales funnel….

Sales Skill: The Scientific Method In Sales

10/08/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Remember when you were in science class discussing scientific method? Did you ever think how it applies to sales? Consider what great salespeople do. They wonder whether or not a prospect will buy their product or service. Then set about finding the answer. So this is much like the scientist making an observation wondering about what they observed and setting about confirming the observation.

Great salespeople use the scientific method to win the sale

Salespeople Are Like Scientists Looking For Answers
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

What Is Scientific Method?

For some readers it may have been a while since you were in school. Remember scientific method is a process to explore observations and answer questions. Like most processes it has multiple steps. Begin with posing a question. Do a bit of research. Form a hypothesis. Test it. Evaluate the results. Was the hypothesis validated? If not revise the hypothesis and retest. During the process the scientist looks for bias in the assumptions and testing. Scientists are rigorous in testing the hypothesis. At the end of the test they draw a conclusion….

Selling Skills: Your Personal Brand

10/01/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

Great salespeople know they have a personal brand separate from the products and services they sell. They understand their brand is the basis for developing and growing relationships with their clients. Whether or not you intentionally create your brand you are one in the eyes of your customers. So as long as you will be branded, create one yourself.

Great Salespeople Have A Recognized Personal Brand
Image by John Hain from Pixabay

What Is A Personal Brand?

When you see a red soda can with white lettering most likely you will identify it as a product of a particular company. And you will assign certain attributes to the product. Seeing a three-point star in a circle on the front of an automobile you form an opinion about the vehicle and maybe the driver. Similarly others you meet see certain characteristics in you. Physical appearance, cadence and resonance of your voice, attitude, emotional strength, knowledge and other recognizable traits taken together create your personal brand….

Nobody Buys What You Are Selling!

09/10/2020 By Don Crawford Leave a Comment

You are probably thinking: “Crawford, you have really lost it now. This quarantine is getting to you. Of course they are buying what I’m selling. I got the sales to prove it.” Really? It’s true nobody buys what you are selling. Your customers buy because they are convinced your product or service will solve a problem they have. Great salespeople know that to make a sale they first have to identify the problem the prospect has. And they make the sale because they can put the buyer’s mind at ease by solving the problem. The product or service is a means to an end for the buyer, not the end itself.

Nobody buys a product or service. They make a purchase to solve a problem

Find A Problem – Make A Sale

First Find The Pain

All great salespeople have a selling system. The one I use challenges me to find the pain early. Yes, pain. All purchases are made emotionally even though it may feel like a rational approach to the buyer. Salespeople must discover the buyer’s problem and the impact of the problem. Once they understand the buyer’s need for change, great salespeople offer a solution to the problem. Depending on the severity of the problem price may be the least of the buyer’s concerns….