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As a sales manger I used to hear: “Bill sure is lucky. He always seems to land the big ones!” Maybe luck played a part but when you look closely you will see Bill’s “luck” happened where his preparedness met a selling opportunity. Bill understands professional selling is all about applying sales skills.

Professional Selling Is Like Fishing
Image by Dmitry Abramov from Pixabay

Salespeople Have A Basic Sales Skill Set

Great salespeople have practiced selling skills until they are expert at them. They know that successful selling is following a procedure from prospecting to closing. Applying sales skills to build rapport, find an urgent need, learn the budget, understand how buying decisions are made and offering a compelling solution is what great salespeople do every day.

Attitude Is An Applied Skill

Take a look around at the great salespeople you know. I’ll bet they all have a positive attitude. They believe they are winners and act the part. Great salespeople are determined. You see them persistently apply their sales skills to win business. Most of all great salespeople enjoy their work and are happy. High integrity is a trait winners have. They always do their best when applying sales skills. And when great salespeople lose a sale, they don’t take it personally. They use the experience to improve their skills.

Activities Create Winners

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. The fisherman in the picture with this post baited his hook, cast into the water, trolled the bait, hooked the fish, reeled it in lifted the fish into the boat with his net. Then did it all over again. Sales people prospect, qualify, close, follow up, ask for referrals and do it multiple times a day. Not feeling lucky? Take a look at how you apply your sales skills.

Always Be Learning

Great salespeople are always studying their craft and applying new sales skills. They add to their “tool box” of selling skills regularly. Mentors help even the most experienced salespeople perfect their skills and sometimes coach them out of a slump. Great salespeople study their customers’ industries, keep current on the products and services they sell and follow the trends in the way customers buy. By practicing new sales skills they are better prepared to find ways to help their customers succeed which of course wins the work for their company.

And Sometimes It Is Luck

Every now and then I found myself at the right place at the right time. Once when I worked for a metal fabricator we had just gotten qualified to work on a new construction project for a pharmaceutical company. I happened to walk into the office of the project manager one day thinking I would introduce myself and begin building rapport. However he said: “I’m glad you are here. We will need to discuss a contract at some point soon but right now I have work that needs to be done. I’m going to issue a time-and-material purchase order so your craftsmen can start helping me out.”

Lucky? Maybe. Certainly the reaction was unexpected. But I had been following the project through the design and knew there was metal fabrication work needed. And I had used sales skills to get approval from the owner to work on the construction of the new plant.

What You Can Do Right Now

• Evaluate your sales skills. Which ones need a tune up?
• Take a look at your daily activities. Are you doing what needs to be done to be successful?
• Think about your attitude. Do you enjoy your work? Does it show?

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Six, Characteristics of Successful Salespeople, 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 & Lois Carter Crawford

There is an old saying where I come from: “Things aren’t like they used to be and they never were.” As Millennials and Gen Z enter the workforce, I’m seeing lots written about how companies need to change their culture to accommodate the “younger” generation. That may be true, but over many generations the sales process fundamentals of professional selling have changed little.

Generations Change But The Sales Process Fundamentals Stay The Same. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

There Are Always New Kids On The Block

Me. I was a new kid entering business in the 1970’s. Born of parents from the Greatest Generation at the beginning of the post WWII baby boom. My folks had lived through the depression and WWII. Tough times to hear them tell it. They had little and wanted more for their kids. So they spoiled us. We baby boomers were the “Me” generation coming of age in the 60’s protest era and the sexual revolution. As we aged and settled down we produced Gen X: cautious, skeptical and self-reliant. My kids are now bringing Gen Z into this world after giving us the Millennials. Each generation has different characteristics of how we relate to one another, what we think is important and our comfort with technology. As great professional salespeople, we need to know and appreciate the differences.

But How Are We The Same?

My interests in how I view the world and what interests me are very different from my grandchildren’s. (Yes, I’m that old!) But think about how we get what we want. First we decide what it is we need or want. Then we tell someone who can facilitate getting that for us. In my day it was asking, usually at the supper table, for the new bike or an increase in my allowance. Now, I get a text with a link to the web page of what my grandkids are hoping for. When the need is known someone decides where to buy it, what price to pay and how to get it delivered. So, ever since two people bargained over trading things of value the buying process has been fundamentally the same.

Fundamentals Are Fundamental

The laws of physics are laws; they don’t change. They govern the actions of a baseball from the time it leaves the pitcher’s hand until it arrives at home plate. The pitcher through practice learns how to use those laws of physics to make the ball curve or “dance” on its way to home plate. Likewise when the bat strikes the ball the laws of physics govern where the ball will land.

The fundamental purpose of a business is to make a profit. The only way to do that is to find, win and keep good customers. Customers who value your product or service and will pay a price making it profitable for you to service them. Professional sales people know the fundamentals to make good sales: build rapport, find the pain, determine the budget, understand the buying process, make a compelling presentation and follow up. These fundamentals worked for my grandfather, for my Dad, for me and for my kids who are great salespeople.

Communication Skills Change

How great salespeople apply the fundamentals change over time. My grandfather and father’s greatest sales tool was their car. They traveled their sales territory daily meeting face-to-face with customers. Occasionally they used the telephone to phone an order into the office. My kids rely on email, the Internet, and cell phones to contact prospects and to find, win and keep good customers. While communication styles change, great salespeople today still have effective communication skills (in a variety of means, perhaps). They still ask good questions, listen actively to the answers, confirm what they heard, ask for the order to close sales.

It’s Still A Mix Of Personalities Out There

In the world of face-to-face selling people still buy from who they like, respect and trust. The buyer world is populated with folks from all generations today. Some of us baby boomers are still active. Gen X, Millennials and maybe a few Gen Z are now mixed into the workforce. Sometimes in large complex buying situations multiple generations are on the buying team (and hopefully the selling team). Understanding the general likes, dislikes and attributes of each generation is helpful. And the professional face-to-face salesperson has the skill to determine the likes, dislikes and attributes of the individuals they sell to.

What You Can Do Right Now

• Think about your A list customers. Where do the decision makers fall on the generation spectrum?
• Remember the last series of successful sales meetings. How well did you communicate with the buyers?
• Read about the general characteristics of the generations. Are these hints on how to relate to buyers within your generation and across generations?
• Inventory your sales skills. How do these skills need to change to do business with the changing generation mix?

To learn more sales secrets see Chapter Seven, Understanding Buyer Behavior, 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 & Lois Carter Crawford

Scrabble is a board game where players make words from a selection of random letters. Each player builds a new word using a letter or letters off of one previously played. Every letter has a point value and certain spots on the board have point multipliers. A player’s score is figured by adding the total points of the new word to their running total. When all the letter tiles are played, the game ends with the first player to use all their letters. Lois and I enjoy a game several evenings a week.

Selling Is A Lot Like The Game Of Scrabble

Scrabble Starts With 7 Random Letters

At the beginning of a Scrabble game all the letter tiles are placed face down. Each player chooses 7 letter tiles at random to begin then as they use tiles they choose more to keep 7 letters to play with.

This is like prospecting. Great salespeople begin the sales process by choosing prospects fitting a particular profile. Usually only limited information is known about each prospect. As sales are made and deals are closed new prospects are added to the sales funnel. Great salespeople know how many prospects to have in the queue at all times….

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This was first posted in July 2019; in the summertime, when the living is easy. Where we are bombarded by distractions from selling. Maybe we are planning a vacation or just returned from one. Or the garden is full of fresh vegetables needing to be picked and processed. Kids are out of school and demand our attention. But, hey, great salespeople still have quotas to meet, sales to close and pipelines to fill.

Push The Summertime Distractions From Selling Aside
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Away With Distractions From Selling!

Great salespeople know how to deal with all that competes for their time. They are committed to their customers, their company and their family. By setting goals, organizing time and focusing on the task at hand, great salespeople work without distraction. Knowing that this time of year offers more distractions from selling, great salespeople make sure to plan both for goal achieving activities and family time. Creating an optimal work – life balance is important….

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Ever gotten to the end of your sales presentation and heard: “Well, I gotta run this by the boss?” Do you qualify the buyer by finding out who and how decisions are made? Are you comfortable asking to be introduced to the decision maker?

Great Salespeople Always Present To The Decision Maker
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Find The Decision Maker

My mentor Jim Wilson offers this advice:

Whether you are in a living room setting or selling to a Fortune 100 company, it is imperative that you understand the decision-making process completely before you make your presentation. Can you answer these questions?

• Who is involved in the decision-making process?
• Exactly what is the process?
• What is the time frame?
• Once they hear your presentation, are they committed to either a “Yes” or a “No”?

…

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Slumps happen. The baseball slugger can’t even hit the pitch in the center of the strike zone. Fish are jumping and being hooked by everyone but you. The rest of the sales team is hitting quota. But there you are wondering what’s going wrong. You are in a sales slump.

What To Do To Get Out Of A Sales Slump?
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Take An Inventory Of Your Activities

Great salespeople know that successful selling is performing a specific set of activities well over and over again:

• Prospecting
• Qualifying
• Presenting
• Closing
• Following up

Measure the sales activity level for each of these. Compare the sales slump activity level against your peak performance. Great salespeople are excellent self-managers. They continually evaluate their performance and make improvements to overcome weaknesses….

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Ever hear these buyer resistance comments? “We are doing just fine.” “Our current vendor is performing well.” “Now is not the time to make a change.” Or a hundred other put offs the buyer uses.

Ever Been “Stonewalled” By A Buyer Resistant To Change?
Image from Pixabay

The Need To Break Through Buyer Resistance Thinking

Thomas Williams and Thomas Saine (Tom&Tom for short) in their book “The Seller’s Challenge” recommend using Insight-Driven conversations. These conversations open the recalcitrant buyer’s mind to the potential of change. Great salespeople use facts and historical successes presented as an alternative way of looking at the current situation. These insight-driven conversations gently open the way for the great salesperson to overcome buyer resistance.

An Example Of Overcoming Buyer Resistance

When I worked for a safety products distributor, a railroad company sent a letter asking for a 5% reduction in price. The buyer there considered earplugs, gloves, hard hats and other safety products commodities and sought vendors to compete on price. Good for the buyer, not so good for the seller. Using insight-driven selling, our sales team moved the conversation from commodity pricing to reducing workplace injuries. The national accounts manager asked about the most common injury and found out it was employees being struck by trains in switching yards at night. Lost time and medical costs were significant. So, knowing this was a “pain point” for the safety manager, the national sales manager offered a solution of supplying custom designed highly reflective clothing. By making the employees highly visible, workplace injuries dropped. And the buyer’s mindset was changed from “low price commodity” to “concerned, helpful vendor”.

How Does It Work?

According to Tom&Tom, insight-driven conversations include:

• Create Curiosity – a statement to make the buyer curious enough to join the conversation
• Teach – a lesson which matches a buyer’s concern to your strength
• Share The Pain – show empathy by identifying a threat or negative outcome
• Show Contrast – take issue with the status quo and offer a solution
• Invite Collaboration – ask open ended question to find out buyer’s viewpoint and encourage dialog
• Provide Proof – use history of success with other companies to validate your claim

By using inclusive language and open-ended questions, great salespeople overcome buyer resistance. They realize that insight-driven selling is not a linear, step-by-step process. It includes all the elements but great salespeople know when to engage each element and when to switch to another to overcome buyer resistance.

What You Can Do Right Now

Think about all the “excuses” buyers use to put you off.

For each excuse you regularly hear, write as many ideas as you can for each of the six elements to overcome buyer resistance above.

Practice including them in your sales conversations to create “pain” in the buyer.

Make sure you rehearse so the ideas are natural, not scripted. Great salespeople listen to the buyer and move the conversation toward the outcome they are looking for.

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 & Lois Carter Crawford