PODCAST: Is Cold Calling Really Dead? A View into the Mind and the Day of a Salesperson
Jul 10, 2009 Cold Calling Tips, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, cold calling, podcast, sales tips, tele-sales, telesales
Listen to this podcast here.
You get to your office, sit down at your desk and open up your calendar. A concerned look sweeps over your face. “Only one appointment this week.” You look at your pipeline and get that squirmy feeling inside your gut, as you realize your pipeline is not as full as it used to be. You’re wondering where you’re going to find your next prospect.
The uncertainty begins to sweep over you. The stress starts creeping into your body, for you realize you can’t keep procrastinating making the cold calls you need to in order to book more appointments with key decision makers. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cold call, cold calling, podcast, prospecting, selling tips, telesales
Before You Qualify Prospects Using Better Questions, First Make the Questions Fit For You
Jun 26, 2009 Business Advice, Career Advice, How to Manage Your Team, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, Selling Advice, career coaching, cold calling, sales articles
While being interviewed by Geoffrey James for an article he was writing for Selling Power magazine on what managers need to do to effectively coach their sales team when cold calling, a question regarding how effectively salespeople are qualifying their prospects surfaced during our conversation. (Geoffrey is also the author of seven books and the columnist for BNET, Business 2.0, CIO, The New York Times as well as many other publications.)
You can find Geoffrey’s blog here, which lists some of the deeper qualifying questions that salespeople must learn to ask.
To go beyond these questions for a moment, what I actually found to be intriguing were the comments that readers had posted after reading his blog. Now, I’m all for and certainly encourage feedback and comments, all in the spirit of mutual collaboration, growth and stimulating a valuable dialogue. And I applaud anyone who’s willing to take the time and post their thoughts and comments, good or bad, as I am always open to a healthy debate with those who may not always agree with my point of view or share a different perspective on the subject matter at hand. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: challenge assumptions, excuses, sales advice, Sales Training, selling tips, why salespeople fail
“Don’t Sell Like You Buy” Nominated for Article of the Month
May 6, 2009 All About Selling, How To Sell and Sales Tips, Sales Coaching, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips
What a wonderful email to wake up and read.
“I am delighted to confirm that your article, Don’t Sell Like You Buy published by Sales Gravy has been selected as one of the top ten sales articles for April.”
It seems that this article, (actually on of my personal favorites) Don’t Sell Like You Buy has been nominated for one of the best sales Articles of the Month on Top10SalesArticles.com.
You can read the full article here. Below is an except. This article is a result of an experience I had during a training event I was delivering. Another example of learning and sharing the experiences I gain from my clients and every training event I deliver.
“If you’ve never used a certain selling technique, prospecting approach or a particular set of targeted qualifying questions, then how do you know whether or not they will work or how they will be received by your prospects?”
I was building my case. I then turned to the audience and said, “Do not sell the way you buy.”
Now, you may feel at this point that I’m contradicting some universal selling principles. After all, conventional sales wisdom handed down through the ages suggests how important it is to empathize and sympathize with your prospects and clients.
However, there’s a very fine line between understanding and respecting someone’s decision making process; and assuming that everyone makes a purchasing decision in the same manner and using the same criteria that you do. Moreover, there is also the faulty assumption that your prospects respond in a similar fashion to the type of sales approach and the type of salesperson that you respond to and would buy from.
I then shared a personal example of the dangers of selling like you buy. “Folks, if I sold in the same manner in which I make a purchase and then in turn, transfer those values and beliefs on each prospect that I speak with, then I could tell you with great certainty that I would not be up here talking with you today.”
Reason being, when I make a purchase of any substantial amount, I take the time to research my options and learn about the different products or services available. By the time I’m ready to actually make the purchase, whether it’s something for my home, a television a car or a computer, more often than not, I will know more about the product, the competition and the marketplace than the person who is attempting to sell it to me.
My point is, if I started selling the way in which I make a purchasing decision, I am now putting my values, thought process and beliefs on the customer, assuming they purchase the same or in a similar way that I do. The result? More objections, less sales.
Besides, what if I was talking with an impulsive or assertive prospect who was ready to buy? I would be talking myself right out of the sale!”
Lets defuse a costly myth. The old adage of putting yourself in their shoes is really a costly assumption that destroys many a selling opportunity. Why? Because when you “look through their eyes” or attempt to see things how you assume they see them, it is still really what you see, not what they see.
The result? You develop a sales process based on how you think they buy rather than how they actually make a decision. Why? Because how you think they buy is really how you buy. (Is your brain twisted enough yet?)
If you truly want to wear their shoes, then you need to know how they think and what is important to them. Therefore, the only way to uncover how the prospect likes to process information, make a purchasing decision and the criteria they use to do so is by asking better questions.
Now, lets take this same ineffective model of selling like you buy and turn it around for a moment. If this belief of selling like the way you buy is getting in the way of taking certain actions or asking certain questions when on a sales call, then what about other things that you are doing or saying which you think are safe to you but in fact, are not safe or comfortable for the person you are speaking with because you’re still operating off the same tool, costly assumptions!
The lesson; Don’t believe everything you sell, I mean, tell yourself.
Salespeople who sell in the same manner in which they buy are sure to have a lower number of satisfied clients. Take a look at some different scenarios where utilizing your own beliefs, assumptions and value system can have a detrimental effect on your performance and income.
Since Carol usually shops around before choosing which company to buy from or which product to buy, she accepted the prospect’s reason for doing the same. Like herself, she couldn’t expect people to make a decision during the initial consultation.
When Mike makes a purchasing decision, he usually purchases the least expensive item available. He thinks you can get the same top value at a lowest price. Although he represents one of the highest quality products in his industry, the amount of money he sold for was always at the lowest profit margin. Mike had a hard time asking for more money, even though he was offering the consumer the highest in value.
Robert hated hearing sales presentations. When he went out on his appointments, he was always done within thirty minutes. In order to effectively cover all of the necessary information and provide the right solutions for the prospect, the average time a representative should invest during an appointment was between two to three hours.
Dana was very indecisive when it came to making a purchasing decision. Because this was inherent in her personality, she offered her customers many different alternatives. The end result was confusion on the consumer’s end, on Dana’s end and no work order.
There are salespeople out there who are even more indecisive than their prospects. Can you see it? “I’ll ask for the order now. No, I’ll wait a little longer. No, I might miss the opportunity to do so later, so I better do it now.” This can clearly put a damper on your performance as well as your mental health.
Sell in the manner in which you were trained to sell and stick with the proven selling sequence that works for you and within your industry or profession. You cannot expect prospects to purchase in the same manner as you do.
If you sell in the same manner as you buy, you are instilling your beliefs onto the other people. Since every person’s beliefs and buying habits are different, every prospect processes information differently. What is important to one person may not be important to another. Therefore, there will never be two presentations exactly the same.
While one prospect might weigh company stability and the quality or value of the product as the most important aspect in making their decision, another prospect might weigh price as the most important.
Learn to adapt your presentation around the values of each specific prospect. In the end, people make purchasing decisions based on their style of buying, not yours.
You can read the full article here.
Tags: close more sales, how to sell, sales articles, Sales Coaching, sales tips, Sales Training, selling tips
Just Follow Up! Wins Sales Article of The Month
Mar 10, 2009 All About Selling, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, sales articles, sales tips, training for managers
Just Follow Up Wins Sales Article of The Month on Top Sales Articles.
Read the full article here.
You may know what that next step in your selling process actually is. But do you know exactly, when? Are you confident in what that next step is and when it will be taken? Many salespeople struggle when it comes to determining whether or not to follow up and when that “perfect” time to do so actually is.
Have you ever burdened yourself with these internal questions?
This ambiguity in your selling process is then compounded exponentially when you finally reach out to this person, just to connect with their voice mail on the other end.
If any of these questions sound familiar, it’s a safe bet you may be missing a critical step in your selling process. Here’s one of the golden rules of selling which, for many reasons, gets violated every moment of every day.
Always, always, always, have the next step mapped out and agreed upon in every selling situation, in every conversation with a prospect or customer.
This removes the toxic ambiguity that pollutes your mind and your thinking and robs you of time that’s better served focused on more meaningful and rewarding selling activities.
Here’s a link to this article, Just Follow Up.
Tags: career coaching, Executive Coaching, sales articles, Sales Coaching, selling tips
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