While I had always been a reader, during my recovery, I started reading a book a day. I told my neurologist that I was sure my brain was making new neural pathways and that it was on fire. He listened patiently and then told me there was no evidence that my theory was accurate and that it was more likely I was compensating for losing a significant part of my brain. We didn’t yet fully understand neuroplasticity, and it turns out both of us may have been correct.

At some point, I started picking up books on sales and business. The first book I stumbled upon was SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham. If you heard my story behind my book, The Lost Art of Closing, it was the three pages where Rackham described “the advance” as a key to success in sales. Once I understood I needed a commitment for another meeting, selling got quite a bit easier. I wrote a list of questions for each part of the SPIN model and started to work towards Implications (clumsily, I might add) and needed payoffs.

The book was so helpful that I picked up Major Account Sales Strategy, Rackham’s second book—and in some ways, his better book. I had been winning large accounts in California, but I didn’t have a very strategic view or a process. Mostly I just called on people who spent a lot of money in my category. Major Account Sales Strategy provided me with frameworks for thinking about big deals. I eventually read everything Rackham wrote and multiple times.

One book I picked up appeared to be new, but it was quite old at the time I picked it up. The book was Consultative Selling by Mack Hanan. Parts of the book were difficult for me, but what I learned that was useful was Hanan’s idea that you shift the conversation away from price to the increased profit the client will make by adopting your solution. The application of this idea made it easier for me to start sharing the soft costs my clients were not calculating in their overall costs.

The Miller Heiman books were both beneficial, The New Strategic Selling and The New Conceptual Sale. The first had me looking at stakeholders differently, even though the evolution of my thought here shows up very differently in Eat Their Lunch, which you might expect since 34 years have passed since they first published Strategic Selling. I don’t remember New Conceptual as well, but I remember it caused me to take sales calls seriously enough to plan them.

I read all of Stephen Covey’s work before my brain surgery, and even those books were not on sales, they caused me to recognize I had to improve who I was before I could improve my sales results. They also led me to read a lot more books on business improvement.

Some books that were not sales-related on their face were valuable to me. One of those books was Tom Peter’s Circle of Innovation, a book that made me think deeply about differentiation and allowed me to put technological solutions long before my larger competitors could do so, grabbing a competitive advantage in big deals. Another was Michael Hammer’s The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade. From this work, I took the idea that my business existed to take care of its customers. I started to present how what I did for my clients helped them serve their customers. Pondering that idea for a while is an excellent way to get better at selling.

One of the more useful and transformative books I read was Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play by Mahan Khalsa. The ideas and the dialogue in this book massively improved my ability to have conversations about the changes the customer would have to make to produce the results they needed.

There were hundreds of other books on sales and business I read, all of which had some value, even if I didn’t recognize it right away. These few were core to my development and the ones I remember as changing my sales results.

The post The Books That Taught Me How to Sell appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Some would look at the lists and use external factors to explain why less than fifty percent of salespeople fail to achieve their targets. They would be wrong to believe that things like buyers giving salespeople less time, or needing consensus, cause their poor results.

Salespeople and sales organisations struggle because they haven’t changed their sales approach to address the new realities and challenges of selling effectively. It’s not external; it’s internal.

The Limits of Your Perception

The fundamentals of selling are durable, and they don’t change very much over time. Things like prospecting, closing, negotiation, good questioning techniques, and differentiating yourself and your offering will always be part of selling. Over time, these things evolve, even if you do not recognise the evolution and even if you choose not to respond.

Recently, a sales leader told me about a person on his team who walked into a customer’s office and opened his catalogue to show the prospective client their new offerings. The salesperson is an order-taker in a world that belongs to value creators, something his sales leader knows to be true. You might not be using an approach that is as outdated as this one, but there are other areas where you need to update your traditional methods.

Prospecting Problems

Now, one of the most challenging outcomes in sales is gaining the first meeting. It’s always been difficult, but over time, their companies ask more of them, and they are less willing to meet with salespeople whom, they suspect, will waste their time. Much of the response to this trend has been the exact opposite of what is useful, believing that technology will improve results. This approach is the same as yelling at someone who doesn’t understand what you are saying, thinking that relentlessly repeating yourself but louder, is the key to changing their mind.

To improve your prospecting results, you need to change your approach by improving your value proposition for the meeting, offering your contacts a meeting that they will benefit from even if they never work with you. You make prospecting much more difficult without an approach that allows you to create value in the first call, one that provides your contact with a higher resolution lens through which to see their business and decision.

It’s an “old school” to use the phone, but it is still the best way to attend a meeting. It’s a “new school” to have an unassailable value proposition that improves your effectiveness on the phone.

Too Many Stakeholders

Another difficult challenge is avoiding the “no decision” that follows when the contacts and stakeholders in a company struggle to agree to move forward. Certain words project that a salesperson has a limited perception of the problem, like suggesting that the single contact they have been working with will be the sole decision-maker. The story concludes with a phone call from the contact, informing the salesperson that the decision-makers have decided to go in another direction.

There is every reason to believe that you are missing stakeholders, that you are going to have to work to acquire them, and that some will be opposed to the change you are helping to create. It’s also likely true that your primary contact will fear losing control of things once people express their opinions and needs.

It’s an “old school” to acquire a stakeholder in leadership who will support your initiative, which will always be helpful. It’s a “new school” approach to develop an approach to identifying the stakeholders necessary to a deal, the buying committee, and understand how to approach consensus building.

Being of Value

One of the mistakes we sometimes make in sales is loading up the sales force with so much product knowledge and technical information that their competency around pitching the product exceeds their ability to sell effectively. At some large sales kickoff meetings where I have spoken, the sales force might be required to attend five sessions on the product without a single workshop on sales skills. The emphasis on the solution can cause you to believe the solution is the value you offer.

For a salesperson to serve their clients, they have to know more about where their client’s company and their company come together. The client will always know more about their business than the salesperson, but the salesperson should still know more about the decision they are helping the client make. When you help people decide every day, and those same people make the decision infrequently, you must be the expert.

The solution is not the value you create in the sales conversation you are having with your clients. Your insights, experience, approach, and ability to provide new potential and new opportunities make up the value you provide; this is also what creates a preference to buy from you. Your solution is how you execute the advice you provide to your clients, which is an important distinction.

Selling is going to continue to evolve—maybe more than other areas of business. If you are not actively working on getting better, you are getting worse. Don’t let the limits of your perception be the limits of your results.

The post Get Better At Selling, Or You Will Get Worse appeared first on Head Of Sales.

In his bestselling book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcom Gladwell wrote about the average number of hours an individual needs to become an expert in their chosen field. The 10,000-hour rule of “achievement [equals] talent plus preparation” has entered popular culture as the key to success in a field. Does this apply with sales? Yes. As sales leaders, we spend time coaching, mentoring, and developing our teams to ensure we give them the best possible opportunity for success.

I was never in the military. The closest I came to be was attending the Air Cadets with some friends from high school a few times. It wasn’t the most inspirational experience, as far as I could see it involved static drill and marching in formation for hours on end. Sometime later, one of those friends graduated from the Royal Military College in our nation’s capital. I distinctly remember that cold Canberra morning as the passing out parade occurred. My memory is of a dignified ceremony, a grand spectacle, an excellent brass band and the cadets all resplendent and beautifully drilled.

How many hours of rehearsal did it take to perfect those marches? Numerous.

The lesson for salespeople is simple, to be the best, practice is critical. Each step in a sales process has multiple intricacies and ensuring your team performs to their best level at every step along the way is critical. Like military cadets learning a quick step, we need to assess our processes and examine the skills and capabilities of each individual team member to home in on development opportunities.

In Learning and Development, we use various methods of practice, rehearsal, role-playing, and discussion to effect skills and competency development, and reinforce a sales training program. Educational theory gives us significant insights into the importance of practice to excel in skills, Psychologist Anders Ericsson famously studied violin students at the Music Academy of West Berlin. By the age of 20, the top performers had practiced an average of 10,000 hours; the good violinists an average of 8,000 hours and the least able only 4,000 hours. Gladwell took this research further. And though some have claimed flaws in his methodology, the key premise is the importance of practice. Is 10,000 hours a magical number? No, but it emphasises the fact that for most of us, natural skills and abilities are developed and improved upon through hard work, practice and skilful coaching and mentoring.

Is there a nature vs nurture debate in the world of sales development and enablement? Do some people just have the “it” factor? What does a successful salesperson look like? These are all important and powerful questions. Businesses I have been part of have attempted to analyse and theorise the ideal salesperson. In reality, it is near impossible to visualise and find the so-called “perfect” salesperson. Rather, an investment in an individual’s development to enhance certain skills is a far better strategy.

Let’s review three skills that can be taught, practiced and measured; questioning skills, social selling and product knowledge.

Learning how to ask relevant and salient questions is a skill that can be taught. The ability to learn when to ask an open-ended question or to seek clarification through a closed question is one such example.

Social selling, whilst it may cause fear and trepidation for some, is a skill that a sales professional can learn. Appropriate posting, commenting and engaging is a proven method for prospecting, rapport building and client engagement.

Finally, product knowledge. Learning the features, functionality and competitive benefits of the product or service you sell is of vital importance and builds credibility and confidence when dealing with a client.  An individual salesperson can practice all these skills again and again, and they all can be assessed and measured.

Though a salesperson may never achieve the 10,000 hours of practice on anyone of these, they can develop a degree of proficiency, expertise and fluency in that skill.

As sales leaders, how do we enforce practice and make it part of an ongoing professional development program?

Here are three practical scenarios you can implement immediately:

1. Understand the term, deliberate practice.

That is, when a sales professional is guided by an expert, skilled coach, or mentor, “someone with an expert eye,” as bestselling author Daniel Goleman would be inclined to say. Poor practice results in poor results. When coaching an individual in a prospecting scenario, for example, begin by asking three questions – Who are you calling? Why are you calling them? How are you going to open the conversation? Then ask the rep to practice their opening line, if it is not to an acceptable standard, have them practice again. By the time they make the call they are informed, confident and prepared. Is that a significant investment in time a for a leader? Yes. But once the mindset changes to follow this method the rep will instinctively follow these steps prior to picking up the phone.

2. Role Playing after micro-learning session.

Learn a new skill, competency or method and then rehearse. Enable your team to implement a skill immediately after it has been championed. Run the training, have the salesperson reflect on it and then immediately put it into practice. The power of practicing immediately after a new skill is learned is critical in slowing the forgetfulness curve. It also helps in the accumulation of a skillset. Proficiency is achieved in one area and then another is piled on until a full customer engagement scenario is explained, practiced and internalised.

3. Build a cohesive “we-are-all-sales” organisation.

Use real customers, other leaders within the business or members from non-sales teams to accentuate reality and to ensure that salespeople can communicate and practice with a wide variety of personality types and business roles. There is an additional benefit for other leaders within a business (think finance, ops and marketing), as this method provides greater insight into the daily experience of a salesperson’s life and builds a more cohesive “we-are-all-sales” organisation.

The motivational sales guru Grant Cardone, frequently espouses the mantra to Practice, Drill, and Rehearse. Practice cannot be simply repetition or rehearsing with obvious errors. It needs to be deliberate, guided by a coach or mentor, corrected where necessary. As we know from education if a fundamental step has not been grasped, go back to the basics and build up to that higher level of proficiency. If a member of the military learned a quick step march incorrectly, then on that Canberra morning there would have been an obvious flaw that would have stood out to the assembled crowd. We don’t want our sales people to be robotic, but we do want to give them the best possible chance to succeed in a competitive environment and to provide clients with the best possible engagement experience.

“It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at practice that counts; it’s what you put into the practice.” … Eric Lindros (professional ice hockey player)

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If you’re a sales manager or CEO, send this to the entire sales team and put them on notice that they will be held to account. If you’re an individual sales contributor, address all of these issues now to save your career. I’m serious – stop screwing around with your success; be the professional you’re paid to be. Here are the things (in no particular order) that make your boss look bad and you look amateurish.

1. Not being across the detail of your key deals. 

Stop giving long-winded waffling answers when asked about the status of an important deal. The senior executives above you are busy and don’t want a bedtime story. Be succinct in your responses. Start at the end and provide a summary before diving into detail. Say something like: ‘It’s forecast for the 13th and their executive sponsor has confirmed with me that the date is confirmed with their internal team. Everyone in the power-base is on board and procurement is in the loop. There are two risks that I am managing…’

2. Failing to have a strategy. 

Never use the words ‘hope’ or ‘hopefully’. In every major deal you need to be thinking about what could go wrong and manage the risks. You must have a strategy for relationships, the competition (including their internal options), and engineering their processes for evaluation, selection and procurement. Hope is not a strategy. Being passive and failing to create any level of positive tension is professional malpractice. You’re not a professional visitor or observer who reports back. Make it happen by building positive relationships with the right people inside the customer organization.

3. Failing to work hard. 

Sustained success is never the result of consistent luck. Work ethic is prerequisite for anyone performing at the top. If you’re not ‘blowing your numbers away’, then you sure as heck had better be seen to be working hard. Work ethic is what smooths out the peaks and troughs of sales performance; to be consistent month-in and month-out. The time to be working hard is when you don’t feel you have a weak pipeline of qualified opportunities – things change quickly. earn your success with the sweat of your brow. Look yourself in the mirror, and your boss in the eye, knowing you’ve earned the right to be successful.

4. Wasting time and being late for meetings. 

Every meeting should have an agenda and confirmed in advance. Time is precious. If you can’t manage yourself, how in the world can you manage complex sales processes and expensive company resources. If you don’t respect the time of others, why should they respect you? Being on time means being at least 5 minutes early. Sit in a nearby coffee shop and prepare, think, plan – take the stress out of meetings. Arrive early and stake the perfect seat, arrange the room. Every pilot knows that their mind must arrive well before the plane if they are to be truly professional.

5. Failing to take notes and follow-up. 

It staggers me how often I see sales people not taking any notes in meetings. ‘I have a good memory’, they say. I don’t care if you have the memory of an elephant! It’s about the customer, not you. They need to see you being fully there and vitally interested in their every word. Taking notes also enables you to break eye contact (the only reason you should) and show them that they are important, that you don’t want to forget, that you’ll follow-up, that you’re a professional. Imagine how you would feel if a builder came to your home to provide a quote for your big renovation and he didn’t measure anything and failed to write anything down… ‘I have a good memory love; no worries, she’ll be right’… Next!

6. Not using sales tools provided to you. 

Your company has invested huge sums of money in sales methodologies and tools… use them! By all means pragmatically, but use them nevertheless. Show people that you’ve qualified the opportunity and that you have actions in play to address weaknesses and gaps. Complete call plans and share with your boss before all important meetings. Build close plans on all the big deals to show you understand the customer’s internal approval gates, procurement processes, compelling events and dates. Here is an ideal meta framework for opportunity management.

7. Not keeping the CRM up to date. 

How can you claim to be a professional when the CRM shows that the deal is still at qualification or discovery stage yet you submitted the proposal last week? Why is the CRM ‘next step’ something that is trivial and happened 3 weeks ago? Why are all of your forecast close dates the last day of the quarter? Professionals keep their records up-to-date to help their boss help them – if you want the resources of the organization invested to help you pursue big opportunities, then earn respect and support by how you operate. How can marketing assist you with inviting prospects to events if you don’t bother to put them in the system. Why should you be allocated any more leads when most of the ones you’ve been given are languishing in the CRM without any notes or change in status? No wonder so many marketing and management people have low opinions of sales people.

8. Being a shocking lone wolf. 

Being a lone gunslinger cowboy may suit your persona but success in complex enterprise selling is always a team effort. It’s amazing what can be achieved when you don’t care who gets the credit. Work well with others; collaborate and be a team player. If you read between the lines, The Challenger Sale says to fire Lone Wolves when they start missing their numbers.

9. Being a ‘Social Selling’ illiterate. 

LinkedIn is the new phone for securing appointments. Your LinkedIn profile is the platform for establishing your credibility before you even meet. Your LinkedIn Publisher posts are how you set the agenda and deal with objections in advance. Twitter is how you amplify your insightful publishing to spread the word. YouTube is how you avoid having to do high risk, time wasting, tire kicking, mind-numbing, Russian roulette high risk demos. Social selling is highly relevant in the world of B2B enterprise selling… get on board before your career sails away without you!

10. Failing to create the necessary value to fund your role. 

One of my European clients did an extensive study concerning the cost to the company every time a sales person pulled-up outside a client’s premises. Field selling is expensive… here is the answer $476. The number is accurate – they have annual revenues in excess of $1 billion in Australia and hundreds of sales people. They asked two questions of every manager and sales person in the company: When you visit a customer or prospect, are you creating $500 of value for them and us? If you asked the customer and your boss to split it; $250 each – would they be willing to both write you a check?

11. Breaking the circle of trust. 

Lying to your boss is the beginning of the end of your relationship with them. Trust is everything – with customers, colleagues, your partner, everyone! Without trust you have nothing in professional sales. Your personal reputation is the most precious thing you have. Who is in the mirror staring back at you? Is there a look of conviction or an empty suit hoping not to be found-out. Don’t cheat your boss out of time or steal their money. Be honest about the state of your deals.

12. Inaccurate forecasting and fantasy pipeline. 

Everyone above you has the living crap beaten out of them when they miss their numbers. It felt like I aged a whole year at the end of every quarter when I was managing the region for American corporations. Regular ugly surprises at the eleventh hour make heads explode. Squirming out of commitments damages you enormously… be a person of your word and don’t over-promise. Bad news early is manageable but consistently delivering ugly surprises at 3 minutes to midnight is terminal – for you or your boss.

The post 12 Reasons Why You Should Be Fired appeared first on Head Of Sales.

And for a couple of reasons:

1.    Because they were from sales leaders and

2.    Because they were from salespeople.

There is a saying many of us have heard, that a ‘bad workman blames his tools’ and that was what I was seeing in reading some of the answers so I split the answers out into two lists – A and the A+.

Answers as to why only 20% met budget included (word for word):

• Bad quotas
• Lack of training and no company investment in people
• Bad coaching
• Not enough resources
• More than 80% of customers don’t need the product
• Bad hiring
• Targets are set quarterly
• Shitty product
• Bad/lack of marketing and negative brand sentiment
• Too much admin, installation type work
• No follow up
• Not knowing customer’s environment
• Through no fault of their own
• Economic downturn
• No strategy
• No goals
• They underestimate the amount of daily activity

And then some more….

• Don’t believe in self
• Don’t feel engaged
• Complacency
• Lack of execution
• Minimal effort
• Don’t believe in product
• Don’t prospect enough
• Don’t invest in development
• Don’t ask the hard questions
• Don’t push-back to those who waste time
• Don’t follow a proven sales process
• Wing their calls
• They can’t accept success

As someone who works with business owners, sales leaders and salespeople alike, I have heard all of these and even a few more, and herein lies the problem.

There is a difference between reasons why quota is not being met and excuses as to why it is not being met.

It’s a fine line, so I went to Quora for some help in defining what I know is a key missing component to success – knowing the difference between an excuse and a reason, and I found this explanation, with which I agree:

An explanation typically explains the facts of a situation, what caused it, all the factors that lead to it, even if some of these factors are self-deprecating.

An excuse, however, tends to run along the lines of an explanation except that the language is usually defensive and tends to try to protect the speaker from involvement in the incident in question.

If you notice, I segmented the answers to why only 20% of salespeople are achieving quota, into two lists above.

Can you pick the difference between the lists?

Let me help you…

List A are Excuses Yes, most sales leaders and salespeople who answered the question posed, with these answers, and there were nearly 100, all made excuses either as salespeople or for salespeople. In other words, they blamed someone or something. And these are the people who are responsible for generating our revenue and leading our businesses.

So what separates an excuse from a reason?

Pure and simply, accountability.

You see most people say they want to be successful. How many, though, will do what it takes to be successful in their given role? That is, how many people will do what it takes to be successful in selling? The question is a powerful one.

Another powerful question to ask is, ‘if you didn’t have the excuses from the top list, then how would you make sure you reached quota?’ Think on that a minute or two.

You see, each one of the items from the excuses list can be whittled down to being a valid reason, that can then be worked on.

Let’s take a couple and I’ll share with you what I mean, and you might also see if anything resonates with you personally, or with someone you know:

Lack of Training– In an era of unprecedented content with people giving away their once coveted golden IP for free, what are you doing to invest in yourself? When was the last time you read a book about prospecting in today’s sales environment, or are you waiting for the company to do it for you?

Not Enough Resources – Have you got clear on what resources you actually need and the difference they would specifically make for you meeting quota? Sometimes we forget that the thing we need is not more money, more tools, more shortcuts – that it could be a matter of tapping into our resourcefulness and finding a bit more energy and effort in doing something new and perhaps putting a business case together instead of whinging.

Bad Coaching – Do you know what good coaching looks like, sounds like and feels like? If so, are you also clear on the specific outcomes you would want and need from a coach? Great! Now start coaching yourself or set out those expectations with your manager. Step up.

More Than 80% of Customers Don’t Need the Product – My first thought was why are you in business then? Who, if not you, is responsible for qualifying a buyer and what is the depth of question you are asking or not asking, and the real reason you are asking those questions, or not asking? Who is creating the value proposition?

Bad Hiring – So let’s say it’s valid and your hiring person made a mistake – what conversations aren’t you having with that person to remove the pain for them and yourself? Who is responsible for hiring processes and what might THEY need to do differently?

Targets Are Set Quarterly – OK, so break them down to monthly, weekly, daily or hourly if that turns you on. You are the captain of your own ship, the CEO of your own mini organization so think like one and break the odd process rule if it is to serve you and the business.

Shitty Product – The first sale is always to yourself, so leave the company or go and find a product you believe in where you can stop wallowing in this story. Chances are the story will follow you!

Bad Marketing – Then Marketing need your input. You (Sales) can provide Marketing with so much in the way of stories, case studies and feedback and if everyone is clear on what the ultimate outcome is (to serve the customer), then these are conversations worth having – how are you initiating them? What channels of communication are you opening to make change happen?

Too Much Admin – What responsibility is being taken to delegate, say ‘no’ or ask for help? When command and control doesn’t work, what does? Personal leadership?

No Follow Up – What processes are in place, what is the company ethos on caring for the customer and what can you do yourself to set an example? Stand for something!

Economic Downturn – With this being a fact, is the same being said by your competitor who is still selling and one of those 20% making budget?

They Underestimate the Amount of Daily Activity Needed – We have 8 hours in a work day. By getting up 2 hours earlier what have you increased your productivity by? What will that do to your revenue opportunities and stress levels? Think about it and then act.

Usually for each excuse anyone gives, there is a valid reason sitting in the wings and that reason comes back to the person’s level of responsibility, commitment and personal leadership.

List A+ Are Reasons – the real reasons, and only by owning that fact, in all aspects, will you really smash it out of the park and become the 20%er that you know you have the potential to be.

Systems and processes, analytics, technology and automation are all key components of sales success, but behind all of those tools someone needs to drive them. If your levels of discipline are not enough, and you are big enough to admit it, get someone else to help you, because until you do, you will continue to make excuses for your lack of success. You will stay on the A List and you know you are better than that.

B an A+er and also …

Be Bold, Brave and Brilliant

The post Meet The ‘A Listers’​ Ruining Their Careers appeared first on Head Of Sales.

This belief rests on the assumption that success in sales relies on some special talent granted at birth. However,  this does not fit our experience. It may be true that some people are born with ‘talent’, meaning an abundance of charisma and ease with people. Charisma may help close some sales. However, we find that successful sales people, those who are top in their field year after year,  work diligently to develop their sales skills regardless of their starting capability.

Talent or Skill?

At this point in training discussions, people often ask: “Talent or skill. What’s the difference?” To answer this question, let’s define some terms.

• Talent – A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment
• Skill – Proficiency, facility, or dexterity that is acquired or developed through training or experience.

The difference is pretty simple. Talents are natural abilities. Skills are acquired or developed abilities.

Sales Talent:

Let me make one thing clear. Talent (charisma / personality) will help make sales. However, those depending upon talent tend to ‘shoot from the hip’ when making a sales presentation. This results in a very entertaining presentation. The sales professional may seem to be able to ‘sell ice to eskimos’. Unfortunately, the majority of prospects cannot follow this type of presentation. Most people want a logical progression of information backed up by solid data. So, although the client may like the sales professional personally, they may actually purchase a similar product from someone else.

Sales Skills:

What I love about sales skills is that anyone can master them and become successful in sales. Mirriam-Webster defines a skill as:

A learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability

Notice that a skill is something learned or developed. Hence, with the assistance of a qualified trainer and measured practice, those who have the desire to apply themselves toward mastering the task will succeed.

When I lead training sessions or have less experienced sales professionals ride along on sales calls with me, I often hear that I have a “great talent for sales.” I take the comment as a genuine compliment, and I might even agree with it if I did not know where I began in sales. This is because, except for my persistence and drive, the words and actions people see in me today bear no resemblance to what they would have seen in my performance when I started in sales. For example, I now speak about and give my absolute best effort to model:

• Focusing on benefits to my client
• Active listening
• Allowing time for the client to speak
• Working to connect with my client
• Giving my clients the time they need to reach a decision.

When I first entered sales, someone watching my sales calls would have seen me:

• Focusing on product features
• Speaking more than I listened
• Interrupting my clients
• Pushing to close the sale
• Growing impatient when clients wanted to collect more information or “think it over.”

Basically, I started with very few of the positives and nearly all of the negatives. The one thing I really had in my favor was persistence. I initially got results because I kept going in the face of rejection. My closing ratio was low, but I made lots of sales calls.

Consequently, I was frustrated by the scant sales I acquired relative to the enormous amount of time and  effort I was exerting. Over time, I began to see that I just couldn’t do any more work in the time I had. Therefore, I had to find a way to improve my results. Better results required cultivating a more effective sales process and developing greater skills for:

1. You must have leads: 

I remember hearing someone say, “Just keep throwing mud on the wall. Some of it will stick.” No! You just waste time and end up with a dirty wall. Unfortunately, driving all over town searching for someone to listen to your presentation is usually a waste of time and gas. Don’t equate being busy with productivity.  It is more effective to prequalify the leads you pursue. Above all, develop a lead generation process which includes leveraging LinkedIn, quality referrals, and industry specific leads.

2. turn your leads into appointments:

“Let your fingers do the walking” and develop the skills to book appointments on the phone. In addition, discover how to navigate the gatekeeper and reach decision makers. Making only 10-20 outbound calls per day will keep your calendar full and your pockets ‘fuller’.

3. Reading prospects:  

Become a student of human behaviour and improve your communication skills. Furthermore, discover how to connect with prospects and clients for closing more deals and developing long term, repeat business. Likewise, I’ve learned to not only care about my customers needs, but to show that I care. It may look natural, but trust me it is not. I had to really work on me to develop these skills. After I learned and began to apply the DISC Model of Human Behaviour in the way that we teach today, my closing ratio skyrocketed.

Discover what your client is thinking! The FAST, EASY way to connect more effectively with clients & CLOSE MORE DEALS

It’s like taking the Pici’s with you on your next sales call. Our flip charts will remind you how to: Recognize and adapt to your client’s communication style.
 Develop rapport
 Tweak your presentation for maximum impact
 Close the deal

4. Develop a  simple, short, and logical sales presentation

I call this your ‘core story’. Your core story should be dominated by your client talking, not you. Most noteworthy, you can achieve this by asking relevant questions. Above all, design questions that will reveal the pain your client may be experiencing. Situations that will  cause them to purchase a product/service from you.

5. Close the deal

Closing is the sales skill set that most sales professionals focus on. Yet, closing is the natural conclusion to a sales process that began with the first contact. Therefore, do not depend on one or two closing techniques. In addition, avoid being discouraged if you cannot close your prospect at the first meeting. Closing the deal may take several days/weeks/months or only a few minutes. Certainly, the study of human behavior will help you determine which time frame and approach will be best for each individual.

5. Finally, remember to follow up: 

The purpose of follow up is three fold. a) Make sure the client is satisfied with the product. Answer any questions regarding the use, installment, or difficulty with the product. b) Secure future sales including cross selling. c) Attain quality referrals. Certainly, this is the lifeblood of your business.

By improving my effectiveness through skill development, I improved my results without working harder or longer.

Improving my skills was the key element. I read books and went to sales seminars. My success was a result of becoming a student of sales.

Lots of sales people eventually burn-out due to excessive rejection, long hours, or both. Most people don’t have the stomach for tolerating rejection that I have. And most people don’t want to develop the thick skin necessary to put up with it. As a result, many otherwise great sales people give up their dreams of success when they reach the burn-out stage. I want to give people the tools to overcome that challenge before they reach burn-out.

The good news

Everyone can develop the skills.  I’m willing to share what I’ve learned so that they don’t have to go through the same amount of rejection I faced before I learned these skills. I don’t have a monopoly on what it takes to be great as a sales professional. I’ve just learned to apply some really powerful, practical, and effective ideas to the sales process. Anyone with the desire to work on themselves and grow personally can learn what I’ve learned. It really doesn’t matter where people start, as long as they view sales as a profession and invest the effort necessary to learn and perfect the skills.

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