Online meetings are rapidly becoming the new de facto standard.

Savvy sellers have discovered that the ability to quickly move a phone conversation online yields a richer, deeper interaction with prospects. It enables them to discuss, demo or present using a variety of resources. As a result, prospect engagement goes up, new opportunities emerge, and deals close faster.

That’s a competitive edge worth paying attention to—especially since only 58% of salespeople met or exceeded their quota last year. But right now, most sellers are barely tapping into online meetings because they don’t know how or when to best use them.

Salespeople need to be nimble and ready to pivot. In conversations, they must be able to quickly spot and capitalise on emerging opportunities. It’s even better if they can create these moments on their own.

That’s exactly what savvy sellers do with online meetings. During a phone call, when they spot a need or when inspiration strikes, they immediately suggest:

“Do you have a few minutes? How about we jump onto a quick online meeting?”

That’s sales agility at its best. The key to success with these impromptu online meetings is strategic spontaneity. Savvy sellers are prepared. They know the best times to suggest this option and they know how to do it, seamlessly. They know what they’ll ask, point out, suggest or clarify.

In short, they nail it! These savvy sellers create an “aha” moment that crystallises value and drives differentiation. When the conversation is over, they’ve established credibility, deepened the relationship and moved closer to a signed contract.

1. FOCUS ON PURPOSE

What outcome do you want to achieve from jumping online with your prospect? Always start with this question, then craft a meeting plan that supports it. The best “purposes” are typically aligned with the various stages of a prospect’s buying cycle. These are the three main ones.

Pique Curiosity. If you’re prospecting, know that more than 90% of the people you contact are reasonably satisfied with their status quo— whatever that might be. When you connect, your objective is to get the prospect so interested that they want to learn more—either now or in very short order.

Drive a Commitment to Change. Once you’ve piqued your prospect’s curiosity, their next step is to determine if it makes sense to change. This is your opportunity to help them determine their business case. It’s also a chance to explore the factors they need to consider if they do go ahead.

Close the Deal. When your prospect has decided that changing is worth it, your purpose shifts to that of showcasing why working with your company makes the most sense, provides the best value and is the least risky.

For lead follow-up, try to gauge where the prospect might be in their buying process by reviewing what they’ve downloaded from your website and the pages they’ve visited.

When you know your purpose, it’s time to identify when a “quick” online meeting can help you achieve it.

2. PINPOINT THE OPPORTUNITIES

When does it make sense to have an impromptu online meeting? Start by mentally identifying when it could be beneficial to jump online. Often visual elements are involved and referencing them while you’re talking enriches the conversation.

You might want to consider an impromptu online meeting to:

Spark a new idea. If your offering enables prospects to do something they hadn’t conceived of, pull up a graphic to trigger their thinking. You could also highlight relevant research or data that supports a change from the status quo.

Expand on concepts. Once prospects are ready to change, they want to discuss factors such as configuring the right solution and implementation issues.

Do a demo. Give your prospect a quick tour of your solution. Whether it’s an actual demo, screen shots, or animated, you can gauge their reactions.

Review in real-time. Any time there are questions or concerns re: proposals, pricing, layouts, design and more, the quickest way to resolve them is to jump online. When people post a need or comment regarding an issue you can solve, invite them to a virtual meeting. Again, they’re already online. They just need to be online talking to you!

Research shows that people remember 80% of what they see and do. Online meetings, much more than phone conversations, make you and your message more memorable and engaging.

3. ZERO IN ON VALUE

How can you get prospects to invest the time and energy needed to change from the status quo? It’s your toughest sales challenge. According to SBI, over 60% of forecast deals do nothing. That means you lose to “no decision” more than all other competitors combined.

If this happens to you, it’s likely you’ve been doing too much pitching, trying to differentiate your product/service from competitors. Forrester Research reports that only 13% of executive buyers believe that a salesperson can clearly show they understand customer business issues and articulate a way to solve them.

During your online meetings, focus in on what matters most to your prospects. Be very specific. Increasing sales and decreasing costs is far too generic. Pepper your conversations with value propositions like these:

• Increased sales productivity, enabling 30% more calls/day.
• Reduced customer churn by 2.9% in just six months.
• Stabilised workflow, eliminating 47% of overtime pay.

This is what prospects care about. This is why they’d change from the status quo. Use your online meeting to tailor the value to your buyer’s position.

Don’t get sucked into a “tell me about your [product/service]” conversation. Knowing about your leading-edge capabilities, unique methodologies and unbeatable service will not make people change from the status quo.

Instead, cut to the chase; make it abundantly clear about the value you can deliver to their organisation. That’s what gets people to buy.

4. LEAD CONVERSATIONS

How can you create a meaningful dialogue in a quick online meeting? Huthwaite’s research on 10,000+ reps in 30,000 sales calls revealed that the kind and quality of questions asked during a meeting had more impact on sales success than any other behaviour.

Asking questions allows you to showcase expertise, demonstrate concern, establish trust and build stronger relationships. Additionally, questions enable you to gauge a prospect’s level of interest, expand the possibilities, determine your strategy and find the right solution.

To take advantage of your limited time together during an online sales meeting, consider these suggestions:

Plan questions ahead of time. Brain research shows that it’s impossible to do two things at once. That’s why it’s imperative to figure out the best questions to ask and the right sequence before you initiate contact. Keep them in front of you, but feel free to go with the flow too—if it makes sense.

After asking a question, be quiet – especially if your intention is to make people think. The average salesperson feels compelled to jump in after 2-3 seconds, totally high-jacking the opportunity to learn critical information.

Wrap your questions in your expertise. Lead into them with phrases such as, “In working with other VPs of Sales, we find that …. Is this something you’re struggling with too? Or “In talking to other manufacturers, their three biggest priorities are … How do those priorities compare to yours?”

It’s your responsibility to lead the conversation—and the best way to do it is with thoughtful, provocative questions.

5. CREATE ENGAGEMENT

How can you be more collaborative? Online meetings give you a chance to interact in real time. They can be just as effective as actually sitting in your client’s office, getting a deeper understanding of their needs, and discussing their business challenges.

Here are some ideas to make impromptu online meeting more engaging:

Rather than you doing a demo, try highlighting how easy it is and pass control to your prospects. Let them do it themselves. Sampling simplicity makes them more likely to change.

Use different content. Don’t just show a presentation; change the info you share. Jump from a presentation, to a report, to a website. This on-thefly access to a variety of resources increases interest and involvement.

Bring your recommendations up on the screen and get your prospects’ input. Find out what they like/don’t like. Ask if the solution meets their needs or not— then make appropriate changes. This increases buy-in and the commitment to move forward.

Revise critical documents together. Invariably prospects want to make changes to your proposals, SOWs or contracts. It’s much simpler to actually work on the “same page” as your prospects instead of trying to talk about it. With today’s online contracts, it’s pretty easy to move from conversation to proposal to contracting.

This real-time collaboration capability is also highly useful for internal usage—especially when multiple people from your company are involved in the sales process. It’ll help you get things right before you suggest your prospect jump online for that quick meeting.

6. PICK THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY

What’s the right tool for you to use? Today, 30.3% of sales professionals believe that the online meeting tools they’re using get in the way of sales, rather than helping. That’s not good because it reflects on your competence. The solution you choose can be critical to moving the conversation forward or closing the sale.

To select the right technology, ask yourself these questions:

How easy is it to initiate an online meeting? This is crucial. You need it to be seamless. There’s nothing worse than having to stop the conversation, figure out how to launch a meeting, send an invite, wait while your prospect downloads some software—and then runs into problems. You lose momentum, and your prospect loses interest. Plus, you get frazzled and all your best thinking evaporates into thin air.

Does it have the capabilities you need? When you start out, screen sharing might be all you need. But as you get more proficient you’ll want video capabilities. This makes you more real” to prospects, increases engagement, deepens relationships and drives more sales.

Be sure to check how easy it is to switch between the key documents, demos, or presentations that you want prospects to remember. Also, advanced users may want to highlight certain areas, swap presenters, record meetings and create presentations “on the fly” via new online whiteboarding.

What’s most important is that you select the right online meeting tool for your needs—and that it’s a no-brainer for both you and your prospect.

7. GET REALLY GOOD AT IT

Whether scheduled or impromptu, running a flawless meeting is a skill that needs to be learned. While it may be simple to do, when you’re talking to an interested prospect on the phone it’s easy to flub things up. That’s the last thing you want to happen.

Instead, you want to come across as the true professional you are.

Here’s how you can prep for the maximum impact:

Set the stage. Sloppy desktops make you look disorganized, so get yours cleaned up. Shut down any pop-up messaging too. Or, if your tool allows, select the window-sharing option in addition to full screen sharing.

Know what’s in your virtual briefcase. Being able to quickly locate the exact document, image, PowerPoint slide or resource reflects on your professionalism.

For video meetings, it’s crucial to have appropriate surroundings, de-cluttered workspaces and good lighting. Make sure your webcam mic is clear enough; otherwise, get a headset. Put your computer at eye level so you’re looking directly at the camera. Maintaining eye contact is essential for relationship building.

Do mock meetings with your colleagues. Practice logging on, sending an invite, doing a demo, passing the presenter role and re-taking control. Once you’re proficient, have a colleague role-play someone who’s new to online meetings—like a potential customer. That way you’ll be prepared for that scenario too.

Remember, your prospects judge your competence in every interaction. This is one more opportunity to prove you’re an invaluable resource.

8. FINALISE NEXT STEPS

So now you have zeroed in on business value. You’ve asked great questions. Your prospect is highly engaged. In fact, they’re oohing and aahing about what you’ve covered. It feels like you’ve nailed it.

But have you? It’s easy to get seduced at this point—especially if prospects start asking you all sorts of detailed questions. Sometimes it’s good to put the brakes on to find out what’s really happening.

Try asking, “It sounds like you’re really interested in changing. Help me understand the business case from your perspective.”

If they can clearly articulate it, find out what the next steps are to move the decision forward. Who else needs to be involved? What criteria needs to be considered? How will it be implemented? Or, suggest what you see typically happening: “Based on my experience

working with other companies, the next step is …”

If your prospect can’t articulate the business value, you’ll need to spend more time here. Again, suggest a logical next step: “Usually, at this point, we need to (engage other individuals, do more research, etc.) to determine if it makes sense to move ahead. Let’s get that on the calendar.”

Don’t leave an online meeting without a clear action step. Know what you’re doing next and get commitment from your prospect regarding their responsibilities.

9. TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

How can you get even better leveraging impromptu online meetings? It’s great to be able to quickly jump online with a prospect, but it’s even better when you move from proficiency into mastery. Many service providers today offer the ability to record your meetings—and it’s definitely something you’ll want to take advantage of.

Initially, when you replay your meeting, you’ll find all sorts of personal flaws that will drive you nuts. You’ll hate your voice. You’ll notice every mistake. You’ll realize you weren’t looking at the camera. Note all these and work on getting better.

But then, go deeper. Ask yourself questions like:

• If you were a prospect, how would you feel?
• How was the overall flow? Did it make sense?
• Did you focus on value or get lost in the details?
• Were you able to advance the sales process? If not, what happened?
• Did you miss any important points?
• How else could you have created a better experience?

It’s a good idea to review the recording by yourself first. But that’s not sufficient if you want to really master this tool. If possible, get feedback from your colleagues or boss. Peer coaching is one of the best ways to make giant leaps in performance. Mastery is possible, especially when you get input from others.

THE KNACK OF NAILING IT

There’s great triumph in nailing an online meeting. Striking while the iron is hot enables you to quickly capitalise on an opportunity and moves you one step closer to closing the deal. It sets you apart from competitors, deepens credibility, crystallises value and builds relationships. It can even create new opportunities that didn’t exist before you said:

“Do you have a few minutes? How about we jump onto a quick online meeting?”

As we’ve shown, the key to successful impromptu online meetings is being planful and prepared— strategic spontaneity. That’s what sales agility is all about.

Start by picking just one scenario where an online meeting could add value to your sales process. Then, review the suggestions in this article, and get going. You’ll get better as you experiment with this tool. You’ll have richer interactions, greater connections and even more opportunities. Before long, you’ll be nailing it all the time too.

The post 9 Strategies To Improve Online Sales Meetings And Close More Deals appeared first on Head Of Sales.

So how can you ensure it’s a success? By studying and replicating what top sellers are doing. To start, top sellers spend lots of time preparing for this critical first meeting. They research their prospects in depth. Then, they scrutinise the research looking for ways that they can add value with their products or services.

Here are three critical reasons why most sellers don’t ever make it past the first meeting:
1. They don’t invest enough time preparing for the meeting.
2. They don’t understand the components of an effective initial sales meeting.
3. They focus on their own offering—not the prospective customer’s business needs.

For these reasons, prospective buyers will respond in the following ways:

“Thanks for your time; if we ever need one we’ll give you a call.”
“We’ll think about it and get back to you.”
“It’s not exactly what we were looking for.”

What steps are necessary to pass the first test with an important account and get invited back for a second meeting?

STEP 1 – CONDUCT PRE-MEETING RESEARCH

Prior to meeting with a prospect, it’s critical to invest time understanding their business. Start your information gathering and planning early enough to give you time to create an effective meeting plan.

Start by checking out their website. Look at the “about” section; that’s where companies list important announcements and post financial results. Read the company’s annual report to identify where they’re headed and what their future priorities are. Do an online search for recent articles about them in the press.

Then, go to LinkedIn to find out about the people you’re meeting with. What are they responsible for? Do you have any connections, interests or groups in common? Look for other people you can meet with too; you never want one person to be your sole lifeline for a sales opportunity.

If the person you’re meeting with contacted your company, check out what they’ve done on your website. Did they download any special reports, watch any videos, etc.? Use this context to plan your approach.

Here are seven things to look for while you’re doing research. They’ll help you understand your prospect’s business better.

Primary business: What industry are they in and how do they help their customers?

Business unit/division: How is the company divided? What is the role of each division? Where’s the best fit?

Market segment: Who is their target audience? What characteristics make up their ideal customer profile?

Financial position: Are they growing or shrinking? Borrowing money or cash rich?

Their customers: Who are some of their customers and what are their success stories?

Key strategic initiatives: What specific objectives are they trying to achieve?

Industry trends: What is the growth pattern in the industry? How are the buying patterns changing?

STEP 2 – DETERMINE YOUR POSITIONING

After completing your research, identify where you might have a positive impact on your targeted company. While it’s tempting to say that there’s no way to know until you have a conversation, that’s not the way it works anymore.

Today’s busy, savvy and well-educated buyers expect you to have some idea of the difference you can make prior to meeting with them. And, while you can’t know the specifics of how you can help them, by doing the research you’ll have some good ideas.

The key is to leverage what you know from working with similar companies to set the stage for your conversation and your questions. You need to bring fresh ideas, insights and information to the meeting. When you do, your prospects will be more than willing to do a needs assessment with you. But they need to know you’ve invested time learning about them before they open up to you.

Based on your research of your prospect’s organisation as well as similar companies, think about these questions:

• How are they handling things today without your product or service? What is their status quo?
• What kinds of problems or challenges might they be facing because of how they’re currently doing things?
• Because of their current status quo, what gaps might exist between where they are today versus where they want to be?
• Looking at the problems, challenges or gaps that may be present, what are the potential business implications? (This is important!)
• If this company used your products or services, what business value would they realize? (At this point, it’s a guess. But, if you’ve done your homework you should have some ideas.)
• What difference could your product or service make? (Net it out to the best of your ability, making sure you’re focused on key business drivers that your prospect is measured on.)

STEP 3 – PLAN YOUR QUESTIONS

Good questions are one of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re committed to helping your prospect achieve their goals. They show you care about them, which is important because most people think sellers only care about their commissions.

You’ll want to ask questions that:

• Uncover info about your prospect’s objectives as well as the status quo relevant to your product/services.
• Identify (or confirm) issues, problems, difficulties and obstacles they’re facing that would prevent them from achieving their goals.
• Determine the business ramifications of these challenges.
• Explore the business case for making a change

STEP 4 – DEFINE THE MEETING OUTCOME

As a result of this meeting, what is the logical next step? Research into sales success shows that if you’ve defined an appropriate desired outcome prior to the sales meeting, you’re much more likely to achieve it.

While you might want to walk away with a signed contract, the likelihood of this happening from just one meeting is slim to none. So don’t set yourself up for failure; plan on having multiple conversations from the beginning.

Think process. Today’s buyers don’t make snap purchase decisions. First they need to determine if it’s even worth the effort to change from what they’re currently doing. They’ll likely involve multiple people in this discussion. And, unless it makes good business sense, they’ll stay with the status quo.

Once people decide to change, they need to look at multiple options to ensure they make the right decision.

Use your typical buyer’s journey as a guideline for determining the appropriate and best outcome for your meeting. Here are some “next steps” that you could suggest:

• Meeting with another person involved in the buying process.
• Analysis of a specific situation or problem.
• Demonstration of your product or service.
• Proposal with your recommendations.

STEP 5 – PLAN THE MEETING AGENDA

Good meetings focus on your buyers and what’s most important to them—not your product, service or solution.

The following meeting agenda works well for both in-person or phone conversations. Thinking about what you’ll do ahead of time matters. It gets you clear on where you’re headed. It ensures that you stay on plan and on message, which is exactly what it takes to advance to the next step.

Strangely enough, it also enables you to be more flexible during the meeting. You can be curious about new information you learn, without losing track of where you’re ultimately headed.

Use this sample agenda as a guideline, not an absolute. The timeframes below assume a one-hour meeting.

(1) OPEN THE CONVERSATION (5-10 MINUTES)

Buyers don’t have a lot of time for meaningless chitchat and relationship building these days. Be cordial and friendly, but business-focused at all times.

Make the introductions

Take a few minutes to learn about the responsibilities of the people in the meeting. If others are present, make sure to introduce yourself and learn their names. Find out why they’re attending and what interests they have relative to the business issue.

Confirm times and agenda

Before you get started, double check to see if times have changed since you set up the meeting. If your prospect has to run into an urgent meeting in 30 minutes, you need to adjust your game plan or reschedule for a future time. Reconfirm the purpose of the meeting also to ensure there are no misunderstandings. You might say, “As I explained earlier, we work with high tech firms to increase brand awareness and drive sales. In our time together today, I’d like to give you a little background on how we address these issues, find out what your company is doing in these areas and see if we have grounds for further discussions. How does that sound?” Notice the professionalism and leadership in this overview. It shows that you have a clear plan for the meeting. Buyers feel better immediately; they know their precious time won’t be wasted.

(2) LEAD THE DISCUSSION (40-45 MINUTES)

You want to create a dialogue—not make a pitch. Lay the groundwork by sharing information of high interest to your prospects. Then invite them into a discussion by asking questions that make them think.

Set the stage (5 minutes)

Your prospects will need more grounding about what your company does than the brief one-sentence description given above. When you arranged the meeting, something you said was enticing to this person.

Now is the opportune time to give a brief overview of the business results a specific client achieved with your product, service or solution. Explain the challenge your customer faced, how you helped them, and the results they achieved. Also share your position statement—your insightful ideas on how you can make a positive impact on their business.

Transition to questions (less than 1 minute)

As quickly as you can, shift the focus to your prospect—where it belongs. To do this, simply say, “That should give you a good overview about how we help our customers solve their problems (or achieve their objectives). The most important thing is to find out if this makes sense for your company. In preparing for today’s meeting, I noticed that (insert data re: company’s direction, trigger event, other info uncovered in research). I was wondering how …” Unless you plan your transition, it’s sometimes hard to stop talking—especially if your prospect is goading you on with questions about your product or service. Please realize that this most likely means they’re trying to rule you out. That’s why you need to lead the conversation and why effective transitions are so crucial.

Focus on business issues (35-40 minutes)

Prior to the meeting develop a minimum of ten insightful, powerful questions you can use to lead a business-focused discussion. Decision makers are always interested in talking about their business.

They wouldn’t be taking time to meet with you unless they truly wanted help solving their problems or achieving their goals.

Have the questions handy so you can refer to them. Your prospect will be impressed by how well you’ve prepared for the meeting. But don’t give them the list of questions or they’ll just rattle off the answers.

Ask your questions in a conversational manner—not like a schoolteacher giving an oral test. Questions build relationships, establish rapport, demonstrate your competence and show that you care.

Remember, this is a discussion—not a sales pitch. Listen to their answers. Be interested. Learn as much as you can. Take copious notes of everything that’s said —not just the parts you find interesting.

Always LEAN BACK. The moment you move forward, you’re pitching. The discussion is over and the push is on. Your prospect immediately puts up defensive barriers and raises objections. Getting the sale is going to be infinitely harder unless you immediately recover and get back into the discovery mode.

(3) ADVANCE THE PROCESS (5 – 10 MINUTES)

When you focus on questions, your one-hour meeting flies by. Even if your prospect seems oblivious to the time, it’s important not to overstay your welcome. Draw attention to the clock. See if you’re invited to stay longer. If not, it’s time to wrap up and advance to the logical next step.

Summarise your understanding

Since it usually takes multiple sales meetings to close a deal, don’t try to share everything you know, ask every question you want answered or hand out every piece of collateral in your briefcase at the initial meeting.

Instead, show your professional expertise by summarizing what you learned about their critical business issues and the value of resolving them.

Do not, under any circumstances, get into a discussion about your product or service. This will be the hardest thing in the whole world for you to do, but it’s essential. Remember, buyers don’t really care about your offering—only what it can do for them. They also realize that in a short one-hour meeting, you can’t possibly offer them a well thought out solution. They don’t expect one.

Suggest the logical next step

Then, without making a big deal of it, simply recommend a good option to move the process forward. This is the logical next step you were working toward from the onset.

You might say, “Usually when I work with companies on product introductions, the next step is to have a conversation with the product manager to get a better understanding of the launch plans already in place and where gaps might exist. Can we get a meeting set up with this person in the next couple weeks?”

If you’ve had a good discussion, it’s highly likely that your prospect will have already suggested a next step. If so, great! Get it on the calendar.

If your prospect missed an important step, offer it up as another idea: “Ms. Biggie, I’ll get going on your recommendation right away. Also, based on my experience, we need to talk with the IT department as well. Can we get that set up, too?”

Ending meetings like this advances the sales process to its next logical step. It’s honest and full of integrity. It’s just simply suggesting the next logical thing that you both need to do to determine if your offering is a good fit for their business.

The post 5 Steps To Master Sales Meetings appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Here are key insights from the study.

1. A Clear Brand Promise.

People often make a buying decision with their heart, and then try to justify it with logic afterwards. In sales emotions matter and it is important that we send out a very clear message to our prospects about our customers’ experience.

60% of respondents do not have a clear brand promise.

2. Well-defined Products And Services

Sales organisations have trouble articulating to their customers exactly what they are trying to sell to them. Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services which poses the question – are we confident that our Prospects and Customers understand our products and services right from the start?

Half of all respondents do not have a clear definition of their products or services.

3. A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) And Killer Business Introduction (KBI).

Your value proposition must be more than a mere motherhood statement, such as: “We really care”. Instead, it needs to be hugely credible and must easily distinguish your business from that of your competitors, and you need to be able to back your statement up with evidence.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition with which to attract and engage their ideal customers. This often creates a huge top-of-the funnel problem with insufficient sales leads and poor conversion rates.

80% of respondents do not have an effective selling proposition.

What is your Unique Selling Proposition? I.e. can we clearly state what makes our business and its offerings unique, and why a buyer should absolutely be interested in what we do? What makes us and our business different from that of our competitors?

4. Who is my ideal customer?

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are. This often results in poor prospecting results and wasted lead generation efforts, leading to frustrations and low morale.

Just under half of all respondents are unsure of who their ideal customers are.

There is little point in engaging with the wrong kind of prospects. You are better off engaging with the right kind instead.

How clear are we on what our ideal customers look like, in terms of industry sector, size of their business, their geographic location, job title, their challenges, their opportunities, their ambitions and motivations, etc.?

5. Where do I find an ideal prospect?

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients. This creates problems with prospect engagement, poor sales quota attainment and loss of market share.

More than 60% of respondents are unsure of WHERE to find their ideal clients.

6. Access and engage the effectively.

A combined total of more than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation. This is THE KEY CHALLENGE IN SALES TODAY. Ineffective prospect engagement kills your pipeline, waists your sales leads and creates an army of unimpressed prospects for your brand.

More than 80% of respondents do not know HOW to engage their ideal customers in a sales conversation.

Once you know WHO your ideal customers are, and WHERE you can find them, the question turns to HOW to engage them in a meaningful way that draws them into a sales conversation.

7. Skills to eliminate competitors

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors. This results in too many lost deals that should have been won, unpredictable forecasting and messy pipelines.

More than 70% of respondents say they are ill-equipped to fend off their competitors.

Let’s say you successfully engaged with a prospect. You are in the running now to win this deal. However, very rarely will you be the only seller in this race. Instead, you will most likely have to beat off any number of competitors.

How good are we at fending off our competitors, and ending up our Buyers’ one and only choice?

8. Using a sales proposal process to close more deals

There is often a degree of confusion between the sales proposal content and the sales proposal process. Sure, what goes into a sales proposal is important, but the way it is presented is also critical to its success.

More than 70% of respondents say they do not have a sales proposal process to help them win more business.

9. A superior pre, during and post-purchase customer experience

Most businesses understand how mission-critical the customer experience is to the success of a business at every step of the way. But do we really know how well, or how poorly, we are doing in that regard?

70% of respondents don’t seem to be fully focused on their customers.

Is this something they just don’t take seriously in their business? Is it a matter of culture? Is it a matter of leadership? Are the wrong KPIs and metrics driving this behaviour?

10. Keep customers loyal, win repeat business and to turn them into advocates

The experience our customers have with us does not end with a purchase or a transaction. The post-sale experience is critical insofar as it will determine whether they will choose to come back to do more business with us, or not.

Just under 60% of respondents admit that they do not have the ability to turn their turn customers into repeat customers and advocates who refer new business.

Will your customers rave about you, or will they rant? Is their experience a pleasant one that will make them recommend you to their friends and colleagues? Or is it one that will more likely make them warn people off doing business with you?

Conclusion

No business should rest on its laurels, there is always room for improvement.

Real leaders are not afraid to admit they don’t know something and that they can always learn something new.

Real leaders are not afraid to ask for external help, advice and guidance.

The report clearly shows that there are enormous untapped opportunities for improvement, to lift sales, to give customers a better experience, and to grow the business.

What are you going to do about it?

The post 10 Costly Mistakes In Sales Engagement appeared first on Head Of Sales.

Without knowing the questions – it is difficult to know how you are going to help them.

Before you do any of these steps, you must have this foundation to start:

1. You need to be sold on what you are selling. You need to know the value to the client.
2. You are practiced in each step so that its natural. You are being your authentic self.

There are two different stages of questions.

Stage 1: Qualifying Questions

The time for qualifying questions is when you are calling out/prospecting and you are determining if they are in the market for your offer.

1. You’ve done enough homework to identify this client may well need your solution.
2. Your intention is to show 1) you are out to help them and 2) when they are ready to be helped, you are the ‘go to’ person – the trusted advisor.
3. You understand you will need to frame why you are calling. They were not expecting you, they don’t know you, the problem must not be on their mind right now.
4. You have a clear, precise elevator pitch which explains what your solution does.
5. You are calm, reasonable and rational. You are speaking clearly and at the right pace.
6. Your question pool is large. You will draw in the most relevant questions at the time along the lines of these types of ‘other clients have found/statement & solution’ questions:

• Many of our clients are reporting problems with areas A, B, and C. How are these areas affecting you? What do you think about them?
• Some people are doing … as that’s the easiest or the way they know best. Have you considered another solution?
• Sometimes we find other people in your industry may be having problems with [insert a couple of pain points]. Is this the case with you or your company?
• How is your current solution working out, on a scale of 1-10? (10 being perfect, 1 being ‘it’s not working out’.) Ensure you are having two-way conversations by this point.
• What concerns do you have about switching/implementing a new solution?
• If you would like other ideas, solutions on how to improve – reduce costs, create time, make money, be efficient – I’m here and happy to assist. I’ve been working in this area for X years and know all the different options available to you to make your life easier.
• What are your thoughts on what needs to happen to improve/make progress/change?

1. You realise they may not be ready with the answers, have patience. Don’t answer your own questions or give multiply choice!
2. You are 100% present – you’re able to listen carefully to everything they are saying.
3. You take detailed notes.
4. The flow naturally moves to the next stage (channel two) which may progress then or further down the line – this is the exploration stage.
5. You are not quick to take a no. If they do actually need what you have but the timing is out – then the timing is out. Ensure you leave the conversation positive with something like: ‘If it’s not right for you right now, I’m happy to send over my email and a top line of how we can help. And then when you are ready to tackle that we can reconnect.’
6. Don’t take things personally. 99% of outbound prospecting is all about timing. Smile, breathe, be grateful for the opportunity to serve more people and get on the phone to the next person you might be able to help.

Stage 2: Exploration Questions

This is when you are certain they are in the market for what you have. You may have had some previous engagement and they are aware of you and know that they want a solution to a problem.

1. You’ve identified they appear to fit your ideal client profile.
2. Your intention is to a) help them and b) be seen as the trusted advisor and solution provider.
3. You are calm, reasonable and rational. Speaking clearly and going at the pace of the client.
4. Ask open ended, investigating, specific and clarify questions. These questions allow you to delve deeper with that prospect, ascertaining everything about their needs, wants, desires, beliefs etc so you can see how your solution can serve them. The questions will likely include:

• Walk me through: how you are currently doing xyz, or explain how this works…
• How: How long have you had the problem? How have you gone about fixing it? How does your team feel about …? How does X feel about the issue? …
• What: What do you think the solution is? What do you know about the different solutions available? What is your timing? What happened when you tried X? What are you looking for? What does success look like?
• When: When did it start? When did that happen? When did X do that? When this took place what was the result? When are you looking to get it solved or started?
• If: If this was to be a solution what would that mean? If you were to allow yourself to run a ‘best case’ scenario (regardless of any restrictions like money, time, effort etc) what would that be? Why would you say that? How close are you to that now? If you were to fast-forward to 18 months from now, what will you be doing differently?
• Closed questions:
  • Have: Have you tried anything before/Have you considered…?
  • Which: do you prefer X or Y, and ‘why’
  • Did: you enjoy zyx
  • Do: you prefer x or z

5. You are 100% present – you’re totally engrossed in what they are talking about. You are aware of what they are saying, doing, getting excited or concerned about. You are noting their language, their beliefs, their knowledge on the problem and its fixes, the urgency, timing, key decision makers, what they think will fix it.

6. You understand they will be doing most of the talking.

7. You take detailed notes.

8. The flow naturally moves to the next stage which is further exploration, meeting further individuals in that business and the sale.

Questions are the key. If there is one area we ask leaders to train their team on its all about seek to understand.  This means have a pool of many questions so you can keep that client discussing the situation—so you know how you can best serve them.

The post Questions To Qualify A Prospect appeared first on Head Of Sales.

They will stop to question whether they should proceed with the purchase or abort the mission. In other words, they will object. Sometimes the objections are totally legitimate, and sometimes they’re completely absurd, but salespeople have to resolve them nonetheless. Otherwise, a promising sale will come to a screeching halt.

‘Objection handling’ is therefore a topic that is commonly found in sales training programs. The more prepared salespeople are to handle objections, the more comfortably and confidently they can discharge them. This training will often describe the most frequent objections that sellers can expect to encounter and then provide them with thoughtful responses to appease the buyers’ concerns. For instance:

Common Objection: Your price is way higher than your competitor’s.

Thoughtful Response: Yes, I’ve heard that from other customers as well, but once they saw the richness of our features, they totally understood how our product is superior to the competitor’s and why the marginally higher cost is justified by a greater return on investment.

Objection-handling skills are very important and useful, but some of the supposed wisdom that gets dispensed on the topic is laughable. One of my favourites is: ‘It is a great sign when customers raise objections, because it shows that they’re interested.’ Umm … maybe. I think when customers raise objections, it shows that they don’t like something about the salesperson or the product. A much better sign is when they don’t object at all. That means that the salesperson and the product are both doing their jobs.

Another classic gem is: ‘The best way to handle an objection is just to ignore it, because the buyer will either forget they raised it, or they’ll answer the objection themselves in their mind.’ Umm … no. If your buyer raises an objection and you don’t address it, it’s not going away—it’s just going unresolved. It will resurface later in the sales cycle and sink your chances of winning the deal, while you excitedly update your sales forecast to reflect the smooth sales call you just conducted. I sometimes try to ignore the weeds that grow in my lawn, but they never seem to go away. Instead, they tend to grow bigger despite my proactive neglect.

And this leads me to my all-time favorite insane approach to ‘handling’ objections. In fact, it is the exact opposite of the ‘ignore it’ strategy. This one states: ‘Address all possible objections before your customer has the chance to raise them.’ Then your customer’s mind will be carefree, and those pesky objections won’t interfere with the rest of your sale. Yeah, right.

The Worst Practice

Management consultants are frequently asked to ‘shadow’ salespeople in the field. In other words, you follow the sellers around and observe them in their natural environment, hoping to gain some insight into their skills or behaviours. It was during one of these shadowing exercises that I first encountered the dubious strategy of frontloading a sales call with all potential objections.

I was riding around with a well-regarded salesperson for a software company. On this particular day, he had an important meeting with a prospect that he’d been pursuing for several months. The meeting was with a team of mid-level managers who had been chosen to evaluate solution providers and narrow the field to two options for their executive team to then interview. Therefore, this was a critical point in the sales cycle—if the salesperson messed up this meeting, he would be knocked out of contention.

The seller and I were discussing his plan for the meeting over breakfast that morning:

Me: So, do you mind sharing with me your agenda for today’s big sales call?

Seller: Sure. I’ll open the meeting with introductions, since I haven’t met a few of the people who will be in the room. I’ll introduce myself and then ask them to introduce themselves, telling me what they’d like to accomplish during our time together.

Me: Sounds good.

Seller: Then I’ll take five or ten minutes to address several objections that they’ll have.

Me: What objections? You will have done only the introductions at this point in the meeting. What kind of objections could they possibly raise to introductions?

Seller: No, no, no. Of course they won’t have raised any objections at that point, but I always like to go ahead and address the objections that I know they’re going to have.

Me: So, you’re going to raise their objections for them?

Seller: Sure. People always have the same objections, so I just handle them up front. That way we can get them out of the way, and they don’t sit there with the objections festering in their minds. You know, kill the monster while it’s small. That way it doesn’t grow into something you can’t defeat.

Me [willing to learn something new]: Okay. Let’s see how it goes.

True to his plan, the salesperson opened the meeting with a round of introductions and wrote the attendees’ goals for the meeting on a flip chart. He then launched his pre-emptive strike.

Seller: So I thought I would begin by addressing some of the concerns that you probably have regarding our company and our products.

The buyers cocked their heads slightly to the side as they looked at the salesperson standing in front of them. Clearly this was not the agenda item that they were expecting to hear immediately after the introductions.

Seller: Many people are concerned about the small size of our company relative to our much larger competitors. In fact, this will be an advantage to you if we earn your business, because we will assign a senior team to you that will be much more capable, attentive, and responsive than our competitors can provide you.

I noted a few nods around the table. Perhaps this was actually a good strategy?

Seller: You might also find that the pricing I’m going to show you toward the end of the meeting will be higher than you expect. You should know that we offer a superior product that commands a premium in the marketplace. This too should be comforting to you, because you will be purchasing the absolute best-in-class solution.

I’m pretty sure I observed shock on the face of at least one attendee. They surely didn’t see that one coming so early in the conversation.

Seller: And a few customers have told me that they found stories online questioning the security of our technology. I can assure you that our technology is as secure as any of our competition’s. In fact, I’d be happy to put you in touch with several of our current customers who have extensively tested our product and will attest to its bullet-proof security protocols.

At least two of the attendees started taking notes after this revelation. I assume they were making reminders to do some online research on the product’s security flaws. Apparently this was a hot news flash to them.

So it went for another five minutes. The salesperson must have ‘handled’ at least a half dozen objections that the buyers may or may not have had before he raised them. He told me afterward that he was happy to have killed all those monsters while they were still small, though I suspect they were small because he’d given birth to them right there in that room.

His stated strategy was to clear the buyers’ minds of all their latent objections so they could pay closer attention to his message. To the contrary, he appeared to have burdened them with a collection of new concerns to hold in reserve for later consideration. That, coupled with their general surprise at his unprovoked defensive stand, set a strange tone for the entire discussion. They seemed to be judging him for the remainder of the meeting, trying to decide if he was the most honest salesperson they had ever met, or just the stupidest. Either way, no sale was made.

I suggested to him that future monster slayings might be better placed at the end of the sales call, rather than the beginning. He disagreed. I can’t help but wonder how many of his prospects have stared at him in similar puzzlement throughout his career. Regardless, I’ve never seen anyone else open a sales call by turning a weapon on himself—inflicting potentially fatal wounds to his sale, not to tiny monsters.

The Good Ideas

Good Idea 1: Don’t Assume You Know What Buyers Are Thinking

Part of the sales challenge is to uncover buyers’ needs, so you can then try to satisfy them. As a corollary, you also have to uncover their objections, so you can try to dispel them. But you can’t pretend to know what your prospects are thinking—you have to ask them questions to uncover the truth. Making assumptions about their state of mind or their state of affairs is high-risk behavior. Behavior that will cost you sales.

Good Idea 2: Never Raise Objections on Behalf of Buyers

During the course of a sale, there will be plenty of forces campaigning against you—ferocious competitors, skeptical buyers, and market detractors, just to name a few. Don’t join their team. There’s nothing to be gained by printing your own bad press. Raising objections on behalf of your prospects won’t make you appear more proactive or credible. It will just make you appear more objectionable.

Sales Insanity by Cannon Thomas is a mind-blowing compilation of actual sales blunders made by real people in real businesses being real stupid. Every salesperson and business leader must read this excerpt but who is Cannon Thomas… really? It’s not his real name and I managed to uncover his identity and then obtain his permission to share some of the insanity in this article. He is one of the best sales consultants on the planet. I hope you enjoyed this almost unbelievable true story and if you think you know who he really is, send me an InMail and I’ll confirm.

The post Is Pre-empting An Objection, Genius Or Insanity? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

We have a heightened sense of awareness when interacting, meaning our ability to stay close and keep pace with the client is easier, as is guiding them along and ensuring we uncover all their needs.

We can see if they are excited, confused, worried, if they are nodding in agreement or pondering a thought. We can read if they are processing. Silences are comfortable on video conferencing. In ‘real life’ being next to a client, there is a natural ebb and flow in the conversation. There are natural pauses. On the telephone we may be less confident in reading any of this and the lack of visual cues can make some people uncomfortable, panicky and usually inclined to speak too much.

Swapping the phone for the screen will be the best decision you’ll ever make.

1. Get intimate

Intimate with a platform that is. Whether its Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, Cisco, Google Meet, or another – you need to know it really well. You need to be confident in knowing how to set up an appointment, how to share the screen, how to get it on gallery view and ‘manage’ the meeting.

2. Practice

Simply essential and yet so few people do it. You absolutely have to practice navigating yourself around the platform. Showcasing your solution. Look at the display, how are they viewing you in your setting? Are you clearly visible, well lit, do you need a background? Sharing a screen, is your desktop tidy? Is it easy to flip from you chatting to showing them something and back again? Is the sound OK? What distractions are there at your end and how can you manage them? Practice at least 3 times so that you can be confident.

3. Amend your intention

Up to now your intention may have been to get your client onto a phone call, and now it’s to shift them onto video conferencing. There’s a reason I say do steps #1 and #2 first: it’s so that you are confident to transfer your client from phone to video conferencing. If you skip the groundwork in #1 and #2 you will be less successful in persuading your client to jump on Video Conferencing as you yourself would be uncertain of your abilities. Set out with a clear intention that ‘face time’ is more beneficial.

4. When is the right time to use VC?

I would say almost all the time. Some people use it only at the ‘I’m showing you my solution’ stage but I think the most important message you want to give your client throughout is that you are the trusted advisor. You want them to feel that as soon as you can, therefore get ‘face time’ at least a few times during your exploration of their situation, and then absolutely again when you pitch how your solution will serve them.

5. Get the client onboard Video Conferencing

OK, so now you need to ensure you are very clear as to what is in it for your client when they jump on VC. You’re fully aware of the benefit to you – but clients are not after that, they need to know the value to them. VC is a slightly higher bar to scale than a phone call. For most hopping on a call is seamless and easy. Clients even carry that device around in their pocket so they can call or be called at anytime. VC on the other hand requires some planning, clients need to feel presentable and not multi-task.

Draw up a list of why instead of a phone call, VC is better for them, peel off a powerful sentence and use it. You need a compelling reason, so they want to engage and want to listen. Practice your sentences, as you need to sound confident, in control and certain (not desperate and needy).

6. Be slick

Not often I say that, but I mean you shouldn’t be making a big deal about jumping on a video call. I often email a client back with ‘great, I can chat then, here is a zoom link if you are able to jump on, makes it easier to show a few things I think may be of value’. You have to reduce or eliminate the mental barrier and make it seamless, obvious and natural as then you project same. Reduce the font size when copying and pasting the essential meeting link details, removing any of the unnecessary information. I’m implying, this is easy, jump on.

7. Be prepared

Practice. Sit tall. Ensure you look act and behave professionally. Do you have food in your teeth? Removed all distractions. Turned off your phone. Turn off your computer notifications (no ‘pinging’ when an email arrives). Check you have a professional looking background in your room and you have got the lighting on your face (being backlit is a sure way to look dodgy). Remember you are building trust here! You have all the videos, content, material etc. that you may require either easily accessible or already minimised on your desktop. Your desktop is clear and organised.

If you are showcasing your wares and sharing the screen, let’s quickly discuss your desktop image. Consider if it’s a new client and you are scratching around for a rapport then you could use your own desktop to create some banter (well, that depends on what it is – keep it professional!). If not, best to be plain – the focus and attention needs to be on you and what you are showcasing, not on the zebras crossing the savannah.

8. Be sold

Being sold or not sold on your solution is going to come across in your posture, voice and language. It will come across in the questions you ask them and how you welcome questions back. Most notably it will be in what you say and how you say it. You need to be sold on what you are selling plus the investment (the cost). If in doubt, get someone else to explain. You need to be 100%, upside-down, inside-out certain of the value it will bring them. You also need to know where else they can get a similar solution and what the differences are.

9. Keep their engagement

If you want to keep your client’s engagement this is what you need to do… EARN IT!!

a. How do you earn it – make it about them! Get them talking, they are then a participant, an active contributor in a two-way conversation and not a passive observer being ‘talked at’.

b. Give them your full attention. When someone is in rapport with you, they will match you. So, if you permit distractions, it’s saying they too can allow distractions. So, no looking away to a different screen for notes – even looking down at a note pad can be swapped for touch typing on a word doc which is placed up near the camera.

c. The camera is your friend, stop looking at yourself, rather keep eye contact with your client. It’s OK, you look fabulous.

d. Make the interaction all about them, ask them questions, listen – be present – ask more questions, seek to understand their situation. Ensure the order and sequence of selling is intelligent questions first, listen to understand, listen some more then lastly, pitch your perfectly aligned solution. You don’t know what they need, want or desire until they have explained that, so you need to be all ears and no mouth.

e. Prepare as if it’s a face-to-face presentation (which it is) in other words, if something you were going to show the client now isn’t applicable (as you have just gathered further intel about their situation) then dump it. You should have a tight compelling reason for them to use your services. Anything that doesn’t fit needs to go or it becomes distracting. This means you are adapting as you go.

f. Heighten your awareness. Read what they are saying and what they are asking. Observe when did they lean in or lean back, when and how did they ponder and consider what you said?

g. They need to be 100% sold if they are to sell it onto someone else. They need to be your ambassador if they are to get someone else to ‘buy’ into it. So, check your timing and don’t rush off the VC call. Too many people leave the ‘selling’ to the email. Whilst on a VC call you have 100% of their attention so ensure they have bought in to you and your solution.

h. Is it appropriate to record the call? That’s up to you. If you check that the client is OK, then flick it on. Whilst it does mean you can go back and learn from the conversation, it also means you will double up on time, so choose wisely who you do this with.

i. Be professional. How you act, behave and communicate is going to be what they are buying into. If you say you are going to do something, then do it. You are saying ‘I’m reliable, I’m going to do what I said I’m going to do’.

10. Post VC

If your VC meeting was an exploration, review your notes, and if you recorded the meeting download and review it. You may cringe at how you sounded. Watch it again, learn this time, see what you may have missed and call them back. Get as much exploration as you can before you send over a final solution.

If the VC meeting was delivering your solution, then ensure you follow up with appropriate notes, answering questions and clarifying the offer. Be timely on this. You are, at all times, demonstrating that you are efficient and effective.

Considering ‘sales’ is really just a normal conversation where they need something and you have that something, the conversation should flow organically through to a sale. The conversations should be seamless and natural. If they don’t have a response for you straight away, then hopefully the engagement has been such that they will openly tell you what’s happening next.

Learn and improve each time. Smile, we are lucky to have this technology.

The post Video Conferencing – 10 Practical Tips appeared first on Head Of Sales.

(1) What is your posture saying about you?

The way you feel will govern your posture and subsequently the energy you bring into a call. Once you’ve cultivated a positive mindset, and thanks to the pre-call preparation are feeling ready and confident, your posture will reflect the same, i.e. straightened, shoulders back, open hearted and positive.

So, take a moment to notice your posture. Is it upright, allowing you to breathe easily and fill your lungs, adding to your motivation and enthusiasm? If so, great – continue to the next point. If not, don’t try to force it. It won’t feel or sound natural, and your client will notice. Head back to the mindset and pre-call preparation sections to take a look at what’s impacting you and causing the slump.

Positive mindset = positive posture.

(2) Be your authentic self

Perhaps you have a colleague or mentor who’s ‘really good at sales’, and you feel you need to be more like them to succeed. Unfortunately, trying to ‘be like them’ will feel forced and uncomfortable – and your customer will pick that up. The same is true if you read from a script. Instead, aim to be your authentic self – your best, most professional genuine self – as you focus on understanding your client. If you’ve done the work on mindset from the first section and the preparations for each call from the second section, being authentic will come naturally and effortlessly.

Be the best version of yourself.

(3) Aim to help and rapport will follow

One of the biggest challenges of telephone sales skills is building rapport. Your ability to use body language and your physical surroundings to develop a relationship is temporarily out of reach.

Be fully present and engrossed in your calls. Turn off your emails, notifications and everything else on your computer and phone so you can focus. Start each call with a commitment to serve them, help them and be a solution provider. Rapport will then naturally happen, and the conversation will flow.

Rapport happens when you are genuinely focused on helping them.

(4) Know your intent for the call

Take another moment before you dial to get clear on what exactly is your purpose for the call:
• Are you trying to build a long-term relationship?
• Create credibility?
• Help the customer to buy from you today?
Whatever it is, make sure your intent is rooted in understanding them better and their needs, so you can help them. To do this, picture yourself next to them, on the same side as them. This visualisation helps set your motivation for the call to being one of integrity and genuine help. You’ll naturally emit that sincerity to your client through your words and tone of voice. They will see you as the trusted advisor and the solution provider.

Set clear intentions before every call.

(5) Take notes throughout the call

Jot down as much as you can of what your client tells you. Taking notes can help you stay focused on what they’re saying, and saves you having to keep information in a ‘holding pattern’ in your brain. You will be aware of their language and what they keep emphasising. It assists with confirming their pain points. Your notes form an essential guide for any follow-on email or proposal you send to the client after the call.

Stay focused by taking notes.

(6) Be aware of your voice

Don’t be over enthusiastic, you’ll just sound manic.

The untrained (unpracticed) voice speeds up and goes higher in pitch.
Being genuine is essential. Talk to your customer in a voice that’s authentically ‘you’ – the you who’s in your calmest, clearest, most reasonable and rational state. Convey your maturity, your trusted leadership status – someone your client can rely on to offer good advice and have their best interests at heart.

Find your most natural voice with the right mindset.

(7) Know your opening hooks

Hooks mean you are engaging the client with a tailored opening which is of interest to them. Pick something from your research and have it as your opener, ‘John, I see that you are using xyz for… just thought I would reach out as my company provides clients with this xyz solution meaning they can quickly get this … result’.
You have 10 seconds to make an impact. Hooks are essential for cold calling. Make it interesting and different if you can.

Hooks get the client intrigued and engaged.

(8) Connect authentically with gatekeepers

‘Gatekeepers’ and your client are one. We need to stop thinking of them as separate entities.
They have been charged with protecting the decision makers’ time, because many reps simply ‘spray and pray’ their features and benefits with no specific connection between what they have to sell and what the decision maker may need. You are different. So, everything you do, and every interaction you have, needs to demonstrate how different you are. That’s why connecting meaningfully with gatekeepers is an incredibly important skill. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘working around them’ or even thinking of them negatively, as that will reflect adversely in your interaction and on you.
Respect their job and consider pitching to them. They are determining who gets to talk to the decision maker, so you want to make sure you create and leave the right impression.
Believe that your client contact will want to engage with you because you know you can help them. Remember, you want to be seen as a calm, confident, trusted advisor.

Be respectful and genuine with gatekeepers.

(9) Know what not to say

As well as knowing what to say we also need to be aware of what not to say. Watch your language.

• “I know you are busy” (why remind them, this sounds like you have no value in what you sell)

• “Doesn’t sound like now is a good time” (why project your opinion of when is a good time onto the client)

• “It’s tough out there” (sure way to remind them to close their pocket and be risk adverse)

• “I’ll call back when you’re not so busy” (get them to tell you this, don’t you tell them that)

• “I’m finding it hard; the kids are driving me mad, how about you” (our personal life is now ‘tripping’ over into professional life, call up a friend and have that whine – rather let the professional you impress a client)

• “Sorry to bother you” (devaluing yourself)

• “Yes, you probably should be cautious and only get six of those”

• “If you’re not sure what’s coming up, why not only get a few now and we can always top you up later”

Be aware of what you are projecting onto the client.

(10) Less talking, more listening

To truly understand your customer, you need THEM to be doing the talking.
This starkly contrasts with what most salespeople do: they land up doing all the talking! They talk ‘at’ a client, ‘telling’ them what they need without actually knowing if it is indeed what the client needs.

Master being curious, investigative and intrigued. To provide the right solution and really get to grips with their situation, you have to pose the right questions. Ideally you need to have crafted and comfortably practiced a minimum of 100+ questions. Why? Because you never know where the conversation may go. If you’ve only prepared a few questions you will push your clients down your own question path missing out on valuable information.

A great sales call is when the salesperson is asking relevant questions and the client is doing around 90% of the talking. The salesperson will be listening, understanding the situation to now know / propose the right solution.
Your mantra is ‘Seek to understand’.

That way you will know how you can help and give the compelling reason(s) to buy your solution, aligning what they need with what you have.
Open questions are best at getting them discussing their situation, they will give you insightful answers that can help you understand them better.
You need to always go with what question feels natural and right at the time. It needs to be relevant and meaningful. Throughout the conversation it’s imperative you be mentally present.

Watch what you are asking (I.e. not overstepping the mark in your relationship with intense questions about their business if you don’t know them well enough or they don’t yet see you as the trusted advisor e.g. how much money that will make you). Basically, if it feels right to ask – it probably is, if it feels wrong – it probably is. If they are an introvert, then make it easy for them to chat, ‘walk me through’ is more appealing than ‘talk me through’.

Example open questions:
• Walk me through…
• What did you find was working well on [blah de blah]?
• Where does this fit [blah de blah], into the future?
• How would you describe your experience with … [blah de blah]?
• How does [blah de blah] work?
• When this situation happens, [blah de blah], what happens?
• What would be most helpful for you to know about [blah de blah] right now?
• How will your team manage this situation over the next 6 months?
• How will they handle this challenge?
• What are your main concerns or questions about [product/service]?
• What persuaded you to call us today/use someone else’s solution?
• If this [blah de blah] happened, how would that roll out?
• And why was that /why is that/why? (I’m assuming your tone and intent is honourable and as the trusted advisor here – not interrogational).

If your call is to a new client, then the first questions you ask will be ones to get them talking, so choose intriguing yet easy questions for them to comfortably talk with and open up to you.

A ‘hard’ opening question will put them off and they will divert and say they are busy. I.e. saying ‘how does the next 6 months look?’, would be suitable for a client who knows you, but unlikely to land well as one of your opening questions if cold calling, coming across as too hard and too personal.

Your mantra is ‘seek to understand’.

(11) Are you really listening?

A lot of the time we are too busy focusing on what we want to say, instead on what the client is saying. Really listen to what they are saying. You need to be 100% present. Clients will know if you are in a bubble with them or just thinking of your next thing to say.

You need to be aware if you come into a call with judgement and a predetermined outcome. We assume. This needs to be acknowledged and released, for you to be truly present.

Drop the assumptions and really listen.

(12) Observe and adapt

No two customers are the same, so you shouldn’t be saying the same thing to each of them. They have different needs, wants, motivations and beliefs. Pay attention to how each one responds to your questions, and then constantly adapt so that the conversation makes sense to them. It should always be relevant and meaningful.

Your questions, pitch and compelling message should be adapted for each call.

(13) The biggest hurdle on the call

Processing styles, recognising and adapting to them, is the biggest call hurdle we face. For example, some clients will process their thoughts outwardly and ‘talk them through’, while others will silently process things internally. When we are with someone, we can literally see this process take place. If you tend to process your thoughts outwardly you may be inclined to fill those conversational silences on the other end of the phone, by jumping in and repeating or giving multiple choice answers. Be aware of your style and then ensure you master patience. The call should naturally have pauses, ebbs, flows and gaps. These permit moments of mutual reflection and contemplation. The calmer you are, the calmer the call will be and allow the client space and time to think.

Ensure you allow space in the conversation, giving your clients time to process their thoughts.

14. Educate your customer

While your customer knows more than anyone else about themselves and their problems, it is YOU who knows more about what your offering can do for them. So educate them. Educating your client over the phone comes down to how well you craft your sentences. Now, what you say and how you say it, has to both sell your product or solution to the person you’re speaking with, as well as enable them to similarly relay and sell it on correctly to others in their organisation, their own clients or the end user. Building mini stories starting with phrases such as ‘others have found that…’ give your clients the exact phrase to easily sell it on.

Make it easy for your client to educate others.

(15) Excite your customer so they block out distractions

As you speak to your client, notice any obvious distractions that come up – either in the conversation, or in their background. Are they working in a space that’s completely different to their pre-crisis norm?

Those distractions may affect their ability to be present with you – however, there is no need for you to become distracted! Once you have a great hook with intrigue and master quickly showing your call value to them, they will be immersed in the conversation with you and ignore any distractions.

Keep your client engaged.

(16) Over empathising can be costing you business

Some of us are quick to empathise. We have been taught it’s a good thing.

If your mindset is negative, you’ll miss out on the positive signals and inadvertently reduce your clients spend. This over-empathising with them may seem a way to build relationships but agreeing with anyone’s negative state closes them down to hearing your solution. It sends them into a cautious, let’s batten down the hatches, risk adverse place. Don’t join them in the ditch!

Instead, you should listen until they’ve emptied everything out and then focus on a positive or promising aspect of what they’ve said (unless of course, they’re tearful… in which case, you’re better off just listening for now).

Be optimistic and your client will be too.

(17) Agree on a specific next action

On some sales calls, the ‘next action’ might be overtly asking for the sale – clearly, directly, and with certainty that the client wants to go ahead. On other calls, you might need to arrange a follow-up conversation with them. It may be that they need a proposal pinpointing how your solution solves their pain points.

By the time you’re at this stage of the call, you’ll have understood their situation, offered the perfect solution (delivered in a way that makes sense to them) and it’s a flow from prospect to client. The next action you’re seeking isn’t an answer to the question of ‘do you want to go ahead?’ Rather, it’s a movement sentence continuing the relationship. This conversation at the end of the call should be a logical and natural step.

For some salespeople they find that sentence tricky, so here are a few examples.
By the way, it’s ideal if the client has already been answering ‘yes’ to your questions just before, as then they are on a ‘roll’ of saying yes.

Movement sentences like these below can be particularly useful.
• ‘OK, we can get that happening by Friday. You ready to give it the go-ahead?’
• ‘Sounds like we’re ready to make it happen. Let’s get started’
• ‘Janet would like to get the backend of this lined up today. You ok with that?

Use movement sentences to glide from prospect to client.

(18) Trying to upsell?

Watch what you are thinking. Upselling can imply ‘pushing’ a product onto someone, whereas when your intent is to ‘seek to understand’ and ‘help’, you’ll naturally ask more relevant questions and find out more. It then becomes an obvious obligation for you to explain the most suitable solution(s) which will serve them best.

If your client is after ‘A & B’, yet with your questioning it’s clear that the right solution for them is actually ‘A, B and C, then your intent, language and demeanor are aligned. You are coming from a place of integrity and being the trusted advisor.

The same lesson applies if your intent is to ‘close’ then your client will pick up on that – meaning you are no longer looking out for their best interests but your own. Closing means ending. We would rather help clients and form long lasting relationships. What you think, becomes your reality.

Be aware of your language.

Did you miss part 1 or Part 2?

Telephone Sales Techniques For Success (Part 1): Mindset

Telephone Sales Techniques For Success (Part 2): Pre-call Preparation

The post Telephone Sales Techniques For Success (Part 3): 18 ‘On-The-Call’ Actions appeared first on Head Of Sales.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve probably experienced being dropped into the “silent zone” — a key moment in the sales process when you say to yourself, “Why has selling become such a painful and arduous process”.

The “silent zone” is when you’ve worked with a prospect over a period of time, built a relationship over-the-phone or in-person (at least you thought you built a relationship), they expressed serious interest in your solution, then all of a sudden, they don’t return your calls.

“It’s not like I did anything wrong”, you say to yourself. In fact, as far as you’re concerned, you did everything right.

You’ve done all the work to create sales momentum and all you get from them is radio silence.

”Will I get this sale?”, you ask yourself. “It feels like my prospect has let me down and broken the relationship that I carefully nurtured throughout the selling process.”

The “hopeium” trap

I want to shed some light for you on how you can use a different mindset to pull yourself out of the painful “silent zone”.

Most of us get caught up in sales “hopeium”. Hopeium is a comical term that expresses setting our hopes and desires on only making the sale. This becomes a self-directed trap because it completely silences the critical importance of being aware that we should be focusing on something else instead: getting to your prospect’s truth.

When we solely focus on the outcome, our trajectory is towards the result of getting the sale. We’re anticipating where things are going throughout the process, and we begin to expect things to happen as we hoped they would.

Then when we get dropped into the “silent zone” and we start to lose our centeredness. 

Our sales process comes to a halt, we become anxious, frustrated, discouraged, and confused. Maybe we don’t even sleep well at night.

We’re preoccupied with what went wrong. And sometimes there’s even a sense of betrayal.  They said they would call, but now they’re not. Why?

Solving the mystery

Well, the only person who can solve that mystery is your prospect. And your prospect will only solve that for you when you shift to focusing on discovering the truth of what’s on their mind, rather than trying to close the sale. 

How can you approach your prospect when you know their avoiding you?

Something important has to shift in your mind first:

You need to be accept that there is a 50% chance the sale may not happen, rather than having your mindset locked into “making the sale” being the only outcome. 

Why do you need to learn to “let go” of the sale at this point?

Because if you approach your prospect while hoping the sale will materialize, you introduce sales pressure to the relationship. Sales pressure pushes your prospects away from you and breaks any trust you may have developed with them.

Instead, you can eliminate all sales pressure by telling them that you’re okay with their decision if they decide not to move forward, which is something you can assume based on their not having called you back. 

Step backward, not forward

In other words, take a step backward rather than trying to move things forward.

When you’re chasing a vanishing prospect with calls and messages trying to move the sale forward, you’re following the old mindset of chasing the sale. You’re focusing on getting a “yes”, without know the real truth of their situation. 

The solution is to let go of the end goal and start focusing on learning the truth of where you stand with your prospect and being ok with what the truth might be.
Read that a few times, and let it sink in.

You haven’t lost the sale. You just don’t know the truth yet. And all you have to do is call back and find that out. This puts you solidly back into a place where you can make a decision to let the prospect go, or re-look at how you can meet their needs.   

Here are 4 very important reasons to make the shift to this new mindset so you don’t start to lose your confidence in your selling ability:
 

1.  THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE

In the old sales mindset, when a client suddenly disappears, we start blaming ourselves.  We don’t know where we stand with our prospect, and this state of limbo becomes really painful. Our self-talk is negative and full of self-blame. We’re on pins and needles, wondering whether the sale will come through. 

Anxiety and fear settle in, because we’re in limbo and we don’t know the truth of the situation.  

How do you get the truth? By looking for it, rather than looking for the sale. 

When you’re looking for the truth, your prospect knows you’re okay with either a “yes” or “no.” You’re essentially asking, “What’s the truth?” Rather than, “What can I do to rescue the sale?”

So, the next time you’re wondering if you’ve lost the sale, stop and recognize you may have fallen into that old trap of focusing on the sale. And start re-focusing on the truth instead. Remember that all you really want is the truth of where your prospect stands. 

It’s liberating. 

2.  LOSE ILLUSION AND GAIN EFFICIENCY

If you can shift your mindset away from trying to make the sale, then you can get to the reality of where the deal stands. And once you know this, you can either stay involved with the prospect or move on. 

What happens is that a “no” becomes almost as valuable as a “yes.” Because it frees up your time to find prospects who are a more likely fit for your solution. This adds a tremendous amount of efficiency to your work. It helps you weed out all those people you were chasing that you thought were good prospects. 

Getting to the truth provides a way of knowing when to walk away from a deal without that guilt-laden voice that says, “You gave up, don’t be a wimp. Get back in there and keep selling.”

Focusing on the truth translates into very real benefits that equal real dollars and tangible results. You’ll save hours of chasing prospects who have no intention of buying. And there’ll be a dramatic lowering of the self-sabotaging stress that comes from living in a constant state of limbo. 

3.  PRESSURE ALWAYS PUSHES AWAY

Good-hearted business people who sell, always fall into this trap. Whenever a prospect fails to get back in touch, we send emails and leave messages with a thinly-veiled invitation to move the sales process forward. But your prospect starts to feel trapped by you. 

Your prospect feels as though you’re looking out for your own needs, not theirs. They see you as doing exactly what you’re doing, trying to get the sale. 

And any trust you’ve developed starts to dissolve, fast. You start to slip into a downward spiral that takes you farther and farther away from your true goal, which is to discover the truth of where your prospect stands. 

4.  INVITING THE TRUTH GETS THE TRUTH

The main reason prospects suddenly vanish is that they’re uncomfortable telling us the truth. They don’t want to disappoint us, or they don’t want to feel sales pressure from us
— so keeping us at bay just feels better. 

And we can’t really blame them. How often have they been called and called, chased by salespeople who hope to wear them down?

Or how often have you told your sales people, “Call them back and get the sale. Why is it taking so long?” – putting pressure on your sales team who then transfers that pressure to your prospect. 

This happens everyday. We’re stuck in that endless cycle of chasing prospects, trying to get them to respond to us. And the more we press, the more they run. 

But the opposite is true, too. The more we relax and simply invite the truth, the more straightforward they’ll be with us. Prospects feel okay sharing what’s really going on when they know we’re okay with hearing it. 

The only way to discover the truth is to communicate in a way that helps the other person feel comfortable telling you the truth. What you don’t want is for them to think you’re calling just to make the sale.

Remember, prospects will trust you and reveal what they’re thinking only if they feel like you’re on their side.

The post 4 Actions To Implement When Selling Becomes A Painful Process. appeared first on Head Of Sales.

As someone who is passionate about helping professional B2B salespeople and leaders to become more effective and up the ante in a time where the whole sales landscape has changed, I have listened intently to professionals in that space, digested the most up to date theories and tested the market by conversing with buyers and sales professionals alike, there appears to be three key areas that determine a higher level of success for salespeople.

The Sales Triad, consists of the following three keys:

Personal Leadership that we see interwoven in many messages and is critical for a sales approach that is strong and is led with conviction.

Thought Leadership where the insight selling philosophy shows its value driven face and where all strong sales conversations focus and

Sales Leadership leveraging the hard skills based on success outcomes around profit, purpose and people.

The internet gives us plenty of perspectives around Personal Leadership and Sales Leadership but not many perspectives around Thought Leadership, or as some would call it, Insight Selling. So I’m sharing my own insights and thoughts here from a B2B sales angle.

First of all it’s important to understand the meaning of the word ‘insight’ and then put that into context around selling.

ɪnsʌɪt/

noun: the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something.

So how does a salesperson sell an insight?

They need to come to the table as an expert first and foremost, and the foundations of that expertise are set in the following 4T’s model:

• TRENDS across their industry
• TRIGGERS across their customer’s business environment
• TASKS across their buyers role and
• TYPE of person their buyer is.

Understanding these four categories is the cost of entry into insight selling allowing a salesperson to speak with relevance and currency.

Speaking with relevance around the obvious is a step up from not being able to have conversations that drive value at all, but when you can up the ante again and have a conversation or write an article leading with your own original thoughts, sharing your individual perspective and using your unique voice then you are tapping into a skill that successful salespeople exercise naturally. By doing so, it allows people to buy you, as well as buy into what you stand for, your ideas and your insights.

The following are some categories where the thinking of a salesperson must change. It sheds some light and ideas around what they must do and what they can no longer do especially when with a buyer who knows what their problems are and what they potentially want.

People feel good when they have spent time with someone who thinks differently, who challenges in a constructive manner, who is controversial in a respectful way and who is provocative because it helps others to become innovative and imagine… what if…. it helps them reverse engineer and benchmark their new ideas.

When we have something to aspire towards, we are more motivated to shift our status quo and change is more sustainable. We must provide the same vehicle to our clients by way of sharing our insights in an inspirational and transformational manner and not just educate them and instruct them on products or specifics.

So here’s three activities (and insights) we can both finish on:

1. Understand the implications of your buyers challenges before you meet and check in you are on the right track and use as a discussion point
2. Create a list of questions and statements that will uncover the real buying criteria – before you have your meeting so you can be present in the meeting
3. Create a messaging matrix that will allow you to be more agile and contextual in your value driven conversations and be familiar enough with it to go with the flow when you need to.

Lastly, as a bonus – be an ‘authentic authority’ in your field.

The post How Do Salespeople Sell Insights? appeared first on Head Of Sales.

However, this isn’t the case. The word “sales” was originally derived from the Scandinavian phrase “to serve”; a good sales person does exactly that. A salesperson that is truly good at their job doesn’t need to be conniving or manipulative – they simply need to understand the features of what they’re selling, ask questions to determine how these features translate into benefits for any particular client, and make these benefits known. Hard-selling isn’t necessary; once the benefits are explained, all that is left to do is ask the client to take that next step.

Personally, I find that when the sales process runs smoothly, it’s merely a matter of going through the motions – and before you know it, they’re signing that dotted line!

What is sales scripting?

Sales scripting is basically the process of transcribing your sales call – from questions and jokes, through to stories and how you close the sale.

Sales scripting is a very useful tool, as it ensures that the sales process is the same each and every time. Once you determine what works well for your business, a sales script allows you to roll out a “recipe for success” to all of your sales staff.

A carefully planned sales script has the ability to make the world of difference to a business, and I can’t recommend it enough. It also goes a long way to helping people overcome what I identified in a recent post as the seven self-destructive sales mindsets.

How do you create a great sales script?

So how do you even go about setting up a sales script? It may sound like a mammoth task, but when you break it down into steps it’s relatively simple.

Here’s how it works:

1. Gain an understanding of how sales actually works.

Whether you’re selling a revolutionary product or an everyday service, the sales process doesn’t actually vary that much. Many businesses believe that their situation is different to others; however this perception is generally the result of an inconsistent sales process.

In actual fact, 90% of all sales interactions are the same. With this being the case, it makes it quite easy to script your sales process – you just need to understand how your average sale works!

2. A scripted sale doesn’t equate to being fake.

In fact when carefully planned, a scripted sale can have quite the opposite effect.

A lot of sales people fear that a planned sales script will leave them sounding insincere and even deceitful – however, this isn’t the case. Think about a story you frequently tell your friends and family – perhaps of a special time in your life or how something horrible once happened to you. Surely the more you tell this story the better you get at telling it, and the more engaging it becomes to the listener.

Are you being insincere and deceitful? NO, you’re just sharing the truth in a more engaging way. The same principle applies to sales; once you find the right story (i.e. one that resonates with your clients), it makes sense to continue using the same narrative.

A great story doesn’t make a salesperson any less genuine. Rather, a great story will increase your confidence and in the process improve client engagement levels –  motivating them to buy.

3. Break it down into steps.

If creating an entire sales script seems daunting, break it down into steps or “chapters.”

After the enquiry/cold phone call for an appointment, it’s possible to break the sales process down into fourteen critical stages or steps. Of these fourteen steps, the seven critical points to remember are:

• Establishing trust and building rapport
• The introduction and creation of an agenda
• Probing questions
• A presentation
• Stories that demonstrate success
• A trial close
• Closing of the sale

4. Record and review your sales.

The best way to start creating your business sales script is to record three or four sales appointments (with permission from prospective clients) and then listen to the recordings.

Some sales meetings run more smoothly than others – it should be fairly easy to determine which were the most successful. Transcribe the best meeting and use this as a basis for your sales script. You may also find that some meetings had successful components; select the parts that worked well, and add these to your sales script where applicable.

5. Create a list of pros and cons.

No matter what you’re selling, customers are going to perceive both benefit and potential problems from your product or service. These are what I like to call “elephants in the room”; they may be uncomfortable to talk about, but you can bet your bottom dollar prospective clients will want to discuss them. You may think it’s best to avoid them and hope the client doesn’t bring them up, however, I can guarantee that this isn’t in your best interest. Avoiding these elephants may not lead to the client asking about them, but it is likely to lead to the dreaded response: “let me think about it.” It is best to get them out there and in front of them.

Create a list of both the tangible and intangible benefits of what you’re selling, as well as a list of any potential elephants you may need to address. These elephants or objections may be concerns such as service issues or past product defects.

The best way to address these elephants is to create stories of why these were past issues, but are certainly not a problem anymore. Alternatively, stories of a person “just like them” that had the same concern are effective. These stories should explain how shortly after using the product or service, the person had a specific success – and what they were concerned about never eventuated.

In my post “Story Telling: The Key to Sales Success” I describe in detail how stories can help you overcome elephants in the room and build credibility. However, for now I will just say pick your best one for each elephant, have them recorded and transcribed, and then work out how to fit them into your script.

6. Set up a presentation folder.

A presentation folder makes sales progression much easier for sales people. Your folder should include:

• Client-probing questions
• Brochures
• Quotation sheets
• Testimonials from past clients (and these should back up your sales stories)
• Required paperwork to close the sale
• After-the-sale leave behinds

7. Seek professional advice – there’s always room for improvement!

There is always room to improve each component of your sales script. YouTube is a useful resource and a great place to commence research.

When I was just starting out, YouTube took me from a shy introverted kid that took 93 doors to make my first sale, to the top performing sales person in the nation in just a matter of weeks. Start like I did, by focusing on one component of your sales script at a time. For each new chapter of the script, take a look at what the “sales experts” recommend to gain the knowledge and then go out to test and increase your skill.

Once you have researched and improved each component of your sales script, it may be worth consulting a master sales coach – they’ll be able to offer further insight and improvements.

Sales success is only a script away!

A carefully crafted sales script allows you to take control of the sales process – and this means far less is left to chance.

While it may take a couple of months to perfect, a great sales script has the ability to transform your sales process from unpredictable and disjointed to smooth and successful.

Getting prospective clients to sign that dotted line isn’t about being manipulative or pushy; it’s about telling a great story and letting your clients come to their own conclusions. Great sales people (with great sales scripts) find that getting a “yes” comes naturally – and they also find the journey enjoyable!

Before you go to work, leave me a comment below and let me know what kind of concerns (if any) you have about sales scripting and I will direct you to the right advice. As a bonus, let me know what you’re going to do now that you’ve read this post.

Finally, if you think your friends/network would find this useful, please share it with them – I’d really appreciate it.

Publishers note – Originally published at https://matthewpollard.com on August 11, 2015.

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