Persuasion is a key ability of any successful salespeople.  Think of the worst car salesperson or door-to-door salesperson you have encountered and you will know why this ability is so critical to success.  CNNMoney.com’s article - How persuasive are you? - interviews an individual who runs the Persuasion Institute who brought up this fine point:

Let’s take, for instance, how we handle objections, whether from a customer or some other audience, such as a boss we’re asking for a raise. Early on in life, we learn to perceive objections as opposition, so we get defensive. An unskilled persuader, often without realizing it, will show tension, uneasiness, or irritation when someone raises an objection, usually because the objection or concern stirs up the persuader’s own insecurities: “Aren’t I doing a good enough job explaining this? Didn’t I go over that already?” This way of thinking will only make matters worse.

By contrast, great persuaders who have learned new persuasion skills know how to welcome objections. Instead of seeing them as opposition, these persuaders see objections as a natural, and valuable, part of the process. They use their audience’s concerns as a way to open a dialogue, a chance to exchange ideas and discover new areas of common ground. Truly great persuaders may cut to the chase by addressing an objection before it’s even been voiced, just to get that communications ball rolling.

I say that is a fine point in that how salespeople handle rejection is key to their success.  We often discuss what traits are most important in sales and I think I would vote for handling rejection.  I think it is, in simple terms, the key differentiator between high-performance sales and mediocrity.

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Have you noticed that the best salespeople are usually subtle?  They have a way of moving through a discussion that is conversational in tone, but focused in purpose.  Some are so good at it that you don’t even notice if you are involved in the discussion.

ManageSmarter.com offers up an article with a direct analogy of sales questioning - comparing it to dating.  What I appreciate is the author’s description of how salespeople are trained to ask leading questions.  This is not a subtle approach as you will see from his example in the article.  The primary issue here is that you lose rapport quickly when you go down this path.

In trying to establish a prospect’s fit with our offering, it’s natural to want to uncover all the details about their situation that can help us make our case. What that often leads to, however, is a stream of questions that focuses only on product areas or applications.

And it’s not just junior sales reps who do this. I once listened to a regional sales manager for a large financial services company grind his prospect into the ground with his questions, each one having been designed to justify the features of his offering. Afterward, he thought he’d done a good job. But judging from the pain that grew in his prospect’s face with each additional question, I think “inquisition” is a much better description.

I sat through some “inquisitions” and it isn’t pretty.  If you have any people-reading ability, you can see the discomfort on the prospect’s face.  Heck, I was uncomfortable and I was with the salesperson.

The author closes with two good points for asking the right question:

1. Find out what their situation is like today—without trying to shape the conversation to fit your offering. Just ask your prospect what’s going on, what’s working, what’s not working, etc. Listen to the answers without trying to make points you’ll use later. Just have a conversation. It works wonders on building trust.
2. Ask where they’d like to be in the future. Ask “What are your big goals?” or “What would a perfect world look like?” Again, don’t frame your question in any way that could be construed as setting up your offering. I realize it takes patience, but spending a few minutes establishing your prospect’s big picture is invaluable.

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I’m not well-versed in the rapport-building technique (my phrase) known as Neuro-Linguistic Programming.  In fact, I’m not certain that is the correct definition of the acronym NLP.  But it is fascinating information.  Geoffrey James discusses this topic in his blog post Ten Seconds to Better Rapport:

This method based upon the scientific observation that people have what are sometimes called “thought modalities” or, more colloquially, “have their brain wired different ways.” Research has shown that most people favor one of the three different modalities:

1. Visual. The person values and responds to what he or she SEES. A visual person will tend to dress flashy, talk quickly, and use plenty of broad hand gestures.
2. Auditory. The person values and responds to what he or she HEARS. An auditory person will tend to dress conservatively, talk in an even tone, and use subtle hand gestures, usually synchronized with what’s being said.
3. Kinesthetic. The person values and responds to what he or she FEELS. A kinesthetic person will tend to dress casually, talk quite slowly, and make many “checking” gestures, like touching their chin while thinking.

I’ve had some exposure to this training and it is highly effective.  It isn’t going to close sales for you or trick a prospect into buying.  The thought modalities simply allow you to access the prospect’s preferred communication channel.  If you combine this knowledge with an understanding of DISC profiles, you have a highly skilled communicator who can establish rapport quickly.

If they can qualify too, you have a superstar salesperson.

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Those two words should make every salesperson shudder.  I remember when we first encountered the phrase about 5-6 years ago at one of our customers.  Their top salesperson’s top account is a local company that shall remain anonymous (retail giant with a bullseye for a logo).  When this salesperson first mentioned “reverse auction” to me, I had no idea what he was talking about.  Once he explained it, I was taken aback.  It is the ultimate commoditization tool.

Dave Stein posted on this topic with an example of GE’s colossal IT budget for procurement.  One of the quotes from GE’s CIO cuts right to the core of this issue:

On auctions, Reiner goes on, “The more commodity-like the part or service is, the easier it is to auction; and the more differentiated, the less easy it is to auction. By design, every year we try to make more of our business portfolio be products and services that are noncommodity - that are differentiated. So we have been fortunate not to be as auctioned on the sell side as we are on the buy side.”

The interviewer asked: ”I would presume that as much as you like to buy things through reverse auctions, you absolutely hate to sell things that way.”   To that, Reiner responded, “That is correct.”

Did you catch that last paragraph?  This exact reason is the drive behind clearly defining your value proposition.  Prospects want to turn your solution into a commodity and then drive your prices down.  Now, this is a problem if your solution lacks value.  In that instance, you best be the low-priced option or you won’t be around for long.

Dave’s summation catches the core of this topic (my editing):

Unless you’re in a commodity business, participating in reverse auctions is about as defensive as you can get from a strategy perspective.  By definition, the customer is determined to strip away any unique value from your products and services so they can buy at the lowest price.  They’re not interested in your unique value, a long-term win/win relationship with you, or anything else that will increase the cost to them.

That should suggest not approaching reverse auctions tactically from the sell side.

He provides some excellent resources if you are forced to compete in a reverse auction format.

As they say, read the entire thing.

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I read often about web 2.0, recruiting 2.0 and sales 2.0.  Math was never my forte so numbers scare me.  But I did come across a very informative article in Sales & Marketing Management article titled A Step-By-Step Overview of Sales 2.0.  The first pull quote:

With instant access to corporate Web sites, search and social networks, your customers have company and product information at their fingertips, which give them much more control over the sales process than they had in the day when brochures and pricing were only available from a sales rep. Many prospective customers postpone talking with a sales rep, believing that they’ll get a better deal by acquiring as much “ammunition” as possible.

Isn’t that the truth?  I’ve seen many salespeople struggle with this transition as it is still underway.  Heck, I’ve struggled with it.  One change from prospects having the information has been a loss of control by the salesperson.  I don’t view this as a bad thing, just a change.

When salespeople controlled the information, they were able to qualify the prospect before supplying the catalogs/brochures/spec sheets.  Those days are long gone which is why I think there is such a strong push for relationship-focused salespeople.  Building a relationship with the prospect to get to the qualifying stage is the salesperson’s best approach today.

In the end, all things equal out which brings us to sales 2.0.

Sales 2.0 technologies are delivering instant information that build relationships and enable sales to be more efficient, more cost-effective and more productive that the old Willie Loman-style of selling.  Just as the Internet allowed buyers to literally let their fingers do the walking, these new Sales 2.0 technologies are allowing the customer’s online behavior to dictate the communication - before sales does the talking.

And that is a good summation of how selling is changing today.  Communication has increased dramatically between prospect and salesperson.  The next phase of selling continues the relationship sale by incorporating web-based tools to open a dialogue between the prospect and the salesperson in a new context.  In our business, we get calls from prospects who already have a general understanding of our process, assessments, training, etc..  The discussion starts at a point that would have taken 2 or 3 phone calls to reach just 10 years ago.

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Ok, the title is a bit of a minomer.  The reference is to a Kelley Robertson post on the S&MM SoundOff blog.  He provides 3 sales tips based on a fiction writer’s boot camp he recently attended.

Here is an abridged version of those tips (my bold):

Start with a hook. The best novels usually start with a great hook. The more compelling your opening statement or question, the greater the likelihood your prospect will listen to the rest of your message.

Show, don’t tell. Showing characters in action instead of telling the reader what the characters are doing creates a more interesting story. Show the results your prospects can achieve instead of telling about your product, service or solution.

Use colourful dialogue. Too many sales presentations are dull and boring. The sales person either talks in a monotone voice, or reads from his/her brochure, or expects the prospect to sit through slide after slide of technical information.

That third one hits home as I have seen many a salesperson kill a presentation with a lackluster delivery.  I try to stress language in blog posts too.  You don’t have to use George Will’s vocabulary, but crafting sentences with unique words makes for a colorful read.

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This has been a topic of discussion here at Select Metrix several times.  So how do you refer to the companies with whom you do business?  Kendra Lee, guest author for Jonathan Farrington has this to say.

From my perspective a client is a person whose business you have a vested interest in, and for whom you perform as a partner within their business. Not everything you provide is billable. And not every opportunity you are awarded was shopped with the competition for the best price.

In contrast, customers are people who you help meet a need. They have a problem. You address the problem. You may invest long hours in determining the right solution. They may invest a great deal in purchasing the solution, but they don’t recognize the value of your recommendations. You don’t take time to present new ideas, perform quarterly review meetings, or call them spontaneously.

An interesting thought.  Whether you agree or not, I think we would all agree that having more clients according to the description above would make our businesses more profitable.  So how do we get to this point where we are viewed as partners?

I think Kendra is right on the money with her thoughts on the subject - we need to start treating them as our partners.  We can do that by forging new ideas, identifying strategic business objectives, holding review meetings and taking responsibility for our errors are just a few.  Realistically, I don’t think that everyone we do business with will see us as a partner which is is ok.  However, we need to do our part to make sure that we don’t give them an easy reason to do so.

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I had a sales candidate ask an excellent, subtle question yesterday - “What other positions is this company currently hiring?”  Again, the subtlety of this question provides a view into a company’s needs, growth and possible turnover.  It is an excellent question to ask in any interview.

The second part of this equation is for the hiring manager to appreciate the question.  What I mean is this - listen carefully to the questions being asked by the candidate.  We often watch hiring managers trip over themselves to answer a good question without appreciating the question itself.  Some times the hiring manager cannot even recall the questions asked in the interview.  This is problematic for successful sales hiring.

Someday I am going to capture every question asked by a candidate in the interview and put them in a document, in order, and then present them to the hiring manager.  The questions themselves and the sequence of questions is important for successful selling (read: qualifying).  This ability is observable in the interview process…if you are looking for it.  Don’t miss it.

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I’ve been dealing with many different sales candidates of late and one thing that is starting to stand out - a candidate’s resourcefulness.  This trait comes shining through on some candidates and is little more than a dull luster on others.  The less resourceful a salesperson, the more wary you should be in considering their candidacy.

This trait has always been important in sales.  Resourcefulness feeds networking, prospecting, qualifying and competitive knowledge.  Recently I have encountered a couple of candidates who just plain lack this ability.

The lack of resourcefulness shows up in not finding email addresses or cell phone numbers.  One salesperson wasn’t able to recall the position for which he was applying (this makes for an arduous phone screen).  Another salesperson wasn’t able to research new leads due to ineptitude using online tools.

These shortcomings are severe weaknesses in the information age.  I’m not sure how to measure this ability though we can get close to it with our assessments (practical thinking and using common sense).  More than likely, this ability has to be experienced in the hiring process so pay close attention during the initial stages of sourcing sales candidates.

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That is a new phrase for me and a humorous one to start the long, holiday weekend.  From JustSell.com’s daily newsletter:

Familiar with the term “PowerPoint singalong”?

According to buzzwhack.com, a PowerPoint singalong is a presentation read from the slides without comments or asides of any kind. (Monotone optional, but not required.)

There’s no telling whether this buzzword has staying power, but it does raise an important point…

When making your next sales presentation, make sure you engage with your audience. Prepare so that you don’t have to read off of your slides and you’re comfortable answering questions and comments.

Have a wonderful Independence Day!

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