Many salespeople choke on money discussions when qualifying price with prospects. The easy move is to simply discount the price, but this is a slippery slope. The inherent perception of straight discounting is that your product or service is over priced to start. This perception metastasizes into a consistent challenging of any and all future prices. JustSell.com offers a couple of excellent points in their current newsletter to counteract this desire to discount: Here are the hard-dollar points to better negotiating… Remember that negotiation success depends more on the work you do early in the sales process than on the negotiation moment itself. It’s all about the perceived value of… Read More
Continue ReadingDo Your Salespeople Talk The Talk?
I was talking to references for one of our clients last night and the reference kept telling me the candidate was excellent at solution selling. To sum up what he was telling me – the candidate is excellent at speaking the customer’s language instead of using company jargon or convoluted questions. The candidate ran a selling process to find out what business problems the company was facing and then articulated his company’s value proposition in regards to resolving their issue. Interestingly enough, I then caught up to an article in my RSS reader titled 5 Quick Tips for Creating Conversations Salespeople Will Use from ManageSmarter.com. The tips can help your… Read More
Continue ReadingWhen Too Much Self-Esteem Is Good
Nary a day goes by that we are not assessing a salesperson for one of our clients. This activity gives us the opportunity to measure different traits in a wide variety of salespeople in many diverse markets. There is one trait pattern we always dissect and that is a salesperson’s self-esteem vs. their empathy towards others. At the risk of going too deep, the issue is how much does the salesperson value themselves vs. others. Here is why it is important – a salesperson who greatly overvalues himself will often appear condescending, or even cocky, to prospects when placed into a long sales cycle. But if you have a high-rejection,… Read More
Continue ReadingOvercoming Objections
Objections are the common hurdle to all sales in all markets. As a sales manager, you need to be able to coach your salespeople through the common objections they will encounter. ManageSmarter.com offers this article – Sales Objections Overruled – as a quick read for handling 5 different objections. I wouldn’t characterize the solutions in the article as groundbreaking, but there is one deserving of comment: 4. Timing: “We’re fine for now.”Some folks just want to sit pat and avoid change€”or at least delay it. They eschew opportunities to grow. Nicely ask: “How has that worked for you so far?” Ask them: “Are you aware of your competitor’s recent moves?” Emphasize… Read More
Continue ReadingChange Your Sales Language
We are all familiar with common sales terms like “cold call,” “closing” and “overcoming objections.” These terms are engrained in the common sales vernacular. But think of the implications of these mechanistic terms. SellingPower.com has a most interesting article titled Watch Your Language! Here’s the hook: Who taught you to talk like you do? When it comes to your sales language; chances are good it was your sales manager€“your first one. For generations now we have been talking about selling from the viewpoint of the Industrial Era. We have seen businesses as machines and accordingly we have “re-engineered” them, “systematized” them, and more. Our premise has been that businesses are… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Selling CEO
CareerJournal.com’s Company Leaders Are Spending More Quality Time With Customers covers a timely topic in today’s market – CEO’s directly involved in the selling process. We have seen this change in our mid-sized customers for the past few years. This article provides a good example – the CEO for Intel getting involved in a large deal with Apple: He heard grumblings that this change wasn’t possible — at least not anytime soon — but Mr. Otellini pushed ahead. “Instead of saying no, we can’t, let’s say yes and figure out how,” he recalls telling his senior team members. He won them over and soon had a new packaging design to… Read More
Continue ReadingFocus On Your Selling System
SellingPower.com offers up an interesting article in their CRM newsletter – Is CRM Really Improving Sales Productivity? The short answer is no for a handful of reasons. One item resonated with me: Mike Bosworth, author of the bestseller CustomerCentric Selling (Wiley, 2005) argues that the sales process must be adapted to customer buying processes prior to being automated. But that€™s not what€™s happening. Instead, when sales managers see sales productivity dropping, they€™re likely to turn to CRM in an attempt to make their existing, traditional process more efficient. That€™s like stepping on the accelerator when you€™re heading for a cliff. He’s right – there is no reason to automate a… Read More
Continue ReadingKinetic vs. Potential
I’m not physicist, but I remember some teaching in class regarding the difference between kinetic energy (an object in motion) and potential energy (stored energy within an object). Salespeople are similar in that you want to hire the ones with kinetic energy and not the ones with only potential energy. I’m going to stay on this theme since it is so important to successful sales hiring – filtering candidates based on their resume does not allow for determining these two “energies.” Hiring managers attempt to divine kinetic energy from a document that is written to imply kinetic energy/activity. But is it true or is it an embellishment? Or was it… Read More
Continue ReadingRise Of The Introvert
I’ve been beating this drum regularly but conventional wisdom takes time to change. CareerJournal.com offers up a Jurassic quote in Want to Work on Commission? Make Sure You Have a Nest Egg (emphasis mine): The inconsistent nature of working on commission doesn’t suit everyone. Here are some tips for those considering the switch: 1. Evaluate Your Personality Working on commission requires establishing relationships, massaging deals and building trust with clients. In order to be successful, it helps to be a “people person.” “Introverts will not succeed on commission,” says Rick Gold, vice president of Strategic Workforce Solutions Inc., a full-service search firm in New York. “Clients don’t necessarily do business… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Case For Selling Systems
Some companies believe selling systems are restrictive. Other companies view them as methodical and clumsy. I, for one, am not a fan of the sequential step approaches that require this question be asked first, followed by this question and so on. Those approaches drip with insincerity. But a selling system is important. From ManageSmarter.com’s What’s Your Plan? The survey of over 500 sales professionals proves what most executives should already know: Their reps need a plan of action. TAS found that companies that give their sales staff a concrete plan to close deals experience 39 percent less turnover. Their salespeople are also more than 50 percent more likely to meet… Read More
Continue Reading