Category: Selling

Sell for Change!

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Selling is all about getting buy-in for people and businesses to change, and change is always inherently risky. When given an option, most individuals will invariably opt for the status quo. People, and especially businesses, are creatures of habit, and changing their habits necessitates breaking old ones and forming new ones. Selling is challenging because it requires you to battle against human nature by influencing others to change (and you thought it would be simple!).

When you think about it, a lot of the opposition you’ll face in sales (objections, delays) is a result of risk. Most people will resist change if they consider the danger of changing is greater than the risk of staying the same. It’s tough to build the momentum needed to encourage people to change because of the old concept that “it’s better to live with the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” It is a formidable force with which we shall all have to contend.

So, how can we reduce risk, or at least reduce the impression of threat, so that more customers are willing to take the risks necessary to experience the positive future result?

 Two essential tactics spring to mind:

1. Identifying and thoroughly understanding your prospects’ problems will encourage them to believe that you are less likely to sell them a solution that will not work because of your understanding. Asking questions that allow you to fully comprehend their circumstances will help to reduce their fear of risk.

2. Assisting them in seeing that the current “discomfort” (consequences, circumstances of remaining the same) will be mitigated by their willingness to go through the “discomfort” of change. Helping them in overcoming the apparent risk once more.

The first technique requires our ability to ask excellent “information seeking” questions.

Questions such as:

  • Could you tell me more about the issues you’re having?
  • How long have you been having these issues?
  • What steps have you taken to address them?
  • How did that work out for you?
  • What influence or repercussions do they have on you and your firm, specifically?
  • Are the issues costing you or your firm money?
  • What will happen if you don’t take care of them?

As you gain knowledge, you develop the notion that using the insight you’ve obtained, you’ll be more likely to make a solid recommendation…thus minimizing risk (you may also find this is a good strategy that helps to differentiate you from your competition).

The second method necessitates the use of “consequence” questions.

Questions such as:

  • What happens if nothing is done about it?
  • Do you think you’ll be able to live with this?
  • How would you feel if you weren’t able to tackle the problems?
  • Is there anyone else who is impacted by these issues?
  • Is it possible that you don’t need to be concerned?

These questions assist the prospect in realizing that failing to solve the problem may be a greater risk than the risk of change. They’re frequently the questions you’ll need to generate change momentum.

Your ability to ask both of these type of inquiries will aid you and your prospect in recognizing and limiting the risks associated with making a change. One of the secrets to being effective in sales is to reduce risk!

Congrats- you’re in sales!

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions 

Here’s an interesting thought: Everything in business comes back to selling. Think about that for a second. The economy revolves around sales…. every business regardless of what they do, they have to sell. On the daily every person in business sells. To your co-workers you sell your favorite movies, favorite books, favorite restaurants, favorite shoes. You even sell yourself on ideas and thoughts.

Here’s another interesting thought: Most people hate the very idea of being “salesy”, yet we all fall under that category in one fashion or another

The question is: How do I embrace my inner salesperson?

Acknowledge that you sell on a continuous basis in your day to day life.

Admit it. You do it. You just don’t think of it as selling. You would probably say “I’m just sharing my favorite_____________with so and so.

Hmmmm – Sharing. Replace the word selling with sharing. There. That feels better doesn’t it? Isn’t it funny how changing a word can alter your perspective? When it was selling, you shuddered. Now that it’s sharing, you feel all warm and fuzzy. We all like to share – we like to share our things, our thoughts, our ideas, our favorites, ourselves. Stop and think about that for a moment….. It’s the same thing.

Choose a new thought

When you choose to think of selling as sharing, it shifts the way you feel about it. When you feel empowered by something you will be more successful at it. For all of you who own businesses or work for a business (that would be everyone), this is vital.

-What thoughts do you entertain around selling?
-What new thought might you choose instead?
-What is one thing that you can do today to embrace your new thought?

“People don’t care about what you have to say until you care about what they have to say”

How true is that? Think about that for a moment – It is part of our nature as humans to want to be heard. Most people go through life just trying to be understood and when we are around someone who truly listens to us it is a breath of fresh air. And, what do we want to do? We want to be around those people as much as possible. Be part of their inner circle. We talk about them to everyone we know because they are the most genuine authentic people. They really hear us.

When we own a business or represent a business, we need to truly be in touch with what our clients need. We need to know what their challenges are, what they are excited about, who they are, so that we know how to best serve them. The only way to do this is to listen.

Listening is one of the best ways to sell. If you are in touch with your potential customer/client you will know how to work with them and create a win-win situation.

Be In Service of Others

Building on listening, let’s go into service. I’m not just talking about excellent service on the part of us, our business/product, I’m talking about being IN service of others.

When meeting another person for the first time, do you screen them for potential customer status? That’s a given. What about if they do not have a remote chance of being in need of you or your product? Do you write them off and move on to the next one?

What would happen if you looked at each person in terms of what you can do for them instead of what they can do for you?

Think of the people that you really like to do business with.
-What characteristics do they embody?
-How much of their success do you feel is in direct proportion to their ability to listen and really help you?

My challenge to you:

Practice really listening to everyone you connect with this week and find one way that you can be in service of them that exceeds their expectations.

My Top 5 Recommended Books on Selling

Photo by Shiromani Kant

Mark Twain once said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

Here are short links for you to find on Amazon:

  1. Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Art and Science of Getting Past No Jeb Blount does an excellent job of outlining the mental process of addressing objections rather than rejection. This is my favorite book on closing and isn’t your typical anectdotal approach to objections that you find in sales.
  2. Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts-Becoming the Person You Want to Be While this isn’t technically a “sales” book, being truly effective in sales is about engaging in the right behaviors consistently. While there are many books that will tell you exactly what sales behaviors to do- none of them get to the psychology of root behaviors. Goldsmith does an excellent job of understanding the psychology behind the behaviors we choose to engage in (sales or not).
  3. Escaping the Price Driven Sale: How World Class Sellers Create Extraordinary Profit Anyone who knows me knows that I am a BIG fan of SPIN Selling. When your value is determined by your ability to be consultative, there is simply no better sales methodology than SPIN, in my opinion. Escaping the Price Driven Sale is a great companion to SPIN Selling and further deepens the understanding of the SPIN methodology.
  4. Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success: Connect with Customers and Get Results Talk to anyone who works in sales and they will undoubtedly tell you that it’s an emotional rollercoaster of a profession. Enter; Emotional Intelligence. If you don’t have it- your success, if any, will be shortlived. If you don’t have it, and you find success, you’ll never become a great leader- you’ll be pigeon holed. Just get it and be grateful that you made the investment in yourself.
  5. The Sales Bible: The Ultimate Sales Resource I simply enjoy Jeffrey’s approach to all things sales. It’s short and to the point. He over delivers on what he promises and his approaches simply work. The amount of complimentary resources he provides on his website through this book is worth 10x’s what he charges for the book. You’ll be referencing this for years to come and should be a staple on your shelf.

As with any list it’s hard to narrow down to just five, and some would be debatable depending on the stage of your sales career. I consider these to be foundational to the profession of sales. I could create lists upon lists should we get into the various facets of sales; presenting, speaking, communicating, building value, prospecting, asking for referrals, so on, and so on. Hey- there’s my next few lists ideas 🙂

What books are staples on your “sales” shelf?

On Goodreads? Let’s connect there!

Eight Ways To Sell Value- Not Price!

If you want to get paid what you’re worth here are eight ways to sell value – not price

1. Be Unique. If there is nothing that differentiates you from your competition you become common. Webster defines the word common as, “ordinary or not special” and the only way buyers select one common service over another is price. Take inventory of your skills, experience and knowledge. Are you a specialist in some area? Are you an expert in certain facets of your business? These and other differentiators can make you unique and valuable to a select group of clients.

2. Choose Your Clients Carefully: Don’t ever let your clients choose you or you will be at their mercy. If a deal is going to close successfully, the true professional should be in control, not the client. To begin controlling your business, write down the attributes of the people you want as clients and then go out and get them with targeted marketing. I hope the first item on your list of attributes is that they are people you enjoy spending time with. Being a business owner is far too difficult to work with people you don’t like just to earn a living. Turn away people who don’t meet your criteria. When you reject or refer clients it tells the world that you don’t just work with anyone, you are selective which raises your perceived value. It also makes you unique from other businesses who will work with anyone who can bring them a paycheck.

3. Set High Standards: If you work with anyone and everyone your value drops. If people have to qualify to work with you your value increases. Of course you know that there are prospects who will ask you to give them a bid with no intention of ever buying from you. They’re planning to use your bid to leverage a discount with their current vendor or any one of a dozen other reasons that they want your knowledge but not your services. Then there are buyers who will use your time and then purchase through another vendor. Don’t ever meet with a potential client until you ask a logical list of questions to determine their seriousness and loyalty. You need to know their motivation and if they are interviewing other vendors. You also need to know if they’re financially qualified. If you don’t have serious, financially solvent, and loyal clients, your valuable time may be better spent somewhere else.

4. Compete On Value, Not Price: No disrespect intended to other business models, but it doesn’t take any special skill, experience or knowledge to compete on price. All you have to do is be the cheapest, but this is a losing game. History reminds us of the housing price wars of the mid 2000’s when there were more houses that people in the market. To gain market share, one would cleverly lower its price, but then all the others quickly followed suit and the only result was that everyone’s profit margin was reduced.

The way to get paid what you’re worth is to visibly demonstrate your value to your clients. If you find that difficult to do make sure you work with vendors that can help you in that conversation to your end customer. Competing on price does not create value.

5. Create Value In The Eyes Of Clients: Frankly, most people throughout the country believe that people in sales do little to earn their commissions. This is our fault because we should be educating them about how hard we work before ever accepting them as clients. Keeping prices firm is a problem for many business’s until you start tracking all the different duties required to earn your pay. I suggest you developed lists of activities that you do for customers. This amazes clients because most have no idea how complicated their orders sometimes can be (whether it’s manufacturing, servicing, fulfillment, etc.) Since sales reps and business owners began creating these lists they’ve rarely, if ever, have had to cut prices. If a prospect asks for a discount simply show them the list and say, “Here are just some of the activities I must complete to earn my money. Why don’t you point out the things that you’d be willing to do instead of me. If you save me time then we can talk about saving you money because I earn every penny I get.” When confronted with a list that runs nearly ten pages long their eyes glaze over and they usually respond with something like, “You’re the expert, I expect you to do this work!” To which you simply say, “If you want me to do all of these activities on your behalf then I need to paid what I’m worth. If you want to pay less, I’ll see if I can find someone who will do less and maybe they can save you some money.”

6. Educate Your Clients About How Much You Make. After speaking to thousands of sales reps, customers and business owners all over the country for the past 20 years it’s clear to me that the average prospect is clueless about how your prices are determined, factoring in overhead and other expenses you have to run your businesses. Customers often get caught up in comparing product specs while not taking into account the business model. For many business owners they have chosen a business model that either adds more value to the customer experience, thus increases overhead, or have chosen a business model that reflects a pricing strategy. The latter typically involves reducing overhead; service reps, technicians, all benefits that lead to customer retention, and these decisions affect the customer experience as well. When agents are trained to speak to these differences a customer can evaluate if the additional costs equates to adding value to meet their expectations.

7. Provide value that no one else offers. When prospects do business with you, do they get a complete outline that explains your process from start to finish? Does it include samples, a list of service providers that could be involved in the process? Other competing business may not offer any of these benefits, so if a client wants to work with you they must pay what you ask.

8. Reject price shoppers. Studies show that only 15-18% of people make their decision to purchase a product or service primarily based on price. This means that the majority of clients appreciate value and are willing to pay for it – if they see it.

Don’t forget that real professionals earn their money by helping clients maximize value, minimize costs, save time, and much more. If potential clients don’t appreciate this then feel free to refer them to your competition.

6 Strategies to Becoming More Persuasive Today

How can some people be so persuasive while others can’t seem to convince anyone to do anything? Persuasion is part art and part science. Some people are born with the charisma that the rest of us lack. But anyone can become more persuasive with the right approach. Anyone that can read or write can influence others effectively. Many people may correlate the skills of persuasion to sales, however this skillset is used across many professions, and often useful in our daily lives.

What would it mean to your professional and personal life if you could reliably influence others? Few skills are as wide-ranging in their benefits.

 Persuade others to your way of thinking:

 1. Create a connection with those you wish to influence. Whether you’re trying to influence one person or a thousand, it’s important to create rapport. The level of trust and connection you can establish will directly affect your ability to influence others. Don’t neglect the importance of adapting your rapport to varying personality styles. At first it will be easiest to establish a connect with those that are most like ourselves, however this will limit your influence. This is an important first step. There are many ways to establish a connection.

  • Show what you have in common.
  • Mirror the other person’s body language.
  • Be honest and genuine.
  • Show others that you can be trusted.

2. Be convincing. I’ll be honest, early in my career I had someone say to me on a call, “you’re persistent, but not at all persuasive”. At that time I thought if I just out-worked everyone else I would accomplish my goals. There was more to it. At first you may feel small and insecure, but presenting yourself that way won’t convince anyone that you are worth following. There are several ways we show a lack of conviction, such as body language, using qualifiers like “I think, probably, maybe and possibly,” and lack of eye contact.

  • Stand tall, look them in the eye, and present your opinion like it’s an obvious fact. Your confidence is key. If you’re communicating over the phone, put a mirror in front of you and smile as if the communication were in person.

3. Use reciprocity to your advantage. Studies show that you’re much more likely to return a favor after someone does something for you. That’s why the people that knock on your door and try to sell you pest control give you a pen or a magnet. They know that you’ll be more likely to purchase from them.

  • Do something for the person you’re trying to persuade. You might buy them lunch, drive them to the airport, or let them borrow a cup of sugar. Do something for them before you attempt to persuade them. Your odds of success will go up dramatically.

4. Consider their interests. Even the most noble of people wonder what’s in it for them. Make it clear what they’ll be receiving out of the deal. Your neighbor might not want to sign off on your idea of building a fence between your respective properties. However, he might change his mind if you can show him the benefits he’ll enjoy.

  • You might point out that your dog will stay out of his yard and stop dropping presents.
  • It might help the resale value of his house.
  • It might cut down on the weeds in your yard spreading to his.
  • It will increase his level of privacy.

5. Be a good listener. The other party matters a lot. We tend to only consider ourselves when we’re trying to be influential, but this is a grave mistake. Open your ears and close your mouth. Be curious about the person you are speaking to. When you understand the needs of the other person, you’ll know how to influence them.

6. Establish yourself as an authority. If you’ve spent time with the Dalai Lama and wrote three books on meditation, your opinions on meditation are more likely to be respected. That is a bit extreme obviously, but leverage your knowledge and experience on a topic to establish authority. Simply dressing in a suit would convey authority in the right setting.

Persuasion is a highly researched field. There are numerous resources if you wish to learn more and there a few books that I would recommend on the topic. The ability to influence others is useful both in and outside of work. Invest some time in practicing this valuable skill. You’ll be glad you did!