Category: Keys 2 selling.

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“The Natural”

In selling, there’s pressure.  Perform or be gone.  And this pressure can kill your effectiveness.  But pressure doesn’t have to be a negative.  Trust me, if you’re good enough, you don’t feel pressure except in knowing your performance will render it a total non-issue.

I want to share an incredible story that will bring you back to the very essence of selling.  The essence that, if we can remain true to it, will propel us beyond any pressure to perform.  Our  success will simply take care of itself.

I have always loved the outdoors. Hiking, camping, rafting, all of it.  I see a Bass Pro Shop or REI and I have stop in to so see what’s new.

A few years back, I was planning to take on a new section of the Appalachian Trail.  So in gearing up for the trip I went boot shopping and ended up relearning one of the most fundamental selling truths that has ever existed.  Yes, it was that big!

Bass Pro Shop has virtually EVERYTHING for hiking.   So I stopped in to look for boots which I’ve always had problems with.  I went over to a MASSIVE wall of hiking boots.  I was thinking about my last experience hiking, when I hear a voice behind me ask “Looking at boots?” I gave a very obvious answer of “Why yes.” Mr. Eager sales guy then said “Well, let me show you what we got.” Out of an entire wall of boots, he pointed out one very sturdy but heavy boot and began to explain its features; waterproof, ankle support, locking speed-laces,  feature after feature, and on and on he went. It also just happened to be the most expensive boot they sold.  As my eyes glazed over I realized I really didn’t want to listen to this guy.  So I cut him short with a “let me look around a bit,” and left.

A few days later I stopped into a much smaller specialty-hiking store near Hiawassee, Georgia. Tiny little place packed with gear.  I stood looking at a display of only 7 models of boots when I heard a voice from behind, “Looking at boots are ya?”  I actually smelled him coming before he got there. Firewood, incense, and a clear hint of marijuana; lets just say, his scent arrived before he did!  I was about to send Mr. Fragrance on his way when he said “bro, I love to hike, you too?” He called me “bro”. I was 54 years old so that made me chuckle.  There stood a 20-something, quintessential “mountain hippie” guy. “You hiking the AT?” he asked.  I told him, yes, my last trip was the first 18 miles of the Appalachian Trail. I told him how beautiful it was and about the bears I saw, and the story about the night I left my beef jerky in my backpack.  “Bro, I love “The Trail!”, it’s got some gnarly hikes.” So he asked me what I liked, where I went, how my equipment fared and, finally, why I was in his store.  I shared that I’ve never found a boot I really loved. They are either too stiff or too soft.  They either don’t breath, or they let water in. And they all give me blisters, especially when bouldering. “Bro, I get it. You’ve been using those old stiff, Swiss ankle boots right?”  Yep, I said. Then he said “check this out” and took  down a boot that looked more like some strange hi-top basket ball shoe hybrid boot.  “Bro, this boots the s*!t, fits like a glove and moves with you when you boulder.”   I put them on and was blown away.  They felt like nothing I had ever worn and I could not wait to try them on a hike.  The guy was spot on in finding and addressing my needs, and before you knew it I had dropped a cool $300 on a new pair of boots.  I didn’t even care about the price.

As I was checking out I said to hippie dude “you’re good at this.”  Good at what he asked. Selling, I said.  I have been selling for years and man, you’re a natural.  He looked confused, “I don’t sell bro, I just really love to get to know people and find out what they they love about the outdoors, what they need, and then I show things that  I know will work for them.”

BOOM! There it is. I realized, in that moment, that I had forgotten one of the oldest and most important tenets of sales, persuasion and even leadership.  And how could I?  I’m a man who has made the study of selling a life’s passion? It honestly freaked me out. What we think, feel or say about our idea, product, or anything else is largely irrelevant. We do not “convince” people to buy an idea or thing.  Rather we should simply relate to them, uncover their needs and address those needs. It’s so simple we dismiss it!  What I had forgotten was that, whether you’re selling boots, advice or fractional ownership of a jet, people buy emotionally, then use facts and data to justify their decision. I already knew this but this experience was the purest example of the principal I had ever seen!

I’m pretty sure that guy had never read a single sales book or attended a single sales training.  He didn’t need to; he was a natural.  He just naturally connected emotionally, and offered his ideas with enthusiasm and sincerity.  I never for a moment felt like I was being “sold.”  He defined the very essence of what selling should be and that experience changed me forever.

Onward & Upward

Ben

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Selling “systems” don’t work!

Like you, I’ve been through countless sales training’s.  And I’ve  also trained a lot of sales people through the years.  And virtually all sales training’s involve some sort of “system.”  Now, at this stage of my selling career, I’ve come to some conclusions with which I’d like to challenge you.

Let’s look first at the positives of “selling systems.”

  1. Selling systems give us a road-map for each sales call.  It helps us to organize our thoughts and how we will diagnose our prospects needs.
  2. Selling systems give us a platform from which to present our solutions.
  3. They give us the structure we need to come across as organized and professional.
  4. They keep us focused on our goals and make the time we spend with our prospects more efficient.

All good stuff right? 

So let’s now consider the downside of “selling systems.”

  1. In general, selling systems are manipulative. And when prospects feel like they are being manipulated, you’re done.
  2. Selling systems are overly rigid. My skin crawls to think of a sales person sitting in front of prospect thinking to himself, “am I on step 4 or step 5?  Did I miss step 3?”  What a nightmare!
  3. Selling systems are about the sales person and their goals and not so much about the PROSPECTS goals. Which is why you are there!
  4. Selling systems detract from the kind of quality interaction and genuine dialog that leads to a beneficial outcome. You’ll notice that I did not say, “leads to a sale.”  Whatever outcome is best for your prospect is what you want to make happen.  Even if that means they don’t buy your stuff.

So what’s the best way to run a sales call?  Have a system or not?

Anyone who has sold with me or has been trained by me knows I’m a huge fan of constant learning regarding selling.  And I study and believe in “selling systems” because they all have something good about them.  I just feel that systems are overused.  People think too much about the system and not enough about the prospect.  It kills rapport and sales.

So let’s agree to use a word other than “system;” let’s use the word “guidelines.”

Selling guidelines give you all the positives of the various selling systems while avoiding the downsides.  The following guidelines will indeed give you the best of both worlds:

  • Have a well thought out, client focused selling system (guideline) that works for you, but be willing to change it, or abandon it completely, based on how the sales call is going.
  • Prepare you butt off the day/night before your appointment.  Going in with a huge amount of pre-call intelligence will not only bolster your confidence, it will allow you to connect more effectively with your prospect.  Be the most prepared sales person they’ve ever seen!
  • For each call, take your guidelines and think about how they will be used based on what you know about your prospect.  You do know about your prospect, right. Type A’s don’t want to be led down a path, while analyticals will be more at ease with a little structure in the call.
  • Develop a “call plan” that serves as a starting point until you get into rapport with your prospect.  Then make their needs the absolute center of your universe.  They’ll feel your sincerity.
  • Never forget that the prospects needs and goals come first. Your selling guidelines should support that in every way.
  • If you find yourself thinking about your guidelines/system during the call, STOP IT.  Just be yourself and focus on the prospects needs.
  • If you have not mastered your sales call process, work a little bit into each call. Just enough to stretch you without taking your mind off the prospect.  Call it a “system” or a “guideline”, unless you can use them innately and modify them on the fly, don’t use them at all!

Just remember, being genuine is more powerful than any sales system.  But being genuine AND using selling guidelines/structure flawlessly is UNSTOPABLE!   I know it sounds like a contradiction, but it’s a fact.  Great sales people have a plan for every call.  But they can pivot on a dime and change strategies as needed.  Be prepared, be focused, have a plan, but don’t let any of that get in the way of you being you!

Onward & Upward

Ben

 

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Are you relevant? Or are you…

Outdated selling is about convincing (tricking) a buyer to buy.  At best, that style creates either a non-buyer or a reluctant buyer.  And if you are lucky you’ll occasionally stumble into the perfect prospect and that sale takes care of itself.  But what about doing things in a way that causes the buyer WANT what you have?   I mean really want it!

It’s more simple than you might think.  In fact, I’ll give you one word that pretty much sums it up:  RELEVANCE.

How do we become more relevant?  I hope it goes without saying that you must to know your product or service inside and out.  Next you do your research.  Seek to understand your prospects industry, competitors, market forces, challenges, opportunities and other aspects of their business.  The more of this knowledge you gain, the more “relevant” you become.  Add to that even more knowledge about your prospects specific company, and also your prospect himself/herself and your potential relevance is now even higher.  Think Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.

This knowledge will allow you to frame every question or statement in a way that is far more relevant to your prospect.  You’ll be speaking their language and relating to them in ways they will recognize as genuine.  You’ll be able to drop facts and comments into the dialog that show your prospect that you care enough about them and their needs to have done your research beforehand.  In short, you’ll be relevant.

And being relevant relaxes your prospect and allows for a truly meaningful exchange.  In this way, you are best positioned to quickly uncover needs and express your solutions without the “sales resistance” typical of most prospects.

Put another way, in the all-important initial meeting, use your relevance to establish a genuine rapport and get down to the business of uncovering your prospects needs.  Whether their struggles are positive, negative, or both, once you know, you can discuss how you can help them.  And because you have become relevant,  you will have their full attention throughout the meeting.

Conversely, if you are not relevant and just keep trying to “sell” them something, you’ll find them daydreaming, looking at their watch and looking forward to your departure.

So you have to be relevant to hold their attention.  Also, forget value. Your prospect gets to decide that one.  They see value in things that make their struggles/problems go away.  Little struggles = little value.  big struggles = big value.  So think in terms of relevance instead of value.  If your solution is highly relevant to your prospects situation, they will place great value on it and more importantly, they’ll WANT IT.

If, however, your solution offers no relevance to your prospects needs, it’s time to move on.  Simple as that.  Don’t try to create a connection where there is none.  You and your solution are either relevant or not.

If you have true solutions to offer,  you now must master is the relevance of the solutions you propose.  You may have 20 great solutions within your offering and you know they all would help your prospect.  But here again, relevance is the key.  Limit your discussions to those solutions that your prospect (not you) see as relevant to their needs.  Forget about all the rest.  I know it’s hard to do but trust me; prospects don’t care about all your other “stuff.”  The moment you start talking about things that don’t address their burning needs, that’s the moment you start losing them.  In fact, you may have them dying to buy from you after discussing 3 or 4 solid rock solid, relevant solutions, but if you go on talking about things that are, in your prospects mind, not relevant, you’ll probably lose the deal.  What a disaster!  You were positioned to really help them,  and then you chased them away!

So relevance really boils down to a simple formula:

Doing your research ahead of time in a way that allows you to quickly identify your prospects most pressing needs, then presenting those aspects of your solution, with relevance, that directly address and solve those struggles.

The more needs you find, the more solutions you can offer.  And the more RELEVANT solutions you offer the more your prospect is going to WANT to do business with you.

It’s all about knowing your prospect and what they need. It’s about knowing your product & what it has to offer. It’s about having options for your prospect and it’s about presenting them in a perfectly RELEVANT way that creates the desire to do business with you.

So start thinking about how relevant you are in every aspect of your sales process.  Relevance creates desire and desire creates sales!

Onward & Upward!

Ben