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Help Prospects Change Their Lives And That Will Change Yours

Marcel Sim — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:07:51 +0000

Article Contributed by Tami Stodghill

If your goal is to make a million dollars, then you mastermind with millionaires. If your goal is only to make $50K a year, then align yourself with people who make $50K a year. It’s true. There is a reason those people who are immensely successful are. They are involved with quality products, in a growing company, with people who are interested in changing other people’s lives as well as their own. And in doing that, they continue to experience success. Is that always the case? No but then those people that are in it to line their own pockets exclusively sometimes tend to burn out quickly and find their prospects drying up over time. They aren’t in it for the right reasons. It’s that simple.

When we got into this business, it was our goal to just replace our income we had in our jobs so we could quit. We didn’t hate our jobs, but we were working 50+ hours a week, taking no vacations or holidays to speak of and were pretty much capped out on income. We knew that we would be “stagnant” so-to-speak and that we wanted to change and improve our lives. The couple who introduced us to our opportunity were genuinely supportive, supplying the information we needed to make an educated decision as to whether it was right for us. There was no pressure and our endless questions didn’t tire them or make them eventually avoid our calls. See they knew we had family, and responsibilities and were nervous about making such a substantial change in our lives. And they guided us through that change, helping us to realize our dream. Did that change their lives? Sure it did. But it did so as a result of offering us the ability to change ours.

When my husband and I return a call to a prospect that has contacted us in response to our marketing efforts, we stop and always take a moment to remind ourselves that we need to help that prospect find out if what we can offer them, in the way of a business opportunity, will assist them in changing their life. Because it’s a fact that any prospect that contacts you is looking for something. Some will be looking for something they can start immediately and make an income as quickly as possible. For them it is time-critical. Maybe they lost their jobs, or are losing their home, or have mounting medical bills or can’t afford daycare to work outside the home. But others are just looking to add income or change jobs. For them, the urgency isn’t there. However, they ARE looking for something or they wouldn’t have contacted you. It’s your responsibility to find out if your opportunity will help them find that something.

The opportunity we decided on was based on several factors. The product was timely for sure. It offers a program to help people eliminate debt, create wealth and change their lifestyle. Plain and simple. And we knew in today’s economy we would be able to offer people a solution that would, if they followed the program, do just that. But we also knew that the company was very interested in their consultants, welcoming input and involving them in day-to-day training and tools to help those consultants continue to experience success. Every company should be of that mindset. It’s good business and it’s recognizing that it takes good people to have a good business. Align yourself with a good product, service or opportunity to sell. then focus on helping other people reach their dreams. THAT is your top priority.

In summary, if you approach your business from a “giving” and “grateful” attitude and perspective, it will come back to you. No question about it. You make every call to your prospects asking yourself what your opportunity (or service or product) can bring to their lives. And in doing so, you will help them to discover that it’s just what they are looking for.

About the Author

Tami Stodghill was the Press-Relations manager, for a world-wide extensible-technology distributor based in London and the US for 20 years. She was also a freelance writer for several industry publications and is now a home-based business owner with WMI. She makes her home in Page-Lake Powell, Arizona, in the summers and Palm Harbor, Florida in the winters where she enjoys boating and reading, camping, hiking and meeting new people. She runs a blog site exclusively to offer tips for success for any small or home-based business.

How to Thrive in a Recession

Brandt Smith — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:00:03 +0000

Every time I turn on the news I feel like screaming. I am sick and tired of hearing about how bad the economy is. Unemployment is up and is only going to get worse. Banks are in trouble and going under. Real estate is a mess and there is no end in sight. Major corporations are going bankrupt – heck, even the big three automakers may go under.
I hear about how this is the next great depression. I hear about the collapse of the dollar, the collapse of the western world, and the end of society as we know it.
It Isn’t As Bad As It Sounds
The sad part is that it isn’t all that bad. Yes the economy stinks, but this is only when compared to the amazing boom we experienced in the last decade. Companies have been able to go after the low hanging fruit-heck, there was more lying on the ground than you could pick up!
Just because the ground isn’t littered with business anymore doesn’t mean that there isn’t business out there. You just have to work for it. And the past decade of easy business means that most companies have not made the connections and built relationships. Now they pay the price.
And at the end of the day, now is the time where entrepreneurs can really shine.
No, I’m not crazy. Think about what a true entrepreneur does.

He connects with his customer
identifies his needs and problems
then creates products and services to fill those needs or problems

In other words, he gets paid to solve problems
Now more than ever companies are in trouble. Your customer desperately needs you. No, he isn’t spending indiscriminately. But if you solve his problem and help him survive (or thrive) in this downturn he will be your customer for life. And you solve your “slow business” problem at the same time. Only an entrepreneur can do this, and you finally have an advantage over larger companies.
Simple, but Hard to Do
This is a simple concept that is hard to do. I’ve written several articles that are aimed at this:

Recessionproof your sales
How to Thrive in a Recession
How to Thrive in a Recession – Ignore the News
How to Thrive in a Recession – It’s All About the Customer
How to Thrive in a Recession – Working for Someone Else

Brandt Smith is a sales, marketing, public speaking, and professional development expert. Learn about achieving wealth and life balance through entrepreneurship at Wealth and Wisdom, where he is cofounder and senior editor. Their advice on wealth building, personal development, and life balance can help take you to the next level. You can also read more of his thoughts on his blog.

The P’s and Q’s of Public Speaking

Alan Fairweather — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:12:12 +0000

Avoid the pain
Which would you prefer – root canal dental surgery without an anaesthetic or a bit of public speaking? According to the people who research these things, most of us would prefer the former.
Public speaking is still one of our greatest fears and it turns grown men and women into nervous wrecks. The mere thought of it turns our tongue to cotton wool, causes our internal plumbing to act up and our kneecaps to start knocking lumps out of each other.
The problem is that Public Speaking catches up with many of us at some time both in our business and personal life. You’re asked to do a short talk at Fred’s “leaving do”. The
organisers of your business club want fifteen minutes on why you make “kafuffle” valves. A potential client wants a presentation on why they should give you the contract.
Of course there’s always the confident people who think “I’m real good at this, lead me to the podium.” The only thing is that some of these people could bore your socks off and do more for insomniacs than the strongest sleeping pills.
Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be sent on a Public Speaking course by your enlightened employer. But more likely, when asked to make a presentation you’ll get hold of a book on
speaking, start writing the speech and lose sleep until the event.
Well, there’s no need for all of this because help is at hand. All you need to remember are your P’s and Q’s. Let’s start with the P’s
Preparation -
When you sit down to write what you’re going to say, bear in mind who you’ll be speaking to. Will they understand what you’re talking about; will they understand the technical stuff and the jargon? If in doubt remember the old saying “Keep It Simple Stupid”. To quote Aristotle – “Think as the wise men do, but speak as the common man”.
Make sure that what you say has a beginning, a middle and an end. Think of some anecdotes that help reinforce your story.
People think visually so paint verbal pictures for your audience. And always remember, people want to know what’s in it for them – so make sure you tell them!
Place -
Have a look at the venue before the event if you can. It’s not always possible, however, even if you get there half an hour before, you can check out where you’ll be speaking.
Stand at the point where you will deliver from, imagine where the audience will be and check that they can see and hear you. You may even wish to place a glass of water where
you’ll be able to find it.
Personal Preparation -
Before any speaking event, think about what you are going to wear; when in doubt dress up rather than down. You can always take things off for a more casual look. Men could remove their jacket and their tie. Women could remove items of jewellery.
Part of your personal preparation should include some mouth and breathing exercises. Practise saying some tongue twisters to give your speaking muscles a good work out. Take
a deep breath and expand your diaphragm. Then breathe out, counting at the same time, try and get up to fifty and not pass out.
As part of your personal preparation, write your own introduction. Write out exactly what you want someone to say about you, large font, double-spaced and ask the person
introducing you to read it. Believe me they won’t object and will probably be pleased and impressed.
Poise and Posture -
Whenever you’re called to speak, stand up or walk to the front quickly and purposefully. Pull yourself up to your full height, stand tall and look like you own the place. Before you start to speak, pause, look round your audience and smile. You may even have to wait until the applause dies down. Remember, you want the audience to like you, so look likeable. Practise this in front of a mirror or your family; I’ve heard that children make pretty good critics.
Pretend -
I’m suggesting you pretend you’re not nervous because no doubt you will be. Nervousness is vital for speaking in public, it boosts your adrenaline, which makes your mind sharper and gives you energy. It also has the slight side effect of making you lighter through loss of body waste
materials. The trick is to keep your nerves to yourself. On no account tell your audience your nervous, you’ll only scare the living daylights out of them if they think you’re going to faint. Some of the tricks for dealing with nerves are:
Get lots of oxygen into your system, run on the spot and wave your arms about like a lunatic. It burns off the stress chemicals. Speak to members of your audience as they come in or at some time before you stand up. That tricks your brain into thinking you’re talking to some friends. Have a glass of water handy for that dry mouth. Stick cotton wool on your kneecaps so people won’t hear them knocking.
One word of warning – do not drink alcohol. It might give you Dutch courage but your audience will end up thinking you’re speaking Dutch.
The Presentation -
This is it, the big moment when you tell your audience what a clever person you are and have them leap to their feet in thunderous applause. Okay, let’s step back a bit – if you want their applause then you’re going to have to work for it. Right from the start your delivery needs to grab their attention.
Don’t start by saying – “Good morning, my name is Fred Bloggs and I’m from Bloggs and Company.” Even if your name is Bloggs, it’s a dead boring way to start a presentation. Far better to start with some interesting facts or an anecdote that is relevant to your presentation.
Look at the audience as individuals; I appreciate that this can be difficult when some of them are downright ugly. However it grabs their attention if they think you’re talking to them individually.
Talk louder than you would normally do, it keeps the people in the front row awake and makes sure those at the back get the message. Funnily enough, it’s also good for your nerves.
PowerPoint -
And for those of you who haven’t heard of it, it’s a software programme that’s used to design stunning graphics and text for projection onto a screen. As a professional speaker, I’m not that struck on PowerPoint. I feel that too many speakers rely on it and it takes over the presentation. After all, you’re the important factor here. If an audience is going to accept what you say then they need to see the whites of your eyes. There needs to be a big focus on you,
not on the technology.
Use PowerPoint if you want but keep it to a minimum and make sure you’re not just the person pushing the buttons.
Why not get a bit clever at using the faithful old Flip Chart, lots of professionals do.
Passion -
This is what stops the audience in their tracks. This is what makes them want to employ you; to accept what you’re proposing and make them want you to marry their son or daughter. Couple this with some energy, enthusiasm and emotion and you have the makings of a great public speaker.
Just think of our old friend Adolph Hitler, boy could he move an audience to action. It’s just too bad he was selling something that wasn’t to everyone’s liking.
Give your presentation a bit of oomph and don’t start telling me – “I’m not that kind of person.”
There’s no need to go over the top but you’re doing a presentation to move people to action, not having a cosy little chat in your front room.
That’s the P’s finished with so let’s look at the Q’s.
Questions -
Decide when you’re going to take them and tell people at the start. In a short speech it’s best to take questions at the end. If you take them as you go then you may get waylaid
and your timing will get knocked out.
Never – never – never finish with questions; far better to ask for questions five or ten minutes before the end. Deal with the questions and then summarise for a strong finish.
Too many presentations finish on questions and the whole thing goes a bit flat.
When you’re asked a question, repeat it to the whole audience and thank the questioner. It keeps everyone involved, it gives you time to think and it makes you look so clever and in control.
Quit –
Quit when you’re ahead. Stick to the agreed time; if you’re asked to speak for twenty minutes, speak for nineteen and the audience will love you for it. Remember, quality is not quantity.
One of the most famous speeches ever – “The Gettysburg Address”, by President Lincoln, was just over two minutes long.
Right, that’s my cue to quit when I’m ahead. Public Speaking will never be easy for most of us but we can all do it a whole lot better.

Alan Fairweather, ‘The Motivation Doctor,’ is an International Speaker, Author and Business Development Expert. To receive your free newsletter and free e-books, visit: http://www.themotivationdoctor.com

Selling the Customer What the Customer Needs – Not What You Want

Russ Lombardo — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:35:37 +0000

I’d like to tell you a little story about Sam, an old acquaintance of mine. The first time I met Sam I had stopped in his little general store while passing through town to buy some soda for my long car ride back home. His was the only store in this very small rural town and he did a sizable amount of business. As I walked down one of the aisles to get to the refrigerated coolers in the back where they kept the soda, I couldn’t help but notice that the shelves were loaded with containers of salt for sale. There were salt containers from the front of the aisle to the back, from top to bottom, and on both sides of the aisle. I couldn’t believe it, an entire aisle dedicated to just salt.
I grabbed a couple sodas and went to check out.

As Sam stood there smiling I said to him, “Excuse me, but I noticed you have hundreds and hundreds of salts for sale.”

Sam simply said, “Yup. That’s right.”

So I said, “Well, you must be one heck of a salt salesman to sell that much salt.”

Sam slyly responded, “Nope. Actually, I’m a terrible salt salesman. But the guy who sold me all that salt, now HE was a great salt salesman.”

Dumbfounded, I paid for my soda, went to my car, and drove home.

Since I had so much time to think during my long drive, I couldn’t help but wonder about how Sam’s salt plight was so typical of customers who end up purchasing something they don’t really need. They purchase what the sales person wants them to, which is not always what the customer really wants or needs. Obviously, Sam did not need all that salt, but the salesman made a good commission check on that sale nonetheless.

Do you think that the sales person who sold Sam all that salt has a snowball’s chance in you-know-where of EVER selling ANYTHING to Sam again? Of course not! If he sold Sam only what he really needed at the time, he would have had a chance to develop a relationship for life and, over that life-time relationship, he would end up selling a lot more salt than he did in that one single sale.

This is one of the biggest lessons in sales – Understand what the customer needs and sell him the right solution for those needs. In doing so, you not only have done right by the customer, but the customer will trust you and that is how a relationship begins. Since customers are more knowledgeable, and even sophisticated, in today’s market, they are looking for sales people who are more problem-solvers and planners who can work with them as a partner rather than someone who is just trying to sell them something. Therefore, sales reps need to sell VALUE, not products or services. By developing your relationship-selling skills you’ll position yourself as a partner who sells value, which will make you stand out from the normal crowd of sales reps who are pushing products down their client’s throats.

Relationship-selling involves listening, instead of “telling”. Asking the right questions, shutting up, and carefully listening to the responses are the key ingredients for doing this right. Prospects will tell you almost anything if you show you care about them. The traditional “sales pitch” is now replaced with an interview, with the goal of solving your prospect’s problems. By considering the prospect’s bottom-line, instead of your own quota, you create a win-win situation. By solving their problems, you will get the sale and both of you will win.

In a non-relationship selling environment, the sale rep spends very little time in the early stages of the sales cycle. These stages include the initial contact phase where rapport needs to be built and the qualification phase where you establish whether there’s a good fit or not before wasting a lot of time. As a result, that same sales rep ends up spending way too much time presenting the solution, since they don’t know exactly what the right solution is. Therefore, the negotiating and closing phases take proportionately longer.

To sell value and develop a relationship-selling environment, you need to become a strategic partner who can bring value to the entire relationship, right from the start. Spending more time in the up-front phases of the sales process to build rapport and trust and to properly qualify your prospect to understand their needs, will make the next steps in the process go much easier and quicker.

You also need to be easy to do business with. Don’t make every step a painful experience. Each step should be viewed as something that is helping your prospect and driving them toward the conclusion (“their” conclusion) that they would be crazy not to purchase from you. If you are viewed as a valued problem-solver, then you will actually help them make their decisions, which is what many customers need. In other words, be part of their team.

Remember, it’s all about the customer, and not about what is best for you. So next time, try positioning yourself this way instead of focusing on your own needs. You’ll end up selling a lot more salt than you ever did before.

Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Runaway Sales Calls

Russ Lombardo — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 00:00:20 +0000

Have you ever been on a sales call where the client was in total control? Of course you were. We all were. And it’s a real bear trying to change things when it happens. At some point, it becomes a runaway sales call and the client has manipulated and controlled everything. When this occurs, you lose all negotiating power, your ability to identify their problems, the chance to close, and anything else that will help you win their business.
I was in one of those memorable events once along with one of my resellers, in a previous life. Since we only sold through the dealer channel (i.e., value-added resellers), I was there representing the software vendor I worked for at the time and supporting our reseller. So I let the reseller run the meeting. Sounds innocent enough. Yea, Right! The client had about four or five people in the room and were very polite and cordial. And then they brought in Hans, their “technical guru”. (Seriously, that was his name – Hans) That’s when things changed for the worse.
Hans began to tell us about how challenging their business was as one of the leading carpet manufacturers in the industry. They sold to carpet distributors (who sold to stores such as Home Depot), major retail outlets (such as Home Depot), small carpet dealers, and other various distribution channels. As a result, their challenge was forecasting future business, since many of their clients changed or canceled their orders even after his company started manufacturing their orders. This caused enormous wastes when not managed properly. So they were looking for a product that would help them plan their business, forecast sales, manage their accounts, and basically cure world hunger (well, not exactly, but that’s what it sounded like at the time).
Every time our reseller tried to present how our product could potentially solve his problem, Hans, in his heavy Bavarian accent, would shoot it down, saying in a condescending tone, “You don’t understand our business. That won’t work because…” It seemed like he kept trying to set us up with a description of a problem, only to say that anything we proposed wouldn’t work. It was as if he already knew it wouldn’t work before he opened his mouth. And, in fact, that’s exactly what was happening. You see, he told us that every vendor he brought in had the same useless solutions and we were no different than them. He proceeded to challenge us to solve his problem since no one else could. He was in total control of the meeting. He made it clear that he was bringing in vendor after vendor, only to chew them up and spit them out. This painful episode prevailed for quite some time, that is until I spoke.
Since I let the reseller do all the talking so far, I noticed that he was desperately trying to solve this guy’s problem and sell him our product. I, on the other hand, saw something else going on — a big game that Hans was enjoying. I think he called it “Kill the vendor”. He was, in fact, trying to find a solution since his problem was genuine. But he was using his unique situation to challenge every vendor he could get his hands on. That is until I realized that his problem was a process problem, not a technology issue. In other words, his problem was systemic and had to be resolved by the way they did business with their clients. Once that was resolved, then they could use technology to track and manage their business. Unless they fixed the way they handled their own customers, technology wouldn’t do them much good.
I waited for just the right moment to initiate a well-placed cough to get their attention. I then leaned forward in my chair and said, “Excuse me Hans, but what makes you think that technology can solve your problem.” He started to answer, but only a few half words and stutters came out. He stared at me, then at the ceiling. After what seemed like 5 minutes of total silence, he leaned forward and said, “No one has ever asked me that before.” So I said, “So what’s the answer?” And he said, “I don’t know. But I think you are on to something. We’ve been looking for a solution in the wrong place.” We then had a very cordial and intellectual discussion about business processes and how to handle customers who screw up his business by canceling orders after he started manufacturing them. Hans’ demeanor totally changed. He started treating us with respect and assigned himself a project to figure out how they will change their processes to resolve their internal issues. Only after that was done would he revisit technology.
I have since moved on and don’t know what Hans and his company ultimately decided to do. Frankly, I don’t think our product could have helped him anyway, but it was a very interesting exercise in managing a sales call. Wouldn’t you agree? With some good listening skills and asking just the right questions, you can keep control of your sales meetings, qualify your prospects, and arrive at the right solutions, even if that means walking away because you don’t have the right solution for their problem.
Good Luck & Good Selling!
Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Team Selling – There’s no “I” in Team, but there’s a “ME” in there

Russ Lombardo — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:04:40 +0000

You’ve heard the saying before that there is no “I” in team. And that’s true. A team is a collection of people working toward the same goal with the single objective of successfully reaching a satisfied conclusion. However, when you’re a sales rep there’s a slightly different spin on this little pearl of wisdom. Sometimes it’s a natural tendency to think more about “Me” than the team.
As a sales rep, you deal with a variety of people in a team-selling environment. In the early phases of selling when the opportunity is still new, you may deal with your inside sales or telemarketing people to help qualify the account. On the technical side you may engage the pre-sales systems engineer who works with the client’s technical or IT people. As you negotiate the deal the contracts people can get involved. When you get the order you could deal with your order entry staff. And, when the sale is made the customer support team may be deployed. There may even be additional people and departments you work with depending on your company and selling process.
Nevertheless, when it comes right down to it, who gets the ‘ax’ when the revenue numbers aren’t achieved? Who gets fired when the territory doesn’t hit quota? Who gets kicked to the curb when the big deal goes to a competitor? The SALES REP!!
We understand the concept of team selling and always want to be a “team player”. That’s a good thing since you need your team to help close business. Without the team, you cannot succeed. Don’t ever forget it. However, this advice can hurt you if you lose focus on who has the most at stake. Sure, this sounds selfish and greedy. But guess what, you’re the one whose commission plan has 50% at risk. If you don’t make your quota, half your income is at stake. The order entry people still get paid. The contracts administrator still takes home the same amount she did last month. Seems everyone still gets paid the same whether YOU get the deal or not – except you!
But wait! Don’t you also get paid the “Big Bucks” when you hit your quota? Don’t you get the huge bonus and over-rides when you “blow out” your numbers? What about then? Well, that my friend is what sales is all about. You are in a high-risk position. If you sell, you’re a hero and make lots of money (theoretically speaking, that is). And if you fail, you make less. Sometimes lots less. But what about the team?
If YOU have everything on the line, then who cares about the team? They get paid the same and you take all the risk. So why become a team player? You can’t spell team without “M” and “E”. So what about “ME” you say. Why should I care about the team? When I hear this from sales reps, I feel like crying. Some even believe that their team is there to serve their purposes and if things go wrong or they lose the deal, the team can take the fall. Teamwork doesn’t mean, “Let’s spread the blame as widely as possible.” It’s not about blame. It’s about success.
So, why should you care about your team? Well, if you don’t know by now, it might be too late. You cannot do your job without your team. Period! End of story! Sure, they get paid the same, win or lose. But they help make you a success. As that desperate man named Jerry said to the beautiful lady in that famous motion picture, “You complete me.” That’s exactly what your team does – they COMPLETE you. Team players in a sales environment sometimes have to weave a delicate thread when trying to balance their priorities. How do you take care of the team’s interests and priorities while not neglecting your own?
This reminds me of when I was on the high school wrestling team. Unlike football, which was truly a team sport, wrestling is a bit duplicitous. First, you are on a team and the entire team can have a winning or losing match, and season. However, each wrestler has to go out there and defeat their opponent one-on-one. You are on the mat all by yourself (well, with your opponent, of course). Your team isn’t out there with you trying to pin the other guy. If you win, that’s great for you. But you can win and your team can still lose if there aren’t enough individual wrestlers on your team who win.
In high school wrestling, each individual wrestler gets points for winning. If you win by scoring more individual points than your opponent, then your team gets, say, three points. If you pin your opponent, your team gets, say, five points. So you can pin your opponent in 10 seconds flat and look like a hero. But if the rest of your team doesn’t have enough individual points, the team loses. Sure, you can move on to wrestle in the District or Regional Championships, as an individual. But you could still be playing for a losing team. The best scenario I remember was having a personal success record and reaching the championship tournaments, while wrestling for a team with a winning season. Pride times two!
In sales, there is a big difference however. When the sales rep is out there on the mat with his or her opponent, the rest of the team is really out there too. The technical expert pitches in when needed. The contracts person does their part. Management helps where they can. And finally, if all goes well, the team overcomes diversity, the customer makes the best purchase decision for them, and everyone wins.
One way to ensure the team succeeds is to have a well-defined sales process. This entails laying out all the steps necessary to bring a sales lead from suspect to prospect to customer. The process should define who does what within each step, for how long they do it, how they hand off to the next responsible team player, if and when they get engaged again, and many more details that the entire team should understand and follow. The need for, and development of, sales processes is the subject of another article. In fact, books are written on this subject, not to mention the livelihood of many consultants dependent on them, including yours truly. But it is important to mention here as it relates to a team selling approach. No sense having a team if all the players are moving in different directions and cross-purposes.
So the next time you’re out there selling your head off, don’t forget you have a support team behind you whose sole purpose is to make the team, and you, succeed regardless of who gets paid what, and regardless of how you actually spell T.E.A.M.
Good luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Dead Man Talking

Russ Lombardo — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:00:53 +0000

If you are in sales and you just keep on talking instead of listening, you’re a DEAD MAN! Well, not literally, I hope. But as far as getting that sale, you might as well be walking among the non-living because chances are you won’t win over that client. They say that if you cross Selling with Talking, you get Stalking. So let’s not stalk our customers. Your goal should be to ask the right questions in order to get the prospect to talk as much as possible. The more they’re talking, the more you’re learning – learning about their needs, pains, requirements, and what it is that you might be able to help them with.
Listening is not something that comes natural for many people since it is human nature to prefer talking. And when people talk, their favorite topic is…you guessed it… THEMSELVES! People love talking about themselves. If you don’t believe that, try this little game next time you’re on a cross-country flight. Try asking the person sitting next to you open-ended questions such as, “What kind of work are you in?” and “What made you decide to go into that field” and “What sort of challenges do you find are most common in the work you do?” Watch how quickly they jump all over those questions. Why? Because they get to talk about their favorite subject – Themselves. I used to do this when I flew cross-country for a couple of years and would actually say nearly nothing the entire 5-hour flight, while my seating companion blabbered on the entire trip. It’s fun to do this, albeit rather trying on the nerves. But it is an excellent example of my point, not to mention excellent practice to help improve your listening skills.
So why is listening so important? Well, for one, we already mentioned that people prefer talking to listening. So, as a sales person you are actually letting them do what they want to do the most. Second, listening builds trust by showing you have respect for them. Also, listening compliments people by showing that you care. These are all reasons for listening that benefit the talker, or your prospective client. But what about you — the sales person. How can listening help you?
The secret to getting your prospect to tell you everything is to simply listen. Acquiring the skill of good listening will increase the amount of money you earn, period…end of story. As I mentioned earlier, you have to ask the right kinds of questions first in order to get them to talk to begin with. Ask open-ended question, or questions that don’t require a simple yes or no response. Open-ended questions typically begin with the words Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Build more questions based on the responses you receive from your previous questions. Ask questions about their company, their customers, their plans, what sort of challenges they are experiencing, what they did in the past to try to resolve those problems, and more. Get them to open up, then shut up and listen. You will gather very valuable information that will help you to better qualify your prospects and make the sale by getting them to purchase the exact solution to the problems they just described. But how do you listen?
A very good listening technique is called “Active Listening”. Active listening involves a bit of body language and verbal queues. When they are speaking, respond to certain points or topics with comments such as, “Really!”, “No kidding!”, “Wow!”, “What happened then?”, or “Tell me more.” This creates an interaction, but without you having to actually say anything. It also shows that you’re paying attention and interested. Also, listen with your body. Lean forward and toward the client to show you are interested. Never slouch or sit back looking too relaxed, else it will appear that you are bored and disinterested. Take notes. Even if they are not very meaningful or helpful to you later, taking notes shows that you are interested enough to log parts of the dialog for future reference.
Practice this at home. No, I don’t mean talk to yourself in the mirror and wait for an answer. I mean try this out on your family and friends. Try these same techniques on them and two things will happen. First, you will hone your skills for when you are in a selling situation, and we now know how that will help you. Second, your family and friends will realize that you really care and may actually say, “Wow, you are such a good conversationalist.” when ironically, you were just being a good listener. So don’t be a “dead man” (or woman) – Be a good listener and watch your sales increase.
Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Train Your Sales Team Using an Effective Sales Process

Russ Lombardo — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:05:38 +0000

Most sales people know that they need to develop a relationship with their clients. If they don’t know this in today’s society and business climate, then they are probably living in a coal mine in Tibet. However, what they may have difficulty with is knowing what to do to develop that relationship and how to do it. Sales training and a sales process are the keys to knowing the “how”.
The “what” to do is addressed by a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) strategy combined with CRM technology. This strategy and technology combination helps sales reps with knowing what they need to do next in order to move the relationship forward. For instance, given the right contacts at an account, they may need to establish a meeting with the decision maker, schedule a demonstration, and develop a proposal. However, these are just the mechanics of a sales process – the “what” to do for each step of the way.
While the mechanics are critical to the sales process, what they don’t address is the “how”. How do sales reps reach the decision makers to set up a meeting? How do they develop the best solutions-based proposal? How do they demonstrate the product in a fashion that reveals the best solutions to the prospect’s problems? The way to build a relationship with a client is to learn the “how” of selling, which is obtained through sales training. Sales training comes in many shapes and forms, but the best ones are those that follow a process. Each step of the process moves the relationship one step closer to a win-win solution and encapsulates the selling skills necessary within each step.
A basic flaw in many sales rep’s style is to try to solve the client’s problems by educating them with a product pitch. Customers, especially decision makers, are not interested in the technical details. What they need to understand is how your solution will fix their problems and remove their pains. What often happens is that sales reps tend to make these product pitches to lower-level employees who are not the decision makers. Obviously, this wastes everyone’s time. What needs to be done instead is to focus more on asking the right questions, listening carefully to what the client is saying (and implying), developing the right solution using your products or services, and presenting those solutions as they directly relate to the client’s problems, all done with the right decision maker.
Each of these steps, and more, are learned processes and skills. The saying, “Good sales people are born, not made” is false. Selling is a science, not an art. With proper sales training and a solid sales process, nearly anyone can become a successful sales professional. So what does a good process look like and what are the skills needed for each step?
Let’s look at one in particular, the PEAK Sales Process. PEAK is an acronym, which stands for: Prospect, Engage, Acquire, and Keep. This pyramid diagram below depicts the steps in the PEAK Sales Process where each step builds upon the prior.
Step one, Prospect, is where the initial contact is made which involves cold calling in order to find a candidate client. At this point, this is really just a raw lead rather than a qualified prospect. Here, the training would involve how to make cold calls, your attitude, the first impression you make, and the approach you make during the first phone call or meeting. Once you’ve prospected and found a candidate, you need to Engage them in the process of the sale. This training involves learning how to qualify what is now considered to be a suspect by asking the right questions and listening carefully to their responses. Listening skills are paramount at this stage since the next steps in the process are based on what information is discovered in this engagement stage.
The goal of the engagement stage is to understand the client’s problems and requirements in order to match the right solution to their needs. As a result of good questioning and listening, the sales rep will not only understand this critical information, but they will also ensure that the suspect is fully qualified. To be qualified, the client must have a budget, have the authority to make the decision or at least introduce you to the decision maker(s), have requirements for which you have good solutions, and be able to make a decision and purchase within a reasonable timeframe.
Once qualified, the next stage is where you Acquire them as a new client. This involves moving them from being a suspect to a prospect. In the acquisition stage, the sales rep presents and proposes their solution, negotiates with the client, handles objections, and closes the sale. If the prior stages were handled correctly, then this stage becomes much easier since the client’s needs are fully understood, they basically told the sales rep what they need, the sales rep’s trust and credibility should already be established, and the close becomes a natural progression of the process, as opposed to the typical “dreaded event” that most sales reps fear and loath. Hence, the goal of the acquisition stage is to get the prospect to become a customer.
The final stage is where we Keep the customer. This is where they become a full-fledged customer and when the relationship is most important. Unfortunately, many companies do not have a customer retention strategy and lose the long-term relationship, and hence any forthcoming business potential. An on-going relationship after the sale is critical to your future business and viability. There are several steps and skills necessary to ensure this relationship continues and to make sure your customer becomes, and remains, loyal to your business.
Having a clearly defined sales process with specific skill sets for each stage will ensure that your sales reps will replicate their successes and become more consistent and effective. Regrettably, many sales reps are not trained or experienced with these skills, nor do they perform them in the right order because there is no process. They ask the prospect questions when they should be closing or they try to close when they should be qualifying or they do a myriad of other actions at the wrong stage of the sales cycle. Performing the right actions at the right stages of the process is the key to successful selling.
With proper sales training and a first-rate sales process, your sales team will not only learn the appropriate skills but also when and where to apply them to become more successful. Thus, they will learn “How” to sell better. Combine this with “What” to do by developing a CRM strategy and using CRM technology, and you’ll have an unbeatable, world-class sales team.
Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Effect

Russ Lombardo — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:28:37 +0000

Is this a familiar scenario? You’re this close to landing the biggest deal you ever encountered. The solution you are pitching is nearly one hundred thousand dollars and will keep you busy the better part of the long Winter months ahead and possibly into the Spring. You planned about 4 months worth of consulting and are eager to begin. Now, at the final meeting with your client, you are about to get the sweet answer you’ve been working hard to get for months. There’s not much else that compares to the excitement of getting a signature on a huge deal you’ve been working on for what seems like forever. But here you are, actually watching the client sign your order.
You’re set. You go out and celebrate that night with your spouse and talk about how much you deserved this and what it meant to your income and, of course, your business. The long hours. The pressure. The sacrifices. But now that’s all over and you got what you deserved. A huge contract that will yield a lot of consulting dollars for your relatively small operation.
The next day you order the products or materials from your vendor. It arrives in a couple days and having already set up the first meeting with your client, you set out with everything you need to begin work. The first few weeks would include discussions and interviews for the discovery analysis. Then the planning phase. And finally the customizations, implementation, training, and roll out. The plan is perfect and you are the right man, or woman, for the job.
Reality Hits
Did you ever wake up out of a dream and have no idea where you are or how you got there? Well, that’s how you feel months later when you realize that your project is coming to a close. It is a great success. Your client loves you. The users are getting on board with the project and are very enthusiastic. The program works like a charm. Everything is coming together. Except for one thing — Your Business! You suddenly realize as you finalize this long-term project that your business is totally stagnating, and you have no idea how you got to that point.
As if you were a prisoner being paroled after a 20 year sentence and seeing how society has totally changed in your absence, you emerge to find that you have absolutely no opportunities lined up to pursue. Worse than that, your vendors thought you went out of business. You lost all your status as a premier reseller or buyer, which means you lost all the privileges from your vendor’s reseller program; such as leads, special promotions, co-op dollars, attention from their local field representatives, and most important, a higher discount rate that is based on volume sales. You also shot yourself in the foot by not generating any leads yourself through marketing activities you could have been doing over the past several months. So your pipeline is dry, no one in the area knows of your business any more, and you are back to ground zero.
Has this ever happened to you? If it hasn’t it could. In this example, months ago you thought you were such a huge success, pulling in a large deal involving huge revenue for your business. How were you to know that at the same time you were destroying the very business you were trying to build?
What To Do?
If this, or something less dramatic yet similar, has ever happened to you, then you could be experiencing the Saw-Tooth Effect. What’s the Saw-Tooth Effect? It’s all very simple to understand. But not many businesses realize it until it is too late. Here’s how it works. Draw a horizontal line. Above the line are marketing and sales related activities. Below the line are technical and implementation related activities. In the beginning of your sales cycle you spend all your time above the line marketing your business, generating leads, and closing a sale. Then you “disappear” for a finite amount of time below the line implementing the solution you just sold. When that job is completed, you go back to the above-the-line activities and start all over again. This up-and-down process repeats itself until something breaks – usually your business.
While below the line, you do nothing above the line. And, when above the line, you do nothing below the line. Pretty simple and quite binary – you do one or the other. But the problem is, when you’re below the line, no one is above the line generating business and finding your next opportunity for when you rise above the line again, or re-emerge from your project implementation.
Recommendation
This scenario is a classic example of what happens to smaller businesses who haven’t staffed up properly. To resolve this self-defeating situation you, as the business owner, may need to do a lot of soul searching to decide what it is you are really good at versus what you really like to do. You may realize that you really enjoy selling solutions and would benefit most by concentrating all your energies on the sales and marketing activities (above the line) that your company will need to do to succeed.
Let’s say that is the case and you decide to focus on sales and marketing. You’ll then need to hire staff to do all the technical work. Now, you shouldn’t go overboard and hire more people than you could initially put to work. Let’s say you remember how important it was to do the up-front planning and discovery analysis, not to mention the on-going project management. So you first hire a project manager who is experienced with doing the planning phase. Next, you hire a technician who would concentrate on implementations. Your project manager, or even you, would do the training initially until you have enough business to sustain a full-time trainer. But first things first.
Your plan will be to spend your time marketing, selling, and running your business, all above-the-line activities, while your technical people spend all their time below the line. While they are doing the implementations, you’ll be generating new business for them to implement. You will build and feed your “Pipeline”.
You have to go out and catch the lion. Then you bring it back and throw it into the tent where someone else skins the lion while you go back out and catch the next one. The question is – Do you want to “catch” the lion or “skin” the lion?” This will, and should, have a dramatic effect on your business; specifically its growth and success. In time, as your business continues to grow you can start hiring sales people, which will allow you to focus more on running your business, or even taking some well-deserved time off.
Summary
You have undoubtedly looked at a saw and noticed how the teeth go up and down and up and down and so forth. But, have you ever noticed a similarity in how your business might be following the same pattern? Sales go up for a while, then down, then up again and down again, repeatedly. If you haven’t noticed, you might want to take a closer look.
One telltale sign that you suffer from the Saw Tooth Effect is your purchasing patterns. Do you purchase a lot of products or material every other quarter, for instance? Or, is there some sort of pattern that has you purchasing something now, then nothing for a while, then something again, then nothing for a while, and so on? These are signs that you might be going through a specific mode of operation of buying product, implementing it, then buying more, and implementing it, over and over again, instead of having a consistent and perpetual flow of selling and implementing on a continual, parallel, and steady basis. You cannot do both selling and implementing. You never see a NASCAR driver get out and change his own tires, do you? If he did, he’d lose the race every time. You need a team of specialists who focus on their own aspect of the business.
The Saw Tooth Effect is not a healthy business model for your company since it doesn’t allow you to sustain a consistent revenue flow. The scenario discussed earlier was perhaps an exaggeration of what is happening in your business, although I have seen this happen to various sizes of business. Even if it reflects only partial reality, it is something to be concerned about. It’s all a matter of balancing resources. Some resources should be dedicated to marketing and selling, while others should focus on installing and implementing. Using the same resources to do both can cause the Saw Tooth Effect and result in inconsistent revenue and growth for your business, which can lead to a variety of negative effects including poor customer retention and harmful relationships with your vendors, not to mention your accountant.
As you plan your business’ future, be sure to take into account the Saw Tooth Effect and how you can avoid it. It will truly liberate you from the prison of inconsistent business growth.
Good luck and good selling!

Russ Lombardo is President of PEAK Sales Consulting, LLC and an experienced CRM and Sales consultant, trainer, writer, speaker and radio show host. Russ works with businesses to help improve their customer acquisition and retention for increased revenue and success. Russ is author of the books, “CyberSelling”, “CRM For The Common Man” and “Smart Marketing”. He can be reached at 702-655-5652 and emailed at russ@peaksalesconsulting.com.