Tag: sales training

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Planning & Management Sales & Marketing

Successful Negotiation: Start Early

A gift for you

One of the key aspects of a negotiation is that both parties leave feeling that they got what they wanted. The hardest aspect of the negotiation is to actually achieve that as there is always a fine line that needs to be found early. How do you find it early? You start the negotiation early.

I’m not saying make phone calls and send emails to get into the head of whoever it is you’ll be meeting with but instead it’s to start the process of understanding what their strategy could potentially be. Once this has been understood you can start to align your negotiation to match with the other member of the conversation.

Always Plan

Some sales people and business people do like to think themselves as master negotiators, they can roll up to a meeting, make their demands and leave with everything they wanted and then some.

Very few of us are like this.

Instead you need to focus on doing research on a whole host of information to better understand the potential for negotiation tactics and ideas.

–          Management team

–          Company direction

–          Financials

–          Recent News

All of these aspects can and will play a vital part in the actual negotiation and the more you understand the more you can understand where, how and why the negotiation takes the route it may take.

The idea of planning is that you can construct the ideal negotiation with a counter to follow, the most important part of doing this is that you can then align your offer with the company, individual or management’s needs. All sales are completed once you’ve understood perfectly the customer’s needs, pain points and have aligned a solution – this is the foundations of a successful negotiation.

Always having a plan A and B gives you the chance you consider your options in every negotiation, having a template that is permanently stored within your memory means when a meeting gets tricky you can fall back quickly onto this “template”.

Plan A and B is also a good way to practice getting ready for the meeting in advance, because you have to understand more you’ll need to spend more time seeing if you’ve missed anything. A Plan a and B 5 minutes before the meeting rarely works in fact it probably wrecks every negotiation tactic out there.

Fear Has No Room

People like to storm out of rooms, smack the table or throw things around during the negotiation process; this isn’t a Hollywood movie so it shouldn’t even cross your mind. The trouble with fear is that we naturally experience it when rejection seems inevitable, let’s face it leaving a negotiation without matching your terms is always going to feel like rejection.

If you’ve initiated the negotiation/meeting then you need to focus in on a win-win strategy that won’t encroach on the line of “defeat”. Again this refers to the idea that if you’ve done your research and planned early you’ll understand the company and the individuals direction helping you align and create the perfect negotiation that means no one has to leave feeling a sense of remorse.

The main point of this whole article is that you need to be prepared early, if you do that then you eliminate the fear that sets upon you pre-negotiation and it gives you the best opportunities to create a win-win situation. Few can master the strategy and a lot of the times they’ll leave with either a feeling of remorse or with a bad reputation of pushing and “wounding” the other party. First things first the person opposite you should never leave with buyer’s remorse or anything closely associated with the feeling, it’s incredibly bad for business.

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Sales & Marketing

Increasing Sales and Productivity: Action and Fundamentals

Article Contributed by Sharpenz

We recently surveyed dozens of sales managers about tools and solutions they use to help their sales teams be more productive and successful in selling. When I analyzed these expert sales managers’ feedback, the key ingredient or “secret” to high sales productivity is ACTION!

Ernest Hemingway said, “Never mistake motion for action.” This is so true in sales! We can be in motion but not going anywhere. Action means productively moving forward.

The activities of planning, preparation, research, reworking value propositions, and putting together effective presentations are all important. But without action with clients or prospects, those activities are insignificant.

Successful sales professionals take action when others don’t and actions that others won’t.

The sales professionals we work with to increase selling skills intellectually agree with the tools, steps and behaviors we outline and practice. What makes the difference in results is that the most successful people immediately put these ideas, skills and tools into action in sales calls. And they make sales. The others make excuses why they couldn’t use them, get caught up in busy work and then are surprised when sales don’t happen.

Another important aspect of success and sales performance is focusing on the fundamentals.

Michael Jordan, undeniably a long-term example for sports performance, said, “You have to monitor your fundamentals constantly because the only thing that changes will be your attention to them.  The fundamentals will never change.”

The same is true in our professional business careers: if we want to increase our sales productivity, we need to give attention to the fundamentals of great communication, preparation and follow-up.  These are timeless, universal fundamentals.

Want to increase your sales results and success?  It’s really not a secret after all…move beyond activities that are just motion. Take purposeful and consistent action and focus on the fundamentals!

What selling fundamentals or action can you take today to set yourself up for success this week? Let us know in the Comments section. Now, “Just do it”!

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell more each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!

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Communication Skills

Focus on the WIIFT for a Powerful Presentation

Article Contributed by Sharpenz

A while back I had the opportunity to work for nearly two days with the best-of-the-best sales pros in a client company. We spent our time together focused on taking their game up another notch with a workshop titled “Powerful Presentations.” One thing I noted is that really successful people generally are very open to new ideas and skills that will allow them to be even more successful!

A key idea I shared in this workshop was that our sales presentations are more powerful when we focus on WIIFT – What’s in it for Them – from the open of the presentation through the close.

To engage your audience, it’s incredibly important to tie the message about YOU into what it means to THEM. Who wants to listen to 10 or 15 minutes of background on the speaker and their company? Do you really care if they have been in business for over 75 years? About three minutes into the “background” about you, they have disengaged – you can see it in their body language. Instead, focus on WHY it is beneficial to them that your company has been in business so long. Will it mean a better product? Or more expertise that will solve a problem for them?

Initially there were some skeptics in the group who weren’t sure the WIIFT was THAT important. Until the first practice presentations began and each professional had to sit through all the other presentations. Being on the other side allowed them to feel what its’ like to have a lot of information shared AT them and not tied specifically TO them.

As we ended the workshop, these successful sales professionals commented that it IS powerful to make our message not about us – but that it is hard to do! The more successful and experienced we are, the harder it may be to do something different. To send a message adapted to our audience, with only enough detail that is important to them and then to link WHAT we do into WIIFT statements is not easy. But it is worth the effort for an engaged audience!

How much effort does it take to link the WHAT of your message to the WIIFT? Post your comments and let the rest us know we are not alone!

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell more each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!

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Planning & Management

Multi-tasking: How to Take the “Crazy” Out of Crazy Busy

Article Contributed by Sharpenz

If you consider yourself a “multi-tasker” and often reply “crazy busy” when people ask you how you’re doing, then you should listen up. A recent analysis from the business research firm Basex, estimates that extreme multi-tasking costs the US more than $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

So what can we do to minimize multi-tasking and get more done? We recently came across two sources for ideas:

1. The Power of Focus for Women, a book by Fran and Les Hewitt, presents 10 focusing strategies. Many of the ideas are not just for women. Les adds a man’s perspective at the end of each chapter.

2. Business advisor and author, Timothy Ferris of  The 4-Hour Workweek. Now his philosophy is definitely Gen-Y – and many of us baby boomers consider it radical. And yet, as we read through his ideas and blog at the fourhourworkweek.com, there were several very practical ideas we can implement in addition to some from the Hewitts.

In addition to these written resources, here are a few other anti-multi-tasking ideas to consider:

1. Outsource what you can. No matter what your income, there are things that are worth the cost to have someone else do versus the time and energy it would take you to complete. It is amazing how inexpensively some things can get done. Each time we add an out-source I think, “Why did I ever do that for this long?” Virtual Assistants are extremely reasonable and can help so much!

2. Prioritize each morning. Then address the most important items first.

3. Set time aside for you and the things that you are passionate about. At the Sales Expert Summit last month, Danita Bye said that “just because I am competent in something, doesn’t mean I am passionate about it.” If you aren’t passionate about something, why are you trying to multi-task with it?

4. Delegate. This is different from outsourcing. Delegating means it is someone at home or work that you can assign a responsibility or activity to…and not pay them extra to do it!

5. Minimize the number of times your emails are received, both on your computer and on the hand-held. Alice Kemper schedules hers to only be received every 60 minutes. A lot of people thought she was nuts. But guess what? She now is more in control of her time and schedule. Unless we have life-or-death matters being emailed to us, why do we need to be interrupted every 3-5 minutes?

For all you multi-taskers, this is a lot to consider – you aren’t going to change your habits overnight. Choose just one of these tips to work on, and see yourself go from crazy busy to just productive!

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to motivate and equip their sales team to sell more each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster programs help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz’ ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free sales training kit today!

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Do You Wish There Was An Easier Way To Respond to Sales Objections?

Article Contributed by Sharpenz

Customers are saying ‘It costs too much.” “Business is slow I don’t need to advertise.” And most sellers have a prepared response.  Unintentionally, these responses are often framed to prove the customer wrong.  There’s a better sales technique.  It’s very simple:  You don’t need to have an answer.  You only need a question!

This week Ed Baron of Ed Baron and Associates and myself are facilitating an annual 5-day Sales Boot Camp for 18 sellers of radio, internet, newspaper, alternatives and community newspapers.  The week consists of sales training topics on selling skills, competitive media, proposal writing made easy, and powerful partnering. We finished Day 3 and have been having very interesting conversations about sales objections.  One seller asked, “Do advertising executives have a cologne of their own?  I walk into businesses and they immediately know I’m an advertising sales representative and often before I can even say hello and shake their hand I’m hearing everything and anything from I can’t afford it to, I tried it before and it didn’t work to the economy is bad and I’m not advertising.”  A big discussion ensued about what to say to each of these ‘objections.’   Everyone had many different ‘come backs.’

After listening intently to this conversation, Ed and I asked how often do their responses work and the customer opens up and accepts the opportunity for a meeting to discuss their business and how the seller may have a marketing solution to turn cost into an investment and no customers into more customers?  And they said very few.

So, I guess that way isn’t working!  I can see where that would be very frustrating and after enough of that kind of rejection begin to demoralize a seller.  Sellers can fall into the trap of believing the economy is so bad and business owners won’t buy from me now.

We know that’s not the case.  Businesses are buying and they could and would buy from these sellers if they changed how they are currently responding to these objections.

It’s very simple:  You don’t need to have an answer.  You only need a question!  Think about that.  If you have a question you:

• Engage the customer. They will be the one talking and often they talk themselves into advancing the sale!  Their talking builds rapport and trust.

• Gain more information.  It costs too much is too vague.  What does that really mean?  I don’t have money, I spent money before and didn’t get a return on my investment or I don’t see a value in what you are selling.  How do I even know how to respond if I really don’t know specifically what ‘it costs too much’ means to them?

• Reduce stress.  Knowing you need the perfect answer is stressful.  Wondering if what you say will satisfy the objection and help you advance the sale is stressful.  Think about this… having a good question is less stressful.  Good questions to those often asked objectives are easy to have – and having several questions to select from is easy which also makes it less stressful.

I challenge to you list the objections you hear and prepare at least one question you can ask to help you advance the sale.

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to energize, engage and equip their sales team to sell each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster meetings help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free ready-to-go sales training kit today!