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June 2006 Sales Success Newsletter
Ideas, Tips, and Tools for Sales Success
Our goal with each issue is to provide you with usable, proven ideas and techniques that will make you a more effective salesperson or sales manager and increase your sales and earnings.
In this month’s issue . . .
I guess it become the pattern now for me to get these newsletters out at the end of the month.
I apologize for not preparing a newsletter for May. There was so much going on that time simply slippped by before I had time to get anything prepared.
This month my article addresses an issue that many salespeople face at one point or another in their sales carerr - difficulty in closing business. You may be surprised at what I see as the problem and how to correct it, but I think you'll agree.
I also have a very good article from Ari Galper, founder of Unlock the Game, about ethics in selling. Ari makes a very good look at how many times the ethics of some salespeople have slipped and how it's become too acceptable. I believe you'll find this article to be a good wake up call to make sure you don't let someone or some situation drag you into this trap.
Lastly, we have an article that addresses an issue that I believe you'll find interesting. Brian Jeffrey talks about the importance of proper attire for professional salespeople. In our increasing casual business world we have become almost too casual as salespeople and Brian points out how this can end up coming back to haunt you if your not careful
We welcome your questions, comments, and success stories - just e-mail us at info@kosa-consulting.com.
Here’s to your sales success!
Kent Howell
What's The Real Cause Of Low Closing Ratios?
I recently came across a situation where someone I was working with told me that their salespeople were doing a poor job of closing and wanted to implement some training to improve the team's closing skills. It's normal to look at low closing rates as being indicative of a lack of skill in asking for the business. In many cases salespeople don't directly ask for the business because they don't want to hear "no"; and it other instances they may not know how to ask for it in a way that will lead to a "yes" or not know how to properly deal with any resistance they may encounter.
However, I want to look at this from a different perspective. I believe that low closing ratios are often not necessarily the result of poor closing skills, but rather are indicative of a lack of skills in questioning skills and presentation skills, with the questioning skills being the more significant culprit.
Why do I believe this? Let's look at what I think is the most essential element in selling, that is providing a solution to a prospect's challenges and problems (which fall primarily into two categories - reducing costs and increasing revenue). If the prospect doesn't see or believe that your proposed solution will help achieve his/her goals no amount of closing skills will cause that prospect to make a buying decision in favor of your solution.
In order to be able prepare a solution that meets the prospects needs and objectives you have to have a full and complete knowledge and understanding of what those needs and objectives are. How are you going to get that? There's only one way - to skillfully ask the right questions that will provide you with the information you need. You cannot do this by asking only a few questions or questions that are directly aimed at eliciting specific responses will be favorable to your product or service. Also, it's vitally important that you ask as few closed ended questions as possible. Simple yes or no answers will not provide you with the kind of information you truly need.
The questions that really get to the heart are "the six wise men" – questions that begin with who, what, when, where, why, and how. These open ended questions are the ones that require the prospect to be more descriptive and to elaborate in more detail regarding the information you're seeking. Another important point is this -- not only do you have to have to ask good questions but you have to listen well and restate what you've heard for clarification that you have correctly understood what the prospect said.
The other area that is a potential problem is poor presentation skills. I'm not talking about your ability to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and deliver it. What I'm talking about is the ability to clearly and succinctly talk about your product and service in a way that conveys its ability to provide the answer to the prospects challenges. Much, much too often salespeople are keyed on talking about the features and advantages of their product or service that the completely miss addressing the benefits that they provide as a part of the solution. The skillful presentation of your solution and the benefits of your product or service and how its benefits meet the needs of the prospect is crucial to your closing success.
Even if you have very good questioning and closing skills that will still leave you without a sale if you cannot effectively communicate your solution and its benefits to your prospect.
So, the next time you find yourself having difficulty winning new business when you know that you have directly asked for it, take a step back and ask yourself whether or not you really did a good job of questioning and presenting. If you work on improving those two areas you'll win more business even if you need to improve your ability to close.
Sales Ethics: When Did It Become Okay to Lie?
For the past couple of days, I’ve been kicking around in my head something that happened during a conference call last week with a company that hired me to train their sales people over the phone.
It’s the kind of experience I’ve had trouble forgetting because it was such a stark conflict with everything I was brought up to believe about the difference between right and wrong.
Here’s what happened.
I was on a conference call with the sales team of a large telecommunications company. As part of the call, I asked one team member to role-play a cold call with me.
He said, “Ring-ring,” and I said, “Hello, this is Ari.” He said, “Hi, Ari, my name is Michael, and I’m hoping you can help me out for a moment.”
I thought to myself, “So far, so good,” and replied, “Sure.”
“We’re taking a short survey to help us determine if our products really meet the needs of our market, and I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
I was about to reply, “Okay, what questions do you have?” because it seemed like a reasonable request.
But a split second later, it hit me. I paused, thought for a moment, and then stepped out of our role play and said, “Are you really taking a survey? Or is that just a ‘technique’ to try and engage the person your calling?”
He said very matter-of-factly, “Yes, that’s what we use here when we cold call.”
And I said, without even thinking about, “Wait a second, isn’t that a lie? I mean, you said were conducting a survey, but in reality you aren’t. You’re using it as a trick to get the other person to engage with you on the phone.”
All of a sudden, everybody on the call got quiet -- so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
Then finally the VP spoke up. “Well, Ari,” he said in a calm voice, “I never looked at it from that perspective. But you’re right. It really isn’t the truth.”
In a minute, I’ll let you know how the rest of the call went, but first let me ask just one question:
WHY HAS LYING BECOME AN ACCEPTABLE WAY OF SELLING?
I don’t know about you, but at home when I was growing up, my parents taught me to always be truthful and that lying was a bad thing.
But notice how, for this sales team, lying was sort of “Ho-hum, just another day at work.” Not telling the truth was a perfectly acceptable way of doing business.
You can imagine how much this threw me.
Everything I teach in Unlock The Game is about being open, transparent, and honest, and above all, about always seeking the truth of the other person, which is the basis of any honest human relationship.
Does Lying Really Overcome Resistance?
You see, I’ve sat in many of those old-school selling programs taught by the “sales gurus” who in a very subtle manner tell people there’s nothing wrong with using “techniques” to get the sale.
Fake “surveys” are only one of those “techniques”. There lots of them, including things like pretending to be returning a message when making a cold call. This is designed to confuse the prospect and lower their resistance.
The bottom line is, these “gurus” are saying loud and clear: in the selling process, not telling the truth is justified.
And they justify this sort of thinking and behavior because they say it’s the only way to overcome sales resistance.
Well, my friend, that’s the core reason why traditional selling has gotten such a bad name and why “salesperson” has become such a negative stereotype.
What the “sales gurus” don’t understand is that “resistance” is a reaction to traditional sales techniques. They’re the ones creating the vicious cycle, and they don’t even know it.
And they have no idea how to break that cycle either.
They don’t understand that if you stop using self-serving and sometimes downright unethical sales thinking and sales techniques, you won’t get resistance from prospects.
Then, the selling process will stop being a push and pull cat-and-mouse game. It’ll turn into a human relationship.
Why the End Never Justifies the Means
With the Mindset, the end never justifies the means.
Working from the Mindset means focusing on letting trust grow so you can discover your prospect’s truth.
If you’re not telling the truth, that makes trust impossible.
Here are some differences between the two ways of thinking so you can think about which one feels right for you…
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Traditional Sales Thinking |
The Mindset Approach |
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Now, Back to the Phone Call…
Now I’ll tell you what happened next, after that awkward silence with the VP and sales team on the training call.
I explained to them that traditional selling had gotten so embedded in their minds that it had clouded their sense of right and wrong.
By the way, everyone on the call was comfortable with what I was saying. They got it immediately as soon as I pointed it out.
I could even hear them sighing with relief as they realized that their new Mindset skills would help them eliminate resistance from the sales process.
They now understood how and why they’d veered off the ethical path, and that it’s ok to let go of something that deep down inside felt wrong.
And I really respected their openness to recognizing that.
How Would You Like to Be Treated?
Visitors to my website who are considering ordering the Mastery Program often ask me why the Mindset is different from all the other sales programs out there. I always tell them, “It’s a different way of thinking based on integrity, honesty, and truth.”
It’s like this…forget about business for a moment and think about your own personal life. Do you want relationships with people who are comfortable not telling you the truth?
Well, selling is a relationship too, and you can probably understand why “techniques” endorsed by traditional sales trainers make building a genuine human relationship virtually impossible.
Ari Galper is founder and creator of Unlock the Game, a new and different approach to Cold Calling. You can learn more about Ari and Unlock the Game at www.unlockthegame.com
Dress for Success
You only get one chance to make a good first impression and what you wear has a lot to do with the impression you create. In this day and age of excessive casualness, it's easy to cross the line and lose a sale, all because of what you're wearing. Here's an example.
The salesperson was giving a sales presentation to a small group of engineers who were all very casually dressed (no jackets, shirts with open collars and no ties). The salesperson was equally casually dressed.
Everything was going well until the company president, whom the salesperson had never met, joined the meeting. He entered the room wearing a business suit and tie. The visual mismatch between the person giving the sales presentation and the person who would be making the buying decision was as obvious as it was striking. The salesperson found himself at a situational disadvantage.
What do you think the president's first impression was of the salesperson? Was it, Oh here's a casual-looking, laid-back guy that I'd like to spend several thousand dollars with? Or was it, How serious is this guy? You be the judge.
Even if the president had joined the meeting wearing casual attire, he might still have looked at the salesperson and thought, How serious is this guy?
How seriously do you want to be taken? If you want to be taken seriously, you better look the part. Dressing appropriately not only affects how seriously some people will take you but it can impact your credibility with the prospect.
How much credibility would you give a financial advisor who showed up driving a rusted-out car and dressed in torn jeans? I'll admit that's an extreme picture but the point is that the image you present is the starting point for establishing credibility in your prospect's mind.
Underdressed or Overdressed
If you're going to err to one end of the scale or the other, err on the part of overdressing, but obviously not to an extreme. You don't wear a suit and tie or a dress and high heels if you are going into an industrial environment. On the other hand, don't wear cargo pants and a polo shirt if you're calling on senior management. You must dress appropriately.
So what's appropriate? Well, first off, casual or business casual is becoming less and less acceptable these days. There is a shift back to dressing up rather than dressing down. Business grunge is simply no longer acceptable for anyone who wants to move forward in the business world.
Sales Attire
Salespeople need to be even more aware of their attire than the average bear, but you can still get away with being somewhat casual as long as you're not more casual than your prospect.
A rule that I learned many years ago seems to apply once again and that is salespeople should dress equal to or slightly above what their prospect is wearing.
Another rule is that you should dress like someone to whom your prospect would go to for advice. Either of these rules will keep you out of trouble.
Keep in mind that you can always dress down by removing a tie or jacket but you can't dress up if your tie and jacket are still hanging up at home.
Dress Rules for Special Occasions
What do you do when you're invited out to an event by a prospect or client? It's always wise to ask what the dress code for the event will be. Even then, the various dress codes can be even more confusing than the DaVinci Code. Here are some definitions that may help you through the clothing maze.
Business Dress Categories
Casual: Means polo shirts, blouses, khakis, jeans, and cargo pants.
Smart Casual: Includes slacks, sweaters, and shirts with collars. Jackets and blazers are optional.
Dressy Casual: Implies dress shoes and better quality fabrics than smart casual (wool blends rather than synthetics).
Business Casual: A more tailored look than dressy or smart casual. It can include suits and dresses as well as blazers and slacks. Men do not require ties. In general, business casual for dinner almost always means wear a suit.
General Business Attire: This means suits and ties for the men and dresses for the women. Suits may have different colour pants or skirts and jackets. Men require ties.
Corporate Professional: Also known as "power dressing." Single dark-coloured suits, usually wool or linen. Ties are required for men.
Be Prepared
As a salesperson doing business-to-business selling, it's probably a good idea to treat a jacket and tie like an American Express card and not leave home without them. You may not use them but it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them.
Corporate Attire
It's appropriate in some businesses to wear clothes bearing the company logo. Monogrammed shirts and outerwear seem to be the most popular of these. Depending upon your marketplace and the level of the people you normally deal with, this is entirely appropriate. The rule here is to make sure that the garments are clean and fresh.
Look Good, Feel Good
As a professional, it's always best to dress the part. That way you're assured to not only give a good first impression but a good second and third one as well. Don't let a little thing like what you wear get in the way of being the best you can be.
What you wear and how you look can affect the way you feel and the way you act. So dress for success… look good, feel good, and sell great.
Brian Jeffrey is a Certified Sales Professional (CSP) and president of SalesForce Training & Consulting Inc. www.SalesForceTraining.com. He is a sales trainer, sales management consultant, columnist, and author of The Sales Wizard's Secrets of Sales Management.