Archives for November 2013

Your beliefs make all of the difference on a sales call. Generally, when people bring up this topic they are talking about believing in your product. I take belief in your product as a given. If you don’t believe in the product or service you are selling, there is no way you will be able to convince a prospect to buy it. I am not talking about belief in your product here. What I mean is that your mindset has to be properly aligned with what you are trying to accomplish on the sales call if you are to be successful.

Let’s take a first call for an example. Usually on the first call the goal is to qualify the prospect to see if it makes any sense for us to pursue this prospect. Let us assume that our sales process demands that we discuss money after we determine that they have a problem we can solve. In that case, we must make sure that before we go on the call that we are convinced that we have an absolute right to ask how much the prospect wants to spend and we must expect to get some indication of the size of the project in monetary terms. The reason our mindset is important is that 93% of what we communicate is non-verbal and comes through our tonality and body language. Our belief and our question must be in alignment or we will not get the answer we are looking for and that we deserve.

Let’s just say that we have a weak salesperson that goes on the sales call and knows he must ask the money question. However, he doesn’t believe the prospect will tell him. After all, when he is the buyer he never divulges how much he was planning to spend. But since his boss wants him to ask, he asks. “So, Mr. Prospect about how much do you plan to invest in this project?” I can’t convey the tonality with the written word but if his belief is that they won’t tell him his words may say “tell me” but his body language and tonality will say “there is no way you are going to tell me.” the words are worth 7% and the non-verbal part of the communication is worth 93%. What do you think happens? That’s right the prospect says “I’m sorry I can’t tell you.” or “Gee, we really haven’t thought about it in detail yet.” Both statements are half truths at best. The weak salesperson says to himself. “See I knew he wouldn’t tell me. Those sales techniques never work.” And he has another data point to reinforce the belief he went into the call.

The optimal Salesperson® believes he has a right to know how much the prospect is thinking of spending so that he can be sure they are on the same page. if he is at first rebuffed when he asks he has other moves he can make and won’t leave until he gets a number. The actual words are not as important as the belief that the prospect will tell him. When you are totally congruent (meaning that your question and your beliefs align) the prospect will answer the question. So if you are not getting the answers yo want to the questions you ask maybe its your beliefs that are the problem. Your first task is to sell yourself on the idea that you have a right to know the answer.

Some are born most are made. Born salespeople are as rare as painters like Monet and Picasso or basketball players like Michael Jordan and Lebron James or Tenors like Boccelli and Pavoratti. But even they did not emerge on the scene fully developed. Monet broke internal barriers and helped create the impressionist movement. Jordan spent hours in the gym and set a new standard of excellence on the court and Pavoratti took many voice lessons and practiced for hours to redefine what a powerful tenor should sound like. The difference between successful salespeople and the “also ran’s” is motivation to develop skills through consistent practice and the willingness to uncover hidden obstacles (like discomfort discussing money) and to put in the effort required to overcome the obstacle. You don’t have to be Jordan, Monet or Pavoratti to succeed. Anyone can do it if they are willing to put in the effort and they know what obstacles they need to overcome.

Singers and basketball players have coaches who make them aware the obstacles they have to overcome to progress from level to level. The individual then puts in the effort (or not) to overcome the shortcomings. If they do this enough times and put in enough energy they will eventually move up the ladder and earn large salaries as professionals. However, most never make it out of the amateur ranks and have to get a real job. Salespeople are no different except that the weaknesses are hidden. It’s obvious to even the most casual observer when a basketball player misses a shot or a singer can’t hit a note. But in sales it is not so obvious what causes a salesperson to fail. Most salespeople want to blame it on outside forces like the economy or the market or the competition. However the optimal salesperson® realizes that the obstacles to success are most often within himself. It could be lack of a particular skill or it could be an internal obstacle like fear of rejection or discomfort talking about money or a belief that it is not ok to ask a particular question. There are many hidden obstacles but just eliminating one or two makes a dramatic difference in effectiveness. If you were lucky enough to be born without some of these weaknesses, then you have a natural advantage sort of like being born 7 feet tall. But that alone will not make you successful. You must still practice and work hard to make it as a professional salesperson.

The truly great salespeople are not born that way they are the ones who got an early start in their career identifying the weaknesses they had and working diligently day by day to eliminate them. If you are not where you want to be, are you taking responsibility for identifying the weakness holding you back and working to overcome it?