Archives for April 2015

Don’t avoid what the prospect is resisting in the sales discussion because it may point to the real problem. It is a natural tendency to avoid difficult topics of discussion. So when the prospect either refuses out right to discuss something or skirts the issue it is imperative that you steer the conversation to those topics. If they outright refuse to talk about it ask why they don’t want to discuss it. If they are skirting the issue just ask questions to get to the heart of the matter. If you don’t do this your sales conversations will be filled with “happy talk” and you will come away thinking that it was a “great conversation.” When sales people tell me it was a great conversation it usually means that no progress was made on the sales call. the sales call may be uncomfortable for the prospect but that may be necessary to help them with the problem they are having.

Joe Friday Just wanted the facts … the information … unadorned. Salespeople need more than information. Just knowing what the prospect wants is not enough. You need to know why they need it. What happens if they don’t get it? What is the context behind the need? Is there a compelling reason to have it? Is there a cost monetary or otherwise to not having it? How is their life affected by not having it? Who else thinks we need it? Who else is affected by not having it? How is the operation affected by not having it? How did we get along without it up to now? Are there alternatives they have considered and rejected? Why did they reject them? Anyway, you get the idea. If you were the salesperson who only knew what the prospect needed, don’t you think you would be at a disadvantage to the competitor who had the answers in great detail to all of the above questions? Don’t be that salesperson!

Sales theory is great … as far as it goes. I’m not against theory, after all I teach it. But theory is only the beginning. We can talk about what potential compelling reasons to buy are in general. We can get more specific and identify specific compelling reasons for your industry (in theory anyway). When your marketing department gets involved they talk about your value proposition, which is another way of saying what compelling reasons are you aiming at fixing. But do you know why your actual real live current customers actually bought from you. Did you just show up at the right time? Is it something you said? Is it one particular feature of the product or service that appealed to them? Don’t you think it might be important to know? Maybe other people have the same issue. Maybe it will change what you say on your next sales call. Maybe it will give you an idea of how to conduct the next sales call. Maybe it will give you an idea of how to better configure your service. Maybe … well you get the idea. Maybe it would be a good idea to ask???

Excuses kill personal growth. Personal growth happens when we overcome a self-limiting belief (like people buy based on price) or a hidden weakness (like a high need to be liked). When you make an excuse for lack of performance (our prices are too high, our software is too slow) then you are not focusing your energy where it needs to be focused. You are looking outside and not inside. The biggest problem is that by not looking inside yourself you will never uncover the obstacles that are holding you back. So even if the software gets faster, and your prices get lower, your performance will only increase marginally and will only last as long as those conditions persist. You will be like a basketball player who can only score when guarded by someone shorter and slower than him. You want to be more like the top basketball players who work on their game all summer, so that when the season starts they can score from anywhere on the court no matter who is guarding them.