There is a big problem with having experience in a given field. You begin to make assumptions. “I’ve heard it all before.” “I’ve already encountered everything there is to experience.” “I know more what a prospect needs than they do.” When sales professionals begin to think this way, they stop listening to the prospect. They are just looking for a pause in the conversation so they can tell the prospect what they need to hear. Such a perspective is a recipe for mediocrity in sales. Every prospect has some nuance or differentiator that makes them unique. The optimal salesperson listens thoroughly to the prospects, looking for every piece of information that will enable the delivery of a truly custom-tailored solution that will close sales and increase business. Don’t stop listening because you think you are so smart.
Closing Sales Is Like Hitting Moving Target
Salespeople often make the mistake of assuming that the world of the prospect is static and that nothing happens in the life of the prospect between the times that he prospect talks to them. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. The world is a dynamic place and things change from day to day. Just think about your own company and your own life today compared to last quarter or last year. If your life and your perspective changes so much why would you think that the prospects life and perspective would be any different? When things change in the prospects life, their view of your product and the urgency to make a purchase will also change. When their situation changes that change will have a major impact on whether you can close the sale and how and when you should close the sale. Here are just a few of the things that can happen.
- IMPROVED KNOWLEDGE – Over time the prospect learns more. This can even happen in one call situations. As the prospect learns more about the product or service they are buying, what they value will change. In long sales cycles they have time to do research. your specific knowledge or what you tout as your ”value add” may become less important to them.
- PRIORITY CHANGES – Sometimes the project that you are selling rises on the priority list of the prospect and sometimes other projects become more urgent to the prospect. It is also true that certain features become more or less important to the prospect over time due to changes in their own situation or due to what they learn about the product or service.
- OUTSIDE EVENTS – Personnel changes either above or below the person you are calling on can have a major affect. Marketplace conditions can change. The prospect company can be bought or they can make an acquisition which will affect your sales. World events like the wrong person getting elected or a national calamity or a hurricane can have a dramatic effect.
These are only a few of the many things that can happen but they illustrate the fact that closing the sale is like hitting a moving target. Most times the closer you get to the decision point the faster things change.
The fact that the situation can change mandates that you stay abreast of the latest developments. When you go in to make a presentation or have a follow up meeting make sure that you verify that things haven’t changed dramatically before you start. In long cycle sales situations develop multiple contacts in the client organization so that you sources which can keep you up to date on the latest developments. The main point here is to recognize that his phenomenon occurs and to make sure you are aware of the latest set of buyer values and motivations.
Raise Expectations Improve Performance
Expectations are powerful. From birth we are subject to them. We are expected to roll over, crawl, walk, babble, talk and eat with utensils on a somewhat rigid schedule. If we are not on schedule, parents, doctors and specialists intervene to see what is going wrong. As we get older we are expected to act in a certain way by our parents, our friends, teachers and coaches. Some parents expect their kids to be doctors; some expect them to be craftsmen or politicians. If we decide to do other than what is expected of us, then usually there is stress involved as we try to break free from the expectation. Unfortunately this trend continues into adulthood. We absorb expectations unconsciously from the world around us. Consequently we have a certain belief about what is possible and that belief is based on our everyday experience of the world. The Optimal Salesperson® has high expectations for his or her performance.
We bring this process to our job as salesperson. We have a certain belief about how much we can earn and how much can be sold in a given year. We tell ourselves that these beliefs are reality based on the actual data. For proof we say things like: “The average salesperson in this industry makes $95,000. I think I am a little better than average so I am doing well at $105,000.” When I suggest to a salesperson who has that mindset that they should be able to earn $200,000, they explain how I don’t understand the industry, or reality or what the obstacles are that prevent that from being possible. If I point out that someone in another company is doing it, they politely explain that her situation is different because of some factor real or imagined. The Optimal Salesperson® focuses on the possibilities not the obstacles.
No one becomes a champion by accident. In every World Series or Super Bowl winning locker room the winners say “We set this as a goal at the beginning of the year. No one else believed in us, but we believed on ourselves and in each other.” You never hear the winners say “We don’t know how we got here. We never actually thought we would get this far. We would have been happy to win half of our games.” So take a lesson from that. If you are failing, expect to succeed. If you are succeeding expect to excel. And if you excel, expect to dominate. If you dominate you already do what I suggest in this article. Napoleon Hill said it best 65 years ago “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” The trick is to set your expectation high and then believe that it is possible. Once you do that you have been trained since birth to achieve that expectation.
Pause, Read, and React
How many times have you said something without thinking that you later regret? In your personal life? In your work? It is natural for humans to react to things before thinking. Unfortunately, in sales, that natural tendency is a deal killer. When a prospect says something unexpected, a sales person may say something to generate a sale without thinking that they immediately regret. They might pounce too quickly, irritating the prospect. The sales person may not say something bad but they could have said something far better to increase business than what they did say. Without waiting to hear more or properly thinking what questions would be appropriate to follow, they may offer the wrong solution. A critical selling skill is to pause…..read…..and react. Take a moment to process in your mind what the customer said. Determine the most appropriate response. Be the optimal salesperson by exercising self-control when surprised in a sales situation.
Pipeline or Pipe Dream
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KEYS TO BUILDING A RELIABLE PIPELINE
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You started the year with your pipeline predicting a strong 1st quarter. But with two months of the quarter in the rear view mirror, sales are down, close dates have moved into the future, and making your number by the end of the quarter will require herculean effort. If this sounds like what you go through quarter after quarter then you might be suffering from a serious sales disease called Pipeline bloat!
Every business owner and sales manager knows that a robust pipeline is the key to future revenue growth. However, the pipeline must be accurate and reliable so that appropriate business decisions can be made. Pipeline bloat occurs when sales people fail to qualify prospects before entering them in the pipeline. They use their own judgment to determine who is qualified and who is not. Business owners contribute to pipeline bloat by putting pressure on salespeople to find new prospects without having objective criteria to define who is qualified. Here are 4 things you can do to expand your pipeline and eliminate pipeline bloat:
- INCREASE PROSPECTING – The Optimal Salesperson® prospects consistently but most salespeople don’t do enough prospecting. You must know how many cold calls you need to generate the number of prospects which will yield the sales you need to meet your goal. Far too often I see sales organizations go into the end of a period needing to close 50% of the pipeline to make their goal, which seems reasonable except that historically they only close 20%. In this case the problem isn’t the closing rate; the problem is not enough prospecting.
- FOCUS ON QUALIFYING PROSPECTS – Many salespeople put any and every prospect in the pipeline. The Optimal Salesperson® knows that prospects should only be in your pipeline if they meet certain minimum criteria you establish. I believe as a minimum no prospect should be counted on if you haven’t talked to the client; uncovered a compelling reason to buy from you; and have had a discussion about money.
- END PURSUITS SOONER – Hope is not a strategy. Be honest with yourself. As soon as The Optimal Salesperson® determines that the prospect is focused on someone else, she ends the pursuit. There is no use in staying in the game just to keep the other guy honest.
- IMPROVE SELLING SKILLS – Learn to get better referrals. Learn how to get to higher levels in the organization. Learn how to ask better questions. Learn how to uncover the client’s budget. Identify your own self-limiting beliefs and work to overcome them. It’s a new economy, new skills are required. Optimal Salespeople® know that they are either getting better or falling behind.
Prospecting Consistency – The Key to Success in Sales
You can’t be truly successful in sales unless you prospect consistently. Many people will disagree believing that as long as they get their number by the end of the quarter or the end of the year it doesn’t matter when it comes … or how it comes … or at what expense.
The struggling salesperson makes a lot of calls one day but then gets wrapped up chasing one or more deals and then doesn’t prospect for a few days or weeks. They are busy writing a proposal that is “critical”. Or they are engaged in solving a problem for a client (which they personally just HAVE to handle) or they are catching up on some paperwork. And there is always a golf outing to attend. Whatever the excuse (and they are ALL excuses) prospecting is sporadic at best and the pipeline ends up having some major holes in it. For a three month sales cycle, lack of prospecting in April leads to lack of sales in July and there is very little you can do about it in July to fix it. The optimal salesperson® prospects every day and, no matter what is happening, does not a let a week go by without hitting their prospecting numbers. They realize that like a tomato farmer who can’t harvest in July what he didn’t plant in April they can’t close in July what they didn’t add to the pipeline in April. Even if the struggling sales person is successful in pulling a rabbit out of a hat at the end of the quarter time after time, it takes a toll. He will attract lots of adult supervision by his manager, he will be under constant stress personally, and his family will feel the effects of his lack of consistency as he has to spend extra time selling and be unavailable to them. Or worse, they will feel the stress.
The Optimal Salesperson® realizes that prospecting has a very high priority every day and every week no matter what else is happening. She realizes that the early part of the sales cycle doesn’t actually take that much time. The initial call to set up an appointment, even if it is a cold call, will only last a few minutes. The calls that don’t connect take a minute or less. So even 30 calls that only connect with 5 people should only take a couple of hours per week. No one is so busy that they can’t find a couple of hours per week. One trick is to do the prospecting first then fit the other stuff in around it. Everyone knows that proposals and paperwork fill up whatever time you give it. So give it less time. Success in sales is achieved by consistent daily activity not wild periods of activity interspersed with long periods of prospecting dormancy. So prospect consistently. Remember, nothing less than your family’s standard of living depends on it.
A Sales Paradox – Stop Selling and Write More Business
I have asked thousands of salespeople over the last 24 years what they do when a salesperson calling on them starts into their sales pitch. And do you know what they say? It is nearly unanimous. They all say they get defensive and try to figure out how to get rid of the sales person. And they are supposed to be a sympathetic audience! Usually when a salesperson starts into his or her sales pitch you recognize it for what it is immediately. And the sad part is salespeople keep pitching over and over again. They figure if they talk louder, faster or more eloquently they can show how their service is better or is worth more money. Here’s the remedy. Stop selling and start asking questions. Here is a four step process that will get you more qualified prospects and more sales.
- Get rid of your sales pitch and value proposition. Prospects don’t care about that stuff.
- Identify two or three things that you do better than the competition. Maybe you have a Customer Service Representative (CSR), or are faster or run small quantities.
- Brainstorm what kind of problems or pain a prospect would have to be in to care about the difference you provide. For sample, if you are faster the problem might be “We need quick turnaround. or we work on tight deadlines”
- Go talk to prospects and ask if they have those problems.
If they have the problems that you are uniquely suited to solve, they will buy and will pay the right price. If they don’t have the problem, don’t waste time with them. They are someone else’s prospect. Here is a conversation example to illustrate:
YOU: I assume your current supplier delivers on time every time.
PROSPECT: Mostly.
YOU: What happens when they don’t … How often does it happen … Does it affect your operation.
Ask them don’t tell them. The paradox of sales is “The way to get the prospect to focus on you is to focus on them”. If you understand this, and ask questions instead of talk about your product you will write more business and stop wasting time with people who won’t buy from you.
It’s Not About You
When most sales people do their cold calling, they think about communicating the features and benefits of their products and services. However, they will never close sales because of the amazing characteristics of what they have to offer. They will generate sales by listening to the prospect’s pain and by offering solutions that resolve that pain. The prospect doesn’t care what you have to offer. They care about what their problems are. You might have the best toaster in the history of the world but if the client has a flat tire, he doesn’t care about toast! Will your toaster repair his flat tire? The optimal salesperson who sells toasters will find a way to fix that prospect’s flat tire. Focus on the prospect’s pain, not the benefits and features of your products and services.
Born or Made?
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?
Introductions are Easier to Get than Referrals
I may not refer you to my colleagues even if I think highly of you because I am unsure of whether my colleague is open to having you call. I may not be sure of what you will say and I do not want either to be embarrassed. However, if you let me call my colleague in advance, and see if they would be interested in talking to you and have problem you can fix, it is a win for everyone involved. it is a win the colleague because he gets a recommendation to a trusted source; it is a win for you because you will close half of this type of introduction; and it is a win for me because I helped two people I care about. Change your beliefs about introductions and watch your production soar while your prospecting time shrinks.
