Management Tips

Top 3 reasons pain is NOT enough to make the sale

May 1, 2014 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

Many people say that if you know the prospect’s pain you can make a sale. That is not always true. In many cases the prospect has gotten used to the pain and therefore does not act. This can be frustrating to the salesperson who knows the prospect needs what she has and has an obvious problem with some major consequences but won’t act. Many times the inexperienced salesperson resorts to pressure which can cause the prospect to resist even more. You need to recognize that pain is a necessary but not always a sufficient reason to make a sale. Here are the top three reasons that jumping to the close from the pain discussion will not work.

MONEY – The salesperson fails to discuss money with the prospect. The prospect may have a lot of pain but with no money available to address the problem, the sale is not completed. It is also possible that in this scenario the prospect suffers sticker shock when they see the price and sends them into a comparison shopping mode to check the validity of the price. This seldom ends well for the salesperson who first met the prospect.
URGENCY – the prospect my have pain but no compelling reason to do it NOW. Without discussing a timeframe when the project needs to be done, the sale will drag on and may die of old age as the prospect eliminates the pain in some other way.
AUTHORITY – Even though the prospect may have pain, they may lack the authority too do anything about it. This usually means that the salesperson started too low in the organization and may need to adjust their target client description.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Pain

The Mathematics of Rejection

April 21, 2014 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

Brendan Burchard gives great advice in this blog post about rejection. He basically says that for every person who really rejects you there are hundreds and even thousands who don’t reject you. He is one hundred percent accurate in what he says. The problem is that though he is right and most people will agree with his point, my hunch is that it will not have a very big effect on people’s behavior. The reason is that fear of rejection is an emotional response and you cannot overcome an emotion with a logical argument. If you don’t believe me just try to talk your spouse out of being mad at you by giving her/him three logical reasons why they should not be upset. I made a similar argument to Brendan’s in my blog post last year. Both appeal to logic. But the only way to actually overcome the fear of rejection is to face the fear and really deal with the issue. The reason rejection is so difficult to deal with is that rejection is a primal fear related to an “abandonment fear” developed in early childhood. How to address it and overcome it is too complex to deal with in this blog post but it will be the subject of an upcoming white paper.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Self Limiting Beliefs

How to use your value proposition

January 20, 2014 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

Value, much like beauty, is in the eye of the prospect. A value propositions is a valuable tool for a marketing professional. It helps define what a product or service is bringing to the market and how they plan to differentiate their product from others in the marketplace. But salespeople often misuse the value proposition. They use it to answer the question “why should I buy from you”? Most of the time that question is not asked explicitly, but salespeople craft their presentations around how to answer it anyway with the value proposition as the center piece of the answer. They say things like “this product is a good value”, or “This service offers our best value.” Statements like that ignore the most basic tenet in sales. A product only has value to the prospect if it solves a problem or fulfills a need or desire for the prospect. If I hate a sunroof in a car because I worry about leaking, the fact that it gets added free is not a value for me. It actually may detract from the value, not add to it.

You should use the value proposition the marketing people give you as a starting point. You should determine what problem each of the features or purported value is designed to solve. You should not view them as selling points yet. Because you do not know if any of those features solves a problem or makes the product more or less attractive to any particular prospect. You now have a list of problems (or desires) that your product or service addresses. Your next task is to get in front of prospects and ask if they have any of those problems. Once your conversation with the prospect has yielded some problems that your service solves and they have enough money to solve them, you can tell the prospect about the feature or benefit. Let the prospect tell you whether they believe your solution has value. Leave the words “value” or “value proposition” out of your sales presentations.

Value propositions are important weapons in your sales arsenal. But they are only worth anything if you use them properly and they definitely don’t belong in your sales presentation. Their best use is to help you prepare the questions to ask the prospect.

Filed Under: Compelling Reasons, Management Tips

Two reasons not to take technical people on sales calls

January 13, 2014 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

It happened twice this week. Two of my clients had nearly identical situations and both nearly made the same mistake. Let’s take Pete (not his real name) for example. He sells a consulting service to the federal government. He had met a high level official at a luncheon event and during the lunch conversation the prospect told him about a problem he was having. Pete promised to follow up to pursue it further and the prospect agreed that he was anxious to discuss the problem. When he got back to the office Pete immediately began the process of lining up a subject matter expert to bring along to the meeting he was trying to set up with the prospect. Luckily we had a scheduled coaching session that afternoon and I was able to talk him into abandoning that strategy and scheduling the meeting without the expert. The first advantage was that the meeting happened the following day as opposed to two weeks later which would have been the case to coordinate three busy schedules.

There are many good reasons not to take technical experts on first sales calls here are the most important three reasons:

CONTROL – With a technical expert in the room you are more likely to lose control of the conversation. The prospect will ask a question and the expert is off to the races explaining, advising and generally showing off how much she knows. The next thing you know the time is up and the prospect is educated but you haven’t had time to truly understand the compelling reason the prospect might have to move forward, or how much they are willing to spend etc. your team is usually so busy talking that you don’t follow your sales process.
OPENNESS – If there are only two of you I the room the prospect is more likely to open up and tell you the real problem at a deeper level. They don’t have to watch what they say so much because “there are no witnesses”. They can relax and you can control the conversation and get the information you need.

I am not saying never to take experts on sales calls only to be careful not to take them too early in the process. You almost never need them on the first call since you are just there to qualify the prospect not to show and tell. Weak salespeople schedule a meeting then expect the combination of the expert and the product to wow the prospect and get him so excited they want to buy. This leads to pipeline bloat, poor forecasts wasted time and low closing rates.

So how did Pete make out? He met the prospect the next day. He uncovered a huge problem that needs to be solved in the near term. The prospect had scheduled the meeting for 30 minutes but the meeting lasted 45 minutes. Pete was worried about how he would carry the conversation without the expert. But as I predicted, once he got the prospect started on the problem the prospect went on and on about the problem and its ramifications. At the end of the meeting the prospect was convinced that Pete’s company could help him out of his mess. He scheduled another meeting to hear how they Pete’s company had solved a similar problem in another federal agency and they took the first steps in the acquisition process.

Pete learned a valuable lesson. Going to the meeting alone allowed him to control the conversation and the prospect opened up in a comfortable one-on-one setting. And what drove my point home to Pete was that had he brought the person he wanted to bring, it would have been the wrong expert. Now he can confidently bring in the right person to deliver a specific message to demonstrate a specific capability the prospect is interested in. Once that is accomplished, they will move rapidly to a new contract.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Sales Process

Stay in the Moment

January 6, 2014 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

Did you ever debrief a sales call with your manager in which they suggest a question that you might have asked but didn’t? Did you ever wonder why it seemed so obvious after the fact to someone who wasn’t even there and it did not occur to you to ask? Part of the reason is that there is no pressure in the debriefing session and you might have been feeling pressure on the sales call. Part of the reason might be that the manager has more experience and has made that mistake many times himself so he is sensitive to it. But for veteran salespeople neither of those is probably the case. More than likely it is a case of not staying in the moment with the prospect. Rather than listening intently to what he prospect is saying and trying to decode what he actually means by what he Is saying, you are thinking about something else. So what could a salesperson possibly be doing instead of listening to the prospect? Here are the most common things that salespeople do when they should be listening:

Think about how to solve the problem the prospect is describing
Strategize your next sales move
Concentrate on your sales process
Try to remember what the sales manager coached them to ask
Look for a chance to jump in with your comment or question
Try to figure out how to respond to something that the prospect just said that you were not expecting

So what are the consequences of not staying in the moment? The most obvious problem is that you miss certain things that the prospect is saying. You might not miss anything really big, but what you miss are the subtle cues that they give which would lead you to ask that question that you missed. You might not miss any words, but you are too busy thinking to notice the change in tonality which indicates the prospect is not quite sure about what she is saying or is worried about it. If you were in the moment, you would ask a question but since your mind is too busy, you miss it and a chance to drill down is missed and the opportunity to uncover the real compelling reason to buy is gone forever. When you are in front of the prospect clear your mind and pay attention. This is not the time to solve the problem and it will be your turn to talk soon enough. If your sales techniques and sales process are not internalized by the time you go on the call they will not materialize while you are in there with the prospect. So, just rely on your ability to respond appropriately. Stop thinking and stay in the moment with the prospect. After all that’s why you set this appointment in the first placed isn’t it?

Filed Under: Management Tips, Self Limiting Beliefs

We all have hidden weaknesses

December 16, 2013 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

We all have hidden weaknesses. These are obstacles that we are probably not aware of but that affect us in a big way when we are in front of a prospect. They are not obvious to those around us and they don’t show up on an interview. So what are they? They take many forms but the most common is a belief we may have about the way things are in the world or the way things work in our industry or in sales in general. For example if you believe that you have to call on purchasing agents first before you can contact the end user of your product then that belief will affect your ability to sell and learning sales techniques to help you deal with the end user will be of no help. Maybe you believe that it is ok for the prospect to think about your proposal for a few days even after they committed to making a decision when you delivered it. If that is true, then you will have a low closing rate and closing techniques will be useless until you overcome that self-limiting belief.

Sometimes hidden weaknesses are more psychological. For example if you have a strong need for approval from people then you will shy away from using techniques that you believe might jeopardize your relationship. You will avoid asking any question or making any statement which you perceive to be aggressive because the prospect may not approve and you need the approval.

So how do we know what our weaknesses are if they are “hidden”. Well you can contact me and we can test you for them. But another way is to pay attention to what you do or say and what avoid doing or saying. Ask yourself why you are doing it or saying it. then ask why that is important and then try to compare what you are doing to what the more successful people are doing. Ask yourself what would happen if I tried something different. Listen to your self-talk. What you are saying to yourself will go a long way to identifying your hidden weaknesses. The good news is that if you are able to identify and overcome just one there will be a quantum leap in your sales effectiveness.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Self Limiting Beliefs

The Art and Science of Selling Value

December 9, 2013 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

When a company takes on a new product line to sell, one of the first things they typically do is call a meeting of the sales people. At this meeting they have the product manager from the marketing department and the technical person supporting the product do a joint presentation on the value the product brings to the marketplace and to their existing customer base. Sales managers then encourage the salespeople to go out and explain the value proposition to as many prospects as they can to boost sales of the new product line and validate the decision of management to bring the product on. This sledgehammer approach to selling value will boost sales but it will also be grueling for both management and the sales team. Initial excitement of the team about the great new product and its value wanes as they hear a continuing stream of comments like: “I don’t see how it will help me”, or “we’re not really able to do anything right now” or “I like it but can’t see how e can use it right now” or any one of a thousand other polite ways of rejecting the new product.

The problem is not the product it is the approach the sales team is using to sell the value. Value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It does no good for the salesperson to extol the value of the product (or service for that matter) if the prospect does not see the new product as adding value. So how does the new product add value? It only has value to a prospect if it solves a problem that exits in the world of the prospect. It does me no good to have a machine that is three times faster unless my existing machine is too slow and is causing a problem because of its slowness. The total cost of the solution has to exceed the cost of the problem or it will make no sense to change. In other words it will not add value to me, the prospect.

If you want to sell the value of the product, first find out what the prospect considers valuable. You do this by talking to the prospect and discussing his or her operation and problems that they may be having. Of course if I have a new product that management is encouraging me to sell, I would center my discussion on problems that my new product solves. If they are having a problem, ask the prospect how much the problem is costing them. If the cost of the problem is far greater than the cost of your new product then you have the basis for establishing the value in a way that is meaningful to the prospect. Only after you have established the basis for the value should you explain how your product or service can benefit them. If they don’t have a problem that your new product solves, then talk about something else. It keeps rejection to a minimum.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Pain

What makes selling so difficult?

December 2, 2013 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

I started my career as an engineer and in those days it seemed to me like the salespeople had the easiest job in the company. They didn’t have to keep up with technology. They didn’t need to pass a test to become licensed. Whenever clients asked really tough questions, they brought the engineers in to answer them. It seemed all they did was talk to people, take them to lunch and occasionally play golf. What could be easier? Then they made me a salesman and it seemed like the toughest job in the world. Talking to people, which seemed easy from afar, was a struggle. No one wanted to talk to me when I got into sales. Solving problems was easy when I was an engineer. I discovered that asking the questions to uncover a significant problem that needed to be solved on a sales call was much more difficult. Prospects were guarded. Telling the sales department or the client how much it was going to cost to solve a problem was easy when I was an engineer. Discussing how much money the prospect had available to solve a problem on a sales call was much more difficult. It took me years to discover that my initial thought was correct – selling is easy. Not only that, it is fun. The elite sales people, the top 6%, do it effortlessly. So why was it so difficult for me in the beginning and for the vast majority of salespeople on an ongoing basis? The answer lies in our belief systems and other hidden weaknesses that we possess.

Your mother told you thousands of times not to talk to strangers, but your sales manager tells you to talk to 20 strangers per week. Is it any wonder that we have call reluctance or that we feel stress when prospecting? You learned at an early age that discussing someone else’s money situation in public was not polite. Is it a surprise that salespeople avoid discussing money with a prospect as long as possible? As humans we all need approval but the inexperienced salesperson feels internal pressure when she seeks it from prospects on sales calls. That pressure causes her to skip over the tougher questions she knows she should ask, so as to have a better chance of being liked by the prospect. What makes selling difficult is the erroneous self-limiting beliefs we have which make asking simple questions seem difficult. Hidden weaknesses cause us to avoid doing what we know we must do. So what is the secret to effortless high performance in sales? It is really no secret at all. You just have to identify the self-limiting beliefs that get in your way and eliminate them or change them. It is not easy but the emotional energy you put into changing the belief systems you have is repaid many times over with stress free effortless high performance in sales.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Need for Approval

Sell Yourself First

November 25, 2013 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Management Tips, Self Limiting Beliefs

Closing Sales Is Like Hitting Moving Target

November 18, 2013 by Dan Caramanico Leave a Comment

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.

Filed Under: Closing, Management Tips