Sales Machine

There are few things more valued in a sales professional than being a “closer.”  If you know how to close, then you end up making as many sales as possible; if you lack that skill, you’re probably floundering.

So, then, how do you know if you’re a closer?  Looking at the number of sales you make — even compared to your peers — doesn’t tell you much, because you can still make big sales (but not fulfill your potential) if you’re strong in other areas.

A better way is to ask yourself these five questions:

• #1: How would I rate myself as a closer?  In fact, you probably know, in your gut, whether you’re good a closing business.  A little self-honesty goes a long way when it comes to self-assessment.
• #2: Am I cultivating the right attitude to close business on a daily basis?  Closing business is about laying the groundwork from the get-go.  If you’re not getting ready to close, you’re not a closer.
• #3: Am I dependent upon high pressure sales techniques?  If you’re using trick closes and high pressure to try to get business, you’re not a closer, you’re a peddler.  Different thing entirely.
• # 4: Have I ever delayed closing because I wanted to enjoy the fantasy of getting the business?  This is probably the most common debilitating behavior in sales.  If you’re doing it, stop.  Right now.
• #5: What would it be worth to me if I could easily and simply close more business?  If you can still  visualize making more money and creating more success, you’re probably not at your peak.  Not yet.

The above is based on a conversation I had a few years ago with the amazing and perceptive sales guru Linda Richardson, founder of the eponymous sales training firm.

Here are some posts to help you hone your closing skills:

• The ABCs of Closing
• How to Close Without Tricks
• How to Close the Deal, Perfectly

Few customer behaviors are more irritating than surfacing new demands at the end of a sales cycle.  Do you know how to deal with them?

This post contains two very common selling scenarios, with multiple choice answers.  Answer both scenarios correctly, and you’ve earned bragging rights for the rest of the day!

SCENARIO #1: You’re meeting with a prospect to close on a first-time opportunity that will involve years of follow-on business.  You’ve discussed terms and conditions in detail and you’ve gotten firm verbal agreement.  At this final meeting, though, the customer confronts you with a new list of demands, saying: “If you can’t meet these conditions, the deal is off.”  You examine the list. None of demands are, by themselves, deal breakers, although they would reduce your margins.

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CLICK HERE for the correct answer »

Sales pros spend vast effort honing their meeting chops for sales pitches, but what about all those other meetings — especially the ones inside your own firm?  Wouldn’t it be great if you could twist those meetings into something useful — rather than just a waste of your valuable time?  Never fear, it’s pretty easy to hijack a meeting and make it go wherever you think is useful.  Here’s exactly how it’s done:

• STEP #1: Decide if you want to hijack that particular meeting. Compare your goals to the stated purpose of the meeting.  Can you bend it to serve?  If not, you might as well bail out, ’cause it’s a waste of time.  Otherwise, it’s hijack time…
• STEP #2: If there is no agenda, offer to write one. “Help” the meeting holder by writing up an agenda that hits the holder’s points, but has places for you to work your issues.  That feel too baldfaced?  Then make some “suggestions” with neutral-sounding placeholders where you can segue into your own issues.
• STEP #3: Provide a list of people who should also attend. The more allies you have in the meeting, the easier it will be to take it in the direction that you want.  Have a plausible reason on hand why they should attended — other than the fact that they’ll back you up on the hijack.
• STEP #4: Pre-frame the meeting with key attendees. Call key attendees (and not just the ones you invited) and lay the groundwork for discussing the issues you care about.  Make sure that you state your issues within the context of the declared reason for the meeting.
• STEP #5: Volunteer to be the official recorder. If you’re the one who’s taking notes, you are the one who defines what happened.  Memory is shifting sand; the written word is solid rock.  If there’s already somebody taking notes, take your own notes anyway.
• STEP #6: Send an immediate follow-up email. Frame the meeting so that it serves your goals by being the first to publicly define what happened and what was decided.  Unless your memo says the exactly opposite of what happened, most people will think that you’ve described the meeting accurately.

Here’s an example:

The marketing team invites you to a meeting to discuss the text of their latest brochure.  Your first impulse is to blow the meeting off as a waste of time.  However, it’s politically valuable for you to look like you’re cooperating with marketing, so you decide instead to hijack the meeting to work on something more useful.

The issue you decide to work is getting the marketing group to go attend sales training so that they can better hone their lead generation efforts.  So you get “potential customer impact” added to the agenda.  Then you make sure that the meeting list has some attendees on whom you can count.

Prior to the meeting, privately brief your allies on what you’d like to accomplish. Get their agreement that this is a good idea.  Touch bases with the other players who are supposed to attend.  Within the context of the meeting’s stated purpose, plant some seeds.  (E.g. “As we look at the brochure copy, it might be a good idea to see how well it fits with our sales training methods.  Otherwise, we might be selling at cross-purposes.”)

When the meeting starts, volunteer to be the official recorder.  When the meeting reaches the “potential customer impact” item of the agenda, bring up the issue of having the marketing personnel take the sales training course. (E.g. “This brochure is pretty good, but I think it would be easier for marketing to write ‘on-target’ if they understood our sales process.  How about making sure that everyone in marketing attends the next sales training seminar?”)

Your allies, of course, chime in and back you up.

As soon as the meeting is over, you send off a “this is what happened” email which documents whatever nonsense happened about the brochure, but emphasizes the “decision” that was made about sales training.  Even if there was dissent, your memo should say something like “a robust discussion took place, but the general consensus was that the idea had merit.”  Make sure your memo also contains the “next step” that need to happen to achieve your goal.

That’s how it’s done.  I’ve seen cases where this technique steamrolls over the poor sap who called the meeting. Sometimes they don’t know what hit them and think that they owe the hijacker a favor because he “helped out”.

BTW, if you don’t want your own meetings to be hijacked, write your own agenda, control the list of attendees, line up your “ducks”, record your own notes and be the first to issue to the meeting report.  If you’re not doing this, I’ll bet every meeting you’ve ever called has been hijacked, probably without you even realizing that it happened!

READERS: Any other political tricks you’d like to share?

In the post “How to Outsell a Competitor’s Rep,” I explained a basic principle of competitive selling — knowing who you’re selling against.  In the post, I mentioned the concept of competitive positioning, which consists primarily of contrasting your strengths with a competitor’s weaknesses.  However, some readers wanted to know how to go about doing this, which is the reason for this post.

First, let’s start with some rules.

• Rule #1: Never say anything bad about a competitor. Badmouthing a competitor tells the prospect that you’re bitter, angry and probably scummy.  It usually makes the competitor look good by comparison.
• Rule #2: Warn the customer when a competitor is wrong for them. If you truly believe that the customer is about to make a big mistake by buying someone else’s products, it is your solemn duty to communicate that fact to them.

Rule 1 and rule 2 only seem to be mutually exclusive.  Resolving the apparent conflict requires a certain amount of finesse, but the basic approach is simple:

Ask questions that raise questions.

This technique is best explained with an example:

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Here’s some  information that can increase your ability to close business, by keeping you focused on what’s really important.

So, speaking of important, the product/solution you’re selling is obviously a major element in developing a big B2B sales opportunity.

However, do you know how important the product/solution is to the buying decision?  Because if you don’t, you might waste time selling the wrong thing.  So here’s a quick quiz:

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CLICK HERE for the correct answer »

Here’s a real-life problem sent in by a Sales Machine reader.

SCENARIO: You’re selling software to utility companies, most of which are government agencies. To be profitable, you must sell your core product for around fifteen hundred dollars per copy.  When you talk to prospects, you want to quote a price that will move the sales process forward.

Which pricing strategy is best?

• Strategy #1: Quote them $1,500. CLICK HERE
• Strategy #2: Quote them $1,495. CLICK HERE
• Strategy #3: Quote $1,600 then discount. CLICK HERE

This is a guest post from my friend Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group, who would like you to check out his site: www.sales20network.com!

SCENARIO: You’re feeling really good about the deal — the one you’re counting on to make your quota this quarter. Everything seems to be lined up. Your customer contact, Joe, has told you that you should get a verbal order within a few days, and paperwork soon after that.  Now, IMAGINE that you just missed a call from Joe, and you’re listening to the voice mail:

“Sorry, but we won’t be placing that order with you, because…”

The voice mail ends before you hear the reason.

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Effective questioning means knowing what questions to ask the customer, and knowing how to ask them.  If you don’t know what questions to ask, your time with the customer is wasted.  If you know the right question but ask in a way that’s irritating or confusing, you won’t get useful information.

With that in mind, here are the eight basic rules for asking customers effective questions:

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Not happy with the way your sales department is run?  Got an idea that could make it better?  If so, you’ll have to sell your idea to your sales manager.  And that’s not always easy, because sales managers know all the tricks.  Even so, selling to a sales manager is not impossible, providing you follow this recipe:

• STEP #1: Keep an open mind. You wouldn’t assume that your customers are stupid just because they didn’t buy a certain product. Similarly, don’t assume that your sales manager is clueless simply because he doesn’t agree with you. Give him the benefit of the doubt; he may very well have experience that can help you hone your own ideas.

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Have you ever gone spent a day to visit a customer — only to be stood up?  It’s a common occurrence, but it needn’t be a disaster, according to Bruce Seidman, president of the sales training firm  Sandler Systems.  Here are three simple rules to help you avoid the problem, and turn it to your advantage when it crops up.

• RULE #1: Pre-sell the Appointment. When you’re setting up the sales call, ask the customer “what is supposed to happen at the end of our next appointment?” and “Is there anything that you can think of that would come up between then and now that would get in the way of us having this meeting?”  These two questions force the customer to visualize the upcoming meeting and help ensure it will be a productive one.

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