Sales Machine

Yesterday, in “How to Kill an Objection For Good“, explained how to put an objection permanently to rest. It’s a useful, classic technique.  However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that there’s another school of thought when it comes to objections.

Some experts in selling techniques believe that answering objections individually is like playing whack-a-mole with hydra heads.  You can’t really win, because all objections are actually just reflections of the customer’s state-of-mind.  Objections are just another way of saying:

I am not yet convinced of the value of buying.

This school of thought believes that should focus on working with the customer to create a value proposition that makes overwhelming financial sense, and then the individual objections will disappear.

It’s really a profoundly different way of looking at sales.  The traditional sales model assumes that the sales professional is actively persuading the prospect to buy, in which case overcoming objections is simply part of the sales process leading to the close.

In the more consultative model, the sales professional is supposed to be helping the customer decide whether or not buying makes sense — and is willing to concede that it might not make sense.  In this case, objections aren’t all that important.

READERS: What do you think?  Is it possible to sell without answering objections?

When you’re selling, it’s not enough to simply answer an objection.  If you don’t want to see the objection pop up later, you need to kill it for good. Here’s a typical selling conversation:

• Prospect: We don’t have the money in this year’s budget.
• You: That’s O.K. We can finance it so part falls into next year’s budget. Does that work for you?
• Prospect: I guess so.

Many sales reps would happily (but wrongly) believe they’d killed the objection.  However, that objection will very likely to pop up later, because the commitment is weak.  An objection is not truly dead until until you’ve help the prospect bury it for good.  Here’s how:

• Prospect: We don’t have the money in this year’s budget.
• You: That’s O.K. We can finance it so part falls into next year’s budget. Does that work for you?
• Prospect: I guess so.
• You: …and so that’s all taken care of, right?
• Prospect: Right.
• You: Great! Did you notice that our reference accounts…

Getting prospects to publicly agree that the objection is dead puts them in the position of seeming inconsistent or wishy-washy if they bring it up again.  Most people will not do this because it conflicts with their image of themselves as decision-makers.

Please do not pretend that this is NOT manipulative.  It’s not.

If your prospects don’t believe you’ve answered the objection, they’ll say so.  What this prevents is the emotional off-again/on-again waffling that wastes your time, and keeps the prospect from making a decision quickly and effectively.

Important!  Once you’ve gotten the customer to agree, change the subject by asking a question on an unrelated matter. Why?  If you continue to focus on the objection past the point of commitment, the prospect may start waffling about the commitment, in which case you’re back to square one.

The above is a classic sales technique as taught by the ever-informative Tom Hopkins.

SCENARIO: You’re tasked with selling CRM solutions to large enterprises.  On a puddle-jump flight, you end up sitting next to the Sales VP for a big company.  He asks what you do for a living and you tell him.  He says that they “have one of those”, but he makes a wry face, so sense that he’s not satisfied with it.  Your challenge: turn the situation into a sales opportunity.

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According to John Asher, CEO of the sales training firm Asher Strategies, there are 10 key sales skills, without which you will never reach your potential as a sales professional. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in what he has to say, so I’ve created a post to help you assess your own skill level, for each of these key skill.  I’ve also provide a link to a blog post that can help you develop any key skill which needs improvement.

I truly believe that this could be the most useful quiz I’ve ever posted here.

Give it a try, and tell me what you think!

CLICK for the first key sales skill »

Gatekeepers are a persistent and annoying reality in Sales.  Unfortunately, many sales pros make their interactions with gatekeepers more difficult by using their voice ineffectively.  To get a gatekeeper to open the gate, you’ve got to sound as important as the person you’re trying to reach.

Here are four simple rules to follow:

• Rule #1: Express authority in every word. You are not trying to wheedle, cajole, or convince.  You’re calling on important business, so you need to sound as if you’re the boss’s social equal.
• Rule #2: Speak from your chest. Many sales professionals  talk so that the sound resonates in the throat or (worse) whines in the nose.  Powerful people always speak from the center.
• Rule #3: Use statements not questions. “Please put me through to Warbucks” is more likely to motivate a gatekeeper than “Can I please speak with Ms. Warbucks?”
• Rule #4: Never up-tilt your sentence endings. If you end a sentence — even a statement — with a rise in your voice, it ends up sounding wimpy and weak.

Needless to say, you also need a a good reason for the gatekeeper to put you through.  But if you’ve got the right tonality in your voice, you’re halfway there.  On the other hand, if you sound like a supplicant, well…, you’re probably not going to get through, no matter what words come out of your mouth.

The above advice is adapted from a conversation with Wendy Weiss, aka “The Queen of Cold Calling”.

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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During a cold call, you must make quick decisions based on your reading of the prospect’s state of mind. Here’s a quick test of your acumen in responding to a prospect’s attitude.

SCENARIO: You got through to a prospect and just gave him your elevator pitch. You sounded great (at least to yourself) but the prospect says: “Well, that sounds sort of interesting, but I’m not sure.”

Pick the response most likely to move the opportunity closer to an actual sales appointment:

• #1: Click HERE. “What would your thoughts be on having an initial conversation with us about [something of value to the customer]? What is your availability over the next few weeks?”
• #2: Click HERE. “If we really could do [something of value to the customer], what would your thoughts be on having an initial conversation with us to hear more?”
• #3: Click HERE. “I would love to have an initial phone conversation with you about [something of value to the customer]. What is the best way to get on your calendar?”
• #4: Click HERE. “How do I get on your calendar, please?”

BTW, this post is based on a conversation with sales trainer extraordinaire Barry Rhein.

When I posted the “Top 10 Reasons Your Presentation Stinks!“, I asked Sales Machine readers to contribute their own reasons that presentations stick.

This post contains expanded versions of the reasons that you guys contributed.  To my mind, they’re even better than the ones I originally posted.

Enjoy…

CLICK HERE for the first reason presentations stink »

Ineffective questions are a common sales mistake.  Such questions slow the sale down and can kill a deal entirely, if there are too many of them.  Here’s a quick quiz to see if you know what makes a question effective.

SCENARIO: You just made a cold call to a lead who seems interested in what you have to offer.  However, to move the sale forward, you need to gather more information.  Here are six questions that you might ask:

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This morning’s post “Do You Believe in Rejection?  Too Bad.” explained that rejection is an illusion.  This video has another take on the subject — a complete reframe of the entire situation.  It’s short.  Watch it.  Thank me later.  Because it’s the truth.

The video, BTW, comes from groovtoon, a sales guy who makes his own sales training videos.