Simple Sales Tracking Blog

November 14, 2010 • 6:13 pm 0

Scared to Close the Sale?

In my last ramblings we looked at overcoming the “no hurry/no desire to change from the current supplier or serviced provider” obstacle.

Today we will look at the key reasons salespeople don’t ask for the business.

In fact surveys conducted with the fortune 500 in the States showed that 62% of presentations finish without the salesperson actually asking for the business!

The number one reason people I train state for this is fear of rejection and embarrassment.  This fear comes as a result of lack of sales processes which would naturally lead to asking for the business.

The first part of the sales process then is getting a referral to the prospect by a trusted advisor and just as important is the way the advisor positions you with their client.
One of the tools we develop for our clients is a positioning statement.  This is a tool you give to your referrer so that they position you in the best possible way.

Having been positioned well the next step towards closing is doing your homework on the prospect.  Your referrer will often help here as they are working in the best interests of their clients in helping you.

We have been positioned well with the prospect, we are well prepared with background information including possible issues we may have solutions for, we have our appointment, -  the next step is to establish trust.

We hardly ever buy from people we don’t trust and of course if our prospect doesn’t trust us then they may not give us all the information we need to taylor the very best solution for their need or may in fact deny they have a need.

Some key ways to build trust are –
• Being early or on time
• Coming prepared
• Dressing appropriately
• Having the very best sales aids – pens, folders, business cards (not a good look when salespeople hand you their “dog-eared” business card!)
• Asking good questions  (nothing upsets buyers more than poorly prepared salespeople with self-serving questions)

Now we have established trust with our prospect the next step is to uncover the need and help the buyer to recognize whether the need justifies our solution.

It has been found that 64.3% of salespeople start presenting their solution before the buyer recognizes the desire for a solution.  This results in buyer objections which opens
a whole new minefield to manoeuvre through.

We will look into this further in my next article.

This Weeks Action Step –
Make a list of all the closing phrases you currently use in asking for the business.

Quote of the Week –
If you don’t close the sale you are working for the opposition
 
Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , , , ,

September 5, 2010 • 4:52 pm 0

Overcoming the key obstacles to make the sale

We have been looking at the key obstacles in the buyer’s mind which we need to answer before we can progress the sale.

The first of these was the different needs of buyers depending on their roles within the business.

We identified 3 potential buyer levels –

  1. Middle Management level
  2. Senior Management
  3. Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors

Then we looked at lack of funding where we discovered we need to clearly identify all the associated costs related to their current need.  Business owners make buying decisions based primarily on the expected return on investment.  If you can’t show a clear cost saving then there is no reason to change.

It is a fact that 99% of new prospects you visit already have a provider providing the same services/products you do.  Therefore they are only focused on two things in talking to you – the cheapest price or at least a price check on the current provider or improved value over what they are already receiving.

Our sole goal is focused on adding value. This can only be achieved if we can uncover their needs through good questions.

The opportunity for us to add value with these prospects lies in the following areas –

  1. Helping them to uncover an unrecognized need
  2. Helping them to uncover new opportunities
  3. Finding new solutions for old problems

To achieve this requires good preparation which unfortunately most salespeople tend to skip as they argue they are far too busy.  These types of salespeople are generally referred to as “professional conversationalists” i.e. they get paid to go around and talk to people but not actually to make sales.

Back to the subject of today  – No Hurry/No Desire to change from the status quo.

If we can uncover a big enough need through this process and combine the return on investment calculation that we looked at last time then this should create the desire and more importantly help the buyer to come to the buying decision.

We will look at the last of the obstacles in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

“Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor”

                                                                                H. Jackson Brown Jr

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , , , ,

July 13, 2010 • 6:02 pm 0

Show Me The Money

We have looked at the different type of buyers you are likely to encounter and more importantly their specific needs you will have to address with your solution with each type of buyer.

The next of the big five obstacles is “No Money”.

Unfortunately for many of us in sales the majority of prospects we meet do not have large amounts of cash reserves sitting in their bank accounts waiting for us to show up and relieve them of it regardless of the wonderful solutions we may have to offer.   They do however have funds they can access if the issue you uncover is big enough to warrant immediate action and worth diverting these to you.

This being the case we need to uncover the specific problem our solution can solve and then use what I term a Return on Investment Calculation (ROIC).  This will in essence turn the problem into an issue that requires immediate action.

A friend of mine showed how his solution could save a professional service business 273 billable hours at $120/hour.  This came to $32,760 – and his solution cost $12,000.  It was easy for the buyer to see how he could save money by reducing costs.

Evaluating the “return on investment” for a prospect (or customer) makes it easier for him or her to justify spending money on your product or service and helps the prospect visualize the value the purchase or investment will create.  This sales skill will help you position your offering apart from your competitors and ultimately make moving forward with you and our offer more compelling.

Your goal is to put the value your product or service creates in context for your prospect.  Sales professionals create this context by breaking down the costs associated with the product or service and illustrating how the purchase or investment provides a positive rate of return for the company.  When the prospect sees your analysis, they should conclude it’s a no-brainer. Above all, remember – the wiifm principle (what’s in it for them?) always applies.

Objective –

To provide quantitative information to demonstrate the hard value your prospect will receive by making an investment in our product or service.

Return on investment is defined as the amount of money they can expect to make or avoid losing as a result of making an investment…an investment is anything that is purchased for the purpose of generating income (or decreasing expenses) or an item that is expected to increase in value over time…while an ROI analysis can be very sophisticated and include such details as time value of money, tax rates and cash flows, a simple ROI analysis will generally work…just be sure to match your audience appropriately and never work at a level you feel they may not understand (it’s always best to be on the conservative side during your preparation)

Keep in Mind –

Your goal is to illustrate the investment you’re asking your prospect or customer to make in terms that help him or her see a positive return… be sure to…

• Keep our analysis brief and direct
• Clearly state your assumptions
• Include all costs (direct and indirect) the prospect will incur to make the investment

Things to Avoid –

Your prospect may disagree with your assumptions and approach…if so, you’ll have an additional opportunity to engage with your prospect and you’ll likely learn even more about how your prospect will make the buying decision… to ensure credibility of your analysis, you’ll want to avoid the following:

• Unrealistic assumptions on usage, response rates, etc
• Assumptions that the prospect cannot control
• Excessive time frames which exaggerate positive returns
• Over estimating the value of intangibles

Action Steps –

• Create a problems list – your solutions overcome
• Work out what costs potential buyers may be incurring as a result of not using your solutions

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , ,

June 19, 2010 • 10:13 pm 0

Every Sale Has Five Basic Obstacles

In my last article we finished with a statement from Zig Zigler which stated –

“Every sale has five basic obstacles –
No Need, No Money, No Hurry, No desire, No Trust”

Traditionally trainers spent a lot of time in showing tricky ways to overcome these obstacles/objections.  The issue of course is when you are overcoming objections you are essentially arguing with your prospects.  We may overcome the objection however the fact of the matter is where objections are present in the sales process the closing ratios go down correspondingly.

Let’s begin by looking at the first of these – “No need”

This is quite a complex issue to address as there are generally 3 levels of buyers you are likely to encounter depending on the price and complexity of your market and their needs will be different at each level.

The first level of buyer is typically at a management level and will be someone like an Office Manager, IT Manager, Engineering Manager, Marketing Manager.

These buyers are only interested in the feature and functionality of your products/services.

Typical things they will be looking for are –

  • Support with your solution
  • Up to date features
  • Delivery schedules
  • Improvements in efficiencies
  • Demonstrations and evidence of past performance

To sell to these people you need to have a deep understanding of the technical aspects of your products and be able to speak their jargon.

It is at this level that the majority of salespeople make their calls. 

The next level of buyer we are likely to encounter are the senior managers like Chief Financial Officers (CFO’s), Chief  IT Officers (CIO’s) and General Managers.

These buyers are tasked with increasing revenue or decreasing costs.

For these buyers the language is therefore stated in financial terms such as Return on Investment (ROI), Earning before Insurance and Tax (EBIT) etc.

So if you are selling to these people you need to understand what they value and talk the language of ROI rather than features and benefits.

The third level language is that of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) and Managing Directors.

Their chief concern is market share and the growth and maintenance of this.

Therefore your conversations need to focus on ways to maintain or preferably grow their market share.

To summarize –

First level buyers focus on the features and functionality of your products and services

Second level buyers focus on increasing revenue or reducing costs

Third level buyers are only interested in market size and market share

In our selling environment here in NZ many of the buyers we are selling to can be a mixture of all three.

This Weeks Action Step –

  1. Develop a “features/benefits” list – remember the litmus test that a benefit needs to pass is “so what?”   – what does this benefit really do for the prospect?
  2. Develop a return on investment calculation that shows the value of your particular solutions

In my next article we will cover the obstacle of “no money”.

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, ,

April 19, 2010 • 3:13 pm 0

Do You Always Uncover the Buyer’s Needs?

Following on from the last time when we looked at the introduction phase of the sales interview.

Today I would like to focus on uncovering the buyer’s needs through the use of structured questioning.

For many salespeople who deal mainly with enquires coming in this seems rather straight forward i.e. the buyer states the need, asks for the solution, then the price. The trap of course is we give them a price without further exploration of their needs and if we are not the cheapest then quite often we miss the sale.

The other scenario is we are referred to a prospect who already has a supplier of our product or service and may be happy with them. The traditional sales process would look something like the following –

1. Introductions/Pleasantries
2. Find Common Interests
     . Clients we work with
     . Agencies we have
     . Our experience with similar business
3. A few questions to uncover needs
4. Present Solution
5. Offer of Proposal
Look familiar?

Our goal is to uncover the buyers need – No need = no sale, or a gap in what they are currently getting.

It is important to remember you are wanting the buyer to do one of the hardest things any of us face- to make a “change” – this could be from their current supplier or their way of doing things.

To achieve this you need to meet a number of objectives –

1. Establish trust – If the prospect doesn’t trust you they will not reveal their true needs to you. No Trust = No Sale
2. Uncover the need you can provide a solution for – No Need = No Sale
3. Establish the true size of need. This establishes a return on investment in the buyers mind and creates urgency to act. No ROI = No Urgency = No Sale
4. Elicit an invitation from the prospect to present your solution.

This is best done through asking good prepared questions.

Your questions create not only the reasons to change but also the urgency for your solution.

In structuring your questions you need to understand the different levels of buyer needs – this we will look at in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

Every sale has five basic obstacles:
no need, no money, no hurry,
no desire, no trust

Zig Ziglar

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Ltd

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , , , ,

March 17, 2010 • 5:38 pm 0

Are You A Show & Tell Salesperson

In my last article we looked at the opening of the sale and the need to set the agenda for the meeting. This sets the scene.

To recap –

An agenda might look something like this:



  • A brief statement about the purpose of the meeting and the likely outcome

  • A value statement about our company and service/product (25 words or less – less is more!)

  • Then onto asking them your prepared questions
This accomplishes several key objectives. Firstly it conveys to your prospect the purpose of the visit and that you are prepared and will not waste their time.

Secondly it gains permission to ask the prospect questions to gain an understanding of their situation as it relates to your products/services/solutions

I am often asked how long the introductions and agenda setting process should take. My recommendation is 2-3 minutes absolute max – remember its not about us its about them and their needs.

There is an old saying in sales –

“You can listen a buyer into a sale faster than you can talk them into one”

So we have set the agenda, delivered our value statement, asked permission to ask questions, this takes care of the opening, what are your questions?

Well these need to be very carefully planned as questions focus our thinking. Therefore you should never ask a question that could cause the prospect to think about an issue that could adversely affect the sale moving forward.

For example, I will ask you a question shortly and whatever you do don’t think of the answer, remember read the question but don’t think of the answer!

When is your birthday?

If you are like most people you would have thought of your birthday.

One such question most salespeople ask or some variation of is:

“Who is your current provider?”

This focuses their thinking on the person doing the job and if they have a great relationship with them regardless of what sort of job they do you are defeated before you ever get going.

Many salespeople ask a few perfunctory questions which the prospect view as self-serving. Then they dive into “show and tell”. That is they begin showing the prospects samples, brochures, technical data or telling them about the solutions they offer or all about themselves, their company, who they have done work with – you get the idea!

Buyers sometimes refer to them as “Show up and Throw up Artists”.

So it’s a matter of developing a list of questions to help build trust and uncover a number of needs. These in turn will then help you establish the opportunity gap which in turn will show the return on investment.

Next time we will look at the various types of buyer needs that are generic to every business.

Quote of the Week:

A mediocre salesman tells
A good salesman explains
A superior salesman demonstrates
Great salesmen inspire buyers to see the benefits as their own

Carolyn Shamis

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Ltd

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy

December 13, 2009 • 5:39 pm 0

Do you set the Sales Meeting Agenda or does the Prospect?

Today we will look at how we bridge the gap between introduction and uncovering the buyer’s need, which of course is the primary aim of the sales interview. If we are to be able to add any value through our solutions a way to do this is to set an agenda.

By setting an agenda at the start it helps the prospect to understand what will happen and what the outcomes of the meeting will be. It will also show them that you have structure, particularly important when dealing with analytical buyers.

Sales meeting agendas are either set by you or you let the prospect set them. The trouble with letting the prospect set them is their agenda is to deal with you as quickly as possible as their time is generally very limited.

Studies have shown that most senior managers have at least 56 hours of work in front of them. The more direct type of prospects will come straight to the point and might ask questions such as:

What do you offer?
What can you do for me?
How much will it cost?

The trap for many of us is we mistake these questions for buying signals and launch right into our sales presentation. This is what I refer to as “premature presentation”. This has killed many sales before they ever got off the ground.

If we can define the steps in our sales process which consistently lead to sales we can follow these methodically and therefore achieve predictable results.

An agenda might look something like this:

• A brief statement about the purpose of the meeting and the likely outcome
• A value statement about our company and service/product (25 words or less – less is more!)
• Then onto asking them your prepared questions

This is an interview the purpose of which is to uncover a specific need you can help this prospect with. It is not a sales pitch. A sales pitch is basically a “show and tell” where the seller ends up doing most of the talking after asking some routine questions and establishing a few of what I term “surface needs”. The flaw in this type of presentation is it is very difficult to show a return on investment for the buyer.

Business owners need to see a clear return on investment as there is generally a large amount of risk in their mind when considering changing to another provider. Therefore we need to minimize the risk or eliminate it entirely to changing to our solution.

Imagine if I offered you a rock for $10,000, your initial reaction might be “how ridiculous”, however if I then provided a certified jewelers valuation identifying it as a 9 carat uncut diamond then the risk of the purchase would have been eliminated and the real value established – making it easier for you to make the buying decision.

So coming back to the opening – this is the most critical part of your sales process as this is where the sale is made and the stage is set for closing the sale.

We will continue with this subject in my next article.

Key Action –

Write a value statement in 25 words or less about what you do.

Quote of the Week -

“A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it”

Henry Ford


Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy,

September 29, 2009 • 5:40 pm 0

What Is Your Sales Impression?

As has been discussed in earlier articles, sales teams need to have a process to follow when presenting to new prospects to ensure more consistent closing ratios.


In my experience very few companies I have seen have taken the time to identify the most effective process for selling their products or services which brings me to a sales principle which states:


“For every product category and market segment there is a best practice sales process which ensures optimum sales”


The key is to identify what creates sales and what doesn’t and develop the process into a standard operating procedure.  This will only come about through measurement.


Unfortunately without a process salespeople are left to their own resources and do the best they can.  These same salespeople are given sales targets to meet and budgets to achieve without the sales formula/process to follow and spend most of their time “flying by the seat of their pants”.


So if we agree we need to have a formulated approach to our sales the process could look something like this –


-Introductions and pleasantries
-Agenda set
-Discover needs through prepared questions
-Discussing solutions
-Ask for commitment


Let’s look at introductions and pleasantries.  This is the most critical phase of the whole sales process as the decision to buy from you will be made in the first few minutes of meeting you. The fact that we make decisions about people so quickly is just part of human nature.


Research done with 267 Human Resource Managers from the Fortune 500 companies in America showed that on average they decided that a candidate would get the position being applied for within 40 seconds of meeting them.  They then went on to conduct exhaustive tests and interviews to prove they had made the right choice. 


Think of your own attitudes – have you ever had the experience where you have met someone for the first time and taken an instant dislike to them?   The fact is we don’t buy from people we don’t like!


The keys to this phase are to be on time or 5 minutes early, be professionally presented, have professional tools e.g. high quality compendium, a good quality pen, professional looking business cards, rate cards etc.   There is nothing worse than asking someone for their business card and they pull a dog-eared looking card out of their wallet and hand it over!   Your dress and stationary need to be appropriate to the type of clients you are presenting to.     I was meeting with a senior executive recently and suggesting the company invest in some very good quality leather compendiums for their sales team.   He very graciously pointed out that the majority of their clients were intent on preserving nature – we agreed a recyclable/hessian type compendium would be the order of the day!


You look good, you are on time – now what do you say?


The old school sales trainers would suggest you identify something the buyer may be interested in through observation e.g. they may have a marlin mounted on their office wall – most salespeople would begin by commenting on the fish.  I believe there is a factory in China producing these fish to sell to buyers as an accessory to catch newby salespeople who are trying to build rapport!


My recommendation if you are serious about helping the prospect is to thank them for their time, mention your referral source and then get down to business.


Most prospects are short of time and have answered the same fish questions hundreds of times before– respect their time.


We will look at how to set the agenda of your sales meeting in my next article.


Quote of the Week:


Most people think “selling” is the same as “talking”.   But the most effective salespeople
know that listening is the most important part of their job.


                                                                                          Roy Bartell 



Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , , , ,

July 8, 2009 • 5:41 pm 0

What Is Your Sales Confidence Level?

Confidence is a huge issue for many salespeople.

Following on from my last article regarding order takers and their comfort zones, my focus today is around the issue of confidence. This is something that always comes up when discussing prospecting for new business.

The truth is not many salespeople feel absolutely comfortable in approaching new prospects with the sole purpose of selling them their product or service.

Confidence comes from knowledge. With salespeople there are two types of knowledge that they must have. The first is they must have a thorough understanding of the products and services they offer and just as importantly the application of these. The next type of knowledge is based around a complete understanding of sales planning, prospecting, and presentation processes.

Firstly let’s look at the sales presentation, or as I like to call them sales interviews as in today’s selling environment our goal at the first meeting is not to present but rather to interview the prospect to uncover explicit needs that we can possibly help with. So if we agree that it is a sales interview then we need to have a list of prepared questions to ask the prospect.

Some interesting statistics I uncovered from a US Survey on sales presentations found that 86% of salespeople ask the wrong questions.

The plan then is to develop questions that lead to uncovering needs and implications and formulate these into a process.

So its all about preparation, remember this leads to confidence. The National Cash Register Co (NCR) was the pioneer in developing a “canned” sales presentation. The canned approach they used which most of us have heard about is known as “AIDA”- Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action.

NCR trained every one of their salespeople in this sales process.

While the sequence worked the process failed as it was too wordy and the salespeople were expected to deliver it verbatim and spoke parrot wise and that’s of course how it came across. This was in the 1920’s, interesting some companies are still using verbatim scripts today – these are what most people recognize as “canned” presentations.

What I suggest is a planned approach to your sales interview as opposed to the canned version.

We need to have an agenda or sequence that we follow when interviewing new prospects. This achieves a number of call objectives –

1. It makes the best use of your time and just as importantly your prospects
2. It provides a logical flow to the conversation
3. It uncovers the need if one exists
4. It highlights buying signals for you and the prospect
5. It leads you to asking for the business.

By developing a process that we follow in each presentation we become more confident as we have a track to run on leading to our destination – more sales!

Just to illustrate the power of good questioning and how it invokes thought and focuses our thinking, here is a question to ponder –

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be?

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , ,

June 14, 2009 • 5:28 pm 0

Are You An Order Taker or Order Maker?

Today I would like to drive home the importance of having a sales process for maximizing your sales results and increasing sales revenue.

This is the first part, having a process; however the most important step is training the salespeople in this process.

Many companies when looking at their sales teams subscribe to the old syndrome “if it aint broke don’t fix it!”. The sales team are meeting targets, they are maintaining market share – why should we spend money on training?

Well that is a fair question when times are buoyant and customers are spending. The challenge for many salespeople however is they have fallen into the trap of becoming order takers so when things become a bit tighter and the pressure comes on to develop new business there is no process in place for them to follow such as prospecting systems, contacting systems, presentation and follow up systems.

A friend of mind who is what I would consider the consummate sales professional was telling me about a sales manager he once worked for who stated if all he needed from his salespeople was someone to go around the customers and “pick up orders” he would employ Labrador dogs as they were far cheaper and a whole lot cuter!!

Let’s look at contacting systems for a start.

The majority of salespeople suffer from call reluctance because they don’t have a process for getting the appointment.

There are 5 basic objections you will encounter when phoning for a first appointment –

• Too busy
• Already have someone
• Send me some information
• Tell me about it now
• What do you want to see me for

Not knowing what to answer to any of the above prevents salespeople from making the calls and of course they are far too busy calling on existing clients they know and like to follow up new leads anyway.

So the first step in your contacting system is to develop a customized phone script with the answers to the above already worked out.

Next you need to develop a system for gathering the key information about the person/company you are calling. This might include contact details, position, company history, key markets etc.

Next you will need to have a contact management system for managing your appointments. This can be a simple as 3 x 5 cards in a prospect box or as complex as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This will depend on the size of your business and your database.

Then of course you will have a diary system either hard copy or more common now some sort of PDA.

Quote of the Week –

When I prepare for a sales presentation, I try to think like my client and like my competitor. I try to pinpoint every objection that either of them could make to my presentation. I write these objections down, and then I figure out a way to respond to each one in three lines or less. I’ve given these “scripts” to sales reps, who then used them in their presentations. It’s staggering how even the most boring sales rep can become a great salesperson simply by learning to convey a few simple points. If you can move a customer so that he or she can’t argue against your point, then you’ve won.

Mark Jarvis

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Limited

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy,

About

Simple Sales Tracking is web-based sales CRM software for the tracking, analysis and forecasting of individual and team sales pipeline and contacts.

Built with simplicity at its core, focus is kept on key sales tasks, while eliminating unnecessary ones, helping to ensure buy-in of the entire sales team.

Go to SimpleSalesTracking.com

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