Simple Sales Tracking Blog

January 24, 2012 • 12:59 pm 0

Which Type of Salesperson Are You?

There is an old quote which we can adapt that goes –

“There are three kinds of salespeople – those who make things happen, those that watch things happen and those who are wondering what happened.”

It’s an oldie but a goodie.

In fact there are generally two types of salespeople I come across in my business.  The first are what I would characterize as “improvisers” – they seldom do any preparation and rely on intuition and instinct to carry them through.   They approach every sales interview as an adventure and while they still make sales they tend to be very inconsistent.

The second type are the “systemisers” – these are the professionals and they have a sales plan which includes activity targets and strategies to insure consistency and more importantly predictability in their results.

The systemisers are characterized by pre-sales planning and follow through during and after the sale.  This of course leads to repeat sales to existing clients and referrals to new prospects.   Typically they have lists of the most common objections/conditions they strike with prospects along with the answers.  They also have prepared questions that help the prospect to uncover potential needs if they exist and they have strategies to advance the sale.

So we have two types of salespeople who achieve different results.  Each one follows a pattern, one unstructured and one structured.

Where do you see yourself?

Most systemisers have developed their skills through training and practice – there is
no such thing as a “natural born salespeople”.

Zig Ziglar – Author and Sales Trainer extraordinaire in his best selling book “Zig Ziglars Secrets” says he’s travelled the world and seen that women have given birth to boys and given birth to girls but had never seen that a woman had given birth to a salesman.  He goes on to state that he had seen salesmen die so draws the conclusion if they are not born but die, then obviously between birth and death – by choice and by training – they become what they decide to become, namely trained professional salesmen.

Key Message -   You can become whatever you decide to become as long as you are willing to put the time and effort into the training required and follow the disciplines learned.
Action Steps –

1. Make  list of all the problems that your solutions and products overcome for your prospects
2. Make a list of all the issues associated with each of these problems
3. Develop questions around each of these problems and issues that will help the buyer to focus their thinking
4. Once this list is developed put each of these questions in order of logical sequence

Quote:
Failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day
Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day

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

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , ,

August 23, 2011 • 8:40 pm 0

Are There Natural Born Salespeople?

A question I am often asked is “Are there natural born salespeople that we should be looking for?”

My answer to this is there is no such thing as a natural born salesperson. There are salespeople with the “gift of the gab” who make good sales but they tend to lack consistency in their results.

Contrary to popular belief, the best salespeople aren’t the best talkers, they are the best listeners.

The best salespeople, the consistent high performers, are those who have been trained in the best sales practices and then supported through management.

A vast amount of “sales training” is focused on product or technical training rather than specific sales skills development.

This tends to produce product focused salespeople who use the classic show and tell sales presentation. Typically the presentation goes something like this –

The salesperson looks around the prospects office and finds some item of interest and begins a discussion on this, much to the annoyance of the prospect who has had the same discussion with a hundred other salespeople and hasn’t got time to waste with the usual so called rapport building techniques. They then ask a few self serving questions to uncover a potential need, then launch into a product/technical solution based presentation.

A study of over 500 buyers from the fortune 1000 companies showed that salespeople jump in with a

solution before the real problem has been uncovered. This happens in 63% of sales interviews.

Sales like any other business activity is a process and needs to be systemized to ensure consistency in the results.

Exceptional salespeople have a planned approach to selling not canned and follow a process.

McDonalds doesn’t hire staff and then challenge them to figure out how best to do the job. Instead they work on the basis there is a best way to take an order, greet a customer and put a burger together.

In sales there is a best practice too.

Like assembling a cheeseburger, sales has a process. Firstly to identify your prospects, next to get a referral to them, then establish trust, uncover their need, if they have one, present a solution, and ask for the business.

Selling is very simple but not easy!

Imagine sitting on a plane at HB Airport waiting to take off and the captain comes on and says – “this is my first flight in one of these really big planes – I’m going to try and figure out the best way to fly this thing”.

Many companies send their salespeople out into the field with great product training and very little if any sales training to “fly by the seat of their pants”.

It is a fact the greatest asset in our businesses is our staff.

It costs businesses just as much money in salary, travel and costs for a poor sales performer as it does for a great sales performer. Therefore we need to lift the performance of all our salespeople to ensure consistency in sales results. The way to achieve this is through using best sales practices and measurement for accountability.

A question I sometimes hear is “What happens if we train them and they leave?” I ask “What happens if we don’t train them and they stay?”

Coming back to what makes great salespeople, Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his famous book “Outliers” – “success in any field comes from opportunity and practice”.

Many companies give their salespeople the opportunity to undertake sales training – what makes the difference between good salespeople and the great is the great salespeople continue to learn and practice the skills they have learnt. They say “practice makes perfect” – this is only partly true – perfect practice makes perfect. Therefore sales come down to using best practices.

The first of these is developing a goals programme around what your sales targets are, the obstacles of achieving these, the solutions to overcome these obstacles, a detailed plan of sales activities mapped out over the next 12 months.

We can’t control sales – we can control sales activities.

We will look at this in my next article.

Action Steps –

1. Review your sales targets

2. Break down into monthly and weekly targets

3. Review your Prospecting Plan

4. List 3 actions you could implement this week to move forward e.g. Ask your key clients for specific referrals

Quote –
“Until we learn the formula (process) for success we can’t repeat it”
Brian Tracey

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

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

April 6, 2011 • 1:12 pm 0

How Many Sales Interviews Are Your Team Doing?

Recently I was questioning a sales manager about the number of new sales interviews each of her sales team did each week.

Her answer was that a week probably wasn’t the right duration – more like a month.

When I asked how many they were doing a month the answer was that they would be lucky to average one a month each.

The explanation for this she said was that they were busy sorting customer problems, building the relationship, doing pricing/proposals, delivery services or installations.

My thoughts were she didn’t have salespeople; she had very expensive mobile customer service reps disguised as salespeople.

This is a problem I see in many businesses I work with – the sales teams getting bogged down in the admin and low payoff areas of the business.

There are two reasons for this –

Firstly the company is under resourced which means the salespeople must be “jacks of all trades”. While I understand not all businesses can afford to add adequate support staff to take on the extra duties that could be delegated by the sales team, the questions I asked the sales manager were –

1. What was an average client spend over 12 months Answer: $6000

2. What was the average conversion ratio of your salespeople? (Most businesses guess around 80%, in fact conversions for most companies run at around 35-45%, say we work on 50%)

3. How many extra appointments with new prospects could your sales team do if we took away one activity, say quoting? Answer: 5 new appointments per week

If they converted half of these that would be 2.5 extra sales per week or $15k if we translate these into dollars or $780k over 12 months
Quite a compelling argument for freeing up your sales teams time!

The second reason is a lack of confidence in the actual salespeople themselves usually due to a lack of sales skills/systems. Interestingly enough I often see this lack of confidence in very experienced salespeople who have fallen into the role of “farmers” over the years.

“Farmers” is the term given to salespeople who spend the majority of their selling time managing existing clients and selling to these clients and slowly get out of the habit of prospecting and selling to new clients.

These “farmers” have become busy looking after the relationships they originally gained through prospecting.

The lack of confidence to go out and prospect for new clients generally stems from a lack of a step by step plan on how to prospect.

The answer most sales managers and business owners offer on how to prospect is “go knock on enough doors and you will get the business”. This is known as “cold calling” which is defined as: “calling on a prospect who may not know you and isn’t expecting a call”.

Some companies believe sending a letter then ringing helps to warm the call up. In my opinion the only advantage of this type of approach is that it may save the salesperson a little time.

Cold calling is a punishment for not having a prospecting plan.

We will look at this in more depth in my next article.

Quote:

There’s no magic to it, and you don’t need a lot of natural talent.
What you need is a disciplined organized approach to selling.
If you have that, you’ll outperform the great salesman
who doesn’t understand the process every time.
Selling can definitely be learned.

Steve Bostic

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, , , , ,

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,

March 30, 2009 • 5:36 pm 0

Do You Have A Sales Process?

Every business says they have a sales process, however many of these businesses do not have a process so much as an evolved way of doing things. When asked what is working well and what is not the answers are vague at best. It is very hard to measure something that isn’t managed.

A major study in 2006 in the States found that 51% of businesses do not have a standard operating procedure (SOP) for their sales teams. From my personal experience over the past 14 years I would have to say the figure in New Zealand would have to be much higher.

The consequences for these businesses can be very expensive.

Problems caused by the lack of sales procedure include –

• Inconsistency in sales
Which means an inability to budget accurately

• Lack of sales systems and structure
Which means reduced closing ratios

• Poor client management systems
Which means lost clients and opportunities

• Poor reporting and measurement systems
Which means a lack of accountability

• Lack of a detailed sales plan
Which means average results

• Salespeople spending all their time servicing existing and favourite clients
Which means a lack of growth

• Lack of structured prospecting activity
Which means inconsistent growth

While these may not all apply to you, any one of these could be impacting your profitability.

The advantages of developing standard operating procedures for sales include –

A systemised process for selling
Which means – more consistent sales

A systemised prospecting system
Which means – increased numbers of qualified prospects through referrals

Increased closing ratios
Which means – most efficient use of time and increased profitability

Reduced sales cycle
Which means – most efficient use of time and increased profitability

System for maximising existing accounts
Which means – reduced costs of sales

A systemised presentation structure
Which means – increased motivation and confidence of the sales team

The key areas that need to be systemized are –

• Sales Planning
• Prospecting
• Presentations
• Follow-up and 90 day contact system

In these so called tougher times businesses are looking to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. The key area to increased efficiency is in sales.

By developing a systemized approach to the selling process you should be able to increase your sales team’s closing ratio by a minimum of 10%

What would a 10% increase in turnover mean to your business?

My point is it is vital to the success of any business to standardize their sales process. This starts with all of those involved in sales using the same processes and this is achieved through a customized sales training programme which then becomes a standard operating procedure for all the sales team.

Training is the first step – you learn process through training then practice and eventually it becomes habit.

We will begin to look at sales planning in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

“If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always get what you’ve always got”
Action Step:
To record all your sales processes and identify key areas that need to be standardized.

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

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, , , ,

February 26, 2009 • 5:37 pm 0

Ways to Double Your Sales in 2009

At the January workshop, the question was posed to the group – How do we double our sales income in 2009. The results follow:

1. Invest in training (see me)

2. Join BNI (Business Referral Group)

3. Have a goal – plan and strategy

4. Make more time – measure-measure-measure

5. Self appraisal (post presentation – what did I do right)

6. Increase the average price of the sale

7. Packaging the product with similar products or services

8. Review the marketing – measure-measure-measure

9. Brand awareness – have a focus to create this

10. Feedback to the client – systemize

11. Ask for the sale every time!! – don’t be scared to!

12. Elevating the product presentations

13. Sales Plan with prepared questions

14. Listen for the buying signals

15. Ask for referrals

16. Keep good customer records

17. Sales Systems – prospecting, presentation and sales planning.

18. Watch the Funnel – work your numbers – keep it full!

19. Prospecting existing customers to gain wallet share

20. Continually develop new COI’s

21. Networking – join clubs i.e. Chamber of Commerce to meet like minded people

22. Targeted marketing campaign

23. Allocate specific time for prospecting and planning

24. Improved customer contact with existing customers – 90 day rule

25. Up-selling to existing clients

26. Well developed business plan with defined goals and targets

27. Refine and follow proven sales processes


The real formula to double your income in 2009 is to get every one of your clients to refer another client just like them to you and for you to covert them to a new client – simple isn’t it!

It is only simple if you have a process to follow – develop your systems!

Next workshop is on Wednesday 18 March at 4.30-5.30 at MR Print in Hastings, New Zealand. It does pay to book as we only had three spare seats left at the last workshop.

Remember these workshops are free to current and past clients and those who may be contemplating undertaking training with our company. Clients are welcome to bring guests.

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


 

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy, ,

July 7, 2008 • 5:08 pm 0

What Is It Costing You Not To Have a Systemised Sales Process?

Last time we were looking at why we need to develop good questioning processes. I want to explore this subject more, however let’s look at why it is so important to follow a questioning process in your sales presentation.

We know that following a process will increase your closing ratio and will therefore reduce the overall cost of making sales.

The cost of making a face to face sales call can range from $90 – $500 depending on the location and time.

What many of us fail to take into account when working out these costs are the hidden cost such as technical support, administration support, ongoing training – the list goes on.

Using $150/hr as an example lets look at what goes into making a sale

Preparation and getting the appointment – 1 hour
Face to Face presentation (including travel) – 2 hours
Preparing Proposal – 2 hours
Follow-up appointment to present/discuss proposal – 1.5 hours
Miscellaneous – phoning, research etc – 1.5 hours

The equation is 8 hours x 150 = $1200

This is assuming that you make the sale however there are very few companies in the world who have a 100% closing ratio. Most companies average 35%. This relates to proactive selling (you approach the prospect) as opposed to reactive selling (the prospects approach you)

A company I spoke with recently that actually measures its closing ratio admitted it was 23%.

For our example let’s work on 50% – this means that the cost of making a sale is around $2400. Even if it was only half this figure, it is still a huge cost.

Certainly makes you think about the skills of your sales team in relation to asking for the sale.

Studies have shown that in 62% of presentations the buyer is never asked to buy.

There can be a number of factors that cause low ratios including lack of process, poor prospects, failing to qualify, failing to establish a need or return on investment. Many of these issues can be rectified with training.

Businesses spend thousands of dollars on marketing and advertising to generate leads but are reluctant to invest in training their salespeople to maximise the rate at which they convert these leads into sales.

This in turn results in the very high cost of making each sale which brings me back to the importance of good questioning which I will come back to in my next article.

Quote of the Week –
Success is 20% skills and 80% attitude
Sales are 20% questioning and 80% listening

Brett Burgess


BRETT BURGESS is a programme developer and facilitator for Sales Impact Group Ltd.

Filed under: Sales Techniques and Strategy,

March 4, 2008 • 4:58 pm 0

Are You Listening for the Buying Signals?

We have been discussing buying signals loosely defined as -  “cues given by
the buyer that they may be ready to commit”.


In a typical sales presentation where the seller has identified a key need
of the buyer, the buyer will give buying signals.  This is great if our
salesperson is following a logical planned presentation process however in
the majority of presentations, in fact by study 51% (this is still a
majority!) there is no planned process.  So what we end up with is fairly
random questions with buying signals here and there – the result for the
buyer is mixed feeling as to their exact needs and for the seller mixed
buying signals hence the reluctance to ask for the business.


A planned process helps both parties to get a clear idea of the need, if one
exists, to progress.  For the buyer consistent buying signals create the
clarity and urgency to address the needs or opportunities and for the seller
it creates the confidence to present the best solution and ask for the
business.


There are buying signals that many salespeople miss that are embedded much
earlier in the selling process.   To catch them requires listening and
thinking about whom you are working with and what type of buyers they are.
Salespeople should listen to determine what the buying style of the prospect
actually is.   Some people buy based on logic.  Some people buy on emotion.
Some people buy on what they perceive to be the ultimate consensus, or just
plain politics, which is how they think the other people in the organization
will perceive their buying action.  If you listen, those people will tell
you how you can sell them.


Buyer questions are good buying signals.  Some examples are -




  1. Questions about availability or time – “Are these in stock?…”


  2. Questions about delivery – “How soon can someone be here?”…”How
    much notice do I have to give you?”


  3. Specific questions about rates, price, or statements about
    affordability -  “How much does this model cost?”.”What is the price of this
    fax machine?”.”I don’t know if I can afford that model.”


  4. Any questions or statements about money – “How much money would I
    have to put down to get this?”


  5. Positive questions about you or your business – “How long have you
    been with the company?”.. “How long has your company been in business?”


  6. Wanting something repeated – “What was that you said before about
    financing?”.”Tell me about the.again”


  7. Questions about productivity – “How many copies per month is this
    machine rated for?”


  8. Questions about quality, guarantee, or warranty – “How long is this
    under warranty?”..”How long will this last?”


  9. Questions about qualifications (yours or the companies) – “Can all
    of your people answer questions on the phone?”

This is not the entire list but I’m sure you get the picture.


We will continue with the subject of closing in my next article.


Have a successful week!


Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Moss and
Associates International.


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

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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