Tag Sales

How to Sell More of Anything

Steve Keating 11 Comments

Next week in Baltimore I’ll present a “How to Sell” class to a group of professionals. Not sales professionals, in fact, these professionals may very well have a certain disdain at even the thought of selling. 

As I prepared for the presentation I knew instinctively that a traditional sales training session was out of the question. No sales process or technique would be of interest or value to this group. While “selling” is important to their profession it is not something they are comfortable with and not something they do on a daily basis.

That got me to thinking about the essence of selling and what it really takes to sell effectively. The answer that popped into my head was trust and relationships.

People buy from people they like and trust. People don’t buy from companies or machines. Yes, we sometimes buy stuff online and through vending machines but usually even then someone, a person, has previously convinced us that it would be a good purchase.

The presentation morphed into a “Building Trusting Relationships” session and it quickly occurred to me that this isn’t just a great topic for non-traditional salespeople, it’s a valuable topic for all sales professionals. 

Salespeople, at least less successful salespeople, tend to focus all their energies on “telling” their prospect about the product. They spend far too little time on building the type of relationship that will help the prospect trust them as a person and as a result the prospect remains suspect about most everything the salesperson says.

The most successful salespeople don’t focus on themselves or their product, they focus on their customer and their customer’s wants and needs. They start that process by learning about their customer’s goals and objectives and it is from those conversations that a real relationship blooms.  

The most successful salespeople treat people with courtesy, politeness, and kindness. They listen to what others have to say before expressing their own thoughts. Successful salespeople do not insult, disparage or knock another person’s ideas. Even if that other person is a competitive salesperson. Especially if that other person is a competitive salesperson! 

The most successful salespeople have long ago thrown out the Golden Rule and replaced it with the Platinum Rule: Treat others as they wish to be treated.

The most successful salespeople don’t play the blame game. They accept responsibility for their actions and they honor their commitments. They share credit for their success knowing full well that no salesperson can succeed long-term without a lot of support from others in their organization.

The most successful salespeople avoid wasting time and are consistent planners. They are genuinely interested in other people and believe they can learn from anyone. They smile often and always, always, always maintain control of their attitude. Simply put, they are the type of person we all enjoy being around. 

Now, for those of you who have never sold a thing or are in a position that requires a non-traditional sales approach, just remove the word “sales” from every sentence above. What you’ll discover is that the way to sell more of anything is to be a successful person. 

Once you have developed the skill of building trusting relationships, sincere relationships, well then you can sell most anything to most anyone. 

You see, great salespeople are also great people.

Especially for Sales Leaders!

Steve Keating 3 Comments

Yep, that’s what it says.  For Sales Leaders!  If you’re not a leader or have no interest in becoming one, you may just want skip this post and go about doing whatever it is that followers do.  If you are a leader, or want to be, then read on.

First of all, notice that the title is not, it’s not for sales managers. In the often challenging business environment where we all work today, the last thing a company needs is more managers. While managers may have the capacity to require the compliance of their people, a leader has the ability to gain the commitment of theirs.  Today, perhaps more the ever before, a key element to success is commitment.

Let’s talk about leading a team of sales professionals for instance.   It is not an easy job; it takes skill, dedication and a strong desire to see others succeed. 

Skills! What we are talking about here are skills such as the ability to motivate others, to coach and transfer the knowledge that members of a sales organization need to thrive.  All leaders recognize the importance of developing their people and most say it is the critical part of their job.  They understand that their own success is completely dependent on the success of their team.  

Yet, many sales managers today attempt to accomplish this task from behind a desk, assuming that they “know what’s going on” because they used to be “out there.”  Funny thing is, “out there” is not the same as it used to be.  It may not look like it but our desks are miles wide and we cannot get a decent view of our marketplace from behind them.  If you’re the leader of a professional sales team today, and you’re not spending time in the field with your sales team on a very regular basis, you’re kidding yourself if you think you’ve got a handle on what’s going on in the market.  Here is a test for you:  how many times in the last year has a member of your team lost a good opportunity for business and your first question to him or her was, “What the hell happened?”  You’re the leader, you should know!  Think about it.

How about dedication?  Leaders today have the dedication to make certain that obstacles never become excuses.  Leaders don’t let little things get in their way; managers use things like paperwork and reports as excuses for not leading, for not doing the things they say are critical to their own success.  Dedicated leaders just plain think differently than mere managers; they know that theirs is an awesome responsibility; maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity, always doing the right thing even when it is unpopular and perhaps most important, setting and sharing their vision for a successful future for the sales team.  

Are you a leader who leads their team through challenges or are you a manager who uses excuses to explain shortcomings?  It’s a tough question but I think it is a healthy one to ask ourselves from time to time.  What do you think?

Having a strong desire to see others succeed is a common characteristic of leaders.  A desire so strong that a leader will develop plans to ensure that success is possible.  Success just doesn’t happen; it is indeed the result of good planning and ample market intelligence.  Ensuring success requires a leader to hold their sales team highly accountable, accountable not just to end results but to the actions required to achieve those results.   

Tools like call reports, an almost instantaneous understanding and knowledge of a salesperson’s closing percentage, weekly plans and goals are the hallmark of sales success.  Salespeople shun them while sales professionals embrace them.  Many managers see these tools as burdensome and time-consuming. 

Managers  speak of the trust within their organizations and say that reports can violate that trust, all the while not having enough information to really know.  Leaders see these tools as vital to a salesperson’s success and won’t attempt to lead even a day without them.  Leaders build trust with accountability, managers just hope for the best.

A leader makes decisions. A leader inspires people. A leader has a vision. A leader simplifies. A leader makes things happen.  A leader raises issues, debates them and resolves them. They aren’t afraid to go against today’s current because they know what they want to accomplish tomorrow.  Leaders don’t get stuck in the past, leaders are open to change! Leaders stimulate and relish change. Leaders aren’t frightened, paralyzed or threatened by it.  Leaders see change as opportunity.  Leaders inspire and energize others to commit to success. They capture minds. They instill a sense of ownership. They lead by example.

Here are a few more questions for you to ponder: Are you a leader?  Are you up to the challenge?  Are you willing to do what it takes to really lead instead of just manage?  If that means making some changes, will you do it?  The choice, is of course, yours to make; but before you do ask yourself one last question, would you rather work for a manager or a leader?  

I thought so!

What Do You Mean, Urgent?

Steve Keating 3 Comments

ur·gent 

Function: adjective 

1 a : calling for immediate attention : PRESSING <urgent appeals> b : conveying a sense of urgency

2 : urging insistently : IMPORTUNATE

– ur·gent·ly adverb

Well, there is the definition from Webster’s.  I think I like the first one, but the second one isn’t too bad either.

I guess it really doesn’t really matter which one we prefer as long as we have one of these definitions that we can embrace as our own. 

Now when I say embrace I mean EMBRACE!  Really latch on to it and live the meaning of urgent, live it through our words and actions every single day.  I remember attending a Dale Carnegie™ Sales Conference about 18 years ago when one of the presenters was asked about his opinion on the most serious threat facing professional salespeople at the time.  I think his answer applies more today than it did at the time: a lack of urgency. 

He believes, and I agree, that salespeople who go about their business as though a deal could wait another day are doomed to a career filled with limited successes and missed opportunities. 

Some salespeople lack a sense of urgency, urgency regarding following up on a request for information, urgency to return a phone call, urgency to make that one additional sales call a day and urgency to do the things they know would make a difference. These are the woulda, coulda, shoulda salespeople. They lament the poor business climate which the salespeople with a sense of urgency attack, maximizing the market and reaping the rewards.

Which one are you?  Do you have that sense of urgency?  Or, do you “leave a little business for tomorrow?”  If you’re a woulda, coulda, shoulda, you better hope your competition is too!  As of August 1st, there are barely 100 sales days left in 2013. You best get a move on. 

Now, go help a customer reach their goals and sell something, it’s urgent!

If Only We Were As Smart As Our Smartphone

Steve Keating 5 Comments

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I love my Smartphone. It is perhaps the single greatest tool I have ever seen when it comes to increasing my productivity. There is hardly anything my laptop can do that my phone can’t. It has almost everything. Almost. The one thing missing is common sense. I guess Apple figures the operator will supply that. Unfortunately I must admit that too often, when it comes to using my phone, I leave my common sense at home. I would never ignore a customer, a co-worker or anyone for that matter.

Well… except for when my “smart” phone signals me that I’m “needed”. It is just so easy to sneak a quick look at an e-mail or send a quick reply. The people who send me messages deserve my attention too, don’t they? My smartphone now makes everything urgent. How dumb is that?

When we begin a discussion with a customer, prospect, or colleague, we must give that individual our complete attention until the issue at hand has been fully addressed. As a professional salesperson, that is just good old fashioned common sense.

Every single discussion, every single interaction with every single person requires our complete focus.

Not only will it help us maximize our time by minimizing miscommunication, but also it’ll send the right message, the message that tells the person that they matter, that our sole focus is on them.

We can’t let a phone call interrupt an in-person conversation. We can’t let an email distract us from a phone call. We can’t let a passerby, instant messenger, or BlackBerry take our attention away from someone standing right in front of us (or on the phone).

Sales and Leadership are interpersonal professions. Anything less than our full attention sends a message of arrogance – a message of condescension – a message of which no one (including ourselves) enjoys being on the receiving end, (and certainly not when we’re with a prospect or one of our people). For those who lead a team, you should set the example.

Give your full attention today, and every day, to one person at a time, the person in front of you, and watch the difference it will make.

Excuse me, Have you got the Time?

Steve Keating 3 Comments

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I should likely start with a disclaimer that I don’t really believe in “time management.” I don’t believe in it because it’s really not possible to manage time, we each get 24 hours in a day, 1440 minutes. No more, no less. It’s the same for everyone; no one in the world has more time than you.

I agree that it seems like some people do have more time, their work is done and they even have some time left over for what is known as fun. I just don’t agree that happens because they manage their time better. It happens because they manage the “events” that use up their time more effectively than most people.

Think about this, our day is made up of driving, phone calls, emails, customer calls, sleeping, eating, and lots of other “stuff” we don’t even bother to define. The calls, emails, driving, eating, etc. are all events. The more events, the more time we need to complete them all.

Now while I don’t believe in time management I am a firm believer in event management. We can and must control the events in our lives on a daily basis if we truly want to be successful AND happy. Successfully managing the events of our lives is where balance comes from.

Luckily there are many tools available for us to manage these events. Let’s talk about just a few of them here.

Perhaps the most useful tool is the Daily Prioritized Task List. This is like a to-do list except the tasks are listed in order of importance and we don’t move to the second task until the first task is complete. Here’s a great question to always be asking yourself: Am I in this moment doing the most productive thing possible? The most productive “thing” is whatever is going to get you closer to whatever goal you’re working on at that time. It takes tremendous discipline to use a prioritized task list because the most important things are also often the most challenging. Our instincts are to “skip” ahead to a less challenging task, which will almost always backfire on us. Stick to the most important task, everything is easier once that is complete.

Next up is the tool we call Block Time. Here’s the concept of block time: instead of “planning” to tackle “events” in your free time, or your “extra” time schedule time on your calendar as if it were an appointment to complete that event. It’s like an appointment with yourself. The event can be anything you decide, calling for appointments, prospecting or follow-up. The important thing is to view this time “blocked” on your calendar as you would any other appointment, don’t just ignore it, keep the appointment, it may be your most important appointment of the week.

Another excellent event management tool is the Time Log. The time log helps us pinpoint how we really use our time. Let me say that again. It helps us pinpoint how we really use our time, not how we think we use our time. If you’re honest with how you use it then you’ll learn just what your biggest time wasters are and what time of the day you are most productive. Simply Google “time log” for more information on how to use this valuable tool. This tool also will take great discipline to use but you’re not spending time to use it, you’re investing time in the short term to gain time is the long term.

The real key to effective event management is to be completely honest with ourselves. When we’re not, we can fool ourselves into thinking what we’re doing is indeed productive. We convince ourselves that the 45 minutes we spent talking about the game last night was relationship building because the conversation was with a customer. It’s times like that we need to keep the “is this the most productive thing” question firmly in mind.

Providing ourselves with more time to succeed during the day is a choice, it’s about making consistently great decisions, being fearless when prioritizing events, and having the courage to say no to requests you know you can’t accomplish in the time you have. Above all, never tell yourself there is not enough time in the day, there is exactly enough time when you match your events to the 24 hours you have each and every day.