Recently I had the great pleasure of sharing a shopping day with my daughter, looking for potential wedding dresses for her big day later this year.
My daughter has very definite ideas of what she wants to wear and the style and type of dress that will best suit her, and in which she will feel fantastic. As she is not a traditionalist, we knew that we would have to investigate the type of opportunities that would most likely provide the outcomes we were seeking. We did some research and then set out optimistically to see what our day would uncover.
As we went from outlet to outlet, it was obvious that the sales people had been “trained” to deal with only one type of potential bride, one that was looking for the same type of style as other brides or bridal magazines currently depict, and not one that sought any individuality. Although many of the sales people were very pleasant, they completely failed to identify what my daughter was looking for and only questioned her on which of the “generally used” styles she preferred. In fact, she did not prefer any of them. As they did not attempt to uncover her preferences, they continually showed us the standard products, and then tried to “sell them” by saying that this is what everyone is wearing! I gasped as one sales person propped a veil on her head, clearly expecting us to get more excited as a result. This approach of ignoring her preference for non-traditional options had the opposite effect and we left that store as fast as we could!
We all know that the wedding industry is a huge money making industry where item prices do not in any way reflect the cost of producing the product. It clearly survives by marketing a set number of styles then selling them on the basis of “that is what everyone has”. Salespeople then tell potential brides that of course the latest trend is perfect for them regardless of age or size. They follow that with the appropriate number of “how wonderful you look” type comments to get the sale over the line.
From my perspective, working in the area of sales force development, I was astounded at the lack of true selling skill being demonstrated in every outlet we visited, as well as the lack of product variety. At the end of the day, we returned home without a purchase. We knew that it was not going to be easy, but we had not anticipated the “bridal cloning” – an expectation that whoever walks in the door will want the same thing. In this environment the salespeople are oblivious to, and disinterested in, what will motivate an individual to buy.
How often does this type of situation occur, not only in the bridal industry? Do we as consumers simply “give in” and purchase the popular or latest trend products because it is too difficult or time consuming to seek out those that are more tailored to our actual needs, and because we cannot find anyone who is interested or flexible in their sales process to really understand what our needs are and try to meet them?
I have no doubt that we will find the dress that my daughter is seeking, it will just take more effort and time than it should. I do know that the final decision definitely won’t be as a result of a sales person or outlet that works on the assumption that every bride will want what they are told to want.
You know how some things just jump out and “bite you” because they are so obvious but you just didn’t see them. Well I had one of those moments this week and it’s all to do with consistency.
At OA we have had a really good year in 2011. We have developed many new clients relationships and have grown our relationships with many of our existing clients. We have seen our business grow throughout the year due to the consistent hard work put in by the OA team.
One of the great joys of my job is knowing that I will be out there selling every day and that this is growing the business. We focus on companies that would benefit from our services no matter their size of market segment rather than going “elephant hunting” which is the search for the huge deal which will set you up for months. These deals can take up an enormous amount of your time and energy for many months and often just don’t eventuate. In the meantime you have neglected the business opportunities that are on your doorstep.
This became relevant following a number of discussions that I have had this week with CEO’s of companies and salespeople where the companies exist in a “Feast or Famine” culture; huge bursts of frantic sales activity followed by everyone delivering on the sale and no-one selling…..followed by further bursts of increasingly frantic sales activity.
The companies that operate in these cycles had one thing in common, they failed to thrive…they survived but never lived up to their potential. One day they have business flowing through the door at a great rate only to find that the business has run out and there is nothing new coming in…feast or famine!
The most successful companies I encounter have a focus on sales consistency; doing the right things each and every day to achieve their clear goals. No sales heroics at the end of the month, quarter or year to hit their targets, just strong consistent performances that deliver outstanding results.
Heroics are exciting but consistency delivers the goods. When it comes to sales, doing the right things every day (The Tortoise) will always beat heroics and Elephant Hunting (The Hare) when measuring success.
As a professional sales person it is always healthy to analyse your effectiveness to influence customers by asking yourself this question … “do I have the DNA of Influence as part of my Sales Process”?
The DNA of Influence, also known as the DNA of Persuasion, is a 3 part formula derived from the three historic Latin words: Ethos, Pathos & Logos.
Let’s break down the DNA of Influence, strand by strand.
Influence DNA Strand 1: ETHOS = meaning Ethics or Integrity
Ethos is about first building rapport and putting the client or customer at ease. Injecting ethos first into the interaction with your client helps them to see you as trustworthy and credible.
Influence DNA Strand 2: PATHOS = meaning Emotional Connection
Pathos is an appeal to the customer’s emotions. Customers buy emotionally. The most powerful way to add pathos into your communication is to connect with the client’s values. How do you do this? The best way is to ask questions to discover the client’s key values and desires. You can never underestimate the power of asking your potential client the most powerful pathos question of all … “what is most important to you”?
Influence DNA Strand 3: LOGOS = meaning Logic, Facts, Figures & Statistics
Logos is logical appeal and the term logic is derived from it. It is normally used to describe facts and figures that provide persuasive support, such as the features and benefits of your product or service. Logos is always most powerful after Pathos has first been established because although customers buy emotionally they justify their buying decisions logically.
Maybe you can inject fresh ethos, pathos & logos into your Sales Process today!
Over the past 6 months I have been presenting a number of breakfast seminars devoted to the importance of developing a robust and structured sales process.
Now, many of you experienced salespeople will dismiss this as unnecessary; you know how to sell and every sales situation is different. While it is true that every sales situation presents a different set of challenges, it is also true that a well structured sales process that is well practiced and consistent will provide you with the capabilities that you need to handle these different sales scenarios.
It’s a lot like football at any level. You have the natural talents with big egos that don’t think they need to train and practice yet still have some success. Then you have the average players that commit themselves to a tough regime of skills training and practice and as a result often perform well above their level of natural talent. Then you have the SUPERSTARS who have a great deal of natural talent but understand that this will only take them so far. They commit themselves to rigorous training and development to give themselves the edge in any circumstances.
These are the champions that win in the vast majority of contests because they’re prepared. They understand that the game is unpredictable and that they must be ready for anything at anytime. While they can’t prepare for every possible scenario, they know that all they have to be is better prepared than their opponent.
This is what it’s about in sales as well:
- To perform consistently, well above your natural sales ability no matter how strong that is, you need to have a structured sales process that is robust and consistent.
- Your sales process needs to prepare you for all of the unexpected things that could happen and give you the skills to control any contest and overcome any obstacles.
- Your sales process needs to recognise your weaknesses and provide you with the ability to overcome these with structure and focus.
- Your sales process gives you a GPS, as Dave Kurlan calls it, which enables you to navigate through the sale from start to finish without getting lost or sidetracked.
- Your sales process makes you better prepared for anything that can be thrown up at you during a sales call.
- Most of all, a sales process makes you better prepared than the person that you are sitting in front of during a sales call. It is the difference between good and great.
I am passionate about the need to have a great sales process. The difference it makes in sales results is incredible; this is the reason that I have focused my breakfast seminars on this subject alone for the past 6 months. It is the one thing that can give you an unfair advantage when you get it right.
Last week, I was involved in the presentation of STAR (Sales Talent Acquisition Routine) training with a company in Sydney. This company recognised that their recruitment strategy and process in the past had not resulted in the building of a strong sales team and were looking for alternative strategies.
The STAR training programme which was delivered over two days to the Sales Managers is a 12 step process. It systematically sets out a unique method of identifying, attracting, qualifying and recruiting strong sales people specifically matched to the sales environment that they are being recruited for. The benefits and success of the STAR process are not restricted to any particular industry or size of company – it is a process that can be used by any company that employs sales people.
From a facilitator’s perspective, it is always satisfying to receive positive feedback at the end of a programme, but with the STAR programme the satisfaction comes from so much more than nice words. Over the course of two days, we watch the change that takes place in each person in the room, as they move from scepticism about its usefulness to them, to wonder at the change in approach and the new perspectives, to enjoyment in the practising and role playing, and then to eagerness to use newly developed skills.
Each person left the room at the end of the training confident and empowered to build the teams they need to meet and exceed their targets.
From their company’s perspective, they have invested a small amount but the income producing potential as a result, is enormous. They have raised the morale of their sales managers who now have new skills and renewed motivation to find and recruit strong sales people who in turn will meet targets and build business.
This programme can turn businesses around, differentiate from competitors, and impact revenue figures significantly – it is aptly named – what a STAR!
Every company looks for unique ways to get rid of their competitors, to gain, and then maintain, a strong customer base. Many have tried different kinds of tactics to do that. But today I saw one that really brought a smile to my face.
Working in the area of sales, we are always looking at the ways companies try to give themselves an edge. We applaud ingenuity which is why this approach got my attention. The tactic being used currently by an energy company gets my vote as the “Sales Tactic of the Year”
Included in the monthly account, I received a sticker to put on my front door to ward off potential sales people (similar to a “No smoking” sign). The pitch used the guise of helping the customer to rid themselves of nuisance door to door sales people and have a quieter, hassle free life
When I first looked at it, the thought went through my mind that there are not many door to door sales people these days so it seemed initially to be unnecessary and useless. But when I thought back over the recent past – the only door to door callers I have had have been from other energy companies trying to gain my business.
What a clever idea – send out signs in an effort to stop competitors having the opportunity to reach your clients. In an open market and with household energy bills rising continually, consumers are looking for the company that will give them the best deal and some providers are using the door to door approach to win the account.
With the massive rises in energy costs over the past 2 years, it will take more than a door sticker to prevent the consumer shift to better value competitors. Unless you can offer your customers a genuine incentive to stay with you, you will not keep the competitors away with a cynical ploy such as a door sticker saying “salespeople not welcome”.
As cynical as it is, you must give their marketers “A” for effort and creativity!
Within all sales organisations there is nothing more important than having the right Sales Manager. I know to many of you this seems like a motherhood statement but there is more to getting this right than would first appear.
The right Sales Manager is the one that will generate real performance from your sales team, coach them and motivate them and ensure that he only has high performers on his team. The art of selecting this “wunderkind” is finding all of these characteristics AND someone that matches well with the culture of the company.
To find the Sales Manager with the key criteria of being a performance master, coach, motivator and great recruiter we use the Dave Kurlan Sales Manager Screening Assessments. This gives us a clear picture of the true sales management capabilities of candidates but it won’t tell us what sort of values they have or how well they will fit in with the culture of the company. It won’t tell us if they relate well to their peers and how they treat those that they work with. This takes a whole raft of interviewing and reference checking skills that will reduce the risk of a mis-hire but are not infallible.
If you have read any of my previous blogs you will be aware of my view on managing the performance of salespeople. Of equal importance to the company is creating the right atmosphere which supports high sales performers. The creation of this atmosphere is a primary role of the sales manager. This high performance atmosphere or culture is a reflection of the culture of the company as a whole. If the company accepts mediocrity or under-performers within other areas of the organisation, how can they expect to hold their salespeople accountable to high performance standards? Logically they cannot but are surprised when the sales manager lets his people off the hook regarding performance.
As many of you will be aware, Culture is a virus that “infects” all employees that join a company. It reflects the true values of the company both good and bad and dictates the outcomes that you get.
A great Sales Manager will recognise these shortcomings within a company and will work with the CEO to address the barriers to true company wide accountability. To achieve this desired outcome a great Sales Manager needs to have outstanding Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and highly developed influencer skills. They need to be able to drive change both within their sales team and throughout the greater organisation as changing simply within a sales team is doomed to fail if the company culture does not support this.
In short, test for capabilities, interview for behaviours and probe deeply to understand how this person will behave in the real world environment that is your company.
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” –Thomas Edison
The realisation that hard work pays off is not new, but it was clearly demonstrated recently when the results of progress evaluations showed the range of achievement from participants paralleled their individual approach to the opportunity for growth and development
A company with a sales team of three, decided to offer three months of individual sales training and coaching to their team, following Objective Management Group evaluations. The original evaluation of these three people – all in the later stages of their sales career – identified a number of areas of weakness for each of them. The company offered them the opportunity to gain skills and address these weaknesses, in order to be more consistently effective and therefore to enjoy greater success for their own sake as well for the company’s bottom line.
The expectation that they participate was expressed, although the extent of participation was not quantified, each person had the opportunity to achieve as much as they could over three months.
As with many new initiatives, concerning those who have been in the industry and their jobs for some time, this was met with a great deal of scepticism. All three raised objections, posed reasons why it was not necessary – “they knew what they were doing “, “their industry was different” etc. Management addressed their issues, but still firmly stated that this training was to happen.
Over the next three months, each of the sales people accessed the learning, submitted work, and received personal coaching calls. On completion, Objective Management Group progress evaluations were run. The results for each sales person showed the degree of change that had taken place within them and the effect on their individual strengths and weaknesses.
If the results were orchestrated, they could not have more clearly matched the mindset and approach of the individual. Sales person A found that once started, the knowledge gained was not only helping him in his work, but also in his personal life. The more he learned, the more he wanted to learn and in the three months, he achieved more than any other learner had done before in that time frame. Sales person B was hesitant, put in a little effort, gained from that and decided that was enough. In terms of skills and strengths, he did not change but the process did help him to feel better about himself and to have a more positive attitude. He changed his weaknesses in Desire and Commitment to strengths and started to enjoy selling. Sales person C dug his heels in and decided not to cooperate at all. He maintained a hostile attitude towards the process and did not believe that it was necessary. He knew it all. His results showed that his Desire and Commitment had gone from strengths to weaknesses as he continued to resist any involvement.
From Objective Assessment’s point of view this has been a great exercise. It has clearly demonstrated that the ability to evaluate, train and re-evaluate has great merit in gaining a clear and quantified measure of the effectiveness of that training on any one individual. It also clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the Online training system and its ability to alter the behaviours and approaches of sales people, to provide them with a stronger and more robust process, to improve their confidence and ultimately, their success.
Finally the outcome from this exercise has shown that it is important to select sales people with strong crucial elements and a desire to grow and develop, as part of your team. Without these crucial elements, all the good intentions of a company to help their people to greater success can be wasted.
“You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand!”
Robert Louis Stephenson
Observers of human behaviour will tell us that we are attracted to two types of people, those people that are like us and those that like us! This simple observation is vitally important in understanding how our salespeople interact with their potential customers. Our acceptance of other people and their beliefs is strongly aligned with our own beliefs and behaviours.
Imagine for a moment that you are a salesperson. As with all people, you have developed buying habits over the years that have become a part of you.
- Like many people you may have a tendency to thoroughly research each significant purchase before making a buying decision.
- You may go online and read reviews of what it is you are interested in buying.
- You may compare brands to see which has what feature or benefit.
- Once armed with this information you may go to 2 or 3 stores to look for the best deal and,
- Once you have reached this point it may be time to call in the “better half” to get their “buy in” to the purchase.
There is nothing unusual about any or all of these buying behaviours as they make up your “Record Collection”; the beliefs that you have accumulated over time that make up who you are.
In a salesperson, these buying habits can manifest themselves in a number of ways that go towards undermining your ability to close sales. The most important of these is how our own non-supportive buying habits impact on our long term sales success.
“How you buy is how you sell”
According to Objective Management Group (OMG) who have assessed over 500,000 salespeople for more than 8,500 companies, a Non-Supportive Buy Cycle is the most important and second most common weakness, handicapping salespeople from achieving their true potential. They go on to say:
When a candidate has a non-supportive Buy Cycle it indicates that the manner in which this person goes about the process of buying something for him/herself does not support the selling process.
Impact: This candidate will be vulnerable to prospects who buy the same way as he/she does. If the prospect wants to ‘think it over’ and that’s what the salesperson usually does, no technique will be effective because the salesperson understands the stall. Same goes for price shoppers, comparison shoppers and researchers.
The natural corollary of this type of non-supportive buy cycle is the decisive or in extreme cases, the impulsive salesperson that makes immediate buying decisions often to their own detriment. These highly decisive decision makers, in a sales environment, are not predisposed to accept the “put offs” of potential clients. They are not susceptible to prospects that wish to shop around or look for a better price. They wouldn’t behave like this themselves and as such they cannot understand why the prospect would find it difficult to make a buying decision.
The harsh reality is that we need our salespeople to be decision makers and have supportive buy cycles because according to additional data from OMG, only 44% of the 55,000 salespeople that were evaluated in 2010 were hitting their sales targets.
A non-supportive buy cycle will prevent sales from being closed because the salespeople will be susceptible to the stall and delays that prospective clients throw up at them. They will buy into their reasons for not making an immediate buying decision which will invariably lead to pipeline bloat; prospects that remain in the pipeline with relatively few of them being closed or eliminated.
So often a salesperson with this weakness will be convinced that the prospect will eventually buy from them. Once they have carried out more research or checked on what else is available they believe that they will come back to them. This is unlikely to occur as the salesperson will not have fully qualified the prospect or gained an understanding of the real needs and problems that they are looking to solve. Where a non-supportive buy cycle exists, the sales process is stopped immediately the prospect uses one of their delaying tactics. If a prospect wants to think it over or do some comparisons, they have effectively stopped the sales call. No techniques will be effective in regaining control of the sales call because the salesperson understands the stall.
So, what can we do to overcome this problem within ourselves and our sales team?
If you recognise this selling weakness in yourself or your sales team, that’s a great start. It’s important to understand that these are usually hidden problems; they’re not a criticism of us as people but a very common weakness that blocks us from being successful in sales.
Start now to change the way you think, start coaching those around you to help them overcome their indecisiveness when buying.
I’ve listed a few key strategies for success that you can adopt by shifting the way you think. These will help you get this selling weakness under control.
- Identify which of your buying behaviours are not supportive of your selling objectives and list how they might undermine you in when dealing with your prospects.
- Be alert during the sales call of stall or put offs that relate to your own buying weaknesses and develop strategies to counter these stalls and overcome your tendency to buy in to them.
- Debriefing by your sales manager after each sales call helps to identify where you remain susceptible to these stalls or delays.
- Break your buying pattern by making a relatively large purchase without hesitation.
- Trust yourself when making buying decisions and then stick with them.
- Stop looking for validation of your decisions and have more faith in yourself.
Understand the negative impact that a non-supportive buy cycle has had on your sales career. From this time on focus on what you now seek from your client – a decision!
I have always been of the view that the 80/20 principle applied in sales as much as any other area of life. In this I mean that 80% of your sales generally come from 20% of your salespeople. These are the champions that seem to secure sales that others could only dream about. This has been borne out in our work with sales organisations over the past decade.
I recently became aware of findings of a study undertaken in 2008 by the Sales Benchmarking Index which found that of the 1,100 companies indexed, 13% of the salespeople brought in 87% of the revenue. This was astounding to me, 87/13! For all the work that goes into CRM’s, sales processes and sales training, still only 13% of salespeople generate 87% of the revenue.
This made it clear that 13% of the salespeople are doing something very differently from the rest.
Further work published by Mike Bosworth of Story Leaders LLC suggests that the difference with these high sales achievers is their ability to build an emotional connection with their buyers; to emotionally engage them at a level that significantly impacts their buying decisions.
To understand the importance of emotional engagement in the sales process you need to understand how the the brain operates. The brain is seperated into two hemispheres, the Left-brain is the logical brain that absorbs data and facts; the more the better while the Right-brain takes in images, sees the whole picture and can imagine the future that lies before it.
Understanding this gives us an understanding of the power of stories. When we commence a story, the “Limbic” or emotional area of our brain immediately engages and in so doing quietens down the logical left-brain giving freedom to the right-brain to go on the journey unimpeded. Our right brain will take in what the story is meant to convey about you, your company and how you have been able to help others like him. It will fill in the gaps and lead to an emotional need to make a decision. The right-brain is decisive whereas the factual or logical left-brain procrastinates so that it can gather more data.
Storytelling creates the necessary emotional connection with the buyer to lead to a decision. This decision will be later justified with logic. The problem with most companies is that their salespeople are trained to ask logical questions and make presentations that are directed at the left-brain. Most sales training is focused on the sales process and sales skills which again are left-brain and fact based. They fail to address the psychology of buying and the sales “mind set”
Story telling is the ideal way to engage the whole brain through gaining an emotional connection through the right-brain.
Stories create anticipation, significantly raise attention and help people retain information. These stories take buyers on a journey from where they are now to where they can be…where you want them to be. The best way to get a buyer to make a decision is to create a vision of a desirable future in their imagination.
