Consultative Sales Training

The basic concept of consultative selling is to view the selling process as helping a customer to solve a problem or achieve a goal through the use of the seller's offering. However, while most salespeople are familiar with the concept, they have no idea how to go about implementing it. This is because most salespeople have been trained to believe that the best way to sell a product is to educate the user on the product.

Sales Coaches

Who generally make the best sales coaches? Oddly popular notional are that the best sales people make the best sales coaches. NOT SO!

Here are five reasons why not:

1- The roles are very, very different. A professional salesperson is responsible for delivering tangible results. Sales managers are responsible for delivering tangible results... through other people. Managing a sales team is a role that engages in dissimilar activities than sales reps such as: coaching, ride-along evaluations, recruiting, hiring, performance appraisals, holding salespeople accountable, and termination. None of these are required for professional selling.

2- The capacities required for success are different - It's easy to assume that since a salesperson performed so well at selling, that leading a team of salespeople would be the natural next step. The capacities required for professional selling are not the same for sales leadership. One is patience. It takes patience to coach someone on a particular skill for months not always a strength for many superstar sales reps.

3- They struggle translating their instincts - A great player often cannot articulate why they are good, let alone transfer their skills to someone else. Great performers in any area almost always rely, in part, on natural instinct for their success. Instinct is very difficult to breakdown into measurable parts and communicate to others. Therefore, it becomes very hard to replicate their success through systematic training and coaching.

4- The urge to sell supersedes the will to coach - Your new sales manager will be tempted to take over sales calls instead of developing the skills of their players. The new sales manager, still focused on their own individual performance, will tend to step in over and over again to save deals and justify this dependency-causing behavior driven by quota demands. Plus, they would rather carry a poor performing sales rep than go through the tedious process of firing and replacing them.

5- You'll lose the revenue from your best sales rep - Instead of gaining a great sales manager,you'll lose the revenue from your now former great sales rep. This is an unintended consequence that many organizations often overlook. In addition, some companies believe that their new sales manager will replace their previous revenue stream by scaling the success of the sales team to new levels of performance, which is generally not the case.

Celebrating Employee Anniversaries

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Celebrating employee anniversaries may seem trivial. It may not significantly add to your bottom line or even be a key initiative in your strategic plan. But by treating each employee’s anniversary with your company as an achievement and a special occasion, you create a positive work environment and encourage employee commitment (and thus increase your employee retention rate).

The fact of the matter is, employees remember their hire date. It’s the career equivalent of a birthday (and who doesn’t love birthdays?) You know who else remember employees’ hire dates? Great managers, that’s who.

Celebrating an employee anniversary can also has a domino effect around the office. It will get fellow employees excited because they know you will offer them the same celebration upon their anniversaries. In the end, taking a day to show your gratitude for commitment of service boosts employee morale and has lasting positive consequences for your organization.

Now, your event doesn’t have to be ornate or extravagant. Here are some simple steps you can follow to create an Integrity HR approved employee anniversary celebration.

We recommend establishing a policy to designate when you will celebrate anniversaries, whether annually or on more momentous anniversaries such as five or 10 years. Take into consideration the size of your company and the amount of your party budget when deciding how you will celebrate.

It is important to maintain consistency so you do not hurt anyone’s feelings by celebrating someone earlier or more frequently than another. (Remember: it’s the small things like hurt feelings that make people leave an organization.)

·       Get Out the Calendar: The first step toward recognizing employee work anniversaries is to         make sure you’ve recorded start dates in the calendar! Depending on the size of your company, you may need to designate someone for this task  (for smaller companies) or use your HR software to be notified about the day (for larger companies). Getting the dates recorded is an optimal way to ensure no anniversary is overlooked.

·       Be Sincere and Make it Personal: We recommend acknowledging each employee’s anniversary every year, even if it is just with a small gesture (save the big celebrations for special anniversaries). Make it personal with a card, letter, phone call, personal visit or some other gesture. Don’t worry about making it formal. It just needs to be a genuine expression of appreciation. A few sincere words from management will be noticed and appreciated by an employee and greatly improve their morale. Often times, just a few sincere words of appreciation are worth more to the employee than an expensive gift!

·       Think Twice About Giving Monetary Gifts: In employer-employee relationships, money is associated with compensation. The last thing you want to do is confuse employee recognition with compensation.

When you are celebrating an anniversary, you are expressing appreciation for the employee’s service. Compensation is something that is earned. If a gift is perceived as earned, then it really isn’t a gift. Is it?

In the end, it’s important to make it part of your company’s culture to notice and recognize employees. It’s a great gesture to celebrate employee anniversaries, but it’s even better to also frequently celebrate employee successes, accomplishments and contributions as a part of your company culture.

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Sales Pro PSS is a research-based sales training program designed to help
salespeople incorporate a consistent and repeatable selling approach.
Sales Pro PSS is specifically designed to teach the prospecting, sales and
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Our open enrollment sales courses are the most cost effective way of training individual salespeople in your organization, at short notice or in small groups without having to bring the training in-house. Our sales courses are delivered in a dynamic and interactive way. Your salespeople will get to engage and share best practices with other sales professionals from different industries and sectors from around the world.

Sales Pro Professional Selling System (PSS) Public Sessions in Fort Myers. Florida

Sales Pro Professional Selling System (PSS) through a four-step 

process teaches selling and communication skills that enable

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customers— even with those who are indifferent or express concerns.

Public sessions in Fort Myers, Florida will be held:

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These programs are open to everyone from any type of business. Contact us to register. 239-599-8408 or Jim@4oe.com

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH!

YOUR PRICE IS TOO HIGH!

DISCOVER HOW TO SELL VALUE, NOT PRICE

When salespeople hear prospects say, “The price is too high” the salesperson usually reacts.  This is a “belief trigger” in the mind of the salesperson. A trigger causes an event or situation to happen or exist.  Hearing a price concern causes salespeople to very often resort to discounting. This reaction is almost instantaneous based on poor programming in the case of all prospects. It should be the last resort, if even any avenue at all.

High Price = Discount Demand

Why does this happen in the mind of salespeople?

These are some things that influence belief triggers:

• Big box retail thinking.  Although the channels of distribution which employ salespeople to do face to face and consultative selling are different, salespeople believe they should be able to compete on the same margins.  They cannot and never will!

• Unprepared sales representatives.  When a company employees salespeople they are most generally a premium price organization.  They have to be.  Discounting is NOT a role that highly paid salespeople do to earn business.

• Poor habits - Because salespeople always do price selling and so do the professionals around them, they become lazy. The cost is always differentiated by sharing a demonstrated value differentiation to alternative product and service offering.  If there are none, shame on the supplier!  If they are not communicated by the salesperson, shame on the salesperson, the company sales trainers and coaches!

Social defeat refers to losing a sale with a prospect, or any kind of dispute among humans. A power play defensive system that salespeople use is to offset the impending defeat with a discount to show how POWERFUL the salesperson can be.

To break out of the BELIEF TRIGGER of PRICE, salespeople have to work extremely hard at differentiating their offering on results and return on investment.  Salespeople need to re-program their relationship with prospects to create more value than their competitors and focus on showing that they and their company can create greater outcomes.

When a salesperson discounts 10% they have to work an extra 11% harder to make up the short fall of revenue and reach the company sales numbers.  Based on a 40 hour work week, that is an extra 4 hours a week the salesperson will have to work.  The salesperson will have to work half a day on the weekend either Saturday or Sunday.

If the salesperson, as in our example, discounts 20%, it means an extra 25% harder to make up the short fall in sales.  This represents an extra 10 hours per week of time on top of the 40 hours already being put in.

There is an alternative for salespeople giving up time with their family and loved ones on the weekend or working later each day.

That is to SELL VALUE.

Companies provide value to their prospects which can be designed to have a higher perceived value in the eyes of the customer than the discount a salesperson might give. 

Think for a minute… What is it? 

Some things that you could give in return for maintaining your price might include:

• Leads and introductions for your prospect's business
• Extra training on the implementation of your offering
• Offering a higher level of support
• An extra portion of your product
• Another month of service
• Extending payment terms
• Expediting implementation
• Provisioning extra users
• Inviting the prospect to became a part of a user’s group
• Provide an older version of what you sell that as a gift
• Create a press release or other marketing asset for your prospect

The goal is to look at the impact of the discount amount and provide more of the product or service that the customer is purchasing or an additional item that has a perceived value greater than the discount that the customer might be attracted to.  This would cost your organization little or nothing in comparison to the discounted amount.

Are You Reaching Your Goals?

It’s the middle of March and the first quarter is nearing an end. Are you on track with your goals this year? If you want to succeed, you need to set goals. Without goals you lack focus and direction. Goal setting not only allows you to take control of your life's direction; it also provides you a benchmark for determining whether you are actually succeeding. Here are some ideas for achieving your sales goals.

• Know your numbers. It’s impossible to set tangible sales goals without knowing numbers. Identify your past and current sales numbers so you know what targets you can set that are both reasonable and achievable. 

• Develop your attitude. Your attitude is controllable. Conquer your fears. Change the beliefs that limit your success. Your thought habits control your commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, resilience, happiness, and confidence. Be aware of them, decide which ones are unproductive, and then make a commitment to change. With time and effort, you can become the person you want to be.

• Review your sales goals first thing in the morning every day. Say your big picture goal out loud and review goals and actions for the day. At the end of each day, review how the day went, and set goals and actions for the next day.

• Invest time prospecting for NEW business every week. Most salespeople rely on existing clients to generate their sales. Allot a specific amount of time to look for new business opportunities whether it’s within a current account or a completely new company. How much time are you prepared to commit to prospecting for new business?

• Ask for referrals. Referrals are one of the top ways to grow your business.  You can exponentially increase the number of referrals you get, dramatically increasing your client base, by doing one simple thing - asking for referrals.  Most people, especially happy customers, are truly glad to help with referrals when asked.

• Improve your selling skills. Attend sales training programs, read books, newsletters, magazines and blogs. Listen to audio programs. Talk to the top performers in your company. Work with a sales coach.

• Show customers why they should keep doing business with you. Just because someone has bought from you in the past does not mean they will continue to do so in the future. In today’s business climate you need to constantly prove to your existing customers why it makes sense to continue buying your product/service. What can you do to reinforce this to your customers?

• Maximize your time. Focus on your goals. Test every activity for its importance and urgency. Create an ideal schedule, and test your actual time use against it daily. Remember, just one hour a day used more productively adds up to more than six extra weeks of productive time a year.

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” ~ J.C. Penney

How do you manage poor sales performance?

Performance management makes up a significant part of every manager's job, and this means managers are required to deal with poor performance. Managers often view this as one of the less desirable responsibilities that come with their job.  Sales organizations react in different ways to poor sales performance. Do any of the following look familiar to you? Some organizations will put a revolving door on the sales office for the poorer performers…the under performers either make the grade or they go. In fact, many larger organizations will adopt a process of forced ranking where the bottom 10% will be asked to improve within 3 months or find alternative employment either within or outside of their organization. ​ Some organizations will look at the sales team as a whole and maintain the performers, exceptional performers and under performers in the same environment, on the basis that they accept the bell curve model and appreciate that this is possibly as good as it gets. ​ Some organizations may invest heavily in the poor performers training, coaching, mentoring and offering additional support. ​ Every sales management team and business will have its own way of managing poor sales performance. For every hundred men hacking away at the branches of a diseased tree, only one will stoop to inspect the roots.– Chinese proverb

Resolving Customer Service Issues

Providing excellent customer service after a sale is essential to maintaining strong relationships with customers. Starting at the closing, tell customers that they should feel free to call you any time to discuss any problems or questions related to your products.

If a customer has a problem with a product purchased from you, try to see this situation as an opportunity. If you can demonstrate to customers that you really are committed to helping with their problems, they will think more highly of you, your company, and your commitment to customer service.

This is another example of a way that you can turn a potentially negative situation into a positive one. “Customer Service” is a lot more than just a phrase. When a customer comes to you or calls you, it is important not to simply play lip service to their enquiries.

Should a customer complain to you that a purchase they have made from you is not living up to their expectations, your first response should be to get to the heart of their complaint. Your response should be along the lines of “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that – what is the problem?”. From their response to this, you should be able to think of a few solutions to that.

There are three elements to be taken account of in your response to a customer problem – efficiency, politeness and thoroughness.

All customers with complaints will want their problem to be dealt with speedily. In doing this you need to find the right balance between “too quick” and “too slow”. Many people take an attitude to problem solving which seems to suggest that the last thing they want to be doing is dealing with problems as it holds them back from going to do what they consider to be their “real job”.

However, the way that you deal with problems has a real impact on customer retention. It is best to deal with them quickly, but to be fully aware of what the customer wants before going straight into a process of solving the problem.

The above point is linked to politeness – naturally you will want to solve any problem quickly, but if you do not pay attention to what the customer wants and needs, and take the time to apologize for any problems then they will feel like you resent them taking up your time.

Without a reasonable, polite attitude from you, they may well simply wait for their problem to be solved and then take their leave of you. If you are polite and understanding, this will stick in their mind. It is essential to consider that the final impression given to a person is the one that will resonate most. If they have a problem with an item but you solved it, and did so quickly and politely, then it will be the latter fact that stays with them.

The final point is that you must be thorough with your problem solving. From the nature of a customer’s problem you will either know how to solve it so that it does not reoccur, or know someone who will be able to do this.

There is sometimes a tendency to go for a quick fix (“Have you tried turning it off and then on again?”) – but this is far from advantageous, as the chances are that the problem will be back again before too long.

This will not help the customer, and will not help you retain the customer. If you deal with the problem quickly, politely and completely they will be happy to come back again when they have another purchase to make, and their overall impression of your company will be “When I had a problem, they solved it”.

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As A SALES PRO^® Graduate, You Will Have the Ability to Repeat SALES PRO^® at No Additional Fee:

You are free to attend any future SALES PRO^® public session held by Center for Organizational Energy in part or full without additional fees as many times as you wish on a space available basis.  You must bring your SALES PRO^® materials from the prior class or purchase new materials.  In the case of a book version update, you may be required to purchase a new book.

 If A SALES PRO^® Graduate Leaves Your Company Within 1-Year of Completing SALES PRO^®:

Your company will have the ability to enroll a “replacement salesperson” in any public session SALES PRO^® held by  Center for Organizational Energy on a space available basis with no additional fees, other than a new SALES PRO^® book and materials.

   Should You Leave Your Present Company, As A SALES PRO^® Graduate:

You are free to attend any future SALES PRO^® public session held by Center for Organizational Energy in part or full without additional fees on a space available basis.  You must have your new employer’s HR department sign off on your attendance.  You must bring your SALES PRO^® materials from the prior class or purchase new materials.  In the case of a book version update, you may be required to purchase a new book.  Our clients tell us that education attracts excellent employees and having this guarantee in place helps assure education plays a part.  Please do not forget to let your new employer know about this valuable training benefit that you enjoy.

 

Tips on Getting Prospects to Call You Back

The fine line between persistence and stalking:

·       Make only one call per day to each prospect.

·       Call consistently.

·       If you leave a message, tell the prospect you will call them back and indicate when - and then stick to it.  Say: "If I don't hear from you by February 12th, I'll call you back on the 13th."

·       It takes at least 4 to 8 attempts to reach your prospect over a period of weeks, or even months.

Get down to business quickly:

·       No one cares for phony friendliness.

·       State your business.

·       Be professional.

·       “Greg, Jim Ullery calling.  239-599-8408.”

·       Sharing more in a voice mail is a waste and not relevant.

·       There is no need for company, title, reason for the call.

Share the name of a prominent person that referred you:

·       Open the call, with the name of the person that referred you.  Say: “Greg Meeks suggested that you might be interested in hearing about my services.”

·       Do not open with your own name.

·       When you close, the calls say, “As I indicated earlier, our mutual friend Greg Meeks encouraged me to call you.”

Sound like a trusted advisor:

·       Bring personal value to the relationship.

·       Buyers want to work with confident Sales Pros.

·       Do not convey hope to meet or gratefulness for a few minutes.

·       Converse as if you are calling a collaborator with an idea.

Mention a precise point you want to have a dialogue with them about:

·       Use a voice of expectation not one of question or doubt.

·       Will vs. would  - Now vs. sometime.

·       “I will appreciate the ability to hear your comments about the proposal I sent you last week.”

Present a strong value proposition:

·       Talk in terms of outcomes that you will deliver.

·       Do not talk about your product or service.

·       Use metrics.

·       Use business terminology.

·       Use time frames.

·       Use dollar amounts.

·       Use percentages.

·       Do not round numbers 2.3 is far more believable than “a bit more than 2.”

·        Say: “We help companies in the conversion to cash cycle with a 23.2% reduction in time and expand order sizes by 13.3%.”

·       Mention how the call will benefit them.

Share the primary business drivers that are enhanced when customers work with you:

o   Employee turnover.

o   Productivity.

o   Waste.

o   Time to market.

o   Operating cost.

o   Share of customers.

o   LTV – Life time value.

o   Cost of goods sold.

o   Customer retention.

o   Compliance.

o   Collections.

o   Inventory turns.

“When you return my call, I will make clear how my services can increase your company's turnaround time.”

 

Send a handwritten note:

o   Increases your likeability.

o   Helps make the prospect feel good about you.

o   Encourages them to take your calls.

o   Have an effect on people that yet another voicemail or email does not.

o   Customers thank Sales Pros for handwritten notes.

Do your homework and demonstrate that you have:

·       Researched the target prospect on the internet.

·       If you have worked with similar companies tell them.

·       Say: “I was recently on your website and noticed  ...” or “I have worked with other chemistry development firms and I know the industry struggles with…”

Put them on “gentle rain”:

·       You have tried everything you can and you are not ready to give up entirely.

·       Send interesting things of value (not simply advertisements) every month or quarter.

·       Stay at the top of the prospect’s mind.

Get rid of self-serving verbiage:

·       A prospect does not care to talk about the Sales Pro or their company.

·       No self aggrandizing puffery.

·       No creative crap.

·       No procedural drivel.

Create a deadline:

·       Gain agreement from the prospect as to next steps.

·       Remind the prospect of the agreement to take the next step based on the agreed follow up dates.

·       Say: "I'm calling since the last time we spoke; we agreed to have further dialogue today about…."

·       If they do not return your call in a couple of days, keep calling, and gently remind them of your mutual agreement.

Mention a newsworthy recent event:

·       Let the prospect know that your call is triggered by an event.

·       Cite the event being relevant to the offering you wish to provide.

·       New management, an acquisition, an expansion, a change in the market, change in environmental policies all provide reasons for such dialogue.

·       Read online industry trade publications.

Call early or late in the day:

·       During normal hours, C-level executives have “directors of first impressions” on duty.  Some prefer to call these “gatekeepers”.

·       Call quite early in the morning or late in the day.

·       Do not leave a message attempt to reach the executive when they are alone and likely to pick up the phone on their own.

·       To bypass the voice mail system attempt to dial one number higher than the main number.

·       Learn to ask for after hour numbers.

Use a call outline:

·       You do not want to ramble on.

·       Every word counts if you are leaving a voice mail.

·       A call outline helps you stay on task and focused.

Change your media:

·       If a prospect has not responded to a call you made within 5 - 8 business days, email them.

·       Everyone has his or her own preferred way to communicate.  Find out which communication tool is easier for the prospect. 

·       Do not be surprised if social networking sites become places to communicate.

Prospects that go silent:

·       Whether in voicemail or email, when you are ready to write an uncommunicative prospect off, let the prospect know that this will be the final attempt you make to reach them.  Try something like:

"I noticed that it's been X weeks since we last spoke, and I'm assuming that is because you are no longer interested in our product.  That is OK; I understand that we are not a fit for everyone.  The last thing I want is to become a follow-up pest!  If you are still interested, you can reach us at 239-599-8408.  If I do not hear from you, then I will assume that you are moving ahead in a different direction, and I will not call again to interrupt.  I wish you all the best on your project, and thank you for considering us”.

If the prospect is still interested, this may result in a quick return call or contact. If it does not, you have at least achieved an understanding that you are not in the running this time.