Sales- Stepping back to sharpen up.

Step back for a minute, and let’s look at sales. A small business can survive missing a number of important ingredients. But not Sales!

There are as many different ways to do sales as there are salespeople! And plenty of knowledgeable opinions – pointing in different directions. Here’s mine.

The presence of the Guru.
There’s a guru named Robert Middleton, who has a program called Action Plan Marketing which I highly recommend. And he has a powerful model which uses a Baseball diamond as a structure.

Simply put, when you get to first base with a client, the client now knows you exist. Second base is understanding – client understands that you offer X benefits, which could have Y importance. A proposal, which probably includes cost, gets you to third base. Closing gets you home – and you score!

According to Middleton, the biggest fault in sales (or baseball) is trying to score from first base! Yer out!
In baseball, that’s just ignorant. In sales, perhaps the same!

You’ve been taught your A.B.C.s – Always Be Closing! But consider, in this day and age, wouldn’t you want a potential vendor to assist you in looking at your issues in the context of his capability and need? Doesn’t it put you off when he tries to close you before you are anywhere near ready? If you don’t ask, you don’t get. But if you try to close too early, you not only close the door on a productive conversation with your prospective client, you close it on your own opportunity!

In fact, there’s a four-step selling process which can be your guide. It helps the salesperson avoid short-cutting the process out of hurry, anxiety or greed, (some of the more common problems) and it allows the customer to consider the upcoming decision fully and correctly..

Process. We’ll call it SCAN

1. Situation
2. Challenge
3. Affect
4. Need

Explanation:

Step 1 – Situation: is where you and the prospect have a look at what’s going on for him or her, right now. Example: S/He lost his watch, s/he’s a candidate for a new one. Is there a Situation in his/her business or his life that you two might explore? Well, is it important for him/her to be on time? Many salespeople rush ahead to identify need and fulfill it with their product. Resist the impulse, give your client an opportunity to appraise the situation thoroughly. It can be to your mutual advantage.

Step 2 – Challenge: - when s/he has no watch, what problems, challenges, concerns does that raise? what are the choices before him/her? Buy a watch, not buy a watch? Spend the money, keep the money? In real life, it’s more complex. Ask questions that will help him/her see that this poses a real discomfort and problem. Help the prospect understand the details of the Challenge. Don’t hurry. You’re building a powerful structure for agreement.

Step 3 – Affect: - If s/he doesn’t have a watch, how will that Affect the business? What are the impacts that “not being on time” would have on him/her, on his/her work? Does the value of the Affect overshadow the cost of the watch? You can’t understate the importance of Affect. It’s usually the most important reason/emotion to buy.

Step 4 – Need: – At the beginning of this conversation, your prospect might have agreed that he needed a watch, but he’d get around to it sooner or later. Now that he’s been through the first three steps, it’s totally clear to him that not having a watch is a major problem with a very simple solution. He “Needs” a watch, and he shouldn’t wait any longer to handle the problem. This is a powerful, and emotional rather than intellectual motivator. It’s important, however, that your prospect come to this realization because of the questions you ask, not the answers you give. This is vital, because people believe what they say, not what you say!
While the “watch” as sales target is a bit trivial, have a look at the steps. Can you see the value they bring to your conversation? Would you be willing to try this structure in your own practice, and see how it works?

Remember SCAN - Situation, Challenge, Affect and Need.

If you’re willing to work through this simple process, and practice it a bit, you’ll find that it fits almost every selling situation in which you find yourself. You will find that it adds extra dimensions to your selling efforts that can show up in more customers, and happier, better served customers as well.

Both the Middleton Model and the SCAN Model preach the same sermon: don’t rush the close. Personally, in selling my own coaching processes, I usually let the customer ask me “how I work.” It’s critical for my business that my customer understand that he or she is confronting not only opportunity but personal change. That’s not an easy understanding, not easily arrived at. So a rush to judgment frequently interferes with a positive outcome.

You may have a powerful need for short-term results. Consider that this is your need, not your customer’s. If you serve your need rather than his/hers, you may end up all alone.
“Getting to yes” often takes time. A trial close can be informative but patience can be equally productive. It may not be your style. But saving time by rushing to “yes” often gets you to “no!”

About Sales II

About Sales II
In our first installment on this worthy topic, we covered:

1. A self-assessment
2. The SCAN technique
3. Features vs. Benefits
4. The sanity check – SW, SW, SW, MO
5. The ideal client

If you want to refresh your memory, go to my website at craigjennings.com, and have a look at the newsletter archives for October. And, if you need a little motivation to set out on this journey, remember that, next to you, sales is the most important issue in your business. This newsletter should continue our objectives with:

1. Prospecting for leads
2. Networking
3. Asking for referrals
4. Follow-up planning

We’ll end this installment here, and go on to the 5 items below in about 10 days.

5. Setting agendas and generating customer qualification
6. Objection management.
7. Closing the sale.
8. Managing your pipeline
9. Call resistance – fear of rejection.

Once again, I’d like to acknowledge Liz Kallen, of Exceed Associates, who provided much of the material for this newsletter. She teaches sales techniques, and can be reached at liz@exceedassociates.com.

Should you do everything I propose here? You might, or might not. But I talk with a lot of small businesses – and the ones who have sales problems haven’t taken these on. If you want there to be a lot of money around your business, sales is the key.

What’s a lead?
Imagine you’re a shark, cruising the depths, and beginning to feel a little hungry. A school of tasty fish swim by, but you perceive the school, not the individual fish. It’s not until one of them separates himself from the school that you smile, accelerate, and wham! Lunch is served!

And today, the people who might be customers are schooling too. Whether they travel in packs or not, the problem is not lack of leads. It’s making a connection with individual customers on a personal level.

So, a lead is not all the people who might use your product or service, any more than the phone book is a useful tool for finding customers. A lead is the identification of an individual or a group of specific individuals as potential customers. It’s a decision which takes place in your mind – just as it did for the shark!

Where do you go to make these decisions?

1. Identify some Networking groups – they’ll be advertised. Create a short description of what kind of solution or outcome your product or service provides, and be prepared to share it. Whether your outside interests are political, social, or just business, be on the lookout for an affinity group where you believe that members can benefit from the product/service you provide, and separate a few fish from the school. Again, ask friends or customers where they have identified useful groups which might interest you. Could you create a group on your own?

2. Networking groups contain leads. An enterprising shark will cruise the group, tasting gently, one-by-one, exploring possibility. Simple questions: Tell me about your business; what made you decide to attend this function. Set yourself a target of having a good, probing conversation with just two or three people, one of whom might turn out to be a customer. Find people you think you might be able to help. And don’t worry about giving out your business card. Just get theirs! Put a note on their card when you get it to help you identify the prospect later. Give them your business card if they ask for it!

3. Referrals from clients produce leads. Since your clients have already experienced the benefits of your product/service, most will be comfortable to make referrals. Make it easy for them to do this by being specific about the type of person/industry/income level and so forth that you want to meet. To the response – I’d love to refer you, but don’t know where – ask them if there’s a place they go daily – Starbucks, for example. “Do you see anyone there you might speak with for me?” Ask if they work with any small business or social groups. “Who do you know in that group that might benefit from my services the way you have?” Invite your clients to do as much of the work as possible. Ask them to call the prospect, and suggest the prospect take the initiative and call you. You may have to ask more than once. But most clients will be happy to do it, (they just need reminding and encouraging.)

4. Cold calling. Any direct-mail house will sell you a list of 1000 potential customers, with phone numbers, sorted by zip code, income, or any of a dozen criteria. Then you plan an inquiry or create a script, call, collect your no’s, and keep at it until you connect. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, professional cold-callers get a fee for setting up appointments for you. Check with Norma Siciliano at (212) 472-2650 – she’s one of the best.

5. Centers of influence. Someone or some group of people in a related field. If you sell insurance, a stockbroker could be a C of I. Your approach – how can you bring value to the stockbroker – e.g.. refer him to some of your customers. If he’s any good, he’ll quickly find a way to reciprocate.

6. Newsletters – like this one. Publish regularly, and topically. First, create a list of names of people you’d like to communicate with. If you don’t already have one, see Direct Mail, below.

7. Direct mail. Create a letter or postcard. Try it on a small group first. You can buy names for about 10¢ a piece, mail a postcard for about 25¢, etc. etc. You can create a paper mailing, or a digital mailing. You’ll also need to create a record-keeping process so that you can follow up the maybes a week later

8. Public speaking. When you speak in public, you present yourself as an expert to a group of people, and some of them will want to know more about your service or product. At the very least, have a clipboard at the back of the room, or generate a raffle to collect the business cards of the interested.

9. Public Relations. Write articles for publication for media talking to client groups, or send press releases to these publications.

10. Advertising – Consider all the “bad” commercials you see on TV. Could you do better? Even if you’re not going to have a great Superbowl commercial, get professional help around Radio, Newspaper, Billboards, TV, even give-aways and leaflets.

Funnel your leads. Your leads go in the top of the funnel, sales come out the bottom. First, have a look at the people you’ve identified as leads. Do a little math, and figure out what each of them cost you. $1? $10, $100? Now that you know how valuable they are, make a plan to keep track of them – an ACT database, an Excel spreadsheet. Call that the top of the funnel. Then make a plan to stay in contact with them – one sales professional says that it takes 6 “no’s” to get to 1 “yes”. Count how many leads you put in your prospects “funnel” each month. Count how many sales come out the bottom of the funnel. Yes, there’s a relationship. Over time, you may learn that it takes 10 prospects to make 1 sale. You need 10 sales a month to keep afloat? Plan on generating 100 leads a month, then the sales will take care of themselves. Simple?

About Sales III

Mission: To release the handbrake, remove the obstacles to your success, whether you are responsible for your own results, planning a personal venture, or are now self-employed.

About Sales III
This is the third installment of the same topic, picking up where we left off last month. If you’re committed to becoming more powerful in the area of sales, you may want to go back to my website, tag “Newsletter Archives” and read the first and second installments – I know I had to!

10. Setting Agendas and gaining agreement.
What’s your prospect most afraid of? That you will make him uncomfortable by persisting in an argument he wants to end. It’s called “being sold to.” It’s the old-style sales approach, where you browbeat the customer into saying yes. Solution: Set agendas and agreements at the outset – what you plan to cover, what you will be asking of him, what kind of responses you’re looking for.

One salesman I know proposes an up-front agreement something like this. “Towards the end of this conversation, most people will either say yes, no, or I’ll think about it. Some people are worried that they’ll hurt my feelings, or perhaps they have unanswered questions, so they say ‘I’ll think about it’ or ‘I’ll have to talk with my wife, my boss, etc.’ But no is really a good answer, as is yes. Would you be willing to just say yes or no?”

Here’s another. A client of mine called a prospect he didn’t know. “I’m not interested” said the client, even before my client had introduced the proposition. He repeated “I’m not interested” several times, while my client suggested, in a friendly and reasonable way, that the prospect might at least like to find out what was at stake before he made the judgment. My client persisted where many of us might have just hung up – and the client ultimately listened, and made a key referral. We later decided that, when your client says “I’m not interested” and stays on the phone, he’s still interested! You also might agree that it was a super piece of salesmanship!

11. Handling Concerns.
When a prospect senses they will need to make a decision about something, what concerns come up for him or her? Here are some.
* Making a mistake
* The unknown
* Becoming embarrassed
* Your honesty
* Owing money
* Failing at something
In each case, your prospect is asking for you to help him to get past the concern. If you can, he may access another concern, or he may go straight on to the close.

The Trap.
Responding with denial – “No, it’s not too expensive!” Prospect interprets this response as “You’re wrong, I’m right.” Not many sales get closed by people who are right! Recommendation: Handle each objection the best you can, make the customer right for having brought up the objection, then show him or her a way around the objection. “We have a payment plan.” “I can see where you’d think so, but…”. It may take you a number of sales calls to learn all the objections that are likely to come up, and devise ways around them. If you’re like me, you’ll think of what you should have said after the call is finished! Too bad, but write it down and you’ll be prepared next time. It won’t take you long to become very effective at handling concerns. Remember, each stupid, unreasonable, argumentative concern is a hidden request for solution and a closing.

Here’s a structure for handling concerns.
1. Hear them out, all the way.
2. Feed it back, just the way they said it.
3. Question it.
4. Respond to it.
5. Confirm that they understand your answer.
6. Find out if they’ve gotten completion on the concern. If no, go back to #1; if yes, go to 7 below.
7. Change the direction and move on.

12. Closing the sale.
No matter how desperately your customer wants your product or service, he probably won’t take it until you invite him to. And the biggest single reason why sales don’t get made is that the salesperson doesn’t ask the customer for the business. If you don’t ask you don’t get. Ah, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get rejected! Of course, you don’t get the business either. Call reluctance and closing reluctance are a whole ‘nother conversation, coming later. Let’s assume you can manage them – here are some closing processes you can try.
1. How does this sound to you? Would you like to try this? When do you see this getting started?
2. Would you like to try this?
3. When do you see this getting started?
4. Which would you prefer – A or B?
5. Pro’s and Con’s. Ask the prospect to write down a list of each. Help with the positives. Don’t help with the negatives.
6. Point out someone who’s in a similar position, and how your product or service is benefiting them.
7. Address the concerns raised, consider each as a buying signal, and then go back to #1.

Closing traps.
* When you’ve asked the closing question, shut up! Let the customer answer it. Your customer has to make a choice, and most customers will look for ways to avoid choosing. Let there be silence after you ask the customer for the business – honor the fact that your customer is choosing. (If you feel the need to clarify or explain, don’t! Consider the possibility that your own anxiety about the sale might prompt you to sabotage the customer’s decision process.)

* Beware of feeling tense, upset or angry when a sale doesn’t take place. Diagnosis: This sale was about the wrong person. It was about you and your concerns – it should have been about the customer. Allow yourself to be disappointed that a customer can’t or won’t accept your proposal. But it’s the customer’s responsibility to choose for him/herself. Feeling badly, perceiving a no as rejection, or being angry is an emotional process you shouldn’t indulge in. You may want the sale and you may have worked hard to generate it, but it’s up to the customer, not you, to create the buying action. If you’ve done your best for the customer, and they won’t accept the outcome you offer, recite our mantra – SW, SW, SW, MO – Some Will, Some Won’t, So What, Move On!

13. Managing your pipeline.
At this point, perhaps you are developing your own system of keeping your pipeline full. Your prospects go in your “funnel,” you keep a regular measure of the traffic, and you begin to see how this contributes to your personal income. You may wonder whether all the work is worth it – maybe you’ll just skip this step. I confess to listening closely to that temptation myself. But, there is no motivation like the sure knowledge that what you are doing will produce results that you want. If you want control of your own motivation, there’s nothing like keeping score! You can’t win without success, and you can’t succeed without failure. If you avoid keeping score, then we know what’s going on, don’t we!

14. Call or Closing Resistances.
They exist! They probably exist in you. The first trick is to unmask them. What are the masks? Each of us has our own.

Here are a few:
1. I’m too busy.
2. I need a cigarette break, bathroom break, any other break!
3. I can’t find the address, the file, the phone number.
4. This prospect is too ??? – stupid, poor, dysfunctional, unfocused, annoying.
5. (Loudly) “Oh, I’m so disorganized!” (Intended to generate pity and sympathy.)
6. What excuses do you find for yourself?

And the conversation behind the question is the mother lode.
* I really don’t want to be successful.
* Maybe a different job?
* I’m Un??? where Un is completed with: worthy, focused, successful, organized, acceptable, and so forth.

When we make excuses for ourselves, we do our best to make them stick and we defend them almost to the death! We will hold as true stuff we know to be untrue – “I’m unsuccessful” is a favorite – just to keep the excuse working. This is a place where a coach can make an enormous difference and help you give up the excuses that stand in the way of the success you really want to be. Hint: 516 944-6454 or craig@craigjennings.com.

15. Resolve to be a sales master!
Consider what would be possible if you took on becoming a sales master. You’re good at it now. And you can get by the way you are. But Mastery is where the money is! As you’ve read through these newsletters, you’ve seen that there are two simple issues – take on some processes you already know how to do but don’t do, and give up some processes which don’t work for you. Would you like to have your business awash with money? You don’t have to be the biggest shark in the ocean – but wouldn’t it be nice to be the fattest one!

If you’d like to see how your business would work if you got a little help now and again, explore the possibility of coaching by calling 516-944-6454 or email to craig@craigjennings.com