Sales Has Changed | Stop Being Boring | Snap Selling

Photo Apr 19, 09 38 44 (1)Sales has CHANGED… If you don’t think this… then you’re crazy. Seriously though. The old school mentality of ‘always be closing’ is no longer applicable.

“In the new sales climate, focusing on your FABs (features-advantages-benefits) creates insurmountable obstacles. Using clever objection-handling techniques insults your prospect’s intelligence. And employing ‘always be closing’ tactics is the surest way to prematurely end potentially fruitful relationships.”[note]Page 4[/note]

It’s black and white… Read it again and internalize it. You and your company do the exact same thing as the company down the street. Literally…

Look at me. Technically, I sell HCM and payroll software. But what’s the difference between me and the other behemoth in the industry? I will out work them, I will out deliver them, I will out communicate them, anyday. It’s because I CARE about the people I sell to. I’m more worried about the success of the organization I’m speaking with than the actual sale.

If it can help your business, I want to help. If it doesn’t help your business, I’ll let you know. The greater good of your organization honestly matters to me. The more I learn about your company… the more help I can offer.

“Once you know your buyer inside and out, you can easily start applying what you’ve learned to create customer-enticing value propositions, messaging, presentations, and proposals. Plus, this knowledge of your customer will be at the heart of all your best, most fruitful conversations.”[note]Page 7[/note]

You’ve got to personalize your approach. You have to learn about the people you’re selling to. Nobody wants to be sold to… but to get in front of them, you have to do something so you can get a better understanding of their issues. Nobody really knows their issue until you show them. Then, once you’ve created that partnership, those people will be the best salespeople for you.

When you’ve got a happy client… they’ll bend over backwards to help you… Don’t forget though… It’s okay to ask them for referrals.

“The only chance to truly differentiate yourself today lies in the value you can personally bring to the relationship. And you can bet that your prospects are constantly assessing whether you’re work it. They truly want to work with smart, savvy people who bring them ideas, insights, and information they deem beneficial.”

Being a boring ass sales person doesn’t cut it anymore. You’ve got to give the prospect something and that something has to directly affect them. If you’re not educated in your industry, how can you differentiate yourself? Whatever you sell, if you don’t know what directly affects your market, you’ve already lost.

Look at your current customers for feedback! If you’re helping people do their current job and they love you… you need to figure out what exactly they love.

“Nothing, I repeat, nothing is more important than your customer knowledge. Without understanding your customers’ business environment, challenges, and marketplaces, you won’t get selling right.”[note]Page 40[/note]

If you can’t connect with your customer’s needs, you can’t sell anything. You need to understand the people you’re selling to. Does that make sense? Try and put yourself in their shoes! Sales people SUCK at doing this.

Ya… your product is awesome but why should anyone else care. We’re getting bombarded with information all day. We don’t know what’s good or what’s crap.

“Your prospects are busily going about their lives and their work with an already overloaded calendar. They’re not waiting for your call. They’re just trying to get done the things that have to be done.[note]Page 57[/note]

Nobody likes being interrupted, so why should someone give you their time? Time is the most important commodity these days. If you’re going to try to sell someone on your product, you need to spark their curiosity and provide value. It’s really easy for prospects to ignore you… so you need to find a way to get their interest!

 

There’s more to come from me about:

Snap Selling | Jill Konrath

Get “Snap Selling” on Amazon.

Dealstorming | Tim Sanders | Part 4

9781591848219It’s such a pain in the ass to go into an ‘open’ meeting where you think your voice is going to be heard and it’s not. You’ve been called upon to give your feedback and help fix a problem and you know you can help… but guess what! The facilitator has their own agenda and they just want the backing from everybody they invited to the meeting.

“It’s important that the team knows you didn’t come into the meeting set on any one idea. It’s also important that facilitators stay neutral as possible on ideas.[note]Page 120[/note]

Once again, Sander’s hits the nail on the head. The people you’re dealstorming with have to know that you’re open to ideas. That’s the whole point of holding a dealstorming session. Receiving feedback can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes, but people have to learn to put their egos aside for the greater good of the deal.

You can kiss your dealstorming team goodbye if they know you’re not neutral to ideas. You can also kiss your dealstorming team goodbye if all you do is call meeting and don’t put anything into action.

“This underscores an important point: the ideas from a dealstorm are worthless unless they are acted upon, analyzed, and improved.”[note]Page 129[/note]

It’s an absolute must that you have to follow up with the people afterwards. Between exiting a meeting with actionable steps and putting those steps into action, a lot will happen. You have to execute on your agenda! Confirming what the key take-aways were and what actionable items all the participants have. A lot of good stuff can happen after the meeting. Karen might be driving home from work and have a breakthrough idea. You want to make sure you’ve left the communication open with everybody on your team.

Analyzing everything is also key. It’s kinda like business development statistics. If I know I need to make X amount of calls to get Y amount of meeting to close Z amount of business… I better make more calls than X.

“Frank Lloyd Wright once wrote, ‘Get the habit of analysis – analysis will in time enable synthesis to come your habit of mind.’ His point was that if we take time to analyze our actions and their results, we’ll learn how to fold the old and the new into remarkable solutions.”[note]Page 141[/note]

Knowing the effectiveness of our effort will allow us to perform better. If we’re always analyzing what we do and what the results were, we’ll be able to work smarter. This goes hand in hand with every step of a sales cycle. You can analyze everything! As you continue to improve your processes and make things easier on yourself, give feedback to upper management. The times are always changing and the buyer is continuously evolving.

“Over the course of my dealstorm experience, I’ve seen countless improvements to a company’s way of selling and servicing accounts come from the process.”[note]Page 145[/note]

What better example than one from Sander’s? Collaboration and sharing improvements with coworkers makes life so much easier. If you’re doing something different and it works, give back to your team and let them know. You can make improvements with all sorts of things… how to prospect certain industries, what times of the day to call, how long to demo the products, where to meet for lunch, who to use as a testimonial… the list goes on depending on your location and what you’re selling.

“In many situations, your team will need to develop unexpected approaches to the sales challenge that are appropriate to the situation – the essence of creative thinking.”[note]Page 151/152[/note]

Like I said, with the ever evolving buyer, you may have to do something that you’ve never done before. The competition is always changing and you have to change as well. If you can continuously take new approaches to sales challenges, you could improve your sales organization as a whole. If you’ve found a way to overcome a recent sales challenge, leave a comment! I’d like to hear more about it.

 

There’s more to come from me about:

Dealstorming | Tim Sanders

Get “Dealstorming” on Amazon.