SalesSquawk

Solomon Says: Communication is Capital!

Right in the middle of the sales cycle, within the structure of sales lives this one little phase called "communicate." and while seemingly innocent sitting there is the kick in the pants that drives all things sales.  Done well, it drives joy and happiness throughout the customers world, and the sales persons company.  Done poorly, it creates anger, distrust and bad reviews for the "no longer a prospect," and causes the sales person to hang his head low in shame and guilt.

Communicate is the collection of meetings and presentations after discovering some value to the prospect that invites the sales interaction.  It is where we as sales professionals earn our keep as people who can help our prospects recognize our value to them or we recognize we cannot and disqualify them gracefully and move on.  It is where we spend the most effort managing their natural inclination to ensure they are getting the best value for their purpose and not being taken advantage of, AKA, their defenses.

The only mindset that matters here as a sales professional is one that believes, " I must help my customer discover they have more value than cost in going forward with me, or I must help them decide not to go there."  That mindset operates with dignity, integrity and value for the customer, and fosters long term relationships and a huge referral base. Failure to do so costs the salesperson and everyone else in the sales community.

So look around at the sales people in your office.  If there is a rep who is consistently on top of the leader board and has been for a long time, watch how he/she does it.  My bet is their customers love them.  This is why.

Next, the Holy Grail on how you do it.

Respectfully submitted,
Michael D Goodman

Solomon Says: "The Structure of Sales Matters"

Solomon Says: "Structure of Sales = Mental Preparation, Finding, Engaging, Advancing, Qualify, Communicate, Commit, Implement, Satisfy, & Repeat"

All sales efforts are not created equal.  

Neither are sales people, sales managers, sales organizations, products or buyers.  

Because of this, the sales effort that worked in one company will not necessarily work in another.  Unfortunately, the training a sales professional received in one organization will often not translate well either.  In fact, the best spend a company can make in training is one that is customized to their own product or service!  While more expensive to start, the long term reduction in "cost of sales", and "time to money" from a new sales person is far more impressive than a bank executives bonus!

Rather than purchase a one size fits all sales training program, either for the company or the sales professional, the most effective path is to understand the structure of sales, and then build your companies sales process, and sales education around the structure you actually operate in.

To create the greatest possible efficiency in sales, Solomon offers the following structure as the fastest path to money with the lowest effort and cost.  

    

Mental and Emotional Preparation
3 Major Sales Phases
Opportunity Discovery	Sales Prosecution	Post - Sale
Find	Qualify	Implement
Engage	Communicate	Satisfy
Advance	Commit	Repeat / Referral

If I can help you with this, give a shout.  Your career in sales matters!

Respectfully submitted,
Solomon

The Art of Sales

Solomon Says: The art of sales is creating change by choice and relationships by intention.

I have often asked rooms full of people what the first thing they think of is, when they hear the word "salesperson."  Invariably the answers come back along the lines of used car sales person or copy machine sales person.  Whatever the answer is, it is in the mind of the beholder a genuinely negative term.  Those of us in the profession of sales have a pretty bad rap long before we have even opened our mouths to professionally insert our own feet in.  It doesn't hardly seem fair does it?  I know the values my mom and dad raised me with, why on earth would someone I don't even know call them into question?

Of course I also remember my first job being in a gas station many years ago, when Arizona had a bad reputation for intentionally causing cars that stop for gas to need significant additional repairs.  Buckeye, Arizona a few miles down the road was once known as the fan belt capital of the country...  And even then, people barely trusted me to put a gas nozzle in their cars.  Before you go thinking I look like a bad biker with prison tats down my arm and maybe circling my eye in a Mike Tyson kind of way, allow me to say that I am pretty benign looking in the greater scheme of things.

So if it isn't me causing the negative reaction, then what on earth could it be?  Simple really, it is the fear of the person with the reaction that I may take advantage of them.  That is the whole key to this thing.  People don't like the sales people they believe will take advantage of them, and like the people who make sure their needs are taken care of while earning a living doing so.

What is a very strange thing here, and well worth noting is that the numbers of salespeople who will take advantage of you compared to the numbers of people in sales who want to earn a living helping you, is pretty minuscule.  The much smaller number of advantage takers, have ruined it for the much, much greater numbers of professionals in our industry.  It is well worth noting simply because it proves the notion that people react far more strongly to avoiding fear than achieving gain.  Another article for another time.

So how does all this relate to the art of sales you ask? (or allow me to ask on your behalf?) It means we must recognize that there is a fear and distrust of sales people that exists when someone first meets us.  It means in one form or another, we must help our buyer recognize our intent is to support their agenda, and we must do so in a way that is meaningful without being salesy.

Enter the concept, permission to say no. If in the first few moments of conversation wherein the buyer recognizes that we are going to ask them to move forward with any decision, they also recognize that we give them permission to say no, than they feel far more comfortable deciding on the merits of what we are asking for than on defending themselves from us.  They recognize that we are assisting their agenda.

Simple phrases early like "I'm not sure if this..." or "Does it make sense to ...?" are very quiet and subtle ways of allowing your buyer to make choices.  When the buyer knows they have choice, than they know you are not robbing them of power.  Frankly, all good sales is about finding the people who need what I have and helping them make the choice of why mine is best for them.  We don't control people and we can't make them keep or like our stuff after we've sold it to them.

We can however choose how many people we will go look for that do need our stuff.   And by focusing our sales on the prospecting effort we end up empowering both the buyer and the seller with choice and grace and dignity.  That is a method that leads to long term, happier buyers, greater referrals and reduced merchandise returns.

Salespeople are the modern day warriors in our free enterprise system.  We are on the front lines of battle every day in the perception of conflict where lesser mortals fear to go.  Realistically though, we have no fight, we win when our buyers win, we win when our companies win and we win when we bring home the bacon. 

It is all about understanding the Art of Change and Relationships.

Respectfully submitted,

Michael D. Goodman