Monday, November 29, 2010

Great Sellers are Change Agents

The best sellers are constantly auditing their own and their clients' thinking. They continually search for ways to grow the clients' brands; to roadblock competitive incursions; to increase traffic, margins and consumer satisfaction. They know and motivate the clients to understand that they must continually grow, because it's an immutable law of nature that that which doesn't grow, dies. They urge their clients to join them in these examinations and forge continually aggressive action plans.

They promise the clients that an attitude that says, "business is great, let's not mess with it," portends potential disaster for their business. They war with complacency and encourage the client to be energetic, enthusiastic, yet wary, and always open to taking reasonable risk that has the opportunity for favorably disproportionate reward.

Great sellers never stand in place; never show up to "renew an order," never hide with fingers crossed during the term of an agreement.

Remember when the authority adults in your life advised you not to look for trouble? Uncommonly adept sellers are always looking for trouble because if not found early trouble can grow faster than the most dread disease.

"How's business Mr. Jones?"

"Awful? Then we better get right to work."

Or, "How's business Mr. Jones?"

"Great? Then we better get right to work."

Great sellers change business for the better...or for the better.

Great Selling!

Happy to answer any questions.

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
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Teamwork

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Great Sellers Take the Longer View

Great sellers are not immune to lousy meetings. They sometimes miss a cue, get distracted, make decisions to abort the effort to soon, or too late. Sometimes they mis-target, short change the research effort or just come across a prospect who's there to win the session, which usually means to lose the opportunity.

So great sellers experience what the rest of us do as well, episodic failure. The difference between the remarkable sellers and the rest of the pack is that the exceptional performer doesn't judge himself by an unfortunate outcome. That is to say, he doesn't become that failed visit. That's just not who he is.

The great seller takes a much longer view. The bad call was an occurrence; an event, rather than an inevitable outcome in the absence of sheer luck. He sees it for what it is; a moment in time...a short moment over a long time period. So, he doesn't get down. His self image doesn't take a "hit." He either has an immediate take on what fell through or makes an artful analysis. If no answer satisfies in either case, he moves on, comfortable in the knowledge that, "hey stuff happens." It's not a defining moment. There are lots of folk out there to meet with and help. Tomorrow's another day, as is the day after.

Great sellers don't get down and lose time. They get challenged. They never stop learning and growing and trying to make life/business better for all with whom they come in contact.

They take a longer view.

Great Selling!

Happy to answer any questions.

Love your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Focus on the Denominator

Enough is never enough for the great seller!

If he/she opened up eight new accounts last month, why wasn't it twelve? If twelve, why not fourteen. If the closing ratio was 50% during the month of eight new accounts, he/she wonders why only 16 presentations were made. "Holy Myrtle, I made only 16 presentations in an entire month? Am I spending time on what I like to do, or on what I have to do? What's the flaw in my prospecting? Am I using the telephone too much, or too little? How did I get the first visits on the accounts that closed; on the telephone or via walk-in cold calls?"

Now the other few salesmen who also sold eight new accounts found themselves hoisting a few on the last Friday of the month. The only question on their minds was how soon the eagle would fly. The great seller might have joined in the party, but to help them celebrate their victory, not his.

Think of it this way. The great seller says to himself that for every account he sells in his marketing area there are dozens who would benefit from his product or service that haven't yet been seen.

You see, her sales are the numerator (yes, political rectitude), but she worries about the denominator, all those folks who could have been helped, but were never gotten to.

One day I'll get the book done. And when it sells one million copies, I'll go to the party but my smile will be forced because all I'll be thinking is "why didn't all those other people buy it?"

Nah, at one million I'll forget about the denominator. But not until then.

Great Selling!

Happy to answer your questions.

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork
'

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Think Process Vs. Content in Client Meetings

If you have the best product and the lowest price and your boss will reward you for bringing in a lot of business trading on that, just make a ton of calls and a ton of money. Of course, when someone comes up with a better product, and he will, or another with a lower price, and he will, you'll have built zero equity with your customer base and probably a like amount of selling skill.

The true mark of a Samurai Seller, one who lives to serve others, is the patience, discipline and courage to forge a partnering relationship with the customer in which together they question every shibboleth with which the client is saddled. A great seller understands that his customer knows a great deal about his or her business, but not nearly as much as he or she doesn't know about it. (Look, the smartest person in the world knows a thimble full of what there is to know, all in).

So, you get the visit and you've been taught to start with the "tell me," and you do. The remarkable seller doesn't. He or she starts the meeting with, "Mr. Jones, as I mentioned when I asked for this meeting, my intitial research tells me that my company and I can help you. The purpose of this meeting is to work together to examine all of your learnings through your experience and what they suggest for growing your business. I want to set that table by promising you that I will likely challenge some of your assumptions; not to change your mind, but to persuade you to work with me to see what may be missing or improved upon. Okay?"

And so you begin. You ask about the competitive landscape, the resources of he and his competitors, their respective market shares, the quality and pricing of his goods (services) versus others, the rung he stands on in the brand recognition ladder, his growth curve, his margin, etc.

And periodically you ask, "how do you know that?". You do so rather than suggesting he's "wrong about that." The great seller doesn't set up an intellectual or power of persuasion battleground on which he and his client can duke it out. Clearly the client will win that war and in so doing, both will lose.

No, you (a great seller in the making) help the client go to war with himself, by getting him to question whether or not the paths he has taken ankd intends to take going forward, have been chosen as a result clear thinking research and analysis, or lazy living. So you encourage the client to examine his thinking by encouraging him to examine the content he places on the table.

You push the process while he debates his content.


I'm happy to answer your questions.

Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Collapse Time
Serve, Don't Sell
Teamwork

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Before "Nice Seeing You."

At the end of most meetings between buyers and the AVERAGE seller, both parties are really happy; the buyer because "it's finally over" and the seller because he wasn't told absolutely "no," if in fact, he wasn't.

GREAT sellers' meetings end with the word "Great," exclaimed by the buyer, and he means it.

There are only four reasons the uncommonly professional salesman leaves a meeting:
1) Because it results in a sale.
2) Because it becomes clear to his experienced "eye" that this just will not happen.
3) Because the buyer has security show him out.
4) Because he has expertly set the stage and gotten the commitment for the next meeting and EXACTLY what needs to be accomplished at that time to result in a close.

Number 4 goes something like this: "Mr. Jones, I hope you agree that this has been a meaningful session. I certainly found your insights terrific and am gratified that my research on your company and industry were reasonably on target. I have the following three 'to dos'_______________, and you are going to meet with your operations and strategy teams to review our thoughts. I think together we've discovered some potentially productive paths you might take to collapse the time it would otherwise take to grow and stave off competition. I'll call you next Tuesday afternoon to confirm our Wednesday, ten A.M. appointment. How does that sound?"

"Great!"


Great Selling!

Love Your Work and Work Tirelessly
Communicate Honestly and Fearlessly
Serve, Don't Sell
Collapse Time
Teamwork