Sales and the "F" Word‏

Phew! I thoughts things were supposed to get quieter over the summer? Not this summer!  

It’s been all go on the training front. Very enjoyable too. It’s my mission to help people and organisations to make more sales and it’s incredibly rewarding to watch people develop their skills and improve their results right before my eyes.  

It's clear to me that those who develop their skills and results the most have one thing in common...their ability and willingness to accept feedback - and use it.  

 

The essence of feedback  

Everything you do creates a result. Some results you love. Some results you don't. Develop your mindset so you get to treat it all as feedback on how you're doing and crucial pointers on how to operate in future.

 

Imagine a world where the only feedback you received was that you are wonderful, brilliant and amazing! Sounds fabulous doesn’t it? But if that's all you ever heard from people what do you think would happen? You would probably become complacent and at best your results would plateau and at worst you'd decline.  

 

You need feedback  

You absolutely need feedback on the areas where you're perhaps not that great (yet!). If nobody tells you... how are you going to improve? There’s a fair chance that on your own you won’t easily identify those areas where you can improve. So be receptive to the help of others. 

Many people are only comfortable giving positive feedback. The results being that you only get to hear the good stuff. Yet it’s often the ‘developmental’ feedback that generates greater learning and development. If this developmental type of feedback is ever given, it’s often delivered in a clumsy manner by someone who is very uncomfortable delivering it as attempt to justify a pay freeze despite telling you all year you’ve been doing well! Or it’s delivered at the wrong time i.e. the first time you find out about your weaknesses is during a heated exchange!

 

Are you getting enough? 

Congratulations if you already get excellent, constructive feedback to help you grow your success... and yes, do thank the people that have the confidence to tell you.  

 

If you don't get that kind of feedback... and in a way that makes it palatable for you to absorb - then you need to instigate the feedback you desire to grow your skills and your sales success.

You also need to accept feedback in the spirit of which it's meant. Getting all defensive and making excuses for why you did what you did won't get you very far. It will also put people off giving you the feedback you need. Accept it graciously, thank them... then reflect.  

 

You haven't got to agree  

By the way, you haven't necessarily got to agree with them. Remember it's their feedback based on their map of the world. Consider though that if they have this perspective, others may too. 

  

So when asking for feedback, be very specific with your questions to help the person help you. If you're not used to getting this kind of feedback and are a little unnerved by the responses you might get... get over it! This is the only way to continual improvement.

Remember...no failures - it's feedback. You’re on a journey.  

 

Ask for it. Welcome it. Act on it.  

 

Until next time..

Leigh

PS; Remember to grab your copy of "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes"

The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes identifies those key mistakes that are stopping sales teams, companies and business owners fulfilling their sales potential. The report establishes how to identify these errors, indicates how they can be eliminated - and sets out how to avoid them.

results@sales-consultancy.com

020 7903 5426

www.sales-consultancy.com

For previous 'Tricks of the Trade' go here

How BAD are the questions you're asking?‏

Firstly – and I can’t stress this strongly enough, be in no doubt that your sales results will be directly influenced by the quality of questions you ask.

So how good are YOUR questions? 

The subject of "open questions" figures in just about every sales manual ever written and every sales course ever delivered. That's not a coincidence. 

To sell effectively you need information. Your prospects hold it. You need to acquire it. If you can conjure up a bank of well crafted open questions, you're in business! 

If you’re new to this game let me quickly define an open question as a question that cannot be answered yes or no. And when you’re looking to open up a conversation with a potential customer, just about the least useful answer you can get is yes, or no.   

Open Questions  

Asking open questions will get your prospect talking, which relaxes them and helps to build genuine rapport in no time. They'll get a sense that you're really interested in them and their needs.

 

What you get in return is the vital information you need - initially to make an internal judgement on how (or indeed if) you can help your prospect. Secondly you'll be able to match your offering specifically to their needs, the very needs which you beautifully elicited earlier with your fabulous open questions!   

Listen to their answers  

By the way, listen to their answers! I find that good listening skills are lacking amongst many sales people. Your sales conversations will flow much more freely if you relax and focus on their answers, not what your next question will be. Listen properly and with good intent - and your next question will just appear naturally.   

Here are some ideas for open questions - tailor them accordingly to your specific needs whether you're selling to other businesses or direct to consumers.  

Examples of Open questions... 

What's going on for you in your business right now?

Currently, what are your biggest challenges?

What's going well for you?

What's not going well for you at the moment?

Which areas are you most concerned about?

Where does your business/team need to be in x months/years time?

How do you see your business developing?

What action have you taken so far to...?

Where are you in terms of....

What's the next stage?  

And if in your business the potential customer arrives/phones up and asks about the availability of the ‘XYZ’ product, you’ll need to know the reason they chose that product from your vast range. For example you may be out of stock and want to offer an alternative, or have an even better version more suited to their needs. Or just want to build rapport as you process the sale. 

The question to really open up any conversation in these circumstances is... “What attracts you to this xxxx”. When answering this question the customer will give you their full buying criteria (“it’s got this, it hasn’t got that”) – golden nuggets of information to help you complete the sale.  

Avoid questions starting with 'Why'...

...as they can be confrontational - no matter how fluffy and soft you make them sound. When you ask a 'Why' question you are asking for justification of their response. Your client will probably become defensive and give you an emotive response.   

It takes practice  

Think of your next selling or networking scenario. Think of crucial information you need to successfully promote your product or service and construct five open questions which will help you get that information and help you increase your sales success.

Until next time.

 

Leigh

PS; Remember to grab your copy of "The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes"

The 9 Biggest Sales Mistakes identifies those key mistakes that are stopping sales teams, companies and business owners fulfilling their sales potential. The report establishes how to identify these errors, indicates how they can be eliminated - and sets out how to avoid them.  

results@sales-consultancy.com

020 7903 5426

www.sales-consultancy.com

For previous 'Tricks of the Trade' go here

Seal the Deal in 5 Minutes! A Solution to Closing those Sales…

How frustrating is it when you put in lots of hard work for little or no reward?

Perhaps you’ve been working on a tender for a big contract only to see it cancelled, or awarded to a competitor? Or you’ve given a fabulous sales presentation, only for the meeting to grind towards its end with no sign of a sale?

Maybe you’ve quoted and you just can’t get an answer no matter how often you contact them? What about when you think you’ve been fobbed off - they probably don’t want your products but they won’t tell you outright so you keep contacting them ‘just in case’?

We’ve all been there - it’s frustrating and time consuming. The dilemma - do you chase old ‘maybe’ business or spend more time generating new enquiries?

Closing a Sale in 5 Minutes…

The Issue
The meeting’s gone well. You’ve got a fabulous connection with your prospect. Rapport levels are high. They seem attentive. They seem interested. You’ve impressively answered some minor objections that came your way. Yet there’s something that’s holding you back from asking outright for the business.

What to do next? 

The Solution
Three Killer Questions. Before you embark on the first question, make sure you have good levels of rapport with your prospect. If there is any ‘edge’ present, these questions won’t work. With fabulous rapport, they always deliver.

So, back to your meeting. It’s coming to an end and you need to close the sale.

Question Number 1
At the end of your conversation, ask:

On a scale from 1 to 10 – 1 meaning “it’s over…don’t darken our door again” and 10 meaning “we want you to start straight away”…where would you say we are?

THEN…SHUT UP! This is critical to ensure you give the silence that allows your contact to think.

Give them time. Allow your prospect to respond. They will give you a number. Don’t be too attached to the number. The golden nugget is their response to the next question.

Question Number 2
Ask… What would need to happen to get us to a 10?

SHUT UP! Again…this is critical. Give them more time to think.

Allow your prospect to respond.

You have now identified the gap between what you’re offering and what your client needs from you before they can say ‘yes’. You now know how close you are to securing the deal.

If you are able to resolve the gap immediately you’ll be able to close the deal there and then.

Some answers will alert you that these prospects are unlikely to ever buy. Disappointing yes but good to know there and then not several weeks and many follow ups later.

Question Number 3
Open question.

What would you like me to do next?

Their answer is usually like all the jigsaw pieces falling into place. They are explaining exactly what the next course of action is - talking as if you’re already on board.

Agree on the next course of action and be sure to maintain your control by agreeing when you will get back to them.

Asking these questions will change your sales results! They identify how close you are to a sale, they identify how big the gap is - and exactly what you need to do to bridge the gap. And you both decide whether or not you have the means to bridge the gap. All usually in a few minutes.

By slightly tweaking these questions you can use the ‘out of ten’ technique in other situations - for example staff appraisals and job satisfaction surveys come to mind.

Hope this technique brings you lots of sales success.

All the best…

Leigh

www.sales-consultancy.com
020 7903 5426
leigh@sales-consultancy.com

For previous ‘Tricks of the Trade’ go here

Decreasing Marketing; Increasing Sales

Most companies I help receive incoming enquiries - via the telephone line, emails, exhibitions, the list goes on. 

None of these companies convert 100% of those enquiries into a sale. Of course, 100% conversion is pushing it a bit! However – there’s no doubt that all of these companies had potential to increase their conversion rate, in many cases by a considerable amount.
A company in particular comes to mind. They took enquiries mainly by phone and converted 25% of these enquiries into an individual average order value of £997 – we’ll round this up to £1000 for ease of telling the story. 

Sales in volume were slightly over 10,000 a year so we’re talking about a £10m company here.
Having been called in to help, my first thoughts were what a crying shame that a massive 75% of sales enquiries were coming to nothing. Even sadder was that many of the 75% non-buyers were deemed ‘time wasters’ by the staff. I cringe at those words – in my book there’s no such thing as a time waster in sales and terming them as such reflects more on the seller than the potential buyer.

Within six weeks we’d got the conversion rate up to 27%. Now you might think that’s not much of an increase – and you’d be right. BUT – just this 2% increase in conversion rates equated to an annual increase in turnover of £800,000. Needless to say the training was deemed a big success.

The moral of the story? Don’t spend massive amounts of money on marketing when all you have to do is make better use of the leads that you’re already getting - sales success will follow.

How to increase conversion rates?
 
Here are a few pointers.

1. Ban the use of the words ‘time wasters’! I’m serious. Using this word in a sales environment engenders an underlying unconscious disrespect for potential buyers. I firmly believe that no one has got time these days to be a time waster – there must have been SOME level of interest for them to pick up the phone – check out a website etc.

2. Get technology in that can track enquiries and respond to them. This could be web analytics, a more sophisticated CRM, whatever it takes to know exactly who’s showing an interest – and which enables you to have a low cost follow up.

3. Connect! Yes I know some of this is very basic but…! It works. We found out at the company in question that their company was on average one of three that the potential customer contacted before making a decision. There were about 5 major players in their market at the time – and not much to choose between them in terms of product and price. So who do you think was going to get the business? YES – the one to whom the prospect felt most connected.

4. Connection is made through general rapport building and lots of curiosity – in sales terms known as good old fashioned open questions.

5. Structure. I’ll never be an advocate of scripts on telephone calls – I hate them – but a little structure can help considerably. So make sure you give the staff the guidance they need to succeed on the call.

6. Follow up when you’ve quoted. I can’t believe how many companies quote for business and then never follow up with at least a courtesy phone call. This is not hounding people – as a certain company’s ‘sales’ staff once suggested. This is called customer service, which, if we’re lucky, might catch on! If you don’t fancy following up quotes, you might want to consider an alternative career. Referring to suggestion 3, if you’re one of three companies that have quoted for a sale and you’re the only one that follows up, doesn’t that indicate a level of interest on your part that others haven’t matched?

There are of course another hundred+ tips on increasing sales and following up enquiries – but if you do these and do them well enough, your selling skills and your sales conversions will increase.

Converted yet?

Leigh
www.sales-consultancy.com
020 7903 5426
results@sales-consultancy.com