Are you ‘equal to’ or ‘greater than’?

In business today it doesn’t matter what you’re selling there is so much clutter and confusion ― competition is fierce and let’s be honest for most it’s a mental, emotional, and physical grind.

I can hear the rusty cogs of progress grinding from here, its bloody exhausting just listening to them. Can many of you relate to my wearisome words? Of course you can, I can, we all can.

Today, selling something both unique and profitable is tougher than ever. Not only are there a plethora of carbon-copy competitors in each space, added is the customer having so much choice and unprecedented access to information, thanks to the internet, correction; Google. Moreover, the general population is increasing ‘exponentially’ and the shear mass of businesses that are created every year is not going backwards any time soon.

Walk a mile in another mans shoes

Sales shouldn’t be all that hard, come on guys, is it really that complicated? The common answer is, ‘hell yes,’ because most salespeople forget the fundamentals of human interaction.  

Selling is really nothing more than the art of meeting, listening, engaging, and leading the right people to a win-win outcome. Which isn’t too tough to achieve, yet many salespeople are obsessed with the pursuit of the so called ‘silver sales bullet’ that will magically cut-corners and transform their sales performance and life accordingly. I’m here to inform you there is no so such thing or external force to you that will determine your ultimate success ― it’s all up to you!

You already possess all the tools, traits, and abilities you need to succeed in sales, it’s just a matter of bringing the right ones into play and focus on the right (habits) to get the right results for your customers. I believe the most powerful ability (indeed habit) in life is to demonstrate ‘empathy’ towards others. I know there are many innate abilities and learned skills such as intellect, creativity, and resilience, the list goes on, but true ‘empathy’ transcends all other qualities and brings people to a place where personal transformation and win-win outcomes are born.

 

How confident are you at selling, really?

I have talked at length in my blogs about the importance of being confident when selling. This week I thought I would shed some light on how you can not only build confidence in your sales role but also create a way of being that will enhance your sales performance.

What is confidence? Dictionary.com: full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing. What a great definition and way of being to work and live by. Full trust, belief, trustworthiness and reliability! Give your customer these things and you will have ‘em for life, it’s that simple.

As a (willing) potential customer I want to trust you and believe in what you are saying and that you will deliver on your promise. You can make the odd mistake here-and-there, because if I trust you it’s not a deal breaker―I know you will be the first person to bring it to my attention.  You can sell the best product or service in town, but if your salespeople fail to instill belief, build trust and deliver on their promises, the success of your business is limited, if not ultimately removed.

Loose lips sink ships

If your salespeople are complaining about clients, this is a serious symptom of a larger problem: the negative conversations are being reciprocated on the client side.

If this is the case, I encourage you to have a real and candid conversation with key people involved immediately. The first question should be, ‘what and how are we not meeting our client’s expectations?” The response, if honest, will provide valuable insight into the client’s real issues and values to allow you to address them and move forward together. I would also encourage having the same conversations with key clients to establish what’s really important to them.

You must demonstrate you genuinely care about your clients and their best interests. Unhappy clients are like fruit, if you leave them on the vine without care for too-long they rot and fall-off. Instead, identify why these team members feel the need to engage in disrespectful conversations regarding clients. Often a manager receives a deceptive or biased interpretation of the client problem. This is designed to protect the salesperson or account manager’s reputation. In serious cases, I recommend going direct to the client as a more effective course, but in a way that doesn’t disempowered the salesperson and promote an internal dissonance to the client. 

The Law of Lesser Equals

One of the most frequent areas that I get asked to consult on is sales team ‘performance’, or lack thereof.

In many sales teams what I observe is a small percentage of sales stars shining and the rest making up the numbers. This conundrum I call ‘The Law of Lesser Equals’. This law propounds: All men and women are created equal, yet when compared in competitive environments some underperform, not just marginally, but resoundingly. Many team members have the same training, similar backgrounds and experience, but some get the results, while others struggle. Is that a result of luck, experience or natural talent, or is there a more substantial explanation?

A few months ago, I coached a team of 12 experienced medial liaison offers. This group consisted of a mixed bag of personalities: outspoken directors, reserved thinking types, socialisers and relaters. As I facilitated the session, I observed the behaviours and engagement levels of each participant and it soon became evident who would get the most out of the sales training content. By the morning break, even without viewing individual sales performance records, I could tell who the top sales performers were and why. How?

Is your sales team in Fabricated Harmony or Genuine Conflict?

When you get a bunch of ‘Type A’ personalities together who are driven and outcome focused, two types of team states commonly form: ‘Fabricated Harmony’ or ‘Genuine Conflict’.

‘Genuine Conflict’ is when team members don’t get along but willingly live with their differences in exchange for a pay packet. There are no team values or value in the team. Sometimes team members align but it’s usually short lived as the competitive forces and jostling for rewards and recognition takes priority. Attrition is high, but players’ dont seem to mind, as it means one less internal competitor and is part of the game. Managers reward sales success above all else, even at the detriment of other team members and even some clients.

‘Fabricated Harmony’ is when team members’ dont like each-other but pretend they do to avoid conflict. In this type of environment team members seldom engage in meaningful conversations; are afraid to show real emotions; rarely challenge the opinions of stronger personalities, preferring to see how the penny drops and not be accountable when something goes wrong. Team values are stated, but not clearly communicated and demonstrated. When business is good, the values are forgotten. When times are less prosperous the values magically appear as leverage to dismiss poor performers

Desperate Donald

Donald the management consultant arrived late to a public sales seminar I was conducting.

The rest of the participants arrived early for their 8.45am registration and had been chatting amongst each other. He apologised for being late and then rushed in and sat down. His body language was stiff and noticeably anxious. Although now behind schedule, for Don’s benefit, I asked everyone to again quickly introduce themselves and describe what business they were in. All were happy to oblige.

A couple of minutes into the introductions I sensed Don’s energy. He seemed disengaged and uninterested in the stories the others were sharing. I continued into the morning break paying extra attention to him but not at the detriment of anyone else. As soon as the other participants left the room for the break, he approached me and explained the seminar was not what he had expected.

What’s the difference between selling with ‘inspiration’ and ‘desperation’?

Inspirational selling comes from a place of contribution. Desperation is selling from a place of contradiction.

Selling in contradiction is when you sell a product or service without believing in it. What you say and believe is not congruent.  In these sales models the monetary exchange takes priority over the value and benefits being created. Conversely, selling with inspiration means you dont need to sell, but the customer wants to buy. Why? Because your proposition adds real value and benefits you and the customer understand. Therefore the line between you, your value and the customer’s benefit is congruent. This makes selling relatively easy if you’re talking with the right customers.

Being desperate is not pleasant and it’s an exhausting place to be in all the time. To achieve and sustain long term sales success you need to sell with inspiration! If you can’t get up every morning motivated by ‘what’ and ‘how’ you sell, you’re in real trouble because no one else is going to do it for you. One of the biggest tests for any salesperson is how they perform under immense pressure ― yet if you’re resilient and made of the right stuff you may even thrive in it.  Many salespeople crack under pressure. They have a couple of poor months and then get desperate. They start cutting corners and looking for quick-wins. This is the beginning of the end.  The quick wins seldom come, particularly when you’re desperate. 

Concerned about your sales dropping over the Xmas break?

I live by this maxim, “Chance favours the prepared.”

We all know the festive season and corresponding break is looming, yet I’m staggered by the amount of salespeople I speak with that don’t have an end of year strategy. Be prepared for this period well in advance and don’t wait until December to think about it.

If you’re in retail and your offer is relevant, then Christmas is a busy period and you will need to have plenty of the right stock at the right price and all hands on deck. Conversely, if your product or service is not relevant, you will find the dip between early December and late January a challenging one. Some businesses find the dip deeper and longer than these two months and severely reduce costs and resources accordingly. Suffice to say ― Christmas is a tough time if you don’t have the right strategy.

Creativity minus Support = Zero Innovation

Some people may think my views on business are fanciful and idealistic, and that may be true. However, I’ve been in the sales game long enough to know taking an approach that is anything less  only limits success to a lucky few.

I don’t mind people voicing their opinions on matters they are genuinely passionate about; in fact, I encourage it. I’m always enthusiastic to hear when someone has something authentic and valuable to say.  There is an abundance of creativity in our world. Humanity is replete with inspirational people who have enormous value to contribute in their own ways ― yet most are never seen or heard.

As a collective society, we seldom encourage others to take a path of true innovation because it’s untested, risky, and breaks convention and related reputations.  Most of us are trained to do things based on what’s already been done, and that’s ok, but being led to believe it’s the best and only way― isn’t. I’m here to say, there’s always a higher and more powerful way if you dare to jump off the cliff of ‘certainty’ into the unknown realms of ‘possibility.’