Inside Our Head

While delivering our Sales Management Leadership workshop recently, a medical equipment sales manager in the audience raised his hand and said, "I see myself as more of a "player-coach." I asked him to elaborate.

He went on to share a recent example when he was working with one of his more productive and experienced salespeople. They had just concluded a meeting with a physician in a hospital and were walking toward the exit. Their next appointment was not for another two hours, so the sales manager asked his rep, "Is there any reason why, now that we're inside this hospital, you aren't going to pick up the house phone over there and call a few more prospects for appointments?" Calls made from a hospital's in-house phone don't get screened like calls from outside the building.

The salesperson replied, "Physicians don't like to be interrupted in that way, so I don't do that."

Where-upon the player-coach marched to the nearby house phone, picked it up, and succeeded in scheduling an appointment with the first person who answered, a physician. "See, the house phone works," he said. He made a few more phone calls for the salesperson, and then the two of them went on their way to her next appointment.

Indeed, this sales manager was a player-coach. He did demonstrate to his salesperson that once in the hospital, the house phone is an effective tool for setting new appointments.

But the sales manager made a big mistake - he demonstrated how to perform an important sales task, but he didn't obtain commitment from the salesperson that she would start making these types of calls in the future. In sales vernacular, he made a great demo but he didn't "close the sale" by obtaining commitment.

Every sales coaching discussion should conclude with a request for commitment to change. And, every coaching discussion should include a follow-up step by you. By following-up, and inspecting what you expect, you show your commitment to helping the salesperson be the best he or she can be. And, you send the message to your sales team that your expectations of performance are not to be taken lightly.

Our August 10-12 "Getting Into Your Customer's Head" sales training seminar is now sold out.

Please contact us regarding future dates and locations.

Is it easier to sell to a current customer or to a brand new prospect?
Do satisfied customers hammer you on price as much as new customers?
Do dissatisfied customers provide referrals?
Do you enjoy spending time with dissatisfied customers?

You know the answers to these questions!

If you are having problems, it's time to attend our Sales Training Seminar. Get on the road to success in sales.

Your prospect signed on the dotted line! All your hard work... the sales calls, the meetings, the sales presentations... it's a done deal! No it isn't!!!

Have you ever noticed your customers who are the most enthusiastic and pleased on day one are the most likely to suddenly be dissatisfied on day two? What precipitates this plunge from paradise to purgatory?

The root cause of most customer dissatisfaction is a difference in perception between buyers and sellers. For most sales people, the sales process comes to an end when the customer says "yes." For most buyers, the sales process is just beginning when they say "yes."

To keep customers for life, you must change your frame of reference, Get Into Your Customer's Head, and see things from the customer's perspective. You must start seeing the "close" of a deal as the beginning of a new sales process.

People in sales should know the importance of making a good impression: without it you can't earn the right to do business with people. Each customer contact provides us as sales people the opportunity to make a good impression. Remember the maxim in sales and marketing: the prospect must be touched five to ten times with high-quality, compelling messages before business is transacted.

If you don't make a good first impression, what makes you think your prospect will want to see you again?

Business letters--to ask for an appointment or other reasons--are so important in making good impressions. Make sure your sales proposals are well-written. Take time to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Ask your sales manager or a colleague to proof your letter. Often times someone else can see errors the writer often misses. Even Hemingway needed an editor!

Sales proposals and business letters are critical. Think of ways of making your communications shine. Remember, every contact you have with your sales prospect is an impression.

Make a good impression every time you "touch" your client, and you will close more sales.

The role of the Therapist in sales is to understand and resolve the buyer's fears. Here is the Therapist's Four Step Treatment Process to help the customer work through the fear of buying:

1. Be sensitive and observe
2. Explore concerns
3. Empathize with feelings
4. Discuss alternatives

You cannot resolve a buyer's fear until you understand the source. Therefore, exploring the buyer's concerns is the first step. "Tell me more about that." "Why do you feel that way?" "Can you elaborate?" These are good statements along the line of exploration.

Like a Therapist, you can guess out loud to try and bring information to the table. "I sense you are concerned about the reliability of the technology." "Are you concerned about our ability to support you technically?"

Note that the first concern verbalized by a customer is usually a smoke-screen. You have to dig deeper to get to the real issues in sales. Keep asking open ended questions until the real concern emerges.

When was the last time your company took a hard look at your sales proposals? The value your company provides to customers likely changes over time. Has your sales proposal changed, too? Does your sales proposal persuasively communicate that you are the preferred solution provider in your marketplace?

At TopLine Leadership, our sales training seminars can help you define and prepare a great sales proposal.

Our next sales training workshop is August 10 - 12, 2010 at the Peppermill Hotel in Reno, Nevada. This fast-paced, well-structured sales training course will help you think and feel like a customer, that is, how to Get into Your Customer's Head.

Spend less time trying to close the sale -- and more time positioning your solution as the customer's best choice.

If you don't know by this point in the sales process at least three reasons why your customer should buy from you -- reasons that have been connected to explicit customer needs (so you know they're important to your customer) -- then you have no right to ask for the business. If you have done your homework, however, now is the time to put your understanding to the acid test of preparing a convincing proposal or presentation.

Enjoy greater customer satisfaction and increase your sales by changing your approach to match your customers' changing perspective throughout the sale.

If you sell to businesses, somewhere during the sales process your prospects may send out a Request for Proposal or ask you to make a formal sales presentation.

Here's an important tip: if the RFP is the first you've heard about the opportunity, it means you're entering the game late (whether or not there are other competitors) and the odds of winning are low.

The way I handle the situation is to call up the customer and say, "Thank you for sending the RFP. I need an hour of your time to ask some questions and fully understand your needs." If the customer says no, I know there is little chance I can make a sale. If they are unwilling to give me one hour of their time, why should I spend 20 hours responding to an RFP?

If you are a sales manager, your sales training must include this important tip.

If you don't know your customer's buying criteria, or if you find yourself guessing, consider it a signal that you haven't placed enough emphasis on uncovering customer needs. You will have added significant value to your customer's buying process if they come away with a better understanding of their buying criteria and with a greater awareness of important issues they had not previously considered.

If you want to achieve greater sales success, you have to participate in the creation of a unique sales solution that meets your customer's needs. When the solution you design for your prospect includes certain buying criteria that you are uniquely qualified to address, you have set the ground rules in your favor. But, in order to achieve this result, you must, again, resist the temptation to pitch your solution too soon. Instead, design a customer-focused solution that locks out your competition.