Inside Our Head

Look for opportunities to show interest in all team members. Ask about their life outside of work. Make an effort to learn about their families, their hobbies, their recent vacation, etc. Inquire but never pry. Keep track of names, dates, and events that are important to them, such as birthdays and anniversaries of employment with your company. Showing your team that you care about them as people is one more way to build team sprit. When the sprit is strong, the motivation follows right along.

Create an individual development plan for each employee. Work with your sales managers to create development plans that are customized to each person. The plans should identify things like: current and desired skill strengths; job interests; areas for development and enhancement; and strategies (sales training, assignments, coaching, etc.) for achieving the next step.

The best Sales Managers turn failures into teaching lessons. A failure is a failure only when we don’t learn from it. When people make mistakes, encourage them to share their experiences in order to help others avoid similar problems. This can be a great motivational tool because you focus on learning rather than assigning blame. Just remember that it takes guts to admit mistakes – especially in front of others. So be certain to thank each person for his or her courage.

Sales leadership is easy when your stock price is high. Be tough during tough times. As Vince Lombardi said: "It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up again." To keep your team motivated, you need to show resilience, recovery, and "contagious enthusiasm" for the mission of your team – especially when your job challenges are significant.

Help others on your sales team develop by delegating the lead on certain activities and projects. Most of us like "being in charge" – at least some of the time.

Listen to others. Listening shows respect... that people and their ideas are important to you. When people know you're willing to listen, they will share their ideas as well as their frustrations. Listening enables you to build trust, which is essential for creating an elite, high-performance team.



Clarify your expectations. Meet with your individual sales people and ask each to describe his or her understanding of your sales performance expectations (as well as behavior and activity expectations). Confirm and clarify, as appropriate, to ensure that you're "on the same page" with the employee.

The more people know what you expect, the better they'll be able to contribute and help the team succeed... and the fewer de-motivating surprises there will be for both you and your employees down the road.

Cure questions help you identify your prospects' expectations of value. In other words, is the solution you offer, and its associated cost, worthwhile in the prospects' mind? Have you demonstrated need and built sufficient discontent within the prospect to justify the cure?

Examples of Cure Questions:

Suppose you could (fill-in-the-blank). What would that enable you to do?
How would that help?
Would (fill-in-the-blank) have any other advantages?
How much would you save if you could (fill-in-the-blank)?

You may be wondering what is the difference between a complication question and a cure question? Think of it this way: the COMPLICATION question gets the prospect to speculate about negative impacts and costs of problems. Whereas the CURE question asks the prospect to speculate on the potential value of the solution. Complication questions are bad news. Cure questions are good news.

Cure questions are usually more effective if phrased as "open-ended," meaning they invite conversation and elaboration. The answers you receive will give you an idea of what is important and valuable to your customer.

OFFERING A PRESCRIPTION
In this final phase of the Doctor role, you must carefully manage the information to communicate to the prospect. Naturally, the prospect wants to hear your solution, if you've done the job of building discontent. However, if you unload the whole prescription at once, there is nothing preventing the propsect from going to your competitor, and there is no reason for further communication.

Word to the wise: present only those features and benefits which address specific problems you have discussed previously. It is not time to outline a total treatment plan. That comes later.

Your competitor can often offer the same features and benefits. As you move into the Research step of the selling process, you begin the work of differentiating yourself. This is where you demonstrate how your product and service are uniquely able to accomplish the prospect's goals. Setting and achieving Sales Call Objectives is how you accomplish the task of differentiating yourself.

At TopLine Leadership, our coaching model actually is in the form, in the acronym, the word coach: C-O-A-C-H.

At the center of the process is Commitment. It's commitment both on the sales manager's part and also on the sales person's part as well. That's the center focus. If we don't have commitment on both ends, it falls down. Basically the model falls apart, that's why it's the central focus: C.

The O in the word stands for Observe. Observing is the starting point as it relates to the coach's process itself. All we need to do is examine both: the behaviors and the activities. So, the O in the coach acronym stands for observe, we've got observe both behaviors and activities.

The A in the model is to Assess. What are we assessing? Two things: competence and willingness. However, it's not just the competence and the willingness of the sales person, it's the competence and willingness of the sales person as it relates to each task that they are performing. We said that they might be a 5-5 at one level, five-two at another, a two-five at another level. So we're going to access the competence and willingness based on the task at hand, or the task that we're going to coach them on. Then we're going to communicate effectively.

The second C in the coach acronym is Communicate. There's actually going to be four different types of sales coaching approaches. So, before you engage in that one-on-one sales coaching process, you're going to take a step back and say: What's the level of competence and willingness? And, what coaching approach am I going to use?

The H in the model is Help. We're going to help our sales people by providing empathy, feedback, and follow-up.

So there you have it C-O-A-C-H. Commitment is where it starts, its our central point, observe , assess, communicate, and help. That's the process and that's the model.

What are your Sales Coaching strengths? Areas to improve?

There's something I want you to do: define what your sales coaching strengths are, and what coaching areas should you improve?

Next, I want you to tell one other person in your organization, two of your coaching strengths, two things that you do really well.

One of the things about the being an effective sales manager is to be open and honest, including what you think you’re good at. And, define two areas you think you could improve in as a coach.

Actively defining your areas of strengths--and areas of weakness--will help you become a better sales manager.

We are now offering a 3-Day Sales Training Seminar! This sales seminar will help you Sell More & Sell Faster.

By attending our sales training seminar, salespeople will sell more profitable solutions and increase their win-ratio.

• Our sales training programs are designed to help your sales team to think and feel like a customer.
• Learn how to sell based on how customers buy.
• Thoughtful sales strategy combined with effective sales tactics for each and every sales call.
• Our presenters take time prior to your sales training workshop to learn about your specific needs and customize your sales training program.

Take your sales skills to the top with TopLine Leadership's Sales Training program!
Enroll today in our 3-Day Sales Training Seminar

Need to sample before you commit? We understand. Download and review our FREE report: Top 12 Mistakes Salespeople Make by clicking the link below:
Download our free report: Top 12 Mistakes that Salespeople Make

"The best way to predict the future is to create it."
Peter Drucker

As the Student you studied the changes affecting your prospects. This was during the Need stage of the Buy-Learning Process. Then, as the Doctor, also during this Need stage of customer focused selling, you diagnosed "little problems" and uncovered BIG needs.

When the customer recognizes a real need to buy, they have moved from the Need stage to the Learn stage.

Now you are ready to fulfill your role as Architect as the focus shifts to selecting the solutions that best meet your buyers' needs. The objective now is address the buyer's fear of making a mistake, and keep your competitors out.

THE ARCHITECT DESIGNS UNIQUE SOLUTIONS AND DEMONSTRATES INCOMPARABLE CAPABILITIES SO THE COMPETITION IS STYMIED.

Sometimes you don't get involved in the deal until after the Need stage has been completed by one of your competitors, and so you have to play catchup. Other times, if you are the only sales person involved up to and through the Learning stage, you still are not immune from competitive interference because soon your prospect will take time to Compare and consult your competitors. Playing the Architect role is pivotal regardless of your circumstances because it gives you the best opportunity to influence the prospect's buying criteria.

For more information, please visit our sales training section of our website.

Concessions are an essential negotiating tool, but use them wisely.

Consider the future impact of potential concessions. Today’s concession becomes tomorrow’s customer expectation. So don’t give away the store today or you’ll have nothing to give tomorrow.

Make sure you get a concession for every one you give. Instead of saying, "Yes, I can reduce my price by 10 percent," say, "If I can do that, would you be willing to add a third year to the agreement?" Be sure you know what concessions you want from your customer.

Occasionally, buyers skip the Fear step altogether. In fact, this is the only step of the buy-learning process that may not occur. If your customer is fearless, it's time to celebrate! Very likely you will proceed directly from the sales presentation into a negotiation of terms.

However, today most customers have more fear about buying, not less. For your customers, more technology, more change, and more choice means there's more to learn. And downsizing has forced many C-level executives to delegate buying authority to people in the Core-level to people who are closer to the problem that needs to be solved and more knowledgeable about it. But when the power to buy is delegated, those with buying authority feel greater pressure to make the right choice. As a result, many salespeople tell me it's taking more time for customers to make up their minds. This is proof that there's increased fear in buying situations.

It is natural for customers to question their decision when it comes time to put money on the table. If you are prepared for this turn of events, customer fears present you with the chance to solidify your position and show again, in another way, why your offering will be valuable.

When the customer slows down, you must do the same. You have to become a Therapist who is skilled at helping the "patient" explore and resolve the uncertainty and doubt that is causing the fear.