The Sales Pro Insider Building Performance Profits and People

Want to be a top performer?  One way to up your game is to tap into the power of having a coach. Before you say yes/no – a few thingsto consider:

• What does a coach really do?
• Are you coachable?
• Where can you find one?

First, what does a coach really do? Well wikipedia states that “Coaching is a method of directing, instructing and training a person or group of people, with the aim to achieve some goal or develop specific skills. There are many ways to coach, types of coaching and methods to coaching. Sessions are typically one-on-one either in-person or over the telephone.” 

Interesting. And I’m so glad to see that they note there are ‘many ways, types ad methods to coaching.’  From my experience a coach is someone who ASSISTS someone else in their development. This can be through asking reflective questions, guiding and mentoring, nudging, providing accountability, challenging – but ALWAYS helping the person commit to action and move forward.   The coach is not the person who gets ‘in the game’ – they help with preparation, cheering them on and debriefing after an event. 

Are you coachable? This might be the most important question of all.  As we help companies hire the best sales professionals and leaders, one of the attributes we assess and interview for is ‘coachability’.  It is a deal-breaker if the candidate is not coachable. Why?  None of us will become the best we can be without opening ourselves up to help and development. 

How important is coachability? Well, I’ll share a recent example with a sales leader. He had the skill, knowledge and experience. His coachability was low but the organization still thought he was ‘their guy’ and they hired him. Short story, he lasted 6 months. Why?  He wasn’t open to other ideas, to feedback, etc. He alienated people because it needed to only be ‘his way’. What did that cost the company? At minimum $200k plus a LOT of ill will in the culture.

Where can you find a coach? There are coaches for hire – but you might not need to hire one. How about your manager?  A colleague who is insightful and will give you the ‘truth’.  A friend or spouse or family member? The right person for you might not be in sales – if they are able to help you firm up your goals, offer insight and a ‘nudge’ (or kick in the pants) when needed and who will celebrate with you.

When I facilitate goal setting sessions – in classroom or with individuals – the goal plan includes identifying stakeholders. One of these can be a coach – the person who helps  you stay focused and on track to achieve what YOU want to achieve. 

Look at the highest level professionals – from sports to entertainment (even politics) – nearly all of them have a coach, an advisor or someone who guides them through their profession. 

Consider the 3 questions listed here…the most important is ‘are you coachable?’  Your coachability matters today – and it very much affects your tomorrow.

P.S. if you would to see the entire goal setting process, click here for the free eBook, Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals. The eBook is short and provides ‘how’ and a tool to get your goals written.

Filed Under: Uncategorized on March 9th, 2010

If you live in the U.S. you may be hearing about March madness.  No, it isn’t people trying to hold on to their sanity as they wait for spring – its all about NCAA basketball!

As the hype begins and the country (or maybe its just the Bleeke family) gets ready for the tournament, we can all think about our own March madness at work. 

In March the reality of the year starts to sink in.  People have a lot of optimism in the month as companies and sales managers set goals.  February follows with lots of activity and a belief it will pay off.  And then March starts…and people start scrambling to make quarterly numbers, and wondering whether they have committed to more than they can deliver. 

Today I received an email from a professional friend wondering what I am noticing as a I talk with companies. Do I see ‘hope dissipating,’ he asked. Well, NO,  I don’t believe  hope is dissipating. I just spoke with two company presidents this week that said February ended with better than expected results. They believe the momentum will push the March numbers even higher.

The real question is, what do you believe?  Do you believe you are positioned for a great quarter-end? What you believe matters:

Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman -                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          not the attitude of the prospect.

W. Clement Stone

W. Clement Stone is a GREAT role model for those of us in sales. His story is told in his book “The Success System That Never Fails“.  W. Clement was also known to say that he never made a ‘cold call’, he made ‘gold calls’. 

But back to March Madness.  Strive to be MAD this month!

• Motivated
• Assertive
• Determined

With the right attitude and a MAD approach, you will succeed. And then your results (and your sales manager) will thank you.

P.S. Today starts a different March madness in my family. All three of my children’s birthdays are this month – starting with Jackson who turns 17  today.

Filed Under: focus, sales tips on March 5th, 2010

Need some sales tips? Better yet, some top sales tips from experts who live and breath sales?  Besides this blog and my Timely tips ezine, a great resource for you is the Top 10 Sales Articles site!

Each month a panel of judges selects 10 articles from around the sales world to spotlight.  This month’s articles are written by Jill Konrath, Kelley Robertson, Dave Kurlan. Tom Ninness, Ivan Misner  and many more – including me!  To make it even more interesting, you can Vote for your favorite!

Please visit the site and have a look – you will definely benefit from great information.  And, if you would, vote my article titled the 3 “I”s of Open Ended Questions. I’d like to win this month!   

Though its great to hear from experts, some of my best learning comes from YOU. If you have a sales tip you’d like to share – send it to me – I’ll feature YOUR sales tips in a future post.

Filed Under: Open ended questions, Sales, sales tips on March 3rd, 2010

March 1-7, 2010 is National Write a Letter of Appreciation week.  Wow – a whole week dedicated to appreciating – in writing – others! 

A national holiday like this is a PERFECT reminder for us to reconnect with prospects or customers.  The key tips are:

1. WRITE the letter. It’s not a phone call, email or text. Pen to paper. The recipient can hold it in their hands and for tactile people, that’s a good thing! Last month I got a thank you note from a prospect for the follow-up message I sent – on a quality note card and addressed just to them.  I knew this Doer type person appreciated it, or he wouldn’t have taken the time.
2. Be specific in your appreciation. “You are great to work with.” is okay – but something like “I really appreciate how you respond so quickly to my messages.” is much stronger!      I really believe in specific appreciation and as I completed my drive-thru banking transaction last Saturday, the teller said “Nancy, thank you for writing your account number of the back of the checks, it made it so much easier to pull up your account.”  I drove away as the recipient of specific appreciation – and felt how great that is. And the benefit to that teller?  I think I will always write the number on the back of the check now.
3. Do not SELL to them in this letter. The note is  to appreciate them and nothing more.
4. Hand write the address on the envelope. It’s much more personal.

Making time for writing these letters or notes will set you apart, get your name in front of people again and increase your energy!

The hardest part is DOING this.  Schedule an hour or two later this week to appreciate others.  Customers, your manager, assistants, colleagues, spouse, children, parents – everyone will appreciate it!  Set a goal of the number of people you will write a letter to this week and then WRITE them.

My appreciation to each of you?  I very much appreciate the comments that are left to blog posts. It helps me know that I am not just writing to the ‘universe’ – that real people have connected and are adding to the conversation of the posts.  Thank you commenters!

Filed Under: customer loyalty, sales tips on March 1st, 2010

Another blogger, Becky Robinson of the LeaderTalk blog, recently asked her readers the question, “What do I know best?”

What an interesting question to ponder – “What do I know best?”  And it wasn’t as easy as it first appeared. She suggesed that we think about things that are easy for us, that we don’t need to prep for and that we can just help others with.

To come up with my list, I thought about this past week. What conversations have I had with others that were ‘teachable moments’ and I was able to pass along knowledge or insight that really helped someone else? My answers are simple (and it makes me wonder if I over complicate things in my training if it was this simple.)

So here goes:

1. No one has to appoint you a leader. You get to decide and can act as a leader day in and day out without a formal title.
2. Being a mom and a high level business professional is tough. And you will have to make tough choices sometimes – the mom part should always win – the time we are blessed with the kids passes quickly.
3. To be successful in business (whether you are in a direct sales role or not) means having to constantly focus on the WiifT – What’s in it for THEM. The more you communicate, act and live with the WiifT mindset, the more successful you will be.
4. The key to WiifT is undertanding others communication needs and then adapting your communication to it. Though each human being is very individual, there are tools and assessments that can help us with the understanding and ‘how to’ of doing this well.
5. I also know that everyone needs a ‘coach’ in life and business. It can be a spouse, friend, colleague or anyone. And that each of us can coach others by paying attention, giving them time and attention and sharing ‘what we know best’ when appropriate.

Now I ask you – What do you know best? It doesn’t need to have been learned in a book, in fact your life or work knowledge learned the ‘hard way’ might be what is most valuable.  You don’t have to be Einstein to know a lot of things best.  Please share with the rest of us – it will help us all know our ‘go to’ person on many dfferent things!

Looking forward to reading about more ‘knows bests’ from readers.

Filed Under: learning, sales tips on February 25th, 2010

Right now I am flying high.  Literally flying at 33,000 feet – probably somewhere over Indiana. I’m on my way to work with Alice Kemper, my Sharpenz.com partner, for the rest of the week.  (For those of you who have used Sharpenz – we’ll have three new boosters ready-to-go next week!)

I’m chuckling because the last post was about You Won’t Get if You Don’t Ask - well I asked the flight attendant the cost of wifi on the airplane – not because I really wanted to use it, just because I was curious.  She told me that she wasn’t sure but that I should go to the site because you can sometimes try it free.

Well, the Go Go site was more than Try it Free – they had a game you could play to earn free wifi for the duration of the flight. I tried it and won!  How cool is that?

So now today I am feeling lucky, confident and like a winner. How will that translate to my success today? I believe it will translate into energy and productivity leading to success.

If you aren’t flying high today like I am, how can you get your energy and confidence up?  A few things come to mind:

1.  Do the thing you are dreading the most for today. Tackle it head on and get it out of the way.  The rest will seem easier.

2.  Review your goals – what are you working toward? What progress have you made? Take one full minute to think and feel that progress. Doesn’t it feel good? Don’t beat yourself up over what you have left to do – acknowledge what you have done.

3.  Contact someone you have been meaning to. You know who the person is – just pick up the phone or send an email NOW!  They’ll be glad to hear from you.  It’s amazing how much connection we need as people.  Don’t want it to be work related? That’s okay!  Amanda shared with me that she found someone she had completely forgotten about on Facebook – they now have reconnected and she is so grateful.

Sometimes the little actions we take early in the morning can give us that boost of energy and confidence that will keep us ‘flying’ a winner all day!

p.s. For someone like who bemoans the speed of new technology, I’m loving it today!

Filed Under: productivity, sales tips on February 23rd, 2010

Closing more sales. It’s the goal for sales managers and professionals alike.  And both are frustrated when it doesn’t happen.  How do I know this?  I ask!

During the needs analysis with a prospect, we always ask “What are the barriers to getting where you want to be?” or “What is keeping you from achieving the goals that are set?” Nearly 90% of the time, one of the reasons given by sales managers is that “My people aren’t closing sales. They do all the work and then the final decision is stalled. They don’t move them through the pipeline.”

If I ask sales people, “What keeps you from closing more sales?” I often hear, “The buyers don’t make decisions timely.”

When I ask buyers why they haven’t decided, they have said “They never asked!”

Okay, so what can be done to get buyers to decide and sales pros to close?  It may be more simple than you think – you need to ask! 

I can’t count the number of times I have observed or coached a sales pro to find out that they do a LOT of work to build the relationship, identify the wants/needs and demonstrate their value.  And then wait. And check in. And wait. Then check in again. But they never have asked to find out the answer!

Instead, there are important questions to be asked after the recommendation is made!  They questions fall into two groups:

• Objections
• Decisions

Unless we ask for their opinion on concerns/objections, we may never know where we really stand.  Until we ask for a decision we may never ‘win’ the deal.

What can you do to close more sales?  First, find out where they are in their thought process and if there are any objections, ask,

• “How does what we’ve discussed sound to you?”
• “What concerns do you have about this solution or me/my company?”
• “What barriers do you see in implementing this?”
• “How does this align with your goals?

Notice these are open ended questions that ask for opinions, ideas and feedback?

Then after listening and responding appropriately, ask for a decision:

• “What is the next action for you in the decision making process?”
• “Have we covered everything you need to make your decision?”
• “Are you ready to move forward?”
• “Can we initiate the paperwork today?”
• “Should we wrap this up?”

Some of these are still open ended to allow you ‘test the water’ before asking for a decision.  But then you HAVE to ask for a decision!

Want to know if this works?  Try it and you will see that it does.

The reason I am writing this post today is because I just used this process with the IRS. Yes the IRS!  They never say ‘yes’.  But I looked at appealing a penalty charge as an opportunity to sell – to build a relationship with the agent, ask for concerns, and then ask for the removal of the penalty.  The charge was relevant – in switching the Sales Pro Insider accounting systems last June, one of the federal tax payments was not made.

It took me two letters and a phone call – which is what sealed the deal. During the call I focused on building rapport, working through the situation together and then asking for the penalty to be removed. The agent cheerfully – really cheerfully – said he would recommend a removal.  I just opened the letter that said it had been approved! A large penalty was removed from the account.

This situation is a great reminder for us all – you don’t get what you don’t ask for. 

My recommendation to you?  Look at your pipeline. What prospects are stalled?  Which situations did you maybe not ‘close’ with the right questions? Then determine how to initiate contact with the prospect. Your objective is to first identify if there are concerns, find out if what you have discussed is of value to them and then ASK for a decision.  The decision might be the buying decision or a decision that they will take an action or talk with  you at a specific time.  And if you get a ‘no’?  Then you know where you stand and can move on to more probable prospects.

In the spirit of asking today – I ask you – who do you know would find value from this blog? Send them a link please!

And if you haven’t already done so, what keeps you from signing up for the Timely T ips ezine here?  Every few weeks you will receive the ezine with helpful tips and fun tidbits. Just for signing up you receive the Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals eBook – a great roadmap and toolkit for you!

Filed Under: Open ended questions, Sales Objections, sales success, sales tips on February 18th, 2010

In 2009 All Business initiated a new sales contest – Sales All Stars.  The goal is to promote the career of sales and to recognize those that excel in this very tough business!  I hope you have taken time to look into recommending someone you know for this award.

Yet, can’t we all become a Grand Champion in what we do?  What does it take?  The following Success Factors:

• Skill to perform to your best
• A strong work ethic to use your time and resources wisely
• A goal that is clear, written and attainable
• Competitive spirit to dig in and give it all you’ve got
• Emotional intelligence to weather the ups and downs

The following are also immportantk though not indivudal factors

• Having the right ‘goods’ that fit the situation
• Collaborative teammates who are supportive, skillful and in the right roles

I saw all of these in place last weekend – not in a sales situation – in a sporting event.  We spent 16 hours on a bus and 24 hours in a convntion center for the Jamfest Super Dance Nationals.  My daughter’s team came in as the unknown team from Wisconsin and were determined to make their mark.  The competition is over two days with scores only posted after Day One.

In their two genres – jazz and pom – they did well after Day 1.  Fourth place for Jazz and First place by a tiny margin in Pom.  We thought it was a good first day. Then were told that Day 2 is worth 2/3 of the total score at the end.  The coach, Kate Fabbri did a great job in coaching the girls and explaining what they need to do to advance to the win in poms and place in jazz.  She expressed her belief in them, review the judges’ comments and then got them practicing – they even raised their level of difficulty the week before.

On Sunday, the dancers (24 of them) spent time together getting ready to ‘bring it on’.  After the jazz, we knew they did well.  And for poms they performed better than they had all year (which is saying a lot since they haven’t yet lost this season).  It was energetic, spot on and the dancers looked like they were having fun.  The short story?  They placed with a 3rd medal in jazz and WON pom.  More importantly, they scored so well they were also named junior champions.

It doesn’t end there. The top scorers are also in contention for the GRAND champion award – which involves judges selecting the team they feel had entertainment value, etc.  The girls were named the Grand Champions!

Isn’t it the same in sales? We need all the Success Factors listed above to be the Grand Champion and win the big deals. And still having the right ’scores’ isn’t always enough. We need to bring that ’something extra’ to our sales calls that makes us memorable, trusting, and respected so that the prospect WANTS us to win with them. 

I hope you will make time this week to strengthen one of the Success Factors so you can be a Grand Champion in your sales this year.

Think about the most successful sales pros you know – do you see these Success Factors in them? What else would you add to the list?

Filed Under: Sales, goal setting, learning, sales tips on February 16th, 2010

Recovery time. Most of us dislike the thought of needing time to recover from anything. We like to keep on going.  Yet, if we overdue our week at work, we need time on the weekend to recover. If we overdue our fun on the weekend, Monday is tough because we need time to recover. If we don’t take care of our health, we may need medical recovery.  Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t need recovery time?

Recovering isn’t just for overduing it or a medical situation, Lynn Zimmer, of the Sales Pro Insider team, shared the following with me:

There are four things that you cannot recover in life:

 The Stone…………after it’s thrown,
 The Word………….after it’s said,
 The Occasion….after it’s missed, and
 The Time…………after it’s gone.

Today I share it with you because it is a great sales tip!  I am taking liberty to share the four things that are REALLY hard to recover in sales:

Your reputation….after it’s been compromised

Your word…after you have made a commitment and broken it

Your time…if you have used it unwisely

Your honor and integrity…if you ’sell out’ for a quick gain at someone else’s expense

Most things aren’t totally unrecoverable, but the effort to try and recover is significant.  It’s easier to not ‘lose’ them in the first place.  Every action you take – or don’t take – matters.

This weekend is Valentine’s Day.  The time to show those you care the most how much they mean.  Think about  how these four items are also hard to recover with your family and friends.  Make time this weekend to ‘be’ with those you love and build your reputation, honor your word, use your time wisely and show your honor and integrity.  Then you won’t need any recovery time next week.

Filed Under: Uncategorized on February 12th, 2010

I’ll admit I’m a scrapper.  Yes, a scrapper.  A word that has more than one meaning – a scrapper is “a fighter or aggressive competitor” and/or someone who makes picture scrapbooks. Both are true in my case.  And both have interesting sales lesson opportunities!

Sometimes when I hear objections or a customer didn’t do something they committed to, I want to fight!  When things don’t go certain ways, I am aggressive and take it head on and am direct to get to the bottom of it.  As with most things, there are good aspects of this approach…and bad.  People know where they stand with me.  Some people appreciate that, some don’t. 

My approach is that none of us have extra time to waste in business, why not get to the real point and see if we can move through or over it?  What I always need to remind myself is that doesn’t work for everyone. Being an aggressive competitor is okay but being an ‘assertive’ competitor is better.

I’m also a scrapbooker. Not a fanatical scrapbooker, but I have been creating scrapbooks for 11 years now!  I have made family albums, anniversary albums, hostess gift albums, etc. The process is slow and tedious.  But I enjoy it because it gives me the opportunity to take a lot of ’scraps’ of this and that and photos and put them together to tell a bigger story in an attractive way. The journaling, writing about the photos,  is even more important sometimes than the pictures. My hope is that these become part of my legacy and help my children understand the ‘why’ of situations they experienced.

Years ago I found a ‘process’ to sorting, organizing and laying out my pages. It saves me a lot of time and I get more pages done than all other scrapbookers at events. (Oh, doesn’t that sound like an aggressive competitor comment And it works. The efficiency of the process – along with the right tools – allows me to ‘close’ my scrapbooks.

Now doesn’t that sound like sales? Taking pieces of information from the customer and what we offer, then matching them together into a collage that tells a bigger story or takes us and the prospect to a new state of understanding, is what consultative sales is about! 

Sometimes this approach to sales is tedious and slow – and finding a process to help is important.  This is very important in selling services because there isn’t something to really ’show and tell’ on demand. I gather information and then use a process to create the outline and ‘picture’ for the prospect. Often the picture is a beautiful vision of what can be and the path to get there. 

I feel like I just had a ’self help’ group meeting and that I stood up and said “Hi, I’m Nancy and I’m a scrapper.”  Kind of a fun way to start my day.

How about you? What’s something you scrap about?

p.s. Even scrapbooking has gone ‘digital’ and many of the tools are now online.  Though I use the e-tools to create some books, the creative aspect is limiting so I identified which tools work in different situations and apply the ‘right’ tool to get the job done.  Same with sales tools – finding the right tool for the job is what is important.  Miles Austin of Fill the Funnel writes about different tools in his blog.   He even has an eBook to help use LinkedIn more effectively!

Filed Under: consultative selling, sales tips on February 10th, 2010