This message just in from Jonathan Farrington of Top Sales World – a site dedicated to all of YOU in sales.

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For months, we have been discussing the need to produce a Top Sales World newsletter, but we don’t do things by halves around here, so we decided to create a brand new monthly magazine, supplemented with a weekly newsletter for our subscribers (subscription is free by the way!) http://www.topsalesworld.com/Registration/users_Registration.php

This first edition is fairly modest compared to what we hope to produce by the end of the year, but you know, mighty oak trees are produced from humble acorns: I will enjoy witnessing the evolvement, and I hope you will too.

As well as bringing you unique, original and thought-provoking articles from the Top Sales Experts team, it is our intention to provide our readers with up-to-date news, views and gossip from around the sales space, in other words, a real F.I.P experience … Fun, Interesting and Profitable.

The launch of this magazine coincides with our recent Top Sales World makeover, so do take a look…

You will notice that we have dispensed with a number of “redundant” sections, and added new initiatives, including ….

• Top Sales Tip of the Day
• Top Sales Coaching Sessions
• Top Sales Jobs (UK is here already and we are adding North America/Europe/Rest of World)
• Top Sales Store

We have also ported across Top 10 Sales Articles and Top Sales Awards

http://topsalesworld.com/

Thanks for your continuing support!

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I’ve been privileged to be a part of this community for several years now. You will find the TOP sales advice, sales authors and lots of FREE resources for YOU to sell more!

Personally, I thought the two articles about whether consultative selling is dead were quite interesting. See what you think.

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Ready for more reading recommendations that will help YOU sell more this week, month and year?

Below is the second part of the Sales Summer Reading list.

To make it easy for you to access the entire list of GREAT reads in an easy-to-access format, click here for the pdf copy, compliments of yours truly, Nancy Bleeke.

 50 Days to Build Your Sales- Book of Tips and Inspirations plus accompanying Workbook, by Lori Richardson. The book is a great gift for someone new in sales, or in a sales slump – to get a daily sales inspiration, then a sales tip to take action. Combine with the workbook, and you have “sales education in a bundle”. It makes for a great read because it is simple – even the type is big – and the tips are tried and true to grow revenues.

 
Building Inside Sales: Framing a Best Practice Group, by Trish Bertuzzi. Whether you have an Inside Sales team or are thinking about building one, this ebook will provide you with the framework you need to launch and sustain a successful program.

Bust Your Slump: A Dozen Slump Busting Strategies to Fill Your Pipeline in 30 Days, by Paul McCord. Need more business?  You’ll find a dozen effective, proven stategies to help you generate a large amount of business fast.  Whether you sell B2B or B2C, have a fast or long-term sales cycle, sell a commodity or highly sophisticated product, you’ll find strategies to meet your market and your sales process.  Pick the one or two that fits best and get busy getting your pipeline filled NOW!

   Creating  a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals, by Paul McCord. No, the book doesn’t promise you that you’ll make a million dollars a year, but it presents a high impact process based on the steps used by 4 dozen sellers from various industires to make their million dollar a year plus incomes—and  you  can turn yourself into a referral-based salesperson just like they did.  Hey, you just might make a million bucks too!

From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Remarkable Transition to Successful Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris. From Bud to Boss is an excellent read for anyone who wants to increase their effectiveness as a leader. Whether you have been on the job for years or you are just starting out, this book will offer you practical, applicable advice.

Growing Great Sales Teams: Lessons from the Cornfield, by Colleen Stanley. Finally, a sales management book that has real world application.  This is a must read for any sales manager that is committed to building a sales culture of excellence, integrity and results.

In Women We Trust, by Mary Clare Hunt. In Women We Trust cuts to the bullet-points of how women engage with each other and what business can do to have the same engagement levels.  While primarily a workbook for the B2C crowd, its 90 trust points can help any sales team internalize the female culture and learn how to work with women as peers first, not targets. Time to read — one day at the beach, or 2 airport layovers.

Metaphorically Selling, by Anne Miller. If you have to get things done through influence or persuasion–and who doesn’t?–then Metaphorically Selling is written for you. Learn how to cut through information overload and grab attention, open minds, close deals, or wow a crowd with the magic of metaphors. Fun to read, Easy to apply.  Speeds up sales.

No More Cold Calling™: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, by Joanne S. Black. Why read? Get the meeting at the level that counts and convert more than 50 percent of your contacts into clients. Learn the referral-sales process that seals the deal every time.

Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in any Situationby John Doerr and Mike Schultz. Summer is a great time to catch up on your reading and sharpen your selling skills and there’s no better book to help you do that than the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Rainmaking Conversations. In this book, Mike Schultz and John Doerr provide a proven system that will help you master the art of the sales conversation so you can close more deals, bring in more revenue, and be more successful in 2011 and beyond.

Sales 2.0, by Anneke Seley and Brent Holoway. This summer, while you’re body’s relaxing, take your mind on an adventure into the changing world of sales, with authors Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway.  Ride along as they demystify the world of Sales 2.0 – a better way of selling for today’s savvy buyers and sellers – and showcase four industry-leading companies who are using these practices to great success and profit!

 Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath. Want to land bigger accounts as your customers? Then check out this book. It gives you a step-by-step guide on how to what you need to do to get your foot in the door. Fortune selected it as one of 8 must reads for salespeople – and it deserves the award. Top 20 on Amazon since 2006.

The Sales Winner’s Handbook: Essential Scripts & Strategies to Skyrocket Sales Performance, by Wendy Weiss. Insider, business-by-phone secrets to get the appointment, sail through objections, and get the sale… Scripts for what to say in every situation so you get what you ask for.

What a list for you to select from!  Click here for the comprehensive pdf with all the titles and information to easily click through to your selections. 

Fill your mind..as you rest your body this summer. 

Want to reference this list and the pdf in your blog or newsletter?  Go ahead – but make sure you include the full copy below:

The 2011 Summer Reading list is provided compliments of Nancy Bleeke, Sales Pro Insider, Inc. www.salesproinsider.com 414.235.3064. Nancy’s training courses can help you and your team build confidence and competence to make every conversation matter to increase sales, reduce turnover and strengthen customer loyalty.

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What’ s unique about you?  I’m sure there are a lot of different ‘things’ that make you who you are.  And that is good! 

 April is  National Diversity Month and Lynn Zimmer of the Sales Pro Insider team wrote the following note to remind us to celebrate diversity:

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A national survey conducted in 2007 revealed that diversity in culture and background contributes to innovation and greater business success.  Over the years, this concept has continued to grow.

When we open our ideas to diversity around us – including the many diverse ideas available – creativity knows few limits!

Diversity means acknowledging, appreciating, and ultimately managing differences and similarities at the same time.  Its reach includes categories such as:

• Race
• Gender
• Age
• Religion
• Sexual Orientation
• Physical Disabilities
• Nationalities
• Political Beliefs
• And others…

The month of April celebrates workforce diversity and fair and inclusive workplaces. 

To celebrate diversity this month, take time to gain a greater appreciation of the diversity of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences of those around you.

“Diversity is not about diminishing differences by overshadowing it with similarities.  It is about creating active working environments where fostering appreciation of both differences and similarities is paramount.”

- Stephen Stewart

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I’d like to add a few other diverse ideas here… we can ‘categorize’ all of us into a lot of different groupings of how we are diverse – but does it matter what ‘bucket’ we are in?  My 19 year old, who has a strong interest in all things cultural (he’s studying geography in college) told us again last weekend how much he dislikes having to categorize his ethnicity and such on surveys (he volunteered to complete the Census Survey for our household).  

So I ask you to celebrate the uniqueness of yourself and those around you – find what makes EACH person who they are and celebrate that wholeheartedly!  The rewards in business will pay off as you accept and adapt to them.

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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!

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What does it take to be successful in the sales world?  Intelligence, drive, a good work ethic, being customer and company focused, knowing ‘how’ to sell in your industry and so much more.  Yet all of this can be boiled down to two broader items:  confidence and competence.

In my sales training courses, we build competence and confidence.  When my prospects ask me which is more important – I’m stumped.  It’s both!  Being confident with competence is what is necessary.  Strengthening each of these lasts and gives a healthy ROI to the training!

Let’s look at the alternatives:    

• Confidence with incompetence:  You know these folks – lots of bravado and nothing to back it up.  They create a trail of destruction – inside and outside the company. Often these are what people label the dreaded ‘used car salesman’ type.
• Lack of confidence with incompetence:  Not much to say, hopefully they find another career quickly. The sad part?  Often they are the NICEST people – just miscast in sales.
• Lack of confidence with competence:  They know what to do and CAN do it – but their lack of confidence can rear its ugly head in so many unproductive ways – procrastination, lack of making contact with prospective buyers, and over preparing for everything.

A competent and confident sales professional knows WHAT to do, HOW to do it and does “it”.  They are consistent, productive and proactive.

It’s Friday – let’s have some fun with this one.  Please comment with examples of salespeople you have run into that fit into one of these groups. 

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Great Expectations is more than a Dickens book – its a powerful force in business life.  It drives customer loyalty, frustration, sales and so much more.  ‘Managing expectations’ isn’t good enough anymore…driving and exceeding expectations is the ‘real’ differentiator of pros from rookies.  

Don’t get me wrong, managing expectations is important.  But matching expectations to reality should be the goal.   The effort to sync up reality with expectations runs throughout the sales cycle, implementation or delivery and the relationship. Exceed expectations and you’ll do great.  Miss or just manage expectations and you’ve got a hard road ahead.

Let’s look at a few points in the sales process and the ‘reality” for the sales pro and the customer.

Throughout the whole process your reality may be very different from their reality.  What’s important is to:

• Define and clarify expectations along the way 
• Explain intention and HOW things will go or
• WHY you are asking for certain information
• Ask open ended questions throughout all your discussions to determine their reality.  It might be way different than you think. 

I know this sounds easy on paper -and in ‘real’ life – its tough.  People have different ways of communicating, or not communicating.  They are busy and don’t want to take time, or they are clear them self on certain points, needs, information, etc.  Recapping discussions with clear WHAT’s next, WHO is doing what, WHEN time frames, and HOW you are proceeding will help you get in front of the reality to build great expectations together.

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Last night I returned to Wisconsin after 3 days working with my Sharpenz.com partner in Boca Raton, FL. (Don’t be jealous, it was cold and I was working.)  Traveling always provides interesting situations and sales lessons, and this trip provided a GREAT tip on stalled sales.  The lesson? Don’t be a lemming.

AirTran is the only direct flight and I arrived to check in early. This isn’t a bash on AirTrain, in fact my “TO” flight was smooth and 15 minutes early and the return last night arrived 28 minutes early!

As I entered the Check-in line, there were about 10 passengers in front of me and the line was stalled.  I could see the self check kiosks…without anyone using them.  I asked the man in front of me why no one was using them and he said “Looks like you have to go through one of the agents.”

I waited.

Now there were 6 people behind me and we were still stalled.  I saw an AirTran employee and asked him “Can we  use those kiosks?”  He said “Do you have your confirmation number handy?”  I replied, “No.” (It was buried deep and I didn’t need it on the way out.)  He told me ‘Sorry, then.” and moved on. 

The next 15 minutes were Wait. Move a little. Wait. Stall, stall, stall.  I watched the other people in line (20 or so).  One gentleman really in a panic that the was going to miss his flight.  But he stood in this stalled line like everyone else.

When I reached the front of the line there was another AirTrain employee. I asked her, “Can’t we use the open kiosks?” She said “I don’t think so unless you have your confirmation number.”

Okay.  But I kept looking at them and they LOOKED just like the one I used in Milwaukee three days earlier – you just swiped your credit card and it brought up your itinerary. So I said to the agent, “I think I just need my credit card. Can I try?”  She shrugged her shoulders like “Go ahead’.

As I approached the kiosk I thought “If this works, how many people waited needlessly?”  

Guess what?  It took me about 2 1/2 minutes to swipe my card, move through the screens and pick up my boarding pass.

Wow.  Of course being a trainer I always like to share tips and tools that help others so I turned to the Airtran agent, held up the pass and with a big smile said “It DOES work with a credit card!!”  She looked disinterested.  But the man behind me in line, quickly walked up to the next kiosk instead of waiting.

As I was on my way to security, I was thinking:  How inefficient that was!   How many people were just going with the flow and stalled because everyone else was? 

All because they didn’t:

• Want to ask questions.
• Weren’t paying attention to the details. (One half the kiosk were on and unused)
• Were given wrong information and they didn’t question it.

And that’s how this ties into a sales lesson.  How often do salespeople get stuck in the stalled sales line?  And wait it out without finding out why there is a stall and if there is a way to speed it up?

What, if instead of stalling we:

• Looked for other ways to approach the situation and take action?
• Asked questions on why and how?
• Took a chance by trying something – even if others weren’t willing to?

I think we would move the sales process along more quickly, learn something useful (I’ll never wait like that in line again with open kiosks) and be able to share the idea with others!

Last year was a perfect example of this.  While MANY salespeople ‘waited out’ the recession and followed other non-active msed that stall, kept moving forward and had great sales results!

How have you avoided being a leming and moving a stalled sale?

P.S. I’m not sure if everyone knows the leming reference:  Lemings are rodents who are ‘mythed’ to follow one lemming no matter what, even to death (going over a cliff).  The Urban Dictionary says it is a person with no originality or voice of their own.  They follow what others do.

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Assumptions.  Guessing or thinking we KNOW what someone else is thinking, needing, objecting to, etc.  How many relationships and sales are lost because of assumptions?  Of course that’s a rhetorical question – we can’t know for sure.  The real question is – how many are lost to you?

Every week I work with sales reps and non-traditional sales professionals (IT consultants for example) on consultative selling skill training.  Our process is 6-9 weeks long depending on the course.  We use the methodology of long-term behavior change process to help everyone “stick” the skils land behaviors.  Why? It takes some people 4-5 weeks to REALLY understand what it takes to stop and listen.  Their mode is go-go-go and “I know” and many assumptions are made to keep moving forward. 

Example?  I have many business examples, but I’m going to use a personal example that is so poignant.  I have a relative who does not listen.  Even when she asks a question – it is closed and assumptive.  The following exchange is a PERFECT example of what happens when we assume.

Sarah was talking with another relative, Carrie, who had been dealing with some heart medical issues for months.  Here is the exchange:

• Sarah, “So, you had a stint put in?”
• Carrie, “No.”
• Sarah, “Oh, they did the scope thing instead.”
• Carrie, “Nope.”
• Sarah, “Hmmm. They probably decided medications were the best thing for now then.”
• Carrie, “No.”

 After several more reiterations of this approach Sarah gave up and moved to another conversation…still having no idea what happened to Carrie.

As I observed this I wanted to scream “ASK her a question instead of “guessing” what happened!!”  Carrie, whose known Sarah for 50+ years knew the drill and wasn’t going to play. Honestly – just writing out that dialogue has raised my blood pressure – it is SO frustrating to be in one of those conversations!

How much easier it could have been, if Sarah had asked, “I heard you were having some medical problems, what’s going on?”  Or “What happened?”  That’s it!  Carrie would have answered and both would be better off.

Do you see this at work?  Do you catch yourself and realize that you didn’t get the information you needed from your prospect, customer, teammate, or manager because you didn’t really ask a relevant question and wait for the answer? 

When my husband and I were purchasing a kitchen set, the salesperson took the same approach:

• Seller: “You probably have family parties.”
• Us: “Yes.”
• Seller: “I’m sure you are going to want extra chairs.”
• Us: Silence…there wasn’t anything to answer.
• Seller: “I bet you want this today and we don’t have it in stock.”

After several similar shopping experiences, I said “I wish someone would just ASK us something.”  The sales process took a lot longer than it needed to.  The seller could have just asked, “Tell me about how you use your kitchen?” or “What type of entertaining do you do?”   I would have given him what he needed to make a recommendation.  Instead, we were the ones asking the questions to filter out our options.   

We’re all a work in progress – and each day if we can focus on one, seemingly small, communication action, those around us will be better off for it. 

In fact, a great tip from Pat at CVS Caremark this week – she took all the little tips and wrote one action item on index cards.  Each morning she shuffles the cards and selects one to be her focus of the day.  What a great idea! 

And if the tips includes stopping to listen, letting the other person answer, asking questions without assumptions, focusing on others’ intent and words, etc. we’ll learn a lot that day that might save us a lot of time, energy and frustration later.  It keeps us all from the adage you might have heard about assuming, “When you assume, it makes an as_ out of U and me!” 

What do you think?  What reaction do you have to the dialogue I shared above?

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Collaborative or consultative selling.  What’s the difference?  Aren’t they interchangeable terms? Not really, a collaborative approach is a step beyond traditional consultative selling.  And an opportunity to sell more WITH your buyers.

Consultative selling is a term in use around the globe.  And it is effective – a selling methodology and mindset where the seller, acting as a trusted advisor, assists the buyer in identifying needs and offering solutions within their relationship.  (from the glossary at salesopedia)  And we know consultative selling works – we’ve trained consultative selling skills for over a decade achieving 5-25% increases in sales in 60 days or less!  But is it enough today?  Are the buyers in today’s economy and demographics wanting  more?  I think yes.  They want to be a part of the process AND solution.  Selling collaboratively allows them to do that. 

The definition of collaboration is:  Noun:  The act of working jointly.  Collaborative selling is working with your buyers in a joint process to identify needs, evaluate how your solution benefits them and then navigate through the decision making process.  It’s a side-by-side process instead of a head-on process. 

This quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes sums it up:

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. 

Who knows how much more our buyer can add to the depth of how they use our product/service?  They may have ideas for application, usage and implementation that we had never thought of!  Our buyers are much more informed than they ever were with so much information accessible in a moment.  They have some sort of background, experience or information to contribute to the discussion on most topics.  And when we can collaborate WITH them and jointly discover needs, wants, challenges and solutions to help them, we build a deeper relationship and a more loyal customer.

Who wants to be “told” or “pitched” information?  Not many people, though I may be biased by the fact I live with teens    Most people want to be next to you  exploring a topic and adding their input to the discussion.  Does this mean we don’t need to be the experts?  Not at all!  It means that we need to be more of an expert and prepared to:

1. Ask questions that engage and involve
2. Allow time for more discussion
3. Explore with them  how what we offer will work for them
4. Adapt our communication to their style (including verbal style, decision making style and level of involvement style)
5. Share expertise and information without sales pressure

What’s the difference between collaborative selling and consultative selling?   A mindset of partnership and joint efforts.  

More to come on this topic… In the meantime,  I want to collaborate with you and jointly explore these differences.  What is your take on collaboration versus consultation?

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Expanding your network and referral base is smart business these days. But so many professionals miss the boat on how to network effectively! As you link with other people, keeping your old connections is as important as making new ones.

Yesterday I met with someone starting her own business. As we discussed how to build a network, I was reminded of the important nuances of building the network lifeline.

In my 11 years of providing sales training courses and tools for successful sales and service, I have been on the receiving end of a LOT of bad attempts to network. Most – and I mean 95% – of people that contact me to network really just want to know who I can introduce THEM to. I learned the hard way how important finding out what value they bring to others is before making these connections.

As a rookie, I was giving out names to new contacts very easily – after all wasn’t that what I was supposed to do? Until…

I realized that I was potentially damaging some VALUABLE existing relationships by not ensuring they would be a GOOD connection. I was wasting my existing connections’ time with people that they didn’t need (or want) to talk to.

Not anymore. I am more careful before making a connection. To value my existing relationships, I have work to do before I link them with a new connection.

Additional specific tips to network effectively:

1. Before you ask to meet with someone to network OR go to a network event, consider what you can offer to the other person(s). Is it expertise? Other contacts? Assistance with something they are working on?
2. Know your value proposition to potential clients. If you can’t explain your value, how will your networkers know who might need what you offer?
3. Do your homework! Know as much about the person or the people in the group as you can prior to connecting.
4. In a “live” setting ask people for THEIR business card first. Look at the card and see what it says – use that as a conversation starter.
5. For live events, always have the following items with you:
   • Your business cards
   • A pen to take notes on their business card
   • A smile on your face
   • Some type of paper to write on
6. Tap into social networking. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. All great potential tools…if you use them correctly and keep the first 3 tips in mind.
7. Ask questions about the motivation and reputation of a new connection BEFORE giving out the names and phone numbers of your valuable existing relationships
8. And with his efforts, I’m pleased to introduce Jim and what he does to you! His blog and newsletter have great marketing information. See how the value exchange pays off?

And a foundation element to all of these networking tips: Networkers that GIVE something to others before asking for something are much more successful in the long run. A great example: Jim Connolly’s blog post shows how a seemingly little effort of giving in networking can pay off big – not only for himself but for everyone else!

Networking with others will be even more important as the world we operate in shrinks with technology. As you consider how you will expand your network, focus on the song I learned in Girl Scouts, “Make new friends, but keep the old…one is silver and the other gold!”

Newsflash! In the next six weeks, the SalesProInsider will be offering more free resources for you! Two eBooks, a free webinar and more! Stay tuned…

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