Earlier this week I read an article by Jill Konrath, sales expert and author (see more on Jill at the end of this post), about the REAL decision making process of buyers.  I just hung up the phone and experienced this – as the buyer! 

The call was from someone referred to me. I didn’t have the time (vacation awaits), and yet before hanging up, I asked HIM a question that ‘connected’ us.  As I hung up, I thought “I bet he thinks he is ‘in’ – just like Jill wrote about in her article!”  So, I share the article with you so you can see what I am talking about and more importantly, so that you don’t go too far in your sales call. Finding the right distance will get you to the finish line faster! 

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Are You Going Too Far on Sales Calls?
By Jill Konrath

Call me a prude if you will, but I’ve had it with sellers who are totally clueless that they’re going too far, too fast in their initial meeting with me. The worst thing is, they have no idea how their actions are perceived.

Could you possibly be guilty of this promiscuous behavior? If so, do you have any idea what it’s doing to your reputation?

The Fantasy

Let’s say I’m your ideal prospect. You call me up, catch me on the phone, deliver a message that piques my curiosity and I agree to meet.

Sounds like the perfect scenario, right? If you’re like most sellers, you’re probably pretty excited about our upcoming meeting. After all, I’m one hot prospect who’s interested in what you’ve got.

So what happens when we finally get together? Initially you focus on building a relationship with me. You thank me for agreeing to meet. We chitchat for a few minutes about little things. Then you ask me about my company to get me talking about business.

After you’ve warmed me up, it’s time to get serious. Since I agreed to meet, clearly I want to learn about your company and offering, so an overview comes next. You want to make sure I understand all the salient details about your organization, its history and more.

Then it’s time for a few questions. Perhaps you start by assessing if I’m a qualified buyer with money in my budget. Or, you might focus on my very specific needs so you can determine the appropriate solution.

Following that, you present information on the products or services you think I’d be most interested in. When I start asking questions, you get more excited. We’re connecting, bonding, getting closer to consummating the business relationship.

The Reality

But the truth is, you are dead wrong! You’ve totally misjudged my interest level and thus, lost the opportunity to do business with me.

Why? You don’t understand how I (your prospect) think. You assumed that my interest meant one thing, when it fact it signifies something entirely different.

In SNAP Selling (coming in May), I’ve structured the whole book around the three primary decisions your prospects make:

First Decision: Allow Access
When you approach a prospect with an enticing message, they’ll agree to meet-perhaps by phone, web conference or in person. They’re willing to invest a small bit of time with you. You’ve moved them from being oblivious about your existence to curious.

Second Decision: Initiate Change
In the second decision, your prospect evaluates if it’s worth it to change from the status quo. They’d prefer not to because it takes a lot of extra time and effort. But, if they can see that all the hassle and pain leads to a better outcome, they’ll do it.

Third Decision: Select Resources
Once your prospect decides that change is worthwhile, then they want to learn about your product or service. Understanding your differentiators becomes important to them. Even the risk of doing business with you is considered. At the end of this decision, they pick the option they determine is best for them.

Understanding the difference between these three decisions is imperative to your sales success. At each stage of the process, your sales behaviors must change if you want to keep advancing your relationship. Failure to get it right means you get dumped.

So Here’s the Deal

Over 90% of the people you meet with are in the Second Decision phase. They’re trying to determine if they want to change.

But there you are, trying to seduce them with all the cool things about your product, service or solution. That’s Third Decision behavior. It’s way too much information about your offering much too quickly. And, it’s coming at a time when the focus should be on helping your prospect assess the ROI for moving off the status quo

When you prematurely elaborate, you set up a lose/lose situation. Prospects don’t want to have anything more to do with you, even if you could have made a difference to their business. From their perspective, you’re only concern is making a quick sale. While that wasn’t your intent, that is how you’re perceived.

Anytime you meet with new prospects, first find out if they’ve already decided to change. If not, don’t talk for more than a few minutes about your offering or company.

Instead say, “While many of our customers have realized significant value from changing, what we really need to do is determine if it makes sense for you.” Then, be prepared to ask questions that lead to that outcome.

Don’t sabotage your chances of sales success by trying to move too quickly. Slow down. Way down. Ensure your prospect has made the Second Decision, before you jump into Third Decision behaviors – or suffer the consequences. You can’t rush a relationship!

Thanks Jill for a very timely message – I personally CAN’T wait to get my hands on your SNAP Selling book!

More on Jill:  Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at annual sales meetings and association events.

For more articles like this, visit http://www.SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a free Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter. 

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: prospecting, sales expert, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

My mom told us often, “A little appreciation goes a long way.”  How true that is!  And many people think it takes a LOT of  money and fanfare to show appreciation.  Not true! 

 Leaders, does this sound like you?

“This year has been tight, I have no budget to do the ‘extras’ to show my people I value them.”

Throughout 2009 I have had discussions with leaders thinking the same thing. I have encouraged and suggested that they find non-cash ways to appreciate and recognize their top performers. We discussed hand written notes, a small gift card for no reason, a lunch, a phone call to discuss them, not business, etc. 

Now, along comes the PERFECT way to show appreciation! Nominate your top performers to be a Sales All Star!!

AllBusiness.com has a monthly contest that you can use to publicly acknowledge your sales all stars. Details here:   

AllBusiness will honor the top-performing salespeople working hard in today’s competitive market. Just tell them about a salesperson in your network who deserves the limelight.

The panel of sales coaches and experts will select one salesperson each monthfrom among the nominees. That person will be profiled in a feature article for AllBusiness and our sister site, Hoover’s, and will receive free membership in a sales networking and coaching program. One annual winner will get a package of sales training and coaching programs, membership in Top Sales Experts, and additional tools and resources to continue developing their expertise and talent.

Think about it – how will they feel to know you nominated the for an international award?  GREAT! 

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: Leadership, Sales, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

Boost Sales NEXT Week!

It’s amazing what a focused 30 minutes of sharpening sales qualities can do.  Energy, enthusiasm and activity levels increase and the whole team is ready to sell more!

Sales managers asked and we listened.  They wanted something quick and easy to use to build their sales team.  Sharpenz…  Half  Hour of Power, 30 minute sales training boosters were developed to save everyone time and increase sales!

We’re honored that Smart Selling Tools has named Sharpenz their Hot Pick for November!    

You can read the announcement here.      

 Just this week dozens of managers have taken us up on the Try Before You Buy offer.  And then after seeing the ready-to-go sales training kit with copy-ready  handout, word for word outlines, reinforcement tips and more – they took advantage of the 50% off launch offer!  We are so excited to see that others see the value and that sales people around the world will sell more next week because of it!

Visit www.sharpenz.comfor more information – and you can watch a short (less than 2.5 minutes) video where I explain  Sharpenz in a nutshell!

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        Speaking of honors - Top 10 Sales Articles has selected Sales Meetings that Engage: Please Include Me as a nominee for the November article of the month.   

Click here to see all 10 nominees.  If you would, I’d appreciate it if you would vote for my article!    

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   Another FREE ebook filled with TONS of useful sales tips and tools from Top Sales Experts.             

It’s the Fall Edition and it is ready for you.  Click on the graphic to get your copy. 

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Tags: maximize sales productivity, sales, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

Free Sales Training Outline for Your Sales Meeting!  Looking for ideas to easily and quickly strengthen the skill and results for your sales team?  We’ve got ‘em!

We whittled our comprehensive sales training expertise into specific 30-minute boosts of power!  These proven (all tested) outlines focus on a specific sales topic (skill, attitude, tool, practice).  There’s more than 25 to pick from today and more in development.  We have tested each booster in the 30 minute format to make sure you do get a big BOOST in a little time.

Whether you are a sales manager or a member of ANY service/sales team that would like to work with your colleagues to boost each other’s skills in selling, prospecting, marketing, or personal development, there may be a Sharpenz booster for you!  (From goal setting to working through objections to team building.) 

To build excitement in our 2nd week of launching Sharpenz, we have two special offers:  

1.  A FREE Sharpenz booster for you – you can select one of two titles:

        Better Questions which focuses on helping you identify and practice better questions you can ask in your needs analysis and problem solving.  Or

       Now to Wow provides a very interactive format for your team to look at all your customer “touch points” and determine how to escalate these touches to a WOW! experience.

2.  All orders through November 15th are discounted 50%!

I’ve even put together a video for you to listen into (less than 2.5 minutes!)

Sometimes its good to hear other’s perspectives, the following blogs mention Sharpenz: 

• Jonathan Farrington’s Blog – Sharpen Your Greatest Sales Tool
• Salesopedia Blog – Sharpenz Your Sales Meeting
• Scott “Social Media” Allen – Sharpenz: Better Sales Meetings = More Sales

Give it a try today with your free Sharpenz sales booster.  You’ll find it to be the BEST 30 minutes of your sales meeting!

P.S. Sales Pro Insider, Inc. is alive and well.  In fact, we are working right now with two Fortune 100 companies to build sales and service skills  and helping another sales organization hire a KEY sales exec!

Let me know what you think of Sharpenz!  Do you think you can sharpen skills and results in just 30 minutes?

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Tags: Sales Productivity, Sales Tips, Sales training

This past Saturday we moved our oldest son into his freshman dorm at UW-Milwaukee.  I won’t get all “Mom” here about the transition of my first baby actually not living at home full time though.  Instead, this post is focusing on “stuff” and what we need to be successful.

As I watched the college newbies move into their dorms it was amazing how much STUFF was moving in with them!  Our son is a minimalist, he finds that more stuff means more distraction and things to keep track of.  He keeps his stuff light and figures that will be okay. 

Of course these past weeks I kept pushing more stuff on him…you’re going to need THIS, and you really are going to need THAT I told him.  But he stuck to his guns on not needing too much to clutter his room, and off we went.

The move-in process was so efficient – it helped that we only had one kart full of stuff (with him carrying the all-important Xbox ).  When we got to his room, I was shocked at how small it seemed – but because Kevin didn’t have a lot of STUFF it didn’t matter!  It took us about 30 minutes to get him settled in – and he had PLENTY of what he needed. 

Then we saw other student’s rooms – they were packed with stuff!  I couldn’t believe it – 4-5 karts worth of stuff and every square inch of the dorm room full.  I started to panic…I knew it!  He really did need more stuff! How can he be successful without all of the things everyone else has? 

Kevin assured me he will be fine and said he will let me know if he decides he needs more.  He ran through the list of what was really necessary – bedding, a food card, a TV with Xbox, some clothes, his bathing items, school supplies, and his laptop.  Was that enough I kept thinking?  “I don’t NEED anything else!” he once again told me.

That’s what got me thinking…So many times I hear professionals complain about not having the right  tools, resources, money, lead lists, database, etc. etc. etc.  Let’s just call all of those items STUFF!  They want stuff, they NEED stuff, they would be so much more successful if they just HAD more stuff!  But is that true?  Does more of everything help you be successful?  Or does it clutter your mind and your space and keep you from higher levels of success?

The real question is…what is the stuff you really NEED to be successful?  Leave a comment and I will compile a list.

p.s. Time will tell with Kevin – but 48+ hours plus later, he says he still doesn’t need any more STUFF (and that he’d like me to stop asking

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: productivity, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips, sales tools

I just read a blog post that is very timely at this time of year.  Patrick Diessen’s blog covered procrastination today.  At this point in the sales year our procrastination from the past six months – or the lazy days of summer – can start catching up with us.  This advice is very relevant today.

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“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task!” – William James

A Cure for Procrastinating
Here’s a cure for those who are sick and tired of being told; “If only you applied yourself, you could accomplish so much!”:

1. Make top-of-mind that you really are squandering your life. Your life’s meaning is significantly determined by how much you’ve given to the world. And as everyone’s been telling you ad nauseum, you have so much potential to do that. Decide, finally, that every time you opt to forgo productivity in favor of a brain teaser or party, you’re probably wasting life’s most precious resource: TIME!  
2. Set a big goal. Goethe said, “Dream no small dreams because they have no power to move people’s hearts.” So, what’s the biggest, most exciting goal you could potentially achieve if you put your mind to it? Even if you’re not sure you could achieve it, might getting partway there is good enough?                                                                                                                Can’t think of a big, exciting goal? Here are common fantasy careers: owning a cool business, being a celebrity, being in the fashion, sports, computer games, or film industry, directing or starting a non-profit, holding political office, holding a status job like architect, lawyer, or executive.  Already in a career? What’s the biggest contribution you could make to your field? Most people don’t have the intellectual firepower to make a big contribution, but you’re a Mensan. You do. 
3. Picture the benefits of achieving your goal. Money? Fame? Self-esteem? A more meaningful life? Get your spouse off your back? Increased happiness? More meaningful relationships?
4. Is fear making you procrastinate? If so, what would your wiser twin say in response to your fear? For example, if you’re afraid of failing, your wiser twin might say, “If the goal is really too difficult, change it or get the skills you need so it’s not too difficult.” Or, “Is it wiser to not attempt your goal at all, which guarantees failure? Would the price of failure be so great as to justify your not trying it?” 
5. Consider getting a collaborator. Procrastinators often feel guilty about slacking if they have a partner to be accountable to.  
6. Be aware of the moment of truth: that moment, when you, usually unconsciously decide whether you should take that next baby step toward your goal or see what event you should next attend? By making the choice consciously, you’ll more often choose the productive activity.  
7.  Break the project into baby steps. Don’t know how? Get help from a close friend, family member, coach or mentor. 
8. When you’re stuck, struggle for no more than one minute. Generally, if you haven’t made progress in a minute, chances are that additional struggling won’t help. It will merely make you want to procrastinate more! 
9. DON’T put it on your To-Do List. Conventional wisdom says to put all your tasks on a to-do list and then prioritize the list. I’ve found that for many tasks, you’re wiser to just do the task: you save the time it takes to put the task on your list; you avoid adding to the many tasks hanging over your head like Poe’s pendulum in the pit; doing it now tends to make you not be overly perfectionist about it; most important, you avoid procrastination: you’ve gotten it done! So instead of the guilt, you’ll start hearing, “Wow. Thanks for the fast response!” That feels so good! 
10. A one-paragraph procrastination treatment. When you’re tempted to procrastinate, there’s a moment of truth when you’re still able to resist, like when you’re just starting to lose your temper. At that moment, you can still restrain yourself.
    How to restrain yourself from procrastinating? At the moment of truth, ask yourself, “What’s my next one-minute task?” If you can’t figure out what it is or how to do it, ponder for just one minute. If you’re still clueless, get help or decide that the problem isn’t important enough to worry about.  
11. Procrastination Excuses. Do you use any of these bogus excuses to justify procrastinating? 

•   I’ll feel more like doing it tomorrow. –> Think back to previous times you’ve used that excuse. Did you feel more like doing it the next day? 

• After I do X (for example, clean my desk), I’ll do the task. –> Again, think back. Did delaying the task make things easier? 

• I’m afraid of failing. –> Not trying ensures failure! Winners increase their chances of success by dividing tasks into bite-sized pieces and getting help where needed.

What can you do today?
When tempted to procrastinate, first congratulate yourself on catching yourself making an excuse. Then do your next few-second task. Expect it to feel uncomfortable. Do it anyway. It will get better! It will help you to succeed faster and better!

“The two rules of procrastination: 1) Do it today. 2) Tomorrow will be today tomorrow!” - Author Unknown

Make this a Positive & Successful day…. unless you have other plans!  Written by Marty Nemko for Patrick Diessen.  Dutch born and now Sydney based Patrick Driessen is a visionary, entrepreneurial and intuitive executive leader, strategist, exec coach, author and agent of change with a passion to help other people succeed!

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With short Midwestern summers, it is easy to get into the habit (yes it is a habit) of procrastination. I’m using this information to jump start my activity again!  Best to you Nancy.

What tips for removing procrastination do you have for others?

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: sales, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

Success seems to be connected with action.

Successful people keep moving.

They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.

C Hilton

If you want to be productive this week – keep moving.  Your actions will get you somewhere. 

If you want to be successful this week, link your actions to your goals – and you will get where you want to be.

Make the most out of your time and efforts by setting goals for this week and preparing for what actions you will take. If you make a mistake, keep moving forward.

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: focus, Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

Ever play with rubber bands?  At first they can be so rigid and tough to stretch.  Yet the more we use them and flex them, the more pliable they become.  It’s the same with our beliefs about our sales.  When we flex our sales paradigm (belief) and stretch it, we become more flexible and successful.

Do you know what a paradigm is?  No, it isn’t twenty cents   Paradigm is a word used a lot in the last 20 years and it seems that many don’t really understand how knowing what a paradigm is AND how paradigms impact their own personal performance can be helpful. Let’s start with the definition:

 From dictionary.com:  A paradigm is “an example; a model; a pattern”. 

And we have paradigms or models/paterns for most everything we do, including how we think and what we believe about sales and our performance.  This paradigm can be visualized as a boundary around our beliefs.  The key is whether that boundary is helpful or a barrier.

Relating this to sales performance – each of us has a belief paradigm about about our sales and possibilities  We have a pattern of belief and action around who we can call on, what level of sales we believe possible, the types of “deals” we believe we are capable of, the likelihood of closing sales, etc.  And some of these beliefs can help us focus on the right opportunities.  The caution is to ensure that these beliefs don’t limit our selling and results. 

An example:  the media frenzy about how bad the economy is has reduced a LOT of people’s beliefs in opportunity and possibility.  And this limiting belief is playing out across the world in the psyche of sales people and sales managers.  Or rather SOME sales professionals…because there are sales pros experiencing their best year ever right now.  They have not given in to the hype of what “should be happening” (someone else’s beliefs) and are outselling those around them. 

Sales may be taking longer in some cases, buyers amay be more stressed and trying to do more with less and the value provided needs to be stronger than ever.  These new rules of sales are shrinking people’s paradigms/beliefs in possibilities like never before.  The question becomes what can we do to stretch our own paradigms to ensure we aren’t the barrier to capturing more sales?

First, Explore your own paradigms about sales possibilities. Are they accurate?  How are they helping?  How are they holding you back? 

Then stretch your thoughts as you find examples of success all around you.  Who is selling now? What are they doing to sell within today’s realities?

Once your thoughts are stretched, take action.  We can expand our paradigm by first taking action because our beliefs will expand when we see the success that comes with the action.

If you want to increase your sales results this year, start flexing your paradigm.  Just like a rubber band – the more you flex it and stretch it, the more pliable it will become.  And the more success you will find in your sales!

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: productivity, Sales, Sales Productivity, sales success, Sales Tips

Happy April Fool’s Day!  A day for tricks – not just for fools as I don’t think I am a fool – though I have had many tricks played on me in my lifetime.  As if four brothers didn’t have enough fun at my expense with their tricks, my husband picked up where they left off.  When we were first married, he tied a rubber band around the sink sprayer in the kitchen sink.  When I rinsed my breakfast dish, water sprayed directly on me.   He did this year after year and I think it took me 6-7 years to catch on that this was going to be a “tradition”. 

6-7 years!  No, I’m not THAT slow, but when some things happen so infrequently, it may take a while for us to identify that we need to be prepared for it.  And in sales, we don’t have 6-7 years to figure out potential obstacles that we need to navigate through – even if they happen once a year!

What can you do to make sure you aren’t made to look like a fool in your sales?  Prepare!  Put some preparation efforts into your OVERALL sales process, approach and effectiveness.  A few specific actions you can take: 

• Review the tricky situations you have had in any of your sales contacts in the last few months – can they be prevented in the future?  How? 
• Prepare more strategically – step back from “what” you do and think about “how” you do it.  Does your sales process work?  Are there parts of it that need to be updated?
• Evaluate your tool box.  How are you incorporating any of the Sales 2.0 tools into your sales activities?  You can read more about Sales 2.0 tools in a post by Jill Konrath here.
• Engage other team members for feedback on how you can be more effective.  Think beyond the sales team – what might you learn from marketing, customer service, QA, and other departments that you interface with?

Making the time to step back and look for seemingly harmless and infrequent tricks in your sales process and then removing these obstacles, will keep you fool-proof. 

P.S. This year hubby is out of town and I did not have an early morning sink shower

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Tags: Sales Productivity, Sales Tips

A Sales Builder Webinar – FREE for you!  If you are in a role where you need to coax the most productivity of salespeople you know it’s not easy.  Helping others succeed may be the toughest job there is! 

The question is, how do we increase sales through others?    

1. Set higher goals?
2. Tell them its a “do or die” year?
3. Buy them better tools like a Blackberry or faster laptop?
4. Help them discover their personal barriers to higher success?
5. Give them a u-rah-rah speech?
6. Help them build their success habits?

Our FREE webinar for anyone in the position to impact others’ sales results will provide you with tips that will allow your sales team to succeed.  This is for sales managers, presidents, business owners, HR managers and anyone who is ready to help others’ succeed this year!

We will share the “inside” secrets to help you:          

1. Increase the sales results of your team
2. Decrease your turnover and recruiting expenses
3. Maximize each person’s talents and abilities

February 3, 2009

10:30 – 11:30 a.m. Central Time

Click here to register and reserve your spot!

And please share this FREE opportunity with other professionals that could use a boost in building their sales team!

Questions? call Nancy Bleeke at 414.422.1689. 

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Filed Under: Sales Productivity
Tags: coaching, Leadership, maximize sales productivity, Sales Productivity, sales success