Softer Side of Selling

Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling

Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling

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Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling
Available on Amazon

Secrets of the Softer Side of SellingWhether you’re early in your career or an old pro, Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling (affiliate link to Amazon) authors Don and Lois Crawford show you how to achieve your goals—even if you never believed it was possible. If you’re new to sales, or you own a business and have finally figured out that your job title really includes “sales director” or “sales rep,” this book could be the flat-out best book you’ll ever read. Learn More or Buy Now on Amazon (affiliate link)….

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Softer Side of Selling Is Taking a Break

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Sometimes we need a break or time away from something to help us become re-inspired. Over the last several years most weeks there has been a new post on the Softer Side of Selling Blog. And now it is time to pause and refresh. So I’m taking a break from posting for the next few months.

Softer Side is Taking A Break. Be back after a while.

Time For A Break
Image by Azmi Talib from Pixabay

Many Posts For You To Read

But great salespeople, don’t despair! There are nearly 200 posts on this blog. And they are still relevant today as the day they were written. So I encourage you to choose one a week to focus on to improve your sales skills.

Guest Bloggers

While I’m away you can be a guest blogger on Softer Side of Selling. Just send me a post about selling or sales skills of 500 to 700 words. Include your contact info. If it’s suitable for this blog I’ll review it and let you know when it will post.

Thank you for being a loyal reader.

What You Can Do Right Now

  • Commit yourself to being the best salesperson you can be
  • Study to improve your sales skills
  • Remember you succeed when you put your customers’ needs first.

To learn more sales secrets read Secrets of the Softer Side of Selling. For even more sales encouragement, join our FREE Sales Club! “See” you when I return.

Good selling!
Don Crawford

 

 

Sales Skill: Think About The Future

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Looking forward to a fantastic 2022? Better have a plan!

This year is almost over. And what a year it has been. No company’s plan prepared a year ago survived. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted businesses both large and small. We learned to work from home. Even crusty old road warriors managed to learn how to sell virtually. Some of our customers thrived by pivoting their business models to take advantage of the pandemic. Others kept the doors open by modifying how they delivered products and services. And regrettably some of your customers have gone out of business. Thankfully this year is mostly done! Great salespeople are planning now to make 2022 even better than this year.

Looking forward to a fantastic 2022? Better have a plan!

Are you planning for a Great 2022?
age by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Why Plan?

Yeah, I know no matter how well you plan it never works out that way. If you never believed that before 2020 surely drove that point home. My favorite answer to why plan is from General Eisenhower. This is what he said about planning: “In planning for battle I have found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Great salespeople know that the process of planning prepares them for the challenges of finding and creating customers for life….

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Sales Skill: Thinking Like A Buyer

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Selling today has changed from the pre-pandemic times. But selling has always been changing. The fundamental process we use to win and keep good customers is the same. Because fundamentals are, well, fundamental. How we deal with buyers now is different from years past. So what are great salespeople doing now to be thinking like a buyer?

Salespeople thinking like buyers win often

Think Like A Buyer
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Buyers Are Better Informed

Just like great salespeople can find out an incredible amount of information about the prospect before making contact, so can buyers find out much about you. By the time you have that first meeting, whether in person or more likely virtual, the buyer will know a lot about your company and you. So you need to think like a buyer and keep your available information up to date and informative. This gives the buyer a chance to start building trust with you….

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A Time To Be Grateful

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This blog was first posted at Thanksgiving 2019. A lot has changed since then with the COVID-19 pandemic. Business disruption has occurred in all markets throughout the world. Many businesses have failed because of the restrictions necessary to control the spread of the virus. Others have thrived by providing new and innovative services during the pandemic. And entrepreneurs are taking risks starting new businesses to fulfill their dreams. Even in the midst of all the angst we can be grateful.

Great Salespeople Celebrate Their Success

Great Salespeople Are Thankful
Image by GraphicMama-team from Pixabay

Thanksgiving is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. Thanksgiving is also celebrated at different times in many other countries. The early Thanksgiving celebrations were to pause and show gratitude for the harvest of the previous year and the sacrifices making it possible. In our family we usually gather with friends and relatives to mark the day with pleasant conversation, sumptuous food and of course a glass (or two) of wine. This year the two of us will spend the day together apart from those we love. Even so as we enjoy the meal together we will take turns saying what we are particularly grateful for….

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Selling As A Profession

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So maybe you are just joining the workforce or maybe been considering selling as a profession for a while. Or you are an experienced salesperson questioning whether to continue in sales. Let’s look at why people choose selling and what characteristics make a great salesperson. There is the age-old question of whether great salespeople are born or made. The answer is yes to both. Here’s my take on that answer.

Selling as a profession if done well will be rewarding

Great Salespeople Are Well Compensated

My Story. Short Version

I guess I was born to be a salesperson, although my career didn’t start out that way. My mother for a time in her working life owned a children’s shop. My dad both before and after his active duty time in the Army was a road warrior salesman. Me, I got a BS in electrical engineering and a few years later an MBA. I had mostly engineering oriented jobs early in my career. About ten years into my career I was working for an engineering company. And enjoying the engineering kind of work with some customer interaction. I kept looking at the salespeople in the company and saw how much fun they seem to be having. So I made the jump and have been enjoying successful selling ever since….

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Selling Skill: Recover From Poor Performance

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Ouch! I really stubbed my toe that time! Yes, even great salespeople make mistakes along the way to getting the order. And we learn from our mistakes. Sometimes even recover enough to get the sale. The good news is if you are making mistakes you are for sure out there creating opportunities for buyers to place orders with you.

Yoda said great salespeople do selling

“Do or do not, there is no try.”
Image from Pixabay

It’s A Numbers Game

The more sales calls you make the more likely you will fail to get the order. It’s the very rare sales team who wins 100% of their sales pursuits. Set activity goals and track your success. How many appointment setting calls did you make? How many appointments did you get? From those appointments how many sales resulted? If your closing ratio is 50% then only half of the sales you attempted led to an order. Your challenge great salesperson is to learn why an attempt to close failed….

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Sales Skill: Lifelong Learning

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Lifelong learning makes great salespeople. If the COVID pandemic has taught great salespeople one thing it’s the need to continually learn new selling skills and refine the current ones. Are you keeping current with the latest buyer strategies? How about all the tech for selling?

Salespeople need lifelong learning to be the best

Great Salespeople Are Lifelong Learners
Image by Deedster from Pixabay

Take A Selling Skills Inventory

All of us have strengths and weaknesses. What are yours? Ask your mentor for an evaluation. Check with your colleagues for their opinion. Discuss your performance with a trusted customer. Think back to recent successes and failures. What did you learn about your selling skills from the wins and losses? Do you have trusted buyers who will give honest feedback on your selling skills? Seeking to understand your weaknesses is a trait of great salespeople….

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Sales Skill: Virtual Selling

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I am old road warrior sales guy. I spent my 45-year career sitting face-to-face with prospects. Now the sales world has turned virtual. No more morning coffee with my first meeting of the day. Then lunch with another. Followed by a couple of afternoon meetings. Sometimes finishing with an evening meal with a client. With the pandemic that’s not happening. Or at least not as much. The change is driven by increased efficiency as much by health concerns. Buyer’s time meeting with salespeople is reduced when they meet virtually. So, great salesperson, what’s the new normal?

Virtual selling applies new skills to fundamental selling principles.

Apply Fundamentals To Virtual Selling
Image from Pixabay

Some Things Never Change

In this blog I focus on the fundamentals of good selling. All the fundamentals stay the same. How we now need to apply them has changed. The six-step selling process is Rapport, Pain, Budget, Decision Maker, Presentation, Follow-up. Successful selling still requires great salespeople to do all the same work virtually as doing face-to-face selling.

So What’s Different With Virtual Selling?

Time. In face-to-face selling we had time to build rapport, find the pain, confirm the budget then make a pitch to the decision maker. True we needed to be aware of the time allowed by the buyer but often if we made a connection and really had the buyer’s interest time got flexible. Discussions started in a late morning meeting could continue over lunch. Now we schedule a virtual meeting for a particular time period. Often the buyer has another meeting after ours so time is not flexible. We need to match the goals for the meeting to the time allowed. Everything is moving faster today….

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The Concept Of Value

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Great salespeople focus on providing value to the customer. Building strong relationships salespeople know what the customer values. The value triangle is: Price, Quality, Performance. Customers can only get two of the three. With low price a customer must give up quality or performance (sometimes expressed as “service”). Those buyers who value high quality are more likely to pay the higher price. If not the higher price, then a competitive price but delivered with better performance.

The concept of value compares benefits to price

The Concept Of Value
Image from Pixabay

How To Define Value

Think about your personal purchasing decisions. How do you evaluate a major purchase or even a minor purchase made the first time? Take buying a car for example. What’s the concept of value? Well we have a reason to buy the car. If you value a car just to get you from point A to point B then perhaps a cheap used car will do. Maybe you want a car which brings you prestige. Or an all-electric one because you are environmentally conscious. And most likely no matter what the benefit you want from the car, you will have a budget. So here is the mental calculation you make:

VALUE = BENEFIT / PRICE

When the benefit exceeds the price, that’s good value. With ratio of benefit to price less than one we don’t see the value in making the purchase. Great salespeople spend enough time understanding what benefit the prospect wants from the purchase. Then use the concept of value to justify the price….

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Sales Skill: Building Relationships

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In this blog I relate my experience in 45 years of successful B2B selling. The fundamental skill to my success is building relationships with prospects and customers. Now I read articles calling for “putting the buyer first” and “delivering value.” This is not new stuff. Ask any great salesperson and they will tell you both mindsets are fundamental to building mutually beneficial, long-term relationships.

Strong relationships between buyer and seller are the key to successful selling

Build Strong Seller-Buyer Relationships
Image from Pixabay

Listen First

I was always more interested in what the buyer had to say. Think about it. How can you put the buyer first or deliver value if you don’t know anything about the buyer? The products I sold had relatively long sales cycles. Three meetings minimum and sometimes as many as a dozen spread over a year. The customer was in no hurry to buy. So why be in a hurry to sell? Asking good questions to find out what drives the customer or prospect is the first step in building relationships….

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