Softer Side of Selling

Are you a planner? Do you set goals for each day? Or are you one to just “wing it”? To be the best you need to manage your day in sales.

Are You Just Average?

Is this you? Hop in your car. Stop at the end of the driveway. Wonder whether to turn left to the first prospect of the day. Right to go to the office to make phone calls. Or head to the local coffee shop to check out the new barista. Most average sales people just “wing it” figuring something miraculous will happen today. Do you manage your day in sales like the best salespeople by having a plan for the day?

Goals Are The Key To Success

Read the published literature on success and the common theme there is goal …

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How often to you plan social sales calls? Do buyers see you as Mr. or Ms. Hard Sell? Are you always pushing for orders? Ever just relax with a customer or prospect?

It’s All About Relationship

People buy from people who they like and trust. Let’s unpack that statement. First of all people really buy from people. Whoa, you think: “What about the book I ordered from Amazon?” Well, OK, some smaller personal purchases we just buy. But what about a car or house? Would you buy one without human interaction? Even when you “buy” a car on line, there is a dealership involved. In the B2B world where I spent my career there was always a buyer involved.

People buy from salespeople they like. Maybe not always but when the buyer likes you it is much easier to get the information you need to close the sale. Plus if you find the buyer unpleasant you may just pass on selling to that company. Trust is everything. When there is not mutual trust closing the sale is impossible. Social sales calls allow the buyer and seller to build and strengthen relationship. They develop a “business friendship”. And we trust our friends.

Social Sales Calls?

What are social sales calls? Sharing a meal together. A golf outing. Attending a baseball game. Perhaps an evening cruise on your sailboat. These are meetings with your customer which are outside the office and build the strong personal relationship. True, some companies forbid this kind of activity between salesperson and buyer. I think that is short sighted. Good relationships benefit both parties. And I’ve never gotten an order from a customer because I bought them lunch or took them fishing. Good buyers place orders when it is in the best interest of their company….

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Are your sales growing? Where are the new sales coming from? No matter what business you are in, there are only four sources of new business.

Only Four Sources Of New Business!?

Why are there only four sources of ways to grow your sales? Think about it and look at the chart with this blog. You can add new customers to buy your current product line or sell more of those products to existing customers. If your existing customers have needs for products other than what you currently sell perhaps you can add new products to your offering. By adding new products the possibility exists for adding new markets with needs different from current customers. See, only four sources of new business for your company or sales territory.

New Products and New Customers

This is the most challenging way to grow business. It’s a difficult enough task to convince a new prospect to trust you even when you are selling a proven product. Convincing a prospect to take a chance with an unknown company and unproven product is not impossible but more difficult than other options.

I worked for a company in the 1980’s when metal recycling was taking off. We made thermal processing equipment to heat various materials to high temperatures. The company had never sold …

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Do you set the stage for the next meeting before you end the sales call? For sales processes with long sales cycles and multiple calls to close, do you have a mutually agreed upon action plan at the end of each sales call?

Plan For The Long Run

Selling expensive, complex products are a particular challenge. Great salespeople always sketch out the sales process from first contact to close. Who are the key players? What are their individual needs? How do they affect the buying decision? At each step along the way to close great salespeople set the stage for the next meeting.

Selling Is A Process

From building rapport, to identifying the problem, to determining the budget, to finding the decision maker, to closing the sale, great sales people follow the process. At each step along the way great salespeople ask questions. Each answer leads to …

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How To Win A Sales Argument is the title of a book my father gave to me when I first started selling. The book was written by Richard Borden and Alvin Busse and published in 1926, almost 100 years ago.

Why Use The Term “Sales Argument”?

“Argument” comes from the Latin word “arguere” which meant to make clear or prove. Through the years into middle English the meaning changed to the process of reasoning. While in current use, “argument” has a negative connotation, perhaps in 1926 it was a more acceptable.

What Did Borden and Busse Mean By “Sales Argument”?

For years this little book remained hidden in a box of stuff collected after my father died. I had looked at the title many times and thought: “how negative could this book be?” And then put the book aside. Recently I was browsing the bookshelves looking for blog inspiration. I pulled the book off the shelf and started paging through it. Was I amazed! The authors put forth 5 principles for winning …

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In my experience the well-executed sales conversation is the best technique for developing mutually beneficial long-term relationships. That may be because the products and services I have sold are complex with long sales cycles. That said, even my successful friends who work in one-call-close businesses use sales conversations.

What’s A Sales Presentation?

One of the simplest examples of a sales presentation is the nice ladies at my Costco store handing out samples of tasty food and asking you to buy some. In a sales presentation the sales person is pushing what they have to sell not necessarily what the customer needs. I often get calls from a delightful person who wants to sell me a Florida vacation. They present all the benefits of coming to their resort without first asking whether I consider Florida as a vacation destination. I don’t. Sales presentations do have a place in successful selling. When I go the to auto parts store to buy a battery, the sales person explains the benefit of the various brands and prices of car batteries. But he does that after establishing I want to buy a battery. He doesn’t try to sell me windshield wiper blades just because I came on a rainy day.

How Is A Sales Conversation Different From A Presentation?

I believe customers buy from salespeople they respect and trust. And in the best-case customers like dealing with “their” salesperson. Those relationships are developed over time. Depending on the business it could be a short time or a long time. I like buying from Carolyn at the local jewelry store. I first met her when shopping for diamond earrings for my wife’s Christmas present. Carolyn asked me questions about my wife’s style. During the conversation she asked also about me. The usual questions of where we lived, what kind of work I did, the fun things we liked to do. During this sales conversation we discovered mutual friends. All of this built trust and respect …

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Sales cycle is the process salespeople use to close a sale. The sales cycle must be managed for a positive outcome.

Buying Cycle

While there are sales cycles the purchaser also has a preferred method of buying. There are different types of purchases: one time buy, new buy, recurring purchase, straight rebuy, modified rebuy. For each of these the buying cycle and necessarily the sales cycle varies. One time buys, for example, are typically expensive purchases made infrequently. For the consumer it would be a home. In the business world: a new factory or even the acquisition of a company. Straight rebuys are those where the same product is purchased again. For a farmer it might be seed or fertilizer. A university might purchase printing. Recurring purchases can be raw materials for a manufacturer or toothpaste for your home. In general the more expensive and higher risk the purchase, the more complex is the buying and sales cycle.

Sales Cycle Fundamentals Of Qualifying

While buying cycles vary depending on the type of purchase and the purchaser, the sales cycle has fundamental steps. All sales are personal. People buy from those they trust and respect. That’s why all successful…

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What are you afraid of? We all have fears. This is a sales blog let’s address some of the common salesperson fears.

Fear of Failure

Yep, that’s a big one for me. What if I don’t meet goal? What happens if I lose the order. Perhaps it is years of experience having these salesperson fears that had made me less conscious of them. Think about goals. They are based on predictions made with limited information. Since I set reasonable goals I will do the activities to achieve them. I turn the goal into a motivation and don’t worry about not reaching it. I don’t have a 100% closing record and I don’t know anyone who does. We will all lose orders for many reasons. When we are so fearful of losing an order we don’t even pursue the business, that’s a problem. A positive attitude, great selling system and diligent work will likely win more times than you lose. Working hard and winning often will overcome this salesperson fear.

Fear of Rejection

We all really enjoy being liked. In my world of professional selling …

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Think about it. How do you want to be sold to? Are you comfortable when the selling style doesn’t fit your buying style?

A True Story

My wife and I were shopping for a used car for one of our kids. We needed to buy her something functional with a few years life left in it. OK, a cheap one! I did an Internet search and found a couple of cars fitting the specification. When I called the dealer and I spoke to a pleasant salesman. I told him we were looking to spend $1500 for a used car and he said there were cars at that price on his lot. Furthermore I asked whether when we showed up if he was authorized to make the deal. He assured me he was. The salesman had enough information to tailor his selling style to my buying style.

Ok, you might guess what happened. We went to the dealership, my daughter, my wife and I met with the pleasant young salesman. I mentioned our conversation and he went to get the list of available cars. None of which were in our budget range. I reminded him of the prior phone conversation we had. He said he was speaking from memory and …

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All sales people have a finite amount of time to invest in their work. Should they use the time retaining or acquiring good customers? It’s a simple question worth evaluating.

What’s A Good Customer?

My best customers have integrity, place all the business they can with me, pay on time and refer me to other customers. This is the “A” list. The “B” list customers are those who have potential to be on the “A” list but haven’t been developed to that level. Continuing along the customer rating scale, prospects are those potential customers who have the same characteristics as a best customer but are still being evaluated.

Where Is The Balance Between Retaining And Acquiring?

There is much research about the difference in cost between retaining and acquiring customers. Commonly cited costs are 5 to 25% more costly to acquire a customer than retain one. Of course it depends on your business as to where you fall in that range. Once you know the cost difference you can decide your best strategy. My personal philosophy is …

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