Sales Blog with Sales Tips

It seems as if prospects do everything they can to avoid us. Voicemail and email make it easy. Sometimes they can even be rude about it.

But at some level, this resistance can have a negative impact on our outlook. We’re made of flesh and blood; we’re not machines.

From Denial To Understanding
Many sales professionals routinely beat their chest and proclaim that the insensitivity thrown their way by prospects is “just part of their job.” I think this denial ends up hurting more than helping.

We’ve all heard sales managers doling out sales tips like: “They’re just words; ignore them. You gotta be tough. If this bothers you, you’re in the wrong business. Set your emotions aside.”

Denying our emotions serves no purpose. In fact, it’s counterproductive. Pretending you don’t feel something is always dysfunctional and a waste of energy.

Instead, we need to invest in understanding why prospects behave antagonistically toward us. This is empowering and makes us more effective.

When we do this, we take control.

So What’s Going On In The Buyer’s Head?
Decision makers have to do more with less; they have fewer resources. This cost cutting started long before the current recession – and will continue. It’s not that prospects are inhuman – they just don’t have time for us.

When we contact a prospect the first time, they quickly ask themselves the following questions:

• Does this person strike me as someone who is competent?
• Is this just another generic scripted sales call?
• What value does this person bring to me (“me” is more important at this point than “the organization”)?
• Is this person capable of helping me?
• What’s my time investment with this person – now and down the road? Is it worth it to me?

In short, prospects are asking themselves if they see enough WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) to give you a slice of their time.

Sales Tips For Avoiding Being Avoided
We’ve established that being rejected doesn’t exactly make us feel great if we’re honest with ourselves. We also know the reason prospects dodge us has more to do with their job and time pressures than it has to do with us.

But we are still tasked with getting through to decision makers. To do this we have to look and feel different from the sea of salespeople who are trying to contact them.

1. Quit dancing around. When you finally make contact with a decision maker, don’t spend your valuable seconds giving an encyclopedic history of your company and then ask for an appointment. Would you meet with yourself if you heard this same blather?

Get to the point. They’ve already figured out you’re a salesperson before you’ve uttered your third word. Let them quickly know you’re cold calling and want to talk to them about your products and services.

Doing this respects their time and intelligence.

2. Immediately establish your value. I’m not talking about running through a list of your company’s generic value propositions (boring, old school, scripted). Let them know how you might specifically help them. This, of course, is not possible unless you’ve done research on the prospect before calling.

3. Quit pushing. Don’t assume they’ve been waiting  all day for you to call. They haven’t. Ask them if they have a few minutes to talk. If now is not good, ask them if you could schedule a time to call.

You can’t force someone to talk to you.

4. Listen.

5. Lose the script. Oh, I know what you’re thinking, “But I don’t use a script.” Think about the last 10 prospecting calls you’ve made. You’re most likely using the same words repeatedly. When we use the same phrases habitually, we sound boring.

Your personality, energy and information about the prospect (from your research) should provide the ammo you need to create some charisma in the ears of the prospect.

6. Closed-ended questions get no respect in my opinion. Open-ended questions are good, at the right time. Your first question to a prospect can’t be a deep and wide open-ended question. You haven’t earned the right to ask them this kind of question.

Start with some simple closed-ended questions and move into open-ended questions. When you initially meet people personally would you ask them, “What is your life story?” Feels uncomfortable doesn’t it?

Takeaways
Getting the cold shoulder from prospects can make us feel bad. It’s okay to have that emotion.

Understanding the real reasons prospects want to avoid us is empowering and useful.

We can employ prospecting principles to minimize the chance we’ll be ignored.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Find a New Sales Job

I’ve had the displeasure of working for two sales managers who were fully bipolar when it came to sales management. Actually, they were bipolar in a specific area that made working for them markedly and perpetually annoying.

I’ve observed over time that many sales managers practice this irritating behavior with their sales force.

I Want You In, I Want You Out
This irksome behavior is what I call “I want you in, I want you out.”

This is the kind of sales manager who tells you one moment that you’re spending too much time in the office and in the next breath asks you why you’re never in the office.

If you’re in the office too much, according to him, you must not be making enough customer and prospect contacts. On the other hand, if you’re rarely around the office you must be sitting around watching Oprah and eating Bon Bons in the afternoon.

This kind of bipolar “I want you in, I want you out” ritual is not restricted to first-line sales managers either. I’ve seen sales directors, RVPs, VPs, ISGs (Intergalactic Sales Gods), etc. do the same thing.

Message To Sales Management
Stop doing this. You’re driving your sales force crazy and you’re submarining your credibility as a sales manager. Additionally, you’re demonstrating no confidence or trust in your people. Look at their results; don’t nanomanage them in this way.

One of the most dysfunctional “I want you in, I want you out” sales managers I ever worked with accidentally blurted out in a meeting that she needed to leave early because of her 4:00PM spa appointment. At which point I loudly said, “Busted!” She never did like me much after that.

Here’s the message to sales management. When you don’t trust your people, they don’t trust you. They don’t trust you because they think you must have been irresponsible when you had their role and now you’re projecting that mistrust on them.

Sales Tips For Dealing With An “I Want You In, I Want You Out” Sales Manager
Sales managers who have been playing this game for an extended period (i.e. pre-recession) aren’t going to change. They’ve set up a lose-lose situation for their sales force that I find disturbing. No salesperson can ever come into compliance because the rules keep changing.

You must decide to adapt or find another manager if you’re harnessed with one of these. One particularly ugly part about this kind of manager is that they like pulling people’s strings.

The recession has caused some otherwise good sales managers to panic and go into the “command and control” mode. The “I want you in, I want you out” aspect of these managers has a good chance of ending when things get better at your company. Weather the storm.

Finally, if you’re one of the top sales professionals in your company, you have another option. Boldly confront your manager with the message, “I’m hitting my numbers. Leave me alone. You’re not helping.”

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

My new book, “Comatose Management,” is now available from amazon.com.

For more information about the book – including a short video book trailer, overview, reviews and how to order – please see the information at the bottom of this post.

Review By Lorri Freifeld, Editor-in-Chief, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine

“Through simple but effective and engaging stories, Sheaffer shows how bad management landed corporate America in its current financial predicament. ‘Comatose Management’ illuminates basic truths that most of us prefer to ignore throughout our careers — preferring to believe our managers are brilliant but eccentric rather than overindulged, ego-maniacal, psychotic, or just plain clueless. Here’s a wake-up call for all companies — and all employees at every level.”

Review By Janet Rush, Author Of Nine Books Including “Zig Ziglar Presents…Janet Rush On – Customer Service”

“Experience is the best teacher and the master of all traits. ‘Comatose Management’ brings to its readers the real life trials and tribulations of corporate employees and how you, whether in management or not, can survive and succeed. Thank you, Scott, for incorporating so many real life examples.”

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Scott Sheaffer’s New Book, “Comatose Management”
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Six Short Stories of Destructive Management Practices, Volume I
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Available in printed and Kindle edition on amazon.com
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