Sales Blog with Sales Tips

All sales professionals sound the same. I’m serious. We seem to all pull our conversations from the same verbal bag.

No wonder prospects (and even our established customers) don’t want to talk to us. Even a good song played too many times will eventually become unappetizing.

But how do sales professionals get in this habit?

First, A Story About A Child And A War Hero
I was in a department store recently and saw a man whose legs were both missing. I did what every adult would do and took my one allowed stare and then looked away.

A child whom I would guess was about 5 years old took another tack. She walked right up to the man and said, “What happened to your legs?” The man in the wheelchair very calmly and proudly answered her question, explaining he had lost them in a war fought in Iraq. She nodded her head indicating she understood and walked away.

A non-event for both parties. The child’s mother did not interfere. The wisdom of a mother.

What Just Happened?
There was a desire for information from the little girl and she engaged the man. Simple enough.

Unlike the little girl, we frequently struggle to converse honestly and openly with prospects and customers. We resort to scripted and safe conversations that have worked for us in the past. Over time, we start to sound like every other salesperson on the planet.

We’re at best putting our customers to sleep or, even worse, annoying them with our “salesy” dribble.

How Did We Get Into This Habit?

• Boredom
• Laziness
• Fear
• Bad training
• Reliance on scripts or canned responses/questions
• “It’s working okay.”
• “It’s what I’ve always done.”

Start Thinking Like A Child
Inject a childlike freshness and fearlessness into your communications with your customers. Start talking to your customers at a core level.

Your new openness will enhance the quality of your customer relationships. They will view you as more real and straightforward.

You’ll stand out from the crowd.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

How you view yourself has a profound effect on your success as a sales professional. Do you see yourself as living life from a position of confident strength? Or do you live each day fearing loss?

The Implications
Sales professionals who believe they have all the elements to succeed, usually do. Those who constantly work at vigilantly protecting what they have, don’t succeed. The universe is funny that way.

Living In A World Of Scarcity
If you believe most of the following things about yourself (be honest with your answers), your sales perspective is one of defensiveness and scarcity. You believe life is a zero-sum game. Your job is to protect what you have. You waste a lot of energy chasing demons that don’t exist.

• I feel desperate to fit in and get in. I live in a “pick me, pick me” world.
• The world is all about me. I’m the axis of my world.
• I need and want everyone to adore me. Every prospect is a qualified prospect to me.
• I must protect my current situation. I’m closed to new things, and change is usually bad.
• I have to be the center of attention. I talk too much and don’t sincerely listen to others.
• I feel deficient in many areas. I work hard to hide this from my employer and customers.
• I live in a small envelope of comfort. I’m afraid of failure, but I don’t want to reach too high either.

Living In A World Of Abundance
If the following better describes you (again, be honest with your answers), your approach to sales is one of abundance. Being the person God made you – mixed with hard work – will bring you all the things you need to be a sales rainmaker.

• Just being myself is enough to attract others to me. People are comfortable around me, and I feel no need to perform.
• Not everyone is right for me. Not all prospects are right for my company or me either.
• I don’t see all people as competitors to my success. It recharges my batteries to help others.
• I’m always available psychologically to others. I’m in the moment. I want to hear what they’re saying.
• I feel no need to change anything about myself. Just being me is enough.
• I’m confident that all things are possible for me. I don’t waste energy on building walls that limit me.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
What you see when you look in the mirror not only greatly affects your outlook on life, but it profoundly influences how others see you. They notice your “vibe.” Customers are attracted to those who are comfortable in their own skin. Seeing life from an abundant perspective allows you to do this.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

The following is a bad habit I’ve observed in hundreds of sales professionals. They get tired of hearing themselves “sell” and think their prospects feel the same way.

All of us bring a unique chemistry to each individual prospect we speak with. Everything about us is new to them. They’ve never heard our message or experienced us before. We’ve never experienced them either.

An Analogy
Remember the schoolteachers who made you feel like you were the only person in the world? Even though they might have taught 10,000 students in their careers, they knew their relationship with you was unlike any other, and treated it as such.

I don’t care if you’re 20 or 100 years old; you still remember the magical quality of those teachers. Sales professionals who master this same ability will create customers who see them as standouts from the hoard of  salespeople they see every day.

Why Tired Sales Professionals Do Poorly
When we approach a sales opportunity feeling as if we’re tired of hearing ourselves talk, we create circular reinforcement.

1) The more downtrodden we become with our own message, the less receptive a prospect will be. 2) When we observe the resultant fatigued look on the prospect’s face, we conclude our sales approach must be unappealing. 3) Our motivation is lessened. 4) Go back to step 1 and repeat. This process creates a death spiral of enthusiasm for both the salesperson and the prospect.

Snap Out Of It!
I’m no physics expert (just ask Mrs. Crook, my high school physics teacher, who never liked me). However, I do know that once something is set in motion – e.g. a bored and self-defeating sales attitude – the only way to change its direction is to apply another force.

Shrinks call this an intervention. But you don’t need to go to a shrink to help yourself. Read on for some sales tips that will do the trick.

Sales Tips Rx
Consciously practicing the following habits over an extended period (e.g. 3 months) will freshen how you feel about yourself and how your prospects see you. Most importantly, you’ll sell more too.

1. Slow down. I know you’ve heard your own sales presentation a million times, but the prospects haven’t. Give them the opportunity to absorb and process the valuable information you are sharing.

2. There is no such thing as a generic prospect. After you’ve called on a few hundred prospects they can all look the same. When you see them in this light, they can tell. Just remember how important your favorite teachers made you feel when they treated you as an individual. People you make feel important frequently do one thing – buy from you.

3. It’s in the eyes. If you’re in front of a prospect, you must make constant eye contact. It will greatly enhance communication quality and will let you know what he or she is thinking. Let his or her eyes guide your presentation.

4. Listen. The questions prospects ask are everything. These questions will tell us everything we need to know in order to sell them. Giving prospects all the room they need to speak will move mountains when it comes to revitalizing how your prospects and you perceive your presentation.

Internalizing these habits will energize you and your prospects. Most importantly, you’ll re-learn how important it is to connect with people in the selling process.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer