Sales Blog with Sales Tips

One of the ways we act like children is to only hear what we want – or need – to hear. While it might be entertaining to watch kids practice “selective hearing,” this habit can dynamite our business development efforts.

What Are Needy Ears?
“Needy Ears” are ears that only hear information that supports our self-deception. The deception we’re forcing on ourselves is that the companies we have in our pipeline have real potential when they don’t.

We sometimes feel so desperate to fill our pipeline that we lie to ourselves. The pressure for this can come from within and from sales management.

I used to work for a Regional Vice President who would put the squeeze on her sales force to the point that she encouraged this kind of behavior. The sales funnel for her organization, as a result, was worthless.

Prospects Know When We Have Needy Ears
We all know that customers and prospects can tell when we’re coming from a position of urgent need, when we have to get more business.

When decision makers detect we are listening (i.e. filtering) with needy ears, they will frequently take advantage of us. We unconsciously become their sales slaves by: overly discounting, providing  information beyond what is reasonable, allowing them to play us against our competition and letting them waste our time.

Sales Tips Rx
What can we do to maintain our objectivity and not be a victim of needy ears?

1. Get real with yourself. You know in your gut when a prospect is wasting your time. Listen to that voice and move on. Activity alone does not equal sales. It’s a temporary balm.

2. Start asking hard qualifying questions at the beginning of the sales cycle and throughout. Budget. Time frame. Decision makers. Competition. Product and service fit. Legal roadblocks to contract execution. You get the idea.

3. Finally, and possibly most importantly, find a trusted peer who will be your accountability partner. He or she will ask you tough questions about each prospect in your funnel and help you discard the ones that don’t make sense.  You are free to reciprocate the favor. Think of this as an episode of Clean House. Your “house” is your funnel and your trusted peer is providing the intervention.

Further sales tips reading:
Sales Managers, Prospect with your sales force!
What do I need from a prospect? Hint: information
What do I need from a prospect? Hint: relationship
Good Sales-Good Economy, Bad Sales-Bad Salesperson

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>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

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

When I was a little boy I used to play checkers with my twin brother. He always beat me. It made me mad. Then one day my dad observed us playing checkers and said, “Scott, you always lose because you expect to lose.”

Even though I was just seven or eight years old, his words ignited a 500-watt light bulb in my head. In my short life, I had never considered that my brother wasn’t beating me; I was beating myself.

Most Of Us Do This To Ourselves In Sales
It has been my observation, after working with hundreds of sales professionals over many years, that the majority of salespersons defeat themselves too.

What do I mean by defeat? We expect to lose the sale. We don’t see ourselves winning a sales contest. We know we’ll never be the number one salesperson in our region. We are sure our employer is not competitive in our industry. We have no faith in our sales skills. We question if our customers like us.

We’re not even confident we’re in the right career.

You’ve Undoubtedly Wrestled With Some Of These Questions
All of us deal with these kinds of doubts. It’s when an expectation of failure – or even mediocrity – becomes our modus operandi that we are in the danger zone.

There is no magic to sales success. There is no perfect personality or magical skill required either. I can tell you unequivocally that the two major differences between sales superstars and the also-rans are:

Diligence. Sales leaders keep doing the things that need to be done long after others have left work early. The last time I checked, diligence doesn’t require any kind of super power.

Planning. The big guns in sales always have a plan. They know where they’re going and how they plan to get there. You don’t need an MBA from Harvard in order to make and work a plan.

This Isn’t About Positive Thinking
Let me be clear, this sales blog post is not about the “Power of Positive Thinking.” Just thinking positive thoughts won’t make you successful. That is an enormously weak and outdated concept.

The precursor to success is always competence. Competence is created by hard work and having a clear course of action.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
You might look at the top producers in your organization and think you will never be in their position. Please, don’t take yourself out of the game.

You can be a sales superstar if you realize you already have what it takes. Tenacity and the ability to create a blueprint for success are the ingredients.

Just for the record, I started beating my brother in checkers on a regular basis soon after my dad ignited that light bulb in my head.

Further sales tips reading:
Don’t Let Confidence Be Your God, Let Fear Be Your Guide
Are You Convinced Sales Is The Right Profession For You?

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

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

Sales forecasting is the curse of every sales professional. It’s an art and a science that we all struggle with.

Why Our Sales Forecasts Frequently Miss The Mark

• We feel forced to tell our sales managers what they want to hear.
• In our desire for more sales, we operate from a position of baseless confidence.
• We don’t understand our industry.
• We aren’t properly qualifying our prospects.
• To create the illusion of a full funnel, we hang on to dead prospects ad infinitum.
• We don’t develop our skills at reading a prospect’s buying/not-buying signals.

Sales Tips For Sharpening Your Sales Forecasting Pencil
1. Re-qualify them. Don’t be afraid to re-qualify prospects in the middle of a sales cycle. It’s a good idea to constantly check the cards your fellow gamblers are showing when betting in Vegas.

2. Understand the steps of your sales process. If your company doesn’t have a defined and effective sales process, create one of your own. This will act as a benchmark.

3. Get real. Look at your normal closing ratio and apply it to the prospects in your pipeline. After you do that, reduce it by 25% to take into account all the unexpected delays, budget problems and competitive moves you’ll undoubtedly encounter.

4. Look for signs of commitment from the identified decision makers. If there is not a shred of skin in the game from them, then let them die a natural death. Remove them from your funnel.

5. Know your industry. It’s hard to anticipate buyers’ next moves when we don’t know their game.

6. Be sensitive to the vibes your prospects are sending out. Once we establish a relationship with them, they rarely tell us when they are unequivocally no longer interested. We have to be sensitive to their vibe or meta-message. The biggest mistake I see here is when sales professionals don’t make eye contact with prospects. A prospect’s eyes rarely lie.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
Forecasting is an important part of being a sales professional. Your employer doesn’t want you to overestimate or underestimate the business you’ll be bringing in. Your proficiency at this art and science will enhance your credibility with your sales manager and within your organization.

Further sales tips reading:
4 Sales Tips For Managing Your Pipeline
Are You Asking This Powerful Qualifying Question?
3 Reasons You Need A Sales Process

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

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

When I was a freshman sales representative, the VP of Sales told me if I kept 95% of my customers happy, I’d be doing a great job.

That might have been good advice even a few years ago.

It represents 100% bad coaching today. Here’s why.

You’re On Stage And Everyone Is Watching
Things have changed dramatically in the last five years. I’m not sure we fully appreciate how exposed all of our actions have become and the resultant level of customer service that is expected of us.

Because of social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), if the company we work for makes a false step, or we do, the whole world knows about it. Instantly.

Decision makers use social media when purchasing, especially when it comes to capital expenditures. Blunders can have more than a trivial impact on our sales. Have you ever considered that potential customers are googling your name before buying from you? They are.

The old formula that said, “If you provide poor service to one customer they’ll tell 10 people,” is from the Paleolithic era. That number is now unlimited.

When You’re On Stage, There Is No Room For Mistakes
Why do you think film producers and directors are so obsessive about their work? They know that millions of viewers will be watching. With so many eyes focused on their work, shortcomings are quickly reported and exaggerated.

Because of social media, things are no different for us.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
In 2010, customers expect perfection from our employers and us. When I say perfection, I mean just that. No errors. There are too many eyes watching and reporting.

Ensure that you follow what is being said about you and your employer on social media. You can lessen any negative mentions by quickly responding before an ember becomes an inferno.

But don’t despair. All of your competitors are working under the same set of rules. The game can also work in reverse. If you do something great, the whole world can know about that too.

Further sales tips reading:
You Are Better Than Your Company’s Propaganda
The Voodoo Of Selling Added Value

>You can automatically receive Sales Tips Blog by Scott R. Sheaffer >by email< or >by RSS<.
>Follow >Scott R. Sheaffer< on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
>©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

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