Sales Blog with Sales Tips

I’m not responsible for my writing today. I’m getting some kind of cold and my wife has me on 23 different decongestants, antihistamines, cough suppressants, etc. My whole day has been an out-of-body experience.

However, drugged up or not, I feel passionate about today’s topic.

Sales Stupid 101
If you want to completely alienate a customer (or prospect) and guarantee they won’t do business with you, do the following: put them on the defensive.

My wife (you know, the one with all the drugs) is an excellent salesperson. She taught me years ago that when people are backed into a corner they come out fighting. This is not exactly how we want to position our customers.

Ways We Put Customers On The Defensive
There are many ways to put customers on the defensive. I’ll list a few of the most popular below. Please understand that customers have a visceral reaction to being put on the defensive (i.e. they get very angry).

1. Threatening To Escalate. I’ve had Tony Robbins’ salespersons do this to me at two different employers. (Should I have mentioned Tony Robbins by name? Those decongestants!) These guys actually called my boss on both occasions to tell him I was making poor decisions regarding sales training (or whatever it is Tony sells) because I wasn’t purchasing their services.

In both cases, my bosses were unimpressed with Tony’s sales strategy. Do you think I’m inclined to ever recommend or use any of Tony Robbins’ services? Doubtful.

On a side note, would someone contact me and explain his teeth? Too much of a good thing really can be too much of a good thing, Tony.

2. Making The Buyer Feel Stupid. This usually occurs in the form of a question. Here are some examples. “Why wouldn’t you want to update to a better system? Are you telling me you don’t think you can get the budget for this before the end of the year? You actually think our competitor’s product is superior to ours? Who is the real decision maker here?”

3. Questions With An Agenda. I had a sales trainer call me recently trying to get me to buy one of his products. I guess he wanted me to write about it in this sales tips blog. Most of his questions were carefully calculated to back me into a corner. By doing so, he thought I would be forced to buy. What an idiot!

My favorite question of his was, “So what is it about your current system that is working well and meeting all of your requirements?” I guess I was supposed to be confused by his brilliance (he isn’t) and say something like, “Nothing really! I need your system and I need it now!”

During our 30-minute conversation I was even calling him out on this technique and – I’m not making this up – he kept on with his agenda laden questions. He was so scripted he couldn’t help himself.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
Finesse is the art of delicacy, subtlety and skill. As sales professionals, we undoubtedly need to ask customers tough questions and sometimes make them a little uncomfortable to move the sales cycle forward.

If we’re smart and want results, we’ll do it with finesse. Never put a customer in a situation where they feel they’ve been backed into a corner. You’ll always lose.

I need some more decongestants.

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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
—
—

Prospects have become so wearisome of cold callers these days that conversations don’t even get off the ground when we call them.

“I’m too busy right now to talk to a salesperson.”

Here’s A Technique That Will Get The Prospect Talking 99% Of The Time
Immediately after the prospect says he or she is too busy to talk, respond with, “I understand, but before we get off the phone, can I ask you just one quick question?” And then you ask your question.

Let’s Dissect Why This Works So Well
Prospects will perceive that you aren’t going to be taking too much of their time and they won’t have to reveal too much information. Minor investment. Minimal commitment. “Just one quick question.”

If you are calm, assured and prepared, the prospect will be put at ease. While you’ll start with a closed-ended question, you might be able to follow-up with one or two additional open-ended questions that will help start a relationship and set the stage for your next interaction.

Research has shown that initial objections from prospects are “throw away” objections. They’re just reacting to an interruption. The objection is not a real objection, but a stated objection.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
The keys to making this really work are:

• Do some research on the company before you call. The one question you’re allowed to ask needs to sound like you know something about the company and their industry.

• Know when to stop. Don’t overuse this technique. If the prospect seems willing to answer a question, don’t keep pushing for more if the prospect is not receptive.

• Be genuinely empathetic with the prospect if you perceive that he or she honestly can’t talk with you at that moment. You can always call back. No need to tarnish a relationship before it begins.

>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
—
—

Unintended consequences are things we don’t intend to happen. The federal government is infamous for this.

An example. The federal Cash for Clunkers program resulted in a net increase in car sales of only 125,000 cars – at a cost to US taxpayers of $24,000 per vehicle (see Further sales tips reading below).

I don’t mean to pick on the federal government (well, maybe a little bit), but the truth is that unintended consequences occur in all areas of our lives. They also, as you have already guessed, occur in sales.

Unintended Consequences In Sales Are Accidental, But Avoidable
We’ve all seen salespeople heading toward a customer three-car pileup with the best of intentions. You might see the danger ahead, but they’re completely unaware of what lies in front of them.

While they don’t mean to blunder, they could have avoided the unwanted problems by thinking ahead. By projecting where their current course of action is leading and consulting with the more senior members of their team for advice, a customer car wreck might be averted.

6 Common Unintended Consequences In Sales

1. Overdoing the “friendly” part of sales can frequently backfire on us. Customers hate disingenuous people. Customers realize you don’t care about them that much.

2. Asking prospects intensive qualifying questions can put them on the defensive. No one likes being backed into a corner. This occurs so frequently that I’m planning on writing a sales tips post about it in the upcoming weeks.

3. In order not to offend customers, we frequently don’t introduce additional products and services to them. “This customer is buying $35,000 per month from me of product X; I don’t want to rock the boat by pushing for more.” This guarantees they will be looking at your competitors to find other products that you’re afraid to sell them because it might be offensive.

4. Pushing for a close is so 1950’s. Again, no one likes being backed into a corner. When this happens, customers bring out the heavy artillery loaded with plenty of objection bullets.

5. Don’t most of us already know that talking badly about the competition always cheapens us and ironically gives more credibility to our competitors?

6. Selling to a non-decision-maker (e.g. recommender, information gatherer) makes us feel good because it’s easy and we feel we’re making real progress. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re in fact wasting our time and alienating the real decision makers because: a) They don’t think we’re smart enough to figure out who the real DM’s are, and b) They think we perceive them as unimportant.

Sales Tips Wrap Up
I’ve identified six of the most common unintended consequences in sales. Believe me, there are a million more. Unintended consequences are costly to us. They are preventable if we take the time to stop and think where we are heading and frequently collaborate with the more experienced members on our team.

Further sales tips reading:
Cash for Clunkers Results Finally In

>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
—
—

Many of the things we say and do to create and enhance customer relationships actually erode them instead. That’s right. We regularly use exactly the wrong behaviors to get what we want when it comes to rapport building.

2 Principles of Relationships
There are two essential truths when it comes to bonding with one another. These truths are counterintuitive. As you read these two points in this sales blog, think of your past customer experiences in creating and nurturing relationships as reference points.

Principle #1
Detachment. You will never be everyone’s friend. Not everyone is going to like you. Don’t try to force a psychological relationship on customers. It will backfire.

However, oozing an aura of detachment ironically draws people to you. People naturally put up defenses when they feel anything is being forced on them. Including you. People want to be friends with people who don’t need friends. They want to choose to be in the relationship.

Simply stated, be the cool-kid in high school who everyone liked.   The cool-kid never needed groupies. Don’t be the popular-kid who always had to be the center of attention and felt worthless without adoring fans. Have you noticed that post high school cool-kids are generally much more successful in life than post high school popular-kids? Check it out at your next high school reunion.

Psychological detachment is a good tool; however, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be available to others.  More on this below.

Principle #2
Abundance. Exuding – or even fully verbalizing – that you don’t need someone’s business will make you a more attractive business associate. Customers like doing business with people who aren’t desperate, or needy, or twisting their arm.

When your personality radiates the idea that there is plenty of business to be had, even if a particular person doesn’t buy from you, it is called abundance. “There’s enough business for everyone, and unless it’s a good fit for both of us, we won’t force the issue.”

This is the New Authenticity in action.

Principle #3
Okay, I know I wrote there were two principles. But, there is a third. The first two concern things we tend to do, but shouldn’t (i.e. psychologically clinging to people and pushing customers into actions they aren’t ready for).

The last principle has to do with showing interest. This is something we should do. Always let your customers know you value them, have time for them, respect them, will listen to them.

Further reading:

• 8 Speed Traps in Sales [Customer relationship building takes time and deliberate effort.]
• Our Professionalism May Be Killing Us [Sales tips on allowing our real personality to help us sell.]
• Why Dogs Make Bad Sales Professionals [Brown-nosing our customers can backfire.]
• Can Hillary Clinton teach us something about sales? [Sales blog post on the dangers of not being authentic.]

>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.
>©2009 Scott R. Sheaffer

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