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

“Happy, slappy salespeople.” Sadly, that’s how some sales professionals act much of the time.

“But isn’t it our job to focus on the positives and always have a ‘can do’ attitude?”

Yes, but not all of the time. There are times when bringing up uncomfortable subjects – before the customer does – can help us.

You Raise The Objection First
All sales professionals know that bringing up an objection before the customer does is the most effective way of handling it.

But we’re scared. We don’t like talking about objections before they’re raised. It feels negative.

Even One Objection
It might not be pleasant to talk about customers’ unstated objections, but when customers have objections that are unspoken and unanswered, they don’t buy from us. Since not all objections are verbalized by customers, it’s our job to discover the unsaid ones.

Even though we may have discovered and answered seven of a customer’s eight objections, we’ll still lose the sale if the eighth isn’t dealt with. One unanswered objection will kill a deal.

An Example
The economy. If you’re selling products and services that represent a significant expense, it would not be uncommon for a customer to have concerns about buying in a challenging economic climate.

The customer already knows the economy is struggling. He has asked himself whether it’s a smart time to buy. The economy is an issue the customer is fully aware of; raising the subject will not be a revelation.

Hitting the issue head-on will at least give you an opportunity to address the objection if the customer is concerned. Silence won’t make his worries go away.

There Are Other Fish In the Sea
If a customer perceives there is a real and immoveable roadblock to buying, then we need to know and move on to another opportunity where our chances of transacting business look more promising.

Tackling customers’ unstated objections might feel negative, or even counterintuitive, but it provides a chance to deal with their reluctance and make the sale – or move on to greener pastures.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Find a New Sales Job

The sales personality. It’s full of contradictions.

We have to possess great verbal skills, yet we need to be extraordinary listeners.

We have to be highly driven, yet we must be patient.

We have to be able to control an important customer meeting, yet we must show deference when needed.

A sales professional is truly the elite [mental] athlete of the business world as Jeb Blount frequently says in his sales tips.

But With The Good…
As is true with everything in life, there’s always a dark side. The sales professional’s personality has a less functional side too.

With all of our skills, we also own some baggage.

3 Personality Traits That Defeat Sales Professionals
After working with hundreds of sales professionals in my career, I’ve identified three common personality hurdles that impede our ability to sell.

1. We give up too early – specifically with prospects. We want things to move in a linear fashion because that’s the fastest path. Unfortunately, people are messy and the world just doesn’t work that way. Prospects buy when they want to.

Best antidote: Keep a full pipeline and be patient – and persistent.

2. We fail to see the big picture in our career. Your next employer will have its own sales-prevention department(s), just as your current employer does.

Everyone knows there are only two good sales jobs in the world, your last one and your next one.

The best predictor of sales success is time in territory. Staying the course in your current position has been statistically proven to be the best path to becoming a sales rainmaker.

Best antidote: Think carefully before taking that sparkling new sales job with its enticing new-job aroma.

3. We operate from a position of scarcity. Have you ever noticed that the sales superstars in your organization are consistently on top? They don’t care if there is a recession. They aren’t worried if their prices are perceived as too high. It doesn’t matter to them that their competitors have better products and services.

These sales superstars are operating from a position of abundance. They are indifferent as to how everyone else is doing because they know there will always be enough for them – and for all others with this mindset.

Best antidote: Realize there is plenty of business out there for you. You may have to change how you find it, but it’s hiding out there waiting to be found. It has always been there.

You’re Not Alone
Don’t feel alone if you see yourself in these personality traits. We all deal with these issues in our sales career.

The most important point is that you address them and manage them.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer