I KNOW WHO YOU WORK FOR, BUT WHO DO YOU WORK FOR

This story was sent to me by a close friend and ex-coworker. I thought it was worth passing along.

The best close I ever saw:

I admit I am one of those guys who abhor buying a car.  I don’t like the constant negotiation and the feeling that no matter what I pay, I paid too much.  But when I was asked to go with a friend to look at a car he was planning to buy, I figured what the heck and went along for the ride.  Now the guy I was going with is a successful business manager who came into management through sales.  He loves the process and as I would come to learn his negotiation skills are among the elite.

As we got to the dealership we were armed with 2 pieces of information.  We knew how much the “Blue Book” was on his truck for a trade in and we knew how bad he did, or didn’t want the vehicle.  In fact, he was there to buy two vehicles as his daughter is nearing that magical driving age of 16.  He had already spotted the vehicles he was there to talk about and on his arrival, I think I heard a faint bell go off and an announcer barking “Let the negotiations begin!”

They went back and forth several times with my friend sticking to his guns in regard to his “Out the door price”.  He mentioned the money they would be saving in that one of the vehicles just came in today, so they would turn the inventory in a hurry.  He noted the number of similar trucks they had on the lot costing them cash every day and he mentioned that he was making a luxury buy, not a necessity buy, so “you gotta move my way.”

But the close of all closes wasn’t the one the salesman used on my friend, but rather the one my friend used on the salesman.  As negotiations were on their 4^th turn and an impasse loomed on the near horizon my friend made one “last” explanation and gave his salesman an offer.  The salesman, who had been solid said “I’ll take it to the manager again, would you like me to ask him to come talk to you?”  I think he was under the impression that my friend wanted to deal with the highest level he could.  I will admit without hesitation I would have said “Yep, trot him on out here.” But my friend went in for the killer close. “Why would I do that?  I am paying you a commission to take care of me.  I want you to fight for me, to help me get that truck I want and the SUV my daughter wants.  If I wanted to do that, what do I need you for?  Get in there and fight for me man, THAT’S what I am paying you commission for!”  I noticed a visible change in the salesman’s face and attitude and off he went to fight for my friend. 

The outcome isn’t the important part of the story.  The close was how my friend motivated someone he had just met to go “argue my side and tell my story”  If he sold the cars or not doesn’t change the fact that he was sold on his role as the agent for my friend. 

Selling isn’t just for salesmen, selling is a process by which people are motivated to make decisions and execute behaviors which benefit everyone involved.  Never miss a chance to sell, good things happen when things get sold.

Oh, he got both vehicles and paid at least $3,000 less than I would have paid.

Lorin

NO SUCH THING AS TOO HONEST

I started my day going to a networking meeting that I have not been able to attend for the past 2 months because of my travel schedule. It was great seeing everyone and as always I absolutely love the meetings.

While at the meeting each person goes around the table and tells about themselves, what they have been doing for the last week, what they are going to be doing in the week to come and what if any help the others at the meeting can give to them.

After each person speaks, the rest of the group gives whatever assistance, recommendations, or suggestions they feel will help the person to achieve their goal.

Today, 3 times I was what I would consider brutally honest with people. As a matter of fact, after the meeting I had to call the facilitator and make sure that I didn’t actually make one of the people mad at me for what I said.

Now don’t misunderstand me, everything I said was only said to try and help the people help themselves. I didn’t say anything that was not exactly what I felt and what I thought needed to be heard by the person I was addressing. I’ll admit that what I said probably wasn’t what any of them wanted to hear, but it was what they needed to hear.

I was told by the facilitator that what I said was spot on and that he didn’t think that I upset anyone, as a matter of fact, the one person that I thought I upset the most told the facilitator that she appreciated what I had to say. This made me feel better, but the question still remained with me, how honest is too honest?

I have always been a person that tries to say what needs to be said not nesicerrly what should be said. This at times has gotten me into trouble (especially in high school when children are supposed to be seen and not heard…HA!) As a sales rep and sales trainer I have always tried to tell prospects what they needed to hear not always what they wanted to hear. This practice has cost me sales in the past, but I sleep very well for doing it.

Now I was questioning myself about my honesty. I guess I was questioning myself about not only what I said this morning, but what I have said in the past and what I will say in the future. I am very aware of the fact that in today’s tight market every sale counts and no sales rep can afford to let any opportunity slip past them. I also know that in this economy no company can afford to have a sales rep that let’s this happen. But how far should a rep go to make the sale?

I know sales reps that say whatever they think they need to say to make the sale. They don’t think about what they say as lies, they actually believe that the customer should know what they are getting when they say yes and that it doesn’t matter what the rep says, it is the customer’s responsibility to know the facts and make the right decision.

I AM NOT ONE OF THESE REPS! I believe that a sales rep needs to state the facts and give the customer the information they need to make a well informed decision. I don’t think a rep needs to point out every shortcoming of their product or service, as a matter of fact I think the opposite, as rep should point out the strengths and benefits of their product and should compare them to the weaknesses of the competitions product. But this should be done in a way that the truth stays intact. Don’t lie about the competitor and don’t tell the customer you product will do things it won’t either.

If a sales rep can make an objective comparison between their product and the competitions, and they can build enough value into the benefits of their product over the competitions. The customer will have the information they need to make an informed decision about the products being presented.

After tossing all this over in my head, I decided that I not only needed to be as honest as I was in the meeting this morning, I actually owed it to the people that I claim to like and want to help so much to be as honest as I can for their own good.

I am more convinced than ever that telling people what they need to hear, however distasteful it may be to the person being addressed, is always the best way to help people grow and achieve their goals. Imagine if an athletic coach told an athlete how good they were all the time. Would the athlete’s performance ever improve?

I know that the 3 people I am writing about will be reading this, if in fact I made you mad... get over it... you needed to hear what I had to say. Just because I said it doesn’t mean that you need to act in any way on what I said. It simply means that is how I felt. Do with it as you please, just know that it was meant to help you just as a good sales rep means to help their customers.

Lorin

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

It has happened to all of us at one time or another, we work with a prospect for hours, days, weeks, sometimes months and just as we get to the close of the sales we get the EXCUSE.

The problem with getting an excuse from a customer is we never know if it is a legitimate excuse or just a blow off. The excuse may sound real, the prospect presents it to us in such a way that it makes good sense, we know that some of what we were told is true, we want to believe it because we don’t want to think the customer is just blowing us off. But if we look closely, in many of the cases the reality is we were just blown off.

The question then becomes, what can we do? How can we as sales reps make a decision as to what is real and what isn’t? WE CAN’T! It is that simple. And to tell the truth, we shouldn’t.

Our job is to represent ourselves, our company and our product in a professional manner. We should show the prospect the advantages of our product and the value our product will have within the prospects business.

The prospects job is to conduct their business in a professional manner producing the best results with the maximum profits they can.

These two points of view seem to be aligned, however in some cases the value of a product doesn’t equal the price of the product. In other cases, the value of the product doesn’t equal the price of the product IN THE PROSPECTS MIND! When this happens you hear an excuse.

The best way for a sales rep to get past excuses is to make sure the prospect fully understands and buys into the value the rep established during the sales presentation.

I have seen a rep give an entire sales presentation without ever asking the customer any questions. The customer sits there listening and watching but never gets the opportunity to ask the questions that will assure they understand the product or service and that they understand the value the product or service will bring to their business.

I am a believer that customers, no matter the industry, understand their business better than anyone else does. Therefore, the customer knows what will and won’t help them and has an idea of the value of things in relationship to their business. I call these customers BUSINESS PEOPLE because they run businesses.

Business people won’t pass on an opportunity to either help their business run better or generate more income if they see the value of the product or service being presented. If they don’t understand the value their path of least resistance is to give an excuse rather than say no.

As sales reps we have evolved over the years into machines that can turn no’s into yes’s with ease. There are books written at the 5^th grade level of how to turn no’s into yes’s. Every rooky first year sales rep has enough of the gift of gab and enough talent to turn a no into a yes. Business people know this. The secret is out. So instead of taking the chance that we will turn things around, the customers give us excuses as a substitute for just telling us NO!

Here is where sales becomes a fun and challenging career. It is up to us to listen to the excuse, search through the excuse for what we feel is truth and what we feel is fantasy, and in a split second have a value statement that will once again get the customer back to seeing how our product or service will help them.

Here is a hint, there are really only about 10 excuses. They may be said a thousand different ways, but when you look at what is really being said they all group into about 10 categories.

What you need to do is to make a list of the different headings that the excuses you hear fall into. For instance, money, ease of use, dependability… whatever you are hearing. List out the excuses under these categories and have an answer for each category. It doesn’t matter how they say money is the problem. They may say business is slow or you are too expensive. All you need is one answer to the excuse about one that you can use whenever it comes up. Have one answer for each category you list and next time the customer gives you an excuse, you will be able to follow the excuse with a value statement that gets you back onto the path to closing the sale.

Lorin

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMBLE AND STUPID

OK, I get it, no one wants to be known as “that push sales rep”. I understand all the reasons and I AGREE WITH THEM ALL! However, if the pendulum swings too far to the other direction you are just as wrong.

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. If your product was selling for a fixed price for a long time, and there were a lot of potential customers out there that didn’t buy because they didn’t want to spend that much money and then you run a “special” and reduce the price. How you present the price drop means a lot!

I was working with a rep and when she walked into the first prospect to tell them about the price drop she looked at the customer and in a very monotone, expressionless, deadpan voice said, “the price is now only $XXX.XX, that’s pretty good isn’t it”?

That’s it, that’s all she said. I was watching the customers face, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, he had no idea what the old price was, he had no idea what was included, and he had no intention of buying with a delivery like that.

When we walked out (without the sale) I asked her if she thought she could have done a little more in that presentation. She said she thought she could but didn’t want to seem pushy. I explained that she was so far from pushy she could have pulled a gun and not reached pushy yet!

I then took a few minutes, which ended up being the better part of the morning, trying to teach her how to sell the sizzle along with the steak.

For any of you that are ever in the situation where you can present a price cut, let me give you some of the same points I gave her;

1)      Never give a price cut without a reason – your reason can be just about anything. Make it real, make sure it’s reasonable. In this case the company is having a temporary price cut, so that is the reason.

2)      Always build the value of the product – you need to restate the value statement of your product and make sure you answer the question WIIFM.

3)      Look, Act, and Sound EXCITED – If you make it a big deal it will be a big deal, if you make it sound like it is nothing than the customer will react in the same manner.

4)      Always remind the customer of the original price BEFORE you give them the discounted price – never give the discount price first, if the discount price is given first the customer has nothing to compare it to and it may still seem high.

5)      Let the customer know if there is any difference in the product between the original price and the discounted price – in this case there was no difference so we had to tell the customer that.

6)      Let the customer know how much they will save – a $50.00 a month price cut is $600.00 a year, let them know that.

7)      If there is a time limit on the price reduction let them know it UPFRONT – don’t make it sound like you are holding a gun to their head, no one wants to be squeezed. But let them know that it is a time sensitive price cut that ends on a specific date (if it doesn’t have a specific date, at least let them know that it can be ended without any notice)

8)      Price cuts don’t take the place of selling – you still need to go through the sales process and make sure the customer’s questions are answered and that they understand the value of what you are offering.

9)      Don’t ever be ashamed of a small price cut – every dollar you cut from your price is a dollar the customer doesn’t need to spend and falls to their bottom line directly from yours.

10)   Look, Act, and Sound EXCITED – If you make it a big deal it will be a big deal, if you make it sound like it is nothing than the customer will react in the same manner. (Did I already mention this? Well it is worth mentioning twice!)

Remember, a price cut doesn’t automatically mean a customer will buy, but how you present a price cut can definitely make a big difference in how many will buy.

Lorin

BUSY ACCOMPLISHING NOTHING

I’M BACKKKK

After about a month traveling around the country working with reps I am finally back in Atlanta for a few week. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post during my trips but time just wouldn’t allow it.

I hope that you will once again get in the habit of checking the Training Buffet, Help Yourself, Monday thru Friday for a post. READ, LEARN, ENJOY!

Lorin

Today's post

I am absolutely convinced that sales reps are the busiest people in the world. They have got to be because every time I ask one they tell me that they are so busy they don’t have time to do anything else.

This was especially apparent a few weeks ago while I was working with a rep. We got in his car 7:30 sharp and we were at our first sales call promptly at 8AM. We met with the manager and the rep and manager spent over 90 minutes talking about everything from politics to hunting. When that conversation ended the rep started talking about business, which lasted about 5 minutes until the customer found an opportunity to ask about the reps dog (I found out later they had the same breed and had discussed this before). In the next 45 minutes I found out more than I ever needed to know about peek-a-poo’s, and made up my mind to never own one.

The conversation finally came back around to business and after another 30 minute presentation we walked out with NOTHING! Not even an appointment or referral.

We then got into the car and spent about the next 15 minutes entering information into our CRM and looking up information on our next stop. I started to get the feeling this was going to be a long day. I wasn’t disappointed.

I got back to my hotel room at 8:45PM after making 7 sales calls and NO sales.

The next morning 7:30 sharp I was back in the passenger seat heading to our first sales call. On the way I asked the rep about how he felt about the previous day. He excitedly told me how great a day it was and that he loved a “BUSY” day because the time flew by.

Since we didn’t have a set appointment with our first stop I asked him to stop so we could get a cup of coffee and talk a little.

I took out my phone and showed him the notes I had taken from the day before. I let him read everything I had and asked him if he thought I was being fair. He said no, that we were busy all day and that my notes said that we wasted a lot of time during the day. I could tell that he was upset with me and was convinced that we had a productive day.

We sat over our coffee for about 45 minutes and I pointed out to him all the times that he should have cut the conversations off about chit chat and come back to business. I told him that if he had done that we could have seen no less than twice the amount of customers. I even ran the numbers for him, if he makes 7 calls a day times 5 days a week that is 35 calls. If he just added 50% more calls that would be 50 calls a week. Right now he is selling an average of 1.7 customers a week he could increase that to 2.5 keeping the averages the same. That would mean 3 more sales a month which would put him above quota when added to what he was now selling.

Did all my words sink in? I don’t know. I did see a difference for the remaining part of that day and the next day. We made 11 calls that day and 16 calls with 2 sales the next day. I think I proved my point pretty well. Only time will tell if he continues the activity level and keeps things moving in his sales calls.

Now let’s focus on the big picture, and that includes each of us and our normal day in the sales field. How much time do we spend doing non-productive things like chit chatting about everything BUT business? How much time could we add to face to face selling if we simply formed the habit of minimizing the chatter and maximizing our sales calls by getting down to business?

I know how important it is to build rapport with customers, I will never tell you NOT to chit chat and talk about the things that form a relationship, but you can’t forget what you are there for. SELL!

Lorin