Monday 31 March 2014

Do You Have Your Why Crossed?



5614813544_a30d693a50_oSome people undertake sales because they view they have to, or they’re told to.  Some people are in sales roles, but don’t like the sales activity.   

They.  Don’t. Want. To.  

If you call or approach a client from this position – customers feel it.    Sure, you can say all the right things, but do you mean them?  Do you want to help the client and make a difference to them and their business?

Undertaking sales activity because you view you have to or are told to isn’t sustainable.  It is human nature to resist being told to do something or feeling you have to. They still ‘want to’ do it – but the reason is fear based – fear of reprisal of not doing it.  Not because they want to under take the activity itself.  Because they are so resistant to the activity - this even clouds their ability to see the outcome.

You need to adjust your mindset to want to do it.

We enjoy the things we want to do.  We overcome obstacles to do the things we want to do.  We hunger to get better at the things we want to do.

When I say ‘want to do it’ – I don’t mean the activity itself – for example making a call.   I mean the act of wanting to connect with a person and business to understand can you add meaningful value to them and their business.  This is the why.  The call is just the how, the products just the what.

Sales success doesn’t come from what you sell or the process you follow…it comes from your purpose, your why, your compulsion to want to make a meaningful difference to your client.

You ask questions wanting to know and act on the answers because you geniunely care, you drive solutions to their problems and create opportunities for them.

For sales managers – this plays out as well.  Until your staff member wants to improve themself, wants to grow their sales skills, wants to understand why they aren’t as successful as they feel they should be – no amount of training/coaching will work.  Your sole focus as a sales manager is creating this want internally in them so they drive their own growth and development.

When you get your ‘why’ right – sales is not only easier, but far more enjoyable both for you and your client.

Tuesday 25 March 2014

The Science of Sales


ImageIf you view sales as a science experiment – there are four reactants that, when combined, result in your sales product. These are:

People: This is about the relationship between you, your team and the client.  This is about developing and maintaining trust and credibility
.
Purpose: This is the why – why you wish to do business with your client/prospect and vice versa.  This is can measure the ‘meaningfulness’ of the relationship.

Product: This is what you are offering and what it provides to your client/prospect

Price: This is what is costs your clients/prospect to do business with you.

The one thing that doesn't vary is the volume of the beaker you’re putting the ingredients in – this is finite.

What does all this mean?

In short, as a sales professional you have to choose the most appropriate mix of reactants to result in a success outcome for you and your client. There are some interesting things to consider here:
  1.  If you choose not to use People or Purpose – your beaker is full of Price and Product. This may work for you based on what you’re selling – but make sure it is a conscious and considered strategy to not use People or Product.
  2. The more you fill your beaker with People or Purpose, the less you have to use Product and Price
  3. The order is also important like any good experiment. Combining the wrong can be disastrous as can adding them to soon.  For example – adding Price soon after People can negate the effects of People or adding Product first can mean you can’t add People and Purpose later.
As a sales professional, you expertise lies in choosing when to use the above sales ingredients in the right mix at the right time. Also, you appreciate that the more of People and Purpose you use – the less you have to use Price and Product, sometimes if at all.

The most difficult factor is it is your client who determines whether the combination is successful – your biggest focus is responding to their feedback and adjusting the combination as you go.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

Yo Yo Prospecting

We've all heard of Yo Yo Dieting.  You realise you've put on more weight than you want.  You starve yourself to get to your goal weight and, once there, go back to your old habits only to regain the weight.  So you diet again - a cycle doomed to repeat itself.

What yo-yo'ers endeavour to do is crash diet rather than make subtle long lasting changes to their approach to losing weight.  Eating less, eating healthy, exercising more.

A similar thing manifests itself in business development.  People are comfortable with a normal pipeline - they have work to do, things to focus on, they're busy.  It's comfortable.  Prospecting is a low priority as why focus on the birds in the bush when you have some in your hand.  It's hard and the pay offs are often not immediate.

Then, your pipeline dries up or has a sustained hole. Panic sets in - you start the Yo Yo Prospecting cycle.  Starved of business, you are forced to prospect, and quickly.  

Their pipeline eventually normalises (hopefully) and prospecting again goes on the back burner.  And thus the cycle begins.

What good sales people realise is prospecting is activity you do all the time.  The only thing that varies is how much you do based on your pipeline.   They know their sales cycle and how far ahead they need to be initiating prospecting contacts before they have a chance of securing the business.  If it takes you 6 months from initial contact to securing a new client - what chance do you have if you are sitting in a hole in your pipeline today?  

You prospect to fill the gaps in your pipeline, not because you're in one!  It is too late then.

Only a small change is required - set aside time each week to focus on this activity.  Treat it like an appointment.  Make those subtle long lasting changes today!  






Wednesday 5 March 2014

Test That Rope




A man was passing some elephants and he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their back leg. No chains or no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.
 
He saw their trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Ever been guilty of this?  Most of us have at some point.

Many of us in sales either consciously or subconsciously hold on belief we can’t do something because we failed at it at some point in the past.  As a result, we avoid or resist being put in a position to do it again.  Worse, we sometimes undertake the activity, but with a negative mindset which often dooms us to failure.  Failure is a necessary part of learning – if you avoid failure, you inhibit your growth.   Failure only becomes an issue if you don’t learn from it – so by not doing something because you failed at it once – what are you learning?

What we can fail to take in to account is, like the elephant, our skill set and aptitude has likely grown and now we are actually able to do that which we previously failed at.  We allow our fear of failure to outweigh our rational thought we can do it.

Children exhibit this all the time – and, as parents, we support our children through this to show them that they can do it.  We know they can do it, we know they actually don’t need our help, but we stand by them.  Not necessarily to provide help, but to provide confidence and reassurance.  Slowly, over time, they stretch and break that rope.  As a sales manager, it is important to understand this as sales people can and do exhibit the same mindset around certain tasks.

Next time you find yourself saying you can’t, won’t or shouldn’t do this – ask yourself why you think this and whether it is actually true.

Test that rope!

Saturday 1 March 2014

Basket of Bananas

You may have read about the 5 monkeys experiment.  It goes like this:
Monkey Experiment

This shows you the power of mindset and your frame of reference.  Growth and reward doesn’t always come from doing what others are doing (or not doing) and doing what you’ve always done
Cold calling is a great example of this in sales – most people, who wish to try cold calling as a sales skill will have people around them explaining why it is a pointless exercise.  How it doesn’t work, how clients don’t like it etc.  Yet often, the very people saying it doesn’t work aren’t using this skill effectively, if at all.
Therefore, through reinforcement, change becomes difficult.   Without this, sales teams become stale, doing the same (often mediocre) activities over and over.  They drive themselves to the bottom.
It requires someone with tenacity and belief to shrug these negative views off and try themselves.  Yes, they may fail – but they tried.  More importantly, they may succeed and slowly, over time, change their and their teams frame of reference.
Now – flip this on its head.  What if each time the monkey got to the top of the ladder, not only did they get the banana they thought they were going to get, but they were rewarded with a big basket of bananas to keep or share?  What behaviour would this drive?
Next time you say ‘that won’t work’, ‘we shouldn’t try that’, ‘our customers won’t relate to that’ consider…
Yes, sometimes you may get sprayed with water.  However, you may just be missing out on that basket of bananas because you said you couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t or worse, working to prevent someone else getting it.