Aim For The Pin!

Is selling difficult?

The answer to this question is relative - and largely rests with you.  Using, yet again, another sporting analogy - to many who don't play, golf is difficult.  Hitting a white ball some hundred metres in to a tiny hole 18 times is frustrating.  Why?  It is hard because we don't take the time to make it easier.  Then, of course, a professional golfer will tell you it's hard as well!  Why?  Their view of it has changed.  They wish to hit the green from 200m out and have a 1 putt opportunity as a significant pay check rides on it.

Now to sales, is this hard?  We all know how to talk to people to varying degrees, we can all pick up a phone and have a conversation.  We should all be technically adept enough at our roles to discuss what our business does and how it helps a client.

So why is selling viewed as hard?  Is it ringing the client?  Is it the first meeting?  Is it following them up?  Is it pitching your offer?  Is it closing the deal?

More often than not it's YOU!  Like the golfer, you just aren't doing it enough to be comfortable with doing it.  You over think it - like a golf swing - rather than doing it.

You can all use a phone, carry a conversation and, hopefully, explore a clients position enough to see where you can add value - this is, in essence, sales.  How hard is that?

Much of it comes down two 2 things

• A fear of failure:  People don't like hearing 'No' - it implies failure through rejection.  So, of course, it is easier to not put ourselves in the position where this could occur.  In sales, this means we choose the path of least resistence - those who we think will never say no.  A great example of this is meeting with intermediaries/rainmakers.  Do you actually outright ask them 'is their anyone you can introduce me to?'.  Often, not, but we have a coffee with them, make small talk and hope this statement is inferred and they're just throw us some names without asking
• A desire for failure:  Some people actually do the process, but poorly or uncommittedly so they fail.  This then proves their internal view that it was a pointless exercise.  You see this at work when people say 'my clients won't like this' and then, lo and behold, after they've spoken with their client, the client doesn't like it.  Yet other managers have no issue.  Any cyclist/skier etc will tell you, you look to torwards where you want to go, not where you don't...sales is no different, a focus on failure rather than success will likely bear it true.

Sure, in sales you don't always win.  Sometimes timing is off, or another competitor is sharper or a client just doesn't make a decision to change.  However, by not calling that client you are making the decision for them.  You are choosing to not play that shot.   Worse, you could be calling the client believing it won't work.

Sales isn't difficult - though it does require effort and tenancity.  Does a professional golfer not aim to land the ball 10' from the pin when 200 out because there's water in the way?  Or do they hit the water to prove it was a silly shot?  No, they trust themselves and aim for the pin.  So should you!

Sales Activity Not Working?

Are you finding your sales generation activity isn't working or has stopped working?  It happens to us all...sometimes it is just the ebb and flow of business cycles and this is normal.  Other times it can be because some things have decoupled in how you go about your sales.  Whether new to sales and you're being asked to go out and find some business and what you're doing isn't working, or an old hand that has found themselves in  a rut - have a look at the below as common reasons why you're sales generation has stalled or not fired:

No Clear Targets

When we're told to sell, the first thing people often think to do is pick the phone up and ring someone.  You shotgun the sales process aiming to ring many to find the one that wants to work with you.  You have no clear line of sight to your ideal clients.

In order to be more successful in your growth activities, the first place to start is to develop a list of those clients who you wish to work with and you think you can add value to.

Sales generation is much easier if, in your own mind, you've determined you wish to deal with the client.  Your activity has more conviction.

No Plan / No Process

Again, like the above, sales activity often happens in a scatter gun approach.  It is done when we're quiet, have some spare time, have the pressure put on from above, when we're in the hole in our pipeline et al.  A scatter gun approach gets scattered results!

The best approach is to treat sales activity seriously.  Block time out of the diary regularly, plan who and why you're calling businesses, research them, find the appropriate person to call, work out your approach.

Following up is as important as making the call - actually more so.  You are far better off to keep a promise to an existing prospect (eg a planned call) than to ring a new prospect - why?  The new prospect has no expectations yet.   So it is important you treat the sales process with respect.

The old adage of 'failing to plan' is very true in sales.

Too Little 

Many sales people do 'just enough' sales activity to keep the wolves at bay - but seldom go much further.  Their manager or business tells them to make three calls - so they make 3 calls - no more, no less.

Using an example in golf - when you start playing golf, it may take you 120 shots to get through the 18 holes.  A professional can do it in the 60's.  Sales isn't different.  Sometimes you need to do more activity that the 'prescribed' minimum to be successful.  Your inputs should be reflective of your outputs, not the other way around.  As you get better, you get more efficient.  But you have to hit the ball 120 times to begin with!

Also, like a golfer that only plays one game of golf every few months - you may have the odd good round, but you won't get much better.  Also, one bad round shouldn't deter you.

More activity, if done properly, equals more results.  More importantly, practice makes perfect.  As per the above when planning, block out enough time to do all your calls together.  Sure the first call may be hard to kick off, but you'll be on a roll by the last one.  You get better by doing more activity - and, of course, you tend to get more results.

Your Why Is Flawed

Some 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.  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 have to or are told to isn't sustainable.  It is human nature to resist being told to do something.   You either need to adjust your mindset to want to do it, stop doing it, or leave your role.

When I say 'want to do it' - I don't mean the activity of making the call/contact.  I mean the act of connecting with a person and business to understand can you add meaningful value to their business.  This is the why.  The call is just the how.

When you get your 'why' right - sales is not only easier, but far more enjoyable.  You ask questions wanting to know and act on the answers, you drive solutions to problems and create opportunities.

Its All You

Sales activity is demanding - especially if you try to do it all yourself.  You can become task focused in sales - ring this client, ask for this referral, close this deal.  The weight of targets can weigh you down - the blinkers start to close in.

Professional sports people have coaches - even those at the top of their game.  The people around you can coach and support you in your sales activity - often you just need to ask.

Whether this is internal support like a sales manager or a colleague who's knowledge can support a customer or proposal.  Also, good sales people know how to use their network effectively.  To gather information, introduce you to prospective clients, to solve customer problems or help capitalise on opportunities.  Who you know is often more important than what you know in sales.

It is useful to review this regularly as often it is one or a few of these things de-railing which slows or stops your sales success.  Some are easier to fix than others but, like many things in life, identifying the problem is the first step to fixing it.

Are You Average?

The 'Great' people and personalities we immediately think of didn't become iconic through doing what every one else did or just meeting expectations.  Sir Edmund Hillary is great example (excuse the pun) - his feat many years ago is even today difficult for people to achieve despite the considerable advance in technology supporting them.

Why then, in sales, is do we often refer to someone doing what was expected or promised of them as great service?  Is it great service?

If we take 'great' to be defined as 'above average' and take this in to the sales arena - by that same definition, doing what everyone else is doing isn't great service - it's just service.

Also, extrapolating out that definition, anything above 'average' could be construed as great service couldn't it?  Well, yes it could - however, by who's definition?  The customers of course.  Being above average isn't immediately great service - why not?  It has to be meaningful to the client.

Providing great service needn't be about grandiose gestures or massive expense or ceremony - more often than not, it is the regular undertaking of small, meaningful actions which provide great service.  Stressing the words, regular and meaningful.

In our personal lives, we go the extra mile for our friends, yet so many sales people don't do this for their clients.  For example, if you see a concert coming up and you know your friend likes the artist, you'll remember to tell them.....would you do this for a client?  Do you know the artists they like?  If you know your clients like crayfish and you're a diver, would you get them some?  Do you know enough about them to be meaningful? Why not?

So now you're inspired to provide great, distinct, above average service.  Now think about this:

Do you think you can be great once or twice and this is enough?
If you do it all the time for your clients, does it become 'average'?

Greatness is relative to the service level they're used to receiving and, more importantly, greatness is about consistency, not about one off gestures

Greatness isn't as difficult as we think - but it requires us to think about others and what's meaningful to them.
It requires you to be willing to be above average!  Are you average?

Being Meaningful

Meaningful

adjective:

• having meaning: 
• serious, important, or worthwhile:
• communicating something that is not directly expressed:

Meaning

noun:

• what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action:
• implied or explicit significance
• important or worthwhile quality

Sure, your product or service may not make a meaningful difference to your clients, but does that mean you can’t?  Sometimes the most insignificant sales interactions can be the most memorable, the most meaningful.

Why meaningful is important in sales is it requires some things to exist before it can happen:

•  It needs fore-thought!  Being meaningful requires a deep understanding of your client and their situation.  It doesn’t happen by accident.  It requires preparation. 
• It needs sincerity!  Being meaningful is about ‘meaning’ what you say and do, not just doing it.  It is about conviction, curiosity, exploration and a genuine desire to help.  It’s very difficult to be sustainably meaningful if you’re insincere.
• It needs selfless-ness!  Being meaningful is determined by your client, not you.  It requires your words and actions to cycle the client needs, not yours.

As sales person, you can often have a meaningful impact on your clients situation - be it small or significant.  You can make a difference and you can be different.  Being meaningful is challenging as it requires you to deliver something beyond the normal to the client.  It requires you to be creative, to generate solutions, to create opportunities.  It isn't about what you do, it is about how and why you do it.  It is a genuine, sincere and unwavering desire to help your clients.  To improve their position, to be significant.

Ask yourself ‘how can I make a meaningful difference to my client/intermediary’ each and every time before and after meeting with them.  It drives you to ask questions because you want and need the answers and, more importantly, it impels you to act on this knowledge to make a difference.  It drives you out of your product set and in to your knowledge set.  It often differentiates you from your competition – it makes your offering very difficult to replicate.

Develop The Relationship, Not The Business

The sales equivalent of the chicken and egg debate could be – which came first the relationship or the business?

Sure, there are some products, industries and situations where you obtain business from a client prior to a relationship and some where you never develop a relationship – let’s park those.

In the majority of situations – and particularly when you’re in a knowledge and advice based business – the relationship does and should come first.  Why?

• It’s hard to sell meaningful solutions to people who don’t know you’re there
• It’s hard to sell meaningful solutions to people you don’t know & know well
• It’s hard to sell meaningful solutions to people who don’t trust you, who & what you represent and what you’re offering

In fact often it’s just hard to sell meaningful solutions. 

One common factor exists behind nearly every business – people.  And in most B2B situations another factor is usually true, people make the decision on which partners to use. People do business with people.  You have relationships with people, not businesses.

One simple question – does a relationship beget business or does business beget a relationship?

Mindful of the exceptions mentioned above, in knowledge and advice based sales, a relationship is a crucial success factor to securing business and doing so in the long term.

Interestingly however, most businesses refer to their sales people/hunters as ‘business development managers’ and their farmers as ‘relationship managers’.

A BDM/Hunter/Sales Person has to have finely honed relationship development skills.   Why?  They have to approach prospective customers and develop a relationship – often trying to form relationship with a prospective customer who usually have an incumbent supplier and no pressing need to form another relationship – they have to create and maintain this impulsion.  The path to business can be long – and the relationship needs to be maintained before during and after any business is done.

Good BDM’s realise they are actually relationship developers rather than business developers.  A deep and sincere relationship opens the door to find opportunities to help clients and be meaningful – that is, to do business.

Why is this distinction important?  Business is a point in time transaction (internally usually measured as a ‘sale’), a relationship is a long term mutually beneficial engagement.  A relationship is meaningful, it’s memorable, it’s consistent, it’s thoughtful.  If you focus on business – you are focusing short term.  If you focus on relationship – you’re joining a journey with the client.

As a BDM/Sales Person – ask yourself – is it the relationship and genuine desire to help clients maximise the good and mitigate the not so good that drives you?  Or just the transaction. 

As sales leaders – ask yourself – do I have a sales force who are client centric relationship developers and managers? 

Your best customers don’t talk about the great pricing they get or the awesome products….they talk about, remember and advocate the great relationship they have with you!  Manage this, develop this, encourage this.  The ‘business’ part will take care of itself.

Making That Change

You’ve now planned 2014!  You’ve identified some things you wish to do differently and set yourself some aspirations – whether significant or minor.  Your Goals!

You’ve effectively set yourself a professional new year’s resolution.  As humans, we typically don’t have great success with resolutions.  We have the foresight, but often fail on the execution 

How do you make these planned changes stick and be successful

Purpose

Setting a goal is easy - understanding why you're doing it is crucial.  Most goals don't get achieved because when set, there wasn't the conviction around why they are important to you.  Ever done a task you don't want to do but had to?  Ever done a task you really wanted to do?  What was the difference in outcome?  You probably achieved both - but guaranteed one was far more fun, done quicker, more efficiently, with less procrastination and to a better level.

Your goals should be YOURS!.  Not your works, not your friends or families, not social pressure....Yours.  Own them and more importantly what achieving them provides you.

Can’t V Won’t

You need to determine if what you’re trying to change/achieve is something you can’t or won’t do.  If it is can’t – you need to develop the skills to do it.  No amount of thinking it will make it happen, you need to take steps to bridge the gap so you can do it. 

If it is won’t, you need to address the reasons behind any blockages preventing you from doing it.  This may be sitting with someone who does it regularly to de-threaten the task.  It may be as simple as doing it regularly until it becomes easier.

Can't is a skill set issue, Won't is a mindset one.  Sometimes Can't it also a mindset issue as you can have the skills but not the confidence in them to achieve the goal, or not know you have the skills. 

Knowing which of these apply (and both can) is important to determining how you effect the change

As a manager, this is important as you need to know when to direct, when to support, when to delegate and when to lead (Will/Skill Matrix).

Don’t Boil the Ocean

A great example of this is deciding to run a marathon.  You don’t just make this choice and go out and run 42km the following day – rather, you set incremental goals to gradually take you to the end goal.

Professionally, the approach is exactly the same.  Take you goal and break it down in to regular, daily behaviours.  Make it simple and manageable on a daily basis.  More importantly, it focuses you on what you need to do to hit the goal – the means – not on the goal itself.  

Using the marathon analogy – a good runner knows they need be prepared, stay hydrated, maintain a fixed cadence and consider their breathing.  In doing this, the distance will take care of itself.  Same goes in sales – if you distil your goals to daily behaviours, you should remain confident the goal will be achieved if the behaviours are sound. 

Persistence

As humans – inertia comes easy.  So therefore saying you’ll make change doesn’t make it happen.  Similarly, constant action is required to achieve the outcome.  You will potentially fail initially and improve over time and it won’t always be a straight line to success.   There is often a ‘J Curve’ of change – where you go backwards initially as you adjust to new process, style, etc.  Over time you get better at it and you see the successes.  Tenacity and belief is required to get through this until the change becomes normal.

Goal Setting

There were two things that were explained to me in goal setting which I’ll never forget:

1.                  It must be positive

2.                  It must be a vision of what you see yourself (in present tense)

For example

NOT:                 I won’t be a negative team member

RATHER:           I am a positive and present team member

Emphasise the positive words and maintain them in the present tense.  Reinforce them daily – a journey is usually easier if the destination if known and you already see it in your minds eye.

Finally, review your goals.  Goals can become unrealistic if things change or, ideally, you hit them sooner than you expected.  As you grow, your goals should grow with you. 

The Value Of Discloure

As a sales person, one of the best pieces of advice I received was 'bring more of the personal you to work'.  I had developed professional 'sales persona' that I thought was needed and which, over time, had diverged from the real me. 

I took this advice on board and, at the time, didn't really understand why this change started to work.

I then ran across this model years later in my career:

What I didn't then realise was this advice was helping me open my 'Public Self' - details about me that both I and those around know.  So was this important?  It helped me communicate and interact better with those around me.


When something was 'Hidden' - that is I knew about it but those around me didn't - people didn't understand my motives or why I reacted to certain things in certain ways.

In the case of the 'Blind' area - this was where people knew things about me that I actually didn't know or realise about myself.  For example - they may see with more clarity the way I react in situations of stress or high workload and I may be ignorant to this. 


By increasing the size of your 'Open' area - you can better relate and work with those around you - as both you and they know why you do and don't do certain things.

How do you increase the Open Area?  Well, you shrink the Hidden by disclosing more about yourself (for example, I simply disclosed my Team Management Profile which highlighted I was a Thruster Organiser) and you shrink your Blind area by seeking honest feedback from those around you about yourself.  You've all possibly done this with '360 Degree Feedback' which actually ties in to the Johari Window.

Similarly, many work places survey their clients for feedback.  What the failing is, seldom is it explained why this feedback is important for the person receiving it.

From here you can also develop a view of peoples personas (refer attached link)


http://changingminds.org/disciplines/communication/models/johari_window.htm
 
The people we often view as confident are 'Open Personas' - as they know more about themselves and people know more about them, they sit very confidently when communicating.  They have less to fear as you see what you get and they seek feedback to ensure they know what others see in them.


As part of your 2014 personal growth plans - have a look at the above and assess whether you have a large or small 'Open' Area in your Johari window and, more importantly, try our giving and seeking disclosure with some people (internal and external) you work and see the effects.