Sales Training Advice

Sales Tips: Seven Steps to Selling MORE! By Ryan C. Lowe

Josh Hinds — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:20:54 +0000

Are you a salesperson who’s frustrated each month trying to reach sale quotas? Do you worry that a career in sales might not be a good fit for you? Sales can be frustrating and complicated, or it can be very simple. Now when I say “simple,” I don’t mean that it is not difficult. Selling is difficult. However, once we take out some of the complications you’ll be able to sell more, and hopefully, enjoy doing so.

Take it from me, I have been in sales, and I know the frustrations. I remember when I first got into sales; I thought it was going to be easy. I thought that all I had to do is be a good talker, have a nice smile, knock on doors and the sales would start coming in. I learned the hard way, after being fired from one of my sales jobs, that success in sales required much more. I learned that it is an art; and, to be great at sales, you have to work on yourself as much as you work on the job.

Here are seven ways to being more effective in sales:

First, you must have a positive attitude. What do I mean by that? You must begin each sales day with a positive attitude. If you wake up dreading your job and hate what you do, it will be almost impossible to sell anything and your potential customers will see right through you. You must carry yourself in a positive way, and have the confidence in yourself, product and the company you work for.

Second, develop personal and production goals. The important step to achieving any type of goal is to write it down. If you don’t write the goal down, I consider it a wish. You must know what you are aiming for. You can wish for how many sales you will have for the year, or how much money you will make. After writing them down, you must look at them on a daily basis. I find having personal goals helps me stay on track toward a productive career. They will help you do the same.

Third, manage your time. Take five minutes each day to plan your next day. Also, take ten minutes each Friday, to plan your next week. Make it a point to know where your meetings are each day, and plan to visit nearby prospects before and after your meeting. This will also allow you to have all your meetings in one area on the same day. Having a day planner, and using some kind of application on your phone, will help you with these tasks. Remember time is money. If you’re wasting your time, it’s your income that’s wasting away.

Fourth, prospect. This is the time you must go out and add qualified customers to your inventory. There are several ways to prospect. You can do it the hard way: by going out and cold calling; or you can be smarter about it. Ask the customers you already have, and the people you know, for referrals. Did you catch that last phrase? You not only can ask, but you should ask for referrals. A woman once told me, after one of my seminars, that cold calling is a way of God punishing us for not asking for referrals. I loved that comment! Referrals are the best way to get business. One of the best ways to get solid referrals is to join a local chapter of Business Network International, BNI. It is a smart way to increase sales!

Fifth, know your presentation. Do you know that 76% of all sales people wing their presentation? That is why those same salespeople fail. They don’t present their product in a professional manner. They are simply all over the place and the customer gets confused and gets scared and….. doesn’t buy! Your goal is to know your presentation backwards and forwards. The only way you can do this is practice. Practice. Practice!

Here are three keys to a great presentation:

1) Emotion – you must have enthusiasm. Be excited about what you sell. If you are excited they will be excited.
2) Value – You must show value. No prospect will buy if you don’t show how it will benefit them, and how it will be a value to their company.
3) Momentum – One of the best things you can do in your presentation is to ask questions. The best are open ended questions, those that can’t be answered simply with a “yes” or “no.” That way you keep the client involved. Telling is not selling.

Sixth, ask for the sale. The number one reasons why sales professionals fail is because they never ask for the business, or they get to the end of their presentation, and ask a question, such as, “what do you think?”. The customer will reply, “Let me think it over.” You don’t want to ever get that answer. This is one of the most if not the most important step, because this where you either go back to the office with a sale or with nothing. There are dozens of closing techniques. Learn several of them and make them part of your presentation. I promise, you will see great results.

Seventh, take time to educate yourself. As I stated above, sales is an art. It takes work and dedication, to you, your company and client. One of the best ways to become a better salesperson is to work on your skills. Grab a book on sales, a CD set or attend a seminar. These are three ways you can help yourself to become a better sales person. Your goal is to become an expert. How do you become an expert? Take an hour a day and sharpen your skills. How good you are in sales, is a direct result on how much time you invest in learning and mastering the appropriate skills.

If you follow these seven ways, and build upon them, you will be more confident, and able to sell more. Remember at the end of the day, it’s not about you need, it’s about the customers’ needs. I promise, if you take care of customers needs; and serve them with the utmost respect, they will sing your praises and give you more referrals than you know what do with.

Now get off your attitude and go sell more!

“Remember that it is up to you to choose everyday to Get off Your Attitude and to create a positive lifestyle for yourself and others” Ryan C. Lowe
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Ryan C. Lowe is a Speaker, Coach and Author. Ryan is the founder of Get off Your Attitude seminars and merchandise. He works with various organizations to help inspire change and achieve success through a positive mental attitude. For more information on Ryan’s services, merchandise or his new book you can visit www.GetOfYourAttitude.com

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Top 10 Characteristics of Successful Sales Professionals By Bob Urichuck

Josh Hinds — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:04:52 +0000

Success means different things to different people. But let’s look at sales professionals. What would you say are the top 10 characteristics of successful sales professionals?

To a salesperson, it could be a major client acquisition, qualifying for an incentive, making a predetermined annual income or commission, being recognized at the annual sales conference as salesperson or team player of the year, or simply meeting quota and maintaining a job.

Each of us has different desires. The key is to determine what your desires are in sales and make it a goal to accomplish them. Success is the realization of a worthy goal or desire.

To be successful does not mean that you have to be the best or the highest producer or win the #1 spot on your team. Success is not out there. Success is internal and means whatever you want it to mean for you. What would it take for you to define yourself as a successful sales professional?

What makes a successful sales professional? Obviously, it is achieving their goals but what are your goals? What are your inner most personal goals?

Let’s take a close look at the characteristics of successful sales people. What are the top 10 characteristics of a successful sales professional?

Over the years I have heard all kinds of responses. If I told you the top ten responses, will it affect your choices and what you write down?

Take the time and write out ten characteristics of a successful sales professional based on what you have witnessed or desired for yourself.

Review your list. How many of these characteristics do you possess? How many of them do you want to possess? What must you do to possess them all?

My intention is to help you discover things for yourself. This method of learning will make a difference. Go ahead; write out your list now.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

(Note: those ten numbers directly above are blank so you can write your own list. Do that now.)

I hear the following characteristics on an ongoing basis: goal driven, focused, good communicator – asks many questions and listens well, organized, follows through, persistent, patient, honest, trustworthy, professional at all times, good presenter, dresses well, cares, problem solver, results-oriented, doesn’t take rejection personally, enthusiastic and passionate about their profession, their product or service, and the organization they represent.

Identify the characteristics that you possess and the ones that require improvement. Each month focus on one of those characteristics that you need to work on until you have mastered that characteristic. In no time you will possess the top ten characteristics of a successful sales professional and you will succeed in all that you do.
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Bob Urichuck is an International Professional Speaker, Trainer and founder of the “Buyer Focused” Velocity Selling System and the Author of two best selling books “Up Your Bottom Line” and “Disciplined for Life: You are the Author of Your Future.” You can visit him at www.BobU.com

-take a moment to share your thoughts on what you believe to be the most important characteristics a sales professional must have in the comments below.

Sales Negotiation Strategy: How Assumptions Work Against Us and For Us Too By Jim Camp

Josh Hinds — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 03:09:32 +0000

In negotiations, assumptions as just as dangerous as uncontrolled emotions and positive or negative expectations. Assumptions can work against us because most of us come to believe that we’re pretty good at reading other people, at understanding what they’re really feeling and thinking. But they can also work for us if we can get the other party making assumptions about us.

How Assumptions Hurt Our Advantage

Negotiators, in particular, tend to pride themselves on their people skills. Often, before a negotiation, we hear someone make an assumption such as:

“I know what they’ll do if we make that offer.”

“This is the way they operate.”

“If you raise the price, they’ll want a volume discount.”

“I’m pretty sure she makes the decisions over there.”

“There’s no way they’ll make an offer today.”

The problem is, having an assumption before you go into a negotiation is setting yourself up for an ambush. Making assumptions means that you’re going into a meeting for one reason, only to find out that you were there for a completely different reason—and then you’re caught unprepared.

Other common assumptions that will come back to bite you at the negotiating table are those based on economic class, character, experience, education, clothes, or even the type of car they drive. Anyone with much experience in business can recall when they didn’t even bother calling on a potential client, supplier, or customer because they assumed this deal would never work out, only to learn later that they might have blown a great opportunity.

Breaking the Assumptions Habit

There are two ways we can get rid of assumptions: by way of sound research and smart questioning.

I want to caution you on the first: research. How many of us really do research? How many of us really dig in and do enough research?

One of the things the Internet does is connect us to the world. But how many of us just go to a website of an opponent, look at their website, and think we’ve done research? In fact, how many of us even make assumptions that everything on that website is correct? How many of us dig in and find out who our opponents really are, whom they’ve negotiated with, and what they stand for? How many of us go do the real due diligence required?

Research in itself is artwork. But one of the keys to breaking your assumptions habit is to develop impeccable research skills. Once you do, you’ll be able to go into any negotiation armed with much more information, ammunition, and resources than your opponent likely possesses.

The second way to break the assumptions habit is to learn how to ask intelligent questions early and often during any negotiation. It is actually much better than looking at data, because the way your opponent answers your questions will give you vast amounts of information that a slick PR piece or a strictly factual news story or financial report won’t provide.

You ask questions to create vision. The vision you are trying to build for your opponent is his problems, goals, objectives, and even pain, with your proposal and the unique benefits you offer as the solution. To do that, you need to find out what your opponent’s issues are by asking interrogative-led questions. Ask questions that cannot be answered with a simple yes/no, questions that start with what, how, why, where, or when. Rather than assuming what your opponent wants or needs, find out. Open your mind and allow yourself to be fully educated by your opponent, not by something you believe you already know.

How to Get Assumptions Working for You

Now, just as assumptions work against us in business, they can also work for us. We can plant assumptions—and if the other party lets you, why not? Say you’re asked how much your widget costs. “It’s expensive,” you say. Well, this word means very different things to a millionaire than to a man making $30,000. And here’s the kicker—each immediately assumes that you mean what he means, and you may well find him preparing to pay a price much higher than yours. In fact, people—negotiators—make offers higher than you ever dreamed they would because of such false assumptions on their part.

“When can this be done?”

“Soon.”

In the above example, “soon” can mean anything. If the other party tells you “soon,” you have to find out what that means. Ask a question. But when you say “soon,” you can take advantage of the fact that your adversaries don’t find out. Our assumptions always work against us. Their assumptions can work for us.

When you go into your next negotiation—and this can mean an email or phone call or any face-to-face meeting in which you have an agenda of some sort—try to keep your mind free of assumptions. Notice how doing so automatically helps you listen and open up to what’s actually happening in the moment—as opposed to what you thought would happen. It’s a great mindset to learn and practice.
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Jim Camp is founder and CEO of The Camp Negotiation Institute, and author of two bestsellers, Start with No and NO: The Only System of Negotiation You Need for Work or Home. An internationally known expert in applied negotiation, Camp has been asked to present, alongside Nobel Laureate Dr. Thomas Schelling, at Harvard’s Negotiation and Leadership Conference.

-what was your biggest takeaway from the ideas above? Share them in the comments below.

Why Are the Best Sales Producers the Best? By Mark Bowser

Josh Hinds — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:58:11 +0000

It is not an accident that the top producers in the world of selling are at the top. It is also true that there are no born sales champions. Yes, some people have more talent then others. But, success in selling comes down to some basic fundamentals. Fundamentals, if taken action on consistently will lead to success.

Some people doubt this, but it is true. Let me give you an example from the sports world. I was born and bred in Indiana, so I grew up being an Indiana University basketball fan. Indiana has five national championships in basketball. That is the third most in history. Why? Because they master the fundamentals. Not always did Indiana have the most athletic, most talented players in the NCAA. They did have the discipline, the game plan, and the will to succeed. These are qualities that all sales champions have too.

So, what are the fundamentals that all sales champions master? Well, one is Prospecting. Most people don’t like to prospect. Me included. But, you have to have someone to sell to. LinkedIn has made the prospecting and networking process more simple and more powerful then it has ever been in the history of selling. Build your network with people who can and want to say yes to your offer.

Another fundamental is Building Rapport. It has been said that in a perfect world, people want to do business with their friends. Well, in the imperfect world in which we live, people would still rather do business with their friends. Have we made friends with our prospects and customers? Do you have a plan to do this? A book I have found extremely helpful over the years is Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” I use what I have learned from Mr. Carnegie everyday.

The third fundamental is Presentation Skills. Let’s be honest. Most sales professionals are lousy presenters. They ramble, They jump from subject to subject. Quite frankly, they confuse and bore the prospect. When is the last time you bought something when you were confused and bored?

Then, of course, there is the fourth fundamental of Closing Skills. Research shows it takes around 5 closes to begin a partnership with a customer. Many sales professionals know only one or two closes. That is a problem. Closing is a natural part of the presentation process. But it is the scariest for the sales professional as well as the prospect. You must practice and master the closing process so that it becomes natural and not canned. When this is done, is eases the buying tension of the prospect and builds the confidence of the sales professional.

The fifth fundamental of successful selling is Customer Loyalty. My mentor Zig Ziglar says that we as sales professionals have to become assistant buyers to the prospect. Selling is not something you do to someone. It is something you do for someone because you know your product or service is the answer to their challenge. It is not an adversarial process. You are on the same side of the table as the prospect. It is a fundamental belief system that creates loyalty from the prospect but also from you.

So, there you have it. Five fundamentals that the champions share. Master these five fundamentals and I will see you crowned as the next national champion.
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Mark Bowser is one of the nation’s best Sales & Leadership Trainers. He can be reached at www.MarkBowser.com.

-What, if any other important fundamentals would you add? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Mark Twain and Selling Success By Mark Bowser

Josh Hinds — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 03:52:28 +0000

I came across an interesting quote the other day from Mark Twain. At first, it seemed just humorous. As I began to ponder it though, I realized it was filled with depths of perspective for the world of selling. Mr. Twain said, “I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.”

Now, what does this mean for us and our sales success? I heard one time that “I don’t know” is the first sign of wisdom. Why is this true? Well, because it starts a searching process. When you don’t know the answer then you have to seek the answer. By so doing, you find the truth, the reality. Former business leader at GE Jack Welch was famous for walking into meetings and asking “What is the reality here?” Sales professionals have to ask the same type of questions. What is the reality with this prospect? What is the reality of my performance? What is the reality of the competition?

I believe that far too often sales professionals, business leaders, and politicians are afraid to say “I don’t know.” What are you afraid of? That you will lose the business? That you will be seen as vulnerable, weak, ignorant, or even worse? But remember, “I don’t know” is the first sign of wisdom. Wisdom on how to solve the prospect’s challenge. And that is the whole point of selling.

The only problem with saying “I don’t know” is if you leave it there. Don’t leave the person in no man’s land. Instead say, “I don’t know, but I will find out and let you know.” This is the mark of the true sales professional. This is the mark of the champion.

That is really what they are looking for. That is the solution they seek. When you do that, you not only solve their challenge, but their respect for you also goes up too. You see, you don’t have to be perfect in order to get the sale. In fact, perfection here on Earth isn’t reality. Prepare the best you can. Present your product or service the best that you can. Answer their questions the best that you can. And, learn from the process.

So, the next time a prospect or customer asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, then do what Mark Twain did and tell them so.
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Mark Bowser is one of the nation’s best Sales & Leadership Trainers. He can be reached at www.MarkBowser.com

-what are your thoughts on the ideas above?

Moving From Rejection to Motivation By Andrea Waltz

Josh Hinds — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:55:28 +0000

Let’s start with a little quiz. When it comes to rejection, are you the type of seller that…

A. Suffers through it, though unhappily
B. Deals with it well enough
C. Hates it, you’ve about had it
D. Never lets it “get” to you

There are many salespeople who never become comfortable with the rejection and no’s that they must deal with in their sales career. These are our ‘A’ people… the rejection and no’s that they deal with are probably the worst part of what they do. And typically, signs of this are things like call reluctance and low numbers in the “funnel” or pipeline. For our ‘C’ people… it’s enough to get them out of “sales” completely. For others like the ‘B’ people, they are able to view the rejection as just part of the process and move forward despite some bad feelings every now and then. Now, the ‘D’ person – that is a special breed. Somewhere along the line, they developed the mindset and skills to deal with sales rejection and make everyone else crazy with envy!

Now, what if our A, B, and C sellers could learn to do more than “tolerate” or “suffer through” failure and rejection and the no’s? Is it possible to reprogram yourself into more of a ‘D’ person? As far as we’re concerned the answer is, ‘yes.’

The very first thing you must do is to completely change how you view failure and success. We’ve all been taught and trained to operate in a world where yes = success and no = failure. But what if failure was actually the secret to success? Consider the fact that to a large degree, success is a “numbers game.” So, the value in increasing your failure rate is to literally improve your “chances at success.”

For any salesperson, the mere act of increasing the amount of product you show and services you offer increases both the yesses and no’s you will hear. Show more merchandise = more times you’ll hear NO… and the more times you hear NO, the more times you’ll hear YES! It is not only a fool-proof formula, but one of the great undeniable laws of the universe. The same goes for prospecting calls and following up with prospects who have said ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ in the past. Avoiding ‘no’ is not the answer for achieving what you want. Starting today, your strategy will be to hear “No” more often – a concept we call Go for No!

Those ‘D’ sellers we analyzed earlier have no magic power different than everyone else; they simply look at failure and rejection the way it should be viewed. They understand that rejections literally pave the way to closed sales. They understand that failure and success – yes and no – are not opposites; they are opposite sides of the same coin and they simply let the law of averages work for them. You can do the same and starting ‘going for no’ today!
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Andrea Waltz is the co-author of “Go for No!“, a short powerful story written specifically for sales professionals in every industry who must learn to harness the power of no to be successful. To learn more, visit www.goforno.com

- Share your thoughts and feedback on the above article below in the comments section. Your participation and shared knowledge may be the very things necessary to help someone become a sales-champion.

Selling to Technical People – How well do you work with Engineers? By Babette Ten Haken

Josh Hinds — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:07:28 +0000

It’s well known that engineers are conservative, risk-averse, overly cautious and extremely rational. So what’s wrong with that? Unless you both don’t have the patience to communicate with each other. Yes, communicate.

If you are in a position of selling to engineering-intensive companies, or working with a sales engineer to close a sale, it’s imperative that you take the time to understand how to communicate with technical professionals. And it’s more than rattling off a bunch of techie-sounding sales spiel.

1. Words are extremely important to engineers
If you are responsible for business development or sales, and perhaps don’t come from a technical background, then you are frustrated when engineers question the very words you are saying.

Semantics and syntax are critical to engineers. They use words sparingly and precisely, because they don’t want to engineer a solution over a mis-spoken term someone blabbered off in a sales meeting. That is why they scrutinize and question and, quite frankly, drive you crazy with their seemingly uber-analysis of what you say to them.

The next time this happens to you, ask them which term is problematic to them and why. You’ll be surprised at the collaborative dialogue your question may generate.

2. Yes, engineers feel they are smarter than everyone else. And they are.
Engineers have an incredibly taxing education in order to generate their degree(s). There’s no two ways around it. Respect this fact. That is why they were hired to do the jobs they do in the first place. Could you design the Mars Rover? I didn’t think so.

Ask yourself why their education makes you feel inadequate. Your perceptions could be a function of your own assessment of personal shortcomings, your level of confidence in yourself and your company’s sales process, and your own educational pedigree. Could it be that you really do need to finish that degree you started? If you feel this way with engineers, you’re always going to feel behind the 8-ball with somebody. So start by figuring yourself out first. Let the engineers be, well, engineers.

3. Appreciate, honor and utilize the fact that you and the engineer are coming at the same issue from different perspectives.
Depending on where we sit around the table, we see the same things differently. Thank goodness for different perspectives! The world would be a boring place if everything were homogeneous.

Sales professionals are comfortable with extrapolation of not only quantitative, but subjective qualitative information which is not necessarily based on facts and figures. The sales profession doesn’t involve many theorems, formulas, or inclusion of tolerances. You just want to close the sale, right?

Engineers want to mitigate risk. Just as they scrutinize words, they will assess your information against actual formulas to determine the probability of risk. Think of your product and service offering as a nuclear reactor to the engineer. Don’t you think they want to buy-in to a stable, long-term solution? Make sure you have done your homework when collaborating on solutions with your technical colleagues. When you are proactive in anticipating their push-back, you are earning their respect as well.

4. Give yourself permission to turn on the analytical side of your brain.
The days of sales people who are a brochure on legs is over. You can learn a lot from your engineering colleagues by making the time to chat with them offline and ask them all of those questions you don’t understand. Engineers are taught to have all the solutions (which makes offering your solution frustrating, at times, I acknowledge).

But you don’t know what you could know until you ask an engineer that pressing question. And one question leads to another, which means you have broken down that barrier with your technical colleague. That’s where collaboration and learning happen.

Try these techniques out as you start your 2012 sales campaign and let me know about your experiences.
____________________
Babette Ten Haken is Founder & President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC. Her blog, SalesAerobicsForEngineersblog.com, is a destination site for sales and engineering professionals, new graduates and entrepreneurs who want to become “unstuck” from the status quo. Her book, Do YOU Mean Business? She can be reached at babette@salesaerobicsforengineers.com

-what are your thoughts on the ideas above? What have you found helpful in selling to engineers and highly technical people? Share your thoughts in the in the comments below.

The 4 Obstacles to Closing Sales By Brian Tracy

Josh Hinds — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:03:51 +0000

Did you know that there are 4 common obstacles that salespeople face when closing sales? There are several other reasons why the end game of selling is stressful and difficult, but here are a few that are most common.

Fear of Failure…

There are several other reasons why the end game of selling is stressful and difficult. First and foremost is the fear of failure experienced by the prospect. Because of negative buying experiences in the past, over which you could have no control, prospects are conditioned to be suspicious, skeptical and wary of salespeople and sales approaches. They may like to buy, but they don’t like to be sold. They are afraid of making a mistake. They are afraid of paying too much and finding it for sale cheaper somewhere else.

Fear of Criticism…

They are afraid of being criticized by others for making the wrong buying decision. They are afraid of buying an inappropriate product and finding out later that they should have purchased something else. This fear of failure, of making a mistake in buying your product, is the major reason why people object, hesitate and procrastinate on the buying decision.

Fear of Rejection…

The second major obstacle to selling is the fear of rejection, of criticism and disapproval experienced by the salesperson. You work long and hard to prospect and cultivate a prospective buyer and you are very reluctant to say anything that might cause the prospect to tune you out and turn you off. You have a lot invested in each prospect and if you are not careful, you will find yourself being wishy-washy at the end of the sale, rather than risking incurring the displeasure of the prospect by your asking for a firm decision.

Customers Are Busy…

The third reason why the end of the sale is difficult is that customers are busy and preoccupied. It isn’t that they are not interested in enjoying the benefits of your product. It’s just that they are overwhelmed with work and they find it difficult to make sufficient time available to think through your recommendations and make a buying decision. And the better they are as a prospect, the busier they tend to be. This is why you need to maintain momentum throughout the sales process and gently push it to a conclusion at the appropriate time.

Inertia is Hard to Break…

The factor of inertia is the fourth reason that can also cause the sales process to come to a halt without a resolution. Customers are lazy and often quite comfortable doing what they are currently doing. Your product or service may require that they make exceptional efforts to accommodate the change or a new way of doing things. They perhaps recognize that they would be better off with your product, but the trouble and expense of installing it hardly seems to make it worth the effort. They see no pressing need or urgency to stop doing what they are doing and start doing something else with what you are selling.

Everyone Buys at the Same Time…

The good news is that everybody you meet has bought and will buy, new products and services from someone, at some time. If they didn’t buy from you, they will from someone else. You must find the way to overcome the natural physical and psychological obstacles to buying and then hone your skills so that you are capable of selling to almost any qualified prospect you speak to.
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Brian Tracy is one of the world’s leading authorities on personal and business success. His fast-moving talks and seminars are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that you can apply immediately to get better results in every area. Visit the Brian Tracy web site.

-what are some ways you overcome the challenges that occur when closing the sale?

Sales Tips: Never Ask a Prospect These Questions By Andrew Sobel

Josh Hinds — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

You finally got the meeting you sought with a top executive at a prospective client. You prepare well for the session, researching the company and the individual you’re meeting with. After the small talk dies down, you ask your “killer” question:

“I’d like to get a better understanding of your issues. So, what keeps you up at night?”

Terrible question. Awful. Clichéd. One of my clients, the CIO of a large bank, told me that he kicks people out of his office when they pull out that question.

(I’ll get back to why it’s a bad question to use with a prospect you don’t know well in just a minute.)

Good questions can be incredibly powerful. But just as there are powerful questions, there are lousy ones. Here are some of the questions you should avoid:

1. Closed-Ended Questions

Anyone who has ever had to sell something knows that closed-ended questions are the least productive type of question you can ask. If you are trying to build a relationship with someone and want to understand how they think and what their issues are, you want to move as quickly as possible from closed-ended to open-ended questions. Some examples:

Instead of: “What’s your market share?” Try: “What are the main reasons you’ve gained market share in the last three years?”

Instead of: “When did you start your new job?” Try: “What’s the most rewarding part of your new job?”

Instead of: “How long do you want the training session to be?” Try: “Why do you want to do a training workshop?”

2. Judgmental Questions

Some questions are really just hidden judgments. For example:

“You didn’t really mean to do that, did you?”
“Why do you think you always arrive late?”

Judgmental questions stop the conversation dead in its tracks. They shut the other person down.

3. Sarcastic Questions

Sometimes we ask questions that aren’t really questions—they are just vehicles for sarcasm and anger, a blunt instrument to beat up on someone. I once heard a parent, for example, ask their high school junior, “Why do you think a competitive college is going to admit you with those kinds of grades?” Other examples would include questions like, “You’re so moody, why would anyone want a relationship with you?” and “Do you seriously think that is going to be acceptable?”

4. Clichéd Questions

“What keeps you up at night” is a cliché. Salespeople have been using that question for as long as there have been things to sell. In reality, most people aren’t going to share what really keeps them up at night until they develop some trust in you. Client executives tell me this is a lazy question because it shows you haven’t done your homework and thought about the conversation in advance.

Furthermore, it’s a “problem” question, and most high-level executives have delegated the operational problems to their subordinates to solve. They are more focused on growth and innovation than problems. If you know the person well, it may be a perfectly good question to use—”So, Brad, what’s keeping you up at night these days?” might be fine for an ongoing client.

Another cliché is “What has surprised you?” (Barry Glassner, President of Lewis & Clark College recently wrote an OpEd column in The Wall Street Journal on why that is a terrible question. See The ‘What’s Surprised You?’ Trap). Another one is, “What question haven’t I asked you?” That one smacks of “I am very cleverly trying to get you to be my advisor on what questions to ask,” and again, it’s been over-used. Finally, there’s this old salesman’s chestnut: “I know you’re happy with your current suppliers, but what could cause your management to bring on a new vendor?”

Better versions of these—or different, more appropriate questions altogether—are:

Instead of: “What keeps you up at night?” Try: “How is the new international strategy impacting your area?” or “How are you reacting to the new regulatory framework?” (e.g., approach it indirectly) or “What are the two or three initiatives that you’re putting the most resources, time, and attention into this year?” or “How will your leadership assess your performance at the end of the year?”

Instead of: “What has surprised you?” Try: “What have you been especially focused on accomplishing during your first three months at your new job?”

Instead of: “What question haven’t I asked you?” Try: “Are there any other issues we haven’t discussed that you think are relevant to the problem?”

Instead of: “What could cause your management to bring on a new vendor?” Try: “Can you share with me areas in which your current vendor is strong and areas in which they play less well?” or “When was the last time there was a shakeup of your suppliers? How did that happen?”

5. Self-Aggrandizing Questions Intended to Show How Smart You Are

At a dinner party a few years ago, a retired college professor sat across from me. He fulfilled every stereotype I’d ever had about excessively intellectual academics right down to wearing a bowtie and tweed sports jacket. He had the obnoxious habit of posing questions and then answering them. “I’ve asked myself many times,” he would begin, “Why is it that people so often say one thing and do another? I think this has to do with our tendency towards self-deception…” It was appalling.

6. Leading Questions

Leading questions are like the one used by the apocryphal prosecutor who asked the defendant in court, “When did you stop beating your wife?” Leading questions are formulated to get someone to admit to something or to drive home a particular point. They are, like the false questions described earlier, inherently dishonest.

Other examples of leading questions include:

“When did you realize you would never make it as a professional musician?”

“How did you cope with the disappointment of not getting that job offer?”

Remember, good questions are sincere. They reflect a genuine curiosity. They are open-ended. They get at the “why” of things. They explore implications. They challenge assumptions. They help you connect on a personal level. They demonstrate your familiarity with the issues.
___________
Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is the author of the business bestseller Making Rain: The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty, among others. You can contact him through his website www.andrewsobel.com

Selling Strategies: Develop the Habit of Going the Extra Mile By John Boe

Josh Hinds — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:11:51 +0000

There are only two ways to beat the competition; lower your price or increase the quality and quantity of service you provide to your customers. Customers who buy from you because of a low price are not loyal and will jump ship when your competition offers them a lower price.

One of the biggest reasons most salespeople fail to succeed is because they view customer service requests as unpaid, administrative burdens rather than golden opportunities. By going the extra mile, you will stand out from the crowd because most salespeople are unwilling to even go the first mile let alone the extra mile.

Consumer surveys underscore the fact that customers don’t mind paying a higher price for a product if they’re satisfied with the service they receive after the sale.

Developing the habit of going the extra mile and rendering service above and beyond your customers’ expectations is a smart business decision that pays big dividends. Going the extra mile enhances customer loyalty, increases sales, and promotes positive
word-of-mouth advertising within your marketplace. One happy customer who is given exceptional service can influence more prospects to do business with you than $10,000 worth of traditional advertising.

Farmers understand the value of going the extra mile when they prepare the soil and plant their seeds in the ground. All of this work must be done at the correct time of the year and without compensation of any kind.

If the farmer does his job correctly, he can count on Mother Nature to reward his hard work with a hundredfold return. This natural law of increasing returns works exactly the same for salespeople who go the extra mile providing service for their customers as it does for the farmer planting his crop.

Here are some suggestions to help you get started going the extra mile.

1. Be proactive by calling five of your customers everyday to see if they have any service requirements that you can help them with.

2. Follow-up quickly by returning your customers’ phone calls and e-mails within an hour.

3. Show your appreciation by mailing a handwritten thank you note to your new customers after the sale.

4. When you receive a customer service request, make it your highest priority to handle it quickly.

5. Every six months, mail your customers a business related or motivational article to keep in contact.

6. Use your imagination and think out of the box to find new ways to improve the quality and quantity of service you provide to your customers.

7. Invite your best customers out for breakfast or lunch to build rapport and strengthen your relationship.

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach
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John Boe presents a variety of sales training and motivational programs for meetings and conventions. John brings over twenty years of experience as an award-winning sales trainer to the platform. To have John speak at your next event, visit www.JohnBoe.com

-which of the seven ideas above did you find most helpful. Do you put any of the ideas to use in your selling career?

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