Next Tuesday, June 2, at 6 PM, Dave Brock and I are presenting a webinar sponsored by Top Sales Experts International: The Good News, Customers Want To Buy; The Bad News, They Can’t Find The Funding. We address the very issue raised in this video and provide a foundation to help you find solutions to this issue. Make sure you sign up and participate. Dave is someone I greatly admire, and he has acted as a mentor to me on many occasions - I am really looking forward to presenting with him.

Join TSE here

Btb Guest Author

Miriam Ahern

Face-to-face business networking is a much cheaper way to promote your business than advertising or PR. It is a low-cost activity where the pressure is on your time rather than on your pocket. It’s more effective than on-line networking as you build important personal relationships more quickly.

Nevertheless, meeting someone just once is unlikely to bring you new business. The key lies in repeat-encounters. However, the old maxim still holds – time is money. Here’s how to spend that time wisely:

Step # 1 - Determine why you need to network and set clear networking objectives for yourself

Action - List the main (important and urgent) objectives for your networking activities for the next twelve months. These objectives might be aligned to a personal or business plan that you have developed. Be very specific in terms of what you need to

do and why and when you need to do it. Use the SMART principle so that your networking objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Step # 2 - Audit your existing networks

Action - Make a ‘master list’ of your existing networks on one sheet of paper. Then, for each of those networks, take a blank sheet of paper and brain-storm that network. What you want to end up with is a set of individual lists of all of your active contacts within in each of your current networks. An active contact is someone with whom you have interacted during the last three months or so. If you are used to ‘mind-mapping’, that method makes this step really easy.

Step # 3 – Align your ‘master list’ to your new networking objectives

Action – Ask yourself this question. Are there other relevant groups of people that I need to network with to achieve my current networking objectives? If the answer is yes, your immediate mission is to identify, locate and engage with these new groups or individuals. Different networking objectives may require you to interact within different networking groups.

Step # 4 – Galvanise your existing networks into action

Action – In the context of your new networking objectives, review the names on each of the sheets that you have prepared for each of your networks. Are there other people available to you through those existing networks that you have not included in your list? For example, are there wider family members, ex-colleagues, or co-professionals with whom it would benefit you to acquaint yourself? Plan to connect with these additional people at your earliest opportunity.

Step # 5 –Re-educate your existing contacts

Action – Make sure that your introduction, or ‘elevator pitch’, is up to date. For many of us, the way in which we introduce ourselves may depend on which network we are interacting within. Make sure that if you have a ‘set’ of introductions that they are all freshly aligned to your networking goals. Do this in advance of any networking activities. Don’t get caught on the spot at events or meetings where you might get tangled in a long explanation about how or why you have changed your slant.

Step # 6 – Encourage your contacts to be your ambassadors and your sales reps!

Action – Make yourself memorable. One extremely good networker that I know carries a stunningly beautiful pair of diamond earrings in his pocket. Not so strange, really. He’s a master jeweller and a diamond grader. You should see people flocking around him when he’s in action. No-one ever forgets having met him either!

Use every available opportunity when you are networking to become involved in the event itself. Here are some suggestions:

Get to know your network organisers or facilitators

Volunteer to ‘buddy-up’ with newcomers at formal networking events

Become a connector, introduce your acquaintances to each-other

Offer to present a short talk on your subject(s) of expertise

Extend a special discount to fellow-networkers

Offer to be a table facilitator or host during round-table networking activities or exercises

Follow up a promising chance encounter with a one-to-one meeting over coffee or lunch

Relationships + Reputation = Referrals

Miriam Ahern is the founder and managing partner of Align Management Solutions – a consultancy specialising in organisational change and development. She also manages LINK! - Dublin City Enterprise Board’s Network for Start-up Businesses. Miriam is a regular contributor in the national media on issues relating to business management and human resources. She is a Certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers.

Mobile: + 353 86 234 2789

Office:  + 353 1 412 5890

www.twitter.com/MiriamAhern

www.linkedIn.com/in/miriamahern

Over at TSE

I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s roundtable “Harness the Power of Referrals”

Do you know what it takes to build a referral business?

Join five Top Sales Experts share their techniques that turn up the heat in prospecting by harnessing the power of referrals.

Joanne Black, Jonathan Farrington, Paul McCord, Steve Martinez and Nancy D. Solomon present this 60-minute roundtable on Tuesday May 26th.

Your current clients are your most under-leveraged referral source. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Learn where traditional referral training falls short, why it is so essential to understand your ideal client profile and recognize your ideal referral source, how to overcome referral roadblocks and how to develop a process that does “what it takes” to build a referral business.

The investment? $25.00  or $99.50.

HUH? You can become a VIP member of Top Sales Experts (at $25.00 for the entire year) and the Roundtables are FREE. If you’re not ready to become a VIP member then they are $99.50.

On the 3rd of March, I published this post “Need Sales Training, Let’s Sit Down and Talk About it”

It was a rough transcript of a phone call I took from an Irish Sales Director. He was inquiring about sales training for his sales team and insisting that I send him a proposal and price - he did not want to meet up. I refused as I didn’t feel that I was in a position to do so. He refused to accept my explanation - and the call ended somewhat badly.

In hindsight, I could have taken a differing approach, and perhaps drawn out the conversation more - but my instinct was telling me that I would be wasting my time.

This post has generated a lot of interest, critiques and debate; I am somewhat surprised - because it appears to have split some sales experts’ right down the middle. Some have strongly complimented me on my stance, where as others feel I lost potential business -because of my approach.

So what would you do in this same situation?

The prospect wants a proposal and price, before you have had a chance to investigate their needs. He/she is insisting that you do, and your competitors have willingly obliged. Remember, in not doing so – you probably lose any chance of making the sale.

Here are some of the comments that this post has generated.

Christian Maurer

“Good to read from a sales trainer that walks the talk”

Dave Stein

“Niall sets an example for sales trainers as well.  I commend him on his understanding of how sales performance improvement should be approached and his integrity for not folding, even with money on the table during these tough times”

David Stargel

“I’ve been through that conversation myself many times. I also will sometimes ask the potential client, “If this was your salesperson, would you want them to blindly respond to a price quote request without knowing anything about the customer at all?”

Tim Sullivan

“How would you like your own people to respond to a question like that from your potential customers? Just give a price, without really diagnosing their situation, goals and needs?” He got mad, and ended the call. Perhaps I was being too direct. I’m still struggling how best to answer these kinds of “price first” inquiries, before getting the necessary information. But we’d be doing the customer a disservice if we didn’t follow good business practices”

Anne Perret

“I take pretty much the same stance as you, stick to my guns and my proposition and am prepared to walk away. Strangely it’s a stance that is often successful”

Ian Brodie

“I’d agree with you generally - and certainly wouldn’t do a proposal without a clear, agreed understanding of what the customer needs (and I’d prefer not to do a proposal at all).However, I would consider giving the client a ballpark range for how much a 2-day course would cost if it turned out that that was what was needed. In this case I don’t think it would have made any difference. The guy seemed to view sales training as some sort of generic “magic sauce” you could sprinkle on your sales team to improve their performance without needing to tailor it to their needs”

Alecia Huck

“Again, given the different perspectives on what effective sales training is and how it should/can be delivered, it sounds like he wasn’t a good prospect anyway. In other situations however, DON’T DANCE AROUND PRICE. They have a right to ask and be answered and a good sales person can give them that answer. Use a range to weed out the wrong clients and help weed in the right ones”

Joanne Hernon

“This company may never be my clients but the good news is that I don’t want everyone to be my client. Seems weird to some to say that in this economy but I believe there is still enough business to go around. I want to work with the right clients for my business”

Steve Bent

“The proposition and sales close happen all at once, WAY too quick to get the customer’s buy-in to your process! As consultants my view is we sell in steps, gotta sell the meeting first! If I get in the door, I’m pretty confident it’s a done deal. BUT that means that the real selling part is getting in the door, so we gotta sell! That sales process is the same if you are selling a premium car, or the idea of a meeting - it’s all selling.

I aim to take control, and most importantly not deliver any idea of what I do (unless they ask “credential based” questions first, which occassionally happens. In which case I give background but don’t get drawn into how I work!) and then question, question question!

Obviously it gives call control, and I also find it’s hard for them to get away, maybe because at that stage they don’t want to: I haven’t said no, and actually demonstrating my interest in HIM”

Hank Trisler

“It’s far more important to help people behave as they don’t currently behave, than it is to teach them something they don’t currently know. If you’d like to chat about how we might accomplish that, I’d be happy to do so. If you’re afraid I’m going to “pitch” you and waste your time, I respect that, but I can’t really help you until we get to chat a bit”

Dave Kurlan

“Shouldn’t we be asking, “if I give you a proposal, without first meeting you and further exploring why your salespeople are struggling, then I am no better than the salespeople you have since that’s what they’re probably doing - generating quotes and proposals and wondering why they aren’t getting the business. Do you want to fix that problem or perpetuate it?”

Chris Howie

“Clearly he didn’t (at this stage!) want to spend a lot of time with each supplier, so why not have a conversation on the phone and then put together a ball-park figure? as I’m guessing he just wants to know if it is likely he will be able to afford you.

I think the key here is how the customer wants to do business and adapting your style to match theirs”

……………………………………….A BIG thank you to one and all for their input.

Over at TSE

Still time to register for tomorrow’s webinar over at Top Sales Experts:

How to Close More Sales by Shortening Your Sales Cycle with Dave Kurlan
Thursday May 21st 2009 1:00 PM EASTERN

It is just $59.50 to register here but of course, you have choices - you always have choices: You can become a TSE VIP Member here for just $25 per year and listen in for FREE - in fact, as a VIP Member you can listen in to the other 100 webinars we are presenting this year for FREE too - now that is a “No-brainer”

This is a meet event organised by the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group. This is a not-for-profit initiative.

When: Wed, 03 Jun, 2009, Start time: 07:00 - End time: 09:00      Cost: 15 Euro

Where: Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4 ireland. View on Map.

Des: A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (45 minutes)

1) Introduction to Sales Leadership Ireland
- Niall Devitt, Beyond the Boardroom Training

2) “Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes” – 10 minutes
Niall Devitt will lead a discussion on how sales challenges are always changing with changing markets, how to identify these changes and how to respond.

3) “Partnering into New Markets” – 10 minutes
Donagh Kiernan of Maidsfield Associates will present a case study of how corporate partnering is an effective method of entering new sectoral or regional markets.

4) “Engaging with Customers through New Media” – 20 minutes
Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications will discuss how new media can be used to communicate with your market and gain new business.

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Maximum attendees 30 – 3 round tables of 10

A number of identified Key Challenges in the industry today will be discussed and debated to share insights on how challenges can and are be met by members. The key challenges will be collected from the Sales Leadership Ireland - Linked-In Discussion Group.

Structure:
a) Introduce identified “Key Challenges” – (5 Minutes)

b) One “Key Challenge” will be assigned to each roundtable. Each table will select a spokesperson to chair a discussion and collect suggested actions to meet these challenges, taking notes on a flipchart page (30 Minutes)

c) Each table’s spokesperson will present their findings to the whole group (30 Minutes)

d) Session Summary and Close

COFFEE & NETWORKING

A session report will be submitted to the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group Discussion

SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT HERE

Btb Guest Author

Paul McCord

The simple answer to why decision makers hate cold calls is cold calls are one of the biggest time wasters for them.

Decision makers hate cold calls and have no interest in taking your call because all you do is waste their time.  Period.

Now, you don’t see it the same way.  You believe you have something of value to offer the decision maker–actually, you want to see if you have something of value for them. You have to qualify them and that’s one of the things you’re hoping to begin to do while speaking with them.  All you want is a couple of minutes of their time to set an appointment and learn a little something about whether or not they’re a qualified prospect.

To you, all you’re asking is just three, four, maybe five minutes of their time and a short little 10 or 15 minute appointment.  No big deal–just a moment of their time.

But look at what you’re asking from their point of view:

1. You’re not the only call they’ll get that day. They’ll get 5, 10, 15, maybe more cold calls on any given workday.  You only want 5 minutes of their time?  Well, that 5 minutes can add up to a half an hour, an hour, two hours or more if they spoke to everyone who called.  Everyday.

2. You only want a short 10 or 15 minute meeting. Sure.  They understand that you’re asking for 10 and intend to stay 45.  They learned the BS about the 10 minute meeting their first week on the job.

3. You just want to ask a few questions to gather information to grab their interest to set an appointment. You sound like every other salesperson who calls.  That’s what they all want.  They want the decision to educate them about why they called, that is, to give them a reason to try to set a meeting with the decision maker.

4. When they politely say ‘no,’ you won’t accept it. Instead you try to probe, to flush out the objection, to give more reasons to meet with you.  Finally, they get mad enough to slam the phone down or tell you in no uncertain terms ‘NO.’

5. When you call, you have nothing of interest to them. They’re not thinking about your great new copier because they still have 2 years on the lease of their current copier.  They’re not thinking about replacing their phone system, they’re thinking about the server that just crashed.  They’re not thinking about a new accounting system because they’re thinking about the big deal they just lost that morning.

How would you like to go through that 5, 10, 15 times a day? Everyday?  Without fail? What would be your resolution to the problem?  Would you take those calls?  You would do the same thing they do—not take any calls.

And decision makers have made it as obvious as possible that they don’t want your call.  They’ve put gatekeepers in place to keep you out.  They’ve got voice mail to filter who they want to talk to and who they don’t.  They put signs on the door that say ‘no soliciting.’  As soon as they discover you’re a salesperson they say ‘no,’ and hang up.

Yet, you think—you hope—that you’re the exception. That they’ll take your call.  That they’ll want to speak with you despite the signals they’ve given.  That you’re different from other 5, 10, or 15 salespeople who will call that day.

Cold calling is viewed by many salespeople, managers, and companies as the quickest, easiest, and cheapest way to find prospects. It isn’t. It is in many ways the most difficult and expensive because when you cold call you’re trying to connect with someone who has already indicated as plainly as they possibly can that they don’t want to speak with you.  In order to overcome that, you have to make massive numbers of calls in order to find someone, anyone you can corner.

If you choose to cold call, you’ve a hard road ahead of you.  Few top producers waste their time cold calling because it is so ineffective and costly.  However, if you do choose to cold call, invest in getting the best cold call training you can.  Your investment will pay off with greatly increased results—you’ll still waste a lot of time; you’ll still face a tremendous amount of rejection; you’ll still have to eventually find better ways to connect with prospects; but at least make your efforts as profitable as possible.

Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing.  He is president of McCord Training, a Midland, Texas based sales training, coaching, and consulting company.  His first book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on referral selling. His second book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales SuperStar has just been released.  He may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales training website at www.mccordtraining.com or his highly popular blog www.salesandmanagementblog.com

Over at TSE

After all the build-up, Top Sales Experts launched our new site. It was certainly worth the wait and the new VIP Zone is incredible value. Sign-up is only $49.50 for a whole year, but you can join for just $25 via me.

Here is a taster:

Life is about choices. So are sales.
So… here at TSE we thought you’d want to see your choices, clear and simple:

OPTION A Register for FREE and you get access to:

1.The Article Vault (2200 articles)
2.How to Guides
3.Podcasts
4.Best Sales Blogs in the World
5.Monthly Newsletter
6.Jobs Board

OPTION B The VIP Zone:

$49.50 per year OR $25.00 if you join us through a TSE team member

You will also receive:

FREE Webinar Registration (That’s FREE access to over 100 webinars - normally $59.50 each)
FREE Roundtable Registration (FREE access to 12 monthly events - normally $99.50 each)
FREE TSE Quarterly eBooks ($19.95 each for non-VIP members)
FREE TSE Assessment Tools (Priceless!)
FREE access to “Ask the Experts” (You put your own value on getting FREE advice from sixty Top Sales Experts)
FREE Invitation to join the TSE LinkedIn group

PLUS 10% Discount on all purchases from the new TSE Shop, which will debut June 15th.

And…We even give you a 30 day no quibble, money back guarantee.

BONUS:
With every monthly TSE Newsletter, you will receive a $100.00 gift.

Join here

In case you haven’t been tuning in recently, the whole question of sales ineffectiveness was brilliantly raised by Dave Stein. It’s not just a great question for sales professionals; it’s frankly the ONLY question.

Dave rightly asks “The root causes of sales ineffectiveness are clear. There is plenty of sound advice about how to fix the problem. There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see. There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence.

So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?”

In three follow up posts, Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture of the Future of the Profession, parts one, two and three; Dave Brock does an excellent job in teasing out the issues.

In Part One, he talks about why “for too long, we have treated sales as a “black art”, that now “Customers can be more informed and less knowledgeable” and how “Consultative selling is difficult—it is disciplined, process based, and requires commitment and follow through on a sustained basis”.

In two, he observes that this is not just a sales problem” “Some of it is “business culture”—in general, some of it is “regional culture”—that is North American, European, Asian, and so forth. Some of it is “industry culture.”

Finally in part three, He resolves that these same difficulties also provide for “people who are or who are committed to becoming the highest levels of performance” - “opportunity for real progress and growth for sales professionals”.

He asks “how can we improve” “what can we do”. Dave believes that “each of us can take ownership in driving change”

“Whether you are a leader or individual contributor, becoming disciplined and process focused, committing to follow through on these, exploiting the tools produce results. Leverage these processes and tools, not because your management tells you to, but because they help you become more effective”

Collectively, these four posts are a MUST read, if you don’t have the time, MAKE the time – the reasons WHY are in the TEXT.

Now it’s not often, I take anything remotely resembled an issue with what Dave Brock says.

“To be honest—at least from an organizational point of view, I am tempted to point the finger at management—not just sales management, but corporate management”

Perhaps, it’s inexperience, or my youthful exuberance, but I am inclined to not just point my finger at senior management, but my entire hand, in fact right down to the tips of my toes. My entire being points in that general vicinity. Here why:

For too long, salespeople have been getting in the neck from management.

Yes, we may have a bad reputation and yes some of it may be deserved, buy ultimately the system is set up so that we always end up taking the heat. If the results don’t happen, who invariably gets the blame?

For years and years, salespeople get cast aside, replaced and cast aside again by companies. Rarely if ever, is it asked did this person get the right training? Did this person get the right support? And why did we hire this person again? Oh and by the way “who hired this person?

Dave says “I don’t believe change only comes from the top. I believe change comes from committed, passionate people at all levels of the organization” If a collective ownership of the result existed within organisations, I think Dave would be very right.

If some of the people entrusted with the sales leadership function in many organisations didn’t do their best to dodge and pass the buck, I think he would be right.

If salespeople weren’t forced to knock out huge numbers of calls and put in vast amounts of meaningless activities by ill-advised and badly trained sales mangers, I think he would be right.

If the wider business community and business leaders respected sales and salespeople, I think he would be right.

The point is this; the problem is in the way that the system is set up particularly with regards to responsibility. It makes it extremely difficult for salespeople to change the “science of selling” from within.

In my opinion, the buck stops and it STOPS squarely at the feet of some of our so called sales leaders.

In case, you missed my point - take a little inspiration from this recent article about HP

Btb Guest Author

Maureen Blandford

Perhaps you’ve heard about Merrill Lynch’s John Thain’s $1.22M office renovation, including $87K for an area rug? Preceded, of course, by AIG’s spending part of their bailout on spa treatments for execs. Nice. And then there was the Big Three auto execs flying corporate jets to Washington to plead for their share of the bailout. Next up: Citigroup. Led by an exec team that the NY Post calls “Citiboobs.”

In this Wednesday’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd asks:

“How could Citigroup be so dumb as to go ahead with plans to get a new $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X seating 12, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees?”

“Citiboobs,” indeed.

While I am appalled by story after story detailing greed, stupidity, and obtuseness in corporate leadership, and applaud the world’s righteous indignation over the executive termites who have caused irreparable damage to our many fine organizations, there’s a part of my business psyche that is pleased such horrid behavior is seeing the light of day.

For years (actually two decades), I have often felt horror at how the B2B version of Fat Cats (Marketers and the executives who support them) burn through $s on truly ridiculous marketing tactics, while the Working Poor (Sales orgs) struggle to do more with less.

An $8K shower curtain or an $87K area rug look like wise investments next to spending in Marketing I’ve witnessed over the years. At the same time that sales organizations have seen their training & coaching budgets shrink to next to nothing, marketers think nothing of dropping $100K on new logo development or color consultation. They produce brochures that are rarely read by target audiences. A few years ago, I witnessed a tech client approve a $200K photo shoot (in NYC, of course) for photos that easily could’ve been obtained for a fraction of the cost from one of many fine stock photo agencies.

Why are our field sales folks so often building their own sales tools (wasting valuable sales time), when their corp HQ folks are spending millions on marketing materials? Because much of the corp-produced stuff doesn’t meet real selling needs. Have you ever seen the garage of a pharmaceutical rep? Packed with marketing materials they don’t use.

Very briefly, corporate marketers have been trained solely in consumer marketing, not B2B. They’ve rarely actually carried a bag and consequently don’t understand that today’s great sellers are more about asking great questions rather than selling stuff.  Our marketing materials, if you’ve noticed, are packed with selling stuff. That’s not the kind of sales support we need today.

The dark side to this story is that many B2B Marketers have much in common with our ego-centric execs. They love to be wined and dined by Madison Avenue types and spend hours talking about things like shades of color and the emotions one shade or another evokes. And, this drives me crazy, marketers disdain sellers and sales organizations. Consequently, when a sales org tries to help a marketing org better meet their needs…well, they might as be talking to the hand.

Now, more than ever, responsible leadership will be open to a little righteous indignation over the imbalance in marketing and true sales support spend. If Starbucks is halting decaf brewing after noon in the hopes of saving $400M by the end of the year, I’m thinking leadership will be open to considering many cost-saving options.

Sellers and Sales Leadership: if you happen to have an internal marketing organization who supports your needs – Bravo! You can count yourselves lucky.

If, however, you’re not getting the support you need from your marketing organization, speak up. Consultative/Relationship/Collaborative selling is precisely what we need our sales orgs to be executing. But, it’s not easy. Features/Functions/Benefits selling is part of our DNA, having evolved over thousands of years.

To be effective in transitioning our sales folks over to great selling and ridding ourselves of bad habits takes time.  A sustainable sales support plan must include on-going mentoring, coaching, & training. For both sellers and sales leadership.

The good news here is that the investment needed for GREAT, sustainable sales support is a fraction of the budget that’s being wasted in B2B marketing today. For instance, marketing organizations executing a marketing plan that truly supports B2B selling could do a great job with about 60% of their current budget. I’d recommend redirecting some of the remaining 40% to on-going sales training needs (yippee!). And either saving the rest, or redirecting to HR efforts to hire and retain great sales people.

I’m giddy thinking about this: Sales folks supported by great training and marketing materials that help them move the ball down the field. Now – isn’t that worth some righteous indignation?

Maureen Blandford is CEO of the MindTime Group. Maureen helps her clients break through ineffective marketing strategies to develop tactics that work. Blandford combines her 20 years of practical expertise with her ground breaking theories to alert B2B decision makers to reallocate marketing dollars to a consultative selling motion. AT&T, NCR, The Iams Company, McAfee, Health Plus Technologies, PSC, are just a few of the many clients she’s worked with. Regarding her first book, Branding Doesn’t Work in B2B, Blandford says, “I’m doggedly determined to help B2Bs with a direct sales force understand that in B2B it’s people, and how they perform in the sales and delivery processes that have the greatest impact on current and future customers. Not Branding.

In the News

Paul McCord reviews (or should that be rightly pans a new book)

“The “what would Jesus do” close.  You use this close when your customer “is a Sunday go to meeting” type (throughout the book this level of respect for customers is demonstrated).  You acknowledge that you know he is a fine Christian and state that you understand that he wants to be like Jesus, just as every good Christian does.  You then tell the customer that you’ll give him your product or service free if he can show you anywhere in the Bible where Jesus said, “let me first ask my friend,” or “let me first ask my accountant,” or “I have to think about it.”  You point out that Jesus never had to hesitate to make a decision on his own.  According to the authors, after delivering this close, “The customer is stunned.  The master closer has made such a strong and truthful point, the customer doesn’t know what to say.”

HILARIOUS!!…….Can you believe this sales advice, this is not a joke - read Paul’s review here

Carlsberg run a TV advertising campaign, based on always having more than 2 choices. The punch line, “there is always choice c”. Choice c, in this instance refers to some on the spot clever thinking - leaving the person in the ad with an out - from some kind of sticky situation.

When faced with the competitor question, a business or salesperson may believe they have 3 choices.

They can:

Join the Competition

Beat the Competition

Ignore the Competition

Why is it, that many continue to choose c?

Markets are smaller, competition is greater than ever, yet many companies and salespeople persist in choosing to operate “a head in the sand” approach - when dealing with competitors.

A Wake UP Call!!!. Competition is fierce and it’s not going to go away. There are only two real choices, because c is not a choice - It’s in-action and a non-decision.

Wait a minute, I hear you say “what about cutting prices”. Surely; this is an effective way to deal with competitors.

“NO, NO, NO, it’s not”. It’s taking choice C again. Here’s why, cutting prices may have a short-term impact. It will initially win you business. However, sooner rather than later, the competition will work out how to effectively deal with your price-cutting - or they will match it.

So around and around you will go, until you are right back where you started, only this time - you have created a whole new set of problems for yourself.

So here are the 2 real choices.

a. Join the competition through forming strategic alliances and partnerships.

or

b. Beat the competition through competitive positioning, developing a strategy for dealing with the competition question and using competitive selling skills effectively when selling.

When dealing with the competition.  Remember, there is only a and b…………there is no choice c.

In the News

Check out these four posts:

Dave Stein asks “How Do You Fix Sales Ineffectiveness?”in a brilliant post that’s generated lots and lots of debate. Dave says “There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see.   There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence. So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?”

Dave Brock investigates  and attempts to provide answers in his three posts ” Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture on the Future of the Profession Parts One Two & Three“

Over at TSE

On Tuesday, we will witness the launch of the new Top Sales Expert’s site - probably the most significant sales related site on the internet. To coincide with the re-launch, a new Executive Board has been formed to oversee the team, and a “working commitee” will also be appointed in the coming weeks.

Here is the new board.

Top row, left to right: Paul McCord, Jill Konrath, Jonathan Farrington, Colleen Francis, Keith Rosen and Joanne Black.

Bottom row: Wendy Weiss, Dr. Greg Stebbins, Nancy D. Solomon, Kevin Eikenberry, Linda Richardson and Kendra Lee.

Over at SLI (Sales Leadership Ireland)

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Btb Guest Author

Christian Maurer

Yes, but not in the form we know and practice selling today. This is one of my takeaways from the round table discussion between Nigel Edelshain, Jonathan Farrington, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson and Dave Stein over at the Top Sales Experts. Especially “order takers” and ‘glib talkers” will have a bleak future according to Jonathan Farrington. Intelligent strategic orchestrators and business advisors looking to develop long term allies however will have a bright future according to him. Jill Konrath seconded that she hopes that sales is really changing that much.

So we should expect a lot of organizational transformation within sales forces. However, and this is my second take away, the salespeople are not the primary target for this transformation. The sales profession -if we want to use this term despite the fact that from a scientific standpoint ’sales’ is not yet a profession- faces not only a leadership crisis but a disaster as Dave Stein put it.

The transformation has to start at the very top with company leaders. They should get rid of the myths that super salespersons make good sales managers and that the necessary competences come with the title. Sales Management is an occupation in itself requiring different specific skills than those of a sales superstar.

Relying just on tribal wisdom, where newly appointed sales managers draw on what they have observed their own managers doing, will not bring the desired result as it is very likely that these managers were not properly prepared for the job either. In addition their understanding of selling and of their job role might be outdated and not fit in today’s unforgiving economic context.

In my own opinion there will be no room left for purely action and result oriented managers trying to manage outcomes. It makes little difference if they rely on data from their own home grown spreadsheets or on sophisticated analytical CRM tools in their attempt to manage these outcomes. Outcomes are lagging indicators even if they come in the disguised form of forecasts. Management actions based on these metrics will always be too little too late. The future belongs to sales managers being able to interpret leading indicators helping them to derive coaching needs of their sales people.

The panelist were all in agreement that being able to coach people is a very essential skill for successful sales managers going forward.. There is however a huge skill gap with current sales managers. Linda Richardson’s re-edited book on this subject will help fill this gap. As a questions from a listener indicated, a significant number of sales managers has though not only a skill gap but an outright attitude problem towards coaching. Let’s hope for them that they can be convinced by appropriate business cases to avoid being phased out.

The dilemma for preparing sales managers for their job is though deeper. While a lot has been written with the salesperson in mind, there is a lack of a body of knowledge from which sale managers can be taught how to do their job. This is the reason why already three years ago, I started my blog with the sales executives and managers in mind.

Christian Maurer, The Sales Executive Resource, is an independent sales effectiveness consultant, trainer and coach. He has a proven track record of helping to increase the productivity of large, global B2B sales organizations. For the last ten years Christian has consulted and coached hundreds of sales executives and managers on how to plan and execute their sales strategies by focusing on process management rather than trying to manage results. Visit Christian ’s website: http://ultimatesalesexecresource

In the news

Dave Stein asks “How Do You Fix Sales Ineffectiveness?” This is a BIG BIG question and has already resulting in much debate. As Dave points out “There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see.  There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence. So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?” - I strongly suggest you check it out.

Clayton Shold is in conversation with fellow Top Sales Expert, Jonathan London over at Salesopedia, about the “Upside To Recession Selling”

Top 10 Sales Articles has just announced the “Top Sales Article Of The Month” for April. This a truly great sales resource with articles on every conceivable sales topic.

Over at TSE

The new Top Sales Experts (Public Group) over at LinkedIn is developing into a very lively community, with lots of really interesting discussions - to join us, simply click below.

I was working with one of my favourite B2C retail clients over the last two weeks. This is an Irish owned business that in many respects defies the odds. The business depends indirectly upon the Irish construction sector, which as we know has effectively come to a stop - yet they have continued to succeed in 09. This includes plans to expand the operation later in the year.

When you consider, that their competitors are really struggling at the moment, you begin to understand how well this business is run and how solidly the sales team have performed.

This particular company’s referral business is quite simply amazing. It was clear from my conversations with the sales team, that the significant reason for this - is the quality of their sales/customer service experience they provide.

They all agreed that this is the edge that has allowed them to capture an increased market share. These salespeople have quickly realised that the post Celtic Tiger’s customer expectation has risen considerably. Simply put, the customer knows that his/her business is now more important than ever - and expects one trade-off to be more/better service.

Fortunately for this company and its salespeople, very few of their competitors have copped on to this same conclusion. They know this because many of their customers are telling them so, saying that the competitor’s sales team appear to be “not interested” “not bothered” “pretending to be busy” - or are simply choosing “to ignore” potential customers.

This may strike you as crazy behaviour but I ask is it in fact that unusual?. I can recall many stories that would back this same conclusion. The car industry is going through a very rough time, yet I know someone who was virtually ignored when they went to buy a car.

Has the Celtic Tiger economy acted to condition some salespeople to expect “easy business” - and have these same sales people just continued in lazy mode?

Increased customer service expectation should be welcomed by real salespeople because it creates more opportunities for real salespeople.

I say, long live the recession if it rids our profession of these order takers (salespeople?).

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training