I have been involved in a number of interested and heated discussions over at the www.salesjobs.ie sales forum. One in particular, sticks out where one Irish sales trainer criticised me heavily as to how I dealt with an enquiry. I choose to qualify early so not as to waste mine or indeed the prospects time.

Based of the 2 footedness of his initial comments, I imagine this gent may have been motivated by attempting to make a bit of a name for him. To be fair to the guy, there was some merit in what he was saying. I could easily have taken a different approach. This could have let to a different outcome??

However, what this so called expert failed to grasp or indeed ask “was this the right thing to do?” based on the available evidence. Had he done this, the answer would have been no. One reason for this is that his training approach, and therefore his sales approach only goes so far as to consider actions. Simply put, it’s an act now, think later methodology.  He believes that he can sell anything to everyone.

When I explained for him, why I believed under these circumstances, taking his advice would lead to a salesperson “wasting their time”, he got cross and accused me on been “ambiguous”. He may even have felt that I had trapped him - I am not sure.

Again, I understand why he might feel this way - his training is based in a world where prospects say, do and mean in the “black and white”. Unfortunately, for salespeople, the real world is not like that and prospects are very often ambiguous.

Salespeople are all the time having to make decisions where they lack 100% of the facts. In my opinion, a big BIG part of effective selling is making great decisions with less than all the facts.

You see the net result of listening to these “chase at all costs” preachers is just that - It’s all cost. It will cost you time, it will cost you your resource and it WILL cost you sales.

Now, more than ever salespeople need to be more strategic in their approach. You cannot consider sales without considering the strategy of selling - you cannot sell without THINKING FIRST.

In the News

We are launching the latest TSE ebook- 147 pages, packed with articles from most of the Top Sales Experts including yours truly - Ill keep you posted.

Btb Guest Author

Nigel Edelshain

The sky is falling.

Well, the stock market and many of the great behemoth financial firms that I have sold to over the last dozen years are. Let’s say many of us are not in the most upbeat mood right now.

And how does this “macro economic tension” tend to show up in sales organizations? Concern over making our numbers. And that concern over making numbers makes tense sales people. Tense sales people that tend to put too much pressure on their prospects to sign on the dotted line.

People love to buy but they hate to be sold. Sales cycles don’t really exist what really exists is a buying cycle. In our world of so many options for the buyer, we need to face facts that it’s the buyer who controls the “sales process” not the seller.

The sales person’s job (actually the whole company behind the sales person) is to be in-sync with buyer at whatever point the buyer is in the buying cycle. A typical buying cycle might look like this: (1)recognition of a need, (2) seek out options, (3) discuss/evaluate options and (4) buy.

A sales person who tries to close the buyer when they are not in phase 4 of the buying cycle will annoy the prospect/buyer and won’t get a deal. But that’s what “old school selling” tells us to do “always be closing”. Watch out because as the pressure mounts on us sales executives to close more the opposite is happening for the buyer. As the market fear grows buyers will be thinking “should I really pull the trigger on this spend or should I hold off”. The last thing that will help a cautious buyer commit is a pushy sales person!

What’s a sales person to do?

Calm down. Don’t try to close everything in sight. Stay in-sync with your prospects. Make sure you know where they are in the buying cycle. Act accordingly. If they are just starting to look at options, get them the information they need to understand and evaluate your offering.

And…prospect. Yes, whenever things get tougher in the economy sales people need to be able to put more leads into their sales funnel. You will need more prospects because either some deals will drop out due to budgets being cut etc. or some of the deals that survive will move more slowly to close than you originally thought.

You will need to “diversify” your sales pipeline as the market gets more volatile just as an investor diversifies their stock portfolio. You will want more prospects in your sales pipeline than when times were “easy”. Preferably prospects from lots of different companies and industries so your risks of being clobbered by any one company’s or any one industry’s budget cuts are reduced.

So as things get tougher don’t become a closer. Become an opener.

Nigel Edelshain - is CEO of Sales 2.0 Companies use Sales 2.0’s telesales and consulting services to take their sales to the next level, typically boosting results 3 - 10 times.

News

Fellow Top Sales Expert Diane Helbig is a contributing author to a brand new book “Chicken Soup For The Soul - Power Moms” it’s about women who sacrifice so much in order to balance their lives, whilst still pursuing their dreams. If you are looking for inspiration, this is a book you really must read - just click here to grab your copy.

Here’s is Diane’s recent interview on TSE Dailies. Listen by clicking on the banner below.

Social Media Wars?

I have recently been involved in some heated arguments over at The Customer Collective about the evolving role of social media in B2B sales.  Jonathan Farrington, Dave Stein, Dave Brock and I share a similar opinion as to how these tools will impact going forward. Last week, in a post by Jonathan, this dialogue took an unfortunate turn - with personal attacks by a few social media zealots.

Dave Stein writes about this is his post “The Social Media (Wars)” and in his blog, Dave Brock asks “Are the Right People Listening?”

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

We all been there, spend hours attending the meetings, given the presentations, prepared the proposal and then after all this personal investment, what appeared to be a certain big deal now starts to look increasingly shaky. It’s happened to every salesperson I know and it’s an emotional roller coaster that we could all do without. Coming to terms with the fact that what looked like the best bit of business you’ve done in months is now a dead duck is one of the hardest asks in the sales game.

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Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

I’m not a big fan of so called tricks of the sales trade but here’s one that is worth mentioning called the thermometer close.

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