Sales Training Article: Beliefs You Must Cultivate

The best sales people succeed because of what they believe.  They are very adept at the skills involved in selling and they arm themselves with all of the sales tools necessary for success, but the skills and the tools are not the primary reasons for their success.  There are sales people who have great sales skills and tools, but still fail miserably.  The difference lies in what they believe about themselves, their clients and their products / services.

Beliefs are simply generalizations we make about the world around us.  We act based on these generalizations.  Because of our actions, we tend to get results that reinforce what we believe.  Henry Ford is reported to have said, “If you believe you can, or if you believe you can’t, you’re right.”  Most of us have heard this statement and agree with it.  Most sales people do nothing to cultivate powerful beliefs though.

I have found that there are three basic beliefs that the best sales people in the world possess.  Each of these beliefs is almost more of a category of beliefs.  In other words, there are many beliefs related to each of these beliefs.  But at the core of each of these groups of beliefs there is an under-lying belief.  The three most important underlying beliefs are:

•  My client’s need my products and services.

The best sales people have a deep conviction about the absolute necessity of the products and services they sell.  They believe that without the products and services they sell, clients will be damaged or hurt in some way.  They are almost evangelists for the products and services.  Average and poor sales people constantly question whether or not clients really need what they offer.  How strong is your belief about the necessity of your products and/or services?

•  My products, services, and/or company are the best in their category.

The best sales people believe that there is nothing else that is better than what they sell.  They justify this by looking at all of the qualities and characteristics of their products, services and company and then defining a category in which they are the best.  The category may be defined by quality, price, availability, speed of delivery, or any other area in which their products or services are the best.  Average and poor sales people spend much of their time and energy complaining about the inadequacies of their products, services, and company.  How strong is your belief about your products and/or services?

•  I am the best and must do whatever is necessary to remain so.

The best sales people have a drive to be the best that is very strong.  They define themselves as the best and they do what they need to do (within ethical and moral guidelines of course) in order to be the best.  They attend sales classes, they read, they purchase sales video and audio courses, they network, they set standards of behavior for themselves, they forgo unproductive conversations and meetings, they stay longer and work hard, they invest in sales tools to increase their effectiveness, and/or they do anything else they think will improve their chances of being the best.  Average and poor sales people are certain that they are not, and will never be, the best at what they do.  Consequently, they do very little to become the best.  How strong is your determination to be the best at what you do?

The interesting things about each of these beliefs are that no one is born with them and they are not permanent.  The beliefs must be developed and then reinforced.  The development of positive beliefs is largely based on a decision.  You must decide your clients need what you offer.  You must decide that your products, services and company are the best.  You must decide that you are, or will be, the best.  Evidence, such as a list of reasons for each belief, is always helpful, but in the end it comes down to a decision.

Once you have decided to believe something, you must constantly reinforce your belief or it will falter.  This requires action.  You must act as though the belief is true.  Ask yourself, “How would I act if I were certain that my clients would suffer without what I offer?”  Ask yourself, “How would I act if I were certain that my products, services, and company were the best in their categories?”  Ask yourself, “How would I act if I knew I was the best at what I do?”

Some of the answers to these questions should be actions taken to avoid or even eliminate things that challenge the beliefs you hold.  For instance, top sales people do not generally indulge in criticism of their clients, products, service, company or themselves.  This many times means avoiding people who criticize, even if you have been going to lunch with them for 20 years!

There is nothing more important than adopting and strengthening your beliefs.  If you have strong beliefs, you will seek out and acquire the other sales skills and tools necessary for success.  For much more information on how to change your beliefs for the better, including ways to eliminate negative beliefs and excuses you harbor, attend one of our sales mastery events, The Science of Attraction-Based Selling.  In this course, we do a lot to build or strengthen productive belief systems for each participant.  Alternately, you can attend an online sales training (every online sales class reinforces good beliefs, but one class in particular focuses on the development of empowering beliefs) or purchase the video sales training course, Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series (lesson three in the first section is a workshop on how to alter your beliefs for the positive).

As always, feel free to contact us for more information.  You may do so by calling 1-800-987-1300 in North America or by visiting www.salestrainer.com.

Sales Management Training: The Multi-Million Dollar Mistake

There’s a sales recruiting mistake made by many companies, and even entire industries, that costs them huge amounts of money, time, and effort.

Are you and your company making this mistake?

Statistics say you are!

Introduction:

I regret to inform you that this sales management article might cause you some upset, at first.  It’s likely to point out ways in which you’ve wasted a lot of time and money.  But I assure you that if you read to the end, you will be rewarded with some new ways of recruiting top sales people for your company that will not only save you a tremendous amount of money, but will also reward you with some of the most productive sales people you’ve ever hired.

You see, this report details a mistake that has cost many sales organizations, and even entire industries, many millions of dollars.  This mistake is not a new revelation to me.  I learned about it years ago through my own trial and error learning process.  In fact, I made this mistake for years and finally realized how much money I was losing.

Ever since then, I’ve been talking about recruiting and hiring sales people in a different way.  I’ve won a few converts who have enjoyed great successes, but the old paradigms run deep and many others continue losing valuable time and money with poor recruiting practices.

I have been left to examine whether or not my message has been delivered properly and have concluded that perhaps I’m not explaining things as well as I could.  Fortunately, I recently read an article that did a phenomenal job of explaining the same principles.  It was an article written by the famed author, Malcolm Gladwell (Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers).  The article is entitled Most Likely to Succeed.  It was originally published in The New Yorker Magazine.  It was most recently re-republished in a book, entitled What the Dog Saw.  I highly recommend reading the book and the article (as well as Gladwell’s other books).  There is also a speech he gave about some of the points in the article that can be watched at http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gladwell

The Dilemma:

Here is the dilemma in a nutshell:  We spend a lot of time, effort and money trying to select and train the right candidates for our sales teams, only to find that very few “make it” long term.  If you add up the amount of money we spend on recruiting, interviewing, personality profiles, testing, hiring, training, mentoring, and desk costs for a couple years, you’ll find that most companies spend huge sums of money on trying to find and develop great sales people.  Some industries spend close to $100,000.00 and more, per hire.  How much have you spent on sales people that don’t amount to much?

Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent recruiting is not much, if the end result is a highly productive sales person who will bring in millions of dollars worth of business every year, but unfortunately, this is rarely the case.  The vast majority of people that we hire do not make it, long-term.  Some quit without ever having produced much.  Others limp along for a few years with mediocre performance and we never recoup our investment in them.  Only a few go on to be very profitable hires.

In essence, we are attempting to hire star sales reps in much the same way pro football teams attempt to hire star quarterbacks.  As Gladwell points out in his article, football teams spend millions scouting, testing, vetting, hiring, and training young quarterbacks who have stood out in college.  The bar is set extremely high and very few make the cut.  One would assume this to be the best way to select a future star.

Unfortunately, despite the huge investments in time and money, pro football teams have a horrible track record of picking star quarterbacks.  Think about it.  How many first-round draft picks can you think of who were touted as being the future of their respective franchises, but have never “made it”.  The failure rate is extremely high.  Meanwhile, there are many examples of unheralded players who rose to stardom after going undrafted or being drafted in very late rounds.

The failure rate wouldn’t be such a problem if there wasn’t so much invested in the recruits.  But the investment is substantial.  So football, like many industries, has continued to “raise the bar” by devising an ever-increasing assortment of qualifications, profiles, tests, and methods designed to select the right person.  All of these added elements cost more, but none of them get to the heart of the problem:

There is no way to determine how a person will perform in a game, until they are actually in the game.

No matter how much you do to predict a person’s success, you’re still attempting to look through a crystal ball.  No amount of testing and interviewing ahead of time will tell you how a sales person will perform in the field.  The only way to determine their abilities is to put them in the field.

An Alternate Model:

In his article, Gladwell goes on to detail a couple of industries in which hiring systems have been adopted that are much less expensive, but consistently work to find and develop real stars. Some companies within industries such as stock brokerage, insurance brokerage, and many others have been using these systems for years.  The consistent formula used in these industries includes several steps:

1.  Consistently hire large groups of sales people.  (Many of the most successful sales teams hire large numbers of new sales people every quarter!)

2.  Put them through an intense, regimented sales training program that includes actual, in-the-field experience.

3.  During the training period, make them compete for their positions.

4.  Periodically evaluate performance and let non-performers go.

5.  At a predetermined time, keep and promote only those that have proven themselves by producing real results.

This formula is not new (Think of the movie, The Pursuit of Happiness, in which Will Smith plays an investment broker seeking to “make it” in this kind of a system).  It has been used successfully for years in many industries.  It is extremely successful and very cost effective.  Rather than investing huge amounts of time and money into one or two candidates for a couple of years, hoping they will amount to something, firms invest a small amount in a lot of candidates, deciding very quickly who is producing results and then keeping the proven performers.  There is an investment, up front, in time and money to run the sales training programs, but that investment is recouped very quickly through the production created by the candidates.  More importantly, when it’s all done, you have proven performers who are bringing in real money.

The Shifts to Make It Work:

So the question is, “Why do so many industries insist on hiring in an ineffective way?”  There are two reasons for the failure to adopt a system for recruiting and hiring sales people that is effective.  The first is that many people have beliefs that run contrary to those needed to make a system like this work.  In other words, hiring systems that work are somewhat counter-intuitive for many sales managers and require a shift in several key paradigms.  Some of these shifts include:

1.            You must believe that to get the best, you must lower the bar, not raise it.  The natural inclination when faced with a low rate of success amongst our hires is to make it tougher and tougher to be hired.  The thought is that if we can determine the ideal profile and only hire people that fit the profile, we will have winners.  But the flaw in that thinking is that regardless of how many hoops we ask people to jump through, we still can’t predict their behavior in the future.  By raising the bar, we eliminate people who may perform brilliantly in the future.  Instead, we gamble on people that may or may not perform.  Industries that have cut costs and found stars are those that have opened their hiring process to a larger segment of people.

2.            You must realize that the traditional hiring methods are very expensive.  Training a lot of people and weeding out low producers is less expensive than investing a lot of time and money in one or two who don’t make it.  Many sales managers are afraid of the costs associated with sales training programs for a large group, but they ignore the huge costs associated with hiring one or two well-vetted candidates and then spending a couple years trying to make them perform.  The truth is that it is vastly less expensive to train many and have them compete for the position.  This is especially true if you use the sales training courses provided by Salestrainer.com for the training.

3.            You must realize that it actually takes less time and effort to run a training class for many than it does to mentor one or two.  When you hire one or two at a time and then mentor them to success, there is an expectation on their part and on yours that they have access to help from you at all times.  This leads to a lot of time spent on their behalf.  It also leads to a lot of dependencies on their part.  When training a group of people, there are not the same expectations.  New hires show up on time for the sales training sessions.  They participate actively, getting questions answered and learning what is required.  Then, they enthusiastically go into the field to complete assignments and produce results.  As they bring in sales, they can be partnered up with veterans who help them complete the sales.  But this is not the same time drain that is brought about by sales people you are trying to “groom” for success.

4.            You must believe that this is the only honest and effective way to offer someone a position and that it will strengthen your company.  I have met many who believe it’s wrong to run a system in which they hire and fire so many.  They don’t like the idea of young people competing for a position.  They seem to think that they should hire someone deserving and then give them everything necessary for success.  They feel that doing so will improve the morale in the firm.  Unfortunately, all of these ideas are the opposite of the truth and damaging to you, your new hires, and the rest of the sales people in your company.  We are hiring people who have to go into the marketplace and compete for business.  If we are going to be honest, our hiring system should reflect what the position is all about.  It’s also the most kind and honest thing to do when we fire someone who is not right for the position and has demonstrated that by not completing assignments in the sales training program.  It is dishonest to keep someone who is not going to make it.  What’s more, it damages the morale of the sales team to keep low producers.  People want to play on a championship team.  They love being on a team where everyone had to compete for a position.  They know that not just anyone can be on the team.  It raises their self-esteem to be on the team.

To adopt a hiring system for sales people that works, you must change your beliefs.  Ask yourself, “What can I do to shift my beliefs and make the changes outlined above?”

Adopt the Right Tools:

The second reason that some are reluctant to adopt a working system for hiring is that they lack the sales training tools and sales training resources to implement it – namely a sales training program. (I am not advocating hiring people and having them go into the market with no training – a sink-or-swim, school-of-hard knocks approach.  This is also not effective in hiring stars and ultimately damages the firm’s reputation.) It is costly to develop a sales training program of your own, and if you don’t have one, this system for hiring will not work.

I fully understand this challenge because it’s exactly what led me to create the sales training programs I offer.  I went looking for the ideal sales training program and did not find one.  So I went through the expense of creating one that produced phenomenal results for my sales people and my company.  Since then, I have gone on to create customized sales training programs for dozens of companies and even whole industries.  These sales training programs make hiring and training new sales people very easy to do.  Then, it’s easy to weed out those who aren’t going to make it long term, and keep proven producers.

I also released a generic version of my original sales training course, under the title Mega Sales:  The Professional Sales Training Series.  It has become a best-seller and is a great low-cost solution to developing a great sales training program.  It covers all of the sales, communication and personal productivity skills that a sales force needs in order to succeed.  All that needs to be added is the product and industry knowledge specific to your situation.  My clients who use this course typically start new hires off by having them come in early, every morning or every other morning, and watch one of the videos from the sales course.  As they watch, they follow along in their own copy of the course study guide and then complete the exercises outlined in the course.  To this content, each company adds product and industry knowledge specific to their situation.  The entire training class each morning lasts 60 to 90 minutes.

Then, for the rest of the day, the new recruits work to complete the assignments given in the sales course by going into the field (or getting on the telephone) and working to bring in business.  The recruits continue this process for the first six weeks to three months, depending on how often the morning classes are held (every day or every other day).  They monitor the activities and results of the recruits and let those people go who are consistently not completing assignments and producing results.  In this way, for very little investment of time and money, companies have been able to build a sales team full of great producers.

A Couple Examples:

I’ve been preaching about this concept for a while.  Thousands of companies have purchased my sales training courses and seen tremendous results by having their existing sales people participate and increase production.  But not all of my clients have really used the courses as effectively as they could to recruit, hire and train new sales people.  It always saddens me when I speak to one of my clients or perspective clients who tells me that they will be hiring one sales person later in the year and they will be calling to order a manual for the course when they hire that person.  They still don’t get it.  They should be hiring a dozen sales people with the intention of winding up with one or two good ones!

But many of my clients do get it, and they’ve been wildly successful.  I don’t intend on giving every example, but a couple might be instructive.  Feel free to call me if you want details such as names and numbers of these examples and others.  I invite you to call them and see for yourself if such a system works.

For instance, one of my clients in Southern California wanted to build his firm from scratch.  So he recruited over 100 people to participate in the sales training programs.  He made it clear to all that he would be evaluating their performance during the course and would be keeping those that completed the assignments and got results.  He ordered a site license for one of the training programs I offer and then ordered manuals for each person that was enrolled (he actually asked the participants to pay for the costs of their manuals and further reduced his costs).  He then ran the classes in a training facility he rented and supplied just a few extras such as coffee and donuts.  He monitored the progress of each participant.  He worked with them to complete any sales they brought in.  He also politely eliminated those that were not completing assignments.  By the end of the first four months, he had eliminated 90% of his initial hires, but each of the ones he kept produced over a million dollars in sales revenues, that year!  What’s interesting is that he told me that many of those that “made it” were not the ones he expected.  Had he tried hard to select that team ahead of time, he would have failed.  Only by letting them prove their abilities was he able to determine the stars.  His compnay has continued to prosper for a few years now.

Another client brings in a new class of recruits every three months!  In each new class, he has 5 to 10 new sales people.  He has them complete the entire sales course.  He also has them read and pass tests on his product manuals.  He spends very little time on the process, but he has seen great rewards.  80% of those he hires, do not make it.  But even the ones he lets go produce sales revenues prior to being let go.  In fact, he recently told me that they produce more than enough to cover all of the costs of the recruiting and training.  Of course, the real benefit has come from the fact that, for the last couple of years, he has hired 6 or 7 sales people who have made it through the sales training program and gone on to be great producers.  Since implementing this strategy and adopting our sales training course, he has doubled the size of his sales force and more than tripled his sales revenues!

I could go on with many more examples, and I’m happy to supply you with more examples if you call me, but here’s the bottom line:  You can go on wasting a lot of time, money and effort trying to predict who will be successful, or you can adopt a recruiting and training system that allows people to self-select by proving their abilities.

What to Do Now:

Successful people often are contrarians.  They don’t do what everyone else is doing.

It is time to put aside the old paradigms that have cost you so much time, effort, money, and grief.

I encourage you to re-read this article.  I also encourage you to read Malcolm Gladwell’s article on the subject and watch the video at http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gladwell.  Ponder these things and discuss them with others in sales management in your company.

Then, call me at 1-800-987-1300 and ask me how you can go about implementing a system for recruiting and hiring sales people that works.  I’ll share with you several examples and strategies.  I’ll also connect you with people that are doing a great job of recruiting stars in a cost-effective way.

I also invite you to take part in one of the online sales training sessions / webinars that I do on this subject.  Go to http://salestrainer.webex.com and enroll in the next sales class.

When you have made the decision to stop the madness and grow your firm in the most effective way, order the sales training materials I’ve created.  You can read more about them by going to www.salestrainer.com.

I look forward to serving you.

Warmly,

Peter Droubay, President, Salestrainer.com

Sales Training Article: Benefits, Benefits, Benefits

One of the most common sales training topics is the importance of expressing the benefits of what you are offering. People do not buy facts or features.  People buy benefits.  This seems simple and obvious, and yet it’s one of the most common sales mistakes people make.  Most sales people list facts and features about themselves, their service or product, and/or their company as reasons to buy.  You must ask yourself, “What will this fact or feature do for my client?”  The answers to this question constitute the benefits that you must explain and sell to your clients.

As I already mentioned above, this is a simple and obvious concept.  It is so simple, in fact, that most sales people dismiss it immediately by saying, “I already know that.”  They say they know it, but then I listen to them talk about their products and services and I hear nothing but facts and features!  I’ve decided that the skill of expressing benefits is the most-understood, but least-used skill in the world of sales and marketing.  As a sales trainer, I cringe every time I hear this mistake being made, which means I am cringing a lot!

Because it is so integral to the sales process, and because it is so overlooked, I thought I would take a moment to remind you of the differences between facts or features, and benefits.  Read the definitions of each and then go over your sales presentations, looking for ways to include more benefits in the presentations.

The Difference:

Facts and features are things that describe you, your product or service.  They sometimes come in these forms:

We have _________________.

I am ____________________.

It (the product or service) has ___________________.

Benefits describe the state your client will be in after using you, your product or service. They sometimes come in these forms:

You’ll be able to ______________.

You’ll never have to ________________ again.

Record your sales presentations.  If you find yourself lacking in the amount of time spent explaining benefits, invest some time and money into getting better at it.  An easy way to improve your presentation skills is to attend an online sales class. Go to http://salestrainer.webex.com to view the list of upcoming online sales classes.  Next week’s class is on presentation skills, which includes a lot more on the subject of how to focus on benefits.

I also recommend you go to our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/salestrainerdotcom. If you click on the “like” button below and become a fan, you’ll find discount coupons for all of our sales classes, sales videos, and sales courses on our Facebook page.

Sales Training: Break Patterns to Build Rapport

As a sales person, a fun way to quickly establish some rapport with clients is to interrupt their “pattern”.  A “pattern interrupt” is any action that interrupts the train of thought, or changes the emotional state, that someone is experiencing.  Many times, the patterns – trains of thought or emotional states – that your clients are experiencing when you contact them are not conducive to hearing your offer in the best way.  When this is the case, you must “break” the negative state in order to establish a better mental or emotional state.  This is also known sometimes as “breaking the ice.”

Good sales training teaches that to break a pattern, simply do or say the unexpected in a way that changes your client’s mental or emotional state.  A good pattern interrupt will cause your client to be intrigued by you.  A great pattern interrupt will cause your client to laugh. Ways to interrupt your client’s pattern include:

•  Ask a question that is silly, unique, or off-topic.

•  Have your client move or change their posture.

•  Give a gift.

•  Tell a joke.

•  Tease them, or insult them in a fun way.

•  Ask a pleasure-inducing question.

•  Touch your client.

•  Tell a story.

•  Be disarmingly honest.

•  Startle or shock them.

•  Use a magic trick.

•  Give a nonsensical answer.

•  Ask your client to participate in a game.

•  Use a riddle or mystery.

•  Do something weird or unexpected.

•  Be overly intense.

Interrupting patterns while selling is a fun way to create and maintain rapport, and it is one of the most neglected ways of establishing rapport.  In my experience, most sales people are too “normal”.  They are boring.  Some of the best sales people I know are very good at keeping their clients a little “on edge”.  They are always doing and saying the unexpected; poking fun at things and joking.  They constantly break the patterns people are in and the result is a lot of rapport with people.  They become very endearing and people like to be around them.

See if you can be a little more outrageous at times.  Brainstorm ways to interrupt the negative patterns in which you sometimes encounter your clients.  For a sales video with more information on this topic, and many more examples of effective pattern interrupts, please watch Vol. 11 (Lesson 1 of Section 3) in the Mega Sales video-based sales training course, entitled “Instant Rapport”.  Go to www.videosalestraining.com to download a video player in which you can watch some or all of our sales training video catalog.

Another easy way to improve your rapport-building skills is to attend an online sales class.  Go to http://salestrainer.webex.com to view the list of upcoming online sales classes.

I also recommend you go to our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/salestrainerdotcom.  If you click on the “like” button below and become a fan, you’ll find discount coupons for all of our sales classes, sales videos, and sales courses on our Facebook page.

Sales Training Article: Five Reasons People Buy

Many sales approaches and sales presentations lose sight of the simple reasons people buy.  They become very complex and cumbersome.  Sometimes it helps to step back and remind ourselves of the basics of sales psychology.

The buying process is one of outweighing negatives with positives.  The negatives consist of risks we wish not to take.  We do not want to risk our capital, time, loyalty, certainty and a variety of other things we value.  This risk weighs heavily on one side of our mental scales.

To outweigh the risk several things must happen.  The first is that we must allow ourselves to feel comfortable enough to think about buying.  Put differently, we must be emotionally predisposed to buying, or, in other words, we must be in a “buying state”.

Once in a “buying state”, we must tip our mental scales in favor of buying by acknowledging that there is some pain or discomfort involved in our present situation, we must see a more pleasurable alternative, and we must feel that there is enough logic in the alternative that we can justify the change.  When this side of the scales becomes more real to us than the side weighed down by risk, we buy.

Selling therefore is a lot simpler than it seems to some.  There are really only five things you can do to influence a sale.  They are:

1.  Develop the rapport and the enthusiasm with clients necessary to induce in them a “buying state”, one in which they are willing to make the evaluations necessary to buy.

2.  Reduce or “reverse” the risk that clients feel stops them from buying.

3.  Help clients to experience their present situation as painful, or less than desirable.

4.  Help clients to realize that your products or services present a pleasurable alternative.

5.  Present enough logic to justify the change.

There are many skills that can enhance your ability to perform each of these tasks.  So many skills, in fact, that many people lose sight of the simple reasons for the skills.  Sometimes it helps to remind ourselves of the reasons we are practicing the skills that we practice.  Ask yourself:

•  In my sales efforts, am I doing a good job of assisting my clients to do all of the five things listed above?

•  Which areas could I improve upon?

•  What am I doing to improve upon each of these areas?

One easy way to improve your skills in each of these five areas is to attend an online class or watch one of our sales training videos on the subject of sales psychology.  Go to http://salestrainer.webex.com to view the list of upcoming online classes.  Go to www.videosalestraining.com to download a video player in which you can watch some or all of our sales training video catalog.  I also recommend you go to our Facebook page - www.facebook.com/salestrainerdotcom.  If you click on the “like” button below and become a fan, you’ll find discount coupons for all of our classes, videos, and courses on our Facebook page.

Sales Training Article: How to Double Your Sales in 2011

While there are many ways that we teach to increase sales, it’s always important to remember the simplicity of the “numbers game”:

A 20% improvement in each of four (4) areas of your business* will not lead to a 20% increase in your sales or business. It will lead to a doubling of your business!  Here’s an example:

20% Increase

Calls:                                                             100                                     120

% meetings set:                                           10%                                     12%

% deals closed:                                            10%                                     12%

Average commission/profit:                   $5,000.00                         $ 6,000.00

Total Income:                                        $5,000.00                         $10,368.00

* There are many more areas of your business, other than those listed here, which you can improve by 20%.

List all of the steps you take to sell clients or otherwise secure business.  Then, commit to improving four of them by 20% this year, or, if you prefer, commit to improving seven of them by 10%.

If you need help doing this, we invite you to take part in an in-depth Sales Success Evaluation.  After reviewing an extensive questionnaire, you’ll spend an hour on the telephone with one of our sales coaches.  The net result will be a detailed plan for improving your sales skills and reaching your sales revenue goals.  For more information on this option, call us at 1-800-987-1300, or go to www.salestrainer.com.

It is very possible to double your sales revenues in 2011!

Three Steps to Handle Any Objection

One of the most requested sales training topics is the topic of how to overcome objections. The reason it is such a popular topic is because many sales people blame their mediocre performances on their inability to handle certain objections; most sales people feel that their objection-handling skills are inadequate. This is in part due to the fact that most sales training that purports to help sales people to better handle objections is, in fact, not very effective. In Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series, I teach a very simple, practical and extremely effective way to handle objections (vol. 26). What follows is a brief synopsis of that video. For more information on this topic, please order and watch that video.

To overcome any objection, you must take three steps. They include:

1. Ensure that the objection is a real and final objection.

This is the toughest step for most sales people, starting with the fact that most sales people over-react to comments made by potential clients that are not really objections. Not every negative comment from a potential client is something that will prevent the sale. It is also important to ensure that, if it is a real objection, it is the only thing in the way of a sale. There are several tips for how to accomplish this first step explained in the Mega Sales video-based sales training program (vol. 26 – Handling Objections).

2. Rephrase the objection as a question.

It is oxy-moronic to “answer an objection”. Objections are statements. There is no need to answer a statement. This is why most objection-handling techniques are not very effective. They rely on sales people memorizing “answers” to objections. The best sales people do not “answer objections”. Instead, they rephrase the objection as a question that can be answered. Again, there are several tips for how to accomplish this step explained in the Mega Sales video-based sales training program (vol. 26 – Handling Objections).

3. Answer the question.

Once the objection has been rephrased as a question, the only thing left to do is answer the question in a way that satisfies the client. Once the question is answered and the client is satisfied, it’s time to close the sale.

Example:

The following is a transcript of a top sales person handling an objection while selling new homesites in a custom home development. See if you can pick out each of the three steps I’ve outlined above.

Client: “I really don’t think we’re going to be able to afford the property.”

Sales Person: “That’s fine. We’ll address the costs in a little bit. Let me first ask you some questions about what you’ll do with the homesite and then I’ll explain more about the costs involved…”

Client: “It all sounds great, but I still am concerned about the cost. I think I’m going to have to say, ‘No’.”

Sales Person: “So the money would stop you from building your dream home?”

Client: “I’m afraid so.”

Sales Person: “I know you have a reason for saying that, do you mind if I ask what it is?”

Client: “Well, we’re on a tight budget right now. We’ve been investing much more than usual in our retirement plan since we’re only a couple years away from retirement.”

Sales Person: “I can certainly understand. Is this the only thing stopping you from moving forward?”

Client: “Oh, certainly. I would love to live here as long as I could afford it.”

Sales Person: “I understand the position you’re in and I certainly respect your determination to fund your retirement. I’m in the same boat. I guess the question I’m hearing you ask me is ‘How do I get started on my dream home and still fund my retirement?’ Isn’t that the question we need to answer?”

Client: “Yes, I guess that is what I’m asking. I’d certainly love to do both.”

Sales Person: Interestingly enough, I just spoke with a client about this very same question recently. He said that saving for his retirement was the very reason he bought. He actually looked at it as part of his retirement plan. In fact, he added two lots to his portfolio. He told me that he plans to build on one and hold the other as an investment. As with any investment, there are no guarantees, but he feels like land always appreciates well and is a good way to balance his portfolio. One day, he hopes to sell the lot and recoup most, if not all, of his investment in both properties. How much land do you have in you retirement account?

Client: Just my home I’m afraid.

Sales Person: Wouldn’t it make sense to add some land to your retirement portfolio? Besides, the client I was speaking to last week said something interesting. He said, “What good is funding my retirement and retiring in style if I can’t live in the environment I really want to live in?” When you think about it that way the question is really answered, don’t you think?

Client: That does make a lot of sense.

Sales Person: Would you like me to add another lot to the final purchase?

Client: No I’m not sure I want to do that yet. I’ll start with just one.

Sales Person: That’s fine. Let’s get the homesite you really want off the market and then you can look at other lots at a later time. What names would you like on the title?

In my online sales courses and in the video-based sales training program, Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series, I give many more examples and I walk you through each step to handling objections, in much more depth than I’ve included here. I also show you how to ensure that most objections never even surface. If you improve your ability to eliminate objections, even just a little bit, how much more fun and lucrative will your career be? Take the time to master this skill by attending one of my sales mastery courses for professionals or by investing in my video-based sales training course.

Three Areas of Focus

To enjoy a well-balanced and successful life, you must divide your attentions between several “areas of focus”. Some areas of focus include Health, Finances, Relationships/Family, Spirituality, Intellectual Pursuits, etc. Within each area of focus you must constantly practice “basics” to maintain your current status, and you must set goals to increase your current status. For instance, to maximize your health, you must follow your current diet and exercise standards on a consistent basis to maintain your current health status, and you must set and work towards goals to increase your level of fitness or health. Within the category (area of focus) of finances, there are certain “basics” you must practice to maintain your current status (keeping your current budget for instance) and goals you must set and pursue if you wish to enhance your financial picture. This principle holds true for any area of focus in which you wish to be successful.

If you want to be successful in business and/or sales endeavors, there are three sets of skills and ideas on which you need to constantly work; three areas of focus. They are:

• Lead Generation

• Lead Conversion

• Product/Service Delivery

Many successful people I know consider themselves to be self-employed, whether they technically are or not. They consider themselves to be business owners. In fact, they believe that they own three businesses: A lead generation business, a lead conversion business, and a product or service delivery business.

Success in each of these businesses, or areas of focus, requires that you maintain your current status by practicing certain basics every day or every week, and that you improve your status by setting and pursuing goals. Unfortunately, most sales people and business owners I meet do not do either. In fact, most sales people and business owners have not even divided their attentions into these three categories.

One sales representative I had the privilege of coaching used this simple idea to become very successful in his career. He sells office supplies and office furniture. Specifically, his job is to open and maintain accounts with businesses that order office supplies from his company. When he and I first began working together, he was not very successful. Part of his problem was his failure to divide his activities into areas of focus. We began by determining that he needed to focus on the three areas I’ve just mentioned: Lead generation, lead conversion, and product or service delivery.

Within the area of Lead Generation, I had him start by assessing his current status. He determined how many qualified leads he was currently generating on a weekly basis and the specific activities in which he was engaging to generate this number of leads. He then scheduled time each week to maintain his current flow of leads. Over time, we were able to automate and outsource much of this time. We then gradually increased the results of his lead generation activities by setting goals and implementing plans to attain the goals. He now generates so many leads he needs help to work with them all!

Within the area of Lead Conversion, I had him start by accurately measuring his closing ratio. It was very poor at first. We then determined the level of practice of his sales skills necessary to maintain this ratio. This was easy since he was not engaging in any practice. We set goals and implemented plans, which included our coaching sessions, his playing and replaying of some of my video and audio training segments, and the recording and reviewing of his sales presentations. Each time he set a new goal to increase his closing ratio, it was accomplished by increasing the time he spends working on his skills. We also worked on improving his sales process by building in many automated, outsourced and delegated ways to “pre-heat” or “set the stage” for his sales appointments so that his clients were more inclined to buy from him. In short, we tracked, measured, and improved his Lead Conversion Business.

We also worked on his ability to deliver his products and services. Part of this endeavor is the responsibility of his employer, but there was quite a bit he could do to better ensure that accounts were opened quickly and effectively, that clients were using the services and happy with them, and that the accounts were growing. We started by measuring such things as the percentage of new accounts that continued the service after the first order and the average dollar amounts of the orders from his accounts. We again determined what he needed to do to maintain the current status. We then set goals to increase his effectiveness and did so.

He is now one of the top sales representatives for his company and plans to be the best within his company within a short time.

So ask yourself:

• In the area of Lead Generation, do I have standards I maintain to support my lead generation business? Do I have a specific number of leads (potential clients) that must be generated every day/week/month? Do I have a schedule of activities I engage in every day/week/month that produce this specific amount of leads for my business? Do I have goals to increase the marketing and lead generation for my business? Do I have plans that will help me reach my goals?

• In the area of Lead Conversion, do I have a clear idea of the percentage of my leads that I turn into clients? Do I have a way to practice the sales skills that create and maintain my current rate of lead conversion? Do I have goals to increase the conversion ratios? Do I have ways to increase my skills to the degree necessary to reach my goals?

• In the area of Product or Service Delivery, do I have a step by step process for delivering my product/service to clients? Do I have time scheduled in which I take care of the delivery details (for instance, the paperwork involved opening a new account)? Do I have plans for improving my product delivery, customer service and client follow-up?

Call me and/or visit www.salestrainer.com if you need help saying, “Yes” to any of these questions. Great success is possible, regardless of the point from where you are starting. I would be happy to work with you to create the results you desire.

The Purpose of the Telephone

One of the biggest mistakes that poor and average sales people make when using the telephone is they try to sell their product or service on every call.  This leads to frustration and failure because most people you speak to on the telephone are not ready to buy yet!

The ideal sales process involves three to four contacts with each client.  Each contact has a different purpose.   If you do not understand the purpose of each contact you will not be successful.  The purpose of each contact is as follows:

1st Contact:  Qualifying – Make sure the contact is qualified to merit your time and attention.
2nd Contact:  Prospecting – Create interest and set an appointment.
3rd Contact:  Accessing Leverage – Understand clients and discover what will move them to take action.  In most businesses, this step is accomplished during a needs analysis.
4th Contact:  Selling – Present your solutions and take an order.  This step can be accomplished in the same appointment as the 3rd contact, or it can be a separate appointment.

Most “telemarketing” is the second contact.  Therefore, when calling leads in your database of qualified prospects (see Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series for a step-by-step description of how to build a database of qualified prospects), the purpose of telemarketing is to set appointments.  Keeping this purpose in mind changes quite a bit of the way you act while making the call.  For starters, there is less pressure because you are not looking to make a sale, only to set an appointment.  It is also easier to set the appointment because you are more focused on that outcome and you’re more likely to ask for the appointment in an effective way.  Finally, calls usually are shorter because there is no need to invest lengthy time in explaining your product or service.  A short Attention-Grabbing Statement (see Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series for a step-by-step description of how to script and Attention-Grabbing Statement) followed by a request to meet the prospect will usually suffice.

This principle holds true even if your follow-up appointments are going to be held over the telephone.  Some of the top telephone sales people in the world use this same approach.  One-call closes, while possible, are the exception to the rule.  Work to set appointments first and you’ll find a much higher close ratio.

For more information and additional sales tips, visit www.salestrainer.com.

“Pre-heat” Your Appointments With Testimonial Letters

It always helps to sell yourself to the person or company you would like to have as a client before you even get there. The ideal is for them to recognize you as an expert before you walk through their door. This allows you to spend your time helping them to get what they want, instead of trying to sell yourself. Top sales professionals do such a good job of sending information about themselves ahead of time that, when they walk through the door for the first appointment, the client is already excited about working with them.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the use of testimonial letters. I know of a couple of sales people who are not very good, but they have a lot of clients because they have managed to create what is called “social proof”. Social proof is the influence principle that says that when we are uncertain of what to do, we tend to look to others who seem certain. We do what they do. It’s the principle at work in advertising that uses endorsements and/or testimonials. It’s the reason referrals are so much more effective than a cold call.

The two people I know who are doing well in spite of their skills have created social proof through the effective use of testimonial letters. They’ve requested and received testimonial letters from every client they’ve dealt with throughout their career. They’ve put these testimonial letters into a large three-ring binder. Because they have agreed to present themselves as part of a team, they have added each other’s letters to their binders. They have also added letters received by other sales people in their company. The net result is a very large and very heavy binder full of testimonial letters. They have several copies of this binder.

Two or three days before an appointment with a potential client, they drop by the client’s office and leave the binder. They tell their potential client, “Here are letters from some of the clients I, or members of my team, have had the pleasure of working with. Any one of them will be glad to take a two-minute telephone call from you. I ask that before we meet on Tuesday, you look through the letters and call a couple of them.”

What kind of an impression do you think this makes on the potential client? Most look through the binder and recognize dozens of companies. Very few make any calls, but they are impressed by the shear volume and weight of the letters.

How much more effective could you be with the same strategy?

In order to do this effectively, you must ask for testimonial letters. Most of your clients will write one if you simply ask. There is a way to increase the number you receive, though. If you want to ensure that you receive a great volume of letters, write them yourself. I am not suggesting that you fabricate a letter, but rather that you simply do the typing for your clients. Ask them if you can jot down a few details about your relationship with them. Give them what you have written and ask them to edit it. Retype it with their edits and then print it on their letterhead. Have them sign the final copy. This eliminates for your clients the only reason they would fail to give you a letter: The time it takes to write one.

See if you can put together hundreds of testimonial letters and then use them to make your job easier. For additional information on how to make your appointments more effective, go through Mega Sales: The Professional Sales Training Series or attend the next three-day sales mastery course entitled The Science of Attraction-Based Selling.