It's always the fundamentals

Picking up on my last post where I was talking about being in a slump I wanted to spend some time talking about the fundamentals of the sales process.

The first step in the sales process is the interview step and it's one that a lot of sales people blow through thinking they know what the prospect needs and they've been there done that.

Even though you think you know what they need that doesn't mean the prospect knows what they need. You need to bring them through the interview process so they can discover and understand their needs as well as uncover needs they didn't even know they had.

A key point to bring up right here is that if you say it they can doubt it but if they say it then it must be true. I learned that a long time ago from Zig Ziglar.

So what does that mean? Well, if you tell them the solution they may or may not believe it's the best solution for their situation. On the other hand if you ask them questions which guide them to the answer that they discover for themselves they're going to be a lot more likely to buy into the answer since they figured it out for themselves.

Something to keep in mind though is that the key for this to work is discipline and intent? What I mean by intent is you must be coming from a place of service where you genuinely have the prospects best interest at heart. When you do they will know it and ultimately come to trust you and your advice.

Don't rush through the sales interview process. The better you are at helping your prospect discover their needs the more sales you will close.

Keeping it fresh

Are you struggling to make sales? Does it seem like the people you thought were a sure thing are failing to pull the trigger for no apparent reason. Or that for some unexplainable reason they are going with you competitor or worse yet they aren't doing anything. Are you overall numbers down? Have blamed the loss of a sale recently you were sure you were going to get on the economy?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions you might be in the middle of a sales slump. Sales tends to have it's ups and downs so for some they just consider it a regular part of the business and they just work through it. For others they start questioning themselves, the products they sell or the company they work for. For the latter this begins a downward spiral that makes the sump worse as well as prolonging it.

So what's a person to do to prevent or correct a slump?

The answer: Go back to the basics.

• Think about how you were when you first started in the sales job you're in right now.
• You didn't know as much so you talked less.
• You were excited about the opportunity so to the buyer you excitement came across as enthusiasm for the product.
• Because you didn't know everything you asked more questions
• You listened better since you hadn't heard the same thing a 1,000 times.

In many ways selling is like acting. No I don't mean you fake it about your products or services your selling. As far as I'm concerned you either truly believe in what you're selling or you need to find something else to sell. Anyway back to the point about acting. When you've been selling something for awhile you can become bored with what you're saying. This is were it gets really dangerous for a sales person. When you're bored you come across as disinterested which will be received many different way all of which are bad.

Think about what it would be like if you went to a play where instead of getting a great performance the actor was bored an you could tell. How would you feel? You'd feel like you wasted your time and you probably wouldn't enjoy the play. Part of the experience of going to a play is for the actor to get you to feel the sorrow or the joy of the moment. Something they can't do if they allowed themselves to come across as being bored.

Just as the actor can't allow themselves to come across as being bored neither can a sales person. You have to maintain your enthusiasm about what you're selling. You need to stick to the basics and ask good questions and listen attentively for the answer. You need to treat each client as an individual and even if you think you know the answer you still need to ask the question. The reality is that even if you do know the answer that doesn't mean the prospect does. The prospect or client needs to feel that you genuinely care about them. (If you don't get a new job.)

Keep it simple and stick to the basics. You owe it to yourself to be the best you can be and that takes hard work. Sales is the most rewarding hard work there is or the worst paying easy job there is. The choice is yours.

May favorite saying that I once hear Zig Ziglar say is: "Your raise becomes effective as soon as you do." Nothing I've ever heard does a better job of summarizing the opportunity a career in sales offers.

More calls, More presentations, More Closes, More Sales

The Words We Use

The words you use have the power to create or the power to destroy. When you're making a presentation to a prospect you want to stir their emotions so they will buy. Obviously this is assuming that what you have to offer is the right solution for them. The way you say what you have to offer will either help or hurt your chances of success.

A long time ago I was introduced to the power of word choice and as a consultant have had tremendous success with simply re-scripting a clients presentation. What I do is remove the weak or negative words and replace them with positive or power words.

You might be saying to yourself that it can't be that simple but in many ways it is. Obviously you need to have the right product for the prospect and you have to believe in the product plus they have to be able to afford it but in the end your ability to close the sale with have a lot to do with how you present the solution.

So what does this look like?

A great place to start with is how you discuss price. Many sales people use terms like price and cost which immediately set off the alarms in the prospects head to become defensive. Using words like investment or value have a completely different connotation and provoke different feelings. You tend to feel good about making investments and you are more likely to think highly of something valued at $$$$.

If you sell on payments don't call them payments call them monthly investments or for the down payment call it the initial investment.

In Zig Ziglar's book “Secrets of Closing the Sale” he spends some time talking about the importance of using the proper words in your presentation. He talks about how some words sell and other words un-sell. He goes on to mention a study conducted by Yale University that corroborates the idea and adds some additional selling words to the list.

In my own sales career, and as a consultant, I have experienced the truth and value of this easy to implement money making discovery and I guarantee you can enjoy the same results.

As you look over the list below you might notice that the last sentence was packed with words that sell. OK, maybe I over did it a little but I think you get the idea.

Words That “Sell”

Prospect’s name	Easy	Save	Right	Proud
Trust	Understand	Guarantee	New	Results
Profit	Value	Proven	Money	Love
Truth	Deserve	Fun	Health	Safety
Discovery	Comfort	Happy	Vital

Words That “Un-sell”

Deal	Sign	Lose	Bad	Decision
Liable	Cost	Try	Hurt	Sell
Hard	Fail	Pay	Worry	Buy
Sold	Difficult	Liability	Contract	Loss
Death	Price	Obligation	Failure

Here are five more “selling” words that came from a Yale University study:

You Security Advantage Positive Benefits

By the way the most important word you can use in your sales presentation is your prospect’s name. Nothing sounds better to your prospect than their name.

If you want to take your sales to the next level you owe it to yourself to replace all the negative or weak words in your presentation with positive or power words. By the way don't limit this to just your presentation make it a part of your everyday vocabulary. You are the only one limiting your chances for success so let's remove the obstacles, roadblocks and excuses so you can be, do and have all that you are dreaming of.

Get started today.

One Day at a Time

Ever have a sales month start slowly? Do you struggle with the idea of starting from scratch every month? Many sales people have a hard time with the idea the each month they're starting all over. For some it's a daunting task to start our each month back at zero. And many sales people struggle with having a month or a pay period start slowly which adds anxiety to hitting their quota for the period.

A conversation I had with one of the sales people working for me reminded me of the challenge. He was asking how he could overcome the slow start he has each month. My answer was simple "Take it one day at a time". I know it sounds like a simple answer but let me explain. When you have a big sales month or period the natural tendency is to relax a little bit once it's over. You want to celebrate and pat yourself on the back. There's nothing wrong with that you need to celebrate your victories.

The problem with relaxing after you hit your goal or have a big month is that when you relax you tend to stop doing all the things you were doing to be successful at the end of the previous month. Some sales people start to take short cuts fooling themselves into thinking they are good enough to get away with it. Usually this results in fewer sales at the start of the month or pay period and then as you get farther into the pay period they knuckle down and get back to doing what works and low and behold they pull it off again. Another month or pay period where they hit the goal even though they started slowly.

Some salespeople have done it like this for so long they have convinced themselves that people don't buy early in the month so it's normal. The fact is when you are doing your job properly people buy any day of the month and it has nothing to do with whether or not is the beginning or the end of the month. The sales person is the one that influences the cycle based on inconsistent work habits.

If you want to end the up and down sales cycle and be more consistent you have to work consistently and the best way to do that is to stop focusing on the pay period or the month and start focusing on each individual day. By taking things one day at a time and resolving to do you best each day you will find that the month or pay period takes care of itself.

Of course that's not to say ignore the closing of your pay period, month or qualification period. You can use these deadlines to create urgency and get business to close in a more timely manner than it would otherwise.

The key is to do your best each and every day and you will find that before long your sales are more consistent and for that matter much higher since the slow start will go away.

Just be patient and know that what you are doing will work because for many sales people it takes a few months to actually see the change in their sales since they have to fill the pipeline with additional prospects.

You might be skeptical if you've been in sales for a while and have always had a slow start each month or period but I can tell you from personal experience the key is in your work habits. I too used to have slow starts until I was shown how I worked differently at the beginning of the month compared to the end of the month. I decided to take it one day at a time and within 3 months my sales at the first of the month equaled my sales at the end of the month. For me that was a 15% increase in sales.

Would you like to give yourself a raise? Then work just as hard or even harder at the beginning of the pay period as you do at the end and treat every day as if it was the last day of the pay period.

Sales Lessons From the Movie Hook

Your emotions have a lot to do with how well you sell. It affects how other people see you and how they believe you feel about what you're selling. Think about it for a minute do you like doing business with angry people? How about doing business with people that are down or depressed? Or people that are self centered and could care less about you? Of course not. If you're like most people you like to do business with people that are happy and upbeat.

Zig Ziglar, one of the great sales trainers boils sales down to the transference of feelings. Basically if you can get your prospect to feel the way you do about what you're selling they are more likely to buy. Bryan Tracy, another great sales trainer, teaches constrained enthusiasm and points out that the last four letters of enthusiasm are I A S M which means I Am Sold Myself. So with that in mind maintaining the right attitude is essential in sales.

There's a valuable lesson to be learned from the movie Hook with Robin Williams that has helped me in my sales career more times than I care to count. It's also a lesson I've shared with hundreds of sales people that have benefited from it as well.

The movie starts in modern day England and Robin Williams is a busy executive married to his cell phone and so busy with work he's missing out on his own children's childhood. 

As it turns out Robin is Peter Pan but he's grown up and gotten serious and has completely forgotten his childhood. So he doesn't remember that he is, or ever was, Peter Pan. Tinker Bell, played by Julia Roberts, brings him back to Neverland to remember who he really is and to fight Hook and save Neverland.

About now you might be asking yourself what on earth does this have to do with sales. Just bear with me and I will make it clear.

The sales lesson is in how, the now serious and adult, Peter who has no magic and can't even remember being Peter Pan gets his magic and power to fly back. You see, his power was a function of his imagination as well as being able to be carefree and happy. He'd forgotten how to imagine and he hadn't been happy in a long time.

When he first got to Neverland he was in denial and just wanted things to stay the way they were. Jumping ahead to that part that's relevant to the lesson. Peter first started to get his ability to imagine back when the whole gang was sitting down to an imaginary meal. Rufio, one of the lost boys,  was upset because the real Peter Pan would have been able to have actual food for them to eat. He didn't believe this was the real Peter Pan. 

In the process of the argument between Rufio and Peter, Peter starts to lose some of his adult ways and starts to have fun. Just as Peter is pretending to throw a spoonful of food at Rufio the imaginary becomes real and all of the sudden the table is full of food. Watch the clip for yourself its fun.

Now having an imagination and being able to have fun is important and it will help you in your day to day sales. But, that isn't the biggest lesson to learn from this movie. You see even though Peter remembered how to use his imagination he still wasn't "The" Peter Pan. He didn't believe and he didn't have the magic to fly.

In the movie Tinker Bell helps Peter remember and realize that the key to his magic comes from being able to be in his "Happy Place". As she helps him remember and realize that he is in fact Peter Pan his happiest memory is of the time when his first child was born. As the happiness fills him up he turns back into Peter Pan and now he can fly.

It's kind of funny as he remembers because without realizing it he is hovering in mid-air but when he starts to think about the fact that he's flying he gets scared. Of course he starts to drop like a rock but just before he hits that ground he remembers his happy place and stops in mid-air. Now, he's really Peter Pan and starts flying all over the place.

Once again I bet you are asking yourself what on earth this has to do with sales or selling. Well, the lesson is about having and being able to hold on to your happy place. Think about the times when an angry prospect or client has affected your mood which affects your performance. Think about the times you've had a setback personally and it impacted you work. The fact is we all get hit with bad news, cancelled sales, personal setbacks and trials of life. The key is how do you deal with it?

We all get upset or have our feelings hurt from time to time but if you take the time to remember a moment when you were extremely happy or a time that you felt totally successful you can use the memory, and others like it, to get back to a point where you can be effective and successful.

There have been many times I have used this to get myself or sales people I've worked with back into a good place to work from. I know it may sound a little out there but what have you got to lose by trying it?

One of the things I picked up from Tony Robbins is to work on remembering things in color with sound and to make them seem like they're on a life size or larger screen. It only takes a little bit of practice but it's worth it. For me and everyone I've worked with the intensity of the feeling or memory is enhanced by making it larger or in color or with sound. Different adjustments have different impacts for each person so experiment with it to see what works best for you. 

Another thing Tony teaches is to anchor a feeling or emotion so that you can get into that state at will. For years, every time I made a sale I would stand up with my arms raised over my head in victory and then I would simulate the cheer of a crowd. This action has anchored for me the feeling of success I enjoy when making a sale. Now, anytime I want to feel this way I simply repeat the action and I'm in that state.

As a sales professional you must learn to be the master of your emotions. That doesn't mean ignore them or suppress them. So find a copy of Hook and enjoy being entertained but let it help you find you very own happy place and learn how to go there any time you want. Your sales will improve and so will your relationships with those around you.