Three Great Selling Skills that really work.

 

Opening The Sale

is becoming a lost art.

During recent Sales Field Coaching
I have watched a few Rookies and some Veterans fumble the opening ball pretty badly.

We are in the Customer’s office;
the social pleasantries have been completed now it’s time to

OPEN THE SALE!

· “Right then, down to business!”

· “How’s business?”

Both are equally BAD,
even though one is a statement and the other a Question they BOTH immediately lose you control of the call.

You are now on the Customer’s Agenda (usually ill-prepared; as you had asked to meet them so they thought you were going to prepare an agenda.)

 

 

There are three evidence based techniques to OPEN THE SALE.

They are:

1. Initial Benefit Statement

2. Initial Problem Statement

3. Initial Value Statement

None of these are elevator pitches.

An elevator pitch is a general statement about
What your Capabilities are and How that may be of general interest to Suspects.
Keep Elevator pitches for chance meetings with strangers and elevator journeys.

Bob Apollo has written a useful guide to Elevator Pitches on this link 

http://tinyurl.com/74xggs3

Do NOT use Elevator Pitches in face-to-face sales calls, they DON’T work!

1. Initial Benefit Statements,
take a LIKELY need and show how your capability can fulfil it.

“Many Commodity Traders need the LOWEST POSSIBLE LATENCY (time delay) to make their trades early. We offer the lowest Latency from the City of London to the Frankfurt Market.”

“Would this be of interest to you?”

(36 words) with TWO simple ideas: The need for Speed and our ability to deliver Speed.
The Client was a the Head of Trading in a German Investment Bank

 

2. Initial Problem Statements, take a LIKELY Problem and show

how a Capability we have is being used to overcome the Problem.

“Recently we are being asked by more and more Clients

to help them REDUCE STAFF TURNOVER, without increasing Payroll costs.”

“Could we show you how we would be able to help you do this?”

(34 words) with TWO simple ideas, lower staff turnover and no increased costs.
The Client was the Head of HR in a Call-Centre.

3. Initial Value Statement,
are clear statements of DELIVERED Value in similar situations.

“Typically our Inventory Management System increases stock turns in a business like yours from 6 to 7 or even 8 times a year. This has delivered a 13% up to a 25% stock cost saving.”

“Is this something you would Value?

(40 words) with TWO simple ideas Increased Stock Turns and Cost Savings.
The Client was the Head of Merchandising at a large store.

In all three cases we are INITIATING The Sale with an Idea,

that is LIKELY to be of interest to the Client,

and then we ask for the Client’s agreement to continue.

In the Research none of the three techniques worked ALL the time.
Each should work about 4 out of 5 times.
If they don’t work then review your CONTENT,
it may not be relevant to the Client or the Client doesn’t understand it!

The total words used should not exceed 40.

The Initial Statement should contain only TWO ideas, THEIR need and YOUR capability.

OTS	First:	Then:	Finish
Initial Benefit Statement	NEED	BENEFIT (possible)	Question
Initial Problem Statement	PROBLEM	HELP (never a Solution)	Question
Initial Value Statement	CAPABILITY	RETURN (indicative)	Question

 

Proof Statements, if appropriate, can be used if less than 40 words from Client referrals, Testimonials, Editorials or Articles.

 

In Golf you may “Open for Show” (Drive), but “Close for Dough” (Putt), but

in Sales if you don’t “Open for Dough”, then you never get to “Close for Dough” either!

Which Sales Skills DON’T work?

 

An expression I am using more and more with Clients is
sorting the "Wheat from the Chaff".

And there is more "Chaff" in Sales “stuff”
than in the RAF and the USAF combined!

I have tried to form a set of Beliefs based on “Sales Values”

Since my Values are that all people have near infinite potential, then all people given the right opportunity and encouragement can sell.

Like most worthwhile things learning to sell, like learning to speak a second language, is a lot of hard work but we are all capable of doing it!

 

I use a winnowing process on Selling Skills, when you throw both the Grain and the Chaff in the air, then because the Grains are heavier they fall straight down but the Chaff is light weight it just blows away in the wind! The Sales “grains of truth” are heavier because they have the weight of evidence but the “Chaff” has no weight, its a Lightweight Idea and blows away!

 

 

A. Selling is a Skill set which can be learned.

B. No one is a “natural sales person”, it’s not DNA based.

C. It is NOT Personality or Trait based, either.

D. Successful Selling Skills can be observed, it is what we DO, or don’t DO, which makes us successful.

E. Show me the proof, what evidence supports the “stuff”.

F. Never take a Salesperson’s word, ask for Proof.

G. People who have never sold for a living (and gone Hungry) don’t really get Sales!

H. People (like Marketers and HR) who drink beer with Salespeople don’t really get Sales either.

Based on these Values and Beliefs there are no easy answers, no short cuts, no magic moves, no silver bullets.
Finding new stuff that is not “Chaff” is like panning for gold in a mountain stream. You find the odd nugget,
but mostly you just get wet feet, cold hands and a whole load of sludge!

 

Then, there is the good day when you come across a Masterful mother load, like Neil Rackham’s work, not just SPIN but BA, Sales Management and the Buying Process and evidence based Negotiation Skills.
Or, there is Practitioner Stuff that Holden, Miller, Heiman and Tuleja as well as TAS have produced.

We were treated last year with “The Challenger Sale”, which my Clients in Big Data, Big IT and Big Telecom are already putting to work very successfully. At the lower end (B2C) TCS is working well for Property Sales in a depressed market and Home Furnishings and Fittings, where Value counts.

However, once you start SNAPing “sales stuff” of the Airport departure lounge’s book shelf you fall into
Crazy, Facilitation, Fable, Mystery, Myth and Magik.

I have never read a “Selling My Way” book of any worth or which presented any evidence other than “Popularity”. Remember we use the expression “Popular Misconception”,
to see how stupid this is have a look at :

http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrismenning/20-popular-misconceptions

 

You could add:

1. “Cold” Calling,
2. A.B.C.,
3. Objection Handling,
4. “Pain-Point” Questioning,
5. Value “Creation”,
6. Selling By SFA, APP, CRM or Numbers,
7. Sales “forecasting”,
8. the Sales “process”,
9. “Hunters and Farmers”

but if you did then many Salespeople would have NO skills,
and Many authors would have NOTHING to write about.

 
My favourite is “Sell, without selling.”
The long awaited sequel is “Golfing, without Clubs!” should be out soon.
Or, did Wii already do it?

So, I continue to read, books and blogs, found via Twitter, about selling.
The most popular ones are written by people who don’t get it.

They offer quick tips, easy answers and proverbs,
none of which will enable you to sell;
any more than “keeping your head” down will enable you to play great Golf
or learning a few irregular verbs will help you to speak Spanish.

Then there are a few who DO get it, Dave Stein and Dick Ruff for example,
but they still want to earn a living so they are nice guys, much nicer than me! 
So, they don’t always argue when they read nonsense, even nonsense that has been registered, trademarked and copyrighted.

We don’t know the whole story, which is “How the Buyer buys”,
and HOW we as Sellers can impact, effect and influence their decisions.

Sales is the next best game to Golf, Sellers like Golfers come in all shapes and sizes, nationalities and backgrounds.
You learn how to play, you avoid the chaff, you manage your own game and you succeed.

I wouldn’t have it any other way!

 

.

7 ways to detect a Phoney Sales Trainer

 

1. Do they quote from well known courses? 

   But fail to grasp the Meaning of the Material, e.g. TAS or SPIN

   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Do they quote from self-appointed Gurus?

   Who come from the ‘self-help and actualization movement’
   e.g. Brian Tracy

   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Do they offer clichés like “feel, felt, found”
   or “people buy from people”

   dysfunctional sales skills which never worked.
   

   
   
   
   
   

4. Do they clip images from from expert blogs

   to give an air of pseudo-science and proof to their nonsense?

   
   
   
   
   
   

5. Do they confuse pseudo-science about Personality,

   Psychometrics or Emotions for Real Selling Skills?

   
   
   
   
   
   
   

6. Do they offer worthless Software Sales tools

   to help “Sell by Numbers?”
   

   
   
   
   
   
   

7. Final proof, when you read THEIR LinkedIn Profile
   did they spend 20 years in Marketing or

   does their “profile” suddenly begin 3 years ago?

   
   
   
   
   .
   

Can a 21st Century Sales Methodology be built on Proverbs?

 

I had the great fortune to know my wife’s Grandmother. Born in 1900, at the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. She lived to be 93 years old. She left her village Castillejo de Robledo for the first time when she was 65 years old. Leaving behind the three story house which had been the family home for 4 generations, without the benefit of running Water, Gas or Electricity. The family had lived off the land for 200 years, a few acres of Vines which made the fine Ribera de Duero Wine, a few pigs, chickens and goats in a “corral”, a Burro to help till their wheat field and a “huerta” to grow vegetables besides the river.

It would be easy to label her a Peasant Farmer or even “Peon”, and she had had no formal education being unable to read or write.  Yet she and her husband had raised and ensured that her three children were well fed and educated. All of her children left the village and they came back to take her and her husband with them when they were able to. The house now with all utilities including Broadband, has passed, along with Vineyards, to her son who summers and harvests the grapes with some of his family.

http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spanish-wine-regions/ribera-del-duero.html

I met “Abuela Germana” in her early eighties, by turns she could be talkative or silent. She was a very interesting Old Lady.
Although she had no formal education, she could neither be described as ignorant nor un-educated. She was wise.
Her wisdom was expressed by Proverbs.

“You know a person by the company they keep.”

She repeated this to her Children, her Grand-children, and Great-grandchildren.
She would deliver the saying then explain what it meant, and how to apply it to life.

We reckon, for nobody ever counted, she had more than 500 proverbs. I first noticed that her “recipes” for Cooking were expressed this way, to give the ingredients and their ratios. She recounted Proverbs for Life, for married life and family life, for Farming, relationships with the land and water, when to sow and when to harvest, the best time for the “matanza” to turn Pig into Chorizo and Jamon, for relations with friends and neighbours:

“Good walls make for good neighbours!”

Many sayings were derived from the Biblical Book of Proverbs,
but even more clearly came from folk wisdom,
garnered through centuries living and working in the same part of Spain.

You will be glad to know that I will spare you from lists of examples,
mainly because she spoke them in Castilian Spanish, but often in a dialectal form.
They were understood by her and were “her way of thinking”.

So, I am no stranger to Proverbs.

My question is “Can a 21^st century Sales Methodology be built on Proverbs?”

We could use expressions like :

· Haste makes waste

· A stitch in time saves nine.

· Ignorance is bliss

· Better late than never

· You can catch more flies with honey than
   you can with vinegar.

· You can lead a horse to water, 
   but you can't make him drink.

 

 

 

 

· Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

· A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

· A little learning is a dangerous thing.

And easily make them apply to Sales and Selling,

“People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones” could apply to relationships with the Competition.

A commonly used proverb is “Don’t knock the Competition”
but what does that mean in a 21^st century “Modern Selling” setting.

Is it glib? Has it become a cliché?

Does “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” mean that in Sales we should only pursue “sure things?”
or only take small deals or stay out of the sales underbrush and beware of Poison Ivy?

Could a Salesperson justify keeping damaging information from a customer by declaring
“Ignorance is bliss?”

Can unethical behaviour by Salespeople be justified under cover of Hyperbole
“All is fair in love and war [or sales]”

Or should we use the nemesis to successful Selling “ABC Always be Closing!”

In these “modern times” the anti-proverb is more widely used:
"Nerds of a feather flock together” could describe Facebook or perhaps better Twitter!

My answer to the question is NO!

A 21^st Century Sales Methodology,  CANNOT be based on Proverbs.

 

It leads to Sales Myopia and a Dysfunctional Selling situation.

Sales time and energy is wasted on a simple quick answer inappropriate to a Complex Selling. The basis of all FUNCTIONAL Sales methodologies is in Sales Behaviour. DOING the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, during the right circumstances not regurgitating a cliché.

 

Evidence Based Selling Skills

rest in Identifying FUNCTIONAL Selling Behaviours,
in LEARNING how to execute those Behaviours
and in actually DOING them.

Here is a little evidence, a BMAC Study of 150 Salespeople identified as Sales “Poor Performers” by their Manager and Peers’ opinions, as well as by their actual Sales Results and confirmed by the results of Sales Skills Assessment;

90% described themselves as “Skilled in Sales Methodology.”

Almost all long-term “Poor Performers” describe themselves as able to sell,
yet the evidence is overwhelming that they cannot!

 

The use of Proverbs as a Sales methodology
I would simply describe as:

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”

Is there a Generation Problem in Sales?

 

As a Sales Consultant I get to work with Salespeople of all ages.

 

And, I love the diversity.

Gen Y	Gen X	Baby Boomer
Diversity	Self-centred	Optimism
Social	Disloyal	Involved
Now!	Impatient	Go the extra Mile
Anti-Authority	Distrustful	Achieve
Community	Independent	Family
	Influencing Factors
I-Phones	MTV	KFC
Ninja Turtles	AIDS	Woodstock
‘Indignados’	NIKE	Equality
NYC twin towers	Kuwait/Falklands	Vietnam

 

 

This is my list, how I see ‘difference’.

Personally I love them all, but that’s because I’m a Baby Boomer. Two parents, male and female, two brothers and loads of girl cousins, stay at home Mom and working Dad. Encouraged, but not forced, to study. Stand for the national anthem and honour the flag. I have 5 kids from 42 thru 26, and an 18 year old grand-daughter so I have some insights.

The thing is; there is a clear difference between GenX and GenY which is causing them problems in Selling together. In fact, in my experience, it’s easier for GenY to sell WITH (not always to) a Baby-boomer. It’s got to do with their views about (or their attitude to) Independence-Interdependence.

Baby -Boomers and GenY are comfortable with ‘inter-dependence’ in one case its small community ‘Family’ in the other its bigger community ‘Friends’. And in both cases it extends to both Friends and Family.

If you don’t believe me compare 20 of each BB, GenY, GenX on Facebook for both ‘community’ type, size and activity. However, GenX limits themselves to close friends, few family and the acquaintances who may be ‘useful’ to them.

How does this effect Sales? Quite a lot!

As the Baby-boomers
are leaving Sales, GenX isn’t too happy with their new GenY colleagues and subordinates.

 

GenX find GenY “NEEDY!”

The GenY Subordinates and Colleagues find their GenX Bosses and Colleagues Distant and Cold.
GenY preferred the warmer and more involved Baby Boomers!

I am seeing ‘step-overs’ happening more and more. GenY’s are going directly to their Baby Boomer CEO or other ‘B-B’ C suite contact for support. ‘B-B’ CEO’s are more comfortable in the community of GenY Sales people than the individualist GenX Sales Manager!

How are we going to cope?

• VALUE Diversity! Strive for an inclusive mixture,
  be part of a broad Community

• DON’T rush the Baby-boomers out the door.

• STOP trying to make the GenY’s in your image.

Have a look in the mirror, YOU are not as young as you were,
and you will be the previous generation soon enough.
GenY isn’t going to put up with your demands,
they have their own way of doing things.

Looking at some Sales Centres of Excellence in Big IT,
I couldn’t help but notice how well GenY and the Baby Boomers ‘got on’,
and that the GenX’s were sometimes a resentful minority!

“Coaching and Counselling” is easier between Grandchildren and Grandparents than it ever was between Parents and Children.
Perhaps its natural, when you ‘rebel’ against a Parent, you become more like your Grandparent!

Baby-boomers have been slow to Sales Social Media because they didn’t know HOW,
but GenX are being slow because they don’t see WHY,
and GenY simply live there!

In Sales how can you ‘lose’ a sure thing or ‘win’ a no hoper?

 

Measuring and ‘predicting’ customer loyalty is a fascinating field.

This blog is inspired by the work and research of Burke Inc. www.burke.com

 

The usual triangle to calculate Customer Loyalty (repeat purchase) is:

1. Current Satisfaction

2. Willingness to buy again

3. Recommending the product to others

 

This Security Triangle is often thought of as 3 separate aspects;

Sales are often targeted on Customer Satisfaction,

but NOT Repeat purchase or Recommendations to third parties!

 

Sure Thing or “likelihood to buy” is the product of all three factors.

Let’s look at some scores

 

For example:

An account has a 7/10 score for all three areas

Current Satisfaction = 7/10

Willingness to buy again = 7/10

Recommend the product to others = 7/10

7/10 x 7/10 x 7/10 =343 /1000 or 34.3% or a poor score,

I wouldn’t bet my House or my Pension on you winning the business!

What happens if its 8/10’s?

8 x8 x8 = 512/1000 or 51% better that 50/50; a good bet but YOU NEED 8/10 in all three boxes!

What happens if its 9/10’s?

9 x9 x9 = 729/1000 or 72.9% you may well win 3 out of 4 times!

NOW you know why Account Management
(not Relationship Management)
is so important.

 

The sure thing is 10/10 in all three areas and nobody gets that!

 

So, there is no such thing in selling as a “sure thing” or a “lost cause!”

This rule applies to our competitors too.

 

You need 8/10 in all three boxes for a fighting chance

 

You have to SELL to Customer Satisfaction

You have to SELL to Customer Willingness to buy

You have to SELL to Customer Recommendations

 

There is no such thing in Selling
as: a Sure Thing or a Lost Cause!

Run a Customer Engagement Workshop and hear what your Customers really think!

The Secrets of a Sales Expert

 

Familiarity does not mean understanding.

 

Making “familiar” things intelligible to others is very difficult.

 

Understanding the things that you are very familiar with is also very difficult.

We are all familiar with learning to talk; almost all of us did it! Both as Parents and family members we have seen infants develop from smiling mutes into talking machines.

We expect it to happen;
we worry when it doesn’t happen.
We become anxious when,
in our opinion, it happens too slowly.

We feel inordinate pride when it happens quickly;
we associate the speed of learning to talk with “clever”.

“Isn’t she clever, only 18 months
and just listen to her talk and talk and talk!”

 

 

 

Yet, with all of the “familiarity” we have with learning to talk,

the process by which it occurs is unintelligible to most of us.

 

WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT.

 

A few, a very few, researchers have some understanding but far less than complete.

How many of us would claim to be Speech ‘experts’?

How many of us would ask for the title
“Trainer” in helping infants to learn to speak?

 

Yet, in Selling, any ‘familiarity’ with Sales is a claimed qualification to be a “Sales Trainer”. We even have the ludicrous situation where self-appointed bodies, who at best have “familiarity” with selling claim a right (By Charter, God given or simply self proclaimed) to accredit Salespeople and Sales Trainers. In medicine such people would be dismissed as QUACKS, yet in Selling they abound.

LinkedIn, has given us all a tool to look at people differently. We only see what the person uploads but it is more the absence than the presence that impresses me. “SALES EXPERT” have a look at their history, where was the point where they earned this title?   Nowhere?

“Many years in selling”, often not there. And we know from research that “Tenure in Sales” doesn’t equal
‘understanding Selling’ nor does it ‘predict’ sales success.

 

 

There are a growing number of “Sales Gurus”,
who have never been in Sales,
who have little or have no understanding of Sales and
instead substitute pseudo-sales knowledge of “Marketing”,
“Software” or “Social Media” as their qualification and justification.

But, how if you have no intelligible grasp of a familiar process,

can you claim ‘expertise’ in it through
a familiarity with an ancillary process?

Speech Therapists, work with the ancillary processes of:

phonation, producing sounds;

resonance, use of vocal chords;

intonation, pitch changes; and

voice, the use of diaphragm Breathing for the ‘mechanics’ of speech

Yet, the actual Brain Process of Speech remains unintelligible.

 

BMAC Consultants focus on understanding the actual Process of Selling.

You can benefit from our 20 years of research into the Selling Process
as well as 20 years worth of knowledge and practice
helping Adults learn how to sell.

We scan Evidence Based Sales Research
looking for new insights to bring to light for you.

You can avoid dysfunctional Sales Behaviours

(the curse of current Sales Training)
from our Training and Coaching because we make every effort to exclude them.

We believe that the Research into the Buying and Selling process over the last 10 years has negated much of the myth and nonsense trained to unsuspecting sales people for the last 40 years.
However even a casual look at current Sales Training Content and Sales Trainers shows a woeful amount of Myth, Magic and Folklore still being sold
as “Magic Bullets”.

 

Pity!

If you wish to discuss evidence Based Sales development contact brian.maciver@gmail.com