Andy the Sales Coach

Hello everyone! Sarah here, Andy’s assistant.  I know it has been a long time since Andy’s last post and we apologize for that. However, we are glad to report that it is simply because Andy has been very busy consulting, traveling and speaking all over the country. In our busy time we have managed to get up a permanent company website at www.andymillerinternational.com. What do you think?

I wanted to take a minute to touch base with our blog readers and update them on Andy’s status and successes. One of the exciting events Andy had the privilege of speaking at was Tony Robbins’ and Chet Holmes’ Ultimate Business Mastery Summit. (I even got to go along and work the event!) It was a major success and I know a lot of good friendships were made and networking connections built.

Also, if you have not checked out Andy’s monthly webinars on Business Experts Webinars you are missing out! Andy gives value-packed calls on very relevant topics that often leave the attendees with a dozen or so gold nuggets to take back and implement right away for major results. Make sure to sign up for his next one by clicking on the sign up banner on the right hand panel.

In Andy’s “free time” (haha) he has been busy creating two very powerful products in the areas of sales and marketing that are in high demand. The first one has been in the making for years and is on Andy’s specialty - Consultative Selling.  Andy has always felt very passionate about consultative selling and has studied, practiced and taught the concept extensively. His “in the making” product will be a home study course on Consultative Mastery Selling.

His second product in the works is another home study course on a topic that Andy has used hundreds of times in his consulting, training, managing, and even in his everyday life - how to adapt your selling style to match your prospects buying style.   Andy uses the DISC personality types and he is creating a product that is specifically for sales professionals. Once these products are completed we will send out the notice to our friends so make sure to sign up for Andy’s Newsletters to stay in the loop.

Okay well I think this is enough to get you updated for now. I may help take over the writing of some of the blogs but I promise to get you great content from the guru himself. Contact me if there is anything you would enjoying seeing on here!

All the best,

Sarah

Tags: Andy Miller, Andy Miller at UBMS, Andy Miller Chet Holmes, Andy Miller sales, UBMS

One of my favorite sales techniques/tools is knowing the buyer and seller styles and knowing how to adapt your style to meet that of your buyer.  To me, just knowing this one powerful selling tool can have a tremendous impact on a salesperson. Although this knowledge comes in many forms and has many names (personality types, behavioral styles, social styles etc.) I have found that there is one system that works well for sales people and it is called DISC. DISC stands for 4 certain types of people - Dominant, Influencer, Steady Relater and Cautious Thinker. Each of these types come with their own set of characteristics.  They communicate differently, operate differently, and build relationships differently just to name a few.  If a salesperson is able to identify the style of his/her buyer then they have a much better chance of communicating with and building a stronger relationship with him or her. I just wanted to share a little bit about each type to get your familiar with them.

Dominants

Extroverted 

Influencers

Steady Relaters

Cautious Thinkers

These are just a few description words to help you start to idenify the different styles. I will be following up on this topic shortly with other rules and tactics to help you use this information in a beneficial way. Until then, have fun with this knowledge! Try to see what type your friends and co-workers are. Maybe - just maybe - it will help you understand why there are just some people out there that operate differently than you do.

Until next time!

Tags: buyer styles, cautious thinker personality types, dominant personality types, influencer personality types, personality types and sales, selling and personality types, selling styles, social styles and sales, steady relater personality types

No matter what you sell there are natural steps, common questions and a normal way of doing things. I often work with clients to help them define what is normal and what is abnormal. I have talked about the four buyer types in a past blog and it is true that each one operates in a different way. The difference is how slow/fast they move or how much/little detail they need. With that said, there is still some commonality to the sales process. What do I pay attention to if the prospect wants to move through the sales process in a normal vs. abnormal way? Because when something falls outside of the norm my radar detector goes up and starts flashing warning signs. I am not saying everyone has to conform but usually if something is outside the norm then typically you are loosing the deal. That makes me slow down and dig deeper so I understand what is going on. Fortunately many times you can save yourself from losing the deal if you acknowledge that there is something abnormal with the deal and act in a proactive manner before problems arise.

So what are some common warning signs you maybe losing the deal?

1)       They withhold relevant information

2)       They want way too much information for where they are at in the
sales process

3)       They want price quote or proposal prematurely

4)       They tell you there is an opportunity here but don’t let you
develop a relationship

5)       The deal moves way too slowly

6)       Typical decision makers are not involved

7)       You don’t have access to decision makers and influencers

8)       Your competition has met with the boss but you are blocked from
meeting the boss

9)       When they dictate and demand vs. collaborate

Many times we know these these red flags are there but we are too worried or scared to acknowledge them and thus continue on our normal process with our fingers crossed that these flags will disappear. The more you ignore the warning signs and not take the action needed the more deals fall through the cracks.  In summary - work proactively instead of reactively.  If you have any more warning signs that you are losing a deal I would love to hear them!

Thanks!

Tags: sales warning signs, warning signs, warning signs you are loosing a deal

Do You Suffer From Potential Big Deal Intoxication?

Every week I get a call from a desperate salesperson wanting help with the mother of all big deals. This deal has the potential to make his/her quota for the year or is a big company with lots of potential. The possibility of that potential makes the rep so fanatical that they throw all the rules and common sense out the window. Some times I refer to this as big deal intoxication. They poorly qualify the opportunity if at all.

They skip the steps of the sale process and start committing valuable company resources way too early. They call in the VIP’s to give extra attention when they prospect hasn’t earned the right for that type of attention and they are typically guilty of “premature presentation”. To make things worse they offer incentives, better terms and discounts with the hope of shortening the sales cycle and booking the deal this quarter. If this were a little deal or smaller company they wouldn’t make these mistakes but because of its potential size they are like a dog in heat.  If the sales rep had called me 6 weeks earlier I could have thrown a bucket of cold water on them and guided him/her through the process. With a little coaching they could have kept their emotions in check and helped them either win the deal or disqualify it quickly protecting their time, energy, resources and profit margins! So if you really want that deal and can leave your ego out of the discussion then involve your sales coach early and stop getting intoxicated by the prospect of getting the deal.

Tags: big sales deals, desperate salesperson, presenting too early, sales malpractice, sales mistakes, salesperson mistakes

Hoping that prospect will turn into something more? - Stop!

For years I have heard sales people tell me they want to learn how to qualify better. As odd as this may sound there is a danger to wanting to qualify better. It sets you up to have the wrong mindset and starts a tug of war between you and the prospect. You see there is little or no relationship and prospects are mistrusting of sales people from the start. So you start asking qualifying questions and what happens…they give you the “short answer”. You can feel the tension and resistance but we don’t want to push too hard because this has some potential and we can keep “hope” alive. From my perspective hope sucks!

Hope lets you fill your pipeline or sales forecast with junk (sometimes called deals) that are never going to close. Hope lets you lie to yourself that you have a lot going on and helps you procrastinate from making real sales calls. I once worked with a fortune 500 company who didn’t want to get real. They preferred to live in the land of hope even after I warned them they were setting themselves up for a shortfall. Sadly as I predicted the last week in the quarter $10 million in deals evaporated… not moved into next quarter but actually evaporated into thin air never to be seen again. Painfully they were $10 million short of what they told Wall Street and their stock was punished severely for it.

Until Next Time!

Tags: disqualifying clients, qualify better, qualifying prospects

What will make 2009 a different sales year than 2008?

I was talking with some clients earlier this week. They wanted to know what they need to do to make 2009 the best year ever. As we discussed what needed to happen one of the senior managers said, “We have had this conversation every year and we say the same thing. WHAT IS GOING TO MAKE 2009 DIFFERENT?” What a great observation and question. You see everyone is looking for the secret sauce for exceptional growth. It is typical that companies try to fill in the missing pieces with training in sales, presentation, negotiations, improved sales process, CRM, new marketing approaches, new brochures and a whole bunch of other things yet nothing changes. What my client realized, is the piece that nobody likes to look at.

It is not about what you know it is about WHAT YOU DO! You see the majority of salespeople and sales organizations fail to do enough of the proper sales activity. It doesn’t matter if you have additional skills training, a more effective sales process or new marketing materials if you aren’t talking with the right kind of prospects! It doesn’t matter if you sell face to face or over the phone… proper activity makes all the difference in the world! I say it is like having a health club membership but never taking your expanding buttocks to the club. You have the knowledge to eat better and you know you need to exercise but the action or activity to actually go to the club 3 times a week is lacking. Now if you really want great results then you would exercise a little longer per session or go 4-6 times a week. Exercise and sales activity are very similar…bottom line is low activity gets low results and high activity gets high results. Professional athletes and professional salespeople both know this is absolutely true. So the honest question to ask yourself is…are you doing enough of the right kinds of activity on a daily basis?

Tags: exceptional sales growth, ramp up, Sales activity, sales prospects, sales training 2009, secret sales, secret sauce

If you are interested, an article of mine was just featured in earning Executive Magazine. I teamed up with Brain Lambert of ASTD to write a white paper on Sales Force Enablement and how to maximize performance of organizations. The article that appeared in the magazine has was slightly altered to focus more on trainers so if you are a sales trainer you may be interested in checking out the the article, Increased Capacity Brings Sales Results on page 22 of Learning Executive Magazine.

 
If you are intertested in the original white paper that was written more for business owners, CEO’s etc or if you are looking for the Sales Force Enablement Checklist that accompanies this paper you may request a copy here or by selecting the resource tab above and then the Sales Enablement section. I will send you a free copy of the 23 page report (in a PDF) complete with a detailed checklist to help you get the most out of your organization.  This paper focuses on the three core areas of analysis for any organization - coporate analysis, sales management analysis and sales team anaylsis.

Thanks for your support!

Until next time!

Tags: ASTD, Brian Lambert ASTD, Sales enablement checklist, sales force enablement, sales managers, sales teams, sales trainers

Do you let this guy stop you from getting the deal?

Years ago I had a scheduled an appointment with the VP of sales for FedEx. I had done everything right…found his pain, set an agenda, confirmed the appointment and tied it down to make sure it didn’t get canceled. He knew I was flying in to meet with him and had confirmed the night before. However when I showed up for the appointment he wasn’t there. I was concerned because he had confirmed and I didn’t believe anyone would miss it unless an emergency happened. I had his assistant track him down and she found him at home. He said he decided not to come in that day and that was it. So now I had a few hours before my flight out and I decided to make the best of the situation. I pulled out my org chart that I had made and started calling around. Everyone was either in meetings or out of the office. So I decided to shoot for the moon and do a cold walk-in on the CEO, Fred Smith.

With a little detective work that even Scotland Yard would have been proud of I found out that the CEO was in town and was in his office that day. I found out what building he was in and took the campus bus over to his building. When I walked in it was about 10am and the security was tight. I knew I couldn’t just ask for the CEO so I asked for the Sales VP who I knew was not there because he stood me up. So the security guard started tracking down the sales VP and after a few calls got nowhere as I knew would happen. What this did was gave me time to get to know the security guard. While I was getting to know him I asked him where he liked to go for lunch and he named his favorite place. I asked when he liked to go and if it was crowded because I liked to avoid the rush and he told me when his lunch break was. So guess what. I left and returned when he was at lunch. When I walked up to security I said “Hey you aren’t Joe…oh yea it’s his lunch time”. The point is I sounded like I belonged there!  I told the security guard that I was there to meet with Fred Smith and they told me to take the elevator to the 6th floor and he was the hallway on the right. Earlier I had found out his assistant’s name so when I got up to his office and she was there I told her I was there to meet with Fred.  It was a good idea and I almost made it all the way but unfortunately at the last minute they realized what had happened and I was excorted out by security.

Ok so I didn’t actually get the meeting but what surprised me was how far I could get with a little tenacity and creativity.  My question for you is have you ever pushed the limit and been thrown out of an office building?  I am willing to bet the most of the time you are “playing safe”. I say go for it…shoot for the moon and see just how far you can get. You may be surprised.

Good Luck!

Tags: cold call, FedEx, Gatekeeper, getting past security, meeting with the CEO, motivation, sales appointment, sales reps motivation, sales tenacity, VP of Sales

Happy Friday sales world! I am getting ready to hop on a plane to Albany to visit an old friend but before I do I wanted to share a quick question I received this week. I also want to share my answer with everyone because I feel like it can benefit many here in the professional sales world. The question was: What are all the questions I can ask a customer to get all the necessary information I need to close a sale? This question is a little generic so I am going to answer fro a few perspectives.

I did not know what industry the reader is in and if the person is really a customer or a prospect? Jay Abraham, the marketing guru, talks about the difference between a customer and a client. A “customer” is someone who you do a transaction with; a “client” is someone who is in your care. That means you have an ethical obligation to understand what they want to accomplish and make sure you can help them make that wish a reality. Too many times I see a sales rep that is all about making the sales and getting the order. Unfortunately the prospect senses that the rep is out for them self and they start to resist. This is why you may feel some tension during the call because you are trying to “close” them. Nobody likes to be closed but they easily buy when the feel your solution will accomplish their goal. How do you change that… by focusing on the prospect and not the order. I don’t know enough about the reader’s situation to give him a list of questions. What I would suggest is that he asks questions that give a full understanding of what the prospect/client wants to accomplish. Then he can show his prospects how his offerings will help the them accomplish those wishes, hopes and dreams. If you have done that to their satisfaction then they will want to buy. There is no hard close just one simple question…what would you like to know Mr/Mrs prospect?  

That said, I do want to fully applaud the reader for asking a the question in the first place! This is the first big step at becoming a top performer - becoming educated.  It took a little while for me to figure that out (see the post about how I had to figure that out the hard way). Kudos to you. If you want some more education - sign up for my weekly newsletters. They are filled with good lessons (and tips, research and action items) that I had to learn the hard way so hopefully your wont have to.

Hope this helps!

Tags: Andy Miller sales, consultative sale, Jay Abraham, sales questions

Tired of not connecting with your Clients?

In my last post I told you about my seven components to effective communication and I let you in on what I know is the be-all and end-all when it comes to connecting with a client or prospect - your intentions. (Go check it out if you have not already.)

I have had a few of you ask me to elaborate some more on the other components.  I realize that you have heard some of these components before but maybe not in this context. The main focus of these components are to eliminate the many pointless road barriers of communication that can put many of your deals “on hold” leaving you with a lot of wasted time and unnecessary frustration. How many times have you been frustrated by a stale deal because you did not take the time to “get real” (in a professional and polite way obviously) and ask the questions that need to be asked. I see this happen in business all the time. We are too afraid that we will step on toes, cross the line, or to step out of our comfort zone that we avoid asking the questions that need to be asked. And many of the times you will not only get the answers you need, but you will end up creating better communication between you and your client! 

So here are what I see are the Top Seven Ways To Avoid BS When Dealing With Clients:

1. Intention is the first and most critical communication skill we will discuss.  Your intentions are more important than your techniques.  People can sense your intentions.  Good intentions, stated poorly, are always better received than bad intentions stated masterfully.  Prospects always intuitively sense your intentions, which are the foundation to building or breaking their trust of you.

2. Asking for what you want is the second communication skill we will discuss.  It is amazing how many salespeople don’t ask for what they want.  Yet there are two major studies showing that, if you ask for what you want, most of the time you will get it.

3. Reflective listening is the third communication skill we will cover.  Many people do this naturally.  It is the ability to really listen to what someone is saying and repeat back to them what they said.  Many salespeople, however, don’t practice reflective listening.  Instead, they have a monologue going on inside their head while the prospect is talking, so they miss valuable information that the prospect tells them.

4. The fourth communication skill we will explore is Congruency. Congruency is the ability to listen beyond spoken words.  It is the ability to observe the speaker’s tone of voice, word choices, and body language in order to hear what is being said and what is “not” being said.  In other words, is the speaker fully expressing what is going on or holding back vital information that is needed to really help solve the problem?  Being able to read non-verbal cues will tell you whether the speaker’s words are congruent with - or match - the speaker’s true thoughts and feelings.

5. The ability to listen without filtering is the fifth communication skill you should master.  It is important not to apply your own subjective “filter” to what someone else is saying.  If you don’t filter, you will be able to fully listen to what the prospect is saying without jumping to conclusions, passing judgment, or creating a “story” in your mind about what you think is going on.

6. Questioning style is the sixth communication skill we will look at.  It involves the ability to determine which questioning approach will work best to help us get to the truth, and then to use it to get a clear understanding of the prospect’s situation.  There are three different questioning styles that can be used, depending on the situation and what the prospect is saying.

7. How to have a difficult conversation is the last communication skill we will discuss.  How many times have we heard the prospect say something that we felt was incorrect or wrong, but we left it alone because we didn’t want to cause trouble?  Or how about when we accidentally misinformed a prospect about something that was critical, and we knew he or she would be angry when we called back to say we had made a mistake? 

And remember some of these may not always get you the answers that you want to hear but they will undoubtedly get you the truth! I encourage you to go try it for a week. Next time you sense that something your client/prospect is saying is not what you think is going on - ask them. Do you want that big fat deal that is a perfect fit for you and your business? - go ask for it! But always remember, you have to have good intention or else none of these will work.

Let me know what worked and what didn’t. And let others know - you can stumble, digg, email this post and much more by using the share this link below.

Thanks and all the best,

Tags: asking for what you want, congruency, effective communication, filtering, having a difficult conversation, intentions, questioning style, reflective listening