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?

Do You Know The Most Important Components of Communication?

Today I was spending some time putting together some good information for my weekly newsletters when I realized that there was one piece of information that I felt really compelled to share everyone. 

I have found what I consider to be the seven key components of communication: 

1. Intention

2. Asking for what you want

3. Reflective Listening

4. Congruency

5. No Filtering

6. Questioning Style

7. Having a difficult conversation

While each of these are a vital piece of the communication puzzle that successful people use in order to connect with and understand others, there is one that I deem as the most critical communication skill of all – intention. Why? Because people can sense your intention. Good intentions stated poorly, are always better recieved than bad intentions stated masterfully. Prospects always ituitively sense your intentions, which are the foundation to building or breaking their trust of you.

Everyone wants to focus on saying the right words or learning some fancy techniques.  However, your intentions are far more important than any technique you could learn!  Prospects can sense your intentions and they will respond in kind.

I have seen salespeople who were very awkward and clumsy from a skill’s perspective, but they closed a lot of business.  Why? Because prospects trusted them.  Prospects knew they were going to be taken care of and that the salesperson would deliver.

In contrast, I have seen sales reps that were very polished and had mastered the sales skills and processes that I have taught for so many years.  But they never closed nearly the volume of business they should have, because they were talking “at” the prospect instead of “with” the prospect.  Whether or not the prospects could express their discomfort to the sales rep, they were able to recognize that something didn’t feel quite right, so they would go off in search of another provider who was more trustworthy.

If you want more details on the other components of communication that I mentioned above you can either sign up for my weekly newsletters (in the right hand column), submit it as your question of the week, or simply leave a comment on this post.

What do you think is the most important component of communication?

All the best,

The Key To Reaching Decision Makers

How badly do you want to reach your prospects? When salespeople tell me they can’t reach someone I ask, “How badly do they want to reach them?” If their loved ones were being held hostage and all it took to earn their freedom was to reach that person within one business day, do you think they would find a way? Of course they would. I could tell you story after story of salespeople who were not hungry enough reach their prospect and many stories of those who were. I can think of one man in particular who tried to get into an account for months but got nowhere. The account was reassigned to another rep and he had a meeting scheduled by the end of the first day. What was the difference? Desire! The new rep used email and phone calls to the main number, direct number, dialing the direct number +/- on the last digit and asking if the person he needed to get a hold of had an assistant. Pretty simple but work and determination paid off.

I once had a client who wanted to reach the CEOs of the Fortune 50. They tried everything but without success. I said give me 10 names and let me try for a day. I had 4 appointments scheduled by the end of the day. What was my secret? I found their letter to the shareholders on their website and identified an issue that was important to them that I knew my client could solve. Then I picked up the phone asked for their assistant and said, “Your CEO said this was an important issue in the letter to the Shareholders…is it really or was that just marketing fluff” (in a light hearted way). When they said it was important (always) then I asked if it was important enough to schedule a five minute phone appointment and did. It was very simple but the difference was that my self-talk was “I can reach anyone” and I was hungry to make it happen.   

Want to get my weekly Newsletters filled with the latest sales research, techniques, and resources that personally made a difference to me? Just quickly fill in the quick form on the right hand column with your first name and email address.  I promise to only send you helpful sales-related newsletters and I look forward to offering you some more powerful information to help you see the results you need. I would also love to know exactly what topics, deals, tips and tactics you specifically need help on. All you need to do is drop me an email or leave a comment on this post. Thanks for your time.

Best,

A lot of people ask me how I got started in sales. Outside of the lemonade stand my friends and I would do as kids trying to earn a buck, my first real sales job was for a little software company. 

The President of the company, a natural born sales person, said give it a try for 12 months and if you don’t like it we will move you into a technical position. That was all I needed to hear and so I started a new career as a salesperson. There were 5 salespeople and not one of us had any sales experience, training or skills. So I did what I thought was the right thing to do. I called data center managers on the phone and asked if they would like a free demo. Most people said yes, and without any qualification, I would overnight a demo tape.

Now I had to chase all of these unqualified data center managers to see if they had looked at the demo. Most had not and so I would arrange a call back and the game would continue. After 12 months the president called me into his office and said he was letting me go. From his perspective, I had not made enough sales. As I started defending myself and reviewing the amount of sales I had made, it was clear something was off. After some discussion we discovered my sales manager, Robert, had taken a couple of my large deals and credited himself with the sale. I couldn’t believe it; my sales manager had stolen my deals! Unfortunately, the President had made up his mind and said he was going to let me go anyway. I was one angry sales rep! 

I don’t know about you but I hate to lose! I knew I could do this job and I needed to prove it. So I decided make the president a gutsy offer and said, “I will make you a deal. I have total conviction that I can do this. Give me 30 days of working for free, no salary, no commission. Let’s agree on the number I need to hit. If I don’t hit my number you owe me nothing and you get to keep whatever I brought in during those 30 days. However, if I do hit my number you pay me for those 30 days plus my commission and… you make me the sales manager.”

So for the next 30 days I ate, drank and slept sales. From the time the first data center manager walked in the door on the East Coast until the last one went home in Hawaii I was pounding the phones seven days a week. Then in the late evening I was absorbing everything about sales that I could find. I read books, listened to tapes and found a retired sales guy who was willing to coach me. I was out to do whatever it took to hit my numbers…failure was not an option!

I hit my numbers and I became the new sales manager of the company. I decided, however, that I was not going to fire previous sales manager, Robert who had stolen my deals. Some perverse side of me wanted to keep him around so every day when he came into the office he would be reminded of my victory. I thought he would resign but he never did.

I learned some valuable lessons from that experience and it started me on the journey of what it takes to be the best. I learned that in order to be in the top 1%, I had to learn everything I could about selling. I have studied every topic related to selling know to man. I had to study everything, live outside my comfort zone, take chances and learn from my mistakes.

For all of you who are on the journey to become the best in professional selling, I honor you for your courage and commitment. This is a great profession, and I truly mean that. Open your eyes and look around. In the hospital, the airport, the grocery store, your office and even in your car – everything you see was sold by a salesperson. Nothing happens without sales and without sales businesses fail and economies falter. The lifestyle, the income and the impact you have on the world is profound!

If you read this far I am hoping that you really enjoyed this post.  I encourage you to share it with your friends, family and colleagues but selecting the Share This button below and choosing your favorite way to share. You can digg it, facebook post it, even directly email it or any other option that you perfer. I also invite you leave a comment by selecting the comments link under the title of this post. Thanks and happy selling this week.

- Andy

Jay Abraham the marketing guru has said that if you really believe in your products and service that you have an obligation to tell the world. Now I may not be saying it exactly the way he says it but the point is if you can really have an impact why wouldn’t you tell the world? Bert Decker wrote a book called You’ve Got to be Believed to be Heard. My friend Chet Holmes says that the sales rep that has more passion then the prospect gets in the door. To me it all boils down to your level of conviction. How much do you know about the prospect, their world, their challenges and their industry? Have you practiced on how to get past the gate keeper, handling objections and how to leave a voicemail message that gets a return call? Are you willing to be relentless in your efforts to reach the prospect? You see sales reps with conviction never, never give up.

A while back I had a prospect that I was determined to reach. After a little intelligence gathering and getting to know his assistant I had his two cell phone numbers, direct office number, home number and his schedule for the next three days. I planned a series of voice mail messages that I believed would get his attention and a return phone call. I planned what time I would place each call and what phone numbers I would contact. On the first day I did everything according to plan but no return phone call. On the second day at 5pm I got a return phone call. My prospect asked if anyone had accused me of being a Pitbull? I told him no but I would take that as a compliment. He said that was the way he intended it and wished his people were as determined as I was. He admitted he returned my call because I communicated my conviction in providing value and determination to reach him. Let’s be real, you aren’t going to do this with 400 prospects a week but there are a handful that could make your quota for the year if you landed the account. What are you willing to do and how badly do you want that prospect?