Sales Executives playing tug-of-war

Selling is a funny profession.  We are taught to be enthusiastic, to ask questions, and to always be closing.  Yet that is the behavior of a “stereotypical” salesperson and for certain personality types is the worst thing you could do.  You know, the fast-talking, polyester-wearing, used-car-selling, snake-oil-hawking, I-only-care-about-my-commission type.  This kind of behavior only forces the prospect into a defensive posture, causing the “tug-of-war” game to begin!

If you don’t have a consultative sales process and don’t adjust to different buying styles (i.e., personality types), then you have a 19-58% chance of blowing your opportunity in the first few minutes.

To be successful, it is critical that you have a consultative sales process.  Some call this collaborative selling or diagnostic selling but the point is a good sales process is beneficial for both the prospect and the salesperson.  I have always found it odd that many sales organizations have no sales process or don’t follow the one they have defined. That is like a football team without a playbook!

Do you know the steps of your sales process?

I remember doing an analysis of a sales organization that had thirty sales reps.  They had been through a two-year certification process with a well-known sales training company. When I asked them if they had been certified, they all said “Yes.”  So I said, “Ok, let’s do a pop quiz.  Pull out a sheet of paper and write down the nine steps of that sales process.”  Not one person in the room could name even three steps of the process, even after I let them work in pairs!

That was a painful pop quiz because it showed they did not know the basics.  It was like giving a ball to a child who’s been to baseball camp and saying, “Throw me the ball,” and he says, “Do what?”

Professional salespeople know their sales process and can do it in their sleep. That allows them to focus on the prospect and not worry about what to do or say next.

Can you write down the steps of your sales process? Before you go ahead and say “yes” why don’t you take a a piece of paper and try it first. You may be surprised.

Cant name the steps of your sales process? If you need help on defining or developing a consultative sales process or if you just want to know more please contact me.  Consultative selling is one of my specialities and passions. I also give out weekly tips, lessons and recommendations in my newsletters that you can sign up for in the right hand column of this page. Also, please feel free to share this post or any others that you find helpful, with friends by selecting on the share this! button below or if you want to leave a comment you may do so by scrolling to the top of this post and selecting the comments link next to the title of the post.

Until next time!

Best,

Every day for 16 years I talk with salespeople. They are always asking “how do I become more effective at selling?” Now there are many perspectives, techniques, approaches and philosophies so I won’t go into that now. These are important but one of the fundamental question is how well do you know your stuff? One question I like to ask a group is what sports did they play in high school? I hear the usual ones like football, basketball and a few others. So I pick football as an example. What is amazing to me is that after 10, 20 or 30 years people can still name their favorite play and describe what was supposed to happen. Now if you were in band or a cheerleader or played a different sport this still applies. Can you name your favorite cheer, do you remember the song and can you still do the moves? Now that we have had a couple of laughs lets apply this to mastering sales.

Let me give you a quick little exercise so you can determine your level of mastery.  Pull out a piece of paper and in 15 seconds write down the steps of your sales process. Now look at what you wrote down and ask “would my boss and peers agree that those are the steps?” Here is my point…we can remember something we played for fun many years ago and we still have a modest level of mastery. Yet when it comes to our profession we haven’t mastered the steps of the sales process. We could apply this to objection handling, closing, product knowledge or number of other applications but the point is – have you mastered what is needed to be a professional salesperson?