Listen, Listen, Listen. Listen Some More Then Speak

You’ve tried for weeks to get a meeting and you finally got it. You have absolute confidence that the prospect needs exactly what you are selling. You’ve done the research, planned the meeting, prepared the pitch and are ready to go. Now, what’s the most important thing you can do during the meeting? Shut up and listen!

The 80/20 rule that applies to so many things also applies to sales in a very important way: you should spend 80% of a sales call listening and 20% speaking. That’s really, really hard. Believe me, I’m guilty of violating the rule all of the time.

Blog continued below

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

Check out this latest review: "How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride. Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of Click, Send and Sell but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what it’s worth, I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam."

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

Consider words spoken by a prospect to be golden nuggets of information that you can cash-in later. I recall being on a sales call with a Sales Engineer who was frequently on his Blackberry. After the meeting I asked him to keep it in the car for the next call so that he could give the customer 100% of his attention. Wouldn’t you know it – out comes the Blackberry on the very next call. My “coaching” the next time was not so constructive. I suggested a couple of places that I would be happy to put his Blackberry the next time.

And, never, ever interrupt the prospect. I’m guilty of this and it is an almost unforgivable gaffe. There are points within a conversation when you can very naturally inject an important point, ask a question, validate an opinion, or offer an answer. If you don’t have enough self awareness to understand where those points are, then just be quiet. There will be plenty of time to sell.

Selling is a series of conversations. These conversations are not necessarily balanced – they should favor the prospect/customer. How you listen, interact and engage in meaningful dialogue with the prospect can set you apart from the pack in a good way - or not. Sometimes when the prospect is speaking and I’m dying to say something, I’ll make a note in my notebook, “STHU”. I won’t say what that means here, but most of you get it. Whatever the method, give yourself a reminder to shut up and listen! Those nuggets that the prospect is giving you will turn to cash soon enough.

Just show the patience and maturity to STHU.

You Are What You Eat - And Think!

If you eat junk food for every meal and live a sedentary lifestyle, it won’t take long for you to become unhealthy. In the same way, if you feed your brain junk food (TV, Internet, etc.) and it lives a sedentary lifestyle (no reading, thinking negative thoughts, etc.) your mental state will also become unhealthy. You need to be vigilant about the kind of information that you consume, what you think about, and the company that you keep in order to be successful. This is not a new thought.

Over 50 years ago, Earl Nightingale produced the first spoken-word record, “The Strangest Secret”. Click HERE to listen to the recording. In a nutshell, Nightingale explains that you become what you think about. And, it’s up to you to decide what you think about – nobody can control that – only you. And, what you think about is a function of what you read, see, listen-to, etc. If you are not a careful consumer, what you allow your mind to take in can have a negative impact on your sales results.

Blog continued below.

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

Check out this latest review: "How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride. Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of Click, Send and Sell but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what it’s worth, I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam."

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

As a seller it is important to keep a positive mental outlook. After all, I once heard that sales is 90% disappointment and 10% ecstasy. Those are pretty depressing odds! So keeping a positive mental attitude with clear goals in mind is critical to your success. Likewise, keeping negative thoughts at bay can be a challenge but it is a necessary part of your overall mental health - and ultimately your success as a sales person.

So how do you take proactive measures to keep negative thoughts at bay? It can take some work and you need to be vigilant. Start by repelling those subtle negative thoughts that creep in to your every day conversations. Call someone on a Monday and ask how they’re doing. They will probably say something like “Not bad for a Monday.” Is that a positive statement or a negative one? How do you react to that? Or what about those responses to “How’s it going today?” You may hear something like “Just getting by”, or “Hanging in there.” Again, subtle, but negative responses. Are those your responses? Can you replace them with something more positive? Worse yet, are those the kind of responses that you give a customer or prospect?

Years ago I was a new sales VP at a software company. I started hanging out with a really great group of guys at the office. I was lucky enough to join their lunch group. But over time, they started getting to me. They were constantly complaining about the company and its leadership, the products, services, etc. It was a very negative experience. I quit going to lunch with them. I just couldn’t handle the negativity. What kind of people are you hanging out with? What kind of conversations are you having with them? Misery really does love company! What kind of company are you keeping?

Here’s one very simple way to make sure that you are constantly reminded about your own positive thoughts. Change your passwords! That’s right, make them something positive. If you are like most sales reps, you have multiple systems that you access every day – CRM, email, ERP, online banking, etc. What do those passwords say about you? Are they all about sports, family names or pet names? Change them to something meaningful with a positive influence. Then you will be reminded several times a day what you are working towards. Here are a few ideas:

Play2Win

SellMore1

PrezClub1

TopSeller

1SelllerMe

2TheTop

TopTeam1

The combinations are nearly endless.

Changing your passwords may represent a very subtle shift in thinking, but something that you can start your day with, reminding you to maintain a positive outlook. And, it can be a small step towards managing your personal outlook to a more positive tone, and that is a good thing for any seller. Become more vigilant about the kind of conversations you are having. Notice the negativity and begin rooting it out of your work life. Replace it (or them) with something more positive.

Selling is a hard business. Why make it harder with negative thoughts? Take a few minutes and listen to the timeless recording by Earl Nightingale and start working today towards keeping your thoughts positive and focused toward your goals.

After all, you really do become what you think about.

Too Busy Working to do Your Job?

The typical sales role requires a significant amount of work beyond meeting with our prospects and customers. Email alone can gobble up 80% of our time if we let it. Reports, forecasts, proposals, expense reports, and other mundane tasks can take away from what we do best – selling. But don’t let work get in the way of your job. Never forget, your job is to close business.

I have worked with reps who have pristine pipeline reports but not much meat to them. These reps are too busy doing their job to sell. Yes, your CRM is very important so you should keep it updated in real time. But don’t let that be a crutch for what you should really be doing.

Blog continued below

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

Check out this latest review: "How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride. Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of Click, Send and Sell but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what it’s worth, I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam."

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

Sales is series of conversations that typically start with some sort of outreach from you, the sales rep. I recently inherited a book of business from a departed sales rep. I’m working the territory while I find her replacement. A few weeks ago I was staring at spreadsheet with a list of accounts that I had not spoken to yet. These companies were doing some amount of business with us, but not significant. It was my job to research the company, find the key contact, call them and make an introduction. There were dozens of things that I could be doing instead. But I carved out some time over a couple of days and made a bunch of calls. It was incredibly rewarding and invigorating.

There is no doubt in my mind that most sales reps could spend their day answering the phone, managing email, updating the CRM, and other tasks that keep them from doing their job. Some reps are so detail oriented that they are holding themselves back from doing what they were hired to do – sell!

If you find that your numbers are suffering, take a hard look at your pipeline. How full is it? What kind of work are you doing to fill it? Do you find yourself doing busy work instead of cold-calling? Are you sitting in front of email all day and not reaching out to those leads or new prospects? If so, shut down your email and any other application that distracts you, take a deep breath and start selling again!

Sales does have its fair share of busy work. Carve some time out for what is really important – selling – and see your job satisfaction and numbers improve.

Sales Rep - Know Thyself

What is your greatest flaw as a rep?

Everyone, even the best and brightest sales reps, have flaws. Your willingness to have a difficult conversation with yourself about your shortcomings could be the most important discussion you have this year. What is it about your style that keeps you from being as successful as you really want to be? Are you willing to ask for feedback after sales calls? Do you take stock of deals that you lost to determine how you could have won them? If not, then you should.

I’ve discovered my key sales weakness over time, and I continually work on it. Unfortunately, it bit me again this year. My challenge is that I am very good at understanding the prospect’s problem and educating them on how to solve the problem using our tools. But that’s not enough. I'm in sales, not education. So, just today, I made sure that after I educated the prospect on how we could help solve their problem, I asked the questions about when they wanted to get started, whether or not they had budget, and who would ultimately make the go/no-go decision.

Blog continued below

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

Check out this latest review: "How often do you get to sit next the author of a book on a plane ride. Well I did. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sam Lorimer. Not sure how we got on the subject of "Click, Send and Sell" but we did. And am I glad we did. Out of curiosity I bought Sam's book the next morning and tried out his email strategy. Within 5 minutes of sending the emails I received responses from 2 customers that I have been trying desperately hard to reach. I could not believe it. I was so taken aback I sent Sam and email and shared the story. In all my years of reading business stuff, these are 22 pages of frankly the most powerful sales help I have ever received. For what its worth. I sell airplanes to really, really wealthy folks. These people are typically very hard to reach. I'm not sure if its coincidence, but, I don't believe in luck. Thanks for sharing such a simple piece of insight Sam."

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

___________________________________________________________________

Where are your sales weaknesses? What part of the sales process is holding you back? Years ago, as a new sales rep, I introduced myself to a new colleague. I asked him how things were going – how were sales? He replied that he was having a difficult time closing deals. He was having success through the entire sales process, but he was unable to get the prospect to buy. His problem was that he too was educating and not closing. In one specific instance, the prospect called to ask for hardware specifications in order to install our software. He obliged and gave them all of the information that they needed, and hung up. At that point, most astute sellers would have said something like, “It sounds like you’re ready to move forward with our solution. Should I send over the agreements?” or something like that. Instead, he just gave them the specs and hung up.

Sadly, I “lapped” the rep and he was terminated. My hope is that he had enough self-awareness to get the coaching he needed to improve his selling skills. But the questions remains. What are your shortcomings? What happened to the last deal that you lost or didn’t close? Do you rely too much on PowerPoint? Are you unwilling to ask the hard questions? Do you come across as insincere? Do you talk too much? Are you closing too hard too fast?

My suggestion would be to have a colleague or your boss observe you in action. Immediately following the sales call, get feedback. Honest, candid feedback. Shed the ego and listen. Don’t be defensive. Allow the feedback to sink-in. Then do something about it.

Talk too much? Keep quiet. Too much reliance on PowerPoint? Go to your next meeting empty handed. Selling too hard? Change the agenda of the meeting from a “closing” meeting to a “discovery” meeting. Use crutch-words too much (strategic, value add, blah, blah, blah)? Read my blog on being authentic (CLICK HERE)

Whatever may be holding you back, there is a fix. Be honest with yourself. Be coachable. You can improve.

When the Real Selling Starts!

I once heard a saying that went something like this, “When the customer says ‘No’, that’s when the real selling starts.” Later, I heard a business owner tell me, “If the product hasn’t shipped, been invoiced and paid for, we still have a chance to win the business.” I didn’t get it at the time, but over the years it has become very apparent to me that the deal isn’t done until the deal is done. There have been multiple situations where I or one of my reps has been told that the prospect is going with a competitor and we were still able to win the business.

Don’t get me wrong. These are not ideal situations. You want to be told that you have won the business – you have demonstrated that you are providing the best solution at the right price. But there are those times, and there are plenty, that you don’t win – at least not initially. How do you handle those situations? How do you grasp victory from the jaws of defeat? Often it takes a team approach with buy-in all the way to the top of the organization.

Blog continued below

If you like my blog, you’ll love my book, Click Send and Sell! Three Unconventional Emails with Extraordinary Sales Results.

If you have ever had a prospect “go dark” this book is for you. It has proven email techniques to “wake up” your prospect. While unconventional, these emails are authentic and professional, and almost always work. And , for only $3.99 you can put them to work for you today.

Also included are email techniques for following up on leads (these emails typically gets a 20% response rate!) and for planning your next prospect meeting. Proven through years of use and honed for you, these emails will help you stand apart from the crowd.

The book is available at just about every electronic outlet, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Kobo. It’s also available for your iPad at the iTunes store.

No eReader? No problem! Click HERE to download and print the book in any format you want.

What are you waiting for? Those deals won’t wake up on their own!

After being told “No”, you need to fully understand why you didn’t win the business. Is it price? Is it a particular function that your product doesn’t perform? Is it your coverage area? Whatever the reason, you need to rally the troops to overcome the objection (after all, that’s what it really is) and win the business. Often times, there is nothing more than a misunderstanding about your capabilities that, when corrected, shows you and your company in a totally different light. It happens. We miss moments and opportunities to fully explain ourselves, our company and our product. The customer makes a decision based on bad information. Correct the information, demonstrate the capability, and get the business back.

There are times when this is easier than others. If you are responding to an RFP and have zero relationship with the organization it will be tough to win the business. If you are the incumbent provider and lose the business, you can and should leverage relationships all over the organization, especially above the people you are dealing with, to get the decision reconsidered. If it is a new account, and you have built relationships with the decision makers, get back in front of them right away, understand why they made the decision that they did, leverage other relationships and get yourself another chance.

When pricing is the issue – as it often is in these uncertain times – make sure that you have done a few things right. First, can you sharpen the pencil and get better pricing approved? Maybe in exchange for better pricing they would be willing to give you the business and make introductions for you elsewhere in the organization, purchase more, or sign a longer term agreement. If you need to get special pricing approved, get that ball rolling right away. But first make sure that if it is just a matter of pricing, that you have justified the business at that lower price and made the customer fully aware of the value that you bring other than just price. Get the pricing approved and get it to the prospect right away.

And, whenever possible, get back in front of them. Don’t do this work exclusively over the phone and email. Jump on a plane or get in the car and get in front of them right away. That lets them know that you are serious about winning the business and that you are willing to go to battle. Companies want to see that kind of enthusiasm from you.

Ultimately it will become a team approach to winning the business. It is rare that deals like this are resurrected solely by the sales rep. It is your leadership ability that will help determine the ultimate outcome. That means taking ownership of the opportunity and making sure that all of the people helping you are taking direction from you. Yes, even those people several notches above you in the org chart. I’ve often said that sales is a leadership role – this is the kind of situation that I am referring to. So lead, don’t panic. Lead, don’t be a drama queen. Lead, don’t whine. Lead correctly and the deal is yours.

The next time you get told “No”, recognize that as an opportunity to get started on some real selling! Bring in some help and win the deal. There is still time!