The next of the big five obstacles is “No Money”.

Unfortunately for many of us in sales the majority of prospects we meet do not have large amounts of cash reserves sitting in their bank accounts waiting for us to show up and relieve them of it regardless of the wonderful solutions we may have to offer.   They do however have funds they can access if the issue you uncover is big enough to warrant immediate action and worth diverting these to you.

This being the case we need to uncover the specific problem our solution can solve and then use what I term a Return on Investment Calculation (ROIC).  This will in essence turn the problem into an issue that requires immediate action.

A friend of mine showed how his solution could save a professional service business 273 billable hours at $120/hour.  This came to $32,760 – and his solution cost $12,000.  It was easy for the buyer to see how he could save money by reducing costs.

Evaluating the “return on investment” for a prospect (or customer) makes it easier for him or her to justify spending money on your product or service and helps the prospect visualize the value the purchase or investment will create.  This sales skill will help you position your offering apart from your competitors and ultimately make moving forward with you and our offer more compelling.

Your goal is to put the value your product or service creates in context for your prospect.  Sales professionals create this context by breaking down the costs associated with the product or service and illustrating how the purchase or investment provides a positive rate of return for the company.  When the prospect sees your analysis, they should conclude it’s a no-brainer. Above all, remember – the wiifm principle (what’s in it for them?) always applies.

Objective –

To provide quantitative information to demonstrate the hard value your prospect will receive by making an investment in our product or service.

Return on investment is defined as the amount of money they can expect to make or avoid losing as a result of making an investment…an investment is anything that is purchased for the purpose of generating income (or decreasing expenses) or an item that is expected to increase in value over time…while an ROI analysis can be very sophisticated and include such details as time value of money, tax rates and cash flows, a simple ROI analysis will generally work…just be sure to match your audience appropriately and never work at a level you feel they may not understand (it’s always best to be on the conservative side during your preparation)

Keep in Mind –

Your goal is to illustrate the investment you’re asking your prospect or customer to make in terms that help him or her see a positive return… be sure to…

• Keep our analysis brief and direct
• Clearly state your assumptions
• Include all costs (direct and indirect) the prospect will incur to make the investment

Things to Avoid –

Your prospect may disagree with your assumptions and approach…if so, you’ll have an additional opportunity to engage with your prospect and you’ll likely learn even more about how your prospect will make the buying decision… to ensure credibility of your analysis, you’ll want to avoid the following:

• Unrealistic assumptions on usage, response rates, etc
• Assumptions that the prospect cannot control
• Excessive time frames which exaggerate positive returns
• Over estimating the value of intangibles

Action Steps –

• Create a problems list – your solutions overcome
• Work out what costs potential buyers may be incurring as a result of not using your solutions

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group based in Hawkes Bay

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Professional associations, or knowledge networks, have been around longer than almost any other kind of group, from the medieval guilds to crafts associations to today’s professional groups and industry associations.  The primary purpose is for the exchange of information and ideas, whether intraindustry or interindustry.

Some of these groups limit membership to their own industry, but quite a few groups that represent industries other than your own will allow you to join as an associate member (as opposed to a full member). This can put you in contact with a concentrated target market, including many top-quality potential contacts.  Many of your best current clients, looking for their own competitive edge, may be members of industry associations.  Ask them which open-membership groups they belong to, and try to join a few of them. This can give you an opportunity to meet prospects of the same quality as your clients.

The other part of your knowledge network should be groups in your own industry. Yes, you’ll be rubbing elbows with competitors, but there are advantages.  You’ll stay abreast of developments in your industry, find out what your competitors are up to, study the competition’s brochures and presentations, and discover opportunities to collaborate with competitors whose specialties are different from yours or who need help on a big project.

Knowledge networks present great networking opportunities. So if you’re looking to build more relationships and increase your word of mouth, start investigating local professional associations today, and find out which ones you might be able to join.

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Today I would like to focus on uncovering the buyer’s needs through the use of structured questioning.

For many salespeople who deal mainly with enquiries coming in this seems rather straight forward i.e. the buyer states the need, asks for the solution, then the price.  The trap of course is we give them a price without further exploration of their needs and if we are not the cheapest then quite often we miss the sale.

The other scenario is we are referred to a prospect who already has a supplier of our product or service an may be happy with them.  The traditional sales process would look something like the following –

1,  Introductions/Pleasantries
2.  Find Common Interests
.  Clients we work with
.  Agencies we have
.  Our experience with similar business
3.  A few questions to uncover needs
4.  Present Solution
5.  Offer of Proposal

Look familiar?

Our goal is to uncover the buyers need -  No need = no sale, or a gap in what they are currently getting.

It is important to remember you are wanting the buyer to do one of the hardest things any of us face- to make a “change” – this could be from their current supplier or their way of doing things.

To achieve this you need to meet a number of objectives –

1. Establish trust – If the prospect doesn’t trust you they will not reveal their true needs to you.   No Trust = No Sale
2. Uncover the need you can provide a solution for -  No Need = No Sale
3. Establish the true size of need.  This establishes a return on investment in the buyers mind and creates urgency to act.   No ROI = No Urgency = No Sale
4. Elicit an invitation from the prospect to present your solution.

This is best done through asking good prepared questions.

Your questions create not only the reasons to change but also the urgency for your solution.

In structuring your questions you need to understand the different levels of buyer needs – this we will look at in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

Every sale has five basic obstacles:
no need, no money, no hurry,
no desire, no trust

Zig Ziglar

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Limited based in Hawkes Bay

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My fellow BNI director Brian Noble (Achievement Discoveries) came up with a great quote the other day. He said: “Don’t waste time developing the swan when you should be selling the duck”.

Brian was referring to the fact that many of us spend too much time fine-tuning and building-up a product or service offering, when we should be out selling the basics.

I think it’s an expression that can also be applied to how we sell to customers and our networks.

Too often we will stand up and try to push the swan, when we should just stand up and sell the duck.

Time is short; we’re competing with heaps of other messages and the internal dialogues of our ‘listeners’.

Keep your presentation – especially your referral request – precise, simple and specific.

Effective selling – whether face-to-face, your elevator speech or 60 second presentation – is not a public speaking competition. Your job is to be heard, understood and acted upon.

Sell the duck! It’s a foot in the door. Once you have a relationship, then you can go after the swan.

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To recap –

An agenda might look something like this:

• A brief statement about the purpose of the meeting and the likely outcome
• A value statement about our company and service/product (25 words or less – less is more!)
• Then onto asking them your prepared questions

This accomplishes several key objectives.  Firstly it conveys to your prospect the purpose of the visit and that you are prepared and will not waste their time.

Secondly it gains permission to ask the prospect questions to gain an understanding of their situation as it relates to your products/services/solutions

I am often asked how long the introductions and agenda setting process should take.  My recommendation is 2-3 minutes absolute max – remember its not about us its about them and their needs.

There is an old saying in sales –

“You can listen a buyer into a sale faster than you can talk them into one”

So we have set the agenda, delivered our value statement, asked permission to ask questions, this takes care of the opening, what are your questions?

Well these need to be very carefully planned as questions focus our thinking.  Therefore you should never ask a question that could cause the prospect to think about an issue that could adversely affect the sale moving forward.

For example, I will ask you a question shortly and whatever you do don’t think of the answer, remember read the question but don’t think of the answer!

When is your birthday?

If you are like most people you would have thought of your birthday.

One such question most salespeople ask or some variation of is:

“Who is your current provider?”

This focuses their thinking on the person doing the job and if they have a great relationship with them regardless of what sort of job they do you are defeated before you ever get going.

Many salespeople ask a few perfunctory questions which the prospect view as self-serving.  Then they dive into “show and tell”.   That is they begin showing the prospects samples, brochures, technical data or telling them about the solutions they offer or all about themselves, their company, who they have done work with – you get the idea!

Buyers sometimes refer to them as “Show up and Throw up Artists”.

So it’s a matter of developing a list of questions to help build trust and uncover a number of needs.  These in turn will then help you establish the opportunity gap which in turn will show the return on investment.

Next time we will look at the various types of buyer needs that are generic to every business.

Quote of the Week:

A mediocre salesman tells
A good salesman explains
A superior salesman demonstrates
Great salesmen inspire buyers to see the benefits as their own

Carolyn Shamis

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Ltd based in Hawkes Bay

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By setting an agenda at the start it helps the prospect to understand what will happen and what the outcomes of the meeting will be. It will also show them that you have structure, particularly important when dealing with analytical buyers.

Sales meeting agendas are either set by you or you let the prospect set them. The trouble with letting the prospect set them is their agenda is to deal with you as quickly as possible as their time is generally very limited.

Studies have shown that most senior managers have at least 56 hours of work in front of them.

The more direct type of prospects will come straight to the point and might ask questions such as:

What do you offer?
What can you do for me?
How much will it cost?

The trap for many of us is we mistake these questions for buying signals and launch right into our sales presentation. This is what I refer to as “premature presentation”. This has killed many sales before they ever got off the ground.

If we can define the steps in our sales process which consistently lead to sales we can follow these methodically and therefore achieve predictable results.

An agenda might look something like this:

• A brief statement about the purpose of the meeting and the likely outcome
• A value statement about our company and service/product (25 words or less – less is more!)
• Then onto asking them your prepared questions

This is an interview the purpose of which is to uncover a specific need you can help this prospect with. It is not a sales pitch. A sales pitch is basically a “show and tell” where the seller ends up doing most of the talking after asking some routine questions and establishing a few of what I term “surface needs”. The flaw in this type of presentation is it is very difficult to show a return on investment for the buyer.

Business owners need to see a clear return on investment as there is generally a large amount of risk in their mind when considering changing to another provider. Therefore we need to minimize the risk or eliminate it entirely to changing to our solution.

Imagine if I offered you a rock for $10,000, your initial reaction might be “how ridiculous”, however if I then provided a certified jewelers valuation identifying it as a 9 carat uncut diamond then the risk of the purchase would have been eliminated and the real value established – making it easier for you to make the buying decision.

So coming back to the opening – this is the most critical part of your sales process as this is where the sale is made and the stage is set for closing the sale.

We will continue with this subject in my next article.

Key Action –

Write a value statement in 25 words or less about what you do.

Quote of the Week -

“A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it” – Henry Ford

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Limited based in Hawkes Bay

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This is the first part, having a process; however the most important step is training the salespeople in this process.

Many companies when looking at their sales teams subscribe to the old syndrome “if it aint broke don’t fix it!”.   The sales team are meeting targets, they are maintaining market share – why should we spend money on training?

Well that is a fair question when times are buoyant and customers are spending.  The challenge for many salespeople however is they have fallen into the trap of becoming order takers so when things become a bit tighter and the pressure comes on to develop new business there is no process in place for them to follow such as prospecting systems, contacting systems, presentation and follow up systems.

A friend of mind who is what I would consider the consummate sales professional was telling me about a sales manager he once worked for who stated if all he needed from his salespeople was someone to go around the customers and “pick up orders” he would employ Labrador dogs as they were far cheaper and a whole lot cuter!!

Let’s look at contacting systems for a start.   The majority of salespeople suffer from call reluctance because they don’t have a process for getting the appointment.

There are 5 basic objections you will encounter when phoning for a first appointment –

• Too busy
• Already have someone
• Send me some information
• Tell me about it now
• What do you want to see me for

Not knowing what to answer to any of the above prevents salespeople from making the calls and of course they are far too busy calling on existing clients they know and like to follow up new leads anyway.

So the first step in your contacting system is to develop a customized phone script with the answers to the above already worked out.

Next you need to develop a system for gathering the key information about the person/company you are calling.  This might include contact details, position, company history, key markets etc.

Next you will need to have a contact management system for managing your appointments.   This can be a simple as 3 x 5 cards in a prospect box or as complex as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This will depend on the size of your business and your database.

Then of course you will have a diary system either hard copy or more common now some sort of PDA.

Quote of the Week –

When I prepare for a sales presentation, I try to think like my client and like my competitor.  I try to pinpoint every objection that either of them could make to my presentation.   I write these objections down, and then I figure out a way to respond to each one in three lines or less.  I’ve given these “scripts” to sales reps, who then used them in their presentations.  It’s staggering how even the most boring sales rep can become a great salesperson simply by learning to convey a few simple points.  If you can move a customer so that he or she can’t argue against your point, then you’ve won.

Mark Jarvis

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Limited

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In my experience very few companies I have seen have taken the time to identify the most effective process for selling their products or services which brings me to a sales principle which states:

“For every product category and market segment there is a best practice sales process which ensures optimum sales”

The key is to identify what creates sales and what doesn’t and develop the process into a standard operating procedure.  This will only come about through measurement.

Unfortunately without a process salespeople are left to their own resources and do the best they can.  These same salespeople are given sales targets to meet and budgets to achieve without the sales formula/process to follow and spend most of their time “flying by the seat of their pants”.

So if we agree we need to have a formulated approach to our sales the process could look something like this –

-Introductions and pleasantries
-Agenda set
-Discover needs through prepared questions
-Discussing solutions
-Ask for commitment

Let’s look at introductions and pleasantries.  This is the most critical phase of the whole sales process as the decision to buy from you will be made in the first few minutes of meeting you. The fact that we make decisions about people so quickly is just part of human nature.

Research done with 267 Human Resource Managers from the Fortune 500 companies in America showed that on average they decided that a candidate would get the position being applied for within 40 seconds of meeting them.  They then went on to conduct exhaustive tests and interviews to prove they had made the right choice. 

Think of your own attitudes – have you ever had the experience where you have met someone for the first time and taken an instant dislike to them?   The fact is we don’t buy from people we don’t like!

The keys to this phase are to be on time or 5 minutes early, be professionally presented, have professional tools e.g. high quality compendium, a good quality pen, professional looking business cards, rate cards etc.   There is nothing worse than asking someone for their business card and they pull a dog-eared looking card out of their wallet and hand it over!   Your dress and stationary need to be appropriate to the type of clients you are presenting to.     I was meeting with a senior executive recently and suggesting the company invest in some very good quality leather compendiums for their sales team.   He very graciously pointed out that the majority of their clients were intent on preserving nature – we agreed a recyclable/hessian type compendium would be the order of the day!

You look good, you are on time – now what do you say?

The old school sales trainers would suggest you identify something the buyer may be interested in through observation e.g. they may have a marlin mounted on their office wall – most salespeople would begin by commenting on the fish.  I believe there is a factory in China producing these fish to sell to buyers as an accessory to catch newby salespeople who are trying to build rapport!

My recommendation if you are serious about helping the prospect is to thank them for their time, mention your referral source and then get down to business.

Most prospects are short of time and have answered the same fish questions hundreds of times before– respect their time.

We will look at how to set the agenda of your sales meeting in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

Most people think “selling” is the same as “talking”.   But the most effective salespeople
know that listening is the most important part of their job.

                                                                                       Roy Bartell

Brett Burgess is a Programme Developer and Sales Trainer for Sales Impact Group Limited based in Hawkes Bay

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Why Do Customers Change Their Minds?
You’ve seen it happen before. You speak to a customer. You send them information. You make the best presentation ever. And they happily shake your hand and then there’s complete silence. They don’t write back. You can’t seem to get them on the phone. Even your emails go unanswered.

Most of the time this scenario unfolds because you’ve not given the customer complete information.

So what is complete information?

Complete information is when you ‘take all the bags’ off the customer’s conveyor belt. Well at least that’s the description given by Sean D’Souza in his newly released book called ‘The Brain Audit.’ The Brain Audit talks about how there are seven clear questions that the customer has in their brain. These questions need to be answered, or they postpone taking a decision. It’s not that the customers don’t want to buy your product. Instead it’s more like an airport scenario, where if even one bag (out of seven) is missing, then the customer doesn’t leave the airport.
In sales and marketing that analogy of ‘not leaving the airport’ translates into a customer not buying your product or service.

And these questions are tackled in very interesting detail in The Brain Audit, which is now exclusively available in New Zealand (yes, the rest of the world can wait). You can have a look and judge for yourself at www.sevenredbags.com

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May I suggest that the people you hang out with will determine your success?

If you hang out with people who have no money, the likelihood is that you also will have no money. How often do people who make it – through luck, brilliance or sheer determination – end up moving in different social circles?

The movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ is a beautiful example of the ‘who you know’. Played by Will Smith, the movie tells the true story of Chris Gardner, a struggling salesman and father totally dedicated to his son, who takes the chance to fight for a stockbroker internship position at Dean Witter. He experiences homelessness with his son, trouble with the IRS and other challenges.

At one stage he manages to get himself into the corporate box of a very wealthy man to watch a football game, although his objective is to secure the pension fund (which the man oversees) as a client. The man tells him to forget it and enjoy the game.

What happened in that box though, was the ticket, because the other people he met in that corporate box liked him and ultimately become his clients and secure the business he needs to win the internship. They were wealthy and successful people and they helped make him wealthy too because they had the money, the attitude, the influence and the contacts to do so.

But it’s not easy – far from it. You need to be able to hold your own with people at that level, be personable and draw on every social skill in the book – not to mention demonstraing creativity, tenacity, grit, ambition…

So while the secret to success isn’t so secret, it’s not so easy either.

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