Tips: Finding the Best Sales Tools

As a professional sales person, we are always looking for ways to get better at our profession. There are numerous tools available for sales people out there. From Smartphones, Software, Hardware, Aps and whatever else, there are a plethora of tools available.

What most people fail to do, is to look within themselves for the tools that we inherently have, and fine tune them. Here is a quick list that I like. I found this blog looking for salesmanship tips, so here you are!

1. Patience

If you’re patient, you let customers decide at their own speed.  You realize that nobody ever got a plant to grow faster by pulling at the leaves of a seedling. If you lack patience, you’ll be frustrated whenever things take longer than you’d like. Customers will sense your frustration and hesitate to buy.

2. Commitment

If you’re truly committed to both your customer’s success and your own success, you’ll do whatever it takes (within legal and ethical bounds) to get the job done. You’ll banish all thoughts of ever giving up. If you lack commitment, you’ll consistently fail to follow through–and will often drop the ball at the worst possible moment.

3. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is contagious: If you’re enthusiastic about yourself, your firm and your product, your customers will “pick up” your enthusiasm and believe in your ability to improve their lives.  If you lack enthusiasm, however, you’ll always find yourself surrounded by naysayers and endless “objections.”

4. Curiosity

Curiosity is essential to growth–and if you’re growing as an individual and a professional, you’ll spend time each day learning something new to better serve your customers. You’ll read books, listen to audio training, take courses, and network with peers. If you’re not growing, your ideas will become stale; your career will languish and your ability to compete will slowly drain away.

5. Courage

If you’ve got courage, you take the necessary risks to expand yourself and your business into new areas–even when you’re facing enormous odds. You’ll see setbacks as learning opportunities rather than failures.  But if you lack courage, you’ll freeze up when things get weird, turning small failures into big ones.

6. Integrity

If you’ve got integrity, there’s no disconnect between your stated purpose and your real motivations. Because there’s no hidden agenda, customers sense the honesty and feel comfortable working with you. If you lack integrity, however, customers will have a nagging feeling that something is “not quite right”–and tend to balk rather than buy.

7. Flexibility

Life is all about change; nothing stays the same. If you’ve got flexibility, you can observe what’s working and what’s not and change your approach to match changing circumstances. If you lack flexibility, you’ll pursue brittle strategies and tactics long after they’ve ceased to work.

I will give credit where credit is due … this blog was written by;  http://albesurenigeriablog.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/the-sales-man-tools/

Note that: Reading free blogs is yet another tool for us to be successful.

If you are looking for ways to be more professional in your sales efforts, look beyond the tangible software and hardware programs out there. Take a look at coaching, and then take a look at Pinnacle Sales, LLC.

Pinnacle Sales uses a coaching technique that actually focuses on using the skills and tools that everyone has, such as these above and the ones written about in PROFITS, Your Seven Letters to Success.

If you are looking for an edge, then call us at:

Pinnacle Sales, LLC

+1 (734) 516-0221

mkole@pinnaclesales-llc.com

 

Tip: Getting Your Message Thru!

In my book, PROFITS, Your Seven Letters to Success, I write about the KISS method. Yes, it’s the simple age-old adage that we need to keep it simple stupid. This is becoming even more necessary today, as we continue to be barraged by messages from everywhere.

Recently I saw a hearse that had advertising signs on both sides of the van. Yes, this is the vehicle that is supposed to be subdued and respectful moving the recently passed to a better place. You would think that the florist and cemetery that bought the real estate on either side of this vehicle would have a little more class. Although I could write about the ethics and/or morality of the advertising for quite a while, what today’s blog is about, is getting your message out and getting it heard thru all the noise.

There are messages everywhere we go, everywhere we look, and on every device we try to use. Turn on any channel now-a-days and there is a ticker running on the bottom of the screen that has other information on it. Try watching a news station, and really try to pay 100% attention to the anchor as they discuss their story. It’s nearly impossible with all the flashing “Alerts” or “Breaking News” and “this just in” messages on my flat screen. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to rewind what I was watching (thank God for DVR) and listen to it again. Not because I didn’t understand it, but because I was distracted by the other messages.

Now, think about our poor customers. Yeah, not often do I feel sorry for a buyer, but in this case I really do. They are pushed by us, their suppliers, our competition, internal resources, outside consultants, and a myriad of other avenues about what they should be doing. They are getting hundreds of communications a day, from email, texts, voice mails, and internal memo’s. As a professional sales person, what can you do to ensure that your customer is not only getting the information, but has read it thoroughly?

There are many answers, but none of them include “send more messages”. I’m a firm believer in planning and scheduling time with my customers and clients to review almost everything that I send them. If you feel it’s important enough to write, then it’s important enough to find 10-15 minutes to discuss over the phone, video conference, or in person.

In the vast majority of instances, I send my contracts, memo’s, and presentations in advance of the meeting. I want the customer to have a chance, albeit a small one, to at least look at it and get the mindset of what the meeting is going to be about. I set the meeting, “Friday at 11am – 11:15” Topic “Discuss attached proposal” and then I know at least they have it.

Small, bite sized meetings and conversations over specific topics, really help your customer focus on whatever your task at hand is. It’s imperative that you understand all the inputs and  items that you are competing with. Its’ not just a true competitor that is fighting for time, it’s all the “crap” that is out there that I call noise.

During this 5-10 minute sessions with the customer on something that is important to THEM, it is a good opportunity to bring up something that you want to bring up. Off the cuff, informal, and basically just to see if you can get a certain level of interest. So, while you are meeting about the “Cost Reduction Proposal” that was attached to your meeting notice, you bring up the new product launch of something they may find interesting.

It’s up to us to be creative and find ways to get our customers to hear, see, listen, smell or whatever sense you want to excite. But you have to understand all of the other competition out there. Don’t make your noise louder, make it simpler and easier to swallow.

Having trouble getting through?

Let the team at Pinnacle Sales help you!

Tip: What the Debates Have Taught Us!

The recent Presidential debate has taught us one thing regardless of where you fit in the political spectrum. I heard that the final poll from CNN (not necessarily a conservative outlet) had Romney as the clear winner 72% over Obama 20%. Like I said, you have had to be blind, literally and figuratively, to not agree with this poll.

 

I say blind for a reason. This debate taught us that body language and being prepared are very key in any type of presentation.

The President was clearly not prepared for this debate, and one could turn the sound off the television to see who was winning. The picture above was the most damaging picture of all. It looked like the President was losing, regardless of what was being said. Just trying to get through this ‘thing’ so he could do something else.

Now, to put this into a sales perspective, how many times have you looked like the guy on the right? Have you sat through meetings with bad body language, only trying to endure the pain and get out of there?

In my book, PROFITS, I spend an entire section on being prepared. It’s our responsibility to take the lead in our debates with our customers, and not show up just to get to the next meeting.

This was a quick post, but something very clear and evident. If you think you’re having lapses of ‘Obamaism’s’, you may want to give us a call at Pinnacle Sales so we can get you prepared to debate like a pro!

 

Tips: What the NFL Has Taught Us!

One of the things that one of my first sales managers told me was that no matter what we do, “we are all replaceable”. If that is truly the case, then why did the NFL struggle recently with the referee situation?

Yes, I’m going to pile on this bandwagon. I’m going to use the replacement referees as an example of why it is so important to work with true professionals, and how you can tell the difference between a pro and an amateur.

Over the past 3-weeks of the NFL season, we have witnessed why it is so important to have a fully trained and competent staff. The biggest complaint about the referees this past three weeks is two-fold; one being that the game was too fast for them and the other was their inability to manage the game. When you place people in a position that has certain demands, you expect them to keep up with the speed of the situation and not lose control.

When a sales manager or business owner just plugs a person into a sales situation, one that doesn’t have the true training and commitment to being a professional, they often fail. The manager then puts others into the position and ends up with a bad taste in his or her mouth about sales people, because they don’t see the benefits. That is, until they find a true professional.

As a pro, we commit ourselves daily to continuous improvement. We go to various training courses and seminars, learning the best ways to answer objections, or learn more about the benefits of our products we represent. When asked a question, we can answer it or know where to find a solution. Given any type of customer, whether they are irate or exuberant, we know how to manage them. We don’t lose business, because we are trained to manage it. The sales call isn’t going too fast for us to adapt, we are controlling the pace and pretty much know what the outcome is going to be.

If your team of sales pro’s miss opportunities, don’t manage the process well, and are not brining you value, maybe it’s because you have done what the NFL just went through. Maybe you hired bankers or bus boys to do something that you think anyone can do. Don’t make this mistake, and invest in sales professionals and continuous improvement programs for the team.

If you need guidance on how to turn your team into NFL Caliber professionals, give us a call at Pinnacle Sales, where we offer service above the rest.

Tips: On Leadership

Leadership or Salesmanship?

When my son was a lot younger, I had a difficult time getting him to put his toys away. I would continue to tell him over and over again, to put his trucks away, take his ball back to his room and just about everything I could think of shorting of bribing him didn’t work. Then one day I asked him if he wanted to roll his ball back to his room or bounce it back? He said he wanted to roll it back and away it went.

Taking that thought process further; I had difficulties getting him to stop his activities in time to take a bath at night. I asked him how fast he thought he could get it done and we made a contest out of it. We got showers down to less than a minute! And he felt that he was winning a race!

Leadership is getting others to do something that you want done AND making them feel that they wanted to do this all along!

So, what do sales people do? We convince both our internal & external customers to do things that we want in order to provide a win-win situation between those two parties. We lead the process; we maneuver, manipulate and scheme, so that others feel like they really wanted to either purchase or provide that service. We do so with every good and ethical intention, and we know that everyone will be better off for it. Just like my son was cleaner after he got done racing into the shower and out again, he won the race and I had a clean child.

So, when you are in the process of sales, are you getting people convinced that it’s the right thing to do? Or are you forcing the sale, with hard closes and take it or leave it scenarios. Just like when you were a child and your parents told you to do something without any options, give your prospects and internal customers (sales support people) the options that will best service you and them.

If you are having issues in leadership, maybe some coaching can help. Give Pinnacle Sales a call today and start the process of improvement!

Tips:Living the Dream

Once in a while, I borrow a post for my blog. This week I’ll be sharing something from one of the greatest of all Americans, Ben Franklin … Living the dream is a good way to organize your life and after 200+ years, this advice is still worthwhile.

Enjoy …

Benjamin Franklin is regarded as one of the wisest and most practical men in history. The following list describes the most important standards he ever subscribed to. In his autobiography, Franklin dedicated fifteen pages to this short list of principles – the most he had ever dedicated to one subject. He felt that he owed all of his success and happiness to this plan and concluded that he hoped “therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit.” Although Franklin was revered as wise, he did not always come across this way. So if you are wondering if you are feeling up to the task, consider this: Benjamin Franklin had only two years of schooling; and now, 150 years after his death, the world’s greatest universities are still showering him with honors! If a man with TWO years of education could make this work, we would be considered foolish not to try it.

THE PLAN: Apply, in order, these principles, one at a time, for an entire week. When you have finished, begin again with number one and repeat the cycle. After one year you will have completed the 13 principles a total of 4 times. In doing so, these principles become habits, your productivity, confidence and the way you are perceived will advance greatly.

TIP: Each week carry your assignment on a 3×5 index card and review it throughout your day as a reminder.

1. Temperance – Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

2. Silence – Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation. In other words, learn and apply the art of listening, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

3. Order – Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have it’s time. Apply order to all parts of your life: your daily routine, your desk at work, your schedule and appointments

4. Resolution – Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. Even if in the past you have not completed your resolutions, make a small one to work on this week and stick to it. It can be as simple as resolving to hit the gym twice this week, actually look people in the eye and great them good morning before you slide into your office, or making one new friend.

5. Frugality – Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing. This does not necessarily mean pinch every penny, nor does it only apply to finances. Our gifts and talents are things we often forget to share. Search for ways in which you can bless others as well as yourself with your abilities, do not let them go to waste.

6. Industry – Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity – Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly. Practicing sincerity is a quick way to gain confidence as a loyal person. This trait will earn you respect as well.

8. Justice – Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation – Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness – Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation. Being presentable in appearance as well as in habitat speak volumes for the type of person that you are. If you take the time to keep these in top shape, you will be viewed as a well established, put together individual who handles that they have with care.

11. Tranquility – Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. The greatest leaders are those who can handle a pressure situation by remaining calm and collected.

12. Chastity – Never misuse venery to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

13. Humility – Imitate Jesus of Nazareth and Socrates. The humble are not the shy and meek, they are the bravest warriors of them all for they possess both confidence and selflessness.

Live The Dream,

Tips: Do it right the first time, don’t get HK’d

 

This is one of my favorite stories, and I like to read it (and share it) as many times as I can. The reason I’m writing about it today, is because of the numerous reminders that I have had recently about rushing things, just to get them done. We’ve all heard “measure twice, cut once”, or “why do we always have time to do it again, but never enough time to get it right the first time?”.

I don’t know if this story is true, but I think you’ll all get the point …

 

I call this, “Don’t get HK’d”

            The famous Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had an intern working for him. On one random Thursday morning, Secretary Kissinger asks the intern to write a position paper on a certain topic.

The intern is excited and spends the next three or four hours writing this paper. He’s excited, and leaves it on Secretary Kissinger’s desk at the end of the day. He is pretty proud of his achievements, so he goes to the bar with a friend of his and has a couple of drinks, boasting that he is now writing positions for the Great Secretary Kissinger.

As the intern drives into work very early that Friday morning, he’s excited to hear what the Secretary thought of his paper. He’s all smiles as he walks the halls of Foggy Bottom and comes to his desk to see his paper, positioned directly in the center of his desk, with a handwritten note …

“You can do better than this”

HK

            A little deflated, the Intern plopped down at the desk, read the paper and realized, objectively, that he could have done better. So, he pushed his workload aside and began to tackle this paper all over again. He tore it apart, re-wrote passages, did more research, and worked pretty much all day on this new revision. He had worked straight thru lunch and finished around 4pm.

He knocks on the Secretary’s door to find that he wasn’t in, and drops the paper on his desk again proudly. Thinking, he’s got to like this.

Since he had worked through lunch, he was pretty hungry and went to the cafeteria to grab a quick bite to eat. He was gone about 45 minutes, and when he came back to his desk, his paper was positioned directly in the center, with another handwritten note …

“You can do better than this”

HK

            “Does he realize that I spent the last 7 hours writing this?” the intern thought, but before he started throwing things around, and getting angry, he objectively tackled the problem. He began to re-read the paper, making small red marks on the pages. Seeing quite a few in the 8-page document, he thought to himself, “maybe I need to compare this to ‘his’ work”. So, the intern digs up old files (physical ones remember, things weren’t stored on the company server back then). And he finds quite a few random position papers that Secretary Kissinger himself had written over the years. He carried the box back to his desk thinking, this is going to be a very long day.

He read them, and not only realized that there were certain angles that he hadn’t considered, but research in so many topics that was missing in his paper. So off to the Library of Congress he went, and spent the entire weekend. Yes, he read, researched, and noted everything that he could on the subject and spent the next three days and nights working on the paper.

At 7:30AM Monday morning, still in the same clothes from Friday, he sat at his desk waiting for the great man to come into the office. As he saw Secretary Kissinger walk into his office, he stood up, straightened the tie around his unshaven neck, and confidently walked into the ‘man’s’ office.

          “Excuse me Secretary Kissinger, I’m sorry to barge in like this”  ..

          “What is on your mind so early?” Kissinger asks

          “Sir, the position paper you asked me to write, and then re-write two times, is now complete. Before you read this and turn it back to me saying that I can do better, you need to realize that I spent the entire weekend reading everything published on this subject, researching every contingency and published thought on this position. 

          I even dug up old position papers that you personally wrote to compare my thoughts and work on what you had done in the past. So please sir, take that into consideration, I can’t do any better than this one”

The Secretary smiled and responded, “Thank you, for that clarification then this one I’ll read”

 

Get it done right the first time, make sure you put the proper amount of effort needed into every project, so you don’t get HK’d.

 

Pinnacle Sales prides itself on helping its clients, customers, and interests by providing “Service Above the Rest”. We chose this motto, because it’s what we believe and put into practice every day.

We look forward to working with you and your team, and providing you the service that is deserved.

 

 

Pinnacle Sales, LLC  418 Main Street, Belleville, MI   mkole@pinnaclesales-llc.com

Tips: How to avoid eating your words!

I should have titled this, “Avoid Indigestion”, but I didn’t want this lost with all the medical blogs out there.

We’ve all been there, in that moment of excitement where the energy and adrenaline kicks in, and our mouth begins spewing things out without thinking. We don’t say anything false, but we use words that can be taken in a myriad of different ways, none of course the way you intended.

Just recently, I was in the heat of the moment, and out came the words. I failed to take the appropriate time to think about my response and just reacted to the situation. I knew what I meant, I didn’t mean any harm, nor was I trying to place blame on the other party. However, when I think about what was said and how better it could have been said, I quickly understood why the person reacted the way they did.

Now, this ‘should’ go hand in hand, both parties in the negotiation should be taking time to respond to any given situation. However, we as professionals need to always be in control of this, and never let emotions or reactions rule what we say. If the other party is reacting unprofessional, it is our responsibility to remain focused and on task. Think about what they said and before opening up the funnel we call a mouth, make sure what comes out is clear and understood the way you intended.

For example, I’ll use a situation with my lovely bride in a recent discussion we had during the middle of a remodeling event.

I was starting to hang up the lighting fixture and noticed that there were parts missing from the package she had purchased. Instead of saying; “there are parts missing, I can’t use these”, I said “looks like I can’t use the globes that you bought”. I didn’t think much of it, but off she went and, well, just remember “happy wife, happy life”. I lost little battle that because of poor communication, but it was out there and I couldn’t just eat my words.

We have a better chance of “responding” instead of reacting to any stimulus, by simply taking the time to think about what occurred or what was said. The longer the time we take, the better the response is and more clearly it will be.

Tip: Gaining Credibility

This week is going to be one of the shortest blogs I have posted. I run into sales people all the time, and they ask how to improve sales and long term relationship with their customer base. And the answer is simple:

“Say what you’ll do, then do what you say” 

You don’t have to promise the moon, use the most stimulating closing technique, or even provide the best price. You have to have credibility first, and from there things become a lot easier. I had a conversation with a client this morning, and she said this;

“Mike, you know why we call you? Because we know you will tell us the truth”  They call me, the order from me, they build their business plans around what I continue to deliver, or in some cases refuse to deliver. It really is that simple, if you are in a business that depends on long-term relationships, and contracts, then you need to start with a foundation. That foundation is your credibility.

The higher your credibility, the higher your sales will be. If you are having trouble with this, give us a call at Pinnacle Sales. We can put you on the right path and develop the tools that will help!

Tips: How to be a salesperson, NOT an account manager

One of my functions  is to gather information to provide my principals with some level of market intelligence. In this function, I put myself in front of my customers customer … I try to interview these people with the sole purpose of finding out where they are going, which which will tell me where my principals where to go.

We don’t often get this direct information from our direct customer base, due to several factors like competition and confidentiality. However, this won’t prohibit my principals from gaining this information. We would rather go to our customers with a new advancement that we are sure will be accepted, instead of guessing and wasting time in developments. It is just like Proctor & Gamble doing a focus group with you and I, instead of asking WalMart or KMart if they think they can sell this.  In the industrial sales world, it is a little more difficult to do so, because your customers don’t like us visiting their customers, but I look at it as the best way to gather ‘good’ information.

One of the things that became apparent in these interviews, is that there are very few sales people out there, and a lot of account managers!  I had assumed most of the questions I was asking were already being asked by others, and was told several times that they needed time to think about things, and was very happy that I had asked. It was obvious that the companies calling on them, were managing the relationship, instead of developing it.

Today’s blog is a reminder to you PROFESSIONAL SALES PEOPLE, not to act like an account manager, be proactive, and be respectful of your customers opinions, and concerns. Below I put just a few examples of how to tell an account manager from a sales person. For those of you that don’t see a difference in the approach, you are an account manager … for those of you that can see the difference, make sure you are in the RIGHT column.

Account Manager	Sales Person
How are things going?	What are your upcoming plans?
Our shipments were at 99.5% last month	Which days do you really need deliveries?
Is your demand for part number X stable?	We see opportunities to use your part number X in several different applications, what time can we meet the R&D Group on Friday?
When do you want to schedule our annual negotiations meeting?	We have come up with some great new innovative products that will help you drive down your systems costs. I would like to demonstrate them to your team, what time is better, 2 or 3?
Our annual customer satisfaction survey is coming up, who should I send it to this year?	I get the feeling that you are happy with our performance; please tell me in our own words how we are doing? I am sure that there are several other team members that have an influence in our partnership, who else shall I interview?
I am happy to hear that I haven’t heard about any quality issues with our products over the past 12 months	As you know, we deal with numerous clients around the World. Our experience in solving problems has given us insight in many different areas outside our current product offering, and has helped us develop new items. Where are your biggest pains right now? There’s a good chance that we can help.

This is not meant to be an all inclusive list of questions, just a short reminder of how to be more proactive, and still get the same information you need to grow.

If you feel that you’ve fallen on the LEFT side too often, it might be time to get a coach!  That’s what Pinnacle Sales can help you with, so don’t wait … give us a call!