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

 

Tips: Goal Setting & Focus

Today’s tip is getting back to basics, especially when we talk about setting and achieving goals.

In a recent conversation with one of my principals, he was talking about an operational principle on the factory floor called the “Glass Wall”. The wall is a realistic wall, and usually made out of plexiglass so you can see right through it. On this wall everything about this work cell can be found. For example in a plastic injection molding facility, you would see things like; Cycle times, parts per hour expected, quality checks that need to be made and how often.

What I like about this system is that it is completely transparent. Both in reality and in symbolism. The wall, plexiglass, can be seen through, and all the goals are written in plain sight so anyone can check on the progress.

Where this comes into play for us simple sales professionals, is that our goals need to be in front of us at all times. If you are in a service profession such as; sales, engineering, accounting, or other non-tangible professions, we need to identify how we can put our goals in front of everyone so that anyone can see where we are. With engineers we could envision an office area completely filled up with Gantt Timing charts, so that anyone can view the progress on the various projects the engineer is working on.

One of the main keys to meeting our goals is keeping them in front of us. So, think of a way you can visualize a goal, and put it in your work area – your car – your home office, somewhere, and don’t be shy if someone can see that you aren’t there yet!  I’ve written before about eating an elephant one bite at a time. If someone sees a half-eaten elephant, they can say one of two things; you have a long way to go, or you’ve made remarkable progress.

If you are having trouble getting from A to C … give us a call at Pinnacle Sales. We can help you focus and put your map to a successful future in place!

 

Tips: Closing the Deal

If you are new to my blog, you’ll see quite a few sports analogies. I think sports can teach us quite alot, and for sales professionals, there are so many similarities in the competition, that it’s sometimes a perfect training or coaching opportunity.

Jose Valverde, Detroit Tigers “closer”, on his way out of the game after losing a 4-run lead in the bottom of the 9th Inning!

He stayed in the game, because there was no other option warmed up and ready to go

 

Today, I am talking about how NOT to BLOW a SAVE or DEAL!

First of all, we all have bad days, or weeks, or soft spots. Sometimes we just are not capable of giving it our best. We hate to admit it, but it happens and we lose opportunities because of our capabilities. Those losses of opportunities are easier to accept than the ones we lose when we “should-a”, “could-a”, “would-a” …

Ask yourself a question, and provide a good honest answer:

Have you ever walked out of a negotiation session and said, “AWE, when he said this, I should have said that”, or “I could have brought that actual sample to show them”.  These mistakes are truly inexcusable. These are the ones that are all avoidable, and truly your fault.

In my book, PROFITS, Your Seven Letters to Success, I speak about planning and preparation. One of the things that we all are guilty of, is falling into a habit. Using the same lines in the same situations because they have worked 99% of the time in the past. History has shown us that this is the best thing to say or do when a certain action occurs.

Don’t get me wrong, when we are in these familiar situations, we should go with the proven answer. Where we make the mistake is, not having an option ready in case this doesn’t work!

In baseball, we often see a “righty and a lefty” warming up at the same time in the pen. Both getting ready, and if the circumstances warrant it one or the other goes in. What this also gives the manager is a 2nd choice, all warmed up and ready to go, if the 1st one is a bust.

Back to your sales situation. You’ve used close number 10 successfully for years, you are getting ready to go into a negotiation session and you’re practicing it and warming up. Are you practicing your 2nd option and even 3rd?  Are they ready and warmed up on the bench so you can finish this off at THIS appointment and not walk out saying;

– Woulda

– Coulda

– Shoulda

If you’ve blown a few saves lately, you might need a pitching coach to work with you mechanics and delivery. Give us a call at Pinnacle Sales, where Service is Above the Rest!

(734) 325-6557

mkole@pinnaclesales-llc.com

 

 

 

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: 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!

Tips: Can’t change their mind? You never will … until you read this

I really love Zig Ziglar! Listening to him gives me so many ideas, and he is so inspirational. This weeks blog is credited directly to him! This in itself is a tip, although we are sales professionals, we aren’t expected to know all the answers – but we are expected to know where to find them!

That brings me to this weeks topic. Finding the questions that will get your customer to say yes.. First of all, you must understand one very important thing. You will NEVER get someone to change their mind. No matter what, getting someone to change their mind is not something you will be successful at. You CAN get them to say yes, but you have to do one thing first, give them a new decision to make!

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago, that gave a listing of all the best closes to use in a selling situation. This was one of my most popular postings ever, with over 1,500 people reading it and reviewing these famous and often practiced closes. What that list didn’t tell us, is what do you do if the customer says no? You’ve laid out your case, you have given them what you thought they wanted, negotiated and presented a fair price, and they still said no … wow, you are dumbfounded, and a little shell shocked, but the best sales person in the world won’t get a prospect to change his mind.

In a business to business sale, you must be able to present something different, or add a fact or two so the client can save face and take this new information into account before they make this decision. People don’t like to be informed that they were wrong, or made an error in their decision making, so this tip can help them save some face.

The additional information or fact could be a more thorough explanation of the warranty, or additional features and benefits that weren’t covered in the presentation. It could be a testimonial from another client or referral that your customer respects. It’s additional information, not changing the offer, but more facts that will get people to accept they have a new decision to make.

So, when you are presented with a prospect that won’t change his mind, then remember your task is to give him a new decision to make!

Good Luck and Good Selling … If you are having any issues with these types of selling situations, remember Pinnacle Sales is there to help you along.

Sales Professionals, Continuous Improvement Opportunity!

If you have been following this blog for the past few years, you have noticed that I use a theme referred to as continuous improvement in many of my posts. These blogs, suggestions, ideas, and comments are all for “us” to become a true professional.

This past year, many of you have come to the agency for one on one coaching so you can improve, and many have written to me asking when and where I will be doing my next seminar. I am putting together the next event now for late May or early June, and am looking for help from you, my consumers.

Today, I have a poll included in my blog so that you can help me pick the best location for the event. This quarters session will be held again in the Detroit Metropolitan area. By voting in the poll, it doesn’t commit you to coming, it is only giving me an indication of how many people in these areas would be interested. If there is enough interest, I will have the event in more than one area.

As with all my speaking events, a copy of my book; PROFITS, Your Seven Letters to Success, will be included with the price of admission.  For those of you who haven’t been to my sessions, here is some general information.

Topic: Continuous Improvement, Planning for Success

Time:   7pm – 9pm

Location: TBD

Cost: $49 if paid in advance, and $65 if paid at the event.

I look forward to this event, and look forward to seeing you there!

Tips and the ABC’s of Closing Techniques

One of the main things about being a successful consultant or coach, is to understand and accept the fact you don’t have all the answers. The main thing is that you know where to find them!

I just stumbled upon (literally through www.stumbleupon.com) this website that had the best summary of closing techniques I have seen in a while. It is literally an ABC’s, in alphabetical order list of available options to use with your clients and customers.

The link to the web site is;  http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sales/closing/closing_techniques If you go to the web site, you can click on each of these for more description on the technique and even some examples. I like this list as just a reminder of my options.

Below is a quick summary list of what you’ll find. Most of us know these techniques exist, but we don’t have a list of them available. I recommend keeping this list in our office, pin it up on your bulletin board or wherever it is you can. When you are stuck closing a deal, or negotiating a point, take a look at these closes. With this list, you can come up with a selling strategy to win that next deal.

• 1-2-3 Close – close with the principle of three.
• Adjournment Close – give them time to think.
• Affordable Close – ensuring people can afford what you are selling.
• Alternative Close – offering a limited set of choices.
• Artisan Close – show the skill of the designer.
• Ask-the-Manager Close – use manager as authority.
• Assumptive Close – acting as if they are ready to decide
• Balance-sheet Close – adding up the pros and the cons.
• Best-time Close – emphasize how now is the best time to buy.
• Bonus Close – offer delighter to clinch the deal.
• Bracket Close – make three offers – with the target in the middle.
• Calculator Close – use calculator to do discount.
• 
• Calendar Close – put it in the diary.
• Companion Close – sell to the person with them.
• Compliment Close – flatter them into submission.
• Concession Close – give them a concession in exchange for the close.
• Conditional Close – link closure to resolving objections.
• Cost of Ownership Close – compare cost over time with competitors.
• Courtship Close – woo them to the close.
• Customer-care Close – the Customer Care Manager calls later and re-opens the conversation.
• Daily Cost Close – reduce cost to daily amount.
• Demonstration Close – show them the goods.
• Diagram Close – Draw a picture that draws them in.
• Distraction Close – catch them in a weak moment.
• Doubt Close – show you doubt the product and let them disagree.
• Economic Close – help them pay less for what they get.
• Embarrassment Close – make not buying embarrassing.
• Emotion Close – trigger identified emotions.
• Empathy Close – empathize with them, then sell to your new friend.
• Empty-offer Close – make them an empty offer that the sale fills.
• Exclusivity Close – not everyone can buy this.
• Extra Information Close – give them more info to tip them into closure.
• Fire Sale Close – soiled goods, going cheap.
• Future Close – close on a future date.
• Give-Take Close – give something, then take it away.
• Golden Bridge Close – make the only option attractive.
• Handover Close – someone else does the final close.
• Handshake Close – offer handshake to trigger automatic reciprocation.
• Humor Close – relax them with humor.
• Hurry Close – go fast to stop them thinking too much.
• IQ Close – say how this is for intelligent people.
• Minor points Close – close first on the small things.
• Never-the-best-time Close – for customers who are delaying.
• No-hassle Close – make it as easy as possible.
• Now-or-never Close – to hurry things up.
• Opportunity Cost Close – show cost of not buying.
• Ownership Close – act as if they own what you are selling.
• Price-promise Close – promise to meet any other price.
• 
• Puppy Close – acting cute to invoke sympathy and a nurturing response.
• Quality Close – sell on quality, not on price.
• Rational Close – use logic and reason.
• Repetition Close – repeat a closing action several times.
• Retrial Close – go back to square one.
• Reversal Close – act as if you do not want them to buy the product.
• Save-the-world close: – buy now and help save the world.
• Selective-deafness Close – respond only to what you want to hear.
• Shame Close – make not buying shameful.
• Shopping List Close – tick off list of their needs.
• Similarity Close – bond them to a person in a story.
• Standing-room-only Close – show how others are queuing up to buy.
• Summary Close – tell them all the things they are going to receive.
• Testimonial Close – use a happy customer to convince the new customer.
• Thermometer Close – they score out of ten, you close gap.
• Think About It Close – give them time to think about it.
• Treat Close – persuade them to ‘give themselves a treat’.
• Trial Close – see if they are ready for a close.
• Valuable Customer Close – offer them a special ‘valued customer’ deal.
• Ultimatum Close – show negative consequences of not buying.
• Yes-set Close – get them saying ‘yes’ and they’ll keep saying ‘yes’.

If a list isn’t quite enough, Pinnacle Sales has been training pro’s like you for nearly 20 years. Give us a call and we can work on this together.

Tip of the Week: 3 Simple Steps to Sales!

Tip of the week: 3 Simple Steps to a Successful Sale!

Problem, Promise, and Path

Most of us in sales already know that we are problem solvers first and foremost. Here is a quick way to look at any opportunity that the customer has given you, and make sure you are covering these areas thoroughly. If you keep these 3 things in mind, and make sure that each one is addressed the best way, your sales will increase:

Problem:

Define the customer’s opportunity (problem). Do this with your prospect at the same time. Make sure you understand the implications of not moving forward to solve and issue or introduce a new product. Find out where all the possible objections are now and possibly in the future, so you can start working on answering those

For example, you are called into a prospects office to discuss a new project. What is the new project replacing? Why? What were the problems with the old program and how is this new project/part/component going to fix all the old concerns?

Promise:

Once you understand what all the problems are, this is where “sales” comes in. You have to illustrate how your product or service is going to address each of these concerns. You should also try and quantify – yes use NUMBERS – each of your benefits so your client can objectively argue your case.

For example, there is an old problem with a design that is creating 3% scrap. Your component will eliminate that scrap. Remember, it’s not just the cost of your component, but also the labor, time, energy, and any additional items that you can point to that installation of your service will eliminate. Make sure you take credit for things that you can put a hard number on, but also additional factors such as time. If you can implement your program faster than your competition, time is also money.

As you make your promises (older sales people remember this as selling the sizzle), you are building a case for your company’s products and services. Your client will have a number so he can justify why his company should switch to yours.

Now, the fun part … PATH to this success!

This is where we objectively identify what needs to be done, and by whom, in order to implement this process. You, your client, and others that are not in the room at this time, all have to agree on an implementation program. Each task of the process such needs to be identified and an owner assigned. That owner needs to make the commitment that it will be done on time.

These three simple steps to a sale all need to be done, regardless if it’s a simple transactional sales, or a complex engineering project. Businesses don’t buy things because the “want them”, they buy because they need them. If you can prove the need (problem), you will create a want (promise), and then you can both take credit for the success!

Pinnacle Sales offers sales process consulting to individuals as well as teams. Identifying your product or services benefits sometimes is not as transparent or obvious as we like. We can help you and your teams develop this process!

Give us a call, or come to our open office hours (see tab above for dates / times).

Did the tide lift your boat?

Did the tide lift your boat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is the end of the year … how did you do?

Have you completed a self-assessment yet? Have you given yourself the once over? Have you honestly evaluated your efforts? Were you lucky? Or were you good this year?

This time of year always brings these types of questions to mind. I can point to the goals and objectives and see what was met and what wasn’t. That’s the easy part, but this is really the time to do the ‘deep dive’ on your own personal effectiveness.

How did you meet your goals this year? Did you find the prospects? Or were you lucky that the customer called and had a problem you could solve?

I know that over the past 10-15 years, the economy has helped poor sales people look good. The old saying “the tide lifts all boats” was truly in play. But in today’s world, you will see who is and isn’t holding their own. Before your management reviews your performance, you may want to do it yourself and begin to ask these critical questions. When you go into the bosses office in Q1 you should be ready to list the positives and negatives of your performance and what you want to accomplish professionally and personally throughout 2012.

Don’t take this article the wrong way, there are a lot of great sales people out there that read this blog. They still need to do a self-evaluation and look for things to improve in 2012. We all need to keep on the track of continuous improvement, but be brutally honest with ourselves along with way.

Remember, salesmanship is a true profession where skills need to be honed just like a teacher, doctor or lawyer. We all make mistakes throughout the year, and now is the time to reflect on them and put in place a plan to improve.

If you haven’t read the book, PROFITS – Your Seven Letters to Success, maybe now is the time. It is on sales at the KINDLE store at Amazon through the end of 2011 for $3.99 … this is a small price to pay in your quest for continuous improvement.

I would like to thank all of you for following this blog throughout the year, over 10,000 readers have read and reviewed this blog over the past 2 years. I hope these articles have given you what you were looking for.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year !!