Entries from July 2008
Your ability to help your customers identify their issues and define the IMPACT that unresolved issues have or will have on their business and in their lives has a direct correlation to your success in sales.
The one element I see sales people overlook, ignore and/or avoid during sales calls is the activity of asking questions that uncover impacts. I’ve heard reasons for avoiding asking impact questions like…”Isn’t the impact obvious to the customer,” “It’s like putting salt on the wound” and “It’s uncomfortable to ask impact questions.” A generic example of an impact question could be, “If the issue that you are describing goes unresolved, how will this impact your business or your life?”
One critical observation I’ve made when listening to my client’s sales calls is that when a customer begins to share the impacts that unresolved issues in their business may bring… the tone of the conversation changes. The conversation goes to a different level, it’s becomes more authentic as the customer becomes more vulnerable. If the customer is willing to share impacts it is also a sign that you have done a good job establishing trust and credibility.
How do you make sales calls that make an IMPACT?
Categories: Listening Skills · Questioning Skills · sales skills · sell · selling
What you don’t negotiate can cost you.
You’ll never know what you can get unless you negotiate for it. The following story is a reminder to me that “negotiation” is a skill that has to be learned, developed, and thoughtfully put into action to work.
Do you ever wonder how much you are paying for your airline seat compared to what the person paid for the seat next to yours? How about what the person at your athletic club is paying to use the same equipment as you each month? And finally, how about the office space next to your office? Well, one of my career development clients just learned the hard way. She was paying $1300/month for a one person interior space with no windows. She was told that the one person office across the hall with the beautiful windows with the forest view was $1800/month. When she asked if their was any room to negotiate, the response was “no.” A few months go by and she starts to talk with person who ended up leasing the window space across the hall and learned that he was paying $1300/month. After she got over her frustration that she was paying the same as him without the window…, she asked how he got that rate? He replied he asked the management firm to match another (less desirable) space across town or he would walk. He used the “competition” tactic like a pro and it worked!
How do you negotiate for what you want?
Categories: career development · negotiation skills · professional development · sales skills · sell · selling
No Trust No Sale.
As animals, we sense things before our minds have a chance to think things through. We can sense if someone is being authentic, vulnerable and real verses hiding behind a mask or being guarded.
What instantly imbues trust and credibility?
This is a question that is at the very core of my work as an executive coach and trainer. I had the opportunity to witness first hand the rise of a Regional Account Manager to the position of VP of Sales of a very large and successful software company. We hadn’t talked for over 7 years. In the interim, he left the company amid many changes, including several executive team transitions. With a new CEO on board, he was recruited to come back, not as a Regional Account Manager, but as their VP of Sales with an offer he couldn’t refuse. What was it about him? One of the things was the ability to establish instant rapport with others, especially his ability to do this over the phone with his customers with only the use of his voice. He left me a simple voice message about needing to miss a meeting I inviting him to. I was so impressed by it, I saved it to play it back to participants in my sales training courses (Tactical Selling Skills). In addition to being relevant and personalizing the message, what made his message authentic was the tone of his voice, inflection and pace. His thoughtfulness came through, as he used humor, laughter and vulnerability to explain why he hadn’t called earlier because he was at his daughters art class while his wife was traveling.
What establishes trust and credibility with you?
Categories: Differentiating You · Engaging Your Customers · Sales stories · Trust and Credibility · sales skills · selling
