Category: closing sales tips

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Win Deals At Your Price with Sales Differentiation with Lee Salz #236

Lee Salz Sales Babble

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Win Deals At Your Price with Sales Differentiation with Lee Salz #236

Lee Salz Sales BabbleOur guest is Lee Salz a leading sales management strategist, bestselling author and CEO of Sales  Architects.  Lee is a returning guest, visiting nearly three years ago in Episode 88 How to Differentiate when Selling a Commodity with Lee Salz #88   Lee has a new new book out titled Sales Differentiation – 19 powerful strategies to win more deals at the price you want.  In this episode  we talk about things that you can do to stand out, show value, work around price concerns and actually charge a premium. Stop selling on price and boost your sales today. 

How to Differentiate when Selling a Commodity

Sales people too often complain “If we don’t drop our price, we will lose the deal.”   It’s too easy drop the price and cut into the companies margins. Profits matter!  To win deals at the prices you want, Lee believes your needed strategy is differentiation.

During the interview Lee walked us through a few of his 19 easy-to-implement concepts to help salespeople win deals while protecting margin. He believes these concepts are applicable to any salesperson in any industry and are based on the foundation that how you sell, not just what you sell, differentiates you.

Some highlights mentioned:

  • Focus on what you sell, and how you sell.
  • References – don’t treat it like chore, but opportunity to connect like minded buyers.
  • Price – you can’t be too early but you can be too late. Explain meaningful difference early on.
  • Your greatest competitor is not the status quo, but other sellers competing for your prospects time
  • Author a RFP for your industry and give to prospects as an example to tip the focus to your favor.
  • Your personality is the number one differentiator – especially those with internal company relationships.

Take Action

If you haven’t taken to the time to define how you’re differentiated, spend a moment and reflect on value that you bring to the market. Next build that definition so you can win more deals at the prices you want.

How To Find Lee Salz

Website: www.SalesArchitects.com

Twitter: @salesarchitects

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/leesalz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SalesManagementMinute

Lee’s New Book – Published October 2, 2018

Sales Differentiation – 19 powerful strategies to win more deals at the price you want.

Get the bonus opportunity at www.SalesDifferentiation.com

NOTE!

As I mentioned, Sales Babble was selected by Feedspot as one of the Top 15 Sales Podcasts on the web. Check this out!

Sales Differentiation for Closing Sales

Here are past episodes to keep the babble up. Listen now!

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Valve Stem Sales Strategy with Corey Philip #229

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Valve Stem Sales Strategy

Corey Philip Sales Babble

In this episode we meet Corey Philip who founded Gulf Coast Aluminum, a patio and screen enclosure company. He attributes a large factor of the rapid growth of the company to earning referrals from happy customers and data-driven sales and marketing. It was there he invented the Valve Stem Sales Strategy.

Valve Stem Lets Out the Pressure

Corey’s goal was to build a presentation that didn’t sound salesy. He’s tried pushy sales techniques. He did not like them. Nor did he find that it helped his business in the long run. Corey arrived at the idea of the valve stem sales strategy. By placing the price of the product in the middle of the presentation, you let out all  the pressure. Typically the price is at the end. This moves the focus to the value. He wants people to feel like they are making a decision on their own.

Valve Stem Process

The strategy contains 6 steps to be completed in order:

  1. Introduction – ask if they’ve heard of you, share how you do things differently.
  2. Fact Finding – understand what they want, build value by explaining how you’ll do it in detail, step by step process.
  3. Calculate the Price – quote a price to the dollar e.g. $5020
  4. Show similar project – references build trust.
  5. Tell the company story – pictures of office, key people, trucks, equipment.
  6. Assumptive close – should we get this written up after all the story telling.

38% of the prospects are closed at step 6.  30% will come back with an objection that eventually close.

Take Action Today

Get a sales process that is comfortable, natural, with a story and trust. This will differentiate you from your competitors.

How to Find Corey Philip

  • Website: http://www.homeprosuccess.com
  • Infographic post: https://www.homeprosuccess.com/infographic-the-valve-stem-sales-strategy-close-more-sales-using-story-trust-without-sales-tactics/
  • Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/896216427196514/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreyphilip/

 

Closing Sales Tips

Coffee’s for closers, Sales Babblers too. Listen to these past episodes:

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Never Lose The Deal with Ganesh Tayi #218

Ganesh Tayi Sales Babble

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Ganesh Tayi Sales BabbleNever Lose the Deal with Ganesh Tayi

Ganesh Tayi is an author, speaker and CEO of Never Lose The Deal. He is a trusted advisor to companies who want to close more high dollar sales contracts. For more than a decade, he has been personally involved with deals of all levels of depth and difficulty and helped close deals worth over $12 billion. In this episode Ganesh offers  a fresh perspective and powerful proven practices to close more deals.

The Challenge

Unsuccessful salespeople jump too quickly into building a proposal. This is especially true in the B2B space.  They do this solely from what they hear the prospect say. They fail to deeply understand the full challenge. Too often proposal they propose, is wrong!

Successful sales people:

  • Dig deeper and find context of the challenge
  • Understand who are the decision makers
  • Discover how the prospect makes buying decisions
  • Ask about urgency. “How important is it for you to work with a company that offers this value proposition. “

Beware Chasing Ghosts

If you fail to discover all the requirements, you are forever chasing a ghost requirement. Fully understand their wants, desires and needs.

Three Principles for B2B Selling

Ganesh’s book has 10 principles for successful B2B selling. Here are the top three principles to never lose the deal:

  1. Align your team with the customer team. Look for common goals.
  2. Analyze the opportunity and the deal. Start by building an ROI model. Analyze your competition and how you differentiate.  Lastly analyze your pricing and maximize your profits. Consider deal incentives, not discount e.g 3 year contracts have a better pricing schema.  The right incentives help your customers do the right things.
  3. Ask why they are looking, why now and what is their buying criteria, the must haves and nice to haves.

Take Action Advice

Focus on your prospects business decision making criteria. Once you unravel and understand you can adjust your sales  process accordingly.

How To Find Ganesh Tayi

Free Copy of the Book: http://freeneverlosethedealbook.com/bookdownload-2/

Must Have Sales Process Steps

Let’s keep the babble going. Here are past episodes you’ve gotta listen to:

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Never Be Closing – Key To Better Sales with Tim Hurson #197

Tim Hurson Sales Babble Close

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Tim Hurson Sales Babble CloseNever Be Closing – Key To Better Sales with Tim Hurson #197

The second most difficult task of a sale is to ask for the business. Closing a prospect is a monumental challenge for many sales professionals. But maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Tim Hurson is the author of the book “Never Be Closing”. In this episode Tim shares a process where prospects close themselves without arm twisting or sketchy wordplay trickery. Take your closing skills to the mastery level!

Have a Don’t Close Mindset

Tim recommends going into a sales conversation with the idea of learning something. Set aside the  expectation of closing quickly. People will close themselves if you do the process right.  It takes time to build a relationship. People fear purchasing from a stranger, but they do appreciate purchasing from those they trust.

Purpose of a Sales Call

What is the purpose of a sales call?  It’s not to make the sale, it’s to make the sale, AFTER the sale. Sales calls are measured on a binary scale: You closed or NOT closed. This is false. There is nuance in every sales call and you can learn from the experience. Every call is an opportunity for success.

Simplest Close of All

Ask the question “What more do you need to know before we proceed”.  If they say nothing else start the paperwork that moves them from a prospect to a client.

Of course not everyone is qualified for your business. But prospects may know someone who IS qualified. Think referrals.

Take Action Advice

GPS – learn from experience, evaluate the last sales call and ask the following questions:

  • Great – what went well?
  • Poor – what went poorly?
  • Step ups – what can I do better next time?

 

How To Find Tim Hurson

You can find Tim on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/timhurson

Twitter @tim_hurson
Book – Never Be Closing – how to sell better without screwing your clients, colleagues or yourself. 

How To Close a Sale

We have many past episodes sharing advice on how to close a sale. Listen today!

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The Perfect Close with James Muir #132

James Muir Perfect Close

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James Muir Perfect CloseThe Perfect Close with James Muir

James Muir is a Corporate trainer and executive coach for NextGen Healthcare. James specializes in training and coaching executives in B2B complex sales. James came into sales as a technical domain expert and at first struggled on how to ask for the sale. Through experience he learned to overcome this hurdle and  has published a new book titled “The Perfect Close”.  Closing is not as hard as you might think!

Sales Call Preparation

Before going into a meeting have an outcome in mind. Assume the conversation will  go in multiple directions. Have two alternatives prepared when that happens. These are  used to ADVANCE the sale.

Two Perfect Close Questions:

Use these two questions for the perfect close.

Question #1
Does it make sense for us to X?

X is the next Advance e.g does it make sense to set up an assessment or pilot.

Two possible answers YES or NO. If YES proceed to advance the sale. If NO ask  question #2

Question #2
What’s a good next step?
90% of the time the client will suggest an advance that’s appropriate for where they are at.

This paces the sales cycle. It sets the speed of the sale that’s comfortable for the client.  If they are not sure what’s next, use prepared advances e.g. …. other customers have tended to do this……

Always have an agenda and it’s critical you give value in every meeting (Some aha moment).

Five versions of question #2

You can mix up question 2  depending on the situation:

1. “What’s the next step?”
2. Would you like me to make a suggestion?
3. Have a fall back statement where you make a suggestion if they say no….
4. The add on …. “Other customers commonly do this …..
5. “Does it make sense to see if I can do something special by the end of the quarter to see if we can wrap this up?”   The goal here is to minimize giving a discount.

How to Find James Muir

Get three free chapters of “The Perfect Close” here.

You can find James all over Social Media:

  • www.puremuir.com
  • www.linkedin.com/in/puremuir
  • twitter.com/B2B_SalesTips
  • www.facebook.com/james.muir.902266

Closing Sales Tips

Here are some other great episodes on closing. Download them today!

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4 Step Sales Framing Process with Aaron Janx #131

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aaron-janx4 Step Sales Framing Process with Aaron Janx #131

In this episode we focus on the first sales call you have with a prospective client. For many people its a struggle to know what to say, when to say it, and how to get the prospect to agree to become a client. Our guest is business coach Aaron Janx.  Aaron shares a sales framing process designed to close your prospect during the first meeting.

Sales Frame Process

Aaron and I spoke at length on his sales framing process:

Frame –   The seller takes control of the conversation. Then they ask the prospect to agree to share No or Yes if they are interested at the end of the sales call.
Pain – The seller gets the prospect to feel the uncomfortable situation emotionally. This prepares them to take action and  belief that the seller understands what they’re feeling.
Brain – The seller waits till the prospect asks about their product or service. This is very non-pushy. The prospect opens up to hear about the offering when they initiate curiosity. The seller explains their product or service as simply as possible with 4-5 benefits.
Win the Game – The seller waits until the buyer asks  about price. They are asked to set a number. This is a metric for how good of job the seller did explaining the value. That number is then used to close the deal.

How to Find Aaron Janx

You can find Aaron all over the web!

What are the Sales Process Steps

Here are some other episodes that talk about the sales process. Check them out today!

 

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Success Hacks for Sales with Scott Hansen #101

Scott Hansen Success Hacker

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Scott Hansen Success HackerSuccess Hacks for Sales with Scott Hansen #101

Scott Hansen is the Chicago podcast host of Success Hackers. Scott interviews entrepreneurs, thought leaders, successful business owners who play bigger in life in business. Scott’s goal is to help people build bridges to that future. In this episode Scott will share his success hacks for sales and how to take your game to the next level.

Success Hacks for Sales

Scott is a proponent of the following three success hacks:

Success Hack #1

Issue: People shudder when they hear the term “close”.
Solution: Don’t shy away from the close. Ask! “Are you ready to get started right now?”

Every meeting must have an “intention”.

Learn your prospects biggest “pain point”. Listen to what they say vs thinking about the money.

Would you like me to continue or have you seen enough”

Success Hack #2

Issue: Price is thought to be the primary objection. It’s rarely the case.
Solution: Don’t drop your price. Focus on the value you bring to market.

People aren’t buying themselves into something, but out of something (a problem).
Sales reps who are dollar focused are easily seen  (and disliked) by buyers.

Success Hack #3

Issue: People give up to easy, usually after 2-3 times.
Solution: Need to contact 4-5 times before quitting.
sales is a career. It’s a vertical. Highest paid professions on the planet.

Free Book On Growing Your Business

Get’s a copy of Scott’s free book “5 ways to dramatically grow your business in a massive way” by going to
Website: www.massivebusinessgrowth.com

Links To Find Scott Hansen

You can also connect with Scott:

Closing Sales Tips

Here are some other past episodes that you may find of value. Listen today!

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How to Sell Coaching Services with Julie Foucht #98

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JulieFoucht

How to Sell Coaching Services  with Julie Foucht

In this episode  we meet business coach Julie Foucht to discuss how to sell coaching services.  Julie talks about the fear of sales and how to go from invisible to visible to winning sales. Step by step she walks us through her  coaching services sales process to qualify prospect,s pitching her services, and asking for the sale with a service mindset. This is solid practical advice. I  especially loved her fearlessness in overcoming objections and creating a passion driven money making business.  

Invisible Women Sellers

Julie believes that women are too focused on the need to be nice. She believes they take themselves out of the process, and become invisible for fear of appearing too strong.

Fear of Sales

Julie believes there is a lot of fear around the word “sale”. Gender wise men and women are described:

  • men – assertive and confident
  • woman – pushy and B*tchy

She believes that if you know beyond a shadow of depth, that your products and services are great, you will be a success on how to sell coaching services.

The slow road to small profits

Except the fact that the  more no’s you get  the more yes’s you get.  Don’t hesitate to ask for the sale (we referenced the  Connie Kadansky  episode about getting your “ASK” in gear).

Business Coaching Sales Process

This is the process describing how to sell coaching services.

  1. When meeting someone, start the service process: ask about, hopes, dreams and what’s getting in their way.
  2. Invite qualified prospects to a strategy session: probe further, share how you can address their wants and needs
  3. Ask how much do you want the product or service. Do this  on a scale of 1-10.If they choose a low number you might ask, what would it take to get to an 8.
  4. Ask if their ready to get started.
  5. Ask them what’s the name on the credit card you want to use.
  6. Provide great service and up-sell them on other products.
  7. Ask for referrals and references.

The Offer Mindset

Don’t pitch a product or sell, make an offer, consider your product or service an offer.  Let them decide if they want it, or not. This is how to close and how to sell coaching services with Julie Foucht.

Overcoming the Objection “I Don’t Have the Money”

When they say they don’t have the  money, 98% of the time it’s NOT about money, but instead some other issue.  It’s about fear, and you’ve not shown them well enough how you solve that.

Where to Contact Julie Foucht

Twitter 

LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachjulz

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/coachjulz

Free eBook

Get a copy of my new eBook: “From Stress, Worry and Overwhelm to Peace, Happiness and Massive Success: The Three Keys to a Kickass Biz”  Download it Here

How to Close a Deal

Here are some other episodes you may find of interest regarding the sales CLOSE

 

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How to get your ASK in gear, an interview with Connie Kadansky #87

Connie Kadansky

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Connie Kadansky How to get your ASK in gear, an interview with Connie Kadansky #87

Today we meet Connie Kadansky who challenges sellers on how to  get their Ask in Gear.

Connie believes that   far too often sellers dance up to Ask but never ask for the:

  • appointment,
  • order,
  • referral
  • resources

Connie’s goal is for sellers to become confident, consistent, and ethical about asking for the sale. 

Be Valuable Visible and Vocal

  • Valuable  –  Your value as a seller and the value of your product and service
    • Look for the end user of your product, your client’s customers
    • Experience the value the end user
  • Visible – Be seen
    • Visibility trumps Competence.  Research based
    • Great crystal clear on your market
    • Focus is the new competitive advantage
  • Vocal –  find your voice
    • Ask for referrals on LinkedIn
    • Ask for an appointment
    • Leverage your natural curiosity to ask for an interview

Selling Advice

Make a list of people you want to ask for advice.  Recognize what you could do for them. Figure out how to connect them and then pick up the phone, or connect on LinkedIn.

  • Make 20 contacts every day
  • 10 contacts if you’re busy and established 
  • Make the list the night  before
  • If super successful do 5 a day
  • Do this on a daily basis.  be consistent!

Remember that Energy follows Thought when i comes to new business development.

How to Find Connie Kadansky

Connie Kadansky is a recognized expert in identifying and eliminating Sales Call Reluctance.

Connie earned a solo article in the Wall Street Journal.  Thanks to a cold call, she was paid to do a radio commercial for American Express.  She has been interviewed by Investor’s Business Daily, Bloomberg Business and Inc. Magazine.

These are the links to find Connie online:

www.exceptionalsales.com   This is where you learn how to get your ASK in gear

Sales Call Reluctance Coach Video

https://www.facebook.com/connie.kadansky

https://www.linkedin.com/in/salescallreluctance

www.salesassessmenttesting.com

@ckadansky (Twitter)

https://www.facebook.com/ExceptionalSalesPerformance/

Call Reluctance BEHAVIORAL CHECKLIST 2015

Gift:  Call Reluctance Needs Indicator for Salesperson

Gift:  Call Reluctance Needs Indicator for Sales Managers

This is the FREE assessment Connie mentioned regarding sales call reluctance.

How to Close a Deal

Here are some other episodes you may find of interest regarding the sales CLOSE

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The 5 Fundamentals for Closing a Sale #79

How To Close A Sale

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How To Close A SaleThe 5 Fundamentals for Closing a Sale

In this episode of the Sales Babble sales podcast we will discuss how you too can learn how to close a sale with ease.  And you can do it honestly and without being pushy.   We started with a quote.

Consider Dale Carnegie  the author of groundbreaking book How to Win friends and influence others said”

“When dealing with people,

let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. 

We are dealing with creatures of emotion,

creatures bustling with prejudices

and motivated by pride

and vanity”. – Dale Carnegie

That’s the topic for today.

The 5 Fundamentals for Closing a Sale

Waiting for the the  customer to  up and buy by saying “sounds good to me here’s my credit card”  is not a sound strategy. Instead consider the following:

  1. Start closing the moment you meet
  2. Help them make  a decision that’s good for them
  3. Use the Sum it All Up close
  4. Ask the Yes Yes Yes   questions
  5. Use the Why Wait and Put Off the Inevitable question

Go Here For Other Sales Babble Sales Podcast Episodes with Closing Tips

Links Mentioned

There were two links mentioned in this episode:

How to Give a Terrific Presentation

How to PRESENT a terrific sales presentation #76    In this episode we shared how to give a terrific sales presentation based on the Selling with Confidence sales system.     It is called the PRESENT sales presentation process PRESENT.

Lunch and Learn LIVE Workshop October 7th

I will be providing free sales training lunch and learn workshop October 7th, 2015.    Sign up!   It’s in Naperville, IL

Sales Training, Sales Coaching, Sales Consulting

Selling With Confidence  is  the online self-paced sales course that teaches you  how to ….

  • Be Yourself
  • Add Value
  • Make Sales

Don’t be shy non-sellers!  You too can start Selling With Confidence today

Cold Calling Tips

Let’s keep up the conversation on the Sales Babble sales podcast. Listen now!