Category: Mindset

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You Can’t Challenge Your Way to a Sale with Meridith Elliot Powell

Meridith Elliott Powell Sales Babble

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You Can’t Challenge Your Way to a Sale with Meridith Elliott Powell #231

Meridith Elliott Powell Sales BabbleOur guest is Meridith Elliott Powell, an award-winning author, keynote speaker and business strategist. Meridith is the author of four books, including Winning In The Trust & Value Economy and her latest Own It: Redefining Responsibility – Stories of Power, Freedom & Purpose. Today we challenge the Challenger Sale and  discuss better ways to engage, qualify, and build client relationships that last.

The Challenger Sale

The Challenger Sale advices sellers to take control of the sale by taking on the role of teacher. This doesn’t work in all situations. The sales conversation is a dance where we learn about our prospects AND they learn about us. You can’t teach your way through most sales!

Sales is not a task to win according to Meridith. If a prospective  client is a fit, that’s great. If they’re not a fit, that’s OK too. We’re not a match for everyone. The goal is find those that DO see your value.  It’s a case of learn not teach!

Sell From A Place Of Power vs a Place of Need

Our responsibility as sellers is to make people aware of our amazing product and its benefits. Meridith believes we are driven by the desire to love people and help them. Yet we can’t be a human specification sheet. Instead we need to build a relationship and explore the buyers needs and desires. For example:

  • slow down at the beginning
  • sell aggressively on the subsequent sales
  • sell an urgent need
  • remember it’s unlikely you are top of mind when first meeting a prospect
  • customers need to be heard
  • sales training doesn’t apply to everyone

Take Action Advice

Lastly, listen, learn and allow the buyer to talk.  If you do that they will tell you what you need to do

How To Find Meridith Elliot Powell

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/meridithelliottpowell/
Website – www.valuespeaker.com
Twitter https://twitter.com/meridithpowell
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/meridith.powell

This is the link to the FREE ebook 42 Rules to Turn Prospects Into Customers that Meridith mentioned in the podcast.

Sales Skills Training

Below are a number of past episodes that talk about mindset, rapport and generating genuine conversations that lead to closed sales. Enjoy!

 

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White Collar Warrior with Bill Hart #226

Bill Hart Sales Babble

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Bill Hart Sales BabbleWhite Collar Warrior with Bill Hart #226

In this episode I interview  Bill Hart, author of the book White Collar Warrior: Lessons for Sales Professionals from America’s Military Elite.   Bill is a real estate expert and business coach who interviewed some of the best and brightest Army Rangers and Navy SEALS.  My son Captain John Helmers is attempting Ranger School for a second time in August 2018.  It’s a great time to look into these elite military schools and see what business professionals can learn from them.

It’s About the Mentality

Ranger school requires amazing physical ability. But it’s not about athletism. It’s about the mentality. You can’t wing Ranger  and Navy Seal schools. Yet so often sellers wing each sales call. Here are the seven characteristics Bill found common among the military elite:

  1. Training – they keep working on their craft and improving their skills.
  2. Discipline – they commit to their goals and responsibilities. They create habits that ensure daily success.
  3. Fear – in sales it’s call reluctance. Fear tells you this is important. Let the results overcome your fear.
  4. Planning – they plan for success and failure. For sellers, business planning is a must, getting organized in a methodical manner
  5. Failure – learn from your failures, “Failure, the greatest teacher is” – Yoda
  6. Motivation – know why you’re doing what you’re doing. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
  7. Team – can’t be a lone wolf. You have others who can help you leverage success.

Remember this Discipline equals freedom!

How To Find Bill Hart

This is Bill’s website https://www.coachbillhart.com/

For a leaders guide, reader guide, and book summary go to www.whitecollarwarriorbook.com

His book White Collar Warrior: Lessons for Sales Professionals from America’s Military Elite.

Selling Mindset

We have many past episodes on the selling mindset. Enjoy!

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Debunking Sales Myths with Mike Schultz #216

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Debunking Sales Myths with Mike Schultz #216

Selling has changed tremendously in the last 10 years. But prospecting has changed even more. Previous  research suggests that 57 percent of the purchase decision is complete before a customer calls a supplier.  This gives sellers the false impression that buyers don’t want or need to talk to them early in the buying process. They do! Mike Schultz visits Sales Babble for clarifying and debunking these sales myths with advice based on hard research.

Some Common Sales Myths

Rain Group is a sales research institute just completed a study on prospecting. They talked to 488 buyers, asking them what  is the process they have used for past purchases.

They study found it’s a sales myth that buyers don’t want to talk to sellers, eg. 67% sale done digitally. But this should slow sellers down.  71%  of buyers said they want to talk to sellers at the early part of their research. They want context. With too many choices it becomes to difficult for buyers to choose “Its the ‘paradox of choice” according to Barry Schwartz.

  • Myth cold calling is dead. Greater than 50%  of buyers prefer to be contacted by the telephone. It is second only to email. Of the buyers researched,  57% have had the seller reach out to them on the phone.
  • 82% of buyers take meetings with people they don’t know but have talked to on the phone.
  • Buyers need inspiration, start with your existing clients.

What Winners Do

It’s a myth that buyers don’t want to hear about capabilities and only benefits. The #1 content buyers want is features and capabilities. It’s buyers primary research on their industry. They want descriptions of the capabilities in context. They desire content customized 100% to their business  Not mass mail merges.

Great Sellers WAVE

  1. Winners Mindset – The Mindset of a winner is strategic,  not tactics only.
  2. Attraction Campaign – multistep and modal approach to reach out and connect to buyers. The number of attempts to reach a prospect should be 8 (not 3).
  3. Value – Get prospects to say wow that could be worthwhile (to have a call, meet, agree to demonstration or buy).
  4. Execution -Winners do all the tactical parts. They take action to turn around objections. They exercise executive functions to stay focused in a noisy world.  They have the ability to concentrate and focus for prospecting (which is the hardest thing to do).

 

Cold meetings that have a value approach will turn deals into wins. When sellers focus on value, 96% said it was influential. They want to be educated and collaborative >90%.  Yet the meetings must be interesting and add value. Most sales meetings are not valuable to most buyers. If they are impressive they will buy  things.

Take Action Plan

To get good at prospecting you have to make it 100% of your focus.   Attack it like you’re going to make it work. Build an  attraction campaign.

How To Find Mike Schultz

Website: https://www.raingroup.com

Mike Twitter: https://twitter.com/mike_schultz

RAIN Group Twitter: https://twitter.com/rainselling

RAIN Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RAINGroup/

Mike LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeschultz50/

RAIN Group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rain-group_2/

Mike mentioned that we was happy to share a copy of the report with the audience:  5-sales-prospecting-myths-debunked

How to Prospect and Generate Leads

Here are past episodes that talk about the mindset for lead generation.

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How To Sell With The Socratic Method with Roger Breisch #214

Sales Babble Roger Breisch

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How To Sell With The Socratic Method with Roger Sales Babble Roger BreischBreisch #214

Roger Breisch is a  life-long learner who loves ideas and experiences that shake the intellectual and emotional ground on which he stands.  Roger is the host of the Socrates Cafe and guest speaker on the topic of questioning. Rogers’s powerful life experiences working a suicide hotline frame clearly what matters in life. In this episode we discuss how to sell with the Socratic Method and the power questions.

Mindset of Questioning

Questions open up possibilities. Statements close them down. We started the episode with talking about questions and how they fit in the world of business:

  • Socratic Method – form of cooperative dialogue based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas
  • Listen listen listen. This is how we learn to sell with the Socratic method.

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

– Mark Twain

  • Sadly too often sellers listen until they hear the first gap and then start talking
  • Fluency is key to communication
  • You must be fluent in your product and services BUT … you  must also be fluent in THEIR business and life

Mission Question

  • Don’t have a mission statement have a mission question
  • Brainstorming provides value to create new ideas. Yet statements can be intimidating. Instead consider Question Storming. Questions open up entirely new opportunities
  • It takes 25-50 questions before you reach the real interesting issues.

Be curious.  Be genuine. Be loved and people will buy, over and over.

We all want to know is if our lives made a difference. Find out what makes you unique and different from the rest. Once you discover that, be it. You have much in you to be unlocked. People are amazing and so are you.

How To Find Roger Breisch

You can find Rogers blog at rebreisch.com .

This is his book “Questions That Matter” – a book of essays

Also mentioned “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Burger

Want to get a great cup of coffee? Consider the Limestone Coffee and Tea in Batavia IL

Selling Mindset

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How To Sell With the CRINGE Method from Doug Vigliotti #213

Doug Vigliotti Sales Babble

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Doug Vigliotti Sales BabbleHow To Sell With the CRINGE Method #213

Douglas Vigliotti is a sales consultant, workshop-speaker, and bestselling author of The Salesperson Paradox: A Strikingly Simple Way to Provide Solutions Your Customers Can’t Say No To.  In this book Doug shares how to sell with the CRINGE method, a strategy and mindset of focusing on helping clients, not pushing product.
Doug has twelve years of successful frontline sales experience, across three different industries, and two Fortune 500 companies—Automatic Data Processing and Johnson & Johnson. In January 2016, he opened the doors of groundupSALES, a strategic selling partner for non-sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners.
He’s an avid reader and writes a monthly reading list at douglasvigliotti.com.

Purpose of Business To Create and Keep Customers

Doug believes that customers will view you completely different when you go from selling to helping. Why is this? Doug sights a number of aspects:

  • Mindset shift – people will feel you are looking out after them.
  • Common way to reset your view ask ” Why did you start this business? “
  • If you  focus on money  it will hurt your sales performance. Yes it’s a paradox, but it’s true
  • Businesses pay commissions with the idea that the harder you work, the more you make. But great sellers work hard for reason above and beyond short term commissions.

Peter Drucker said ” The purpose of business is to create and keep your customers”

Furthermore Doug believes:

  • True performer able to set aside the “me first” inclination.
  • Consider that helping people is a moral obligation for you to SOLVE their problems.

CRINGE Solution

Doug then shared his CRINGE method. Consider a product service and solution that you have to cringe to say yes … a whole body solution.

  • Customer First – did my customer feel like they won?  If they do,  they will come back for more business.
  • Real Problem – are you solving a “real” problem? Don’t assume problems. Put yourself in their shoes.
  • Immense Value- in is the solution. Price is what you pay, value is what you get. Ways to differentiate: time, status, ease,  money.
  • Non-Negotiable – your mindset is complete belief in your solution. You know your customers are better off.
  • Good Timing – create good timing, improve your luck, by understanding your customer and they are ready to buy.
  • Easy – make it easy to say yes by reducing risk.

Take Action

Become more conceptual and strategic in your selling. It’s a quicker route to business success. Too many sellers are tactic driven when they should be more conceptual in their selling approach.
One tactic to consider is Sales Prevention: don’t oversell products in your portfolio that may not help your customers. If they don’t love the product it will hurt your next sale. Focus on your long game.

How Find Doug Vigliotti

You can find Doug on the internet. Look here!

The Lost Chapter 13

This is the lost chapter to Doug’s book mentioned in the podcast. Just for Sales Babble listeners!

SalesBabble.thesalespersonparadox.com   

 

Selling Mindset

Here are other past episodes that focus on the selling mindset beyond the CRINGE method.

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The Key to Authentic Selling with Jeff Davis #207

Jeff Davis Sales Babble

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Jeff Davis Sales BabbleThe Key to Authentic Selling with Jeff Davis #207

In this episode we meet long time Sales Babble listener Jeff Davis and author of the new book The Power of Authentic Leadership.  Jeff and I discuss the importance of sellers embracing a leadership role, and apply their personal value system  to build trust in prospective clients. Jeff gives the key to authentic selling with a 3 step process for authentic leadership.

Sales Credibility

Every day sales professionals  put themselves and their products and services into the world. Success is dependent on effectively connecting with prospects. To do that you must have absolute buy-in to what you’re selling. People sabotage themselves by not fulling committing to the product/service.  Customers can read that and not trust.

Three Step Authentic Selling Process

The key to authentic selling is knowing yourself, your product and aligning the two when selling:

  1. Know your personal VALUES – it’s not what you know, it’s what you apply
  2. Make sure your VALUES are applied to what your SELLING (solving a need, providing a genuine solution).
  3. Make sure the two values align. This builds trust.

Example: Let’s say you have a personal value of “integrity”. When you’re  qualifying clients and identifying needs, leverage that value. With integrity, you will naturally focus on benefits (that add value to the prospect) vs features that tend to cater to the sellers ego. Place the customer first and tip the odds to your favor.

Common Values of Leaders

Leaders commonly exhibit the following characteristics:

  • Integrity
  • No hidden agenda (higher than making money)
    • Serving Others
    • Having the best interest of others
  • Have a personal vision for them in the world, apply their values within that vision
  • Take Initiative ( fully take responsible)
  • Serve and protect their employees ( fire bad clients who abuse their company/staff)

The key to authentic selling is to take the leadership role and serve your customers.

Take Action Plan

Get out and meet prospects and clients face to face. Don’t over rely on marketing, email, social media and phone calls.

How to Find Jeff Davis

Website: http://jeffdspeaks.com/

Jeff has kindly offered Sales Babble listeners a free PDF copy of my bestselling book, The Power of Authentic Leadership. Send an email to his  Executive Assistant Meg meg@jeffdspeaks.com

Selling Mindset

Here are past mindset episodes with terrific advice you can apply today!

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The Purpose of Sales with May McCarthy #203

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The Purpose of Sales with May McCarthy

The purpose of this episode is to talk about purpose! Our guest May McCarthy discusses the value of aligning our day-to-day decisions towards some greater purpose. May walks us through a discovery process used by sales people and business owners alike. The purpose of sales is unique for each of us. In this episode let’s reveal what you want, how to achieve it and lastly how does your company help or hinder your success.

Lack of Purpose

Companies know what they do, but not why. Even if they do, large organizations fail to share it up and down the organization. A purposeless organization will experience:

  • lack of innovation
  • disengaged employees
  • listless shareholders
  • fickle customers
  • lower profits

A clear shared purpose can address these concerns and provide you your unique purpose of sales.

Personal Purpose, Company Purpose

Ask three questions to reveal the purpose of sales in your life:

  1. What did you do when young that you truly loved?
  2. Ask people who you know and respect, “What do you think I’m really good at?”
  3. Ask yourself, “What do you think you’re really good at?”

Companies can ask the same three questions. Now factor out the commonalities between the companies purpose and your personal purpose.  When there is alignment, true productivity abounds!

How To Find May McCarthy

You can find May at www.maymccarthy.com

She has a new book! It’s being published this March 2018 titled The Path to Wealth: Seven Spiritual Steps for Financial Abundance https://bizzultz.com/book

https://www.facebook.com/pages/May-Mccarthy/601413533280571

https://twitter.com/maymcc

https://www.linkedin.com/company/2960330

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCix8fz8aVtelYnp5AKFmLuw

Selling Mindset

Check out the back catalog and listen to terrific episodes on the right selling mindset today!

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Time To Sell Mindset with Chris Spurvey #202

Chris Spurvey Sales Babble

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Chris Spurvey Sales Babble Time To Sell Mindset with Chris Spurvey #202

In this episode Chris Spurvey shares his uncomfortable sales journey. When he started in sales, he didn’t find instant success. It took time, but he discovered the right mindset that would allow him to connect with prospects, and convert them into loyal clients. He calls it Chris Spurvey 5.0.  In his new book It’s Time to Sell he explains his process for reinvention, self discovery and the right time to sell mindset.

Achievement Demands a Vision

Without a direction, you can’t reach a destination. Chris believes a compelling vision motivates you to go out and act. It’s all about mindset. By celebrating smalls win, successes will compile.

  • Create a vision with a time to sell mindset
  • Set aside time each day executing this vision

What is your sales vision? Consider framing sales as a problem solver, not a pusher. If you can give your clients a good night sleep you’re doing it right. Create relationships with your clients and gain their trust with “Questions of Understanding.”  

Bad Sales Management

We need to shed this idea that great salespeople are fast talkers. While working in sales, Chris got a new sales director.  He moved his comp plan from closed sales to an activity focus vs percent of revenue. It was demotivating for the team. Given the manager didn’t provide training or coaching, sales tanked. Eventually he was fired and surprisingly Chris was promoted in his place.  Why? Chris started researching world class sales organizations on his own. He was mentally prepared for the next step.

Take Action Advice

Chris invites three people for a Skype call per day on Linkedin.  One of out three agrees. He talks to someone new regarding:

  • Vision
  • Gratitude
  • Serving
  • Learning
  • Hub for Networking

At any point in time we are a moment away from a breakthrough. Get ready for it!   Leverage LinkedIn and reach out to three people every day.   Create opportunity.

How To Find Chris Spurvey

Chris can be found across the internet with his time to sell mindset.

To find his book go to It’s Time to Sell and he has a podcast it’s Time To Sell

Consultative Selling

Let’s continue the conversation. Here are past episodes you will find on topic. Listen now!

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Three Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus #201

Phil Boissiere Sales Babble

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Phil Boissiere Sales BabbleThree Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus with Phil Boissiere #201

Phil Boissiere is a Silicon Valley tech startup and executive coach. He works with founders, entrepreneurs and sales people who struggle with attention fatigue. In this episode Phil gives us practical advice on how to boost your selling productivity.  His 3×3 method is a quick way to tune up your sales brain, vanquish stress and narrow your sales focus. Your brain is the most important tool you have in your bag. Use it!

Sales = Stress

The sales profession attracts people who are willing to put themselves on the line. Sales people are  evaluated on:

  • performance factors – e.g. closed sales, advanced deals, prospecting, etc..
  • social factors – e.g. likeability, relationship building, etc…

When stress goes up, performance goes down. When people are stressed, they make the wrong decision. Quick fixes have limits. Discover the root cause within you and what’s going on in your brain. for example, with dehydration your cognition drops!

Tedious complex tasks hurt concentration, create distraction and a bad attitude. Stress and worry turns on the emotional part of you brain. You don’t want this. Since your overloading your brains with apps, photos, and videos, it’s hard to narrow your sales focus.

3×3 Method

Phil has a way to relieve stress with a simple exercise. Combine the naming of an object with a deep breath. Since your brain can’t do two things at once, it will allow you destress and focus.

Pick three objects in the room and say the following:

  • That’s a Lamp (take a breath)
  • That’s a Painting (take a breath)
  • That’s my Desk (take a breath)

Sellers are paid to perform.  Since this work is  future focused, it creates stress. Be preventive in mindfulness and reap rewards on your productivity.

Sleep Trumps Stress

Coffee is a stimulant. It can help mental focus but it’s only a stop gap.  When your brain is depleted of sleep it creates:

  • irritability
  • frustration
  • distractibility
  • low energy
  • cranky mood

Get to sleep now!

How To Find Phil Boissiere

http://www.philboissiere.com – Executive Leadership Coaching

Focus Playbook    philboissiere.com/salesbabble

Selling Mindset

Here are many terrific past episodes on the selling mindset. Listen today!

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Why Commissioned-Based Sales Plans Fail to Work with Justin Clark

Justin Clark Sales Babble

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Justin Clark Sales Babble Why Commissioned-Based Sales Plans Fail to Work with Justin Clark

Justin Clark is the Director of Sales for a janitorial and packaging products distributor. Over time, Justin’s company found sales reps spending more time auditing their paychecks than selling.  They also found the commission-based sales plans failed to motivate reps to do the best for their customers. To overcome this challenge they moved their sales staff to a pure performance review based salary plan.  In this interview, Justin shares the story of how they were able to make this extraordinary change in their compensation plan.

Challenges Faced

  • Money is emotional. 100% commissioned sales people would spend as much time making sure they’re paid what they earned vs selling.
  • Reps pushed products that brought the most money. There were SPIFs (Sales Performance Incentive Fund) for products that were not good for the customer.
  • Wanted to promote consultative sales and stop sellers pushing products and instead finding solutions.
  • Commission-based sales plans were holding the company back.

Transition Plan

Because of these challenges, Justin slowly created a transition plan to move the organization.

  • Did not move immediately to salary compensation.
  • Slowly moved from commission-based sales plans to salary and bonus plans
  • Still too much focus by reps understanding the bonus
  • Commission-based sales plan was slowly phased out

Final Plan

Once the final plan was finalized it was found to contain:

  • Paid full salaries on most recent best year.
  • Reps paid same as last best year.
  • Money is a manager. Without commission-based sales plans you need to manage. more hands-on and ensure accountability. The final plan requires more coaching and more investigating into reasons reps are not successful.
  • People do good work for many reasons, not just money.

Results

Since the plan has been in place, the results contain:

  • People felt like they needed to hit their goal because the company was ALREADY paying them.
  • Everyone is now on the same team with the exact same goals.
  • Raises are  based on performance review.
  • Some employees didn’t like the plan and found they are not a good fit for the company. Some reps have left the company, others asked to leave.
  • It’s been a 10 year process.

Transition Advice

Now that they’ve reached success, Justin has some clear advice for others interested in changing their compensation plan:

  • Management team needs to look at staff, consider how they will manage them and if they are OK if people leave.
  • Answer this: is it worth getting everyone surrounded around the same purpose. It probably is!

How To Connect With Justin Clark

Commission-based sales plans no longer exist in Justin Clark’s sales department.

Connect with Justin on LinkedIn and learn further details.

 

How to Manage Sales Teams