Category: selling innovations

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How to Win the Game with a Sales Playbook with Rod Feuer #253

Dave Gerhardt Sales Babble Playbook

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How to Win the Game with a Sales Playbook with Rod Feuer #253

Dave Gerhardt Sales Babble PlaybookConsider the possibility of not just having a model to base your selling process, but a playbook like in sports that tells you what to say and when to say it. Last week we heard advice that  selling must go from models to mindset. Today we’re going to turn the conversation around to look at it from the perspective of going from mindset to models, a sales playbook.

Our guest is Rod Feuer, Chief Strategy Officer, and Co-Founder of Costello. He believes that the best way to have the right first time conversation  is to tip the scales in your favor with a sales playbook. Rod helps sellers navigate key conversations in the moment and qualify them on critical deal information to keep opportunities advancing to a close.

Conversation Playbooks

The goal is to put reps in best place and to help guide them through calls. Give them the best set of words to respond for two kinds of calls . The first one is outbound calls (cold call  you often get push back) and overcome objections. The goal is to schedule a meeting. The second call is an inbound call and discovery conversation.

Picture a playbook with all the right conversations and questions a prospect might take. It’s a decision tree with paths. Once you make enough manual calls you get a 80-20 idea what they are going to say and how they will respond.  The goal is not to be a robot.

  • What you ask always the same
  • How you ask is adaptive

Take Action Advice

Start on version 1 of your sales playbook by writing down the 7-10 things about a deal you want to know. Next come up with questions that answer those questions. Now you have a great start. 

How To Connect with Rod Feuer

Rod chief strategy officer at Costello

This Rod on LinkedIn 

Sales Process Episodes

Let’s keep the conversation going and listen to other past episodes on this topic!

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Why You Need a Killer Business Plan with Peter Mehit #232

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Why You Need a Killer Business Plan with Peter Mehit #232

My guest Peter Mehit delves into to the importance of having a business plan. We observe how the skills that make great entrepreneurs, are not the skills of a great CEO. Entrepreneurs and sales professionals are known for taking quick action. But too often they do so without a plan. This is the death of many companies. Peter is the author of the book  “Killer Business Plan” . In this episode we learn how a business plan is what’s needed to take your business to the next level.

Hope for the Best, Plan for the Worst

If you don’t visualize the destination, nor understand where you’re at, you’ll not know where to go. As business professionals we need to have a clear idea where we’re heading. Business plans are important to decide where you’re business is going.

Peter paraphrased former guest Geoffrey Moore and Adoption Curve guru stating the skills of an entrepreneur  are not the same ones to grow it. Entrepreneurs can make immediate decisions, but lack the skills for long term planning. We each need to be CEOs and see our business as a machine. Instead of living in a world of response, we need to move to a world of planning.

Any Plan is Better Than None

A simple business plan made with business cards and a poster board might be more than adequate to get started. You need to understand WHERE you want to go. You need to learn discipline and ask:

  • Who’s the customer?
  • Why would they buy?
  • Are they in your geographic area?
  • Is it about you, or the customer?
  • Is it about what the CUSTOMER wants?
  • If you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one.

To earn raving fans you have to target them and their taste, values and the things they care about.

When Sales Are Flat

If sales are flat, look at your products. Ask….

  • Are they still relevant?
  • Where could they become relevant in another market?

You could be at saturation, or you’re no longer competitive. It could be time to move on. Or it could be time to find a different market for your product.  You may need a marketing plan which is a subset of a business plan, the biggest part of the plan. When complete, test! Take something from AGILE planning, trust but verify.

Thoughts on Business Model Canvas

Business Model Canvas  is a diagram taught in business schools for starting a business plan.   Peter believes it’s a good starting point, but only that, a starting point. You should be able to logically explain the steps described on the canvas. Otherwise an investor’s going to take a pass. Think beyond the creation and manufacturing of your product or service. Focus on how you’re going to sell it and grow revenue.

Take Action Plan

  • Visualize clearly who you’re selling to
  • Know what they’re about
  • Always ask am I talking to the right person
  • Always ask am I doing the right things

Unless you’re checking yourself, you’re wrecking yourself – Peter Mehit

How To Find Peter Mehit

You can find Peter and  Custom BPS here:

His “Killer Business Plan” 3 part book is available for you. Send an email to pmehit @ custombps.com and get a copy of the book for free!

Past episodes mentioned:

How To Grow Business

Here are past episodes to keep up the conversation. Listen today!

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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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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

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How To Sell Hardware, Software and All Things IT with Mike Slowik #181

Mike Slowik Sales Babble Hardware Software IT Sales

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Mike Slowik Sales Babble Hardware Software IT SalesHow To Sell Hardware Software and All Things IT with Mike Slowik #181

In this episode we meet Mike Slowik, 34 year veteran of selling hardware software and all things IT  But Mike tells us that he doesn’t actually sell IT. He sells change.  We talk about the enterprise sale and the complexity of working a prospect who brings a large team for the evaluation.

Mistakes sellers make: Not communicating, not talking in a style prospects respect. It’s a must if you want to learn how to sell hardware software and IT.

The Danger of the Unsolicited RFP

It’s difficult to win an RFP, especially one that is requested out of the blue. Most likely your competition wrote the majority of the evaluation. Get a meeting before applying for an unsolicited RFP to see if it’s worth the trouble. Moral of the story – GET THE MEETING.

FUD  (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt)

FUDing is a process sellers use to motivate prospects to look at competition skeptically.

  • Fear
  • Uncertainty
  • Doubt

Get the prospect to dig deep into the competition by creating fear, uncertainty and doubts in their mind. Have the prospect take the initiative and  see if the competition is all they promise. At the same time assume YOUR competition is doing the same to you. Have an answer to set the facts straign about your company.

Treat Everyone Like the Boss

It only takes on person on the buying team to deep six a deal. Beware of groupthink!  Listen deeply to everyone’s insight. Don’t judge the team, dynamics quickly. It may not be at ALL what you think it it.

How To Connect With Mike Slowik

Maybe you would like to learn more on how to sell hardware software and IT. Connect here…

We mentioned the Aurora University Sales Institute

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Consultative Technology Selling

This is just one of a number of past episodes that discusses the enterprise and sale and the need for using a consultative process. Listen 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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All Entrepreneurs are in Sales with Derin Alemli #110

Derin Alemli Entrepreneur

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Derin Alemli EntrepreneurAll Entrepreneurs are in Sales with Derin Alemli #110

Sales Babble is expanding! We’re looking to add a forum where Sales Babble listeners can ask questions and share experiences but we need your help! Please complete this survey .

Derin Alemli is a serial entrepreneur who lives in Chicago.  Having founded DownBeats in 2012, he is also became the Founder & CEO of Square Roots Kitchen, a new fast casual health restaurant, as well as being involved with two other pre-launch startups in Founder and Co-Founder roles.  In this episode we talk about starting a successful business and how all entrepreneurs are in Sales with Derin Alemli

Serial Entrepreneur

Derin says he sees business opportunities everywhere. Downbeats.com is an Ecommerce B2C business with $10 price point. At first he built sales organically,  person to person and then by word of mouth.   He also generated individual sales that pull demand from supplier relationships. Those are his primary market channels.

Knowing Your Market

Derin strongly believes that selling your first customers validates your business.  It provides a feedback loop on your product or service.  For example he found that young people cared about sound quality vs health of their eardrums. He has found over time the solution required managing expectations.

Focus on the feedback you get from your first customers and beware of confirmation bias.

How to Find Derin Alemli

Derin Alemli Bio

Derin Alemli is a serial entrepreneur who lives in Chicago. Having founded DownBeats in 2012, he is also the Founder & CEO of Square Roots Kitchen, a new fast casual health restaurant, as well as being involved with two other pre-launch startups in Founder and Co-Founder roles. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur Derin worked in hedge fund portfolio management for Grosvenor Capital Management. Derin has an MBA from the University of Chicago in addition to holding the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Sales Babble in the Press

Learning sales as you travel  is not limited to the Sales Babble podcast. There are other venues: press, podcasts, blogs, newspapers and newsletters that have generously featured Sales Babble.  Listen here for  specific articles and programs that have been published.

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What is Sales 3.0 with Shawn Karol Sandy #83

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Shawn Karol SandyWhat is Sales 3.0 with Shawn Karol Sandy

In this episode we meet Shawn Karol Sandy,  Chief Revenue Officer of the Selling Agency. Shawn and I chat about how the landscape of selling has changed. Furthermore,  what used to work in sales, what doesn’t and what it takes to be a successful  seller today.

Shawn shares the 5 trends  that will shape sales in the next few years. She calls this Sales 3.0

Five Future Trends in Sales

  1.  Transition from Lone Rangers to Team Captains.  Team Captains bring together assets and resources from their company as well as prospective buyers organizations.
  2. Cold calling is dead. You must build relationships, before calling.  Future sellers will widen their Monkey’s  Sphere i.e.  the number of people they  have in their  immediate network.
  3. There will be no more Heavy Handed closers, They will be replaced by  collaborators where closing is no longer an arm wrestle, it’s an orchestra.
  4. Social selling, is just selling. It’s about becoming an evangelist about something bigger.
  5. Slick people pleaser types will go away. They are not authentic nor transparent. Empathetic sellers will replace these types.

What You Can Do To Embrace Sales 3.o

Understand the world around you and how the buying process is 57-75% complete before you meet prospects.  Be….

  • Visible
  • Vocal
  • Valuable

Biography Shawn Karol Sandy

“Shawn has conquered, redefined and re-engineered Sales and Marketing roles in multiple organizations and in multiple industries. In her business, The Selling Agency, she uses these experiences to create strong sales programs and strategies that focus on the goal of every business – revenue growth.

 Straightforward, practical and perhaps slightly cheeky, her innate gifts are helping people find new ways to solve old problems, unique ways to approach new problems and helping small businesses sell more.”

Links Mentioned In This Episode

Download the FREE  Ebook Sales Leadership Tips

 

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

Go here and see  how you can start  selling with confidence today.

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How to Win Complex Sales in Technology – an Interview With Brad Walker

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Brad Walker LIBrad Walker is a Strategic Account Manager at SalesForce.com, a company that specializes in CRM solutions. Brad is a former colleague,  old friend and Enterprise Sales expert.

In this episode Brad shares  stories, both wins and losses in sales. He explains how it’s  critical to listen to all parties when selling solutions and the importance of connecting  with the business sponsor.  If the decision maker is not on board, the deal may never close.

Brad believes that “Sales is an honorable profession, if done right.”

Click Here To Download This Episode

Complex Sales, How to Approach It

Brad comes from a world of enterprise sales:

  • selling complex solutions
  • to large organizations

In these cases,  many people involved in the sale. They have have input into the process, they may not. In most cases, each person is responsible for a small portion of the decision. No one person makes the ultimate solution. But there is one person managing the sale. You must keep  them in the loop.

Selling Technology

When selling technology solutions, Brad believes that you must

  1. take the time to listen to all participants
  2. let everyone speak their mind
  3. learn all about the organization
  4. do your best to  please everyone

But if you don’t have the true decision maker/ business sponsor enrolled, the deal will go sideways and may never close.

Always remember “Business trumps IT”

Sales Resources and Links

Brad can be found  on his LinkedIn account.

Brad  is a strong supporter of his  son’s  marketing company Walker Internet Marketing   Look it up!

The New Strategic Selling by Miller/Heiman  is the book  that turned around Brad’s thinking about sales. It’s a great book and I recommend it for anyone selling complex solutions to large organizations.

Find Pat Helmers on LinkedIn

If you enjoyed this episode  please take a moment to find me on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is my favorite  Social Media  venue these days.

Stop on by and we’ll share  cup of coffee, if only virtually.

The Minimalist’s Guide to Sales Prospecting

The following Infographic comes from a SalesForce.com  Canada  article features ten useful activities that take less than 20 minutes a day. You may find it of value!

Click To Enlarge

How to Increase Productivity

Via Salesforce

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Crossing the Chasm an Interview with author Geoffrey Moore

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Geoffrey-Moore-PhotoEver wondered why  the Segway scooter  never took off?   Or QR Codes ? Have you ever wondered why the iPad became hot while the Zune Player died a lonely life? Do you look at  Google Glass and wonder “huh….is that the future”?

If  you’ve ever pondered the question why  some technologies stick,  and others fade,  it would be useful if you had a frame of mind to better understand what works and what doesn’t.  If you’re a sales professional in high tech,  you NEED a way of ensuring your stuff becomes popular and not the next  WebTV.

Today Geoffrey Moore is going to  answer these questions. Geoffrey is the author of the book “Crossing the Chasm” and today we’ll talk about how to market and sell disruptive products to mainstream customers.

Go to www.salesbabble.com/contest   Enter your name and address to  be entered in the contest!

In This Sales Episode

In this episode we discuss the following:

  • Everybody is at different spot on the Adoption curve, it’s not a moral statement!
  • Some people are early adopters for technologies, and late adopters for other. It depends.
  • Understand the stakeholders in your deals. Not everyone agrees on where the organization stands on the adoption curve.
  • Ask the question,  “Where are they on the curve when it  comes to your technology?”
    • Are they early adopters?
    • Laggards
    • Pragmatists?

Right-click here to download the MP3

 Items of Interest

Geoffrey Moore’s website is here    There is a wealth of information available here

The book Crossing the Chasm can be found here.   This is the third addition with all new examples using contemporary technologies.

Contest

Again, would you like to win a copy of Crossing the Chasm?

Enter your name and mailing address(any where in the world, I’ll pick up the postage)  below by September 22nd  2014 to  place your name in a raffle  to be  announced on Tuesday September 23rd. This is a great book that any seller in technology must own.

Click here  to enter the contest!

Got a Question on Sales?

If so ask me!  Go here to  leave an audio message.   Or click here to type a message.

I’ll review your cold calling script! Leave a question and I’ll respond!

 

I really appreciate your support and sharing what we do with friends and colleagues.   If you would like to share the love  on Twitter, click here.

To learn more about Sales Babble and how we can teach you a selling style that fits your personality start here.