Get the Decision Makers at the Appointment

Too many times I have lost sales due to not having all the decision makers at the appointment.  This upsets me greatly and just this week I let it happen AGAIN.

When I qualify people either on the phone or somewhere in your sales process it is so important to ensure you have all the DM’s available to attend the meeting.  I usually ask something like

“apart from yourself [name] is there anyone else involved in decisions at this level of the business?”

I need to get really clear on the answer here and probe further to find out if it is a wife or husband in the background.  Many times when selling to owners of small to medium sized businesses I find that there is a “significant other” sitting in the background doing the books for example.  I need to have them present in the meeting.  Imagine the business owner coming home and telling his partner that he just hired a Coach for the business to improve things.  Whats the first question that comes out – how much is that going to cost.  This is a cover question that really means, we are having trouble paying all the bill already, how the hell are we going to pay for that one!

Others to watch out for are the silent partners, usually a parent who might have bankrolled them into the business or they have handed the business to their daughter or son and are still holding the puppet strings behind the scenes no matter how much the prospect thinks they now run things.

I have had the Accountant pop up too.  This si when I know things are not going so well and the Accountant wants to watch every $$.  Watch out for this one too.

Whatever the case – MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM AT THE APPOINTMENT, otherwise they default to being a sales person for you when they get home and we know thats not going to work.

In my next post I’ll show you how to deal with “this all sounds great, I’d like to pass this by my husband / wife first and I’ll call you tomorrow.  It’s a 90% yes from me, but I have to make sure he / she is ok with it” objection.

What preparation to do before a sales call.

This is interesting, my belief is that your sales success is directly related to the amount of preparation you do BEFORE a sales call.  In other words, the amount of prep work you do will determine your conversion rate at a sale.

Here is what I will typically do when selling my Business Coaching Programs

1.Be prepared to do what you do well.  READ, READ, READ and LEARN.  Keep up with your skills training.  Your skills are what put bread on the table or meat.  The better your skills the more prepared you are to do what it is you do best – CLOSE.  Imagine a butcher going through the day without sharpening his knife after each cutting session!!  What are you doing to sharpen your blade?

2. When I receive a lead / referral, the first thing I do is to Google the company or individual.  I want to know what they do, who they sell to, how active they are on the web, what others are saying about them, what their competitors are doing in this space etc.  I want to find out as much as I can, I need to know the industry jargon, whats happening out there, what their challenges might be from an industry perspective.  There is so much information available right at your finger tips.  People are insulted these days if you ask basic questions to help you prepare for the sale – do your homework!

3. I then develop a set of questions that a trusted advisor might ask not a sales person.  I look at their business as if I were going to invest in their company and that in itself throws up a whole set of questions that no other sales person would ask.  As Jeff Gittomer says, People buy for their reasons not yours.  The better the questions the better perceived you are as an advisor not a sales guy.

4. I also put myself in their shoes and try to think like they do.  How does it feel to be that person with the challenges that they have.  So many people – me included – like to put forward a veneer of what our life or business is like.  You have to be able to know what it is like to be that person.  This too allows you to ask the tough questions.  The questions that others may not even think about as they are looking for the sale not finding out where that prospects thinking is at.  I call this playing dumb and digging deep.  I know the answers to most of these, I just need the prospect to utter the words themselves so we cut through the veneer.  Have these ready before your sales call.

Pick up the phone and then make your call…..  Seroiusly, once you have done this level of preperation you will be in a much beter position than your competitor.

How to Improve Your Sales Conversion Rate

I recently calculated that I have given over 9000 sales presentations over the last 25 years, thats about 10 per week consistently, I could probably triple that again with the number of people I have presented to or trained around the world. So over the years I have figured out a few things about selling and how to improve your conversion rate.

Here is an interesting stat that you might find hard to believe. 62% of sales people fail to ask for the order. I was witness to this just 2 weeks ago when I invited a company to come to my home to talk to me about solar power generation. He went through his presentation and I had to close myself. I do find this very hard to comprehend. I am from the old school of sales; I grew up with Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracey. These guys know sales and I figured out that the successful people leave clues behind. Why not pick these up and run with them?

So back to the subject of improving conversion rates. The key to my success early on was to use a visual presentation. Not a laptop, just a simple sales presentation tool which consisted of a series of simple flip charts. Each chart deals with the three learning modalities, Visual, Kinesthetic and Auditory. The visuals would look at the pictures and diagrams, the kinesthetic would hold the presentation with me and the auditory’s would glance at the presentation while listening to me all the way through.

The visual presentation is KEY to your success. I don’t care what it is you are selling, give people to option to see what it is you do, experience the service / product you are selling and get involved in you and your company. Make it short and simple, do not crowd it with too many words or complex diagrams. The more simple the more likely you will not baffle people.

Have plenty of pictures of you and your happy clients, pictures that are relevant, leave clip art pictures out all together. Have sample for people to pick up and touch, give a simple demonstration to show them the practical use of the product / service. People have to be able to see themselves using your product or service. Make sure you use appropriate presentation material. I use a $29 faux leather binder with plastic sleeves for inserts. It is that simple.

So get to it, make your presentation folder and start closing….

Selling to two people in a one call close.

My role in life, apart from being a dad to my two children, is to sell, coach people in sales, learn sales, in fact anything to do with sales…

Over the years I learnt many valuable lessons when selling to two or three people in a one call close environment, i.e. a decision on the day right there and then without the dreaded “we need to talk this over” response. I learnt this from my mentor Tom Hopkins and wanted to share it with you.

When closing I use a process called “breaking the pact”. This is where the husband/wife, brothers, sisters or business partners have said to themselves prior to me turning up “that no matter how good this guy is we are not buying today, well just listen to what he has to say and let him know tomorrow”. It is important to firstly acknowledge this and then go about breaking it and here is what I do.

When closing a sale, I repeat to the first partner all the hot buttons that are important to them and get them agree with what I am saying.  That means that they are saying yes and nodding their head.  ” So John you can see that working with a coach will get you focused on the important things and by working on your cashflow in the first few weeks together we will reduce the overdraft and keep the bank happy”?….

I then turn to the second partner and state all their hot buttons and get them agreeing and nodding their head.  “So Sarah, I we get John focused it will get him out of your hair and we can get on with building systems in the business to free up your time too”…

When either partner sees the other agreeing with me, saying yes and nodding their head, we break the pact in that moment and then you ask for the order. If I fail to do this I generally get the stall and the sale goes nowhere.  It goes something like this.  This all sounds perfect and we are about 90% yes, we need some time to talk this over, time to get our heads around this, can we call you tomorrow?

This happened to me today when I failed to break the pact. I am on the callback list and they are calling me tomorrow!!!!

Make sure when you are selling to multiple people, that you acknowledge and then break the pact that they make before you turn up.

Telephone sales – How to do it…

I was surfing the web on the weekend and started to look into the whole solar power thing. I like the idea of harnessing the power of the sun, generating power for my own needs, feeding any excess power back to the grid and getting paid to do so. What a concept!!

I got onto a few web sites and thought I would test out their response times and sales processes. It is always interesting to see what processes people have to follow-up on-line leads. The company I emailed promptly called me back on Monday, announced who they were and the fact that they were responding to me enquiry on the weekend. She then went into a series of questions and lead me down the path to setting an appointment for a “solar technician” to visit my home for a free assessment.

Right the way through the conversation she continued to outline both features and benefits, she asked all my questions and gave me a lot of valuable information about why they use certain materials, what to look out for when talking to other suppliers, things that really set them apart and then summarised what had been discussed.

Once that had been done she than went into the government rebates, discussed that installation process, what they covered, the incentives, where the government was in relation to subsidies and getting in early to take advantage of phase 1 of the rebates etc….I was left in no doubt that this was the company I needed to have, there was no reason for me to call anyone else. We booked an appointment, in a time frame that suited me perfectly and now I get to see the rest of the process…..

The Green Solar Group did an amazing job on the phone. Now, this is by no means a referral as I have not yet accepted a quote or seen the technician, this is just a great example of how to sell effectively over the phone.

Referrals – How do you get them?

In the business coaching business, it’s all about referrals! I see so many coaches working with clients over prolonged periods of time, getting great results with them yet they, for some reason, do not bring any referrals in. WHY – this is the $64m question.

I’ll tell you why – they just don’t ask!! It really is that simple. When you have been working with a coaching client for 1, 2 or even 3 years or more and getting great results with that client, do you think that they would be willing to mention you and what you do to their friends or other business owners?? Of course they will, it is all about how you go about asking. Most people are too scared to ask thinking that they might look desperate of pushy. If this is the case you are asking the wrong way.

I make sure when I’m starting with a new client that I position them for referrals right up front. I let them know that as we start to see improvements in the business, I will be asking for referrals, people that you know that could benefit from talking to me. No hard sell, not pushy, just straight to the point.

So, don’t be afraid to ask the person you are coaching for a referral, if they expect it right from the get go, they will be actively thinking of you when talking to others who had ot had similar problems in their business.

Dealing with Resistance to Change

I was asked this question recently  “I’m curious to know how you handle it when the objection is really a cover up for their true fear – I really don’t want to change?

So, dealing with getting people to change, it is simple when you understand how and why people are willing to make change in their life or current situation.  Here is a simple equation D X V + F > R otherwise known as the formula for change.  This explains quite simply the process that humans go through when looking to change something.

How it works.  For change to occur, first there must be a level of (D) dissatisfaction.  This D is created either by the persons situation and they decide to change because they do not like the current car, house, suit or what ever.  They talk themselves into it or peer pressure or absolute requirement will force them into change.

About one third of all dissatisfaction is created by sales people.  For example when I sell my coaching services, I have to create a level of dissatisfaction with the prospect first through a series of questions.

• How many hours do you work,
• are you the highest paid person in the business,
• how many holidays do you take each year or when was the last time you took a holiday over two weeks long
• if you take time off does the business work without you
• can you trust your team when you are not there…

You get the idea, I have to create the level of dissatisfaction in the prospect such that they see it clearly.  Not enough dissatisfaction means NO SALE!!

Then I move onto the second part of the equation – V for Vision.  In other words what would life look like if they took on a coach, upgraded the car, got the new suit, moved into a new home.  What problems would it alleviate, what joy would it bring, how good would life be if….

The third step is helping them understand the F, First Steps in making the change.  This might be getting the Credit Card out, completing the paperwork, arranging a deposit, getting the hems taken up, arranging a pest inspection….
So we delved into the pain side of things by uncovering the D, we set the V for what life will look like when the act on that and then get them taking the first steps.  None of this will happen if their R, resistance is still too high, i.e. their resistance to want to change is still too high.  This just means that you have not found enough pain.  It is like a see saw with a heavy kid on one end, he aint going to budge…

It’s your job as a professional to reduce sales resistance and shift the pendulum of power to help then understand how what you do can help….

There are only 4 Kinds of Sales Objections when Selling Services

Are you sure, I can hear you say…  I get all sorts of objects in my role but when I boil them down it really does come down to the 4 types I have outlined right here…

OK, here are the four types of sales objections:

1. “I need to think about it”
2. “Money is a challenge,”
3. “It won’t work for me (it works for everyone else but it won’t work for me),”
4. “I don’t believe you.”

Those are the only four objections there are to anything.

1. “I need to think about it,” This one is the WORST one to get – all it means is that you never positioned the prospect up front so that there was no option “3″ as I call it.  Its OK to say yes, or not, just not MAYBE, or Ill call you tomorrow, or I need to think about it and call you in a week or so, otherwise known as “I need to think about it”.

What I find best to combat this is to position the prospect with a strong intention statement – read more here…..

2. “I can’t  afford it right now,” This is how you’ll usually hear this objection. But you’ve already established value. So the question is, why is this objection coming up at this time, since we’ve already established a need.

The answer may be that there’s not a strong enough linkage to value.

We can also relate money to time. Ask him how much it is costing him to wait. Relate the money to time by asking him how much it is costing to not solve the problem.

One of the best ways of handling objections like this is to use the Contrast Frame.  So, the answer to a money objection is to go back and establish the value or to show them ways that it will pay for itself.  So, when I am selling coaching, for example, I show people how our company won’t cost them anything, because we will produce more results than what the cost of the fee is.

You can break it down to the ridiculous and find a daily rate or link it to a cup of coffee per day or something similar.  With my coaching services, again I break it down to $15/hour, make it simple from a $$ perspective.

3. “It won’t work for me

This is similar to “I don’t believe you.” These two might also be called, “I don’t need it,” or “I can see the value in it and it won’t work for me for whatever reason.”  These objections are answered by naming specific people who bought the service or product, are using it and are happy with it. You can go down a list of the names of the people who purchased and offer to give the prospect their number.  I use a DVD of client testimonials, this does the trick and I make sure I send it out prior to our meeting so they get to find out before I turn up.

4. “I don’t believe you.”

This is essentially the same as the previous objection. You can answer it in a similar way or use other means of raising your credibility and the credibility of your product or service. It will also help to build more rapport with your prospect.

In finishing, remember it’s important that when you have answered the sales objections, go back and re-establish the value of your offering.

Hiring the Best Sales People

A tough one as the best are usually already employed and highly paid!  The best way to hire the best sales people is to hire those with a solid skill level and understanding of the sales process and train the heck out of them such that they become the best..

Think about it, you really want the best, you know who they are and where they work.  You can hunt them down, wine and dine them, offer them more money and hopefully they will step over the line and come on board.  What you miss is whether or not they will fit your company and the culture you have spent time developing.  Will they gel with the rest of the team?

Even though they are a top performer, it does not mean that they are great at fitting into a team and which would you rather lose, the top sales guy or half your team?

Looking back at developing people, this is the best option, the top-notch guy comes with baggage, the new guy has little or no baggage.  Your role as a business owner is to develop your people, train, train and train based on your systems, the way you know how to do it best, after all it was you that started the business and you figured all this out a long time ago….

Heres how to Deal with the Invisible Wall in a Sales Appointment

For most of us on the other end of a sales call, we send up an invisible wall or barrier so that the sales person cannot “get through”. We tend to clam up a little, maybe not let out our true thoughts or feelings and hold back so we dont get “sucked in” to buying something or worse still – signing a contract. I find that most sales people will go straight in and aim for the jugular!! They have not earned the right to ask detailed questions and make assumptions as to where people are in the sales / buying cycle.

It’s like walking into the dentist, being offered to sit in the chair while the dentist walks up to you and starts drilling. How would you feel?? Make prospects feel comfortable, settle them in and outline the process for them so they are not left wondering.

What I do is start out with an “Intention Statement”, a simple 30 second phrase that outlines clearly how this session is going to go. The intention statement is critical to the sales process, it outlines what is to take place in the time you have both set aside so that the prospect is clear and it helps to reduce any anxiety that the prospect may have around sales or any fear of a pressure sales environment. The intention statement is broken into four sections,

1. Ask permission to outline the session
2. Outline the session
3. Two options to reduce pressure
4. OK to proceed.

Here is the one I use – feel free to adjust the wording for your situation.

[Name], is it OK if I outline how we want to invest our time together today? Great, first I would like to ask you a bunch of questions about your business to get to know in more detail the base that you are working from, we will cover any goals you might have, the direction you are heading, the team you have here … . I will also get to some of the frustrations you may have in the business.

Once I have a much better understanding of these issues I will take you through a quick presentation of what it is we do, how we work with clients, the things we cover, the programs we offer and so on.

Now at the end of this presentation you will be left in one of two places.

Either this is a great idea and you want to get started straight away, and my advice would be that if you see something you like grab it and let’s get going… or this is not for you for what ever reason and I will let you know at this point that this program is not right for everyone so it is OK if it is not right for you.

So is it OK if we go through this morning like that.

Use an intention statement and watch the wall drop….