To sell is to help customers solve problems

This is not about Clint Eastwood's 1966 movie, it is about the three possible entry point within the pain cycle we talked about in the previous post http://ashraf-osman.com/2013/06/12/what-a-wonderful-day-for-a-root-canal/    

The color coding green for Good , yellow for Bad and red for Ugly. 

Elite sales persons (the Good) live with their customers; study their operation, challenges and objectives, they have their ears and eyes open for any change within and around their customers.

They notice the triggering events and signs that could signify an upcoming pain which in turn starts a buying cycle. An article about their customers, the annual report, a low sentiment in the social space, etc.. Knowing this they emphasize the need for change, work with their customers to formulate the strategy to deal with and resolve the pain.

In so doing, they witness the birth of the business case and give input to it and finally they are ahead of everybody and their chances of winning the business are unparalleled by their competitors.

Good sales persons (the bad) visit their customers frequently so they are around when the business case is prepared, and if they are lucky enough they will know the budget (they will not influence it though) they might know customer preference, time frame and some relevant information.

Lame sales persons (the Ugly) wait until an RFP is issued, get the document and pass it on to his colleagues and say " we have good relation with the customer, just write a good proposal and we will win it".

Hi

Earlier I have posted a survey to confirm a phenomenon called “Primacy Effect” in human communication, here is the outcome ( If you did not read the post, it is here http://ashraf-osman.com/2013/06/08/which-one-do-i-choose/ ):

- 80% of my FB/TW/LinkedIn friends who helped me said they will hire sales person #2 who had the following profile:

His name is Paul Carter, his friends say he is intelligent, hard-working, impulsive, critical, stubborn and envious, known to meet his targets in a consistent manner and is considered more of a consultant than a sales person, customers call him “our strategic contributor” and buy from himmostof the time.

- They will not hire sales person #1 who had the following profile:

His name is John Cape , his friends say he is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, hard-working and intelligent, known to consistently meet his Quota targets. He has a large base of customers who trust him and will follow his recommendation all the time.

The gut feel decision to hire sales person #2 was taken despite the following factors:

Both sales persons have identical personal traits.

John Cape’s (#1) customers follow his recommendation all the time  .

Paul Carter’s (#2) customer follow his recommendation most of the time.

The reason is what is called “the primacy effect”, the following picture sums it up:

Primacy effect description:  “ Given a list of items to remember, we will tend to remember the first few things more than those things that follow. We also tend to assume that items at the beginning of the list are of greater importance or significance.”

In our case we were all affected by the first traits of sales person #2 although he is still envious, stubborn, critical and impulsive.

Lesson learned:

Primacy effect applies to sentences, presentation slides, product demonstration, etc.

Use the first few words, slides, minutes to pass the message you want to stick in your customer’s mind.

Do not waste the opportunity to grab your customer mind and soul by talking about “how wonderful your company is” or “how advanced your product technology is”

In my next post I will talk about another phenomenon that is as interesting as Primacy effect.

Hi,

Today’s exercise is about hiring a sales person. You will be provided with a one liner for each of two sales persons, you should use your gut feeling to nominate only one of them for immediate hiring.

Since the blog is not interactive, you are invited to rate both sales persons in a comment line. After I receive the comments I will post the idea of this exercise which will be an added value to your sales skills.

 Sales person 1:

His name is John Cape , his friends say he is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, hard-working and intelligent, known to consistently meet his Quota targets. He has a large base of customers who trust him and will follow his recommendation all the time.

 Sales Person 2 :

His name is Paul Carter, his friends say he is intelligent, hard-working, impulsive, critical, stubborn and envious, known to meet his targets in a consistent manner and is considered more of a consultant than a sales person, customers call him “our strategic contributor” and buy from him most of the time.

Please rate each person by giving him a number between  1 and 10,  where  1 means “to be hired immediately” and 10 means “ should not be hired”. You can write in the comment line: sales person 1 rate is “ –“,  and sales person 2 rate is “ –-“.

Quota QSRP reinforcement training is done in the form of a car race.

R&R is a tricky acronym! Google it and you'll probably find these definition :

R&RRock and Roll (music)R&RRest & RelaxationR&RRules and Regulations

However the R&R we mean  in Quota® Sales Performance System is Review & reinforce which is a major step in information retention.

Although we always recommend training the sales managers (Quota® Coach), we acknowledge the "knowledge fading" fact of traditional learning styles as shown in the table below:

That's why Quota's Gamification platform differs from other sales training systems. On top of that Quota has a unique review & reinforce program called Quota® QSRP. It is a game in the form of car race, teams are pit crews competing for the first prize, really cool stuff ! 

QSRP is designed as a review & Reinforcement of Quota B2B, B2C courses and is delivered 6-12 months after the first training is conducted.

One of the things that attracted my attention to Quota® sales performance system (apart from being a leader in sales training Gamification) is the closing part.

While 90% of sales training treat closing as the final step in the sales operation, while the fact is that closing in B2B is entirely different than closing in B2C or retail sales.

In B2B the closing is on many levels:

The business user who initiated the requisition request.

The influencer.

The Key Decision making Committee KDM.

The purchasing/procurement department.

For each level different closing tactics are required, so next time be careful when you hear the word closing without  being substantiated as to what part of the organization we are talking about. As you see there is more than closing to closing.

The following picture shows Quota game and 3 level closing is shown as 3 separate stages in the selling process.

Good luck and good selling, Ashraf Osman, Regional Manager Middle East

The sales training guru Steve Shiffman is introducing a new versatile term; product malleability. He defines it as “re-positioning your product or service to fit your prospect’s specific needs”…. I’m a big fan of this term and hence is this article.

 In today’s ultra-competitive world customers are inundated with products with similar specifications, products that, in fact, will do the job. Name it; flat screens, tablets, cars, SW programs, etc.. They all have similar features and deliver similar benefits.

Now let us examine the word Malleable: 

Malleable is defined as “having capacity for adaptive change”. One clear example is gold leaf. Gold leaf is extremely adaptive (see both pics), so it fits any surface shape and texture and adds value to what it is applied on.

                             Same thing goes with your product, is it malleable enough so it adapts to you prospect's specific needs? Take CRM systems (client relationship management), they all are similar in function and can eventually do the job. Your skill as an elite sales person is find the "malleability" in your product that makes it fit and adapt to your prospect specific needs.

One good example of a malleable product, social networks! Facebook for instance adapts to numerous prospects/customers specific needs; we use it to communicate, establish presence, socialize, advertise, research individuals, companies and markets. This is what I call a malleable product.  

http://www.youtube.com/embed/XRIzE_xMqMI

No one said sales is an easy job! in Quota B2B game we have 2 stacks of cards that trainees come across; Blue Birds and Obstacles. Both are facts of the life the sales person.

Customers get transferred to other departments, companies get acquired and merge with others, downsizing is bound to happen during your sales process,  economy gets a hit every few years, etc..

As an elite sales person you should develop the skill to endure and deal with any sales obstacles.

I love this picture .. really love it.

People do not know you! they merely see a picture of yourself that you personally draw, and they act accordingly.Your reality is a reflection of what you make our of yourself"

Look like a clown, act like a clown.. guess what? in your customer's eye you will become a clown who brings fun and laughter ONLY!

Look like an elite sales person, act like one and you will end up with a picture of a person your customers will love to see, meet with, listen to, take recommendation from.

Make yourself a priority; spend time, effort and money on yourself. Read, attend seminars, watch sales clips on YouTube, rehearse, educate yourself on what your customers do and your customers will position you where you want to be; their problem solver, advisor, trusted partner, and strategic contributor.

Hi,

So you are selling!   the customer is buying!   what happened to the incumbent(existing) vendor? why is your customer changing or replacing him, or is he?

As an elite sales person you need to know everything about the selling opportunity including the reasons of changing the incumbent.

Customers change their vendors because of the following :

Price.

Problems.

Change

Price:

Although price comes first, it is not what you think. Customers change their existing vendors because of price only if the following happens:

Price concern is stated clearly.

There is a company wide initiative of cost cutting as a result of economy, mergers & acquisitions (redundancies).

Downsizing.

Problem:

You need to know if what your customer calls "problem" is not just annoyance. Annoyance creates irritation but not pain. Changing the incumbent vendor is painful as we said earlier, so dig down and find out if your customer faces the following problems:

Loss of reputation resulting from the vendor.

Billing irregularities.

Late shipment.

Service disruption.

Problems with contracts. 

These are problems that warrants the change of vendor because of their profound effect on your customer's operation.

Change:

You know the saying "The only constant thing in life is change"? that is 100% true, so expect change, embrace it and deal with it. One of the reasons customers change their vendors is change. Example are :

Customer  is going through management change.

New regulations.

Company re-org due to merger or acquisition.

New focus of products (Nokia change form home appliance company to Telco).

Death or bankruptcy of a major partner within the vendor organization.

So take the time to know the reason why is your customer changing his existing vendors. This will help you in building your value proposition by addressing the reasons of vendor change.

Hi

These 2 numbers help you change; change your life, your job, your habits, etc..

All of us hear and read about good ideas, ideas that immediately resonate in our minds and we connect to. the problem is that we never follow through and use them in our behavior.

It is proven that if you do not take any action with thin the next 72 hours after you hear/read about an idea or attend a training course, etc.. if no action is taken, the whole thing becomes like a fairy tale.

On the other hand if you attend a course and within less than 3 days you started implementing what you have learned, chances are you will  start incorporating what you have learned into your behavior.

The other number is 21. It is the number of days required to practice a certain habit or behavior until it "sticks" and becomes part of your character.

Call Planning form.

Hi ,

This is a useful form that I have developed which I believe is quite useful for any sales person; rookie or veteran. You do not need to fill the form every time you visit your customers, but it is quite valuable when you call on a CFO, VP or CEO to know the answers to all questions in the form before your meeting.

Knowing the personality profile of your customer, his individual motivators, and the corporate motivators affects the way you approach, develop and close your sale.

The reasons behind the purchase could be :

Maintain operation of existing assets.

Increase capacity (organic growth).

Acquire new capacity (modular growth).

Compliance (regulatory).

Peer pressure.

Retire & Replace.

Developed needs (re-engineered vision, Personal &   Professional trends)

Replenish (consumables).

Others.

Customer admitted pain(s) and triggering events, performance, departmental and organizational issues. All these are bits of information that you need to know before you seriously start your sales efforts.