Ask the Coach: The answer is in your question – Without communication skills you cannot sell

This is the question I received last week, mind you I have not altered it one iota:

hi am working as indoor sales and all my clients are from other countries so i have kind of a limited method to work with which is calls and emails so my question is about cooled calling since all my work is within this method how can i sell my clients my service knowing that my compatetor is well known (Google) and all what people say to me oh sorry am working with Google??? my price and costumer support is better but his service is better and this is the only plus i have against him pleas if there is a way answer me . thank youBefore I add my two cents, I am going to direct you to the articles of many of my colleagues that will guide you from today to where you need to be to elaborate about anything and everything. Here we go:1.      How are your writing skills? READ this post now!  Click Here

2. How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything – Think about this in all of your activities not just selling, even when asking a question online. Click Here
3. Do you know where success comes from? This is important for your style of selling Click Here
4. Don’t blow it when you prospect answers the phone! When your phone is your major tool for success, you must treat it with respect Click Here
5. And now that you have it, some great advice passed twice through Jill Konrath Click Here

This is all advice to be taken before you make your next call. Now some advice from me, since you asked: 

1. Whatever language you are selling in….MASTER IT.
2. Punctuation and proper phrasing is paramount.
3. Sell to the buying needs, see my other trainings on commitment.
4. Practice on your friends and family until you have polish.
5. Never give up, if you are a sales person tenacity will overcome any obstacle.

Coffee break- Mini Book Review: Jill Konrath vs. Duct Tape Marketing in…who is calling who an idiot?

1. Yesterday, Jill Konrath put up a post reminding people “What Sales Really Needs From Marketing(link)”, in response to Duct Tape marketing’s post titled, “Those Idiots in Sales Just Don’t Get It!(link)”. The comic back and forth prompted Jill to mention her E-book,  What Sales Really Needs From Marketing: 7 Strategies to Get More & Better Prospects in Your Sales Pipeline(link).

I decided to read it again for the sake of my readers. I will not use my usual format, only because I will be giving Jill’s book a thorough review at the end of the month. However, I do feel her 15 page e-book is a good read and here is why.

1. It reminds Sales and Marketing that it is essential to work as a team. Many of the philosophies shared in this book parallel the great information in Brian Carrol’s, the host of  B2B Lead Generation Blog, book “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale”. You can buy his book from my link to Amazon on the left side of the blog. What Jill is explaining to Marketing is Sales needs good leads.
2. Sales also needs value not frills. Industry specific advantages over competition and education on how to sell to them.
3. Sales also needs Marketing to deliver intelligent data points that make them look smarter than the rest of the hawks breaking their backs for the same business.

Does Jill go on? Oh, yeah and she does it well. I recommend downloading this free e-book as a teaser for the review on her tome later this month.

BTW, ?I do not consider this my promised blogging for the day. I intend to post another article with some coaching advice later this evening.

Sales training: How to get your sales team to prioritize and plan – Pt 1 Activity

First let me apologize for the sparsity of posts over the last week. The newsletter, startup sales mentor and website, http://karlgoldfield.com, both went live on Tuesday and I needed to decompress yesterday. So here I am again, appreciating my faithful audience and assuring you that I will post every day for the next couple of weeks.

That said, let’s talk about one of the greatest challenges of a coach. How do we get our team members to understand the importance of certain activities and plan their day to manage these activities most efficiently?

I am struggling through this right now at Demandforce. My team does not instinctively see the value in waiting to send out e-mails of faxes until days end. They have trouble seeing the value of entering notes in the CRM. The are unwilling to look at all of the different lead channels we have and build daily plans around taking advantage of all of them. My best reps are left doing only about 75% of what they are capable of.

So, what am I going to do? I cannot force them to change such drastic habits, nor can I mandate it as that is not the coaches way. What I have to do is educate them on the value of time management. Little pieces of the puzzle must be laid out and put together in a clear manner. By showing someone the value of an activity or a behavior, I can create a “buzz”. It is imperative to begin with your most talented reps and have them evangelize the abilities. Dare them to wait to send out information until the end of each day for an entire wee. If your relationship is healthy, as it should be, perhaps you can offer to take them to lunch on Friday in exchange for the change. At the end of the week analyze their activity and compare it to previous weeks. There should be a major leap in selling related activities, so share them. Before you do, at the promised lunch, ask them how the change felt. Then ask if any sales were jeopardized by the change in behavior. Then share the discovery of their increased activity. This should start a change across your team, especially once this reps sales start to increase from the increase in efficiency.

Now, I can honestly admit that I probably did not dig deep enough into my newer reps habits when bringing them on board. If I had, one of them would be my shining beacon of prioritization. My next hire will be that person and I will make sure to set the stage for those habits to in every interview. I always ask;

“Please walk me through a typical sales day.”

Unfortunately of late I have not shut down people of considerable skill if they did not give me the right answer. My ego got in the way and I thought I could correct this bad habit. I was wrong.

There are many ways to answer this question but one thing must be universal for the answer to be correct The candidate must state that they start their day with trying to connect with people, and they utilize slower times like lunch and afternoons to do lesser tasks like check and send e-mail, send out information, and work on quotes and proposals. If they admit to spending valuable selling time doing non selling activity, or activity that does not have a window of opportunity, move on. I should have a few times, and I will heed my own advice from this day forward.

Coffee Break: A great post on the salesgravy site

This post is just plain fantastic, so I decided to share it with my audience.

Can You Send Me Some Information? – Written by Tim Wackel

Just send me some information. . . Sound familiar? The BIG question is what do you do now? Is this a real sales opportunity or are you just wasting time? Do you attempt to go around Bob and get to the decision maker, or should you play along with the “info gatherer?” Many sales reps fall into the friendly trap of these info gatherers. They are pleasant to work with (makes it easier for them to get what they want from you), they offer little resistance to your ideas and it’s another deal for you to stuff in your pipeline report.

It’s Monday morning and you’re sitting in the office planning your week of sales calls. The phone rings and suddenly you’re in a friendly conversation with a new prospect, Bob. Bob seems like a nice enough guy, knowledgeable about your industry, interested in your products and eager to ask all sorts of questions. (Read More)

Sales Training: Gaining Commitment – Conditions of Purchasing

“Under what circumstances will you buy what I am offering?”Excuse me? You want me to ask someone this question? Yes I do, yes I do. Not only that, I realize that you may not want to, and the first few times you do it, your skin will crawl. I had the same experience, but I can sure you, when this question becomes part of your pre-proposal repertoire, you will spend a lot less time spinning your wheels post proposal, and a lot more time developing business relationships with profitable customers.Once you have exhausted your discovery tactics and you feel you understand everything you need to know about your prospect, their company, their requirements, and the players it is time to confirm. Run through the list as you understand it and make sure that they agree to every point. Then the question comes in, and I suggest asking a variation every time. Here is the first:“So if I can meet all of these requirements what will happen next?”Once you get an understanding of that, the next question should resonate:“If we can meet all of these requests, when will you be ready to buy?”Then:“Is there anything else you need to make a purchase?”“Are there any points we have not discussed?”And finally:“If we meet all of this, then what will happen?”If you do not end up with “No” for the ‘anything else’ questions, and “we will buy” from the ‘what will happen’ questions, then somewhere you have yet to uncover all of the purchasing conditions. Review what you have and look for more. It is also quite possible you are not connected with the real decision maker, in which case you have spent too much time in discovery and need to start again somewhere else. Chances are that this is not the case if you were gaining commitment along the way.