Why I love Teambox

Just a quick not to anyone still reading this blog. I am in love with Teambox. It is the best software for online collaboration ever. Why?

1. The activity stream makes is super easy to stay on top of teams and projects.

2. The task management is easier than anything I have ever used.

3. @Notifications make it fast and easy to include people in conversations.

4. CONVERT TO TASK! I can take any conversation and make it actionable.

5. Pages are the easiest way to share content EVER!

6. Google docs integration.

The list keeps going, but hey you get the picture. If not here is a cool one:

And this is me telling Scoble about it!

Sales Training: Opening sales doors – Other attributes of a sales champion

I recently wrote an article for the new Top Sales Experts e-book coming out next month. It is about getting people to see how a completely different way of doing something can make a positive impact. The challenge is that this is what every sales person is working towards, yet when one is on the bleeding edge and the risk is greater, they find the hill that much steeper. What the Sales Evangelist must possess are skills beyond the average sales person. What a sales champion requires to consistently add to their customer base is similar.

Here are a couple of sentences from the article, this sales person “is a word smith, can turn a phrase and deliver the perfect analogy. They have the right story for the right time, and when it is told we do not feel they are telling it for the umpteenth time. When one engages with this professional, they are swept into their passion, their desire to see things in a better light.”

In another article for Sales Gravy, I wrote about what makes a great business evangelist, and again these attributes align with those of a sales champion. The first two are obvious, but the latter are what most people take for granted or ignore:

1. The ability to listen: This must be tiresome to hear again and again, but if one is not listening, one is not selling. A champion asks this;  at the end of the sales process, do they know more about their contact than their product? If not, they did not listen enough.
2.  The fiery drive: Everyone knows that the most tenacious of people make good sales reps. What is not clear is why so many sales people either lose this drive or never had it. If they are not hungry, they are not going to be great at sales. If they are content where they are, they may make a living, but they have not reached the potential peak of performance. The champion looks from the top of the mountain they are on for a taller mountain in the skyline.
3. Ambition and ideals: So often I watch a sales team fall from greatness to mediocrity because the manager has hired a hot shot with no morals. This person hits the ground running and quickly climbs the stack rank. The problem is they do not have true ambition, they have selfish goals. They do not cling to healthy ideals and instead disrupt and divide. All to often, the manager forgives these flaws of character in exchange for the sales. Eventually others see this and either emulate or resent this behavior. Months go by and this person climbs another couple of stack ranks, cancellations and customer complaints. These too are ignored as it is justified by what is coming in. This person starts to complain more and more and takes up even more of their manager’s time. It is OK, because we feed our eagles and the time is warranted. That is, until team numbers are missed, other solid reps quit, and eventually this rep that had so much time invested in them, quits for another a better opportunity to destroy another sales team. A champion has ideals that align with their ambitions. They bring people with them to the top and show true attributes of leadership. They will help others close deals on the last day of the month, they will share what they know with their peers freely, and go out of their way to create a culture of success.
4. The quick wit: This is straight from the artice, “Someone that plans to jump into the foray and go after the opportunities in the unknown must have a quick mind. Without the ability to problem solve on the fly and the knack to develop responses to new objections, there is little hope of unearthing the barriers of introducing new ideas to the business community.  There is a fine line between pitch and evangelizing and finding those that can educate without sounding like a pushy telemarketer is paramount. ”
   This is the thing that makes superstars become champions that is near impossible to teach. Other skills come from life lessons, trainings, mentors, hard knocks, and moments of clarity. Being quick on your feet, managing your charm, telling funny stories, captivating audiences; these things are natural and rarely can be learned. Now, some people have it hiding inside of them and it can be drawn out, but if one has never spun magic with their voice it is going to be hard to become a champion.

I am sure we could come up with many more attributes and would love to hear your input. After all, one last thing that champions do is continue to perfect their craft.

Sales Training: Opening sales doors – Emotion is a buying requirement

When people talk about the transfer of emotion, I believe so much is lost in the explanation. Most people feel the transfer of emotion is a tactic that a sales person must employ to get people excited about things they otherwise would not buy. This is not the case, and hopefully this quick post will share with others my perception and use of the transfer of emotion. First and foremost, no matter how pragmatic a buyer, they will rarely align with purchasing something that they have negative feelings towards. If someone is willing to buy without a positive feeling, usually you do not want them as a customer.

The transfer of emotion is your ability to share your convictions with another in a manner that gets them to feel the same way. Let’s take a current case study and examine this. No matter if you like Barack Obama or not, when he speaks you feel his words. If you like his message, you are instantly taken to a place of better times. If you do not like what he says, you go to a place of disdain and rebel against his words. No matter your take, HE FORCES YOU TO TAKE A SIDE AND FEEL SOMETHING! Barack Obama would make a fantastic sales person, and some would argue that politics and sales are quite similar. Albiet, politics is a much slimier business, in both you have to get people to feel and align with what you believe. Also, in sales, much like politics, there is no reward for second place.

If you read my blog regularly, then you probably sell something you believe in. If not, quit your job and find one where you can get behind your product. Now examine what gets you excited about your offering. Now, write these things down and when it is time to gain clients, transfer that excitement and open more doors. Passion is a requirement for great sales people. Not a nice thing to have, but greatness requires passion. The ability to speak passionately is a requirement for champion salesmanship, period!

Sales Training: Commitment selling, it’s about opening not closing!

It is so hard for me to talk to sales people about process. While they would never know it, I cringe inside every time I hear someone talk about closing. I understand that the concept is about closing a deal, a completion of a process, but in this day and age, is any sale the end of your relationship with the buyer?

In our times, the snake oil salesman, or door to door vacuum dealer is almost non-existent. These are the only people that have no commitment to a customer after a sale. What we should be teaching our sales people in our selling world is OPENING, not closing. With a mindset of opening, getting someone to sign on the dotted line is the beginning of something, not the end result. Yes, it is a milestone, yes it has ended a cycle, but it your team is not looking beyond that moment in time, you are leaving opportunity after opportunity on the table.

The doors you can open after completing a sale:

1. The obvious, referrals to other departments in a company.
2. Referrals to colleagues in other companies.
3. More business through up sell opportunities.
4. Reference materials, from case studies to reference calls and quotes.
5. And finally, you may change companies and have something new to sell. Once a buyer is comfortable with you as a business partner, this relationship provides a lifetime of value.

Now, before you start adjusting your pipeline because you have a customer base, I have to admit this takes some work from the onset. First, you have to maintain a relationship with your customers after they have made a purchase. This means service oriented calls where you provide some value. If you ask for more business it provides no value. Instead, give them some information about their industry, or share with them some results of using your product. These are the things that get people excited to hear from you. If you do this properly, they will provide referrals, references, and always take a hard look at your offerings. If you give them value at the beginning, during, and after you sell them something, you will always find more opportunities…and you will not have to look too hard.

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.