Steve's Blog about sales and leadership

Do you monetize your sales day?

2008-06-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

It's important to monetize your time and travel when you are out selling. This means you need to know how much it costs to travel to a customer and to spend your time selling to him. If the cost of the sales call exceeds the value of the sale you need to either find a less expensive way to make the call or to cancel the trip.

I learned this lesson the hard way when, in the interest of customer service I traveled to the edge of my territory for small sales that ended up costing me more than I made.

This is especially vital now that gas prices are going up so high. Sell smart and make money, don't throw it away.

Steve Chambers
www.stevechambers.com

Selling Fundamentals - Extraordinary Service

2008-05-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Back to basics. In my last post I mentioned how important it is to"walk your fence". You need to get out into your territory on a regular basis in order to keep apprised of changes in your customers, prospects and the business climate.

My fence walk was unfortunately delayed due to illness, which I still haven't completely shaken, and will actually take place this week. That is also the reason I've fallen behind in my posts to this blog. I will blog more from the road beginning Tuesday.

I want to take some time to go over some sales fundamentals. Just like a professional athlete or a professional musician, a professional salesperson needs to constantly revisit the fundamentals of his profession in order to stay on top of their game.

Sales Fundamental #1 - Deliver Extraordinary Service - You must always strive to deliver extraordinary service to your clients and customers. This means listening to their needs, learning what they want to accomplish and then selling them whichever product or service you have that best meets their needs. You need to be an advocate for your customers within your organization.

Make it easy to buy from you. Purchasing your product or service should be easy and hassle free. Also, you should always be the friendly and helpful face of your company. Take the time to go the extra mile. When your customers are happy they will continue to buy from you and to refer you to others.

So how are you doing? Are you delivering extraordinary service to your clients? Are there ways you can provide better service or assist your customers to more effectively meet their goals and objectives? This is the first fundamental of professional selling.

Walking your fence

2008-05-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

It's Monday, the start of a new week and I am preparing to go through an exercise I call "walking the fence". The term comes from a habit I read that rancher's and large landowners used to do. Every now and then they will walk their fence, which basically means checking out the current state of their property.

You need to do the same thing in sales.

Over the next three to four weeks I will be traveling throughout my entire territory to evaluate the current state of my business. Some of my objectives are as follows:

Visit with my current customers and dealers
Identify potential new customers and dealers
Discover who is up and who is down in the current market
Head off any potential problems
Identify new opportunities

I like to do this at least 3x a year, which for me, with a very big territory...3 States, is more tahn sufficient. Next time, how to plan for walking your fence.

The Art of the Question

2008-05-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

Selling is all about asking questions. You've probably heard the old adage, "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen twice as much as you talk." There is a lot of truth in this.

So what questions do you ask on a regular basis? What questions do your customers ask regularly?
You will find that the 80/20 rule applies here. There will only be 8-12 questions in either category.

So what are they?

If you don't have them written down, take a few moments over the weekend to write down the most common questions you are asked about your product or service and the questions you most often ask.

Once this is done review them. Are your questions in alignment with what your customer wants to know? They need to be.

Next we will develop more effective questions for you.

Attitude is everything

2008-05-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

"Selling is the best paying hard work and the worst paying easy work" - Tom Hopkins

When you want to make a lot of money, selling is hard work. I don't know if I would call that a law, but it is an unavoidable part of the selling profession. When selling is easy work it won't often last and there usually isn't much money in it.

Selling requires the right attitude.

Think about it. If you are out there getting in front of people, making your pitch and trying to get things moving you are going to face situations and emotions most people try to avoid. You are going to face rejection, disappointment and frustration on a daily basis.

You are also going to experience excitement, joy and elation...the "thrill of the kill", on a daily basis as well.

Because the salesperson needs to manage this emotional roller coaster it is important to establish and maintain a positive mental attitude. How to do this? Here are a few tips:

Focus on the positive. We have a choice on how to view every situation and event. Look for the good in every situation
Exercise and improve your level of fitness. You'll feel better and manage stress better.
Feed your mind with positive material. Listen to educational CD's in your car. Listen to uplifting music.
Take the long term view of things. Success is an investment in time. Shake off the need for instant gratification and make a plan to develop yourself over the long term. This will help you to look past short term setbacks and focus on the big picture.

Now, go out and sell something!

Because seling is hard work it is important to maintain the right attitude

Emotional selling

2008-05-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

One of the wonderful things about being in sales is that, for the ost part, everyday is diferent. This is becuase we deal with people. If we are doing everything right we will be meeting with different people everyday. We will get along with some people more then others and this can cause a lot of variety in termsof our day.

Sales is an emotional occupation. People buy on emotion. Every sales is a interaction with the emotions of others. Naturally the emotional impact will vary depending on your product. If you are selling dating services people will be more emotionally involved than if they were buying plastic beads, but there will be an emotional component.

Because sales is so wrapped up in emotions we need to, as sales professionals, manage our emotions. We need to observe our customers, clients and prospects for signs of emotional involvement. When we can read the emotional signs others are giving off and managing our own emotions we can better manage the sales process.

Cold Calling Part 3

2008-04-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

A cold calling technique I love is to send out your salespeople in teams of two. Two are more effective then one for a variety of reasons. They can encourage and challenge one another, they can hold each other accountable to getting the job done and they can assist one another in overcoming objections.

During WWII the German Army was in the habit of placing two men in a foxhole while US Army
doctrine called for only one. In studies after the war it was consistently found that a higher percentage of German soldiers participated in combat and fired their weapons than American soldiers did. The presence of another individual helped keep each soldier accountable and prevented them from doing what comes natural in a combat situation...hunkering down low in the foxhole and staying safe.

From the bible,
"Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion,
but woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another,
two can withstand him." - Eccl 4:9 - 12

The experienced salesperson in not as dependent on another as is someone new, just as the experienced soldier can be relied upon more than the raw recruit. But in a new market or with a new product sending out more than one salesperson on calls is a more effective method to get out there fast.

Cold Call Selling (Cont.)

2008-04-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

I consider the cold call to be the basic building block of the sales process. You can use it to gain feedback about your company, product, pitch and customers in one fell swoop by taking massive action in your territory.

There was a saying when I lived in the South, "Let's take this dog out and see if it can hunt". You can use this same principle whenever you find yourself in a new territory or having to adopt and sell a new product. Get out there and see as many potential customers over a very short period of time. Or, as my friend, April Braswell, Dating Maven and Relationship coach would say, get out there and see some people.

When I first moved to Alabama, yes, Alabama, I didn't know anything about the market or know anyone. My first action was to find a qualified buyer and then simply call on them. In my case the market was shipbuilding, so qualified targets were easy to find. I just looked on the Internet for shipyards, got in the car and started calling on customers. We did this for two months solid.

I didn't sell anything during this time period. We did gain valuable market intelligence however that allowed us to focus our approach, retool our presentation and target our efforts more effectively over the next 10 months. The result, sales were increased from under $100,000 to over $1.4 million over the entire one year time period.

Cold Call selling

2008-04-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Every salesperson needs to have all the tools in their sales toolbox available. One of the most underused and hated is the cold call. Beginning salespeople, who do not have a client list often find they need to rely on cold calls to build a book of business. Because most salespeople do not like cold call selling it is one of the first things to go once you start getting customers.

All salespeople should keep an element of cold calling in their routine. This can include cold calling over the phone, although being high touch I prefer meeting people face to face. Why continue to cold call?

It hones your F2F sales skills

It keeps you in touch with your customers

You know the current state of the market

It let's you gather valuable intelligence on your products, service, market perception

There are surely more reasons to get out there and meet some customers, but aren't these enough? Take a day this week, get out there and talk to people.

Are you selling with intention?

2008-04-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Do you believe in the product / service you are selling? This is a very important question. Because your belief in your product is the key ingredient to your success and well being.

I have made it a habit to only sell the best value in whatever I sell. There is a fine point where price, value and benefit come together for any product or service. This is the sweet spot and when you are selling something in this sweet spot you are selling in the zone. Ideally, you want to be selling in this zone your entire sales career.

Beginners often make the mistake of focusing only on the money. When we do this we are doing a disservice to ourselves and to our customers. There is a lot of crap out there, and someone is selling it. I would lay odds however, that very few people selling things they don't believe in go home with a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Doctors have a saying, (I believe this anyway, I don't know for sure), "First, do no harm." This is a good rule for the sales profession as well, as we should consider ourselves "Doctors of Selling". Unlike most of our customers, we know what our products really can do, aside from the all the hype. When you act like a Doctor of Selling you know when you can realistically prescribe what you have to your client, and when, even if you sense the kill, you should back off. This is where ethics come in.

What I mean my selling with intention can also be described by selling "on purpose". As a salesperson you really do have the ability to improve and enhance someones life or situation. Be certain you believe in what you are selling and that by selling it you really are doing the right thing.

Give the customer what they want

2008-04-24T05:48:00.001-07:00

I stopped in to my local AM/PM store the other day looking for a Diet Coke and a snack. I had a sweet tooth and wanted a "Powerbar". These are a better choice than a traditional candy bar, (Snickers! Yumm!) because we can rationalize to ourselves that we are having a healthy snack.

Anyway they were no Powerbars to be found! Nor were there any similar energy-type bars in the place. I looked everywhere. The store had been recently remodeled so I spent what must have been a good five minutes looking around trying to find them. No luck. What they did have though were chips. Lots and lots of chips. In fact, every single aisle was probably 51% - 76% chips. Include nuts and that store was 80% chips and nuts. This was so odd to me that I remarked to the sales girl, "Hey, what's with this, is this a chip store now? You have chips everywhere!" I received that vague grunt and 1000 mile stare that passes for customer service nowadays back in return. (See my previous post on learning Spanish.)

So I gots to thinking! This is Capitalism at work. Obviously the store moved a lot of chips and very few Powerbars. People were in the habit of dashing in, grabbing a beverage and some chips and then were out of there. There weren't many fools like me looking to paying $2.97 for a glorified candy bar (great example of positioning by the way.) so they had stocked the store with what was selling. Quick aside - There was still a hot demand for glorified and repackaged soft drinks, I mean Energy Drinks.

Brilliant demonstration of giving the customer want they obviously want.

Learn spanish yet?

2008-04-22T09:24:00.000-07:00

If you are involved in business in any capacity you need the ability to look into the future, make an assessment and adapt the upcoming changes. One unstoppable change is the changing make up of the population. Demographics are everything (poor Israel...think about it.) so we need to plan for it. As much as you might like it or not like it, we are slowly becoming like Mexico, with a large, poor and uneducated labor pool that speaks little or no English. Check out the following story:

50 percent of LA workforce are immigrants - UPI.com: "Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English."

Living, working and traveling throughout the Southwest as I do I can attest to the fact that this trend is in place, is impossible to stop and that it will radically transform how you approach your business in the future.

You can make the choice to fight this trend, or you can take advantage of it and adapt. As a first step I would learn Spanish. You can start here, Instant Immersion Spanish Deluxe v3.0. It is cheaper than the more heavily marketed Rosetta Stone software and just as effective if you use it. Key concept, "If you use it". Spend an hour a day working on it and you've made a great beginning.

20 people a day - Cold Call selling

2008-04-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Tim Birch left a comment on my blog asking if I had ever seen 20 people belly to belly (B2B) in a day. In fact I have, but it was a long day with unique circumstances. Aside from that, with the exception of a trade show or if you are in retail it is hard to see that many people in a day. That is exactly the point.

I look at the 20 people B2B in a day as a metaphor and a goal rather than a edict. The message is to get out there and call on people. I used to cold call on large commercial buildings. I would park somewhere convenient to a large number of buildings (large building are like herding animals, they rarely exist alone) and, with my sales literature, walk door to door.

Doing this I was occasionally able to see 20 people in a day. The cool part...all 20 were qualified prospects. Why, because I could evaluate the buildings before going into them. When I called on the phone I was shooting blind and just going down a list. My close ratio was also substantially better than when I tried to set appointments by phone.

It can be done.

Proactive Versus Reactive Sales Activity

2008-04-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

Do you ever spend the time to measure how much time you spend in reaction versus how much time you are proactive? It is really important because it is in your proactive time that you actually get things done.

I have noticed that it is easy to get caught up in reaction. Reaction is a lot like life. Things are continually thrown at you that you need to respond or react to and whatever you had planned is thrown to the back burner. It takes real effort to stay proactive since reaction is so easy and takes no real thought.

Pro-activity is staying "on-task". Pro-activity is making a difference and pro activity is being a leader. Take some time this week to track your time and to measure how much time you are reacting to others. You will probably be surprised.

Sales Slump - How do you get out of it

2008-04-20T18:42:00.000-07:00

Your sales are down and you want to break out of your slump. Here's how...take a day off. Really. I mean that. Take a day off to reflect and plan your next move. You do this by asking yourselves questions.

How do you get paid? Salary? Commission only? Combination of the two or some other iteration? How you get paid determines your actions. I always say that, "Nothing focuses the mind like being on commission". In the same manner, nothing muddles the mind like a safe and secure paycheck with no commission. If you are salary only then you need to work on not getting fired rather than increasing sales. Increasing sales may be a part of keeping your job, but there are other factors at work here as well.

What type of company do you work for? Is it a large corporation or a small entrepreneurial firm? Again, this dictates how you structure your actions.

Where do your sales come from? This is important. If you work in retail you are in sales, but it is difficult to prospect for more business. You need to come up with a strategy to increase your closing ratio. In other words, you need to sell more of the people who walk through your door.

If you are calling on businesses then you need to go out there and call on more. Past experience has made me realize that most salespeople do not work any harder than they have to. You need to give yourself a reason to work harder. So the next question is...

What would make you work harder? I learned a long time ago that working hard to pay my bills wasn't a great motivational strategy. I like to play, so for me I needed a goal that would reward me in the end. You need to find that goal.

How many people have you called on? In Tom Hopkins old book, How to Master the Art of Selling, he recommended getting belly to belly at least 20 times per day. If these 20 people are qualified customers the mere law of averages should prople you out of your slump.

More tomorrow...

Sales Slump & Sales Effectiveness - What to do

2008-04-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

In every sales career and every business there is the occasional slump. It might be temporary or more permanent (take carburetor sales, probably in a permanent slump). The question is what to do when you are in one. At the company level, most companies react by cutting costs, especially travel and expense budgets. Whereas common sense may indicate that sales budgets should be increased, most companies act in the interest of fairness (an issued covered separately here) and cut costs across the board.

So how does this play out in the real world? In my experience, when cost cutting is applied bluntly, it results in a de-motivated sales force, one that rightly sees the policy as stupid and unfair. Sales, and the resulting income, will fall because your sales people are making less calls and being less effective.

It doesn't have to be that way however. There are always enormous inefficiencies and wasted efforts in any sales force or company for that matter. When times are exceedingly good these are even worse. If you have any experience in corporate life you know what I am talking about, $400 bottles of wine with dinner and expensive, unnecessary entertainment expenses. Every company I have seen looks askance at the practice during the good times. It is these expenses
that are wasteful and that can be cut with no real impact on sales.

Another benefit is that tough times and pinched expenses are a great opportunity to weed out ineffective sales people and eliminate inefficient practices. We all hate to let people go and often let them hang on long after they have lost their effectiveness. During bad times it is harder to hide non-performance. Along with the cost cutting a thorough review of policies and practices can actually increase sales without raising costs.

For what you can do as an individual come back tomorrow.

Sales training (Cont.)

2008-04-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Every sales training method has a model to explain and simplify the sales process. The model used in my last sales training was the "Customer Focused Selling Model", which emphasizes building relationships with your customers/clients. (I always preferred the term clients as it indicates a closer, more intimate relationship. I get that from reading Jay Abraham.) The model focuses on teaching you how the customer makes decisions. Learn his processes and you can use them to can compliance and influence.

As far as models go this wasn't a bad one. It is important to know how a client makes a decision as this is one element in closing a sale. The problem I have with any model is the NLP presumption that "the Map is not the territory". No model can accurately portray all the elements that go into a sale. Models can be great at teaching and portraying an element of the sales process, but should never be assumed to represent the be all and end all of any sales process. Sales is both a science and an art, and should be looked at as a process.

The real purpose of sales training is to show some tactics and sales tools while instilling in the attendees the love of the process. One should leave any sales training with some knowledge that can be monetized in the field along with a process and plan for further study and development. The art of selling is a profession, just as the fields of medicine and law. This needs to be taught.

The Secret - Don't forget your book

2008-04-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finished four days of sales training. Two days of "Customer Focused Selling" and two days of "The Versatile Salesperson", which focuses on determining your customer's social style and how you can tailor your sales presentation to best advantage.

For me, the Versatile sales person and social style stuff was the more interesting of the two and I was looking forward to getting home and integrating what I had learned into me sales philosophy, practice and this blog. Well, I left my material, book and stuff in the rental car. Since I always check everything two, three times I couldn't believe it. I was, and am bummed.

Today I call National Rental car to check their lost and found. It will be interesting to see how great their customer service is.

Sales Training

2008-04-16T16:04:00.001-07:00

I attended sales training on Monday and Tuesday of this week. I have been involved in the selling profession for over ten years, have read literally over 100 books on selling, attended several sales training courses and been mentored by more than one sales "Champion". Needless to say I was somewhat taken aback when I discovered I was to attend a basic sales training course. I do consider myself something of an expert at selling.

As always, I was determined to make lemonades out of what I perceived as lemons. I am starting out on a career as a sales trainer, leadership consultant and all around good guy, so seeing how the training was delivered actually had some value to me. Plus, I am always interesting in picking up some new technique or tactic that I can use to either make myself better or to recommend to someone so that they can make themsleves better.

Yesterday concluded my sales training. In actuality it wasn't that bad. I did pick up some great materials thatI can integrate into the material I am developing. I picked up one or two tricks and tactics from other's experience and I had a chance to review the basics. I do not consider it a waste of time. importantly, it also afforded me the opportunity to review the habits I had fallen into over time and emphasized areas where I might want to get back to basics.

For instance, I detest detail work and rigorous call planning. One of the things I love about selling is the "rush" I get from meeting someone knew and figuring out how to relate to him or her, ascertain their needs and then craft a presentation that showcases my product in its best light. Because my primary product has pretty consistent I have fallen into the habit of neglecting my pre-cal planning and "flying by the seat of my pants". I can probably improve my game somewhat by focusing a little more on planning in advance.

To be honest, I am not going to do any pre-call planning in any great detail. There are benefits to experience and needing mimimal planning is one of them. Still, just as Michael Jordan and Larry Byrd continued to practice free throws even after years of playing in the NBA, it is always a good idea to drill the basics.

(more to follow...)

Rip Open the Moment!!!

2008-04-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

I love the phrase, "Rip Open the Moment". What does it mean? "Rip Open the Moment" is a philosoy of doing things. What it basically says is to do what will take maximum advantage of the situation you find yourself in at the time you find yourself in it.

Seinfeld had an episode where George, one of the characters, started doing the opposite of whatever action normally did. When he started doing this his whole life turned around and everyting fell into place. This is the perfect example of ripping open the moment.

Delta is buying Northwest...WTF?

2008-04-15T04:41:00.000-07:00

Can you believe Delta airlines, which I thought was near bankruptcy, is buying Northwest airlines? Frontier Airlines is broke. What the heck is going on here. Can't anybody run an airline anymore?