Jonathan Farrington’s Blog

Negotiation is a process of bargaining by which agreement is reached between two or more parties. It is rare in negotiation for agreement to be reached immediately or for each side to have identical objectives. More often than not, agreements have to be worked out where concessions are given and received and this is the area where the profitability of the final outcome will be decided.

When preparing for negotiation, it is advisable to write down a realistic assessment of how you perceive the final outcome. Find out the limits of your authority within the negotiation and decide what you are willing and able to concede in order to arrive at an agreement, which satisfies all parties.

Concessions have two elements; cost and value. It is possible during negotiations to concede issues that have little cost to you but have great value to the other side. This is the best type of concession to make.

Avoid, however, conceding on issues that have a high cost to you irrespective of their value to the other side.

When preparing for negotiations, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the best deal I could realistically achieve in this negotiation?
• What is the likely outcome of the negotiation?
• What is the limit of my authority?
• At which point should I walk away?
• What concessions are available to me?
• What is the cost of each concession and what value does each have to either side?

Strategy:

Planning your strategy is important in negotiation. Once you know your objectives, you need to work out how you are going to achieve them. It is also useful to try and see the negotiation from the other side and try and work out what their strategy will be.

During the negotiation there will be opportunities to use various tactics and you need to decide which of these you feel comfortable with and at the same time recognise the tactics being used by the other side.

Ask yourself the following questions:
• How am I going to achieve my objectives in this negotiation?
• What is the strategy of the other side likely to be?
• What tactics should I use within the negotiation?
• What tactics are the other side likely to use?

And Finally - Tasks:

If you go into negotiation with a colleague or colleagues, you need to decide during the preparation phase:
• What role will each team member take in the negotiation?
• How can we work together in the most effective way?

Some teams of negotiators appoint team leaders, note takers, observers and specialists, each with their own clearly defined authority and roles to perform.

Having a clear understanding of roles within the negotiation will make the team approach much more effective.

If you really want to hone your negotiation techniques, you will enjoy my ebook - “Negotiating To Win - From Open To Close” - just $9.95 here

Today’s News: Thursday is always Salesopedia interview day and this Thursday is no different.

This week, Clayton Shold is in conversation with fellow Top Sales Expert, Barry Siskind…..

Trade Show Survival Tips

“Barry Siskind discusses trade shows survival tips you might consider in this tough economy. Find out how you can scale down without impacting your image.  If you find it difficult to measure R.O.I. then you should be tracking R.O.O. (yes he explains what that is).  He offers get advice on balancing the strategic and tactic considerations of exhibiting and gives some compelling arguments why maintaining your presence is the right thing to do.”      Simply click on the banner below.

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Successful selling is definitely not about the “hit and run” sale.

Top sales achievers regard their relationships with key customers as a partnership and cultivate it as such.

When customers face tough business challenges and complex technological choice, they rely on sales people who can assist them in making the right decisions.

The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future.

The key word here is symbiotic.

Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

So Why Do We Need A Fresh Approach To Selling?

Most organisations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure.

The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed - in a large number of markets a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques and the arrival of Sales 2.0, has meant that many tasks traditionally performed by the sales team, can be more effectively handled by other methods.

The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business. From an organisational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Successful selling today is all about “bridge building”

Today’s News:

Message just in from Mr Sales 2.0, Nigel Edelshain.

Dear Jonathan,

I’ve got some new resources for you to check out:

1. I just launched a Free 26-week e-course Don’t Cold Call. Social Call. It’s a deeper dive than my ebook into the “how to’s” of prospecting the Sales 2.0 way. Check it out here

2. There’s a recording of my webinar from this month by the same name here

3. I also participated in a webinar with Gerhard Gschwandtner, Prospecting 2.0: The Cold Call is Dead, Part 2. You can check out the recording of that one here.

4. Meanwhile if you haven’t noticed we launched a completely new website. The same 350 hand-picked articles are on there but now there are also videos.

Nigel Sales 2.0

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I have read a plethora of articles and blog posts recently on the subject of pipeline management, and whilst it will never be an exact science, it really is not that complicated.

Imagine a bath filled with water, almost instantly the water begins to evaporate or can slowly seep through the plughole. Over a period of time the water level reduces and the temperature drops! The only way to keep the water level high and the water hot is to turn on the tap and continually refill it.

Equally, you want to keep your prospects ‘on the boil’ by actions that continuously warm up and consolidate your relationship with them. You certainly don’t want all your efforts to go down the drain!

The moment you contact a qualified prospect you are committed to the time consuming process of ongoing discussions, and have created a real opportunity to convert potential business into actual sales. This is often referred to as ‘pipeline business’ because the more progress you make, the higher your probability for success.

Here is a very, very basic weighting system that I have used for years - it works for me!

SALES (delivered and paid for) 100%

WRITTEN AGREEMENT 90%

VERBAL AGREEMENT 80%

PROPOSAL/NEGOTIATION 50%

OFFER/PROPOSAL 30%

MET WITH THE FORMAL DMU 20%

COMPLETED 1ST CALL 10%

MADE APPOINTMENT 5%

PROSPECT 0%

In this example you can see that each milestone in the sales process has a % probability rating.

These milestones and percentages will vary from organisation to organisation, yet the principle that the more milestones you reach the higher the probability for success remains valid for everyone.

These milestones form goals against which you can plan specific activities. These can then be translated into specific objectives that you can review and monitor at each stage.

The ability to leverage your probability for converting potential business in your pipeline is a vital part of the sales process and helps to focus your mind onto getting each prospect to the next milestone. Speed of follow-through is really important because it helps to create a momentum that consolidates your relationship with potential new customers.

The following suggestions can help you accelerate your prospects through your pipeline, and increase your probability for winning more deals:

* Agree the next steps with your prospect, and ensure that you are clear on the actions that will take you to the next milestone and closer to the sale

* Before agreeing any actions with your prospect, ask yourself if these actions are leading you towards a sale. If you can’t see the tangible reason for completing an action then you could find yourself in a never-ending situation of fruitless discussions that dilute your results

* Send an acknowledgement and confirmation of agreed actions to your prospect within 24 hours if possible. This conveys professionalism and provides another layer of reassurance for the prospect

* At the end of every telephone call and meeting with your prospect, agree a specific time and date for your next contact. Lots of your valuable time can be wasted trying to get in touch with a busy buyer!

A well-managed pipeline helps to improve the consistency of results achieved and creates a platform for more accurate sales forecasting. If pipeline management is not an integral part of an organisation’s sales process, this can result in a number of problems including; longer sales cycles, reduced forecasting accuracy, inconsistent and unpredictable sales performance, declining win-rates and an inability to pinpoint reasons for decreased results.

You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and if you can’t measure your pipeline then you can’t improve your productivity. There are a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that can be measured, monitored and managed to ensure achievement of sales targets:

Example Key Performance Indicators:

Pipeline Opportunities: These should be measured in value and the number of opportunities in the pipeline

Opportunities by Milestone: Once these milestones and their different probabilities of closing have been calculated, these figures ensure greater accuracy of forecasting

Average Deal Size: This ensures better focus on larger deals and ideally will increase steadily each year

Sales Cycle Time Shortening: This can have a huge impact because of the cumulative ‘saved time’ available for prospecting.

Profitability Margins: Can be tracked to ensure that there is sufficient contribution to enable ongoing account handling.

Conversion Ratio: The number of opportunities won and the % of pipeline potential converted.

Hope that all helps - you see, it really doesn’t have to be that complicated!

Today’s News: Over on Paul McCord’s blog he continues his “Boost Your Sales” series - do drop by.

Over at Top Sales Experts, we are constantly looking for ways to stay ahead, so we just formed the grandly named “Social Media Maximization” group, in order to benefit from the considerable expertise that we have within the team - so look out for some great ideas and thoughts.

If you haven’t joined the Top Sales Experts International group over at LinkedIn, you should - it is a very vibrant sales community, populated by TSE team members and anyone who is passionate about selling - join us here - you will need to be on LinkedIn, but it is FREE to join.

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“Just how important are influencing skills Jonathan?” - a message in my Inbox last week, from a newly promoted sales manager - here’s my response.

A Sales Leader’s level of success or failure may be determined by their ability to influence people within their own organisation, as well as those operating in other companies.

Sales Leaders who use their influencing skills well are exciting to be around and they exude a positive energy that attracts people towards them. Your ability to influence others can empower people development, accelerate results and ultimately ensures an easier working environment. Influencing is about understanding yourself and the effect or impact you have on others. Though, it can on occasion be one way, the primary relationship is two way, and it is about changing how others perceive you.

Truly excellent influencing skills require a healthy combination of interpersonal, communication, presentation and assertiveness techniques. It is about adapting and modifying your personal style when you become aware of the affect you are having on other people, while still being true to yourself.

Behaviour and attitude change are what’s important, not changing who you are or how you feel and think.

You may try to exert your influence through coercion and manipulation. You might even succeed in getting things done, but that isn’t really influencing. That’s forcing people to do what you want, often against their will. You won’t have succeeded in winning support. Pushing, bullying, bludgeoning or haranguing DO NOT WORK! Like elephants, people will remember the experience. Indeed, if you force someone to do something you want without taking their point of view into consideration, then the impression that person is left with is how they will see you forever. You’re stuck with it, unless you deliberately change what you do in order to be seen differently. People are far more willing to come halfway (or more) if they feel acknowledged, understood and appreciated. They may even end up doing or agreeing to something they wouldn’t previously have done, because they feel good about making the choice.

So what makes an effective influencer? You can find out here

Today’s News: We have a winner over at Top 10 Sales Articles - congratulations to Dave Kurlan, who just edged out Alen Majer in a very closely fought contest. Dave now goes through to the “Top Sales Article Of The Year” final in December.

We have a brand new set of nominations for July, which should be posted shortly, so do pop over and take an early look - here

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A statistical analysis has now been published to try to support the claim that the opposition in Iran is right to question the declared result.

On the face of it, there seems no reason to doubt the official numbers.

In 2005, in a run-off ballot, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president with 62% of the vote compared with 36% for his opponent, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

In 2009, in the first round, President Ahmadinejad was re-elected with 63% of the vote compared with 34% for Mir Hossein Mousavi.

So what is the problem?

According to a study edited by Professor Ali Ansari, of the Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews and of the London think tank Chatham House, the problem lies in the increased turnout.

In 2005, Mr Ahmadinejad got 17 million votes and in 2009 he got 24 million.

The question is, where did all those extra votes come from?

The answer, according to this study, is not at all clear.

It examines three factors:

1. Voter turn out
The report says that two provinces showed a turnout of more than 100% and four more of more than 90%.

Regional variations, it says, have disappeared, and there is “no correlation between the increased turn out and the swing to Ahmadinejad. This challenges the notion that Ahmadinejad’s victory was due to the massive participation of a previously silent conservative majority.” 
 
“If Ahmadinejad’s victory was primarily caused by the increase in voter turnout, one would expect the data to show that the provinces where there was the greatest ’swing’ in support towards Ahmadinejad would also be the provinces with the greatest increase in voter turnout. This is not the case,” it says.

It concludes: “A number of aspects of the reported turnout figures are problematic: the massive increases from 2005; the collapse of regional variations; and the absence of any clear link between increases in turnout and increased support for any one candidate.”

2. So where did the new votes come from?
The study examines the results from this year and compares them with the first round from 2005, concluding that there would have to have been a huge swing from previously reform-minded voters into the Ahmadinejad camp.

The study says: “In a third of all provinces, the official results would require that Ahmadinejad took not only all former conservative voters, and all former centrist voters, and all new voters, but also up to 44% of former reformist voters, despite a decade of conflict between these two groups.”

You can see the point raised by looking at results from the provinces.

Take Hamedan. In 2005, Mr Ahmadinejad won 195,000 votes. In 2009, it was 765,000 - a difference of 570,000.

If you add to his 2005 vote the others who voted for conservative candidates in that year (97,000) and the non-voters (218,000), you reach only 510,000.

To get to the total declared of 765,000 this year, many reformist voters from 2005 must also have voted for Mr Ahmadinejad.

The report says that, for the official figures to be correct, 24% of former reformist voters must have voted for Mr Ahamdinajed this time.

In Lorestan province, the study estimates that 44% of former reformist voters would have had to have voted for President Ahmadinejad.

Is this possible? Yes. Is it likely? The report doubts it.

3. Do rural voters support Ahmadinejad?
The answer, according to the study, is that the 2005 election showed his support was mainly in urban and suburban areas.

It explains this by saying that “much of Iran’s rural population is comprised of ethnic minorities… [with] a history both of voting reformist and of voting for members of their own ethnic group.”

The report questions why, in 2009, the data “suggests a sudden shift in political support… showing substantial swings for Ahmadinejad”.

It concludes: “This increase in support for Ahmadinejad amongst rural and ethnic minority voters is out of step with previous trends, extremely large in scale, and central to the question of how the credibility of Ahmadinejad’s victory has been perceived within Iran.”

It seems that many Americans confuse Iran with Iraq, so here are some subtle differences:

The cost of the war in Iraq at 8am GMT was $681.949.480.569 - (but don’t get too hung up on that figure as it obviously increases every second) America has not “invested” in a similiar way in Iran.

Iran has WMD (Weapons Of Mass Destruction) - Iraq does not

In Iraq, it is possible to make a speech without censor. In Iran, “Freedom of speech” means that if you make a speech, you lose your freedom.

Hope that helps - JF

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The most common mistake made by many salespeople is that they don’t think about what they want; they think about what they don’t want.

The human mind is unable to deal with negations, such as, “I don’t want to miss target,” or, “This prospect will always go for the cheapest price.”

In these examples, your unconscious mind will create “miss target” and “prospects who only buy from the companies who offer the cheapest prices.”

If you are asked not to think of a blue tree, then your mind has already started thinking of a blue tree!

Therefore, when setting goals for themselves, salespeople need to focus on what it is they want, rather than what it is they don’t want.

The clearer people are about their goals, the more leverage they create because they start to attract them at an unconscious level. This means that having a picture of their goal and imagining how they will feel achieving their goal can be extremely powerful.

Having goals and well-formed outcomes will stretch and develop your team’s ability, keeping them challenged and motivated.

Everyone has heard of SMART - SMART stands for the following:

Specific - because it becomes more real when you are detailed.

Measurable - if you have been very specific about your goal, then you are going to find it much easier to know when you have achieved it.

Achievable - having the faith and the belief that your goal is stretching, yet realistic, generates more clarity, drive and determination.

Relevant - sometimes it can be easy to set ourselves goals that are not really our own goals - they are the goals of others who have influenced us to think that we should want them too.

Timed - people often find that if they have a certain amount of work to be done within a specified time frame, they will take the allotted time to complete their task. Putting a time for when we want to achieve our goal by works in much the same way, and is a vital component for our own motivation.

But I work with SMARTER, because I added:

Exciting - Goals are much more fun to achieve is they excite us to achieve them; if you enjoy working on them - we all need to be stimulated to achieve.

Recorded - We need to let everyone know when we have achieved a goal. Their congratulations and praise will motivate us to even greater levels of success.

So, remember, being SMART will take you onward and upward, but when you add an “E” and an “R” be assured, success will follow.

Today’s News: I have let it be known that I will be officially offline from July 6th until September 1st: I will still be posting my blog on a daily basis, and attending to essential issues, but I will be concentrating on completing and recording the new JF Sales Academy and of course finishing my book “Tougher At The Top”

I will also be re-charging the batteries, ahead of a gruelling schedule which begins in September…more of that soon.

The re-vamped JF Consultancy  site is almost completed, we just have to add my latest interviews.

You can access my Article Vault and “How To” guides, plus visit the new Store. You can also register for the JF Journal, which I’ll publish every four weeks. You can even find out “What They Are Saying About JF” - it’s all good, I promise! So do pop across and have a wander round - JF Consultancy.

I will be here tomorrow, to update you on what is really going on in Iran, as I continue to receive daily reports from friend and colleague, Somayeh Bahat.

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The reality is that customers are persuaded when they are part of the process and not part of the audience.

Sales success today demands a radical shift from the “peddler” mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a flashy sales presentation alone alienates rather than persuades.

The best salespeople regard the sales call as a two-way conversation — not a one-sided pitch. They have developed active listening skills. Average salespeople score fairly well in their ability to provide customers with facts and figures, but top performers dramatically outscore the rest when it comes to gathering information.

In addition, how a salesperson collects information still distinguishes exceptional achievers from the rest of the pack. Top performers ask better questions and, as a result, gain much better information. Essentially, they aim to engage customers in the buying process with questions that require thoughtful answers and stimulate curiosity. These questions reveal the customer’s underlying needs.

A Fresh Approach to Selling
Many organizations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure. The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed — in a large number of markets; a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques has meant that some tasks traditionally performed by the sales team can be more effectively handled by other methods.

The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business. From an organizational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Customer focus is at the heart of successful selling in this new era.

Today’s News: Over at Saleseopedia today, Clayton Shold is in conversation with Art Sob.., Art Sobc.., Art Sobczak ….. that is such a difficult name to pronounce, but I hear he is a nice guy.

“The Price Question” - “The “price question” a.k.a. “price objection” can come up anytime and has always been an issue, but perhaps more so during the current challenging economy. Are you aware salespeople can actually create this objection unwittingly?  Art shares practical advice on how to avoid the price question, avoid negotiating on price and what you can do to effectively move away from the price questions should it come up.”  Just click on the banner below to listen in.

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“The Sales Cabinet” concept is a sophisticated process for analysing, planning, directing, and monitoring the activity of a sales team.
 
It is an essential tool for setting sales policies and the management, at whatever level, of a sales team, if not every sales call produces an order and there is a time lag between the first contact with a potential customer and that company placing an order.

SC is also a valuable tool for marketing and business development personnel.

The Dimensions of Sales Cabinet:

Sales Cabinet is a four drawer filing cabinet and each drawer represents not only a stage in the buying cycle, but also the critical tasks a sales team should be performing if they are operating in a “balanced” mode. The aim is to elevate as many of the inhabitants of the bottom drawer up to the top drawer as possible, whilst continually finding replacements for them.

The Buying Drawers:

We have two buying drawers, the top two. In the very top one, we keep our long term stable partners. We might well have preferred supplier agreements with them or a clearly defined and established purchasing history.

In the second drawer, we place the less well established clients, the occasional buyers or the one off buyers.

A great deal of purposeful, strategic, objective-based selling can and should be done within these two drawers. In the precarious second drawer of the cabinet, every piece of business has to be fought for and often secured through sacrificing margin. Whereas in the secure environment of the top drawer, the inhabitants respect the added value we bring to the relationship and seek stability and value for money rather than lowest price. However, developing and promoting Drawer Two occupants has obvious benefits to the growth and profitability prospects of the Company.

The Working Drawer:

In Drawer Three, we keep our prospects, potential customers who we have visited and qualified, but have yet to win the first order. Though this is a crucial part of the development of an ideal customer base, sales work in the Working Drawer is, in general terms, the least cost effective unless rigorous qualification processes are followed.

Its importance and its costs make it, therefore, yet another important focus for the Sales Manager.

What can we do to heighten our success with a major sales opportunity? When are we best to back off? How can we capture big opportunities more quickly? Etc.

The Marketing Drawer:

Drawer Four, is where we keep our suspects, those potential opportunities identified but not yet visited or qualified. As with most things in life, the more work that is put into the preparation phase of the sales process, the less effort will be wasted in the long-term.

The selection of the right opportunities from the market place can ensure better sales, better profits and can reduce the cost of the sales work.

Selection criteria have to be established and graduated by experienced sales personnel. Once in operation and proven, their continued use can be maintained by other members of the organisation who will develop, to a much higher level, the specific skills needed.

Banks of qualified prospects can be built up if appropriate – ready for a concerted attack on a targeted part of the market place.

Summary:

When I first designed Sales Cabinet, I realised just how important it is that balance be maintained between the four drawers (where market conditions permit).

Excess top drawer activity will constrain the growth of the business into those areas that are identified as the opportunities of the future. It is also a symptom that the organisation has got itself into a rut or a ‘comfort zone’, that the communication of policy is poor, that management is not controlling the work, or that people lack the confidence to tackle new areas (or a combination of all of them).

Too much emphasis on the bottom two drawers is inefficient and will dramatically reduce the potential for growth, will increase the cost of sales unnecessarily and could well lower the reputation of the Company.

Today’s News: If you missed last night’s TSE Roundtable, then you missed a superb presentation - everyone was on top form, so my thanks again to Craig Klein, Danita Bye, Jonathan London and Steve Martinez - great job guys!

OK, you have one further opportunity this week, to expand your sales skills and your commercial bandwidth - on Thursday, Colleen Francis is presenting a TSE Masterclass:

Mom Was Right! Honesty is the best policy and, in today’s tough selling market, a very profitable one.
Thursday June 25th 2009 1:00 PM EASTERN (6pm GMT)

“Looking for an edge in today’s tough market? It’s time to abandon those cliché sales techniques that rely on manipulation and deceit. Instead, being honest with your clients and prospects will help you reduce lost sales, stop clients from defecting, and increase your profits with those clients in whom you’ve already invested time and effort. By adopting an honesty-based selling approach, you’ll find an effective, real world model for building open and long lasting relationships with your clients that can withstand the lure of lower prices and slick competitors, and lead to increased leads, sales, repeat business and long-term profits.”

As usual, I have just a very few FREE places available for my readers, so here are all the details and registration

Finally today, we are moving very rapidly towards the end of voting over at Top 10 Sales Articles - if you haven’t voted, you can still register your support for your favourit author here

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There is a questioning technique, or rather a structure to use the technique within, called the funnel technique, which keeps you on track as you guide your prospect toward your service or product offering once you have uncovered their needs.

The technique relies on you using the prospect’s own words back to him or her, and you must take notes.

You will need to remember what the prospect says both now and possibly well into the future, so do not rely on your memory.

There are four steps to the technique, but that does not necessarily mean that it will always be only four questions:

1. Motivate; say why you are asking the questions

2. Open neutral questions, to get non-specific, unbiased information

3. Open leading questions, to get specific, biased information

4. Summarize and gain commitment with closed questions

Step One:

The first step is to motivate your potential customer. You are going to hit the prospect with a barrage of questions, so you want to prepare them for it. The best way to do this is with motivation, not justification.

You might consider using something they said to provide some positive stroking.

For example, you might make reference to the size of their company or department. They will be on the edge of their chair waiting to tell you about it in more depth! Be careful not to sound too patronizing, but top salespeople are genuinely interested to learn as much as they can about their client’s or prospect’s business and are very good at creating rapport.

Step Two:

Now that you have them relaxed, you can begin to probe for information, pegs to hang the sale on and hot buttons. You want to find out as much as possible without leading or influencing the prospect. You want to encourage them to talk. You could ask them, for instance, how their company was structured or what the partnership does. Never use closed questions or be too specific at this stage.

At the second stage you will more likely than not get several pieces of valuable information. You must take notes, because you may want to go through the funnel with each piece of information, maybe several times.

Step Three:

Once you have started to gather information and have uncovered the hot buttons, use open, leading questions to pinpoint specific areas that you want to explore, exploit or lead the prospect into. Again, during Step 3, do not use closed questions.

Step Four:

Now you summarize using the prospect’s own words and information, so as to get their commitment of your understanding of the situation or their needs. You then wait for the commitment, and go back to step one.

A Powerful Selling Tool:

Questioning using the funnel technique is one of the most powerful selling tools available to you. The key to its success is to practice using it. First of all, work on your open questions, and then start to consciously differentiate between open neutral and open leading questions.

When you become skillful with this technique, selling becomes a lot easier, and making small orders large orders is easier too!

You can make the prospect ask for the products or services you have to offer.

Today’s News: Still time - just - to register for today’s TSE Roundtable “The Power Of Sales Process” - with my compliments (that’s $99.50 value) Register

Over at Paul McCord’s blog he continues his absolutely superb “Boost Your Sales” series. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do get over there

Meanwhile, news from Iran: Despite the authorities believing that they are successfully severing all connections with the outside world, I am still in daily contact with Somayeh Bahat, and ensuring that she is receiving BBC bulletins, which typically provide a totally different perspective on events than she is seeing on state owned TV - unsurprisingly.

An independent British analysis of the disputed election results has found irregularities in the reported turnout, as well as “implausible” swings in the vote in favour of Mr Ahmadinejad.

Analysts from St Andrew’s University and the Chatham House think-tank said votes in favour of Mr Ahmadinejad in a third of the provinces would have required an “unlikely scenario” of voting patterns.

More on Saturday - “Where Did All The Iranian Votes Come From?”

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Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, the very best salespeople gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate.

They understand that:

• At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively. The best salespeople are masters at capturing information.

• Customer focus means taking the customer seriously. Today, the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground.

• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors that are customized to support specific goals.

• Another myth that can be exploded is that, while customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole, salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However, recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.

In order to maintain customer focus, the best salespeople become facilitators, creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong — it costs five times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!

Doing Business Is a Right To Be Earned

The right to do business has to be earned and never assumed.

Rather than doggedly asking for business, the very best salespeople work to keep the relationship moving toward a sale. They realize the need to identify how to turn their company’s products into real solutions, which must meet specific needs.

Unfortunately, our surveys confirm that the average salesperson drags the customer over old ground as much as 52 percent of the time. They are unable to provide continuous stimulation and never know when to treat an existing customer like a new one.

Conversely, exceptional salespeople make such “return” calls only 10 percent of the time.

Above all, earning the right to proceed requires gaining the customer’s trust, and top salespeople work diligently to establish a climate in which the customer is willing to share information and feels comfortable doing so.

The key here is integrity.

Today’s News: Over at Top Sales Experts tomorrow, we are presenting this month’s TSE Roundtable:

The Power Of Sales Process

Presented by: Danita Bye, Jonathan London, Steve Martinez, Craig Klein and Jonathan Farrington

Tuesday June 23rd 2009 1:00PM EASTERN(6pm GMT)

If you would like to join us, you can register with my compliments here

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