Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don’t they?

As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves “A Salesman or a Saleswoman.” They have developed a series of euphemisms such as: “Sales Engineer,” “Account Executive”, “Technical Sales Consultant” etc. But nowadays we accept that we all sell everyday - doctors, lawyers, estate agents, architects, and politicians.

The fact remains that anyone who is in business has to sell themselves and their products - and the so called “Captains of Industry” - Branson, Roddick, Marshall, Hanson, Gates, Dell and Co. are thought the best salespeople in the world.

It therefore follows that the quality and success of our salespeople will ultimately determine the success of our companies. Certainly the world has become more competitive and in order to survive and stay in business we need to continually expand and develop the skill sets of our sales team.

Sir John Harvey-Jones said “Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling”

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles, and shorter product life spans.

Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment, which arrived with the new millennium, must, in my view, respond to those realities and recognise that there is not one critical sales related challenge, which must be addressed but five and I will discuss these in a follow up post.

In Summary:
Our commercial functions, particularly the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives – i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all of that investment in costly accounting software, new office equipment, expensive IT systems etc. will count for nothing.

We can therefore say with complete confidence, that selling really is the key factor in the total marketing process

Today’s News: I had quite a lengthy conversation with Robin Frey Carey of The Customer Collective - have you been over to there yet? - and we were discussing, amongst other things, webinars and tele-seminars. My view is that like all things in life, there are good ones and erm, less than good ones. For example, the Business Experts Webinars initiative is superb and I think Lee has a really big success on his hands - if you want to check the itinerary for May, just click on the box in the left hand column. (Due to the pressure of other commitments, I will not be appearing until September)

Thanks to a superb suggestion from my good friend Keith Rosen last week, we are working on something very unique and I promise to share it with you very shortly.

Talking of upcoming tele-seminars, have you really booked your place for my conversation with the remarkable Kevin Eikenberry yet? Just click on the banner below - please.

Tomorrow: We are putting the final touches to the re-worked Top Sales Experts site and preparing to give Top 10 a makeover - plenty to keep me going. Wherever you are, have a great w/e and enjoy the sunshine

It all started a few years ago with Web 2.0, and now Sales 2.0 is the hot topic. What does this mean? Essentially, it means a complete transformation is taking place in our sales efforts, processes, tools, customers and markets, which all impact our sales cycle. As the customer’s buying cycle continues to evolve, their research of facts, pricing, and general understanding becomes more sophisticated. This means your selling process must start sooner and therefore, you can anticipate an increase in objections.

Introducing Sales Objections 2.0.

Expect more and more objections to arise in the following 5 categories:

•    Need: We all know multiple initiatives are sitting on everyone’s agenda the remainder of this year and the urgency and need for your solution may easily take a back seat.

•    Relationship: Although customers are more open to change than ever before, they also want to strengthen existing relationships with current vendors and partner with them in new ways. It may be tougher to displace the competition now.

•    Authority: With more decision-makers involved in the process, more No-Po’s pop up each day. These are the people who have no power and no authority to make a purchasing decision.

•    Product/Service: Although customers know more than ever before, they have less patience with anything too complicated and that lacks scalability and integration.

•    Price: Next year is going to be a lean year so prepare for this objection.

How do you rebound? Here are some rebuttal strategies based on the category objection you may receive:

Need Category:

•    Qualify your prospects to uncover the impact of their organization to determine potential for a need

•    Create a strong phone introduction that creates urgency

•    Determine if the prospect really knows what you are calling about

•    Call wide at different levels

Relationship Category:

•    Establish trust and rapport

•    Learn how to sell against your competition

•    Determine if the prospect needs to be sold or educated first

•    Call wide at different levels

Ability Category:

•    Understand the various authority levels and learn the chain of command to include more decision-makers

•    Present your product and align it to their “hot buttons”

•    Early in the sale, set expectations that you plan to align at the highest level

Product/Service Category:

•    Provide opportunities to educate on your product/service

•    Provide a cost-effective solution for easy entry

•    Ask precision questions

•    Neutralize their fears by providing added value for what you can deliver

Price Category:

•    Qualify price versus ownership

•    Determine if this is really a strong prospect who has potential

•    Spend more time creating value and less time talking about budget

•    Call at the highest level and learn the purchasing criteria

Josiane Feigon is a pioneer, maverick and visionary in the Sales 2.0 community. As President and Founder of TeleSmart, Josiane is a 20-year veteran and one of the world’s leading experts on developing sales teams and management talent. She provides consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies whose global Sales organizations range from 20-800 salespeople. Clients such as Agilent, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Genesys, Harte-Hanks, HP, Mercury, Microsoft, Oracle and Verisign consider her an invaluable part of their sales strategies. Visit her website at www.tele-smart.com

Today’s News: Earlier in the week, I shared with you an upcoming series of webinars by my good friend Joanne Black? OK, you now have the opportunity to listen to Joanne in conversation with Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia - Joanne Black week? Why not? She is a remarkable person, probably the leading authority on referral selling in the world and a very good friend - just get over there 

Tomorrow: With all this bickering between sales and marketing, I make the assertion that “Selling Is The Key Component In The Total Marketing Process”

Have you registered yet?

 
Today, something a little highbrow, but stay with it because it’s interesting!

Everyone has a different make-up that influences how they take decisions. Ned Herrmann’s extensive research in this field led to the Herrmann Brain Theory.

There are four parts of the brain. As well as the familiar parts (the cerebral brain) – Left (realistic) and Right (idealistic) – there are also the less familiar (Limbic) parts – Top (thinking) and Bottom (doing) [based on the work of Sperry and McLean].

Components Of The Brain:
* A (upper left) Logical, analytical part
* B (lower left) Form, process, organisational part
* C (lower right) Emotional, feeling part
* D (upper right) Abstract, visioning part

The Herrmann Brain Theory:
The best performing groups have a balance between the four components of the brain, as is the case with the Star Trek officer team:

• Captain Kirk is the visionary leader ‘D’ and provides the spatial thinking
• Mr Spock is logical ‘A’ and puts the ideas into logical order and context
• ‘Bones’ McCoy expresses feelings ‘C’ and provides the emotions
• ‘Scotty’ is the pragmatic engineer ‘B’ and effects the decisions (‘I canna break the laws of physics!’)

The balance between the characters enables viewers, depending on their own character type, to empathise with one of the officers. This part accounts for the TV programme’s success.

It is important, therefore, to understand the type of person you are asking to make a decision. You have to play to his or her style. With groups you have to play to the members. People with similar profiles working together are a dysfunctional group. You will never get the best decisions as members will compete. If, for example, all were ‘Ds’, they would spend their time generating ideas but take no decisions.

Finally - Group Dynamics

Rarely are important or critical decisions taken by one person. Usually several people are involved, whether through a hierarchical process (e.g. Japanese companies) or in a group, team or committee.

Group dynamics are different from individual dynamics. Members of a group will have group objectives but also their own agenda – their own goals and characteristics.

Each individual’s personal goals …
• Rational
• Political
• Emotional
… must be understood and addressed.

Emotional
“What will I get out of this?”
“What will the impact be on my life?”

Rational
“What does it cost and what is the benefit?”
“Will it work and how long will it take?”

Political
“Will I look good in the organisation if I support this?”
“Will it advance my career?”

Today’s News: You have the opportunity to listen to me in conversation with Kevin Eikenberry on May 20th - registration is free if you click on the banner below - it will be worth it

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome Josiane Feigon, a very bright cookie and talented writer.

 Mike Brooks

One day I was having my Volvo serviced and as I waited for it to be brought out, I wandered onto the new car showroom. There on the floor was a Special S60 R - their Rally version and it looked pretty sweet. As I sat in it, someone came up and asked me what I thought and I said, “It’s OK.”

I asked him if he was one of the sales reps, and he said he was new to sales having worked for the Volvo factory for the last 10 years. He then asked me how much I knew about the car. “Not much,” was my answer.

And that’s when he began. Jim seemed to change as he began to tell me what a phenomenal car the R series was. Did I know that the brakes alone were of racing pedigree and the best brakes Volvo ever made? And that they were found only on the Rally model?

Did I know about the torque of the engine and that the Rally had the only hand made engine Volvo ever produced?

On and on he went, covering each part of the car from the racing bucket seats, down to the hand stitched leather. And the price! My God! This was the best value, dollar for dollar, of any car on the market, period, he told me.

And the performance! Would I like to take a test drive? “Heck Yeah!” I heard myself saying.

Well, as I drove the car - and boy was it fun - Jim talked even more about how great this car was. I soon found that I was completely caught up in his enthusiasm, and before I knew it, I was back at the dealership talking prices, payments, and delivery terms!

I ended up getting away with an “I need to think about it,” but I’ve got to tell you, that car, and Jim’s enthusiasm for it, sticks with me today. Had I actually been shopping for a new car, I would have bought it - and been happy I did!

What this reminded me of is how important your belief in your product or service is. Enthusiasm really IS contagious, and many times your customers buy your belief in your product as well as the product itself.

So your assignment this week is to ask yourself, “How can you inject genuine enthusiasm into your presentation?” Ask yourself why you choose to work at your company and what part of your product or service are you particularly proud or excited about?

Once you’ve identified these things, be enthusiastic about them, and let your prospects and customers know why you are there. And why they should be, too.

And before you go into your next presentation, ask yourself, “Would you buy from you today?”
With over 20 years of inside sales closing experience, Mike Brooks has been billed nationwide as Mr. Inside Sales. Once a bottom 80% producer, Mike learned and perfected the skills of Top 20% producers and became the number one sales rep out of 5 Southern California branch offices.

Author of the weekly Ezine, “Inside Sales Secrets of the Top 20%,” Mike’s proven techniques, strategies and skills are used successfully by companies in industries such as securities sales, high-tech sales, pharmaceuticals, equipment leasing and other business to business applications.

Mike combines proven, current tactics and skills with personal experience to provide a motivational and practical presentation.

Look for Mike’s new book The Secrets of the Top 20% to be released later this month. Learn more about Mike here http://www.mrinsidesales.com/

Today’s News: It seems everyone is talking up a recession and having worked through at least three myself and come out the other side stronger, fitter and more successful, I have my own thoughts and ideas - more of that later. In fact selling in a recession is this week’s topic over at Salesopedia and you can catch some excellent articles here

Tomorrow: “The Star Trek Officer Team & The Herrmann Brain Theory“

When a colleague loaned me Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits Of Highly Successful People” many years ago, it took me about three months to get round to reading it - I now realise that I wasted those three months! In fact, I read it three times in order to ensure that I had fully digested the wisdom.

Whilst I cannot claim to have experienced an epiphany of “Damascus Highway” proportions, it did cause me to make fundamental changes to the way I conducted business. In reality, I was practising much of what Covey suggests, but I was doing so in a fairly unstructured and ill-disciplined way. However, in what I now term my “Post Covey” period, I do ensure that I audit myself regularly and I would urge you to do the same.

Covey is also responsible for the book “Principle Centred Leadership“, and many of his ideas and approaches relate to the management of people.

Covey’s view focuses on interdependence, on what he calls “mature interaction”. When we are truly interdependent, then we have achieved and are practising all seven habits. The habits are in fact steps, leading us from dependent through independence to interdependence and making use of our innate human characteristics - moving us in effect from what Covey terms “private victories to public victories”.

In any situation, our natural human response is to look for similarities to situations we have previously encountered. In doing this, we fail to recognise the situation we are actually in and we fail to recognise opportunities and challenges presented to us. In effect “the way we see the problem is the problem” … which accounts for why we find ourselves repeating patterns of frustration and feeling unable to respond appropriately to situations facing us.

Einstein observed “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Covey develops this theme into what he calls an “inside-out” approach. This means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self - with your principles, your values, your motives and your character.

We each have, and can develop further, various assets. Covey’s view encourages wider recognition of these assets and the maintenance of them. Once we take for granted say effective working relationships, then we cease to actively maintain them. The result could well be a reduction in the effectiveness of the relationship and therefore of a very important asset. The key is balance between the use of any asset and maintenance of it.

You can read my full review here

Today’s News:

My good friend Joanne Black, has just announced some new seminar dates - “Turn more than 50 percent of your contacts into clients, work less, and get more quality clients. Find out to get hot sales leads without cold calling by enrolling in our new three-session No More Cold Calling® Webinar. ”

 You can find the schedule here

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot my guest is “Mr Inside Sales” Mike Brooks.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” - Charles Darwin

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

The world’s leading organisations continuously seek to improve their performance. There may be unlimited potential for achieving accelerated improvement but if this potential is not being realised, good change agents must line up and mobilise all the forces (or drivers) for improvement.

There are five main drivers for improvement in organisations:

• Strategy

• Lean operations

• Balanced culture

• Customer responsiveness

• Leadership

Strategy sets direction and give focus to improvement. It must however be deployed throughout the organisation to be effective.

Processes need to be mapped and analysed in a methodical way; projects must be managed; problem symptoms traced to root causes; data must be collected before decisions are taken; trends in customer preferences detached and fed back; improvement activity of any kind reported on and coordinated; improvement action measured. Just about everything should be done to a discipline.

A balanced culture means effective, creative management of people. Customers are served by people; processes are managed by people. Only people can deliver quality improvement. For them to work well they must be empowered, given direction, measured, reviewed and success recognised.

Customer responsiveness keeps the organisation focused on customer needs, reactions and changing requirements.

Finally, leadership ensures that everyone is enthused and supported to work on the strategy, improve processes, served customers and active team players.

Today’s News: It is a while since I mentioned my good friend and publisher, Jeb Blount, who has created a superb sales community over at Sales Gravy - if you haven’t discovered SG, do take a look here

Tomorrow: We are continuing our work on three exciting new projects, so the likliehood of some downtime is very slim, but hey-ho, that’s the way of the world right now. You have a great w/e and be sure to make it back next week to join me and my guests. - JF 

Debbie Fay

Top 10 mistakes presenters make:

10.  Thinking everybody’s a comedian:  If you are funny, good for you!  Everyone loves to laugh, and Lord knows grown-ups don’t laugh nearly as much as we should.  BUT, you don’t have to be funny to be a good presenter.  In fact, the only thing you DO have to be is yourself.  Audiences only listen to people they trust, and the only way to be trusted is to be authentic.  The only way to be authentic is to be YOU.

9.  Being a stranger in a strange land:  Always get to the site of your presentation early; the day before if possible, but at least a half hour before you’re scheduled to appear.  If you’re speaking at a conference, you need to be there even earlier, and be prepared to “go on”.  Often a previous speaker will go short, or worse, not show up.  You need to be there and be ready.  More important, when you arrive early you have the opportunity to familiarize yourself with the room in which you’ll be speaking and you’ll get to meet some of your audience members; a great way to break the ice and increase your comfort level.  Most important, if you’ve had the opportunity to meet a few of your guests, you can mention them or their area of expertise in your speech and exponentially increase audience interest.

8.  Winging it:  I am always astounded at people who tell me (with pride) that they don’t prepare for their speeches; they prefer to speak “off the cuff”.  Yikes.  This is like walking the trapeze without a net and WORSE showing a complete lack of respect for your audience.  You MUST plan and prepare no matter if you are speaking for 10 minutes or 10 times that.   NO one likes to listen to someone ramble, meander, digress or repeat themselves.  I believe it was Mark Twain who said extemporaneous speaking requires LOTS of preparation.  Just do it.

7.   Going Long:  It is NEVER NEVER a good idea to speak longer than your allotted time.  You should either end a few minutes early or finish right on time.  In fact, if you are one of many speakers, and you’re speaking right before lunch or worse, just before the end of the day, make yourself a hero and go 10 minutes short.  Then make yourself available for questions at lunch, cocktail hour, etc.  Those who want to hear more will seek you out.  Everyone else will LOVE you simply for being sympathetic to their empty stomachs and full minds.

6.  Telling it All:  You’re the expert, and they’ve come to hear you speak.  The common impulse is to tell them everything you know.  WRONG.  The best way to organize your material is around the rule of threes, something I consider magic.  I strongly discourage you from ever trying to put across more than five main points.  Why?  It’s simple. Your audience can’t retain more than five, and if you insist on giving them more, they will 1.) Dump everything you’ve said up to that point and 2.) Become angry. They worked hard to hold on to your first five points and need you to wrap up, not move on to point six, seven, etc.  Be clear, concise, and considerate.  Organize your thoughts in 3 big bundles so that your audience can do the same.

5. Apologizing:  Nothing makes an audience more uncomfortable than hearing a speaker apologize for something a.) They hadn’t even noticed, b.) Had no way of knowing was wrong or missing, and c.) Is distracting them from getting the message.  Remember, the audience doesn’t know the order or number of your slides.  If you find your slides are messed up, or some are missing, keep it to yourself!!  Likewise with anything else that might go wrong that YOU know about but the audience doesn’t – ignorance is bliss.

4. Reading:  You should never ever read a slide, flip chart, overhead, handout etc., unless you’re presenting to kindergarteners or anyone else who doesn’t know how to read.  An audience can read 7-10 times faster than you can speak.  Plus, they CAN READ.  Why should they sit and listen to you read it to them?  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people complain of having to sit through a presentation where the speaker read slide after text-intensive slide.  “Jeez”, they say,” If I’d known he/she was just going to read the whole thing, they could have emailed me the slides and saved me the time and trouble.”

3.  Creating visuals that aren’t aids:  Speaking of reading slides, you should never show slides, or overheads, or flip charts that are text intensive.  Period.  Your visual aids should always be something that says what you (with words) cannot.  Get it?  We’re talking charts, graphs, pictures, cartoons, music.   Any visual aid you create should act as a synergistic component; it should illuminate in ways that are beyond you and your words.

2. Neglecting to Practice:  There is simply no way around this one.  You MUST practice.  OUT LOUD.  And you must know your introduction and conclusion cold.  The easiest way to let “stage fright” get the better of you is to allow yourself to stand up in front of a group of people without ever having heard the words you’re about to say come out of your mouth.  All of the great speakers practice, and they practice a lot. 

1.  Not getting HELP:  None of us is good at everything.  Ham that I am, I wouldn’t try and do my own taxes EVER.  My wonderful genius accountant does my taxes (and he happens to be a good public speaker too).  If you are struggling with any or all of the BIG TEN, get help!!  You’ll be glad you did, and on your way to being heard.

Debbie Fay is the founder of bespeak presentation solutions, a  presentations coaching company that helps clients build and deliver presentations that get heard and get results.  Debbie has helped hundreds of people of all ages and vocations become confident compelling change-making speakers. 

Go to www.bespeakpresentations.com or email; beheard@bespeakpresentations.com   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
 

Ed: Debbie has also recently joined the exclusive ranks of the Top Sales Experts team.

Today’s News: Tibor Shanto, another recent recruit to the Top Sales Experts team and a really nice guy is in conversation with another really nice guy, Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia - “How To Shorten Your Sales Cycle” you can listen in here

To those of you celebrating - happy May Day.

Tomorrow: I look at the five main drivers for optimal organisational performance - and there really are only five

Before you even begin to look at engaging seriously in lots of networking effort, it is useful to look at your own temperament or disposition. This is the individual’s internal desire to network and to find value and enjoyment from the whole process of building relationships.

For some people this will be an almost irrelevant issue to debate. Their motivation to want to talk to people regularly and to network is naturally high. Talking to strangers in supermarket queues, at bus/train stops or even in the elevators is characteristic of such people.

However, even if you really enjoy talking to people, it is a proven fact that most of us are not highly confident and highly motivated networkers. In fact, statistics reveal that: Only one in ten people is actually comfortable in striking up a relationship with a complete stranger.

Unfortunately, this means that their own misgivings, fears and doubts, potentially hinder the vast majority of people.

Four Networking Types:

In practice, you can divide people who attempt to build networking relationships into four distinct types.

o The Loner (little or no networking)

o The Socialiser

o The User

o The Relationship Builder or Networker

Although our aim is to consider the fourth of these in some detail as the role to which we can all aspire (if we are not already there), let’s briefly look at each of these types in turn.

The Loner:

-  Likes to do most things by themselves (because they do it faster or better)

-  Doesn’t want to bother or worry other people

-  Feels that their knowledge and skills are often superior to most people

-  Only asks for help as a last resort (and when it may be too late)

The Loner is an easily recognisable type, because there are times when we all believe that we will do better ourselves than if we ask others for help. The Loner will not usually want to bother anyone else, or necessarily see much point in doing so, believing that others will be slower and will set lower standards.

Unfortunately, the loner attitude is a major obstacle to effective networking. We need to shift our thinking greatly in this area. We should be more willing to let others assist, and we should even ask for help more often

The Socialiser:

- Tries to make a friend of everyone they meet

- Tends to know people’s names and faces but not what they do

- Is not usually systematic or ordered about follow-up – contact is random

- May not listen too deeply and is quick to move on

Although the Socialiser may have a wide circle of friends and contacts, he or she knows little of substance about personal skills and resources. As a result, Socialisers do not often share their skills.

The Socialiser is also a random networker, following little or no formal contact system.

The User:

- Is likely to collect business cards without really connecting with people

- Tries to make ‘sales’ or ‘pitches’ on the first encounter

- Talks and focuses on own agenda rather than together information

- Has superficial interactions

- Keeps score when giving favours

Unfortunately, people of this type do network widely, but in a way that creates little benefit for themselves or others. Even worse, this kind of networker tends to create a bad impression and therefore can give networking an image of being about selling, taking, bargaining and keeping score.

The Builder:

-  Has a ‘giving’ disposition or abundance mentally

-  Is generally happy to ask others for help or guidance

-  Listens and learns about people carefully

-  Is regularly on the look-out for useful information for which others can also benefit

-  Has a well-ordered and organised networking system

This type of networker is what this article is all about – an individual who takes a long-term perspective on relationships with others and thinks more about what he or she can give or offer, than about the return.

This type is out there for others, or on call to offer help whenever it is needed. If they cannot help in person, they usually know someone else who can.

And Finally: Maintaining High Self-Esteem

Apart from the Builder, one factor connects the other three types in preventing them from networking more effectively. This is the issue of self-esteem.

The Loner believes in himself or herself, but not necessarily in others (especially relative strangers). The Socialiser likes people but also very much wants to be liked by others (and therefore does not want to ask for favours). Finally, the User takes a relatively selfish view of “If I benefit or gain, I might reciprocate, otherwise I won’t.”

Of course, all of these types fear rejection, obligation, being too pushy or even looking weak. All of these fears or concerns about networking need to be lessened or overcome.

In a short post such as this, a topic as largely and potentially complicated as a person’s relative self-esteem cannot be covered at any level of detail. However, it is important to appreciate how low self-esteem can have a major impact on your networking efforts if it is not at least basically understood and addressed.

An individual with high self-esteem is likely to build their own confidence to want to network by having a positive, open and ‘can do’ attitude.

Conversely, an individual with low self-esteem is likely to lack confidence to start with. They will convince themselves (and others) that they have little that would be of interest to others in any network.

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia the focus this week is on speeding up the sales cycle and you can catch some great articles, plus one from me called ”The Most Important Element In The Entire Sales Cycle” here   

Tomorrow: It gives me immense pleasure to welcome the effervescent Debbie Fay, making her debut on The JF Guest Author Spot

Tim Wackel

My wife and I are the proud parents of two great kids—a teenage son and daughter. Our daughter is getting ready to start college next week, and our son is like almost every other 15 year old, living life large with lots of attention on comfort and few worries about appearance.

Last week I promised my son, Nicholas, that I would take him to the mall to buy new shoes. He loves to wear athletic shoes (or is still okay to call them sneakers?) and prefers to wear them until they fall part apart at the seams.

This shopping trip was going to be different because Nicholas decided he would expand his closet and buy a pair of Top-Siders (seems that these are making a bit of a come back on high school campuses). I figured we could find these at almost any department store but was surprised to find only one store in the mall that carried a variety of sizes and styles that he was interested in.

I find myself standing in Nordstrom’s shoe department surrounded by hundreds of pairs of shoes and a few well-dressed, professional looking salesmen. One of the younger men working in the department approached us and asked, “What brings you into the store today?” What happened next was one of the better (and least expected) lessons in “selling” that I’ve experienced in quite some time.

I have to confess that I’ve never thought of retail as being much of a selling environment. Point customers in the right direction, answer a few questions about sizes and availability, ring up the order and you’re done. So what valuable lessons did I learn in Nordstrom that day? Here are the four principles that everyone will recognize but very few consistently apply.

#1. Open questions close more business
The question that you are asked most often when you walk into a retail store is, “Can I help you?” This is a bad question, plain and simple. It’s closed and requires no thinking on your part. Most shoppers will simply blurt out “no” hoping to avoid premature pressure to buy something.

Let’s go back and look at what the Nordstrom shoes salesman asked:”What brings you into the store today?” Not exactly rocket science but this question encouraged me to share that Nicholas was interested in divesting his collection of athletic shoes and wanted to look at some Top-Siders. A conversation was born… what style, size and color? When did he plan to wear them? Looking for something dressy or just something to kick around in?

Ask questions that are thought provoking, not mind numbing.

#2.  Make it easy for customers to decide
Nicholas had pretty much lasered in on one particular style of shoe, but when the shoe salesman returned from the stock room he had several boxes in tow.

Nick immediately tried on his favorite style and began walking the floor to check out the fit. I could tell by his expression that he felt the shoe looked better on the shelf than it did on his foot. The salesman also picked up on this and suggested that Nicholas try on one or two of the other styles that he had taken the liberty to bring out of stock. After all, they were right there and it wouldn’t take but a minute to check them out.

The second pair generated a more favorable response but the third pair was a home run. Give your customer painless choices. What looks good in the window doesn’t always look good on your foot. Think ahead and develop contingencies. You’ll be glad you did.

#3. Look for unidentified needs 
Nick had picked out the right shoe, and we had the right size. We were ready to leave when the salesman asked permission to show us what he had in the remaining boxes he brought out of the stock room. He politely mentioned that he couldn’t help but notice how much “good use” Nick had gotten out of the shoes he was currently wearing. He then asked if my son would be interested in seeing some brand new athletic shoes in the latest back to school styles—need I say more?

Want to be more successful at up-selling? Read (and re-read) #3 above.

#4. Would you like some fries with that?
Nick and Ihave our purchases picked out, and we’re ready to leave when the young man pulls something out of his back pocket. As we walk to the register he shows me (the economic buyer) a shoe tree and shares facts about how these beautiful cedar appliances will extend the life of Nick’s new shoes (assuming I can get him to use them!). I hadn’t expressed any interest in shoe trees but this sales professional picked up on my frustration with how fast Nick could destroy a pair of shoes. He had the courage and the smarts to offer something we both knew had value. What was the worst thing that could happen?

I left the store that day with a lighter wallet but I got a real “deal” on some great sales training. These four simple (but powerful) lessons have been around for a long time, but very few reps consistently apply them.

Are you looking for ideas on how to take your craft to the next level? If not, you should be. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn and amazed at where these lessons can take place.
 
Speaking of Sales is about finding, winning and keeping customers for life. If that’s part of your job, then you won’t want to miss the next issue - you can sign up here and get a bonus copy of Tim’s “Questions That Sell” program.

Until then.

Tim Wackel is founder and president of a training and consulting firm based in University Park, Texas and is an active member of the American Society for Training and Development. He holds a professional membership in the National Speakers Association.
More about Tim Wackel…http://www.timwackel.com

Today’s News: I endeavour to keep my eye on the metrics for all our sites using various tools, specifically Google page ranking, incoming links, unique visitors etc, but I can share with you that the one statistic I ignore completely is the Alexa statistics - what a complete nonsense they are, and I have no idea why anyone takes them seriously. To begin with, they can only evaluate visitors to your site if those visitors have Alexa’s own toolbar, which is definitely for “techies”. Other than that, they simply guess and ask you to contact them if you disagree with their assessment.

For example, according to Alexa, 80% of visitors to this blog come from Canada! Now, I know that a lot of visitors do come from that wonderful country but 80%, I ask you I checked with Google Analytics and in fact the number is closer to 15%. The other fascinating fact that I discovered, is that so far this month, visitors have arrived from no less than sixty three countries, and I find that simply amazing.

But the most interesting statistic is that every Tuesday, more than fifty visitors come from Holland - but only on Tuesdays. I am very keen to discover why this is, so if you are reading this and you are in The Netherlands, please, please enlighten me - Welkom bezoekers uit Nederland. Ik wens u een prettig verblijf op het JF Blogit en hopelijk komt u vaker terug. Met vriendelijke groet. JF
 

Tomorrow: Discover what type of networker you really are.

It is said that 91 percent of people do not complain. They prefer to obtain their revenge by not buying from a business that has given them an inferior product or a poor service. They have passive power, and they know it!

The following is a true story - only the name of the business has been changed.

Blooming Buds was a well-established garden center on the outskirts of a growing town. Two years before it closed, it had expanded to include a café, a gift shop and an organic fruit and vegetable outlet. As well as employing a core staff of 10, it took on a number of seasonal and part-time staff.

The company didn’t have a customer service policy, nor did it believe in wasting money on training. Customers seemed happy enough. After all, the business hardly got any complaints. No, everything appeared to be rosy with Blooming Buds.

The manager should have been a bit suspicious. A lack of complaints doesn’t necessarily mean that all customers are happy. In fact, most of us don’t bother complaining. We just walk away and never go back.
The business’ expansion, unsurprisingly, led to a variety of organizational and logistical problems. There were staffing shortages and managerial inexperience. They experienced a reduction in quality. Gradually business dropped off, but still, nothing was done about it.

The staff stopped telling the manager about some of the problems they had encountered because he wouldn’t listen. He invested heavily in advertising and made sizable capital changes. He never once thought about getting some feedback from his customers.

Eventually, the inevitable happened. The business had to close.

Complaints Are Opportunities

That’s right: complaints are actually opportunities. Opportunities to do what, you ask?

You can use complaints to:

• Evaluate how well you are doing
• Identify weak points in your system and processes and put them right
• See situations from the customer’s point of view
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Create long-term loyalty - handling disgruntled customers well often leaves them feeling more positive about your organization than before.

Some Worrying Facts

One unhappy customer tells 10 to 15 others about their experience, and if it is really bad they will tell the whole world. For every complaint that could be made, around 20 people do not even bother. This means potentially 20 lost opportunities.

If you handle a complaint badly or with an “I could not care less” attitude, or worse, if you hide behind the “rule book,” you will lose that customer for good.

While the example above comes from the brick-and-mortar world of retail, the same rules apply for business-to-business (B2B) sales as well as e-tail and e-commerce.

Whether your team sells and services your customers face-to-face, phone-to-office, or over the Web, the strategy is the same: Welcome complaints, encourage complaints and ensure that your organization is “complaint friendly.” Your business will be healthier as a result.

Today’s News: Have you visited the Top Sales Experts site recently? A number of very talented new team members have been added recently including: Debbie Fay, Nigel Edelshain, Alen Majer, Terri Dunnevant, Steve Kramer, Stone Payton, Karl Goldfield, Dave Kurlan, Shane Gibson, Paul Cherry and Tim Wackel - do drop in here 

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome back Tim Wackel.