Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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My first sales job was with a well-known Fortune 500 company. A few of the sales skills they taught me caused me problems later. One in particular. Their number one sales tip was to always “start at the top.” “Top-down selling.” “Call the highest level executive you can find at a prospect because they will always be the ultimate decision maker.” I knew absolutely nothing about how to sell so I blindly believed 100% of their sales advice, unfortunately.

“We must enter where we can get in.”

I had to learn through the school of hard knocks and by sales help provided by subsequent sales managers that this was not always a good strategy. Why?

• Executives hate when a sales professional actually does get in direct contact with them and they know very little about them or their company.

And…

• Executives won’t take our calls.
• Executives have built-in screeners for people like us; they’re called assistants.
• Executives don’t listen to voice mail messages.
• Executives don’t read their own snail mail; their assistant does and decides whether it should be passed on or not (usually not).
• Executives don’t make their email addresses commonly available and they treat emails from sales professionals like spam.

Sales Tips from My First Sales Job Were Not Working

I found I was wasting a lot of time trying to get in front of executives that were doing everything they could to stay under my radar. When they actually did pick up the phone, I had no idea what to say to them. I had no clue how to sell to them because I hadn’t built a foundation of information first. I didn’t know what their product or service needs were. I had no direction regarding their timeframes, budgets or current vendors. Information is always available outside of a company, of course, but it is usually limited and dated.

There is a Better Way

I learned to start at a lower level in an organization where employees don’t build a fortress around themselves. By doing this I could gather tremendous amounts of information about the prospect before I contacted an identified decision maker. This information not only made me more effective when I got to a higher-level decision maker but it made getting there easier too. I was building relationships along with knowledge.

We can bypass this bottom-up process if we know someone inside or outside a prospect that has intimate knowledge about that company. We have to find them and they have to be willing to share it. Unfortunately, this is not normally possible. There are sales professionals who deal exclusively with upper-management because of what they are selling (e.g., nuclear power plants, jets, etc.) but that is not the case for most of us mortals. We must enter where we can get in. Through information and relationships we are able to get to a high-level decision maker and sell effectively.

Further information: What do I need from a prospect? Hint: relationship, What do I need from a prospect? Hint: information

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

There is ultimately one thing in our sales skills arsenal that will make us successful sales professionals. Our verbal skills. And what drives our verbal sales skills? Our brains. How much of our brain do we actually get to use? Please indicate your answer below.

a. 5%
b. 10%
c. 11%
d. 100%

“We can no longer claim that…our brain is out of reach.”

And the Correct Answer Is
Despite what we’ve been told, the correct answer is actually “d.” That’s right; we use all of our brain. However, we don’t all get an equal share, unfortunately. As David Gerrold says, “The problem with the gene pool is that there’s no lifeguard.” As evidence that we use our brain in its entirety I’d like to point out that you have probably never heard a doctor say, “Good news, the bullet hit him in the 90% of the brain that he doesn’t use.” No, sadly a bullet to the head will kill someone in the majority of cases because we use every area of our brain.

Sales Advice for Our Brains
The primary way that our customers and prospects evaluate our intelligence is through our verbal sales skills. Since our brains are in charge of our mouths this is not an invalid conclusion on their part. When we speak with a prospect for the first time (phone or in person) they have decided what they think of us within about 15 seconds. Their primary determinant is how well we speak. Sales tip: it’s not only an issue with prospects either. We are constantly adding to, or subtracting from, our perceived value by how well we express ourselves even at our established customers.

Sales Tips for Our Mouths
Since we have access to all of our brain, there is no reason not to develop our speaking skills. We can no longer claim that 90% of our brain is out of reach. Just like a muscle, if not exercised regularly our brain and our ability to express ourselves will atrophy. We can develop our presentation skills by constant practice and by taking speech classes or joining Toastmasters.

With enhanced verbal skills we come across as more intelligent to our customers. This translates to higher perceived value which means a higher-level partnership. However, these abilities can’t be strengthened without actively pursuing improvement.

Related information: The Ten-Percent Myth, The Myth of Body Language in Communication

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

I have a German Shepherd dog named Fred that my wife swears I love more than her. Not true…on the vast majority of days. Fred has a behavior instinctual to all dogs that can ruin customer relationships. Fred doesn’t need to know how to sell, so his sales skills aren’t important. We, however, are sales professionals and we have to avoid this behavior of his, no matter how tempting.

“Good relationships…are based on honesty.”

What Is Fred Doing That Represents a Poor Sales Tip?
He brown-noses. He can’t help himself. Every living (and sometimes non-living) thing he meets will cause him to position his nose accordingly. It’s a dog law or something. Cesar Millan tells us that this is a handshake in dog language. Personally, I’m sticking with a handshake.

Why Do We Sometimes Use Fred’s Sales Skills With Our Customers?
We’ve all been given the basic sales advice that if we’re really nice to people they will like us more. We want our customers to like us so we brown-nose them. Studies have shown that brown-nosing is actually effective up to a point. Unfortunately, that point varies from one person to the next and we can’t be sure when we’ve doled out too much doggy language. When a customer realizes that we are brown-nosing, they immediately begin to question our sincerity which can cause all kinds of bad fallout.

Fred is Great, but We Don’t Appreciate His Sales Tips
We develop great customers by developing our relationship with them. Good relationships (as I’ve said many times in this sales blog) are based on honesty. Even though brown-nosing might provide us short-term gains, it usually causes the foundation of the customer/sales professional relationship to erode. Don’t fall for its siren song.

Related information: Is Integrity a Sales Strategy?

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

There is a theme in this sales blog that will never change. That theme is: We are most effective when we feel free to express our unique personality with our customers and prospects. Our customers like to see us, not some synthetic version of us. In my many years in sales I can honestly say that the sales professionals who are loved the most - and I do mean loved - are some of the quirkiest people on the planet.

“Oh no, it’s sales time.”

What do We Like About People?
Do we like someone because they are flawless? No. The irony is that we like people for their odd traits as much as we like them for their identifiable strengths. This is their identity. It’s a package. Our customers like us for the same reasons. Life is counter-intuitive sometimes.

What do Customers Hate About Suits?
I love to attend meetings when a large company brings in 20 suits to help make their case. And by suits I mean guys and gals who are clones of one another sharing the same clothes, hairstyles, verbiage, education, experience, disposition, training and age. Here’s a basic sales tip: customers hate this. When they see an army of suits coming their direction they immediately think, “Oh no, it’s sales time.” Customers like buying from real people, not people that look and talk as if they were put together on an assembly line.

We Keep Hurting Ourselves
The world is filled with generic sales professionals. The more generic they are the more they lose their identity. This diminishes one of the most important aspects of creating a relationship, individuality.

I’m not suggesting that sound sales concepts be thrown out (like those found in this sales blog, of course). I am advising that we give ourselves permission to relax a little in front of the customer and reveal our true temperament and character. It’s key to creating a lasting relationship with our customers. Quirky can be good.

Related information: Can Hillary Clinton teach us something about sales?

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Homeopathic medicine claims that consuming a miniscule amount of certain medicinal substances (even down to one molecule) diluted in a liquid will protect us from illness. Unfortunately, that is how we approach prospecting sometimes, as if one molecule of prospecting will help us grow our business. We have to prospect constantly and in large quantities.

I’m Tired of These Types of Sales Tips
I can’t seem to find a sales blog, sales magazine or sales book anymore that doesn’t have some version of, “Sales isn’t a numbers game anymore.” Well that might be trendy to say and real “Sales Management 2.0″ sounding, but they’re wrong. They’re especially wrong when it comes to prospecting.

“To think…we can intellectualize prospecting…is naive.”

Why the New Quantity-Doesn’t-Matter Sales Advice Doesn’t Work
Can we all agree on the following?

• Poor sales skills matched with low prospecting activity = poor results
• Poor sales skills matched with high prospecting activity = marginal results
• Good sales skills matched with low prospecting activity = marginal results
• Good sales skills matched with high prospecting activity = great results

The best and most prepared Olympic marathon runner in Beijing this month won’t win a medal if he or she doesn’t get out on the track and get those legs moving.

We Also Need to Know How to Sell
That’s right. Activity is necessary when we are prospecting, but we also need to know how to sell effectively. Proper preparation and skills have to be present. To think, however, that we can intellectualize prospecting to the point where we believe activity is not necessary, yet we can expect outstanding results, is naive. Every sales professional I’ve ever observed that excelled in bringing in new business makes a humongous number of prospecting contacts.

Let’s distill this down to one sales tip formula: Preparation + Prospecting Activity X Sales Ability = Results

Related information: Jigsaw CEO Tells Me Why You Need His Website, Sales Tips: What is Cycle Prospecting or Perpetual Prospecting?

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer