Sales Blog with Professional Sales Tips

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It’s a recurring question for sales professionals. Is my product expertise more important than my sales skills, or vice versa? I have an answer and it’s different from the answer I would have given ten years ago.

“This is the fundamental added value…[our customers] are seeking [today]…”

How to Sell 101
I think we all agree that we need to have strong sales skills and product knowledge skills in order to be considered capable sales professionals. We can’t be competent without both. However, today’s sales professionals need to focus more on one of these skills than they have historically. What may have been good sales advice ten years ago may not be right today.

It’s Changing Everything
Something has provoked a lot of change in the sales profession over the last ten years. The Internet. It has changed the dynamics of how to sell. Basic order taking sales skills can be handled by the Internet. If we are simply processing customer orders, then we are just competing with our company’s web site. What customers are primarily looking for in 2008 is product and industry expertise. We need to be viewed as experts in both.

Sales Tips for a New Customer Model
Let’s face it; most of our prospects and customers don’t want to be sold anymore. It’s too easy for them to find and order what they need on the web. They want our expertise and knowledge regarding the products and services our company sells. They want our industry wisdom. This is the fundamental added value they are seeking and will cause them to view us as a resource instead of merely an order processor.

In 1998 product and industry knowledge was important but it usually took a subordinate position to sales training. Our strong product and industry expertise in combination with our sales skills is how we will create strong and lasting alliances with our customers today. Sales ability alone is certainly not enough anymore.

Further reading: Sales Advice: Take this test to see if you have become an order taker.

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

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

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

I love sales and marketing but occasionally I run into companies that use sales skills and marketing techniques that are a little nauseating to me. I don’t want to name any companies but the one I’m thinking of uses pink Cadillacs to reward their sales superstars. But hang on lipstick lovers around the world - this story has a twist.

What bothers me?
I hate when they teach their salespeople when prospecting, “every ‘no’ means that we’re just that much closer to a ‘yes’!” Just hearing that kind of sales advice makes my skin crawl because it’s so superficial sounding.

“It’s a backwards kind of engineering…”

What is good about it?
As much as I hate to admit it, they are actually giving their sales representatives a good sales tip. In fact, they are giving them many sales tips rolled into one statement. If we imagine all the companies that will never buy from us and those that will buy from us in one big pile, isn’t it our job to both eliminate the non-prospects and identify the qualified prospects?

Some more thoughts.

• We tend to have a fear of “no’s” when prospecting. They represent the boogey man in the closet. Let’s think differently about “no’s” in the future.
• We can’t stop when we get a “no.” A “no” means a “no” from that prospect at that moment, and that’s all.
• When we get a “yes” we sometimes stop asking other questions for fear of getting a “no.” We need to keep asking product questions, decision maker questions, etc. from a “yes” prospect until we get the information we need.
• Setting a “no” minimum quota while prospecting can go a long way in removing the psychological fender bender we experience when we hear one. It’s a backwards kind of engineering, but enough “no’s” will generate your “yes’s.”

Even though this company’s sales help might sound corny, this respected organization is actually providing good sales tips on how to sell.

Related information: Sales Tips: What is Cycle Prospecting or Perpetual Prospecting?, Hierarchy of Prospects

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

What follows is some sales advice about asking for special discounts from your sales manager for that prospect with lots of potential.

The not so effective request:

Salesperson to Sales Manager: “I have this great prospect who is going to yield us tons of future business if we can just get the first order. To be competitive they said we’ll have to discount our normal price by 38%.”
Sales Manager to Salesperson: “That’s below our cost! What do you know about them?”
Salesperson to Sales Manager: “All I know is that they need the stuff really badly and they promised us lots of future business. Oh, about our costs, they want 10,000 so we’ll cover the loss with volume. I know how to sell this prospect.”
Sales Manager to Salesperson: ???

The productive request:

Salesperson to Sales Manager: “The XYZ Company says they will buy from us if we can come off our price by 38%. Here is what I know about the decision makers, budget, competition and account potential [realistic and well prepared information provided here]. This is how I plan to demonstrate our added value in order to increase our odds of getting future higher margin business [more good information]. A realistic price quote would be 20% off our normal price. I need your approval for that discount.
Sales Manager to Salesperson: “Approved!”

When you go to your sales manager with reasonable and researched requests you’re much more likely to get a thumbs up. It will also allow you to show off your sales skills and a make for a happier sales manager. Your fellow sales pro’s are frequently going to your sales manager with a continuing chorus of “I need a big discount to get into this prospect that has tremendous future potential.” When asking for a big discount on a prospect, the sales manager needs to feel reasonably confident that the prospect will actually buy in the future and at higher margins. The key is information.

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