www.viewpoint.net.nz - NZ Transport, Aviation, Logistics & Supply Chain Blog

I'd rather have no advice than bad advice.

I unashamedly post this entire quote from Jeffrey H. Gitomer. It's a great reminder for sales staff:

I can't help it. I read some bad sales advice today and gotta say something. I'll try to keep it positive, but my tongue is already bleeding from biting it.

The title read: When sales calls stall.

Every salesperson has experienced that barrier in one form or another, so I wondered what this “expert” had to say.

It started with the usual sales dialog: You have a meeting with a prospective customer. They’re hot, hot, hot, for your product or service. They ask for a proposal. You quickly oblige. A week later, you call the hot customer. And they have evaporated and won’t return your calls or emails.

What to do?

He recommends every manipulative “sales technique” from implying urgency, to getting creative (whatever that means), to using intrigue to connect. He advises to be prepared like a boy scout, appeal to a higher authority, assume all is well and they are just busy, and a bunch of sales talk mumbo jumbo that any seasoned executive would smell like a skunk that hasn’t bathed, and laugh at you.

This is why that approach will NEVER work.

FIRST: The prospect is not returning your calls for a reason. Wouldn't it be important to find out why? If you could discover that, it would help your next 1,000 sales calls.

SECOND: Why did you ever offer a proposal without making a firm face-to-face follow-on sales appointment in the first place? This is one of the most powerful – yet mostly lost – elements of the sales cycle.

THIRD: Stop trying to sell. Stop trying to be cute.

FOURTH: For goodness sake, stop trying to butter up the assistant. Assistants are loyal to their employers, not you.

FIFTH: The salesperson (not you, of course) did a lousy job in the presentation, left some holes, never discovered the prospects motive to purchase, was subjected (relegated) to a proposal/bidding process, never followed relationship-based strategies, and was too hungry for the sale and the commission than to uncover what will build a relationship. You didn't connect – you didn’t engage. Why are you blaming the prospect for not calling you? Why don't you take responsibility for doing a poor job and take a lesson. Not a sales lesson, a relationship lesson.

FIVE POINT FIVE: Their daddy decides, and you never met daddy, let alone know who he is. Someone else higher up told your prospect NO, and your prospect is embarrassed, or doesn’t care to tell you.

SALES REALITY CHECK: In sales you have ONE CHANCE. One chance to engage, one chance to build rapport, one chance to connect, one chance to be believable, one chance to be trustworthy, and one chance to meet with the real decision maker. You have one chance to differentiate yourself, one chance to prove your value, and one chance to ask for (or better, confirm) the sale.

BAD NEWS: If you miss your chance, or blow your chance, recovery chances are slim. OK, none. Not being able to reconnect with a prospect is not a problem. It’s a symptom. And it’s a report card on how well you’re doing. Or not doing.

GOOD NEWS: Lost sales and sales gone wrong are the BEST places to learn.

BETER NEWS: If you make a firm commitment to meet a few days later – not by phone – to meet face-to-face, you have a better chance of discovering the truth.

BEST NEWS: Once you get to TRUTH, you have a chance at SALE. Or better stated, you will have created the atmosphere where someone wants to BUY from you.

Sales techniques are increasingly becoming passé. So are the people that stress using them, rather than emphasizing the softer side.

I grew up selling, and I grew out of it.

If you have lost a connection, or if a hot prospect evaporates, or refuses to call you back or respond to you, the WORST thing you can do is try a sales technique. Why don’t you try something new? Try being honest. No, not with the customer -- with yourself.

I promise that a harsh self-discovery lesson may not help you reconnect with who you lost, but it’s connection insurance for the next s thousand. Take a chance. It’s the only one you’ve got.

Want more on how to connect instead of how to sell? Go to www.gitomer.com, register if you’re a first-time visitor, and enter the word CONNECT in the GitBit box.

People Matter

“Is this Mr Nicol”, asked the telesales person who interrupted my life shortly after I arrived home tonight. I answered “Yep”, which was followed by a very ungenuine “How are you?” I know it was ungenuine because I never actually got the chance to answer before she launched into her sales talk.

She talked for a full 90 secs and all the time I just stood there thinking about how she doesn’t give a toss about me, or for that fact, if I am interested in her product. She just wants to get her job done. Nothing wrong with that most people would say.

I thought afterwards about how easy it is for our staff to do the same thing. To answer a call, handle the call, take the order, track the delivery or resolve the complaint. But they can do it, we can do it, without showing that we actually care.

I am passionate about building a company that “Lives People Matter”, which means I want my team to continually remember that they are dealing with a real live person. A person who deserves honesty and authenticity and time.

We do this by encourageing our team to LISTEN first, CLARIFY by asking questions, EMPATHISE by putting themselves in the person shoes, then and only then to RESOLVE the issue.

It is so easy to think that we hear our clients’ problem and jump straight to resolve. The result is the person, the real living person, doesn’t leave the conversation feeling like they matter.

If they don't feel like they matter, we are just like the telesales person who interrupts our dinner.