Sales Coach Debi

Sales Skills – Specifically Questioning Techniques to Improve Your Social Life?  Come on.. Really??

Yes Really!

I recently attended a party where most of the participants had not previously met. It reminded me, to some extent, of a Business Networking function. I decided to spend a little time in this event observing conversations much like I do when coaching our sales teams.

What I noticed immediately was that there were two main sets of communicators, those that engaged their partner and those that disengaged and even alienated their new conversational partner.

Here are the differences I observed:

The communicators that spoke with many people and kept the conversation engaging were the people that asked open-ended questions. You know… those are the questions that begin with – who, what, where, when, why, how, tell, me more about that, etc., Selling Skills 101, right? Exactly!

These effective conversationalists not only asked good open-ended questions, they also interjected with their own experiences as a way to relate to what the other person was saying. But they kept the conversation on themselves only briefly as it related and/or they’d interject with a little story. These effective conversationalists took great care in turning the conversation back to the other person.

Those that struggled with interactive conversation had no idea what they were doing wrong. I typically refer to this conundrum as “can’t see the forest through the trees”

What were these struggling conversationalist doing to get in their own way? This group was engaged in asking close-ended questions – these are those questions that begin with, “Are, Is, Do,” etc. and in doing so, these conversations appeared strained, impersonal and interrogative in nature. To make matters worse, these ineffective communicators interjected with far too much “look at me” related experiences – keeping the focus on themselves for far too long.

My advice is simply this: PRACTICE – Practice at home, in the grocery store line and in social settings.

Get in to the habit of naturally – just asking open-ended questions and see how much more information you obtain and how much easier the conversation flows.

In sales, effective communication and questioning techniques help us gain the details we need to understand our client’s business needs. When we question and converse effectively we also gain credibility and in the long run this differentiates us and allows us to help our clients more thoroughly.

This is a skill that can be obtained – but only with deliberate Practice, Practice Practice!

PS. Those effective communicators had the best conversations and made more new friends.

We’d love to hear from you.. share your conversational experiences.

What are these traits and even if your sales teams consistently meet their sales quota, how do you know that what you are doing is contributing to that success? Here is one way to review your existing leadership style. Let’s assume that you hired well in the first place. Then ask yourself how your direct reports would answer the following questions.  Or better still ask those that report to you to answer the following questions – anonymously.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

2. Do I have the right materials and tools to do my job?

3. At work, do I have an opportunity to do what I do best every day?

4. In the last 2 weeks have I received recognition or praise for good work?

5. Does my manager or someone at work, care about me as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel as though my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

11. In the last 6 months have I spoken to someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

13. Do I have autonomy in how the work gets done?

Where do you see gaps? The answers to these questions will provide you with a starting point. And for some a startling point but keep an open mind this will provide some level of insight.

We can group these questions into a few key categories of what motivates people intrinsically. Yes I said intrinsically because despite popular belief extrinsic motivation is less long-term than intrinsic motivation.

Those people that appear to be on auto pilot (we all know them) are those professionals that do what they do for themselves, for the sense of purpose/satisfaction, the respect, the growth, the balance, and for recognition.

That is not to say, extrinsic or money motivation is a bad thing, but without at least some of the other factors, money motivation alone is typically short-term. I’m compelled to state that fear, as a motivator, is another short-term strategy.

The intrinsic motivational categories are as follows:

Sense of Purpose, Belonging and Team:

3. At work, do I have an opportunity to do what I do best every day?

7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel as though my work is important?

9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?

Supervision/Guidance, Trust and Respect:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?

5. Does my manager or someone at work, care about me as a person?

13. Do I have autonomy in how the work gets done?

Work/Life Balance:

10. Do I have a best friend at work?

13. Do I have autonomy in how the work gets done?

Resources/Efficiency Enablers:

2. Do I have the tools to get the job done effectively/ efficiently (respect /best use of my time)

Recognition:

4. In the last 2 weeks have I received recognition or praise for good work?

Growth:

6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

11. In the last 6 months have I spoken to someone about my progress?

12. At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?

If anyone on your team answers negatively to any of these questions, again this is your starting point for leadership style re-engineering.

If you have a few favorite leadership traits best practices, questions or if you are simply looking for advice, start a discussion in our Forum section. We’d love to hear from you.

Russ Boreham of Chartered IT asked on Linked In:    Short and Precise Voicemails, Do They Work?:

The tried and tested method of leaving voicemails:

*Make sure they are under 30 seconds in length
*Be precise, state your name and why you are calling
*Give clear details of how to return your call
*Don’t give away too much information, entice the person to call you back.

But does this work? Why do the majority of messages fall by the wayside and go unreturned?

Does anyone have a better way of getting their calls returned on a regular basis?

There were many good answers – my answer is:

If you leave a voice mail: be brief, to the point and specific. And be certain the benefit to the person you are calling is stated in the first sentence. It must be a compelling WIIFM (what’s in it for me). In the end-repeat your phone number slowly and clearly twice.

” Russ, we met at XXX and as I am working with (recognizable name/same industry) on addressing the same concerns you are faced with in your industry, I wanted to to invite you to a joint meeting to see if we can help. Call me at ……………” again the number is…. Try it and track you stats. Then let me know how it works for you.

Happy Selling!

Sometimes we forget that as individual buyers, we EXPECT to negotiate.  We know that if we don’t ask, we won’t receive.  Come-on — pay full price for that couch?  No way! Let me see if I can get a discount first. 

The same thing applies to your customers.  So expect them to ask, but don’t offer a reduction without the initial request and don’t offer a reduction without asking for something in return. (a longer term,  additional services, 5 qualified referrals that the customer calls and introduces you to, etc.) And be certain they know that their price reduction request is a BIG request.  

Don’t be afraid to say, “No, I’m sorry that we won’t be able to do business together today.

In order for us (my company) to be here long-term for all my other customers  it is my job to ensure a win/win for us both.  

As Tom Hopkins use to say, when you ask the closing question, “the first person to talk loses.”  

To update for today’s market – it is more important as a front-end seller, before the closing question, while in probing and negotiating, that the first person to talk price and/or to make price an issue is the very same person that turns your products or services into a commodity.  Customers just expect to negotiate.  Don’t commoditize yourself and don’t shop with your wallet on their behalf.  Take your price sensitivity out of it!

Most customers won’t admit it but they respect a sales person that has business savvy and understands the value of WIN/WIN.  

Share your experiences and help others in your profession. 

The Sale Professional’s  - Tip for the day: 

Sometimes you just have to say No!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8&feature=player_embedded

I am a Corporate Regional Sales Trainer by day and a Blogging Sales Coach by night. I coach my teams on using tried and true techniques because they work. But one thing I tell them not to do to generate new business is COLD CALL.

At the very least, cold calls need to be warmed up before you pick up the phone. In fact, this year I’ve seen a significant decrease in the number of decision makers my sales teams are able to reach.  This alone, sends a strong message and should not be ignored.

I believe the reasons are many but for starters NO ONE wants to be sold and many prospective customers won’t answer the phone if they don’t recognize the Caller ID.  The customer is in control. They get their information when they want it and from where they want it. The internet, social media, on-line communities, and user published sites that rank any company’s products and services, means we have to revise our sales techniques. It’s time to get in touch with your creative side in order to build genuine business relationships.

Trying to connect with a C-level prospect in your target market?  Turn your cold call into a warm call by doing just a few clicks of research.  No excuses. It only takes a minute.

This week one sales person I worked with said, “I can’t break into my target market. I’ve written VITO letters, made calls, sent emails and NOTHING. “I suggested she look on LinkedIn for starters and put the C-level’s name into the search field.  And CLICK, there it was… She had a connection that knew her target customer.  Had this sales person done this CLICK three weeks ago, she’d be engaged in a win/win with her prospect by now.  With lots of places to access information today, it takes less time not more to turn a cold call into a warm call.

Answer a question, build trust, and discover opportunities. Look at what questions are being asked in your chosen on line community or communities. Think you have some information to share that can help someone else? Share it. You’d be surprised at how your willingness to help can turn into a plethora of business relationships that will also see your value when it comes to engaging you in their buying decisions.

Build your relationships with your target market’s suppliers . Don’t know who their suppliers are? Phone a friend in that industry, ask someone in your on-line community or ask someone you don’t know in your targeted industry via an online community.

Even if you don’t know that person, most people are willing to help you gain the insights you need to become proficient in a new area of your business. Remember you are simply looking for information so that you can build supplier relationships to help your clients gain better economies of scale. Don’t try to sell them something. That pushy sales thing will close more doors than it opens.

Ask a question, build trust, and discover opportunities.
There are many places to do this but one place is LinkedIn. People notice if you are asking questions with genuine curiosity verses asking questions to promote yourself or your business. Keep it genuine. Remember, the goal is to build trust and relationships. People buy from people they know like and trust and whether you want to accept it or not, relationships are being developed TODAY as we speak – on line.

Ever struggle with building rapport on the first appointment? Before you go on your sales appointment, Google your contacts name, you may find papers they’ve written, events where they’ve spoken, etc.  Look on LinkedIn and see if you can discover where they went to school, worked previously. To build rapport you must first lower their resistance to you as a “sales people”, (we all have it, even sales people). If you find an area of commonality or something that really interests you, you can talk about it with sincerity and you transform yourself from a sales person to a person.

More ways to finding common interests with potential customers: If you find your contact on LinkedIn, see what groups they belong to.  I play golf and I’m into photography. Guess what groups I belong to on LinkedIn.  If you have those interests and we meet on business, these are topics we will both probably enjoy talking about.  But don’t be fake.  If you don’t care about it, don’t bring use that information.

How to combine on line communities with face to face business networking :  How about MeetUp.com?  In most cities, you can access Meet-up and find areas of interest to you. You’d be amazed at how many good business contacts you can make while you enjoy life in your own city or town.  Make sure you have a powerful way of exciting people when you answer their question, “What do you do for a living?” more on that later.

Need advice? Have a question? Ask here.  I update my blog every 2 days but if you need immediate assistance, tweet me http://twitter.com/salescoachdebi and I will get your question on my cell phone.

Also, I am very interested in what you are you experiencing in your sales world today?

Share your thoughts or successes and tell us how you use Social Media and On-line Communities to prospect successfully.