Why is it that, some salespeople are extremely successful in making sales and reeling in new customers, whereas other salespeople from the same company can hardly talk into even securing an appreciative ‘nod’ from their prospects… let alone bagging a lucrative deal?
Now that could bring us to another perpetual question. Is ‘selling’ an intrinsic quality that comes along with your genes? Or is it something that can be learned and harnessed through proper training and practice?
A Harvard Business Review article from Steve W Martin says that 70% of top salespeople are born with the predisposed qualities to ‘sales success’ whereas 30% of them are self-made.
So the answer is... Yes, successful salespeople are both born and made. But even for the ‘natural’ sellers, armed with the ‘innate talent’, they don't quite cut it. They also need a defined role, knowledge on the industry, strategies built around target products and markets, systems and procedures to align their efforts with customers’ needs, and a strong business acumen to find success with sales!
Also let’s not forget that 65% of a company’s new business is from referrals, which indicates clearly how seriously sales reps need to approach their new prospects or their existing customers, if they intend to build an amicable and sustainable relationship with them.
Whether you’re a newbie chasing for fresh MQLs or a seasoned sales rep whose sales commissions trumps the CEO’s salary, here are 4 essential mantras on ‘Selling’ that can benefit any salesperson with the drive to increase the bottom line:
1. Build Trust and Credibility Through ‘deep’ Knowledge
As simple as it sounds, would you open your wallet for someone you don’t trust?
I guess not. But if you were to look at the other end of the spectrum, we're also known to have handed our fortunes to someone, who we absolutely trusted and believed would do us good, no matter what.
Every salesperson’s job is primarily based on exuding an essence of ‘Trust’ and ‘Credibility’. For the prospects to buy into ‘sales pitches’ or ‘purchase conversations’, it's essential 'for sales reps to harness this quality – and only deep, contextual knowledge can send the ‘signals’ of trust and ‘authority’.
For the newbie reps, company-specific products or services related knowledge will help to kick off your sales practice and techniques, but that's not adequate in garnering enough trust and credibility to comfortably challenge prospects’ views of their issue, and suggest alternative solutions and opportunities.
A thorough knowledge of the Industry, the Market and Competitors, will help you seize any conversations and be attuned with the prospects/customers issues. You need to keep tab of the most relevant issues, the industry trends, and should be able to fetch references and cite examples from the past.
Specific knowledge on the niche market your company operates and your competitive strengths, speaks volumes on how thorough, well versed and passionate you are – making you the expert your prospects can rely on, to bring value to their organisation.
2. Identify Business ‘Pains’ - The Perspective Taker
For the sellers, the prerequisite to any ‘purchase conversation’ with the prospects is to figure out what their pain-points are. Because unless your client has a valid enough reason to solve a problem or tackle a ‘pain-point’, they’re not going to buy your product/services.
Many sales reps, who miss this point are the ‘tell and sell’ kind, who proudly barge in with their ’40+ slides’ and regurgitate the info without giving the prospects an opportunity to engage in a meaningful discussion.
That approach leaves very little room for the prospects to voice their pain-points – which is only possible via listening actively about their company stories and issues and empathising with their circumstances.
The goal is to flesh out as many problems and pain-points through open-ended questions and gradually direct the conversation to the solutions you can offer for those issues.
A neat trick to sharpen your ‘Perspective taking’ when in a meeting with a prospect, is to assume you're the one without the power, as research shows, there is an inverse relationship between power and accurate perspective taking. Subtle ‘Mimicry’ of prospects’ postures, mannerisms and word choices are also known to help you in understanding their perspective accurately.
3. Be Persistent - But Respectful
Did you know 93% of converted leads are contacted by the 6th call attempt?
Now, that speaks of ‘persistent’ sellers, who are also the successful ones, as they don’t just give up easily on the prospects.
However, ‘persistence’ doesn’t mean you go ahead and bombard your prospects with so many emails, phone calls and voice messages – that you’re labeled more as a ‘stalker’ than a sales rep. Getting back to point No 1. – You need to establish yourself as a credible and a ‘trustworthy’ source, who respects his/her clients and strives to solve their issues.
A ‘pushy’ sales-person who calls frequently to say, “Hi, I’m just checking to see how you’re going”, has very slim chances of selling anything than a purposeful call - that enquires respectfully whether the prospect is still interested in previously discussed objectives and then offers an update or relevant suggestions.
4. Model Experiences – Always be Learning
Experiences are great teachers that can help sales reps to predict the likely outcome of business conversations.
The information gathered from sales calls and interactions with customers can be consolidated into a knowledge base – from which they can draw and devise plan of actions, to tackle similar circumstances in the present. Tapping into such depository of actionable mind-maps is known as ‘modeling experiences’.
Modeling can assist sales reps in meetings to intuitively and confidently answer questions from prospective customers. For example; if a sales rep is asked a skeptical question about how his/her services are better than his/her competitor, then he/she can always draw on similar ‘models of experiences’ from the past to base his/her answers.
As with tapping into proven patterns and experiences from the past, a successful salesperson should always focus on learning the ‘new’ things. What worked 10 years ago, may not work today – call it consumer behaviour, consumption pattern, sales technology, or the ways of prospecting, every element in sales seems to be evolving each day and only the reps who keep up with the trend can achieve a meaningful engagement with their prospects.
Finally…
I’d like quote Dan Pink, the author of To Sell Is Human, who says, “Like it or not, we're all in sales now. You are selling, but the cash register is not ringing. You're selling, but the denomination isn't dollars, euros, or pesos. It is time, attention, effort, energy, commitment, those kind of things."
Dan emphasises that we’re all selling something, though it could be ‘non-sales’ selling, and to master that craft, the new ABCs of selling he prescribes are; Attunement (see things through customers’ perspective); Buoyancy (Springing back from rejections) and Clarity (Identifying problems and Solving).
If you'd like further assistance or would like to discuss anything covered today, we'd love to hear from you.
Call Andy Fox (me) on (03) 5249 5570 or email andy@element7digital.com.au
Our Website is element7digital.com.au
