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The Three Levels of Customer Relationships

The Navigator News

If I ask salespeople how they describe themselves, one of the most common ways would be as a “relationship salesperson.” Unfortunately, “relationship selling,” which should be one of the most meaningful phrases in selling, has become meaningless through overuse.

When I drill down on what these candidates mean by “relationship sales,” 90% of them give me an answer that is some variation on the Stuart Smalley Affirmation on Saturday Night Live: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it, my customers like me!” Well, not to diminish the importance of being liked by your customers, but there’s a lot more to successful relationship selling that that.

Successful relationship selling has several different elements, which we will get to in a moment. But, for me, the key questions to the quality of a relationship are:

Can you monetize the quality of your relationship with your customer? This is selling, after all, not running for Homecoming King (or Queen). Being liked is great, but if you can’t turn that into money, you are not engaged in “relationship selling.”

Can you maximize your business relationship with your customer? By “maximizing,” I mean the ability to extract all, or nearly all, the potential opportunities with your customer. If they’re buying stuff they could be buying from you, but buying it from a competitor, you’re not “maximized” within that customer.

Essentially, there are three different levels of customer relationships, and most salespeople will have customers in all three:

The Loyal Customer: This is the Holy Grail of customer relationships. When they buy, they buy from you. When competitors call, they not only don’t buy from them; they don’t entertain proposals or appointments. You have contacts at all the appropriate levels within the company, you are able to maintain good profit margins. Moreover, Loyal Customers evangelize for you; when they hear of others that could make use of your services, they recommend you freely and willingly. Ideally, you should have a game plan for any customer who is NOT this level to move them in this direction.

The Habitual Buyer: The Habitual Buyer can be deceptive; Habitual Buyers sometimes look like Loyal Customers. When they buy, you are their default source. However – and this is an important distinction – you have very little leeway with a Habitual Buyer. Mess up a delivery (and, let’s be honest, we all sometimes make mistakes), and you lose their business. Raise a price, and you reopen the buying decision. Often, Habitual Buyers will also screen you from getting multiple contact levels within the company, and will be much more guarded in their dealings with you. The dangerous part about Habitual Buyers is that salespeople can be lulled into thinking that they are Loyal Customers – then a competitor picks their pocket, seemingly out of nowhere.

The Occasional Buyer – The Occasional Buyer is just that. They shop you every time, and typically have no real pattern to their purchases (although if you’re losing business on price, Occasional Buyers will be where you lose it). The Occasional Buyer has no real affinity toward you or your competitors; you’re just a place to get stuff, as are your competitors. Most of the time, if you’re dealing strictly with a purchasing agent, the customer is an Occasional Buyer – which is as good an argument as any against dealing strictly with purchasing agents.

The true “relationship salesperson” will have more customers at the Loyal Customer level than other salespeople; more importantly, they will have a game plan in place for advancing Habituals to Loyals, and Occasionals to Habituals. Getting there isn’t easy; it involves a lot of hard work and preparation, and focus in the selling process. It also involves a level of honesty that is uncomfortable. Ego-driven salespeople (which is most of us) want very badly to think that all of our customers are Loyal Customers; recognizing that many are not is tough. But if you want a good way to build your business in 2015, identify all your major customers by the three levels above, and then create a game plan to move them up. Your boss – and your wallet – will thank you.

Who Should You Be?

The Navigator News

A few weeks ago I attended a conference that featured a “motivational speaker.” You should have seen this guy. He had a loudly printed sport coat featuring the New York skyline. A tie with rhinestones in it (I didn’t even know they made those). A big belt buckle, cowboy boots, and bright yellow pants. His advice was this: “You have to be ALWAYS ON in this business! If you’re not, someone will spot you in an off moment and you’ll be exposed.”

He then began getting in people’s faces, yelling, “Are you ALWAYS ON?” And the person would yell, “YES!” and he’d move on to the next. It was like a tent revival meeting. Then, he turned and spotted me….and suddenly I realized that I had chosen the wrong seat for the morning’s festivities.

He high-stepped over to me, reading my nametag, and yelled, “Troy, are you ALWAYS ON?” I did the only thing I could. I clenched my fists. I got into my best power stance. I looked him square in the eyes. And I yelled, “NO!” And he stammered, “Uh, beg your pardon?” Then he got himself back together and yelled, “What do you mean, you’re not ALWAYS ON?” I said back, in a normal tone of voice, “I’m always ME.”

You see, as goofy as this guy was, he did have a point. When you’re “ON” in any environment where you’re observed – such as selling or speaking – you set a standard to live up to. And when you’re not at that standard at other times when you’re “off stage,” you do become inauthentic. Inauthentic is the worst thing you can be. More than once, after I’ve been speaking at conferences, I’ve had people approach me at various settings – over lunch, even by the pool at the hotel – and have a conversation. And they’ll say, “Gee, you’re the same guy out here that you were in the room.” I tell them, “No, I’m the same guy in there that I am out here.”

Like the old saying goes, “Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.” That goes for salespeople too. Of course, you should be the very best version of yourself that you can be, but don’t have a “sales personality” that you put on like a sport coat. What does “Be the best version of yourself” mean? Simple.

  • Constantly learning: You should be constantly learning about your customers, your products, and your sales skills. Your goal should be that you are just a tad bit better on every sales call than you were on the last one. Customers will perceive your professional growth and they will appreciate it.
  • Personal grooming: We can’t all be Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Or, if you’re a woman, well, just pick your own personal equivalent of Brad or George. But we can be the best we can be. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen salespeople making sales calls with wild, unkempt hair, unshaven, or in clothes that looked like they were slept in the night before. Come on. Put some effort into it. If you can’t be your best in front of the customers, you shouldn’t expect the customers to give you effort. Every salesperson ought to carry a small grooming kit with them in the car. When I sold industrial supplies, I kept a spare clean shirt, just in case.
  • Be prepared: I’ve written about this before, but it’s vital that you be prepared with whatever you need to take the sales call to its logical conclusion. And yes, that likely means you’ll need to carry a briefcase. That’s OK. When you carry a briefcase you mean business.
  • A game plan for the call: As I explained in my Teleseminar, “The Purpose Driven Sales Call,” you should have call objectives for every call, and be prepared to execute them. That means having questions prepared, any presentation materials prepared, etc.

None of this means that you have to be anyone besides yourself – but being prepared and professional means being the best version of yourself. That’s what you should be shooting for. And unlike the speaker, you’ll never have to worry about being “Caught.”

Four “Tools” That Give a Salesperson Comfort – But Don’t Help

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My first “outside sales” job was for a company that sold bearings and power transmission products. I loved that job, because I’m mechanically inclined and I got to work with a lot of machinery on that job. Plus, to add to the fun factor, I got to get plant tours from many of my customers. To this day, there are few things I enjoy more than touring a manufacturing plant and seeing how things are made. (And to this day, when I walk around a place with a lot of machinery, I think, “I bet it’s fun to be the guy who sells the bearings here” – residuial occupational hazard.)

One of the first things I did was go and buy a large file crate for my trunk and hanging folders. I then filled the crate with every brochure and catalog I could access. I was going to be the most prepared bearing salesperson in my market. In fact, in terms of paper, I probably was. And you know what? When I left that job, three years later, most of that literature came back out of the file crate and ended up back on the shelf at the company – or if it was outdated, in the trash.

On my next job, however, I did the same thing. Same file crate, same folders, new labels. And when I left that job, I repeated the ‘return and throw out’ routine. In fact, in neither job did I ever use more than ten percent of the materials that I had in my trunk. So, why did I carry them? Because they gave me comfort, and helped me feel like I was prepared. The problem was that very little of that materia would actually sell or aid a sale. To this day, I see salespeople spending inordinate amounts of time on things like that – things that make us comfortable but don’t really aid a sale. Here are the four most common:

Brochures. To be honest, brochures probably rank 1, 2, 3, and 4 on this list. We all know the routine, don’t we? You make a first call, and then you leave behind the all-powerful, well designed brochure, because you just know that it’s going to push the customer over the edge to buy. When you return, the brochure is probably gone – to the same place that all my brochures and catalogs went. That’s because leaving it behind was for YOU, not for the customer. The right reason for a brochure: The right reason for a brochure is that it can offer backup and documentation to your presentation, DURING THE SALES CONVERSATION. Use it as a prop, not a leave-behind.
Fancy Proposals. I love some of the proposals that I see. It’s amazing how many pages, and how complex, a proposal can be for even the simplest offerings of product or service. I once got a piece of training business, and afterward the client showed me the proposal that they had received from my competitor. It was in a three-ring binder, full color, and had nearly 100 pages. My proposal that won the business was a two-page letter. Of course, the more complicated the offering, the more verbiage you’ll need – but at the end of the day, the proposal should cover the need, the solution, and the price and terms. Anything else is extraneous unless requested. The right reason for a big proposal: Your offering is complex, requiring a lot of verbiage to explain. Even so, it should be PRESENTED in person, not simply sent over.
“Send information.” I was working with a sales rep last year who proudly reported, after a prospecting session, that he had ten prospects that requested ‘more information.’ I asked him to do a little test. Send the information, then after a week, call the prospect again and ask a couple of specific questions about the information. He did. None of the prospects could answer – they ‘hadn’t gotten to it yet,’ or something of the sort. The reality is that his e-mail had gotten buried in their inboxes, unopened, and there it sat until they cleaned out their old emails. Sad but true. “Send info” is, almost always, a prospect’s way of brushing you off without entering a sales process. The right reason to send information: There is something timely and actionable – for instance, you’re having an open house or seminar and you’ve invited the prospect to come.

Letter Before Calling. Oftentimes, I am asked if it’s better to send a letter or email to prospects before making a call for an appointment. My response is always the same: “Sure, if it makes you feel better, go ahead and do it.” Reality is that few of these letters will be read. That’s okay, and it doesn’t hurt you in the call – UNLESS your opener is, “Did you get my letter?” The answer is always, “no.” You may guess that I’m not a big fan of direct mail to prospects. You’re right and wrong. You’re right in that I don’t see a pre-letter as a door opener for a phone call. HOWEVER, a well written direct response letter with a clear call to action will still bring a 1% to 2% response rate (or sometimes better nowadays, since there is a smaller amount of direct mail). The right reason to send a letter: You’re sending it as a direct response lead generation tool, not as a door opener. This letter should NOT say, “I will call you,” but instead should say, “Call me.”

Here’s your yardstick. The sale happens in the conversation that you have with your buyer. If an outside tool aids, abets, and moves the conversation forward, it’s a worthwhile tool. If not, not. My car would have been a lot lighter, and gotten better gas mileage, if I’d known that 20 years ago.

How to Avoid “Scorpions Syndrome”

The Navigator News

I’m a child of the 80s, and in the 80s, we basically had two types of acceptable music – hair bands and new wave. I enjoyed both, and one of my favorite hair bands was the Scorpions. The Scorpions was (in my opinion) a great band with some great songs. They were also German. More to the point, they were Germans who understood not a word of English. Hence, when they recorded those great songs like “The Zoo,” they pronounced them phonetically, not with understanding of the words. That was fine – in the studio.

In concert, it was a little different. I saw them live a number of years ago, and, well…the pronunciation broke down. Because they didn’t understand the language, they’d emphasize the wrong words and syllables. Some songs were partially in German. In the audience, we were stuck between rocking out and laughing uproariously. This memory has caused me to coin a term, and it’s one you’ll want to avoid. I call it “Scorpions Syndrome.” That’s where a salesperson knows the words, but not the meaning. Allow me to explain.

I was speaking with a client recently and he told me of a salesperson whom he had trained. He drilled this salesperson relentlessly on the company’s presentation – and she’d do a great job of delivering it. However, she didn’t know or understand the technicalities of what was behind the presentation, nor did she really know how to answer questions. She had “Scorpions Syndrome,” and retraining is the best option.

Here are some ways you can avoid “Scorpions Syndrome,” whether you are a salesperson or a manager.

Learn concepts, not questionnaires: I’m a big fan of having a game plan for a sales call (in fact, my Teleseminar on February 25 is about that very thing – get more info here). A good game plan includes the information you want to GET through the questions you ask, the information you want to GIVE through the presentations you make (which should depend on the answers to your questions), and a COMMITMENT for a next step.

The problem is that too many salespeople rely on rote questionnaires for their game plans – without ever learning the meaning behind the questions, or what to do with the answers they get. You need to make sure that you understand not only what questions are good to ask, but what the reasons are behind the questions and what to do with the answers.

Learn real benefits, not rote presentations: Many years ago, on my college debate team, I was assigned a debate partner that, to put it gently, really didn’t understand what was going on. My coach advised me to ‘can her up’ because she was a decent speaker, and we’d be OK. “Canning her up” meant providing her with evidence to read and the order in which to read it. There was only one problem – after every speech, the opponent got to cross-examine her. Since she didn’t really understand what was going on (and frankly, wasn’t all that teachable), everything she did in her speech fell apart in cross-examination because she couldn’t explain the logic behind the points.

The same thing happens when a salesperson gives a rote, formatted presentation without understanding the real effects that their product or service has on the customer or its environment. The presentation sounds great and convincing – but invariably, the customer has questions that the salesperson can’t answer. The salesperson’s credibility is destroyed, and so is the opportunity.

Learning the concepts and ideas before learning the questions and presentations takes longer, but it’s a good investment of time – for you and for your company. Don’t shortcut. The Scorpions Syndrome is real, and if you don’t learn your company’s “language,” you might get laughed at, too.

Five Ways to Kill a Sales Call

The Navigator News

It seems like inspiration for this column hits me every day. Yesterday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Just to set the stage, I had accepted an appointment from a salesperson who was selling a particular item I had considered purchasing. It’s something that I don’t necessarily need now, but it is something that I will probably eventually need to buy. In short, I was a willing audience, and he had done a decent job of making the phone call to set the appointment.

To make a long story short – well, come to think of it, a potentially long sales call was made short by a few factors. The guy was just plain WRONG in nearly everything he did, and he was out of my office in ten minutes. Thus inspired, here are his five ways to kill a sales call:

  1. Dress UNlike a professional. When this guy showed up in my office to sell a not-inexpensive piece of equipment, I was amazed by his appearance. A shirt that was both unironed and untucked on one side was accompanied by an equally unironed pair of pants, no tie, and shoes that were glorified tennis shoes. Clearly this was a person who did not particularly care about his appearance. Like it or not, folks, professional appearance is part of professional presentation, and it’s hard for me to buy into your credibility selling a $10,000 piece of equipment when your wardrobe could be bought for 15 bucks. I know it’s summer in Kansas City; I don’t expect a banker’s suit and tie, but I do expect that your presentation shows respect for me and my professionalism. If you are dressed more for a 50 Cent concert than a sales call, you’re toast.
  2. Marinate in cologne. Oddly enough, this guy WAS concerned about how he smelled. I was too, but in the wrong way. After a couple of minutes in my office, his cologne permeated every nook, cranny, and crevice to the point that I was looking for a gas mask. After five minutes, I felt the first stirrings of a headache. I know there are people who read this that slather that stuff on in the mornings. DON’T. That goes for you women out there, too – some of your perfume can be just as toxic. Look, this is a sales call. You’re trying to make a sale, not meet a mate. Leave that crap for the evenings, huh? I had to open a window and run a fan after he left to clear the air.
  3. Take liberties with your customer’s stuff. So, this guy gets there, dresses unprofessionally, and stinks up my office. That’s bad. Worse was when, in the initial small-talk phase of the call, he REACHED ACROSS MY DESK AND GRABBED A MAGAZINE I HAD BEEN READING. This is one I had honestly never seen on a first call before; messing around with my stuff. Here’s a clue – if it’s on your customer’s desk and you didn’t put it there, leave it be. I was very close to grabbing the magazine back, rolling it up, and whacking him across the nose with it. Fortunately, the call was about over.
  4. Be unprepared. At this point, about 10 minutes into the meeting, I saw an out. See, this guy had come into my office with a legal pad, pen, and nothing else. No briefcase. So I took a shot. I asked him for a brochure on his products, guessing that there was not one in his padfolio. I was right. He responded, “I have one in the car – let me get it.” Instead, I told him to get in his car and just keep going; I didn’t have the time. For the rest of you, when you go into a sales call, be prepared to carry the sales process through. Going out to your car is a call- killer.
  5. Take the best parking spot. I should first point out that this guy didn’t do this, at least as far as I saw – but it’s so frequent a mistake that I have to point it out. Those great spots right next to the door are for customers, NOT for you. Take them at your own risk. I’ve seen salespeople tossed out of a building for doing this. Why not park in the south 40 and walk? The exercise will do you good.

Hopefully, most of the people reading this know by now NOT to do these things, but they’re still so common that they have to be pointed out. The reason that all of these are call-killers is that they force your customers to make YOU the center of attention in a negative way. Go your way, and kill calls no more!

How To Be Your Own Best Sales Manager

The Navigator News,

I just reconfigured my home office. Yes, I work out of my house. My business evolution has been different than most; I began with a home office and then moved into a dedicated office in an office building. Then, as my business went national and grew exponentially…..I moved back into a home office. I never said that I did things like everyone else!

My home office remodel included something very important – an 18×24 white board. Not just any white board, mind you, but a white board lined and lettered to track sales metrics. Not my clients’, MINE. For years I’ve been advising my clients that visibly posting the key metrics and goals of your business motivated people to achieve and surpass them – but (consultant, consult with thyself), I’ve never done it. Now I have, and I’m going to tell you what my key metrics are – and how you can adapt them to your situation.

One reason I stopped setting activity metrics for myself is that, when I went national, the conventional “calls/appointments/proposals” numbers didn’t work anymore. So, as part of my business plan for 2015, I had to design new ones. 2014 was my best year ever (thank you for that, by the way), and if 2015 is to surpass 2014, good metrics are essential. They are for you, as well. So, with no further ado, here are my monthly tracking numbers:

Monthly sales: This one is obvious, I know, but I still talk to otherwise savvy businesspeople who cannot tell me, off the top of their head, what a monthly run rate should be for a successful salesperson. I have my monthly target, and if I hit it, I write the number in green; if I miss, I write it in red. To answer a question I’m often asked, yes, it’s okay to seasonally adjust your goals if your business fluctuates. I didn’t do that myself, even though I know that there are some fluctuations. I kept mine simple.

MSA to Reach Annual Goal: MSA is “Monthly Sales Average,” so this measurement is “Monthly Sales Average Needed to Reach Goal.” It’s pretty simple; I subtract the year to date actual sales number from the goal, divide by the number of months left, and there’s my number. At the top of the column is also the target MSA, which is just the goal divided by 12. Again, if the MSA needed is below the goal MSA (in other words, I’m ahead of my goal), I write the number in green. If not, I write it in red.

Number of National Speaking Engagements Scheduled/Completed: This is an important one for me, and would correlate nicely to a “First Appointment” metric that I recommend to my clients. For many if not most of my clients, a speaking engagement is their introduction to me and what I can do for their business. I have a target number of what I call “National” speaking engagements. “National” is a large conference, either in Kansas City or elsewhere, that draws a significant amount of my target audience. I use the same red/green criteria as before.

Target Accounts Won: I have a criteria for a “target account,” in terms of annual revenue, and a goal for the number of these accounts in 2015. I’m simply going to list them line-by-line, individually, as they happen.

Top Five Prospects: In my vernacular, a “Prospect” is someone who has not bought from me within the past three years, or ever. As opportunities come up, I’ll list my top ones in this space.

Monthly New Wins: I’ll just list out the new accounts that I win monthly.

So, what do I expect this to do for me? I expect it to help keep me focused. Some of the more technical members of this audience are saying, “But, Troy, why go to all this trouble when all you really need is an Excel spreadsheet to track this data, put it in the form that you want it, and it could even be a dashboard on your laptop when you open it?” That is a correct take. However, I know myself. I want this slapping me in the face every day when I enter my home office. And, of course, being up on the wall means that it’s visible to my most important boss – my wife. I don’t want her seeing red on the board.

Yes, I do believe it will keep me focused. More importantly, and this is why I’ve written this article, doing the same will keep YOU focused. If you’re a sales manager, a “Key Metrics” board that’s visible should be part of your sales management strategy. Your metrics might differ from mine, and that’s OK. If you’re a sales rep, or even a business owner who does his or her own selling, invest in one of these for YOUR wall. Keep it up. There is power in numbers, and there is power in visibility – and in visible numbers, there is the power to help you have a better 2015. I think it’ll work for me, and I know it will work for you.

The Most Valuable Commodity You Can Market

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From time to time, I enjoy engaging practiced salespeople and sales managers in conversation about selling on a deeper level. One such conversation that happened this week centered around the question, “what is the most valuable quality salespeople can bring to the table?” Answers ranged from “product knowledge” to “likeability” to “good communication,” and on into “expert questioning” before one of the salespeople hit the correct answer – the answer that trumps all of the above.

That answer is trustworthiness. The reason it is the trump card is simple; if the customer doesn’t believe what you say, it doesn’t matter how well you know your subject matter, and if the customer doesn’t trust you, they won’t answer questions honestly. Trust, then, is a prerequisite for all activities that center on communication – selling in particular. In that spirit, this week I’ll share a few methods for building trust with customers, but first I have to share one of the most outrageous stories of a salesperson ruining his customer’s trust in him. It’s too good a story not to share.

It seems that this salesperson was employed by a cleaning company that was providing janitorial services to a group of hospitals. The hospital management liked him a lot, and liked the service provided. They believed in him and the quality and integrity of his company. Then came a charity golf tournament.

As a friend of mine (who happened to be in the same fivesome as this salesperson) explained, “It was a typical five-man scramble; one guy would hit into the sand, one into the woods, one way into the rough, one guy would dunk a ball and one would get stuck in a tree somewhere (sounds like my own lack of a golf game wouldn’t have been out of place – but I digress). The salesman would hit first on each hole, then drive the cart down the fairway to ‘spot’ for the team. When the rest of the group had hit and went down the fairway, a ball would have magically appeared in the middle of the fairway with the salesman explaining that one of the shots ‘kicked’ into the fairway.” Yep – he was cheating in a charity golf tournament. But wait – it gets better.

It seems that the key decision maker for the hospital account was also in this same fivesome, and what was happening wasn’t escaping him. In fact, immediately after the 18th hole, the manager left in disgust, skipping the post-tournament party. Slick Salesman wasn’t done, however. He did the same thing a month later – at a tournament sponsored by the hospital. After getting a feel for this guy’s character, the hospital management began watching everything that the janitorial company did, and lo and behold, they found bad billing, cleaning that was supposed to be done that wasn’t, and other problems. Long story short, the salesman is no longer employed by the company, and the company no longer has the account. The moral of the story? Some salespeople believe that trust is solely generated by work habits and activities; the truth is that anything you do that shows a lack of integrity can ruin your trust. In that spirit, here are some ways that you can build trust with your customers:

Do what you say, and say what you will do: This is so painfully obvious that I hate to even say it, but I encounter salespeople on a daily basis who think nothing of not fulfilling promises in a timely fashion. When you make a promise to a customer, they remember it. When you fail to fulfill that promise, they remember it FOREVER. It’s not that tough; only promise what you can actually do, then DO IT.

Do the right thing, even when you think no one is looking: Someone once said that this was the very definition of integrity. Sometimes, you’ll be tempted to behave in ways that you would never think of doing if you knew a customer was watching; guess what? They might be. Several years ago, I was in Minneapolis making calls with a salesperson as a favor to a branch manager of the company I worked for. On our second call, the customer got a look at my salesman and immediately threw us out. It turns out that, the night before, the salesman had been out at a bar, got a few drinks in him, and started a conflict with another patron over a particular seat at the bar. Huge stuff, right? Well, it turned out to be. The other patron turned out to be the person he wanted to sell to the next morning. Behave like a jackass in public at your own peril; you never know who is watching.

Keep your big yap shut when it needs to be: These days, customer confidentiality is huge. Salespeople are regularly trusted with company secrets of their customers. Unfortunately, many salespeople are “Instant babbler, just add beer.” I’ve seen salespeople who think nothing of telling me incredibly confidential details about their customers – stuff that their customers would probably have a heart attack if they knew the salesperson was repeating indiscriminately. If you want to continue to have your customers confide in you, you must respect and value that confidence by keeping it.

Respect your customer’s boundaries: Sometimes, there are pieces of information that your customer doesn’t want to give, or places they are unwilling to take you. If that’s the case, consider it a measure of the increasing bond of trust when your customer eventually gives you those pieces of information or takes you those places. Continue pressing immediately for them and your customer will back off.

Of course, because trust is such a huge subject, there are many more ways to build it. However, this has hopefully given you some things to look for in conducting yourself and building trust in your customer base.

The Five Behaviors You Must Have in 2015

The Navigator News

Happy New Year! Isn’t that what we’re supposed to say at this time? Some of you are saying, “Gee, Troy, we said it a week ago.” Yes, I know….but this is the first Navigator News of 2015, so it seems appropriate. How happy will your 2015 be? That might depend on your approach.

This is the time of the year that people make New Year’s resolutions. Statistic – only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually keep them. So let’s forget New Year’s resolutions, and instead focus on the five behaviors that will drive your sales success in 2015.

Behavior Number One: Every sales call is a meaningful sales call. This behavior is number one for a reason; in fact, it’s Number One with a bullet. The time you get to spend eyeball to eyeball (or voice to voice for those of you who are inside salespeople) is your most valuable time. How do you plan to spend that? If your answer is “talkin’ about fishin’,” welcome to 1975. Today’s customer demands more from you. If you commit to nothing else, commit to this: each and every sales call you make this year has a purpose. It moves a sales process forward, it brings benefit to your customer, etc.

Behavior Number Two: Prospecting is your habit. In sales, the truly big bucks go to those salespeople who can consistently and repeatedly bring in new business, while retaining current business. You can’t bring in new business without prospecting. Want to be successful at prospecting? Make it a consistent habit. Define your prospecting needs, and the hours that it takes to fulfill your targets. Then break it up into two-hour segments (I find that calling effectiveness goes down after two hours), and make appointments with yourself to get it done. Want to know more about this one? Attend my Teleseminar, 21st Century Prospecting, at the end of this month.

Behavior Number Three: Work the Hard Forty. I’ve used the term “Hard Forty” for years now to refer to the work habits that salespeople should adopt. The vast majority of sales jobs can be done successfully in forty good hours per week. You might “work” fifty or sixty hours per week, but how many of those hours are really devoted to 100% working at your job? Too many salespeople use valuable prime time (the hours that your customers are available to meet with you) on personal fluff – picking up dry cleaning, shopping, or other non-selling activities. Don’t be that guy or gal. Work hard, then play hard.

Behavior Number Four: Remember that Comfortable Customers Buy! Yes, I know, it’s my tag line, but it’s true. Comfortable Customers Buy! Great salespeople know that customer discomfort is the biggest obstacle to successful selling. Is there tension in the sales call? That tension can keep you from making a sale, getting a referral, forming a relationship, or winning a recommendation. Remove the tension by focusing on the customer, the customer’s needs, and respecting the customer’s buying process and your stage within it.

Behavior Number Five: Use Technology, But Don’t Let It Use You. The world of selling has changed significantly in the last decade, and most of that change has been driven by techology. Too many salespeople are finding themselves wrapped completely up in technology, spending hours each day Tweeting, posting on Facebook, and making endless posts on LinkedIn, hoping that the world will beat a path to their door. It seldom happens. Technology should be another tool for your sales efforts, not the effort itself. Want to be successful with technology? Focus on one platform. For most salespeople, LinkedIn is the best. Build your network on LinkedIn, use it to get introductions, and use it as part of your teleprospecting efforts.

Bonus Behavior Number Six: Always Be Aware of Your Sales Process. I’m calling this a “bonus behavior,” but it’s as important as any of the others. You should always be aware of your sales process, and which stage your customer is in as you meet with them (and of course, having an eye toward moving the customer forward on each call – remember Behavior Number One). Noting the sales stage should be part of your pre-call prep for each sales call.

The question of the moment is this: How successful will your 2015 be? Will it be better than 2014? If you focus on these behaviors, it will be better.

Better Presenting Through Storyselling

The Navigator News,

A few weeks ago, I boarded a Southwest flight to Minneapolis. As is my habit, I took the window seat. Soon, a woman in her mid-30s came along, pointed to the aisle seat, and asked, “Is this taken?” I told her no, and she sat down. Nervously, she smiled at me and said, “Don’t worry, I’m not weird.” “I’m sure you’re not,” I smiled. She continued, “It’s not like I’m a serial killer or anything.” Well, that’s an odd thing to say on a plane, so I said the only thing I could think of. “Of course you’re not. What would be the odds of two of us meeting like this on an airplane?”

If you’re anything like the live audiences I’ve told this story to, you’re laughing out loud right now. Good. The point of the story was to grab your attention and get a reaction. Depending on what speech I’m giving, it could have a few different uses. Right now, the point is to illustrate the power of story in customer dialogue. If your presentations fall flat, perhaps this article will help you find some ways to liven up your presentations.

All too often, our sales presentations are filled with facts, figures, and contentions that we hope add up to a buying decision on the part of our customer. All too often, they do not add up to a buying decision – because the customer isn’t involved, or our contentions aren’t ‘real.’ From the time I started selling, I started storytelling as part of sales – or “Storyselling,” if you will. It’s a natural in sales because we’re constantly meeting people and collecting stories. The bad part is that we only share stories over the watercooler with our co-workers or over a beer with our buddies. What if you collected stories and then used them as part of your sales dialogue? Here are three ways to use stories:

  1. For a little humor. The old saying, “If I can make a customer laugh, I can make him buy,” is at least partially true. Too many salespeople, however, take the low road. They tell jokes. First of all, jokes are hackneyed and false, even in the best of situations. Second, they’re lowest common denominator humor. Third, oftentimes, they can be offensive. We’re salespeople. Funny things happen to and around us all the time, and well-told, those stories will get a laugh out of your customer as well.
  2. To make your customer comfortable. Remember my mantra: “Comfortable Customers Buy.” There’s a built-in tension between salespeople and their customers, and one way to break that tension down is to tell a story that illustrates commonality, either between the salesperson and the customer, the customer and the salesperson’s company, or the customer and other customers of the salesperson.
  3. To show past successes. One of the best uses of a story is to show how the salesperson (or the company) has helped a past customers succeed in an area where the new potential customer has a need. These kinds of success stories can (and should) pepper your conversation – in introductions, in presentations, and in general dialogue with your customers. As they say, “Nothing succeeds like success,” and a success story can and will win business.

In a future edition, we’ll talk about how to tell a story that will sell – from constructing it to delivering it. For now, start thinking about the stories that you have to tell, and start writing them down.

Oh, and the woman on the plane?  She looked at me for about ten seconds.  Then she quietly picked up her bag….and changed seats.  I don’t think I stopped laughing until we landed.

5 Changes You Must Master to Succeed in Today’s Selling Environment

The Navigator News

“I don’t understand it,” the salesman said. “I’ve been selling to that guy for fifteen years! I’ve taken him to football games, bought countless lunches, we’ve been to each other’s houses. And now,” the salesman wailed, “he’s buying most of his stuff from someone else! I mean, what the heck?”

This salesperson (let’s call him Bob) is a veteran salesperson who works for one of my clients. I’ve known him for years. Bob’s a very charismatic person, an absolutely fabulous rapport builder (to a degree that I’ve always envied), and he builds deeply personal relationships with his customers. He’s the kind of guy that if you met him out in public, you’d immediately tab him as a salesperson, and probably a great one. And you’d be right. Or at least, you would have been about ten years ago. Today, not so much, and there’s a big reason why.

The sales world has changed. It’s changed in a big way, and some salespeople are struggling to keep up. Bob went through my training a few years ago, and, to be honest, he wasn’t impressed. He told me that “Look, sales is simple. I just wing it. Customers buy from people, and specifically, people they like. My job is to be liked and be their friend, and if I can be that, they’ll buy from me.” Essentially, he viewed sales as a friendship contest – and to be fair, for much of his career, it worked for him.

Today, it doesn’t. My client (his employer) asked me to interview a couple of his key customers – customers who once made up a big part of his volume, and now only bought incidental items from him. In interviewing him, I found that the reason that customers had stopped their purchases was that Bob just wasn’t useful. Their comments basically boiled down to this:

“Look, I like Bob. We all do. He’s a great guy. If we didn’t like him as much as we do, we wouldn’t buy anything from him, but we feel a certain obligation. But the truth is that Bob isn’t much help to us. Whenever we have a technical question, he has to call someone else and have them get ahold of us. His competitor can answer questions on the spot, so we buy most everything from him.”

I found out that the competitive salesperson also spends a lot of time keeping abreast with industry developments that affect his customers; Bob asks about the son’s soccer team. The competitor is constantly refreshing his knowledge of the customer’s business and introducing new products and services; Bob makes sure to bring doughnuts for the women who work in the office.

When I took that information back to my client, he sighed and said, “So, what should we do about Bob?” You see, Bob has been a loyal employee for a long time, and his employer felt the same way as his customers. They like Bob (and so do I), but Bob no longer contributes value. Bob is now into the ‘mercy buy’ phase of his career. The orders he gets are ‘mercy buys,’ and his job is a ‘mercy job.’ I advised his employer that if Bob wants to remain vital in his sales career (and he’s not close to retirement age yet), he’s going to have to embrace some changes. If you resemble Bob in any way, you might need to embrace them, too.

  1. Embrace sales process. One thing that sharp salespeople do today is that they are always conscious of sales process, and they keep their customers involved in a sales process at all times. There’s no better way of building a relationship with your customer than to always be selling to them – requalifying them for new products or services, presenting, and constantly working to improve the customer’s condition. The “just wing it” salesperson is behind the 8-ball in this respect.
  2. Become a business resource. Bob’s competitor won business not because he was more likeable than Bob – in fact, both customers made it clear that in the “friendship sweepstakes,” Bob was in the lead by half a lap – but because he could be a business resource for his customers. Customers know that the competitor is good for more than buying a good lunch – he’s good for helping them solve their problems.
  3. Always have a call objective. Most of Bob’s sales calls were centered around simply reinforcing friendships and staying visible. Meanwhile, his competitors pick his pocket because they are going in with a call objective, working to constantly advance the status of their business relationships.
  4. Develop customer expertise. The most valuable knowledge is customer knowledge. Bob’s competitor worked to build his knowledge of his customers on every sales call. In fact, both of them remarked on the competitor’s ongoing questions. “It’s like he’s always trying to learn more about us,” one said. Bob is a friend who talks about the Chiefs football team; his competitor talks about the direction that his customers are going in.
  5. Make good use of the customer’s time. Both customers remarked on how time-efficient the competitor is. “He does something positive for us on every visit,” one said. “Granted, he’s not as personal. We like him, but he’s not our friend like Bob is. But we know that every time he’s here, something good will happen – and Bob stopped doing that long ago.” Your customer now expects a return on his time investment with you. How are you going to generate that?

By the way, it’s not only veteran salespeople who fall victim to this kind of selling and its consequences. I’ve had young salespeople with the sale ‘friends first’ focus, and they lose business for the same reason.

Today’s customer demands more than a buddy. The customer demands a resource – and if you can’t be that, your competitor will.