In light of recent events, maybe it’s time we rethink what “responsibility” really means.

Today, we’re going to talk about “responsibility.” If you read my work very much, you know that I think the best way of handling any mistake or customer issue is with honesty and candor, and acceptance of responsibility. Unfortunately, we have elected officials who should probably read those columns. I’m talking, of course, about the unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your profession) Rep. Andrew Weiner.

I’m not going to repeat the details of what happened – if you’re one of those who doesn’t know, Google his name. Or Google “idiotic guy with a midlife crisis,” if you prefer. What I want to talk about is something he said in his press conference where he finally fessed up after a week of lying and accusing. He said, “I take full responsibility.” Then he proceeded to explain that he would accept no real consequences for what he’d done; he planned to keep his job. And it’s that word – responsibility – that I want to address, because I hear this from salespeople all the time. Few really mean it anymore than Andy did.

“Responsibility” is defined as “the state or fact of having to deal with something,” or “the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something.” Acceptance of responsibility, accountability, or blame means that you also accept consequences. It’s that last part that people have problems with, but when one does not accept consequences, acceptance of “responsibility” is nothing but an empty gesture acknowledging that which everyone else already knows.

Once, I had a salesperson working for me that committed one of the “big three.” My “big three” violations for any salesperson are violations that fall into the areas of Illegal, Immoral, or Unethical. If a salesperson does one of those three things, there is in my opinion no return, and separation must follow. When I met with the salesperson and brought up the violation – a serious one – he said, “I did it and I accept responsibility.” I said that this was good, and in accepting responsibility, did he want to write out a resignation or simply give a verbal one?

He replied that he was not resigning, and if I wanted him gone I would have to fire him. I explained that the appropriate consequence of his act was to no longer be employed, and that if he was serious about accepting responsibility, I would allow him to resign with dignity; if not, he would be terminated. Needless to say, I had to go through the termination process.

More common is the salesperson, customer service person, or company itself that messes up and causes its customer some sort of harm or inconvenience. What does the “acceptance of responsibility” mean in this case? Probably not a firing or end of customer relationship; at least not unless it’s a frequent issue. If your steak isn’t done correctly and you have to send it back, it might mean getting a free dessert. If you’re supplying parts that force a customer to miss a deadline, it might mean a charge-back of some sort.

The point is that, when you “accept responsibility” for a negative action, you should be prepared to accept reasonable consequences or penalties that make your customer whole again (and not coincidentally, keep the relationship whole). Notice that I said, “reasonable.” To mess up, for instance, on installing an air conditioning unit in a home in such a way that it takes two extra days is not a reason to give the installation for free; that would be unreasonable. A discount, or some sort of free future service, might be reasonable.

To do less than accepting consequences is to reduce “responsibility” to mere words. Unfortunately, we live in a weaker and weaker world these days in which more and more people appear to believe that the words are enough. I’m sick of it.  My encouragement to you – the sales profession, the vanguard of our business world – is to not participate in that weakening.

Of course, I suppose if you do, you have enhanced potential political credentials.

If your customers don’t understand your value, perhaps the problem is YOU and not them.

This is a complaint I hear from salespeople all the time; salespeople complain that their customers – or some of their customers – don’t ‘get’ why they charge a higher price than competitors. My response is always the same; “What do you do to help them understand your value?” The difference between a salesperson and an order-taker is the ability to communicate, and convey understanding, of value between your ‘stuff’ and the competitor’s ‘stuff.’

Among other disciplines, selling is an activity of persuasion. Persuasion is the capability to take someone who doesn’t buy into your point of view and communicate with them in such a fashion that they not only understand, but buy into, your point of view. If you have no persuasive skills – or if you don’t use them – your customers won’t buy into your value. Fortunately enough, there are a few steps to using those skills with customers, and that’s what we will discuss in the rest of the article.

Understanding: The first step in persuasion is establishing common ground by understanding the customer’s situation. Much of “added value” of certain products can be their long-term effects, and sometimes there is no value to the higher-priced product for the customer. Here’s a perfect example: Last week I visited my local paint store to buy paint for my race car (a dirt track stock car). Dirt track cars get raced hard, and they get dented and rubbed hard. No matter how good your paint is, the car itself will probably be rebodied after one year, minimum. So I purchased Valspar Farm Implement enamel (International Harvester Red, if you’re curious) for 50 bucks. The counterman tried to show me the value in purchasing the $200 PPG red urethane, because it will last longer in the sun. True – farm paint turns chalky after a couple of years – but what do I care? By the time the paint turns chalky, the body will have been cut off and put in the scrap pile – maybe even becoming a paperclip. Only through truly understanding your customer’s needs can you persuade them of value in a higher priced product. If your customer’s needs don’t match the benefits of your product, they might indeed be happier with a different purchase.

Explanation: Now it’s time to explain value, but go beyond simple explanation; use benefit statements and ask confirming questions to gauge understanding. “Explanation” is simple and easy. Persuasive selling is not. If your benefits are in the long term, you should be prepared to show what those long term effects are – both positive and negative. The professional salesperson communicates benefits and always makes sure that the customer understands, buys into, and wants those benefits. “Wanting” the benefits for their own is critical; your customer can reach understanding and buy-in of those benefits without wanting to own them. My paint example is perfect; for another car I would definitely want the benefits of the higher-priced paint. Just not for this one.

Proof: Offering proof of benefit is critical. Let’s say that your product is a building material. You know that your building material has a lifespan of 30 years, and that your competitor’s lower priced product has a lifespan of 15 years. You know that it’s a fit because your customer wants to remain in their house for the long term. The missing piece is what happens to the cheaper stuff after 15 years. You need to explain what that effect is, perhaps even in a show-and-tell fashion. Do you have the tools and materials to do a show-and-tell? In this age of cell phone cameras, cheap video recorders, etc. there is no excuse for not being able to offer proof. Testimonials are also critical for offering proof; do you consistently work to gather them?

Commonality: When people are preparing to spend money on high-priced products, it helps to let them know that other smart people made a similar decision. Testimonials are part of that process, but so is your verbiage. Let’s paint a picture – you’ve hit your customer with the price, and now you have to go through that process that I like to call “Peeling your customer off the ceiling.” Let your customer know, “Look, I understand that my price is higher. But a lot of other people have made that decision and are very happy with it. Would you like to know why? Would you like to talk to them? (etc.)” How can you help others become part of your ‘team’ of customers?

If your customers don’t get your value, perhaps the place to look is in the mirror rather than right across the desk. This is all part of what goes into truly winning business rather than just simply getting it. And wouldn’t you rather be a winner?

If you’re selling off a script, and your customer doesn’t know their lines, maybe it’s time to throw away the script.

A while back, I had an opportunity to sit in with some salespeople who were making teleprospecting calls. The call process was one that the client had read about from another sales trainer, and it went like this: The salesperson would call, and say something like, “Mr. Customer, if I could show you a way to radically reduce your costs in X department with no additional net costs to you, would this be something you would be interested in?” (NOTE – that’s not an exact quote, but a rough approximation.) The idea was that the customer would say, “Well, of course – tell me more!” Or, they might say, “What are you referring to?” Unfortunately, most of the time, the customer simply said, “Nope – not interested,” and hung up. Very few appointments were set that day.

So what went wrong? Simple – the salespeople were working from a script that depended not only on the SALESPERSON knowing their lines, but the CUSTOMER also had to know his/her lines. And customers usually don’t, so they react like ordinary human beings instead of actors in a play. And the reason that this particular script was failing so often was that the customer wasn’t given any context by the salesperson, just a claim that sounded wild on the surface. Isn’t it funny how people react like people so often, given the chance?

Successful selling understands that we are dealing with people. While people can behave in patterns that are somewhat predictable, with human beings we always have that “X” factor that mean that salespeople should be prepared for a conversation that goes anywhere. The salespeople in my previous example weren’t prepared for the reactions they got, and therefore were unsuccessful.

Many years ago, in my first sales job at the Ford dealership in Topeka, we used to joke about having a “Sales Robot” that would take our place. Since we were trained for predictable sets of statements, responses, and conversations, we figured that you could program that into a robot. Picture a customer seeing a screen that says, “Please state your objection.” The customer pushes a button that says, “My trade in is worth more than what you’re offering.” The robot says, “I can appreciate that,” (probably in a voice like C3PO from ‘Star Wars’) and then launches into a long statement about the relative ‘worth’ of used cars. It was hilarious, especially when our sales manager got involved.

In real life, though, it’s not as funny. Too many sales training programs (or company cultures) attempt to script out an entire sales call, and assume that a buyer will respond and react exactly according to plan – which often they don’t. Have you ever had one of those sales conversations that felt like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride? Yep, me too. And only a skilled salesperson can keep one of those on track and move it towards a positive (selling) result.

Ultimately, the reason that managers and trainers attempt to script out sales calls is that they assume their salespeople are dumb (whether they realize it or not). It’s easier to teach someone ‘their lines’ than it is to give someone the real knowledge and insight to be able to think on their feet, read the customer, and react appropriately. But guess what? Scripted salespeople never make it into that level of selling that we call the “star” or “superstar” level.

It’s more work, definitely, to move salespeople toward the “smart” level of selling than it is to keep them “dumb.” But the rewards make it worth the effort.

To be truly successful in selling, you’d better enjoy more than just getting a closed sale.  You’d better enjoy what goes into it.

I was visiting with a client yesterday, and he was telling me about a recent vacation that he took in which he took the train across country to Washington, D.C., and back. He did so not for budgetary reasons (although it was less expensive than flying) but because he was interested in what the trip would be like. He came back loving train travel.

He told me about the dining car, the club car, the “scenic” car, and how it really transformed the experience of travel. I’m sure this was some of the same romance of train travel that people felt in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, before air travel became the norm. He’s planning on taking a train again on his next vacation. But here’s the key – on the train, he said, the journey became part of the vacation. That put me in mind of selling. In selling, everyone enjoys the destination (the closed sale). How many of you enjoy the journey?

I’ve known many top salespeople throughout the years (and modesty aside, I’ve been one of them for as many years), and I’ve discovered that the very best salespeople love the journey in selling nearly as much, or as much, as they enjoy the destination. Think about it; the sales journey can be absolutely fascinating if you’re of such a mind. You meet different people with different wants and needs, have interesting conversations, and help them succeed. At least, that’s what you do if you’re doing it right. I find that there’s something to love in each juncture of the sales process.

Prospecting: This is the part of the sales journey that few salespeople enjoy. They psyche themselves up for it, they invent crutches to make themselves do it, or they bypass it altogether. What’s to love? Well, I love the possibility of prospecting; of calling someone that I don’t know and attempting to quickly communicate value. The opportunity to win is the passion that I can find in prospecting. It’s the same thing that I enjoy when I sit down to the blackjack table in Vegas, except that I know that my skill has much more of an influence in prospecting.

Discovery: What’s not to love about discovery? You get to ask questions, learn new things, and understand needs of people. I’ve always been a very intellectually curious person, so discovery fits naturally with my personal tendencies. The most successful salespeople are careful, detailed, and complete with their discoveries; mediocre ones bypass it as quickly as possible by asking too few questions.

Presentation: Now it’s time for your passion for your product to come out. Assuming that the information you discovered indicates that your product is a match for the customer’s needs, it’s time to be a passionate advocate for, and to, the customer. This step is what most people think of as “selling,” the truly successful salespeople don’t use a canned pitch. Rather they build a presentation entirely based upon needs and use that to persuade the customer.

Proposal: Now it’s time to discuss price and terms with the customer. The passion here is knowing that the rubber is about to meet the road, one way or another. If you believe in the value that you are selling, this is also fun as you present your price unashamedly and confidently.

Closing: Believe it or not, we’re still not at the part of the sale that most reps love; closing is part of thejourney. The passion for me is knowing that I’m asking a customer to do something that is in his/her best interests, and confirming that act.

Now we’re at the destination. Think about it; if you don’t love the journey, you’ve gone through a lot of pain to get to the part that you do like – which is fleeting at best. As I said, the best salespeople love the whole sales journey. If you don’t, I suggest that you find something to love about it. That’s how you will become an elite salesperson.

Are there certain types of salespeople that are beyond repair?

I’ve been thinking about the future of the selling profession quite a bit lately, for a lot of reasons. I’m not the only one, either; late last year, James Ledbetter wrote an article for Slate.com that predicted the ultimate death of the selling profession due to competition from the Internet. That article spawned a cover story for Selling Power magazine in which I was an expert panelist discussing the future of the selling profession. This week, it also spawned an article from Jeffrey Gitomer.

It’s amazing to me how many different takes there are on the future of selling. I’ll share a little bit of my own take later in this article, but I thought something Jeffrey said was interesting; he predicts the death of selling in entire industries. To quote, “There are other salespeople on the list of diminishing numbers: automobile salespeople who are being challenged by 100 years of duping customers, and the customer has finally had enough of them, pharmaceutical salespeople who are being legislated out of business for the lack of ability to build relationships with customers, and insurance salespeople, especially for lower-priced and commonly purchased policies (automobile being the best example).” That brought a question to my mind – have entire groups of salespeople doomed themselves?

In short, I think it’s possible. I’ve talked before about car salespeople in this space, and I will say again: I earned the right to say every negative word about them; I did that job for three years. I know how car salespeople are trained, managed, and unceremoniously dealt with by ownership. The idea that car salespeople as a whole, however, are doomed? I’m not sure that even I would go there. I do think that the role of car salespeople will change substantially in the next 20 years because technology will make many of them obsolete.

The other issue is that car salespeople don’t really do what is most needed by the dealers; i.e. customer acquisition and relationship building. Most dealers have one, maybe two veterans who have been there over the long haul and who have people coming in specifically to see them; however, this is by far the minority. At Noller Ford, our guy was Gene Worthington, who had sold for Noller for 26 years (at the time I was there). The problems confronting the car sales profession are many:

First of all, it’s too transient of a business. The average buy cycle of a new car buyer is 4-5 years; the average tenure of a car salesman is much, much less. That means that the average salesman hardly ever sells the same person two new cars in a row. You can’t build business that way.

Second, car salespeople don’t do much in the way of drawing people in the door. Part of this is due to a company culture that says, “When you’re not on the floor, you’re not working,” which takes away incentives for car salespeople to build value for themselves through networking and other “reach out” activities.

Finally, most salespeople are still badly trained and managed in 1950-vintage sales tactics that emphasize “control” of the customer and false fear-driven conversation. This results in a dialogue that customers aren’t anxious to repeat. Hence, car salespeople – in many cases – actually detract from the value of what they sell.

So, we circle back to my main question – is the situation irreparable? I’m honestly not sure; to prove or disprove this hypothesis would require a dealer or group of dealers who really wanted to try something different, and I’m not seeing that in the marketplace. Today, more and more customers are making their buying decisions through the Internet and dealing with customer service people at the dealerships. This is unquestionably a less-expensive practice for the dealers, and has a lot of attractiveness.

The problem is that it does nothing either to attract customers, or to build relationships, which are the main provinces of most professional salespeople. So, we have a dilemma. I will say this – I do think the “car salesman” as we know it will be a distinct minority or an endangered species in 20 years, simply because the industry will refuse to make necessary changes. The other question is, even if they do change, will the customers buy into the changes, based on the profession’s history?

Now, to my own forecast for the selling profession: Business owners and managers are looking harder and harder at their own sales dollars all the time. The salesperson of the future will have to justify their existence in terms of three key areas: Year over year profit dollar gain, new customer acquisitions, and quality and stability of customer relationships. Salespeople who cannot justify themselves in those measurements will be gone. This will necessitate a raise in the skill level of the sales profession, overall. And that’s my focus.

There’s a big difference between being the best, and just being best in class.  Read this article to understand.

To whom do you compare yourself when you’re assessing your performance? I know that’s a broad statement, and it’s meant to be. Whether you are a salesperson assessing your skills and performance, or a business owner assessing your customer service or sales, the question still applies – do you want to be World Class, or just best in class? Being average is easy, being best in class more difficult, but being World Class is the real challenge – and the place where you find the real rewards.

Being “best in class” simply means measuring yourself against your strongest direct competitor, and then being a little bit better than them. The best in any class, however, might not be world class – a situation that requires you to measure yourself against the top of the profession, and then meeting or bettering that standard. Or, in some cases, it may require setting a completely new standard. Think about UPS and FedEx; both were measuring themselves against the Post Office when they started (remember, UPS’ original focus was not on overnight service and FedEx didn’t offer standard ground service); would either of them have survived if they’d simply sought to outperform the USPS? In fact, both have set new standards that the Post Office has then reacted to meet.

I’m going to repeat something I’ve said before in this space: Most salespeople are inert. What I mean is this: Most salespeople truly do little to actively grow their business, or add value for their employers or customers, over the course of a year. In fact, I think the sales profession breaks down like this:

The top 20% are the salespeople that add value to their products or services; i.e. their stuff is worth more because they sell it. These are the growth-makers, the difference-makers, the superstars.

The middle 60% are the salespeople who are essentially neutral. They neither add nor subtract value from their products, and they seldom dramatically grow or shrink their territories.

The bottom 20% actually detract value from their products and services; i.e. their stuff is worth less because they sell it.

To put it in terms of the “World Class” vs. “Best in class” definition, the top 20% fit the “World Class” definition, while the middle 60% fight for the “best in class” status. The trouble is that “Best in class” all too often leads to mediocrity. Here’s an example:

A while back, I returned from a trip to Dallas via Southwest Airlines. Now, I like Southwest a lot. They get me where I want to go on time, and it’s usually a pleasant experience. That’s enough for “Best in class” status among the airlines. On this particular trip, I got back to Kansas City – but my bag didn’t. So, after doing the ‘waiting for my bag’ routine, I then went to the baggage office. There, they got my information and informed me that my bag would be on the next flight, and that it would be delivered to my house. They also gave me an 800 number to call if I wanted to check the status.

After dinner, I called the 1-800 number and it was answered – by a person! She took the claim number and told me that my bag had been bumped off my original flight by a large quantity of Federal government cargo, and that as we were speaking, it was being picked up by the delivery service and would be at my house within 45 minutes. It was. At first glance, I thought that was great service – but then I thought about it a little more deeply. You see, I realized that, by the time my flight had gone wheels-up at Dallas, Southwest knew that my bag (and a few others) would not make it to Kansas City. So instead of having me wait, guess, and then hope, why not post a sign at the baggage claim that directed myself and my fellow ‘bumpees’ into the office, where they could have proactively handled the situation? Or for that matter, why not have the flight attendants handle the issue while we were in the air?

That’s the difference between “best in class” and “world class.” Best in class wonders what we can do that’s better than our competitors, world class asks what is the BEST that we could do?

And with that as the yardstick, which are you? And if you’re not world class, how can you get there?

Never make the mistake of thinking that you CONTROL your customers.  You only INFLUENCE.

Did you ever suddenly think that you had missed a meeting, and in that meeting, the entire world decided to go nuts? I’ve been having a lot of moments like that lately. Between some sales writers trying to jump on the lead car of the technology train just to look relevant, and others saying that you should behave as if everyone is lying to you day in and day out, and articles appearing that suggest that our profession is dying, the sales world is getting weirder, folks.
Granted, some of this is my own fault. I’ve been doing a lot of research for my new book (more on that in coming months), and some of that research has taken me into some very strange places in our profession. But my real ‘reality check’ moment had to be reading Jeffrey Gitomer’s column this week. Now, I’m a Gitomer fan, but in my opinion, he’s giving some very bad advice lately. His newest nutshell: Stop carrying business cards and just link up with people on LinkedIn. I like LinkedIn, of course; in fact, I just arranged what could be an important meeting, and it wouldn’t have happened without LinkedIn. But there are limits, aren’t there?

In the column, to summarize, he met some salespeople, they exchanged some platitudes about survival in selling, and a Tweet resulted (very cutting edge). Then they started to exchange business cards, but one of the sales reps didn’t have cards and suggested that they simply link up. So they did, and all was wonderful, and hence the advice to stop carrying cards. Now, there are a couple of small problems:

1. It takes a lot longer and a lot more trouble to connect on LinkedIn than to exchange business cards – particularly if you have a touchscreen ‘keyboard’ and a less than proficient finger typer. A lot of people won’t go through the trouble.
2. Your network on LinkedIn should be selective. My rule of thumb is, “If I would take a call or a meeting with these people, or if they would take one from me, that’s a relationship worth Linking.” Granted, we live in an era of people having 1,000 virtual friends that they couldn’t pick out of a police lineup, but I still like my rule for business purposes.

The problem here is that technological tools have evolved, but people and human nature have not changed. Remember that technology isn’t a substitute for real selling, it’s a tool to achieve our ends.

Let’s move on to another thing that I read recently. It’s a book that forms the basis of a popular training system, and the system is underpinned by the philosophy that customers and prospects are lying to you, all the time, in order to get you to tell them what you know. So you shouldn’t trust them. Huh? How can we build trust and lasting relationships with customers unless we are unwilling to trust them? I’ve always found this particular system to be customer-unfriendly and manipulative, and if this is the foundation, it’s no surprise.

Here’s the common thread between the two: The advice put out by both Gitomer and by the other book presume that we can control the behavior of other people. Not carrying business cards and instead asking for a link is an expression of control; we are demanding that the other person take the time to link by phone, and in fact, we’re not considering the possibility that they might not WANT to link up based on a 5-minute meet and greet.

Similarly, the presumption that ‘buyers are liars’ presumes that we can then control their behavior by using techniques not based in trust. And this is why both are wrong – we cannot control the behavior of others. We only influence the behavior, and we do that by exhibiting the kind of behavior we expect from others. If we begin a sales call from a perspective of distrust, the buyer senses this, and mirrors that behavior. Now we have two people that don’t trust each other, and are exhibiting this obviously, and still attempting to transact business. How’s this going to work out well? Hint: It’s not.

When in doubt, seek to keep sales on an honest, fundamental dialogue, and your customers will thank you.

Releasing negativity is more than attitude; it’s about your worldview.

You know, I’m amazed at how surrounded by negativity we are every day. Here’s but one example: Recently, I picked up a copy of Laura Ingraham’s “Of Thee I Zing,” which is touted as a humorous look at our culture. Now, I’m a Laura fan; in fact, I picked the book up at an author event here in Kansas City. I find her to be sharp and witty; unfortunately, I found the book to be anything but. It started as humorous, but after 200+ pages, what started out feeling funny felt more nasty and snippy – perhaps because of repetition.

Of course, you don’t have to buy books to find negativity. It is all around us, and I usually don’t notice it because I’m a pretty happy-go-lucky guy. Sure, I have my moments, but I decided years ago that as long as I’m looking down at the dirt, instead of up at it, any other issues are solvable. It seems, unfortunately, that too many people wish to wallow in what’s wrong rather than what’s right. Let’s talk about one particular manifestation and how it can affect your relationships and your career.

There’s an old saying in sales that goes something like this: “Buyers are liars.” You’ve probably heard it. Heard it? Heck, there are entire sales training philosophies and careers built on that saying! The idea is that the mere act of dealing with a salesperson is enough to turn an honest person into a lying scoundrel (I don’t think we use the word ‘scoundrel’ enough, and I’m trying to bring it back. Next week – ‘rapscallion’), and that if buyers are liars, we must go into sales calls with our defenses up to protect ourselves from those liars. Plus, if buyers are liars, that justifies whatever we do to them, right?

Wrong. If you’re going into a sales call prepared to deal with a liar, the way you act is going to send a message to the customer – and that message is that YOU can’t be trusted. After all, trust is a two-way street, and if you’re not prepared to give trust, you’d better not be prepared to receive it either. Do some customers lie? Absolutely. So do some doctors, lawyers, clergy, accountants, salespeople, etc. But ultimately those with ethical lapses are by far outnumbered by those who are willing to give the ethics they receive.

Over the years, I have found that customer mistrust – as well as acceptance of other negativity – is part of a larger worldview about one’s life and career. Worldviews are all-encompassing ways of viewing life and your place in the world, and it’s far too large a subject to deal with here. But we can take a small component of one’s worldview (the selling/professional component), and break it down here. Here are some pieces of my professional worldview:

• As long as I’m looking down at the dirt, all other problems are solvable.
• Most customers are prepared to deal with me in an open and honest fashion. And I’m a good enough judge of character to spot those who are not, and either discontinue the relationship or alter my behavior if necessary.
• My professional rewards are in direct proportion to my inputs (the combination of effort, skills, and talents that I apply). And if I feel that the proportion slips, I should look in the mirror first.
• The worst thing that can happen in a sales call isn’t that bad; there’s always another sales call to be made. And if the ultimate worst thing happens – I somehow lose my livelihood and savings, I’m good enough to make it back.
• Every call I make is a potential new opportunity; every call I don’t make is a guaranteed lack of an opportunity.

Ultimately, I believe that we are all in control of our own destinies. Negativity, in all its many forms, is a loser’s lament. “Buyers are liars” is the ultimate excuse; after all, how can someone be expected to be successful in selling if he’s dealing with dishonesty day in and day out?

For those reasons, negativity sells. The only question is – are you buying?

There’s a lot of bad sales advice, and some of the worst surrounds the close!

There’s an awful lot of bad sales advice floating around out there right now. Sometimes I think that our profession is caught right between people advocating old-time sales tactics that just don’t work anymore, and other people trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘techno-savvy’ by focusing on social networking as the all-encompassing solution for everything – but that doesn’t work either.

A prime example of this is a recent column by Hal Becker in the Kansas City Business Journal talking about the popular “when to close” topic. Hal’s answer – fueled by his Xerox sales training and illustrated by a personal anecdote of his experience in 1976 – was that the salesperson should always be closing. This the old A/B/C (Always Be Closing) philosophy has done more to kill sales and irritate customers than anything else salespeople do. There’s a right way, though, and let’s find it, shall we?

It’s appropriate that Hal’s anecdote was from 1976; A/B/C is very much a 1970’s sales approach. For that matter, so is the Xerox approach. The old Xerox approach, heavy with tactics, pressure, and technique, worked back when Xerox dominated its market. Today? Not so much. Today’s customers are more savvy, more educated, have more information available to them, and ultimately have been trained by years of salespeople using heavy sales tactics, and are more capable than ever to resist. This means that today’s customer responds to an approach that is more customer-friendly and respectful.

First, let’s look at what it takes for a customer to buy:

• The customer must be motivated; i.e. the customer has a need that he/she wishes to solve through a purchase.
• The customer must have investigated that need; the customer and the salesperson must both understand the need, and your product must fulfill it (and the customer must agree that your product fulfills it).
• The customer must trust you.
• The customer must believe what you say (i.e. you have credibility in the customer’s eyes).
• The customer must respect you.
• The customer must not dislike you (I know that conventional wisdom says the customer must like you, and certainly that’s a huge help – but I’ve found it’s better to seek respect and trust that is genuine than to seek a like and friendship that is phony).
• You must have presented a proposal that is to the customer’s liking.
• The trouble with the A/B/C approach is that it interferes with several of these things. Closing is the part of the sales process where customers are most likely to put up defenses; if you are always in some phase of a close, your customers will be defending themselves too much to be able to give you the candid answers you need to be able to match your products to their needs. Closing too early will interfere with trust and credibility, as well; the customer will perceive you as reaching for their wallet. (Answer to the old question: Why do customers perceive salespeople as pushy? Because too many are.)

Instead, today’s salesperson must have patience as part of the selling/closing process. To assess motivation, accurately assess needs, present your product, check customer agreement, build trust, etc. takes time. Sometimes it can all be done within a single sales call, but even those sales calls can get long. It’s very important that you are patient enough to allow the customer to move through their buying process properly (see my book, Sell Like You Mean It!, for more on this) and get to the closing arena at the same time you do.

Once you are at this point, the close becomes a natural part of the sales process, and how you ask for the business matters less than the actual asking. What’s better is that, by handling this in a customer-friendly manner, you are more likely to get invited back for repeat sales opportunities! Isn’t that better than a one-shot quick close?

Just because it worked for Xerox in 1976 doesn’t mean it will work for you today. Success in today’s selling arena requires a different approach.

Would you like to know what makes up the worst sales questions?  Read this.

As you know, I do a significant amount of recruiting for sales positions, not only locally in Kansas City, but nationwide. I love it because it keeps me in touch with what’s going on with salespeople; you can’t interview over a hundred sales reps a year and not be in touch! Plus, to be frank, a lot of times it inspires new articles. Today’s article is one such example.

I was interviewing a gentleman for a sales position on the second round. My second round interviews tend to be a behaviorally focused interview. This is where I ask a series of open ended questions asking the candidate to describe situations they have encountered in the past, and how they handled them; the idea is that past performance is a predictor of future performance. In this case, however, the technique itself was a huge window into the candidate’s head. What happened was very interesting, and revealed a lot about fear and its impact on selling.

When I started to ask some pointed questions (the first one was “Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss, and how you resolved the issue.” The guy hesitated for at least 20-30 seconds, and then seemed to deflate and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t think of one. I can’t answer that question.” No big deal – in a lot of behavioral interviews, the candidate will not answer one or two questions. Except that in this case, it happened several times. The ultimate result was that the candidate tanked the interview, and not in a small way. I should point out that this was a salesman with a 30-year career to draw upon.

Looking behind the curtain, what happened? Given the long hesitation, I think he was assuming that the questions were pass/fail, and he was valiantly searching for the “right” answer. When he couldn’t come up with one, he was so paralyzed by fear of giving the “wrong” answer that he chose to take the Fifth Amendment. It’s a shame, but it’s indicative of some big fears that can hamper a sales career (and probably suggested a reason that he’s job hunting at this stage in his career).

What the guy was guilty of is what I call “small thinking,” or the desire and tendency to place limits on the sales conversation so that it doesn’t go somewhere that’s “bad” for the salesperson. Essentially, he’s so afraid of the answers he might receive in the sales conversation (or in this case, give within the interview) that he fails to ask questions (or give answers) that are important to the dialogue.

The classic example of this is something that many of us probably heard in early sales training sessions: “Don’t ask a question that you don’t already know the answer to,” or the Lawyer’s rule of sales questioning.    For instance, this philosophy posits that you should never ask what the customer likesabout their current provider because this allows them to ‘reinforce positives’ and remember that they do like their current vendor. This is “small thinking” because you are trying to restrict the ‘ground’ of the sales conversation.

Does anyone see a problem here? Me, too. They’re going to remember what they like, whether you ask it or not. And what is the #1 thing that could cost you the deal? That’s correct – it’s what they like about their current vendor. So in that case, aren’t you better off to know what could cost you the deal rather than not know it? Don’t be a victim of small thinking, and the fear-based behaviors that surround it.

Sometimes, though, small thinking isn’t a product of fear; it’s a product of laziness or not knowing better. I was talking with one of my clients recently who was coaching a route salesperson in attempting to sell a particular product. The salesperson would initiate the conversation by asking, “Do you use X product?” (This is a basic closed-ended question.) The resulting conversation consisted of “yup” or “nope.” After a couple of these calls, my client coached the salesperson to instead ask an open ended question along the lines of, “What has been your experience with X product?” Suddenly, good conversations happened and opportunities opened.