Let’s look into the sales crystal ball and see what it will take to make it in 2012.

Well, gang, it’s another new year. Technically we’re 19 days into it, of course, but who’s counting? I’m writing this because I’ve seen a lot of ‘how to succeed in 2012’ articles and to be honest with you, I’m finding that a lot of them are off base. As years go, I think 2012 will be closer to a return to normalcy in economic terms; it will still be slower than the period leading up to 2008, but there seems to be some energy in the marketplace.

That said, the energy I’m concerned with isn’t in the marketplace; it’s in YOU. The energy that you bring to the table – and more importantly, how you direct it – will either make you a lot of money this year or bring you to failure. Follow some of the rabbit-holes that some sales authors are pointing you toward, and you’ll be wondering what happened come December. Hence, here are Troy’s 5 Keys to Being Successful in Sales:

One: Keep Prospecting!

You were probably ready for this one, weren’t you? The biggest rabbit-hole in sales right now is the social media rabbit-hole, where some consultants are trying to tell you that all the riches of the world will come to you if you’ll just Tweet a little more. Nonsense. The social media platform hasn’t been invented yet that will replace conventional prospecting techniques, done well. This is particularly true if you are attempting highly targeted new business generation. Not growing your business simply isn’t an option. I’ve seen numerous people and companies try “maintenance” strategies, and they all fail because people die, people change jobs, people change their minds, and as a result, customers leave. To not prospect is to resign yourself to a shrinking base. Don’t be that guy or gal.

Two: Continuously Sell to Your Customer Base.

When I say “continuously sell,” I don’t mean stop in, ask how things are going, hear “fine,” and then run like heck. I mean that with your top customers – and those that have the potential for growth – you should have a well thought out development selling plan for each of them. What new products/services can they use? Why would they take them? By keeping your customers in some sort of a selling process, you have employed the best retention strategy of all – talking to your customers in a meaningful way. If you’re vulnerable, you’ll hear it when you try to sell them more stuff, but you might not if you do the old “P.R. call.”

Three: Have a Quality Social Media Presence. 

But wait, didn’t I just contradict myself? Nope – in this day and age, Social Media is important, but not as a primary prospect generation strategy. Nowadays, people are researchers (because so much information is at our fingertips), and many of them will want to research you before they buy. Help them do so with a quality presence that allows you to be Google-able. Here’s a helpful hint: You’re better off to do one thing well than many things badly, and if you’re only going to do one thing, make it LinkedIn. LinkedIn gives you much more search engine visibility than any other platform, and the way it’s structured, it’s hard to make yourself look bad – something that is frighteningly easy on Twitter and Facebook.

Four: Make Every Call Meaningful.

This is a close relative of #2 above, but it’s different enough that it is a separate Key. You should strive to make every call meaningful and beneficial for both you and your customer (hint: sitting and talking football for 30 minutes is neither). That means that you should have an agenda every time you see a customer that gives you greater customer knowledge, imparts new knowledge to the customer, or creates a business-building opportunity (new sale or referral) for either you or the customer. Yes, it’s more work, but your customers will appreciate it.

Five: Do it All With Enthusiasm and Passion!

Selling is about motivating and persuading your customers into certain actions, and one of the easiest ways to get your customers motivated is for YOU to be motivated – and that means communication with enthusiasm and passion. Forget all the reasons why you CAN’T succeed and focus on the excitement of generating success itself. You’ll find that your customers are right along with you.

Execute the above 5 keys to being successful in sales, and you will have a great 2012. Don’t, and it’s very likely that you won’t. And with that, let’s make 2012 our best year yet!

Are you set for growth for the rest of the year – or just losing more ground?

Well, here we are.  Not only is 2011 gone, but we’re 1/12 of the way finished with 2012.  Are your results this year looking markedly different than last year?  More importantly, are your ACTIONS any different than last year?  It might just be me, but I’ve had a significant run of talking to business owners, sales managers, and even salespeople who have become either complacent or defeated (they’ve essentially given up on improving their results) to the point where their entire companies are just going through the motions.

It doesn’t have to be that way!  I know that sometimes this can be difficult to remember, but you must keep in mind that the most powerful determinant of your result s is not the economy, politics, the weather, or other outside forces.  You are still in charge of your own destiny, and if your path isn’t what you want it to be, it’s YOU who can make a change.  If you’re stuck in a rut, here are 7 ways that you can make the next 11 months something different than the last one.  And whether you’re a salesperson, a sales manager, or a business owner, there’s something in here for you.

1. Get off your butt and start prospecting.  The Number One cause of sales atrophy is a lack of prospecting.  In selling, the big bucks go to the salespeople who are continually building and growing their businesses.  If that’s not you, it’s time to get started.
2. Use every sales call to develop your customers.  Get away from the rote “how are things going” calls with your existing customers, and instead start using EVERY CALL to build your business.  Sell them more stuff, deepen relationships, and get some referrals.
3. Get LinkedIn.  Forget Facebook.  LinkedIn is the Number One platform for professional B2B networking; that’s what it’s designed for and that’s what it does.  The entire purpose of LinkedIn is to facilitate professional referrals and testimonials.  Use it!  If you’re not on LinkedIn, there’s a good chance you’re losing business to someone who is.
4. Get some testimonials.  When customers tell you what a great job you’re doing, what do you do?  Do you just grin and say “thanks,” or do you ask them to put that information in the form of  a testimonial? Testimonials can be video, written on letterhead, or even posted on LinkedIn.  What matters is that your customers are willing to state, for the record, how good you are.
5. Learn your customers.  Product knowledge isn’t king anymore.  Customer knowledge is.  Focus your time and energies into better learning your customers, their needs, their wants, their objectives, and their definitions of success.
6. Unpack your briefcase.  Salespeople carry a lot of junk into sales calls.  Some of it is paper, and some of it is in the form of old, hackneyed sales techniques that don’t work anymore.  Heck, some of them never did, but salespeople have been great about sopping up techniques like the “Firing Horace,” the “Negative Reverse Questions,” the “Take Away,” the “Inward Outward with a Half Twist in the Layout Position” (ok, I made that one up), and other junk that gets in the way of honest human dialogue.  Not sure what to get rid of?  Here’s a hint – any sales technique with a name is probably a good candidate.
7. For the Owners and Managers, If you can’t change your people, change your people.  If your people aren’t doing the right things – if they’re complacent and unwilling to take the actions needed to build your business – then it’s perfectly OK to give them opportunities, training, and tools to change their behavior.  I encourage it, for that matter; especially since I’m usually providing them some of the tools!  With that said, if your people refuse to take hold of those opportunities, they’ve given you little choice.  Your salespeople should be the driving force behind growth at their company.  If they’re not, you might not have the right people.

The point behind all this is that this is not a time for complacency, for comfort, or for defeatism.  Whatever profit you don’t make in 2012 won’t come back; that opportunity is gone forever.  Hawaiians have a saying:  NOW is the moment of power.  Seize your moment.  Good selling for the rest of 2012.

Sometimes, the best salespeople have slumps.  Here’s how to break out.

You’ve tried to avoid it. You’ve been positive. You’re making your calls. Your attitude is great, and you believe in your company, your product, your management, your support staff, and yourself. You’re doing all the right things. But, it’s impossible to miss the signs. You’re sliding down the sales ranking board in your office. It’s been so long since you’ve written any business that your order pad has moss on the north side. Your manager just grunts when he sees you. Let’s face it–you’re in a sales slump.

Slumps happen to nearly all salespeople–good, bad, or indifferent. The reasons that they happen are as varied as the people who have them, but they’re a truth of the profession. For some, it’s a learning experience that takes them to a whole new level as a salesperson. For some, it’s a soul-crushing experience that spells the end of their sales career. For you, it can be the best, the worst, or something in-between, and it all depends on how you handle it. Today, we’re going to talk about some common causes of sales slumps and the best ways to overcome each cause. How do I know? Because I’ve been there.

Cause #1: You’ve lost your customer focus. More slumps are caused – and prolonged – by this reason than by any other. When salespeople sell the same product or service for a long time, they get used to hearing the same answers to the same questions. Over a long enough period of time, salespeople will “assume” certain needs on the part of the customer. These needs may or may not be part of the customer’s overall picture, but because the salesperson is such a veteran, they assume. Then they forget to ask key questions. Then they miss buying motivations and signals. The end result is that they end up presenting things that the customer doesn’t want or need, in an effort to be more efficient by “skipping to the selling.” Customers don’t buy, and salespeople don’t sell. In a slump, this worsens. Salespeople start thinking ONLY of the sale, and walk in pitching product or service, rather than discovering needs. It’s a vicious cycle.

The Fix: Go back to basics. Treat every customer need as if it’s the first time you’ve ever heard it, and carefully walk through your questioning before presenting recommendations. Your customers will suddenly become interested and engaged again, and you’ll sell.

Cause #2: You’ve gotten lazy. There’s no kind way to say this, so I’ll just say it: Salespeople can get comfortable at a level of achievement, and coast on current customers. Prospecting and funnel-filling (never on the top of a salesperson’s “favorite things” list) get dropped to the side, and the salesperson convinces himself that he’s working as hard as he can – on current volume. The funnel empties. Customer volume slacks off, and suddenly, productivity is down. The salesperson then invests MORE time in current customers, hoping to generate internal growth. When it doesn’t happen, he’s in trouble.

The Fix: Fill your funnel. Devote extra time to prospecting, networking, phone work – whatever you have to do to get new prospects in the funnel QUICKLY. Get back in the game.

Cause #3: You’ve gotten stale. Closely related to #1, but a little different. Being stale has more to do with your own presentation, rather than your discovery. Again, this has to do with salespeople who have sold the same thing long enough that they no longer find it interesting. Features and benefits become dry recitation of facts, and no enthusiasm can be found. Customers don’t get excited either, and they buy from other salespeople. Many times, the other salespeople are less skilled with lower quality products, but they’re more excited about them. Customers feed off enthusiasm. If you’ve lost yours, you’re either in a slump or headed for one.

The Fix: Get excited, soldier. Find whatever it was about your product or service that got you excited in the first place, and use it. Alternatively, use your own creativity to come up with a new way of presenting old products that you can have some fun with. Either way, you have to make yourself exciting and interesting on sales calls. If you can’t do that, change companies or change professions.

Cause #4: There are changes in the marketplace. This one is probably the least common cause of slumps, but it should be considered. Sometimes, seismic shifts occur nearly overnight that can cripple companies who don’t adapt – or who adapt slowly. The best example of this is the foreign car invasion of the ’70s, which coincided with a lowering of American automotive quality. Initially, the Big Three laid the blame at dealers and salespeople who were suffering as consumers chose Hondas over Pintos and Vegas. Clearly, it wasn’t the fault of the dealers or their salespeople. Most market shifts, however, aren’t this radical and don’t require this much correction. Maybe it’s something simple. Has one of your competitors changed their offering, or the way they present it? Has a new salesperson been hired by your competitor, and they’re kicking your butt? If they’ve raised their game, it’s time to raise yours. The value proposition that sounded great a month ago may not be so good right now.

The Fix: Talk to customers who bought from a competitor instead of you. Ask good, detailed questions regarding their decision process. If you lost on your value proposition, it’s time to reevaluate it. If you just got outsold, it’s time to tune up your game.

Cause #5:  The numbers aren’t playing out right.  Believe it or not, this is probably the most common cause.  Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that you sell one out of every five customers that you call on.  Your normal week has you seeing ten customers, so you should sell two.

Remember, though, that you’re anticipating eight no-sales in a week.  What if, by luck of the draw, you hit a run of customers for two or three weeks that don’t buy (the “sales” just don’t come in)?  It happens, and it’s probably the start of more slumps than all the other causes put together.  Suddenly, you look around, and it’s been 3-4 weeks since you made a sale.  So, you start pressing.  Instead of doing a good discovery, you’re moving more quickly toward the Presentation – and you’re missing customer needs. Now, by pressing, you’re into Cause #1.  And Fix #1 will fix it.

The Fix:  Stay cool.  This is one slump that can be nipped in the bud before it moves to Cause #1, just by carefully analyzing your calls and making sure that you’re still doing the right things the right way.  Like the batter in baseball who suddenly goes 0 for 20 because his line drives happen to be hit right at fielders, concentrating on your fundamentals will get you out of this one before it deepens.

As I said, slumps can be tough. I’ve been there, so if you’re in a slump, don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. In addition to the fixes above, you should use all the resources available to get out of it. Have your manager go with you on some calls –or, if possible, have a non-slumping rep accompany you. Maybe they can find areas where you’re dropping the ball. Watch videos, listen to tapes, read books. Alternatively, when you go home for a weekend, make a conscious effort not to think about selling at all. Clear your head, come to work with a new focus, and look through the causes above.

What does not end your sales career makes you a much stronger salesperson.

If you listen to the people who say “never,” you’ll miss some great opportunities.

Recently, I read an article about the “never-do’s” of selling.  These are things that salespeople should never, ever, ever do in the process of making customer contact.  I read through them, and I realized something:  At one time or another, I’ve done them all.  Seriously.  And in many cases, the result was a bouncing baby new sale.

Why is that?  Well, it’s simple.  I don’t think that there are many “never’s” in selling; at least not when bodily functions are left out of the equation.  Count me as a “never” in what I call the Big Three:  Illegal, Immoral, or Unethical.  But the article wasn’t talking about the Big Three or bodily functions; instead, the article was ruling out certain strategic and tactical moves in selling as always being “wrong.”  The problem is that what is “wrong” in one situation, based on risk vs. reward, might be our only alternative in another. Here’s an example:

Sales author Jill Konrath said, “Never go behind your prospect’s back,” and related the following story:

“When I started my sales career at Xerox, I was a sponge. I studied everything I could in hopes of shortening my learning curve. I’ll never forget the day I read that it was crucial for salespeople to spend their time with executives, not their lower-level minions.

I immediately knew I was in deep trouble with my hottest prospect because my contact, Tinsey, was simply an administrative assistant. I got right on the phone, called her boss and set up a meeting for the following week.

Guess who came to escort me up to meet with Mr. Big on the day of my appointment! Tinsey, of course. She asked sharply why I was there. When I sheepishly told her the purpose of my call, she blew up at me big time. I was mortified.

The next thing I remember is waking up on the lobby floor. I’d passed out. After insuring that I was in fact okay, Tinsey suggested I leave and never return. I never did.

What did I learn? Never, ever go behind a prospect’s back. Please note, I’m not saying you have to only work with the first person you contact.”

Now, to my way of thinking, there are several problems with her logic here.  In her example, I’d suggest that there were multiple mistakes.  Calling on the admin assistant?  She agrees that this was a mistake. And, she should have tried to work with the assistant to make the meeting with the boss happen. However, there’s something very important here.  The assistant’s boss took the meeting.  That means that the boss certainly saw value in seeing her.  Had she not panicked and passed out, she might have found out what that value was.  Perhaps the boss didn’t want the admin exercising the level of power that she was; Konrath will never know.  In this case, the risk of going around her contact was very high, but the reward was potentially higher – we’ll never know because she didn’t complete her mission due to being intimidated by an admin assistant.

On the other hand, here’s a question I get all the time:  “Troy, I have (some sort of a mid-level contact) at prospect company X.  This person won’t buy from me, and won’t facilitate a meeting with his boss.  I think if I could get his boss’ attention, he’d see the value in what I’m selling.  But I don’t want to burn my contact by going behind his back.  What should I do?”

In this case, the risk of ‘burning’ the current contact is low; the current contact isn’t buying anyway.  So, in this case, I’d go ahead and approach the boss.  This is one of the ‘nevers’ that I’ve violated many times in my career, with about 50/50 results – but the reward of the 50% of the bosses that bought from me certainly outweighed the 50% of the ‘burned’ contacts that weren’t buying from me.

Here’s another one – years ago, I was accompanying a copier salesperson in a sales call on a large law firm in Kansas City.  The managing partner was giving this kid NOTHING.  I mean, we’re talking grunts. Negative grunts.  Finally, I could tell the kid was about to pack it in when an ambulance went by.  The kid looked up at the contact and said with a smile, “Do you need to go get that?”  The MP clouded up and then started laughing.  He said, “Kid, that took some stones to say, but it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day!”  That completely turned the call around.  We walked out with a proposal opportunity that turned into a sale two weeks later.  “Never insult or joke about your contact’s profession?”  Maybe – but in this case, the kid had NOTHING to work with.  Low risk, high reward.

Never talk politics or religion with a customer?  Been there, done that.  How about “never ask a customer out on a date?”  In my young and single days, I did that too (I did wait for the sale to be made first – that’s when I was selling cars).  I wouldn’t recommend YOU doing that – but the point is that I calculated the risks vs. the rewards, and acted accordingly.

Really, it doesn’t matter what you’re selling or who you’ll sell it to.  You’re going to come upon a situation where you’ll be tempted to violate one of the “nevers.” ( Again, I’m leaving out bodily functions and the Big Three – those really are nevers.)  When you are tempted, ask yourself these questions:

1.  What is the risk?  Essentially, you risk losing whatever you have by violating a “never.”  What do you really have?
2. Who else – besides you – gets hurt if you lose what you have?  (If the risk isn’t just you, it’s more serious)
3. What is the reward?  Is the reward worth the risk?

If you figure this carefully, you’ll find instances where the reward more than justifies the risk.  When that happens, my advice?  Go ahead and take your shot. Even when you lose, you’ll learn, and selling is about continuous education.

Is your attitude right for selling?  Read on and find out!

Few things are as written about, or as least understood, as “attitude.”  To me, “attitude” means “My worldview and my approach to my work and life.”  There’s an old phrase that says, “Your attitude determines your altitude,” and there’s a lot to be said for that.  Over the years, I’ve found that successful salespeople start with a  positive worldview and a proactive approach to their work and life.

Now, I’ll admit – I’ve tried for quite a while to come up with a cute catchphrase regarding attitude – there’s already the “YES” attitude, the “GO” attitude, and other stuff.  Maybe I’m not a cute catchphrase kind of guy, but I do know what it takes to make the right attitude for successful selling.  So without further ado, let’s break down the components of the successful sales attitude:

I happen to the world; the world doesn’t happen to me.  This is the first of the Seven Principles of Highly Effective People; the idea that you can make a difference and impact any situation that you happen to be a part of.  Success in sales means starting every morning with the desire to happen.

I am, first and foremost, a solver of problems.  Successful selling is about solving problems – yours, your customers’, and your business associates.

I am a profit center for all those who associate with me.  Your job as a salesperson is to be a guardian of, and creator of, profits for your employer; to be a generator of positive outcomes and solutions for your customers, and more positive outcomes for other business associates (such as referral partners).

I can find the positive in any situation, and will make this my focus.  This isn’t Pollyanna nonsense; there are positives in any situation.  For years, one of my core beliefs has been “As long as I’m looking down at the ground instead of up at it, all other problems are solvable.”  Those who find and focus on negatives before positives won’t last long in selling.

I am better than my competition.  This is simple, isn’t it?  If you don’t believe – right down to your bones – that you are better than those you fight for business, you’re not going to win many of those fights.  True commitment takes this belief and makes it reality by constantly developing your skills, your relationships, and your customers.

NOW is my moment. I’ve seen salespeople who had everything necessary to succeed except for one of the most important elements – time sensitivity.  Successful salespeople don’t hear the clock ticking – they FEEL it in their bones.  You can have lots of good stuff, but if you’re wasting the customer contact time window by messing around on Facebook, who’s going to see it?

My customers win just by seeing me.  This is a big statement, of course, but it goes back to something I talk about all the time – the desire to create calls that have value built into them so that your customers – buy, don’t buy – are a little better off from the time you have spent with them.  This means that you’ve imparted knowledge, helped solve a problem, etc. that wouldn’t have happened without your time.

Look, it’s not hard to see uncommitted people who have the wrong attitudes.  It seems that media would like us to believe that our world is dominated with them – which I don’t think is true.  But the next time someone asks you about your “attitude,” give yourself this test.  How do you fare?

When should you turn down business?

I may or may not have mentioned this, but I have a little side business selling stuff on the Internet (auto performance parts, if you’re really interested).  My business model is a completely drop-ship model that de-emphasizes direct customer contact in favor of remote order entry and fulfillment – in short, it’s pretty much the opposite of the high-contact, high-service model that I typically preach to my customers (it has to be; I don’t have the time for anything else).  It makes a tidy little profit, but one aspect that has amazed me is how much I have learned that I can apply to my normal business; i.e. this one.

I’ve long been a proponent of not chasing every possible piece of business, because you end up in situations that challenge what you do well, and you produce unhappy customers and an unhappy you. Nowhere has this been more evident than in this business.  For instance, Ebay encourages its sellers to ship internationally to reap the maximum views, bids, and sales.  I don’t ship internationally.  It’s not because I’m mean (although I’ve been accused of that by some international buyers), but because I tried it for awhile and discovered that international shipping comprised about 7% of my profits and over 80% of my time-consuming inquiries and post-sale problems.  I know there are some vendors who do international business well; I’ve chosen to leave it to them.  But how do you, as a salesperson, know when to disqualify business that is outside your sphere of expertise?

The first thing you should do is to draft a list of your (and your company’s) core competencies. These are the things that you can reliably be counted on to do well, time after time.  Remember to include any permutations that can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory (i.e., in my case, international shipping).  This is your base of business that you sell to.  Of course, sometimes we have to get outside our comfort zone to succeed.  That’s not all bad, as long as we can produce a positive customer experience.  Here are some hints to help you along that path:

Discontinue the use of unreliable vendors, partners, or service providers.  A while back, a friend asked me to help him resolve an issue over an appliance he bought.  The appliance had failed several times in the first six months, requiring service techs to come out and fix it.  I discussed the issue with the manager, who explained that they ‘regularly’ had problems with that model. “So,” I asked, “Why the heck are you still selling it?”  I finally persuaded him that it was better business to take back the faulty appliance and trade my friend into a good one rather than to keep sending a tech out to patch it through the warranty period.

If you have unreliable products, or partners, or suppliers, make no mistake – in the customer’s eyes, YOU are the unreliable one, because you are the person that the customer spent the money with.  Discontinue those products, partners, or suppliers.

The customer wants something that you don’t do well.  Let’s be honest.  Even within our own sphere of business, we all have things that we don’t do well.  For instance, my recruiting business has been successful at recruiting salespeople – but I don’t think I’d do well at hiring a finance manager (I’ve been asked to do so in the past).  The fee would have been nice, but that’s not what I’m good at, so I passed on the business.  If a customer wants something that’s outside your sphere of competency – and you think the likelihood is low that you can produce a successful result – you’re better off passing on the business (refer the customer if you can) and keeping your relationship whole.  The worst question you can get from the customer is, “Why did you take that order if you didn’t think you could do it?

The customer wants something unethical.  Years ago, when I was in industrial sales, I had a stockroom manager who wanted a cut of my commissions in order to buy from me.  If I didn’t, he said, he’d never spend a dime with me.  That was a tough decision because it was a nice account.  I talked to another salesperson who told me to “just do it!”  My boss left it up to me (gee, thanks, boss).  I decided not to do it.  I’ve always tried to tread a fairly black-and-white ethical line, and this just rubbed me the wrong way.

My instincts were right.  Someone – not me – blew the whistle on the guy.  He was fired, and so were most of the suppliers he’d gotten kickbacks from.  I ended up getting a nice share of the business from the next stockroom manager, a good guy who played things straight.  As far as I know, my old company still sells to them.  If it looks wrong, feels wrong, and sounds wrong, it’s probably wrong.  And the reward is rarely worth the consequences.

You can’t make the customer happy.  We’ve all had accounts where, by any standard, the customer wasn’t going to be satisfied.  Some customers just like to complain; some distrust any vendor. Regardless, if you have one of those customers, you’ve got some difficult decisions to make.  A chronically unsatisfied, complaining customer can suck the life out of you, take all your time, and even impact the quality of your sales calls with other customers (because you’re preoccupied dealing with him/her).  My best advice here is, if you’re going to have one of those customers, they’d darn well better be nicely profitable.  Price your stuff to the point that it’s worth dealing with them.

What we still haven’t discussed is the elephant in the room; that’s why salespeople take on bad business. It’s simple – they do so because they don’t have an alternative.  Too many salespeople don’t have enough in their funnel to be able to turn down any business, so they spend their time dealing with post-sale problems that should have never happened.  The best defense is to be an aggressive, prolific prospector (as with many other things in sales, having a good sales funnel is the best cure).

If you’d like to improve your referral generation, read this article!

One of the most frequent complaints that I hear from salespeople is that they don’t get referrals – or don’t get enough referrals, which essentially means the same thing.  Either way, their referral generation strategy is not yielding the desired results.  Of course, when I drill down, in many cases I find that their referral generation strategy is “hope someone gives me a referral.”  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

The first thing to understand is that quality referrals are earned, not given.  You earn a referral by building trust, by building a reputation of excellence, and by generating relationships with people who are in position to give you referrals.  You don’t earn them by simply going to networking events and passing out cards willy-nilly.  Let’s look at five reasons why referrals don’t happen – and two great bonus techniques to earn them.

You’re not making deposits.  A long time ago, a very wise man told me to think of relationships – any type of relationships, personal or business – as a bank account.  If you want to be able to make withdrawals (i.e. gain any sort of rewards), you must also be prepared to make deposits.  That means that you do things to help your relationships, whether it is sending them referrals, offering advice and assistance, or other things that build affinity and trust.  You can’t make a withdrawal from an empty bank account (banks get fussy about that; I’ve tried before), so why should you be able to withdraw from an empty relationship?

Your relationships aren’t with the right people.  Nobody has time to build 100% quality relationships with everyone they meet; hence you must be selective in choosing your business relationships.  The people who are best positioned to send you referrals are, in order:  Your customers, business owners in your industry, noncompetitive salespeople who sell to your types of customers, and everyone else.  How much of your relationship-building time do you spend with “everyone else” as opposed to the top three? (NOTE – the right relationships with other salespeople can be invaluable.  Years ago, when I was inindustrial sales, I had some great relationships with other salespeople who essentially bird-dogged new developments, projects, etc. in the plants in my territory.  I did the same for them.  Much money was made.)

You’re a peddler.  Quality selling is about helping your customers purchase the right things to generate a positive result for themselves.  Salespeople who do this are most properly thought of as consultants.  On the other hand, salespeople who merely go around begging for the next order – and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it – are most properly thought of as peddlers.  Customers value and respect consultants and tolerate peddlers.  Customers refer those they value and respect.  Get the drift?  If you’re just running around asking for this week’s order, don’t expect to get anything other than this week’s order.

You need a referral.  This is where the banking analogy becomes the most apt.  As the old saying goes, one of the all-time best ways to get a loan is to prove conclusively to the bank that you don’t need it.  It works the same in selling.  If you’re asking for a referral because you HAVE to have one in order to make your numbers, it’s probably not going to happen.  Nobody will refer desperation out of fear of what that referred sales call will look like.  This is why referrals should be mixed well with other prospect generation strategies.

You’re not asking.  This is the one that stumps me the most.  When I get a salesperson who complains about not receiving referrals, I always like to ask the salesperson when the last time was that he/she asked a customer or referral partner for a referral – directly and in so many words.  Seldom do I get a good answer.  The truth is that, in sales, we only get what we ask for.  So why are salespeople so reluctant to pull the lever and ask for a referral?

BONUS: Two great ways to get referrals:  I promised at the beginning that I would give you a couple of techniques to earn referrals.  Here they are, short and sweet:

One:  Refer one customer to another.  If you want to break out of the “salesman” niche, this is a great way.

Two: Take multiple referral partners to lunch at the same time.  Facilitating new relationships always comes back to you.

Referrals are great, and they are the highest-probability source of new prospects.  But generating them takes a well thought out strategy, budgeted time, and effort on a consistent basis.  If you can do this, you will get referrals.

Can a networking group help build your business?  Probably – if you do it right.

One of the biggest opportunities – and one of the biggest challenges – to salespeople is the networking club (or referral group, or whatever yours chooses to call itself).  It’s a great opportunity because, structured correctly, a networking group can be a great source of leads, referrals, and even new customers.  It’s a challenge because each networking group can be its own little minefield of do’s, don’ts, and cultures that predate you and are likely to post-date you.

Have no fear.  Most networking groups can be a great source of business, referrals, and even knowledge. I’ve been a member of one for over six years now, and the membership of this club greatly aided me in the critical first few years of the startup phase.  Still, even in this club, I see members who waste opportunities and leave disillusioned.  So, the purpose of this article is to help you maximize the opportunities inherent in your networking clubs – or know when it’s time to leave.

Assess the culture:  Every networking group has its own culture.  Fortunately, nearly every networking group will allow you to attend at least one meeting (most will allow two or three) before you must either join or exit.  Use those “try out” meetings to get to know as many members as you can.  Ask good questions about how the club views pursuing referrals and selling to other members (business reciprocity).  Some groups (for instance, some Rotary clubs) frown on overt business networking within membership; others are formed specifically for that purpose.  And yes, I know that Rotary was originally formed for that purpose as well, but some clubs have gotten away from it.  You should also understand the membership makeup – is it primarily owners, managers, and decision makers, or is it primarily other salespeople?  That will greatly impact your ability to do business with the companies represented.  Salespeople tend to be great at referring anyone but their own companies (though there are exceptions).

Reach out when you join:  One of the best things I did when I joined my breakfast club was that I sat down and created a letter to each of the members describing what I do, and then sent it out.  My phone didn’t exactly ring off the hook, but it did ring – and two of those rings led to checks in hand.  That wouldn’t have happened had I not sent the letters, making it well worth the effort.  Somehow, when you join a club, I encourage you to broadcast to each member who you are, what you do, and how you help your customers.  You may not get any response, but you will plant a seed.  Additionally, some clubs allow new members to speak to the group about their business for an extended period of time.  Always take advantage of this!  I got three more clients from my first talk to the group, and have always gotten more clients with every talk (which reminds me that it’s about time to schedule another).

Target Members:  Let’s face it; not every member will be a great referral partner or even customer for you.  Get a membership guide as soon as you can (if you can get it before joining, do; this will help you assess the group), and pick out those members that have the right synergies.  In the early stages, focus your energies on developing relationships with those members and pursuing referral opportunities.  In my experience, early success within clubs is critical to long term membership success, so work to make the most of early opportunities.

Be there:  If there’s any step that separates the winners from the losers in the networking club sweepstakes, it’s simple attendance and visibility.  If you don’t go to the meetings and functions, the other members can’t get to know you, and if they can’t get to know you, they won’t do business with you.  Go to as many functions as possible.  Another tip – in some clubs, people end up sitting at the same tables each week with the same people.  Don’t be that guy, at least not in the early stages of your membership.  Move around the room and get to know as many people as possible.

Understand what a networking club really does:  I see a lot of people who leave various clubs frustrated and unfulfilled.  Much of the time, this is due to a basic misunderstanding of the nature of networking clubs.  Networking clubs exist to create relationships and opportunities.  It’s your job to capitalize on them.  For instance, my networking club has “business reciprocity” as one of its missions. Nowhere does it say “mandatory business reciprocity.”  Sometimes a member will throw a tantrum and leave because a member bought from a competitor outside the club.  It happens.  It’s happened to me, in fact, and yes, it’s frustrating.  Ultimately, however, a customer made a determination that another service provider was a better “fit,” and that will happen regardless.  Think of the networking club like the table-setters at a buffet dinner.  They’ll put the plates and silverware out, but it’s your job to go get the food.

Know when to leave and why:  Sometimes, it just doesn’t work out.  I’ve been in clubs where everyone had the best of intentions and the opportunities still didn’t happen.  That’s life and that’s selling.  My recommendation is that, when you join a club, you should commit to being a very active and engaged member for at least six months before making a determination regarding its usefulness to you.  You might still leave the club – I’ve left clubs before – but you’ll at least make an educated decision and know that you gave it your best shot.  And hopefully you’ll at least end up with lasting friendships along the way.

Are you putting things in the way of your relationship with your customer?

I don’t have a ghostwriter.  Until I listened to another author’s Webinar yesterday, I didn’t know how uncommon that is; an incredible amount of well-known authors (Tom Clancy was mentioned, for instance) have ghostwriters.  Even more have ghost bloggers, Tweeters, etc.  I suppose my Twitter account would have a lot more activity if I did, but I don’t, and there’s one simple reason.  I don’t want anyone else getting in the way of the relationship I have with you.  My words, my thoughts, my ideas, straight from me to you. That may not always be pretty, but rest assured that when you read something with my name on it, I wrote it.

I feel the same way about what I call “Sales words.”  Sales words are words, or phrases, that you never hear outside of the sales conversation, that are usually spoken by salespeople who don’t know anything else to say, and that can come between you and your customer – just like a ghostwriter could come between you and me.  They come between you and your customer because a good sales call feels like a normal conversation with a friend – and then the sales words jump in and remind the customer, “Hey, you’re dealing with a salesperson here!”  I’ll never forget the first time I learned this lesson.

I was 22 years old and selling cars.  I had a customer come in looking at new Thunderbirds.  He was a car guy, I was a car guy, and we immediately established a great rapport.  The sale was going great – he test drove the car, loved it.  We got back to the dealership and I whipped out one of those handy-dandy phrases I’d been taught in car selling school:  “So, Mr. Customer, how can I earn your business today?”

The customer looked like I’d just whacked him with a wet towel.  He said, “Thanks.”  I asked him what for, and he said, “For reminding me that I was dealing with a car salesman.  I thought I was just talking to a regular guy like me.”  His defenses went up, and he girded for a fight in the closing office.  Well, a fight it was, and it ended without a victory – he went away without buying, and I lost the sale.  To this day, I’m convinced that if I’d just asked him to buy the damn car, he’d have bought easily.

You see, “earn your business” is one of those cheesy phrases that is essentially meaningless, is only heard in conversation with salespeople, and is designed to mask the real meaning – “do you want to buy?” It’s a fear based phrase used when salespeople are scared to ask the real question.  And customers have been trained to recognize it.  The only times I’ve used that phrase since are when I’m training people on what NOT to do.  But it’s far from the only “sales word” combination that is used in selling – and take it from me, if you’re using them, they’re hurting you.

Earn Your Business means that I want you to buy, I’m probably willing to discount to beat the band, and I’m too chicken to ask you to buy.

Substituting Paperwork or Agreement for Contract means that I’m just insulting my customer’s intelligence.  They know a contract when they see it.

Same with substituting Investment for Cost or Price.  That’s not just cheese; that’s moldy Cheez Whiz.

I want the last shot at the price means that the price I just gave you means nothing; it also calls into question the credibility of everything that I’ve just said.

Bid means that I expect you to have multiple vendors, even if you haven’t thought of that.

All of these phrases interrupt, and worse, get between, a natural comfortable dialogue between you and your customer.  That’s bad.  There are more, of course; I covered a lot of them in my book, Sell Like You Mean It!, and I’ll be covering a bunch more in my new book.  Here are a couple of general rules, though, if you want to eliminate sales words from your vocabulary:

Any word or phrase designed to disguise the true meaning of what you’re saying is something you shouldn’t say.  Euphemisms are deadly in sales.

Any word or phrase that doesn’t feel like part of natural conversation should be eliminated.  If it doesn’t feel natural to you, it won’t feel natural to the customer.

Once upon a time, in the industrial laundry business, I had a sales manager who was convinced that there was a magic list of words that, if he taught them to us, would win every sale.  Debriefs with this guy were frustrating because if you lost the sale, you first had to go through the ‘word interrogation’ – “Did you say this?  Did you say that?”

The truth is that there are no magic words in sales that will win the sale, and don’t let anyone tell you that there are.  Learning the customer’s needs, matching your products with those needs in a comfortable and natural dialogue, and asking (and yes, even persuading) the customer to buy, are the things that lead to sales success.

Do you really know who your toughest competitor is?

They say, “Pride Goeth Before a Fall.”  Well, in business, the statement that most often “goeth” before failure is, “I don’t have any competition.”  I heard that statement just the other night.

I was exhibiting at the Greater Kansas City Small Business Candidates’ Expo (I’ve been nominated for Small Business of the Year for the fifth straight year) on Thursday evening, and a woman came up to my table and remarked on my book title:  Sell Like You Mean It: Outselling Your Competitors by Understanding Your Customers.  “I guess I don’t need that, because I don’t have any competitors,” she said.  “Of course you do,” I replied.  While she was momentarily taken aback, she went on to explain the uniqueness of her product.  Her problem was obvious.  She had confused uniqueness in her market spacewith lack of competition.  The truth is that even uniqueness in your market space doesn’t help you with your toughest competitor – but I will.

Your toughest competition – in any business, with any set of customers – is the status quo.  In other words, doing nothing.  I asked the lady that approached my table if her product was mandated amongst her targeted customer base.  “No, of course not,” she replied.  I then explained that her toughest competition was for her customers to simply not buy her product; i.e. to do nothing.  I then smiled and told her that my book might do her some good after all.

The status quo is the first bridge we all have to cross as salespeople, and most often the toughest. There’s a simple reason why:  Sticking with the status quo requires nothing from your prospect, and entails no risk.  This is also why the power to say “no” is virtually unlimited within most companies, but the power to say “yes” is closely held.  “No” is perceived as an effortless and risk-free answer – even when it’s really not.

Although I’m representing the status quo as a single force, it can actually take three forms in your prospect’s mind:

The current service or product provider:  If you’re selling a product that your customer is already buying from someone else, the current provider represents the status quo.  Their desire is simple:  They want to keep the business (the same business you’re trying to take away).  To do so, they will be assuring your prospect that they are doing everything that is needed by the customer – and if not, they’re willing to add functions.

To win this sale, you have to do one of two things:  Either prove (and by proving, I mean gain agreement from the prospect) that there are significant weaknesses and issues in the current program – or prove (ditto) that even though there aren’t significant weaknesses, that your offering has enough advantages over the current system to justify the work involved with change.

Internal Personnel:  This comes up most often if you’re trying to sell outsourcing of a service that the prospect is currently handling themselves.  One of the biggest fears of the decision maker is that internal employees will be displaced.  This can be a very powerful force – do not underestimate it.  Loyalty to internal employees can overcome significant potential advantages of outsourcing.  Meanwhile, the internal personnel are working to persuade your decision maker that they can handle everything more efficiently and cheaper in-house.

Winning this sale takes some significant salesmanship.  First, (as with the first example) you must demonstrate significant advantages to outsourcing.  Second, you may even have to work to prevent internal job loss by helping your prospect find other – and better – uses for those employees.  This is where a lot of salespeople will say, “Hey, that’s not my job!”  No problem – then it’s not your sale.

Finally, the biggest and strongest component of the status quo is the Decision Maker’s Resistance to Change.  This is a very human quality, and we all have it.  How strong it is depends on the individual, and is something that you should be figuring out as the sale progresses.  How married, mentally, is the decision maker to the current system?  More importantly, was the decision maker the person who chose the current system, or did he/she inherit it?  This can have big implications for your ability to sell. Essentially, the decision maker will be telling himself, “Everything is fine as is.  Or if there are problems, they are not so significant as to require a new purchase.”

Winning this sale means overcoming this resistance to change by helping the customer live in the new and better world of your solution.  Your questions and statements should focus on the advantages of your purchase, and be geared to showing your decision maker what his/her life would be like after the purchase.  You should not, however, focus on making the current system seem like a bad decision; you’ll be insulting the decision maker.

Understanding that option #1 for your customer is simply to do nothing is key to being able to sell successfully, even when you are unique in your marketplace.  The truth is that the only companies that have no competition are governments and tax agencies – other than that, we all compete.  And if you’re not prepared to do so, you have a high chance of failure.